The Future (85 page)
Authors: Al Gore
283
at the University of Cambridge in England
David Cyranoski, “Neuroscience: The Mind Reader,”
Nature
, June 13, 2012.
284
select pictures that are then displayed on the iPhone’s screen
Kennedy, “The Cyborg in Us All.”
285
empower users to control objects on a computer screen
Katia Moskovitch, “Real-Life Jedi: Pushing the Limits of Mind Control,” BBC, October 9, 2011.
286
“muscle rhythms rather than real neural activity”
Clive Cookson, “Healthcare: Into the Cortex,”
Financial Times
, July 31, 2012.
287
headset to allow thought control of other electronic devices
Moskovitch, “Real-Life Jedi.”
288
approach to build wheelchairs and robots controlled by thoughts
Cookson, “Healthcare: Into the Cortex.”
289
Four other companies
Moskovitch, “Real-Life Jedi.”
290
that enable soldiers to communicate telepathically
Kennedy, “The Cyborg in Us All.”
291
devoting more than $6 million to the project
Ibid.
292
target date for completion of the prototype device is 2017
“Pentagon Plans for Telepathic Troops Who Can Read Each Others’ Minds … and They Could Be in the Field within Five Years,”
Daily Mail
, April 8, 2012.
293
According to Nick Bostrom
Nick Bostrom, “A History of Transhumanist Thought,” 2005,
http://www.nickbostrom.com/papers/history.pdf
.
294
a ferment that continued into the twentieth century
Ibid.
295
First used by Teilhard de Chardin
Ibid.
296
“Shortly after, the human era will be ended”
Vernor Vinge, “The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era,” 1993,
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/vinge/misc/singularity.html
.
297
form that can be comprehended by and
contained
in advanced computers
Lara Farrar, “Scientists: Humans and Machines Will Merge in Future,” CNN,
July 15, 2008,
http://articles.cnn.com/2008-07-15/tech/bio.tech_1_emergent-technologies-bostrom-human-life/2?_s=PM:TECH
.
298
“post-Singularity, between human and machine or between physical and virtual reality”
Ibid.
299
has challenged Kurzweil to a $20,000 bet
“By 2029 No Computer—or ‘Machine Intelligence’—Will Have Passed the Turing Test,” A Long Bet,
http://longbets.org/1/
.
300
before the computer-based “Technological Singularity” is ever achieved
John Chelen, “Could the Organic Singularity Occur Prior to Kurzweil’s Technological Singularity?,”
Science Progress
, June 20, 2012.
301
replace not only hips
Ben Coxworth, “New Discovery Could Lead to Better Artificial Hips,”
Gizmag
, November 27, 2011,
http://www.gizmag.com/artificial-hip-joint-lubrication-layer/20949/
.
302
knees
James Dao, “High-Tech Knee Holds Promise for Veterans,”
New York Times
, August 18, 2010.
303
legs
Alexis Okeowo, “A Once-Unthinkable Choice for Amputees,”
New York Times
, May 14, 2012.
304
arms
Thomas H. Maugh II, “Two Paralyzed People Successfully Use Robot Arm,”
Los Angeles Times
, May 16, 2012.
305
but also eyes
Carl Zimmer, “ ‘I See,’ Said the Blind Man with an Artificial Retina,”
Discovery News
, September 15, 2011.
306
replaceable with artificial substitutes
Richard Yonck, “The Path to Future Intelligence,”
Psychology Today
, May 13, 2011; Rob Beschizza, “Mechanical Fingers Give Strength, Speed to Amputees,”
Wired
, July 2, 2007.
307
Cochlear implants, as noted, are used to restore hearing
“Cochlear Implants Restore Hearing in Rare Disorder,”
Science Daily
, April 20, 2012.
308
exoskeletons to enable paraplegics to walk
Melissa Healy, “Body Suit May Soon Enable the Paralyzed to Walk,”
Los Angeles Times
, October 6, 2011.
