In such a world that is fast-paced with the pace of technology becoming who we are in our lives, human augmentation is no longer restricted to science fiction movies. We are just approaching entering a new era where technology splayed on our bodies influences us in our living, working, and interaction with people around us. Whether it is a smartwatch that tracks our heartbeats or an exoskeleton, which grants superhuman strength, the future of wearable technology is something far more profound in what it means to unlock people’s full human potential and not just make their lives easier.
The Route to Wearable Technology
There is a radical stride in wearable technology, from simple fitness trackers to smart glasses. Initially, these were supposed to offer something as basic as the number of steps taken or even calories burned. But today, wearables are super powerful tools that monitor one’s health, facilitate the improvement of the physical attributes of the body, and even assist one in various senses.
From the very first wave of wearables, data was at the center: count steps, measure sleep, track calories. Next-generation wearables are rumored to go beyond that and blend into our lives as an inevitable supporter, an aid with which we will interact with the world in ways we never considered.
What is Human Augmentation?
Well, basically the aim of human enhancement is to improve or supplement our biological ability with technology. It could be of the physical kind, where our exoskeleton makes us stronger or focusing devices help in learning quicker and better. In brief, it is meant for strengthening our lives on strength, speed, intelligence, and sound health.
It simply becomes a key enabler in the entire process as wearables get more advanced. It is no more an accessory but tools for human augmentation to help us extend our capabilities.
How Wearables Change Our Lives
Wearables revolutionize the human augmentation space with an incredibly vast range of capabilities ranging from enhancing our physical, mental, and sensory strength. Let’s review some of the ways in which wearables make a difference.
1. Enhancement of Physical Abilities
Probably the most exciting new development of wearable technology is to enhance human abilities. For example, Ekso Bionics is a company dedicated to exoskeletons and has engineered a wearable suit for paralysed individuals in the lower body so they can again walk. The exoskeleton can lift up body parts and enables one to move around-a new bargain for those confined to a wheel chair, allowing a person enough ability to regain all their independence back.
Wearable devices play a big role in rehabilitation in the medical field. ReWalk Robotics has developed a wearable exoskeleton designed to enable the ability of individuals with spinal cord injuries to stand upright, walk, and even climb stairs. The ReWalk system is a powered lower limb exoskeleton that provides its users with powered hip and knee motion through which the individual can walk independently-thereby possessing physical benefits as well as emotional empowerment.
Full of all its wearables, Athos smart clothing, that has been patronized by a world very new with much lesser expenditure; the clothes, through sensors monitoring the muscle activity, deliver real-time feedback to the athlete as regards the performance. That information will help refine training programs, prevent injuries, and help athletes achieve their optimum. With Athos gear, the athletes will now clearly know which muscles they activate to apply their techniques better when being used at maximum efficiency .
2. Improved Cognitive Skills
Cognitive capabilities are also being developed in wearables. For example, it has the Muse headband that measures the activity going on in the brain and uses it in prompting a user to deeper relaxation or greater focus by replacing sounds with translation of brain activity. This is technology very helpful for those who will need stress or mental fogginess to be reduced.
But more revolutionary are the BCIs. There are only a few companies focusing on BCIs, and among them is Neurable. The company has created a headband that enables people to control equipment through thoughts. Its technology is already applied to VR headsets, which, depending on the quality of it, can provide completely hands-free interfaces with virtual environments. This opens up tremendous potential for people with disabilities, but at the same time, there will be new ways for everyone to interact with digital content.
The second case is Google’s Project Jacquard, which allows to create touch-sensitive fabric that can be put into any clothing so that the wearer will be able to command his gadgets with hand gestures. Such technology would enhance cognitive functions and make a user stay connected and hold intuitive control over his surroundings but, at the same time, would introduce new views on intuitive, ordinary interaction with technology.
