Human Cyborg | Documentary | Transhumanism | Neuroscience

this is what the cyborg future lookslikemost everyone is enhanced withtechnology many even surgically upgradetheir bodies with powerful bionicscomputerized eye implants not onlysharpen Vision but immerse users inseamless augmented realitycognitive devices connect brainsdirectly to artificial intelligenceexponentially boosting intellectualcapacitywidespread machine integration isredefining what it means to be humanmy brain is melting today scientists areblazing a trail to this very Futurethese devices are going to make us morepowerful more independentI want to know what breakthroughs arebeing made it's a radio it captures yourthoughts in real time I'm improving thehuman body by implanting devices into itthat will Forge the future too look maI'm a robot the cyborg Revolution[Music][Music][Music][Music]my name is Angel jafriaI am a cyborg a combination of human andmachine that acts as oneI was born without part of my left armand I've been wearing a prostheticdevice as long as I can rememberthey used to call me the bionic babythis was my first evermulti-articulating hand it was the bigjump from this one grip patterntripod to being able to change the gripI flex the muscles unless we move thehandas my arm muscles move they affect twoelectrodes resting on my skin whichallows me to control my bionic handfour years ago I got my currentprosthetic hand and it's been a realgame changerthe finer motor movement in multipleways to grasp thingsas someone who started to merge with amachine I can see that it both definesme and I Define it but I want to findout how cyborg technology like this willevolve for the entire human species howfar will the merging of man and machinegoand what will our cyborg future looklike[Music]my first stop on this path to the futureis a personal oneat the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics labthey are developing bionic limbs evenmore advanced than minecosting upwards of 120 million dollarsto develop the modular prosthetic limbor MPL is state of the artI'm really excited about today becausewe get to see the MPL hand system whichissomething I've wanted to see for almosta decadeI think I've dreamed about seeing thishandengineer Robert Armiger is combiningrobotics neuroscience and artificialintelligence to make devices that willchange lives around the world it's herein real life that's rightunlike my prosthetic arm the MPL isdesigned to be upgradable and it can becustomized it's also more dexterous youknow we've really tried to build in tothis hand all of the sort of movementsof the of the human hand so see thateach of the fingers is basically theability to separate or spread thefingers here cool these two are coupledtogether this one moves independently ohokay all the fingers have a drive thatflexes each finger and then they've gotthis mechanism that allows them topassively curl around an object as wellthat's cool I didn't know that existedit even has a powered flexible wristI want flexion extension so badlyI don't have flexion extension I onlyhave rotation which is fun for a partytrick but I can't actually bend thewrist so when I'm trying to put my handin my mouth and stuff I have to lift myshoulder so when I see stuff like theflexion extension in that wristit makes me really excited that I couldhave it for my hand one day[Music]Bobby lets me test drive the MPLfirst he places armband sensors on melike my prosthetic arm these bandscontain electrodes which record andtranslate the muscle activity in mylittle arm we use electrodes that canpick up what's called the bio potentialsof the human body it's sort of theelectricity that is flowing through yourbody to send commands to and from yourbraininstead of just picking up like grossmuscles of these big muscle movements ispicking up smaller Finer Things todayI'm getting a feel for some novelgestures and new capabilities all rightso when you're ready so you can startrecording no movement or rest stateand well that's okay it's it's learningthe first time so it may sort of confusewhat you're doing because it's neverseen this pattern before you'reintroducing something newa computer inside the MPL reads themuscle movements from my arm andtranslates these complex patterns intomovement in the robotic handthis is really cool the machine islearning more about me and fast so I'msending different muscles impulses liketo trying to see how much control I canhave over it of like the slow and fast[Music]I'll try to do this butthat's coolthis cyborg future emerged through theneeds of wounded veterans and otheramputees Johnny Matheny is one of theindividuals that we have spent probablythe most time with the modularprosthetic limb and he has really beenable to show the capabilities of the armbecause he has a surgical procedure thatnot only allows us to map the arm orattach it directly to his body but thenhe's had the nerves in his arm rewiredso that his control is natural andintuitiveso what's next for itfingertips are set up with activesensors inside of each of the nodes whatwe've been working towards is some ofthe sensory feedback or stimulation toyour arms you'll be able to actuallyfeel with that the hand is touchingokaymy brain is melting without any feedbackfrom my prosthetic hand I can't tell howhard