Could we become cold, ruthless Cybermen?
We assess the likelihood of humanity turning into cyborgs, like Doctor Who’s infamous foe
When they were first created in the 1960s, Doctor Who’s Cybermen were a vision of a nightmare future, where humanity has become more machine than flesh. But as time goes by, and more advances are made in bionics and neural implants, this vision doesn’t seem so far-fetched. As the Cybermen return for Doctor Who’s Centenary Special, Timothy Constandinou, professor of bioelectronics at Imperial College London and the UK Dementia Research Institute, is cautious about us being upgraded to a race of cyborgs.
“We’re very far from the science fiction notion of enhancement,” says Constandinou. “All implants available now, either clinically or commercially, exist to solve medical problems. But if you look at something like cochlear implants, which help people who are profoundly deaf to hear, or experiments with brain computer interfaces, which could help people with locked-in syndrome communicate using neural signals, those are forms of enhancement.” For anything beyond medical use, however, he thinks that, “from an ethical and regulatory perspective, it would be hard to see the light of day. There’s a lot of concern in government about the use and misuse of technology.”
Even if a company was to get the go-ahead to turn us into Cybermen, current technology is limited. Take artificial limbs, such as a bionic arm. Constandinou refers to a million dollar ‘Luke Skywalker arm’ that could be controlled by the user through a nerve that had been reconnected to muscle in the chest.
“The problem was that you always had to be looking at what you’re doing, because the arm offered no sensory feedback,” he says. “Many Luke arm users stopped using them and went back to their prosthetic hook.” Creating an arm that can sync with the brain is a huge technical task, according to Constandinou. “If a nerve is 1mm in diameter and has 100,000 nerve fibres in that 1mm, we currently have no way to connect onto those 100,000 fibres in a reliable way that will last safely for years. If we could, I’m quite confident that we could create the most natural control of a prosthetic limb.”
Cybermen have not only tampered with their bodies, but also with their minds, and each one has an emotional inhibitor.
Brain implants are not as fanciful as seamless robotic limbs. Last year, researchers at the University of California surgically implanted a device into a patient’s brain that had been calibrated to deliver a pulse of electric stimulation each time it detected specific neural signs of depression. Constandinou says that he can see similar technology being used in the future.
“If we’re looking at what we’re trying to treat today, I would say neurodegeneration is a possible area – we are already seeing how deep brain stimulation implants in people with Parkinson’s disease are treating symptoms such as tremor or stiffness,” he says.
The issue with implants is that they are large and need invasive surgery. Constandinou holds up an implant the size of an iPhone. “My area of research is in making this the size of a peppercorn,” he says. “So going down around 1,000 times in volume to a future where it’s injectable… the only way to reach a larger population is to reduce invasiveness.” The Cybermen have no such concerns.
VERDICT
To turn someone into a Cyberman would just be too invasive, and the tech is unlikely to be around for a long time. You can rest easy.
Watch the Doctor Who Centenary Special this October. Check Radio Times for details.