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Jean Roch


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#1 Bruce Klein

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Posted 14 December 2003 - 02:17 AM


Hi

I received your e-mail precisely as I was reviewing the submission page for the book. Yes, I intend to write an essay, but I'm short on time... I'll do my best.

I believe very few of us are considering cybernetics as the easiest way to immortality, so that's what I'll write about. You can have an idea of what my submission will talk about by looking at my "full body prosthetics" thread in the mind & body augmentation part of the forum. I'll of course expand on that and put it in a broader context.

Thanks for your support, it really makes me feel our quest for immortality is a team effort, which it should be

Jean


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AKA: nefaster

Introductory Post: http://imminst.org/f...&f=75&t=2130&s=

Full Body Prosthetics Thread: http://imminst.org/f...=prosthetics&s=

Edited by caliban, 13 January 2004 - 11:55 PM.


#2 Bruce Klein

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Posted 17 December 2003 - 02:41 AM

Hi everyone,

Here's my contribution. I have a few comments to make :

- I've used single spacing a most basic type of formatting : needless to say you can reformat the text at will (if you've decided on a style for the entire book common to all essays)

- I've used Word's spell-checker so there should be no mistake but as usual I might have used the wrong word here or there. If in doubt, please ask me.

- Remember that I'm french. It's the first time I write this kind of essay in english so I'll welcome any advice.

- References are a problem : almost all my references are french or japanese (books, papers, magazines...) and as for web-sites, they use impossibly complicated URL's I wouldn't expect people to type.

About the web links, I'm suggesting we do a support page for the book on the ImmInst web site, with all the links on it. Support pages are common place with computer-science books, we can borrow the idea. That way, the reader will only have to type the very short URL www.imminst.org.

After all, it's more than likely readers will want to come on the site.

I hope I'm not giving you too much work, that's an awesome project, my friends !

Jean

===


Love the ideas! If you have any other suggestions, feel free to send them on to us as we're still in the fun design stage.


> After all, it's more than likely readers will want to come on the site.
> I hope I'm not giving you too much work, that's an awesome project, my friends !


Not at all... we greatly appreciate your help in this project.. The editing team should be in contact with you.. but feel free to contact us as anytime.

Bruce Klein





======

Also attached as Word Doc.





Immortality through cybernetics
Using sturdier parts to build everlasting human bodies

By Jean-Moana Roch, B.Eng (Hons)



About the author :

Engineer, born in France in 1976, has been interested in science and technology for almost his entire life.

Graduated from Napier University in Edinburgh (Scotland) and the Université de La Garde (France) in the fields of electrical engineering, computer science and telecommunications.

Is currently working on two personal projects : swarm artificial intelligence and a novel massively-parallel supercomputer architecture targeted at AI research and applications, and the real-time solving of large numerical problems.

Often seeks inspiration in the works of Japanese artists Masamune Shirow and Mamoru Oshii.

Unemployed, is funding is own research.






Introduction, definitions

The scope of this article is the use of several technologies to extend life by eliminating the problem of aging, at least as far as the body is concerned. This is what I call immortality and it should be clear that this won’t prevent you from dying in a number of situations. You might still get killed in an plane crash or shot dead by burglars.

The technologies I’m considering relate to mechanics, electronics, computer science, chemistry, but in no case to biology nor biochemistry. I define cybernetics as a set of body and mind augmentation technologies that do not rely on living cells or tissue.

Moving away from biology to engineering means moving away from a domain we still don’t fully master to a domain we inherently master, as we have created it. Some might see this as “betraying God”, forsaking the flesh it might have given us for a flesh we designed according to our own tastes and desires. One such desire being immortality.

Most of this article is written from an engineer’s perspective, so it might seem biased. Remember though : I’m a human too, so this bias isn’t actually a problem.



1. Why cybernetics

There are many ways to extend one’s lifespan, as you’ll no doubt be convinced of after reading this book. Some can even be used together for even better effect. This includes cybernetics.

However, before choosing a path to immortality, one must not just consider his or her personal preferences or aesthetics. What is most important with immortality is time itself.

Consider your own body. Like most people, you might bear a few scars. Maybe a cut eyebrow from when you were a little kid and banged your head on the corner of a table, like me. Or a small cut on the palm of your hand because of a bit of broken glass you didn’t see, like me.

