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What happens to the concept of ownership of books, music, DVD Movie & TV series collections etc in the shift from Analog to Digital?

As a journalist and keen observer of how technology affects society I see many upsides to digital content such as ease of use and the ability to carry around massive collections of books, music etc stored in small, light electronic devices.

However while we rush headlong into a digital content future there are several downsides that are not getting the attention they deserve.

EDITOR: This article was syndicated/re-published at the ABC Online – The Drum Unleashed opinion columns website under the title Digital purchases: nothing to hold, nothing to keep.

When I “buy” an eBook from Amazon.com or you “buy” a song from iTunes we aren’t actually buying anything at all. What we’re doing is paying for the legal licensing right to read/listen to some bits of digital information on a limited number of compatible devices.

CNET reported last week that EMI, one of the 4 largest recording industry companies in the world is suing MP3 reseller ReDigi because:

“Music buyers may be able to sell their used CDs and vinyl albums, but they’re not allowed to sell or distribute used digital tracks and albums in the same way.”

Within the next decade users of sites like Bookcrossing may only be able to swap older books that have been printed in paper versions as new books will likely be eBook only. The same will apply to 2nd hand book charity fundraisers like Lifeline Bookfest and charities like Room to Read which collects books and creates libraries in the 3rd world.

Restrictive Terms of Use

According to consumer rights organisation Choice:

“Under the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty of 1996, it is illegal in most countries (including Australia since 2007) to attempt to circumvent the copyright protections built into DRM [digital rights management], even when these measures go beyond the protection of legal rights. If you wish to have true ownership over the products you buy, and use them how and when you want to, ideally you would buy products that have no DRM at all”.

As an example this is a portion of the copyright warning included in The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien eBook which I purchased to read on my Kindle:

“By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable, right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen.”

Similar terms and conditions apply to content purchased from Apple’s iTunes store. Jonathan Handel, a Los Angeles-based entertainment attorney told CNN that:

‘When we buy something from iTunes, we are paying for the license to listen to music or watch a movie on our iPhone or other Apple device. But we are not buying the product itself and so we can’t actually own it’.

Corporate censorship and remote removal of digital content that you’ve purchased are also valid issues to consider such as Amazon remotely deleting purchased copies of George Orwell’s 1984 from Kindle devices in 2009 and Apple censoring an iPad version of a web comic based on James Joyce’s famous book Ulysses.

Losing Digital Content or Access To It

New York technology attorney Mark Grossman told CNN last year that:

‘Anyone who tried to take Apple to court over a lost digital file would lose very quickly. “The argument is, you could have backed it up,” he said. “The contract clearly says ‘we are not responsible,’ and it’s firmly established in the law.”’

There is no guarantee that 50 years in the future, or even 10 years in the future that the companies which we “bought” these books, music etc from will still exist.

Consumer electronics gadgets have a short lifespan due to planned obsolescence. Ebook readers, mobile phones and tablet devices can only be expected to last a few years before the battery or other parts of the hardware fails.

So if Amazon went out of business in 2020 and my Kindle’s storage got corrupted I wouldn’t be able to re-download the Kindle ebooks I’d purchased from their servers onto a new device.

Lending and Gifts

Analog printed books, music CD’s/LP’s are easy to lend, sell second hand or give away as gifts.

I have several books on my shelf that were given to me as presents by friends and teachers in primary and high school 15-20 years ago. If I wanted to I could give these books to future generations of my family with no legal issues at all.

Reading those paper books is easy but trying to open a digital file from that era is hard, especially if it’s stored in an obsolete computer document format on an obsolete storage format like 5.25″/3.5″ floppy disks.

This assumes that the storage hardware would work after such a length of time and the data had been backed up in the first place, which are topics I explored in a previous ABC The Drum Unleashed story “Digital Dark Ages?”.

If I really like an ebook I can’t move it from my computer backups folder to give it to a friend unless it is out of copyright and therefore public domain.

Unfortunately the Howard government’s 2004 Australia/USA Free Trade Agreement came at a price. A lengthy increase in the term of copyright meant that the potential benefit of many free public domain ebooks becoming available to Australians in the early 21st century was blocked.

