Cybernetics - A Brave New World!

Overview This essay examines the history of cybernetics, in the narrow sense of its use in mainstream medical application as bionics and its potential lifestyle and business applications as well as possible future applications.

Cybernetics Explained To the average layperson, 'cybernetics' means 'cyborgs'. Half-human, half-machine. Popular media is filled with examples of people with robotic limbs interfacing directly with computers or cyborg soldiers running around, all hard shells and soft human internals. Sometimes it can go the other way - machines using living organs for their own purposes. In 2008 Reading University in the U.K. demonstrated a working prototype of a robot which used a rat's living brain as its only form of control and decision making.[1] In fact this is an rather narrow understanding of cybernetics and has more to do with fictional notions of biology combined with electronic engineering, with some kind of advanced feedback. This relationship does exist but is still in development. (See below.)Cybernetics is really a centuries old interdisciplinary study of regulatory systems connecting fields as diverse as psychology, electrical engineering and economics. Research into cybernetics principally seeks to understand the processes and goals of a system (whether biological, mechanical or digital, for example) in order to utilise that process or just utilise it more efficiently. The American Society For Cybernetics[2] describe it as "Cybernetics is the study of systems and processes that interact with themselves and produce themselves from themselves." In the U.K., The Cybernetics Society[3] uses an image from a mandelbrot set (a mathematical expression which when allowed to iterate indefinitely, generates a fractal pattern of ever increasing complexity) as part of their website banner.

For most people, to say that cybernetics is all about a system of communication and control is enough. An early example of cybernetics was a water clock developed by an ancient Egyptian mechanician called Ktesibios. His clock consisted of a water source to power the mechanism of the clock and a plug-type regulator to ensure that enough water - no more, no less, was available to power the clock. The device needed no human intervention or supervision to operate and so is an example of a self-regulating cybernetic system. Systems such as this one are ubiquitous today. A similar system to Ktesibios's is used in modern flush toilets, for example. For this essay I'll be looking at bionics. The 'cyborg' stuff. Not because it makes for sensational press about super-soldiers and Frankenstein monsters but because bionics is already here with us in the form of humanitarian medical aids. And because one way or another, readily available and reliable bionics will have a profound impact on society at large.

Bionic Powers We're all familiar with the use of aids such as eyeglasses and hearing aids to improve our lives by enhancing our senses or overcoming the shortcomings of failing bodies but these are strictly temporary measures and in any case they're useless in the face of really serious body problems like heart disease and paraplegia. For this reason, medical research into bionics (as in; artificially created electronic and mechanical body part replacements) has led to the development of artificial hearts and cochlear implants for the deaf, to name just two innovations. It's also hoped that in the near future, artificial eyes and more efficient internal organs will become available. Technically, people implanted with (or surgically adapted to) these bionic aids are cyborgs but as explained below, this is just a title. Any inference of superpowers or glowing red eyes just implies that the reader watches a lot of bad TV.[4]

Cybernetic Organs So while not as interesting sounding perhaps as 'Robotically Enhanced Cyber-Babes' [5], research in bionics has already provided several examples of mundane down-to-earth benefits. In a world where the extraordinary becomes commonplace in time and dazzling new innovations tend to fade into the background noise of utilitarian ubiquity, robotic cybernetics will have a greater role in providing spare parts for a growing, ageing population. Internal medical monitors, joint replacements and stronger internal organs for example, as they already do in the case of pacemakers. Although biological solutions to these problems also exist, there is still the issue of getting enough donated body parts to supply the demand that's already there. Artificial body parts can be manufactured and stored with relative ease. They don't suffer from disease or ageing and they can be upgraded.

