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Category: cyborgs – Page 114

Medical/ Biocomputing will only continue to grow and advance as a result of the demand for more improved experiences by consumers and business in communications and entertainment, food, home life, travel, business, etc.

Today, we have seen early opportunities and benefits with 3D printing, BMI, early stage Gene/ Cell circuitry and computing. In the future, we will see these technologies more and more replaced by even more advance Biocomputing and gene circuitry technology that will ultimately transform the human experiences and quality of life that many like to call Singularity.

Printing technology has come a long way from screechy dot-matrix printers to 3D printers which can print real life objects from metals, plastics, chemicals and concrete. While, at first, 3D printers were being used to create just basic shapes with different materials, more recently, they have been used to create advanced electronics, bio-medical devices and even houses.

Aircraft manufacturer Airbus recently showcased the world’s first 3D-printed mini aircraft, Thor, at the International Aerospace Exhibition and Air Show in Berlin. Although Airbus and its competitor have been using 3D-printed parts for their bigger assemblies, recent attempt shows that aviation may be ready for a new future with much lighter and cheaper planes given 3D printing not only cuts down the costs with less wastage, it also makes the plane lighter, thereby making them faster and more fuel efficient. But planes and toys is not what 3D printing might be restricted to; though in the elementary stage at the moment, the technology is being used for creating complex electronics like phones and wearables and may be able to reduce costs for manufacturers like Samsung and Apple.

One of the most important uses for the technology comes in the field of medical sciences. While pharma companies have been working on producing medicines from 3D printers, with one winning approval from the US’s Food and Drug Administration earlier this year, the technology is also being used to create bones, cartilages and customisable prosthetic limbs. But the real test for the technology lies in bioprinting—creating living cells via a 3D printer. Doctors have been using 3D printed organs to practice on, but scientists at research institutes have been experimenting with printing stem cells, skin tissue, organs and DNA. Though this is still decades from being a reality, printing of regenerative tissues can help cure heart ailments. 3D printing is also helping in construction, with a printer being used to create the first office space in Dubai using concrete blocks. The city aims that 25% of its buildings will be 3D printed by 2030.

Continue reading “Want to know what the future of medical invention looks like? Read on” | >

The latest of the bionic leaf. A little over a year ago reseachers made an amazing discovery on cell circuitry leaves. Here is more news from Harvard on their research on bionic leaves.

Harvard scientists designed a new artificial photosynthesis system that turns sunlight into liquid fuel, and it is already effective enough for use in commercial applications.

Here’s an alternative source of energy many have never heard of— bionic leaves.

Scientists from Harvard University just made photosynthesis more efficient with what its creators are calling the “bionic leaf 2.0.” They’ve invented a new system that splits water molecules with solar energy and produces liquid fuels with hydrogen-eating bacteria.

Continue reading “New “Bionic Leaf” Is More Efficient Than Photosynthesis” | >

SRI is developing wearable “exosuits” that can augment the musculoskeletal system for performance and strength enhancement and assistance to overcome or prevent damage from injury or disease. SRI’s exosuit differs from exoskeletons by using new muscle-like actuation, comfortable and soft skin attachment, and electronically releasable spring elements to minimize mass, bulk, and noise as well as eliminate constraints on natural joint motions. As part of DARPA’s Warrior Web Program, the technology is being applied to prevent and reduce musculoskeletal injuries caused by dynamic events typically found in the warfighter’s environment. They are exploring other military applications and beginning to use the technologies to assist individuals with musculoskeletal diseases.

The wearable exosuit, Superflex, uses motion sensors, accelerometers and gyroscopes to read the speed and angles of the owner’s legs and adjust its movements accordingly.

On April 21, 2016 – SRI International announced the launch of Superflex, Inc., its newest spin-off venture. Superflex will develop cutting-edge wearable robotics to enhance the human musculoskeletal system for a wide range of applications.

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Too funny; 2 days ago the article was that Musk feared the future of Singularity and Cyborgs; now he believes that we should become cyborgs. Musk needs to make his mind up; however, I am beginning to wonder about him.

Related: Elon Musk thinks we’re basically living in the Matrix, and we should be glad about it

This week, in a conversation at Recode’s annual Code Conference, Musk shared a tentative idea for something called “neural laces,” which he imagines could mitigate the risk of humanity becoming something of a pet to superintelligence.

“The solution that seems maybe the best one is to have an AI layer,” he said. “So think, if you have your limbic system, your cortex, and then a digital layer — sort of a third layer, above the cortex — that could work well and symbiotically with you. Just as your cortex works symbiotically with your limbic system, this digital layer would work symbiotically with the rest of you.”

