ARE WE ALL CYBORGS ALREADY?
Yesterday, after concluding a meeting I had with my officers in connection with a forthcoming VVIP visit, I suddenly realised that my mobile had gone missing. Instantly, a sense of panic ripped through me as though I had just lost a limb. I had encountered the same dread rise inside me every time my phone ran out of battery. When we finally traced my mobile, discovering a missed call alert from my DGP among several others left me wobbling with queasiness. Aside from an abrupt realisation that my mobile was wielding so much power over my emotions while also making me feel as if I had lost some limb was mind-blowing to me. Unwittingly, my smartphone has become an extension of my physical self and my mental self. Most times, it felt more like an external brain I carried in my pocket. We may not have a chip grafted into our heads, but with mobiles, we may have all become cyborgs without even realising.
Last week, when I flew down after a meeting at Delhi, as soon as the plane touched down the other fellow passengers and I reached for our phones as though our life support had been temporarily shut during the flight. Often, when I stroll inside an airport, or go to a restaurant or pass by a bus-stop full of people, I invariably find people’s faces buried inside the screens of their devices. Studies reveal that 79% of smartphone users have their phones on or near them for 22 hours a day. Our phones may not be entrenched in our tissues, but our dependency on them has become narcotic. With a cell phone, we all have become cyborgs. And yet, we’re collectively terrified of cyborgs.
A cyborg is a short form of a “cybernetic organism”. It refers to a human who has restored function or enhanced abilities because of integrating some artificial components or technology. Cyborg is a being with both organic and bio-mechatronic body parts. Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline coined this term in 1960.
When most of us think of cyborgs, our thoughts unconsciously take us back to the Hollywood film “RoboCop”, where Alex Murphy, a police officer, who after being mortally injured in the line of duty, is turned into a powerful cyborg who continues to serve and protect the innocent and uphold the law. Strutting the streets of Detroit in his shiny metal hide, Officer Murphy’s robotic reincarnation continues to live and play out in people’s minds to this day. What if we can create cyborg police officers with moral intentions that we can artificially program like the “RoboCop” Alex Murphy who could serve the public and uphold the law? Would that lead to true morality?
Elon Musk thinks we are already cyborgs because of our access to smartphones and personal computers as there is a digital version of ourselves in there. A partial version of ours exists online in the form of emails, social media and all the things we do online. We today have the power to send messages to millions instantly and hold a videoconference with anyone anywhere.
As far as medical implants are concerned, the first implantation of an electronic medical device into a human body was performed in 1958. Two Swedish surgeons performed this historic operation on Arne Larsson, an engineer who lived another forty-three years. Had it not been for the small computer installed in his abdominal cavity that helped his heart to beat, he would never have lived another lifetime of memories and experiences.
In 1997, Philip Kennedy, a researcher, created the world’s first human cyborg from Johnny Ray, a Vietnam veteran who had suffered a stroke and had lost movement. Kennedy implanted an implant in Ray’s brain in successful surgery. In 2002, Kevin Warwick, a British scientist, linked his nervous system to the Internet through an array of 100 electrodes. With this in place, he could extend his nervous system over the Internet to control a robotic hand. He could also conduct direct electronic communication between the nervous systems of two humans by implanting electrodes into his wife’s head. In 2004, British artist Neil Harbisson implanted a cyborg antenna in his head and could extend his perception beyond the human visual spectrum. Many cyborgs with multifunctional microchips injected into their hands exist. With the chips, they are able to smart swipe cards, open or unlock doors, operate devices such as printers or buy products such as drinks, with a wave of the hand.
Although, medical implants have been around for decades, but only recently have they become increasingly accessible over wireless networks. The doctors placed the first Wi-Fi pacemaker in the United States in the chest of Carol Kasyjanski of Roslyn, New York, in 2009, and when the surgery was complete, her beating heart became the first heart to join the Internet of Things. Millions of people today depend on these fantastic technologies to stay alive. The implants communicate to the outside world via familiar radio-frequency protocols such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, RFID etc. Today, as we increasingly integrate information technology with our own biology, more and more people are joining the cyborg nation-with significant implications for their safety, privacy, and security.
There are now over 500 million wearables falling into several categories such as bracelet activity trackers, including the Fitbit Flex, Jawbone’s UP, Nike Fuel Band; smart watches such as Pebble, Samsung’s Galaxy Gear, the Apple Watch or even eyewear such as Google Glass. Most devices sync with mobile phones. The wearable computers, implants, bionics and exoskeletons are providing us with new physical and mental capabilities.
