What Are Wearables and Augmented Humans?

      Perhaps the most prevalent examples of wearables today are fitness tracker bands and smart watches – small, easy-to-wear devices that typically monitor our activity and provide insights that help us lead healthier, better, more productive lives. However, the term “wearable” doesn’t necessarily mean something that you strap onto your wrist or wear elsewhere on your body; it also extends to “smart” clothing, such as running shoes that can measure your running gait and performance, advances like robotic prosthetics, and robotic wearable technology used in industrial settings.

As technology gets smaller and smarter, the sheer range of wearables is going to expand enormously – and new, smaller, smarter products will emerge to supersede the wearables we’re familiar with today. For example, we already have smart glasses, but these are likely to be replaced by smart contact lenses (see practical applications later in the chapter). And after that, smart contact lenses will likely be replaced by smart eye implants.

      Advances like this lead many to believe that humans and machines will eventually merge to create truly augmented humans – “transhumans” or humans 2.0 if you like, where the human body is “souped up” like a sports car to achieve enhanced physical and mental performance. This would transform the world of medicine – some believe disabilities as we know them today won’t exist in the future – and, eventually, may even challenge our understanding of what it means to be human.

      Sound far-fetched? Not at all when you consider that we already have advanced robotic limbs that can replace human limbs and, thanks to AI, be controlled by the wearer’s thoughts (more on this coming up). And we won’t just be looking at physical augmentations, either. AI for the human brain is already in development. Companies like Facebook are racing to develop brain–computer interfaces that could, in theory, allow you to type your Facebook status update using your mind instead of your fingers (telepathic typing, to use the vaguely creepy technical term).¹ Similarly, Elon Musk’s Neuralink company is working on a brain–computer interface that would help people with severe brain injuries. Musk, who has spoken openly about his concerns for the human race as machines become increasingly intelligent, believes merging with machines and enhancing our human capabilities may be the best way to stop us being wiped out by our intelligent creations, or turned into their “pets.”²

So in the future, we may find ourselves permanently attached to our smart phones, but in a more literal way – because the technology could be implanted into our bodies and capable of constantly scanning our thoughts, emotions, and biometric data to understand what we want to do next. AI chips implanted in our brains could help us make smarter, faster decisions. And physical augmentation could make us stronger, faster, and who knows what else. No longer satisfied with manipulating the world around us, it seems humans are on a quest to manipulate themselves.