Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Mobile Technology and How Far We Are Prepeared To GO????



I want to put as an example of how far some scientist are prepared to go and how much they are convinced that they are born to be machines or part machines infact Cyborgs.I am fascinated to see innovations and breakthrough like this ,but never will do something like this unless is absolutely necessary. If my arm was cut of I will say yes. If some of my organs failed I will say yes, just because of the simple reason:” I Don’t Want To DIE”. The following article is written by Professor Kevin Warwick.
http://www.kevinwarwick.com/Cyborg1.htm
Kevin Warwick (kw@cyber.rdg.ac.uk) is a professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading in the UK (www.cyber.rdg.ac.uk).
I was born human. But this was an accident of fate - a condition merely of time and place. I believe it's something we have the power to change. I will tell you why.
In August 1998, a silicon chip was 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 radio waves 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, a voice box operated by the computer said "Hello" when I entered; the computer detected my progress 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 and from an implant. Not only did we succeed, but the trial demonstrated how the principles behind cybernetics could perform in real-life applications.
Eighteen months from now, or possibly sooner, I will conduct 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 test succeeds, with no complications, then we'll go ahead with the placement of a similar implant in my wife, Irena.
When the new chip is in place, we will tap into my nerve fibers and try out a whole new range of senses.
We will then attempt this exercise with emotional signals. When I'm happy, we'll record that signal. Then, if my mood changes the next day, we'll play the happy signal back and see what happens.
I am most curious to find out whether implants could open up a whole new range of senses. For example, 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, bypassing the 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.
Will we evolve into a cyborg community? Linking people via chip implants to super intelligent machines seems a natural progression - creating, in effect, superhuman.
We are not the first group to link computers with the human nervous system via implants. Dr. Ross Davis' team at the Neural Engineering Clinic in Augusta, Maine, has been trying to use the technology to treat patients whose central nervous systems have been damaged or affected by diseases like multiple sclerosis, and has been able to achieve basic controls over, for example, muscle function.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.02/warwick.html

OXFORD, England -- A British university professor has been fitted with cyborg technology enabling his nervous system to be linked to a computer.
The ground-breaking surgery on Professor Kevin Warwick effectively makes him the world's first cyborg -- part human, part machine.
Although a long way from fictional characters The Terminator or the Six Million Dollar Man, it is hoped that readings will be taken from the implant in his arm of electrical impulses coursing through his nerves.
These signals, encoding movements like wiggling fingers and feelings like shock and pain, will be transmitted to a computer and recorded for the first time.
Similar experiments have previously only ever been carried out on cats and monkeys in the United States.
Surgeons implanted a silicon square about 3mm wide into an incision in Warwick's left wrist and attached its 100 electrodes, each as thin as a hair, into the median nerve.
Connecting wires were fed under the skin of the forearm and out from a skin puncture and the wounds were sewn up.
The wires will be linked to a transmitter/receiver device to relay nerve messages to a computer by radio signal.
It is possible that the procedure could lead to a medical breakthrough for people paralyzed by spinal cord damage, such as Superman actor Christopher Reeve.
On Friday, Warwick, 48, denied claims that the surgery, which was carried out at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, England, was just a publicity stunt. http://archives.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/03/22/human.cyborg/

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