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Switzerland Will Host the First Bionic Olympics in 2016
Last month, I wrote about the risk of a "technology doping" scandal during this year’s Olympic Games in Sochi, which were peppered with souped-up gear like nanotech swimsuits made by aerospace engineers, potentially toeing the line between utilizing the best modern-day equipment and cheating.
It's an ethical grey area in athletics that's just getting murkier as bio-enhancing devices improve, and it's even more complex in the Paralympic Games, where assistive devices like prosthetics are of course commonly used. But even parathletes have to comply with strict guidelines limiting how far your gear can take you; the goal is to match able-bodied human strength, but not to go beyond.
But this is the 21st Century, where technology is the star of the show. So I wasn't too surprised when I heard that in 2016, Switzerland will host the first Cybathlon, basically an Olympics for cyborgs, whose MO is that augmenting human ability with biotech shouldn't just be permitted, but encouraged.
The Cybathlon will award two categories of medals for each event: one for the athlete and one for the scientist or company that manufactured the robotic assistive device. That includes things like the latest prosthetics, exoskeletons, and powered wheelchairs, and more futuristic technologies like electrically stimulated muscles and brain-computer interfaces.
For instance, during the BCI event (image above), participants—or “pilots” to use the Cybathlon lingo—that are paralyzed below the neck will be equipped with brain-machine interfaces that will enable them to control an avatar with their mind. The virtual avatar will compete in a horse or car racing video game.
Here are the six competitive events and their promo images, via the Cybathlon website.
Powered Arm Prosthetics Competition
Powered Leg Prothetics Race
Powered Exoskeleton Race
Functional Electrical Stimulation Race
Powered Wheelchair Race
And a trailer for the games, published earlier this month:
Sponsored by the Swiss National Competence Center of Research in Robotics, the idea is to promote the development of new medical devices and research. But it also opens up a whole range of questions about the future of competitive sports in the age of augmented humans.
Maybe you remember the famous case of Oscar Pistorius during the 2012 summer Olympics in London? He beat out able-bodied competitors running the 400-meter race with blade-like artificial "Cheetah" legs. It earned him the fantastic nickname, "Blade Runner," and started a huge controversy over the ironic notion that prosthetics may give disabled players an unfair advantage.
Whether it's unfair I'll leave open to debate, but there's no question it's an advantage, and increasingly, a big one. Once you open that door, where does it stop? It’s easy to let the imagination run wild: Will there be a superhero Olympics someday—who can fly the highest, or teleport the furthest?
We've wondered before about what a man vs. machine Olympics would look like. Now we’ll get a peek at what’s possible when man and machine start to merge.
Source: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/switzerland-will-host-the-first-bionic-olympics-in-2016
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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