MDE5 research conclusion

If Human beings were to achieve digital immortality by isolating, replicating, and downloading the consciousness to a non-biological environment, what might be the technological requirements necessary to bring about this move towards post-humanism, and what is the current situation regarding this research?

In his 2006 book, The Human Touch – Our Part in The Creation of A Universe, author Michael Frayn discusses the notion of ‘downloading’ the human consciousness in order to be digitally stored, ‘emailed’, and imprinted onto a blank human clone that may be waiting in a depot at some far away destination, (pp. 12-22) the wider implications of this is that our consciousness may also be loaded into a synthetic mechanical body, into a VR system or any combination of the above, possibly resulting in numerous digital versions of ourselves.

Further, if we were ever to reach a point where we are able to isolate, de-construct and then digitally replicate our consciousness in order to download it to a separate location from our own bodies, one can make the reasonable assumption that we would also then be equipped to create an artificial consciousness ‘from scratch’ as it were. One wonders what might the difference be between us, (a digital reproduction of a human consciousness) and them (an artificial, non biological consciousness) should we find ourselves occupying the same virtual environment? Could a sentient AI develop its own version of the Turing Test in order to distinguish between the two?

The term ‘robot’ introduced

In 1921, Czech writer Dr. Karel Capek introduced the concept of the humanoid ‘robot’, a non-biological, artificially conscious being in his play R.U.R (Rossum’s Universal Robots). In later years Capek credited the creation of the word to his brother, artist and writer Josef Capek (Klíma, 2001 p. 72). The now-universally accepted word robot originates from the Czech word robota, meaning ‘serf-labour’ or ’Drudge’. Almost ninety years later our technology is still striving to turn the fantastic concept of the artificial mechanical humanoid being into reality. Arguably the most publicised humanoid robot amounts to little more than a very expensive remote controlled ‘toy’ called Asimo, which has been produced by Honda, up-to-date information about Asimo can be found at the Honda website (http://asimo.honda.com/). Whilst on the surface Asimo appears to be merely a generation or two away from the perceived ideal of the robot as servant, companion, or even partner, if we look past the impressive, apparently capable exterior we are left with nothing more than a demonstration version of what may come. Obviously the research that has developed due to the robotics industry is invaluable in providing a foundation upon which a possible post-human future can be rooted, human augmentation such as highly articulate replacement limbs for amputees, to full exoskeletons that aid the physically disabled are merely two scenarios that we may see developing in the near future as a result of present converging technologies.

Despite the relatively crude nature of current technology, great strides are being made in the field of prosthetic limbs, and to a lesser extent the augmentation or replacement of human eyes, and cochlear implants to improve hearing (Chorost, pp. 33-37), but while a state-of-the-art prosthetic hand may alleviate the distress of an amputee it is obviously far from being an ideal replacement. In short, current research seems focused the development of neural implants, viewed by many as the ‘holy grail’ in the search for a cure to all physical human failings as all external stimuli is received and interpreted by the brain, this research appears to be the key to hastening our inevitable post-human future.

The field of neural prosthesis involves placing a non-biological device into the human brain in order to interface with the central nervous system, regardless of how we may view the concept of the consciousness within philosophical and academic circles, it is the human brain that produces the electrical signals that enable thought and action. Every sensation that the human being experiences, such as enjoying music, or a meal, to the smell of a flower or the touch of a loved one is merely the sensory organs, whether eye, nose or hand, sending pieces of information to the brain for instant decoding and interpretation (Chase, p. 210). This may on the surface, seem to reduce the ethereal, sacred concept of human experience into nothing more than a mechanical, robotic function, but it is this fundamental scientific knowledge that may form the foundations for our future evolution from trans-human to post-human.

