CSCE 5053 Advanced Virtual Worlds
Spring 2013
Human Augmentation
HW #3 Assignment
Consider human senses (inputs) and human capabilities. Consider that today's glasses correct
vision back to normal. Consider Superman and super powers (and games where superpowers or
strange physics are present). Send me a list of around 10 super powers/human augmentations
and consider if it is possible to augment humans with those powers and what the consequences
would be. For instance:
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What if we embedded cell phones in our heads and could talk to anyone anywhere
without even dialing
What if the cell phones recorded everything we ever said and everywhere we ever went
What if we wore Google glasses that could see detail at 1000 feet.
What if we could hear 1000 times as well as we can now and focus on hearing specific
conversations 100's of feet away
What if we wore exoskeletons that could let us run for days
What else?
This is a crowd sourcing exercise in that, once you send me your individual list, I will aggregate
all the lists into one long list. What can we do with the lists after that?
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Pick items and see if they are possible - how can we develop this capability
Organize the lists into a master compendium of human augmentation
Pick capabilities and simulate them in a virtual world - which capabilities might be
interesting in games?
Consider a normal un-augmented human. Subtractively remove capabilities until you are
left with a minimal human. Or additively extend the human with a smorgasbord of
capabilities in any combination, considered as human add-ons, using something like a
service-oriented architecture (SOA = message passing bus with services hanging off that
send each other messages. When does a human cease to be a human? What about the
uncanny valley?
What else?
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Current Class Ideas
Rafael Aroxa
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See in the dark glasses - No lights on at night. Less electricity used.
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Super memory implanted in brain - Never forget what you learn. Never fail a test.
Never do the same mistake again.
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Weatherproof skin - No need for Heater/AC. Less electricity used. More comfort.
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Exoskeleton for strength - Ease to lift weights & jump. Drawback: may be used to do
harm.
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Never get obese stomach agent - Agent encapsulates excess of food and fat that will
never be absorbed.
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Never get tired agent - Nullify muscle soreness and reconstruct its fibers quickly.
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Mind reading - Less impunity by reading the accused's mind and figuring out who else
is involved.
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Teletransportation - No traffic jams, no high prices for gas, less electricity used.
Scott Benton
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Being able to always know what time it is. Possible through the use of nano-machines,
Could result in mental health issues as a byproduct.
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Invisibility. Could be possible, as cloaking and “invisibility” are already feasible through
the use of meta-materials. The ability to steal things would be increased, as a person
could potentially sneak into someone’s home unnoticed or other crime related activities.
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Super strength. Could be possible to enhance a person’s muscles through the use of
nano technology. Would open up more possibilities for criminal activities, accidental
injury, and could completely ruin participation in sports.
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Telepathy. If everyone had technology connected to each other through their brain, one
could communicate telepathically with one another. A consequence of this would be
unable to select who to communicate, so in essence you would be hearing everyone’s
thoughts at once.
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Cellular regeneration. Through an advanced nano technology, one could potentially
quickly recover from physical injuries by having the machines rebuild the tissue that had
been damaged. If we assume that there is only a finite amount of resources in the body
over a given period of time, this could in some cases be thought of as decreasing their
lifespan the more that gets regenerated.
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Enhanced hearing. Amplifying the ear’s ability to pick out noise, a person would
become capable of hearing even the slightest of noises from a great distance. However, as
a sense, it can’t just be turned off and on, and they would be subjected to every noise
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Spring 2013
around them constantly. Closer noises would be quite loud and could cause pain or
discomfort.
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Enhanced vision. By increasing the detail that the eyes is capable of registering, one
could see more detail than they could normally, even from greater distances. As a sense,
it probably wouldn’t be able to be shut off, and the amount of detail seen could affect
mental health or outlook (like looking at someone, but seeing every single pore on their
skin).
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Night vision. Augmenting eyes such that they register things clearly in the dark without
need of a light source. Not being able to shut this off could be a consequence and could
cause issues when trying to sleep.
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Increased (logical) intelligence. Incorporating logical processing into thought
processes, drastically increasing one’s intelligence in certain fields. Could cause
headaches as a result of attempting to process to much or something impossible.
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Omnilinguism. By tampering with the brain, one could cause a condition in which a
person is able to comprehend language, even though he might not be able to
communicate them their self.
Luke Godfrey
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What if people could communicate with each other using their thoughts?
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What if people could control electronic objects with their thoughts?
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What if people could run extremely fast?
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What if people could think as fast as a computer, so that they could effectively "slow
down time" to make better, quicker decisions?
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What if people could run on some kind of battery instead of sleep? So that they could
stay awake for days and get more done?
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What if people had the ability to recall any memory instantly and perfectly?
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What if such a device existed that could project thoughts into a person's head? For
example, a video game that you "live" by "projecting" it into your brain.
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What if the portal gun really existed?
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What if you could move things without touching them? You would be able to move
incredibly hot or otherwise hazardous materials safely.
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What if everything were voice controlled (and the voice control was actually accurate)?
Brent Gregory
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Super Strength - This could be achieved (eventually maybe) through gene therapy,
nano-technologies, etc. The consequences of this breakthrough could potentially lead to
an arms-race from other countries wanting the technology, super soldiers, etc.
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Wireless, Speechless communication - think of embedded cell phone - esp. technology
but have it operate at a short-range, and information is sent just by thinking after a
connection is made. Consequences of this would be very very bad if a way to make sure
information is only sent to intended targets, and a means to block unwanted messages
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Human Brain Enhancement - could be done either through biological means, or by
electronic means. Gene-therapy/nano-machines or by some means of integrating
mechanical parts into the human brain. Being able to remember everything, conjure
learned material without fail, memorize anything you wanted instantly. Only real possible
negative side effect could maybe be insanity if, we as humans, need the part of our brain
that makes us forget stuff.
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Personal Flight - think “Iron Man'' kind of thing. Rockets for propulsion guided by a
computer navigation assistance system. A means of policing air space, finding ways of
preventing collisions, and finding a fuel source would be a few limitations.