Over the course of a human life, countless small accidents can happen daily that can leave a trace on the body, or even inside if we’re considering broken bones, surgery and past diseases, for instance.

All these traces add up and when you reach an advanced age your body doesn’t work so well anymore. Because you did too much sport. Or too little. Because you were wounded during a war. Because a disease crippled you. Because you ate, smoked, drank and/or did drugs too much…

Now imagine eternal life.

It is certain an eternal life will also be filled with small accidents. But because it’s an eternal life, the number of accidents will be unlimited. Before a thousand years you might be covered in scars from paper cuts, shaving, do-it-yourself furniture assembly, looking under the hood of the car or whatever.

This simply means immortality requires a sturdier body. One that can withstand the assaults of time and all the little accidents of life without requiring constant maintenance.

Cybernetics relies on tough alloys and composites, on redundant electronics systems and failsafes and maybe, someday, on self-repair technologies derived from nanotechnology. Built like a fortress, the cybernetic body will last longer. Such is my goal.

2. How cybernetics

Cybernetics as a path to immortality applies to people who are already born and no longer intend to breed naturally, or at all. Cybernetics may also apply to people who have no other choice in the face of death. In other words, some of its main target populations are :

- Old people who are nearing death due to their age
- People with deadly diseases that cannot be cured yet, like generalized cancer or AIDS
- People with deadly genetic diseases, like progeria
- People having sustained life-threatening injuries, poisoning, irradiation…
- The crippled and whoever lost whatever limb (or limbs)

The use of cybernetics can be gradual : you may choose to replace only the organs, limbs or parts of your body that are failing you, or you may choose to replace every last living cell in your body.

2.1. The body as the “physical layer” for the mind

Like most people working in the fields of neural networks and artificial intelligence, I believe our mind – what makes us – is software executed by hardware. The hardware, or physical layer, is our body.

The body in itself does not define us, only our experience of life through our body defines us. Therefore, as long as the mind – a set of memory, or data – is preserved and is operating, a person is alive. It doesn’t matter what body – what hardware – sustains the operation of the mind.

Based on this computer / body analogy you can decompose the body like any other system, and it is so indeed : medical science separates each organ and attributes them a specific function in the global system that the body is. Everyone knows what the heart does, how, and why. Same thing for the lungs. Or for the spinal cord, the intestines or the hands…

As far as science knows (it has not yet been proven beyond any doubt) consciousness, our mind, resides within the brain. Every evidence points to the fact that our brain is exactly like a computer and that the program it executes defines our behavior, that is, our mind as the rest of the world experiences it.

More precisely, the brain is a type of processing memory and as such meets the three requirements to qualify a system as a computer according to Turing :

- It can store data
- It can process data
- It can communicate data

Therefore it is perfectly correct to assume that a computer could replace the brain. The remaining organs could then be redesigned to sustain the activity of that computer (supplying it with data and energy) and to grant it full autonomy through motion.

Worthy of noting, before the advent of computers (in the 1930’s) the word computer meant a person doing calculations. Likewise, we use expressions such as “state of mind”, and computers are made of state machines. This shows how computers and brains more alike than we usually realize.

2.2. Upgrading the hardware

The use of cybernetics implies a replacement : removing an original, biological part of your body and replacing it with a cybernetic counterpart. Some organs like the heart can already be “cybernetized” in that manner, it is actually a technology we’ve now mastered since Jarvik and which has extended the life of many people.

Some organs, however, are much harder to replace. The problem isn’t just to create a cybernetic part that can perform at least as well as its biological counterpart : you also have to replace it in vivo.

The most difficult organ to replace in vivo is obviously the brain, or should I say, the nervous system as a whole (sensory organs included). No existing technology can enable that feat, and we might have to wait until nanotechnology reaches maturity to solve this issue. Then, neurons may be replaced progressively, for instance whenever they die (neurons die progressively as we age, and they do not grow back).

The procedure of replacing the brain progressively is typically called inloading. It should be noted that inloading can also be performed using biological neurons as replacements, for instance, neurons grown from stem cells. Inloading works by relying on the self-organizing capability of the brain : drop a neuron in the brain, and it will connect itself to the surrounding neurons without external help.

