Presented By, Rm.Gopinathan and A.Mohammed kifayathullah

Contact: gopee1990@gmail.com or 9965774411

Abstract

“ Today is not tomorrow “

“The Future is Coming Sooner Than You Think”

What do these wordings indicate ?? They indicate time is moving is moving faster which is nothing but virtually our technological progress. This paper discusses about the cyborgs the relation between the man and the machine.

And also relates nanotechnology, nanobots, Artificial Intelligence to this topic.And many of its derivatives are also dealt here.

Introduction

As cyborgs is a huge topic related to many other concepts we would also like to deal about some other topics and give an intro’ about it :

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is the ability to make things using techniques and tools that are being developed today to place every atom and molecule in a desired place.

Nanotechnology is often referred to as a general-purpose technology. That’s because in its mature form it will have significant impact on almost all industries and all areas of society.

It offers better built, longer lasting, cleaner, safer, and smarter products for the home, for communications, for medicine, for transportation, for agriculture, and for industry in general.

Nanorobotics or Nanobots

Nanorobotics is a branch of nanotechnology. Nanorobotics is the technology of creating machines or robots at or close to the microscopic scale of a nanometres (10-9 metres).

More specifically, nanorobotics refers to the still largely hypothetical nanotechnology engineering discipline of designing and building nanorobots. Nanorobots (nanobots, nanoids or nanites) would be typically devices ranging in size from 0.1-10 micrometers and constructed of nanoscale or molecular components.

As no artificial non-biological nanorobots have so far been created, they remain a hypothetical concept at this time.

Emergence of Artificial intelligence

It is the present and beyond generation. It refers to the series of related technologies that tries to imitate and reproduce human behavior

including thinking, speaking and reasoning Good (1965) speculated on the consequences of machines smarter than humans:

“ Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an ‘intelligence explosion,’ and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the

last invention that man need ever make.

Cyborgs

A cyborg is a cybernetic organism (i.e., an organism that is a self-regulating integration of artificial and natural systems). The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space.[1] D. S. Halacy's Cyborg: Evolution of the Superman in 1965 featured an introduction by Manfred Clynes, who wrote of a "new frontier" that was "not merely space, but more profoundly the relationship between 'inner space' to 'outer space' -a bridge...between mind and matter."

A half-way point between machine and man that is one of science fiction's favourite creep-out horror concepts to show how humanity is slowly being tainted by technology and we will eventually lose our humanity as we replace our body parts with machinery. Cyborgs are defined as someone who was born human (or biologically) but then supplemented with technology (cybernetic implants usually). This genus includes Cybermen, Darth Vader, Robocop and the Borg.

Cybermen

Cybermen were originally humans, the inhabitants of the planet Mondas, Earth's twin. At some point, Mondas drifted out of orbit while Earth remained in place. However the people of Mondas where highly advanced and as their planet's atmosphere died, they hid beneath the surface of the planet and began to augment themselves with cybernetic limbs and organs, eventually to the point where there was precious little 'human' left. As they became 'cybermen', they lost the power of emotion.They started augmenting their bodies with artificial organs and prosthetics and continued until there were no original components left, even their brains were replaced with artificial replicas. At this point they seemed to have lost all emotions, assuming they had any to start with. They feel no pity for any creatures who get in their way.They can augment their numbers by building more of themselves. When we first see them, the Cybermen speak in a strange sing-song way that apes the 'tunes' made by early computers when loading in data. As they evolved, their voices became more electronic, thanks mainly to the devices used to create the voices being the same that are used by people who have lost their voice boxes due to throat cancer or accidents (as used by Ned in South Park). Their final on-screen versions had much more articulate voices with slight electronic modulation. These versions were able to add inflections and stresses to words in the right places, though their conversations still tended to be doom-laden and rather limited.

Darth Vader

Darth Vader was human to start with, but 'He's more machine than man now.' Like Robocop, he was originally human, but an accident destroyed most of his body and he was then cybernetically enhanced until very little of his body was left. It is not clear how much of his body survived, but his limbs and much of his torso are almost certainly artificial.Vader is ruthless and without compassion because he is no longer entirely 'human'. The salvation of Vader as he saves Luke is the hope that humans can remain human, even if most of their body is artificial.The theme of family in the film is even echoed in the artificial hand that Luke is given to replace the one Darth cut off. It is interesting to see how lifelike Luke's hand is. It is probable that Darth's body could be made to look more life-like. The reason he doesn't is that he terrifies people with his presence.

With the release of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones it can be seen how far cybernetic implants have progressed in one person's lifetime. Anakin's artificial hand works just as his original did, but it looks mechanical and has a metal finish. it is unlikely that it has the nerve feedback that Luke's new hand has.