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Biological Substitute for Sleep - Maybe some kind of miracle drug that replaces our
bodies' need for sleep. Think if the human race didn't need to sleep, that's ~30% more
productivity for the entire world. Maybe even sleep 'chambers' that just infused our brains
with whatever it needs from sleep over the course of 30 minutes instead of 6-8 hours
naturally
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Metabolism Accelerators - Maybe a type of drug that somehow helps to either convert
all the stored energy in your body into a short-term energy boost, or allows us to consume
vasts amount of food, and then, with increased efficiency, burn all of it. This could once
again introduce the arms race dilemma described in #1 if information on the production
of this drug were held by a select group.
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Neural Links - create some kind of interface that allows humans to 'plug' their brains
into a computer / computer network. Applications are limitless, downside is that any kind
of corruption, or bad software could kill people instead of just frying their hard-drive.
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Giant Robots - Why not? Sure they're impractical but they're too cool not to mention.
Aaron McKay
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What if we could get in shape by wearing a device?
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What if we could teleport wherever we wanted to go just by thinking about it?
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What if we could just look at an object in a store and price compare it on the internet
(without using a phone)?
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What if we could access the internet and view search results by just thinking about it?
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What if we could ignore unit collision as in some video games?
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What if we could fly?
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What if we could use the power of our mind to power our homes (Real Brain Power)?
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What if we could backtrack in time and correct our mistakes?
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What if we no longer needed oxygen to live?
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What if there was a way of knowing whether or not you would like someone before you
even met them?
Matthew Moccoro
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Super Power: Super Strong Bones
Possible To Augment Humans: Yes. I feel that it will be possible (if it isn't already) to
replace bones with a super strong material with some extensive surgery. Facial Bones
will obviously be more difficult to do but I think with the way technology is going it will
be possible. This is a super power I definitely want.
Consequences: Having a foreign material within our bodies in this way could very well
cause a multitude of problems such as diseases and other things. So, we might need to
consider isolation or other things to keep everything safe.
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Super Power: Incredibly Fast Reflexes
Possible To Augment Humans: I don't know much about how nerves work, but I think it
might be possible to speed up someone's reaction time. This would absolutely help from
a musical standpoint where one could be in perfect time with the music, reacting to every
small change in tempo.
Consequences: This power could also lead to problems because reacting that fast and
well to your surroundings could lead to paranoia and sleeplessness because one would be
so constantly sensitive to their surroundings.
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Super Power: Extended Memory
Possible To Augment Humans: I think it will be possible in the future to add additional
digital storage in which our brains can access things on demand from said storage.
Consequences: Having an electronic interface so tightly intertwined with the human brain
could cause damage to the brain in the case of short circuits or the like.
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Super Power: Regenerating Oxygen
Possible To Augment Humans: In the future, I hope for human beings to be able to
internally generate oxygen to live off of, therefore allowing one to hold their breath
forever. I hope that this will be possible but the internal device may need to be powered
and this may run out of batteries.
Consequences: I don't know if the emissions of carbon dioxide or oxygen will greatly
affect the Earth's atmosphere causing major environmental problems.
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Super Power: Internal Food Consumption
Possible To Augment Humans: This power involves the human stomach generating its
own food to be eaten so that people would never be hungry or thirsty. However, I'm not
sure we will be able to develop an infinitely recurring food source within ourselves, but I
feel as though a device for a hundred years might be possible.
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Consequences: People enjoy eating. This would definitely take all the fun out of eating.
Also, food companies would greatly lose profits, so those who did not have the device
may have a hard time finding food.
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Super Power: Bulletproof Skin
Possible To Augment Humans: I feel that this may be very possible for human beings. A
kevlar padding may be sewn under the skin, or there may be something which could be
fused with the skin to make it extra tough. Sunburn resistance would be nice too.
Consequences: Infections may be a huge problem with this super power. With the skin
being so tough, it may be hard to operate or get to places which need medical attention
underneath the skin.
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Super Power: Incredible Flexibility
Possible To Augment Humans: I think this is very possible in humans as joints can be
operated on and may be rearranged to have a much wider radius of movement than
normal. This should be able to be performed on all joints.
Consequences: Joints in human beings already have a plethora of problems so I can only
imagine that this would add to the already long list. With such increased flexibility, I
imagine that dislocation of joints will become much more of a problem.
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Super Power: Temperature and Toxic Sensing
Possible To Augment Humans: Yes. It would be nice to have a sensing device implanted
in a person to warn them of extremely hot and cold surfaces or toxic poisons within the
air that alerts them immediately to any harmful things.
Consequences: If these sensors malfunction, it could lead to potential problems of
sensing all things to be harmful. Other than that, I cannot see any more serious potential
problems.
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Super Power: Regeneration
Possible To Augment Humans: Hopefully in the future, humans will be able to regrow
lost limbs and features. This may be difficult however as spontaneously regenerating
bones, muscle and nerves seems very difficult to me.
Consequences: The super power going wrong may lead to atrocious results. Growing an
extra arm in an unpleasant place may lead to some terrible results.
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Super Power: Speech At Extreme Volume
Possible To Augment Humans: In the future, it may be possible for the human voice to
be augmented to be able to speak and yell at extreme volumes. This would be great if
you were stuck in the middle of the woods. I think it would be possible although the
power needed for this application would be quite a bit.
Consequences: This going wrong may lead to hearing loss and damage which may be
irreparable and might be a huge problem for those around you. Also, this might cause a
loss of the ability to speak.
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Katanosh Morovat
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If we are able to have a particular skin or body which is able to adapt itself with worse
weather condition, so the rate of skin disease such as skin cancer will be decreased; and it
is hard to listen that somebody dies because of freezing or hot temperature.
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If humans could run fast, they don’t require vehicle for commuting. It is a good idea for
big and crowded city particularly in rush hour, besides it is terrific solution for preventing
of air pollution which is the major problem.
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If we could hear 1000 times as well as we can now, we can realize happening of
earthquake before it damages everything.
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If we embedded advanced Integrated circuits in our head in order to processing data
which is received from environment, in a very little time.
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If we embedded Integrated circuits in our head recorded everything that we ever did in
our life. It is a wonderful memory remembered everything from start to end of human’s
life, even after his/her death others can use it.
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If we embedded a programmable IC in our head in order to tell us what we do or how we
