How Artificial Are We Already?

Many balk at the idea of embracing the artificial, but how artificial are we already? How much of our outer selves is enhanced by bolt-on bits and pieces? What becomes of a “self” when it is a composite of commercial components, be those medical or cosmetic, off-the-peg or bespoke?

Here’s a thought: will people eventually demand that their inherited body parts are removed and synthetic replacements installed in their place? Prosthetic limbs, for example, will never wear out – their joints could just be replaced. Robotic parts could provide everybody with world class athletic capabilities and aesthetics. I predict only the poor will drag around the meat suits they were born into. Everybody able to afford the upgrades will have them. Some will be merely brains riding upon a bipedal machine. Death will be sudden and unpredictable, there being no discernible gradual loss of function, as there is with the meat suit.