Inloading using biological neurons has been experimentally demonstrated during the 1990’s.

The term “inloading” implies that the data-set that makes our mind (the memory of our past experiences) never leaves the body. It’s never uploaded or downloaded out of the brain to another brain, which negates the possibility of “duplicating people” or making copies of the mind.

2.3. The issue of the sensory organs

Sensory organs present another great challenge for cybernetics. They should be considered a part of the nervous system, and are essential to is operation : they provide all the data (our experience of life) the brain uses to function and exhibit a behavior (the mind). Much as Nietzsche said, the mind is a toy for the body.

Artificial ears and eyes can be easily implemented using microphones and cameras, and have been modeled long ago. Eye implants for the blind have even been experimented on. However, taste, touch and smell still can’t be replicated with any level of quality comparable to that of human senses.

I have no doubt science and technology will produce solutions to that problem : sensory organs and their operation are well-known and we can count on the brain to adapt itself to artificial sensory organs. As with everything we ever invented, the right technologies will be developed when the need arises for them.

For instance, my own work on high-agility robotics has led me to develop a type of pseudo-skin with a sense of touch similar to that achieved by human skin. It is much different from and probably unfit to act as human skin, but this is merely an example I’m offering to show that technological development follows the desires and needs of people.

Thus, the desire of people for immortality will lead to the invention of artificial sensory organs.

Which leads us to the next big question :

3. When cybernetics

Now. Even yesterday, for some (more or less) lucky people.

As I’ve hinted already, artificial hearts are cybernetics : the replacement of a biological organ by one made of plastics and metal alloys. But it doesn’t stop there.

A peg leg also falls in the domain of cybernetics according to the definition I use in this article. Yes, that means those stereotypical pirates of old were cyborgs : they could move autonomously and keep “working” even though they had lost a leg.

As you can see, cybernetics isn’t nearly as new as the word itself. And as every field of science and technology, it sees considerable and ever faster advances.

In 1998, Campbell Aird, a Scottish hotelier who had lost an arm up to the shoulder was chosen to experiment with an prototype artificial arm connected to his nervous system. Thanks to this prosthesis, he could keep working as he used to before he lost his biological arm. The cybernetic arm was fully self-contained, including its power source, and was actually lighter than the limb it had replaced.

The arm used electrical motors similar to those found in hair-driers or fans, but technology is now rapidly moving towards something much closer to muscle fibers : electro-active polymers (EAP).

Pioneered by Yoseph Bar-Cohen of the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, these polymers contract under an electric impulse, exactly like myosin in our muscles contracts under a nervous impulse. Moreover, they also react to external forces by producing an electrical current, again like our muscles, allowing for the implementation of myotatic reflexes.

EAP such as polypyrrole allow for the engineering of artificial muscles that are 100 times stronger than a human muscle of identical size and shape, and just as fast, even faster in some cases (think hummingbird fast). Used at human levels of strength and speed, they require very little electrical power.

Speaking of which, Panasonic’s Nanotechnology Research Laboratory has very recently announced the development of a new type of electrical battery that can convert glucose from the blood stream into electrical energy, to provide up to several watts of power to internal implants like pacemakers.

Based on a specific enzyme, the battery is intended to eliminate the need for regular surgery people using a pacemaker usually have to go through. Instead of replacing batteries, they’ll just have to eat a little more sugar.

Such technologies show us that cybernetics as a way of life isn’t simply possible in the very near term : it will be convenient, comfortable and invisible to others. It can enhance our lives, and it can do so very progressively, leaving us in control of the pace of our own personal evolution.
4. Life in a cybernetic body

As I’ve exposed, a cybernetic body could feed on glucose, a very common sugar found in various forms in many types of food, from potatoes to pasta to cake to chocolate. Glucose is already a major source of energy for the human body.

Using fuel cells – cells that convert oxygen and hydrogen into electricity – cyborgs could also feed on air, and possibly alcohol (as a source of hydrogen).

The waste from such energy sources would be insignificant : glucose will be decomposed into carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen to produce electricity. The hydrogen will be used directly in the fuel cell along with oxygen from the air to produce more electricity. Pure water and a little heat will be the only waste.