I'm grasping an object I've beenholding a styrofoam cup or trying tograb an egg right where you're likedon't crush it don't crush it don'tcrush it don't crush it the team atJohns Hopkins is working on this verydifficult problemBobby's colleague Dr Luke Osborne isenhancing the mpl's features withsomething called the E dermisthis incredible technology promises tosimulate the sensation of touch thinkabout how much we rely on our sensationof touch not just for grabbing objectsbut also interacting with other humanbeings right yeahedermis was made to mimic the way ournatural skin behaves and essentially wehave different layers and within thosedifferent layers we have differentreceptors inside the skin nerves detectpressure pain heat stretch and vibrationthe E dermis is made from flexiblefabric and rubber and inside of it tinysensors detect various stimuli andtranslate them to the body's nervesput it on on me or my prosthesis on yourprosthesis yeahI've never really had that kind offeelings on the side from like touch andstuff so it's also like a little scarybut exciting when I press on yourfingertip I can see the activity on thescreenso if you were to grab an object wecould see what the sensor activity wouldlook like if you were to naturally pickup somethingcoolLuke's computer displays the pressurepatterns from the e dermis for thissensation of touchwhen these same signals are transmitteddirectly to my nerves it gives me asensation I've never felt before itabsolutely blows my mind and it's likeit's like falsely right here this isreally coolI think seeing this just makes merealize thatwe're on the path of doing somethingreally really awesome thingsI'll buy on a can with a fine sense oftouch will change lives and completelyreshape the futurethe potential for this technology couldbe not only used for rehabilitation butalso for projecting yourself into someremote environment like a remote controlIron Man Bobby imagines a future wherean arm like this could be used toperform complex tasks from just aboutanywhereforeignAdvanced dexterous bionic arms are acommon feature on most robotsworker Bots perform complex and delicatetasks in environments too hazardous forhumans from hundreds of miles awayskilled operators remotely performnuclear cleanups fight fires and evenrepair the space station from the safetyof Earthmechanically enhanced humans have longbeen popular in sci-fi stories andsuperhero comicsas a partial machine myself I'm excitedby the real superpowers that our cyborgfuture will bringbut in everyday life making cyborgtechnology work seamlessly with thehuman bodyis hardwhen it comes to enhancing the humanbody with technology balance isessential weight speed strength theseare all factors that must be consideredwhen designing and Engineering wearablerobots at exobionics Jason Jones istaking on the daunting challenge ofbringing man and machine into sync ourmain purpose is to enhance humancapability through robotics primarilyright so either for medical purposes orfor industrial they've developed severaltrue to life exoskeletons in my lifetimeI think you'll see more of people beingaugmented by machines the approach we'retaking is instead of replacing peoplelet's make it so they can do more ifthey want to they can work in the olderage because they have enhancementJason's colleague Zach Hawes shows meexactly how their exoskeletons boostworker productivity this model isalready being used in factories see howit feels I feel like I'm supposed to bereally really strong now right now thatI have the song This is designed toreally give sort of superhuman enduranceokay yeah I'll take that there you go sonow as you go to raise your arms you'llfeel it kick in yeahoh okay yep yep feel it yepand then what's it feel like like myarms are like free-floating there you gothat's the key word there thisfree-floating sensation happens withmechanical spring driven technologyuses strain on the arms from repetitivemotionso wild I can absolutely feel the powerand how it would transform industrybut for some it might be intimidatingdo you think there's a little bit offear in the idea of like presenting someof these Technologies yeah a little bitof sort of you know there's just thisidea what what is this is the robot am Ia robot no am I working with a robotwhat does that mean it's a machine thatwe're now strapping to your body andit's got to work with you and you've gotto work with it a little bit morepersonal a little bit more personal soyeah there's definitely more sense oftrepidation there but once people seethe benefits a lot of that disappearspretty quicklylook Ma I'm a robotnot only do exoskeletons boost humanproductivity they can also restoreLocomotion to those who've lost it I'mgonna get to meet somebody who uses oneof these exoskeletons and has this wholeinterface with technology like I doJess McNair experienced multiple strokesand lost the abilityaffected the right side of my body italso affected my balance and visionpretty severely it's been a journeywith the help of physical therapist Jenmosiovich this exoskeleton is changingJess's future[Music]so cool can you explain to me what isactually allowing you to do thingsthere's basically four Motors there'sMotors at the hips and then at the kneesand the ankle doesn't have a motor butit actually allows us