Becoming Cyborgs

Kevin Warwick's article Cyborg 1.0 was an interesting one to say the least. Throughout the entire article I found myself gasping in amazement at a man who was so interested and desired to be one with his computer and to usher in a new age where computer technology and cybernetics create almost a new species of human that is integrated with machine and animal characteristics. Recording feelings, emotions, and movements could be possible and a whole new array of medical and social possibilities would arise. I am interested to find out what happened with his first experiments and what experiments he is doing on himself today, as I recently read in an article he plans to attach is brain to a computer in hopes that he can "think himself onto the internet." I have heard he is continuing his quest to become a cyborg.

This article made me somewhat nervous and uneasy about his desired future, and to think of a world without learning and language. When he went on to tell an almost utopian vision of the future that he sees through cybernetics in which people didn't speak or interact in a way we see normally, I thought that it would be horrible. I also didn't like his desire to access other peoples thoughts and allow others to access his own thoughts. Honestly there are a lot of thoughts people have everyday that nobody wants to hear and nobody wants heard. It also made me question whether it was right to completely stop learning after being a baby or toddler when you could be successfully hooked up to your computer. When he envisioned math students using their heads as calculators and answering questions from searching their brain on the internet instead of internalizing information and valuing learning, I thought that was a scary future. No matter what my opinions are on Warwick and his experiments, they could definitely be revolutionary and change the world and the future of the technology we use. His experiments and his ideas definitely make for an interesting read and thoughts, and I'm interested in seeing where his experiments could take the world.