RobocopWhen Detroit cop Murphy is killed in action, his employer OCP (Omni Consumer Products) decides to incorporate what's left of him into a cyborg police unit, Robocop. Although technically a cyborg (organic and mechanical components), he is more machine than man.He possesses superior strength and speed, and near flawless targeting for his firepower. His only weakness is that he is (or was) human and still has most of his memories intact. He was once programmed with hundreds of directives which made him almost insane. This was the so-called 'Programming by committee'.

The Borg

They act with a collective mind, so there are no individuals. They are feared throughout the galaxy. They increase their numbers by assimilating other races into their collective, the assimilated race cease to be a collection of individuals and becomes simply 'Borg'.The Borg are on a relentless drive to achieve perfection. They aim to achieve this through adding more and more species to themselves until they are perfect. They are close to being obsessed with defeating Starfleet and assimilating the human race. The humans have proven to be one of the most resilient species to assimilate.They assimilate by first injecting them with nanoprobes, then implanting cybernetic technology in their bodies. The nanobots will create some of the implants themselves using matter from the victim. Assimilated ships will be added to until they are configured as Borg cubes or spheres. Entire civilisations will be assimilated at once. The main advantage of the Borg is that they share all information with every other Borg unit in existence. The Borg also have adaptive shielding. After two shots, an energy weapon, such as a phaser or photon torpedo, is useless and must be tuned to a different frequency.The main disadvantage the Borg have is they ignore anything they do not consider to be a threat. They will ignore species who they will not assimilate. They are also incapable of scientific investigation, they cannot understand anything they have yet to assimilate. In their collective state, the Borg are utterly without mercy - driven by one will alone: the will to conquer. They are beyond redemption - beyond reason.

Replicants

The replicants are designed to imitate humans, and are used as soldiers, police, and 'pleasure' models. Because of psychotic tendencies, they are banned on Earth and special police units called Blade Runners are employed to hunt them down, with orders to shoot on sight. The replicants are 'born' adults, but have no emotional responses programmed in. Their creators realised that given long enough, the replicants would develop their own emotions, which worried them. So, to prevent this, they built in a safeguard - a four-year lifespan. The replicants are indistinguishable from humans, the only difference being detectable by a special emotional response test.

Daleks

Daleks are weird. They are technically cyborgs, because they were originally humanoid creatures called Kaleds from the planet Skaro. They became severely mutated as a result of the radiation from a nuclear war. They are now green blobby things that die quickly outside their metal life-support casings. The history behind the Daleks is obscure. Frankly their history is a mess, this may be in part due to the Doctor's influence and because the Daleks developed time travel themselves.

Bio-Mechanoids

These are artificial life forms that are built from scratch using both organic and mechanical components. They are, in effect, artificial beings. The replicants in Blade Runner are bio-mechanical as is the Terminator. They are built to perfectly mimic humans.The distinction is that the bio-mechanical are built

'from the ground up' with synthetic organic components, like the Terminator's skin. Cyborgs start as human, and get 'added to' later.

The beasts in the Alien trilogy are also classified as biomechanoids, though they are a horrific contortion of the human form. Though they have a full life cycle, from egg to gestation to the full adult form, this cycle is believed to be a part of a huge genetic engineering experiment. With acid for blood and an exo-skeleton, they don't exactly mimic humanity, they are a distressing parody of it, which works perfectly to make them the most frightening biomechanical creatures in film history.

Concepts prevailing all over the world

Vingean singularity

There are scientists who say that technological progress will accelerate indefinitely, causing a mind-boggling change in the basic principles of what we humans affectionately call 'home'. It is a well-known fact among Singularitarians that this event, known as the Singularity1, will occur sometime before the year 2100. Some attribute this hypothetical event to Vernor Vinge and claim that it is first mentioned in his sci-fi novel True Names and Other Dangers as one of the author's answers to a very interesting question; what would happen if the human race created an artificial intelligence which is more intelligent than its creators? A character in the book finds himself 'precipitated over an abyss' when trying to predict future technology by extrapolating current trends. Vinge feels that when humans create an intelligence greater than their own, 'human history will have reached a kind of singularity'.

Although the Singularity is sometimes referred to as the brainchild of Vinge, it was briefly mentioned in the 1950s by John von Neumann, as Raymond Kurzweil points out in his excellent book précis The Singularity is Near. John von Neumann observed that...

... the ever accelerating progress of technology... gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue.

A Brief Explanation

Imagine a curve that represents the technological progress of human beings throughout history. Most people would agree that we have come a long way in only a century; we've invented new technology, learned new things and developed as a race. Thus the curve slopes upward.

