Seminar Report 2012-13

CYBORGS

DEPARTMENT OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION GOVERNMENT OF KERALA GOVERNMENT POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE PERUMBAVOOR 2012-2013

SEMINAR REPORT ON

CYBORGS

SUBMITTED BY, ABHILASH.E.A REG NO: 10131217

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DEPARTMENT OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION GOVERNMENT OF KERALA GOVERNMENT POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE PERUMBAVOOR

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER ENGINEERING CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that seminar report entitled CYBORGS Submitted by Mr. ABHILASH.E.A (Reg no: 10131217) is a bonafide record of the seminar presented by him towards partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of

Diploma in Computer Engineering

During the academic year 2012-13

Place :Perumbavoor Date :

Head of Department

Staff in Charge

Internal Examiner

External Examiner

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

If words are considered as symbol of approval and token of acknowledges then the word play the heralding of expressing my gratitude. First and foremost I wish to express my profound thanks to our principal Ms. Leela V.N for having provided us with sufficient facilities at our college. I would like to express my profound gratitude to our head of department Mr. Vinod E.V for encouragement, support and blessing given always to me. I wish to record my sincere thanks to my Seminar Guide Ms. Chithra Raj N. for her timely advice and guidance received through this Endeavour. My parents, who always encourage me towards my studies, took a great interest to way seminar work. Their enquiries regarding the seminar had given me mental strength and conviction towards the completion of work. I sincerely acknowledge them all love and affection. Finally I place my heart full thanks to all friends for their support and encouragement to make this project.

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ABSTRACT

Cybernetic organisms, hybrids of humans and machines, have pervaded everyday life, the military, popular culture, and the academic world .Cyborgs are ongoing becoming of a doubly in-between temporality of humans and machines. Materially made from components of both sorts of beings, cyborgs gain increasing function through an interweaving in which each alters the other, from the level of neural plasticity to software updates to emotional breakthrough of which both are a part. One sort of temporal in-between is of the progressive unfolding of a deepening becoming as not-one-not-two and the other is a doubling back of time into itself in which moments that were once disparate are conjoined or encamped.

There are two senses of the cyborgs which have been discussed by those interested in the human/machine in-between. The first and more traditional sense of the case of organic beings that are physically and functionally united with mechanized beings to constitute what some consider true cyborgs. The second sense of cyborgs claims that we have all become cyborgs in the sense of becoming enfolded within a world in which machines not only perform many of our key actions but also make possible how we know ourselves, express ourselves, modify our intentions, and open new avenues for who we might become.

"Cyborgs" is a science-fictional shorting of "cybernetic organism". The idea is that, in the near future, we may have more and more artificial body parts - arms, legs, hearts, and eyes and digital computing and communication supplements. The logical conclusion is that one might become a brain in a wholly artificial body. And the step after that is to replace your meat brain by a computer brain.

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CONTENTS

TITLE

PAGE.NO

1. INTRODUCTION... 6 2. CYBORG.7 3. CYBORG ANCESTERY 8 4. CYBERNETICS.10 5. TYPES OF CYBORGS..13 6. INFORMATION FEEDBACK..14 7. EXPERIMENT...18 8. DIAGRAM OF IMPLANT23 9. MODERN CYBORGS...26 10. APPLICATIONS....29 11. ADVANTAGES.34 12. DISADVANTAGES..35 13. CONCLUSIONS....36 14. REFERENCES...38

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1) INTRODUCTION

In the years ahead we will witness machines with intelligence more powerful than that of humans. This will mean that robots, not humans, make all the important decisions. It will be a robot dominated world with dire consequences for humankind. The question is - Is there an alternative way ahead? Humans have limited capabilities. Humans sense the world in a restricted way, vision being the best of the senses. Humans understand the world in only 3 dimensions and communicate in a very slow, serial fashion called speech. But can this be improved on? Can we use technology to upgrade humans?

The possibility exists to enhance human capabilities. To harness the ever increasing abilities of machine intelligence, to enable extra sensory input and to communicate in a much richer way, using thought alone. This possibility is made possible in the form of Cyborgs. A Cyborg is a Cybernetic Organism, part human part machine; it thrives on the inputs both from the living senses and from the machine interface, which acts as an enhancement module. Dr. Kevin Warwick heads the Cybernetics Department at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom and has taken the first steps on this path, using himself as a guinea pig test subject receiving, by surgical operation, technological implants connected to his central nervous system.

In this seminar, I intend to throw some light on, how exactly the cyborgs Dom is achieved and what are the future aspects and prospects? Are we witnessing a true revolution in human futuristic or is it going to be just a flight of fantasy? That the future will tell. But for now let us understand what Cyborgs are all about?

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2) CYBORG
Cyborg is a blend of the terms cybernetic and organism meaning A person whos physical tolerances or capabilities are extended by a machine or other external agency that modifies the bodys functioning; an integrated man-machine system (OED, cf. cyborgs). The word Cybernetic is derived from the Greek word kubernhth meaning steersman or as a verb Kubernan meaning to steer. Not coincidentally, the word kubernan is also the origin of the modern word to govern. Hence a cyborg is literally a governed organism just like any other political animal. The term cyborg first entered the English language in an article in the New York Times in 1960. However, I believe that the origins of the concept are much older and are parallel with the birth of the liberal imagination. Cyborgs actually do exist; about 12% of current Indian population and 10% of the current U.S. population are estimated to be cyborgs in the technical sense, including people with electronic pacemakers, artificial joints, drug implant systems, implanted corneal lenses, and artificial skin. A much higher percentage participates in occupations that make them into metaphoric cyborgs including the computer keyboard joined in a cybernetic circuit with the screen, then euro surgeon guided by fiber optic microscopy during an operation, and the teen game player in the local videogame arcade. Terminal identity Scott Bukatman has named this condition, calling it an unmistakably doubled articulation that signals the end of traditional concepts of identity even as it points toward the cybernetic loop that generates a new kind of subjectivity. This merging of the evolved and the developed, this integration of the constructor and the constructed, these systems of dying flesh and undead circuits, and of living and artificial cells has been called many things: bionic systems, vital machines, cyborgs. They are a central figure of the late Twentieth Century. But the story of cyborgs is not just a tale told around the glow of the televised fire. There are many actual cyborgs among us in society. Anyone with an artificial organ, limb or supplement (like a pacemaker), anyone reprogrammed to resist disease or drugged to think/behave/feel better (psychopharmacology) is technically a cyborg. The range of these intimate human-machine relationships is mind-boggling. It's not just Robocop; it is our grandmother with a pacemaker.

