The futurist Ray Kurzweil, who may or may not be a lunatic, believes that within two decades we will be able to upload our minds into computers, granting us immortality and effectively making us a new species. The possibilities for baseball in this posthuman future are delicious. Imagine the Mets rounding up every hardthrowing lunkhead they can lay hands on and hardwiring them with Tom Glavine’s pitching acuity, or sending Jose Reyes-derived nanobots coursing through the bloodstream of injured players to restore their vigor. A better world is nigh!

While we wait for technology to save us from the ills of the modern world, though, we can all still do simple things to make our world a better place. Even the Mets can do their part. They may not be able to heal the wounded with Reyes’s vital essence, but they can put injured players on the disabled list.

Radical and Kurzweilian as this idea may seem, its time just may have come. Consider that the Mets have the best record in the National League, and enjoy a 3.5 game margin on the second-place Phillies — and this despite playing with, by my count, three able players on their 25-man roster. Imagine what they could do with a full complement of players to man each of the nine positions in the field!

Just as an exercise, for instance, take the case of star center fielder Carlos Beltran, who has been battling nagging and occasionally serious injuries all year, and has strained his abdominal muscles so badly that he has been unable to play in any of the last six games. With left fielder Moises Alou returned to a semblance of health and spry prospect Lastings Milledge able to handle center, the Mets are able to play and win without Beltran. Still, consider that baseball does have a policy whereby a team is allowed to deactivate an injured player, allowing him to rest and heal up while a fresh, healthy player is allowed not only to take his spot on the roster, but actually to enter games, both at the plate and at the field — and that this policy covers every team in baseball, the Mets included.

Would the Mets benefit by taking advantage of this policy? They might! Beltran could take some time to rest and come back strong; the Mets would have a reserve outfielder capable of playing. It seems like a win-win.

Further consider the case of catcher Paul Lo Duca, who went down with a hamstring injury on Saturday and yesterday said after tests that he had merely torn previous scar tissue, and would be ready to play at some point in the near future. By placing him on the disabled list, the Mets would not only allow him to rest up the hamstring and all the bruises that accrue from getting hit in the face with foul tips for months on end, but they’d be able to give his atbats to reserve Ramon Castro, who’s hit 40% more home runs than Lo Duca in fewer than a third the at-bats. This would, again, seemawin-win;theMetswouldn’t suffer much if at all on the field, would soon enough have a strong, rested player ready to help them beat the opposition, and wouldn’t have to play a man short for any stretch of time.

Finally, consider that with the best record in the league and a reasonable lead in the division, the Mets might actually be setting themselves up well for the stretch run and the playoffs by allowing key players to heal injuries that, if left untended, could either go unhealed or even become major ones. By seizing the moment, it would seem possible for the Mets to enter the brave new world of tomorrow today — and all without the aid of artificial intelligence.

Why wouldn’t the Mets do something so simple and obvious? The reasons are many, but one that doesn’t get the attention it might is what you could call loser’s psychology. The Mets, as an organization, seem to live in terror that their plenty and success are all an illusion that could be snatched away from them at any moment. First you put Carlos Beltran on the disabled list rather than keep him on the bench shelling sunflower seeds, then you do the same for Paul Lo Duca, and four days later you’re 13.5 games out and looking very nervously at the Washington Nationals.

Strong organizations — and the Mets, with one of the better management teams in the sport, a loaded roster, and more money than they know what to do with, are strong — generally act with confidence, in the full knowledge that the needs of the season outweigh the needs of the day, and that a team that can’t stand the temporary loss of a player too injured to play isn’t going anywhere anyway. For an example, just look at the Yankees when they were riding high — did anyone ever begrudge Bernie Williams and Mariano Rivera their annual three-week sabbaticals?

I hope Kurzweil is right, and look forward to a day when Willie Randolph and Omar Minaya can use some sort of ray gun to restore the injured to perfect health. In the meantime, they should get them healthy. There are three full months left to play.

tmarchman@nysun.com