I, Cyborg

I, Cyborg is a well written and fascinating book. I would describe it as an autobiography of the a professor at Reading University during the specific period of his life in which he experimented on his own body. The format is very similar to Tim Allen's second book, I'm Not Really Here. I greatly enjoyed I, Cyborg, and I noticed a pattern.For about ten years or more after I, Cyborg was released, I would once or twice per year hear or read a news story which began, "So-and-so has just become the world's first cyborg." Then the story would go on to describe an experimental procedure. These were also the same experiments were performed Professor Warwick way back in the 1990s. To a lesser extent, the trend continues. It wasn't until 2015 that I heard the term "The Internet of Things," a technological development in which Bill Gates is strongly involved. That term basically refers to lights coming on when a person walks in a room and similar programs for devices. Again, Kevin was building those innovations decades ago.As I mentioned, this is a story about the author's life. His experiments in human augmentation are a large part of the story, but they are not everything. He also writes about his work as a professor, his marriage, his inspirations, and other experiments that were being performed by other people at the same time. He also briefly addresses the long term philosophic implications of work. It would be irresponsible for him to skip writing about that, and he expresses his opinions very clearly as opinions on the long term future of humans. Nonetheless, those opinions are controversial, and I strongly suspect that is the reason why some people hate this book so strongly. Transhumanism is a hot button topic, and a lot of people feel strongly enough about it that seek out fault in anyone who dares to touch the topic.On Amazon and other sites, I have read criticism that Professor Warwick is not a real scientist. Having read this book twice, I cannot find any basis in this critique. The man performs actual small scale experiments which are clearly in keeping with the actual scientific method. There is more science in this book than many theoretical physicists will perform in their entire careers.My conclusion is that I, Cyborg is a fascinating look into the life of an engineer who talked about human augmentation and had the guts to put his body where he mouth was. The results of that challenge are interesting, somewhat disappointing in places, and not nearly well enough known.

Don't bother. This guy is a systems and process engineer, a robotics genius - and a megalomaniac who thinks he does real science. Surprise! He went to do his experiment and discovered that there are rules to real science, like Human Subjects Protection laws. This is a guy who thinks that if you feed each group of 10 schoolkids a different breakfast for a month and find a 3 point difference in IQ in the group that ate bacon sandwches, that proves that bacon raises IQ. He mixes up his psychological, biological and philosophical concepts, mostly because he really doesn't seem to have much grounding beyond the logic of systems - and his own desire to become the first cyborg. That huge book, and 95% is "me, I, me, I" about his papers, his trips, his projects, his jobs, his TV appearances, his publicity.The experiment isn't much. Big deal, he implanted a small array of electrodes in his lower arm with some wires attached, wore it around for 3 months, connected it to a computer once in a while, and then he ran some simple tests on it, the most important of which, in my estimation, was making the virtual hand work at a distance by moving his own hand - a nice future worth developing for robotics working in dangerous environments, something that didn't seem to have occured to him. The part about sending electrical currents from his hand to his wife's hand was interesting, but he imbued it with semi-mythical power. My question is, does it count as brain-to-brain electrical communication if the nerve stimulation doesn't pass through the brain but only works in the arm and spinal column, or just the arm to the implant? Issues he didn't consider because of his limited knowledge in anatomy, neuroanatomy (he had to open a textbook at every step of his experiment), etc.I think cyborgs are coming, and I think neural control of objects is a good thing. I want to be able to write and make art from my brain directly, when that is possible, and would even be willing to volunteer to help along the way. But I don't think Warwick counts as the first real cyborg. He wasn't even the first implant - the first and second implants were done in 1996 by a group in Atlanta, headed up by Philip Kennedy (Science News, 1/29/05, p. 73). I think Warwick's effort was an engineer-being-a-science-dilettante publicity-hound's quick-and-dirty effort to grab a lot of ink and a Nobel Prize, which he thought to deny in the book - why bother to mention it if you're not thinking about it?Read the news stories about his experiments, they get to the point faster. Read his books about robotics, which is where his expertise lies, if you're interested in his real work and significant ideas. Read other people's work on cyborgs. Check out the good work being done with blind people and paraplegics by different groups, work that goes into serious scientific looks at what Warwick just played with. They just don't write self-aggrandizing books about things, they go through peer review first!

Good fast deal thanks !

Love the book. It got me into robotics and the bio hacking movement. Book came fast and in great condition.

I would have liked to hear more of this experiment. From the writer experience, it appears that a body can be directly linked to a computer to do simple tasks like driving a wheel chair.The possibiliy of directly linking a computer to a brain as quite an exciting possiblity. I also agreed with the writer that it could be quite a blessing to many people that are incapicitated in some way.

First came across Kevin Warwick with his "In the Mind of the Machine" some years back. It is cringingly badly written, full of egotistical self-reference, and mainly downright silly. Apparently Warwick's new machines will take control of their human masters and turn them into toiling slaves condemned to long hours of manual labour. This thesis is obviously absurd - what is the point in expending resources on a species that is hopelessly inept at an activity in which machines excel ?Warwick's obsession with stunts like embedding a chip in his arm so that his every movement can be tracked begs the question : "would I ever want to know where Kevin Warwick is at any moment in time?".Avoid

There are lot of negative reviews of this book and what Kevin achieved, but as for any scientific discovery or leap is obscured with doubt and its usefulness, so does Kevin's work. This book is more of an autobiography than introduction or detailed outline of implant technologies. Kevin discusses his struggle with obtaining funding for his projects which is worth a read for any scientists trying to bring out or research into cutting edge technologies. Also Kevin's line of thought, motivation and vision through 90's directing an entire department towards meaningful research in to AI and robotics is noteworthy. I recommend this book to all budding researchers into robotics, it gives a glimpse of difficulties that one can face carrying out research as well making it publicly acceptable.

Professor Kevin Warwick writes about his astonishing experiments with cybernetics with great clarity, making the subject of his ground-braking experimentation so accessible. An absolute joy.

Good description and fast shipping

it is a little about me me me but ok I suppose... Maybe I have had a bad impression after reading the QI.

2002年に自身の左前腕に電極を埋め込んで電動車いすやロボットハンドの制御などを行うというセンセーショナルな実験研究を行ったKevin Warwick教授の自伝です。その実験に関する詳細の記述を期待して本書を入手したのですが、研究そのものの具体的な記述に乏しく、肩透かしをくった気分となりました。また、「自分のスケジュール帳に記載された内容をもとに行動の記録を文章化したのでは？」と思える部分がかなりあり、段落の始まり見て、次の段落へ、と読み飛ばさざるを得ない部分もかなりありました。（ロボット研究マニアには有用な情報なのかもしれませんが、私にとっては退屈でした・・）　自らの肉体を用いて人体実験を敢行したという勇気には感服します。3歳の時に交通事故に遭って半身不随となった男性からの研究に期待する手紙を紹介した部分には、ある種の感動を覚えました。しかし、マスメディアとの関係の記述など、「研究者へ配慮すべき事項を伝えたいのか？」と何の目的に本書が書かれているのかわからなくなってしまいます。このようなCyborgというテーマに関係ない部分はばっさりと削り、実験の内容に関する部分を一般の人にわかるように詳細に書いた方がずっとよい本に仕上がったのではと思います。