Human Augmentation: Turning Fiction into Reality!

Born with no superpowers, and science as his God-father, Marvel’s Tony Stark went from being a genius, billionaire philanthropist to the most respected superhero of all time. By incorporating extensive technologies, Tony Stark has proven that humans can not only overcome their disabilities but rather surpass the definition of being humane. And he has chosen us to be the heir to his legacy and passed on the mantle of being "the next Iron Man" to us.

Human Augmentation is the road that science has undertaken to unleash the cyborg in us. The area of computing that aims at restoring and aiding cognitive and physical enhancements in the human experience is what we call Human Augmentation. Though being an idea that remains relatively obscure, the developments in this technology are meant to offer enhancements in significant areas like medical health, quality of life as well as performance. From Wearable Electrochemical Sensor Arrays in Health Hazard Monitoring, Lab-on-CMOS Microsystem to High Channel Count Neural Signal Processing, the possibilities are endless.

The 3 Es of Human Augmentation

Human augmentation technology is broadly imagined into three pillars: Enable, Enhance, and Exceed. It aims to replicate, supplement and even surpass human expertise.

Enabling Human Abilities:

Human augmentation technology intends to restore or replicate general human expertise. It aims to facilitate equal opportunities for those who have undergone an unfortunate accident or suffer from infirmity or the ones who were born with inadequacies and face hindrances in their day-to-day life. Human Augmented devices are adopted to provide comprehensive psychological assistance to the users which can range from hearing aids for the deaf to prosthetic limbs and arms for the disabled. Here are some of the companies and their flagship devices that use this aspect of Human Augmentation:

• Naked Prosthetics: A company that produces custom hand prosthetics for individuals who have had their fingers amputated, with extremely high levels of dexterity.
• eSight: A wearable device similar to glasses that provide legally blind individuals with the ability to see their environment. The device has cameras installed on the front that captures their surrounding in near-eye quality and display it on a screen that is right in front of the user's eyes.
• MotionSavvy: A program that translates sign language into speech and speech into sign language, acting as a personal interpreter and translator for deaf people. While these products are currently geared towards businesses with deaf employees, they could eventually expand into apps on smartphones, making sign language communicable for anyone.
• Cochlear Implants: Cochlear is one of the first companies to develop a product that restores hearing without requiring an external hearing device to be worn.
• Bioprinting: The process of creating organic tissues (organs, bones, skin, etc.) using 3D printing techniques. While this technology is still in its earliest stages, it has the potential to completely redefine the medical industry and how we typically think of healthcare.

Enhancing Human Abilities:

We often wonder if we could surpass the limitations imposed by the human body and trespass into the realm of inhuman abilities. It's only a matter of time before qualities like enhanced strength, super speed, or improved memory will be served to us humans on the platter by Human Augmentation. Here are some of the tech giants and their devices based on this pillar of Human Augmentation:

• Exoskeletons: Wearable, mechanical devices that can be worn on the outside of the body. They typically provide the wearer with artificial strength and endurance. The Sarcos Guardian is an example of an industrial exoskeleton that allows a human worker to lift weights to even 200 pounds, achieve precise operations involving heavy machinery, and manage repetitive motions without strain.
• Neuralink: A project by Elon Musk with the ultimate intention of creating a brain-computer interface (BCI). If successful, the project would allow individuals to interact with a computer on a neural level. While this project is still in its infancy, Musk has a track record of making impossible ideas a reality.
• Waverly Labs: This company has created a set of earbuds that can translate conversations in real-time, completely leaping over the need to learn foreign languages.
• HoloLens 2: It is a mixed-reality headset from Microsoft that allows people to envision and manipulate objects in holographic form. The device has many commercial and industrial use ranging from 3D computer-aided design to employee training and virtual instruction.

