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Human Body Version 2.0
DIGITAL DIGESTION
At this stage of technological development, we will be able
to eat whatever we want, whatever gives us pleasure and gas-
tronomic fulfillment, and thereby unreservedly explore the
culinary arts for their tastes, textures, and aromas. At the same
time, we will provide an optimal flow of nutrients to our
bloodstream, using a completely separate process. One pos-
sibility would be that all the food we eat would pass through
a digestive tract that is now disconnected from any possible
absorption into the bloodstream.
This would place a burden on our colon and bowel functions,
so a more refined approach will dispense with the function of
elimination. We will be able to accomplish this using special
elimination nanobots that act like tiny garbage compactors.
As the nutrient nanobots make their way from the nutrient
garment into our bodies, the elimination nanobots will go the
other way. Periodically, we would replace the nutrition gar-
ment for a fresh one. One might comment that we do obtain
some pleasure from the elimination function, but I suspect
that most people would be happy to do without it.
Ultimately we wont need to bother with special garments or
explicit nutritional resources. Just as computation will eventu-
ally be ubiquitous and available everywhere, so too will basic
metabolic nanobot resources be embedded everywhere in our
environment. In addition, an important aspect of this system
will be maintaining ample reserves of all needed resources
inside the body. Our version 1.0 bodies do this to only a very
limited extent, for example, storing a few minutes of oxygen
in our blood, and a few days of caloric energy in glycogen and
other reserves. Version 2.0 will provide substantially greater
reserves, enabling us to be separated from metabolic resources
for greatly extended periods of time.