Worries about the human body rejecting them are less of a concern since the problem of human tissue rejecting the ceramics and metals of implants is much less of a problem compared to rejection of a living body part. Rejection is even less of an issue where neural implants are inserted to control externally fitted implants and prostheses.[6] The rise of research into robotic cybernetic augmentations began around 30 years ago and developed along with the rise in computer power. Most children and adults are probably familiar with cybernetics in the form of a robotic body augmentation (or even body replacement) in science-fiction. Cybernetics in fiction can often involve replacing an entire body except half a face/chest with mechanical parts and can go as advanced as having a lone brain reside inside a computer, whereas cybernetics in real life reaches its peak at interactive prosthetic limbs. Usually these are portrayed as visible or significant changes to the body in question (Star Trek's Borg and their many robot bits, etc.) and raise issues of self-image in the viewer. The cybernetic addition is often portrayed as a disfigurement akin to an amputee's hook hand or as a power enhancement, like Steve Austin's bionics. In which latter case, the cybernetics tend to be as cosmetically enhancing as possible as well, if not simply invisible. Who other than a Star Wars fan would remember that Luke Skywalker's hand runs on batteries now? This particular cliché mirrors the common perception of cybernetic enhancements many people harbour. Obvious addons are a flaw, and like a scar or beady eyes or jet black hair, they're seen as resulting from flaws in a person's character. Clearly there's a need here for intelligence enhancement in popular culture. Still, people are already vain enough about wearing mere eyeglasses simply because they feel it betrays a bodily weakness and as anyone handicapped by an illness or accident will admit, like it or not, you become part of another social class when you need to use a wheelchair. Of course, needing to have a robotic replacement leg and and choosing to have it are two separate things. Whatever the effect on social style, it's probable that a stronger and subtler effect in social status will shape the public's actual desire for artificial cybernetic enhancements. Social rejection caused by artificial cybernetic implants will be as important to people as tissue rejection. Artificial prosthetics have come a long way from showroom dummy hands and legs[7] with developments in engineering and materials enabling people to compete in athletic sports and as a side-effect, lessen any stigma towards their situation.

Claudia Mitchell - Cyborg More advanced robotic limbs are becoming increasingly more available and sophisticated. In 2008 Claudia Mitchell, a former U.S. Marine had a robotic left arm fitted to her shoulder to replace her original arm which she had lost in a motorbike accident[8]. Mitchell's original arm's nerve endings were rerouted to skin on her chest and the new arm is controlled by thought impulses sent to those nerve endings being detected by sensors in the arm.

Mitchell was quoted as saying: “I just think about moving my hand and elbow, and they move. I think, ‘I want my hand open’ and it happens. My original prosthesis wasn’t worth wearing - this one is.” While the arm isn't actually connected directly to her nervous system, her thoughts still operate the arm in much the same way as her original living arm. Which leaves room for potential future upgrades, if nothing else. As a sidenote to this incident, media coverage of the event was entirely positive and (mostly) avoided making weak jokes about 'cyborgs' and 'cyber-women'. It would be difficult to state that this was a freak medical event, and even more difficult put a negative slant on something so blatantly beneficial to amputees everywhere. An encouraging development as much as the advances in medical technology that let it happen in the first place. Since then, development into cybernetic artificial prostheses has continued. This is partially due to advances in computer technology but also as a result of the increased need to provide prosthetic replacements for military amputees. Particularly in America.