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3) CYBORG ANCESTERY

The worlds first cyborg was a white lab rat, part of an experimental program at New Yorks Rockland State Hospital in the late 1950s. The rat had implanted in its body a tiny osmotic pump that injected precisely controlled doses of chemicals, altering several of its physiological parameters. It was part animal, part machine. The Rockland rat is one of the stars of a paper called Cyborgs and Space, written by Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline in 1960. This engineer/psychiatrist double act invented the term cyborg (short for cybernetic organism) to describe the vision of an augmented man, From the start, the cyborg was more than just another technical project; it was a kind of scientific and military day dream. The possibility of escaping its annoying bodily limitations led a generation that grew up on Superman and Captain America to throw the full weight of its grown-up R&D budget into achieving a real-life super power. By the mid-1960s, cyborgs were big business, with millions of US Air Force dollars finding their way into projects to build exoskeletons, master-slave robot arms, biofeedback devices, and expert systems. For all the big bucks and high seriousness, the prevailing impression left by old cyborg technical papers is of a rather expensive kind of science fiction. The cyborg was always as much a creature of scientific imagination as of scientific fact. It wasn't only the military that was captivated by the possibilities of the cyborg. The dream of improving human capabilities through selective breeding had long been a staple of the darker side of Western medical literature. Now there was the possibility of making better humans by augmenting them with artificial devices. Insulin drips had been used to regulate the metabolisms of diabetics since the 1920s.A heart-lung machine was used to control the blood circulation of an 18-year-old girl during an operation in 1953. A 43-year-old man received the first heart pacemaker implant in 1958.Of course robots, automata, and artificial people have been part of the Western imagination since at least as far back as the Enlightenment. Legendary automaton builder Wolfgang von Kempelen built a chess-playing tin Turk and became the toast of Napoleonic Europe. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein built a monster out of body parts and activated it with electricity. Even the Indian national epic, the Mahabharata, composed in about 300 BC, features a lion automation. The 90s cyborg is both a more sophisticated creature than its 50s ancestor - and a more domestic one. Artificial hip joints, cochlear implants for the deaf, retinal implants for the blind, and all kinds of cosmetic surgery are part
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of the medical repertoire. Online information retrieval systems are used as prosthetics for limited human memories. In the closed world of advanced warfare, cyborg assemblages of humans and machines are used to pilot fighter aircraft - the response times and sensory apparatus of unaided humans are inadequate for the demands of supersonic air combat. These eerie military cyborgs may be harbingers of a new world stranger than any we have yet experienced

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4) CYBERNETICS
Cybernetics is the study of human/machine interaction guided by the principle that numerous different types of systems can be studied according to principles of feedback, control, and communications. The field has a quantitative component, inherited from feedback control and information theory, but is primary a qualitative, analytical tool- one might even say a philosophy of technology. Cybernetics is characterized by a tendency to universalize the notion of feedback, seeing it as the underlying principle of the technological world. Closely related variants include: information theory, human factors engineering, control theory, systems theory. Norbert Wiener founded the field with his in his 1948 book Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine which articulated the marriage of communication and control for a generation of engineers, systems theorists, and technical enthusiasts of varied stripes. Since then cybernetics has had a significant intellectual impact on a wide variety of disciplines across the globe, although as a discipline itself it remains unclear and fragmented, and has essentially faded from prominence in the United States, although it remains more influential in Europe. Still, it had great influence on numerous others of the systems sciences, including some of the most prominent today, and it helped initiate a discourse and a worldview that is deeply embedded in todays technological culture. Wiener articulated his new approach in his 1948 book Cybernetics. He created the term from the Greek word for steersman, to describe the principle governing or directing a technology or system. Wiener claimed to have been the first to unify control theory with communications theory, but that had occurred among engineers several years before during the war. Nevertheless, he did clearly articulate the marriage and explore its implications for philosophy, psychology, and mathematics. In Cybernetics he argued for what we now see as classic systems approach -everything can be described as a system, broken down into black box components with inputs and outputs, and then understood using the ideas of information flow, noise, feedback, stability, and so on. Wiener brought together this engineering-oriented stance, with what physiologists like Walter Canon had developed in the prior decades under the headings of homeostasis and their studies of neurons-muscular behavior. He also made an analogy between the behavior of the new digital computers and that of the human nervous system, and it was such technological/biological analogies that cybernetics would depend. Much of Wieners own work in cybernetics focused on

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identifying servomechanism-like behaviors in the nervous systems of animals (suggesting, for example, that nervous systems have a scanning time similar to that found in televisions). Wieners book generated enthusiastic response, and propelled Wiener to the status of a public intellectual - debating the future of technology and the possibilities of automation, computers, and robotics in a post-war America slightly anxious about their implications. The original Cybernetics was filled with obscure and fairly irrelevant mathematics, which intimidated lay readers, so he followed the book with a popularized account, The Human Use of Human Beings, which sold well in the United States. In this version, Wiener connected his ideas to concerns about nuclear war and the frightening possibilities of a world dominated by machinery and computers. Hiroshima and Nagasaki had turned Wiener against the military, an ironic turn given that the most concrete expressions of cybernetics appeared in guided missiles and command and control systems. In fact, in American popular culture, cybernetics came to stand for the Cold War mindset that placed computers and automated decision making at the center of military power. Cybernetics also proved so flexible, however, addressing everything from neuron behavior to social systems, from digital computers to analytic philosophy, from visual perception to technological un employment that critics began to question what exactly this new science was supposed to accomplish. Wieners work was elaborated and taken up by a number of other thinkers, some of whom did put it on a more rigorous, focused foundation. These included Heinz von Forester, W. Ross Ashby, and Ludwig von Bertalannfy, although these refinements tended to transform cybernetics into other entities, most notably General Systems Theory, which took pains to distinguish themselves from Wieners original. Cybernetics was greeted enthusiastically outside the United States as well, although again with varying results. In France, for example, where Wieners book was originally published, philosophers and scientists greeted quickly began debating Wieners ideas. Some wondered if, in the development of cybernetics, there were not some improper associations, fuzzy meaning and constitution of myths. Yet the grand, unifying ambitions of cybernetics had great appeal in post-war France, especially as it carried with it the prestigious (and militarily useful) information theory, computer science, and systems engineering from the United States. In the Soviet Union, cybernetic ideas were at first rejected as bourgeois science created to bring all science under capitalist control. After Stalins death, however, in the late 1950s Soviet scientists also took up the mantle of cybernetics. Russian mathematician A.N.Kolmogorov had independently formulated Wieners work on time series data, so Russians could claim it

