Human augmentation: The perfect human being?
It is presented as a ‘technology trigger’ on Gartner’s Hype Cycle, I am talking about the concept ‘human augmentation’. According to Gartner’s Hype Cycle, this concept is a potential technology breakthrough. But what does ‘human augmentation’ mean? And what are the ethical issues that are involved? Are we going to create the perfect human being?
Human augmentation or enhancement can be defined as technologies that enhance human productivity or capability (https://www.techopedia.com, 2016). One example of such a technology, which already exists, is the ‘powered exoskeleton’. This is a wearable mobile machine that is able to enhance human strength, endurance or speed (Pratt et al., 2004). This technology would work well for military purposes, but it has potential for other jobs as well. For example, a construction worker might be able to perform better with such an exoskeleton.
There are also some interesting technologies that are not fully developed yet. One example is the brain-computer interface. This is a hardware and software communications system that permits cerebral activity alone to control computers or external devices (Nicolas-Alonso & Gomez-Gil, 2012). For example, with this technology you are able to control a robot arm by thinking about it. I believe that this technology will even develop further in the future.
Human augmentation sounds like a promising technology, because it might facilitate our daily activities. However, there are some ethical issues as well. First of all, to develop this concept, it is necessary to conduct some human experimentation. Probably, when developing an exoskeleton, this human experimentation is not really an issue. However, when looking towards the future, human augmentation will probably take more extreme forms, such as implants or cyberware. By developing these emerging technologies, human safety might be jeopardized. Secondly, human augmentation might be unethical as seen from a religious point of view. From this viewpoint, it can be argued that humans are a creation of God. Therefore, religious people might see human augmentation as tampering with God’s creations.
At the moment, human augmentation is still in its infancy. Though, I have no doubt that this concept will take more extreme forms in the future. Human augmentation might create the perfect human being. Maybe human augmentation will even allow our future generations to live forever. Do you think the perfect human being will be created in the future? And shall we, eventually, live forever?
Sources:
Nicolas-Alonso, L.F. and Gomez-Gil, J. (2012) ‘Brain Computer Interfaces, a Review’, Sensors, 12(2), 1211-1279.
https://www.techopedia.com/definition/29306/human-augmentation
http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3114217
Pratt, J.E., Morse, C.J., Krupp, B.T. and Collins, S.H. (2004) ‘The RoboKnee: An Exoskeleton for Enhancing Strength and Endurance During Walking’, Proceedings – IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 3, 2430-2435
