I wrote this for my neither-fiction-nor-tech blog, a new creation started by the need to have somewhere to put a specific piece of writing, but which serves also to host the occasional rant.
And since this particular rant was spurred by an original argument about SFnal societies, I deposit it here for anyone who might recall that original, and remain interested rather than repelled.
(I will not be passing posts from there to here routinely, I hasten to add.)
If there is anything I hate, it is this.
It is the fetishization of physical limitations. Yes, people do it. People pretend that this people with these issues-if they could-wouldn’t get rid of them.
Fix Dad’s spine? Oh yes.
Fix my sister’s club foot? Absolutely.
Fix the family history of obesity and diabetes without extreme dieting options? Sign me up for that.
Fix the anxiety and social issues that I have? I’d be first in line.
Deal with mortality? As long as there isn’t some kind of catch, oh YES, oh Dear God Yes.
There’s some…dignity in dealing with these issues if there’s no way to cure or truly resolve them. But, anybody that has any kind of clue wants to get rid of them. And not have other people suffer through them.
I won’t say just how fast I’d jump on either the replacement spine or a full-body prosthetic Ghost in the Shell style, I suspect just slightly slower than Our Host here… (Broke my back in 2001, had fusion surgery attempt to make it hurt less in 2005. Didn’t make the pain better, but didn’t make the pain worse.)
Hurting 24/7 sucks. I would do things of severely questionable morality to not hurt 24/7 so I can stop taking the pain pills and then deal with the expletives deleted physical addiction problem.