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as their own. Marxism, after all, was seen as the scientific approach to organizing society, and cybernetics promised to bring the physical, engineering, and social sciences all under a similar unifying framework. In contrast to the United States, where cybernetics has had an ambiguous legacy (superseded by later formulations like AI and computer science) cybernetics enjoyed a long career in Europe and especially the Soviet Union, where some universities still maintain.

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5) TYPES OF CYBORGS

Restorative Cyborgs

These are ones which have been made of Cyborg technology to restore lost functions and restore lost organs and limbs.

Normalizing Cyborg

These are creatures that have got indistinguishable normality as a blessing from Cyborg technology.

Reconfiguring Cyborgs

These are post human creatures equal to but different from humans, like what one is now when interacting with other creatures in cyberspace or, in the future, the type of modifications proto-humans will undergo to live in space or under the sea having given up the comforts of terrestrial existence.

Enhancing Cyborgs

The aim of most military and industrial research, and what those with cyborg envy or even cyborgsphilia fantasize. The latter category seeks to construct everything from factories controlled by a handful of worker-pilots and infantrymen in mind-controlled exoskeletons to the dream many computer scientists have-downloading their consciousness into immortal computers.

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6) INFORMATION FEEDBACK
In 1948, Norbert Wiener wrote Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and Machine. The book was nothing if not ambitious. Wiener, an MIT mathematician, saw amazing similarities between vast groups of different phenomena. Catching a ball, guiding a missile, running a company, pumping blood around a body - all seemed to him to depend on the transmission of information, a concept floated by Bell Laboratorys Claude Shannon in his founding work on information theory. More specifically, these processes seemed to depend on what the engineers had begun to call feedback ". Wiener took the name cybernetics from the Greek kubernetes, meaning steersman and the image of a classical helmsman, hand on the rudder of a sailing ship, perfectly captures the essence of his idea. Palinurus, approaching the rocks, gets visual information about the ship's position and adjusts course accordingly. This isn't a single event but a constant flow of information. Palinurus is part of a feedback loop, his brain getting input from the environment about wind speed, weather, and current, then sending signals to his arms to nudge the ship out of danger. Wiener saw that the same model could be applied to any problem that involved trying to manage a complex system and proposed that scientists use the same framework for everything. Wieners followers saw cybernetics as a science that would explain the world as a set of feedback systems, allowing rational control of bodies, machines, factories, communities, and just about anything else. Cybernetics promised to reduce messy problems such as economics, politics, and perhaps even morality to the status of simple engineering tasks: stuff you could solve with pencil and paper, or, at worst, one of MIT's supercomputers. For initials, we can treat the body as just a meat computer running a collection of information systems that adjusts themselves in response to each other and their environment. So if you wanted to make a better body, all you had to do was improve the feedback mechanisms, or plug in another system - an artificial heart, an all-seeing bionic eye. It's no accident that this strangely abstract picture of the body as a collection of networks sounds rather like that other network of networks, the Internet; both came out of the same hot house of Cold War military research. Cybernetics has two important cultural residues. The first is its picture of the world as a collection of networks. The second is its intuition that there's not as much blue water between people and machines as some would like to believe. These still-controversial concepts are at the bionic heart of the cyborg, which is alive and well, and constructing itself in a laboratory near you.

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Analogy with the Human Nervous System In order to observe and correlate, the Information Feedback concept with the actual way in which our neural communications take place, we should take a glimpse into the way the Human Nervous System is arranged. 1) How is the human nervous system organized? The human nervous system contains: A Central Nervous System (CNS) - where information is processed. Our central nervous system consists of the brain and the spinal cord. A Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) - a highway which allows signals to travel between the CNS and the body's receptors and effectors. For now, we do not have to bother ourselves with the way in which the CNS operates. What we should know is that, it acts as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), and so processes all the input sit receives from the PNS, which are known as stimuli and translates them into the Outgoing signals for the PNS, also known as response. Thus, for every Stimulus there is a corresponding Response. Now, as far as the way these neural signals, originating from the brain are transmitted to and from the muscles and the peripheral organs, the PNS provides the medium. The nerves of the peripheral nervous system behave like major road systems, carrying traffic in and out of the Central Nervous System. Afferent or Sensory nerves carry information from sensory receptors into the CNS and Efferent, or Motor nerves carry information from the CNS out to effecter organs. The efferent system has two more sub-divisions - the somatic and autonomic systems. These differ in their functions rather than their structure or position in the body. The Nerve Conduction is in the form of Nerve Impulses which are Spikes of electromagnetic potential initiating from about -80mV then sharply rising to +60mV and then declining to +20mV. These Nerve Impulses travel along the Nerve Fiber and thus reach their destination electrically. Since the Nerve Conduction is in the form of Electrical Signals, this opens up a possibility of intercepting, interpreting and processing them with the help of Machine Interfaces. As the Machines can process all kind of electrical signals, so we can have a Microchip Implant intercepting the Neural Impulses at the nerve endings, transmitting them to a Database, correlating them to existing data and modulating it to a desired effect. The Cyborg Robo-eel & Critters on Chips On May 8th 2001, in Chicago, researchers fused the brain of a primitive lamprey eel with a robot the size of a hockey puck, creating a living machine that tracked a beam of light in a laboratory ring, like a miniature bull chasing a matador's red cape. Part biological and
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part mechanical, the crude cyborgs equipped with the brain stem of an eel, which kept alive in a saline solution, receive sin put from electronic light sensors and directs the robotic wheels to move toward the source of the beam. Changing the location and intensity of the light, the scientists noticed that the eel brain could adapt to changing conditions in its effort to locate the source. Prosthetic limbs, glowing bacteria The Northwestern University researchers hope to unlock the mysteries of the animal's nervous system. We are focused on the use of this instrument as a tool to understand the processing of information by a group of brain cells said Ferdinando Mussa-Ivaldi, one of the primary researchers. In particular, we are interested in the biological mechanisms by which nerve cells program themselves. The scientists are focusing on a structure located between the spinal cord and higher brain centers that is believed to integrate information from different origins, such as tactile or visual, to shape the commands that control muscle movement, Mussa-Ivaldi said. The research eventually could help doctors fashion sophisticated artificial limbs for those suffering from nerve damage, he said. The cyborg eel is only one member of a menagerie of animal/machine hybrids that relies on sophisticated microelectronics. In other projects in the United States, monkey brains have been wired to control robotic appendages, moth antennae have been used to sniff out explosives, and bacteria have been engineered to glow in the presence of environmental toxins. In the last experiment, microbiologists cemented genetically modified bacteria to microchips, creating an innovative way to clean up dangerous chemicals. The hybrid includes genetic material from a luminescent aquatic microorganism and other bacteria that breaks down pollutants into simpler, safer compounds. Affixed to microcircuits with latex and other polymers, the so-called critters on a chip eat harmful toxins, emit a blue-green light, and then can transmit a signal to a receiver linked to be mote computer, said researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The living sensors could someday be used to monitor industrial pollutants in the water and soil and even help diagnose medical conditions in humans, said the project's principal investigator.