to position herfor greater balance that's really coolso it allows someone to be fullyweight-bearing but also supported in aframe in a proper biomechanical positionall right Jess do you want to start thefirst step with the interface over there[Music]that's so coolan onboard computer uses feedback fromsensors in the exoskeleton andsophisticated algorithms process thatfeedback and then apply the properamount of movement to each biomechanicaljointthis coordination of man and machinerepresents a tremendous breakthroughthe exoskeleton is teaching Jess how toimprove her gait we want them to be ableto walk again we want them to be able tostep out of the device with a betterwalking patternwhat do you hope to see in your lifetimethe goal is to make it smaller lighteror more adapted to the human body andless apparent so you want it to be likemore of a part part of you then exactlyyeah more Bionic[Music]exoskeletons like these have humbleOriginsearly versions of this technology wereclunky at best and seemed laughable tome today one may witness a scientificEndeavor to convert a man's legs intothose of a giantevery evolutionary path must startsomewhere in our cyborg future isadvancing fast[Music]emit EXO would know they've alsodeveloped exoskeletons to assist withpunishing physical outdoor taskscarrying lard heavy loads over longdistances or increasing endurance thatkind of thing these powered exoskeletonscan help a person carry a 200 pound packswiftly across rugged terrainincredibly the wearer would only feel amere fraction of that heavy weightthese here are hydraulic cylinders andthey basically are kind of like aparallel muscle with the quads so youcan press down harder if you're walkingup a hill for example it will give you alittle application the design attemptsto amplify your Force right so if you'reapplying a certain amount of force andit would add to that to kind of offsetthe effort that you're putting into itthat's really cool in the back you knowthere's electronics in here and there'sa hydraulic pump and control systems andthen we talk about mud and Rainobviously the electronics yeah thechallenges are they're pretty bigchallenges I have those challengesmyselffuture versions of this Cutting Edgetechnology will someday be widespread Ithink in the future you'll see manypeople wearing assistive devices on adaily basis I'm almost certain thatthose devices will be controlled at somelevel through interaction with thehuman's nervous system or their brainby enhancing our bodies with Advancedrobotic exoskeletons we're taking a stepcloser to the cyborg Revolutionin the future miniaturized powerboosting exoskeletons are integratedinto custom garments with the Press of abutton superhuman strength and enduranceis available to everyone this bodyaugmentation reverses the decline of oldage restoring youthful vigor to anyonewho still has a passion to work orexplore[Music]in our cyborg future wearable machineswill augment our physical selves andwearable computers will augment ourminds with instant access to Worlds ofinformationI would wear wearables yeah how willAdvanced wearable computers impact theway that people work learn and interactwith their worldto find out I've come to Atlanta to meeta true Pioneer in wearable Computing badstarterfor me the real killer application forthese wearable computers is augmentedmemory machines that become part of yourmind give faster access to knowledgemake you stronger in the sense that youhave all this information you can use tohelp you on your day-to-day life so thiswas the first thing you worked on at MITright most people had no idea why you'dwant a mobile computer because laptopsweren't even out there yetwhile attending MIT he became frustratedby his inability to retain what he'dlearned in class so Thad built thisaugmented memory system to take betternotesare you ready oh I'm gonna put it on[Music]so bring your fingers around like thisthere we go so nownow that is that is my daily suit in twoyear 2000 so you'd have this plus a carphone plus a seven pound lead acidbattery so I look really stylishactually looks pretty good I tell youthe truththough retro now that system had aportable computer typing device and aheads-up video display over one eyefound that once I had the ability totake notes in class especially thisportable system I took notes inperson-to-person conversations andthat's one thing computers are horribleat right now is assisting you duringthis sort of interaction rightbut having a hit-up display you only useit when you need it and it keeps youreyes in the world around you and I findit to be really a good augmentation ofthe conversationthe heads-up display overlays infoinformation within the user's field ofvision the system can be used to accessapplications or the internet it can alsoaugment your surroundings withinformation that only you can seethat eventually led a team that turnedthis Tech into a commercial productGoogle Glassthat's the first functional oneyou add a glue a cell phone to the sideof our head to get a trackpad thatworked that's right and dance smartglasses like these are making workersmore productive in Industries likemanufacturing and Healthcareand it's easy to see why by beaminginformation directly into the eye thewearer can work on complex tasks allwhile absorbing crucial