The Internet of Bodies ecosystem may lead to the Internet of Brains sometime between 2035 and 2050, according to a UK Defence-commissioned RAND report.
“An ‘internet of bodies’ may also ultimately lead to an ‘internet of brains’, i.e. human brains connected to the internet to facilitate direct brain-to-brain communication and enable access to online data networks”
RAND Corporation, March 2024
Commissioned by the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and conducted by RAND Europe and Frazer Nash Consulting, the study “Cultural and technological change in the future information environment” looks at six technologies and information environments and their implications for British defense.
They include:
A major theme running through these information environments is transhumanism — the merger of humans and machines.
“While some experts predict the tactical improvement of human capabilities, others have explored the potential emergence of ‘trans-humanism’ within the 2050 timeframe”
RAND Corporation, March 2024
According to the report, “Advances in object connectivity may eventually extend to human bodies. Researchers refer to the potential development of an internet-linked network of human-connected devices collecting end users’ biometric data as an ‘internet of bodies […] An ‘internet of bodies’ may also ultimately lead to an ‘internet of brains’, i.e. human brains connected to the internet to facilitate direct brain-to-brain communication and enable access to online data networks.’“
The Internet of Bodies and the coming Internet of Brains fall specifically under the category of “human augmentation technologies,” which “refer to technologies that enhance human capabilities, either physically or cognitively.”
According to the report, the technological applications most associated with human augmentation include:
Elon Musk’s Neuralink is the latest example of a brain-computer interface that received much publicity for helping a paralyzed man, but what happens when human augmentation goes from healing to enhancement?
Transhumanism may lead to superhuman abilities, but those abilities may be reserved for only a select chosen class while the rest of us programmable plebs could exist in a constant state of surveillance and control until we become irrelevant.
According to the report, “While some experts predict the tactical improvement of human capabilities, others have explored the potential emergence of ‘trans-humanism’ within the 2050 timeframe.
“This concept describes ‘a new form of human (a trans-human) […] where information and communication technologies and biomedicine will fundamentally improve the human condition and greatly enhance human intellectual, physical and psychological capacities.”
For the chosen ones, they could receive human performance enhancement that would give them the ability to never tire, think smarter, move faster, jump higher, see farther, hear better, hit harder, live longer, adapt stronger, and calculate quicker than any other human being on the planet.
Meanwhile, the fourth industrial revolution is already merging our physical, biological, and digital identities in order to monitor, manipulate, and reprogram our behavior.
If and when humans become fully integrated with machines on a large scale, where will the technology end and the human begin?
The authors of the RAND report say that “Given the direct embedding of technology into human cognitive, physical and psychological functions, substantial levels of human augmentation may ‘[blur] the notions of identity and of what it means to be human’, introducing new normative lenses on humanity and producing new stigma for those not seen as attaining those norms.”
On an individual level, if you wish to remain a natural human and not become part of “Homo sapiens technologicus,” you might not be able to compete in the workplace, and you might be rendered part of the useless class of human.
On an international level, countries, cultures, and communities that don’t participate in the transhumanist experiment may find themselves easily conquered by those that do.
The report adds, “The social dynamics of human augmentation adoption may include disparities in access to relevant technologies, thus introducing new forms of digital exclusion whereby the economically disadvantaged cannot access the same enhancement level as other societal segments.”
At the same time, natural humans who don’t get chipped may have an advantage in that they may not be as easily manipulated and controlled by thoughts or memories that may not be entirely their own.
In other words, transhumanism may lead to super-human capabilities for some, and mind control for others.
“Advances in brain-computer interfaces may translate into developing brain-to-brain communication technologies, leading to entirely new modes of interpersonal communication”
RAND Corporation, March 2024
“Human augmentation could undermine end users’ cognitive safety and influence their ability to assess the credibility of information they receive while using human augmentation technologies”
RAND Corporation, March 2024
Manipulation and control are other areas of concern with human augmentation, the Internet of Bodies, and the Internet of Brains.
False information, images, sounds, memories, and thoughts could one day be downloaded to these devices and uploaded to the human brain with devastating effect.
According to the report, “Sensing technologies (e.g. hearing implants), in particular, carry a risk of interference, whereby devices could be manipulated to provide erroneous information to the end user.
“Such manipulation of sensory inputs would substantially amplify current threats from artificially creating or manipulating visual and auditory information (e.g. images and videos).
“Therefore, human augmentation could undermine end users’ cognitive safety and influence their ability to assess the credibility of information they receive while using human augmentation technologies.“
“Significant advancements are likely in human augmentation technologies in the 2035–2050 timeframe”
RAND Corporation, March 2024
The Pentagon, too has been investigating how to fundamentally alter what it means to be human, funding research into creating super humans that are smarter, faster, and stronger through human performance enhancement.
Once technology gets in-and-under the skin to collect as much intimate data about you as possible, you are well on the way to transhumanism and the beginning of what could be the worst totalitarian surveillance regime in human history.
Worse than being serfs, those not able to keep up in this brave new transhumanistic world would be rendered irrelevant, redundant, useless — unnecessary even for manual labor.
After all the genetic editing and the technological manipulation stemming from the fourth industrial revolution, will we still be able to call ourselves human?
Humanity as we know it may split into an entirely new species, where those not genetically edited or technologically altered could never compete with those who were.
In a future where humans are no longer considered to be natural humans, what would that mean for human rights?
Image by kjpargeter [cropped] on Freepik
Jeanna Liu’s love for nature is rooted in her childhood. As a young girl, Liu…
The arrival of generative artificial intelligence (genAI) into the mainstream at the end of 2022…
Data analytics and machine learning models deliver the most powerful results when they have access…
I’ve been on the road for almost a year now. Chasing freedom, adventure, and purpose.…
As technological use increases, so may the cost of innovation due to the global movement…
Have you ever asked yourself why some people are amazing at picking gifts, while others…