The Singularity is near. When Humans Transcend Biology
User Rating: 3 / 5
Ray Kurzweil
Viking Press, 2005
For over three decades, the great inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic The Age of Spiritual Machines, he presented the daring argument that with the ever-accelerating rate of technological change, computers would rival the full range of human intelligence at its best. Now, in The Singularity Is Near, he examines the next step in this inexorable evolutionary process: the union of human and machine, in which the knowledge and skills embedded in our brains will be combined with the vastly greater capacity, speed, and knowledge-sharing ability of our own creations.
 KurzweilFuturist.pdf | [ ] |
From Cyborgs to Cyberbodies: The Evolution of the Concept of Techno-Body in Modern Medicine
User Rating: 3 / 5
Andrea Gaggioli, Marco Vettorello, Giuseppe Riva
Applied Technology for Neuro-Psychology Lab
Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy.
PsychNology Journal, Volume 1, Number 2, 75 - 86, 2003
This paper focuses on the ways in which the introduction of technologies in modern medicine is changing collective notions of the body. In particular, it describes two popular and imaginative conceptualizations of the body that have been inspired by progresses made by medical technologies during last century: the cyborg, and the cyberbody. Although these two models stem from the same post-modern philosophical "post-body", "post-biological," or "post-human" visions, they are characterized by a fundamental distinction. While the cyborg, at least in its original conception, is linked to the “wild wired world”, the world of cells, neurons, blood and biological processes, the cyberbody can be defined as a wireless, inorganic entity, made of pure bits of information.
| From_cyborgs_to_cyberbodies.pdf | [ ] |
Nanotechnology and Radically Extended Life Span
User Rating: 3 / 5
Robert A. Freitas
LE Magazine January 2009
A revolution in medical technology looms large on the horizon. The agent of change is microscopically small and is defined in today’s nomenclature as nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is the engineering of molecularly precise structures and, ultimately, molecular machines. The prefix “nano-” refers to the scale of these constructions. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, the width of about five carbon atoms nestled side by side. Nanomedicine is the application of nanotechnology to medicine. The ultimate tool of nanomedicine is the medical nanorobot—a robot the size of a bacterium, composed of molecule-size parts somewhat resembling macroscale gears, bearings, and ratchets. Medical nanorobotics holds the greatest promise for curing disease and extending health span. With diligent effort, the first fruits of medical nanorobotics could begin to appear in clinical treatment as early as the 2020s.
| Nanotech_lifespan.pdf | [ ] |
Innovations in Health, Wellness, and Aging-in-Place
User Rating: 3 / 5
Joseph F. Coughlin and James Pope.
Healthways and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) AgeLab, 2008.
The convergence of an aging society with today’s availability of advanced technology is an opportunity to innovate and to think differently about how we live throughout the lifespan, not just in older age. The home is the primary platform for much of life’s activities influencing our health, wellness, independence, and safety as we age. Creatively exploiting technology to provide services that are both needed and desired, while employing effective delivery strategies into the home, will enhance the lives of older people and improve overall quality of life across the lifespan. This article presents the opportunity for intelligent technologies in the home, identifies today’s apparent innovation gap indicated by the slow diffusion of existing smart technologies, and describes an integrated consumer-centric approach thatmay offer promise in translating inventions into innovations in people’s lives across the lifespan.
| Innovations_health.pdf | [ ] |
eHealth on the Council Agenda
User Rating: 3 / 5
Daniel Forslund
Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, 2009
Describing the value of eHealth in healthcare terms is crucial for creating awareness of how technology can improve patient safety, quality and efficiency in healthcare. A study in six Member States (CZ, ES, FR, NL, SE, UK) was launched with the objectives to: provide a benefit model to analyse how political goals can be realised through eHealth, to visualize and quantify fact-based benefits of continued implementation of eHealth in the EU and to provide support for prioritization of investments in eHealth services.
| eHealth.pdf | [ ] |
