Discovery Channel: Future Experts

"The Human Enhancement Revolution"

2008-12-08T16:19:42-05:00

By Dr. Michael G. Zey

We are in the midst of a somewhat quiet revolution, one in which startling breakthroughs in science and medicine promise to make individuals stronger, smarter and more durable. Evidence of this revolution is everywhere. People routinely undergo LASIK surgery to achieve "super-vision" of 20-15 and receive cochlear implants to regain or dramatically improve their hearing. Although it is considered controversial for athletes to use drugs and supplements such as steroids and human growth hormone (HGH) to better their performance, various clinics in California and elsewhere legally administer HGH to older clients to literally rejuvenate them, helping these seniors feel younger, stronger and more vibrant.

Moreover, millions of Americans are utilizing a variety of pharmaceutical methods to increase their mental agility and intelligence. Students, soldiers and executives are discovering that the drug Provigil can boost intelligence, memory and concentration. A full 20 percent of the academics, scientists and researchers responding to a 2008 informal Nature magazine survey revealed that they used Ritalin and Provigil to improve their concentration, focus and memory. The U.S. and Israeli military as well as the French Foreign Legion have administered Provigil, Donepezil and other "smart drugs" to soldiers and pilots to enhance their alertness and performance.

And the best is yet to come! In as little as 10 years, people could temporarily boost their intelligence through transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which delivers microsecond pulses of energy a few centimeters into its wearer’s brain, inducing electrical activity in brain cells. Tests have found that such pulses can increase the recipient’s reaction time on tests and enhance memory. By 2030, it is predicted that we will use nanotechnology and implanted nanobots to restructure the limited and flawed architecture of the brain’s neural region. As a result, humans who receive such implants will possess a more efficient memory and an increased capacity to think. University of Washington scientists are working on a contact lens that will give the wearer "ultra-human" power to see holographic driving control panels, visually surf the Web on the go, and electronically generate forgotten key information about old acquaintances they might meet simply by focusing the lens on the person.

Scientists are also looking to increase physical strength by restructuring the human body. Physicist Yoseph Bar-Cohen at Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory hopes to someday replace muscles in the body with a little-known material called electroactive polymer. Proponents of nanotechnology foresee a time when we will be able reengineer our skin into a material that would be lightweight, more adaptable to environmental changes and veritably indestructible. It is likely that someday science will enable parents to genetically program their offspring for a host of enhanced characteristics, including advanced intelligence and more resilient bodies.

For decades government, civic leaders, teachers, the media and the public have enthusiastically endorsed the concept of human enhancement, albeit by "natural" means. Over the last few decades millions have turned to aerobic exercising and dieting as the magic elixir to unlock and extend the body’s potential. We gulp down vitamin supplements by the bottle. "Human potential" even had a movement named after it. For years the U.S. Army’s motto and recruitment logo was, "Be all that you can be."

Paradoxically, now that scientific and technological breakthroughs are promising to unleash human potential to an extent unimaginable for most of the 20th century, many people are greeting such innovations not with open arms but with a combination of fear, anxiety and often outright hostility. Some members of the President’s Council on Bioethics, which strongly influences government science policy and funding, hold a decidedly negative attitude toward new human enhancement technologies. One-time council chairman Leon Kass has outspokenly opposed research into human enhancement and anti-aging technologies, fearing such technologies could undermine the moral fabric of society. Council member Francis Fukuyama has labeled the potential liberation of the human race from its biological constraints a "dangerous" trend that government must oppose.

One of the criticisms of human enhancement advanced by those opposed to such research is that the use of enhancement technologies is tantamount to cheating -- the individual using steroids, HGH and smart pills has an unfair competitive advantage over the non-enhanced person. The cheating argument has gained credibility in some circles mainly because many enhancement technologies have been introduced to the public in the context of sports. However, the ultimate purpose of most organizations and their members is to provide useful goods and services, not win Olympic medals or the Super Bowl. Under what moral logic, for instance, would we prohibit a scientific team from using "smart drugs" or "creativity pills" that could help them more quickly discover the cure for cancer or AIDS, simply because we perceive such use a form of "cheating?" Similarly, if you were drowning, would you rather that the lifeguard swimming your way be an enhanced individual that could reach you in 30 seconds or a non-enhanced lifeguard that would reach you in two minutes?

