[TheDude]

Yeah yeah, I'll be assimilated.
Anyone think we'll be able to support the brain independent of the body someday? Maybe control remote machines while our noggin floats dreamily in one of those little glass jars, ala Futurama, ala Man With Two Brains, ala various schlocky 50s horror flicks...or the novella No Woman Born, if you want a very interesting read. No glass jar this time.
Well, how much of an ecological footprint would a million Benders take up? If we can't pull of AI, how about going down this road? It'd solve this whole quagmire of "people'll never colonize space because we're designed for one environment only." We'll certainly never learn to keep from raping the planet. We wiped out plenty of species with flint arrows! Every human should have a wallet like Samuel Jackson had in Pulp Fiction.

[Omnitir]

Yes, the future is likely to be inner space, not outer space. This is a way to support a vastly greater number of lives then we do now – redefine what we think of as lives. Surely a digital existence would be more sustainable then this mess we have now? Imagine the ecological footprint if most people existed as software. Maybe this is the form the die-off will take?

From the technical side, it’s not all that far fetched. Once we can reverse engineer the human brain, and have the appropriate price/performance computation ability, it should be relatively simple. Probably only about three decades away.

[holmes]

We are already oil based cyborgs. The planet believed to be uneccessary. Your futurama is already here. Your train will never reach the station. sorry. But keep the faith there! AND GOOD LUCK!

[TheDude]

This is amusing, the Wikipedia article on Cyborgs lists a few examples - people with bionic arms and the like. At the end of the list is "Rush Limbaugh (cochlear implant)."
"Friends - you will be assimlated!"
I have my doubts about uploading people. I for one wouldn't want to be beta tested.

[SDC]

I believe that if there is ever any such thing as "transfering" your mind to a machine, it will come in the form of a vast number of perfectly simulated virtual neurons interfacing with real neurons, so the difference between the man and machine parts of the new mind is blurred to obscurity. The new simulation would become more than half of your consciousness. Thus, if your biological body died while its brain was connected to the machine, it would just be a part of you dying. Your consciousness wouldn't actually die at all. Under this method, you wouldn't have to worry about the whole "just a copy" crap.

Unfortunately, Peak Oil basically ensures that such technologies won't come about in any of our lifetimes.

[Novus]

The sc-fi future belongs to Chimeras: Human-Animal hybrids. Cyborgs would never survive in a low energy environment. Cyborgs would require an advanced civilization and lots of energy to maintain them. Chimeras on the other hand require no techolgy after their inital creation.

And oh yeah Chimeras are as real as 9/11.

http://www.infowars.com/articles/brave_ ... himera.htm

[Falconoffury]

Maybe if the cyborgs were covered in solar panels, they could last a human lifetime.