Machine Gods

The problem with a home computer and internet is that, by the time I get around to writing this, I've gone full circle with the ideas I wanted to put down. As such, I feel inclined to begin with the conclusion rather than the beginning. Fortunately, starting from the beginning is usually more interesting.

Assuming sentience=life in the valuable sense, whereas functional organs and cells are nothing more than biological machinery, it becomes easy to accept the possibility of replacing meat-and-bone bodies with technological versions. Purity of essence, sentience, over purity of body, a decaying skin-bag. For all its uses and wonders, the biological human body is poorly designed, short-lived and inefficient.

It seems to me an inevitability that luddites opposed to transfers of consciousness to non-bioligical forms would eventually be left behind; incapable of keeping up with the hours, efficiency, capabilities and knowledge of mechanical humans. However, one of historys more important lessons is that blindly chasing after one path of progress and abandoning all other possibilities leaves you with no way out when the chosen path is no longer sustainable/desirable/affordable.

I hope, then, that human cells would be preserved, cultured and modified over time to allow for potentially beneficial mutations. In time, the improved biological machine might surpass the artificial one. In particular, the artificial body presents the problem of procreation. Even with potential immortality, stagnation is not desirable. Part of humanity could remain in machine form or all revert to the next bio form.

Perhaps biological humans would benefit from a period of manufactured extinction. All currently circulating transferable diseases, for instance, would die out. Furthermore, modifications could allow for custom bodies to meet specific requirements. Perhaps multiple bodies would even be possible for differing occasions.

How, then, does one test the biological machines? Do those uncomfortable with virtual existence choose to aid research? Punishment for criminals? Or do we go the rather crude route of social stratification, which is to say that the wealthy become Machine Gods, manipulating the very genes of lower classes and evaluating/culling them for desired variance?

Then the annoying conclusion: I've essentially gone Deus Ex to Nier via Ghost in the Shell. It's disheartening to spend hours thinking of concepts only to realize that, subconsciously, you already had all these ideas given to you by other sources. Still, the inbetween phase of upper-class machines using lower class bios as living research is not one I seem to recall seeing. Perhaps a step missed by others.