The way technology and biology are progressing nowadays is both jaw-dropping and probably even impossible! Futurists, scientists and the representatives of the transhumanism in the areas that range from medicine to neuroscience are going to attend Global Future 2045 International Congress in NY, where they will have a really hot discussion of how close we are to the digital immortality.
Let us take a brief look at some of the most extraordinary technologies that make the border between humanity and technical singularity blurred. In other words, this is how super-intelligence is going to look like.
Meet the Incredible Androids!
Remember Terminator? Meet his friends! The androids have amazed the public with its unbelievable lifelike surface appearance and functions. Hiroshi Ishiguro, a roboticist from the land of anime, demonstrated a high class android clone of…himself! The android cannot pass for a human being completely. However, time alone will show. Soon, the androids will be seen at various exhibitions in the countries open for biotechnological inventions, particularly, in Latin America and Europe.
Brain-machine interfaces or brain-computer interfaces, or simply BCIs have long captured our curiosity! While some of the “interfaces” are created to restore mobility functions to the individuals with brain disease or spinal cord injury, the others aim to bring hearing and sight ability back! Moreover, some researchers promise to also provide the BCIs that restore…memory!
The item is implanted in the motor areas of the brain, where it can record the electrical signals that, in turn, represent this or that movement. Next step – the computer decodes the signals that enable it to control prosthetic limb or a computer cursor. The inventors of the BCIs, José Carmena and Michel Maharbiz, have informed the world community about their intentions to develop a long-lasting and absolutely wireless BCIs.
The future may bring us the computers that are made of…DNA. According to some metrics, molecular computers are many levels higher than the traditional ones. George Church, a geneticist of the Harvard Medical School, pointed out that DNA can be used for computing in multiple ways. Just like computer chips that include logic gates (NOT, AND, OR, etc.), these gates can be created on the basis of DNA and linked to perform communication directly inside cells.
If Darth Vader’s body still seems to be too unusual for you – soon you may see it just around the corner. Nowadays the bionic limbs are extensively advanced. Prosthetic limbs or “Luke” arms (remember Luke Skywalker?) are developed by the DEKA company. Its owner, Dean Kamen has provided the most sophisticated bionic limbs on the globe. The limb is controlled with the help of a foot-operated joystick. The invention uses signals that come from the muscles of the upper arm and, without a doubt, it improves the life of the user in the most significant way!