Ironically, countries will eventually endorse human enhancement technologies for the very reason that such breakthroughs do, in fact, make them more globally competitive. Studies have revealed that the higher a country’s citizens’ IQ scores, the higher its GDP. This makes sense — creative and intelligent people tend to work smarter and more efficiently, learn more quickly, and invent more products. Governments prohibit the use of smart drugs at the risk of falling behind in the global marketplace. In addition, confronted with aging populations, the U.S., Europe and Japan will eventually embrace substances such as HGH that promise a workforce that at age 50 or 65, instead of being ready to retire and collect Social Security, is rejuvenated, physically vibrant and craving new career challenges and productive work experiences. As we have seen, various countries already enthusiastically embrace a host of enhancement technologies to unlock the performance potential of their soldiers. The U.S. Air Force surgeon general’s office endorses the use of amphetamines by pilots. According to one of its statements, in order to extend operations, "prescribed drugs are sometimes made available to counter the effects of fatigue during these operations."

Some people refer to this enhancement process as "transhuman," as though the resulting product of all these technological and scientific activities is somehow "not human" or lies outside the human sphere. I prefer the label "ultra-human," a smarter and more physically adroit human whose new powers owe their very existence to the brain power and creativity unique to our species. The enhancement process is helping us discover what being human really means. In the process of enhancing ourselves, we should embrace, not deny, our humanity.

Most importantly, instead of looking for ways to limit the creation and implementation of these technologies, we should enthusiastically endorse them as methods for improving the human condition.

About this Week's Guest Blogger:

Dr. Michael G. Zey is the author of Ageless Nation (New Horizons/Kensington), The Future Factor: Forces Transforming Human Destiny (Transaction Publishers, paperback; McGraw-Hill, hardcover), as well as Seizing the Future: The Dawn of the Macroindustrial Era (Simon and Schuster) and several other books. His next book, The Expansionary Vision, is due out in 2009. He is a professor at Montclair State University, consults to major corporations, is director of the Expansionary Institute (zey.com), and regularly interviewed on radio, TV and in print publications.

PHOTO: iStockphoto (Top) | Courtesy of Michael Zey (Bio photo) |

Future Planes

2008-09-18T14:33:48-04:00

When the next-generation aircraft rises over the horizon, one group of people will be able to say they saw it first. That's the U.S. Defense Advance Research Projects Group, or DARPA. A month after the launch of Sputnik, Congress created the Advanced Research Projects Agency to make sure that the United States would never again be surprised by an adversary's technology -- and to prepare surprises of its own for use by the American military.

Today, DARPA has projects going in space science, biomedicine, microelectronics, nanotechnology and just about any other field you can name, including aviation.

Some of the agency's previous successful aviation partnerships include the Saturn rocket that carried men to the moon, the Lockheed F117 "stealth" fighter, and the Northrop Grumman B-2 bomber and the UAV, or unmanned aerial vehicle. None of these pivotal technologies might exist if not for DARPA. As I originally wrote for the May 2008 issue of Professional Pilot magazine, the agency has a number of new aircraft in the works.

The Oblique Flying Wing aircraft, for instance, is an odd-looking number. One wing is swept forward, the other back, and the sweep angle changes with speed to optimize aerodynamic performance. In terms of civilian use, an OFW business jet would have a high purchase price but might offer enough operating efficiency to justify the initial cost.

The Vulture, an autonomous aircraft capable of staying in the air for up to five years at a time, could work cheaper than certain satellites while performing the same function. Innovated for civilian use, the craft could be used as a sort of flying hotel.

But it's the agency's nano air vehicle program that really pushes the limits. The program aims to produce an aircraft less than 3 inches long and weighing about one-third of an ounce. That's under 10 grams. The vehicle wouldn't have room for passengers, of course, but it's still an aircraft and will require fundamental breakthroughs in aerodynamic design, propulsion and power systems, avionics and manufacturing techniques to get off the ground.

