Something to Think About: Robotic Humans

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT: Robotic Humans
This is a recurrent segment in this blog and is dedicated to questions not yet being asked by most people, but which, inevitably, will come up. If you think about them now, you won’t be caught unaware when they arrive.
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In Rome in 2008, Pierpaolo Petruzziello moved his arm and hand and felt sensations even though he no longer had an arm and even though the arm and hand which he was moving were attached to his body by electrodes inserted into the stump of what was left of his arm. Other than the wires placed into the stump, the mechanism was not attached to the patient. The hand was entirely mechanical and was controlled entirely by Petruziello's thoughts. Presumably, the mechanism could be controlled from a distance by remote control.

The science fiction dream of brains kept alive in robotic bodies will eventually be realized. Will paraplegics be able to live and experience normal lives within mechanical bodies? Will the resultant persons still be human? Will they be able to remain alive for centuries by switching to new robotic bodies as the old ones wear out? Will living tissue one day replace the robotic mechanisms? Will it be ethical to discard the living bodies for new ones?

Will someone realize another science fiction concept and produce long-distance soldiers such as the beings seen in the 2009 film, Avatar? Mechanisms (robotic or living tissue) controlled like today's military drone airplanes by someone safely miles or even continents away from the deadly action? What will this mean for the value of human life? Will remaining human in one's original body be seen as a liability? Will cybernetic implants enhance their recipients?