Raj Agrawal

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We Have Evolved, We Are The Cyborgs

January 16, 2011 by Raj Agrawal Leave a Comment

Cyborg Anthropologist talks about the new generation of Homo Sapiens.

Superman Cyborg
Cyborg Superman, a fictional character from DC Comics

We’ve made it to the year 2011 and it’s fair to think “so, where are the cyborgs?”. If you think closer and try connecting the dots of human evolution with the greatest inventions of all time, it won’t be hard to realize that over the years we’ve made a huge leap from what we were thousands of years ago to what we have become now. This has been possible because of the existence of technology since the primitive times.

The traditional definition of a Cyborg is “an organism to which exogen.us components have been added for the purpose of adapting to new environments”. Our consistent reliance on external brains a.k.a the machines have helped us communicate, remember and lead second lives successfully. So by definition, we are all Cyborgs.

Amber Case, a Cyborg Anthropologist talked about us being Cyborgs and now being a new species of Homo Sapiens:
So let’s look at the concept of traditional anthropology. Somebody goes to another country, says, “How fascinating these people are, how interesting their tools are, how curi.us their culture is.” And then they write a paper, and maybe a few other anthropologists read it, and we think it’s very exotic. Well, what’s happening is that we’ve suddenly found a new species. I, as a cyborg anthropologist, have suddenly said, “Oh, wow. Now suddenly we’re a new form of homo sapiens. And look at these fascinating cultures. And look at these curi.us rituals that everybody’s doing around this technology. They’re clicking on things and staring at screens.”
We are constantly evolving with technologies like bionic lenses, communication devices, development of superior weapons and what not. It’s exciting and scary while thinking for how long will the advancement of technology continue to feed us with convenience or maybe someday, feed on us.

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: ted

Your Very Own Sixth Sense Might Be On It’s Way

November 6, 2009 by Raj Agrawal Leave a Comment

How would it be if you could get first hand information right of the internet about anything and anywhere in the world? How about taking a photograph of a beautiful scenery just with hand gesture? Want a consumer or even a critic review of a book you are about to purchase, all these right in front of you, with just hand gestures. It’s sounds like a synonym to how Tom Cruise accesses information in the movie Minority Report. Doesn’t it?

sixth sense pranav mistry
Pravav Mistry demonstrating the working of Sixth Sense and is the man behind it’s development

MIT’s Pranav Mistry and Pattie Maes have worked upon this innovative and work-in-progress idea named, Sixth Sense and presented the working of this great product at the TED conference. Sixth Sense is similar to Microsoft’s surface computer. Watch this video and you will be amazed to see what this technology is capable of.

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: sixth sense, ted