Theme Week: Goodbye, Meatbags
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Theme Week: Goodbye, Meatbags

It's exciting to dream of what the world might look like in 2100. It's even more exciting to think we might live long enough to see it.

It's exciting to dream of what the world might look like in 2100. It's even more exciting to think we might live long enough to see it.

We've started doing monthly theme weeks here at Motherboard, which gives us a chance to dive more deeply into topics we care about and makes for a nice peg when working with writers we like or taking new pitches (see below for that last part). April is my turn to pick a theme, which we're calling Goodbye, Meatbags. It's based on a pretty simple question: Will the human body become obsolete?

It's easy to assume the answer is "no," but I suspect it's a thinner line than many expect. That's what we'd like to explore: Are robots going to take all of our jobs? When will buying implants and body upgrades be no different than buying a smartwatch? Will autonomous weapons and AI fight our wars and kill us all in the process? Conversely, can we end death? When other people hack themselves to gain a leg up, will our regular-old fleshy bodies be able to compete?

To think of progress, of the future, of the types of sci-fi developments we all dream of, is to acknowledge our own mortality, at least to a degree. Consumer tech, the stuff we lusted over while watching The Jetsons, has reached a zenith—everyone has a microwave, TVs are curved, our phones have made all our other gadgets obsolete. So forget gadgets. A new wave of innovation is breaking, and our bodies will never be the same.

We'll be saying goodbye to our meatbags from April 13-17, and pitches across the transhuman/posthuman/robotics spectrum are more than welcome. If you don't already have a ​favorite editor at Motherboard, feel free to send pitches to editor@motherboard.tv.​