3. Sensory Augmentation
Wearables are also amplifying, or rather doubling our senses considerably. Perhaps the most well-known is Microsoft HoloLens, full-blown AR headgear that puts out superimposed digital information on top of the real world. HoloLens is now used in a lot of sectors-from health care, where surgeons use it to plan and prepare for complicated surgeries, to architecture to help designers visualize 3D projects. With HoloLens, the human visual perception system is basically extended and therefore, we can now look at a different way of life that has been transformed by the physical world.
And I am not saying that the sight alone needs to be enhanced by wearables. Improvements in wearable technologies are also focused on other senses like sound and touch, for example. Bose Hearphones. These are no ordinary earbuds; instead, they are called hearing aids, but more precisely, they help improve conversations. This feature in earbuds enhances sound and removes noise while helping hear well in noisy environments. Such development in technology allows for wearable advancement in experiences of everyday life through improvement of a sense that declines with age.
Another interesting development in sensory augmentation is the FeelSpace belt that helps its wearers develop a “sixth sense” with continuous, subtle vibrations in the direction of magnetic north. If worn around the waist, it would allow its wearers to develop an intuitive sense of direction-thus proving useful if someone’s navigating or exploring. I got lost in the middle of nowhere and surprisingly, I found my way out completely without any kind of support from the outer world! This kind of wearable tech introduces quite new senses as well as new ways of interacting with the environment.
Ethics of Human Augmentations
Whereas human augmentation holds tremendous benefits, this technology however raises substantial pressing ethical concerns. Questions abound on matters concerning what happens to our bodies and minds as wearables become part and parcel of our lives.
Social Inequalities:
The central problem is one of inequality. Certainly, this will be an issue, as access to smart wearables and augmentation devices will be costly and thus only available to those who can afford to pay for them, widening the gap that already exists between “augmented” and non-“augmented” citizens and compounding existing social inequalities.
Privacy:
Wearable technology absorbs much information about our bodies and our behavior, and it comes with questions about how it might be used and to whom such information might be released. The more advanced the technology becomes, the less clear are the lines of what is public and personal.
However, at the same time, it will lose that sense, in a way, of being human because we put so much into technology that directly attacks the inner and outer structures of our bodies and minds.
The more we use wearables then, “our sense of self becomes defined by the technology we apply rather than by our natural abilities.”
Looking Ahead: The Future of Wearable Technology and Human Augmentation
Despite all these challenges, the future of wearable technology and human augmentation looks extremely positive indeed. As tech progresses, so do wearables, making them much stronger, more diverse, and unobtrusive. We have a whole spread of new devices and applications that are going to break the boundaries as we go forward into the future.
This includes “invisible” wearables, devices that really are so integrated into our clothing, accessories, or even our bodies as to be almost indistinguishable from normal clothing or jewelry. Then we would be able to augment our capabilities without obtrusively advertising our dependence on technology.
Another interesting development is that wearables can also enhance our emotional and social experience. For instance, imagine how it would feel if your wearable devices track your emotions and report them back to you in real-time when you should do something with your stress, anxiety, or depression. Wearable devices can easily expose you to social interaction with revelations of emotions and intentions behind every gesture.
At its core, therefore, wearable technology and human augmentation is less about having arms that taste like asparagus or in any other way enhancing our bodies and minds but a redrawing of the lines that define what it means to be human. Pushing out the horizons of what can be done with this technology also poses far wider implications in the realm of our society, our ethics, and even our sense of self.
Final Thoughts
Hence, from simple trackers to powerful augmenting tools, is a great acknowledgement of the capabilities that are now in wearable technology. While things move on, a lot of changes are going to be achieved-things that are till now considered hitherto impossible. But while embracing this new era of human augmentation, it is also extremely vital to face the ethical challenges that come with it and ensure that technology enhances man’s experience rather than wiping it out.
It’s not just the gadgets but unlocking full potential about what it means to be a human. And as we continue to push beyond the boundaries, this line is going to blur between technology and biology leading us into a future in which only our imagination puts limitations on what we can do.