informationhands-free it's actually lasers in theside here that's bouncing off if you getjust right you can actually see a littlemirror herekind of hard to see oh yeah it's goodyeah yep and so it bounces off the lensand back into your eye that's so coolbreakthrough technology like this isgetting smaller every year even now it'sbeing developed for contact lensesthe Mojo lens is less bulky than smartglasses and completely invisible toothers when paired with a smartphonethey not only display information forthe wearer but also improve eyesight inthe future we'll see the technologydisappearthey become widespread to bring man andmachine even closer into alignment thatis developing another cyborg technologythat actually teaches the body and brainnew skills with no training or practicerequired this idea of being able topassively train these skills issomething that's new we haven't heard ofit before these are what's called musclememory gloves and they teach you skillslike how to play a piano without youractive attention how does it simulatorwhat's happening okay so let me show youlet me show you the glove hereso what we got in here are littlevibrating Motors okay that are above thefingerssequence on my fingers this stimulatesand trains the muscles in my hand to dosomething I've never done before playthe piano so she has a glove on rightnow and what's doing is it's using thevibration Motors to actually tap eachfinger in the sequence of Beethoven'soath to Joy you will have that musclememory in your brain I after the glovehas trained my hand for a half hour it'stime to see if it worked I don't playthe piano so this will be interestingokay so let's take off the glove hereshe's gonna put her hand down and we'llsee if she can do it we're kind ofexcited to see what happens you're gonnastart there okayso try your try your hand righthaving never learned to play the pianobefore I've gotten the hang of it prettyquicklyby training the muscles in particularways these gloves rewire the braingiving the user a jump start indeveloping fine motor skills for justabout anything and we've been able to dothat not just for piano pieces but alsofor things like typing for Braillemuscle memory gloves are alreadychanging lives one of the things we'reexcited about is the rehabilitation sideof these gloves you can help people whohave had partial spinal cord injury likethis man the glove is evenrehabilitating muscle coordination forpeople who've experienced Strokes youcan actually stimulate the hands suchthat people regain some sensation ordexterity I really believe that these onbody devices are going to make us morepowerful more independent wearables likethese that augment the mind and trainthe body with new skillsa shirt and a cyborg future for all ofusadvance of complex surgeries to enhanceprecision and dexteritythe devices are tailor programmed foreach procedure to passively train thesurgeon's handsduring the operation augmented realitycontact lenses provide a dynamic 3Droadmap of the patient's body as aresult of these protocols success ratesare soaring above 98 percent[Music]sternal machines won't be enough to makethe merging of man and machine completewill need to surgically integrate thetechnology inside our bodiesto experience this integration myselfI'm outside Seattle to meet acontroversial biohacker he's offered toimplant a computer chip inside my bodyI'd heard a lot about it from some otherpeople that I had met withinthis transhumanist community which islike a group of people who believe inchanging and upgrading your body[Music]like most transhumanists biohacker Amalgrafstra believes technology willfundamentally change the human specieshelping us evolve beyond our currentphysical and mental limitationsI'm improving the human body byimplanting simple devices into it andthen and change my capabilities as ahuman being that's biohackingamol has turned himself into a lab ratfor his own inventions he has fivefunctional devices implanted across hisbodyso those are implants these are implantsyeah so they would just go you take afour gauge needle make a pocket and thenjust slide it in okay cool there it isso this is the new size of thisprototype this huge one yeah giant 35millimeter diameter implant right that'sa big one oh that's a big one I've hadit for a while each chip serves aparticular purpose this is like apayment card from the EU I'm convertingthem into implants for people I'mimagine that paying with the swipe ofyour handbut integrating machines into our bodieshas led to a lot of resistanceso from when you first started out doyou feel like people have gotten morereceptivein general yes so in 2005 when I putthis in my left hand the first one thereactions were very visceral what areyou doing they're crazy oh we should getthem you know like he's supporting thegovernment New World Order and now youknow you tell somebody on the street Igot a chicken but I was like oh I heardabout that however a society becomesmore receptive to the idea of cyborgtechnology inside the body new ways ofusing it will emergeby incorporating magnets into his bodyAmel has found that he's created anentirely new biological faculty givinghim an unprecedented Sixth Senseyour magnet was able you were able tofeel the feel yeah magnetic field youadapted to that but yeah you adapt