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7) EXPERIMENT

Project Cyborg 1.0

This is the question that Professor Kevin Warwick and his team at the department of Cybernetics, University of Reading intend to answer with Project Cyborg .On Monday 24th August 1998, at 4:00pm, Professor Kevin Warwick underwent an operation to surgically implant a silicon chip transponder in his forearm. Dr. George Boulous carried out the operation at Ticehurst Surgery, using local anesthetic only. This experiment allowed a computer to monitor Kevin Warwick as he moved through halls and offices of the Department of Cybernetics at the University of Reading, using a unique identifying signal emitted by the implanted chip. He could operate doors, lights, heaters and other computers without lifting a finger. The transponder that was implanted in the forearm of Professor Kevin Warwick consists of a glass capsule containing an electromagnetic coil and a number of silicon chips. It is approximately 23mm long and 3mm in diameter. When a radio frequency signal is transmitted to the transponder, the coil generates an electric current (an effect discovered by Michael Faraday many years ago). This electric current is used to drive the silicon chip circuitry, which transmits a unique, 64-bit signal. A receiver picking up this signal can be connected in an intelligent building network. By means of a computer, it is able to recognize the unique code and, in the case of an implant, the individual human in question. On picking up the unique, identifying signal, a computer can operate devices, such as doors, lights, heaters or even other computers. Which devices are operated and which are not depends on the requirements for the individual transmitting the signal. The implant was tested successfully for nine days before being removed. Project Cyborg 2.0

On the 14th of March 2002, a one hundred electrode array was surgically implanted into the median nerve fibers of the left arm of Professor Kevin Warwick. The operation was carried out at Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, by a medical team headed by the neurosurgeons Amjad Shadand Peter teddy. The procedure, which took a little over two hours, involved inserting a guiding tube into a two inch incision made above the wrist, inserting the microelectrode array into this tube and firing it into the median nerve fibers below the elbow joint. The purpose of this experiment was to link the nervous system in the left arm, to a radio transmitter receiver; to send signals from nervous system to a computer and vice versa. The main part of the silicon chip consisted of a battery, radio transmitter/ receiver and processing unit. Pins connected to the chip pierced the membrane surrounding Warwick's nerve fibers.

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The interface to Professor Warwicks nervous system was a micro electrode array consisting of 100 individual electrodes implanted in the median nerve of the left arm. A 25channel neural signal amplifier amplifies the signals from each electrode by a factor of 5000 and filters signals with corner frequencies of 250Hz and 7.5 KHz. The amplified and filtered electrode signals are then delivered to the neural signal processor where they are digitized at 30,000 samples/second/electrode and scanned online for neural spike events. This means that only 25 of the total 100 channels can be viewed at any one time. Neural spike events are detected by comparing the instantaneous electrode signal to level thresholds set for each data channel. When a supra-threshold event occurs, the signal window surrounding the event is time stamped and stored for later, offline analysis. The neural stimulator allows for any of the 25 monitored channels to be electrically stimulated with a chosen repetition frequency at any one time. Once the chip was activated, scientists experimented with signals associated with motion and pain. When Warwick moved a body part, the signal was sent to the computer. The computer recorded and successfully replicated the movement by sending a signal back to Warwick. A number of experiments have been carried out using the signals detected by the array; most notably Professor Warwick was able to control an electric wheelchair and an intelligent artificial hand, using this neural interface. In addition to being able to measure the nerve signals transmitted down Professor Warwicks left arm, the implant was also able to create artificial sensation by stimulating individual electrodes within the array. This was demonstrated with the aid of Kevins wife Irena and a second, less complex implant connecting to her nervous system. The implant in Kevins wife Irena would record all the Brain Impulses it receives and then transmit it to the electrode array within Kevin. The Electrode Array would then recreate the same nerve signal and feed it to the Sensory Nerve endings. These would then be translated by the brain into the corresponding emotion. So there we have a way to transmit joy, pain, and in fact all the feelings from one individual to another. The implant would also record the signals that the brain transmits for Motor Movements of the muscles. These signals could then be recreated using the Electrode Array, and so we could remotely actuate muscular motion in an individual.

Problems came during implant operation They have transponder in the glass tube so while sterilizing it they had put it into the hot water and because of the thin glass it was blast as it had became very hot.

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They have to think how they can link that chip with the computer as it was implanted in the forearm of Pr. Warwick. They have implanted chip in left arm of Pr. Warwick as they were afraid that if operation failed than he can work on with his right arm as he was right. The main thing was to put a chip in the main nerve of arm in such a manner that the nerves should not be broken as by happing so they may lose Pr. Warwick. The silicon chip transponder had not, prior to this experiment, been surgically inserted into a human. It was not known what effects it would have, how well it would operate and, importantly, how robust it would be.

