Human Augmentation

Human Augmentation

We are heading into a future of augmenting humans and in a way we are already augmented with the use of smartphones.  For Example, when we get access to a lot more data and knowledge, and insights but human augmentation goes a notch further.

Definition of  Human Augmentation

It is defined as the field of human augmentation sometimes referred to as human 2.0 focuses on creating cognitive and physical improvements as an integral part of the human body. 

Some other interesting remark about the Gartner report is maybe you are familiar with the bring your device policy in your organization or other organizations. So, you can bring your laptop or tablet or smartphone to the work and do your work with that device but what's interesting is that garner stated that they expect around 2023 or 2025 that there will also be a portion of its companies that do not only have to bring your device policy but also bring your enhancement policy. So, it might be interesting how that is going to play out.

What's the difference with a couple of other terms let me start with biohacking and transhumanism biohacking is also the use of technology to enhance augment improve and alter the human body but it has the open-source spirit and way of cooperation in it. You might think of human augmentation more being used in the workplace and offered by commercial organizations. While biohacking is more open source and free and more experimenting in a sense the difference with tranhumanism. Those transhumanist ideas are more into the future so they are more into the edge of tomorrow type of cases where I started so human augmentation technologies and methods are already being used.

Today or in the next let's say five to ten years well a lot of the transhumanist ideas have a longer timeline so I expect them to come to fruition like in 20 to 50 to maybe 100 years an interesting difference is between human augmentation and human enhancement and the difference is that human enhancement is broader about enhancing human capabilities. While augmenting is also adding features adding functions maybe also adding. Some technologies on the human body so to give you a concrete example. I would say that the use of genetic modification is a form of human enhancement while it not. Human augmentation another difference is that human augmentation is also being used more in the workplace. You can also find it more in the discussions about improv using technology to improve human capabilities in commercial organizations for employees etc while human enhancement is being used more by government agencies talking about legislation and also about geopolitics.

Examples of Human Augmentation with Respect to its Types

• Replacement

The first one is the replacement and the best way to look at replacements is the use of the prosthesis so protesters are for example when you are when you have lost body parts like an arm or a leg. Nowadays most people use them in healthcare applications so when there are real patients that lost a limp. One of the most interesting examples in this field is you hear who is also given a TEDx talk on this topic and also tilly locky she lost her arms when she was about three years old because of some brain disease and now she has bionic arms and she's very proud of them she said she says she can also do her makeup and also paint with the bionic arms.

• Support

The second type is support and here comes in the edge of tomorrow exoskeletons technology because you can of course use technology to augment human capabilities in the physical sense so these exoskeletons are being used not only in healthcare to help people with for example that is paralyzed to help them move again but also being used in the workforce. There's an example of the ford factories that use exoskeletons for the employees to mainly support. While they're doing a lot of work with their hands above their head. But also the Dutch Marine and the American army are also looking at the use of exoskeletons to improve the capabilities the physical capabilities. For example,  in a warehouse or also on the battlefield, you can also think of human augmentation as a kind of support. With the use of augmented reality glasses for example google glass, so you get extra information for the employees to do their work so this is also being used in highly technical functions.

• Improvement

The third type is improvement an improvement you can think of putting new senses to the human body to give you. Two examples the first one is the development of so-called smart contact lenses. So, that in a way it looks a little bit like the smart glasses only it's really integrated into the human body and gives extra information and extra capabilities to the human, to the employee, to the human being, etc. Another nice example is how do you get extra senses is the use of haptic feedback so there's also a company working on a sort of belt with little motors in it and you can give extra haptic feedback to the one who's wearing the belt, The Dutch army is testing this device so you when you are in the battlefield you get a little movement in one of the motors. For example, you know which direction you have to go so that's instead of getting that inside your ear it's been used directly as a sort of extra sense on the body.

• Communication

The fourth type is communication and the most interesting field is human augmentation because I said it's more about the use of technology in the workplace is brain-computer interfacing. It's about using brain waves to communicate with machines with software etc and it's a really rudimentary technology at the moment I also have a device at home. This is a muse headband and I can use this device to measure my brain ways while doing meditation but what's interesting is that there are also new startups and companies working on the use of this technology in a way, also maybe in the future that you can directly control certain machines or, maybe be faster in giving directions or giving signals to software to machines to hardware, etc An example of communication may be in the future we have direct communication and of course, there are all kinds of applications where you can use this in a commercial setting but also in the workplace.

Numerous sensors and cloud data provide informational artificial intelligence filters and it's presented in easy to understand ways to support human cognition in a timely manner. 

So that's more about the cognitive function but I also say physical tools or robots enable action in and changes to the environment. That's again also about the collaboration of man and machine. With the use of human augmentation technologies at least the scientists also say at its best other people are brought close to us independent of where they are physically located at its worst privacy and autonomy may be treated sorry, it may be in danger so,  they also see the possible upside of human augmentation technologies but also the downside and in a way.

Thank you guys for being with me till the end of the blog. See you in the next blog stay blessed. 

JazakALLAH!