Supermen - is it soon?

or how biotechnologists have made friends with bioengineers

Technologies that allow to cure diseases, restore the body after injuries and replace damaged organs with prostheses, very quickly developed from a primitive level to a very advanced one. Mass vaccinations and the spread of antibiotics have put an end to epidemics of deadly diseases that mowed millions of people regularly. Modern methods of modeling and surgical techniques can effectively treat many diseases and injuries from sprains to cancer. Replacement dentures are also not like pirate hooks and wooden legs, in some cases it is even possible to fully restore some functions of a lost organ or limb.

That is, technologies allow not only repairing damaged parts of the body, somehow restoring their work. They can also be used to "improve" the work of a healthy body. In the 90s, it turned out that anabolic steroids, designed to speed up rehabilitation after physical injuries, can be fed to an athlete for rapid muscle building before a competition. In the US baseball league, these steroids were actively used before the BALCO scandal in 2003 . No training and genetic predispositions made it possible to achieve the same indicators of the relationship of strength to mass.
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Bioengineering (they are also often called bionic) devices have also become commonplace in just a few decades. Implanted pacemakers and hearing aids do not seem fiction at all, progress in prosthetics has gone so far that in 2008 the ban on South African paralympic runner Oscar Pistorius was seriously discussed, because his running prostheses provide a noticeable advantage over runners with "relatives "Kicked. However, as a result, it was decided that the prostheses also bring their inconvenience, therefore the ban was rejected.



That is, we have already reached the moment when technology can significantly advance a person’s abilities, albeit briefly or with significant side effects. What's next? The era of super-people? Let's see what's available for today.

Sense organs

One of the most important goals for doctors was and is the restoration of lost feelings - in particular, sight and hearing; about 40 million people in the world are blind, 120 million are deaf. The technology of cochlear implants allows people to hear with a completely inactive ear - the implant interacts directly with the auditory nerve. It has become so common in developed countries that some activists are already worried about the disappearance of the unique culture of the deaf. In ophthalmology, laser and other technologies are actively used instead of the good old 800-year-old glasses, and wearable digital cameras are being developed for cases of total blindness that are connected to the retina or the optic nerve.

Biotechnologists also do not stand still. Experiments on the use of, for example, stem cells for the restoration of hearing and vision. It can be argued that after the appearance of such technologies in medicine, they will very quickly try to use them to empower healthy people. In less than 10 years, Botox has turned from a carefully used drug for the treatment of muscular dystonia into an icon and the secret of youth of Hollywood beauties (and not only). It is likely that if we learn to use stem cells to restore lost vision, we can modify them to obtain additional capabilities — expanding the visible spectrum to infrared (an infantryman with a built-in night vision device would be very useful) or ultraviolet; adding the ability to hear more and more than usual, and so on.

The state of affairs:

Technologies that help restore lost feelings have been developing for several hundred years. Many of them are actively used, many are close to this. Opportunities to improve a person’s abilities are either already in use (wearable night vision devices), or just around the corner.

Mental capacity

The disclosure of intellectual potential also worries many, and many students have tried existing technologies (use of nicotine, caffeine, amphetamines ... oh, sorry, I got carried away) on myself. Surveys in the United States show that about 30% of students regularly use Ritalin and Adderall; in Russia, Fenotropil is often used in similar situations. People seem to get along well with the idea of ​​“pushing” their brains with pharmacological methods, if necessary.

True, these drugs give a relatively small and not too long increase in efficiency, so it’s interesting, is it possible to achieve better results with more complex technologies? Ongoing research in the field of fighting Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, as well as rehabilitation after brain damage, is very active and does not have funding problems. These studies, in addition to moving toward a designated goal, significantly expand our knowledge of the brain. For example, we now know that nerve stem cells (“ancestors” of neurons) are stored in some quantity in the adult brain. Maybe someday we will learn to clone these cells and stimulate them to grow new neurons and repair damaged areas of the brain. Or improve the work of a healthy brain.

The high complexity of the brain becomes a serious obstacle to the development of bionic prostheses and "upgrades" for our most important organ. We are able to primitively stimulate the nerves, simulating the senses, but to create fantastic devices like the brain-computer interface is still very far away. There are billions of simultaneously working neurons in the brain, and although each of them is not very complex, we still do not understand exactly how the brain as a whole works. But even here there are some achievements - for example, electronic implants make it possible to stop epileptic seizures in patients who could not be helped in other ways. Perhaps in the near future, such devices will become noticeably smaller, and will be able to treat, for example, impaired motor coordination or chronic pain by direct electrical or pharmacological stimulation of the brain.