We can examine this curve and extrapolate to create a function that describes the level of progress for any given point in time. Many have done this, including Ray Kurzweil, the renowned inventor of synthesisers and text-to-speech machines and also author of The Age of Intelligent Machines, a book that won the Association of American Publishers' Award for the Most Outstanding Computer Science Book of 1990. Kurzweil has shown that the doubling period of the speed of computers is diminishing, ie it used to take us three years to double the speed and memory capacity of computers in the beginning of the 20th Century, and now the same kind of progress is achieved in only one year. He claims that these trends will continue, and that computers will be able to emulate human brains in the year 2020.

When and if computers become intelligent, computers themselves could construct new computers, causing a massive acceleration in technological progress. One way to visualise this acceleration is to consider the following rather trivial function.

f(t) = -1 / t

Readers with working knowledge of mathematics can see that this function gives us very large values for very small negative values of t. As t approaches zero (from the negative side), the value of the function approaches infinity. This is called hyperbolic growth. A hyperbolic function grows much faster than an

exponential function, as the reader can easily see in the following table. Note that t takes on negative values; think of it as a countdown to the Singularity.

Exponential versus Hyperbolic

Time (t)Exponential

(2t+1)Hyperbolic (-1/t)

-2.0 0.5 0.5

-1.5 0.7 0.67

-1.0 1 1

-0.5 1.41 2

-0.01 1.986 100

-0.000001

2 (approx.) one million

0 2 undefined

Given only a few points from a curve, there are several ways to extrapolate. In addition to comparing the growth of different functions, the graph below shows that the seemingly hyperbolic growth could in fact be exponential or even sigmoidal. This is discussed below.

Exponential functions have well-defined outputs for all inputs, as opposed to our hyperbolic function f(t). At the t-value of zero, the function is undefined (since division by zero is undefined). This is a mathematical singularity, corresponding to the Singularity. If we extend the analogy a bit, negative values of t represent the time before the Singularity.

The term 'singularity' can be interpreted either literally or figuratively. If we interpret the Singularity literally, it would mean that we'll make nearly infinite progress (whatever that means) in finite time, which is a rather absurd notion that is impossible to fully grasp. According to Vinge, 'new models must be applied' for humans to have the slightest chance of understanding what's going on.

The figurative interpretation of the concept of infinite progress is not only more believable but also much easier to visualise. It is presented in the book Can We Avoid a Third World War around 2010? by Peter Peeters. The author has extrapolated and found the hyperbolic growth mentioned above, but uses this method strictly to attract attention to possible crisis points. He claims that this method can predict points in time where there's a change so fundamental as to be called 'the end of the world as we know it' by pessimists, and has shown that his claims have some validity by showing that some historical crises, such as the First World War, coincide with his analytical crisis points. It should be noted, however, that the Second World War did not fit the model.

Thus, the conservative view of the Singularity is that it is a point of change or crisis. Another way of putting it is that the trends are all there, but the significance and results of these trends are still being discussed.

Paths to the Singularity

The Singularity can be reached in a number of different ways. Here are some examples.

Neurohacking - In this scenario, humans learn how to improve the brain either purely biologically or by introducing some kind of technology in the human brain - ie cybernetics. This ties in a bit with transhumanism, and the resulting positive feedback loop is what gives rise to the Singularity.

Self-enhancing computers - Most people who know a bit about computers know about Moore's Law. However, what would happen if we create an artificial intelligence (AI) that is just as smart as us and let it construct new computers? It's like a textbook example of positive feedback loops. At first, there would be no difference; processing power would double in another 18 months. After that, since the AI is working faster, processing power would double in nine months2, 4.5 months, and so on, and hey presto! We've reached the Singularity.

Uploading - Instead of creating intelligent software the hard way by writing all the code, why not just tap into the software already in our own heads? Some claim that it is theoretically possible to emulate a human brain (using so called 'whole brain emulation'), and that it will be possible to upload a person's mind into a computer. That would create a sentient computer program that can enhance its own code, causing the positive feedback loop that in turn causes the Singularity.

Nanotechnology - It is already possible to construct extremely small engines at the molecular level. This is called nanotechnology, and is often closely associated with so called 'nanobots', hypothetical robots that measure only a few nanometers across. Theoretically, nanotech could be used for neurohacking, to create an intelligent computer, or for whole brain emulation. A good source of information for the aspiring nanotechie is the Foresight Institute, a 'non-profit educational organisation formed to help prepare society for anticipated advanced technologies'. Another important nanotech website is that of Zyvex, the first molecular nanotechnology company.