309
confer additional strength on soldiers
Susan Karlin, “Raytheon Sarcos’s Exoskeleton Nears Production,”
IEEE Spectrum
, August 2011.
310
bespoke in-ear hearing aids are already made with 3D printers
Quest Means Business
, CNN transcript, November 8, 2012,
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1211/08/qmb.01.html
; Nick Glass, “Pitch Perfect: The Quest to Create the World’s Smallest Hearing Aid,” CNN, November 9, 2012,
http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/09/tech/hearing-aid-widex-3d-printing/index.html
.
311
woman who was not a candidate for traditional reconstructive surgery
“Transplant Jaw Made by 3D Printer Claimed as First,” BBC News, February 6, 2012,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16907104
.
312
field of transplantation because of the current shortage of organs
Ibid.
313
regenerative medicine scientists at Wake Forest University
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, press release, “Lab-Engineered Kidney Project Reaches Early Milestone,” June 21, 2012; Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, press release, “Researchers Engineer Miniature Human Livers in the Lab,” October 30, 2010.
314
precisely copied the size and shape of the windpipe
Henry Fountain, “A First: Organs Tailor-Made with Body’s Own Cells,”
New York Times
, September 16, 2012.
315
sensed the matrix of the scaffolding being broken down
Henry Fountain, “Human Muscle, Regrown on Animal Scaffolding,”
New York Times
, September 17, 2012.
316
developing silicon nanowires a thousand times smaller
Elizabeth Landieu, “When Organs Become Cyborgs,” CNN, August 29, 2012.
317
which the U.S. shares with all other countries besides Iran
Stephen J. Dubner, “Human Organs for Sale, Legally, in … Which Country?,” Freakonomics blog, April 29, 2008,
http://www.freakonomics.com/2008/04/29/human-organs-for-sale-legally-in-which-country/
.
318
transplantation into people living in wealthy countries
“Organ Black Market Booming,” UPI, May 28, 2012.
319
“the longest chain of kidney transplants ever constructed”
Kevin Sack, “60 Lives, 30 Kidneys, All Linked,”
New York Times
, February 19, 2012.
320
“organ donor” as one of the items to be updated
Matt Richtel and Kevin Sack, “Facebook Is Urging Members to Add Organ Donor Status,”
New York Times
, May 1, 2012.
321
the process to print more advanced artificial limbs
Ashlee Vance, “3-D Printing Spurs a Manufacturing Revolution,”
New York Times
, September 14, 2010.
322
using it to make numerous medical implants
“The Printed World,”
Economist
, February 10, 2011.
323
print vaccines and pharmaceuticals from basic chemicals
Tim Adams, “The ‘Chemputer’ That Could Print Out Any Drug,”
Guardian
, July 21, 2012.
324
essentially the same product
Eric Topol,
The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care
(New York: Basic Books, 2012), ch. 10.
325
activated by shining a laser light on them from outside the body
Avi Schroeder et al., “Remotely Activated Protein-Producing Nanoparticles,”
Nano Letters
2, no. 6 (2012): 2685–89; George Dvorsky, “Microscopic Machines Could Produce Medicine Directly Inside Your Body,” io9, July 29, 2012,
http://io9.com/5922447/microscopic-machines-could-produce-medicine-directly-inside-your-body
.
326
Specialized prosthetics for the brain
Cookson, “Healthcare: Into the Cortex.”
327
digital devices on the surface of the brain and, in some cases, deeper within the brain
Wilson, “Bionic Brains and Beyond”; Allison Abbott, “Brain Implants Have Long-Lasting Effect on Depression,”
Nature
, February 7, 2011.
328
activate and direct the movement of robots with their thoughts
Cookson, “Healthcare: Into the Cortex.”
329
dispense with the wires connecting the chip to a computer
Ibid.
330
Scientists and engineers at the University of Illinois
Ibid.
331
“nanotechnology, micro-power generation—to provide therapeutic benefit”
Ibid.
