The Year in Review Through Prose Poetry

Whatever it Takes (Deus Ex: Human Revolution)

Consider for a minute the implications of such a future. Donna Haraway called it the cyborg, the posthuman that would liberate us from the constraints of the body and the system of language that acts upon the body. It starts small, naturally. The invention of the blunt instrument. Hammer. Axe. Affective yet brutish extensions of the human form. There is, of course, the peg leg and its contemporary equivalent in the prosthetic limb. Even the soles of our shoes, the artificial toughening of our otherwise too-soft feet. There is the advancement of optics in the form of spectacles. Let us not neglect the contact lens or our most modern convenience, laser eye surgery. Small numbers complain about a drying of the eyes, but this minority does not reflect the happiness and newfound sight of the majority. As we know, gentlemen, progress does not stop for the whims of those few who may be abjectly affected by it. You cannot make an omelet without breaking – well, we are aware of this idiom, yes? Breast implants. The oh so small steps of augmentation.

Brothers, thank us later. Now is the time for science. There is the future to consider. The destiny of what we loving call Mankind! And if there is a human soul or a divine sense of right and wrong, we can improve those too with enough time and the will to act. Let us not stop with perfecting the flesh. We must transcend it. If nature stopped short of making us perfect, let us pick up Her work and march towards its logical conclusion. And if our critics prefer a fallible subject, what they rhetorically refer to as the “imperfectly human,” well, let us see to changing their minds as well – figuratively or literally, whatever it takes, brothers! Whatever it takes!