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Asked by to Anna, Elaine, Fiona, Kevin, Darren on 19 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
Question: Would it be possible to control all of out body's functions with technology? Kind of like the Borg in Star Trek!
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Kevin O'Dell answered on 19 Jun 2014:
We can do a lot of this now. There are artificial hearts, hip and knee replacements and a host of machines that can substitute for kidneys and other bodily functions. A lot of the research today is in using stem cells to grow into particular tissues or organs. We can often get these cells to grow in the right way, but they don’t know how to form the right structures. So biologists are teaming up with engineers to find materials that cells like to grow on. Bioengineering is going to be a big research area over the next 20 years or so.
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Elaine Cloutman-Green answered on 19 Jun 2014:
As Kevin said we can do a lot of this now and it is definitely a growth research area. You may in your life time find yourself deciding how much you want to be a cyborg. I find this interesting because it will force us re-evaluate our definition of what it is to be humans.
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Anna Bramwell-Dicks answered on 23 Jun 2014:
Okay, given that we can already use our brain to control a lot of bodily functions with technology I think it’s interesting to flip that idea over and think about whether we will be able to control technology (like our TV or car) directly from our brain.
Would we ever be able to do that? Well, quite probably.
This research falls under the topic of “brain-computer interfaces” and lots of people are investigating this area. So, one day we may be able to throw away remote controls and just use our thoughts to change the TV channel. Although this seems like a cool idea, have you ever fought with your brother or sister over who gets to control the remote? How would that work when each of you can control the TV just using your thoughts? Who would win?
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