Animal-machine interfaces

A fascinating recent research project involving neural implants was originally reported by Rick Weiss of the Washington Post in October 2003, the story gained international interest shortly thereafter. The experiment, led by Miguel A.L. Nicolelis of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, involved implanting ninety six electrodes, each one thinner than a human hair into a monkeys brain at a depth of one millimetre, and three hundred and twenty electrodes into another’s. These electrodes ran to a robotic arm in another room, which the monkeys were able to observe using TV monitors. The monkeys learned to move the robot arm using a joystick, and were able to adjust their grip to control the strength of the mechanical hand in order to manipulate objects. During this initial period, researchers recorded and tracked the bioelectrical activity in the brains of the monkeys, monitoring the patterns in which the neurons are firing, eventually revealing the patterns that corresponded to the commands to reach, grasp, and change position. The next step of the experiment was to switch off the joystick altogether so that the robotic arm was solely dependent on the brain activity of the animal for instruction, initially the monkeys continued to use the joystick (Chase, p. 212), unaware that it was not functioning, then according to Nicolelis:

We're looking, and she stops moving her arm, but the cursor [on the monitor] keeps playing the game and the robot arm is moving around. We couldn't speak. It was dead silence; no one wanted to verbalize what was happening. And she continued to do that for almost an hour (Weiss, 2003).

The monkey was controlling the mechanical arm with her thoughts.

These devices, although crude, may one day allow those with spinal cord injuries to be implanted with brain-machine interfaces and electrodes in their muscles to move their own limbs again by sending signals from the brain to damaged or ‘disconnected’ muscles, circumventing the severed nerves that caused the paralysis, (Chase, pp. 212-213) or even controlling synthetic limbs that are actually attached to their bodies.

Human-machine interfaces

Taking this research a significant step further, and applying it to human beings is a 2004 project dubbed ‘BrainGate’. BrainGate is a neural-machine interface system very similar to that used in the experiments with the laboratory monkeys in 2003, the primary recipient of this system was a twenty four year old paraplegic named Matthew Nagle of Weymouth, Massachusetts, near Boston. A publicly traded company called Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems Inc. developed the BrainGate neural interface system, which makes use of a piece of equipment known as the Utah electrode array, which in turn was developed by the Center for Neural Interfaces at the University of Utah. In 2004 Cyberkinetics received FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval, to experimentally implant the BrainGate system into five paralysed individuals of which Nagle was the first. Nagle’s motor cortex was implanted with the one hundred-electrode Utah array, the base of which sits on the surface of Nagle’s brain with the electrodes protruding from it. Each electrode is one millimetre long, thinner than a human hair and actually penetrates the motor cortex, and is connected to one hundred gold wires that protrude from Nagles skull. In short, the result of this implant system is that Nagle is able to effectively use his ‘thoughts’ to control a television set, switch lights on and off, open and close a motorised prosthetic hand, and perhaps most importantly, use a home computer to communicate and even play some basic games such as ‘pong’. After a twelve-month trial period, the system was removed and reported to be a monumental breakthrough (Chase, pp. 215-218). The long term aim is to design a package the size of a mobile phone which will electrically stimulate a patient's own muscles to enable them to live a physically active life.

If one was to extrapolate this scenario further, we find ourselves in a situation in which augmenting the human body for non-medical reasons becomes not only possible but also highly likely. Military personnel for example that are incredibly powerful and resilient, or perhaps the wealthy who wish to be quicker, stronger, better, may become commonplace, at this point we will have truly become post-humans.

Of course, these events are far from the norm, and although they exist, the sophistication of neural implants is rudimentary at present and obviously mainly within the field of medical research. However, some futurists and scientists, such as professor Kevin Warwick of the University of Reading, see brain implants as becoming essential, the next step in human evolution.

