Editor’s note: This article was first published in March 2011. The forecast that cyborg implants would move more than 100,000 million dollars within five years of 2011 has expired, and the plans described for the end of that year are also out of date.
First of all, what you are about to read is not science fiction but a present-day reality.
A quiet debate is already opening up around “cyborg men“: should implants of this kind be used only to make up for disabilities, or would it be acceptable to use them to create “supermen” with added abilities?
Let’s meet:
- Kevin Warwick – Doctor Cyborg
- Neil – Eyeborg
- Roger Soldevila – Fingerborg
- Moon Ribas – Speedborg
Kevin Warwick – Doctor Cyborg
Nicknamed Doctor Cyborg, this professor of Cybernetics at Britain’s University of Reading is the man set to change the lives of people with spinal cord injuries, the blind, the deaf, the mute and others.
Kevin Warwick was the first cyborg in history. With the arrival of the internet and new technologies, he found the key to a line of research he began when he was just 16. He was the first person to have an RFID transmitter chip implanted and to fit out his office and home so that he could switch on the lights, the computer and any device connected to “his network” with his mind alone.
And that’s not all: he was also the first man to develop “artificial telepathy”. Kevin Warwick was able to communicate with his wife without speaking, since both had more than a hundred electrodes connected to their nervous systems.
Doctor Cyborg’s view is very clear: in his words, the future will belong to cyborgs, and in the not-too-distant future any human who doesn’t enhance their abilities with a few added implants will face an uncertain future in terms of competitiveness.
More than 100 paraplegics around the world owe Kevin their ability to walk, and thanks to his technique of inserting electrodes into the nervous system, people in a near-vegetative state now have the chance to get around in a wheelchair steered by the mind alone.
His next project, which he says is in its final stage, is to connect his brain to a computer so that it can be operated by thought alone, whether that means typing, opening programs or chatting, from anywhere and without having to sit in front of the machine.
As he puts it, his mind will be the computer, and he will see its functions inside his own brain.
He is also responsible for creating the first “robot men“. These designs are so far available only to hospitals, but by the end of this year anyone will be able to buy one for 50,000 euros. They are meant to let a person with a spinal cord injury get out of a wheelchair and walk, thanks to a robotic frame with sensors on the body and a remote control on the wrist. They are also part of the debate, because the military has shown interest in them in its quest to create “super-soldiers”.
Neil – Eyeborg
Neil is probably the only man with a USB port in his head. He was born with a visual condition, achromatopsia, which made him see in black and white; until a few years ago, nobody knew why.
Neil still sees life in black and white, but now he literally hears colors: with the Eyeborg, a kind of third eye, he can turn colors into sounds.
The Eyeborg is attached to a headband that is in turn fixed to his skull. It has a chip at the back of the neck and two magnets at the temples that transmit the colors picked up by his third eye in the form of sounds.
Because of the social problems it causes him (every time he enters a public place he is asked to remove the device), at the end of this year Neil will undergo an operation to place the device under his skin. That way, the only thing anyone will notice is that he has a third eye (a camera) on his forehead.
Neil is proud to be a cyborg. He says he has gained a sixth sense and perceives his surroundings in a way that an ordinary human being will never be able to understand.
Roger Soldevila – Fingerborg
What was at first a tragedy for Roger has turned into a great asset. He lost a finger to amputation and was given the chance to have a latex finger fitted, with a small built-in camera that records photos, video and audio.
Roger can now record everything happening around him 24 hours a day and download it to any PC or send the images in real time.
He is thinking of adding other gadgets because, as he says, once you have cybernetic implants you realize how useful it is to be a cyborg. In Soldevila’s words, being a cyborg is the best thing that has ever happened to him.
Moon Ribas – Speedborg
Moon is a 25-year-old woman who, after losing her right hand to amputation, became the first “human radar”.
She was fitted with a handcrafted robotic glove, the Speedborg, which runs on three batteries and has two infrared sensors, a display and a system of chips. With it she can measure the speed of any object or person.
Thanks to her new device and ability, she is currently carrying out a study of human behavior in more than 40 European cities, measuring how stressed or relaxed the residents and drivers of each city are.
The Speedborg can measure the speed of pedestrians and, at the same time, the speed of passing vehicles or how fast an object falls from the sky.
And by the way, Moon also loves feeling like a cyborg woman.
A business in the making
As we can see, reality sometimes outdoes science fiction. The cyborg generation is already here, and Neil (Eyeborg) has already been recognized by the British government as the first cyborg.
What is clear is that, debate or no debate, the cybernetic human will soon be one of the most profitable businesses for the companies working in this sector. It is forecast that in less than five years this kind of implant will be worth more than 100,000 million dollars.
Further reading
- The truth about Facebook: who is behind the social network
Sources consulted and contributors: Arturo Checa (journalist), Kevin Warwick, Diario Ideal, Brain Computer Interfaces.
Featured image: Parentesis99, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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