As a tech writer, it seems like a pretty weird position (and one that my partner relentlessly criticizes me for) but, I am not about the idea of human cyborgs. I’m just not. Unless, I suppose, they all turn out like DC’s Cyborg. I could probably get on board with that.
Anyway, it scares me. Maybe it’s just the fear of the unknown or maybe it’s the fact that humans can be, well, evil. And I don’t think we deserve or necessarily need computers for brains. But I tend not to dwell on it (except when, again, my partner is giving a spiel about how it could solve world hunger, etc, etc) because it seemed so far away.
But it’s not.
According to The Independent, scientists have discovered “ground-breaking bio-synthetic material,” that can be used to… turn humans into cyborgs. The breakthrough was presented this Tuesday at the American Chemical Society Fall 2020 virtual expo and, scientists claim can be used to merge artificial intelligence with the human brain.
The material is a polymer called Pedot and, according to The Independent, “has exactly the properties needed to interface electronic hardware with human tissue without causing scarring while also dramatically improving the performance of medical implants,” which singles it out from other materials like gold, silicon, and steel.
Scarring interrupts electrical signals flowing between computers and muscle or brain tissue, making the latter three essentially useless in the strive for singularity.
Dr David Martin, who led the study, said “We got the idea for this project because we were trying to interface rigid organic microelectrodes with the brain, but brains are made out of organic, salty, live materials.
“It wasn’t working well, so we thought there must be a better way. We started looking at organic electronic materials like conjugated polymers that were being used in non-biological devices.
We found a chemically stable example that was sold commercially as an antistatic coating for electronic displays.”
So… the singularity is looking closer than ever and many people believe this is the only way. Elon Musk, who is working to connect brains to computers with his start-up company Neuralink, believes we need these advancements to keep up with artificial intelligence otherwise, he warns, we risk being taken over by robots within the next five years.
Maybe it’s time I get on board?