Even these technologies will one day be obsolete, and DARPA is planning for the next technological wave thereafter. Early in 2008, the agency issued a request for proposals on experiments related to quantum entanglement. This may be the most ambitious research effort DARPA has ever taken on. The project, called quantum entanglement science and technology (QuEST), could produce such marvels as the Star Trek's transporter. In the meantime, a seat in first class will be good enough for me.

About this Week's Guest Blogger:

Marvin Cetron is a member of the board of the World Future Society.

Learn more at www.wfs.org.

PHOTO: AP Photo/Department of Defense |

Smarter Cars Mean Safer Roads

2008-09-03T19:24:02-04:00

Driving speeds have largely stabilized, and nowadays, safety concerns are paramount and minimizing road fatalities is a must. So, automakers are focused on safety systems more than ever before. Given the emphasis on improving vehicular safety, it's possible that well-known phrases such as "live fast and die young" may lose their meaning as innovative new devices are built into cars and trucks and other things that go.

Many of the new safety systems that are being added to high-end vehicles as well as prototypes for the larger consumer market are computer-assisted technologies that transfer some of the vehicle's operations to the vehicle itself, rather than relying solely on the driver's decision-making skills and reflexes. For example, predictive brake assist is an in-vehicle feature that prepares the vehicle for braking when its built-in proximity sensors detect a potential obstacle ahead. The predictive brake assist basically places the vehicle's braking system on alert, which primes the system to slow down the car in as little time and as short a distance as possible.

Other in-vehicle sensors will detect moving and static objects and will even differentiate the objects based on simple patterns, e.g., identifying other vehicles vs. a person vs. a guardrail. CCTV systems (infrared and normal vision cameras) and LIDAR (laser radar) sensors will detect objects as well as provide drivers with augmented night vision, which could lead to safer nighttime driving.

What's more, built-in, in-vehicle "active systems," i.e., predictive precollision systems, will provide drivers with advance detection of potential contact between vehicles. These systems compute the relative movement of the objects and detect possible trajectory intersections.

Another amazing innovation toward the full automation of vehicles is platooning. Fully automated vehicles form a "platoon chain," in which the first vehicle in the chain is manually maneuvered and the rest of the vehicles fall in behind the lead vehicle. The speed and following distance of the "chase" vehicles are maintained by the in-vehicle automation systems. To accommodate these future vehicles, special roadway lanes are prepared and reserved for their use.

What technological developments have enabled innovations like predictive precollision systems? Essentially, these so-called active systems are the result of vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, which are actually being deployed around the globe. These communication links allow highways to provide a vehicle's occupants with services such as renting a movie during the trip, as well as reduce reaction delays when medical care is needed due to a crash or after a vehicle raises an emergency call automatically. Thanks to these vehicle-to-infrastructure interactions, an "intelligent operation center" can give priority to police cars, ambulances and public transport when required and also establish traffic abatement policies.

Despite these new technologies, drivers cannot take safety for granted. Until all vehicles are fully automated, it is the drivers themselves who are responsible for operating their vehicles conscientiously and obeying traffic laws designed to keep roadways secure. So, buckle up and keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the steering wheel.

About this Week's Guest Blogger:

José Ignacio Herrero Zarzosa is an industrial engineer with GMV SISTEMAS, S.A., a privately-owned, technology solutions company based in Madrid, Spain. Visit the website for more information: www.gmv.com.

PHOTO: From the NextWorld series, DCL |

The Future of Sight

2008-08-27T15:46:30-04:00

It is hard to predict how the human of the future will look; however, it is possible to speculate on how the human of the future is likely to look at things.

All sorts of crazy (and interesting) developments have been happening recently from pixie dusts to re-growing injured tissue to artificial livers. I am guessing we will see two types of development for making the "new and improved" human of the future. One type will rely on using what is available from the machinery of the body -- say, as in cellar DNA or the tissue -- to evolve it to something useful. This could be for repairing injury or reducing the effects of aging. This type of work will need some heavy duty biochemistry, and is likely to face some serious moral and societal questions. The second type of development may get help from high-tech to augment the human performance or to fix it if it needs some extra help.