do our tasks, we are able to do the hard work like solving complicated Mathematics
problem. Even it is a good idea for person who has disability in brain like person who has
Done-syndrome; they are able to be hired for specific jobs regarding to the type of
program installed in IC in his/her brain.
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If we embedded devices or tools in our head which these devices or tools are able to send
and receive data via a specific network. It is a good solution for making easy connection.
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If we could stop time, I can just say there is no time limitation for doing our tasks.
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If we aware of events which will be happened in future, we can make a better decision for
our life or even we can change our destiny.
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If we have a super power in order to live in parallel world, we can do our task at the same
time in different world, afterwards we can choose one of them with a great result in order
to be able to continue and finish our task.
Swetha Namburi
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What if we could alter our shape to mimic any human being we desire
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What if we can scan content of the books just by looking at its cover page and remember
it forever
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What if we embedded chip in our body which tells us the apt decision based on the
situation
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What if we could interpret opponents plan correctly and modify ours accordingly.
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What if we can travel to a place we want just by thinking of that place in our mind
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What if we have a special power which warns us when you are heading towards a danger
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What if we can work for days together without sleeping (sort of vampire)
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What if we can be at more than 2 places at the same time
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What if we could manipulate the weather as we want
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What if we have the self-healing ability and be ever young
Armon Nayeraini
Of the listed below, many of those are actually realistic. Enhanced strength, sight, and agility are
within the realm of possibility due to genetic augmentation. Once in a generation, there were
those lucky few that had the right combination of genes that allowed them to be incredible
athletes, scientists, and leaders. Science is slowly advancing toward making this a possibility on
whim, not on chance. Similarly, invisibility, illusions, and longevity (though maybe not
immortality) are slowly changing from fantasy and science fictions to goals for science.
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Super Strength
Super Sight
Super Agility
Instant Healing/Regeneration
Immortality
Manipulation of Elements
Mind-to-Mind communication
Invisibility
Mind Control
Illusions
Alex Nelson
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Complete Bioinformatics – Nutrition information constantly updated (BP, HR, blood
sugar) and health professional accessible
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Automatic Muscle Stimulation – Excercise whenever, no effort. Especially good for
hospitals to prevent symptoms of ALS
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Need-based Nutrient Filtration System – Eat whatever, take in only nutrients needed
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Gyroscope Based Balance System – Keep elderly standing upright
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Worldwide cooperative immune system – LIke AVG for real viruses
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Sharp Focus – Ability to block out all other distractions and focus on main important
factor
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Searchable Eidetic Memory – Ability to recall any memory from any time/place
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Enhanced Senses – Hearing, Vision, Smell
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Sonar/Thermal Visual Perception
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CSCE 5053 Advanced Virtual Worlds
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Person to Person Intercranial-Communication – Thinktext
Dylan Reile
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Supervision/total knowledge – Humans could be equipped with glasses capable of
highly magnifying detail or displaying factoids regarding various objects within the
user’s vision (E.G: edibility of various berries in the wild, highlighting posion-ivy,
power-reduction formulas in trig). This technology could also be equipped with speechto-text software to display subtitles to the hearing impaired. Consequences would include
less memorization of common and specialized facts (E.G: appearance of posion-ivy, math
formulas).
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Bionic Hearing – Building on pre-existing hearing aids, human hearing could be
improved to be able to hear through walls and whispers at a distance. Consequences
would include whispering falling out of favor and an increased difficulty to private
communication.
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Electronic Translators – Similar to the universal translators featured in Star Trek, this
technology would automatically translate any spoken language (and potentially sign
language and written text with a visual adaptor) into the wearer’s native language. This
would cause a drastic decrease in the numbers of the multilingual and the disappearance
of translators as a profession.
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Brain-Computer-Interface – Small computer s (such as future cell phones) could
potentially wirelessly interface with relay devices implanted in human brains (potentially
at birth). These relay devices could mimic thoughts and communicate with the cellular
device via thoughts. Were this technology to be released, consequences would include
drastic increases in the difficulty of cheating prevention in metal games of skill (such as
chess, Magic: The Gathering, poker, blackjack), academic examinations, and a severe
decrease in route memorization.
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Brain Information Dumps – A device could be developed to mimic the brain’s natural
information storage process with exponentially increased rapidity. Entire textbooks,
novels, and potentially even memories could be dumped into a user’s brain at an instant.
Consequences would include severe reformations in all academic institutions, a decrease
in the societal importance placed on knowledge, and an increase in philosophy majors.
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Math Co-Processor – Similar to modern computers, a math co-processor could be
installed alongside the user’s traditional brain to quickly calculate complex arithmetic.
This would cause the studious to able to dedicate more time to concepts rather than raw
numbers.
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Exoskeltons – Ultralight, ultrathin fullbody suits could be developed that covered all but
the most erroneous zones. These could potentially protect the body from flying debris and
other common hazards. Consequently, people would be less cautious with themselves.
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Internal Purifiers – Purifiers could be installed in areas such as the stomach and kidneys
to automatically rid the body of toxins, poisons, and excess calories. Consequently,
obesity , diabetes, and alcoholism would no longer be issues.
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Muscle Damaging Nanobots – Nanobots could be developed that caused pragmatic,
systematic, scheduled damage to predefined muscle groups. The body would react by
repairing them to conditions superior to their previous states. The effect would mimic
dedicated weight lifting. Consequently, everyone could have the level of muscle that they
desired.
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Synthetic Neurons – Synthetic neurons could be implanted in the human brain to greatly
increase processing time. Consequently, every intellectual task (writing a novel, studying
for a test, solving a problem, etc…) could be solved much more quickly.
Chad Richards
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wrote paper on this topic
Giridharan Shankar
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Contact Lenses that can scan through people.
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Gloves/Shoes that can be used to crawl through surfaces.
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Mobile phones that translate speech in any language.
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Supersonic screams used to frighten away or distract enemies.
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Jet packs that make a human fly.
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Jackets that are bullet proof.
