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"Why I'm Turning My Son Into a Cyborg"

posted by martyb on Friday July 19 2019, @12:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the superhero-cyborgs-need-a-special-suit,-too dept.

takyon writes:

Why I'm turning my son into a cyborg (archive) (alt)

Imagine if everyone spoke a language you don't understand. People have been speaking it around you since the day you were born, but while everyone else picks it up immediately, for you it means nothing. Others become frustrated with you. Friendships and jobs are difficult. Just being "normal" becomes a battle.

For many with autism, this is the language of emotion. For those on the spectrum, fluency in facial expressions doesn't come for free as it does for "neurotypicals." To them, reading facial expressions seems like a superpower.

So when my son was diagnosed, I reacted not just as a mom. I reacted as a mad scientist and built him a superpower.

This isn't the first time I've played mad scientist with my son's biology. When he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, I hacked his insulin pump and built an AI that learned to match his insulin to his emotions and activities. I've also explored neurotechnologies to augment human sight, hearing, memory, creativity, and emotions. Tiger moms might obsess over the "right" prep schools and extracurriculars for their child, but I say why leave their intellect up to chance?

I've chosen to turn my son into a cyborg and change the definition of what it means to be human. But do my son's engineered superpowers make him more human, or less?

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday July 19 2019, @10:38PM (5 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday July 19 2019, @10:38PM (#869190) Journal

    If someone could enlighten me about her qualifications to be messing with that

    She can code and she has an interest in not killing the kid. Out of curiosity who do you think has the qualifications to decide what qualifications are necessary for such activities?

  • (Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Saturday July 20 2019, @02:22AM (4 children)

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Saturday July 20 2019, @02:22AM (#869251) Journal

    The FDA? [fda.gov]

    --
    This sig for rent.

    • (Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Saturday July 20 2019, @02:37AM (3 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday July 20 2019, @02:37AM (#869259) Journal
      What would their qualifications be? I seem to recall they're partly responsible for really expensive medicines like those epi-pens. That's not much of a qualification.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 20 2019, @07:28PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 20 2019, @07:28PM (#869446)

        Same old khallow, shitty arguments instead of acknowledging someone might have a point.

        I feel like we just had a conversation about this