The French Revolution was a popular uprising to end feudal privileges. The Socialist Revolution was the response of the Russian peasants and workers to the poverty and oppression to which the Tsarist regime subjected them. The Civil Rights Movement was a fight against racial segregation and discrimination against the African-American population in the US….
The fight against inequality It is one of the constants that have marked human evolution. Thanks to it, a good part of the world has already consecrated the theoretical equality of all citizens before the law. In practice, we continue to live with a certain social asymmetry, and the struggle is limited to keeping it within the limits of reason.
But And if access to technology were to split our species in two again?? On one hand, the cborg citizensthose who can afford to implant devices in their bodies that allow them to be stronger and faster, see further, receive information from the environment that cannot be captured naturally (geolocation, temperature, ultrasound, night vision…). To the other, conventional humans, with their biological organs improved over a slow fire over centuries and centuries of genetic evolution. Wonderful, but limited and unable to compete against people enhanced with bionic implants.
It seems like an exaggerated dystopian world rather than an analysis of reality or an imminent future, but human beings have long begun to become andn cybernetic organisms (hence the word cborg). People see it as something from the future, but it is already part of our day to day: eye surgery, pacemakers, hip replacements, cochlear implants…, warned Olivier de Weck, professor in an interview for this newspaper. of Astronautics from MIT and an expert in technology planning. In fact, there are already dozens of technologies integrated into our bodyclarified this expert.
A GROWING MARKET
And yet it is expected that in the coming years the binica will experience an unprecedented boom and that more and more and more complex devices begin to be implanted. The Californian consultancy Grand View Research has carried out various studies and surveys on this sector and estimates that the global market for bionic prostheses will move close to 8,000 million euros in 2027.
The main advances in medicine will come from engineering with neurotechnology, says Eduardo Rocn, a researcher at the CSIC Center for Automation and Robotics, who has several patents related to the development of exoskeletons applied to the rehabilitation of people with tremors and motor disabilities. .
People see cborgs as something from the future, but they are already part of our daily lives: eye surgery, pacemakers, hip replacements, cochlear implants…
According to the Grand Review Research itself, the sale of these frames will grow by 18% each year until 2030 to reach the 1,200 million euros and 26,000 units worldwide. The great promise, to help people who cannot walk on their own due to a spinal cord injury.
Other foreseeable takeoffs in this market are bionic eyes (will grow by 12.7% per year until 2027) or prostheses for hands, arms and legs (9.2% per year for the next five years). Replacement limbs, but increasingly advanced and integrated into the body thanks to the 3D printing, the incorporation of AI to refine and naturalize movements, biosensors, connections with the nervous system to respond directly to the orders of the brain… Research has even been going on for some time in the development of artificial skin sensitive to pressure or temperature.
Soon more visual prostheses and all the advances related to a better understanding of the brain will enter the market, predicts Rocn. Today we are able to measure various variables in the human body (how we move, how we activate our muscles, how our brain is connected to make decisions and carry out movements…); and all that information, along with advances in the field of biocompatible materialswill be a push towards bionic devices, he adds.
And next to it, the revolution of artificial organs: hearts, pancreas, kidneys, bones and other tissues grown in the laboratory to be later incorporated into the human body and restore the functionality of the original organ.
So far, all good. Millions of people around the world have lost an organ or limb due to an accident or diseases such as diabetes or cancer. Thanks to science, they will be able to see their dependency reduced and their quality of life recovered. The problem comes when analyzing the consequences that this revolution will have at an ethical, economic and social level.
BINICA: A RIGHT OR A LUXURY?
Will states be able to bear the high cost of such sophisticated devices? Will access to this technology be considered a basic benefit or a luxury? How many will be able to afford it if it falls outside of coverage? of the national health systems, as is already the case in Spain with dental implants?
How we answer these questions will depend on what opens up in advanced societies. a new inequality gap. This time, between cborg citizens and human outcasts. Once again, it may seem like a philosophical game for lovers of science fiction, but the truth is that it is a legal dilemma that has already reached the courts and the insurers.
Differences already exist as public health care collapsesdue to lack of personal and material means and a part of the citizenry chooses to complete this benefit with private health care
The Supreme Court had to decide in 2019 whether to agree with a worker who demanded payment for a state-of-the-art bionic hand to replace the one he had lost in a work accident; or his insurance company, who only wanted to finance a conventional prosthesis with less functionality when it came to grasping objects. And he agreed with the worker, but after many hours of trial and resources.
It is increasingly common for sophisticated technology products, previously unattainable in the public sphere, to be dispensed here as well, explains Lourdes López Cumbre, professor of Labor Law and Social Security at the University of Cantabria.
But one thing is theory and another is practice. Neither the ease of accessing these products (with restrictive criteria in their use), nor the terms used (sometimes, with an unreasonable delay for the patient), allow, on occasions, to wait, and it is decided to go to the private system, with a huge increase in costnormally non-refundable, warns this expert.
Because the truth is that, as Lpez Cumbre acknowledges, it is already difficult for the National Health System to guarantee current coverage. “Differences already exist as public health care collapsesdue to a lack of personal and material means and a part of the citizenry chooses to complete this provision with private health care”, she argues, convinced that “the health gap will widen” if the deterioration of the public system is not stopped.
The ‘slippery slope’
And that dual-lane access to technology could spell profound change for our species once more advanced bionic devices come on the scene.
If finally the improvements depend on a person being able to pay for them, that willto help the richest to increase their power and dominance over the restwarns Juan Carlos Siurana, professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Valencia and vice president of the Spanish Bioethics Committee.
A population of posthumans can be created that is increasingly remote from poor people or people with few resources. This inequality could also lead to discrimination
The list of dangers that this expert enumerates is longer. The first, what in biotics is known as slippery slope: Once we accept the use of this technology for some types of enhancement, more and more people will turn to it to improve their skills.
Think about it: bionic prosthetics to be faster, stronger, wiser… but only within the reach of a few. It is not possible to guarantee universal access to enhancement technology, because that technology is based on desires, and desires are infinite, Siurana clarifies.
The device obsolescence incorporated into our bodies and situations of dependence on the company that supplies us with the technology are other important challenges for the future posed by the bionic era.
And if you have reached this line convinced that the headline of this report is exaggerated, read carefully this other statement by Siurana: A population of posthumans can be created that is increasingly remote from poor people or people with few resources. This inequality could also lead to discrimination. And from there, to the barricades.
According to the criteria of
Know more
