Scientists, programmers, and engineers the world over are developing radical new technologies that will not only become a part of our everyday reality—an improved reality—they’ll fit directly into our bodies. Everywhere we look, a “super human” future is appearing. Scientists, programmers, and engineers the world over are developing radical new technologies that will not only become a part of our everyday reality—an improved reality—they’ll fit directly into our bodies.
Fifty years after Alvin Toffler’s bestselling book Future Shock, it’s safe to say even he did not appreciate how far human biohacking would go. But the ground we’ve covered in the last 50 years is nowhere near how far we’ll go in the next 50. The transhumanist age is upon us, driven by the nearly exponentially evolving microchip. And it’s about to get weird for humans. Our species may not even resemble mammals by the 22nd century.
We’re already seeing radical advances in use today. There are contact lenses that enable people to see in the dark. We’re witnessing remarkable experiments with endoskeletons attached to artificial limbs, enabling people to lift a half ton of weight. Doctors in France are replacing people’s hearts with permanent robotic ones. Still others are working on brain chip implants that read thoughts and instantly communicate them with others.
There’s already a multibillion dollar market for brainwave-reading headsets. Using electroencephalography (EEG) sensors that pick up brainwaves, they are able to monitor and actually decipher brain activity. Some headsets can attach to Google Glass, allowing users to take a picture and post it to Facebook and Twitter—just by thinking about it! Other headsets allow users to play thought-driven video games on an iPhone. And it’s all advancing rapidly.
It’s been only a few years since the first digital mind-to-mind communication was accomplished. A researcher in India projected a thought to a colleague in France, and using their headsets, they understood each other. In an instant, telepathy went from science fiction to science fact. And now entrepreneurs like Elon Musk are working to bring these neural technologies to the wider market.
Transhumanism—the burgeoning field of robotic implants, prosthetics, and cyborg-like enhancements for humans—has come a long way since scientists began throwing the term around a half-century ago. What a difference a generation or two makes! Today a thriving pro-cyborg medical industry is setting the stage for trillion-dollar markets that will remake the human experience. For example, five million people in America suffer from Alzheimer’s, but a new procedure involving brain implants is showing promise in restoring people’s memories and improving lives. Consequently, the use of medical and microchip implants, whether in the brain or elsewhere, are expected to surge in the coming years. Millions of people worldwide already have such implants. I have one in my hand. It’s truly a new age for humans.
Rich Lee, a leading biohacker—also called a grinder—told me, “Implanting magnets in your fingertips gives you the ability to feel magnetic fields. Your fingertips have lots of nerve endings jammed into one area and they are really sensitive to stimuli. Magnets twitch or move in the presence of magnetic fields, and when you implant one in your finger you can really start to feel different magnetic fields around you. So it is like a sixth sense. You can now perceive an otherwise invisible world.”
While magnets may be fun, much of the new transhumanist tech will be used to extend and enhance our reach for more practical purposes. For example, tiny implants injected into the hand could yield far more efficient and secure ID and payment systems. Imagine never carrying keys or your wallets again.
Perhaps the most important development of the 21st century is genetic editing. Humans may soon be able to augment their intelligence via a shot. The designer baby era is already here—we have the ability to select hair and eye color for our offspring. Around the world, scientists are working on how to use genetic editing to end hereditary disease. Others want to put compatible plant DNA into their bodies so they can photosynthesize, and never need to eat again.
Of course, the challenge with such progress is the question of whether we’re leaving behind our humanness, and consequently, our humanity. It’s a good question. As the Tofflers wrote in Future Shock, “the man with a pacemaker or a plastic aorta is still recognizably a man. The inanimate part of his body is still relatively unimportant in terms of his personality and consciousness.” This is true, but I would take this further to say that our sense of being human, indeed, our humanity, is ultimately based on being kind and just with one another. Undeniably, there have been distortions in the history and application of science and technology, but technology has consistently improved the state of the world and the standard of living. Radically so. As such, I believe the increase of technology—in and around us—will ultimately make us even more human.
Whatever happens, along the way humans and their advancing technologies will create paths and produce designs for our world that will transform us into new and better entities—super-human beings. We are standing at the doorstep of a new world and experience, and I am looking forward to embracing its promising and exciting future.
Zoltan Istvan is a bestselling author, professional speaker, and a world-renowned futurist. He was the 2016 US Presidential nominee of the Transhumanist Party.