The_Invention_of_Surgery

The implantable devices of the future will not just deliver a haphazard
electrical pulse, but will instead function as recording and transmitting
machines. The general title for these types of implants is Brain Machine
Interfaces (BMI). While today’s FDA-approved brain implants merely
generate an electrical field within a specifically identified location, BMIs
will record and stimulate individual neurons. As Edward Evarts pioneered
the ability to perform “single unit testing” in the lab, scientists today are
trailblazing the path of recording single units in humans, with the goal of
transmitting neurons’ signals to a machine.
Our brain, the central processing unit (CPU) of our body, takes in all of
life’s sensory information (sight, sound, touch, smell, feel, balance), and
then processes that information, both subconsciously and consciously.
Oftentimes, the inputs are wordless, requiring reasoning and computation
of meaning. Language, whether written or spoken, similarly demands
cognition, analysis, memory formation, and response.
Our outputs include motor movements of our face and limbs; it is
interesting that we can gather information without moving a muscle, but
cannot communicate without either moving our mouth and vocal cords or
using our hands to type, write, or sign. At least, for now. A BMI is the
ultimate implant. Up till now, implants have functioned as replacement
parts—stenting open coronary arteries, substituting for arthritic joints,
standing in for aged lenses, and reinforcing weakened abdominal walls. In
the near future, BMIs will propel society into a bionic future, where men
and women will not just be cured of disease, but be made better, stronger,
and faster (to quote The Six Million Dollar Man).
As biological and genetic treatments improve, there can be no doubt
that the focus of medicine a century from now will not be on cancer (it
will be cured), and it will not be on chronic disease (diabetes, auto-
immune disorders, degenerative conditions, arthritis, and cardiac disease
will be a distant memory); medicine in the 22nd century will concern
itself with superior humanoids, where implant operations are not used to
treat disease, but to make better cyborgs. Sound chilling? Perhaps, but it’s
more inevitable than you think.