Transhumanism
(If you have issue with any of this, let me know. I'm trying to wrap my head around some big concepts here, and I honestly believe that getting more opinions on the subject matter will give a more complete picture)
I generally fit into the mainstream of game designers. I'm white, I'm male, I'm generally cis and hetero, I have enough spare time to actually work on game design because I'm not working stupidly long hours on minimum pay to support a family. Yes, I've got a degree of privilege, I accept that, and I do what I can to take that into consideration when dealing with other people. I'm not in the US or the UK where there are bigger opportunities for networking, so I'll always struggle to get my voice heard over those folks who are in closer proximity to those hubs of game design, I'm not completely neuro-typical, but I've learnt enough to masquerade as neuro-typical to most people.
The reason I've started writing this post is to take a break from my "Quartermaster's" book for The Law. More specifically, what I'm taking a break from is the concept of cybernetics, implants and transhumanism.
I've got a few people in my circles who are transgendered, or otherwise experimenting with sexual identity and gender. Some of those people seem to be really nice folks who have been struggling with their identity for a long time and are continuing to understand their place in a world where they feel out of place. Some are folks who've found a comfortable identity separate to that which they were born into. I think this is great. But then there are those folks who are controversy magnets and who are in everyone's face about how no-one respects them for their identity and how badly they've been treated, and how the world is an abomination... I've alluded to these kinds of people in the past. There's nothing much I can do about them, and it feels like any course of action will have them proclaiming their martyrdom.
In the past few years, advances in 3d printing, increased understanding about neural networks and nerves, better electronics, and improved programming techniques have seen the concept of prosthetic limbs start to actually see what authors envisioned in the 1980s as a part of the cyberpunk future, but we're still a long way away from the cyborgs seen in Robocop, the full limbs that remain permanently attached to the body, or even the advanced optics embedded in an electro-mechanical eye. It still feels like the closest that we have to that sort of thing is gender reassignment surgery, and body modifications in the form of piercings, tattooing and implants, where this allows some kind of dramatic appearance change and an ability for individuals with body dysphoria to approach the form they envision within their minds. Yes, I understand that there are artificial hearts and other organs, but these aren't necessarily tools used to transform the appearance and match the physical form to the mental ideal, they're tools to improve the lives of those who have troubles with everyday functionality...
...but here's where my privilege kicks in. I've generally been happy in my body, and generally able to function in society, so it feels like there is a clear delineation in my mind, but to those who undergo such procedures I have to wonder if the same delineation is present.
At what point does a person undergoing procedures to become adequately functional in society, transcend the boundaries of what is normal and become something more (or just generally different) to human?
Is there a scale of body dysphoria?
Why is a boob job or rhinoplasty considered socially acceptable for a woman, yet reconstruction of genitalia is considered taboo? Why was it considered so controversial when Meow-Ludo Disco-Gamma Meow-Meow implanted a travel RFID chip in his hand?
Is it all merely because of the conservative grip on global politics at the moment? A last ditch struggle to maintain control in the face of accelerating technology? I really don't know.
Does a game system require a "humanity" system when characters are upgraded with cybernetic parts? How do you determine what levels become trigger points for that system? Is it easier to simply replicate certain types of stories with the systems in a game, rather than trying to mirror the complexity of reality? What sorts of stories are being told with the systems, and how do they feedback into one another?
More questions than answers at the moment. I'll be thinking about these a bit, and welcome any input.
I generally fit into the mainstream of game designers. I'm white, I'm male, I'm generally cis and hetero, I have enough spare time to actually work on game design because I'm not working stupidly long hours on minimum pay to support a family. Yes, I've got a degree of privilege, I accept that, and I do what I can to take that into consideration when dealing with other people. I'm not in the US or the UK where there are bigger opportunities for networking, so I'll always struggle to get my voice heard over those folks who are in closer proximity to those hubs of game design, I'm not completely neuro-typical, but I've learnt enough to masquerade as neuro-typical to most people.
