“We surrendered to captivity, and we listened to that fatherly, enchanting voice as it lectured us. I’ll try to recall some fragments of what it said…” “Would the children of the future still need to spend years in schools as they do now? Would it be necessary to waste a lifetime gaining the experience of one single human being — when a youth, barely in his twenties, could possess the combined mastery of ten skilled surgeons, each past seventy?” “Imagine if man could control melatonin, the hormone of sleep — releasing it at will, holding it back when he pleases. Imagine him mastering Serotonin, the hormone of contentment; Leptin, the hormone of appetite; or even Estrogen and Testosterone, the hormones of sexual desire”. Imagine if one could cast off painful memories forever — tossing them into the nearest wastebasket with a flick of the wrist”. “We can no longer afford to waste our resources trying to turn machines into “humanoid robots”. We’ve already tried — and none of the results even came close to what we dreamt of. So, we changed course, reversed the compass, and sailed against the tide. Why don’t we” mechanize” the human being himself, elevating him above his dusty instincts, above the desires and earthly cravings that have long weakened and terrified him?”