Body Part Removal

[ErlyRisa]

If you were told that you had a defective part on your body...

 

Would you remove it on your OWN accord?

 

You are not allowed to go to the doctor(s) to get it done.

 

For example a RIGHT testicle?

It's a pretty easy procedure, and thanks to Youtube, learning to do such things is getting easier.

 

The questions that this situation provokes are...

 

As a superior robot or alien: you should be able to take care of all of your OWN facets?

 

As a stranded human: you have no choice, but are awash with ALL knowledge.

 

Would you be a Dumby and do it in the mud, or unsanitary conditions?

[Dumbass]

Helllllll no.

Ill pay a butcher to do it, atleast if he fails, am sure I would be dead.

[arissa]

Is it cancerous? Can I live with it being defective and still get by okay with it? Are we talking about like the guy out hiking who cut off his own arm? Now I don't have any testicles but I would greatly imagine it would take a lot to detach one of those, mostly getting over the mental part of it.

[Dumbass]

I never thought I would get goosebumps reading a post.

[CraigD]

This is more a medical and psychological subject than a philosophical one, I think. Anybody disagree?

 

If you were told that you had a defective part on your body...

 

Would you remove it on your OWN accord?

 

In my present circumstances – having unlimited access to excellent, employer-paid medical care – I wouldn’t.

 

It’s very unlikely now that a person who told me I “had a defective part” and the people who would remove it wouldn’t both be clinicians in the same healthcare system. If a nonclinician told me I had a defective part, I’d be inclined to think they were mentally ill.

 

In very different circumstances – for example, if I were stranded on an unpeopled island, and growing morbidly ill with appendicitis – I would.

 

During a period of my life when I was financially strapped and uninsured, I sutured a few lacerations on myself. My father was a surgeon, and I’ve long been a pretty good seamster, so was comfortable with such simple surgery.

 

Switching from the question of what I would do to what some people will, I think the majority of people who believe that they have “defective parts”, and in some cases self-surgically remove them, are mentally ill. A few arguable classes of exceptions to this come to mind:

• A few cases of people with debilitating pain from badly injured limb who were, for financial reasons, unable to have them amputated, and sought to do it themselves
• People with gender dysphoria, who for legal or financial reasons are unable to obtain “sex change” operation from qualified surgeons
• Men who castrate themselves in an attempt to curtail sexual urges or behavior they believe themselves unable to otherwise control.

[Dumbass]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but would you guys replace your balls with mechanical ones if it meant better performance and more pleasure?

[CraigD]

would you guys replace your balls with mechanical ones if it meant better performance and more pleasure?

Asking this is like asking if we would replace our lawn mowers with unicorns of unicorns would do a better job of trimming our grass, because neither unicorns nor mechanical testicles exist!

 

To preserve the appearance of the scrotum when one or both testicles must be removed, usually due to cancer, some men elect to have a prosthetic replacement implanted, but these are just appropriately sized and shaped silicon bags of saline solution of the same basic construction as breast implants. They don't replace the function of the testicle: producing sperm and hormones like testosterone.

 

Contrary to folk wisdom, the testicles aren’t of paramount importance for sexual pleasure. The penis and prostate are. The prostate and seminary vesicles produce nearly all of the semen. Men with disorders of them on in whom they’ve been surgically removed can still experience orgasm and ejaculation, but commonly complain that it’s not as pleasant.

 

I’ve heard the occasional weird proposal of implanting a mechanical vibrator in the scrotum, but think them very bad ideas. It’s best not to mix sex toys and surgery!

[Dumbass]

Craig stop avoiding my question. Would or would you not?

I would. Just for the sake of stopping people from kicking me in the nuts nd also to give airport security a nice headache.

[ErlyRisa]

How about a v8 stomach?

 

Would that interest anyone?

 

And say that the "engine" became defective, and you had a backup: As per Robot the task at hand would be to remove the defective part.

 

Replacement in my eyes should be an opensource adventure at the very least...

 

like the Vibro Testicle designs could be found on ThingiVerse and printed at will... You could change a testicle for each day of the week, one vibrates this way, the other has heating elements inside it... you know think of other possibilities, becuase they're all patentable now.

[Dumbass]

Too much work Risa. I think nanotech would be better. You know just swallow a pill and next thing you have 2 millions Nano balls instead of two. More surface area = less heat.

[ErlyRisa]

 

Too much work Risa. I think nanotech would be better. You know just swallow a pill and next thing you have 2 millions Nano balls instead of two. More surface area = less heat.

 

 

I no longer trust anyone:

Its the side topic to the philosophy...If I am not procreating the change myself...than I may aswell be the robot, up for experiment by my creator(s)

[CraigD]

Craig stop avoiding my question. Would or would you not?

Dumbass, you asked:

would you guys replace your balls with mechanical ones if it meant better performance and more pleasure?

My direct answer: No. Reason: the ones I have perform as well as I like, and sex with my wife of 28 years feels so mind-bogglingly good, I don’t feel any need to make it feel any better.

