Here is a transhumanist analogy. I am sure that some of you are familiar with the character of Sylar on "Heroes". This guy's mission in life is to collect superpowers by acquiring them from others. The transhumanist ideal is similar. We can see the potential for biological improvement in the many different species of animals. Many of these have "super abilities" such as heightened senses and athletic abilities far surpassing our own. Since they have demonstrated what is possible we can aspire to improve on our own biology in ways that will change our lives for the better. Case in point: the optical capabilities of birds of prey. Hawks have a built-in telephoto lens that increases magnification by 40%. Their acuity is 3x greater then our own due to better placement of blood vessels in the eyeball that do not interfere with the absorption of light. The muscles of the iris is made of faster twitch fibers than our own, giving them the ability to nearly instantly adjust for varying levels of light. Falcons can see into the ultra-violate spectrum. One example of a super-ability that we can copy from animals.
My guess is that we would need to modify not just the eye, but also the optic nerve and any other components that try to interpret the signals from the eye.
ReplyDeleteThe real trick is getting a new eye to work with the old components. If we could get blind people to see again, then we would be effectively ready to begin with the Improvement Project of putting in eagle-like vision.