On becoming a machine
<p>A regular, TomA, asks: &#8220;If you could replace your organic body (in its entirety) with a machine, would you do it?&#8221;</p>
<p>This is one of those questions where examining the implied premises is the most interesting thing about answering it&#8230;</p>
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<p>My shortest answer is &#8220;No, unless I were dying and it was the only way to escape mortality.&#8221;  I have a strong hunch that being embodied as a human is required to understand the minds of other humans. Being posthuman might get pretty lonely. I&#8217;d also hate to give up eating and sex.</p>
<p>A slightly longer answer is that the question as posed neglects important issues about the capabilities of the machine. If I get to be an android with a fully human sensorium, that&#8217;s a very different and more acceptable case from being a mobile computeroid with tank treads and grippers.  </p>
<p>An interesting counter-question is: &#8220;How am I not a machine already?&#8221;  I&#8217;m not a vitalist.  I regard my body as a machine that happens to use organic molecules and assemblies thereof as parts. This observation takes me back to the question of how much transforming me into a <em>different kind</em> of machine would alienate me from human experience.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m not asserting this is true of TomA, but I think people who ask this question often have a sort of clanking Robbie-the-Robot stereotype about what becoming a machine would be like.  Well, it would beat dying, but please hurry up the upgrade with the syntheflesh and genitalia, would you?</p>
