# What aspect of godhood does this technology allow us to take on? # What aspect of godhood does this technology allow us to take on `”All technology is a prosthetic god, a set of tools we weak humans strap on to give ourselves the powers we crave: computers for omniscience; trackers for omnipresence; medicine for immortality; armor for invulnerability; guns for Heaven’s wrathful thunderbolts.”` — [[Ada Palmer]], Inspired by `‘What man, through his science and technology, has produced in this world, where he first appeared as a frail animal organism […] all this not only sounds like a fairy-tale, but actually fulfills all – no, most, fairy-tale wishes. […] Long ago he formed an ideal conception of omnipotence and omniscience, which he embodied in his gods, attributing to them whatever seemed beyond the reach of his desires – or was forbidden him. We may say, then, that these gods were cultural ideals. Man has now come close to reaching these ideals and almost become a god himself. […] Man has become, so to speak, a god with artificial limbs.’` — [[Sigmund Freud]], [[Civilization and its Discontents]] This question is isomorphic to “what spells does this technology allow us to cast?” And from there you can see that this question is a correlary of [[Clarke’s Third Law]]. Things that are magical or godlike tend to be supernatural. Contrast to [[What aspect of nature does this technology allow us to copy?]]. Often the same ‘urge’ can be framed in either an unnatural or natural analogy and it’s useful to look at both: we need to fly more like gods than birds (magical chariots!) but stabs at immortality resemble nature more than gods (which would be different if we had skin-healing nanobots). It’s the difference between “nanobots that eat metal” and “bacteria that eat metal” — I suspect there is something in the middle Some aspects of godhood * Omniscience * Omnipotence * Invisibility * Speed * Immortality * Healing * Strength * Seeing the future * Size [Web URL for this note](http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/What+aspect+of+godhood+does+this+technology+allow+us+to+take+on) [Comment on this note](http://via.hypothes.is/http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/What+aspect+of+godhood+does+this+technology+allow+us+to+take+on)