With one movement of your hand, you can turn on the light, open the door, control a smart home or log in to social networks. Everything, what you need, it's a chip implanted in your body, which turns you into superman. This is a distant future scenario? not really – this is the future, which is happening before our eyes. In this article we will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of smart implants, as well as about their first real applications.
This is no longer fantasy – microchip implant for humans
Nearly 90% of us use solutions based on this technology almost every day. This applies, eg, smartphones, web browsers, navigation, camera. However, in practice, for many people, knowledge about artificial intelligence is very superficial and comes down rather to robots and humanoids, taken from science fiction novels and films. On the other hand, this culture is becoming more and more part of our lives, futurological technologies become reality.
Chips, voluntarily inserted under the skin, already allow people to create the best version of themselves, creating an impression, that they are special – superman. Technology expands the senses, allowing you to see and hear more, feel that, what ordinary people don't feel (so-called human enhancement technology ). but, This is not motivated by concern for health, and in the unbridled desire to increase the comfort of daily activities and constantly experience new dimensions of our sensuality. As a result, we cross existing boundaries, getting into a new world where the main goal of a person is no longer just survival.
With this approach, technology gives us access to previously unknown states of consciousness, determining the construction of our human identity and individuality. However, many have concerns, what end up these types of chips, stimulating new possibilities of our senses, will simultaneously limit or impair to some extent the functions, which we have had so far.
Technological telepathy and computer viruses
The universality of human interaction with technology becomes a manifestation of civilizational changes, leading to the blurring of a clear boundary between, what is usually human, and the, which was the result of giving him human characteristics. Smart implants allow users with chips to access smart buildings and rooms without keys or additional permissions, control equipment and autonomous vehicles without codes and passwords, and also make purchases. They allow you to travel by public transport, and also check in at the airport – biometric data from the chip can replace such documents, as:
- identification,
- rights,
- student,
- passport.
Chips under the skin can be used as business cards, they can also simplify payments, although such experiments have not been carried out so far. They also create the chance for much deeper change. for example, Kevin Warwick is called the first cyborg, he decided to connect his nervous system with the nervous system of another person – his wife. This allowed the creation of a kind of technological telepathy – although both people could not see each other, they could feel the movements of their hands.
Moon Rybas, dancer and choreographer, decided to implant sensors, connected to the global seismic system, considering them as your next feeling. It is assumed, that vibration, associated with recorded earthquakes, should enhance the impact of her choreography.
Meanwhile, Mark Gatson from the University of Reading in the UK proved, that you can infect a person with a chip in their body with a computer virus, what led to the situation, when he becomes its carrier, infecting nearby devices.
Controllability of society
Experiments with subcutaneous microchips on humans are already underway in:
- Sweden,
- Australia,
- Belgium,
- Great Britain,
- USA and the Netherlands.
This is also increasingly being talked about in the United Arab Emirates.. On the other hand, The idea of microchipping all newborns appeared in the EU, which will make it easier to monitor their location and reduce the risk of potential dangers (eg, kidnapping, pedophilia, early detection of diseases, etc.. d.). However, such ideas cause a lot of controversy. Opponents believe, that this could lead to restrictions on human freedom in the future and full monitoring of user behavior as a result of an increase in the level of “controllability” of society, groups of clients or employees of a given company. Resistance and negative attitudes towards this type of decision are associated with crossing the boundaries of ethics and current values, related to this culture, including religion.
Improving the Human Species
Biohackers, conducting experiments in the field of biomedicine, including transhumanists, see chips as an opportunity to improve the human species. In their opinion, use of nanotechnology research, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive sciences could extend human life, make it possible to create artificial organs and tissues and, finally, allow human consciousness to be transferred to neural networks, built into an artificial human body. And although such designs cause fears and uncertainty, The chips themselves can be very useful in cases, medically justified. maybe, they will allow patients to be diagnosed faster and provide accurate assistance in life-threatening situations, especially in case of chronic diseases (access to data on the type of disease, medications and doses, in which they are accepted).
So can people's dreams of immortality come true?? Us, probably, we'll have to wait for this for many more years, but the chance to extend our lives is becoming more and more real.
Program your chip
maybe, this technology will become a natural part of our lives in the future, especially when the user can easily program the subcutaneous chip, customizing its functions. Many modern technologies are quickly becoming popular. However, attention should be paid to the fact, that the more data packet will be stored in this implant, the higher the security they should have. This will entail changes both in terms of developing new services (eg, in data management), new business models, including based on the sharing economy, and in consumer behavior – users of these solutions.
Conclusion
Will microchipping really be a necessity in the future?? How will we use existing technologies?? Will we be able to limit the role of such chips to only receiving various signals and stimuli?? Will we be tempted to use this technology?, to stimulate our senses and overcome our own limitations? There are many questions and disagreements, but, Unfortunately, most of them will remain unanswered.
Evolution did not stop us at the level of homo sapiens – the next stages of development await us, possibly, towards homo roboticus.