Singularitarians

Although most of this sounds like pure science fiction, it is like most sci-fi slowly becoming science. Some people claim that it is perfectly logical to expect the Singularity to occur no later than the year 2010, if we work hard enough. These are of course Singularitarians. Note that the Singularitarians are not really an organised community; it's more a term for people that are actively working towards the Singularity. Examples of attempts at making an organised effort to reach the Singularity follow.

Among the people working towards the Singularity are the Singularity Institute, who feel that we don't have much time before research on nanotechnology is completed. They often cite the 'grey goo problem'3, and claim that to avoid a global catastrophe, we need to reach the Singularity caused by a self-enhancing AI4.

The person who seems to be the most motivated agent of the Singularity is of course also a founder of the Singularity Institute. His name is Eliezer Yudkowsky, and his website, The Low Beyond, is a vast source of information pertaining to the Singularity.

John Smart, a private teacher from Los Angeles, has a relatively conservative attitude towards the Singularity. He is making people aware of the Singularity through his website Singularity Watch, a source of carefully developed writing on the subject at an introductory and multidisciplinary level. According to the website, a 'singularity watcher' is 'neither absolutely convinced - nor uncritically happy - that the singularity is going to happen, but they do believe this issue deserves serious scientific investigation'. Due to his more conservative approach, Smart doesn't capitalise 'Singularity'.

The proposed society called the Singularity Club has an attitude towards the Singularity that is diametrically opposite Smart's. It is a more radical and controversial movement that claims that 'one must have the desire to not only survive the Singularity, but to ride its powerful wave right to Ascension (godhood). To, in effect, become the Singularity.'

Grey goo

Grey goo is a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating robots consume all living matter on Earth while building more of themselves (a scenario known as ecophagy).

The term "grey goo" is usually used in a science fiction or popular-press context. In the worst postulated scenarios (requiring large, space-capable machines), matter beyond Earth would also be turned into goo (with "goo" meaning a large mass of replicating nanomachines lacking large-scale structure, which may or may not actually appear goo-like). The disaster is posited to result from a deliberate doomsday device, or from an accidental mutation in a self-replicating nanomachine used for other purposes, but designed to operate in a natural environment.

The term was first used by molecular nanotechnology pioneer Eric Drexler in his book Engines of Creation (1986). In Chapter 4, Engines Of Abundance, Drexler illustrates both exponential growth and inherent limits by describing nanomachines that can function only if given special raw materials:

Imagine such a replicator floating in a bottle of chemicals, making copies of itself....the first replicator assembles a copy in one thousand seconds, the two replicators then build two more in the next thousand seconds, the four build another four, and the eight build another eight. At the end of ten hours, there are not thirty-six new replicators, but over 68 billion. In less than a day, they would weigh a ton; in less than two days, they would outweigh the Earth; in another four hours, they would exceed the mass of the Sun and all the planets combined - if the bottle of chemicals hadn't run dry long before.

In a History Channel broadcast, grey goo is referred to in a futuristic doomsday scenario: "In a common practice, billions of nanobots are released to clean up an oil spill off the coast of Louisiana. However, due to a programming error, the nanobots devour all carbon based objects, instead of just the hydrocarbons of the oil. The nanobots destroy everything, all the while, replicating themselves. Within days, the planet is turned to dust."

Drexler describes grey goo in Chapter 11 of Engines Of Creation:

...early assembler-based replicators could beat the most advanced modern organisms. 'Plants' with 'leaves' no more efficient than today's solar cells could out-compete real plants, crowding the biosphere with an inedible foliage. Tough, omnivorous 'bacteria' could out-compete real bacteria: they could spread like blowing pollen, replicate swiftly, and reduce the biosphere to dust in a matter of days. Dangerous replicators could easily be too tough, small, and rapidly spreading to stop - at least if we made no preparation. We have trouble enough controlling viruses and fruit flies.

Drexler notes that the geometric growth made possible by self-replication is inherently limited by the availability of suitable raw materials.

Drexler used the term "grey goo", not to indicate color or texture, but to emphasize the difference between "superiority" in terms of human values and "superiority" in terms of competitive success:

Though masses of uncontrolled replicators need not be grey or gooey, the term "grey goo" emphasizes that replicators able to obliterate life might be less inspiring than a single species of crabgrass. They might be "superior" in an evolutionary sense, but this need not make them valuable.

Bill Joy, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems, discussed some of the problems with pursuing this technology in his now-famous 2000 article in Wired magazine, titled "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us." In direct response to Joy's concerns, the first quantitative technical analysis of the ecophagy scenario was published in 2000 by nanomedicine pioneer Robert Freitas.