to itimmediately and that to me again saysthat this is part of who you are now theimplanted magnet rewired how his brainand body experienced reality giving hima new magnetic sense I took it out afterabout a year and there was a real senseof lossamel's not the only one out there inthese uncharted waters cyborg artistNeil Harbison has a cyborg antennaimplant which senses colors includingultraviolet and infrared the implantallows him to both feel and hear colorsas vibrations inside of his headengineer Kevin Warwick had a chipimplanted in his arm that directlyconnected his nervous system to theInternet it's clear we are already onthe path towards the full integration ofman and machinewhere do you think you know technologyis going in General on one hand it'svery exciting and Cutting Edge but alsoit's nothing new like human beings havealways been leveraging technology sincewe picked up rocks and sticks right it'sjust that that technology has beenexternal the technology that's gone intoour bodies has always been kind ofmedical and restorative right and thisis an enhancing you know augmentativetechnology so there's some trepidationabout breaking the Skin Barrier for anon-medical need right but overall thetrend for human beings is to maketechnologies that enhance ourcapabilitieswith my bionic arm I know this to betrue firsthand but getting anotherenhancement under my skinI'm not so sure about you ready I amyeah I'm ready okay the answer is yeahthe answer is yes okay good here we goamol is implanting a Vivo key chip intomy fleshy hand take a big deep breathhere we go[Music]yaythis new implant will give me a uniqueelectronic signaturevery coolwith it I'll be able to unlock all kindsof devices and pay for things with asimple swipe of my hand I think thatit's gonna be a point where everyone'schipped at some point and there's goingto be something it might not all be thesame chip some people might have like aglucose reader right some people mighthave something else some people willhave a cognitive implant so the pointwhere we just put in our bodies and itbecomes part of who you are now yeah Ilovelet's see if this thing actually worksso go ahead and press the buttonand now back your hand across theregoes like that coolintegrating chips like these into thehuman body will unlock doors to ourcyborg future[Music]size of a pinhead replace most walletsand mobile phones everyone just swipestheir hands to pay unlock everything andconfirm personal identification themagnetic sensor enhances orientationoperating like a compass it lets usersfeel Direction no one ever gets lostbiosensors measure Vital Signs and bloodchemicals at the first sign of a healthissue Physicians are notified forpreemptive treatmentit's pretty easy to see how cyborgtechnology can improve the body butintegrating it into the human brain is afar more complicated and dangerous taskneuroscientist Dr John Donahue isforging the difficult path to this veryfuturewe're in Providence to meet with Dr JohnDonahue talking about implants like Ihave the implant in my hand[Music]puts them in your brainJohn led a pioneering team that createdone of the first brain computerinterface devices it's called brain gamewe actually peer into the brain and lookat thinking about movement when we firstput an electrode in the brain we didn'tknow whether somebody could controlanythingto decipher the connection betweenthought and action John implanted thebrain gate device into Matt Nagel aquadriplegic[Music]control a computer cursor directly withhis mind so the whole idea of a braincomputer interface is to help a personwho is paralyzed to be able to moveagain or be able to communicate orinteract with the worldJohn achieved this Breakthrough by usingcomputers to read the brain signalsinside Matt's skullthe first technology to do this wasdeveloped in the 1920s by Germanpsychiatrist hansberger he invented aninstrument he called theelectroencephalogram or EEG the devicemeasures the brain's electrical activitythrough the skull and represents it ascomplicated lines on a graphhowever decoding these brainwavepatterns is an immense challengeespecially when the goal is to controlcomplex movement imagine that thosesignals coming from your hand to controlthat were not coming from your hand butfrom your brainand now you don't know what makes yourbrain cells active so how can you relatewhat your brain cells are doing to thatmotion we didn't know whether anybodycould ever learn to do it with BrainGateJohn took the next very difficult stepof deciphering a person's mentalintention to move their bodythe first thing we have to do is we haveto go to a place in the brain that hasthose signals then we need to be able tosample the activity in the brain thisinvolves surgically implanting tinyelectrodes in the region of the brainthat controls movement the motor cortexthe electrodes directly observe andmeasure the activity of the neuronslocated there each neuron talks to lotsand lots of other brain cells otherneurons and it creates electricalimpulses that are the communicationlanguage of the braineach one influences the other andcollectively they generate patterns ofactivity and the and the electrode arrayis basically a hundred needlesoh my goshso each one of these is what theelectrode is recording and that is theelectrical impulse