Rise of the cyborgs
FROM MEDICINE TO COMPUTER INTERACTION, HOW HUMAN AND MACHINE ARE BECOMING ONE
CYBERMEN, ROBOCOP, THE Terminator: anyone familiar with science fiction will be all too aware of the concept of the cyborg.
The term was first used in 1960 by scientists Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline in reference to an enhanced human that could survive in extraterrestrial environments. The cybernetic organism – to give it its full name – is a combination of biology and technology, a living being with computerised or mechanical implants designed to replace or enhance aspects of their existing body.
Cyborgs are no longer just found in films and comic books; they’re very real, with enhancements in technology making it far easier, and safer, to graft technology into living creatures, from insects right up to human beings.
One of the side-effects of recent wars in the Middle East has been to put battlefield medicine back at the top of the research agenda, with advancements in motorised limbs creating replacement arms and legs that can respond to nerve impulses in the same way as a biological limb.
In 2016 the first-ever Cyborg Olympics took place in Switzerland, where some of this amazing tech was put to the test, from an exoskeleton – a frame that goes over your body and moves your limbs for you – designed by NASA that allowed a paraplegic to walk, to a motorised arm that one competitor was able to use for a range of tasks just by thinking about it, including completing a jigsaw puzzle and slicing a loaf of bread.
It’s not just the need to replace injured or missing limbs that’s driving things forward, but also trends. ‘Bio hacking’ is where people implant technology into their body.
Known as ‘body hacks’, these have included implanting magnets and near-field communication (NFC) chips, like those you use for wirelessly charging your phone, in fingers that can be programmed to open car doors or link to a website, or computer chips implanted in other parts of the body that can monitor things like temperature.
But many experts see the future of cyborgs being not just about improving our bodies with things like robotic arms, but also implanting things into our brains. Known as neurotech, this field of research is looking at how we can use things like neural memory implants as a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, and how artificial intelligence can predict where body tremors caused by Parkinson’s disease could occur.
“I controlled a robot hand: I was in New York and the hand was in Reading, but it felt like me, like I had another hand”