I've always been fascinated by the concept of lifelike androids, and so have been avidly following the progress of the Korean EveR-1, the Japanese Repliee Q1Expo and of course RealDoll.
But that's neither here nor there.
Rather than creating robotic versions of humankind, isn't there anything we can do to improve these fragile, flawed shells we find ourselves trapped in. You bet...
Imagine being able to drink until your liver packed up, knowing that you had another to take the strain. Or never mis-typing words on your BlackBerry because of your narrow fingertips specially designed for tiny keyboards. Welcome to the human body, mark II, dreamt up by specialists who believe that nature's work can be improved upon. They argue that our bodies are riddled with design errors which remain uncorrected despite millennia of evolution. From our upright posture, which puts excessive strain on the knees and hips, to our morbid, year-round interest in sex, a number of anatomical and hormonal alterations are now overdue, doctors say.
They range from switching the location of the genitals from the groin to the armpit, in order to put them at a hygienic distance from the excretory organs, to adding a back up heart and liver to cope with the rigours of the modern diet. Detachable body parts and an annual mating season, timed to avoid clashing with major sports events, have also been proposed. Writing in the British Medical Journal, Paul Brown, a US consultant in prion diseases, summarises his ideas in a sketch in the style of Leonardo Da Vinci. He spells them out in a "Letter to God" which gently berates the Creator...
Full article here
[a href="http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article1090379.ece"]http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article1090379.ece[/a]
