When confronted by this weeks tute task/spark I was drawn to the idea of Fusion of Man and Machine. I find this topic ever present in todays society and loosely reflects how society uses technologies to enhance human life. This is prominent in especially within the health and medical factors of society where more and more machines are implanted to supplement damaged and unhealthy organs in humans to ultimately extend the life of those in need and better their lives. Examples of this would be artificial heart transplants and pace makers which are machines inserted in to a persons body and effectively programmed to have human functions.
Ultimately i think that this idea of the fusion of man and machine extends from a child's mind with the thought of characters as Astro Boy, Million Dollar man and Bionic Man. The idea of a human exterior and robotic insides is what could be considered in my mind a means of blurring the line between reality and the virtual world.
Examples of this are obviously matrix which was a considerable high note for the genre of cyberpunk however "I Robot" and "Ironman" are more recent movies which use the cyberpunk genre and were widely accepted.
The original article I found relatign to this topic was written by Kevin Wawrick for CNN international. The original article is as follows:
The fusion of man and machine
By Kevin Warwick for CNN
Monday, July 4, 2005 Posted: 1732 GMT (0132 HK
(CNN) -- By 2020 exciting advances in bio-interfacing will make it possible for a wider range of diseases to be treated electronically.
Initially Parkinson's disease and epilepsy will be successfully dealt with. But the effects of multiple sclerosis, paralysis and motor neurone disease will also be much reduced as the individual is enabled to control their environment and even drive their car, by their thoughts alone, using implanted technology.
Other problem areas such as senile dementia and schizophrenia could perhaps be tackled in a similar fashion.
The whole area, termed E-Medicine, will spawn a plethora of new companies.
As well as being used for therapy, the use of implant technology for enhancement will also become more acceptable.
Initially there will be a backlash among those who consider the prospect of being able to "upgrade themselves" ethically inappropriate.
But once the technology has been proven and is commercially available at relatively low cost, it is expected that the range of people making use of it will increase dramatically.
Memory enhancement, an increased range of senses, dieting control and thought communication will all be on the market, while technology to allow for multi-dimensional thought will be at the planning stage.
All of these upgrades will be based on a direct link between a human and a machine brain.
In this way the ever increasing power of machine intelligence can be used to provide an improvement in human capabilities, rather than allowing intelligent machines to make important decisions.
Nevertheless the use of networked intelligent computers to control all the financial markets will present a worrying trend -- it will no longer be clear who exactly is making the key decisions; a machine based on human criteria, or a machine based on purely machine criteria been learnt through market experience.
The military sector will witness some of the most dramatic changes. Fighter planes will be completely computer controlled, without any human intervention. Clearly it will be computers that think and learn fastest that will win the day.
The big question, though, is whether there will still be room for human soldiers at the frontline.
By extending their senses through networked implants military personnel could be kept safely out of harm's way while being virtually connected to the battlefront via a brain-network connection.
Finally, it will be interesting to witness the phasing out of the old style printed passport. Once everyone is fitted with a Radio Frequency ID implant containing individual data it will be difficult to imagine how we managed without them.
It's incredible to think it was only as long ago as 1998 that the first human tested out such an implant. Since then progress has indeed been swift.
-- Kevin Warwick is professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading and the author of "I, Cyborg." In 2001 he became the world's first "cyborg" after having a chip implanted in his arm.
My version of the article.
With the rampant growth and development of implant technology, Professor Kevin Warwick believes that it will soon become a cure for illnesses and diseases such as Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, diseases affecting paralysis and motor neurone disease, senile dementia and schizophrenia. being coined as "E-Medicine" it is hypothesised that it will create a new plethora of companies and practitioners. Warwick accepts that the acceptance of such new technologies which pose ethical inappropriateness will eventually be broadly accepted and become a common way to cure diseases which impact a broad demographic of people.
The initial idea is to create memory enhancement and increase the range of senses such as thought communication.
The basic understanding of this technology is that these upgrades to the human body will allow for a direct link between a human and a machine brain. Inevitably the ever increase in machine intelligence will be used to provide improvement to the human brain capabilities.
Professor Kevin Warwick put himself forward for the research of the fusion of man and machine in 2001, where he inserted such technology into his left arm. Research is still being conducted however the results have provided the physicians with information which will further develop and understand the coexistence of man and machine. Overall this idea of fusing men and machines allows for the human race to utilize and exploit the abundance of technology advancements which occur around the world, using it to improve the quality of lives for people in need.
My version of the article.
With the rampant growth and development of implant technology, Professor Kevin Warwick believes that it will soon become a cure for illnesses and diseases such as Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, diseases affecting paralysis and motor neurone disease, senile dementia and schizophrenia. being coined as "E-Medicine" it is hypothesised that it will create a new plethora of companies and practitioners. Warwick accepts that the acceptance of such new technologies which pose ethical inappropriateness will eventually be broadly accepted and become a common way to cure diseases which impact a broad demographic of people.
The initial idea is to create memory enhancement and increase the range of senses such as thought communication.
The basic understanding of this technology is that these upgrades to the human body will allow for a direct link between a human and a machine brain. Inevitably the ever increase in machine intelligence will be used to provide improvement to the human brain capabilities.
Professor Kevin Warwick put himself forward for the research of the fusion of man and machine in 2001, where he inserted such technology into his left arm. Research is still being conducted however the results have provided the physicians with information which will further develop and understand the coexistence of man and machine. Overall this idea of fusing men and machines allows for the human race to utilize and exploit the abundance of technology advancements which occur around the world, using it to improve the quality of lives for people in need.
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