Guts
Today sucked bigtime. You see, it would appear that I have developed lactose intolerance at some point. This came as a rather nasty surprise given that I really pigged out on milk the day before and today; it wasn't pretty. Excruciating pain for hours, accompanied by puke and general suffering. Combined with having been awake for over twenty-four hours, it was pretty fucking awful and really made me think.
I've said this before: no other part of my body has caused as much aggregate pain and suffering to me as the digestive system. Forget the rare events like gallstones back in 2008, or the vile rice on New Year's Eve. The guts never feel good; at best, they feel decent. Perhaps that has to do with my abysmal diet, and also the fact that neither my parents nor I have skill or interest in cooking; but let's not forget the unpleasantness of hunger and vain appetite - the latter is the scourge which makes the First World grossly obese. Our guts are very stupid and incapable of signaling to our brains for precisely what nutrients they require, and as a result we pig out. Then there's the matter of waste. Don't quote me on the statistic, but something like four fifths of all disease is caused by exposure to shit. It's also a vile inconvenience, and we haven't really improved on dealing with that inconvenience since the invention of the flush toilet in the 19th century. Just as an aside, I'd like to voice an opinion that toilet paper has got to go sometime soon: it's unhygienic and actually rubs fecal matter into the skin. Some washing machine or an even more elegant and ingenious solution should ideally take its place. Three seashells, anyone? Heh heh.
Obviously, something as frivolous as dealing with the digestive system is nowhere near the priority of dealing with the circulatory system - that great source of death. Nor is it as important as curing (or at least developing practical, efficient strategies for treatment of) cancer. However, if we do stabilize the circulatory system with biomechanoid augmentations in the near-to-mid future, doing something about the ruinous digestive system is not far behind. I've considered the possibility of something like a "fuel tank" for a few years now. An organ which would replace all the guts in the abdomen; it would be filled with a specially synthesized nutrient 'soup', and easily dispense that 'soup' into the bloodstream as nutrients. Probably refilled/cleaned through a socket in the abdomen (the navel would be a good candidate for discrete placement). It's possible to leave a more rudimentary through-gut in the stead of what we have now, in order to allow for fluid intake at least - since our bodies still demand a lot of water. Besides, getting rid of the guts altogether would also possibly mean getting rid of the mouth; our civilization is nowhere near ready to look like Protoss, let alone something even more abstract.
I've said this before: no other part of my body has caused as much aggregate pain and suffering to me as the digestive system. Forget the rare events like gallstones back in 2008, or the vile rice on New Year's Eve. The guts never feel good; at best, they feel decent. Perhaps that has to do with my abysmal diet, and also the fact that neither my parents nor I have skill or interest in cooking; but let's not forget the unpleasantness of hunger and vain appetite - the latter is the scourge which makes the First World grossly obese. Our guts are very stupid and incapable of signaling to our brains for precisely what nutrients they require, and as a result we pig out. Then there's the matter of waste. Don't quote me on the statistic, but something like four fifths of all disease is caused by exposure to shit. It's also a vile inconvenience, and we haven't really improved on dealing with that inconvenience since the invention of the flush toilet in the 19th century. Just as an aside, I'd like to voice an opinion that toilet paper has got to go sometime soon: it's unhygienic and actually rubs fecal matter into the skin. Some washing machine or an even more elegant and ingenious solution should ideally take its place. Three seashells, anyone? Heh heh.
Obviously, something as frivolous as dealing with the digestive system is nowhere near the priority of dealing with the circulatory system - that great source of death. Nor is it as important as curing (or at least developing practical, efficient strategies for treatment of) cancer. However, if we do stabilize the circulatory system with biomechanoid augmentations in the near-to-mid future, doing something about the ruinous digestive system is not far behind. I've considered the possibility of something like a "fuel tank" for a few years now. An organ which would replace all the guts in the abdomen; it would be filled with a specially synthesized nutrient 'soup', and easily dispense that 'soup' into the bloodstream as nutrients. Probably refilled/cleaned through a socket in the abdomen (the navel would be a good candidate for discrete placement). It's possible to leave a more rudimentary through-gut in the stead of what we have now, in order to allow for fluid intake at least - since our bodies still demand a lot of water. Besides, getting rid of the guts altogether would also possibly mean getting rid of the mouth; our civilization is nowhere near ready to look like Protoss, let alone something even more abstract.