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Solid state drives that are implanted in brain.
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Software that predicts the course of events of a particular human based on activities in
social network.
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Glasses that calculate the speed, direction and position of the object that it focuses on.
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Software that affects thoughts considering the brain activity.
Marcus Smith
Assuming the "Technologies" become common place....
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X-Ray Vision
o Lack of privacy
o Short term drop in domestic crime
o Medical Advancement
Fly
o Economic suicide (as vehicles become only useful as cargo)
o An immediate drop in pollution
o A serious development of atrophied in the legs
Information Network (on the spot recall of any data)
o An increase in standard education
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CSCE 5053 Advanced Virtual Worlds
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o Technology will jump a few generations
o Long term decrease in self sustainability
Mind Reading
o Lack of privacy
o Short term increase in divorce
o Decrease in crime
Regeneration
o Population sky rockets
o Disease becomes nonexistent
o Medical Science technology comes to a stand still
Laser Eyes
o An increase in Murder crimes
o Short term decrease in domestic crime
o An increase in productivity in jobs that need to cut or weld
Multiply (making copies of one self)
o Productivity will increase
o Communication barriers in the day to day will increase
o ????
Decrease Size
o Hunger will no longer be an issue (micro-size yourself, eat, increase your
size....means
o you eat less??)
o Medical science developments
o Short term increase in uncaught criminals
o Hide and go seek gets......interesting
Invisibility
o An increase in crimes
o The cold war starts again....
o Road side accidents increase
Teleportation
o Economic suicide
o An extreme reduction in social aptitude (anxiety will increase as we spend less
time
o around strangers)
o A serious loss of connection to the surrounding world
o A reduction in ground pollution
o Long distance relationships .....solved
Craig Thompson
Virtual worlds give us perspectives and insights on areas we may have discounted. This section
is a little tongue-in-cheek … but just a little.
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Parallel World. Assuming smart phones had RFID and location-aware capability so as
you move your phone and it reads GPS signals, it can identify positions of the tags (at
least coarsely) and assuming every object and many locations have an RFID tag and that
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the cloud had a 3D model of every object, then as we walk around, each person can
record the position of every object (so humans’ cell phones are like search spiders in the
real world). From this information, we can automatically create/populate a fair
approximation of a 3D virtual world showing where every object is. This is a mirror
world that mirrors in a 3D virtual world all the objects in the real world. Now, if every
object in the cloud has an API that can be used to communicate with that object, then
humans or other objects can send messages (call the API) to get information or make
changes in the world.
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The Spirit World. If the rocks and wind used to have a spirit and then we thought that
was silly, then what happens when every object has an RFID tag or similar identity and
the cloud can be used to store any kinds of information associated with any object?
When you walk around the real or virtual world, for instance, your cell phone or avatar
can receive (discover) the API of any object nearby and can then control that object. Of
course, we will need a huge ontology to keep track of all the man-made products and
natural objects we might want to talk to.
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Communicating with or Talking to Things. It’s one thing for programs to call
programs but how will people talk to things? Well, consider a thermostat. At present,
humans must master the instructions for each kind of thermostat and some are quite
complicated meaning they baffle some ordinary, elderly, or disabled people. Also, there
is a cost of creating their interfaces that adds maybe 50% to their engineering. But what
if we separate the interface from the thing itself so it only has an API and we use a soft
interface (like a webpage or forms or app like interface). Then when we point our Star
Trek Communicator (smart phone) at the thing, it can download the API including the
soft interface and that enables us to use the thing. Now, if we also want to use natural
language to talk to things, then we need little domain-specific grammars with Englishlike commands that enable us to phrase sentences that let us query or command the things
in a sub-language the thing will understand: Thermostat – make it warmer – 2 degrees –
until midnight. We could use menu-based natural language interfaces (think cascaded
menus) to be sure that humans do not have to learn the object-specific commands.
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Immortality. We say life is precious. Yet, there is little known about your great great
grandmother except maybe birth/marriage/death records and a rare family story. She
came, she saw, but she left without a trace – and that was your own, interesting ancestor.
What record will you leave behind? What if smart phones keep track of every place you
go – that’s a trace or projection of your existence and can be viewed as a sequence of
<timestamp, location, you> records; now if your phone records every conversation; and
every email; and every purchase; and every bill; and every website you visit; and every
Netflix movie you watch; and even a video of every second of your life …, then we begin
to have a denser and denser record of your existence. Going eight steps further, what if
you could convert all the data in all those traces into a model of yourself. An initial
model might be information retrieval based using keywords – pull the string (enter a
keyword) and get a story in the person’s voice or watch their day unfold. A better model
might have personality and an avatar and could inhabit the spirit world (a 3D world about
the past).
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Time Travel. If we have a dense model of the present, since memory is getting cheaper,
we can afford to have a dense model of the past so we can go back in time and visit the
past.
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5, 50, 5 Billion Friends. Right now, all those anonymous people we see walking around
campus or driving in their cars might as well be avatars. Even students who take courses
together for years do not know each other very well. What if your “dating profile” could
easily synch up with that of anyone you pass by and if they were in talkative mode, you
had a ready way to meet them and discover their interests. But what if you could “grade”
everyone else indicating you what you liked or did not like – a travelocity for humans.
Would people feel bullied or would the constant feedback make them prettier, smarter,
funnier, kinder, …
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Extrasensory Perception. There are many kinds of sensors that can detect many kinds
of things that we cannot detect with our sensors. And the sensors might be related to
remote objects. What if you could connect your brain directly to create new senses based
on those sensors.
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Talking animals. In children’s and fantasy books, the beast can talk. If we can talk to
objects as explained above, we can at least talk to animals through little speakers that
they wear on their collar. If we could use our ESP capability so that sensors in their
heads can communicate to us, then that would be a way they could talk to us.
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Ghosts. If ghosts are invisible and can act on things, then to some extent, network
objects that have an API and that can be controlled remotely can seem to be controlled by
such ghosts. These network objects can be controlled from near-field via a soft controller
like a cell phone. Or from far away by using a mirror world interface in a virtual world
on a website.
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Telepathy, sort of. Well, we covered that above in that we could wirelessly
communicate with objects. We could also embed micro-smart phones in our heads so we
could “call” anyone just by talking to them even if they were elsewhere (without a visible
cell phone).
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Multiple Personalities. In real life, a fifty year old engineer I know is like any other
engineer – he dresses in muted grays, blues, and tans and has a gruff voice. But in a 3D
virtual world, his avatar is a beautiful 20-something clothes horse with 100 outfits – but
still has the same gravelly voice. Like video games, some people live in virtual worlds
and have most of their friends there. Is it like split personalities to inhabit many bodies
with many personalities and manage all that from your one head?

