Technology

Musk has discussed how humans are becoming semi-cyborgs with small chips, artificial eyes and many other biotechnological advancements being installed into their bodies. In one recent interview, Musk suggested we’re linked to everything that has an on and off switch, restricting the human interference in these boundaries by having to touch things.

University of Texas Professor John Goodenough along with Maria Helena Braga, a senior researcher from his department, have come up with a cheap, long-lasting, and powerful battery that is made of non-combustible components — meaning that your cell phone won’t explode in your pocket with this new battery.

In the 1980s scientist, Benjamin Libet conducted an experiment. He ‘discovered’ that what seems to be free will or the conscious choice to do or not do something is really just the observance of something that has already happened. This completely rocked the foundations of what most thought of as a prerequisite for being human and the long-held religious view that free will must always be honored.

Saul Cunningham at the Australian National University in Canberra says that using drones to pollinate flowers is an intriguing idea but may not be economically feasible. “If you think about the almond industry, for example, you have orchards that stretch for kilometres and each individual tree can support 50,000 flowers,” he says. “So the scale on which you would have to operate your robotic pollinators is mind-boggling.”

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wants his automated grocery store to feature a ground level where shoppers can touch and physically select items — typical food products that people like to touch, beer, fruit, etc. On the second floor, a small army of robots toils away, where they furiously bag items for the customers browsing below. This is another example of how automation’s already rapid encroachment on the human job market has gone into overdrive.

The breathalyzer analyzes microscopic compounds — called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) — to detect each condition. Researchers invited about 1,400 people from five different countries to breathe into the device, which is still in its testing phases. The breathalyzer could identify each person’s disease with 86 percent accuracy, the researchers said.

Air pollution has been of growing concern for many, many decades, causing environmental effects like acid rain, haze, eutrophication, ozone depletion, crop and forest depletion, global climate change, and effects on wildlife. It also wreaks havoc on human health, with long-term effects including cancer, damage to the immune, neurological, reproductive, and respiratory systems.

Citing “neuroprosthetics” like cochlear implants, Bryan Johnson of Braintree envisions BCI (brain-computer interface), a synergistic relationship between the central nervous system and external computing devices. A brain-computer interface, in the context of advanced transhumanism and taken to its logical conclusion, is AI/human hybrids.

There are some undeniable points to be made about a drug, or an implant, that can enhance intelligence: If people have the choice to enhance their mental abilities with medication or an implant, what does that mean for society? Because if we all have access to the same enhancement, would it be an enhancement, or a new reality?