Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Transhumanism and K-Pop

So, I'm sitting here listening to Genie by Girls Generation (SNSD), and I feel like a complete racist because all the girls look similarly adorable. Yet, as their performing their vaguely sexual and perfectly choreographed moves, all I can think of is transhumanism. Maybe I don't have enough testosterone in my system, or maybe there's something to it. As we learned in "All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace," many Asian countries adopted a pseudo-American culture when it comes to fashion threads and musical sense, and, speaking as an internet citizen, it's pretty common knowledge around my parts that South Korea is one of the worst offenders. Unfortunately for Sungho Kang's compatriots, it's not that simple to become truly American. These poor, brainwashed girls can't just dye their hair, assimilate into western fashion, and learn English, especially when one of the defining physical characteristics of their race is their facial structure and eye shape. However, as we approach the technological singularity, these are just tiny obstacles on the road to becoming a beautiful American, especially when plastic surgery is just a couple thousand dollars away.
One in 77 Koreans have undergone some sort of cosmetic surgery. The more popular procedures are blepharoplasty, or eyelid surgery, and jaw reconfiguration. Both of these offer more "traditionally beautiful" facial features. From this point on, I'm going to generalize just for the sake of argument. With little fear of going under the knife and a seat among the technological giants of the world, will we see Korea as the pioneers of technological implants? The idea is that once this whole craze for Americanization passes, the new Korean culture will be one of body modification. Currently, the technology for such implants is still in its infancy, with RFID chips being the only practical implementation so far, but, as we know, these things take time. However, once the technology develops a little, how will society be affected? Cyberpunk 2020, a pen and paper roleplaying game that's getting a video game adaptation soon, allows players to make modifications to their characters with cybernetic implants, and allows the option of a skin-like covering for the implants. Many celebrities prefer to not have the skin covering their implants, opting instead to show off their mechanical parts for the world to see. However, this idea is a product of the times. Cyberpunk 2020 was created in the 1980's, when the idea of "style over substance" was popular, and people worshipped glam rock. Shiny implants would be seen as stylish back in those days. By today's design standards, they would be viewed as gaudy and unnecessary. Today, we value clean design, with bright colors and sharp lines. However, the technology to create realistic and durable skin might take some time to develop. In the meantime, it's interesting to see if people would prefer to choose a skin-like coloring for their implants, akin to a skeuomorph, or if colorful designs would win out. It's important to remember that people who are less than fortunate when it comes to limb count tend to minimize the attention called to themselves with flesh-toned prosthetics. However, in our proposed transhuman future, implants could be more akin to a gold chain or a flashy watch and construed as a status symbol.
Considering the historically recent state of things, I really think that when the time comes for technological implants Korea will be the new frontier. When we finally approach a future where technological implants are commonplace, I think I'm going to be something akin to a conservative. Girls without implants are neomu neomu yeppeo*.

*So so pretty

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