Carbon dioxide, body heat and water are already among human body waste. Solid body waste, for a cyborg, could only come from digesting food absorbed to sustain the remaining biological parts of the body, should there are any.

Moreover, the pure water produced by fuel cells as waste could be redirected to these biological organs, reducing the need to drink, and the heat from the same fuel cells would help maintain an internal body temperature suitable to these organs.

The implications are simple : first of all, a cyborg will sustain itself through eating and breathing, exactly like any biological human. A cyborg’s body will be warm too, and will have a weight comparable to that of any other human. This means all humans, biological or cybernetic, will be able to live together and follow the same way of life. Cyborgs will seamlessly integrate with society.

Second, and just as important, the impact of a population of cyborgs on the environment will be lower than that of a population of humans, based on the type and amount of body waste produced by cyborgs. Cyborgs would need less diversified food and would reject less waste, all of which would be easily manageable.

Another implication is that cyborgs may be perfectly suited for life in harsh environments like deserts. If you factor in the superior reliability, strength and resilience that can be engineered into a cybernetic body, then cyborgs will also prove the best candidates for the manned conquest of space and the colonization of other planets.

4.1. Everyday life

The everyday life of a human cyborg will see little change from that of a biological human : because cyborgs will still require food to survive, cyborgs will also have to earn a living, one way or another.

For practical reasons, such as power consumption, cyborgs will not usually be as powerful as a Terminator or a Robocop, punching through concrete and smashing everything barehanded. However, being built with the inherent capability to do so, a cyborg might use “superhuman” strength or speed in many situations where his / her life could be in danger.

For instance, a cyborg could jump over traffic, crossing roads without the risk of getting ran over. And even if a cyborg gets hit by a truck on a road, the cyborg will only sustain minor mechanical damage. A cyborg could jump from a 15th story window to escape a building on fire. A cyborg could survive in water for extremely long periods of time : if the Titanic had been used by cyborg passengers, they would all be alive today.

Superhuman strength is indeed a very useful tool in the quest for immortality. It does not mean, however, that movies like Terminator represent what the future will be like.

For if everyone is as strong as a Terminator, then the massive difference in strength that is the basic element for such stories does not exist.
4.2. Aging

Cybernetics solves only the problem of body deterioration against time. Needless to say, a cybernetic body will age too but then its elements will be much easier to repair or replace when they show signs of fatigue. That is indeed an essential advantage of cybernetics in the quest for immortality.

What can’t be solved by cybernetics however, is the aging of the mind. It might not appear as a problem at first (since it’s generally assumed growing old means growing wise) but we’re not talking about doubling or tripling the human lifespan. We’re talking about achieving eternal life.

The problem we’ll be facing is simply due to the limited memory capacity of the brain.

As I’ve written in this article, the brain is a computer system and as such it has a finite memory capacity. Its capacity is finite because it is made of a finite number of storage elements and as such, information theory demonstrates that it can only hold a finite amount of data, no matter what data compression schemes are put to use.

In the case of the brain, data is our memories, our past experiences. As we live ever longer lives we gather more and more experiences but the least important ones – in our eyes – are gradually discarded to make room for new ones. That’s what forgetting is all about.

For those among you with knowledge in basic neural networks technology, this is best shown by the Kohonen model where, in essence, memories that are seldom recalled progressively get harder to recall and ultimately vanish from the system.

We do not know well how much data the human brain (as a structure of neurons) can store, mostly because no-one has lived past 122 years yet.

However it is fair to assume that, because of the limited capacity of the human brain, people living eternal lives will only remember the last 100 or 200 years of their existence and as such will not grow “mentally” older than 200, however old they might be judging from their birth date.

Needless to say, this will have an important effect on a society of human immortals. The less obvious one is that, in essence, it’ll still be a society of mortal people : though people still live, their state of mind will completely change over the centuries, making all of them different people.

4.3. Expanding brain capacity

This seems like the solution to the problem I’ve outlined above, but it comes with its own limitations :

No matter how large a brain becomes, it will still be a finite storage system. Remembering eternity – which is infinite – is therefore impossible.

Increasing the capacity of the brain may be achieved by simply adding more neurons to the brain. However this will lead to problems computer engineers are well aware of : as the size of the system increases, so does latency.

