We have received technologies that provide many improved ways to connect to the outside world. In fact, the line between technology and reality has become unusually thin. Looking to the future, it is easy to imagine that this line will completely disappear when people and technologies merge together and become indistinguishable. Some philosophers and scientists believe that this technological advance can only be achieved in a few generations. In other words, we are rapidly moving towards the moment when humans become cyborgs.
But for some of us, that future is already here. Cybernetic technology has evolved to the point where it's safe to say that bionic humans are no longer the stuff of science fiction. Don't believe? We offer you to get acquainted with the real ones - people who partially remained a living organism, and partially voluntarily became a machine.

Neil Harbisson

Claudia Mitchell

Claudia Mitchell became the first female cyborg when she was fitted with a bionic limb. Her robotic arm is similar to Jess Sullivan's. The limb is connected to the nervous system, providing mental control.
The choice of movements is very wide, which makes it possible for the owner of the device to prepare food, hold a laundry basket, fold clothes - that is, to perform all daily work.

Sheep in wolf skins

Cyborgs

Education has created machines that look like people and people that look like machines.

Erich Fromm

Like it or not, technical progress requires sacrifice. Don't believe? Take the statistics of deaths from falls from a horse in the 19th century and compare them with current reports of accidents. Modern man is surrounded by hundreds of potential electromechanical killers - from hair dryers in the bathroom to exploding mobile phones. Our distant ancestors were afraid of predators in the jungle, and we are afraid to cross the road. For science fiction writers, this problem has long been solved. If machines are dangerous to man, man must himself become a machine. Eyes damaged by monitors can be replaced with cameras, flabby muscles can be strengthened with polymer cables, and an Internet chip in the head will make a klutz a know-it-all. But what's next?

The main Shinto shrine, Ise-jingu, was founded in 690. Every 20 years it was completely rebuilt anew (the last time - in 1993). The Japanese believe that the building remains the same. Human nature is not a temple, but a workshop. Will a man remain a man if all the organs in his body are replaced by mechanisms? Or will it be a new kind of creature that will replace us?

Who are you, fantastic cyborgs?

man in a case

What is a "cyborg"? A living organism containing mechanical parts? Or a robot that has biological components in its device? Initially, a cyborg was understood as a person who was "rather alive than dead" and used technical implants only as convenient tools - not "at hand", but in his hand. Or head. Today, cyborgs are called machines with biological appendages and even "purebred" robots - for example, humanoid models of terminators from the movie saga of the same name.

The T-800 model had a flesh-and-blood coating, which is why it was mistakenly called a "cyborg" (later it was dubbed both the all-metal T-1000 and the hybrid T-X). It is not known whether the Terminator's shell was alive in the biological sense of the word (the absence of heavy bleeding from injuries suggests otherwise). She played the role of camouflage, facilitating the introduction of a mechanical killer into human society. The “meat” of the Terminator did not participate in the functioning of its systems in any way, so it would be more fair to call it an android.

The term "cyborg" - an abbreviation of the phrase "cybernetic (from the Greek kybernao - "I drive") organism" - appeared relatively recently, in 1960. Inventor Manfred Klines used it in an article about the benefits of self-regulating machine-living organism systems in space exploration.

Progress has one interesting pattern: the desire for miniaturization and approaching a person in the literal sense of the word. Bulky landlines have become pocket cell phones. Players, computers, watches, credit cards - we carry all this on ourselves. There is a joint evolution of man and technology, which sooner or later will lead to the emergence of real cyborgs.

"Fake" is already today. People wear pacemakers, insulin pumps, ventilators, contact lenses, hearing aids, ceramic teeth, titanium plates on their bones... Imagine a person who has all of these at the same time. A significant part of its vital functions is provided artificially. At the current level of technological development, such a cyborg would be an invalid, not a hero with superhuman abilities. So far, implantable machines compensate for the physiological shortcomings of a person, and do not enhance his capabilities, but sooner or later the situation will change.

Where do cyborgs start?

The first prototypes of cyborgs appeared only in the 19th century - unless, of course, South American Indians with gold plates in trepanned skulls are considered “cyborgs”, because at least some, even primitive technologies are needed to create a cybernetic organism.

An early example of a fictitious synthesis of the living and the mechanical is John A. B. W. Smith, a brevet brigadier in Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Man Who Was Chopped to Pieces" (1839). The ruthless Bagaboo and Kickapoo Indians so mutilated the war hero that he had to order parts for himself. When assembled, he looked stunning - athletic appearance, ideal body proportions, a charming voice. And in the disassembled it was "a bunch of some kind of junk."

In 1908, the French writer Jean de la Hire (Count Adolphe d'Espies de la Hire) invented a hero named Leo Saint-Clair, who was nicknamed Nyctalope*. He can be considered the first full-fledged superhero in the history of science fiction - a man with superpowers and fighting evil for a dozen stories. This character had incredible eyes, the iris of which changed color, and an artificial heart.

*Nyctalopia - night blindness. The person has difficulty seeing in low light.

In the early 20th century, cyborgs turned from heroes to victims. Merging with the machine has come to be seen as something like a plaster cast - an effective, but not the most convenient remedy for all diseases, including even death. In Catherine Lucille Moore's No Woman More Beautiful (1944), the dancer Deirdre nearly dies in a fire. Her body is replaced by a mechanical one. He has no face, but it is graceful, mobile and graceful. In the book "The Head of Professor Dowell" (1937) Belyaev, a cyborg was created from a dead head, which was far from enthusiastic about this. But in some other cases, "heads in the jar" live interesting and adventurous lives:

“Next to the earthling was Simon Wright, aka the Brain - a living human brain, placed in a transparent cube with a nutrient saline solution. A loudspeaker and eye lenses were placed on the front wall of the cube ”(Edmond Hamilton“ Captain Future Comes to the Rescue ”(1940).