Moorey’s law

Moore’s Law is named after Gordon Moore, one of the co-founders of Intel Corporation. In 1965 Moore noticed that the number of components that make up an integrated circuit had doubled approximately 18 months up to that point. Amazingly, Moore’s Law has been maintained ever since. Every 18 months there has been roughly a doubling in the number of transistors (the basic element of computing) that can be squeezed onto a given area of processor. Today there are roughly 42 million transistors on a Pentium 4 processor.

This phenomenal rate of growth has been achieved by constantly shrinking the size of the transistors themselves. Sooner or later however, scientists speculate that Moore’s Law will meet insurmountable barriers of physics. At the nanometre scale materials become only hundreds of atoms thick, so can behave unpredictably. However, the end of Moore’s Law has been predicted to have arrived several times in the past, and the fact it has been sustained is a testament to the incredible engineering achievements of chip manufacturers.

Cybernetics

Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of complex systems, especially communication processes, control mechanisms and feedback principles. Cybernetics is closely related to control theory and systems theory.

Contemporary cybernetics began as an interdisciplinary study connecting the fields of control systems, electrical network theory, mechanical engineering, logic modeling, evolutionary biology and neuroscience in the 1940s. Other fields of study which have influenced or been influenced by cybernetics include game theory, system theory (a mathematical counterpart to cybernetics), psychology (especially neuropsychology, behavioral psychology, and cognitive psychology), and also philosophy, and even architecture.

The word cybernetics was first used in the context of "the study of self-governance" by Plato in The Laws to signify the governance of people. The words govern and governor are related to the same Greek root through the Latin cognates gubernare and gubernator. The word "cybernétique" was also used in 1834 by the physicist André-Marie Ampère (1775–1836) to denote the sciences of government in his classification system of human knowledge.

The first artificial automatic regulatory system, a water clock, was invented by the mechanician Ktesibios. In his water clocks, water flowed from a source such as a holding tank into a reservoir, then from the reservoir to the mechanisms of the clock. Ktesibios's device used a cone-shaped float to monitor the level of the water in its reservoir and adjust the rate of flow of the water accordingly to maintain a constant level of water in the reservoir, so that it neither overflowed nor was allowed to run

dry. This was the first artificial truly automatic self-regulatory device that required no outside intervention between the feedback and the controls of the mechanism. Although they did not refer to this concept by the name of Cybernetics (they considered it a field of engineering), Ktesibios and others such as Heron and Su Song are considered to be some of the first to study cybernetic principles.

The study of teleological mechanisms (from the Greek τέλος or telos for end, goal, or purpose) in machines with corrective feedback dates from as far back as the late 1700s when James Watt's steam engine was equipped with a governor, a centripetal feedback valve for controlling the speed of the engine. Alfred Russel Wallace identified this as the principle of evolution in his famous 1858 paper. In 1868 James Clerk Maxwell published a theoretical article on governors, one of the first to discuss and refine the principles of self-regulating devices. Jakob von Uexküll applied the feedback mechanism via his model of functional cycle (Funktionskreis) in order to explain animal behaviour and the origins of meaning in general.

Ask yourself and wonder about it !

What products available today have resulted from nanoscience?

Numerous products featuring the unique properties of nanoscale materials are available to consumers and industry today. Most computer hard drives, for instance, contain giant magnetoresistance (GMR) heads that, through nano-thin layers of magnetic materials, allow for a significant increase in storage capacity. Other electronic applications include non-volatile magnetic memory, automotive sensors, landmine detectors and solid-state compasses.

Some other current uses that are already in the marketplace include:

Burn and wound dressings Water filtration Catalysis A dental-bonding agent Step assists on vans. Coatings for easier cleaning glass Bumpers and catalytic converters on cars Protective and glare-reducing coatings for eyeglasses and cars Sunscreens and cosmetics. Longer-lasting tennis balls. Light-weight, stronger tennis racquets. Stain-free clothing and mattresses. Ink.

What products will be available in the next few years?

Watch for solar cells in roofing tiles and siding that provide electricity for homes and facilities. The vision of researchers working in this field is a much cleaner environment due to greater use of solar energy (and less burning of fossil fuels) and a higher standard of living for the many parts of the world that do not have access to efficient, reliable energy.

Prototype tires exist today that provide improved skid resistance, reduced abrasion and resulting longer wear, although a date for market introduction has yet to be announced. The nanocomposites being used in tires can be used in other consumer products as well, according to experts, including high performance footwear, exercise equipment, and car parts such as belts, wiper blades and seals.

