What happens when a man is merged with a computer? – Kevin Warwick "I, Cyborg"
“An actual robot walking machine which takes one step and then falls over is worth far more than a computer simulation of 29,000 robots running the London Marathon in record time”
What happens when a man is merged with a computer?
This is the question that Professor Kevin Warwick and his team at the the department of Cybernetics, University of Reading intend to answer with ‘Project Cyborg’.
On Monday 24th August 1998, at 4:00pm, Professor Kevin Warwick underwent an operation to surgically implant a silicon chip transponder in his forearm. Dr. George Boulous carried out the operation at Tilehurst Surgery, using local anaesthetic only.
This experiment allowed a computer to monitor Kevin Warwick as he moved through halls and offices of the Department of Cybernetics at the University of Reading, using a unique identifying signal emitted by the implanted chip. He could operate doors, lights, heaters and other computers without lifting a finger.
On the 14th of March 2002 a one hundred electrode array was surgically implanted into the median nerve fibres of the left arm of Professor Kevin Warwick. The operation was carried out at Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, by a medical team headed by the neurosurgeons Amjad Shad and Peter Teddy. The procedure, which took a little over two hours, involved inserting a guiding tube into a two inch incision made below the elbow joint, inserting the microelectrode array into this tube and firing it into the median nerve fibres above the wrist.
The development of the implant technology was carried out by a team of researchers headed by Dr Mark Gasson, who used it to perform a number of experiments. Most notably Professor Warwick was able to control an electric wheelchair and an intelligent artificial hand, developed by Dr Peter Kyberd, using the neural interface. In addition to being able to measure the nerve signals transmitted along the nerve fibres in Professor Wariwck’s left arm, the implant was also able to create artificial sensation by stimluating via individual electrodes within the array. This bi-directional functionality was demonstrated with the aid of Kevin’s wife Irena and a second, less complex implant connecting to her nervous system.
Kevin Warwick, “I, Cyborg” - The cybernetic pioneer who is upgrading the human body – starting with himself.
The Institute of Physics selected Kevin as one of only 7 eminent scientists to illustrate the ethical impact their scientific work can have: the others being Galileo, Einstein, Curie, Nobel, Oppenheimer and Rotblat.
Kevin’s recent research involves a collaborative project with the Oxford neurosurgeon, Prof. Tipu Aziz, using intelligent computer methods to predict the onset of Parkinsonian tremors such that they can be stopped by means of a deep brain implant. This work was hailed in the Mail on Sunday as “the most significant recent advance in biomedical engineering”.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Warwick
source: http://www.kevinwarwick.com
It is magnificent scientific piece of engineered work. And no questions it would hugely benefit most of us.
But I came across this news at the time when I was doing research in Internet Addiction subject. And I came across one image, were I cannot stop wondering how similar those two pictures looks like. And you have to say it seems like slides or project progression, or rather how it might look like. And following that idea you have to say it is quite possible. Looking on current world motivation of “profits” is not questionable. So in environment where people’s lives are dictated by “profits” rather then anything else, even best intentions of creator (not even can, but they) will be turned into corporate money milking cow to enslave client to their product. Just to increase sales, make profit and make investors happy. Yes, science is sponsored, and they doing it not because they are good people, but because they want to make drug, product, medicine which will cure diseases, but at the same time it will pay for their new Mercedes or yacht parked somewhere in Monaco.
Three letters that rules the world. It is simple algorithm.
Formula providing the number. Number which apears after magic 3 letters ROI= [magic number]% . This is “to be or not to be” , deciding factor for ideas, initiatives, and projects like Mr Warwick’s one today.