Am I a trembling creature?

A classic example is Isaac Asimov's short story " bicentennial man"(1976), the main character of which, the android NDR-113, decided to become a man and methodically replaced his mechanical "organs" with living ones. As a result, he was officially recognized as a man and died safely of old age.

Motoko Kusanagi from " ghost in the shell"- another cyborg that blurs the differences between a machine and a person. The major of the futuristic special forces is almost 100% a cyborg. And about these "almost" she has very big doubts. The girl suspects that she is a robot implanted with false human memories. The "and" are dotted after Motoko's consciousness merges with an artificial intelligence named "Puppeteer", resulting in a completely new creature.

The cyborg's feelings about his own humanity (and the man's suspicions about his artificiality) formed the basis of the Ridley Scott film "Blade Runner", which in turn was based on Philip Dick's novel Do androids dream of electric sheep". The ethics of cyborgization is sharpened to the limit here: artificial replicants of the Nexus-6 model easily pass the Voight-Kampf test (which detects androids), they can be implanted with a false human memory, so that there is only a terminological difference between a robot, a cyborg and a person.

The financial issue of cyborgization was raised by Martin Caidin in the novel Cyborg» (1972). Few people think that replacing living organs with artificial ones using the technologies of the 20th and 21st centuries costs fabulous money. Test pilot Steve Austin crashed, badly injured and was made into a cyborg in a secret government experiment. The operation cost $6 million, so Steve informally passed into US ownership. He had to work for Uncle Sam and fight terrorism (characteristically, it takes place in the 1970s).

Filming « Robot Cop” cost $ 15 million, but the problems of this film were an order of magnitude simpler. The iron-resurrected cop stayed in the possession of the OCP corporation for only a couple of days, as regular "flashbacks" quickly restored his humanity. Screenwriter Edward Newmyer conceived him as a hybrid of Iron Man and Judge Dredd, so philosophical questions like "Am I a trembling creature or a cyborg?" very quickly relegated to the background, giving way to restoring order by progressive methods: first shoot, and then do not ask anything.

Once a lumberjack Nick fell in love with a girl, but an evil witch bewitched his ax - so that every time, going into the forest, Nick chopped off his own limb. However, the village blacksmith immediately made a prosthesis. Gradually, hand by hand, foot by foot, Nick became completely iron.

The only organ that cannot be reproduced artificially was the heart. The tin woodcutter was looking for the missing spare part for a long time - until the Wizard of Oz (Goodwin) made his heart out of cloth and sawdust. This example is interesting because the authors of fairy tales-"twins" showed an extreme case of complete cyborgization. The only element of the Tin Woodman's humanity is his former mind and personality. In all other respects, he is actually not a cyborg, but a robot.

The Achilles' heel of the Tin Woodman is susceptibility to corrosion (he only had to cry to lose his mobility). The irony is that Baum's original character was called Tin Woodman. Tin - tin or tin plate that does not rust. Volkov got out of a delicate situation by calling the man "Iron".

Another fabulous arena (in the truest sense of the word) for cyborgs is located on the territory of computer entertainment. Fighting games are games where a fantasy story clashes with mechanical body enhancements. Most often, cyborgization is limited to limb replacements: Yoshimitsu (Tekken, Soul Calibur) and Jax Briggs (Mortal Kombat) get artificial arms, and Baraka (Mortal Kombat) gets his famous retractable blades.

Sometimes the cripples go into battle, in which life is supported by special respirators (Kabal from Mortal Kombat), and sometimes things go even further.

The Lin Kuei ninja clan decided to make all their best fighters cyborgs. Sector came out the most dangerous and vicious. Smoke was cyborgized using nanotechnology. Cyrax turned out to be the least loyal - in the end, he went over to the side of the forces of good and found a way to regain his human body. By the way, the cyber-ninja Gray Fox from Metal Gear Solid eventually also re-educated and gave his life for Solid Snake. So evil gaming cyborgs often turn out to be good when tested. Somewhere deep in the BIOS.

Modern "urban fantasy" is also not alien to cybernetics. One of the most colorful characters in "Potteriana" - Alastor Moody(Moody) - has every right to be called a magical cyborg: his right leg, lost in the fight against the Death Eaters, is replaced with a prosthesis, and instead of a gouged eye, a magic eye is inserted that can rotate 360 ​​degrees and see through any obstacles, including the invisibility cloak.

The "Other" section of the catalog of fantasy cyborgs can include any exotic: a hybrid of a man, a demon and a machine (Adam from the TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") or the inhabitants of Phyrexia - a gloomy universe from MTG. They are born "normal" (if asexuality can be considered as such), but very soon they undergo the "Finalization" procedure, during which they are stuffed to the eyeballs with magomechanical implants.

Neil Stevenson's novel Avalanche describes Ng Security, a company that produces cyborg fighting dogs. Their "heart" is a miniature nuclear reactor. Heat dissipation is provided by movement (if the dogs stop, they will die). Dogs are kept in special boxes connected to virtual reality with a "dog's paradise".

Initially, the main scourge of cyberpunk cyborgs was considered to be “cyberpsychosis”, which arises from the loss of humanity and is fraught with uncontrolled hatred for “imperfect” people. Writers used it to thicken genre colors even more (without special maxims about the price of progress), and the authors of game systems limited the growth of characters' abilities to cyberpsychosis.

The current ideology of cyberpunk has changed slightly. No moral anguish about humanity and insanity on the basis of implants. Merging with the machine is good. The Japanese, who live surrounded by Aibo dogs and robotic toilets, are especially optimistic about this.