In other words, increasing your memory will lead to slower thinking. Increasing your memory to hold the experiences of an eternal life will lead to no thinking at all.

Note that this problem arises from immortality itself, not from cybernetics. Whatever path we will use to reach immortality, we’ll have to face the “memory barrier”, as I call it. Humans have evolved as mortal creatures and as such the need to remember eternity was never an important factor in our survival and didn’t play a part in natural selection.

One could think that after several (overlapping) generations of immortal humans, natural selection would kick in and ultimately humans would evolve to feature larger and larger memory capacity. This is impossible : natural selection is based on the survival of the fittest, and immortality implies everyone, fit or not, survives.

In other words, breaking the memory barrier will be a problem for scientists to solve.

By default, the romantic ideal of the immortal – who remembers events that took place millennia before – will remain just a romantic ideal.

4.4. Feeling

The senses of a cyborgs might not be limited to just five. And the five human senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch) might be improved in a number of ways, such as density and quality.

Cyborgs with more senses, and enhanced senses, will most certainly experience life more deeply than we do now. I predict such people will make new discoveries about this universe than any human limited to his five senses ever could.

New senses may well be countless. Image if you could feel the shape of the universe around you, when Einstein could only theorize it ? Imagine you could feel all magnetic fields around you ? If you had the sonar capabilities of a dolphin, or a bat ? If you could taste with your skin ?

New senses will also lead to new arts to please these senses, resulting in a huge expansion of mankind’s originality.

5. Life in a cybernetic society

Assuming cybernetics reaches the point where it can guarantee a form of immortality (that is, not aging anymore) and has no competition in that domain, it is certain most people will want to become cyborgs.

As a consequence we’ll see important changes in human civilization resulting from the longer lifespan of human beings and the subsequent increase in Earth population, but also from the switch to “inorganic flesh”.

I’ll expose some of the most obvious changes :

5.1. Higher rate of increase of human population

If people are still born but no longer die, or live for thousands of years or more, then it’s obvious human population will increase dramatically. That is an effect of immortality in general, not just cybernetics.

Right now this would be seen as a big problem due to the limited size and resources of our planet. But it is in fact beneficial, as geniuses will live much longer, and more will be able to work together. Think of what science would be like today if Einstein, Edison, Volta and all the great scientists the world has ever known were still alive today and working together through the internet.

I have little doubt immortality will benefit mankind more than by just allowing us to enjoy life forever. It will accelerate our evolution in every sense of the word.
5.2. Conquest of space

As I’ve written in this article, cyborgs are best suited for the conquest of space. This will help avoid the problems linked with a rapidly growing population.

Sooner or later conquering new planets will become a necessity, but one that can easily be addressed by immortal cyborgs.

With huge lifespans, terraforming will become something we can relate to at a human scale. Even if it takes 500 years to terraform a planet like Mars, we’ll be able to live there as cyborgs without any real handicap and we’ll see that planet become green and blue long before we die. In fact, should we all live millions of years, the terraforming of a planet might feel like week-end gardening.

Likewise, traveling through space to other stars, even if it takes decades or centuries, won’t be a problem. Those of us that are really patient might even consider using solar sail ships to visit their relatives from planet to planet.
5.3. Closer bond with technology

It is obvious that cyborgs, being built upon the same technology as everything we ever built, will have a closer bond with technology than humans.

For instance, mobile phones (which all of us own, these days) could very well become an integral part of the body. A new organ. You might even say, a new sense.

This line of reasoning borders on singularity : the merging of all living creatures in a unique being. It might indeed happen sometime in the future. Renowned scientist Philip Emeagwali – supercomputing genius and acknowledged as a father of the internet – has predicted it to happen within 10,000 years with the help of the Internet. We might be here to see it.

Without going as far as the singularity, it is true that being linked to the rest of the planet through your body will radically change our way of thinking. It will enhance our vision of this world, bring us closer to this world than ever before. It’ll also mean we’ll never be alone unless we want to.

