We've never been able to contain the genie of technology. Unless high cost (i.e. greater than a nation's gross domestic product) limits the development of a technology, whether we should develop it won't stop the development, so long as there is someone who wants to try.
Already, computer microchips have been implanted into the brains of a tiny number of people , and their brains grow into the chip and connect with it. The stated goal: allow a paralyzed person to control a computer. So far, a few have succeeded in moving a computer cursor by merely thinking that they want it to move. This is not fiction. It has already happened.
The boundary between ourselves and machine will be erased, whether it "should" be or not--assuming that artificial intelligence doesn't decide it can do without our slow biological selves. Then we would be erased, and our progeny would be machines.
Combine the possible machine/brain interface with the ability to reformulate our biological selves through genetic engineering, and it becomes impossible to predict even what "we" will be, let alone what we will be doing.

• I don't mind being corrected at all - phillipmartin - May 20, 2003 - 02:40 UTC
  • LOL, you probably DO mind me calling you Kyle! - phillipmartin - May 20, 2003 - 02:47 UTC
    • But it was fascinating - danieldgj - May 21, 2003 - 02:24 UTC