Star Trek Borg. To the extent that the computing cloud contains augmentations and
model of you and your world, what if you share all your information with everyone else
and they with you. In the Star Trek Borg, when one entity learns something, everyone
knows it. It becomes harder to discern the edges of a human and the community they live
in.

World Domination. Surely not every human can enter my mirror world house and
change the channels on my tv? So we all have some sort of very fine grained digital
rights management capability to insure that we can own certain rights and grant some
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rights to others. But what if a race of master administrators have world root privileges
and can control everything? What if they can buy and sell stock using rules and they
rules cascade and we have a stock market crash – oh … we already did that and it wasn’t
as fun as it sounds.

Heaven. When my daughter was 8, she made a list of Big Questions. One was, what
activities are there in heaven … Sure we can sing for eternity but we could do that now
and we don’t. So what will we do? What will be look like? … Would we all have
bodies that are 22 and beautiful – like all the avatars in Second Life? Would the weather
always be sunny and pleasant – like it is most always in Second Life? Would there be no
trash – like it initially seems to be in Second Life? Could our avatar like bodies meet
other immortal avatars (see above)? Would we miss the diversity of the real world?
Dong Truong

What if we could sync our intelligence into the device so that whenever we are not
available to solve something, it could do it for us.

What if we have an app that check our heart's rate and send the result to Doctor if
something is wrong.

What if our eyes's glasses could have night vision.

What if we could have a device that helps the disable people(blind), find the way to go
better.

What if our car able to notify us on road before something bad could happen.

What if we could use our phone to take X-Ray picture.

What if we have a special device connect to our children every time so that whenever
they are in danger, it will notify us.

What if we could use our phone to project our hologram picture for our parents when
they want to see us.
Riley Turben
Contact lenses with cameras in them to enable:
 Super vision
 Recording everything we see, in conjunction with 10
 Thermal/Xray/Alternate wavelength vision
Electromagnetic sensors implanted under the ears to enable:
 Magnetoception, the ability to sense magnetic field strengths and their directions
 Electroception, the same, but with electric fields.
 Enhanced balance and agility
Solid state drives/computer processor in the brain to enable:
 Wireless connectivity to the cloud via consciousness
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


Spring 2013
Telekinetic communications
Interface with smart objects in the world around you for telekinesis.
Interface with and expand natural memory (skynet proof)
James Wesolowski
Flight








The idea of individual flight has been around for a long time
Futurists of the last century envisioned jetpacks, their predecessors thought of wings
We now have anti-gravity technology being developed but as it is (the last time I read
about it), it would not work for individually-controlled “flight”
A jetpack-like approach seems feasible enough, but the problem I foresee is getting
enough thrust without damaging the person
If it were to become a reality, it would potentially shorten commuting times for people
and lessen road congestion
Depending on the source of the thrust, it could potentially worsen environmental
pollution.
o Would a jetpack produce more exhaust than a car?
o Is the benefit worth the cost of so much propellant?
It would be limited to small payloads…people wouldn’t be able to bring a lot with them
It would likely require some fairly intensive training so that people understand the
physics of the flight and how to control themselves in various circumstances
o Probably not unlike getting a pilot’s license
Remote Viewing







Often associated with mystical or magical abilities
It would be helpful in many circumstances to see what’s going on elsewhere
Bringing in experts remotely: medicine, research, business, criminal investigations
o Tourism
o Education
o Communication
o Surveillance
Could be accomplished by creating a pervasive camera network with open or restricted
access depending on location or circumstance
o The webcam concept taken to the extreme
Cameras could be linked to remotely
Glasses, HUD, or ocular implants
Serious privacy concerns
Remote Hearing



Similar benefits, applications, and consequences to remote viewing
Similar implementation, with microphones and miniaturized speakers
Different from current telecommunications technologies in that a connection is not
intentionally established by all the parties involved
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o Microphones (and, if in conjunction with the previous item, cameras) would exist
in the cloud
Superhuman Strength





A classic pursuit
Cybernetic augmentation is an option
o Implants
o Exoskeletons
Genetic therapy might also be a way
o For example, humans have the weakest muscle tissue of all the apes
o This is an evolutionary response to metabolic demands
o Could muscles be fundamentally changed to be stronger?
This would allow more work to be done by fewer people
People would have the ability to accomplish more in unusual situations where our
limitations can cause injury or death
“X-Ray” Vision






Military applications here are obvious
Also valuable for maintenance efforts, especially if the detail were fine enough to identify
small faults in equipment
Fairly easily accomplished using active scanning at various frequencies depending on
application
May be able to be miniaturized enough to wear…antenna size and power source are
obstacles here
Can be connected to a device similar to that mentioned for remote viewing
Obviously privacy would again be a huge concern here
Vision Beyond the Visible Spectrum



Take existing technologies which are sensitive to the EM spectrum at nonvisible
wavelengths and attach them to the same viewing device mentioned above
The applications here are innumerable: science, military, even business in certain
industries
o For example, this could be used to detect crop health at a glance
o Another example would be in an industrial setting, to notice when equipment
is getting too hot
Privacy is again a concern, but perhaps to a lesser extent if the signal is non-penetrating
Hearing Beyond Detectable Frequencies



I am not certain what would be the application here, but I can see it being useful in
industrial applications to monitor equipment and in research settings to detect sounds
that would normally be inaudible
Existing technologies could be used to capture these sounds and transposed to an audible
frequency…a standard set of rules would need to apply and people would need to be
trained how to listen
A miniature speaker or even implant could be used to hear these sounds
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Knowing the Composition of Materials on Sight




This would be an amazing ability to have and the applications are wide and varied, from
industry and military to research and medicine
The technology to accomplish a point-and-analyze type of scanner does not exist yet, but
progress is being made toward one
Traditional mass spectrometers are destructive, but one has been developed that uses a
mist of water droplets
o How could this be adapted to greater distances, if at all?
o Could an energy beam of some sort do the trick, the receiver analyzing the
wavelengths returned?
Real-time color-shaded results would be visible on the same sort of viewing device
mentioned above
Teleportation




Moving from one place to another instantaneously would obviously have enormous
advantages
While it is possible to “teleport” particles, no technology exists to do this with larger
chunks of matter
Can a living being even undergo this?
Is the person that reappears at the destination the same person who left?
Passing through Solid Objects



What things we could do with this
Not possible with our current understanding of physics
How would we regulate it?
o Again, privacy is the biggest concern here…barriers would become meaningless
Taylor Yust

Mind Reading. Using computers or embedded cell phones connected to our brains, we
could directly interface and communicate with one another using our minds. There would
be no need for speech, or possibly even language. This could speed up communication
and transference of ideas, making us more efficient and effective. It could also help break
down cultural barriers, but at the same time might be seen as damaging to cultural
heritage (as well as art, literature, poetry, etc.). There would probably be a lot of security
issues once people start trying to access/hack private information in others.

