Smart Industry No.1 2022

Smart Business Title Story: Augmented Humanity
Augmented Humanity
THE
MAN MACHINE
Psychokinesis, or mind over matter, is a popular dream
of sci-fi and horror story writers. In the digital world, dreams often come
true and there are signs that soon we may be able to complete tasks
without moving off our sofas. Remote control is changing
to cerebral control – if you think it, you can do it.
n By Alan R. Earls
The idea of linking humans
with the machines we have
created and to each other is
intriguing and far from new.
Today, many people carry a multitude
of electronic signatures and
interfaces. The smartphone is the
most obvious and most capable,
but credit cards also carry chips
with personal information and, with
the pandemic ongoing, the idea of
chipping vaccinated people is not
out of the realm of possibility – and
let’s not forget our biometric signatures.
Despite their usefulness, all
of these require manual manipulation.
Maybe it’s time to rethink the
processes by just thinking about the
process.
Science fiction has ridden the concept
of controlling things with the
power of the mind for years, notably
Firefox, a Clint Eastwood thriller involving
a thought-controlled fighter
jet. The reality of this has been
getting closer of late.
Facebook shared ideas about
thought-to-text capabilities in 2017,
shortly after entrepreneur Elon
Musk announced his plans to build
Neuralink, a firm promising to `wire’
brains in the future. Startups and
research projects are now emerging
across the globe and the key
to much of this future is the `brain
computer interface’ (BCI).
Alexandre Gonfalonieri, an AI consultant
based in Switzerland and
head of innovation at DNA
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