Page 168 - Modern Robotics Building Versatile Macines

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CYBORG ODYSSEY

KEVIN WARWICK EXTENDS THE HUMAN BODY

“We can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability
to make the world’s first Bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man.
Better than he was before. Better . . . stronger . . . faster.”

n the 1970s TV series The Six Million Dollar Man, a test pilot
Iwho had been badly crippled in a crash is rebuilt with bionic limbs
and implants, enabling him to become an intelligence agent with
unique capabilities. Three decades later, there are still no people
who can run 60 miles an hour or lift cars with their bare hands. The
first steps toward extending the human nervous system and linking
it to robots have already been taken, however, and they have much
more interesting implications than just speed or brute strength. In
2002, Kevin Warwick, a British cybernetics researcher, became the
first human to use a neural implant to directly control a robot and
to exchange nerve signals with another person.

Science, Soccer, and Motorcycles

Kevin Warwick was born on February 9, 1954, in Coventry,
England. Although his father was a teacher, his grandfather had
been a Welsh miner, and the family was only gradually working its
way into the middle-class world of detached homes.
As a young boy, Warwick was curious, energetic, and particularly
fond of soccer. (He would become a talented amateur player). When

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