On becoming a machine

A regular, TomA, asks: "If you could replace your organic body (in its entirety) with a machine, would you do it?"

This is one of those questions where examining the implied premises is the most interesting thing about answering it…

My shortest answer is "No, unless I were dying and it was the only way to escape mortality." I have a strong hunch that being embodied as a human is required to understand the minds of other humans. Being posthuman might get pretty lonely. I'd also hate to give up eating and sex.

A slightly longer answer is that the question as posed neglects important issues about the capabilities of the machine. If I get to be an android with a fully human sensorium, that's a very different and more acceptable case from being a mobile computeroid with tank treads and grippers.

An interesting counter-question is: "How am I not a machine already?" I'm not a vitalist. I regard my body as a machine that happens to use organic molecules and assemblies thereof as parts. This observation takes me back to the question of how much transforming me into a different kind of machine would alienate me from human experience.

I'm not asserting this is true of TomA, but I think people who ask this question often have a sort of clanking Robbie-the-Robot stereotype about what becoming a machine would be like. Well, it would beat dying, but please hurry up the upgrade with the syntheflesh and genitalia, would you?