The world’s first Cyborg

Professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading, Kevin Warwick has undertaken what is arguably the most famous piece of research into neural implantation known as 'Project Cyborg 1.0'. In 1998 Warwick became the first human to have a microchip implanted in his body. The main purpose of this was to test the limits of what the body would accept, and how easy it would be to receive a viable signal from the implant, as Warwick states in his 2004 book ‘I, Cyborg’:

Humans will be able to evolve by harnessing the super-intelligence and extra abilities offered by the machines of the future, by joining with them. All this points to the development of a new human species, known in the science-fiction world as ‘cyborgs’. (2004, p. 4)

The next stage of the experiment, ‘Project Cyborg 2.0’ in 2002, was to implant a far more complex device directly into Warwick's nervous system. Situated at his left elbow just beneath the skin, it is a capsule containing several microprocessors; the device remained in the professor for just nine days to avoid any medical complications. The chip used only eight of an available 64 bits of information to communicate with the university building’s computer system. When Warwick entered the building, locked doors would open, and his computer would greet him by announcing ‘hello Professor Warwick’ before reading his e-mails to him.

In an interview between Warwick and Pratima Harigunani, assistant editor of CyberMedia News (CMN), the experiment was reported to have been ‘reasonably successful’ and the signal produced was powerful enough that a robot arm was able to mimic the actions of professor Warwick's own arm. A highly publicised extension to this experiment, in which a similar device was implanted into Professor Warwick's wife with the intention of creating some form of telepathy or empathy via the Internet over considerable distance, was reported to be 'moderately successful'. Although it is difficult to verify the results of this experiment, the wireless transmission of electrical signals and wireless connection to the Internet is commonplace; if we ever develop the ability to decode the electrical signals from the brain, and transmit them to another being, it seems likely that we may have created a form of telepathy via the Internet (Harigunani, 2008).

Although controversial, according to Warwick and his supporters, of which there are many, the point of this work is to bring man and machine closer together to enable revolutionary medical applications

Professor Warwick asserts that his work is important as it tests the boundaries of what is known about the human ability to integrate with computer systems, thus hastening the onset of post-humanism. Warwick’s work can often polarize opinion, and his enthusiastic proclamations may appear to possess what one might call ‘techno-fascist’ undertones:

It doesn’t mean that everyone has to become a cyborg. If you are happy with your state as a human then so be it, you can remain as you are. But be warned - just as we humans split from our chimpanzee cousins years ago, so cyborgs will split from humans. Those who remain as humans are likely to become a sub-species. They will, effectively, be the chimpanzees of the future. (2004, p. 4)

A later quote hints at inquiries made by interested parties in positions of power regarding control and uses for implant technology, suggesting a darker side to the convergence of man and machine:

As a result of the experiment, I received several communications from companies, government bodies, military and police forces about … what it might mean for the future. Would we as a society want implants like this to be generally available? Who would control the situation? The technology was now available, so such questions had to be raised, rather than just discussed as a mere futuristic concept that might never happen. (2004 p. 89)

Thousands of US citizens are currently being ‘micro-chipped’ using RFID (radio frequency identification) as a safety precaution after terrorist attacks; these chips are linked to a central computer system that locates the individual, needless to say, the implications of monitoring individuals, their habits and whereabouts are great (Purpura, 2007 p.173).

Digital immortality confidently announced

These examples of current research are merely the tip of the iceberg, a small step on the road to a post-human future and arguably the initial stages of our understanding of what will be required to facilitate the downloading of a human consciousness. It seems increasingly likely that we will solve the problem of interfacing with machines directly using the brain within the next generation or so, and from this one may venture the opinion that should the isolation and digitisation of the human consciousness become reality, then true post-humanism will be upon us.

As with many new technologies, it’s mass consumption by the public is dictated by an individual’s wealth. Reported in The Guardian, among many other publications, Dr. Ian Pearson, head of futurology at British Telecom claims that:

…the wealthy will be able to download their consciousness into computers by 2050 – the not so well off by about 2075... If you draw the timelines, realistically by 2050 we would expect to be able to download your mind into a machine, so when you die it's not a major career problem (Pearson, 2005).

