Le transhumanisme est une approche interdisciplinaire qui nous amène à comprendre et à évaluer les avenues qui nous permettrons de surmonter nos limites biologiques par les progrès technologiques.
Par Kevin Warwick, Université de Coventry 10 novembre 2016.
Dans cet article, le chercheur britannique explique pourquoi l’IA et la cybernétique dépassent le domaine de la science-fiction, mais avertit que les technologies soulèvent également d’importantes questions éthiques.
Introduction
Science fiction has, for many years, looked to a future in which robots are intelligent and cyborgs — human/machine amalgams — are commonplace: The Terminator, The Matrix, Blade Runner and I, Robot are all good examples of this. However, until the last decade any consideration of what this might actually mean in the future real world was not necessary because it was all science fiction and not scientific reality. Now, however, science has not only done a catching-up exercise but, in bringing about some of the ideas thrown up by science fiction, it has introduced practicalities that the original story lines did not appear to extend to (and in some cases have still not extended to).
What we consider here are several different experiments in linking biology and technology together in a cybernetic fashion, essentially ultimately combining humans and machines in a relatively permanent merger. Key to this is that it is the overall final system that is important. Where a brain is involved, which surely it is, it must not be seen as a stand-alone entity but rather as part of an overall system, adapting to the system’s needs: the overall combined cybernetic creature is the system of importance.
Each experiment is described in its own section. Whilst there is a distinct overlap between the sections, they each throw up individual considerations. Following a description of each investigation, some pertinent issues on the topic are therefore discussed. Points have been raised with a view to near term future technical advances and what these might mean in a practical scenario. It has not been the case of an attempt here to present a fully packaged conclusive document; the aim has rather been to open up the range of research being carried out, to see what is actually involved and to look at some of its implications.
Kevin Warwick is deputy vice chancellor for research at Coventry University in the United Kingdom. He is former professor of cybernetics at Reading University, also in the U.K. He is the author or co-author of more than 600 research papers.
C’est un scientifique britannique et professeur de cybernétique à l’Université de Coventry, au Royaume-Uni. Il est probablement le plus connu pour ses études sur les interfaces directes entre les systèmes informatiques et le système nerveux humain, mais il a fait beaucoup de recherche dans le domaine de la robotique. Il s’est greffé des électrodes dans son bras qui sont directement reliées à son système nerveux, il y a relié un ordinateur. Il a pu ainsi commander un ordinateur, ou encore une chaise roulante. Après avoir enregistré l’activité nerveuse de son bras sur un ordinateur lorsqu’il le mettait en mouvement, il a réussi à faire commander son bras par un ordinateur. Il a fait la promesse de créer une puce permettant à deux êtres humains de parler par télépathie pour 2015. (ndlr Wikipédia)
