Warning: the nerdy talk in this blog may cause mild discomfort...

I watched this series last night called the Stand Alone Complex, Ghost In The Shell. My friend suggested it. I wasn't all that excited at first, but I'm glad I watched it, and talked about it afterwards. Yeah... it's Anime. But who cares? It's not exactly something that could be acted out, and if it were, it would lose value and become all about the special effects. The plot summary reads: "In the future, life between the digital and physical world has been blurred. The boundary of technology and humanity has been stretched beyond imagination with lives being led in both the electronic and physical worlds. With the melding of man and machine – a new cybernetic level of existence is being created - An existence that continues to redefine mankind."

At this point I'm aware that I sound like that weirdo guy in high school who use to insist on being called by his Dungeons and Dragons name. But, this is some cool... yet disturbing shit. This stuff actually happens. A vision system/brain implant that enables blind people to see? Even drive? No shit. The government won't fund this, and the FDA won't approve this... yet. But it will happen. http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=86658

We'll have PDAs implanted in our heads, that will allow us to function through thought. Brains will be encased, and become removable when your current physical body deteriorates. Pretty sure that's the closest we'll get to immortality. But once this happens, once your brain really truly becomes a CPU, couldn't it get hacked? I don't know about you, but I forget to run my VirusScan on my computer from time to time. What happens if you forget to run it on yourself? That kind of opens up a whole new can of worms when it comes to public safety, and crime and punishment, doesn't it?

What about robots that are programed to act human? ASIMO for example, a computer who is able to walk about 1mph, run, use stairs, obey commands, and even has facial recognition capabilities. Christ, incorporate this kind of technology into those "real dolls" and you're set. How about super intelligent robots that read software that allow them to "mature" through AI? That's great. Right? They'd probably mean well, but can you teach a robot right from wrong? http://world.honda.com/ASIMO/

Alright, I'm nerded out.