For example, one of the main characters of the Appleseed manga is Briares Hekatoncheir, a SWAT officer, 75% composed of various high technologies. It is very pleasant for him to be a cyborg: the armor coating provides a sense of touch, there are 9 eyes on the back of the head, 4 on the face, sensitive sensors in the “bunny ears”, pre-processing of information by the electronic brain and other delights that every second fantastic hero would stand in line for.

***

The paradox of Theseus' ship * does not really bother modern authors who come up with new cyborgs. Turning a person into a DIY constructor is no longer fashionable. Today, small comfortable implants are popular, and even better - suits (Mjolnir from the Halo game series, the Iron Man movie). Does this mean that we refuse symbiosis with technology? No. It's just that nanorobots and genetic engineering are much more effective than iron prostheses.

* The Athenians gradually replaced the rotten boards of the legendary ship until there was not a single original part left in it and someone asked: “Is this the ship?”.

When we hear about cyborgs (“cybernetic organisms”), our minds invariably turn to science fiction. But in fact, cyborgs have been around for a long time: look at people with pacemakers and ear implants, for example. Their bodies are a combination of organic, electronic and biomechanical parts. In our selection, you will meet people in whose bodies technology is integrated in much more extreme ways.

1. Jerry Jalava

Jerry Jalava's finger is a hard drive, although the word "flash drive" seems more appropriate here. He lost part of his finger in an accident, and did what any sane person would do (joke): turned his finger into a hard drive. A disk with a USB port is inside the prosthesis, and the prosthesis is attached to what is left of the finger. Whenever Jerry needs to use a hard drive, he simply removes the prosthesis, plugs it in, and when done, removes it. Which for the first time makes it possible to steal important data with a handshake - like in a movie about spies.

2. Blade Runners

Most of us have heard of Oscar Pistorius, the South African sprinter. He has both legs amputated, and before being convicted for the murder of his girlfriend, he took part in the 2012 Summer Paralympics. Pistorius uses carbon fiber J-shaped prostheses that allow him to remain mobile despite his disability. Many Paralympic athletes use this type of carbon fiber in their prostheses because it is light and strong. And although Pistorius is hardly a role model, this type of prosthetics is becoming more common.

3. Rob Spence

Rob Spence calls himself an "eyeborg". He lost his right eye as a result of an unsuccessful shot from a gun. Many people would have been fine with a glass eye after this, but Spence seems to have decided to have some fun and inserted a video camera with a battery into his empty eye socket. The camera records everything he sees for later playback. Spence, as befits a director, is constantly improving his eye-camera to make it even more effective.

4. Tim Cannon

Software developer Tim Cannon has an electronic chip implanted under his skin by buddies. And by the way, none of the participants in this procedure was a certified surgeon. They used ice to relieve pain, as there were no certified anesthesiologists among them either. Despite the health and legal risks, the idea itself is interesting.

The chip is called Circadia 1.0 and it records Cannon's body temperature and sends that data to a smartphone. Cannon's case points to the possibility of a further fusion of technology and people, where the data collected by the chips can be used to change our environment. In the future, such technologies could be used in "smart homes" that will read data from implanted chips and then change the environment, making it more suitable for our mood and condition. For example, dim the lights or turn on relaxing music.

5. Amal Graafstra

Amal Graafstra is the owner of a company called Dangerous Things that sells self-implanting implant kits. Amal himself has RFID chips implanted in both hands, between his thumbs and forefingers. These implants allow him to unlock the doors of the house, open the car, turn on the computer with a quick hand scan. The chips even provide integration into social networks.

Amal's implants are not visible until he shows them himself. He uses them not to return his functionality or sense organs to a normal level, but to improve existing, normal functionality.

6. Cameron Clapp

Cameron Clapp has a human head, a human torso and a left arm. He lost both legs and his right arm as a teenager in a train derailment. All missing limbs have been replaced with prosthetic limbs, which doesn't stop Clapp from being a runner, golfer, and actor. Prosthetic legs use a special system that stimulates muscle growth. There are also sensors that monitor the distribution of body weight and adjust the hydraulics, allowing Clapp to walk freely. He has several sets of prosthetics for different purposes: a separate set for walking, for running and even for swimming.

7. Kevin Warwick

The nickname "Captain Cyborg" sounds more like the name of a cyborg pirate from some low-budget movie, but it's actually the name of cybernetics teacher Kevin Warwick. Warwick himself is a cyborg. He, like Amal Graafstra, has RFID chips implanted in his body.

Warwick also uses electrode implants that interact with his nervous system, and he implanted a set of simple electrodes in his wife. The implants record signals from the nervous system, and Warwick's senses of his wife are transmitted, as if there is a sensory telepathy between them. With this, Warwick provoked a lot of controversy, and some argue that all his work is just a publicity stunt and is purely for entertainment.

8. Nigel Ackland

Nigel Acklund worked in a precious metal factory and enjoyed life until an accident at work crushed his arm. As a result, the part had to be amputated, and now Nigel is one of 250 people using Bebionic - one of the most advanced prosthetic arms in existence today. Seeing its stylish design, it's easy to see why it's called the "Terminator Hand".

Eklund controls the prosthesis by contracting the muscles in the remaining arm. Muscle movements are recorded by the sensor of the bionic arm. With this hand, he can not only point, shake hands with people and make phone calls. The technology is so advanced that Eklund manages to play with a deck of cards and even tie his shoelaces.

9. Neil Harbisson

Neil Harbisson hears colors. Yes, you didn't hear it. Harbisson has been colorblind since birth and can only see in black and white. An antenna is implanted in his brain, the end of which sticks out from the top of his head. This antenna gives Neil the ability to sense colors by converting the frequencies of light waves into sound frequencies. It even has Bluetooth!

Harbisson loves to listen to architecture and makes sound portraits of people. A USB device on the back of his head allows the antenna to be recharged, although Neal hopes he will one day be able to wirelessly charge it using power generated by his own body.

