RE: How Steemit Is Convincing Me That Becoming A Hybrid Human-Robot Might Not Be Such An Evil, Horrible Thing Afterall...
The underlying assumption of transhumanism is that the human potential is limited or broken and thus needs fixing or "enhancement".
The subconscious admission of "enhancing" one's self with technology is that the combination of human body, mind and soul cannot do what machinery can. This is lodged as a self-limiting / self-crippling subconscious self-suggestion that is then re-inforcing the assumption of limited human potential.
One simple example is memory. If you have a technological helper (say your phone) to keep your phone book memorized, you don't need to remember phone numbers. But that doesn't mean you can't. But if you start relying on the phone to do that, it's an admission that you can't, and then it's becoming excessively difficult to start memorizing even 2-3-5 numbers (let alone tens of numbers like we did in the 80s or 90's - prior to mobile phones).
Extending that, prior to the printing press, we were memorizing entire books - a task which is seemingly impossible today because most people give up by merely thinking about it.
The mind, with proper programming*, can be able to do extraordinary things. However (if it involves self-reprogramming and not external programming by a third party) this is predicated on the assumption and admission that the human potential is far larger than we think.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1903777/Derren-Brown-turns-average-man-into-pub-quiz-genius.html - you might find the whole episode or parts by searching derren brown, glen, memory
This was a man with pretty bad memory (so he thought), Derren "programmed" him, he consumed an amazing amount of content in books and then he entered a quiz-competition that is normally collaborative (entire teams). He entered alone and IIRC he came second or first.
Memory is just one example. There is creative thinking, processing more information than is apparently available, controlling the body in ways that we aren't normally familiar, etc. Intelligence is also another factor which is programmable, meaning one can program themselves (or others) to be smarter.
In a sense, we are barely scratching the surface of human potential.
Personally, if I were to have any implants, I would want something that would effective alter and enhance my physical form. Like my eyes are defective and can't focus light perfectly onto the retina. Or my knees are showing signs that they might not last into my twilight years.
Some of the skill that we needed to have "back then" that are abandoned now is a good progression as long as we use the free capacity available to embark on even more productive endeavours.
Take photography for example. With digital medium, we no longer have to faff around with choosing the right ISO films or having to develop the photo ourselves using dangerous chemicals. Now we have easy to use, highly portable and robust camera that we can take to more places to compose better shots. For those who want more can do more extreme stuff like HDR, or star trails.
There is no need to romanticise and settle for the mundane as long as you continue to push our boundaries.
Btw, what you are really asking is a better input interface for content creation. This doesn't need to be "integrated" into our biology. A proper UI that would take speech commands (so that you don't have to write) and directions (where to place photos, what stuff to highlight, put to the center, etc etc) is probably 3-5-10 years away and will not be invasive.
Speech doesn't work when it is noisy or privacy is required. A similarly non-invasive interface is a hand holdable, or wearable chordic input device, like the one in the Hip PC:
https://steemit.com/introduceyourself/@brindleswan/forgotten-history-of-wearable-computing-a-steemit-exclusive
Noise is a problem now because the proper filtering algorithms don't work so well, but good AI will do it. Privacy though, that's a problem so in those cases it may require inventions like yours or miniaturized non-invasive neural readers in something like a headphone set.
Speed of speech is actually slower than the speed of thoughts. I read in speed read guide somewhere that one should reading out words in your head as it actually impede the speed at which the words are processed.
Have you ever had a time when a name or word is that the tip of your mouth but you can't get it out? That's the link between thought and speech malfunctioning! With the right set up, a machine can theoretically know what you mean better than yourself!
at least 1000 times slower, at times...
There's no such thing as a soul. Google "the problem of interaction".
The name ("soul") is kind of irrelevant - it's just a symbol. I could say the "player" (=soul) and the "avatar" (=body) in a "virtual reality" analogy where this world is simply one layer of reality controlled by another.