In the future, implants will proliferate greatly. In the medical world, and there is a great risk of hackers getting into networks of connected implants and tinkering with the functioning of electronic prosthetics.
The depiction of astounding capability terrorists have to hack into electronic implants like pacemakers to kill targets, was explicit in the Emmy award-winning TV show ‘Homeland’ in its tenth episode titled “Broken Hearts” where terrorists surreptitiously retrieve the unique serial numbers that correspond to Vice President Walden’s implanted pacemaker and assassinate him by wirelessly speeding up his heartbeat and inducing a heart attack.
Interestingly, the former United States vice-president Dick Cheney had a device implanted to regulate his heartbeat in 2007, but he had his doctors disable its wireless capabilities when he became aware and fearful of being assassinated by terrorists who he thought could exterminate him by sending an electronic shock to his implanted heart defibrillator. He, therefore, had his doctors replace the existing device with a new device that lacked Wi-Fi capability.
There is a dire need to regulate the use of implants. A firm in the USA called “Three Square Market” has teamed with a Swedish concern and implanted RFID chips the size of rice grain in 50 of its 85 employees that allow employees to access offices, computers, and even vending machines. There are reports that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved these implantations.
Militaries are building cyborg animals to gain a tactical advantage. DARPA is trying to develop cyborg insects that can survey an environment and detect explosives and gas. Researchers at DARPA,plan to implant the cyborg insects with sensors during the pupa stage, in order to control its motion from a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS). In 2006, Cornell University invented a surgical procedure to embed sensors in the thorax of the insects. Likewise, DARPA is developing a neural implant to control by remote the movement of sharks, which would help to detect enemy ship movement and underwater explosives. They have successfully used neural implants in cockroaches; where researchers could remotely control electrodes implanted in cockroaches. Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have pioneered the design of a “remote controlled beetle,”funded by the DARPA HI-MEMS Program. Scientists now plan to develop HI-MEMS for dragonflies, bees, rats and pigeons.
Stephen Hawking believes that life on earth is at great risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as global warming, nuclear war, etc. Hence, cyborg technologies could help turn humans into a multi-planetary species. One of the key issues in space travel is the biological necessity for oxygen. Two scientists Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline have proposed that an inverse cell fuel which can remove carbon from Carbon-dioxide and recirculate the oxygen could make breathing dispensable.
Another major issue in space is radiation exposure. A cyborg with a sensor that detects radiation levels could induce an embedded osmotic pump to inject protective drugs has been developed. Tests with monkeys have shown that such drugs could increase radiation resistance.
It now takes about 260 days to fly to Mars. To counteract the adverse effects of such long flights, NASA has proposed a torpor technique that will put astronauts in deep sleep or torpor reducing metabolic functions. Experiments as of now can put patients in torpor for one week but advancements in future will allow for longer torpor and reduced astronaut resource consumption.
Advances in cybernetics is also helping athletes break new grounds. Take the case of gold-medal-winning South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, the double below-the-knee amputee, who was persistently complained by other athletes about his “blade Runner” artificial limbs giving him an unfair advantage.
The “Cybathlon 2016” in Zurich were the first Olympics for cyborgs and the first worldwide and official celebration of cyborg sports in which 16 teams of cyborg athletes took part. During the events, athletes used powered prosthetic legs and arms, robotic exoskeletons, bikes, and motorized wheelchairs. The next Cybathlon is expected to occur in 2020.
Whether our cyborg future-to-be would resemble the horrors depicted in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or whether they bring out the epic potentialities of Tony Stark in Iron Man, is something we may have to wait and see. One thing that has become obvious is that the criminals who have time and time again shown their willingness and ability to leverage any emerging technology to their advantage, will continue to hack implants and exploit it for gain.
Just the way a hacker can hack into an implant in our bodies, our souls too are susceptible to hacking by evils of this world such as temptations, greed and bad habits. But we have inherent power within us to overcome and restore our soul to default settings through soul culture such as meditation and other spiritual practices.Restoring the default settings of our soul, could fill us with bliss and joy which we are constantly seeking.
Source from: epaper/deccanchronicle/chennai/dt:07.10.2019
Dr.K. Jayanth Murali is an IPS Officer belonging to 1991 batch. He is borne on Tamil Nadu cadre. He lives with his family in Chennai, India. He is currently serving the Government of Tamil Nadu as Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order.
Oct 13, 2019 at 5:41 PM /
That’s very interesting