The Future of Artificial Intelligence and Cybernetics - OpenMind

Science fiction has, for many years, looked to a future in which robots are intelligent and cyborgs -- human/machine amalgams -- are commonplace: The Terminator, The Matrix, Blade Runner and I, Robot are all good examples of this. However, until the last decade any consideration of what this might actually mean in the future real world was not necessary because it was all science fiction and not scientific reality. Now, however, science has not only done a catching-up exercise but, in bringing about some of the ideas thrown up by science fiction, it has introduced practicalities that the original story lines did not appear to extend to (and in some cases have still not extended to). What we consider here are several different experiments in linking biology and technology together in a cybernetic fashion, essentially ultimately combining humans and machines in a relatively permanent merger. Key to this is that it is the overall final system that is important. Where a brain is involved, which surely it is, it must not be seen as a stand-alone entity but rather as part of an overall system, adapting to the system's needs: the overall combined cybernetic creature is the system of importance. Each experiment is described in its own section. Whilst there is a distinct overlap between the sections, they each throw up individual considerations.