5.4. Evolution of medical assistance

In a cybernetic society there will typically be three categories of people :

- Organics : fully-biological people. For the most part, the children, which should be left to grow up completely and will only be allowed to use cybernetics once they have finished growing up, or in case of a life-threatening accident.
- Cyborgs : people who have replaced part of their body using cybernetics. This covers people with only very light modifications right up to people using full-body prosthetics and having kept only a biological central nervous system.
- Inorganics : 100% cybernetic people, who might also be called human robots but not cyborgs, as they will not have a single living cell in their body, not even in their brain.

Medical science in such a population will shift its focus towards pediatry and transplantation surgery. Such areas as geriatrics will become obsolete.

Medical science will also grow to include more and more technologies related to cybernetics, such as electrical and mechanical engineering , which will interface with biology in the case of cyborgs.

The most interesting development is that cyborgs and inorganics will be able to cure or “service” themselves even without extensive medical knowledge. Much like many men know how to replace a car battery or a flat tire, people will be able to replace a failing cybernetic organ or limb. Integrated monitoring software will help us diagnose any problem with their body and will guide them through any maintenance task they can perform on their own.

“Lending a hand” might also take on a new meaning, if you catch my drift.

5.5. Evolution of aesthetics

Cyborgs, being made of machined parts, may well never have a problem with their image in the mirror or in the eyes of others.

Using technology humans master to make your own body means you have absolute control over a large number of parameters, which includes (but is far from being limited to) :

- The color of your skin
- Your face
- Your size
- Your shape
- Your “fitness”
- Your weight

Cybernetics will lead to the advent of true personal tuning. Today it is limited to plastic surgery, tattoos, piercing or body-building. Tomorrow… you may not be able to define your own identity from your body.

5.6. The demise of weapons of mass destruction

Cyborgs and human robots will be able to survive the worst aggressions : they may be shielded from radiation and feature air-cleaners that will take care of fall-out particles and combat gases. Microorganisms like viruses won’t be able to penetrate their skin and reach their remaining biological organs.

Wars in the cybernetic era would make very little victims besides the environment, even the soldiers themselves would be near-immortal. And without the use of weapons of mass destruction, wars could become as long as the World Wars.

But precisely because of their futility (what use is a war that kills no one ?) it’s quite possible wars won’t erupt in the cybernetic era. At least, wars as we know them.

5.7. Reduced pollution

By definition, cyborgs do no tire. Their muscles do not cramp up. They have the strength they want to have, and as much endurance as their energy supply.

This means cyborgs will have no use for cars or powered personal vehicles in their everyday life. Bicycles and other man-powered vehicles will become commonplace among cyborgs.

This is but a simple example of how a population of cyborgs could help reduce pollution. There are many more, for instance :

Cyborgs using light-amplification devices crafted into their artificial eyes would never need to spend money on lighting, whether at home or in the office.

Cyborgs integrating one or more computers within their body would also negate the need for power-hungry computers in their office, doubled with home computers and maybe a portable computer. Other office appliances like phones could also be integrated inside a cyborg’s body.

It’s also certain cybernetics will be used in other areas than body augmentation and immortality : the same glucose and fuel cells powering cyborgs could power any electrical device including cars. Same goes for the artificial muscles. Humans and their machines would ultimately share the same food and produce the same waste in the same way.

5.8. Reproduction

All the technologies that exist, or will exist in the foreseeable future, won’t allow for cyborgs to produce cybernetic offspring. As far as we can see, human children will still be fully organic creatures. And it’s unlikely they will be able to grow and develop in an artificial womb inside a female cybernetic body.

Which means people will have to reproduce either naturally – before fully becoming cyborgs – or artificially, after they have became machines incapable of breeding.

Naturally, men will still be able to store spermatozoids in banks and use them to have children long after they have lost the ability to breed naturally. Women, however, may only be able to breed during their first 40 years or so.

There again, I have no doubt that, in time, science and technology will find a way to remedy that. That is, if it should be perceived as a problem.
5.9. Resting

Cybernetic body parts will not tire. That raises an interesting question : will cyborgs get tired ?

We have no basis, at this point, to answer this question. However, it seems fairly obvious that the more a cyborg will be on a “cybernetic side”, the less it will tire and need rest.

Human robots – human which feature no living tissue at all – are the most intriguing in that regard : will some kind of “artificial sleep” be necessary to maintain the stability of their mind ?