Very limited lending of Kindle ebooks is available for US buyers but not to Australians. Even that restricted lending ability has been shown to be at the whim of Amazon who briefly blocked functionality for the 3rd party site Lendle last year.

Judging a Bookshelf

Judging a new friend’s bookshelf on your first visit to their place is human nature, don’t pretend you haven’t done it.

I’ve certainly done it because the books people read and keep as their favourites are often a strong predictor of their personality and interests in life, or at least how they want to be perceived.

One glance at a bookshelf that contains a battered Lonely Planet guide to Europe on Shoestring, glossy wilderness themed coffee table photobook and paperbacks of Robinson Crusoe reveals a lot.

The owner of those books is a traveller. They probably started when they were young and had a small budget. The glossy photobook could indicate that they’re a photographer who appreciates natural beauty and the Robinson Crusoe book that they’re more likely to go on a holiday to an isolated location than a bustling metropolis.

However within the next 5-10 years we may not be able to judge new friends by their bookshelves because it’s likely that their book collection won’t have any physical manifestation, instead living inside electronic devices like the Amazon Kindle or Apple iPad.

You may scoff but think about what’s happened to the music industry in the last 10 years. An 18 year old isn’t likely to buy a pile of CD’s and display them in their room. They’ll pirate the songs via Bit torrent or buy the song from iTunes and play it on their Apple device.

Unless you scroll through the contents of their phone when they leave it unlocked near you, the breadth and depth of their music collection will be uncertain.

With Eyes Wide Open

The shift from analog to digital for books, music, movies, DVD Movie & TV series collections etc etc is well underway and unstoppable.

However it is important that we understand the full implications of this shift, fight against onerous terms and conditions of use and question techno-utopian statements by cyberculture commentators like Kevin Kelly that “the trend is clear: access trumps possession. Access is better than ownership”.

Visit the Rambling Thoughts Blog regularly to read articles about Technology, Personal Finance, TV Shows, Politics, Environment, Books and more

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2011 was a momentous year. I created opportunities to cover a wide variety of topics for an increasing number of media outlets as a freelance journalist/photojournalist, quit watching free to air TV (turned off my TiVo) and switched my reading habits almost exclusively from print books to Kindle/Kobo ebooks.

During the year I travelled for photography/journalism work to many places. You can view 2011 The Year In Photos: Frequent Travelling, Street Art and Photojournalism at my Road Less Travelled website

Throughout the year I was a guest/commentator on ABC Radio quite a few times as well as once each on ABC TV, Sky TV and BBC World Service Radio.

I was a part-time NSW Greens campaign staffer for 6 months until the NSW State election in late March 2011, in charge of the Balmain electorate Greens website, social media, photography and video. The Greens won Balmain by a narrow margin and Jamie Parker became the first Greens candidate ever to get elected to the NSW lower house of parliament.

After the election I returned to my usual work as a Freelance Journalist, Travel/Events Photographer, Professional Blogger and Research Helpdesk Librarian at UTS.

In April I represented GEARE magazine (which I write a lot of articles for) at the 2011 Lizzies IT Journalist Awards and also went on road trip through the Canterbury and Wanaka regions of New Zealand’s South Island to report on progress for plans to rebuild and repair Christchurch after the late 2010/2011 earthquakes.

In May I was asked by Adventure Wild – Kimberleys, Western Australia outback tour operators and Tourism WA to take photos and videos for them of the Northern remote Kimberleys area. I also wrote articles for YHA Backpacker Essentials magazine, GEARE magazine and ABC Technology website.

In June I attended XMediaLab Sydney: Global Media Ideas 2011 where I listened to many insightful talks by local and international speakers.

In August I visited the Rockdale Hacker/Maker space and saw a Makerbot in action as part of my research into 3D Printers – this will be a big area in 2012/2013.

In September I visited Osaka and Tokyo in Japan for a tour of Panasonic Toughbook factories and the Eastern Cape region of South Africa to write an article for GEARE magazine and take photos for South African Tourism.

In October I travelled to Darwin, Northern Territory and Bali, Indonesia to take photos and write for GEARE magazine and Technology Spectator.