This device allows Harbisson not only to perceive the color spectrum as we all perceive it, it actually makes it possible to distinguish between infrared and ultraviolet colors as well. The integration of technology into Harbisson's body expands his senses beyond the range we consider normal and makes him a true cyborg.

10. Hybrid accessory limb

The hybrid assistive limb is a powerful exoskeleton that can help wheelchair users to start walking again. It was created by Japan's University of Tsukuba and Cyberdyne (which apparently hasn't heard of the Terminator movie) to not only support people with physical disabilities, but to help them move beyond the normal range of human physical abilities.

The esoskeleton works by reading weak signals from the skin and moving the joints based on those signals. Using it, a person is able to lift five times his own weight. Imagine a future where such exoskeletons are used by builders, firefighters, miners, soldiers. A future in which the loss of a limb does not mean the loss of mobility. This future is not far off.

Valery Spiridonov, for RIA Novosti

Valery Spiridonov, the first candidate for a head transplant, talks about why people have always sought to endow themselves with "extra" limbs and how the development of augmentation technologies can turn not only the economy, but the whole life of a person.

From Ancient Egypt to Modern Japan

Since the dawn of civilization, mankind has sought to improve the standard of living and expand the capabilities of the human body. People tried to compensate for limited physical data with special devices.

The history of prosthetics dates back to ancient Egypt. The mummy, preserved from those times, was found to have a prosthetic big toe. Made about three thousand years ago, an artificial toe was attached to the foot with a leather sleeve and helped to maintain stability when walking.

© Photo: University of Basel/LHTT, Matjaž Kačičnik

© Photo: University of Basel/LHTT, Matjaž Kačičnik

And in 2001, during excavations in Saqqara, they discovered a prosthetic arm with leather straps for attaching to the body. The device was made at the end of the 27th century BC and was used as a functional prosthesis. When the left knee was bent, the elbow was bent, and when the body was turned in different directions, the hand was compressed and unclenched.

In ancient Egyptian bas-reliefs, images of dentists with tongs are also often found. And the classic image of a pirate is a man with a wooden leg and often with an iron hook instead of a hand. The hook had advantages in close combat and was one of the first examples of bionic amplification.

However, the first leg and arm prostheses, as well as dental implants, were largely fake. They did not allow to fully restore the volume of a person's physical capabilities.

Human augmentation creates supermen

To date, limb prosthetics, the installation of pacemakers, hearing aids and dental implants have entered into widespread medical practice.

With the development of technology, a new type of prosthetics has appeared - augmentation. Augmentation means not just the replacement of a lost organ, but also the acquisition of superpowers that were not previously characteristic of a person.

Carlson, Superman, Spider-Man, Terminator, Fab Four - fantastic comics, films and fairy tales about people endowed with unusual abilities are becoming a reality today.

And many do not even think that the time of the terminators has already come and cyborg people have become part of our society.

A separate direction in the development of high technologies has also been formed, combining medicine and robotics - biomechatronics.

Cybernetic hands

Prosthetics of human hands is still far from their full-fledged replacement in terms of function.

Modern bionic prostheses are set in motion by reading the electrical potential of the stump muscles during their contraction using electrical voltage sensors. Thus, the brush is compressed and unclenched. But it is almost impossible to perform movements that require special accuracy, for example, to take coins in your hand.

The main companies producing such bionic prostheses in Russia are Maxbionic and Motorica.

The most advanced prosthetic arm, the Luca Arm, was developed by Mibius Bionic for DARPA, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The prosthesis reads and recognizes signals from electromyographic electrodes adjacent to the muscles to carry out certain commands. Equipped with various settings, the device allows you to work with fragile and heavy objects, as well as perform complex actions, such as brushing your teeth.

However, the existing prosthetic hands are designed to partially replace lost functions and are not yet endowed with cyber options.

Cyborg legs

Bionic leg prostheses, in addition to the motor function, must provide effective cushioning. These engineering problems were solved at the American Vanderbilt University in Nashville. The created prosthesis consists of sensors that determine the position of the leg in space and motors that carry out movement. On a battery charge, an artificial leg can work up to three days.

It allows you to sit down and stand up, as well as walk up the stairs.

MIT professor Hugh Herr has invented an alternative prosthetic Power Foot. He has lost both legs and is testing prostheses on himself. Their peculiarity is in the ability to imitate the pressure of a human leg and absorb walking. Cyberlegs are much lighter than their own, while maintaining a load of up to 130 kilograms, they allow you to dance, run, climb to the top, picking up brain signals. In addition, these limbs are equipped with sensors that analyze the surface of the road.

Exoskeletons

A functionally extended version of lower limb prostheses are exoskeletons. The largest manufacturers of exoskeletons are Indego in the USA, ReWalk in Israel, Hybrid Assistive Limb and Ekso Bionic in Japan. The approximate cost of the exoskeleton is from 75 to 120 thousand euros. Projects for the development of exoskeletons are being carried out in parallel in other countries.

The Russian robotics team "Exoathlet" has been creating its own analogues of exoskeletons since 2011. Designed for use in a clinical environment, the ExoAtlet I is equipped with a wide range of capabilities through computer control, sensors and the option of muscle stimulation through electrical impulses.

In medical centers in Russia, the company is testing free rehabilitation programs for patients with lower limb dysfunction after injuries and various diseases using ExoAtlet I.

The device for home use is designed for automatic walking and will serve as a partial replacement for a wheelchair.

The Rex Bionics exoskeleton, introduced by a New Zealand company, allows people with paralysis of the lower limbs to walk independently, while leaving their hands free.

The device is activated with a joystick, has a small weight for such a design, about 38 kilograms, and can withstand a user weighing up to 100 kilograms.

