I am a posthuman cyborg
Eyeglasses in the Middle Age, immortality tomorrow.
Giu1i0 Pri5c0 Well I don’t usually wear eyeglasses (only for reading), but the picture helps making the point. As you can see, I am a posthuman cyborg: I started wearing eyeglasses for reading last year, when I noticed that I could no longer see well at close distance. They say it is one of those things that happen with age. Now I read well: since I read a lot, eyeglasses have really improved my quality of life… What comes next? Well today we can see that someday, not too far, we will be able to eliminate eye problems for all humans, forever. How? First with Inheritable Genetic Modifications (IGM), then perhaps by discarding our biologic bodies and using something better to host our consciousness.
Giu1i0 Pri5c0, April 2, 2004
Well I don't usually wear eyeglasses (only for reading), but the picture helps making the point.
As you can see, I am a posthuman cyborg: I started wearing eyeglasses for reading last year, when I noticed that I could no longer see well at close distance. They say it is one of those things that happen with age. Now I read well: since I read a lot, eyeglasses have really improved my quality of life.
This is old technology. The beautiful novel "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco, situated in the 13th century, describes eyeglasses as a recent invention. One of the minor characters refers to eyeglasses as an invention of the Devil, evidently thay had Bio-Luddites also in the 13th century. Though Eco is not so explicit I can imagine one of the more stupid monks, Father Leon, saying something like: "God, in his infinite wisdom, has decreed that human eyesight must start faltering at around 50, then become worse and worse. Yes, being still able to read and write when one is old might seem desirable, but doing so with artificial means would be against the great plan of God. We should instead welcome, with reverence, the loss of eyesight as a dignifying sign of our taking part in the great scheme of things".
Probably they used to say this kind of things at that time. Fortunately more and more people realized that being still able to read and write when one is old is a VERY good thing, too bad for the Devil and God.
Eyeglass making is very simple technology (now - it must have seemed very complex in the middle ages) that works very well. Yet, it has its shortcomings and you must also find your glasses before wearing them. My wife had a very poor sight and used to wear very thick glasses: if she forgot where she had put her glasses, she was not able to see them. So she had a type of eye laser surgery that basically amounts to implanting glasses in the eye. This is much more advanced technology, that only became operational ten years ago or so. We don't talk too much of the Devil and God these days, the problem is demonstrating that the technology is safe before permitting its use. This is something good, barring exceptional circumstances medical technology should be tested before being used. This is common sense. Having been duly tested, laser surgery and implants are doing wonders and improving the quality of life of many patients.
What comes next? Well today we can see that someday, not too far, we will be able to eliminate eye problems for all humans, forever. How? First with Inheritable Genetic Modifications (IGM), then perhaps by discarding our biologic bodies and using something better to host our consciousness. And it goes without saying that I am not only talking of poor eyesight but of all physical problems and diseases, including ageing and death. Of course, these will be VERY advanced technologies, and of course I want to see them VERY well tested before being used (again, barring exceptional circumstances: if I were about to die I would be willing to submit myself to very experimental treatments).
Unfortunately the reaction of many people, including some with power and responsibility, to the amazing new options that science and technology are creating, is not the common sense one: "well, let's first develop the technology, then test it thoroughly, and then we will see. On the contrary, they go back to the middle age monastery of Umberto Eco and talk of inventions of the Devil. Even if we don't talk too much of the Devil and God these days, the substance of Bio-Luddite objections is the same, and now Father Leon says: "Nature, in its infinite wisdom, has decreed that humans must start ageing at around 50, then die after a couple of decades. Yes, living a much healthier life with a much longer, perhaps indefinite lifespan might seem desirable, but doing so with artificial means would be against the great plan of Nature. We should instead welcome, with reverence, ageing and death as a dignifying sign of our taking part in the great scheme of things".