The state of affairs:

Over the last century, our understanding of the work of the brain has rapidly grown from primitive phrenology to a good level of understanding of the basic processes occurring in the head. Understanding the chemical and physical fundamentals of neuron work helped develop effective drugs against mental illness disorders, some of these drugs are also used in small doses to temporarily increase the efficiency of the brain. Electronic devices are so far used only for gross intervention, such as stopping seizures, but inevitably increasing their accuracy over time for subtle stimulation of brain regions or even individual neurons.

Physical abilities

Regular sports scandals due to doping demonstrate that knowledge of modern biology and pharmacology gives a professional athlete a noticeable advantage, at least, over "an ordinary person." Steroids for building muscle mass, hormones for rapid rehabilitation after injuries, stimulants for improving attention ... all this was originally intended as a means for treating and restoring patients. But with the growth of our understanding of the physics and chemistry of the human body, the desire of professional athletes to stand out not only at the expense of natural abilities, but also of chemical “additives” also grows. Recently, scientists have found that a certain mutation in the MSTN gene causes its carrier to build up more muscles (and stronger than usual), so that genetic modifications of top athletes are also not far off. If not yet occur.



The development of bionic prostheses is also amazing. Some 20 years ago, they were uncomfortable, terrible, badly “joined” with the flesh, and allowed only minimally restore the functions of the lost limb. Now prosthetics is a solid high-tech, reports of new achievements come almost every week. A modern prosthesis is a durable mechanism, driven by complex hydraulics or electrics, controlled by a powerful processor. Such a prosthesis makes it possible to restore most of the functions, including running and dancing (if we are talking about artificial legs). Many prostheses allow “on the go” to change the working attachments, thus modifying the limb for a specific type of activity. Oscar Pistorius’s running carbon “legs”, which I mentioned above, are precisely in this area - they are not very comfortable in everyday life, but if it comes to running, they give a head start to “full-fledged” legs.



The idea of ​​a flexible working artificial arm a few years ago was also fiction, but now the bearer of a modern prosthetic brush can even tie shoelaces on shoes. The big problem is actually the complete lack of feedback and a much more complicated control of such a prosthesis - we still do not know how to connect electronics with nerves, so we have to look for workarounds. But the artificial hand is already much stronger and stronger than the "native", and the progress here is enormous.

The state of affairs:

Pharmacology for several decades allows people to improve physical performance - and do not stop either side effects or the risk of being caught doping. The longer the list of prohibited drugs, the more new drugs come to the rings and arenas. And genetic modifications are completely impossible to ban - which is natural, it is not without a use.

However, no matter how pumped muscles with medicines - they have physical limits, after which the skeleton ceases to cope with weight and loads. But even in this case, fragile bones and weak muscles can be replaced with a strong and strong mechanical prosthesis, and there everything already rests only on the presence of compact and powerful power sources.

So, what is next?

Since ancient times, all life on the planet is engaged only in what it is trying to surpass its rivals. Our ancestors have grown a disproportionately large brain for this and use the intellect for this struggle, creating more effective tools and modifying their bodies. Modern medicine has already allowed to significantly extend the life and improve its quality. With the development of biotechnology, the accuracy of manipulations and their intensity will increase, we will become younger, healthier and stronger than before. Our society is already quietly turning on people who use mechanical, electronic or chemical methods to restore lost functions (and sometimes improve existing ones). The introduction of wearable computers and the dissemination of the ideas of “permanent online” will only accelerate these trends; more and more people will use electronics to monitor, modify and stimulate their bodies. And, although these technologies are being created to help the disabled and the sick, they will inevitably be used by athletes, military personnel and researchers to expand the boundaries of the possible.

So, the answer to the question "is it soon?" Is very simple and clear - of course. Mankind has long been using various devices to increase intellectual and physical efficiency. Developments in the field of biotechnology and gene therapy will at least slow down aging and extend the active period of life to terms that were completely unreal some hundred years ago. Devices and substances will also be used to stimulate a healthy body, as long as it gives any advantages in studies, sports and business.

In fact, the question is rather how we should perceive these technologies. Will the possibility of physical modification give rise to a sharp increase in inequality in society? Will advanced prostheses easily replace living limbs, as the hip or knee joint is now easily replaced? Can people voluntarily replace a healthy limb with a mechanical prosthesis for the sake of gain in strength or strength?

It makes no sense to stop the future, but it makes sense to think about how we want to come to it.