Superman or Carlson? It's all about the costume

An example of an exoskeleton that gives a person superpowers is XOS 2 from the American company Raytheon. This is a robotic suit that allows you to lift two to three times more weight than a normal person can lift.

Such inventions are most often used in military and intelligence structures, but at the same time they can be used in construction, as well as in heavy physical work to reduce the load on the spine and muscles.

Another company, Trek Aerospace, has given the exoskeleton the ability to fly. The built-in jet engine will allow the device to pick up speed when flying up to 112 kilometers per hour and hover motionless in the air. To fly, overtaking traffic jams and not stopping at traffic lights, probably, many would like to now. And with such a speed, of course, it is better to have cybervision.

cyber eyes

There are many projects for the creation of eye implants that provide full compensation for lost vision.

The bionic eyes of the German company Alpha IMS are perhaps the most interesting of those devices that have already passed clinical trials. The prosthesis includes 1500 electrodes placed under the retina. Currently, the technology allows you to distinguish people's faces and read fairly large inscriptions.

The developers of Ocumetics Technology, who created bionic lenses, managed to get closest to the function of eye cyberprostheses. Bionic Lens replace natural lenses through cataract surgery.

Lenses have dynamic properties: connecting with the muscles of the eye, they self-focus at different distances. Thanks to the lenses, visual acuity will increase to 30 meters, and at short distances a person will be able to see more than with a microscope.

One of the unique advantages of these cyberlenses is that a person using bionic lenses spends a hundred times less energy than using his own eye. And accordingly, does not experience fatigue after hard work. The next couple of years, the company plans to launch mass production of lenses.

A subsequent upgrade of the device is also planned. In the future, a smartphone interface will be displayed on the retina of the eye and drugs will be delivered directly. In connection with the improvement of prosthetic technologies, such operations have become widespread among people without restrictions.

Experimental Augments

Is it worth it for a person who has no physical limitations to install a cyber implant to acquire new abilities?

Adherents of cybertechnologies are unlikely to seriously think about this, but there are daredevils who voluntarily install implants that are of little value or doubtfully useful.

Sleight of hand or chip hacking

The appearance of smart cyber tattoos with Tech Tats electrodes aroused interest. They are able to measure pressure, body temperature. It is planned to expand the functions of the device to partially replace the smartphone. When applied to the throat, the tattoo can be used as a microphone. But why implant a cyber-implant into the body if a phone and a fitness bracelet can handle such functions?

A whole culture of human biohackers has emerged, experimenting with interest in augmenting their own bodies.

Thus, RFID chips have received a new application. They are involved in many areas of everyday life and are present on all subway tickets and on stickers on products in the store.

A daredevil named Amal Graafstra decided to expand their use by inserting one chip into each of his hands. With their help, he easily opens the doors of the house, car and logs into his accounts on the global network.

Another example: a resourceful Finnish programmer who lost his finger in an accident replaced it with a two-gigabyte flash drive. Externally, the implant looks like a prosthetic finger, and when the cover is removed, a convenient flash device appears, which will not be lost and is always at hand.

in the name of the law

Currently, the implantation of chips or other devices into the human body is not legally regulated in Russia and most other countries. At the moment, such procedures are still equated with piercing.

But even minimal augmentation can cause a number of side effects. For example, when a magnetic chip comes into contact with another magnet, the implant begins to rotate under the skin, causing quite painful sensations. And when using technology, the finger with the chip may begin to vibrate. And of course, allergic reactions and rejection of the implant are possible. In addition, any augmentation makes it difficult to diagnose the body, since it excludes the possibility of tomography.

Despite this, the huge advantages of cyborgization are also obvious. Many cyberprosthetic technologies are unique in matters of domestic and international security. And their practical application every year becomes more accessible to the masses.

A variety of cyber prostheses allows you to compensate for physical limitations, as well as experience a completely different level of possibilities. The ability to perceive one's own body as a functional organism used to solve a number of problems creates a generation of cyborg people with new values ​​and ideas about life.

In what bodies will we meet the year 3000? And will the defrosted cryochamber patients be able to talk to us? What happens if the aging gene is permanently disabled? Read about it in a special story on the Moscow Trust TV channel.

Elixir of eternal youth

year 2014. NY. Manhattan. Archaeologists dug up the entire Bowery Street in search of a German courtyard that stood here at the end of the 19th century. Nothing foreshadowed making these excavations unique, until one of the archaeologists found a strange vial with an unknown liquid. The Latin inscription on the bottle was translated and the press was immediately called. Scientists were impatient, because in their hands was the elixir of youth, a drink that would hardly have been refused by at least one inhabitant of the earth. The recipe for the elixir turned out to be quite simple.

The pharmacist of the Moscow pharmacy recreated it in great detail. It turned out that the elixir of youth is a common medicine for the digestive system. Another sensation turned out to be a dummy. "It's a rather bitter elixir, since it all refers to bitterness. It is they that regulate the digestion process, they stimulate the electrolyte balance of the blood," says pharmacist-analyst Artem Buslaev. However, for the Europeans of that time, whose average life span barely exceeded 40 years, this remedy could well extend both youth and life. Now we live twice as long, we age later, we die more comfortably, but we still dream of being young forever. Is eternal life possible? "Modern technologies make it possible to do much more than elixirs of incomprehensible production and quality," says Artem Buslaev.

Mikhail Batin, president of the Science for Life Extension Foundation, is sure that our grandchildren will already face the question of not who to be, but in what body to live. If they want, they will be cyborgs, but they don’t like metal - they will be able to grow their own, but new bodies. While waiting for scientists to find a way to make his dream come true, Mikhail froze his grandfather. "I loved my grandfather very much. Cryonics is the best remedy in the worst circumstances. We don't know much, and therefore we can freeze the brain and see what happens, because it won't get any worse," Batin said.