There was the very real possibility that the transponder might leak or shatter while in the body with catastrophic consequences! The implant in Kevin Warwick's forearm was successfully tested for nine days before being removed.

How this neural connection works? The US Professor and visionary, Norbert Weiner founded the field of Cybernetics in the1940s. He envisaged that one day electronic systems he called Nervous Prostheses would be developed that would allow those with spinal injuries to control their paralyzed limbs using signals detected in their brain. In the UK two internationally renowned professors, in the department of Cybernetics at the University of Reading, Brian Andrews and Kevin Warwick, together with the eminent neurosurgeon Peter Teddy have just taken a step closer to this dream. The team has come together from different branches of Cybernetics and Neurosurgery. Kevin Warwick specializes in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and Brian Andrews in the field of Biomedical Engineering, Neural Prostheses and Spinal Injuries. Peter Teddy has along involvement with neural implants and is the head of Neurosurgery at Oxford. Although seemingly worlds apart, these fields have many common threads. The principal investigators Andrews, Warwick and Teddy, lead a large team of surgeons and researchers including, Brian Gardner, Ali Jamous, Amjad Shad and Mark Gasson of the world famous National Spinal Injuries Centre (NSIC)-Stoke Mandeville Hospital, the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford and the University of Reading, UK. The teams are supported by the David Tolkien Trust, Computer Associates, Tumbleweed and Fujitsu. A sophisticated new microelectronic implant has been developed that allows two-way connection to the nervous system. In one direction, the natural activity of nerves is detected

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and in the other, nerves can be activated by applied electrical pulses. It is envisaged that such neural connections may, in the future, help people with spinal cord injury or limb amputation. The microelectronic chip implant, comprises an array of fine spikes with sensitive tip electrodes. These spike electrodes are extremely thin, similar in dimension to a human hair. They can safely penetrate nerve tissue and allow the activity of axons close to each tip to be recorded or stimulated i.e. the array chip allows a two-way interface. The device has been inserted into the median nerve of a healthy volunteer -Professor Kevin Warwick. In this way the basic safety and function of the device can be established before it is explored further in patients. The median nerve contains a mixture of many individual sensory and motor axons. The sensory axons conduct signals generated by skin receptors in response to temperature and pressure changes applied in the region of the thumb, index and middle fingers and palm as Motor axons that are located within the median nerve conduct signals from the 6 spinal cord to muscles, such as the thinner muscle group located at the base of the thumb the array was inserted into the median nerve such that the sensitive tips of the microelectrodes were distributed within the nerve trunk. Some electrodes can pick up signals from sensory axons whilst others pick mainly motor axon signals. Others pick up a mix of the two. The array is connected to external amplifier and signal processing system through fine wires passing through skin. A main objective, at this stage, is to demonstrate clinical and technical feasibility of implanting the array safely, with minimal discomfort for a prolonged period without infection. The team will now attempt to record nerve signals from individual axons with sufficient fidelity to allow them to discriminate them from background noise. In a series of tests, specific sensory stimuli (for example light touch, vibration heat etc.) will be carefully applied to various points on the skin whilst recording the microelectrode signals. These signals will be computer analyzed in an attempt to identify the type of receptors being excited. Professor Warwick will contract his then muscles to generate controlled movement and force whilst the corresponding activity from the microelectrodes will be examined to determine if motor and sensory activity can be adequately separated. In separate tests, lowlevel electrical signals will be applied to individual microelectrodes in the array. When such stimuli are ape will contract. If however, the electrical stimuli are applied to sensory axons these may be perceived by Professor Warwick as sensations. By carefully applying patterns of precisely controlled low-level electrical stimulation to the sensory axons the investigators will determine if sensations recognizable to Professor Warwick can be generated. This first

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stage should allow the team to determine the feasibility of using microelectrode arrays to transmit and receive two-way signals between peripheral nerves and external microcomputers by wires through the skin. In the future, the through-the-skin wire may be replaced by a radio link connecting the fully implanted component with the external control computers .For now, the present system allows a relatively low cost and minimally invasive system to be used for research and development.

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8)

Even after spinal injury the nervous tissue below the lesion is usually alive and operating even though it is disconnected from the brain i.e. signals are still being naturally generated by sensory receptors and transmitted to the spinal cord but are not perceived by the brain. Similarly, signals are still being put 7 out by the spinal cord and causing muscles to contract. However, these contractions are reflexive and not voluntarily controlled contractions. Tetraplegics cannot voluntarily move or feel their hands; microelectrode arrays could in principle be inserted into the median and radial nerves. Muscles that control the hand

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could be activated using electrical pulses to microelectrodes close to the axons innervating those muscles. Electrical pulses could be generated precisely using a microcomputer as part of some future neuron prosthesis. Receptors in the patients skin and muscle will fire as the hand opens, makes contact and grasps an object. The receptor signals would be detected by the microelectrodes positioned close to their axons and fed out to the controlling microcomputer which, in turn, would automatically regulate the degree of activation of muscles, so as not to grip the object too tightly or loosely. It may also be possible to feed back sensory signals picked up by microelectronic arrays in the hand and impose them onto sensory pathways above the level of the lesion using another array. These arrays may even be inserted into the motor cortex to provide brain signals for the control system, just as Weiner had envisaged. Other potential applications in spinal cord injury are envisaged, including, devices to improved bladder and bowel control and perhaps facilitate standing and walking in paraplegics. Amputees still have living nerves in their stumps into which microelectrode arrays could be inserted. These nerve stumps still relay voluntary signals to amputated muscles and are still capable of conducting sensory signals that previously originated in the amputated skin and muscles. For the amputee, miniature force, pressure and temperature sensors can be built into the artificial limb. These sensors could be connected to a control microcomputer which would in turn generate and apply pulses to electrode tips that have been previously associated with the appropriate sensation. If a hand amputee, wearing such prosthesis fitted with miniature pressure sensors in the index finger tip were to touch or press on object, the fingertip sensor would generate an electrical signal proportional to the applied pressure. This pressure signal could then be acquired by a microcomputer, which would then apply stimulus pulses to sensory nerve fibers within the stump using a microelectrode array to recreate realistic sensation of pressure at the index fingertip. Being from the field of Cyberneticist is also possible to speculate that such devices could be used in the future to extend the capabilities of ordinary humans, for example enabling extra sensory input and to provide new methods of communication with machines or other humans. Although this may sound, to some, rather alarming, futuristic and more the domain of Cyborg science fiction, we emphasize that the short term goals of our work are aimed at developing useful clinical applications within present day ethical constraints It should be emphasized that although an exciting step has been taken it is still very early days. The examples we have indicated are speculative at this stage and although we are cautiously optimistic, a great deal of work

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remains to be done to determine if the approach is practical. Furthermore, significant technical development is required to make these devices available to patients. It could take 10 or more years before such systems start to become widely available.

