Mental Imagery
Some days, my brain fixates on a particular image, sensation, urge, whatever. These are rarely good thoughts. I'll spare you the details, cuz they're pretty yucky and they're also beside the point.
Thinking about the Robot Sex essay from the other day, it occurred to me that it might be more fun to replace a given self-destructive image with a body modification image.
Much like flying cars, I'm waiting on the BIG body modifications. I want the data jack, I really do. I do not, however, want wireless in my head until the firewalls are really fucking fantastic.
Once I started thinking about it, I realized that there are a lot of things I want.
Cosmetic:
I want to be able to shift the pigment of my skin and hair on command, because I've always wanted to be rainbow-colored. Dead serious. I hate cosmetics on so many levels that they aren't worth the application, but just shifting pigmentation would be awesome.
I really REALLY want to be able to instruct certain clusters of hair follicles to drop all contents and cease fur production until further notice.
Of course, there are the more dramatic self-change things, like redistributing fat and discarding the excess, that I'd also groove upon.
Thinking on body image issues, it's interesting to me to imagine the self-perception of kids if they could change their own appearance on a whim.
I have a pretty strong identity, so I'd like to think I'd just go for some of the clean-up and maintenance stuff, rather than a dramatic change to the way I look.
I imagine that, even if I slimmed dramatically, I still wouldn't be able to fly with wings, so I'm not sure I'd want them. But imagining the sensation of opening them up and letting the wind catch them might almost make it worthwhile.
I've never really identified with any particular animal or imaginary creature, so I'd stay pretty much visually human. This is probably a boring approach, but there ya go.
Physical:
Examples (beyond fat sculpting) might include targeting and increasing back strength in order to slowly change the cant of my shoulders, so they're less curled forward, generally improving my posture and easing the tendon tension that goes to the tips of my fingers. Also replacing the cartilage in my knees and hips, as well as easing off the tendonitis. Kick the tires, fix my eyes, pop out my wisdom teeth, and instruct my gums to quit it with the receding already.
Once you start thinking about it, you can get a little medically nutty.
I'd clear the IBS from my gut, improve my circulation, fix my thyroid, adjust my brain chemistry to obviate the need for drugs, create hunter-killer cells that could eradicate the herpes virus from the nerves of my lips, instruct my eggs to accept no fertilization without specific command, and repair the leaky valve in my heart.
And that's just for starters. I'd probably design an early warning system for flu and cold infections and do a lot of work on my memory. Bone density. Hormonal fluctuations. Strength. Speed. Endurance.
Hmm. I've been watching too much Bionic Woman, I think.
Drama:
But what I really want, if I could only afford one modification, is the original idea that that started me writing this post.
I don't quite know how to describe it.
Ya know how, when you drop something and you try to catch it, sometimes you can't quite manage it?
Well, I want tentacles or feelers to explode from my wrists and create a skin web capable of catching or manipulating anything. Each tendril would be independent, able to move like a finger, but in any direction with complete flexibility.
Sometimes, when I'm building something or working on something, it's like I just don't have enough hands, enough fingers, to manipulate or mold the project to my satisfaction. While I'm sure there could be sexual overtones to the whole idea, it's really while working with my hands that I want this. Or when watching something drop just beyond the tips of my clumsy, analog, unidirectional damn fingers.
When not in use, I'd like the tendrils to withdraw or merge back into my skin - something unobtrusive and unlikely to get caught in machinery or receive papercuts.
I imagine them to be made of skin and work like skin, rather than having suction cups or antenna hairs. Optional gecko-pad surfacing.
BOOM! Tentacles, baby! Swoosh...