Gene modding is unrelated to chimeric bio modding, bio modding involves implanting organic structures into an already functional body, so yes, in theory you could take out the eyes and give them to somebody else provided you saved the guy's original eyes, or even if you didn't you could, by this point I'm sure there are cybernetics that work just as well.
Which brings up the question of, once again, why bother with all of that when a set of night-vision goggles is cheaper and can be given to other soldiers easily, even in the field, without so much as leaving either soldier temporarily blind and bedridden.
And why biomodded eyes have anything to do with animal ears or tails.
I am assuming that we are in high tier scifi, meaning most processes, including refueling of shuttles is run by computers, if you have minimal human guards and know what you're doing, in theory you can get in,
The military still uses essentially the same tanks as it did in World War II. Well, they don't technically "use" the tanks, since there hasn't been a war where they'd be useful since WWII, but...well, look at the technologies they have been using. The Air Force's planes, for instance. The military doesn't change unless there's a damn good reason--and if the change makes their bases more susceptible to infiltration,
they won't do it.
And the idea of a hacker that can beat military-grade security is absurd even if guards and barbed wire are taken out of the equation.
Current day air force bases would be a tad hard to get into because we happen to not run everything on computers yet.
And if they make it easier to break into, why would they change? Security is more than a little important to the operation of a military.
The military cargo ship would be where he/she would get caught most likely, the stowaway would be hedging their bets on that A, the ship will be in warp/whatever and therefore less likely that they will kill him, and B, the ship crew won't just shoot them out the airlock due to the mission operative rules.
Not safe bets. Although it's moot since that requires you get within spitting distance of wherever the refueling is happening.
Which, since these are spaceships and it's horribly expensive to get them off of a planet and into space, will probably be done in orbit.
The concept of the internet was a pure science that was made and used by the military early on in its life, they designed it and applied it.
Yes, there's no possible applications it could have. It's not even useful for communication!
Darpa lacks particle accelerators because they can't currently be applied to anything, bio mods can technically be applied now irl but aren't considered ethical currently, the military is looking into them.
Difference: Particle accelerators are pure science, because they lack practical applications. Bio mods of the sort the military is interested in are the ones with applications, not furry ears and tails.
P.S. The military looks into all sorts of projects that may well not turn out to be practical. The ability to get a government grant from people who don't understand the subject is in no way indicative of an idea's viability.
Actually there are several species of snakes that have thermal vision to the point of seeing in stereo through it. Plenty of biological systems work as well or better then the machine counterparts right now and probably some still in the high scifi setting I assume we are in, seeing as how the military hasn't been swapped out for cyborgs and robots ingame.
Stereo vision has no impact on quality. It just means you have two coordinated sensory organs. Older 3D movie cameras were also stereo-vision, but you're not waxing on about their quality.
And you know what? We've only been developing machine counterparts for a century, two if you're going by a broad definition. Sure, we develop them at an exponential rate, but nature does too.
And on that topic, name one non-neurological system that nature does better. Brains are literally the only thing biology has going for it.
Hepatics are basically machines with some form of sensory interfacing that isn't directly connected to a nervous system.
So, cameras?
The interfacing can be a simple as air jets blowing on the skin to provide sensations of texture to as complex as weak electric shocks zapping the nervous system directly to stimulate the nerves into receiving data...
I think the latter example violates your definition.
Anyways, our problem isn't so much with transhumanism as it is with the suggested methods of applying it. I'm sure that we can think of some way it could be made practical...but in this era where drones are supplementing our military forces and specialized AIs are outperforming humans at more and more tasks, it's hard to avoid seeing obvious easier solutions.
And this is Bay12, where we overthink everything. You need an airtight case.
