Cyborgs have been the ultimate human dream since humans started envisioning Artificial Intelligence (AI). The idea of humans transforming into cyborgs might come in handy as a way of survival; however, AI can be a double aged weapon that can both make life easier and at the same time lead to the destruction of life as we know it. What is it like to be a cyborg? How will that affect our lives both positively and negatively?
Cyborgs are humans with both biological and artificial parts, by which they can manage to be better versions of the pure human. The idea might seem fantastical, but by looking around us we see it is gradually happening. For instance, there are many humans with artificial body parts, mainly limbs, but some actually have artificial hearts. As such, we have a glimpse of what it is to be somewhat a cyborg; however, being a full cyborg—which means to have more than half of your body machinated—is still a concern for scientists who strive to make lives better. Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, said in a conference that humans must become cyborgs in order to cope with the futuristic lifestyle ahead to avoid mass unemployment.
Scientists now are more concerned with whether these huge changes would affect the safety of our planet, as it did in the fictional works. AI might be a huge threat to humanity because the machines we manufacture will be aware of themselves and their surroundings, which will allow them to take actions on their own; just like what happened to Will Smith’s character in I Robot movie. What if our replaced parts became self-aware and managed to make their own decisions? Will we face an internal war within our own bodies?
These fears are mostly because we all know that we are indeed imperfect, so we might say that we are afraid of ourselves in the first place. Therefore, before making any technological progress, we should first have it well studied as nothing will ever destroy humans but themselves. To sum up, we do not know if we will have difficulties living with robots or becoming cyborgs; we have nothing but hope that every progress we make will not turn against us.
References
forbes.com
theguardian.com
This article was first published in print in SCIplanet, Summer 2020 Issue.
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