How Far Away is the Cyborg-Human Race?

I happened across a BBC Sport article found here (full text below) that I found quite interesting.

"If blades are allowing blade runners to run as fast as able-bodied human beings at this point, what's it going to look like in 20 years?"

Looking at our inability to be separated from our smartphones nowadays, it seems that we're already set on a path to integrated technology to assist our mental/cognitive functioning.

But is it conceivable that we could get to a point we would see the first people to intentionally have their limbs chopped off and replaced with artificial ones actually within our lifetimes?

How would you feel about seeing that come to pass? If you could replace parts of your body with more efficient, artificial versions - would you?


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Usain Bolt: Para-athlete Liam Malone vows to run faster than Olympic legend

Double Paralympic champion Liam Malone says he will use technology to run faster than Olympic legend Usain Bolt within the next three years.

Double-leg amputee Malone won gold in the T44 200m and 400m at Rio 2016.

Jamaican sprinter Bolt, who will retire this summer as an eight-time Olympic gold medallist, set the 100m world record of 9.58 seconds in 2009.

"I'm aiming for 9.4 seconds," New Zealander Malone, 23, told BBC Radio 5 live.

Malone, who is not competing at the World Para-athletics Championships in London because of injury, believes technological improvements to the blades used by amputee runners will bring down times.

"In the next three years I'll run faster than Usain Bolt over 100m," said Malone, who was born without fibula bones and had his legs amputated below the knee when he was 18 months old.

"It won't be done in the Paralympics, and I've no intention of ever racing Usain Bolt or able-bodied people, it's about racing against their time outside of the rules and regulations that limit technology. That's what I'm focused on at the moment.

"If you were me and you were bullied as a kid from five to 15, and you had this opportunity to use technology to do something that hasn't been done before, you'd absolutely want to do it and that's what I'm doing."

Malone, who clocked 11.02 as he finished second to Britain's Jonnie Peacock in the 100m in Rio, believes that in "50 to 100 years' time" Para-athletics will feature athletes who are "half-robotic, half-human".

"The point is that artificial bodies improve at a faster rate than the biological body," he said.

"Until about nine years old, my legs were basically like a pirate's from the 16th century - wood, rubber, really basic.

"It's only in the last five to 10 years I've had these new forms of technology come through.

"If blades are allowing blade runners to run as fast as able-bodied human beings at this point, what's it going to look like in 20 years?

"It's not just in Paralympic sport. Artificial bodies is one of the biggest trends in the world - from dying your hair to using contact lenses to hearing aids to breast implants and fake teeth. It really is the future.

"Human beings love customising things and the human body is the pinnacle of something you can customise."

Technology is governed by International Paralympic Committee rules - and changes are due to come into force in January that would outlaw the blades used by Malone.

"I'm not sure what the IPC are doing there," he said. "It would be easier to give everyone access to the same technology."

I don't see this as something that is too far in the future, maybe 20-30 years from now? And as much as I love me, I don't how it degrades without my approval..

so yeah, I would totally be replacing thing. Got a bit of a shopping list tbh.

During chemo treatments I shared a room with an older gentlemen who I became good friends with. His name is Bud, and he had cancer in his inner ear. The doctors removed his entire right ear and gave him a cochlear implant in its place. He looks different, but the electronic ear functions as well or better than his own other ear. He likes to joke that he would be the 6 Million Dollar Man if his insurance would cover it. "Replace it all, so long as it works better than what nature gave me."

Having cancer myself, I can empathize with this sentiment. I don't know that I would swap out parts for cosmetic reasons or just to be faster or stronger, but I would certainly consider a synthetic liver if it was cancer proof and could still handle my tendency to enjoy too much Guinness

Not far, and yes, yes, 100 times yes.

I've already argued at length with my surgeons on whether they can improve me when I'm "in the shop"

They don't seem to be confident that anything they can do is "better" that nature, and I guess the risk of removing my limbs and replacing them with titanium, at this point, is too high compared to the pay off.

Once they get better though, Ho-HO! I'm in!


Digital cognitive stuff is harder- It becomes redundant faster. You'd be getting hacked open every coupla years for an update - and this is gets into funnier grounds as to what makes us human.

Being able to fact-check anything on a portable super computer or communicate instantaneously across the planet is a convenience we have assimilated reasonably well into our society. Is having that ability integral to who and what we are a line to cross, or just natural progress?

(trivia night at the pub will be a bit less fun though)

How far does it go? Having access to unlimited information, but still using "human" means to reach decisions is something we can accept - How would we feel if some people were somehow "better" ? I don't imagine the "have nots" would take it well.


Anyway, Asimov has great books on the subject, and Deus Ex is a pretty good game.