We have seen this later type of development for a long time now. Any device from prosthetics to pacemakers fits the description. My guess is that in the near and mid-future, we will see more of these types of devices and definitely more sophisticated ones before we switch to solutions that evolve and use the body itself in the more distant future. Here is one example of a high-tech device that can augment the human performance that you might find interesting:

Sight is one of the main venues for us to explore the outside world. For the longest time, we relied on what the body had until the advent of optics gave us spectacles for correcting vision, and microscopes and telescopes for augmenting the visual power of the human eye. Any person who uses glasses is using a device that manipulates the light rays on their way to the retina to modify the image that is perceived. We are quite used to this now and do not consider it something strange.

Let's extend this to contact lenses. Any person who wears contact lenses is using a device that manipulates the light rays that enter the eye. So far, the contact lenses have been passive polymer structures. But! It is possible to imagine that we can integrate functional devices into a contact lens and turn it into a functional system. What if we had a contact lens that had an integrated semi-transparent display and wireless telecommunication capability ... This lens would be able to project images for the person and at the same time give him/her full mobility. If you had a contact lens that could image what is seen by the person, analyze it, and superimpose some computer-generated graphics onto the scene, you have the opportunity to tailor-make "reality" for each person. This is an interesting way -- to put it mildly -- to augment/alter the visual capabilities of the future human.

Is the idea of building a functional contact lens with an integrated display and wireless capability completely crazy? If recent advances in nanoelectronics, photonics, ultra-low power circuits, miniature power sources, and making biocompatible microstructures are any indicator, the answer is no! Actually, our research group currently is working in building functional contact lenses ...

It is "perceivable" that the human of the future may be using a contact lens that is packed with sensors, electronics, optics, etc. That would be truly a sight to see!

About this Week's Guest Blogger:

Babak A. Parviz
Assistant Professor
Bionanotechnology, Self-Assembly, Nanofabrication, MEMS
University of Washington

PHOTOS: University of Washington | Courtesy of Babak A. Parviz

Clothes Get Smarter

2008-08-13T12:16:49-04:00

We’re used to interfacing with the Internet via a PC or handheld device, but in the next 20 years, the Web is going to make its way into our bedrooms, our bathrooms and even our clothes.

The faint beginnings of this trend are all around us today. British Technology futurists Ian Neild and Ian Pearson have forecast that 60 percent of our mobile devices will be Internet accessible by the end of the decade. A firm called Textronics has created undergarments and sports equipment that can monitor your vital signs. Nike is already marketing a shoe that lets you track your jogging route on Google Maps. And a Finnish company called EMFIT has developed a wireless-sensing mattress that their government is using in hospitals and jails.

Industry watchers estimate that a $400 million market for Smart Fabrics and Interactive/Intelligent Textiles (SFIT) is already in place.

A U.K. designer named Jenny Tillotson has come up with one of the most interesting ideas yet: a fragranced fluidic fabric system that releases atomized bursts of perfume or cologne. In the years ahead, she hopes to combine the design with body-temperature sensors. Imagine if you could slightly adjust your scent depending on whether you were talking to someone you liked or someone you wanted to repel? Gives new meaning to the phrase "awkward encounter," doesn't it?

This trend toward ever more -- and ever-more intimate -- computing is making possible a future where we simply assume the presence of wired technology in almost everything with which we come in contact. By 2020, you'll be able to walk into any furniture store and buy a bed to monitor how you sleep. Your bathroom mirrors could inform you of your protein, iron and cholesterol levels and share that information with other “smart” devices you'll interact with during the day, like your clothes.

On the downside, a lot of developments have to occur, mostly in other areas, before the smart-wear revolution can really spark. Your smart bed, smart kitchen and smart pants might use a 100 different platforms to communicate with one another. For computers (at least those of today), dialoguing between platforms takes a lot of juice. It’s part of the reason global energy use is expected to double in the next 30 to 50 years.

