The concept of "cybernetic organism" (abbreviated "cyborg") in 1960 was invented by the engineer and psychiatrist Manfred Klines. He believed that it would be cyborgs that could be sent into space, since an ordinary person would not be able to withstand the loads during takeoff. A year later, Yuri Gagarin denied his claims, and the cyborgs remained to live only in the works of science fiction writers.
The first "oddities"
However, in the mid-1990s, scientists created the first cybernetic organism: it was then that Klines was remembered, and his term was introduced into scientific circulation. The word "cyborg", however, did not get into the dictionaries, since he did not have an accurate interpretation. Klines meant by it any living creature in which "a part of organs, tissues or bones is replaced by mechanical analogs." But then even a person with false teeth and an artificial heart valve can be considered a cyborg. However, today such persons exist in the world. which allow you to exclaim: "Cyborgs are already among us!" World renowned Canadian scientist who develops mediated reality algorithms and technologies. - Steve Mann - was born in the small industrial town of Hamilton (Canada) in 1965. Steve's father worked in a textile factory and often brought fabric samples home. The boy was distinguished by his curiosity and often wondered: what would happen if the threads of the material were intertwined with wire and a current was put through the clothes? And the first invention of Steve Mann was a shirt with micro-bulbs sewn in everywhere, which also lit up from the sound of someone else's voice. At the very first school disco there was no end to those wishing to touch the glowing clothes. This is how Steve gained popularity.
After leaving school, he got a job in a workshop and started repairing televisions. Access to any detail led the young inventor to create a so-called wearable computer (WearComp) in 1981. Steve mounted a CRT in a construction helmet and made a portable TV, then attached a computer to it, since there were no monitors at the time. The clever young man began to carry the system unit in a bag on his belt. than already then attracted everyone's attention.
Turn on word search
After entering McMaster University in 1985, Steve created the Eyetar, a camera that records a person's entire life and stores digital video in computer memory. This is extremely convenient: forgot where you left your car keys? You rewind the picture a few hours back and see where you last saw them. You can give a word label to any object, and in the right situation, enable word search and get a ready-made picture from the computer.
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Steve Mann is now a professor at the University of Toronto and looks at the world through a tiny monitor near his eye. He is so used to this apparatus that without it he feels unprotected and almost naked. A video camera allows him to see and record everything that appears in front of his eyes, electronic messages also appear on a small screen, and Steve Mann controls the cursor using his own brain waves and electrodes attached to his body.
Not everything is so smooth
Apparently, a person with a wearable computer is not a cyborg yet. He can take off all the electronics and get along fine with his own body. However, if such an existence has already captured you … “Over time, the computer begins to grow together with you,” Steve warns everyone. -First of all, vision fails …"
Mann himself had practically lost his sight. He only sees the computer model, and Steve is almost blind. He has been showering in complete darkness for a year. Before removing his equipment and going to bed, the scientist is forced to turn off the lights throughout the apartment. Even dim lighting can harm his supersensitive eyes.
When asked if he was afraid of such a disconnection from reality. Steve replies, “Shoes are also a gap. We stop feeling the ground, drafts. But shoes don't scare anyone! Moreover, Mann learned to influence the physiological functions of the body. He sends weak electrical discharges to the nerve centers of his body and experimentally determines what a particular nerve is responsible for. While Mann has only a few buttons for this, he cannot control all organs. However, Steve does not lose heart and tortures himself with electricity every day, trying to learn as much as possible about himself.
He claims that in this way he can even control an erection, causing it literally with the power of thought. An electrode with a very thin needle is attached to the body, and Steve inserts its end under the skin, where it touches the nerve endings. Thus, the blood flows, where it is necessary, artificially.
But with such things, you need to be very careful. So, one of Steve's students, dabbling with physiology, accidentally "turned on" sweating at full capacity. One of the important electrodes got wet, the "computer" refused - and it became impossible to disable the function. The girl was lucky that a spare computer was found in the laboratory, and she was saved from dehydration.
Superman
Once customs officials did not want to let Mann on the plane, and Steve went into a scandal. As a result, the equipment was removed from him by force and the electrodes glued with special surgical glue tore off his skin, which caused severe bleeding. The computer was checked in, but Steve himself could be checked in there too. He did not open his eyes until the end of the flight, wrapped his jacket around his head and kept losing consciousness. The equipment from the shaking in the luggage compartment deteriorated, and the loss amounted to $ 120,000. Steve was suing the airline company Air Canada, but, as argued, not for money, but only trying to protect his identity and the right to be different.
In addition to the usual picture of the world, Mann can also see heat, even in complete darkness and even through very thick walls. Everything inanimate - buildings, asphalt, food, and the like - appears to Steve in a gray light. All living things are displayed in yellow-red spots.
The professor senses the approach of objects (for example, a ball flying at the head from a football field) using sonar, such as that of bats. On top of reality, Steve put a special interactive grid that measures the distance to various objects and their surface area, and all statistics are stored in the computer base. Thus, Steve can at any time determine the height of the wall of the house or the volumes of the ladies passing by.
Cyborgs breed
The professor's computer stores an address book with information about any person he meets. Steve does not need to remember where he saw this or that person, he can simply request the computer, which will find the necessary information in its database.
Quite a few other miracles can happen to those who become volunteer cyborgs. It turned out that over time there was an urgent need to create the concept of a laptop. And Steve Mann created it. He formulated the basic principles of such electronics, where he provided everything that is needed to create a real "computer of the future."
Now, having met on the street a man with a beard, in strange glasses and with a backpack. we can safely assume that this is a cyborg Steve or one of his followers. His own wife, Betty, fully shares Steve's beliefs and also voluntarily became a cyborg: she has been wearing all the wiring, cameras and chips for 15 years. “Soon everyone will be like us,” says Professor Mann. And who knows, maybe these are prophetic words. There are already more than four hundred people in the world who use Steve's inventions and have become cyborgs of their own accord. Their number is growing every day, and, most likely, the era of cyborgs is just around the corner.
Magazine "Secrets of the XX century" № 44. Anastasia Stitzhka, Vyacheslav Shpakovsky