Slow Down Time. If we had our brains hooked up to computers, perhaps we could
augment our processing speeds to “think” at a much faster speed, essentially slowing
down the world around us and allowing us to mentally execute more actions in a given
length of time. This could allow us to become more productive and efficient as we’re
given more time to arrive at solutions. It’d have an interesting effect on many games and
sports since players would have essentially perfect reflexes, so games would be almost
entirely based on pure strategy and physical ability.
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
Speed Up Time. In contrast to slowing down time, we could force our brains to slow our
processing and have the world “speed up” around us. This could make waiting at the
doctor’s office much more bearable, but I doubt many people would want to fast-forward
through their lives and would rather slow it down, if anything.

Mental Game Controllers. Most games would ideally like to rid themselves of
controllers and instead have players directly interface with their mechanics. Controllers
act as a “necessary evil” to convert the desired actions of a person into input understood
by the game. If games were directly wired up to our brains, games would become
incredibly “intuitive” in terms of control and could have many more actions and variables
given that a complicated controller wouldn’t be as much of an issue. If anything, the
games themselves might feel like the limiting factor given that players might not be able
to control every single aspect (I can “run” and “jump”, but I can’t pivot my thigh fifteen
degrees), so it might make them more difficult and unintuitive in certain respects.

Global Statistics. If we had internal computers that could monitor and interpret the
world around us and save information to a database, we could use “Google Glasses”esque devices to interpret that data. After hearing an obscure movie quote, you might
wonder how many other people have heard that quote, how many of those people actually
knew the reference. Or, maybe you found a hidden waterfall in the forest, and you wanted
to know how many other people had also found it. This information could be interpreted
and pulled from a database using “Google Glasses”-esque technology.

Time Travel. With a large database of backend time-stamped data, we could use
“Google Glasses” technology to “go back in time” and visualize what happened at a
particular geolocation at a particular time. Perhaps I wanted to relive a famous
presidential speech at the Lincoln Memorial; if the speech and visual data were
previously recorded, I could “rewind time” back to that exact moment with the same
sounds and visuals (displayed through my smart-glasses) and feel that exact same
experience. It would bring new meaning to sightseeing. However, I’m sure there’d be
plenty of privacy/security issues with people that do not want their actions at a particular
time recorded, so that would have to be addressed.

Printing/Visualization. Visual ideas and images could be displayed through smartglasses technology and overlaid onto the real world. This has been suggested before
many times, but it would be interesting if we could “print” some of these visualized
images using our own hands to “trace” these images, perhaps using computers to guide
our hands (maybe with an exoskeleton of some sort). And it might not be limited to just
images and hands, we could have our entire bodies recreate specific actions/events.
Similar to the time travel idea, it might let us relive events with our physical bodies.
We’d have to be careful how and when we print/relive events, though.

Doctor Dolittle. Like the mind reading, if we could learn to understand and interpret the
brains of animals like dogs and cats, we could use advanced technology to communicate
with them on some level. This would help pet owners better understand and take care of
their pets, and might lead to “work” animals (police dogs and whatnot) having an easier
time working with their human counterparts.
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
Biometrics. Biometric sensors on our bodies could give us all sorts of real-time health
data and analysis. We could know the condition of certain body functions and when we
need to have problems checked out. We could possibly even have our emotional states
(anger, stress, happiness, etc.) analyzed and understood, which could have all sorts of
applications ranging from programs and apps that alter behavior based on emotional state
(“The user is feeling sad, I’ll suggest playing a song that makes him happy.”) to helping
other human individuals read your “emotional aura” and better know how to
react/respond to you (which might be especially good for those who are autistic).

Teleportation. While “real” teleportation might be far away, we could emulate the
effects of teleportation through virtual worlds. If I wanted to stand up, walk into the next
room, turn off the light, and then return to my previous position, I could do that with
“real” teleportation, or I could have a virtual avatar teleport to a virtual version of that
room, interact with a virtual light switch that turns off both the virtual and real-world
lights, and then teleports back. We think of teleportation mostly in spatial terms, but I
think one of the major benefits is really manipulation of items/data/etc. Through
pervasive and interconnected virtual worlds we can essentially accomplish most tasks
without needing to physically travel to locations. Even for activities such as sightseeing,
we could have avatars wander through virtual environments that perfectly mirror those
locations.
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Previous Class’ Human Augmentation List (compiled - July 2008)

see http://vw.ddns.uark.edu/content/designdoc.htm#_Toc202796960
About this Exercise
In a virtual world, we can model many things that could someday be possible in the
real world. This capability can help us to conceive possible futures. Where cavemen
(like the ones on TV?) did not have hearing aids and glasses, so-called modern man
has glasses/contacts and hearing aids to overcome disabilities. Cell phones let us
communicate at a distance and we can even now command these to Call Mom! GPS
will tell us where we are. Etc.
Sometimes it helps us think about possible futures to imagine improvements to the
way the world is now. This assignment is aimed at identifying human augmentations
that extend or amplify the capability of humans to do things they could not do
before. These could be super powers that make ordinary people extraordinary in some
way or aids to help people with disabilities. We can model some of these in a virtual
world to test them out. Some are more achievable in the real world than others but
this exercise is aimed at warming up to the task of building the healthcare system of
tomorrow by starting out thinking about how humans can be improved.[1]
One thing that is interesting is to imagine an ideal world, call it Heaven. In this ideal
world, there would be no trash, the weather would always be like San Diego’s (perfect
72 degrees), people could fly or teleport, and everyone would be 22 years old [2]. Wait
- this sounds like Second Life! Think about it - how far can you push this analogy of
Heaven and SL (but do not think too hard about this)? The categories below on
Modularity and Cybernetworking radically change what we mean to be human. The
first reduces a person to a brain and a Swiss army knife of plugin capabilities. The
second connects people up to a social web. How does this change the way we think
about being human?
Results
Results in the raw form of student inputs (in no particular order) are listed in the
appendix. The same information is listed in an organized manner in the following
section. The range of thought is interesting – an instance of “the wisdom of the
crowd.” Many ideas that one student came up with are not on any other lists where
other ideas made several lists. We can guess that we have not nearly exhausted our
subject but that further analysis could lead to a category scheme that might make it
possible to explore the design space of human augmentations in an organized way by
categories like enhanced vision, hearing, … Enjoy!
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General Comment

