response to ajl

This was my response to the site www.reconstruction.ws, and the essay 'Cyborg Bodies and digitized Desires'
Just read the essay from the web address you posted to me. That's EXACTLY what I mean, I have to read the book (even though it will take me 'til next Autumn!). This is just the kind of thing I can see us STUPID humans doing - as if ther aren't enough people in the world already, we go and make some pretend ones who end up better than us - Frankenstein and his monster all over again, and you know how angry I got with that bloke!
The 'empathy box' takes away our abiility to truly empathise with other humans, instead we 'embrace' the technology instead of the person,
"Iran holds fast to the handles of the mechanical box in order to pour her joy out into a simulated spiritual experience...Rick stood holding the phone receiver, conscious of her mental departure. Conscious of his own aloneness."
It kind of brings a whole new slant on transcendence doesn't it? We humans have reached a point of 'over-transcending', so that we miss the 'point' altogether.
And the mood box, so that we can control our own innate emotions says it all! That's exactly what I mean, we are doing ourselves and our souls out of a job!
"...dick brings into light one of his major concerns: that human beings have become so manipulated by outside forces that they have no sense of inspiration or organic desire. What one wants or desires is no longer taken into consideration. The concern here is that one can appropriately assimilate into the environment without too much thinking."
Time we started thinking I think!