Dean Kamen Operation Iraqi Freedom produced 1214 amputation injuries by 2008, according to the United States Department Of Defence[9] In the same year, DARPA, a research branch of the U.S. Department Of Defence contracted a company called DEKA[10] to work on a brain-controlled prosthetic limb called the 'Luke Arm'[11] (a name which speaks volumes about the influence of popular media on cybernetics funding.). The company is owned by Dean Kamen[12], an American engineer and inventor who is probably best known for developing The Segway[13] and The iBot Mobile Powered Wheelchair[14] (which at time of writing is unfortunately too expensive for almost all the people who really need it.). He's also a good example of the cultural mainstreaming that robotic cybernetics is undergoing. Kamen's products are futuristic without being strange and designed for socially responsible projects without appearing to be sanctimonious or pursuing a straightforwardly corporate marketing agenda. Perhaps as part of this ethos he appeared on the popular American comedian Stephen Colbert's TV program in March 2008 in order to demonstrate a powered water-filter his company had developed. According to a Wikipedia article on him, "He hopes... (the water-filter) will help improve living standards in developing countries."[15] Anyone watching the video of Kamen's demonstration however, might think that Stephen Colbert's show wasn't the best place to introduce the water filter.. In any case, Kamen is a recent example of a kind of businessman that became famous in the 1990's. The technology entrepeneur. He aims to bring bionics (and other relatively high-tech inventions) out of the corporate and government labs and into people's homes. When this happened with home computers in the 1980's and later in the 1990's with software, everyone was easily sold on the idea of a bright new future resplendent with possibility. So aside from the obvious benefits of cheap and sophisticated robotic implants, can cybernetics lead to a brave new world for all?

A Brave New World? You might have noticed that the title of this essay is ambiguous. It could mean Brave New World as in 'Dawn Of A New Era'[16] or it could mean 'Brave New World'[17] If bionics is to be part of a better future it will only because people choose to let it be - or not. Like any significantly new technology, it's hard to gauge what its effect on society at large is going to be. At present for example, bionics in the military are completely impractical. The technology is too primitive and expensive and militaries everywhere tend to value reliability more than they value human life. However the same could be said about the state of powered aircraft a century ago[18] and now[19] so on that basis, elite killer cyborg-soldiers will probably show up sooner or later. Outside of expensive military applications, bionics and cybernetic implants will almost definitely have more presence in the health, lifestyle and business spheres. On past experience, it's safe enough to predict that they'll be subject to the usual social normalising: in the 1980's when mobile 'phones were new, primitive and relatively expensive, they were commonly used more as status symbol than actual 'phone. Telecoms firms even sold branded mobile 'phone cases - empty 'phones without electronics - to status wannabes. Nowadays of course, mobile 'phones are ubiquitous and literally hundreds of times more powerful. And the market for them has changed accordingly. 'Phones are designed to sell to specific demographic groups who often enough only demand minor cosmetic changes to make them appealing. Motorola once marketed its 'Razr' models as being ultra-slim and coming in pink. Numerous examples exist in science fiction of people opting to have computer data storage installed in their brains, or eyeballs with thermal imaging and zoom lenses. The social advantage of eyes that project a Heads-Up-Display of all known information about a person standing in front of you at a party, is undeniably appealing. Never mind the competitive business edge it could give you. Better yet if the artificial augmentations are either designed to blend invisibly with the owner's existing features, or enhance them for social effect. As far as people go, anything that enhances social mobility and access will have a strong attraction for those who can afford it, or who are amongst the first to gain access to the new technology. Anthropologists have long documented how the fashions of the wealthy have a tendency to make the statement "She that wears these clothes has no need to work to enjoy a wealthy comfortable life - that is why she's so much better than you." and the same has held true for every society since the last ice age. Which is one of the main reasons why status anxiety has managed to cause as many historical problems as mere warfare has. As the author William Gibson[20] once wrote; "The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet." Gibson wrote (in the early 1980's no less) of a future in which technology plays a central role in shaping society. He wasn't so much interested in bionics and cybernetic augmentations creating super-soldiers as he was in how a divide between the technological 'haves' and 'have-nots' would create new social heirarchies. Social heirarchies that effectively exist today.