Just about everything I can think of in terms of "human augmentation" is already
provided in Second Life. Keith Perkins
Physical Capabilities
Vision

Powerful eyes: This kind of eye cannot be nearsighted and farsighted.

Have super vision -- able to zoom in on objects at magnifying glass levels from very long
distances or zoom out for a wide area view from any position, even from high above.

Telescopic vision. Self explanatory.

Spectrum modes/enhancements. By replacing the retina/photoactive elements of any
bionic solution with selectable elements with different elements (or a single densely
packed element) you could extend the optical range from infrared to ultraviolet or
farther.

Laser eyes - useful for ranging.

Cybereyes - interface optics with RFID/sonar to create wireframe or false objects to
simulate vision. Objects should be transparent or labeled as estimated to prevent 'hacking'
someones eyes as being indistinguishable from objects picked up through light detection.

Seeing in other spectra than visible light. Seeing other spectra like seeing at night

Vision Enhancement (Sonar, Night Vision, infra-red) Is realistic for the future. Solution
to using lights, conserving energy? Or for when we move underground after the collision
of earth with a meteor!

Ultravision: ability to see in the dark and different spectrums; could be done with
cybernetic implants in the eye.

Larger vision spectrum - This could be implemented via digital sensors embedded within
the eyes and then transmitted to the brain via the interface in the cybernetic interface.

Integrated Heads Up Display (HUD). For TV, logistics, etc.

Replacement Eyes, basically cameras that fit in an eye socket and look somewhat
natural. With all human augmentations the uncanny valley is something to think
about. It needs to look natural, but also fake, else it won't be accepted. But this camera
could have Infrared, Zoom Capability, Ultrasound, basically any type of sensor. And a
huge thing, it could let you use augmented reality, which is the idea which is a
combination of the internet and reality. Walking down the street you look at the sign of a
resturant, and then a menu and reviews will appear in front of it.
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Hearing

Replacement Ears, a long the same lines as the replacement eyes. There isn't much more
to say here, you could set it to selectively disable input of sounds over 80db, or disable
select frequencies if construction is going on outside.

hearing everything within 100 yards. How would the world change if you thought
everything you said was being heard clearly this far away.

selective hearing

Super hearing – 100s of yards away, or focused hearing – hear what you want to hear
focused hearing at a distance

secure communication – selective speaking to only people you want to hear you

Can shout something to everyone else within a 100m radius, and can hear something
shouted from 100m away (could be improved upon but the SL simulation would be more
like having a cell phone or some other type of network than extended listening since it
would require interacting with "server" objects).

Nano-Communications - Implant in ear that vibrates according to voice waves
sent. Whisper system basically implements this, but could be modeled.
Taste

There doesn't seem to be anything like a sense of taste or smell in Second Life, but it
might be possible to simulate them.
Touch

RFID/sonar - use sonar style detection to let you 'feel' objects without sight and if objects
are RFID enabled descriptions can be added.

Healing through touch
Smell

Olfactory Enhancement, a product that can analyze smells and record them in a
database. Basically someone could have the same power a canine has in recognizing
people, tracking, and what not. From smell you can tell if someone is sick, and even
certain emotions. And like the ears certain ones could be cut off if you found them too
disgusting.
Blood

Red blood cell replacement: Polymer nanostructures have already been developed that
have several hundred times the oxygen carrier abilities of red blood cells.

Custodian nanomachines: Health maintaining nanomachines that would remove and
process failing cells, destroy foreign intrusions, and help enhance regeneration.
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Bone

Durability: Bones can be built to be more durable using ceramics and carbon
nanostructures.

Marrow enhancements: Bone marrow is chiefly responsible for red blood cell production
/ similar. This volume could be better used:

Replace with devices capable of maintaining the blood-based ideas.

Larger bones are ideal for housing many devices without being invasive to soft
tissue: energy storage solutions, communications (antennae), and data storage,
among others.
Hair

We design a hair style, then the hair grows as ordered. Never have another bad hair day!
Endurance

Human exoskeleton – DARPA is working on this – allows a soldier to run for hours or
jump high. Batteries are a problem

Super Speed: ability to move and perform action much faster than a typical human;
could be done with cybernetic implants or with nano machines that stimulate the brain
and/or muscles.

Can walk or run endlessly.

Can jump very high and fly.

Have superhuman strength (can lift or move any physical object) .

Never need sleep (but do fall asleep if not kept active in some way) .

Sleep-wake regulation

Breathing under water. Make it possible to breath under water.

Gills. Solve all the Earth's population problems by offloading half into the ocean!
Definitely able to be modeled as far as looks, but avatars don't breathe :(

Respirator, a crazy good form of what our body already tries to do, block out crap in the
air. It could separate toxins and even items that you are allergic to. It could keep the
airway open during seizures and also make it easy to trach a patient if doctors needed to.
Miscellaneous

Can fall from any height without harm.

Have super "finger prints" -- can touch any object and that object can instantly identify
the avatar.

Suspended animation - sleeping for years. Never sleeping
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
Muscle - Piezoelectric fiber bundles in tendons: A theoretical class of material that
would yield electric current when subjected to tensile force – thus using mechanical
effort to charge integrated devices. Similar synthetic fibers could be used to enhance
strength, speed, and endurance.

Super Healing: ability to quickly heal from any injury; some sort of nanomachines that
enhance the speed of the human body's regenerative system.

