Human Augmentation SIP

Part 2 – Human augmentation technologies

performance gains equal to or better than drugs or surgery. This is where understanding

human genomics and epigenomics at the individual level is absolutely essential – it is not

‘one size fits all’ and is not dissimilar from the concept of ‘personalised medicine’; in other

words the right drug, at the right dose, to the right person at the right time.

Collection and analytics.  Devices that track movement, heart rate, oxygenation levels

and location are already commonplace and will become increasingly accurate and

sophisticated, making it possible to gather an increasingly wide array of performance data

in real time. We can also analyse data in ways that were impossible even five years ago.

Artificial intelligence can analyse massive sets of information almost instantaneously and

turn it into products that can inform decision-making. This marriage of data collection and

analytics is the foundation of future human augmentation.

Section 2 – Optimisation methods

Getting the basics right

High-end augmentation will be important, but getting the basics right can, in many cases,

deliver significant improvements for less cost and at lower risk. Using high-end human

augmentation technologies to mitigate avoidable performance shortfalls is a poor use

of resource and could undermine motivation and professionalism. The precise effects

of nutrition, sleep and hydration, and their relationship with one another, is not well

documented but we know there is untapped potential. One example is the link between

physical exercise and improved cognition; this phenomenon has been known for some

time, but it has only recently been possible to precisely understand the science behind

it. Improved monitoring technology will make it possible to tailor the benefits of nutrition,

sleep and other fundamentals to each person, leading to significant improvements to

an organisation at low cost and limited ethical risk. While we are only just beginning to

understand how improved monitoring could increase performance there appears to be

significant potential. Illustrative optimisation methods are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 – Illustrative optimisation methods

Cognitive

training

Physical

training

Optimised

hydration

Personalised

training

Personalised

education

Dietary

supplements

Personalised

nutrition

Sleep

optimisation