Tech beyond AI

From moon missions to resurrecting the dead - emerging technology trends to watch in 2023

“The future is nearer than you think”: Self-proclaimed futurists often say this. Frankly, I never understood what it means beyond rhetoric. The Terminator was released way back in 1984, and Skynet is yet to take over. Yes, artificial intelligence (AI) is here, ChatGPT is here — but we are not close to being ruled by them as yet. Whether 2023 could be a defining year? Who knows! But science and technology are progressing in other fields too, not just AI, metaverse, and blockchain. I’m here to talk about those.
 

In 2023, there will be a race to the moon. Not only India, but Russia and the European Space Agency (Esa) will also be launching missions. The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (Isro’s) Chandrayaan-3 will follow the footsteps of Chandrayaan-2 and include a lander and rover but not an orbiter. It is set to be another mission for demonstrating a soft landing after a failed attempt in 2019. Isro will also conduct the first uncrewed demonstration mission for the Gaganyaan programme in the last quarter of the year and launch Aditya-L1 to study the sun.

The US Congress has approved $25.4 billion for Nasa for 2023, including full funding for a second Artemis programme moon lander to supplement SpaceX’s Starship. Elon Musk’s space firm plans to take Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and eight other passengers on the dearMoon voyage around Earth’s natural satellite in late 2023. Among other key space missions are Esa’s Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE), which is set to take off in April 2023.
 

In the field of health care, medical robotics is the fast-emerging future.

Advanced exoskeletons, in recent years, are slowly becoming available to the general public — they are not limited to Winter Soldier or Cyborg in comic books. According to a study published in the Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, ATLAS2030 Pediatric Gait Exoskeleton is seen improving the range of motion and maximum isometric hip, knee, and ankle strength in three children with spinal muscular atrophy. Claimed to be the most advanced mobile medical exoskeleton, the technology may soon become commercially available and help kids with neuromuscular diseases or cerebral palsy. Take that Dr Otto Octavius!
 

The new year could be seminal in terms of brain implants. As announced by Elon Musk, his company Neuralink may start human trials of its wireless brain chips in the next six months. This technology, which is already there but not as refined as claimed by Mr Musk, may allow people with paralysis to easily operate their phones and computers directly with their brains. Neuralink claims it is developing brain-chip interfaces that may help restore a person’s vision, even in those who were born blind, and also full body functionality. According to a Reuters report, Neuralink has killed around 1,500 animals, including 280 sheep, pigs and monkeys, following experiments since 2018.

Another key advancement in medical science is xenotransplantation. On January 7, surgeons at the University of Maryland School of Medicine  successfully transplanted a genetically modified pig heart into a 57-year-old man in the end stage of heart disease. Though the patient died two months after the groundbreaking experiment, the process opened a way to solve organ shortage. Our cultural imagination is rife with hybridity — from elephant-headed Ganesha to the falcon-headed Egyptian god Horus to Greek gorgon snake-haired Medusa — but the strong immune response among different species is believed to be the biggest barrier to the success of Xenotransplantation. Notwithstanding the setback, genetic engineering can provide a pragmatic solution. Certainly not in 2023, but in the following years, there could be no waiting list because of a ready supply of appropriate organs, available at all times.
 

Now from saving lives to resurrecting the dead: Have you heard of necrobotics? It is the practice of using dead organisms as robotic components.
 

Earlier this year, Rice University engineers repurposed dead spiders as mechanical grippers “that can blend into natural environments while picking up objects, like other insects, that outweigh them (130 per cent of their own body weight)”. This was because unlike humans and other mammals who move limbs by synchronising opposing muscles, spiders use hydraulics to force haemolymph (a fluid equivalent to blood in most invertebrates) into their limbs, making them extend. In this experiment, air was fed into the legs of dead spiders. Right now, necrobotics is in its nascent stage, and 2023 may see some progress in this area.
 

In the future, such Frankenstein’s monsters could be our house help and give tough competition to Tesla’s Optimus humanoids, which, as claimed, may perform simple tasks like lifting items and watering plants — they shall be “robot butlers”, of sorts. The company has announced that it will be ready to take orders within three-five years.
 

Until AI and these intelligent machines become smart enough to take on humans, they will be well suited to do our bidding. Anyway, it is still some years to 2029 when the cyborg Terminator is sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor whose unborn son will one day save mankind from extinction. The future is definitely farther than what is shown in movies.