Re: >H Fleshsculpting

[Anders Sandberg <asa@nada.kth.se>]

Transhuman Mailing List

Jsn@concentric.net writes:

> Some months ago, I took part in a very heated debate on the nature of
> deafness, specifically, whether it was a disability or not.  I argued
> the emminently logical and physically defensible position that
> obviously, deafness is a disability, because if one is deaf, one is
> not able to hear.
> 
> While most people went along with this, a very vocal minority insisted
> repeatedly that deafness is not, in fact, a disability.  That deafness
> only _seems_ like a disability because our entire society is geared to
> take advantage of hearing and thus discriminates unfairly against deaf
> people.  
...
> Interestingly, these people were absolutely deadset _against_ enabling
> technologies such as cochlear implants and encouraged parents of deaf
> children to, and I quote directly, "Give [your] child the gift
> of deafness."

In this case the problem lies in the existence of a deaf culture; you
don't get this kind of discussions with the blind (who only have
Braille) or people in wheelchairs. Since the deaf community and
culture has provided so much support and benefit for them, they like
it and identify with it (the limitation on communication with
outsiders also acts as a memetic barrier, a kind of accidental
cultism). So anything which threatens it, such as cochlear implants,
also threatens *them* (at least they feel so).

My guess is that if good visual prosthesises appear there will be
some, but much more limited, resistance among the blind. 

> But if there are people positting that an obvious disability like
> deafness is not a disability but a gift, expect resistance to cases
> which are closer to the borderline.

Exactly. What to do when somebody wants to give their child an
"artistic" bipolar disorder?

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
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