Embedded IV drip within the body - A pouch containing various medicines is embedded
into a human and then a monitor is also installed. When events happen, like a surge of
adrenaline, or severe pain / shock, or really any abnormality, the user has the option of
injecting themselves with drugs to counteract the effect.

Super healing. Never getting sick or old. Living for 100s of years in marathon
shape. [Do you remember what happened to the people blessed with several hundred
year long lives inGulliver’s Travels?]
Mental Capabilities
Remembering

Super intelligence. Never forgetting.

remembering everyone’s name

Social memory augmentation: I can never remember names/faces and where I met
people. Something that could pop up info about when/where you talked to somebody and
what you talked to them about based on keywords would be nice.

downloading memories from your brain to a machine or vice versa
Miscellaneous

Super charismatic, super nice, super thoughtful, super funny, super good looking,
supercalifragilistic. Being maximal – having all the best qualities you admire in others.

Super self-control. Only eating/drinking/… what you should, nothing in excess. No
mortal sins.

Empathy, Anger management

Have built-in GPS capabilities.

Super intelligence. Never forgetting. Listening skills


Remembering (recording)

Indexing everything you see
Being in two places at once.
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
Remote-presence: I shouldn't have to be at a place or even logged in to see/hear
what's happening. I should be able to send a delegate avatar or object to listen in
and transmit it to whatever device I have for seeing it.

Can teleport over great distances.

Thought - Telekinesis, with an infinite range. Could possibly be modeled
through what is said in chat, so I guess it could only be modeled as a 'voice'
command, maybe with a certain /thought tag of some sort.

More SL-specific, but it'd be nice to be able to block out junk you don't care about, since
for slow computers like mine it's annoying to have to load up all these textures around me
that I don't care about. Blinders, I guess, is the concept I'm getting at.

Doing the work on N people. Massive productivity. Handling TO DO lists with 1000s of
items and catching up. Reading 1000s of emails a day and responding. Writing 500
journal articles a year. An invention a day. Start 20 companies.
Modularity

Brain Case - human brains could be contained in a suspended case with armor and
cushioning to increase damage resistance. All other organs could be replaced and the
brain nutrient solution could be changed to increase longevity of humans.

Artificial Limbs/organs - human components could be replaced with as the brain is all
that is required if an interface could be developed in conjunction with the brain case.

Direct neural interfacing: Mind reading computer I/O. In addition, this could allow
enhanced real-time processing (math/tactical) and enhanced memory.

Mechanical body parts. Replace your arms and legs with hefty engineered replacements!
You can model this quite well in SL and the technology can't be very far off at this point.

Modular organs...they're already shaped that way, it has to be getting close. You can't
really model this in SL since avatars have no organs, but it does relate to the healthcare
scenario!

Part Animal: fusion of animal characteristics with a human body to enhance combat and
athletic ability; could be done with genetic splicing, modified cloning,etc.
Cybernetworking

Cybernetic interface with the brain (something like the technology from Ghost in the
Shell, a cyber-punk themed anime: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberbrain) In short,
technology to provide an interface directly from the brain to electrical equipment, digital
forms of communication, and any electronic modifications of the human body.

Datajack, basically a gold electrode placed touching the skull that could pick up brain
activity. Connecting this to a computer, you could record various patterns and then
match those up with commands. There is already an external brainwave device that does
this but it doesn't work that well. Now I'm not sure if we will ever see data flow into the
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brain since that would require a perfect understanding of how it works, and we are no
where near that. Other than a change of skin, there isn't much of a way to model this in
SL and have it really do anything.

External hard drives for memory storage. This would be pretty much the coolest
breakthrough ever. Somewhat able to be modeled on AI bots if we alter the amount of
knowledge "storage"

Direct mental connection to the web. This is almost true now with ever present cell
phones, cell phones over the ear or soon implanted in the ear, RFID implants.

If everything is alive (all animate and inanimate things have RFID, API, are wirelessly
networked, then these things (in the Internet of Things) can communicate with each
other. People could use MBNLI or some other technology to “talk” to things (query or
command). Things would have access control – so might people. You are not allowed
by security constraints to shoot my smart gun or talk to my child unless I give you
permissions.

'chrooted' external interface - any external connections should run sandboxed away from
critical systems (preferably in hardware not just a chrooted software jail) to prevent
remote take over of limbs or other organs.

"Overclock" brain activities. I read somewhere that the brain operates at some stupidly
low speed and I wonder what would happen if we sped that up. Again not really up for
modeling in SL.

There's your classic physical augmentations - Strength / better muscle response. Could
probably be implemented a number of ways, for example, via nano-machines augmenting
muscle function

External storage of memory - Some way to 'download' and 'upload' memory from the
brain into some external storage device like a hard drive.

Last two would really be more a part of cybernetic interface, but I couldn't think of
completely different things that wouldn't fall under the classic physical augmentation
category.

Feeling your environment. Sensors that tie your sense of feeling into a sensor
network. So, you can feel that your cat is too hot at home though you are at work. Or
you sense that your lawn needs to be watered via some watering sensors in your
yard. You can sense recommendations from other people when you look at a certain car.
Avatar capabilities needed

Targeting System - Provides information with an object currently being observed, audible
or visual info. Can definitely be modeled in SL, when object has cursor over can show
information immediately.

Permissions Bug - Implanted on the person. Can be modeled in SL, would be used to
not allow persons to open a pill bottle if they did not have the proper prescription, given
the pill bottle is a smart object.
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CSCE 5053 Advanced Virtual Worlds
Spring 2013

Detection Invisibility - RFID Immunity. Used in situations where a person or object
might need to NOT be sensed by a RFID Sensor. Can be modeled.

Power Saver - Decreases the power used by other augmentations. If the augmentations in
SL used power, this could lower the power used over time. Not necessarily realistic, but
it would be nice.

Robot Camera (Monitor areas) Can be modeled in SL. If a doctor needed to monitor a
patient from his home/office, camera could move around and monitor multiple patients.

Allow avatars to lay down side ways, touch other people faces or hands.

Swimming. I am not sure if this is possible

Crawling: I am not sure if that’s possible.

Walking Death Machine: basically a cyborg stacked full of weapons and gadgets;
cybernetics.
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