In Gibson's future, inserting a microchip into your brainstem and downloading Spanish could be more useful than laser beams in your fingers or super-speed, although he included those too. Gibson's bionics were more subtle, style-conscious and sophisticated in their usage than the clunky robo-limbs of lesser writers but the bionics were just mundane pieces of equipment to his characters. What mattered most in his decidedly dystopian universe was the dynamic between power and wealth (fundamentally universal themes in most stories) and how technology influenced that. The key to understanding the Near Future genre Gibson created is to remember that by and large, Humans Are Bastards. This is a media trope all to itself and it's been around since pulp sci-fi writers wrote about humans defeating advanced alien invaders through a combination of good old grit and plain ol' human orneriness. Looked at more closely, it's a truism that by and large, people are no good. But on average they're also pretty decent and quite nice really but writing about the average doesn't sell a lot of copy. So essentially we can expect that given advanced bionics, people will tend to do a lot of pretty decent and quite nice things with that technology. I mentioned above how prosthetics and bionics research has helped American military veterans to rebuild their lives after suffering a limb amputation. It will be interesting to see how rapidly the benefits of that research reach countries like Vietnam. Vietnam is heavily contaminated with unexploded ordnance from the conflict in the 1960s and early 1970s, as well as smaller quantities of bombs and mines from other conflicts. Minefields exist from as long ago as the Dien Bien Phu campaign against the French in 1954, extending through border conflicts with China and the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Landmine Monitor[21] estimates that 1,110 people are killed and 1,882 injured every year “on average.” In Vietnam, where less capable medical facilities exacerbate the trauma of landmine injuries, amputee victims are far more common but yet they suffer a greater degree of stigma than in the west. A clear case of artificial-yet-invisible bionics filling a social need.

A Brave New World Of course, no-one can actually predict the future. Even supposedly intelligent entrepeneurs whose businesses hinge on predicting future trends tend to miss what seem wholly obvious (in hindsight). Bill Gates once declared that no-one would need more than 4Mb of RAM in their PCs and William Gibson himself even missed email. * Apart from a lack of imagination and omniscience, speculative fiction writers and futurist thinkers of all kinds tend to fall into the trap of predicting extremes (with one of the writer's favourite morality tales thrown in for good measure). There's Positivism: "In the marvellous future of 2009, we'll all be flying personal jet-cars from our homes on the moonbase to our offices in the domed cities of Utopia Earth."

And there's Negativitism: "We must turn off all the computers before SkyNet takes over the world!" And there's also Realism: In the marvellous present of 2009, mobile phones and the internet have enabled people to communicate with each other across national and cultural barriers, fostering the creation of a truly global village. While at the same time, about one quarter of all children in developing countries are considered to be underweight and are at risk of having a future blighted by the longterm effects of undernourishment.[22]

So a quarter of a century since Gibson's first novel, we aren't living on the moon yet but we also aren't struggling to survive a global apocalypse either. The reality is just as depressingly disappointing/upliftingly hopeful as it always has been - and there is only ourselves to blame/congratulate for that. Whether bionics will allow humans to travel into space, explore the deepest depths, control our computers with our thoughts or just be another thing to deal with in our busy lives, remains to be seen.

The End.

*Incidentally, it's worth pointing out that while Gibson's early fiction accurately portrayed the problems of the near future, his writing wasn't immune to technological cultural shifts either. "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."; is the opening line in his breakthrough novel Neuromancer (1984). Which in 1984 would have painted a mental image of hissing grey and white static. Nowadays it makes one think of a really nice perfectly sunny day.

References

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-0eZytv6Qk [2] http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/ [3] http://www.cybsoc.org/ [4] http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CyberneticsEatYourSoul [5] http://io9.com/5111771/alyson-hannigan-secretly-replaced-with-robot [6] http://archneur.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/60/10/1369 [7] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7443866.stm [8] http://www.nextnature.net/research/?p=625 [9] http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22452.pdf [10] http://www.dekaresearch.com/ [11] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hzRja9eunY [12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Kamen [13] http://www.segway.ie/about/ [14] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Kamen [15] http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/164485/march-20-2008/dean-kamen [16] http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DawnOfAnEra [17] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_new_world [18] http://acepilots.com/airplanes/country/british/cody-biplane-1909/ [19] http://www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=199 [20] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_gibson [21] http://www.icbl.org/lm/ [22] U.N. Millennium Development Goals Report 2008