The pharmaceutical and chemical industries are being impacted greatly by nanotechnology, as well. New commercial applications of nanotechnology that are expected in two to five years in these industries include:

advanced drug delivery systems, including implantable devices that automatically administer drugs and sensor drug levels and

medical diagnostic tools, such as cancer tagging mechanisms.

Next 10-20 years?

It’s hard to predict what products will move from the laboratory to the marketplace over such a long period, but today’s predictions center on pervasive computing applications. It is believed that nanotechnology will facilitate the production of ever-smaller computers that store vastly greater amounts of information and process data much more quickly than those available today. Computing elements are expected to be so inexpensive that they can be in fabrics (for smoke detection, for instance) and other materials. Read about Moore's Law and continued advances in computing and electronics.

Advances in the field of defense are also expected through work in nanoscience.

What are engineered nanoparticles?

Engineered nanoparticles refers to those that do not occur naturally but are created by people. People have been putting together different materials throughout time, and now are doing so on the nanoscale.

How many researchers are working in nanotechnology today?

The current estimate is about 20,000 worldwide.

What are future workforce needs?

The National Science Foundation has estimated that 2 million workers will be needed to support nanotechnology industries worldwide within 15 years.

Applications of cyborg

Individual cyborgs

Generally, the term "cyborg" is used to refer to a man or woman with bionic, or robotic, implants.

Today, the C-LEG system is used to replace human legs that were amputated because of injury or illness. The use of sensors in the artificial leg aids in walking significantly. These may possibly be the first real steps towards the next generation of cyborgs.

Additionally cochlear implants and magnetic implants which provide people with a sense that they would not otherwise have had can additionally be thought of as creating cyborgs.

In 2002,under the heading Project Cyborg, a British scientist, Kevin Warwick, had an array of 100 electrodes fired in to his nervous system in order to link his nervous system into the internet. With this in place he successfully carried out a series of experiments including extending his nervous system over the internet to control a robotic hand, a form of extended sensory input and the first direct electronic communication between the nervous systems of two humans.

Social cyborgs

More broadly, the full term "cybernetic organism" is used to describe larger networks of communication and control. For example, cities, networks of roads, networks of software, corporations, markets, governments, and the collection of these things together. A corporation can be considered as an artificial intelligence that makes use of replaceable human components to function. People at all ranks can be considered replaceable agents of their functionally intelligent government institutions, whether such a view is desirable or not.

Cyborg proliferation in society

Medicine

In medicine, there are two important and different types of cyborgs: these are the restorative and the enhanced. Restorative technologies “restore lost function, organs, and limbs” (Gray 1995). The key aspect of restorative cyborgization is the repair of broken or missing processes to revert to a healthy or average level of function. There is no enhancement to the original faculties and processes that were lost.

On the contrary, the enhanced cyborg “follows a principle, and it is the principle of optimal performance: maximising output (the information or modifications obtained) and minimising input (the energy expended in the process)”. (Lyotard 1984) Thus, the enhanced cyborg intends to exceed normal processes or even gain new functions that were not originally present.

Although prostheses in general supplement lost or damaged body parts with the integration of a mechanical artifice, bionic implants in medicine allow model organs or body parts to mimic the original function more closely. Michael Chorost wrote a memoir of his experience with cochlear implants, or bionic ear, titled "Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human." Jesse Sullivan became one of the first people to operate a fully robotic limb through a nerve-muscle graft, enabling him a complex range of motions beyond that of previous prosthetics. By 2004, a fully functioning artificial heart was developed. The continued technological development of bionic and nanotechnologies begins to raise the question of enhancement, and of the future possibilities for cyborgs which surpass the original functionality of the biological model. The ethics and desirability of "enhancement prosthetics" have been debated; their proponents include the transhumanist movement, with its belief that new technologies can assist the human race in developing beyond its present, normative limitations such as ageing and disease, as well as other, more general incapacities, such as limitations on speed, strength, endurance, and intelligence. Opponents of the concept describe what they believe to be biases which propel the development and acceptance of such technologies; namely, a bias towards functionality and efficiency that may compel assent to a view of human people which de-emphasises as defining characteristics actual manifestations of humanity and personhood, in favour of definition in terms of upgrades, versions, and utility.

One of the more common and accepted forms of temporary modification occurs as a result of prenatal diagnosis technologies. Modern parents willingly use testing methods such as ultrasounds and amniocentesis to determine the sex or health of the fetus. The discovery of birth defects or other congenital problems by these procedures may lead to neonatal treatment in the form of open fetal surgery or the less invasive fetal intervention.

