‘Die as a human or live forever as a cyborg’: Will robots rule the world?

n movies, they’re the bad guys – killer cyborgs with bones of steel and lightning-fast reflexes, perhaps an Austrian accent too. But Peter Scott-Morgan has never been afraid of robots. As a scientist and roboticist by trade, he spent decades researching how artificial intelligence (AI) might transform our lives.

Then, in 2017, Dr Scott-Morgan was diagnosed with motor neuron disease, the same paralysing condition that killed Stephen Hawking. Months after puzzling over his “wonky foot” falling asleep, he was told he had two years to live.

He had other ideas. To survive, he would turn to the technology he had spent his career researching. He would become the cyborg. Scott-Morgan has now had two major surgeries to help keep himself alive with robotics – machine “upgrades” that breathe for him, help him speak, and hopefully will even see him stand again as the advancing paralysis traps him inside his body. He plans to merge his brain with AI eventually too, so he can speak with his thoughts rather than the flicker of his eyes. “And I’m OK with giving up some control to the AI to stay me,” he says. “Though that might change what it means to be human … There’s a long tradition of scientists experimenting on themselves. But die as a human or live as a cyborg? To me, it’s a no-brainer.”

But what about the rest of us? Is humanity destined to merge with machine? We keep hearing that the robots are coming to take our jobs, how likely are they to stage a coup? And why are Facebook and Elon Musk already building machines to read our thoughts?

Source : https://www.theage.com.au/national/die-as-a-human-or-live-forever-as-a-cyborg-will-robots-rule-the-world-20210610-p57zy4.html?utm_content=bufferc4235&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer