The Revenge of the Borgs

The "borgs" or "cyborgs" - resulting from the close combination of human bodies and machines - have been the heroes and enemies of hundreds of science fiction stories. But times are changing. Not only are borgs a subject of serious scientific research all around the world but, guess what, they already exist.

"The step to Cyborgs offers humans a natural, technological upgrade in the technological world we have instigated. We will need to do it if we are to compete with intelligent machines." This declaration could have been taken from an Asimov novel. Or it could look like the plot of Arnold Schwarzenneger's next movie. Instead, it comes from Kevin Warwick, a distinguished professor of Cybernetics at the University of Reading, Great Britain.

Warwick has multiple skills. He is a researcher in artificial intelligence, control and robotics, a teacher, a writer of hundreds of articles (and a few books), and a borg. The controversial professor became famous in 1998 when he first implanted an electronic chip into his arm. The chip was not really connected to his nervous system and "simply" allows him to be recognized by other electric devices in his office or at home, for instance turning the lights on when he was coming into a room. Needless to say, Warwick and his team did not intend to stay at this limited level of "cyborgization".

In March 2002, a second experiment took place. More ambitious and interesting than the previous one, the experiment goes further into "borgland". "We linked the nervous system in my left arm to a radio transmitter receiver to send signals from my nervous system to a computer and vice versa", explained Warwick.

Do you feel me, honey?

Creating a link between one's nervous system and external computers is precisely what cyborgs are about. In this experiment, the link is assured by a "microlelectrode array", implanted in the wrist and containing 100 spikes with sensitive tips, "each of these making direct connections with nerve fibres".

But what's more important is the possibilities envisioned by the "Project Cyborg" - the official name for the implant. One of them is to involve Professor Warwick's wife in the research, putting into her own arm the same device as the one in her husband's. Now, if you imagine two people "wearing" radio transmitters connected to their nervous systems, you have the basis of a two-way communication device that could look like a mobile phone, except that it is fully internal and controlled by the nerves. "We plan to experiment exchanging emotional signals. E.g. is the pain my wife feels the same pain when I feel it?", tells Warwick. Thus, not only will this experiment help us understand how signals or reactions to stimuli are created and transmitted, but it could open the doors to a new form of communication between persons. A way of feeling what other people feel, without asking or speaking, even miles away from each other. Do I need to emphasize that so far, this kind of communication - a Science Fiction's favorite - was called "telepathy"? Disconcerting, isn't it? But again, that's what "borgs" are about. By adding machinery and electronics into the human body, researchers are attempting to build new "functionalities", or at least to envision other uses of human capabilities.

Legions of borgs

Although exciting, the adventures of Kevin Warwick, precisely described in his latest book, "I, cyborg", are sometimes judged as overstated - if not shocking - by the scientific community. The truth is that there have been cyborgs since long before Warwick started to put electronic chips into his arms.

For instance, cochlear implants are often considered as the most common "cyborg technique". They are small electronic components surgically placed inside a patient's ear and linked to their nervous auditive system. The devices amplify sounds and transmit them directly to the brain, allowing people with hearing disabilities to hear again. Even if the technology does not allow perfect or normal hearing, it works, at least for most people (and even for some people born deaf). But above all, such components have already been implanted in more than 50,000 people worldwide. Which means that what could be called "a cyborg population" does exist today. Thousands of people who rely on electronic devices connected to their nerves to improve their life.

The same can be said of other kinds of implants like artificial hearts, for instance. Although less widely used, heart implants are progressing at a fast pace. The leading company in this field, Abiomed, is presently undergoing clinical trials with the FDA, with its "AbioCor Implantable Replacement Heart". Abiocor is a fully mechanical device performing the same functions as a real heart. It has already been implanted in the chest of several patients. One of them achieved the one-year milestone last September and has come back to a normal life today. And, although most other patients died during the trial, Abiomed continues to "remain very optimistic about the success of the clinical trial" whose agenda is to demonstrate that the lives of people with severe heart diseases "can be extended and improved" by an artificial organ.

As a whole, many researchers are exploring all possible ways to combine human flesh and mechanical/electronic parts. At Rutgers University, an artificial hand, controlled by muscles and tendons is operational, and can already allow an amputee to play piano again. At the Arizona State University, in January, an experiment allowed a partially paralysed man to walk up to a kilometre, thanks to tiny electric shocks to his spine. As far as eyes are concerned, at least two major researches are on their way to elaborate a solution to severe vision loss, via so called "Microelectronic Retinal Implants", designed "to replace photoreceptors in the retina". One of them, developed by the company Optobionics, is "a silicon chip 2mm in diameter and 25 microns thick, less than the thickness of a human hair, which contains approximately 5,000 microscopic solar cells called 'microphotodiodes', each with its own stimulating electrode".

Artificial organs or members, designed and tested by dozens of labs, now benefit from decades of research on human implants, as well as from the emergence of micro and nanotechnologies. Thanks to miniaturization and to a better understanding of how the brain works, such "cyborg techniques" have already proven to be efficient. And if it won't simply transform any of us into a "Six Million Dollar Man", it will probably contribute to the improvement of life.

In a December article, "My life as a cyborg", the journalist David Beresford explains how he feels three months after having an electronic device implanted into his brain to control the symptoms of his Parkinson's disease. "When I think of it - which is not often - the thought of a wire running deep into my brain is vaguely unsettling, nothing more", he writes. A way to remind us that borgs are still - and basically - human.

Why borgs, after all?

Borgs are not a simple subject. This is partly because of the dreadful image they conjure up as science fiction bogeymen but mostly, it is because of ethical aspects surrounding the fusion of "flesh and machines".

Many questions can be raised - and they are far from easy to answer. Take the notion of "improvement". Everybody agrees on the fact that someone with disabilities - blind or deaf persons, for instance - could and should benefit from available techniques to help them, and to offer them a "normal life". But what about the other people? I mean the "regular" people we see every day. What if one day, artificial vision becomes better than our natural vision? Wouldn't most people with functioning natural eyes try to benefit from electronic eyeballs? If it is possible to get "perfect" artificial organs and members, from head to toe, why would we reserve the possibility to those who really "need" them in the first place?

There are at least three reasons to justify these research efforts.

The most obvious one is to treat diseases and help people with disabilities where traditional techniques are inefficient. Making blind people see or extending the life of persons with severe heart condition is a natural cause. And "borgs techniques" are surely a good solution for millions of suffering people.

The second reason is the search for understanding of the human body. Some may argue that this is a means, not a reason. But it is both, actually. For centuries, we have tried to deeply understand how life works. As we are now mastering electronics, and constantly improving our knowledge of the elementary matter, combining silicon and living cells is a natural way to "go one step further", and achieve what may be the ultimate goal of the biological sciences: get a total understanding of how a human - and especially his brain - work.

But, like it or not, the third explanation behind borgs is precisely what Science Fiction authors imagined decades ago: improve human capabilities. Living longer, seeing perfectly, even at night, adapting to extreme conditions, or fighting the aging process are also what borgs are about. Then again, although it may raise fear or concerns about eugenics, this is a natural evolution for medicine, research and science, towards a better life.

And that's not all. Not only will scientists agree on the fact that we must try to improve our natural capabilities, but some argue that this is an absolute necessity. As stated by Warwick at the beginning of this article, improving humans is a necessary step if we don't want to be overtaken by machines. Humanoid robots, ultra-fast computers and other artificial intelligences could be commonplace in tomorrow's world. A world where "normal humans" could well be outdated... At the end of his book "Flesh and machines", Rodney Brooks, head of MIT's AI Lab, explains that he is not afraid of the emergence of supra-intelligent robots, because when this time comes, human and machines will already have merged. Are we talking about a new species? Well, it sounds like that. Now, will we accept an athlete with a mechanical heart to run a marathon? Will we listen to piano recitals played by an artist with bionic hands? How will our society accept these "potentially improved" humans? On many aspects, the question of borgs forces us to ask - again - the question of what humanity is at the first place...

And, anyway, if the perspective of implanting electronic stuff into your body does not sound as pleasant to you, you still have to accept the idea that men and women of the future will probably not be "human only" anymore. Welcome to the borgs.

 
Cyril Fievet