The Borg in Your Boardroom

By Hector Cisneros and Carl Weiss

Have you noticed all the new cybernetic devices coming out lately? Prosthetic legs that allow you to run 

star trek borg docking station (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

faster than normal, artificial eyes that see and bionic ears that hear?  Add to this such things as augmented reality, and the ability to use avatars for remote sensing and to do work and the question is not one of, “Do we have a brave new world just over the horizon?”  It’s more a question of is it here already? If you’re wondering if there is a biological upgrade in your near future, read on and find out what’s likely to happen once there is a Borg in every Boardroom.

Being a big Star Trek Fan, I am always amazed at all the wonderful inventions we see coming to life that were first envisioned in the Star Trek TV series. Recently my partner and I wrote about how cell phones can trace their history to the communicator from the original series and how 3D printing is the precursor to the Replicator that also debuted on that series. But of those episodes, none were as frightening or as exciting as the Borg episodes. These are the episodes that made the phrase “Resistance is futile” an everyday saying!

So what does all this have to do with internet marketing and online commerce? Plenty! The year is Star Date 2013 and we already have hundreds of cybernetic augmentation devices currently being peddled in retail stores as well as online. 

One of the world’s largest corporations (Google) is spearheading a new means of cybernetic communications called Glass. Private citizens (even teen agers) are building their own cybernetic limb replacements with 3D printers. Cochlear implants are common place. Cybernetic eyes are already in experimental use. We have had pace makers to control heart function for decades. Artificial Heart’s have been in use to bridge the gap between transplant surgeries and have been around for a number of years. We regularly replace joints (knees, hips, shoulder etc…, tendons, bones, teeth, skin, hair and so on with their manmade counterparts. We have devised implants to stimulate parts of the brain in order to control epilepsy, hunger, and even the sex drive. The military is already using many types of remote sensing, defense and augmented battle devices to help soldiers survive the fog of war.

Some of the most amazing newcomers to cyber augmentation are: Computer controlled prosthetic limbs which help people to walk with cybernetic legs or pick up objects with cybernetic arms and hands all controlled by the wearers own muscle movements and thoughts. Soldiers in the field routinely use robots and aerial drones to scout, defuse bombs and enter dwellings.  Scientists are even working on creating a cloaking device to make the wearer invisible.

Right now most of the cybernetic ear implants are designed to help people regain lost hearing. But hearing enhancement devices have been used by hunters and solders for many years. The next step will be implanting augmented hearing permanently in your head.

Cybernetic eyes are on their way. We have been using many forms of vision enhancements for years. We have all kinds of telescope, microscopes, binoculars, light filtering devices, night vision goggles and cameras

. Now Google has married a computer to many of these of devices and create Google Glass a wearable computer that interacts with the wearer using voice commands much just like the computer on the original Star Trek series. We already use computers as extensions of our mind and bodies via the internet. It won’t be long before people start implanting cybernetic enhancements in order to expand their perception of the real world much like the character in the Next Generation named Jordie did.  In fact there is already a term for the implantation of transhuman technology into the body.  It’s called bio-hacking.

In fact there are a number of people who have already begun experimenting with bio-hacking:

Rich Lee was a mild-mannered salesman from St. George, Utah until one day he was bio-hacked to have headphones installed into his head, thus increasing his ailing vision with the sonar power of a bat while enjoying his own soundtrack through the power of magnets. Lee is a self-described “grinder”, a group that believes in the enhancement of the human body through technological modification – or ‘biohacking’. The Utah resident’s surgical procedure was carried out by “the godfather of body modification,” Steve Haworth, who has been experimenting with biohacking since 1998.

There is even a newly released Hollywood motion picture called Elysium that stars Matt Damon in which he has a robotic exoskeleton grafted onto his body to help him regain function lost after an industrial accident.  I won’t spoil the flick for you, with the exception of telling you that while the movie is set in the year 2154, the exoskeleton technology described is already being developed to assist paralyzed people to walk. 

Also known by the term Transhumanism, Wikipedia describes the genre as an international cultural and intellectual movement with an eventual goal of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.  The term itself was coined in the 1960’s by author and futurist Fereidoun M.Esfandiary, who among other things correctly predicted such things as invitro fertilization, teleconferencing and genetic manipulation. He also legally changed his name to FM-2030. 

While much of the technology involved seems just as out there as changing one’s name to FM-2030, bear in mind that everything from the Star Trek communicator (a flip phone) to a Tricorder (smartphone) to a

Replicator (3D printer) to a Shuttlecraft (Space Shuttle) has come to pass.  Besides in this highly competitive world anyone who wants to succeed has been and is going to utilize most every technology to gain an advantage.  So when you walk into that board meeting in the not too distant future only to encounter a biologically enhanced human sitting across from you, remember this one piece of advice, “Resistance is futile!” 

Hector and Carl are the enhanced humans who manage W Squared Media Group in Jacksonville, Florida.  Join them every Tuesday at 4pm Eastern as they host Working the Web to Win on Blog Talk Radio.