being done. He’s beginning to work on an above-the-knee version of the BiOM and is finishing work on the world’s first true bionic exoskeleton, a revolutionary kind of knee brace for able-bodied people that he hopes will be commercially available by 2015. “Right now,” he says, “one of the worst parts of growing old is losing the ability to move around. So imagine taking the bionics in the BiOM and turning it into a strap-on device, something that can restore strength and function to the elderly or anyone with a bum knee.”
Over the past thirty years, Hugh Herr became the first disabled athlete to outperform able-bodied ones at an expert level. He then helped bring prosthetics into the modern age; next he became the first to forge ahead into the bionic era. Already he has bettered thousands of lives. In light of all this, the assumption might be that his debt to Albert Dow — the rescuer who perished so many years ago on Mount Washington — would be paid. But Herr would disagree.
“If you ask me if I’ve done great things in my life, well, I’m very self-critical, so the answer is, ‘Not yet,’ ” he says. “But that’s almost beside the point. Has that debt been paid? I would say no, never. That debt can never be repaid.”
8.
On a rainy day in February 2012, David Rozelle and a couple of friends approach the curb of a busy three-lane street in Denver. Rozelle, wearing his BiOM, is lost in conversation, not really thinking about what he’s doing. There’s a momentary break in traffic, and he decides to make a run for it. Leaving his friends behind, he bounces off the curb and darts across the first lane, freezes midstride to let an oncoming car pass, then dashes across the next lane, pausing to make sure he’s still clear, and across thefinal lane, even jumping over a puddle as he hops back onto the sidewalk. Rozelle didn’t even realize that he’d jaywalked until it was pointed out later.
Herr smiles when he hears this story. “Everything I’ve done has been to copy nature. That’s the true definition of bionics — using technology for the emulation or extension of natural biological function. And we humans are spinal animals. To hear that David could pull off this kind of ballet without thinking about it — that’s exactly a spinal animal phenomenon. It worked. Somehow we captured lightning in a bottle.”
“Yeah,” says Rozelle, “but the mad scientists who designed the jet pack, they’re never remembered. The crazy son of a bitch who flew it? He’ll be celebrated forever.”
The Genius Who Sticks Around Forever
THE SCIENCE OF MIND UPLOADING
In his novel
Terra Nostra
, author Carlos Fuentes writes: “Incredible the first animal that dreamed of another animal.” Quite an idea, right? Both the origin story for dreaming and the initial step up the ladder that scientists describe with the phrase “theory of mind”: our ability to attribute mental states — beliefs, intents, desires — to oneself and others. It is, without question, an extraordinary ability.
Now consider the opposite end of the spectrum, the farthest rung up the theory-of-mind ladder: the ability to share the mind of another. This is the frontier known as mind uploading, and it is a truly wild frontier. In the previous chapter, we explored using technology to battle back decrepitude. In this chapter, we’re using technology to battle death itself. Where will this lead? A place we’ve never ever been before. Descartes told us: “I think, therefore I am.” But what happens when someone else thinks you? Seriously, who are you now?
1.
They say that wisdom accumulates, that perhaps it is not subject to the same tick-tock corrosion that renders bones frail and hair thin. They say it is our one real treasure, this thing to be passed on, generation to generation, to grant us a stay against a dark, dim future. And so we have Greek lectures transcribed by diligent pupils, sketches by Leonardo da Vinci, a
Over the past thirty years, Hugh Herr became the first disabled athlete to outperform able-bodied ones at an expert level. He then helped bring prosthetics into the modern age; next he became the first to forge ahead into the bionic era. Already he has bettered thousands of lives. In light of all this, the assumption might be that his debt to Albert Dow — the rescuer who perished so many years ago on Mount Washington — would be paid. But Herr would disagree.
“If you ask me if I’ve done great things in my life, well, I’m very self-critical, so the answer is, ‘Not yet,’ ” he says. “But that’s almost beside the point. Has that debt been paid? I would say no, never. That debt can never be repaid.”
8.
On a rainy day in February 2012, David Rozelle and a couple of friends approach the curb of a busy three-lane street in Denver. Rozelle, wearing his BiOM, is lost in conversation, not really thinking about what he’s doing. There’s a momentary break in traffic, and he decides to make a run for it. Leaving his friends behind, he bounces off the curb and darts across the first lane, freezes midstride to let an oncoming car pass, then dashes across the next lane, pausing to make sure he’s still clear, and across thefinal lane, even jumping over a puddle as he hops back onto the sidewalk. Rozelle didn’t even realize that he’d jaywalked until it was pointed out later.
Herr smiles when he hears this story. “Everything I’ve done has been to copy nature. That’s the true definition of bionics — using technology for the emulation or extension of natural biological function. And we humans are spinal animals. To hear that David could pull off this kind of ballet without thinking about it — that’s exactly a spinal animal phenomenon. It worked. Somehow we captured lightning in a bottle.”
“Yeah,” says Rozelle, “but the mad scientists who designed the jet pack, they’re never remembered. The crazy son of a bitch who flew it? He’ll be celebrated forever.”
The Genius Who Sticks Around Forever
THE SCIENCE OF MIND UPLOADING
In his novel
Terra Nostra
, author Carlos Fuentes writes: “Incredible the first animal that dreamed of another animal.” Quite an idea, right? Both the origin story for dreaming and the initial step up the ladder that scientists describe with the phrase “theory of mind”: our ability to attribute mental states — beliefs, intents, desires — to oneself and others. It is, without question, an extraordinary ability.
Now consider the opposite end of the spectrum, the farthest rung up the theory-of-mind ladder: the ability to share the mind of another. This is the frontier known as mind uploading, and it is a truly wild frontier. In the previous chapter, we explored using technology to battle back decrepitude. In this chapter, we’re using technology to battle death itself. Where will this lead? A place we’ve never ever been before. Descartes told us: “I think, therefore I am.” But what happens when someone else thinks you? Seriously, who are you now?
1.
They say that wisdom accumulates, that perhaps it is not subject to the same tick-tock corrosion that renders bones frail and hair thin. They say it is our one real treasure, this thing to be passed on, generation to generation, to grant us a stay against a dark, dim future. And so we have Greek lectures transcribed by diligent pupils, sketches by Leonardo da Vinci, a
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