Identity Article: Downloads and Upgrades- The Cyborg Future

Philippa Taylor discusses Professor Kevin Warwick’s technological advancements in the article “Downloads and Upgrades: The Cyborg Future”.  Warwick is pioneering some very interesting/disturbing technology that could essentially “upgrade” humans, giving us capabilities such as being able to have a brain that is linked to a computer. 

This technology is actually already being implemented, at least in Warwick himself.  He “experiments on himself in order to see how the human brain can affect and alter basic behavior by purely electronic stimulation”.  This could lead to advancements in treatments and therapeutic purposes to help people that have injuries and illnesses.

The real question behind the article, though, is a moral one.  Although his technology could help people in need, it could also be the beginning of blurring the lines of what defines us as humans.  Where does the computer end and the human begin?  I think that Warwick may have had good intentions, but it is a step in the wrong direction (I’m getting a vision of some crazy movie where human-robots are taking over the world).  The conclusion of Taylor’s article quotes C.S. Lewis saying that “Each new power won by man is a power over man as well.  Each advance leaves him weaker as well as stronger. […] Human nature will be the last part of nature to surrender to man”.  I think this speaks a great deal about what may happen if Warwick’s technology goes mainstream, and due to this he should be extremely cautious in the way he proceeds.

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