In November I travelled to Canberra to report on President Obama’s trip, review Telstra 4G for Technology Spectator as well as visiting visit to the NASA Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex for a 2012 issue of GEARE magazine.

My Favourite Freelance Stories/Work

These are my favourite stories for each publication I wrote for this year:

Chief Security Officer (CSO) – By far the toughest story to plan and execute in 2011 involved jumping through countless security clearance hoops to get accreditation as a photojournalist 5 metres away from Barack Obama at the US Embassy event during his visit to Canberra. From this I wrote Barack Obama’s security circus arrives in Oz: In Pictures.

GEARE Magazine – 5 indepth feature articles Augmented Humanity (cover story), Space: The Final Frontier?, Deep Sea Submersibles (cover story), National Broadband Network and High Speed Trains.

YHA Backpacker Essentials magazine – 10 photos and article New Zealand South Island – Beyond Christchurch.

Technology Spectator – Exclusive: Photo Finish explores the ongoing ignorance of copyright laws for photos used by the media.

iTnews – Exclusive: Why mobile phones can’t fly: Qantas, Australia Post explain explosion risks from lithium-ion batteries.

ABC Drum Unleashed – I only had spare time to write a few stories for them this year: Oceans are the key to avoiding a Soylent Green future, A low rate world is not in everyone’s interest and Busting interest rates myths. However I don’t get to cover topics like banking, finance and the environment elsewhere so these were great opportunities.

ABC Technology – TV is changing – can Australian free-to-air networks keep up and The NBN and making movies in Australia.

Favourite Technology/Gadgets

The OLYMPUS XZ-1 gets my vote for best digital camera released in 2011. The F1.8 lens combined with a great imaging sensor make it by far the best compact camera for enthusiast/professional photographers who want a backup for their larger SLR digital camera.

My prize for best eink ebook reader released in 2011 goes to the Kobo Touch which I reviewed for Technology Spectator. The ideal eReader does its job so well that the device becomes invisible to your mind, which can then concentrate purely on reading. In my opinion the Kobo Touch is the closest device to achieving this to date. Amazon could have competed for this but they chose not to release the Kindle Touch in Australia until 2012.

It’s not a new product launched in 2011 but the Epoz Aktimate Mini Active Stereo HiFi iPod/MP3 Player Speaker set I purchased this year was a favourite because I listen to a lot of radio news, podcasts and music while working. The Aktimate Mini’s provide marvellous quality audio with a compact good looking design.

Similarly the Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7b QuietPoint Active Noise-cancelling Headphones were launched 2 years ago but I first used them in 2011 during flights to and from Japan and reviewed them for Technology Spectator. They are the best choice for frequent travellers who want to listen to audio while travelling to block a lot of the noise around you.

Visit the Rambling Thoughts Blog regularly to read articles about Technology, Personal Finance, TV Shows, Politics, Environment, Books and more

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The proposed National Broadband Network (NBN) will have an impact on many parts of our lives at work and home. I spoke with a variety of people in the Australian visual effects (VFX) industry about how the NBN could effect their industry.

Phil Sullivan is a classic example of how talented Australians in the VFX industry travel the world like a wandering albatross from project to project.

As a Motion Capture TD (Technical Director) and Animator his specialty is “synthesising life” and he’s applied this skill to movies and computer games such as Happy Feet 1 and 2, Heavenly Sword and LA Noire.

As much as he’d like to live in Australia near his family, the boom and bust nature of the VFX industry means he has to follow projects to the country they’re based in. So after completing his current contract working on Happy Feet 2 in Sydney who knows where he could be next, perhaps Wellington, Los Angeles, Vancouver or London.

Adelaide based Rising Sun Pictures (RSP) has recently finished work on the Green Lantern and Harry Potter 7 Part 2. Their previous success stories include blockbusters like Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Batman Begins and Watchmen.

RSP co-founder Tony Clark told me that the NBN will not substantially change what Rising Sun Pictures does in the beginning but once the network has been rolled out across a substantial part of Australia it could have an important impact on how people in the Australian VFX industry collaborate on projects.

Clark’s description of how the VFX industry worked historically, presently and potentially in the future made it clear how the NBN is one of the progressions required to try and stay competitive with overseas rivals.