332
rat’s brain stem to interpret information
Linda Geddes, “Rat Cyborg Gets Digital Cerebellum,”
New Scientist
, September 27, 2011.
333
“synthetic correlates before the end of the century”
Ibid.
334
in humans, including prosthetics for bladder control
Monica Friedlander, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, “Neural Implants Come of Age,”
Science and Technology Review
, June 2012.
335
relief of spinal pain
Ibid.
336
remediation of some forms of blindness
Wilson, “Bionic Brains and Beyond.”
337
and deafness
Ibid.
338
to enhance focus and concentration
Ibid.
339
people to enhance concentration at times of their choosing
Ibid.
340
Adderall, Ritalin, and Provigil to improve their test scores
Margaret Talbot, “Brain Gain: The Underground World of ‘Neuroenhancing’ Drugs,”
New Yorker
, April 27, 2009.
341
“ranges from 15 percent to 40 percent”
Alan Schwarz, “Risky Rise of the Good-Grade Pill,”
New York Times
, June 10, 2012.
342
doctors who work with low-income families have started prescribing Adderall
Alan Schwarz, “Attention Disorder or Not, Pills to Help in School,”
New York Times
, October 9, 2012.
343
felt they improved their memory and ability to focus
Drew Halley, “Brain-Doping at the Lab Bench,” Project Syndicate, April 20, 2009.
344
the promise of actually boosting intelligence
Jamais Cascio, “Get Smarter,”
Atlantic
, July/August 2009; Ross Anderson, “Why Cognitive Enhancement Is in Your Future (and Your Past),”
Atlantic
, February 6, 2012.
345
as little stigma as cosmetic surgery does today
V. Cakic, “Smart Drugs for Cognitive Enhancement: Ethical and Pragmatic Considerations in the Era of Cosmetic Neurology,”
Journal of Medical Ethics
35 (2009):
611–15; Anderson, “Why Cognitive Enhancement Is in Your Future (and Your Past).”
346
used for object recognition in order to improve the training of snipers
Sally Adee, “Zap Your Brain into the Zone: Fast Track to Pure Focus,”
New Scientist
, February 6, 2012.
347
first double amputee track athlete ever to compete
Jere Longman, “After Long Road, Nothing Left to Do but Win,”
New York Times
, August 5, 2012.
348
relay, in which the South African team reached the finals
David Trifunov, “Oscar Pistorius Eliminated in 400m Semifinal at London 2012 Olympics,”
Global Post
, August 5, 2012.
349
“it is unfair to the able-bodied competitors”
Longman, “After Long Road, Nothing Left to Do but Win.”
350
according to Pistorius
“Oscar Pistorius Apologizes for Timing of Paralympics Criticism,” BBC Sport, September 3, 2012.
351
(EPO)—which regulates the production of red blood cells
“Genetically Modified Olympians?,”
Economist
, July 31, 2008.
352
delivering more oxygen to the muscles for a longer period of time
Lana Bandoim, “Erythropoietin Abuse Among Athletes Can Lead to Vascular Problems,” Yahoo, December 25, 2011,
http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ycn-10747311
.
353
He has admitted use of EPO, along with other illegal enhancements
“Landis Admits EPO Use,” ESPN, May 20, 2010,
http://www.espn.co.uk/more/sport/story/23635.html
.
354
Armstrong was stripped of his championships and banned from cycling
Juliet Macur, “Lance Armstrong Is Stripped of His 7 Tour de France Titles,”
New York Times
, October 22, 2012
355
use of EPO, steroids, and blood transfusions
“Lance Armstrong Won’t Fight Charges,” ESPN, August 24, 2012.
356
detecting new enhancements that violate the rules
Matthew Knight, “Hi-Tech Tests to Catch Olympics Drug Cheats at London 2012,” CNN, July 31, 2012,
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/12/sport/drugs-london-2012-olympics-laboratory/index.html
; Andy Bull, “Ye Shiwen’s World Record Olympic Swim ‘Disturbing,’ Says Top US Coach,”
Guardian
, July 30, 2012.