One idea for meeting this increased demand is tissue-thin solar film. In March 2007, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory awarded United Solar Ovonic (www.uni-solar.com) a $9.1 million grant to perfect "ultra lightweight solar arrays on thin stainless steel foils" to power satellites. If the film can be rendered light enough to attach to clothing, solar thin-film solar could provide smart apparel with a 1,000-watt-per-kilogram power source. Hydrogen fuel cells are another option for powering computer-laced clothes. But according to one industry expert I spoke with, "who would want to walk around with a hydrogen fuel cell on them, what with the potential explosiveness?" he asked.

Just goes to show, sometimes intelligence isn't everything.

About this Week's Guest Blogger:

Patrick Tucker is senior editor of THE FUTURIST magazine and director of communications for the World Future Society.

Learn more at www.wfs.org.

PHOTOS: Courtesy of the World Future Society

Printing Organs is Not Just Science Fiction Anymore

2008-08-06T19:36:22-04:00

It’s working ...

It started back in 2004. I was working in my office one day when suddenly I heard a roar from the adjacent lab. I rushed over, expecting to find someone dead or badly injured. Instead I saw a few of my students jubilantly gazing at a Petri dish stuck in the new three-dimensional printer we had received a few weeks back. They just managed to print a ring of cellular aggregates. These cellular aggregates -- we now call them bioink particles -- are composed of thousands of cells and placed into biocompatible gels, or biopaper.

This was the first time extended biological constructs, and not just individual cells, were deposited using an automatic delivery device. I remember closing my eyes for a few seconds and imagining how one day we were going to build blood vessels, hearts and kidneys from the patients’ own cells (called autologous tissue engineering) and solve the looming shortage of donor organs.

We are not yet there, but printing organs is not science fiction anymore. Several research groups have embarked on the exciting path of organ printing. Both redesigned desktop inkjet printers and mechanical extruders are being used for printing biological structures of growing complexity. We just write a computer script using architectural software, such as ArchiCAD, prepare the bioink and biopaper, and push a button; the rest is up to the bioprinter and nature. Once printed, the bioink particles fuse into a continuous structure.

Sounds easy.

But do not yet rush and load up with alcohol. It will take some time before your native liver can be replaced with a bioprinted one. Here is how we will get there. The first task is to print a vasculature -- the branching tree-like structure blood vessels form to deliver nutrients effectively to every cell and organ in the body. Without blood supply an engineered biological structure will not survive beyond a certain size, say a box with a side of half a millimeter, hardly a liver. Thus we spent the last three years learning how to print blood vessels. These are now close to being ready for insertion into an animal, and tested in coronary bypass surgeries. Once we know how to print single vessels, we can combine to build vascularized organs, such as the kidney or liver. Will the printed kidney look like the real one in all its details?

I doubt we will ever be able to reproduce what nature has been experimenting with for millions of years. The engineered kidney will not be a carbon copy of the one we are born with, but it will function just as fine if not better. And when this happens the first time, you know the rest.

About this Week's Guest Blogger:

Gabor Forgacs
George H. Vineyard Distinguished Professor of Biological Physics
Department of Physics, Biology and Biomedical Engineering
University of Missouri

* Get his full bio.

* Visit the research websites:
http://forgacslab.missouri.edu
http://organprint.missouri.edu

The Possibilities and Advantages of Building Floating Constructions

2008-07-30T14:04:05-04:00

Dynamics in the vertical plane

Water storage is not static. Depending on weather, season or extreme water fluctuations, the storage system will have to accommodate smaller or larger amounts of water. In the vertical plane, the dynamic neighborhood is designed to cope with fluctuations of the water level. These fluctuations are caused by either natural circumstances, such as excess rainfall, or water being deliberately pumped into the watercell from other districts when the water levels are high. The different fluctuations obviously result in their own fluctuation domains. This means that during a rise of 5 centimeters a smaller area will be flooded than during a 50-cm rise of the water level. The frequency of the fluctuation influences the choice of the dwelling. A floating dwelling constantly needs water, whereas a terp dwelling is suitable for a fluctuation of 50 centimeters occurring once every 10 years.

