[Nimrod]

This is a very intriguing post. It has a very nice initial question and quickly shifted into a discussion of possibility, science and understanding. Let me touch on both points briefly.

First, as far a breast implants becoming as “common” as ear rings, I feel that it should be rephrased as “popular” as ear rings. There has to be some persistent cultural pressures that motivates so many women to undergo augmentation each year. Keeping this number in check are the medical concerns, aspects of feminism, vestiges of prudishness, and the ability to afford or access the medical steps required. There will need to be a change in one, and more likely a few of these factors before this sort of change becomes common.
In other words, I feel that in western culture, there is more “popularity” for implants than is actually expressed in the number of women going through with modification.

Second, on the topic of absolutes, there is again the need to step back and look at how the concepts are being put forward. Concepts of “Laws”, “Truths”, and even “Understanding” are simply terms used to label items that have an element of the absolute to them. Yes, technically, nothing can be absolute in scope, knowledge, or application. Nothing (another absolute term) can be totally true or proven. It is always possible to weaken any absolute with examples that challenge or contradict it. However, this only works for items that can be tested or compared in some verifiable or repeatable way. Other concepts that lack the ability to be put through the scientific process should not be given the same emphasis or scientific import. Metaphysics, superstitions, and religions each lack components that would allow for the scientific verification or more accurately scientific testing. These concepts serve a different function in human society.

Third, to bring this back to the post at hand, there is every expectation that body modification will continue. Humans have modified themselves in all sorts of ways over recorded history and there is no indication that this proclivity will abate. How and what is modified will depend a lot on the social pressures, gender expectations, and each personal whim. Given the radical shifts in the idealized body images over time it is difficult to say with certainly that what is “hot” today will be vogue a few decades from now.

Last, Science is not a “belief”. You can not scientifically  “prove” or “disprove” a belief. Nothing is “absolute”. Space and Time are relative and linked. The sun only rises in the “east” because that is what we call that direction from our current location. Oh, and to quote Monty Python, “My brain hurts!”  

[Maski]

In answer to the original post...move to San Diego and your dreams will suddenly appear as a reality.  

[Lousey]

Quote:
Why don't we have FTL drives? Cause some dude said nothing can go faster than light and everybody believed him. That is science for you.  

Can you prove that we CAN go faster than light? There are theoretical *shortcuts* and *workarounds*, which are probably possible (apart from us not being able to gain enough energy to power such concepts, which remains the MAIN problem with advanced space exploration). Space simply is not a big priority for anything, at least not OUTER space. There is no money in it, you see.

But yeah, I think it's very arrogant to simply declare all the Quantum Physisists wrong based entirely on a hunch.  

...and to everyone else, yes, I've tried to steer clear of absolutes as much as possible. I have even acknowledged that this metamorphasis theory might be possible, if unlikely. That is, afterall, the cornerstone of the scientific process. (And no, I don't worship science, in fact I'm Christian... just very unreligious).

I mean I'd LOVE it if you were true, I mean I could turn myself into Vixen Lamore for a night, play with myself, and then change back for work in the morning and I'd be a very happy chappy... but I think it's a rather pie in the sky, and there's no solid reason to believe it's possible.  

[boobrepli]

I just wanna say if implants become as popular as earrings, the natural beauty concept will change.  Learn't on school, the 'defined' beauty of a woman is variable.  In the middle ages big fat voluptuous woman were beautiful, after, thin becomes back in, then fat, thin, fat, and now thin with big tits. If big tits become common, people will get another fetish then breasts...  History in beauty is like a wave that cannot be stopped.  With this i wanna say, the difficulty of getting big breasts gives big breasted woman the love and respect they deserve, wich makes them the most attractive woman on earth.

[jaytas]

If mass can temporarily be negated in a localised area then FTL is possible as mass increases as you approach LS. And yes there are things that go FTL but they have no mass.


There are creatures that can change their sex. This would just be readjusting the necessary hormone levels and a few other things. That being the case why should it not be possible to will that your personal fat accumulation areas should have their percentages readjusted.

[E_W]

Quote:
If mass can temporarily be negated in a localised area then FTL is possible as mass increases as you approach LS. And yes there are things that go FTL but they have no mass.

Actually, that's not correct.  As resident physicist, I feel the need to speak up on this one.  FTL particles are a mathematical construct, based on equal parts extrapolated field theory and wild speculation.  As there hasn't ever been one observed, and as there is no need for them for the standard model to be consistent, they're little more than sci-fi at the moment; however, certain quantum mechanical phenomena might theoretically eventually be used to prove or disprove the validity of this theory by investigating the idea of lightspeed barrier tunneling, though noone knows how much energy would be required for us to get close enough or if the theory is actually able to incorporate that case.  (That's what my professors say anyway, and they're the guys who pick the Nobel laureates, so they should know.)

You might have confused FTL particles with particles without rest mass, like the photon, but that's an entirely different thing.  The photon always travels at the speed of light (actually, that's what the speed of light means) but still has a measureable momentum and energy.  The thing is, you can't get a massless particle to travel FTL, because that's impossible for the same reason as particles with mass can't travel at the speed of light.

