Truth Collective

I’ve caught a few episodes of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex in the past. It’s essentially about a world of cyborgs, not the Star Trek kind, but a proliferated fusion of man and machine. In this story, entire bodies are replaced with mechanical parts, even brains are tricked out and adorned with computer mechanisms, yet the people all maintain their humanity, at least what we know today as being recognizable as human in the form of personality and self-expression–and for the most part, most still look human, despite their mechanical underpinnings. The world depicted in this story, however, seems so immensely fictitious that it is perhaps impossible, but maybe that’s simply because of the sheer number of biological functions replaced by artificiality.

Yet science continues to progress and we grow closer and closer to a cyborg reality:

How about artificial blood? A man-made protein that’s able to carry oxygen, an obvious requirement for anything acting like blood. This protein is still undergoing development, but so far the scientists have managed to make a flexible, waterproof structure capable of selectively allowing oxygen to pass through its walls. What’s fascinating about this protein is that it’s made from scratch, just like my momma’s chocolate chip cookies! Of course, there’s still a caveat or two or three: the protein must “hold on to the oxygen long enough to be useful, work in a cellular environment, and be nontoxic. The protein also must not be identified by the immune system as a contaminant to be flushed out through the kidneys.”

Maybe you’d also like to control a robot entirely with thought? Hopefully, you’ve heard about Asimo, a robot developed by Honda exhibiting quite a bit of flexibility and control, allowing it to exercise various actions in a fashion quite similar to a human. It’s still a work in progress, as it still moves very much like a robot, but it’s only a matter of time, now…

Tags: mind and body, research, technology Share on Facebook