Direct answer said, I’ll repeat the criticism of you question I posted previously

Asking this is like asking if we would replace our lawn mowers with unicorns of unicorns would do a better job of trimming our grass, because neither unicorns nor mechanical testicles exist!

and

Contrary to folk wisdom, the testicles aren’t of paramount importance for sexual pleasure.

Testicles produce sperm and seminary fluid, so the only way to improve their performance is to make them produce more sperm. Mechanical – meaning non-biological – things don’t produce cells of any kind, so an improved testicle couldn’t be mechanical.

 

The only way a mechanical device implanted in your scrotum could make sex feel better would be to stimulate the prostate or other nearby nerve-rich tissue – essentially, hold a vibrator. The testicle isn’t very close to such tissue, so isn’t a very good place to place a vibrator. Attached vibrators work best around the base of the penis, or inserted in rectum, neither attachment requiring surgery.

 

I would. Just for the sake of stopping people from kicking me in the nuts nd also to give airport security a nice headache.

If you get kicked in the nuts a lot, I think you have problems that can’t be cured by surgically removing your testicles and attached spermatic cords!

 

Though removing your scrotal contents would reduce the pain of a groin kick, replacing them with something hard could make your groin easier to hurt, because a kick could drive your mechanical balls into nearby nerves or pelvic bones.

 

Finally hard mechanical testicles would be hard on the skin of your scrotum and legs – explaining in part why real world prosthetic testicles are soft.

 

In short, hard mechanical balls are IMHO a very bad idea.

[CraigD]

How about a v8 stomach? Would that interest anyone? And say that the "engine" became defective, and you had a backup: As per Robot the task at hand would be to remove the defective part.

I’m interested! So are many surgeons with whom I’ve discussed the subject. I’d go as far as calling able to replace any defective organ “the central dream of allopathic medicine”. My father, who was a surgeon, told me one of the reasons he specialize in surgery was the dream of being able to repair people the way mechanics repair cars. It’s a wonderful dream, and one that’s been much realized in the past half century. Philosophically, I see a connection between it and ship of Theseus thought experiment – more on this later.

 

The heart, not a stomach would be my first choice, because you can live a normal lifetime without a stomach, but only a minute or a few without a working heart. The single-point-of-failure vulnerability of the heart, and similarly, the aorta and other critical circulatory system parts, worry me. I’d be much more comfortable if I had redundant circulatory systems, the way most large aircraft have redundant hydraulic systems. Several years ago, stressed/inspired by the impending death of my dad (practically, death is defined as heart failure), I wrote the beginnings of a SF story about “redoing the plumbing” of a human body, removing the heart and replacing it with a “redundant array of non-critical hearts” (RANCH), each looking something like the Jarvik-2000 (

). To my surprise, every MD I told about my story idea found it horrifying.

 

Back to the ship of Theseus, the idea that, over time, you can replace every part of a thing without changing its identity. Most people, I think, worry little that they are no longer themselves after a heart transplant. The problematical organ is the brain. As the personality is embodied in it, a brain transplant would be more accurately called a body transplant. If you brain is irrecoverably damaged or fails, it does you no good to replace it, because the replacement brain isn’t you, but someone else.

 

To get around this, you’ve got to get into the realm of “mind backups”, an old standard among transhumanists. Once mind up/downloading is achieved, it doesn’t critically matter what medium you’re embodied in, biological, electronic, or mechanical. One of my favorite SF novels, Greg Egan’s 1997 Diaspora, explored this idea at length.

[CraigD]

Too much work Risa. I think nanotech would be better. You know just swallow a pill and next thing you have 2 millions Nano balls instead of two. More surface area = less heat.

The problem with Drexlarian nanotech – what you seem to be talking about, DA – is that the scientific consensus on it is that it’s as fantastic as unicorns and fairies. Just because Drexler can imagine tiny machines working on nanoscopic scales in biological systems, and 1980s+ Star Trek and other writers can make wonderful stories about it (Neal Stephenson’s 1995 The Diamond Age among my favorites) doesn’t make it physically possible.

 

A good place to start reading why Drexlarian nanotech isn’t much accepted as possible is the Drexler–Smalley debate on molecular nanotechnology.

[ErlyRisa]

I wouldn't know what a heart is (ie Tin man)

 

as a Robot I have gone beyond the need to be "pumping" fluids, or the need to feel the associated states that are (sorry for the pun) 'close to the heart'.

 

The need in todays day and age for example testicles is actually pretty low.

It's possible to take tailored strands of DNA for ovum insemination: and seeing with the way in which what I see as a Diaspora style autocratic one fits all system that the world is gearing society up for in the not too distant future, I highly doubt that humans would be allowed the freedom to use blankets for warmth, let alone procreate without regulative policy.

 

My best guess, by 2060, male newborns will be castrated on the spot...and the parents would be made to pay for the service: Even though its an easy procedure.

[Dumbass]

Thanks for the link Craig, I had my sceptisim about nanotech as well.

 

On a side note, you really still find your wife attractive after 28 years? I would imagine by the time a women hits 50, all external beauty is gone.

[ErlyRisa]

women hits 50, all external beauty is gone.

LOL

 

Man that's harsh, dare you to say that to a prospective wife one day.

 

It's one of those innocent comments that can get you into deep doo doo.