Japan turning itself into Cyberman machine civilisation Enormous numbers of people are being replaced by (or perhaps converted into) robots, reports suggest, and the trend is set to continue. Indeed, the issue has become so salient in Japan that a specialist thinktank, the Machine Industry Memorial Foundation (MIMF?), has been set up to monitor the gradual infiltration of society …
Somebody has been watching too much of Ghost in the Shell with all this talk about cyberization, although i wish the day would come when what happens in the series becomes real life
i for one welcome our new technological masters even if i do have to have a chip embedded into my brain, (hopefully vista wont be the O/s for the system)
Homogenous = Uniqueness = "Racial Purity" = low-level inbreeding with an unhealthy dose of racism thrown into the mix.
(Children of mixed-race couples are, on average, healthier than "racially pure" types, ergo racial purity is nothing more than a kind of inbreeding.)
And it's not just genetics they're missing out on, it's ideas. A homogenous society is (generally) going to lose out in the innovation stakes against a heterogenous society. Historically, America has out-innovated Japan. Of course, these days, maybe not so much...
"Children of mixed-race couples are, on average, healthier than "racially pure" types"
What a load of cr@p don't get me wrong I thing the mixing of race is a great way to improve understanding of cultures and to reduce racism in society but to suggest that a mixed race child is more healthy is nonsense (i'm not talking about very small odd groups like the royal family or Norfolk). Look at Iceland they've had very low immigration over the last 1000 years and have a very 'clean' Viking gene pool but have a 'very' healthy population.
I have a mate who lives in Japan can confirm this attitude up to a point. Conservative members of Japanese society are shit-scared of immigration.
It doesn't suprise me that they'd rather decant their brains into cybernetic bodies than accept foreigners into their society. It's a typically skewed solution, but don't take my word for it: http://www.wordpress.tokyotimes.org
especially: http://www.wordpress.tokyotimes.org/?p=2087
Sorry, I don't have a reference (not even Wikipedia) but I have heard a couple of times that mixed-race children are more resistant to disease. This phenomenon certainly occurs with other organisms - Look up "hybrid vigor".
Not that I want to imply that single-race children are a bunch of sickly weaklings, even by comparison. I usually bring up the subject mainly to get under the skin of racists and eugenicists. Tell a neo-nazi that he's just an inbred goon and watch him splutter furiously. :-)
I like GITS and specially some of the more esoteric Anime series like Red Garden,
But I dont think the world is ready for super cyborgs and mechanical brains, and GITS has its problems as well, people can have burnout and silication of the brain....
as for the story, are you sure its not April fools again, it sounds so far fetched that if it had been launched on the 1st then it would have been discredited as fake.
As for my protection from the cyborgs, - try an EMP generator...
I guess your "mate" pretends teach to English and refers to himself/herself as a gaijin (The only word of Japanese they understand). Then writes a dreadful blog about how the Japanese pick on him/her for being an outsider....
The Japanese have all the cheap labor they need in the form of nikkeijin. They aren't going to let in people that are useless to them; That doesn't sound much different to any other developed nation.
"I need now is a Gundam one an I'll have geek bingo!"
We're still far from building colonies in the Lagrange points, so the first Gundams might take a while ;) BTW, you forgot to mention the Evangelion reference ;)
I'm still waiting for my jack-in interface to the 'net, which allows me to hack systems, check traffic routes *and* drive my car while doing all this!
Though having a major robotic workforce seems to be more like the Boomer concept, in which case we definitely need some Knight Sabers.
Mine's the one with the thermoptic camouflage.
'Look at Iceland they've had very low immigration over the last 1000 years and have a very 'clean' Viking gene pool but have a 'very' healthy population.'
Actually you couldn't have chosen a worse example. Iceland has a disproportionate rate of genetically determined mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and alcoholism precisely because of the limited gene pool of the original settlers. Conditions that would normally have been 'bred out' by a constant flow of new immigrants and the interchange of people have persisted in the gene pool simply because of Iceland's remoteness.
The relative health of the Icelandic population is a recent occurrence as their country moved from a pastoral/fishing society. Reports as recently as the 19th Century talk of how the Icelanders had a marginal existence. Cheap energy, access to global markets and the post-war Scandinavian social model of government are responsible for the modern healthy Icelander.
I see the concept of "hybrid vigor" has already been mentioned. This concept has been shown to be absolutely true in non-human animals.
It's a pretty contentious topic for humans - if scientists are researching it they aren't speaking about it very loudly. A major argument in favour of hybrid vigor is that different ethnicities are (to some extent) prone to different recessive genetic illnesses. A child of mixed heritage will be less likely to have these genes "line up" and will therefore _on average_ be healthier.
Like others here, I like pointing out that we are all of African decent if you look back far enough :) Certain types of people get very wound up by comments like this :)
The original news story said that Japanese robots were doing the work of 3.5 million people. No mention of 'cyberization', cybermen, cyberbrains, ghosts in any kind of shells, Gundams, undying robotoids, cyberjaps, terminators, John Connor or even Satanic Renaults. ..... Wait a minute.... Is that a ratbrain controlled B-2 flying overhead? Nah, just another....ARRRRGGGHHH!!!!!!
It is going to happen sooo fast.
That is my prediction; as soon as just a spark of real AI capable of learning and self awareness gets created, woooosh --- they will watch all the cyber movies they can lay their ports, and forget fast forward this is going to be on the line baby.
Earth's history and combined knowledge will all be sucked from the wikipedia, and we will be beset with robots who know what the rules are but will argue that anyone else's viewpoint is a strawman argument. You think we have it bad now just imagine what it will be like when they start cloning.
Anyway back to tinkering with the genetic algorithms, and the neural nets, those cyber souls just don't come out of thin air you know.
perhaps. but i just like to point out that some inbred populations (namely where i am originally from) such as sardinia have had surprising results. According to a BBC article about places where people live the longest (and i quote):
In Ovodda (Sardinia), this interbreeding actually seems to have enabled people to live longer. The limited gene pool has provided a unique opportunity to discover specific genes that are associated with long life. Professor Deiana has detected a number of unusual genetic characteristics that seem to link the centenarians of Ovodda.
"One particular gene on the X chromosome seems to be faulty, failing to produce an enzyme known as G6PD. This can often have a negative impact on health, but in Ovodda it may well have had a positive effect."
The role G6PD may play in living longer is now being researched further, but the professor is convinced the genetic elixir of life lies with the families of Ovodda.
unquote. so a tiny fraction of inbreeding apparently has positive effects (and i do only say tiny fraction!!!)
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