The reason I've started writing this post is to take a break from my "Quartermaster's" book for The Law. More specifically, what I'm taking a break from is the concept of cybernetics, implants and transhumanism.
I've got a few people in my circles who are transgendered, or otherwise experimenting with sexual identity and gender. Some of those people seem to be really nice folks who have been struggling with their identity for a long time and are continuing to understand their place in a world where they feel out of place. Some are folks who've found a comfortable identity separate to that which they were born into. I think this is great. But then there are those folks who are controversy magnets and who are in everyone's face about how no-one respects them for their identity and how badly they've been treated, and how the world is an abomination... I've alluded to these kinds of people in the past. There's nothing much I can do about them, and it feels like any course of action will have them proclaiming their martyrdom.
In the past few years, advances in 3d printing, increased understanding about neural networks and nerves, better electronics, and improved programming techniques have seen the concept of prosthetic limbs start to actually see what authors envisioned in the 1980s as a part of the cyberpunk future, but we're still a long way away from the cyborgs seen in Robocop, the full limbs that remain permanently attached to the body, or even the advanced optics embedded in an electro-mechanical eye. It still feels like the closest that we have to that sort of thing is gender reassignment surgery, and body modifications in the form of piercings, tattooing and implants, where this allows some kind of dramatic appearance change and an ability for individuals with body dysphoria to approach the form they envision within their minds. Yes, I understand that there are artificial hearts and other organs, but these aren't necessarily tools used to transform the appearance and match the physical form to the mental ideal, they're tools to improve the lives of those who have troubles with everyday functionality...
...but here's where my privilege kicks in. I've generally been happy in my body, and generally able to function in society, so it feels like there is a clear delineation in my mind, but to those who undergo such procedures I have to wonder if the same delineation is present.
At what point does a person undergoing procedures to become adequately functional in society, transcend the boundaries of what is normal and become something more (or just generally different) to human?
Is there a scale of body dysphoria?
- Perhaps the lowest levels can be addressed by dressing in a different way or wearing makeup, that can be immediately altered or changed when things become uncomfortable.
- Slightly beyond this might be cutting your hair short if you feel the need to express to the world that you don't conform to societal norms of femininity.
- Further still, taking hormone altering medications, which again can be stopped at a later time, but will leave long lasting biochemical effects which might take a while to leave the system.
- At a similar level to this we might see tattooing or piercing, which are significant surface alterations, but which can be stepped back later (there's a whole spectrum just within this).
- Next, surgical procedures, such as implants, gender reassignment, etc. Such things are possible, but push the moral boundaries and become controversial.
- Beyond this we're starting to push the envelope of science fiction when it comes to modifying the body to correct for body dysphoria. But where do we stop? In the seminal "America" series of stories in Judge Dredd, we see a character who loves his partner to an obsessive degree and when she dies, he has his brain surgically implanted in her body so that he can live through her. This is more than just gender reassignment, it's taking over a completely new host body, and it might as well be synonymous with having a brain implanted into a cyborg/robotic host body (except that everything is biological).
- Altered Carbon touches on this to some degree and I'd really like to see where it takes things in future seasons, with characters existing as neuro-electronic "stacks", implanted in the upper neck/spinal column... the body is just a sleeve. This seems to be another level further.
Why is a boob job or rhinoplasty considered socially acceptable for a woman, yet reconstruction of genitalia is considered taboo? Why was it considered so controversial when Meow-Ludo Disco-Gamma Meow-Meow implanted a travel RFID chip in his hand?
Is it all merely because of the conservative grip on global politics at the moment? A last ditch struggle to maintain control in the face of accelerating technology? I really don't know.
Does a game system require a "humanity" system when characters are upgraded with cybernetic parts? How do you determine what levels become trigger points for that system? Is it easier to simply replicate certain types of stories with the systems in a game, rather than trying to mirror the complexity of reality? What sorts of stories are being told with the systems, and how do they feedback into one another?
More questions than answers at the moment. I'll be thinking about these a bit, and welcome any input.
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