In the past big film studios such as Disney had their own VFX department, then they started outsourcing parts of films and by 1990 movies like Terminator II had their VFX done almost solely by one company, in this case George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic. Today VFX work for movies is often shared across many companies, with each winning 5-10% of the budget.

Clark harked back to a time when he had to arrange data tapes for work in progress to be shipped overseas. The week long “lag time” between “packets” of a project was very frustrating as the VFX industry is all about creativity and it’s hard to be creative with such communication delays.

From 2000 onwards RSP sent Quicktime movies back and forth to customers. Files steadily grew larger in size and quality in parallel with the customer film studios expectations of creative communications moving to a practically immediate timeframe.

Even the fastest ADSL transfer speeds became too constraining so RSP setup a private high speed network called Cinenet with the financial assistance of the South Australian Government, using the services of Agile Communications (sister company to ISP Internode).

The launch of Cinenet in mid-2004 had played a critical role in RSP winning the contract for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire according to Clark.

“The speed of Cinenet, combined with Rising Sun Pictures’ sister company Rising Sun Research’s client review software cineSync, allowed our work to be reviewed in Los Angeles and London faster than work from suppliers based in those cities” he said. Cinesync won the Academy award for Technical Achievement in early 2011.

What Clark envisages is a future world where he can assemble best of breed group of VFX artists in small teams of individuals working from home. To enable that he needs these talented people to have access to highly reliable NBN type ultra-fast broadband internet speeds. This would be “revolutionary for distributed film making workflows” he said.

Even if it could be done at a cost premium to ADSL2+ of several hundred dollars per connection it would enable VFX talent outside the big cities to participate in RSP projects, for example a cluster of people who live on the north coast of NSW. At the moment they are willing and available but lack the necessary connectivity.

Clark said that “looking at the NBN wholesale price list it’s very much within the reach of a professional worker to have the kinds of speeds at their home office to compete with big companies on a level playing field”.

Animal Logic (AL) is another prominent Australian VFX company, working on projects such as The Matrix trilogy, 300 and Australia. AL recently won the lead role in a big 2 year project, the $65 million Walking with Dinosaurs 3D feature film which means a large portion of that production money will be spent in Australia.

Guy Griffiths Director of Research & Development at AL notes that a key characteristic of VFX digital animation is that it’s almost all in front of a computer. Specialist programs like Maya are used to make files that are handed on to the next person in the production chain.

The amounts of computer data generated during work on projects such as the recent Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole movie require backing up colossal amounts. It’s not surprising that VFX files are delivered to the customer at present via packing cases of hard disk drives as well as by network file transfers.

VFX work is project based and requires flexibility to scale up access to specialists in different areas at short notice. Ubiquitous consistent speed network file transfer capability would allow new ways to tap into VFX talent regardless of their location. Once there’s a distributed workforce Griffiths wonders how they can be managed, it’s not just about fast file transfers he said.

He told me that AL would need new innovative services to utilise the NBN in order to work and communicate more effectively. Perhaps by looking at an adjacent telepresence wall (immersive video conferencing) in order to talk to a remote colleague rather than initiating a cumbersome video chat through a computer program.

Griffiths is certain that when the NBN is in place imaginative solutions which we can’t imagine now will be created, however there is a fair way to go yet. The NBN could allow innovation and experimentation but companies like AL can’t make business decisions around it until it has a critical mass of availability.

If Australian VFX companies can leapfrog their overseas rivals by using the NBN to connect to talented staff offsite, it could be a factor that allows more projects to be won. These could employ talent within the industry like Phil Sullivan so they can spend more time living, working and spending their income in Australia.

AL Creative Director Bruce Carter told me that “talented people in the VFX industry are mobile nomadic artists who go from project to project around the world, balanced by a core group of older staff who stay put as they have families here … so clearly if there’s a deep talent pool nearby that’s good for AL” and by extension for the rest of the Australian VFX industry.

However it will take more than the NBN to do this because at present the high value of the Australian dollar and more generous tax breaks offered overseas are making it relatively expensive for big film studios to create movies in Australia.