Dynamics in the horizontal plane

Floating constructions also allow functions to be moved. In Delft this already happens in the form of floating terraces, providing additional space for restaurants near the canal side. During summer these terraces are towed into the city, and then removed after the end of the season. In addition to catering or recreational functions, a mobile floating infrastructure provides space for other common public or temporary functions such as schools, parking facilities, building utilities, sales offices and shops. The use of these functions is dependent on demographics and culturally determined demands and wishes of the users. Experience teaches us that both the cultural as well as the demographic composition of neighborhoods change during decennia. A traditionally built neighborhood on land responds to this by demolition, renovation and restructuring. As a result of the relatively easy possibilities of disconnecting floating constructions from their locations, extra possibilities emerge to cope with both these predictable as well as unpredictable changes in the neighborhood by building on water.

Advantages

During construction the building location can float along with the growing water district. A primary school can be replaced by a high school in case pupil numbers are insufficient, relocating the primary school within the urban configuration. Floating roads can provide temporary access over the water during construction or maintenance in a neighborhood. Shopping malls can either grown and regroup or be moved to new locations. This means an unheard-of flexibility, which would be much more difficult to achieve on land.

Conclusion

Space for water and space for living can be perfectly combined. Because of vertical and horizontal freedom the spatial experience in the water-based neighborhoods will stay dynamic. Terms such as "real estate" and "movable property," however, will acquire a completely new meaning.

About this Week's Guest Blogger:

BIO: ir J.K. Olthuis
Koen Olthuis studied architecture and industrial design at the Delft University of Technology. He is the founder of the Dutch architectural firm Waterstudio.NL that specializes in floating structures to counter concerns of floods, which are both a local concern (one-third of the Netherlands is reclaimed land) and a global one due to the possible effects of climate change. In 2007, he was chosen as No. 122 on the Times Magazine list of "Most Influential People in the World" due to the worldwide interest in water-based developments.

His vision is to change cities worldwide by using water as building ground. Static cities have to change into dynamic cities ready to adapt to floods and fluctuations. The first city in which this work is being built is Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

About Waterstudio.NL

Waterstudio develops new architectural and urban typologies, as well as technical solutions in dealing with the problems of dynamic water management and building on water. The development of dwelling and working concepts provides a new notion of the layout of parcels and regions. Moreover, new techniques make new forms of buildings possible. Innovation is the main force behind the firm: Waterstudio has set itself the objective of converting innovative ideas into feasible and broadly applicable building concepts for the upcoming decades. Visit the Waterstudio.nl website.

PHOTOS: Waterstudio.NL and Dutch Docklands, Floating and Rotating Tower

The Possibilities and Advantages of Building Floating Constructions

2008-07-23T17:15:33-04:00

Living on water has attracted a lot of attention the last few years. Coping with fluctuations in water level has become a central theme in spatial developments. This challenge has proven to be a driving force behind the development of water-based architecture.

Living on water, in a nutshell

In Holland people have lived on the water for over 100 years. The first types of water-homes were ships that were transformed into houses. After that people started building houses on concrete boxes -- these were the first houseboats. Over the last five years, the modern water villa has become more popular; this construction is equal to/resembles a house you can find on land, but it has a full-fledged stable floating foundation. This foundation has been the base for a completely new spectrum of floating housing typologies with high densities, such as semi-detached houses, urban villas, and terrace houses complete with a garden and road. Technically it is now even possible to make very large floating foundations on which virtually any large-scale developments can take place. Developers in the Netherlands are already including floating apartment complexes or high-rise buildings in their developments.

In Dutch newly built living areas, there is hardly enough room to realize the required amount of houses according to the regulations and criteria for water storage. Due to the regulations and criteria for water storage in the Netherlands, there is hardly enough. The new floating foundations and parcels give designers the opportunity to also use the water as a building plot. This allows for a higher density and more space per house, because the building plot is much bigger by also using the water storage areas. The new floating neighborhoods will be dynamic neighborhoods, in both a horizontal as well as a vertical sense.

Check back next week for the second installment of Koen Olthuis's blog entry.

About this Week's Guest Blogger:

About Waterstudio.NL

PHOTOS: Waterstudio.NL and Dutch Docklands, the Dubai Floating Islands