In an age of machines and AI fusing together, should humanity do the same?
“AI will probably be smarter than any human next year,” Elon Musk recently stated.
Prominent futurist Ray Kurzweil’s latest book is titled “The Singularity is Nearer”, and he now predicts AI will achieve human-level intelligence by 2029. Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of NVIDIA, which has been instrumental in the massive development of AI, agrees on this date too.
In my Future Files article last week, I discussed how ChatGPT recently “got a body” with the emergence of Figure01, a humanoid robot that can interact with its surroundings and learn and grow thanks to reinforcement learning, a machine learning (ML) capability that allows an AI-driven system to learn through trial and error using feedback from its actions (like humans), and share their learned knowledge real-time with other robots.
How will humans have to evolve and level up to match the capabilities of robots merged with AI?
Perhaps human-machine hybrids are our future?
“If you can’t beat them, join them,” Elon Musk told Peter Diamandis during a live panel this week.
Let’s investigate…
The early mental cost
The world always changes, and technology always evolves. And in the not-so-distant future, if Musk, David Holz, and Figure’s founder, Brett Adcock, have their way, we could expect a billion humanoid robots working with us by the 2040s.
Those who lose their jobs will feel inadequate and unable to compete, leading to a potential string of depressive episodes, says author Tim Leberecht, in a conversation with Quartz.
He labels this at-risk group the “Dispensables” and argues that even “if they have the basic-level needs of the Maslow hierarchy of needs covered, they still lack wellbeing, fulfilment, and agency.”
That’s because our jobs, even if we say we dislike them, often bring us a sense of purpose, accomplishment and belonging.
“Now is the time to prepare for the looming mental-health crisis before we find ourselves in the midst of a historic mass-depression, with large parts of the population isolated, social contracts eroding, and our democratic societies at risk,” he noted 7 years ago.
In an age of machines and AI fusing together, one consideration is for humanity to do the same.
We’ve evolved to spend a lot of time in digital realms now; Average users spend 4.5+ hours on their smartphones (or if you are like me, a tech addict who uses it for work, double that).
Yet, despite this connectivity we now share with one another online, there is a fragmented disconnect between our physical and virtual worlds due to the fact we have to access via phone, laptop or iPad (hello, tech neck!).
We are also painfully slow…
10 bits per second: This is how fast we can communicate by typing on our iPhones with our fingers. Whereas, computers communicate at “a trillion bits per second”.
"One possibility – something that may be crazy by today's standards but will not be so crazy by future standards – is that many people will choose to become part AI,” said OpenAI’s Chief Scientist and Co-Founder Ilya Sutskever, "At first, only the most daring, adventurous people will try to do it," he added.
The Primo Posthuman
Author of The Transhumanist Manifesto, author, and executive director of Humanity+ Dr. Natasha Vita-More describes a future where we will “customize” our bodies like we do our clothes.
In 2005, Natasha introduced the ‘Primo Posthuman’, a whole-body prosthetic incorporating some interesting technological enhancements, such as a nanotech data storage system, solar-protected smart skin with the ability to change its color, a fiberoptic communication spine, and more.
What Natasha proposed is essentially a new vessel for humanity to embody, one free of most of the flaws and limitations of the human body. While it is not possible to create a Primo Posthuman just yet, much of the technology is being developed.
Using scientific, medical and technological advancements to advance humanity is nothing new.
When humans wanted to travel faster, we created shoes. When we wanted to see better, we created glasses. When we wanted to keep track of the time, we created watches. Humans have always invented tools to help us with our shortfalls to become smarter, stronger, faster, and better.
And for many with disabilities, technological augmentations are a medical lifeline.
US military research agency DARPA launched the Restoring Active Memory (RAM) program in November 2013, to develop a fully implantable, closed-loop neural interface that would allow military personnel suffering from brain injury or illness to restore normal memory function. Five years later, they had managed to achieve a 37 percent improvement in memory function in the short term.