Visit the Rambling Thoughts Blog regularly to read articles about Technology, Personal Finance, TV Shows, Politics, Environment, Books and more

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Forget augmented reality – why change the world around you when you can change yourself? Read on as I explore the new age of Augmented Humanity: Cyborg implants, magnetic fingers, exoskeletons and more.

Cyborg definitions – 1: A cybernetic organism; 2: A reconstructed person capable of exceptional physical feats via replaced or augmented human parts.

When reviewing a Plantronics Voyager Pro Bluetooth headset recently, I found myself looking at the blinking blue light and remembering the Doctor Who episode “Rise of the Cybermen”, in which people using blue glowing ‘Earpods’ were cybernetically “upgraded” against their will, with their brains installed inside bodies bonded onto a metal exoskeleton.

This prompted me to think – the purpose of the Plantronics headset is to improve our biological ability, to hear phone calls better, to talk and dial numbers without actually holding a phone.

Such Bluetooth phone headsets, or the proud Australian invention of the Cochlear ear implant are early examples of technology augmenting and enhancing human abilities. So are we on the road to becoming cyborgs? And how many parts do you have to replace in a person for them to remain human? What if the original organic brain was all that remained, inside an artificial body?

I write short articles as well as long feature “explainer” articles on topics including: Google Android Smartphones and Tablets, National Broadband Network (NBN), Space, Civil & Military Aviation, Ebooks and the Publishing Industry, Electric cars etc for Geare Magazine. The editor of GEARE has kindly permitted me to post articles here after the magazine issue the article was printed in has passed its shelf life. I have added updates where new information is relevant.

From the opposite direction, we have the rise of the robot. Who knows what societal issues will occur if it becomes possible to develop an artificial positronic brain capable of human-like behaviour, or more? Tales of rogue robots and cyborgs are a science-fiction staple, whether confused servants in Isaac Asimov’s I Robot book, even the character Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation had his off days.

Once cybernetic implants evolve to the stage where they’re commonplace and subcutaneous (under the skin), it may be impossible to tell which parts of a person are human and which parts cyborg – as imagined in an amusing recent comment I read on Engadget while researching this article:

“If Bluetooth headset users didn’t look ridiculous enough yelling into thin air, now the future promises people wildly gesticulating as they meander down the street. Once the technology becomes small enough to hide, it will be impossible to tell a commuter from a psychotic hobo…”

How fast will such implants develop? Some are already here, as we’ll see in this article. Yet some interfaces remain stubbornly old-tech. For example, this article was created using a computer keyboard not dissimilar to the originals invented at Xerox PARC decades ago, with the QWERTY keyboard layout which was originally designed specifically to slow down typing speeds and avoid mechanical keys colliding in typewriters!

Will human computer interfaces progress to the stage where this archaic keyboard and mouse are banished forever and we can simply think thoughts into a document? Let’s see what lies ahead…

Sci-Fi Cyborgs

Cyborgs and human augmentation are popular topics in science fiction TV series like Inspector Gadget, Star Trek and Doctor Who. But when I first discussed this cyborg story idea with my editor at GEARE Magazine he was immediately transported to the 1970s and the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man.

Still with a loyal audience today watching on DVD and cable TV reruns, the show’s storyline focuses on Steve Austin (played by Lee Majors), a former American astronaut who is terribly injured after crashing in an experimental plane. The military performs a series of radical risky medical operations on him, replacing his eye, arm and legs with experimental enhanced nuclear-powered cybernetic implants.

Each episode begins with a visual backdrop of Steve’s crash, surgery and subsequent super-human feats, with the narrator’s oft-quoted “Steve Austin. Astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We can make him better than he was. Better.. stronger… faster.”

Steve Austin works for his government on top-secret missions (he has to repay the six-million dollar debt incurred when he was turned into a cyborg!). Younger readers can think of him as a more likeable version of James Bond, but instead of a Q character supplying him with the gadgets needed to succeed, he himself is the gadget.

While the show is intended to be entertainment first, it does explore some of the consequences of radical physical changes to a human body, such as emotional changes to the psyche of both the cyborg and those he encounters.