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9) MODERN CYBORGS

1.Cochlear implant

A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The cochlear implant is often referred to as a bionic ear. The implant is surgically placed under the skin behind the ear. The basic parts of the device include: a microphone which picks up sound from the environment a speech processor which selectively filters sound to prioritize audible speech and sends the electrical sound signals through a thin cable to the transmitter, a transmitter, which is a coil held in position by a magnet placed behind the external ear, and transmits the processed sound signals to the internal device by electromagnetic induction

Internal parts: A receiver and stimulator secured in bone beneath the skin, which converts the signals into electric impulses and sends them through an internal cable to electrodes, An array of up to 24 electrodes wound through the cochlea, which send the impulses to the nerves in the scale tympani and then directly to the brain through the auditory nerve system. There are 4 manufacturers for Cochlear implants, and each one produces a different implant with a different number of electrodes. Advanced Bionics produces implants with 16electrodes and use a technique called current steering in which two electrodes are stimulated simultaneously with different current levels to produce intermediate virtual channels. The number of channels is not a primary factor upon which a manufacturers chosen; the signal processing algorithm is also another important block. 2. C-leg

The C-Leg is microprocessor-controlled knee prosthesis, developed by the Otto Bock Healthcare Company, that enables moderately active amputees to vary walking speeds and travel over changes in terrain. The idea was originally developed by Kelly James, a Canadian engineer, at the University of Alberta. The C-Leg uses hydraulic cylinders to control the flexing of the knee. Sensors send signals to the microprocessor that analyzes these signals, and communicates what resistance the hydraulic cylinders should supply. C-Leg is an
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abbreviation of 3C100, the model number of the original prosthesis, but has continued to be applied to all Otto Bock microprocessor-controlled knee prostheses. Sensors in the C-Leg The C-Leg uses a knee-angle sensor to measure the angular position and angular velocity of the flexing joint. Measurements are taken up to 50 times a second. The knee-angle sensor is located directly at the axis of rotation of the knee. Moment sensors are located in the tube adaptor at the base of the C-Leg. These moment sensors use multiple strain gauges to determine where the force is being applied to the knee, from the foot, and the magnitude of that force. Hydraulics in the C-Leg The C-Leg controls the resistance to rotation and extension of the knee using hydraulic cylinder. Small valves control the amount of hydraulic fluid that can pass into and out of the cylinder, thus regulating the extension and compression of a piston connected to the upper section of the knee. Microprocessor in the C-Leg The microprocessor receives signals from its sensors to determine the type of motion being employed by the amputee. The microprocessor then signals the hydraulic cylinder to act accordingly. The microprocessor also records information concerning the motion of the amputee that can be downloaded onto a computer and analyzed. This information allows the user to make better use of the prosthetic. Power source in the C-Leg The C-Leg is powered by a lithium-ion battery housed inside the prosthesis below the knee joint (cell is actually located within the axis of the joint) On a full charge, the C-leg can operate for up to 45 hours, depending on the intensity of use. A charging port located on the front of the knee joint can be connected to a charging cable plugged directly into a standard outlet 3. Cyborg cars Cyborg cars are one which speed of car is controlled by human brain rather than by Manual methods. In this technique consists of series of electrodes implanted in parietal lobe of human brain. These electrodes receives signals about orientation, movement recognition etc. the electrodes transfers the signals from brain into electric signals and sends them to a microprocessor The microprocessor is interfaced with the cars, which process the signals. The processed signals from microprocessor drives

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a signal to the motor which is in contact with the throttle valve Here by one can control the speed of the car according to ones own thinking. 4. Cyborg the blind guide This is one of the technologies adopted for those who are blind by birth. In this method it uses a sensor attached to walking stick. It also uses a suit that consists of a vibrator attached to both side of arms which drives to a microprocessor. It also uses a speaker interfaced with microprocessor. The sensor uses a ultrasonic waves to detect the vehicles if any vehicle is detected, these sensors drives a signal to the microprocessor. The signals are processed by microprocessor and send an alert sound to the subject either through speaker or to the vibrator thus one can react accordingly.

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10) APPLICATIONS
After all the nerve wrecking experience with, this supra-fascinating world of cybernetics, the most logical query that strikes the mind is what is the future? With all the developments in the field of Robotics and Human Technology integration, some exciting facets to look out for are Thought Communication: -At present our method of communication, Speech, is very slow, serial and error prone. The potential to communicate by means of thought signals alone is a very exciting one. We will probably have to learn how to communicate well in this way though, in particular how to send ideas to one another. It is not clear if I think about an ice cream, will my thoughts be roughly the same as yours? - We will have to learn about each other's thoughts. May be it will be easier than we think, maybe not. Certainly speech is an old fashioned, outdated means of communication - it's on its way out. Superman: Imagine having infinite memory, and being able to recall it at your wish. This is possible with the implants; all the experiences of an individual, even those which he has not experienced himself may be stored in computer memories. Whenever he requires them they can be sorted and replayed to him, through the implant. And then there will be the added processing ability, you could perform a zillion operations on your own, so what if all the Computers at the NASA assist you in your quest. The results would come from your brain. Security: With implants in place, it would be possible to identify every individual, with foolproof security. There wont be any need for the SMART cards, credit cards and all other IDs that one has to carry. Cars would start only if authorized personnel approached it, in case some other individual tried to get away with it, the car would be able to identify the culprit, and send his ID to the nearest Police Station or Personnel. Bank Accounts would be handled in the same manner, no need for signatures; your presence would do whatever it takes. IN Medicine: In medicine, there are two important and different types of cyborgs: they are the restorative and the enhanced. Restorative technologies restore lost function, organs, and limbs. The key aspect of restorative cyborgization is the repair of broken or missing processes to revert to a healthy or average level of function. There is no enhancement to the original faculties and processes that were lost. On the

