Jason Silva’s Latest: To Be Human Is to Be Transhuman
The term ‘transhuman’ inevitably (for me) summons grotesque visions of humans and machines merging into a Borg-like race bent on eradicating biological imperfection. These creatures’ cold rationality...
View ArticleBionic Athletes With Exoskeletons, Robotic Limbs, and Brain-Control Devices...
While traditional sports only grudgingly accept technological augmentation, the 2016 Cybathlon, a kind of hybrid between the XPRIZE and Olympics, embraces it with both robotic arms. Disabled...
View ArticleSingularity Surplus: Cyborg Edition
Multi-jointed mind-controlled prosthetic arm; prosthetic gets to girl who needs it; steer a wheelchair with your eyes.
View ArticleBlurring the Line Between Disability and Ability — Double Amputee Amy Purdy...
Amy Purdy, who lost her legs below the knee after a bout with bacterial meningitis and sepsis in 1999, scored two 10s and a 9 this week for a lively dance with Derek Hough performed on blade...
View ArticleA Straightforward Method for Making Wearable Tech
Considering the pace of technological growth in recent decades, the convergence of humans and machines seems a foregone conclusion. Yet, unlike most machines, the body is far too flexible and squishy...
View ArticleBionic Pancreas Promises Big Boost in Health, Quality of Life for Type 1...
Diabetes, despite affecting nearly 350 million people worldwide, is not really a controlled illness. Those who have the type 1 form of the illness, in which the pancreas fails to... read more
View ArticleTiny 3D-Printed Bio-Bots Are Propelled by Muscle Cells
Robots come in all shapes and sizes—some are mechanical, and some aren’t. Last year, a team of scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign made a seven-millimeter-long 3D printed...
View ArticleRobotic Suit Makes Chunks of Metal Light as Feathers for Korean Shipyard Workers
It started long ago, the merger of man and machine. Power looms for hands, cars and trains for legs, and recently, computers for memory. Now, as robotic suits approach practicality,... read more
View ArticleNeuromodulation 2.0: New Developments in Brain Implants, Super Soldiers and...
Brain implants here we come. DARPA just announced the ElectRX program, a $78.9 million attempt to develop miniscule electronic devices that interface directly with the nervous system in the hopes......
View ArticleUS Navy Tests Exoskeleton to Boost Worker Strength and Productivity
Exoskeletons have made news in recent years for creating super-soldiers and allowing wheelchair users to walk again. Now, the US Navy will test and evaluate Lockheed Martin’s FORTIS exoskeletons for......
View ArticleExponential Medicine: Meet Bionic Amputee, Nigel Ackland
In 2006, Nigel Ackland had an accident. Working as a metal smelter a the time, his right hand was crushed in an industrial mixer. The hand was so severely damaged... read more
View ArticleThese Thought-Controlled Robotic Arms Are Beating Paralysis and Amputation
In 2012, University of Pittsburgh researchers released a video of Jan Scheuermann feeding herself a bite of chocolate. This, of course, wouldn't be noteworthy but for one thing: Scheuermann is... read...
View ArticleHow Should We Prepare for the AI Revolution? Ray Kurzweil Responds in This...
On the cusp of a far-reaching revolution thanks to the advances in artificial intelligence and computing, it's easy to feel a bit...concerned. Well, maybe more than just a bit, especially... read more
View ArticlePlaying 20 Questions by ‘Telepathy’? Big Score for Brain-to-Brain Communication
Interpersonal communication just got a lot more intimate. So intimate, in fact, that two strangers — physically separated by a mile — can literally get... read more
View ArticleRats Engineered to See Infrared Light, Use It to Seek Out Water
The brain is a great information processor, but one that doesn’t care about where information comes from. Sight, scent, taste, sound, touch — all of... read more
View ArticleFirst Human Tests of Memory Boosting Brain Implant—a Big Leap Forward
“You have to begin to lose your memory, if only bits and pieces, to realize that memory is what makes our lives. Life without memory... read more
View ArticleScience Fiction’s Greatest Power? Inspiring Us to Build the Future
Science fiction’s visions of the future can appear more fantasy than fact. Sometimes books and movies are unnerving, other times they’re way off. Although sci-fi isn’t... read more
View ArticleBlind Woman Receives Bionic Eye, Reads a Clock With Elation
Recently, the BBC broadcast the reaction of Rhian Lewis, a 49-year-old blind mother of two, as she read a clock correctly using her right eye... read more
View ArticleThe Digitalization of Prosthetics Is Transforming How Wounded Service Members...
Sitting on Dr. Peter Liacouras’s desk is a razor, a stick of deodorant, and a partially built prosthetic arm. Behind him, several 3D printers buzz... read more
View ArticleCan You Download Knowledge Into Your Brain With Electricity?
A cognitive neuroscientist and his team at HRL Laboratories in Malibu, California, seem to have achieved the impossible. According to a press release, the team... read more
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