For example, when Austin saves people from a car crash, they’re initially grateful but then repulsed when they see his hand is damaged and has electronics in it. The wider debate around augmentation is neatly summarised when Austin has an argument with a scientist he accuses of being typical of the profession, meddling with the natural order of things.

The scientist argues that the natural order of things is to advance – but Austin is not sure, saying that he tries “not to confuse motion with progress when people are proposing dangerous and unproven procedures”. The scientist counters, imagining extracting Einstein’s memory and implanting it into another person, or giving musicians the benefit of Chopin’s thoughts… what incredible music could be written, he says.

Austin replies with a fine statement of human augmentation issues:

“You can tear a human being apart like an automobile, and completely rebuild it with new heart, new kidneys, new arms, new legs and eyes. But no matter how many spare parts a man gets, he’s still himself, because of his mind. Still reacts the same, feels the same, thinks the same. Now somebody comes along and wants to replace that part too. When you’ve finished what do you have? I want to prove that I’m more than the sum of my parts…”

Amazon.com has the full-series box-set of 6 million Dollar Man.

Doctor Who ‘Rise of the Cybermen’ appears on Series 2 Volume 3, available from ABC Shops and other DVD retailers.

Medical Cybernetics and Implants

In 2006 the respected journal Nature warned that “the idea of giving people superhuman powers greatly appeals to the popular imagination. But in the real world, using neuroprosthetics to give patients control over all the less glamorous things we take for granted will be more important.” And indeed many scientists and academics worldwide are working on this very issue.

The world’s largest medical technology company, Medtronic, is working on a new improved spinal stimulation implant that alleviates chronic pain by “electrically activating pain-inhibiting neuronal circuits in the dorsal horn”, which causes a tingling sensation (paresthesia) that masks the sensations of pain.

The technologies in the stimulator are far more sophisticated than their counterparts in consumer electronics. A built-in accelerometer, which automatically adjusts the stimulation when the patient moves, even while they’re asleep, uses a mere 2μW of power (two millionths of a watt).

The population in many industrialised countries is aging fast, and none more so than Japan’s. It’s convenient, then, that their society is welcoming towards robots and cyborgs, and has consequently become a major research hub in that field.

One Japanese company called Cyberdyne Inc (in homage to the Terminator movies) has created a cyborg exoskeleton called Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) that expands and improves the physical capabilities of the old and infirm. It senses signals sent to the brain by motor neurons and uses the powered exoskeleton to make those movements with minimal effort required.

Like all advanced technologies HAL is an expensive option, but will, if successful, fall in price over time as the company scales up manufacturing; the company sees application in aged care, rehabilitation support and physical training, as well as industrial use in factories and by emergency services after natural disasters.

The field of prosthetics has advanced at an astonishing pace, and one of its poster boys is South African double amputee athlete Oscar Pistorius, who has used his Össur Flex-Foot Cheetah prosthetic legs to set world records and win several Paralympics golds as well as grabbing silver in the able-bodied Senior South African National 400m Championships in 2007.

The idea that a disabled body athlete using prosthetics could compete with and even beat able bodied athletes rather blows apart the concept of physical disability – an implant or prosthetic limb can result in better capabilities than the human equivalent.

Indeed this issue has led to Pistorius having a hot-and-cold relationship with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) which initially welcomed him (to compete against ablebodied athletes) and then banned the use of technical devices that provide an advantage – until the Court of Arbitration for Sport reversed the decision a year later. Pistorius is currently training for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Body Modification

Ever wondered what it would be like to sense magnetic fields and electromagnetic energy? Or to artificially enhance your vision? Before I head into this, however, please note that magnet implantation is a risky procedure with potentially harmful side effects like infections. Do not try it.

Such warnings do not stop everyone, however. For several years transhumanist body modders have been implanting small rare-earth magnets in their fingers in order to gain a ‘sixth-sense’ ability to ‘feel’ magnetic fields – like Magneto in the X-Men series, though sadly with a tiny fraction of his abilities.

There are no real practical uses, but modders say it gives them a whole new experience of the world, because so many items are powered by electricity or have magnets in them.

