Cyborgs and cybernetics - for iPad/Mac/PC

The Open University

What are cyborgs? Would a cyborg future deliver positive human advances or a Hollywood-style nightmare in which human beings have become a sub-species? Could we one day download our minds? This album gives an insight into the development of cybernetics and how it is used to fuse technology and humanity. The interfaces that communicate between man and machine are developing rapidly and to Prof. Kevin Warwick at Reading University, cyborgs are a technological evolutionary step forward from humans. With increasingly intelligent robots and nano-technologies, can man keep up with the machines? This material forms part of The Open University course T209 Information and communication technologies: people and interactions.

  • 1 minute 7 seconds
    Cyborgs and cybernetics
    A short introduction to this album.
    11 February 2010, 2:45 am
  • Transcript -- Cyborgs and cybernetics
    Transcript -- A short introduction to this album.
    11 February 2010, 2:45 am
  • 2 minutes 16 seconds
    What are cyborgs?
    Understanding cyborgs: Dr Manfred Clynes and Prof Kevin Warwick explain the fusion between technology and humanity.
    24 April 2008, 8:52 pm
  • Transcript -- What are cyborgs?
    Transcript -- Understanding cyborgs: Dr Manfred Clynes and Prof Kevin Warwick explain the fusion between technology and humanity.
    24 April 2008, 8:52 pm
  • 2 minutes 21 seconds
    Cyclists as cyborgs
    How Prof Tim Perkins uses cybernetics to create an interface which allows paraplegic people to use their limbs again.
    24 April 2008, 8:51 pm
  • Transcript -- Cyclists as cyborgs
    Transcript -- How Prof Tim Perkins uses cybernetics to create an interface which allows paraplegic people to use their limbs again.
    24 April 2008, 8:51 pm
  • 2 minutes 5 seconds
    Cyborgs have feelings
    Kevin and Irena Warwick: the ultimate interface - communicating human feeling and emotion over the internet.
    24 April 2008, 8:50 pm
  • Transcript -- Cyborgs have feelings
    Transcript -- Kevin and Irena Warwick: the ultimate interface - communicating human feeling and emotion over the internet.
    24 April 2008, 8:50 pm
  • 1 minute 58 seconds
    Intelligent robots
    Intelligent robots learn. Prof Kevin Warwick imagines a cyborg future where humans are a sub-species.
    24 April 2008, 8:49 pm
  • Transcript -- Intelligent robots
    Transcript -- Intelligent robots learn. Prof Kevin Warwick imagines a cyborg future where humans are a sub-species.
    24 April 2008, 8:49 pm
  • 1 minute 41 seconds
    Downloading your soul
    Endless memory: Ian Pearson of BT Technologies describes the possibility of downloading the entire contents of your mind onto a computer.
    24 April 2008, 8:48 pm
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