Stronger, faster, better - when, how, and why is personal enhancement OK?

This is sort of a repeat, but it brings together more of these subjects in one place, and I thought it would be interesting to see them juxtaposed and what people had to say. In addition to the links in the survey body, there are also surveys on breast enhancement here and piercing here that have some relevance, and a survey on breast size here that has some additional comments on the enhancement topic.

I had trouble picking as I kept thinking that I should have an "all or none" attitude given that none of them are really very different logically to me and people should be free to do what they want to themselves. So, I picked them all. Some of them more often than not would bother me, but not all cases.

All these are acceptable under certain circumstances. For example, I think that if you want to have a competitive advantage over others in terms of looks, mental ability, then that is fine. It's only when you have such synthetic advantages occurring in sporting events, like Athletics, does there start to be a problem.

exactly what do you mean by physical prowess?

Well, given the "though I wouldn't do it myself" clause, all of these. However, I'd definitely want anyone I cared about to think carefully about the possible downsides before undergoing such procedures

The only problem I have with any of these is that some of them cause damage. Anabolic steroids might get you bulked up, but they do all sorts of bad things in the long run.

I was a little disturbed to find that most of the stuff is OK with me, in general, while I am sure I could think of specific circumstances where I wouldn't think each was acceptible.

And some combinations are OK and others not. For instance, bionic implants are great for improving senses and correcting defects but I wouldn't like someone getting one to improve physical prowess - it seems the chance for overkill or even bad kickbacks is too great (ref The Wrong Trousers).

I am not comfortable with someone improving themselves to compete better for a job - it threatens to turn the job market into an arms race and those of us who think we are good enough as we are might lose out not because we aren't as good but because we don't have a concrete reason for being as good as we are. A guy with a Brainmaster 6000 will be more likely to be hired than me, even if my organic brain is smarter, because I can't tell you what model it is. In this way an enhancement may become like a diploma.

I find myself very conflicted about this. I seem to think getting nose jobs is silly, but having warts removed is fine, that correcting a limp is ok, but increasing blood-oxygenation for competition is wrong, but that it might be ok for space-workers (for example). So I just checked all of the options (except the not-OK and other ones), because I can construct instances in which I think all of these would be ok and instances in which I think they'd be wrong, and I have concerns about funding and the overall impact on our society, but I can't come up with any reasonable way of encoding my feelings on the subject, so I would tend to let it happen. I'd want lots of research into the long-term effects, however. Even if silicone implants don't cause illness, I think the class-action suits have brought attention to the fact that we tend to do things without understanding the consequences or being willing to accept them.

They're all ok with me. Do whatever you want to your own body. Be all that you want to be. Sporting leagues can restrict their participants however they see fit, but as we saw this past baseball season, people seem to care more about performance than natural causes.

drdt: Yeah, some employers will prefer people with mods, regardless of ability. All we can do is hope they'll be crushed in the marketplace by smarter employers who realize they can hire better workers for less money if they focus on ability. (Yeah, I know. A silly dream of rational behavior not supported by historical evidence.)

Time to go watch Gattaca again..

Here's the rub. The kind of people who would do this aren't comfortable with what they've got, and no matter what they do, it's not likely that it'll make them happy. There will always be someone out there who is naturally fit to remind the augmenters that they had to go under the knife for the same effect and it is therefore less impressive.

The catch-22 is that the kind of people who would opt for any of this are the same people who thought that having lots of money would make them happy, and so they are more than willing to turn over big bucks for the possibility that augmentation will make them happier.

grmbrand - I think you're wrong there. There are aspects of myself that I'm quite comfortable and happy with and would still be happy to improve, if I could safely. And others that I'm not happy with - for instance, my eyesight - I'm quite certain that if I successfully had my nearsightedness corrected surgically I'd be very happy about it.

As long as you're not doing anything to trick your way into the gene pool and pass on your bad genes, I say cut, paste, lipo-suck and drug yourself up as much as you like.

Seth: I know that today there are people who prefer natural humans to enhanced ones (ref the breast enhancement survey, and my own personal distaste for women with face paint on), so I expect it will continue in the future.

Seven: but isn't *everything* we do trying to trick our way into the gene pool?

**romkey - interesting counterpoint. And I think that safety is the heart of the issue. As you said, you'd opt for corrective eye surgery if there were some guarantees about the success of the procedure. I think that I'm stuck considering current techniques, which do not guarantee success at my needed level of correction.

However, I still feel that I'd be happier knowing I was strong and thin because I made the right choices about diet and exercise than because I could drop thirty grand on an operation...

drdt - it's not for those of us who have no intention of reproducing.

i have mixed feelings on a lot of this.... but here goes. i believe that people should have plastic surgery of whatever they are unhappy with. especially those people who have a scar(physical or emotional)or imperfection over a portion of their body, that makes it difficult for them to live and/or in society. and i also believe that anyone else who wants plastic surgery should but they should know that a physical change is not going to necessarily improve their self esteem.
next---physical prowess thru anabolic steroids or other methods(blood doping, other drugs, etc.)is not really physical prowess in my mind..... it is not physically doing the best you can as a human alone. i understand their is alot of money/prestige involved for these people but it is not truly being humanly the best you can be!

What I consider "socially acceptable," i.e. what I believe that society at large has accepted, is a very different question than what I consider a reasonable thing to do, or a good idea.

romkey: I have no intention of reproducing, but my body is really cagy and is continually trying to trick its way into the gene pool against my will.

I want it all. :)

People can do any or all of these things if they so choose, since they have no effect on anyone else. I would hope people would be happy with who they are. I know that I personally have never had any sort of 'enhancement' save my contact lens..which only allows me to function in the world in which I live.

My only concern with any of these things is possible negative side effects; if there are any, then whether or not it is okay has to be called into question again...