He is going to freeze himself entirely, so that in the future he will first get out of the permafrost himself, and then pick up a decent body for his grandfather. And then for two to eat a pill for old age. "I would like to be myself: love to be loved, eat, travel, sex, games, joys ... But for all this you need to be alive," says Mikhail Batin. Mikhail is sure that if everything is done according to science, the cold will preserve his biological tissues until the moment when scientists learn how to properly defrost them. And there is not far from complete immortality. He will have to wait for the resurrection from the ice here. Birches, butterflies - a classic house in the village. Only behind the fence, instead of a greenhouse, is a cryostorage, you can’t call it a cemetery.

"We are located in the Moscow region, where our cryogenic storage is located. Our patients are stored in it at an ultra-low temperature," says Andrei Shvedko, technical director of the cryogenic company.

Glycerin instead of blood

Mikhail Batin's grandfather is waiting for the resurrection in the company of relatives of almost all the company's employees - a total of 37 people. And another 120 of those who came according to the announcement are waiting for their turn. After death, their blood will be replaced with a solution based on glycerin - it will protect the tissues from the harmful effects of ice crystals. This process is called perfusion.

“Human blood is replaced by several solutions specially prepared, studied a thousand times on cells and animals. When frozen, ice crystals become very small, and they themselves are small, round, and do not damage the cell,” explains Valeria Udalova, general director of the cryocompany. Valeria Udalova's pet dog became the world's first frozen dog. "14 animals have already been cryopreserved, and there are several contracts for the future, people signed in advance," says Valeria Udalova.

Only when the glycerin completely replaces the blood will the body be cooled and taken to cryostorage. Thermos, dewar, perhaps the most monstrous communal apartment in the capital. The people in it, frozen, are suspended in a circle for 1,200,000 rubles per seat. In the center are the brains, the place is estimated at 400 thousand rubles, and the animals are in free zones, the cost depends on the size of the pet. The rest of the patients is disturbed only once a month, when liquid nitrogen is added to the dewar.

"Our patients are here at a temperature of -196 C. This temperature stops any processes in the body and allows you to keep any biological object intact almost forever," says Andrey Shvedko.

The demand for freezing after death is so high that it looks like Mikhail will have to spend the winter not in the garden, but inside the whole city. The University of Land Management has developed a project of "Cryonopol", which is going to be built in Vladivostok. The building will combine a modern necropolis and a modern room for cryopatients. In the same building, on different floors, frozen people and those who were buried forever will be stored.

"The cryostorage is located in this part, in the rocky soil, i.e. directly under the rock. And the second room of the cryostorage is located under the temple building, on the first floor," says Alexandra Kraeva, the author of the Cryonopol project. In terms of cost, the developers compare the project with the construction of two metro stations. And it will be possible to provide jobs for 1000 people. “These are drivers and nitrogen tankers, safety, work with vacuum technologies, artistic decoration of the storage devices themselves, organization of places for ritual ceremonies,” explains Mikhail Limonad, professor at the Department of Architecture at the State University for Land Management. In addition, there will be a registry office in the ice palace. The designers of "Cryonopol" took care of storing the documents of those who might still wake up. “We must ensure the safety of their documents. It is the dead who are deprived of citizenship, but they are not dead - they are cryopatients. We will freeze and unfreeze them as beautiful as today, only they will not have any acquaintances. They are all like Einstein according to the theory of relativity, they will go to the grave, and you will live with a completely different composition of faces," says Lemonade.

In another body

However, no one guarantees defrosting and revival even in the distant future. This is written in the contract. “We will keep the agreements until they are revived or until science proves that this is absolutely impossible. We do not give full guarantees, because, on the one hand, there is force majeure: war, a meteorite fall, anything, but on the other hand, On the other hand, we assume that the development of technology will allow people to be resuscitated, and what if we are mistaken - therefore there is no full guarantee," says Valeria Udalova.

“I don’t believe that cryopreservation, especially with the clumsy methods that exist now, can lead to the fact that people will be revived. This is a kind of fantasy and simplification. In general, there are a large number of simplistic people in the field of preserving youth and eternal life,” says the presenter researcher at the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University Maxim Skulachev. "Imagine a computer that has some kind of memory that is erased if it is turned off. The brain is all such a memory. It is in continuous interaction with the nerves. The impulses that rush between billions of nerve cells are our memory. It is worth stopping the movement of the impulse "Everything will be erased, like RAM in a computer. You can unfreeze even if there are intact cells, but the content will disappear. There will be absolutely soulless matter," explains Alexander Kaplan, head of the laboratory of neurophysiology at the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University.

"You can freeze the brain, but someone tried to unfreeze it - I do not know of such work. I think this is a commercial approach," says Elena Tereshina, Doctor of Biology. Opponents of freezing asked the question: What if, a second before the complete shutdown, the human brain is placed not in the cold, but in the most comfortable conditions? Can it then be expected that he will be able to wait for the appearance of an immortal body? "The brain ages because of the body. Neurodegenerative processes occur due to the fact that the body poisons the life of the brain, aging. How can you save the brain, in what environment - that's what I would like to do," says Elena Tereshina.

If the dreams of scientists come true and the brain can be saved, then it will need a body. Ideally, a terminator. Scientists assemble the immortal iron body piece by piece. In America they created eyes and ears, in Japan they created a mouth. And if light terminators are not required, then without a heart, he, like a person, cannot.

