The Dawn of the Cyborg

The phenomenal human drive to overcome our biological limitations is one of those things that can induce a simultaneous gag reflex and mental pause. It is a part of our own evolution, a process that we have, in certain respects, taken into our own hands. There is an itch, a tick, that has driven us to grasp for more. We have invented a slew of things that participate in our own, human remodeling of self to create a better, fitter organism.

A few months ago, the NY Times featured an article about a woman who had lost her arm in a car accident. I would have brought it up right when I read it, but I didn't have a blog then. Now I do. So, suck on this with your brain lips. Human beings have developed a neuron-machine interface that has given this woman her arm back. The science behind it isn't all that extraordinary: a neuron, when told to fire by whatever brain process, makes a small electro-chemical potential that a little metal sensor could easily record. Think of the Saw Stop, which can translate the slightly charged surface of human skin to a STOP! command, which is sent to a rotating saw blade before too many layers of skin are removed. Skin. Not bone. Not fat. Skin. Likewise, a flood of ions from neuron A can induce a mechanical, electrical circuit that can tell a robo-bicep to flex or robo-pinky to wiggle within milliseconds.

Let that sink in.

To illustrate why you should take a second to think about the implications of this stuff, I am going to interpret our most basic drives to be the product of natural selection and evolution, a glacial force that has been directed by the simple, viral command, "SPREAD YER GENES!"
to be continued...