Science Corp is designing a bionic eye that could potentially help restore vision to the blind or visually impaired. The prosthesis is called Science Eye, and once it's been proven safe and effective, it'll be implanted on top of, and inside, the eyeballs of human patients suffering from diseases where the eye's light-sensing cells have died. The idea is to coax other cells within the eye to receive and translate light signals, as per CNET. DARPA proposed a somewhat similar invention in 2015, a “cortical modem”, one that would not only restore vision, but also allow the user to utilize a heads-up display (HUD), like in video games, or the Terminator. Think HoloLens or Google Glass, but without the headset. We’ve also seen similar concepts in video games like Cyberpunk 2077.
2023 saw a breakthrough in bionics technology when a team from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden developed a new bionic hand that allows users with arm amputations to effortlessly control each finger as though it were their own body, as reported by Euro News at the time. The key to the new bionic hand is a technique called neuromuscular reconstruction, where surgeons rewire the nerves in the impacted limb so that they control different muscles, with the assistance of an AI algorithm. This allows users to generate more complex movements with the bionic hand, such as flexing and extending all five fingers to pick up small objects or type on a keyboard.
Elon Musk’s Neuralink recently showcased its first human patient, who was able to control a computer cursor with his mind thanks to the implant. Neuralink has bold aspirations, hoping “to restore autonomy to those with unmet medical needs today, and unlock human potential tomorrow.” This potential, if Musk is to be believed, connotates a merger between humans and AI. That’s because he sees humans becoming “useless” in the future in comparison with AI.
“It’s mostly about the bandwidth, the speed of the connection between your brain and the digital version of yourself, particularly output,” he said at the time. “Some high bandwidth interface to the brain will be something that helps achieve a symbiosis between human and machine intelligence and maybe solves the control problem and the usefulness problem.” Enter Neuralink center stage. And scene.
By helping people with disabilities communicate or move about, Brain-Chip Interfaces (BCIs) can profoundly improve their quality of life, and help them recover their autonomy – one of the key tenets of medical ethics.
Of course, BCIs also raise some interesting questions around the potential for identity theft, password hacking and blackmail. Not to mention accessing people’s thoughts and manipulating them.
I think what is more immediately concerning is the possibility that BCIs could be life changing for people with disabilities, but they become unavailable due to loss of research funding. There is always a balance between risk and benefit, and a balance against patient safety and societal good.
Is the merge of man and machine inevitable?
While a lot of cybernetic augmentations today revolve around helping those with injuries and impairments, technology is continuously evolving. In the future, we may not only treat those with ailments, but similar to Natasha's Primo Posthuman Body, we may eclipse our human capabilities, be this in physical or mental fortitude.
This is how I view the Dangerous Things RFID microchip I’m getting implanted in my hand next month, but on a far smaller scale. At this stage, the tech allows me to unlock my car, office and home without needing to carry my keys, or share my contact details without needing to carry business cards which are outdated and are bad for the environment. RIFD microchip implants are popular in Sweden, where many used their microchips to scan their way onto the train system during the Covid-19 pandemic. Although these augmentations to my life are small, I see microchips evolving to eliminate the need for Apple Pay or physical credit cards. Perhaps in the future they will advance into health chips that measure your vitals, notify you of vitamin deficiencies, and help you understand what’s happening in your body to stay healthy.
I look forward to continuing to experiment in the future, in the name of science.
Imagine a future... Don't shy away.
Imagine a future where we’ll replace faulty organs with new artificial ones. Imagine a time when our organic memory can be augmented by computer memory, much like how we replace an SSD in a computer, and what that will mean for our memory and knowledge retention.
Rather than shying away from these complex discussions or dismissing them, we should remain curious and explore the ethical use of technologies in an effort to find solutions and expand our human potential.
If artificial intelligence will really make us “useless” as Musk believes, is a merger with AI really the only way humans can stay relevant?
Perhaps, rather than fearing AI taking over our jobs, we should use this as motivation to level up and tap into our own unique minds and human intelligence? After all, empathy, ethics, and a nuanced understanding of complex situations, are areas where AI often falls short.
And if a merge with AI and humans is the way forward, how do we maintain our autonomy and agency as human beings with an additional “AI mind” occupying our own?
Will we end up with a two-tier society, with some humans augmented with tech, and others not? Could this exacerbate social inequalities if only wealthy citizens have access to enhancements?
…And ultimately, when we become more plastic and metal than flesh, will we still call ourselves human, trans-human, post-human or something else?
