Let's say that I kept singing and went on 
What would happen if one day while I was singing on stage, a sudden metallic screeching sound emitted from my mouth and I could no longer speak? How would you feel if the most celebrated voice, a voice you love to hear, was an augmentation, no different to a set of fake boobs, or botox lips. What happens when anyone can sing like Adele?
Would you feel that the skill of singing has lost value?
When it comes to something like a classic work of art, we highly value the original but if one was to hang a poster of the Mona Lisa on the wall, it would be seen as quite tacky. What is the difference, both are the same image aren't they?
For most of us, no they are not the same. Original, rare, limited has value. That is why De Beers diamonds doesn't release all of their stock onto the market at once as if they did, diamonds would be a dime a dozen and hold no value. Perhaps one day the wedding ring will be replaced by the wedding encrypted key.
But what happens in that future where human skills can be bought and sold in the same way as an original painting. What happens if we could have augmentations that make us perform much better than we could ever hope to as just a human? Would you want to be able to run at twice the speed, calculate complex maths in your head, see miles into the distance? Doesn't sound too bad does it?
What if instead of just getting a new set of breasts and a haircut, the augmentation was much more subtle, what if it was personality? How would you feel if after many dates with a person who just 'gets you, you know?' you discover that it was a software package that augmented the speech patterns, the table manners, the sharp sense of humour and the listening ear served with perfect responses? How would you feel if all of that came in a bundle downloaded for a few hundred dollars? Would you still feel as attracted?
It is actually a little bit of a strange paradox that we have as humans. When it comes to skills, we value the skills that were earned but, when it comes to behaviour, we devalue learned behaviours as we think that is not the real personality. Why should it matter as long as they are acting in a way that you like?
Think about it here. Ever responded to a comment only to discover it was a bot? How did you feel? A little silly, a bit ripped off, cheated? Now, push that out to everyone and everything you value about them in the future. Happy?
As humans we are much more pattern based than we like to admit and much more manipulable too. None of us tend to think that we would fall for such obvious personality tricks yet time and time again, con artists take millions from people who think they have found true love.
What is true love in a world where actions are all program based, what would we really be falling in love with? A robot? Would we be content in a world where contentment is based on the programmed, machine like behaviours of our idealised beliefs?
In fact, why even bother with any of that, why not just get an augmentation that makes us feel happy, no matter what circumstances we are experiencing. Oppressed, beaten, raped, victimised? No worries, there is an app for that.
Is that the coming Utopia, one where we are able to fundamentally improve our circumstance but, we are going to have to merge with machines and software to change our behaviours and become our best? Would it be so bad?
Perhaps it is just the next step in our evolution as humans and sentient tool makers. What is really fundamentally different from creating a hammer to build a house or a plane to fly around the world and, a psychological program to enhance our thinking? They cochlear implants, laser eye surgery and butt implants. What is different?
It actually already happens on dates as far as I can see. People seem unable to hold a decent conversation without turning to the digital wingman for support, their phone. It is no wonder people need dating apps like tinder these days as their social skills are atrocious. Girls, if you are on a date with a guy and he needs his phone to seem interesting, walk away (unless he is rich of course).
We are entering into some strange territory as we are now advanced enough to change who we are, how we are and what we think with minimal cost and effort. These augmentations are going to become ubiquitous and much more advanced.
I just wonder what happens when we remove the chance encounters, the slips of words, the accidental bumps into someone on the subway. What happens when experience is so engineered that we never have the possibility to lock eyes with someone and just feel, Wow!
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
No, you aren't going to hear me sing until you hear the screeching of it in hell for eternity (or perhaps at the supermarket when I sing with my daughter).
