I remember watching the movie Cyborg with Jean-Claude Van Damme about a quarter of a century ago and wondering how long it would take for it to actually happen.
No the technology isn’t quite at the level it was in the movie, at least not in some areas as for others we’ve actually gone a bit beyond.
We’ve already had prosthetic limbs for some time now, more recently though we’ve moved to being able to control those limbs with our minds. Although limited that is changing almost on a daily basis and not only are we able to control these limbs today but we’re also able to get feedback from them as well. Scientists are basically creating artificial skin that can detect things like pressure, moisture and heat. Tomorrows prosthetics will more than likely not even be noticed and will quite possibly act/behave like the actual ones, except that they will potentially be faster and stronger, que the 6 million dollar man sound effects or should I say 6 billion dollar man due to inflation.
It doesn’t stop there either, artificial organs of all types have and are being created in the lab, along with other organs that are bio-engineered, humanity is about to travel down yet another life extending avenue. Through organ transplants, genome modification humans may have found the fountain of youth through science. Others like Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov are seeking a fully mechanical alternative.
He might actually be the very first person to fully become a machine, sounds farfetched but when you look at the bigger picture he’s closer to achieving this goal then most people would believe.
We already have robots moving around like humans today (like asimo), so substitute organs for a human body wouldn’t be necessary for a fully mechanical one whose parts can be upgraded and replaced. This leaves the senses and the mind. Some of these senses might not have fully been conquered but we can already hear with microphones, see with cameras and in some cases can do a much better job of it with technology. Think LiDER, night vision, heat vision and other spectrums of light we as humans can’t see that machines can, the same applies to sounds that are beyond our capabilities. Taste, smell and touch are all catching up if they haven’t surpassed our capabilities in some top secret lab as well.
This leaves the mind and the crazy part is there are two paths that can be taken here.
Today there is already technology capable of working with our minds like the prosthetic limbs, but did you know that science is also probing what we can see with our eyes or even imagine with our brains and generate the images on a monitor in real time. For the time being it’s fuzzy but some simpler images can easily be identified on the screen. We are slowly venturing into a new frontier one where mind and machine can communicate on a whole new level, implants today can take thoughts and transfer them to speech or text.
The other path is becoming more of a possibility with each day that goes by, one where our memories and consciousness could ultimately be transferred to some sort of hard drive. Just make sure you do a full backup, in case any solar flares or electromagnetic pulses cause damage the original you’ll need it.
The big question is what does all this mean, will we live forever? Or are we just saving parts of ourselves? Without the body that we currently own will our mind become just some analytical software, without the hormonal chemicals released will feelings like empathy, anger, fear, excitement disappear or will there be some software to simulate those to? With increased neural connections and being able tap into the internet will everyone become as smart as Einstein or will we lose our individuality and become some type of collective where all our minds meld together to form some type of new super brain or being?
Yes some of this does sound farfetched but that’s what most thought when they watched Cyborg 26 years ago!
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