Cyberpunk musings in the distant aftermath of the Neuralink human test.
Bodily autonomy is probably the biggest roadblock that the original #cyberpunk visionaries underestimated. We just don't want to be replacing limbs and installing stuff, even for pretty measurable benefit.
There is still something a little weird to me about the market failure of Google glass. It seemed like a huge technical leap, and I didn’t feel like it was SO unforgivably transgressive that we should just reject it as we did. I mean, we all have access to recording devices, tiny cameras, etc anyway, right?
So what have we figured out humans will allow themselves to be cut open for?
Necessary health interventions, obviously. That's my big use case. (did you know my body is running on 2 different artificial life support systems? One internal and one external? And I also have a history of major internal intervention, both chemical and surgical)
And looking hot! That seems to be the other one. Cosmetic surgery is really the first major in-road to completely overruling our sense of bodily autonomy.
If somebody wanted to write a history of Vanity, covering cosmetic surgery, the male gaze, social media, self-platforming and the attention economy, I would happily read it
Except that it would probably be about a million pages long.
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