Exceeding Human Abilities:

And there's more to it, Human augmentation has raised the bar by promising that it will not only enhance human abilities but will exceed them. We all have dreamt of flying or breathing underwater but then realized we are neither a Kryptonian nor a child of Poseidon. Well, thanks to Human Augmentation your dreams are about to come true. However, fascinating it may sound, this kind of Human Augmentation technology is still the most far off and needs a bit longer time to evolve. Here are some of the latest developments in this field:

• Zapata Flyboard Air: A turbine-powered hoverboard. The driver stands on top of it like a skateboard or surfboard and can fly up to 500 feet high.
• Artificial Blood Cell: Still being only theoretical, research by Robert Freitas Jr. has explored the feasibility of creating synthetic blood cells by recreating the blood cells of mammals such as dolphins and whales who can hold their breath underwater for long periods. The concept is based on the assumption that their blood cells might be better at storing oxygen.
• Nanobot: A nanobot is "a robot that allows precise interactions with nanoscale objects, or can manipulate with nanoscale resolution." These bots once deployed into the human body can accomplish specific tasks that the human immune system is incapable of doing on its own, such as targeting and annihilating certain diseases and carcinogenic cells.
• Synthetic Memory Chip: Theodore Berger, a neuroscientist intends to create artificial memory chips that can be installed in the human brain. Though the project is still a schematic draft and doesn't have a working prototype, it has the potential to grant humans what we call "perfect memory".

Neuralink in a Nutshell

"The output of the human brain is really slow."- Elon Musk, Neuralink.

Elon Musk is quite pensive about 'the output' of the human brain. Indeed, our brain doesn't have the same bandwidth for every voluntary or involuntary action. For instance, the entire process of light entering your eye through the lens, hitting the rods and cone cells, and then the information traveling via the optic nerve to the brain and the brain effectively mapping the image happens so fast it's hard to even imagine, but it's not the same in case of talking or typing. Musk's idea is to apprehend thoughts and convert them into text or movement, so humanity could communicate more effectively. What Neuralink intends to achieve is:

· Faster communication between people.

· More nuanced and accurate human interaction

· Direct use of artificial intelligence.

Neuralink is a Brain-Machine Interface device, that once surgically implanted in the brain grants the user, the ability to communicate and control machines. The company said that the initial phase of the project will primarily focus on aiding the medical industry. The machine will be able to help paraplegics with simple tasks like operating a phone or interacting with a computer. It may also be used to treat epilepsy. It promises to fix the partial or complete loss of vision due to damaging the optical nerve. The device should, by principle, cure any brain-related infirmity. Musk also added that Neuralink can be beneficial in restoring the memory, speech, and movement of a paralyzed person. Post a complete symbiosis it's assumed that humans might be able to communicate without actually vocalizing.

"A monkey is literally playing a video game telepathically using a brain chip!" - Elon Musk tweeted.

Previously Neuralink had shown the real-time neural signals from a pig who had an N1 chip implanted in its brain and recently it presented the world with a sophisticated experiment where macaque money with two Neuralink devices implanted in its brain playing a game of pong with its mind!

Human Augmentation – A Gamble of your Conscience

"Aristo Momentum", hold on just don't get overwhelmed by it yet, every new invention brings with it some technical jeopardies as there is always a glitch in the Matrix. When you take your first step in transitioning from being human to a cyborg you gain immense technical and superficial prowess but at the same time, you get predisposed to the risks and threats of the digital world. Since you have shared your consciousness with something that is nothing but a technical manifestation of human cognition, you bear the risk of being exploited by hackers, or to be precise, bio-hackers. You don't want someone with a computer to be meddling with your mind and decisions, or worse, executing a heist inside your consciousness.

"Automation is not the future, human augmentation is. Algorithms can't tell you how you can create value in your business, asking those sorts of questions is an innately human capability. Algorithms rely on humans having done that work first." - The former Oracle director

With that said Human Augmentation is a big leap forward. The inception of Human Augmentation has flooded the tech industry with innovative ideas and a new outlook to modern predicaments. It promises exponential growth in the industry and as said the possibilities are endless. But, however overwhelming it may appear on the surface there remains a question of moral obligation and ethics to this form of technology. There is more to being human than acing the food chain and being the most intelligent living beings on the planet. This tradeoff that science has offered to us, by sharing our consciousness with something so material puts entire humanity at risk. Everything should be backed by morality and human ethics and science are no exception to it. Remember the goal is to be the next Tony Stark, not the next Frankenstein!