For me, the most interesting and worrying moment in the video we saw in class is when Kevin Warwick starts to explain his work. Kevin's goal is nothing less than to be the one who ushers in a new age of cyborg humans. He states:"The future I see [as] very rosy if you are a cyborg, or if you are an artificial intelligence machine. If you are a human, well, your time's up."
If he's right, you might want to get on the winning side as soon as possible - why not apply to be his research assistant? You can find out more about him at www.kevinwarwick.com
What makes Kevin special is his degree of personal commitment. In 1998 he started experimenting with a transponder chip (inserted in his forearm) connected to his nervous system. This chip provided a link between his nervous system and other electronic devices. It allowed him to operate doors, lights, heaters and other computers without lifting a finger. He was able to use his hand movements to operate a cyborg hand or (as if he were disabled) a motorised wheelchair.Obviously this 'connectivity' is limited as it is only one-way. So can you guess what his stage two was? To study the transmission of signals between people. He upgraded his chip and then went ahead and implanted electrodes in his wife - so that they could 'communicate' electrical impulses to each other directly into each other's nervous system.
Kevin's next step? Obvious, logical and potentially frightening: to progress to direct brain-to-brain transmission of thoughts and emotions.
What do you think? Is this research exciting? interesting? irrelevant? scary? worrying? necessary? dangerous? ethical?
In my opinion what Kevin is trying to do it’s very interesting but also very dangerous and scary. I think that it’s interesting because ten years before nobody thought about becoming a cyborg, nobody thought it would be possible but now we see that it can be. Everyone wants to know how it would be a cyborg and maybe if we are a cyborg we could do things that being a “human” we couldn’t, also our physical and mental capacities will increase. The reaction of the society will also be very interesting and in my opinion the world that we know it would change completely if we convert in robots.
ReplyDeleteHowever there is a huge risk of going wrong because it’s the first time that they are doing it and because they are experimenting with humans so if it goes wrong they could never be the same because they implant chips on the nervous system and in all the human body and this parts are very delicate.
As I said being cyborgs will mean that our physical and mental capacity will increase but what will happen if the cyborg turns “crazy” and it’s the machine who controls us. This disaster could mean the end of human civilization and the death of million of people.
As a conclusion I would like to express my opinion about converting in a cyborg, I know that I’m not going to live enough for seeing this but if I would I wouldn’t like to be a robot. I like to be a human and I like to commit errors and to not be perfect, if we are cyborgs we could do everything we like so the life would be very boring because we wouldn’t have any challenges and everyone will be the same.
Nowadays, thanks to new technological advances our society has experiment several changes. Nobody would have ever imagined than in such a small amount of time we could have developed so many things; starting with the internet, to becoming more common electric cars. Most people think that these changes have changed our lives in a positive way, improving information research, distribution channels, or even medicine.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think that these changes have done our lives easier and will continue doing so. On the other hand, Kevin’s idea of amalgamate a human being with a machine to create a cyborg could have huge benefits but also concern important drawbacks. We could do things we wouldn’t have ever expected we could do. Probably physical and mental capacities would enlarge in an amazing and unnatural way making it easier for everyone to do everything. But it could also create control conflicts between the machine and the human making an impossible task to carry out a “normal” life. Some people say that machines would finally control us and that this would be the end of humanity but I’m sure that these are only exaggerations and would never happen. What’s more, I think that at the beginning, at least, nobody would accept this idea. Not for the obvious problems it would cause but surely for ethical reasons as life would lose its sense or achieve our goals would be too easy; so what’s the point trying to do this?
On the whole, I think future technologies will be accepted while they don’t affect people directly because people fear what they don’t know.
Guillermo Baurier
ReplyDeleteWhilst reading this I was able to feel a tickle in my back due to the exaggerated amount of taboo things all combined together at once. How can we reject the possibility of being our own specie and moving on into technology, the thing which, as well as having its good things, has taken the earth to its limit and in some years time could lean into the world’s destruction. Moreover, do you seriously think all things can be seen in such a mathematician way? I personally would never trust the ability of a robot to decide between good or bad, the thing is, would you? The only positive point I can see to this idea is that maybe robots could execute the most dangerous stuff like working in quarries or in experimental issues which were really risky.
Nowadays, thanks to new technological advances our society has experiment several changes. Nobody would have ever imagined than in such a small amount of time we could have developed so many things; starting with the internet, to becoming more common electric cars. Most people think that these changes have changed our lives in a positive way, improving information research, distribution channels, or even medicine.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think that these changes have done our lives easier and will continue doing so. On the other hand, Kevin’s idea of amalgamate a human being with a machine to create a cyborg could have huge benefits but also concern important drawbacks. We could do things we wouldn’t have ever expected we could do. Probably physical and mental capacities would enlarge in an amazing and unnatural way making it easier for everyone to do everything. But it could also create control conflicts between the machine and the human making an impossible task to carry out a “normal” life. Some people say that machines would finally control us and that this would be the end of humanity but I’m sure that these are only exaggerations and would never happen. What’s more, I think that at the beginning, at least, nobody would accept this idea. Not for the obvious problems it would cause but surely for ethical reasons as life would lose its sense or achieve our goals would be too easy; so what’s the point trying to do this?
On the whole, I think future technologies will be accepted while they don’t affect people directly because people fear what they don’t know.