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contrary, the enhanced cyborg follows a principle, and it is the principle of optimal performance: maximizing output (the information or modifications obtained) and minimizing input (the energy expended in the process). Thus, the enhanced cyborg intends to exceed normal processes or even gain new functions that were not originally present. Although prostheses in general supplement lost or damaged body parts with the integration of a mechanical artifice, bionic implants in medicine allow model organs or body parts to mimic the original function more closely. Michael Chorost wrote a memoir of his experience with cochlear implants, or bionic ear, titled Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human. Jesse Sullivan became one of the first people to operate a fully robotic limb through a nerve-muscle graft, enabling him a complex range of motions beyond that of previous prosthetics. By 2004, a fully functioning artificial heart was developed. The continued technological development of bionic and nanotechnologies begins to raise the question of enhancement, and of the future possibilities for cyborgs which surpass the original functionality of the biological model. The ethics and desirability of enhancement prosthetics have been debated; their proponents include the Trans humanist movement, with its belief that new technologies can assist the human race in developing beyond its present, normative limitations such as aging and disease, as well as other, more general incapacities, such as limitations on speed, strength, endurance, and intelligence. Opponents of the concept describe what they believe to be biases which propel the development and acceptance of such technologies; namely, a bias towards functionality and efficiency that may compel assent to a view of human people which de-emphasizes as defining characteristics actual manifestations of humanity and personhood, in favor of definition in terms of upgrades, versions, and utility. A brain-computer interface, or BCI, provides a direct path of communication from the brain to an external device, effectively creating a cyborg. Research of Invasive BCIs, which utilize electrodes implanted directly into the grey matter of the brain, has focused on restoring damaged eyesight in the blind and providing functionality to paralyzed people, most notably those with severe cases, such as Locked-In syndrome. This technology could enable people who are missing a limb or are in a wheelchair the power to control the devices that aide them through neural signals sent from the brain implants directly to computers or the devices. It is possible that this technology will also eventually be used with healthy people also.

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Retinal implants are another form of cyborgization in medicine. The theory behind retinal stimulation to restore vision to people suffering from retinitis pimentos and vision loss due to aging (conditions in which people have an abnormally low amount of ganglion cells) is that the retinal implant and electrical stimulation would act as a substitute for the missing ganglion cells(cells which connect the eye to the brain.)While work to perfect this technology is still being done, there have already been major advances in the use of electronic stimulation of the retina to allow the eye to sense patterns of light. A specialized camera is worn by the subject, such as on the frames of their glasses, which converts the image into a pattern of electrical stimulation. A chip located in the users eye would then electrically stimulate the retina with this pattern by exciting certain nerve endings which transmit the image to the optic centers of the brain and the image would then appear to the user. If technological advances precede as planned this technology may be used by thousands of blind people and restore vision to most of them. A similar process has been created to aide people who have lost their vocal cords. This experimental device would do away with previously used robotic sounding voice simulators. The transmission of sound would start with a surgery to redirect the nerve that controls the voice and sound production to a muscle in the neck, where a nearby sensor would be able to pick up its electrical signals. The signals would then move to a processor which would control the timing and pitch of a voice simulator. That simulator would then vibrate producing a multitonal sound which could be shaped into words by the mouth. In the military: Military organizations' research has recently focused on the utilization of cyborg animals for the Purposes of a supposed tactical advantage. DARPA has announced its interest in developing Cyborg insects" to transmit data from sensors implanted into the insect during the pupa stage. The insect's motion would be controlled from a Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) and could conceivably survey an environment or detect explosives and gas. Similarly, DARPA is developing a neural implant to remotely control the movement of sharks. The shark's unique senses would then be exploited to provide data feedback in relation to enemy ship movement or underwater explosives. In 2006, researchers at Cornell University invented a new surgical procedure to implant artificial structures into insects during their metamorphic development. The first insect cyborgs, moths with integrated electronics in their thorax, were demonstrated by the same researchers. The initial
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success of the techniques has resulted in increased research and the creation of a program called Hybrid-Insect-MEMS, HI-MEMS. Its goal, according to DARPAs Microsystems Technology Office, is to develop tightly coupled machine-insect interfaces by placing micro-mechanical systems inside the insects during the early stages of metamorphosis. In 2009 at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Micro-electronic mechanical systems (MEMS) conference in Italy, researchers demonstrated the first wireless flying-beetle cyborg. Engineers at the University of California at Berkeley have pioneered the design of a remote controlled beetle, funded by the DARPA HI-MEMS Program. Filmed evidence of this can be viewed here. This was followed later that year by the demonstration of wireless control of a "lift-assisted" moth- cyborg. Eventually researchers plan to develop HI-MEMS for dragonflies, bees, rats and pigeons. For the HI-MEMS cybernetic bug to be considered a success, it must fly 100meters from a starting point, guided via computer into a controlled landing within 5meters of a specific end point. Once landed, the cybernetic bug must remain in place. In art: The concept of the cyborg is often associated with science fiction. However, many artists have tried to create public awareness of cybernetic organisms; these can range from paintings to installations. Stelarc is a performance artist who has visually probed and acoustically amplified his body. He uses medical instruments, prosthetics, robotics, virtual reality systems, the Internet and biotechnology to explore alternate, intimate and involuntary interfaces with the body. He has made three films of the inside of his body and has performed with a third hand and a virtual arm. Between 1976-1988 he completed 25 body suspension performances with hooks into the skin. For 'Third Ear' he surgically constructed an extra ear within his arm that was internet enabled, making it a publicly accessible acoustical organ for people in other places. He is presently performing as his avatar from his second life site. Tim Hawkinson promotes the idea that bodies and machines are coming together as one, where human features are combined with technology to create the Cyborg. Hankinsons piece Emoter presented how society is now dependent on technology. Wafaa Bilal is an Iraqi-American performance artist who had a small 10 megapixel digital camera surgically implanted into the back of his head, part of a project entitled 3rd I. For one year, beginning December 15, 2010, an image is captured once per minute 24 hours a day and streamed live to 3rdi.me and the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. The site also displays Bilal's location via GPS. Bilal
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says that the reason why he put the camera in the back of the head was to make an "allegorical statement about the things we don't see and leave behind. As a professor at NYU, this project has raised privacy issues, and so Bilal has been asked to ensure that his camera does not take photographs in NYU buildings. Machines are becoming more ubiquitous in the artistic process itself, with computerized drawing pads replacing pen and paper, and drum machines becoming nearly as popular as human drummers. This is perhaps most notable in generative art and music. Composers such as BrianEno have developed and utilized software which can build entire musical scores from a few basic mathematical parameters

