Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Cyborgs?

There are many books,movies and video games that deal with cyborgs(Cybernetic Organisms) in some form.A cyborg,by definition is an effective amalgamation of biological organisms with artificial/non-biological parts to augment certain traits .By the strictest of classifications,everyone who uses spectacles or hearing aids or even a mobile phone phonebook for storing data is a cyborg.Of course,when someone refers to a 'Cyborg',they usually are referring to an organism(Mostly human) who has been grafted with electronics/mechanical additions and is superior in some way to a normal human being,either with an increased range and/or functionality of an existing sense organ ,or having a completely new ,almost preternatural ability(Such as telepathy or the ability to see in infra-red or the ability to generate electricity etc) that is not usually observed in 'normal' human beings.

The latter definition of a cybernetic organism does not seem to be very far away in the future,with developments on the integration of human nervous systems to computers and with breakthroughs in the understanding of the human brain ,specifically and the human body,in general,happening rapidly.

Dr.Kevin Warwick of the University of Reading in the United Kingdom,in 1998,succefully had an RFID chip implanted in his hand ,with the aim of controlling nearby devices such as heaters etc,with the aim of finding out the extent to which the human body can accept foriegn bodies.Later,he had a more complex neural array implanted in him which had an array of over 100 electrodes that could send wireless signals to devices.A later implant in his wife made possible the first wireless signal between two humans which can be categorized as a 'rudimentary' form of telepathy.
Other breakthroughs in the field are being made,especially with a focus on orthotics and prosthetics.Notable contributions have been made by Dr.Herr of MIT and others.
The day is not far off when cyborgs might be commonplace in society and the definition of 'Human' has to be changed permanently.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Nice article man....!!!