All over the world are trying to invent a mechanical heart. Demand for it has been consistently high for a long time. About a hundred hearts are transplanted at the transplant center every year, so far from donors. Mikhail Ogilko waited for someone else's heart for two and a half months, but it never beat in his chest. “They had an operation, but the implant didn’t work. What to do: either die or look for a lucky break,” says Mikhail Ogilko. There was only one way out: to connect an artificial heart and hope for a miracle, for a new human heart. It was a lucky chance that at that time another donor was being prepared for surgery. Mikhail did not feel the mechanical beating of his third heart under anesthesia. This heart will more accurately be called a mechanical circulatory support system. It is often used as a temporary measure, because this system cannot replace the heart for life. "This device has been around for several decades, but the dimensions are like a refrigerator. A heart that can be inserted into a human body is only being tested now," says Alexander Kaplan.

artificial heart

Russian scientists have developed the left ventricle of the heart for the human of the future. It consists of two parts: the valve itself and the charger for it. "The valve weighs a little, about 200 grams, and the battery - 400. And a person needs to carry two such chargers as a bandolier," explains Sergey Gauthier, director of the Federal Scientific Center for Transplantology and Artificial Organs.

Perhaps in the future, an artificial heart will beat in the chest of the terminator, but now it is inserted into living people. With an artificial half heart, a person can live for about 5 years, but every day you need to make sure that the battery does not run out - it lasts for 6 hours - and that an infection does not get into his body. "The channel through which the cable runs can serve as a way for infectious factors to penetrate and infect the machine as a foreign body," says Sergey Gauthier.

Mikhail did not need such a mechanical heart. While he was lying on the operating table, another donor heart miraculously appeared in the hospital. At the moment when it made its first blow in the chest of Mikhail, a thousand kilometers away, in France, the real heart of the terminator began to beat. Not the left or right ventricle, but the whole thing. This artificial organ has been developed for 20 years. It is able to provide small and large circles of blood circulation and almost completely replace a living heart. "This is a very fine and precise development. And at the moment this" Capatti's heart "has been implanted exactly in one patient. I think this work will be continued, and soon humanity will receive a good model of the human heart," explains Sergey Gauthier. The French heart is made of polymer materials and pig tissues. The only drawback of the heart is its weight of 1 kilogram, it will not suit everyone, and the price is still high - 3.5 million rubles.

In the morning Mikhail woke up a different person, with a new heart and new plans for a long, preferably eternal, life. He is sure that in 30 years he will be able to replace the donor heart with a modern prosthesis, but what is the heart - the whole body. "I have a good imagination, I can imagine a lot, including this. If a person is bored with himself, then he does not need it. And I can live in someone else's and in an artificial body, I can enjoy life . I want to live,” says Mikhail.

Cyborg people

Few people doubt the inevitability of the appearance of cyborgs. "It seems to me that the creation of the main organs - the heart, liver, kidney - can be within 10 years. Everything else is 50-60 years. But this is a foreseeable future. And now we are talking only about artificial organs," says Alexander Kaplan.

"We are talking about a robot that will not have any biological tissues inside it. It is quite possible to create such a robot, but only gradually, that is, at some stage it will be a cyborg - a connection of a person with electronic devices," says the doctor of biological sciences, Professor Alexander Frolov.

Two-time champion of the 2006 Paralympic Games, 2010 medalist, Honored Master of Sports of Russia Vladimir Kiselev, lost both legs at the age of 12. After 2.5 decades, he was finally able to get prostheses that replaced his legs. “After only 25 years, I was able to experience these delights of life in comparison with previous prostheses,” says Vladimir Kiselev. "The most interesting thing about this system is the knee mechanism. One of the latest developments in the world. It completely imitates human movements," explains orthopedic technician Andrey Nakonechny. Prostheses of the new generation give the owners incredible opportunities. On such artificial legs, it is easy to climb stairs and even ride a bicycle. And with the help of a computer via Bluetooth, you can choose the appropriate mode.

The athlete received the prosthesis for free after winning the Paralympic Games. The market price of such a leg is about two million rubles. A bionic prosthetic hand costs about the same. The artificial hand can turn, bend and unclench fingers, as if alive. “The electrodes read the muscle signal and transmit it to the processor, which converts the muscle signal into an electronic one, and then, with the help of the flexor and extensor muscles, the hand opens and closes,” says orthopedic technician Alexei Velichko.

Unlike its predecessors, the new prosthetic hand has all working fingers, even the big one. But the artificial body of the future can still be radically modified, according to young scientists from Moscow State University. Terminator can be made by Shiva with any number of hands. "This is a wearable manipulator that can be controlled in parallel with human limbs," says Daniil Kiryanov, a graduate student at the Faculty of Biology at Moscow State University. The third hand prototype is currently being tested. Scientists are trying to find a way to control it effortlessly. "For example, I'm sitting writing something, then the phone rang, and I thought I should pick up the phone, but my manipulator did it - it's possible," says Alexander Kaplan.

So, the terminator of the future will have artificial internal organs, iron arms and legs, he will be able to add all the new necessary parts of the body. "While all this is available separately, it will be necessary to tie it all together, make it work. We will need a special computer and special equipment," explains Kaplan.

By the power of thought

In order for the brain to learn to control an artificial body as if it were its own, first of all, you need to learn to understand without words what it wants. And then transmit these commands to individual parts of the body. Scientists can already do such a trick with the hand. The brain-computer interface works like this: sensors attached to the head read the brain's response to certain actions. The computer remembers it and turns it into a command for an artificial hand.

“We first train a person, peep in electrical activity, what happens in it when a person does not do something, but simply thinks about it, and then we use this hint. Everywhere the principle is the same: we must study this particular person in advance and then tune in to it," says Alexander Kaplan.

In this case, you need to carefully monitor the flashing lamps on the fingers of the prosthesis and think about each of them. The sensors read the reaction of the brain and transmit it to the computer, and the next time you want to bend your little finger, the program will understand this and send a signal to the artificial hand.