Important phrase that, "if only... [mass can be temporarily negated]".  If only the entire theory of thermodynamics could be ignored, then I could just heat my apartment during midwinter by opening the window!  (Coincidentally, that theory seems to have some support down at the house caretaker's office, but I'm still freezing my butt off, evidently.)

Quote:
There are creatures that can change their sex. This would just be readjusting the necessary hormone levels and a few other things. That being the case why should it not be possible to will that your personal fat accumulation areas should have their percentages readjusted.  

Now this will probably be theoretically possible in, let's say, a hundred years or so - but not without the help of some serious and extensive genetic engineering and artificial body parts, which to say the least is a controversial issue.  The main problem as I see it is to create a way to consciously control this system over an extended period of time - we're talking months for changes like these - it would be far more easy to imagine, say, a local hormone injection or something.  I think the idea of artificially growing body tissue is more likely to be realized within our lifespans - implants made out of breast tissue, basically.

[dkoster]

Golly, we're going to need to move this post to Slashdot if we get any smarter  

Speaking of which, to follow up on EW's post... I'm convinced this will happen sooner, rather than later.  After all, porn has driven some pretty good technology so far, and if they can figure out how to make a buck on it, you can rest assured it will happen.

Porn.  Is there anything it CAN'T do?

-Koz    

[Lousey]

Quote:
Porn.  Is there anything it CAN'T do?

Make me a cup of tea.    

[E_W]

Well there ARE teas with supposed aphrodisiac effects...  

[Lousey]

Quote:
Well there ARE teas with supposed aphrodisiac effects...  

Yeah, but the damn stuff aint self generating.  

[lovefakeboobs]

I think would be cool just like the same implants are different shape and size on different women even if they are the same size and shape....
I think would be cool to have a store in the mall if your an a, b, c cup and you fell like you want to be bigger all you have to do is look what size you want and you can come out stacked like a library.... dd_in_redshoes would leave the big boob store as a ddd in red shoes...might as well have shoes there to so you can be a ddd in blue shoes    

[J_Panda]

if i were in a shopping mall and saw that sort of shop and women going in small and coming out massive i think i would end up choking or finding a near by bench and trying to place bets on what they would look like when they came out again (or film it).  

[Trooper1023]

Quote:
I heard that years ago. A mom picked a car off of her kid. Something about how in that instant she was able to call upon powers beyond her own (Superhuman almost) to save her **09**.

after reading this, i just HAD to comment.

what happened? a suped-up adrenaline rush, basically. triggered by subconscious maternal instincts, the woman's mind induced in her body a temporary state of what i call "all-energy burn". during it, loads of adrenaline were released, along with several kinds of endorphines, turning her body into little more than a biofuel-burning machine. the load of adrenaline also pushed her skeletal muscle system to function at 3-5 times optimal capacity, maybe more (depends how big the car was, and what kind of shape the woman was in). in the few seconds she spent lifting and holding that car, she probably burned every bit of carbohydrate in her body at the time, and a fair chunk of fat too.

*chuckles* what you don't hear about is how the poor woman had to spend the following few days/week in hospital rehab, being treated for severe acute overexertion.

[jaytas]

I read in a paper only in the last week of a woman lifting a car off a [censored] that was not her own. She was a smallish woman.

[MasterDragonfly]

Quote:
The time will come in due course. But it will not be implants that the women will be getting/ Let me explain.

The human mind has the power to change the human body. So in time it will become common place to learn how to do this. Currently there are some who can make themselves so hard that they cannot be pierced by metal objects. Others can break wood and cinder blocks. Also walk on hot coals. Changing your own body is merely an extension of this. The big stumbling block is the belief that it can be done. Once the paradigm shift has been made to believe it can be done it will be done. I do not believe that people will conform all that much as human's have much too much individuality for that to happen to much.  

I think you're confusing the ability of some advanced martial artists for controlling their chi (energy) with alchemy.  You might be referring to Iron Shirt technique, for example.  To my knowledge, no martial artist has successfully modified his/her body using this approach.  If anything, a chi gung master can appear very unassuming visually, and can even seem quite charismatic, jovial, relaxed, even to the point of giving you a case of the giggles.  Quite the contrary of what you'd expect from someone capable of slapping you around like a rag doll.  

When you hear of a yoga master putting his/her body through unusual hardship (eg, sub-freezing temperatures for an extended period of time), you don't see them growing a fur coat from their skin.  They manage to control how their body deals with it, and no doubt manage their chi to help protect them from the usual physiological responses (ie, hypothermia).

Hhhmmm.  Now that I think about it, maybe I'm being a bit harsh.  Perhaps it's possible to do things like increase circulation to the breasts (for example).  But to command them to grow through cell division, that might be a bit of a stretch, at least for the foreseeable future.  If that were possible, you'd see world-class bodybuilders emerging from their living rooms after doing nothing but sitting on the couch for months.  

Jim