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The Borg Hypothesis Human-Centered Computing The Borg Hypothesis Robert R. Hoffman, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Patrick J. Hayes, and Kenneth M. Ford, Institute for Human and Machine Cognition hat if intelligent computing were centered lerChrysler is developing prototypes that continuously inside humans? This essay’s title is inspired monitor drivers’ physical and mental states, while DARPA’s W Augmented Cognition Program is planning an even more by the nemesis of Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the starship ambitious reach to “plug in” the warfighter of the future Enterprise in the television series Star Trek: The Next (www.darpa.mil/ipto/programs/augcog/index.htm). Portending an even braver and newer world, it’s now Generation. The Borg are—or should we say “is”—a possible to insert wires into a person’s nerves to control species consisting of organic beings symbiotically merged appliances. We can even send such signals over the Inter- with technology. Each individual Borg is laden with all net, where they are decoded by computer and then fed into manner of appliances, ranging from laser eyeballs to another person’s nervous system.1 Human bodies are get- appendages resembling drill presses to computational and ting more and more plugged in. communication devices implanted in their nervous sys- It’s not easy to set aside questions of ethics and choice. tems. The Borg is a collective, meaning that they—or it— It is not even possible. However, in this essay we simply possess a single mind. That Borg mind has the single intent overlook them in order to work toward our hypothesis. of “assimilating” all organic species into the collective. To do that, we must take you on a trip into space. Our Assimilation involves first injecting nanoprobes that thor- argument is that if humanity decides to continue human oughly transform the organic being down to the molecular exploration of space, we will sooner or later—probably level, then grafting on the various appliances (or else grow- sooner—be forced to center some intelligent computing ing them de novo like so many cloned carrots in a hydro- inside humans. ponic garden). Wending their way through the galaxy in huge Rubik Cube-like vehicles, the Borg assimilate entire Men into space planets at a time and carve up starships as if they were In 1959 and 1960, Ziv Television Productions and pro- roast beef, making them (it) an especially nasty adversary. ducer Lewis J. Rachmil produced a television series titled In our real world, we already routinely replace hip joints Men into Space. This series featured the space concepts of with titanium and inner-ear structures with microcircuits; artist Chelsey Bonestell, whose works had a major impact we can carry telephones comfortably on our heads, and on many writers, including Arthur Clarke, and motion Web-enabled eyeglasses can augment our view of reality. pictures, such as Destination Moon and The Conquest of To counter the effects of drowsiness or inattention, Daim- Space. For his TV series, Rachmil also relied heavily on advice from the US Air Force and the Surgeon General. Men into Space was intended to present the most realistic depiction of what it would be like to establish a space station or moon base and then begin the process of exploring the planets. Episodes included one in which a fold on an astro- naut’s space suit accidentally became crimped between two large pieces of a space station as he was assembling them in space. The problem: Is there a hole in the suit? If so, freeing the suit could kill the astronaut. In another episode, the crew was stranded at the bottom of a crater on the moon after a Editors: Robert R. Hoffman, Patrick J. Hayes, and Kenneth M. Ford crash landing. The problem: Radio waves only move in Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, University of West Florida straight lines, and there is no ionosphere to reflect them to [email protected] receivers that are out of line-of-sight. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2003 1094-7167/03/$17.00 © 2003 IEEE 73 Published by the IEEE Computer Society In one especially pertinent episode, an such as the Personal Satellite Assistant, an (for example, artificial limbs), their own astronaut on a space walk at the space sta- intelligent flying appliance.3 And some of anatomy (for example, cochlear implants), tion becomes stressed out during a repair you may recall occasional glimpses of and even their molecular biology (for and botches a wiring job. As a result, a Shuttle astronauts using laptops to assist example, gene therapy). Through human- stabilizer rocket on the space station mis- them in various ways. As a perspective on machine symbiosis, we are on an evolu- fires, speeding up the rotation of the space the challenge of getting the most advanced tionary threshold where our species is wheel to the point where the crush of grav- technology hardened for