Can Cyborg Tech End Human Disability By 2064?

the_newsbeagle (2532562) writes "As part of a 50th anniversary celebration, IEEE Spectrum magazine tries to peer into the technological future 50 years out. Its biomedical article foresees the integration of electronic parts into our human bodies, making up for physical, emotional, and intellectual disabilities. The article spotlights the visionaries Hugh Herr, an MIT professor (and double amputee) who wants to build prosthetic limbs that are wired directly into the nervous system; Helen Mayberg, who has developed brain pacemakers to cure depression; and Ted Berger, who's working on neural implants that can restore memory function."

Comments

Can Cyborg Tech End Human Disability By 2064?

[ArcadeMan]

No.

Next question?

Re:Can Cyborg Tech End Human Disability By 2064?

[Arith]

I think a better question is: Can the general populace AFFORD cybernetic fixes for their particular problem.
The answers are the same.

Re:Can Cyborg Tech End Human Disability By 2064?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but only if you're willing to have it subsidized by installing nano-cameras in your anus.

http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3370#comic

Re:Can Cyborg Tech End Human Disability By 2064?

[marcello_dl]

No.

Next question?

No.

Re:Can Cyborg Tech End Human Disability By 2064?

[Kjella]

Can the general populace AFFORD to have a device that's a calendar and a phone and a music player and a camera and a game machine?

Those items come bog standard off an assembly line by the millions if not billions, with no individual tuning necessary. Just looking at the basic "augments" like prescription glasses and hearing aids there's tons of personal adjustment. I very much doubt you'll be able to find "one size fits all" cybernetics.

Re:Can Cyborg Tech End Human Disability By 2064?

[Ozymandias_KoK]

You could probably do this via some VR solution of a world with just enough problems to make it believable. Can't be too perfect. At any rate, you'd probably have all sorts of people signing up for that, and you could harvest that energy generated from their fat for whatever reasons you wanted.

Re:Can Cyborg Tech End Human Disability By 2064?

[camperdave]

Just looking at the basic "augments" like prescription glasses and hearing aids there's tons of personal adjustment. I very much doubt you'll be able to find "one size fits all" cybernetics.

True. But consider the revolutions in 3D printing and CAD/CAM technologies. What was once an arduous and expensive process (a well manufactured one-off part) is no longer a pricey pipe dream. Prescription lenses are a good example. They are no longer simply off the shelf "one size fits all" lenses, but are custom ground. As manufacturing gets better, we'll begin to see adaptive augments. Hearing aids, for example, already can be customer tuned. We'll not see "one size fits all" cybernetics, but individual and highly customizable cybernetics.

Yes

[geekoid]

but it will be unnecessary since we will be able to grow body parts.

I am Pentium of Borg.

[mmell]

Division is futile. You will be approximated.

Re:what's with the specific number?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because it's suppose to be 50 years in the future? 2014+50=2064?
 
That's just my guess based on actually reading something instead of looking at about three words and trying to come off insightful.

Probably before then...

[wjcofkc]

My girlfriend and I spend a lot of our TV time (Roku) watching science and technology related programming. It's difficult to watch anything from as recent as 2011 or prior. It is difficult because I can frequently point out how wrong or at best incomplete many things are compared to the understandings and accomplishments of very near recent. This goes for both science and technology. A lot of highly-beneficial technologies never make it out of the lab because they are so quickly replaced, many technologies cannot keep up with themselves. That, and any one of many recent single astronomical discoveries can render an hour of programming from just a few years ago obsolete. Unless of course a documentary is historical in nature, which is always fun.

On that note, as a nerd who is highly entrenched in following science and technology on a daily basis, I have spent the last few years humbly in awe at the exponential rate of technological innovation. There is so much going on right now it's mind boggling. 2064? At this point I call that selling the human race short. There are so many factors to consider. For example, I see the currently embryonic maker\bio-hacking\grinder movements becoming a driving force behind advancements that will bring a lot of amazing things into our lives as those movements grown and more advanced tools slowly become available to them. The world of 2064 will more likely be the world of 2040. The only real enemy to all of this is the course of international politics.

Re:Depends upon where you live....

[CrimsonAvenger]

And don't even get me started if you're black.

Yeah, next thing you know, we'll be allowing them to be President....

"Human" disability?

[harvestsun]

I'm gonna have my consciousness uploaded to a robot by then, have fun with your frail human bodies, suckers.

Re:More likely Cyborg tech will end humans by 2064

[Samantha Wright]

As a researcher in machine learning: lol nope.

Re:Betteridge's law of headlines

[fractoid]

New headline: Can We Devise A Headline That Follows Betteridge's Law?