The Canadian Eyeborg project aims to implant a prosthetic eye with transmitter into the empty eye socket of filmmaker Rob Spence. He lost an eye and designed a wireless video camera inside his prosthetic, giving him the ability to make movies wherever he is, all the time, just by looking around. As Spence told WIRED.com: “If you lose your eye and have a hole in your head, then why not stick a camera in there?” Just don’t change the SD card in public!

Gene Therapy

The U.S. National Library of Medicine defines gene therapy as “an experimental technique that uses genes to treat or prevent disease. In the future, this technique may allow doctors to treat a disorder by inserting a gene into a patient’s cells instead of using drugs or surgery. Researchers are testing several approaches to gene therapy.”

Scientists speculate that gene therapy could be used in the future to regenerate parts of our bodies that fail as we grow older. However the societal impacts of life extension have to be considered. Aside from population growth and an increased aged population, would people have enough money to survive a longer lifespan? And would these extra years be spent enjoyably or with a complex set of medical problems?

In the future, rich parents could conceivably have their children genetically modified using gene therapy. The genius Doctor Bashir from Star Trek Deep Space 9 and insane Khan Singh from the Star Trek movie The Wrath of Khan are science-fiction examples at either end of the spectrum – what could happen if parents modify their children to try and make them smarter and stronger than their cohort.

Sidenote: Genetic modification was outlawed by Federation law makers in Star Trek because the benefits were deemed to outweigh the cost. Another Trekkie prediction that will come true in reality?

Go Cyborg Right Now

Taste and smell are the hardest to augment out of the supposed ‘five senses’. You’re unlikely to be able to enhance those two any time soon. But sight, hearing and touch can already gain some almost cyborgian tweaks – and if you’re in Japan you could even rent that Cyberdyne HAL suit for a mere $US1500/month… not bad for a cyborg exoskeleton that gives you Iron Man like capabilities!

Meanwhile technologies like the Microsoft XBOX Kinect Human Body Game and TV Controller does away with handheld game controllers, replacing them with an RGB camera, depth sensor and multi-array microphone running proprietary software to enable full-body 3D motion capture, facial and voice recognition capabilities. There are issues in small rooms, and it can look pretty silly, but its general success is undeniable.

Read my review of the Microsoft XBOX Kinect Microsoft XBOX Kinect Human Body Game and TV Controller to find out how it works and see photos as well as videos of it in action.

Neerav Bhatt Playing Joy Ride racing using Kinect. photo credit: Trevor Long

A Cybernetic Future

Intel Researcher Roy Want wrote in IEEE’s ‘Pervasive Computing’ journal in 2008 that the possibilities of implantable computing “sound pretty cool” but that enthusiasm should be tempered, if only because implants are currently built with inorganic materials that wear out and can’t repair themselves. A cybernetic implant for a young adult couldn’t possibly match the human body’s amazing cohesive system that can last over 80 years. And the swift pace of innovation in the field would make implants
obsolete over such a span. The thought of surgery every few years to upgrade materials, batteries and electronics isn’t very palatable.

Roy Want also points out the ethical and societal issues of cybernetic enhancements to share thoughts, stating that “linking our brains directly with a computing infrastructure, or using the infrastructure to directly influence our thoughts, might be going too far.” Life in a Star Trek Borg collective clearly doesn’t appeal to him!

The final word goes to famous Japanese American science communicator Professor Michio Kaku. in his ‘Visions of the Future’ TV series he comments on us departing the age of scientific discovery and entering the age of scientific mastery:

“In the future we may even have nearly god-like powers. The power to affect human evolution, and perhaps even create a trans-human species. This power gives us unparallelled possibilities – but also great responsibilities. One day we’ll be able to cure most diseases, lengthen the human lifespan and even enhance our capabilities.”

“In fact there’s a danger that one day the human race itself may begin to fracture, creating genetic apartheid. So that’s why I say the key is to engage in reasoned democratic debate, that’s the crucial factor … let this be a wake-up call. Let the debate begin!”

This article was originally published in GEARE Magazine issue #65. It is “digitally reprinted” here with permission from the editor. I have added updates where new information is relevant.

Visit the Rambling Thoughts Blog regularly to read articles about Technology, Personal Finance, TV Shows, Politics, Environment, Books and more