space, consider capable not only of deliberately affecting ity makes movement, let alone repair, seem- that an initial design for the International its own evolution but also of changing the ingly impossible. What makes this episode Space Station specified that the computer rules by which evolution occurs. interesting is the explicit focus coming from monitors would all be black-and-white. Fundamental mechanisms of the evolu- ideas in human factors engineering circa On the biology side, we have a fairly clear tion of new species include variation and 1960. The technology on the space station idea about the effects of ambient radiation, “selection,” meaning lots of death. Perhaps includes a polygraph-like device that con- and it isn’t good. Radiation shielding means our technological advances have set the stantly monitors the astronauts’ stress levels. mass. Lots of it. That means the ship must stage for a new form of evolution, one that As the wheel spins faster, readings indicate be much heavier than we’d prefer. We also does not require lots of death or even genetic that the station commander is stressed to have some clear ideas about the effects of change but might nonetheless entail specia- the max. But our hero rises to the challenge tion, if only because someone who has been and manually controls the wheel’s stabiliz- “Borged” might not be able to procreate ing rockets. This study in human endurance with someone who has not been “Borged.” begins with the following voice-over: Once in space, might the transformed Long-duration space missions humans be stuck there? This brings to The age of the conquest of space will be an mind another idea from science fiction, age of men and machines probing far beyond our Earth. And just as some machines will will not be possible unless and that the best people to live and work in probe deeply into space, others will probe the zero-g are those who have lost their legs men who will travel in space. Yet, put to the (less work for the heart.) ultimate test, no amount of machinery will be until human biological evolution By the traditional criterion in biology, ever able to determine the measure of a man’s inner strength. such Borged humans would not be a differ- has been forced. ent species. Biologists may have to change As prescient as it was, the concepts pre- their criterion because survival and procre- sented in Men into Space now seem rather ation will not necessarily be restricted to naïve because we have seen what real space success in the reproduction of the biology flight, space walks, a space station, and a alone. Borged humans might think that their moon landing are like. However, all the zero gravity, and they aren’t good either. offspring need more than this to be fully accomplishments—and setbacks—of the Irretrievable bone loss and muscle deteriora- “human”—perhaps they would require last several decades represent just our first tion are two of the most obvious effects. A being “born of woman and then properly few tentative steps into space. We already long-duration space mission will almost engineered.” know that traveling to the planets will be a certainly have a gravity wheel habitat in For long-duration space missions, we must very different affair in many ways than trav- which astronauts can get some respite from approach Borgification from two directions: eling to Earth’s moon. Because our experi- zero-g. But then, we have absolutely no clue ence with long-duration space travel is so about the effects on humans of frequent, • Machines, as we know them today, limited, our current ideas are almost certain repeated forays into and out of zero-g as must become more biological in certain to end up being as naïve as those of Rach- astronauts go from the habitat wheel into the respects. They must possess functionali- mil’s courageous space pioneers. rest of the ship to perform various duties. ties such as self-repair and self-defense, We know all about gluing metal contacts for example. (Scientists at NASA’s Jet What will it really take? onto bodies and measuring physiological Propulsion Laboratory are already work- Long-duration space travel is rather hos- indicators such as heart rate. We know a ing on systems that can train themselves tile to both our bodies and our machines. little about putting appliances, machines, to become new circuits.) Not just when NASA still struggles to make systems that and electronics inside bodies. Is it really the machines are in use, but also as provide a lung-friendly atmosphere and that much of a step to imagine putting they are created and decommissioned, stomach-friendly water (not to mention a intelligent machines inside humans? But processes must be more biological—that human-centered interface for control and our “Borg Hypothesis” goes boldly beyond is, more like growing and recycling than maintenance) and that will work for years even this: Long-duration space missions manufacturing and discarding.
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