In any case, the cyborg society might be a sleepless society.

6. The future of cybernetics

Today I have only explored cybernetics as they could be implemented using existing technologies, or technologies which scientific basis has already been demonstrated successfully.

There are other technologies that are still very far from an experimental proof and that will undoubtedly play a significant role in cybernetics.

The most important of these emerging technologies is nanotechnology. In its present state, it is limited to very complex surface processing in such industries as fuel cells membrane manufacture. Nanotechnology aims to evolve towards the construction of autonomous (or semi-autonomous) nanomachines, a subject that is well known of science-fiction enthusiasts.

Nanotechnology conveys very powerful ideas. In my eyes, the most important one is self-assembly : because nanomachines are too small to be put together using tools, they must be designed to self-assemble.

That is exactly what happens in our cells : based on our DNA, rybosomes assemble amino-acids into chains and let these chains fold by themselves into proteins. The proteins assemble themselves together and become cells. The cells become entire beings. Us.

In other words, nanotechnology could allow us to engineer a new life form, a new physical layer to host our minds. A physical layer over which we will have total control.

Nanotechnology will enhance cybernetics well before it reaches such an advanced level. A simple use could be, for instance, self-repair of the cybernetic body. As our blood carries lymphocytes, the cyborgs’ blood will carry nanomachines. These would fill cracks in metal bones or bridge gaps in severed electrical nerves.

The future of cybernetics is bright : as science progresses, cybernetics will come closer and closer to biology before surpassing it in every way. Every biological function will be replicated and new functions will be added, enhancing mankind more than by simply expanding our lifespans.

Conclusion

Cybernetics suffers from many stereotypes that were born under the pen of science-fiction writers. The simple word “cyborg” brings back images of Terminator, Robocop or any other ugly evil killing machines.

We must cast away these stereotypes and see cybernetics for what it is. A man with a pacemaker is a cyborg. A man with an hearing aid is almost a cyborg. My grandmother has a hip implant made of titanium alloy, without which she wouldn’t be able to walk : I already have a cyborg in my own family !

We are already using artificial, inorganic parts to enhance our lifespans and quality of life. As technology advances, more and more options will become available to replace more and more of the human body.

“Cybernetization” isn’t the future : it’s already started decades ago and if it goes all the way up to the creation of full-body prosthetics and brain replacement, it may also be the fastest route to physical immortality.



Jean-Moana Roch


References :

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#3 caliban

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Posted 01 February 2004 - 07:21 PM

Dear Mr Roch

Many thanks for proposing your article "Immortality through cybernetics" for inclusion into the Immortality Institute book project.

After reviewing scores of entries and arranging a common theme for the book, we regret to inform you that the inclusion of your article would not quite fit the current outline.
The reviewers felt that your approach to life extension through cybernetics was of relevance and interest. However, the article would benefit form extensive editing in style and content. We are aware of your limited access to references, but their inclusion would be a necessity. Also, one editor felt that your elaboration on the imagined features of cyborgs were not always scientifically sound. We also suggest a throughout review of the entire chapter 5 with a perspective to cut out certain elements and elaborate them elsewhere.
However, at this time it is unlikely that even a substantial redraft could be included in the current book.
Considering the amount of quality material we have received, it is likely that the Institute will choose to engage in other publications very soon. It would be our pleasure to invite you to participate again when the opportunity presents itself.

Best wishes
The Immortality Institute editors group

#4 Bruce Klein

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Posted 08 February 2004 - 08:41 AM

Thanks for your time, and your advice.

I realise two things... first, that my point of view - cybernetics - is perhaps the most uncommon at the ImmInst. Second, that, because I wasn't too sure about the guidelines for submissions, I didn't give too much technical details that I was afraid would be boring to anyone but engineers.

I hope there will be at least one essay dealing with cybernetics in our book. After all, the goal is to introduce as many ways as possible to extend our lifespans, right ?

I'll revise my essay, and - assuming you have time to check it - I will submit it again. However at this point I'm extremely short on time so I may not make it in time. Also, if you want we can talk about my essay during or after the chat session I'm joining this month... which is precisely about cybernetics.

Keep up the good work, guys ! We're all counting on you.

Jean




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