Are Cyborgs the Next Step in Human Evolution?
Are you a cyborg?
If your smartphone is glued to your hand, then, we believe you are already a kind of Cyborg.
What is a cyborg? It’s an organism that has both organic (“natural”) and cybernetic (“machine”) parts. In other words, when people become cyborgs, they’re part human and part machine. That’s most of you!
So, what is the next Cyborg innovation that will enhance our superhuman capabilities? Wearable devices.
From Nike’s Fuelband to Google Glass, wearable devices are the next big thing to enter into your digital world and become necessary accessories which enhance your “cyborg” abilities.
Some locations are pre-emptively banning the use of the emerging wearable device, Google Glass. According toMashable, bars, strip clubs, and casinos have banned the device due to privacy protection issues, and movie theaters banned it for bootlegging concerns. It’s almost as though cyborg racism is already becoming a problem.
Cyborgs are a new segment that will change the landscape of marketing. Say goodbye to the old school “day in the digital life” persona. We’re about to witness a complete shift in how advertisers can reach these augmented consumers. This is when people will always have a “digital billboard” in front of them or attached to them. This is when consumers will have so much information at their fingertips that brands will have no choice but to be fully transparent about everything they do.
Of course, there’s a certain institutional resistance to “cyborgism” as there is to most revolutionary shifts in society. Technophobics are predicting a world of constant distraction, greater rebellion due to information overload, cyber-hacking, and even WiFi radiation-based diseases because of “electromagnetic sensitivity.”
In their new book, “The New Digital Age,” executive chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, and director of Google Ideas, Jared Cohen, predict new political issues due to the growth of cyborgs. They say that government regulations will no longer need to solely focus on foreign and domestic policies in the physical world, but they’ll also need to devise policies for the virtual world, and those policies may not necessarily be consistent with each other. They expect cyberwarfare and drone strikes to overshadow traditional combat.
Despite the resistance, there’s a human desire to have more information at their fingertips, to document their days (via lifelogging devices), and to monitor everything around them, including themselves, in order to optimize their well being.
Cyborgs will continue to increase and gain enhanced sensory and superhuman capabilities. Is this the next step in the evolution of humans?
To learn more about marketing to cyborgs, download our free report here.
sparks & honey is a next generation agency that helps brands synchronize with culture. Follow us on Twitter at @sparksandhoney to stay up to date on the latest high energy trends.
