Blog Activity 2

I think technology will definitely eventually come to a point where we cannot make the distinction between what is human and what is not. I mean we already see people with artificial intelligence in their bodies, pace makers, electrodes in the brain etc. Whether we are there already is a question yet to be answered. I don't feel the question of immortality is a relevant one yet especially in South Africa. People are still dying of aids in first world countries. The technology is at this point still in the realm of science fiction not science fact, whether or not it will become fact can be debated.

I also feel the debate around post humanity is an irrelevant one in South Africa. Weather we like it or not we are a third world country and probably 10 to 15 years behind the USA and Europe. At the moment immortality in the South African context is only possible in old Highlander movies. Never the less even though the debate is probably not very relevant at the moment it does not make it any less important. The way technology is progressing it it totally possible that in the next 50 years immortality could be possible in some way in first world countries. At that point it would be important to consider the implication in the South African context. At the moment though i feel, even though the technology is available in the world, South Africa is not a post human society. Most people live Conservative lives. For example there are not many people in Africa going for plastic surgery. In America the culture has become as described in the class notes, people can now change themselves completely if they want, botox, Rhinoplasty, Liposuction the list goes on. This point is further supported by the fact that most people in South Africa and other third world countries go to America for reconstructive surgery.

What i do think is important is the influence TV has in educating us on new technologies available. So even though that specific technology is not available to us to use first hand, we do take part from a distance. In response to the blog question which asks whether we can afford to to have Immortality technology, i think its a difficult and taboo issue because death is a natural cycle, so even though some people might be dying from AIDS or TB, the question that must be asked is not, damn could we of saved him? but, was it his time to go? The concept of immortality ultimately goes against the laws of nature, everything must die eventually, and i feel if we enter that realm we will be playing God and have really entered the realm of post humanism.

Jean Pierre Neethling
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