of the neuronemitting its electrical impulse so weactually aren't trying to interpret justthat cell all by itself but how does ithow everything works everything alltogether it generates a patternunderstanding this pattern is likeputting together a thousand piece puzzlewithout a picture for reference our jobis to take a look at all of thoseactivity patterns and try to make senseof what they actually mean and what weuse as a computer to translate it isreally like translating a foreignlanguage and so what we do is when wetell the computer basically when you seethe pattern that was recorded when theperson thought about moving with you seethat pattern again then move to the leftor move a computer cursor to the leftusing artificial intelligence John cantranslate those brain waves into aphysical action far more complex thanjust moving a cursorKathy Hutchinson who was unable to moveor speak because of a stroke was thefirst person to use brain gate tocontrol an external robotic arm and handthis Leap Forward will change the livesof countless peoplebut there's a big problem theelectronics required to amplify andtranslate these brain waves are the sizeof a washing machinehow will technology like this integrateinto the body to create a self-containedcyborgJohn has the beginnings of a solutionthis wafer which is something like fourby eight millimeters it has one thousandelectrodes on it not but it's evencooler that little square is equivalentto ten of these thingsall in a chip what do we need to do toimplant this into humans we have tofigure that out then we have to askusers what do you want if it has to besomething sticking up like a box on yourhead actually I worry that you would saythat's coolbut most people wouldn't want to do thatyou know even though chips like theseare small they still need to connect toexternal computers with a tangle ofwires given that Electronics can do thisthat Neuroscience is not quite up therebut we're pretty good but all of thatinformation pulled together will get usthere we can do it this cyborgRevolutioninterfaces like this to read our mostcomplex thoughts and intentionsbut making devices like this that standalone in the brain is not as far off asone might thinkin a nearby lab engineer arto nurmico isdeveloping tiny chips that will not onlyinterface with the brain but connectwirelesslyso the first thing is to cut the cablein order to particularly endow moreMobility for a subject so he or she isnot Tethered to this massive rightvolumes of electronicshe calls these prototypes neurograinsthey look like glitter what they are areindividual tiny little chiplets aboutthe size of grain of salt each and theyhave internal Electronicsthere we go that's neurograin thephysical size means that there is safetyin implanting such tiny little objectsright in the brain without causingdamage thousands of neurograins could bedistributed across the surface of thebrain to record and broadcast neuralactivity wirelessly each one of theselittle triplets would be like a littlecell phone that's able to capture someof these neural signals and then spewthem out streaming your thoughts in realtimethat's wild to think aboutusing computers Ardo is developingcutting-edge techniques to interpretthese complex signals we use machinelearning to decode or understand whatthose 10 000 little cell phones areactually telling you or me about myintention or your intention not only tomove an arm but perhaps do much morecomplicated movements this sametechnology could also be used like atwo-way radio not just sending butreceiving thoughts as well if we rejectforward and begin to contemplate or atleast imagine the possibility of usingelectronic methods or communication withthe brain for people who don't have anyparticular disability right enhancementsover restorative right exactly so that'show the concept has taken its firststeps towards reality it's really coolconnecting the brain with machinesallowing a person to send and receivethoughts would be a Monumentalbreakthrough[Music]in the future brain implants replacecomputers and connect wirelessly withthe internetelectronic communications like emailsand text messages are composed and sentusing thoughts alonemental snapshots and dreams can beuploaded to the cloud and shared withfriends every word in any languagewritten and spoken is directlytranslated and accessible to any brainnow that humans off-source mental choreslike memorization the full potential ofthe human brain is Unleashedthroughout human history so-calledpsychics have claimed dubiously thatthey can read people's mindsbut as we blaze a trail to the cyborgfuture reading thoughts aided bytechnology seems more and more possiblebut how would that kind of telepathyworkI'm in Seattle to meet Dr Rajesh Raowho's actually developing science-basedtelepathy we began thinking about thisidea of extracting information from abrain and send it to a different personcomputer assisted telepathy brain tobrain communication this this radicaltechnology lets individuals usecomputers to telepathically controlother people so what kind of reactionhave you gotten to your research dopeople think it's cool or kind of scaryor all of that actually so you hadreactions ranging from you know it'sit's amazing it's cool it's so sci-fi topeople who are scared about this kind