A brain-computer interface, or BCI, provides a direct path of communication from the brain to an external device, effectively creating a cyborg. Research of Invasive BCIs, which utilize electrodes implanted directly into the grey matter of the brain, has focused on restoring damaged eye sight in the blind and providing functionality to paralysed people, most notably those with severe cases, such as Locked-In syndrome.

Military

The "cyborg soldier" often refers to a soldier whose weapon and survival systems are integrated into the self, creating a human-machine interface. A notable example is the Pilot's Associate, first developed in 1985, which would use Artificial Intelligence to assist a combat pilot. The push for further integration between pilot and aircraft would include the Pilot Associate's ability to "initiate actions of its own when it deems it necessary, including firing weapons and even taking over the aircraft from the pilot. (Gray, Cyborg Handbook).

Military organizations' research has recently focused on the utilization of cyborg animals for inter-species relationships for the purposes of a supposed a tactical advantage. DARPA has announced its interest in developing "cyborg insects" to transmit data from sensors implanted into the insect during the pupal stage. The insect's motion would be controlled from a MEMS, or Micro-Electro-Mechanical System, and

would conceivably surveil an environment and detect explosives or gas.[9] Similarly, DARPA is developing a neural implant to remotely control the movement of sharks. The shark's unique senses would be exploited to provide data feedback in relation to enemy ship movement and underwater explosives[10].

Other proposals have integrated the mechanical into the intuitive abilities of the individual soldier. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have set out to "create an exoskeleton that combines a human control system with robotic muscle."[11] The device is distinctly Cyborgian in that it is self-powered, and requires no conscious manipulation by the pilot soldier. The exoskeleton responds to the pilot, through constant computer calculations, to distribute and lessen weight exerted on the pilot, allowing hypothetically for soldiers to haul large amounts of medical supplies and carry injured soldiers to safety.

Marine Cyborgs

The term “cyborg” not only applies to humans, but to animals as well. Some of the best examples of such animal cyborgs come from the ocean, but such research is relatively new. Technologies used range from simple radio transmitters attached for tracking purposes, to extremely complex surgically implanted electrodes used to record and manipulate behavior. One of the more fictionalized representations of a marine cyborg includes Jones, a cyborg dolphin from William Gibson’s Johnny Mnemonic. Jones is one of the more extreme examples, sporting a purely mechanical head piece, while most real world examples go unnoticed. Most “enhancements” added to marine organisms by humans are small or implanted directly into the skin, and are created as to not disrupt their natural behavior patterns. DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is experimenting with surgically implanted electrodes in shark brains to learn more about their behavior in hopes of being able to control some aspects of it. Shark behavior is still a largely unstudied subject in the biological sciences and the use of such electrodes might provide biologists a vast amount of information in short periods of time. With data collected from the experimentation DARPA engineers hope to decode the signals that the sharks are receiving in order to remotely manipulate such behaviors in the future. The shark’s natural ability to sense weak magnetic and electrical fields is of particular interest to the military, as they hope to use this to their advantage in future campaigns, to see and feel everything that a shark does as it glides through the ocean.

In Sports

The cyborgization of sports has come to the forefront of the national conscious in recent years. Through the media, America has been exposed to the subject both with the BALCO scandal and the accusations of blood doping at the Tour de France levied against Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis. But, there is more to the subject; steroids, blood doping, prosthesis, body modification, and maybe in the future, genetic modification are all topics that should be included within cyborgs in sports.

The most commonly used steroid in sports is anabolic steroids. These are synthetically created to function like male hormones. Athletes use it to enhance their strength and performance beyond their natural means. They increase the amount of testosterone in the body, which promotes muscle and bone growth in the body. They also make it possible for an athlete can workout for longer periods of time than they naturally can.

Blood doping usually refers to three forms of adding red blood cells to the blood stream. The first form of blood doping is called homologous transfusions, in which the red blood cells from another person of the same blood type as the athlete are concentrated and frozen for a later transfusion when the athlete is going to start an event. The other form of blood doping is autologous. Autologous transfusions are when an athlete takes red blood cells out of their body before a competition and transfuse them back in their body right before the competition. The other form of blood doping is done through the injection of a hormone called erythropoietin. Erythropoietin increases the production of red blood cells in the blood stream. All of these forms of blood doping are used to increase the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. Blood doping is mainly used in endurance sports such as cycling and cross-country skiing because the extra oxygen carrying capacity through blood doping gives the athlete more endurance.

