TED Community » Qazi Fazli Azeem

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• A reply on Conversation: As unmanned drones, algorithms and prosthetics blur the distinction between man and machine, what, if anything, does it mean to be human?

  Oct 17 2011: in the new Deus Ex game, they cut off your biological limbs to put mechanical limbs, and injected constant chemicals in the body to make sure they were not rejected by the immune system. the ethical issue was that the main character was about to die and they did not take his permission to convert him into an augmented human, which is why he had hard feelings and pretty much killed anyone in his path. This is the thing, tech will happen, people will be needed to be experimented on. Imagine the next guy in the 3rd world who pulls the short straw and gets a mechanical arm, only to attack another person and the techniology to be banned or regulated. Technology is just a tool, we dont give a hammer to a monkey. Its the same thing, who do we trust with all this power and tech? Time for the rotary club to step up from philanthrophy and start running the world, since we cant trust government greed anymore
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  A reply on Conversation: As unmanned drones, algorithms and prosthetics blur the distinction between man and machine, what, if anything, does it mean to be human?

  Oct 17 2011: The anime Ghost in the Machine also talks about this. We are nothing but the sum of our memories.
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  A reply on Conversation: As unmanned drones, algorithms and prosthetics blur the distinction between man and machine, what, if anything, does it mean to be human?

  Oct 17 2011: Genetically modified pigs are used to create organs that are transplanted in humans. This opens doors for other animal parts to be grown and grafted onto people who want a biological advantage (what if a certain kind of heart would be better for sportsmen)? Hence, eventually, people would be thinking about modifying genes and incorporating them into our evolutionary stream. We already have latent genes from our ancestors, chickens have been retro-evolved into partial lizard/dinosaur hybrids (a popular TED talk on it too), whats to stop activation of neanderthal dna in humans to make soldiers? People in power will always make their own choices when it suits them, you would do the same, to survive, to ensure the future generations have a genetic advantage. What can happen will happen, the first retrogressed humans may already be created a decade ago, none of this is new science. We will find out the ethical implications a hundred years later when human testing is acknowleged (in most of the world, human rights dont exist) and the first generation of alterted people come forward. We evolve and mutate everyday, no two people are exactly alike, no 2 fingerprints, no 2 zebra skins. As a designer and an academic, I am intrigued by this phenomenom, of radom variation.

• A comment on Conversation: As unmanned drones, algorithms and prosthetics blur the distinction between man and machine, what, if anything, does it mean to be human?

  Oct 17 2011: As machines replace humans, isnt it time for a code of ethics and accountability to be introduced into the mix? Higher stages of human evollution will be followed with creations that are genetically altered hybrids or cyborgs which do our manual labor and processing for us. The rosetta stone will be implanted computers in the human body which monitor our bio signals for diseases and pathogens. The future is here already, we have the technology to change us and our evolution. What are we waiting for?

• A comment on Conversation: Plankton. Are the solutions we are coming up with to save the planet also taking into account the importance and impact on Plankton?

  Mar 20 2011: could there be a program (funded under the mandate of the kyoto protocol) that for each country which has industrial / co2 pollution, a sizable amount of algae be grown artifically in tanks and released in the deep seas, to counter balance the co2? Its not that hard to do this.
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  A comment on Conversation: What are 10 things YOU know to be true?

  Mar 20 2011: Truth is based on the premise that something is false. Something must be false for the opposite to be true. What we know now could change tomorrow. The truth could become a falsehood. Hence the only thing I know to be true is time and change. The rest is all an evolutionary distraction.
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  A comment on Conversation: What is the true value (if any) of organized schooling?

  Mar 20 2011: the true value of organized schooling is just that, its organized into manageable chunks of time so that we can pretend to follow a daily routine. the way things are going now in the world, with around the clock outsourcing, cheap labor and virtually free and excellent modes of education and training, tables have turned on the system of education itself. We should have greater international collaboration between schools around the world now, we are no longer a country, we are one species, we can communicate on skype and twitter and video chat with whomever we want, the barriers have been broken forever. time for educational institutes (from kindergarten to university level) to accept the technology and move ahead. Students should decide their own syllabus based on current trends and industry requirements, a modular approach, abolish the fixed university syllabus (univeral courses).

• A comment on Conversation: Werden soziale Netzwerke die politische Landschaft verändern?

  Mar 20 2011: Wir haben begonnen, die Ergebnisse der sozialen Medien als Instrument für einen Regierungswechsel benutzt zu sehen, die Beispiele für die Google-Mitarbeiter, die im Wechsel in Ägypten beteiligt war, sowie die Rolle von Twitter im Iran Proteste zu organisieren, und die jüngsten Nutzung von Facebook, um schiitischen Minderheit Proteste in Saudi-Arabien zu organisieren. Bald können wir sehen, eine Form des sozialen Netzwerks verwendet wird, um Veränderungen in China oder auch die russische Region voranzutreiben. Real Einfluss auf die Menschen zu erreichen passiert ist, kann die Kontrolle der Vereinten Nationen die Regierungen, aber jetzt die sozialen Netzwerke Kontrolle des Volkes. Es wird immer ändern, aber nun ist die Geschwindigkeit des Wandels ist schneller geworden. Diejenigen, die Technologie, die Kontrolle des Pulses des menschlichen Denkens. Diejenigen, die Social Networks, die Kontrolle der Welt selber.
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  A comment on Conversation: What kind of job would you do if you were not worried about the income?

  Mar 20 2011: If this was the case, the best pastime for such a person would be to make it happen for as many people as possible, as with groups and large numbers of interactions and cross-exchanges in ideas, we could collectively achieve in 2 years what takes 20 years to do, in reference to advances in art, design, technology and culture. Humanity would be free of the shackled of consumerism, capitalism and start thinking in terms of 'we' rather than 'me'. Lets work for such a goal. We dont have any alternatives, the way things are going.