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Ashland
Space Cowboy

Registered: 02/03/06
Posts: 315
Loc: North America
Last seen: 16 years, 11 months
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Will we see human cyborgs in the near future?
#5961807 - 08/14/06 04:17 AM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Please read it straight through, it makes more sense that way This is just a thought I had coming down from coke and frantically reading CNN.
Science is a tool. Without going into great detail on this statement, please agree with me for the sake of argument that science is only what we can perceive of the universe with our established scientific laws, methods, and whatever technology we have devised. That being said, science as a tool has enabled us as a human society to achieve a great many things, that otherwise without our advancements would be unattainable.
Okay, good, now to the juicy stuff. I was reading this article on CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/08/12/worms.nose.reut/index.html) about how Australian scientists are currently researching how earthworms have sensors in their body that can detect scents from great distances. Well, apparently they have intent to implement this research into developing technology to "build an electronic "cybernose..." The uses are practically endless, from identifying flavours of wine, to detecting chemicals that make up many 'weapons of mass destruction.'
So then I got to thinking. Primarily from someone else's post(I'm sorry I don't recall the author or the link) about the feasibility and reality of implanting nanotechnology into the human brain. That is to say, electronic devices sending signals to and altering the functions of the central nervous system. One example of this being implemented today, and again I'm sorry that I don't remember the source, is that there has been a successful surgery implanting devices into the nervous system of a patient, and working in tandem with very small and high-resolution cameras attached to a pair of glasses; the previously blind patient was able to see, albeit not a perfect image, but he was indeed able to read large print and could distinguish colors and shades. I'm not sure of the science behind this, and if anyone else knows more about this specific case, please share
Now this train of thought led me to thoughts of even more abstract and theoretical predictions. Suppose that the scientific community can indeed create devices which can detect scents so accurately. Couple this with the fact that we have begun experimenting with nanotechnology capable of acting on the central nervous system, it seems very feasible to me that in the not too distant future we very may well be witnessing 'cyborgs,' or put more appropriately, human beings with devices implanted into their bodies that directly connect to the nervous system, and may very well enhance our body's 5 senses, or even more theoretically put, allow us to experience senses that previously we were unaware of.
And for what for many people might be most interested in, would be the implementations of this distant technology in altering the brain in such ways that imitate psychedelic experiences.
Granted, this is nothing more than theoretical speculation as to the progress of science and mankind -Ashland
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Droz
Love of Life


Registered: 10/15/00
Posts: 2,746
Loc: Floorida
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Re: Will we see human cyborgs in the near future? [Re: Ashland]
#5966560 - 08/15/06 03:51 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Ashland, nicely put. I see in the future, genetically created organs for people that need them, hearts, lungs, liver. Like transplanting nanotechnology into the body so the person can survive. Like before they get too old eyes can be implanted, new hearts.
So we can live forever. With this nanotechnology we can see people living a lot longer then normal in the near future. 120-150 years of age or even longer.
And to take it further, maybe we in the future can create a genetically created brain, AI.
Peace, Droz
-------------------- Evolution of Time.
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Ashland
Space Cowboy

Registered: 02/03/06
Posts: 315
Loc: North America
Last seen: 16 years, 11 months
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Re: Will we see human cyborgs in the near future? [Re: Droz]
#5966632 - 08/15/06 04:21 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Yes, definitely. In some ways our bodies ARE machines, just made out of organic material. Our brains act just like computers, although vastly more powerful than any computer we could ever devise today.
There's always a lot of science fiction out there about someone's brain, or more accurately put - their "soul" - being transferred to an electronic medium, i.e. 'living' in the internet. The Matrix would, I suppose, be a good example of this; although in regards to what you said about expanding the duration of human life through creating artificially made body parts, perhaps take it a step further and speculate that it might be possible to transfer our consciousness over to an entirely artificial and electronic medium which would in effect, last ages in comparison to our human body.
Expanding upon your idea of creating an AI brain, perhaps we could even create a sentient form of life similar to humans (or entirely out of our own imagination). This, in essence, would make us the "creator," or as many cultures put it - God.
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TheDudeAbides
Livin Off FrostyBarley Pops andPork Soda


Registered: 10/23/01
Posts: 3,571
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Re: Will we see human cyborgs in the near future? [Re: Ashland]
#5966684 - 08/15/06 04:36 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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I want a gas powered penis : )
Complete with lawnmower style pull cord.
-------------------- outputrotation said: x-com and unsolved mysteries are the only things that have ever made me truly scared
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trendal
J♠


Registered: 04/17/01
Posts: 20,815
Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Re: Will we see human cyborgs in the near future? [Re: Ashland]
#5966848 - 08/15/06 05:18 PM (17 years, 5 months ago) |
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Yes we most certainly will see human cyborgs in the near future!
In fact, I would say we already have cyborgs living among us. Technically anyone with a prosthetic limb is a "cyborg"...just a very low tech one.
What about more advanced cyborgs? Yep! They're already walking around! In fact I saw one the other day, on the bus, with a Cochlear implant that gives her the ability to hear sounds (she must have been deaf, to have one). I'd say the ability to add a sense that never worked is up there in the realm of cyborgs.
Want something even more high-tech? There are a handful (probably 3-5) people on the planet right now who have crude artificial vision devices implanted in their brain. These are people who have been blind from birth - they've never "seen" anything before...and yet now they can see a matrix of white dots produced by directly stimulating the visual cortex in the brain. A hip-mounted computer is able to scan their visual field and downgrade the actual video into a 2-D matrix of dots representing lines in their field of view.
Or just check out the work of Kevin Warwick! In the past few years he has had small arrays of "nerve-sensors" implanted into his forearm. The chip is able to detect the electrical signals firing down a bundle of nerves in his arm. It can transmit the signals in real-time to a receiver placed near his arm and record the signals onto a computer. So he can, say, record the sequence of nerve signals when he moves his hand/fingers in a certain way. He can then play back the signals, into the chip in his arm, which causes his hand/fingers to move exactly the way he recorded them moving...without him having to try to move them.
His wife had a similar chip implanted in her arm a year or two ago, and last I heard he was working on or already able to transfer nerve signals from his arm to his wife's arm - in effect "take control" of his wife's hand and move it using his brain!
So yes! Cyborgs are already living among us! I fully expect that it will progress from something we only do for the disabled, to something that anyone can do - at first to augment their current abilities, and later to add abilities no human has ever had.
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Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
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