Ailing Scientist Hopes to Become the World’s First Cyborg

The Telegraph reports:
Peter Scott-Morgan stands, wide-eyed and tearful. “Good. Grief.” he says quietly. “I was unprepared for the emotion… It’s quite extraordinary. It really is.” Using an exoskeleton, Scott-Morgan is experiencing what it is like to stand for the first time in months after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2017, the same incurable condition that killed scientist Stephen Hawking. The remarkable step, however, is just the first in the 62-year-old’s bold journey to control his disease by becoming the world’s first, full-fledged cyborg. “Think of it as a science experiment,” he laughs. “This is cyborg territory, and I intend to be a human guinea pig to see just how far we can turn science fiction into reality.” Eventually, Scott-Morgan wants the exoskeleton to encase his upper body, giving him superhuman strength and the ability to tower above “flesh and blood” humans. A mind-reading computer will be plugged directly into his brain, expressing his thoughts almost instantly. Meanwhile, his paralyzed face will be replaced by a hyper-realistic avatar that will move in time with a speech synthesizer… Scott-Morgan says he isn’t deteriorating but becoming a new version of himself — one that will eventually pave the way for a breed of humans that can augment their capabilities using technology… Instead of answering a question by laboriously typing out individual letters using a gaze tracker, in a similar way to Hawking, he will rely on the AI to provide a full and instant response. Eventually, the machine will speak for itself using phrases it has learned from Scott-Morgan — crossing a controversial line in what it means to be human…. Someday, the scientist hopes he can exist completely outside his physical body, with his personality, traits and knowledge downloaded on to a machine.