goes beyond the combination of components to the issue of what it means to be ‘human’ or ‘machine.’ Gray (2001) and others have begun to investigate how agency and citizenship will function in cyborg societies, using the full term "cybernetic organism" to describe larger networks of communication and control. For example, cities, networks of roads, networks of software, corporations, markets, governments, and the collection of these things together. A corporation can be considered as an artificial intelligence that makes use of replaceable human components to function. People at all ranks can be considered replaceable agents of their functionally intelligent government institutions, whether such a view is desirable or not. Immersive virtual environments ranging from social networks to virtual worlds, and entered by a range of devices from the relatively neutral and controllable (keyboards and mice) to the seductively internal (see sec. 1.3.3) represent, in this perspective a convergence between computers (and automated systems) and humans as social organisms. The ‘immersive’ nature of the experience, and thus the degree to which the boundaries between human and machine or among humans are re-drawn or done away with, is driven both by the comprehensive aspect of the mental engagement involved19 and (in conjunction with VR tools and other aspects of cybernetic technology) a level of sensory identification with the generated experience that in some cases is stronger than that of ‘real life20’.Worth noting in this respect is that this represents ‘soft’ technology (changes in human behaviour and social organisation) enabled by certain applications of (for the most part) known ‘hard’ technologies (computer networks, software, sensors, etc.). 1.3.3
Closely related technology trends
Decreasing size and increasing capability of embedded sensors The continued reduction in the size of sensors able to detect various parameters (light, heat, sound, radiation, pressure, chemicals etc) and their increasing capability will support and enable human - computer convergence. This will be manifest not only in the direct integration of such sensors and intelligent dust to biological forms, but also in their pervasive application bringing a variety of currently passive objects ‘alive’ with detection, communication and processing capabilities. Sensors that can detect a broader range of phenomena, ranging from the electromagnetic spectrum to motion and olfactory capabilities, will have increasing range and more finely tuned abilities. They will be coupled, - perhaps via RFID technology (see below) - to communication technologies that permit the transmission and processing of these data. This will have implications in a wide variety of fields, and gives rise to entirely new control interfaces, such as G-Speak21 the mouseless control technology (“spatial operating environment”) and the use of sensors that detect brain waves and eye and muscular movements (together called bio-potentials22) to provide ‘thought control’ for both healthy and injured persons (including e.g. paralysed or brain-injured people).
18
Gray, Mentor, and Figueroa-Sarriera (1995) Psychologists have noted the hyper-real identification of e.g. video game players with the game world. 20 Discussed in Ramachandran’s 2003 Reith lectures on the BBC. See http://www.artificialvision.com/etumble.htm 21 See http://oblong.com/ 22 See e.g. http://www.bjhcim.co.uk/news/2008/n811042.htm http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/gadgets_and_gaming/article4354041.ece 19
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