To be One with the Computer

In August 1988 a silicon chip was implanted in cybernetics pioneer Kewin Warwick to check up whether it can upgrade the human body. "I, Robot, starting with myself," thus he started his narrative. "A silicon chip, implanted in my arm, allowing a computer to monitor me as I moved through the halls and offices of the Department of Cybernetics at the University of Reading, just west of London, where I've been a professor since 1988. My implant communicated via radiowaves with a network of antennas throughout the Department, that in turn transmitted the signals to a computer programmed to respond to my actions. At the main entrance, avoid box operated by the computer, said "Hello", when I entered. The computer detected my program through the building, opening the door to my lab for me as I approached it and switching on the lights. For the nine days, the implant was in place; I performed seemingly magical acts simply by walking in a partic­ular direction. The aim of this experiment was to determine whether infor­mation could be transmitted to or from an implant. Not only did we succeed, but the trial demonstrated how the principles behind cybernetics could per­form in real-life applications.

I am going to conduct soon a follow-up experiment with a new implant that will send signals back and forth between my nervous system and a com­puter. I don't know how I will react to unfamiliar signals transmitted to my brain, since nothing quite like this has ever before been attempted. But if this new test succeeds, with no complications, then we will go ahead with the placement of a similar implant in my partner. I am most curious to find out whether implants could open up a whole new range of senses, e.g., we can't normally process signals like ultraviolet, X-rays, or ultrasound. Infrared detects visible heat given off by a warm body, though our eyes can't see light in this part of the spectrum. But what if we fed infrared signals into the nervous system, by-passing our eyes. Would I be able to learn how to per­ceive them? Would I feel or even "see" the warmth? Or would my brain sim­ply be unable to cope? We don't have any idea – yet. It is for the future to answer it.

The potential for medical breakthroughs in existing disabilities is phe­nomenally important. Might it be possible to add an extra route for more senses or to provide alternative pathways for blind and deaf people to "see" or to "hear" with ultrasonic or infra-red wavelengths? Perhaps, a blind per­son could navigate around objects with ultrasonic radar much the way bats do. Robots have already been programmed to perform this action and neuroscientists have not dismissed the idea for the humans. But few people, for the time being, have ever had their nervous systems linked to a computer so the concept of sensing the world around us using more than our natural abil­ities is still science fiction. I am hoping to change that. I plan to keep my next implant in place for a week, possibly up to two weeks. If the experiments are successful, we would then place implants into two persons at the same time. We would like to send movement and emotion signals from one person to the other, possibly via the Internet. We would also like to demonstrate how the signals could be sent over the Internet. How far could we go in transmitting feelings and desires? I want to find it out in my future experiments.

I can envision the future when we send signals so that we don't have to speak. Thought communication will place telephones firmly in the history books. Philosophers point to language in humans as being an important part of our culture and who we are. Certainly, language has everything to do with human development. But language is merely a tool we use to translate our thoughts. In the future we won't need to code thoughts into language – we will uniformly send symbols, ideas and concepts without speaking. We will proba­bly become less open, more able to control our feelings and emotions – which will also become necessary, since others will more easily be able to access what we are thinking or feeling. We will still fall back on speech in order to commu­nicate with our newborns, however, since it will take a few years before they can safely get implants of their own, but in the future, speech will be what baby talk today.

Thought-to-thought communication is just one feature of cybernetics that might become vitally important to us as we face the distinct possibility of being superseded by highly intelligent machines. Humans are crazy enough not only to build machines with an overall intelligence greater than our own, but deter them and give them power that matters. So how will humans cope with machines more intelligent than us? Here again, I believe cybernetics can help. Linking people via chip implants directly to those machines seems a natural progression, a potential way of harnessing machine intelligence by, essentially, creating superhumans. Otherwise, we are doomed to a future in which intelligent machines rule and humans become second-class citizens.

But once a human brain is connected as a node to a machine – a net­worked brain with other human brains similarly connected – what will it mean to be human? Will we evolve into a new cyborg community? I believe humans will become cyborgs and no longer be stand-alone entities. What we think is possible will change in response to what kinds of abilities the implants afford us. Looking at the world and understanding it in many dimensions, not just three, will put a completely different context on how we – whatever "we" are – think. I base this on my own experience with my first implant, when I actually became emotionally attached to a computer. It took me only a couple of days to feel like my implant was one with my body. The computer and I were not one, but neither were we separate. We each had our own distinct but complimentary abilities. With the new implant, I expect this feeling of connected­ness to be much stronger, particularly when emotional signals are brought into.

From a medical viewpoint, I was pleased when the first implant was taken out, but I was otherwise quite upset – I felt as though a friend had just died. Morals and ethics are an outgrowth of the way in which humans inter­act with each other. Cultures may have diverse ethics, but regardless, indi­vidual liberties and human life are always valued over and above machines. What happens when humans merge with machines? Maybe the machines will then become more important to us than another human life. Those who have become cyborgs will be one step ahead of humans. And just as humans have always valued themselves above all other forms of life, it is likely that cyborgs will look down on humans who have yet to "evolve". Since child­hood I have been captivated by the study of robots and cyborgs. Now I'm in a position where I can actually become one."