Do we have a soul? What is consciousness and is it eternal? Is the brain the control center of our thoughts, emotions, etc. If so, once the brain begins to decompose, is it possible to still function? These are the questions I ask myself as we deal with the issue of cyborgs. If it becomes possible to download me, (my consciousness) into superhuman machine will I still be me? I always felt that what made me who I am is not just the way that I think but how I look, and walk or style my hair. The twinkle in my eyes and the smile on my face and even the color of my skin are all a part of who I am. Who will I be if I am given another body to live in? These questions are mind-boggling to me. Even more so when I consider my grandmother.

I am currently helping my mother care for my grandmother who currently has Alzheimer's disease. Her mind is no longer her own. She no longer functions as she used to. Most of her adult life, no longer exists to her. She has forgotten that her mother is no longer alive, she doesn't know that my mother, her daughter is not her sister who died over 30 years ago. She thinks she's 20 years old most of the time and believes that we are holding her hostage and she will get in trouble for not returning to her mother's house before dark. She's also tried to escape a time or two. She's even pulled a knife on my cousin because she thought she was a stranger who had managed to break in. I hate that my grandmother is like this. Every now and then, she seems to have a sense of who she is and what is going on. She then apologizes for her behavior and says things like "I guess I'm just crazy." Imagine if my grandmother had the ability at my age to chose to be recreated into a cyborg and live another 200 or 300 years. There would have been no forewarning that her mind would leave her at the age of 74 and because of her decision, she would spend a long life in a daze. Not understanding everything around her, fearing the people who are caring for her and being generally discontent. These type things must be considered when we discuss creating superhuman cyborgs. Is this a life worth living? One where your body never expires but the mind longs for sweet rest. I personally don't believe so.

The article entitled "Why the Future doesn't need us" is one that I found most interesting. Bill Joy did an excellent job of relating information about the needs for the future. It is amazing that as I read his articles, the comparisons that I made in my mind regarding these issues he also addressed. It was almost as if we were thinking along the same lines. In his article, he stated that in the future "people will let machines make more of their decisions for them, simply because machine-made decisions will bring better results than man-made one." This statement of how the future will be is a current reality in my opinion. For example, I recently had an argument with the business office at Macon State regarding my refund check. (Unfortunately for me, I live off the money left from scholarships and loan checks so it is of major importance since I'm not working.) The story went like this, the financial aid office made a mistake in the amount of award that I was getting so they had to have the business office void the check they cut on Tuesday and recut another check in a different amount. This should not have been a problem except, the computer did not reflect the changes. I wanted to double check to make sure my funds were mailed to me so I called the business office on Wednesday. The conversation went like this, "When was my check mailed". "The computer says it was mailed on Tuesday, if you don't receive it today, it should be there tomorrow." "Thank you." Thursday was a repeat of the conversation except that I informed them of the voided check issue and asked them if that was part of the problem. They again informed me that "The computer verifies it was mailed on Tuesday." On Friday, I paid a visit to the Business office because my check still had not arrived. I asked to see the carbons of the two checks. That's when they informed me that the computer was wrong. The second check had been cut that very day but the computer didn't reflect that. I was angry and frustrated because if the young lady who answered the phone had not been so dependant on the computer's accuracy, she might have investigated further and found the truth.

Why is all this important? Well it's important because, the more we become dependent on computer made decisions, the less we try to explore alternative explanations. When your phone bill, or electricity bill or mortgage payment is computerized and the computer makes a mistake (which unless you are meticulous with keeping up with previous bills and payments, you won't be able to prove.) you have very little hope of finding a customer service representative that will help to find the error because "the computer is always right." I see a lot of chaos and confusion in the future where the world depends on the decisions of the computer. It's not that I believe that computers are capable of giving inaccurate information but the humans creating the computers are capable of inputting inaccurate information, that's the problem.