Professor John Warwick’s experiments are an example of what American sociologist Francis Fukuyama had in mind when he coined the term “post-human society”.

It is not surprising that an American coined such a term, coming from a country at the cutting edge of IT and electronic technology. However, what John Warwick presented recently at the University of Malta for the Edward Debono seminar was very tangible and close to home.

After some years of preparation, last June, Prof. Warwick underwent an operation in which a microchip was attached to his nervous system at the wrist. The chip was wired to an external socket that comes out of his arm just below the elbow and enables him to interact with a number of electronic devices.

The procedure, perhaps surprisingly, was not at all painful, he said. He was given a local anaesthetic for the actual operation and just took a couple of painkillers as a precaution when he got home afterwards. For the next three months, John could be interfaced with a host of electronic equipment with which he could interact and eventually control at will.

One of the first experiments we talked about was the interface with a robotic arm. The bionic limb was connected to John’s socket after which he could control the arm as if it were his own. Signals were transmitted from John’s brain to the arm through an electronic connection, and the arm moved or grabbed objects at his will – the command coming directly from his brain.

The interesting part, Prof. Warwick pointed out, was that the brain was quick to interpret the signals that resulted from the electronic-biological connection. When grabbing objects, he could actually feel the pressure put on the object being squeezed. “When the hand grabbed an object a signal was being sent to my nervous system in direct proportion to the force being applied. I was receiving pulses of current, but my brain was able to make out what the signal meant.

“Our brains are quite clever... perhaps the fact that I had an understanding of the experiment helped my brain to get used to the signals much more quickly. If I was wearing a blindfold and someone gave me the wrong information I could have been fooled and given the mechanism the wrong interpretation. It was weird; in Hollywood you get these strange ideas, but in reality fact is stranger than fiction”

Asked whether he thought that the sensory experience could have been enhanced by adding sensors that detect, say, texture, he replied: “Yes – probably with more sensory feedback I could have felt texture and all sorts of things.”

The experiment was replicated over the Internet. Prof. Warwick was invited over to Columbia University in New York while the robotic arm stayed in Reading, England. John could see the arm through an online video-feed, but at one point, however, the experiment was done while he was blindfolded. Not only did the arm move at his mental signals, but the sensation of tension felt in the close range experiment was also replicated.

“This was between New York and the UK,” he said. “The hand could have been in Mars... which opens up a host of possibilities for astronauts, for example, who could work in places that are otherwise inaccessible to humans at least for the moment.”

In another intriguing experiment, John linked his nervous system to that of his wife, who had two external electrodes inserted in a procedure similar to acupuncture. Actually only one of the electrodes worked, John explained. “We were able to get good signals out of one of them so we were happy.” The wiring managed to relay “motor signals” – movement signals.

“This was one of the most fascinating experiments”, he remarked. “The whole concept of communication is fascinating. Our brains are part electronic and part chemical, so it is interesting to explore ways to be able to communicate directly avoiding the interference that often clouds regular communication.”

In a similar way as with the bionic arm experiment, when either of them moved their hand, signals would be transmitted through the electronic connection into their respective brains.

The interesting part was that while John had the implant for some time his wife only had the electrodes for the day.

John’s interpretation of the signals was more sophisticated than that of his wife who did not have as much time to get acquainted with the process of interpreting the signals received.

“When you link up... for the first few days you get a raw connection. So when she received pulses from me, her brain received those signals as a feeling of lightening going up her hand and then up her middle finger. For me it was different, I did not have those sensations... it was direct mental communication. Over time my wife moved her hand, I felt her sending me a message and got the mental cue for that movement.”

We discussed a third experiment, possibly the most intriguing. John himself was very excited about it, pointing out that humans do not have ultrasonic sensory organs and therefore this sort of experiment gave his brain a completely new sensory experience.

The experiment consisted of John connecting two ultrasonic sensors, mounted on a baseball cap he wore, to his nervous system. While blindfolded he tried to find his way around a room using the message from the sensors to map out his surroundings.

Both in the arm and the telegraphic experiments the brain was dealing with a “conventional” type of information. But with the ultrasonic experiment, the signals he received were new to his brain, yet he described how fast in fact the brain became used to the feedback.

“I was amazed at how fast the brain actually learnt to interpret the information.” As he walked around and came close to an object he would get mental signals. John described the signals as a vibration that pounded from the direction of the objects he was facing.

When he moved his head and found an object in the way he would suddenly get a feedback from that direction which would make him instinctively move his head away. As he got used to the system, and managed to process the information coming in, he kept his head straight when facing an object and gradually scanned the rest of the room.

“With normal vision you have the central vision but you also have a lot of peripheral information. The ultrasonic ‘vision’ gives a you a direct message which requires you to scan around in order to make out your surroundings.”

TMID also asked about the ethical implications of his work. Most of the research carried out so far, he explained, has been aimed at helping people who suffer from some sort of paralysis, spinal injury, multiple sclerosis or have had a limb amputated.

“We were looking at possibilities for people who have spinal injuries or multiple sclerosis” he explained. In fact the experiment itself had the aim of evaluating how the body would interact with the chip and whether it would, in fact, be accepted by the system.

He described the results obtained as encouraging, particularly with regard to the possibilities for people in this area. He gave some practical examples and explained that the mental signals a paraplegic would normally send to move his own limb (although the limb will not work) could be directed to an artificial limb. He said that even an amputee could replace a missing limb with a prosthetic one that could be controlled directly by the brain as would be the case with a regular limb.

With regard to the wider, less clean-cut implications of his work, John said that he was aware that what he is proposing has the possibility of enhancing what humans can do. He recognised that not only people who are paralysed, but even regular people would like themselves to be enhanced by electronic devices.

There certainly can be abuse in this area, he said. When you start thinking along these lines, the possibilities are endless. “Upgrading of the human potential could be difficult for people to cope with, but should we not do it? Or should we explore it?”

He stressed that although there may come a point where a particular kind of technology may be discarded, the process leading to this decision should be one guided by reason and not by a negative emotion.

“It is good to have a proper discussion on the matter. What we would want to avoid is a ‘dolly the sheep’ situation where the research went on somewhat undercover and when dolly suddenly appeared everyone was horrified and they did not understand.”

To the concluding question, “What’s in the pipeline?” John promptly replied “the brain.” In the near future he will be working on a direct implant with the brain.

The stakes are considerably higher especially for the medical point of view with increased risks such

as blood

clots etc. However, he was very optimistic, given the success registered so far with the arm implant. “The major payoffs are probably with the brain, especially in the paraplegic and multiple sclerosis areas.”