Transhumans

What do the following have in common?

Deus Ex - Human Revolution

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex

"The Outlands Trilogy" - By Jackie French

 http://www.goodreads.com/series/42547-outlands-trilogy

"Machine man" - By Max Barry

http://maxbarry.com/machineman/

If you answered Transhumanist themes... You'd be right!

Whats more. Each of these are excellent works of fiction. Deus Ex is a game. The Outlands trilogy is a series of books, and machine man is another book.

Its pretty hard to describe how i feel towards this subject. Ever since reading the Outlands trilogy as a child (aged about 12) I've always felt like humans could be better, if only we could interface with technology without using our existing hardware. It could take us to a whole new level.

I guess I should start from the beginning.

The Outlands trilogy deals more with genetic enhancements and minor 'augmentations'. What really appeals to me about this book is that the main character had the ability to connect to the internet and other wireless systems at will, but not like the other people around her, on a much 'deeper' level where she could process huge amounts of information at a time, thanks in part to a chip in her brain, and in part thanks to her altered DNA.

For those that don't know me. I'm quite passionate about technology. I'd be pretty keen to be able to download content anywhere at anytime and process information as fast as I can think.

I'm almost drooling thinking about it now.

So far as I've come across, this is the only book that explores this idea in any real depth so its quite unique in that regard.

I haven't read through any of the classic 'Cyberpunk' fiction yet though and I believe it's touched upon frequently in such literature.

'Deus Ex' and 'Machine Man' both take a slightly different approach. Both are aimed towards the idea of making man-kind better at EVERYTHING. While the Outlands trilogy only focuses on genetic tampering and mild 'augmentations', Deux Ex and Machine Man both go all out with much, if not all of the body being replaced by advanced prosthetics.

This idea is quite appealing as well. Imagine, being able to run faster, jump higher, be stronger, hold your breath longer and do any number of other things better than any other human has ever done before. Human ++? I think so!

People argue that you aren't entirely human if you have bits of technology attached to your body at all times. This simply begs the question: How far away is your phone from you during the day and during the night? What about your iPod? How about the computer your using? We're already part-way there. We just need a bit better intergration.

We need signifigant advances in robotics, in genetics, in nanotechnology and in neuroscience. If we can skill up in these fields, i see no reason why we can't do at least as much as these works describe.

On a side note.

Having just finished playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution. WOW. Great game. Go play it. It takes... A long time to finish. But its worth it. A game with depth for a change. How nice. I find it interesting it didn't like that I went through the game slaughtering everyone as I went and as a result, limited my end-game options. 

Further reading (because i'm to lazy to keep writing!) :
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Transhumanism
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Posthuman

http://pastebin.com/m7tLNMVe <- Bits and pieces