Continue reading “Elon Musk thinks we should insert ‘neural laces’ into our brains so we can become cyborgs” | >

Musk concerns over Singularity/ cyborgs technology.

We are said to be headed towards a wired future. But that could equally be a weird future, going by what some tech entrepreneurs and artificial intelligence visionaries are saying about it. It’s going to get a lot weirder than self-driving smart cars. Elon Musk, who co-founded Paypal and started the Tesla electric car company – and thus has a track record of delivering on ambitious projects – also set up the SpaceX company, whose ultimate goal is to colonise Mars. He’s just announced, at this year’s Code Conference in Los Angeles, plans to send the first manned mission to Mars as early as 2024. Moreover cargo flights to Mars are also planned every two years, keeping in mind that a habitation on Mars will require regular supplies from earth.

Musk says he’s doing this to preserve humanity, since possibilities of a calamitous event that destroys human civilisation on earth – thanks to runaway advances in technology – are high. Perhaps we have a foretaste of this already when the Louvre museum packs up its treasures of human art and locks its doors due to floods in Paris, an event that has been linked to the pumping of greenhouse gases into the air that disrupt the earth’s climate. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos comes at the same issue from the opposite end. He says heavy industry is too polluting and will need to be relocated to outer space to preserve the earth.

There is also the spectre of singularity, the point at which machines become so intelligent that humans are rendered superfluous. To head this off, according to Musk, we will need to add an artificial intelligence layer to the human brain itself. The future, it appears, is cyborg. We will all be Superman, or bust.

Continue reading “The weird future: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos offer up extraordinary visions of the impact of technology” | >

A feel good story on 3D printers.

This lil’ kitty named Sonic is now bionic.

The black-and-white cat, who was surrendered to Denver Animal Shelter over three months ago, had been born with a leg deformity called radial agenesis, according to Meghan Hughes, communications director for Denver Environmental Health.

Because of the deformity, Sonic was forced to drag his leg on the ground to move, she told ABC News today.

Continue reading “Kitten With Leg Deformity Gets 3D Printed Prosthetic Paw to Help Him Walk” | >

As the computation and communication circuits we build radically miniaturize (i.e. become so low power that 1 picoJoule is sufficient to bang out a bit of information over a wireless transceiver; become so small that 500 square microns of thinned CMOS can hold a reasonable sensor front-end and digital engine), the barrier to introducing these types of interfaces into organisms will get pretty low. Put another way, the rapid pace of computation and communication miniaturization is swiftly blurring the line between the technological base that created us and the technological based we’ve created. Michel Maharbiz, University of California, Berkeley, is giving an overview (june 16, 2016) of recent work in his lab that touches on this concern. Most of the talk will cover their ongoing exploration of the remote control of insects in free flight via implantable radio-equipped miniature neural stimulating systems.; recent results with neural interfaces and extreme miniaturization directions will be discussed. If time permits, he will show recent results building extremely small neural interfaces they call “neural dust,” work done in collaboration with the Carmena, Alon and Rabaey labs.

Radical miniaturization has created the ability to introduce a synthetic neural interface into a complex, multicellular organism, as exemplified by the creation of a “cyborg insect.”

“The rapid pace of computation and communication miniaturization is swiftly blurring the line between technological base we’ve created and the technological base that created us,” explained Dr. Maharbiz. “These combined trends of extreme miniaturization and advanced neural interfaces have enabled us to explore the remote control of insects in free flight via implantable radio-equipped miniature neural stimulating systems.”

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Imagine these fighter jets being equipped with the DARPA death laser that is being worked on. Very deadly mix.

The size of a matchstick, the stentrode can provide the “brain-machine interface” or BMI necessary for thought-controlled devices. Neural implants currently in use require invasive surgery.

Stentrodes can be attached to the brain using catheter angiography. This procedure passes the device through blood vessels in the neck and into the brain without cutting open the skull.

Development of the minimally invasive stentrode is a key step in the widespread use of thought-controlled devices such as prosthetics and weapons.

Continue reading “DARPA Sees US Fighter Jets as First Thought-controlled Weapon” | >

US Special Ops Command plans to have some initial TALOS exoskeleton suit prototypes by 2018.

Progress is being made on exoskeletons for US special forces. The exoskeletons are designed to increase strength and protection and help keep valuable operators alive when they kick down doors and engage in combat.

The technologies currently being developed include.

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Bionic Power makes wearable technology for charging batteries. Today, we are focused on developing our PowerWalk® Kinetic Energy Harvester for military use and will begin multi-unit field trials with the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps next year. In the future, we see our walk-recharge technology being used in disaster zones and remote worksites, and by consumers in recreational, emergency preparedness and backup applications.

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