[ExI] Transhuman

[Mike Dougherty]

On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 4:43 PM, B.K. DeLong <bkdelong at pobox.com> wrote:
> If you modify your body purely for cosmetics with no practical benefit (yes,
> evolutionary proofs aside - say to look like a lizard, cat or other reasons)
> are you really MORE than human? Your abilities are still human - you have
> not advanced your cognitive, psychological or physical abilities unless one
> of the cosmetic body mods allow you to do something standard humans cannot.
> Hence transcending human limitations.

That made me think of Thoreau alone in the woods writing Walden.  Was
he, during that experience, more or less human?  By removing himself
from the daily grind of humanity, he became unlike the others and
simultaneously more like himself.  I think it will be difficult to
determine what is "still human" and what is "more than human" until
capabilities are authoritatively established for "exactly human."
That sentiment was recently expressed in the comparison of 'enhanced'
paraLympians and NASCAR machinery (and boxing weight class)

What is the _practical_ benefit of cosmetics?  I'm not even talking
about looking like a lizard, I mean that billion-dollar industry of
facepaint and fakery.  I held my opinion on the high-heeled footware
discussion, but you're not really going to convince me there's any
more _practical_ use for those either...