Stem cells and nanosurgery may change what it means to be human

By Larry Marsh, Kansas City Star Midwest Voices columnist 2009

Stem cells are prompting ethical debates, but a bigger debate is looming. Nanotechnology, which is just beginning to make its debut, may change what it means to be human.

We have recently developed a rather versatile and sensitive artificial hand for amputees. This follows similar improvements in artificial knees, ankles and hips. Is this just the beginning of a long-term trend to replace damaged or aging body parts? Can nanotechnology accelerate this process?

Can we do anything to enhance our brains? Brain scanning experiments have led to a better understanding of the functioning of our brains. We can see how the two hemispheres of our brain interface with one another. Information is flowing back and forth that may initially allow us to record the physical manifestations of our thinking process and ultimately allow us to intervene to retrieve or add to specific thoughts. This opens up the possibility of adding to our memory's storage capacity. Combine pattern recognition using artificial neural networks with relational databases and Google search technology and what do you get? => Technology to potentially help enhance brain power and retrieve information more efficiently.

Is it time to ask where all this is leading? Could we ever get to the point where it might be possible to replace the entire body? Will nanotechnology lead to nanosurgery? What if nanosurgery ultimately allows us to transfer the mind out of the brain into silicon in a stainless steel model? We could then avoid cancer, heart attacks and strokes. Will a timely transfer to a bionic body save our Medicare system from paying for the costs of old age? Bruce Willis in the movie Surrogates operates in a world where we each have our own look-alike android representing us. Ultimately we could simply replace ourselves with that android and become our own real-world avatar.

Of course you would want to have more than one copy of your mind in case you get hit by a truck. You can't expect to live forever if you don't back up the backup that backs up the backup.

At this point you may have already concluded that the only one who has lost his mind is me. But consider how often we have been proved wrong in the past. At first people thought the world was flat. Sailors and astronomers together proved that one wrong. In Galileo's day most people believed that the sun revolved around the earth. Before 1903 who would have thought that a heavy glass and metal vehicle filled with overweight people could go speeding down a special road and suddenly rise into the air and land in the New York area in two and a half hours?

Einstein was reported to have said: "God doesn't play with dice," but modern physicists in quantum mechanics have shown randomness to be an integral part of reality. In the 1960s some people thought space travel to be purely science fiction and the Apollo new moon landings to be a ruse filmed in Hollywood. Most people still believe that there are only four dimensions, but some modern string theorists claim that there are actually 11 dimensions.

You may think this is all ridiculous, but if you are getting older, it might not hurt to place an advanced order with Microsoft or Apple for one of the first stainless steel models, just in case. It may turn out that only taxes are inevitable.

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Also see:

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One day will nanobots fight wars in nanospace?

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