ofTechnologybut when people adjust to the conceptis what the cyborg future will look likeare you ready to interface yeah I thinkso and I'm going to give it a try you'llbe wearing a brain computer interfacecap that will be tapping into theelectrical signals that we are measuringat your scalp which in turn reflects theunderlying brain activityoh wow look at this roomrajesh's team fits me with a 32electrode EEG cap the cap will observeand measure the electrical activity ofmy brainall right right hereand I'll manage his wiresthe computer reads the signals from theEEG cap to interpret my intentionsdoes this look cool do I look cool ohyeah yes it looks like you're from thefuture even more so even more so I waslike yeahmy mission is to play a video gamethrough another person usingcomputer-assisted telepathy if thisworks my brain will actually control theother person's bodyoh we're almost there Preston 11.[Music]I think we're good we're good yeah[Music]quicker yeahthe video game at all so what we'regoing to do is have you control thecursor on a computer screen and thatmessage is going to be sent over to Janehere so Jane will be receiving yourthoughts through this TMS transcranialmagnetic stimulation device yeah I'mexcited to feel your brain waveall right let's figure this outthe TMS device uses pulses of magneticradiation to stimulate the neurons inJane's brainit'll send a message to the motor cortexregion of her brain and that in turnwill cause her hand to movean in turn it'll allow her to you knowplay a computer game that she's notseeinglet's see if this wild Contraption worksmy goal is to use my thoughts to controlJane's handif you want to send a yes signal justpay attention to the left light and byfocusing on that the ball should move tothe corresponding Directionby concentrating on the area of thescreen that says either yes or no I canmove the cursor left or right toindicate my choice just by thinkingabout itwhen I select yes Jane will receive thestimulation in her brain from the TMSdevice to click her computer mouseno stimulationnow it's time to see if I can send asignal to Jane's brain just by thinkingand selecting yesyes really yeah what did you feelthere's a little tap at the back of myhead and then my wrists and my fingersjust movedusing my thoughts alonecomputer-assisted telepathy lets mecontrol another person's physicalmovement I know I'm not thinking to moveit my hand just moves it's like a reflexlike when someone like kicks your kneeand it just moves that's what it feelslike that's so weirdRajesh is using this technology to forgea cyborg future even more mind-blowingour goal is to connect brains togethersuch that the connected brains can solvea problem that none of the brainsindividually could solve networking theminds of entire communities andindustries together could radicallytransform society as the plan to havemore people to have like the whole netkind of thing yeah so in the futuremaybe you can unleash the kind ofcreativity that a single person cannotso by having many brains collaborate ona project together perhaps you can solvevery hard problemsby networking brains with complementarystrengths the whole would be greaterthan the sum of its parts and with thiskind of mind-melding cyborg Synergyhumankind might invent new forms ofgreen energy and reverse global warmingdecipher the mysteries of humanconsciousness or even answer thequestion of what happened before the BigBangthe sky is no longer the limitbut with any new and disruptiveTechnologies Society needs to weigh thebenefits against the risks how cyborgtechnology will change the world isunpredictableas with any device you know we need tolook at the privacy and safety issuesmore so in the case of brain computerinterfaces because it has the potentialto change who you areit's easy to take for granted that thecontents of our brains belong to us butin the cyborg future that might not bethe case that personal privateinformation that makes every personunique could potentially be abused inthis world of neurotechnologies Ethicsis hugely important you could call TheInvasion or your brain as being theultimate sacrifice or ultimate leap oryou could say well it's just anotherincrement in the pathway of losing theultimate privacy which is the privacy ofyour own thoughtsand in the future who will benefit fromthings like cognitive enhancement willthe privilege be the only ones that canafford to download a lifetime oflearning into their children's brainsor will everyone gain accessthe cyborg revolution has the potentialto upend societybut many are excited about thetransformative possibilities of a cyborgFuture Let's imagine we're linked nearlyright we lose the language completelyand now it's just thoughts and feelingsand Concepts and like who knows right soit could definitely fundamentally changeHumanity I really believe that thistechnology can when it becomes part ofusmake us more of what we really are whichis humansirens hopeful that scienceas for me I expect everyone will becomea cyborg one day and I can see a futurewhere individuals choose to upgradetheir physical body parts with roboticones once they have better features thecyborg Revolution is coming and as acyborg myself I couldn't be more excited[Music]thank you[Music][Music]foreign[Music][Music][Applause][Music]