Pearson absolutely believes that humans will achieve virtual immortality by saving the contents of their mind onto a hard drive using exactly the man-machine interfaces being developed by Professor Warwick.

Dr. Pearson’s background is in applied mathematics and theoretical physics and has spent the last twenty years working with optical networks, broadband evolution and cybernetics. He believes that today’s younger generation will benefit from the advances in technology to the point that death will be effectively eliminated. Pearson continues:

The new Playstation is one percent as powerful as a human brain, it is at supercomputer status compared to ten or fifteen years ago. The Playstation 5 will probably be much more powerful than the human brain, which begs the question – will it find humans too boring to play with? (Pearson, 2005)

Several experts, including Dr. Pearson believe a sentient computer with human levels of intelligence will exist by 2020, and that we will store our consciousness in digital format shortly thereafter.

Conclusion

As we have seen, researchers in the field of human-machine interfacing and bio-technology, such as Professor Warwick, Miguel Nicolelis, Dr. Pearson, and popular scientific writers and commentators such as Michael Frayn suggest direct interface between mankind and machines in as little as thirty to fifty years; however, exponential technological growth seems to suggest that it will occur within the next twenty years. Might this be a natural extension of human evolution? We already have a symbiotic and essential relationship with bacteria and micro-organisms – our immune system is dependent upon the microscopic life that resides within our bodies, there seems to be no reason to believe that the merging of human beings and technology resulting in post-humanism or even virtual-humanism should be any different.

Of course, the path to post-humanism is fraught with social, cultural and political concerns, for every utopian dream there is an equal dystopian nightmare – one of several theories linked to our ‘tinkering’ with humanity currently causing concern is that the human gene pool may become weakened and diluted due to genetic manipulation of offspring – the so-called ‘designer babies’ issue. Also, on a technological rather than genetic note, if, in thirty years we have direct-to-brain wireless connection to a future internet, (and many believe that we will) one can assume that, in numerous situations we would no longer learn through experience since we would be able to pull up information instantly. We may not be required to remember new information as it would always be in a database, ready to hand, and it seems likely that many people may even retreat from human contact altogether and exist online within their own mind.

Like it or not, evolution is an inescapable process. Human beings have been adapting, improvising and developing for millions of years, we are currently taking the early, faltering steps on this road to post-humanism, and, as with any journey, we won’t know how it ends until we get there.

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References

Printed.

CHASE, V. D. 2006. Shattered nerves: how science is solving modern medicine's most perplexing problem. USA: Johns Hopkins University Press.

CHOROST, M. 2005. Rebuilt: how becoming part computer made me more human. USA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

FRAYN, M. 2006. The Human Touch – Our Part in The Creation of A Universe. UK: Faber and Faber Limited.

KLIMA, I. 2001. Karel Čapek: Life and Work. USA: Catbird Press.

Purpura, P. 2007. Terrorism and homeland security: an introduction with applications. UK: Butterworth-Heinemann.

WARWICK, K. 2004. I, Cyborg. USA: University of Illinois Press.

Digital.

Harigunani, P. 2008. Cyborgs are the next evolutionary step for humans. [WWW] http://dqindia.ciol.com/content/spotlight/2008/108102404.asp (20/04/2009).

HONDA. 2009. ASIMO - The World's Most Advanced Humanoid Robot. [WWW] http://asimo.honda.com/ (18/04/2009).

SMITH, D. 2005. 2050 - and immortality is within our grasp. [WWW] http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/may/22/theobserver.technology. (21/04/2009).

Weiss, R. 2003. Monkeys Control Robotic Arm With Brain Implants. Washington Post. [Online journal]. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A17434-2003Oct12?language=printer (20/04/2009).

Bibliography

BADMINGTON, N. 2003. Posthumanism. UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

FUKUYAMA, F. 2003. Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution. UK: Picador.

PEPPERELL, R. 1995. The Post-Human Condition. UK: Intellect Books.

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