Human beings have always wanted to improve themselves, it’s an intrinsic human drive. We’ve come to a point in time where technology allows us to do just that and in the very near future we’re going to see dramatic changes in what it means to be a human being. So, let’s take a look at the likely advancements we all soon maybe upgrading to.
Exo-skeletons:
1984 was the year that introduced The Terminator to the world as a cold, ruthless killing machine, but only part-machine. The cybernetic organism was described in the movie as “living tissue over a metal endoskeleton.” It was a fictional concept back then, but in the 2020’s, it might not be fiction, but reality.
Wonder what the potential applications are? Military soldiers might enjoy the extra endurance and strength, as well as the possibility of carrying more supplies on foot.
Exoskeletons could help out some members of the workforce too. Office workers might not benefit, but manual laborers and factory employees might see back pain as a thing of the past. An exoskeleton could help a laborer employ the right muscles for lifting weights safely.
Someone with a spinal cord injury, such as a veteran, might even use an exoskeleton to walk again. The possible advantages for elderly individuals with mobility issues might also stand to benefit from such technology.
Zoltan Istvan, a transhumanist politician, even thinks that exoskeletons could lead to new physical achievements and competitions, even suggesting use in the bedroom for sexual activities.
Deep brain stimulation:
This concept revolves around putting a ‘pacemaker for the brain’ into the cerebral tissue. The electrical impulses sent out to various parts of the brain could then influence the responses of the brain. Current applications are often for medical purposes, such as obsessive compulsive disorder, Parkinson’s, and major depressive disorder.
Current technology and advancements in the areas of chemistry is altering the way the brain works and how efficient it is. We’re reaching a point in time where we will be able to have numerous aids for our brains and will be able to enhance ourselves significantly .
3D-printed body parts and organs:
There’s already been functional vaginas and bladders that were grown in labs and implanted successfully in certain patients. What’s even more thrilling is the potential of something like 3D printing so that more vital organs like kidneys, lungs, and hearts can be created and implanted.
Experts are optimistic about how soon this can happen. A surgeon from University College London, Professor Martin Birchall, told the BBC in a 2016 interview that he expected clinical trials of custom-printed organs within a decade. The news publication The Economist is more optimistic than Professor Birchall, making the prediction that implantable kidneys and livers might be coming off some 3D printers by 2023.
Designer children?
2016 was the first year to see a three-parent baby born. A donor egg had its nucleus removed and replaced with a nucleus from an egg from the mother. That donor egg then got fertilized with the sperm of the father, which was a process done to prevent Leigh syndrome, a fatal condition which is known to be carried in the mitochondrial DNA of the mother.
As the science of gene editing grows in its precision, due in part to newer techniques such as CRISPR-Cas9, it isn’t going to be long before it’s utilized on a massive scale to prevent things like heritable diseases. Why would you as a parent leave things to chance genetically when you could actively make sure your child would grow up healthy? This is going to be especially true if you have already had your own genome sequenced and you know that you carry deleterious genes. What if you have the mutations of BRCA1 and BRCA2 that strongly predispose you to mutations like ovarian or breast cancer?
Prenatal screening already impacts the proportions of particular genetic traits within a population. A recent estimate suggests that over two-thirds of fetuses that are identified with having Down syndrome wind up being aborted. Such statistical data sparks widespread and fervent ethical debates, but they also illustrate the point that humans are often willing to apply technology in order to have reproductive outcome choices and control. Another well-known example is IVF.
The untold potential of something like gene-editing technology is truly mind-boggling, and it could alter the course of the species. There’s no telling just how far we might progress, and there’s not even assurances that the technology will be allowed to even progress over the coming years. However, you’ll certainly see movement in this direction in the approaching decade.
