Human Augmentation SIP

Part 2 – Human augmentation technologies

Brain interfaces

The science of decoding electroencephalogram signals from the brain is advancing and
could present huge opportunities to integrate the processing power of machines with the
cognitive power of the human brain. Brain interfaces, also known as neural interfaces or
brain computer interfaces, enable direct communication between brain and computer.
They can be one-way (for example, to understand brain function) or two-way (for example,
to create a control and feedback system or a thought transfer system involving donor
brain-computer-receptor brain).

Examples of one-way interfaces include the hearing aid. Two-way interfaces are at a very
early stage of development and have achieved only limited results in narrow laboratory
conditions. The most advanced examples, which have demonstrated the ability to transfer
information, have been with animals,^14 and limited thought-speech translation in people.^15
Non-invasive brain interfaces have also demonstrated human-to-brain communication and
problem solving.^16 Neurostimulation can be used to change brain function.

14 Pais-Vieira, M., et al., (2013), Scientific Reports, ‘A brain-to-brain interface for real-time sharing of
sensorimotor information’.
15 Anumanchipalli, G. K., et al., (2019), Nature, ‘Speech synthesis from neural decoding of spoken sentences’.
16 Jiang, L., et al., (2019), Scientific Reports, ‘BrainNet: a multi-person brain-to-brain interface for direct
collaboration between brains’.

Precision medicine – the future of health care

According to the Precision Medicine Initiative, a United States National Institutes of Health

endeavour, precision medicine is ‘an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention

that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person’.

The Estonian Genome Center is a research venture of the University

of Tartu. The aim is to create a database of health, genealogical

and genome data representing 5% of Estonia’s population. The

database will make it possible for researchers to look for links

between genes, environmental factors and common diseases. The results of this

research are likely to lead to new discoveries in genomics and epidemiology, and will be

instrumental in increasing the efficiency of health care.

Better health

Medical diagnostics

Artificial intelligence

Genomics

Health care

applications