Thought Question About Cybernetic Implants

[GenYus234]

Posit #1: Cybernetic implants are readily available and safe (they cannot be hacked and their failure rate is 1/1000 of natural organs.
Posit #2: Implants can replace existing organs with improved versions or supplement them. You can have tougher skin, but not Superman-invulnerable skin. Things like telekinesis or telepathy are not available.
Posit #3: You have sufficient money to purchase any and all implant that you want.

What (if any) implants would you get and what would you never get?

I could see replacing internal organs like heart, lungs, kidneys, etc. I have minor digestive issues and heart disease and cancer run in my family. I wouldn't get cosmetic implants like green skin. I don't know about brain implants like an advanced memory implant.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

If I could get new eyes with adjustable focal length (i.e could focus on things an inch away as easily as things fifty feet away) that aren't susceptible to dry eye, allergic itch, or detached retinas, I might consider that. If they only had the focal abilities of real eyes, I wouldn't bother.

Seaboe

[ASL]

Originally Posted by GenYus234

What (if any) implants would you get and what would you never get?

Insufficient information. How much faster can I run with a cyber-heart and cyber-lungs?

Can I get skeletal and/or muscular implants or a light-weight external frame to allow me to get full effect from my heart (so that I don't end up being able to run so fast or jump so high that my limbs could break)?

With all of that together (the lungs, the heart, the muscular-skeletal), can I fly by flapping custom-made mylar wings that I have strapped to my arms?

'Cuz all that together would be pretty cool.

Oh, and what seaboe said. Eyes to see clear out to the horizon with an expanded visual spectrum too.

[GenYus234]

50%, yes, no.

ETA: Also, zoomable eyes would be available. You could also get ones that include infrared or ultraviolet frequencies, but not X-ray.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

How about magnification for the eyes? Not a lot, just 3 or 5 times.

Seaboe

[ASL]

Originally Posted by GenYus234

50%, yes, no.

Do the physics bear this out, that a fit person, weighing about 130 pounds, capable of running a 3.7 minute mile or less (not that I can run that fast, but it's possible with training) faster than they otherwise would, with an enhanced skeletal system is incapable of sustained bird-like flight?

ETA: What if I lived in a dome on the moon, pumped full of breathable oxygen? Or, say, Europa, where H2O is plentiful and Oxygen could be generated locally with a suitable power source?

[crocoduck_hunter]

Eyes, heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys definitely. But unless the world had changed to the point where it wasn't possible to compete as an unmodified human I'd probably not bother going for superpowers.

After that, I'd probably just go for gender reassignment.

[GenYus234]

That's well beyond my limited knowledge of aerodynamics. [ETA: The flying, not the gender reassignment.] The Gossamer Albatross used human leg power to achieve flight and just barely made it. This arm and leg bicycle manufacturer says that using arms in addition to legs adds 30% more power. While the motions of arm pedaling are different than arm flapping, arm flapping would need to be twice as strong as arm pedaling for a human to be able to fly via flapping (using my previously stated 50% stronger rule)

With 1/6 the weight, flying on the moon is probably possible for unmodded humans.

[iskinner]

Originally Posted by GenYus234

With 1/6 the weight, flying on the moon is probably possible for unmodded humans.

Well, yes there is 1/6 the weight so very long jumps are easy enough. But with 0.00000000001% the earth's atmosphere at sea level (about equivalent of earth's atmosphere at the orbit of the ISS). Getting lifting bodies may be quite challenging and require very larger surfaces even if it only needs to lift 1/6 the weight.

ETA: Of course flight without lifting bodies, I.E. rocketry, is of course much easier.

[GenYus234]

ASL specified a dome pumped full of breathable oxygen. I was assuming at least 1/2 atm.

[ASL]

Then it's agreed. In the future, we will all live in cities on the moon, but the richest among us will spend summers in ice castles on Europa, where we fly around great halls on wings as eagles.

/thread

[Crius of CoH]

I would likely end up taking pretty much any and all cybernetics available, given the posits. So many health problems eliminated, plus a whopping collection of low-grade super powers? Oh my yes, sign me up. More machine than man, that'd be me.

In re: human-powered flight, Robert Heinlein wrote a short story that concerned, among other things, exactly such flight in Lunar domes. As he did metric tons of research in everything he wrote, I think it would be safe to assume that one would need only normal athletic ability to "fly" in lunar gravity with something approaching Earth-normal atmosphere; cybernetics necessary only for those who cannot attain that level of physical ability.

[Crius of CoH]

Originally Posted by Crius of CoH

In re: human-powered flight, Robert Heinlein wrote a short story that concerned, among other things, exactly such flight in Lunar domes. As he did metric tons of research in everything he wrote, I think it would be safe to assume that one would need only normal athletic ability to "fly" in lunar gravity with something approaching Earth-normal atmosphere; cybernetics necessary only for those who cannot attain that level of physical ability.

I just read an article a few days ago in my Google news feed about the homeworld of Thanos of Titan (from Marvel comics, and most notably from the most recent Avengers movie). It did the usual pop culture "news" job of mishmashing facts and fantasy, but it quotes a scientist who said that the actual moon of Saturn has a sufficiently thick atmosphere and low gravity that, ignoring the superfrigid temperatures and toxic atmosphere, it would be easy for a human to achieve muscle-powered flight there.

Lotta "ifs" there.

[Hans Off]

Does physical exertion using the implants produce the same endorphin/ feel good effect as naturl exertion?

Otherwise what is the poing in going for a run with super legs* and not feeling good about it?

*I choose legs as an example... apply to whatever part is being replaced!

If it is to mitigate possible failure or genetic predisposition to cancer of whatever organ, then I think that is a no brainer, replace away.

[ASL]

May I just say one thing? Johnny Rocket lives forever on the Moon!

There, I said it.

[crocoduck_hunter]

Originally Posted by Hans Off

Does physical exertion using the implants produce the same endorphin/ feel good effect as naturl exertion?

Otherwise what is the poing in going for a run with super legs* and not feeling good about it?

Honestly, I think it would be necessary for a person's psychological well-being that using cybernetic limbs still provide that.

[ASL]

Or there are, like, narcotics in the future.

I bike, but I don’t do it for anything like runner's high, I use it as a trade off between staying healthy and getting somewhere. I rarely bike to nowhere, unless there’s something I see along the way.

I can’t stand gyms or stationary cardio equipment.

So, with the whole flying thing, it’s be for the visual thrill moe than anything.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Originally Posted by ASL

I can’t stand gyms or stationary cardio equipment.

Me neither. I walk (5 miles per day) because it gets me places and prevents my hips from hurting, not because I'm fond of the exercise.

Seaboe