The most common forms of prosthetics and enhancement we see in sports today are prosthetic legs and Tommy John surgery. This has resurrected many careers in Major League Baseball, actually allowing pitchers to throw harder than ever before. Some prime examples are Eric Gagné, Kerry Wood, and John Smoltz. "I hit my top speed (in pitch velocity) after the surgery," says Wood, the Chicago Cubs' 26-year-old All-Star. "I'm throwing harder, consistently." Gagne went from an average pitcher to being hall of fame eligible, winning the National League Cy Young Award in 2002, by tying the National League record for most saves in a season, and the National League Rolaids Relief Man of the Year in 2002 and 2003.

As of now, prosthetic legs and feet are not advanced enough to give the athlete the edge, and people with these prosthetics are allowed to compete, possibly only because they are not actually competitive in the Ironman event among other such -athlons. Prosthesis in track and field, however, is a budding issue. Prosthetic legs and feet may soon be better than their human counterparts. Some prosthetic legs and feet allow for runners to adjust the length of their stride which could potentially improve run times and in time actually allow a runner with prosthetic legs to be the fastest in the world.

Future

Machines 'to match man by 2029' Machines will achieve human-level artificial intelligence by 2029, a leading US inventor has predicted.

Machines were already doing hundreds of things humans used to do, at human levels of intelligence or better, in many different areas, he said.

Man versus machine

"I've made the case that we will have both the hardware and the software to achieve human level artificial intelligence with the broad suppleness of human intelligence including our emotional intelligence by 2029," he said.

"We're already a human machine civilisation; we use our technology to expand our physical and mental horizons and this will be a further extension of that."

Humans and machines would eventually merge, by means of devices embedded in people's bodies to keep them healthy and improve their intelligence, as predicted.

Risks and precautions

It is unclear whether the molecular nanotechnology would be capable of creating grey goo at all. Among other common refutations, theorists suggest that the very size of nanoparticles inhibits them from moving very quickly. While the biological matter that composes life releases significant amounts of energy when oxidised, and other sources of energy such as sunlight are available, this energy might not be sufficient for the putative nanorobots to out-compete existing organic life that already uses those resources, especially considering how much energy nanorobots would use for locomotion. If the nanomachine was itself composed of organic molecules, then it might even find itself being preyed upon by preexisting bacteria and other natural life forms.

If self-replicating machines were built of inorganic compounds or made much use of elements that are not generally found in living matter, then they would need to use much of their metabolic output for fighting entropy as they purified (reduce sand to silicon, for instance) and synthesized the necessary building blocks. There would be little chemical energy available from inorganic matter such as rocks because, aside from a few exceptions it is mostly well-oxidized and sitting in a free-energy minimum.

Assuming a molecular nanotechnological replicator were capable of causing a grey goo disaster, safety precautions might include programming them to stop reproducing after a certain number of generations (see cancer), designing them to require a rare material that would be sprayed on

Tiny machines could roam the body curing diseases

We'll have intelligent nanobots go into our brains... to make us smarter

the construction site before their release, or requiring constant direct control from an external computer. Another possibility is to encrypt the memory of the replicators in such a way that any changed copy would decrypt to a meaningless, random bit string.

Drexler more recently conceded that there is no need to build anything that even resembles a potential runaway replicator. This would avoid the problem entirely. In a paper in the journal Nanotechnology, he argues that self-replicating machines are needlessly complex and inefficient. His 1992 technical book on advanced nanotechnologies Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation describes manufacturing systems that are desktop-scale factories with specialized machines in fixed locations and conveyor belts to move parts from place to place. Popular culture, however, remains focused on imagined scenarios derived from his older ideas.

In Britain, the Prince of Wales called upon the Royal Society to investigate the "enormous environmental and social risks" of nanotechnology in a planned report, leading to much delighted media commentary on grey goo. The Royal Society's report on nanoscience was released on 29 July 2004, and dismisses the idea as impossible.

More recent analysis has shown that the danger of grey goo is far less likely than originally thought.However, other long-term major risks to society and the environment from nanotechnology have been identified.Drexler has made a somewhat public effort to retract his grey goo hypothesis, in an effort to focus the debate on more realistic threats associated with knowledge-enabled nanoterrorism and other misuses.

Conclusion

Nanotechnology must be allowed to proceed as other transforming technologiessuch as chemistry, steam power, and electricity have done. It must proceed at its ownpace and in its own direction. Better dialogue and research can help society deal with

specific problems as they become apparent.

The world in which our children live will surely be a different one. Whether it isa better one is largely up to them to decide. Continued technological advancement,including on the nanoscale, will not automatically make the world any fairer or safer, but

it will increase the resources available to those who want to ensure that it is.

Refrences

www.bbc.co.uk

www.en.wikipedia.org

www.google.com

Presented by,

Rm.Gopinathan

Nandha Engineering college , Erode - 52

Contact : gopee1990@gmail.com