I read an article not long ago. It began with a fictional story that was loosely based on current research. Many of the characters in the story were "enhanced" humans. Their DNA had been manipulated so that they didn't require sleep but once a week, they didn't feel pain, they had perfect recall memory, they could communicate without electronic devices, they could think their wounds healed. They were physically exceptional, yet put little focus on exercise. Etc.
Supposedly these sorts of enhancements are currently being researched for military purposes.
What if "enhancement" were something that was available today? If you had the means, would you get "enhanced" or no? Why or why not?
A beggar had been sitting by the side of the road for over thirty years...One day a stranger walked by. "Spare some change?" mumbled the beggar, "I have nothing to give you," said the stranger. Then he asked: "What's that you're sitting on?" "Nothing, " replied the beggar. "Just an old box. I've been sitting on it for as long as I can remember. "Ever look inside?," asked the stranger. "No," said the beggar. "What's the point, there's nothing in there." "Have a look inside," insisted the stranger. The beggar, reluctantly, managed to pry open the lid. With astonishment, disbelief, and elation, he saw that the box was filled with gold.
I am that stranger who has nothing to give you and who is telling you to look inside. Not inside any box, as in the parable, but somewhere even closer: inside yourself.
Looking Glass Self- the process of developing a self-image on the basis of the messages we get from others, as we understand them. There are three components to the looking glass self: 1.We imagine how we appear to others; 2. We imagine what their judgment of that appearance must be; 3. We develop some self-feeling, such as pride or mortification, as a result of our imagining others' judgment.
Sociologist Charles Horton Cooley put it like this in 1902:
In a very large and interesting class of cases the social reference takes the form of a somewhat definite imagination of how one's self--that is any idea he appropriates--appears in a particular mind, and the kind of self-feeling one has is determined by the attitude toward this attributed to that other mind. A social self of this sort might be called the reflected or looking glass self:
"Each to each a looking-glass Reflects the other that doth pass."
As we see our face, figure, and dress in the glass, and are interested in them because they are ours, and pleased or otherwise with them according as they do or do not answer to what we should like them to be; so in imagination we perceive in another's mind some thought of our appearance, manners, aims, deeds, character, friends, and so on, and are variously affected by it.
A self-idea of this sort seems to have three principal element: the imagination of our appearance to the other person; the imagination of his judgment of that appearance, and some sort of self-feeling, such as pride or mortification. The comparison with a looking-glass hardly suggests the second element, the imagined judgment, which is quite essential. The thing that moves us to pride or shame is not the mere mechanical reflection of ourselves, but an imputed sentiment, the imagined effect of this reflection upon another's mind. This is evident from the fact that the character and freight of that other, in whose mind we see ourselves, makes all the difference with our feeling. We are ashamed to seem evasive in the presence of a straightforward man, cowardly in the presence of a brave one, gross in the eyes of a refined one, and so on. We always imagine, and in imagining share, the judgments of the other mind. A man will boast to one person of an action--say some sharp transaction in trade--which he would be ashamed to own to another.
You'll never beat me at Tekken, bet you won't eat olives stuffed with jalapeños, what kind of music? lingerie too? how would you get music on the IPOD, you shouldn't read Joyce Meyers, try running upside down the aisles, how long? toys are cool, lego castles are even cooler, battery powered kid cars? (you're soooo much fun) how about tricycles, dare you to go blue, avacado or oatmeal? bet you're funny when you're drunk, try the new pumpkin spice creamer, you ought to quit, don't bother cleaning.
Paw Paw, you are sofa king Zen man! That's absolutely true, we are not what we think we are. We are infinitely more than that. I admire your spiritual conciousness, as well as your obscure humor. Rock on!
The thing that I always like to do before I date a lady with kids is to ask her about them. What are they like, what will they think about you dating? etc. This way I am a little more mentally prepared. However, I am (maybe a little hypocritical) not to excited about introducing my daughter to women, I want her to always feel like the most important female in my life.
fragmentated messages make me a chip off the old block with the insulated tubing of a football sock with the stripes being levels of achievement I'm rolling up my sleeves and trying to git mine this I found fine that I write rhymes for days please don't praise the latest craze it's what's leakin from the deacon speakin words like a Miami night club what's all the hub-ub-bub? got some bits and particles to form my articles?
nothing's real anymore what's everything fake for? it makes more doubt dissolves the stands we chose to take slimy slithering snakes raise the stakes time for Christ to make the ground quake
gaining notoriety in this society ain't fly to me I know what's going down they're the opposite of what they try to be people are talking and what they do reflects on all of us the hypocritical citadel is what they're calling all of us
diogenes Forum Posts (4,761)
Oh you can't have monogamy for breakfast. But you can have "Monogamy Crisps". YEAH!
Human Enhancement
That's a good point.In the story, the "enhanced" people looked at "natural" people with the same kind of polite sympathy that we might show the mentally challenged.
If it were possible to manipulate the DNA of persons with mental impairments, do you think that anyone might have a religious objection for doing so?