The technology for controlling artificial body parts is being developed by several laboratories at once, competing in the speed of reading thoughts. The faster the devices begin to decipher the intentions of the brain, the easier it will be to control the artificial body. These sensors determine not only the electrical activity of the brain, but also changes in the chemical composition. "When you have some part of the brain involved in solving a problem, the blood flow to it increases, and the ratio of oxidized and non-oxidized hemoglobin naturally changes. This is the basis of the fMRI effect (functional magnetic resonance imaging - ed.)", - explains Alexander Frolov.

But no matter what perfect body awaits us in the future, the brain, frozen and preserved in comfortable conditions, will still someday die. "In general, the specific life expectancy of a person is 120 years. After 60 years of life, a person was given another 60 years so that he could think, give out an intellectual product," says Elena Tereshina.

Avatars instead of the brain

So what kind of immortality can we talk about, if even in an artificial body the brain lives up to a maximum of 120? Activists of the public movement "Russia 2045" believe that in the future we will not need this part of the body at all. They believe that a person will become immortal in 30 years, and they divide this path into 4 stages, each of which should give the world its avatar. The first should end by 2020. It will be a copy of a person that can be controlled from a distance.

They want to create Avatar B by 2025 - they want to transplant the human brain into an artificial body. The next stage of evolution - Avatar B - is an artificial copy of a person, into which only the consciousness of a person is transferred, the brain is no longer needed. Consciousness is digitized and stored in a computer. The ultimate goal of the project is to turn a person into a hologram - this should happen in 2045. How exactly we will dissolve in space and become a hologram is not yet clear, but the idea of ​​​​creating an immortal prosthesis for the human brain is beginning to come true.

"There is a professor Theodore Berger at the University of California, he is trying to make a prosthetic hippocampus. The hippocampus is the part of the brain that is responsible for short-term memory. Now scientists are conducting tests on rats, but soon they plan to do it on humans. And gradually it will be possible to remove this tissue with this prosthetics. It seems to me that this is a softer and more progressive way. It will be possible to create a symbiosis of electronics and the nervous system, "explains Alexander Frolov.

It seems that our cyborg is ready - an artificial body and an artificial brain. For those who do not like robots, there is another way - to grow new organs from stem cells and endlessly change them if something goes wrong. At the Institute of Transplantation, they learned how to create cartilage in this way, the tests were successful. “The knee cartilages of rabbits were destroyed and then filled with a matrix containing the stem cells of this rabbit. As a result, we got the restoration of cartilage surfaces and the corresponding functions,” says Sergey Gauthier.

Scientists can grow internal organs, skin and even bones from stem cells. Soon the turn will reach the most difficult parts of the body.

"Time will pass, all this will develop, and we will approach the creation of multifunctional tissue - these are the nuclei of the brain, the retina of the eye," says Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Alexander Teplyashin.

Every person has stem cells, they are responsible for restoration, regeneration. When a cut on the hand heals or liver cells gradually regenerate, it's all their job. As we age, stem cell division slows down. But if you stock up on this biomaterial in advance, you can create your own inexhaustible source and use it all your life. This is the idea behind the cell bank created by Professor Teplyashin.

“We store purified stem cells in Dewar vessels. It is miniature, and about 3.5 thousand people fit into each barrel. This is an inexhaustible source that can be periodically thawed and used almost throughout life,” says Alexander Teplyashin. The bank is replenished with elements from adipose tissue, skin, bone marrow. After processing in the laboratory, this reserve can be used, for example, in the treatment of complex fractures.

"There are bone marrow cells that are involved in the creation of bone tissue. The creation of the biological equivalent of bone, which we have made, is based on this - human trials will begin soon. I have not seen this anywhere in the world. You can grow a piece of bone, insert it, and it take root in three months," explains Teplyashin.

How to gain immortality

A man of the future, grown from his own cells, may seem much more attractive than a cyborg. But it is still far from ideal. But what if we make sure that our body simply does not grow old and does not wear out?

“Why we age is not completely known. This is one of the mysteries of biology. By all indications, it turns out that aging is a genetic program,” says Maxim Skulachev. Geneticists all over the planet are trying to figure out how to turn off the aging gene. And most importantly - over whom to conduct such an experiment. "Let's say, with the effort of our brain, we will assume what kind of gene it is, we will raise a child with its shutdown. But what if we made a mistake, and this gene is responsible for something else - how are we going to explain this to a person? It's impossible," says Maksim Skulachev.

While geneticists are looking for volunteers, biologists offer their recipe for immortality. They believe that by ridding cells of free radicals, you can give yourself decades of youth. “Everyone who breathes oxidizes natural substances to get energy, they synthesize part of the oxygen for a good purpose, and turn part of it into the strongest poison that rushes throughout our body, oxidizes lipids, introduces a mutation in DNA, and it’s generally not clear why this is happening. And we came up with a way to put an antioxidant in exactly the place where free radicals appear. If everything works out, we can feel 30-35 years old at 60. I would like to live like this: live young and healthy until 90, and then burn out in 5 years," Maksim Skulachev believes.

It is still too early to talk about creating one universal pill for old age. And it is unlikely that she will ever appear. But Lyudmila Chursina does not intend to give up for years. She visits a cryosauna - you can feel low temperatures during your lifetime. “I have been visiting this procedure for a year now, and I do without any pills for my joints, and in general. The cryosauna surprisingly supports me,” says People's Artist of the USSR Lyudmila Chursina. The principle of operation of the cryosauna is simple - liquid nitrogen cools the body and causes a protective reaction. "When a person comes out of the cryosauna, his capillaries expand, metabolism improves, because the metabolism starts. Microcirculation opens," says Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Vladimir Potapov.

So how much have we been given: 100, 200, 300, or an eternity? So far, scientists cannot put an end to it, which means that the secret of immortality has not yet been revealed.