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11) ADVANTAGES

1. Returning Function

If you have had parts of you damaged, such as you are blind, you can have to eyes replaced with electromechanical devices that return function. 2. Increased Strength

Assuming that it is possible to replace or enhance the human endoskeleton with metal and pneumatic/hydraulic pumps, the strength of a cyborg could be drastically increased above a normal human. A metal skeleton would even possibly allow you to even take hits a normal human couldn't survive (e.g. A sledgehammer to the chest, or a gunshot to the head) 3. Added Functionality

A cyborg does not have the limits of a standard human. For example due to increased weight, they could replace or add appendages such as a building a gun inside the arm, that can extend out and shoot, with there being less recoil thanks to weight and strength. 4. Possibly Longer Lifespan

Because you are replacing a lot of your body parts, you are making some of your organs obsolete and since you aren't relying on them, it doesn't matter if they fail or are taken out. However until research into extended or replenishing the state of the brain, you will still only have as long to live as your brain will allow. Unless you could somehow transfer your conscience into the computer that eventually replaces your brain, you are screwed. 5. Increased Intelligence/Computational Power/Perception

A possibility of a cyborg can be to add microchips to the brain, which would allow your brain to offload commands such as doing calculations to the chip, which could do the calculations instantaneously and return the answers to the brain. Perception could be increased by assisting parts of the brain that deal with awareness.

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12) DISADVANTAGES
1. Possible loss of humanity

Due to having microchips installed in your brain that can alter your behavior, it is possible that you would lose or overwrite the parts of you that make you who you are. When your brain dies, people aren't likely to let your body go to waste and will therefore replace the deceased brain with Artificially Intelligent computers, leading to your body becoming an android. 2. Expensive

Unless you are being subjected to becoming a cyborg against your will by secret underground science teams, this entire tech is going to be coming out of your pocket, and it will not be cheap. 3. Loss of Acceptable Appearance

Assuming that you had your muscles mostly replaced with pumps, you aren't going to have all that much blood, so there won't be a whole lot keeping your skin (and your member)alive. This could be included under loss of humanity but it is important to know that you won't look the same. 4. Likely to Die in the Creation Procedures

Adapting to cyborg life wouldn't be even nearly as hard as surviving all the surgery that you would have to go through to have entire parts of your body replaced. Unless research teams develop some way to replace body parts with other things in an instant, you will probably behead before you know it. 6. You Are Now Property of a Government

Expanding on the expensive point, now that you have somehow managed to survive the expensive surgery that an underground government has paid for, they basically now own you and you are in their service until your brain dies and they turn you into an android to keep forever.

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13) CONCLUSION

As many scientists have eloquently argued, once a technology is out there, you cannot make it go away. The genie simply will not go back in the bottle. There never was a technology that the human race ever abandoned wholesale, even the hydrogen bomb or other weapons of mass destruction with the power to wipe out all life on Earth. You might eventually be able to ban the production of H-bombs, but it would take a long time to kill everybody who knew how to make one or eliminate all blueprints and specifications for the design. While scientists discussed the possibility of a ban on recombinant DNA research at the Asilomar Conference, they knew it was not feasible. Even if overt public funding for such research was cut off, covert private funding would continue to flow from various interested parties, as has happened with even disproven technologies like cold fusion. Thus, once invented, bioelectronics technologies cannot be wished away. Once given the opportunity to improve themselves in any form, human beings rarely surrender the opportunity, whether it's "pumping iron" or exercise to raise physical fitness, so-called "smart drugs" to raise intelligence, or vitamin therapies to stem the onslaught of the aging process. When human beings are offered the chance to utilize computers and electronic technologies within their bodies to achieve these same results, it is almost certain they will embrace them regardless of the risks. Based on this, it would be unrealistic to try and ban such technologies; however one might worry about their ethical and social consequences. A ban would only probably force them into a large, criminal black market, as illegal drugs and weapons already have been. A new "cyborg bioethics" may be necessary. While it cannot be possible to foresee all the consequences resulting from bioelectronics, most scientists are already aware of what some of the major dangers are. Researchers in biocomputing may be required to adopt protocols on acceptable research with human subjects, much as genetic engineers did back in the 1970s. In drafting bioethical imperatives for bioelectronics research, it will probably be imperative to consider the concerns of groups such as the religious community, since to ignore their concerns simply out of the insistence that they are merely acting out of anti-science ignorance will leave an important group "out of the loop" of this research. This is uncharted territory for the human race, and it is the first time in which our own built environment may be directly incorporated into our own sense of self and human nature. Our own biocomputers

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(the human mind) evolved under a very specific set of evolutionary circumstances, after all, and they may not be equipped with the foresight and moral sense to keep up with the accelerating pace of technology. Since this is the case, it is probably imperative for society to assert that the scientists and engineers charged with creating this new technology exert the proper amount of social responsibility. Safeguards will have to be insisted on to prevent the possible negative impacts discussed above, and many of these things will have to be built in at the instrumental level, since they probably cannot be achieved only through policy and regulation. Critical public awareness and vigilance, of the kind already shown by Jeremy Rifkin and the Foundation on Economic Trends with regard to biotechnology, will be essential. But ultimately, bioethicists will have to grapple with the fundamental issues involved, which touch on aspects of human existence and human nature which reach to the core of what most people think is involved in what it means to be human, and this will not be an easy dilemma to resolve.

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14) REFERENCE

www.scribd.com www.wikipedia.org www.123seminaronly.com www.answers.com www.absoluteastromony.com

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