this weekend i was helping a friend move and i love helping my friends, i love my friends
it's fine but you know it kinda sucks right getting all sweaty and herniated
in at some point i was just like i want to be tony stark why can't i have
ironman power, well wearable robots are coming your way
eventually
is one of the next generation of human computer interface technologies that
scientists engineers in computer programmers are already working on
some of these technologies are already in use from wearable computers like google glass
the recently developed neural implants,nanobots and even some even bionic limbs humanity
has for a long time in about enhancing our lives through technology but today
we're turning that spirit of invention inward altering not just our bodies and
minds but the very nature
and future
of humanity we are the new frontier so does that mean that we are all going to
be super heroes someday?
have you ever want to have the hearing of dog or jump over cars without
breaking a sweat it just control things with your mind and my friend
you might be a trans humanist trans humanism is a modern movement that
believes we can and showed broaden our human potential thru the use of technology
human
enhancement technologies to be exact there's no official definition of human
enhancement technology but most agree the concept involves expanding cognitive
and physical abilities beyond when human is naturally capable of through applied
sciences so-called G.R.I.N. technologies weive genetics robotics information and
nanotechnology into cutting-edge inventions made to enhance
and prolonged human life these technologies may be applied in a thereapeutic
way as an attempt to restore a condition say hearing or usable limb or
in a purely enhancing way with the goal is to transcend some normal human
capability like
attaining super strength their long distance vision and yes
possibly hedging into superhero territory here for now most research or
most public research anyway falls within the realm of the therapeutic
you no doubt familiar with many of them may be you know some of the pacemaker
that lifesaving device that keeps irregular heart beats in line and
probably seen footage of controversial south african run of the fastest man on
no legs Oscar Pistorius sprinting down the track
on his futuristic prosthetics
these are alterations that improve an individual's natural state by restoring
something that was lost perhaps one of the fastest growing of these
technologies are cochlear implants unlike hearing aids that help enhance hearing
in can be taken out these
are surgically implanted devices that can restore some hearing to the deaf
the technology is pretty new but as of late 2010 approximately two
hundred and nineteen thousand deaf people worldwide have received them
likewise there are binonic eye implants that allow blind patients to at least
partially see
companies like Nano Retina and Second Sight are already developing technology
that uses image processors implanted in the eye to transmit signals to the brain
some can even be powered by tiny batteries mounted in a pair of eye glasses
Nano Retina hopes to upgrade their implants from five hundred and
seventy-six pixel clarity to five thousand pixels
though that is still in the trial phase in a more complicated implant surgeries
might cost you more than your house so it might pay to hold off on any of these
technologies until the gimps are worked out
and the price comes i mean remember the first digital cameras they were like
this big and you put a floppy disk in them and it took pictures that were tiny
and ugly and
that they were sped now they're cheap and beautiful and you don't even
need one cause it comes with the phone and then there are some human enhancement that
go
on you instead of in you for example a few companies are
manufacturing wearable robots including exoskeletons suits which I WANT REALLY BAD
to the U.S. military is developing robo suits that enables soldiers to move heavy
loads in the field and cover long distances or over uneven terrain without
tiring likewise a handful of rehabilitation clinics for working with
paraplegic patients
who can be strapped in and with the help of robotic legs walk again
such rechargeable exoskeleton suits come in various designs in can be activated in a
few different ways
some operate by pressing buttons in manipulating controls others are
equipped with sensors that read the users muscle twitches and move their
corresponding limbs accordingly the most advanced systems will use sensors
to
pickup on brain signals and should eventually be directed through the power
of thinking
something then i'll get back to in a minute so when you get one
well as with some of these other cutting edge technology is wildly science behind
them is quickly advancing the economics of making them affordable will take some
more time
current prototypes are still super expensive but ross angle the founder of
Robo suit maker exobionics hopes someday that such suits will be widely available
as he calls them
the genes of the future fancy
fancy future jeans looking even further ahead into the future one of the biggest
emerging fields an enhancement technology are neural implants which are
just what they sound like hardware implanted into with the brain
and why would we want to do that well
lot of reasons the U.S. military's defense advanced research projects agency or
D.A.R.P.A
has its hands and all sorts of pandora's boxes and just about every field you can
think of including neural implants one darpa collaborator company called brain
gate works on turning taught into action literally like i think of coffee
and then a robot with coffee would show up in their words their goal is to
restore communication mobility and independence to people with neurological
disease injury
or limb lost Brain Gates's current technology works by surgically
implanting a tiny four millimeters square sensor into the brain that
records the normal signals of associated with thinking about limb movement
then decoder or system of embedded software basically translates those thoughts into
clear command sent to an external device those devices could be communication
oriented like a computer
or movement oriented like a prosthetic limb electric wheelchair or robotic arm
ultimately their goal is to hook up brain waves to a functional electrical
stimulation device that could directly re animate paralyzed wins that currently
their research aims to help people who can't
physically communicate at all
particularly those with locked in syndrome also known as tetraplagia
a condition in which a person is totally paralyzed though they usually
retain full mental capacity the world's greatest living theoretical physicist
stephen hawking is almost entirely locked in for example Brain Gate is
currently working on a neural implant system that would enable tetra plagics
the ability to move in invisible computer mouse or virtual keyboard by
simply imagining that they're doing it with their hands other researchers
are poking it brains both externally and internally
picture for example a literal thinking cap that you wear on your head in your
close to understanding what
transcranial direct current stimulation or d.d.c. eses D.D.C,s devices is set on your sckull
your skull and stimulate different parts of your brain by administering small
electrical currents of about two million through your scalp this stimulation
increases neurons plasticity
for their ability to change which increases learning while making them
more sensitive
which reduces their reaction time and therefore faster DARMPA is already using
these space-age party have to train pilots and snipers faster and is looking
at ways to supercharge soldiers defense contracting aside this technology could
help anyone learn faster and retain more
and it could have
monumental investor rebuilding stroke victims and people suffering from
certain urological damages and disease it said that there is deep in brain
stimulation which doesn't so much involve discussing philosophy while
wearing a blue ray has a dozen blending tiny electrodes in the year cranium like
it
brain pacemaker another therapeutic technology d_b_s_ is being used to help
three conditions like appalachian parkinson's
and is also being tested for treating bipolar disorder and severe depression
tv s_ technology has been around in one form or another for over a decade but
researchers at medtronic are now working on a sort of smart system that
constantly reads what's going on in the brain
and can administer the proper electrical dosage to the right part of the brain as
needed to finally at the thought of implants that make your brain smarter
and healthier gets you excited and not terrified i wonder how you feel about
swarms
of tiny danny robots whizzing through your body through it and i don't
technology the field of science that works on the mandela scaler one
billionth of a meter researchers have begun developing nando box not
tiny little metal machines but actual custom-made particles
by calling them with special proteins are molecules of medicines some men
about have been found to successfully target things like tumor cells in lab
animals colored futurists ray kurzweil predicts that within the next twenty
years will be flooding our bodies with millions of men abouts designed
to augment our immune systems destroyed cancerous tissues repair damaged or
disease body parts and even clean out clogged arteries without invasive
surgeries this technology who had serious implications for life extension
a major focus of the trains humanist
and human enhancement movements new technologies are often met with fearing
skepticism or
high expectations and blind hope but whether you're terrified or excited by
the notion of cyborg and spies personal cerebral as their body i have all of the
near future none of these technologies are coming out as fast and they have the
potential if not
a promise
to change not just our bodies and minds but our entire world so get ready and
thanks for watching some of the session if you have any questions
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