Will we all be cyborgs in 2030?

Intro (beginning - 0'59'')

1) What examples of technological improvements are mentioned in the introduction?

2) What are cyborgs? < Your answer must be based on the document, not on what you think or know.

3) Two existing technologies are mentioned. Name one, or the two of them if you can. This
is a new ........................... of ...................................

Part 1a (0'59" - 1'35")

4) What examples of cyborgs are given?

5) The extract focuses more on one of them. Name? Characteristic(s)?

Part 1b (1'35" - 2'08")

6) Pick out any details given about Aimee Mullins.

Part 1c (2'08''- 2'50")

7) What are the two main goals of DARPA?

Part 2 (2'50'' - 3'35'')

8) What is the main purpose of cyborgs?

9) What problem do cyborgs face?

Part 3 (3'35" - 4'19)

10) What could be the future of cyborgs / cyborgs in the future?

11) What is the important issue raised at the end of the video?
Questions about the article Part Human, Part Machine, Cyborgs Are Becoming A Reality

1- Pick out details about the cyborgs mentioned in the article: names, what makes them
cyborgs.
2- Is cyborgisation legal? Justify by quoting from the text.
3- Where do most cyborgs work? Do you find it surprising? Why (not)?
4- True or false? Justify by quoting from the text. Cyborgs keep experimenting.
5- Pick out the elements that define transhumanism.
6- True or false? Justify by quoting from the text. The ideas of transhumanism are pure

fiction.
7- In your own words, explain what wearable technology (l. 76 and l. 77) is. What is an
important advantage of such a technology compared to implants?
8- Explain what could make cybernetics more popular.
Transcript of video
Computer Chips in Your Brain, Futurescape, a Science Channel programme, 2013

Our brains are remarkable, miraculous even but they can't do everything...
unless we give them a little high tech help.

[Michio Kaku]When children see the movie The Matrix and they see Neo jacking
an electrode and all of a sudden becoming a kung-fu master, the first question
they ask is how can I get one? Well, this does not yet exist but is actually
physically possible.

The key to transforming learning from an organic process to a machine-like

downloading of information is a squiggly bit of brain known as the
hippocampus.

[Michio Kaku] Hippocampus is the gateway to memories. Short-term memories

are stored right here in the prefrontal cortex but eventually they have to be
transferred to long-term memories and that's where the hippocampus comes
in.

[Ted Berger] This part of the brain doesn't store the memories but it does the
appropriate conversion.

At the University of Southern California, bioengineer Ted Burger has already

proven that a computer chip to you place are spreading function

[Ted Berger] Right now, what our prosthesis does is to convert a code that's
kind of in the middle of the hippocampus to what would be the output of the
hippocampus.

[Michio Kaku] They've been able to take mice and access the electrical signals
coursing
through the hippocampus and record them and then when they shot the
message back
into the hippocampus the mouse remembered the task.

[Ted Berger] We found that we can not only restore long-term memories, we
can enhance the animals' ability to remember. You could think about using
devices like this to greatly enhance human memory and to shorten the cycle
for learning in terms of downloading huge quantities of memory at a single
time.

Chips that augment our hippocampus could very well help us learn faster. So
will that make them a must-have for competitive parents?

[Michio Kaku] At that point it could create an arms raise in elementary school.
Rumors go out that well, Jones's kid he's been enhanced and our Johnny has to
compete with this enhanced kid.

[Jamais Cascio] The reality is that with these kinds of technologies they do not
get distributed to everyone at the same time. Some people get it first, some
people get it better.
[Jack Uldrich] As a society we have to really think long and hard about who gets
this
If it's just the wealthy, that there are real dangers that they will use it to
consolidate their power and their wealth.
Questions about Computer Chips in Your Brain

1- Complete:

.................................... is the .................................... to memories.

.................................... memories are .................................... right here
in the prefrontal .................................... but eventually they have to be
transferred to .................................... memories, and that's where the
.................................... comes in.

2- Ted Berger is working on a technological device that he calls

a .............................

3- So far, the use of electrical signals has been tested on .......................... .

Was the result positive / negative? Justify.

4- Their experiments have had two results on memory. What are they?
- .................................................................................................
- .................................................................................................

5- Jamais Cascio and Jack Uldrich share their concerns about the development of such
technologies. In your own words, explain what these concerns are.