Stills from the movie Ghost in the Shell, where the heroine undergoes mechanical modification
In 2019, the first in human history
The real Cyborg (cyborg) was born.
It's called Peter 2.0,
Consists of an "external brain" and a "mechanical body".
Its ontology, Peter Scott-Morgan, is 64 years old,
is a robotics scientist from the UK.
In 2017, he was diagnosed with motor neuron disease (MND),
That is, the well-known "frozen people",
Doctors believe he will not live more than two years.
Peter used high-tech equipment to maintain basic physiological needs
The avatar of Peter 2.0
Peter who did not believe in evil
Using his knowledge of artificial intelligence and robotics,
Transformed itself.
Not only will all the organs of the body atrophied due to illness
all replaced with mechanical devices,
Also created a plug-in brain and avatar,
Help yourself communicate with the outside world.
Two years later, Peter not only did not die, but also evolved into Peter 2.0,
His life form was continued, even "immortalized."
Peter and Peter 2.0
In 2021, Peter wrote down his experience,
It was first published in Chinese mainland.
An email interviewed him,
Chatted about his legendary life and his vision for the future of mankind.
Written by | Lu Yuhan, editor-in-charge, | Ni Chujiao
Recent photo of Peter and his family
After receiving Peter's email response, it had been almost a month since we sent out the outline of the interview.
To be precise, the familiar Peter has "disappeared." This 16-page text response was actually answered by Peter 2.0.
When it comes to his identity, Peter is very strict. He would go out of his way to correct and emphasize that he was not a robot, but a cyborg.
Robots are machines, but with a nervous system like a human. Cyborg adds machine parts to the human nervous system, the human brain thinks, and other physiological components are mechanized. Simply put, it is a fusion of humans and machines.
This futuristic concept, which often appears in science fiction and superhero movies, became a reality in Peter.
Screenshot of Peter's interview with the media
In 2017, Peter was diagnosed with "frostbite." People called it "the most cruel disease in the world," and it was Stephen Hawking who suffered from the disease that tormented him for 55 years until his death.
People who suffer from muscle atrophy gradually lose the ability to walk, swallow, excrete and breathe, and more than half of the patients will die within 2 years of the illness. The amount of money invested in drug research each year is innumerable.
In our interview, Peter was already in the final stages of his life.
All he had left was his eyes, ears and brain still functioning. He lay in bed all day, relying on mechanical equipment to maintain basic physiological needs. Every day after waking up and before falling asleep, someone performed the necessary physical examinations and "maintenance" for him.
He could not speak or move, had no sense of taste or smell, only retained a sensitive sense of touch, "I could feel the itch on my body, but I couldn't scratch it." ”
Peter 2.0, on the other hand, is very busy, working 60 hours a week, preparing speeches, giving interviews, handling the foundation's business...
Peter who had just finished a quadruple stoma
Peter will also yearn for the physical world. When the editors of the publishing house approached him, they mostly communicated by e-mail. At one point, Peter offered to look at the editor's photo, and he wanted to know what the man he had been talking to looked like in reality.
We included a photo of peter greeting him in the interview outline we sent to him, and he happily replied, "Thank you for the lovely photo, it made me very happy (It made my day)!" ”
He was incredibly optimistic, and in his long text replies, there was positivity and joy between the lines. "I imagine myself in a luxurious massage club, and I can lie down every day, is there anything better than that?"
After all, for him, it was already a miracle to be alive.
Peter before he got sick
In 2017, 59-year-old Peter was enjoying the happiest time of his life.
He holds numerous shining titles, Doctor of Imperial College, Recipient of the Order of the British Empire, Roboticist, Company Executive, Touring Speaker...
With these achievements, Peter achieved early financial freedom, officially retired at the age of forty, and traveled the world with his partner Francis.
He found anomalies while traveling in the Arctic Circle. He was about to get out of the bathtub after taking a hot bath when his right leg suddenly began to tremble violently, and Peter didn't take it seriously.
After that, he began to have frequent situations in which he could not control his body, and the intervals became shorter and shorter.
At first it was just the right foot, then it spread to the knee and the whole leg, and then the left leg also had the same symptoms, and when crossing the road, a little old lady could walk faster than him. Peter, who was not yet 60 years old, had to get into a wheelchair.
Peter was also able to control the wheelchair himself in the early days of the disease
For nearly a year, Peter had been shuttling between hospitals, trying to figure out what was wrong with his body.
The process of achieving this goal is like a "scavenger hunt", the examination is more and more meticulous and profound, from ordinary chest X-rays, to tedious blood tests, to electromyography and lumbar puncture, successively excluding brain tumors, spinal cord tumors, strokes... Only then did we get the definitive answer – motor neuron disease.
On the day of their diagnosis, Peter and Francis visited the Archaeological Museum near the hospital as planned. They spent two hours and slowly admired tens of thousands of exhibits.
The long diagnosis process made him fully mentally prepared, and he was even a little proud: "In the face of such a diagnosis, I must be one of the most calm people in history." ”
While he was still able to take care of himself, Peter began to investigate motor neurone disease extensively. Most of the information was negative, but he managed to find a "loophole": the main causes of death of people with alzheimer's were starvation and suffocation, but in fact, their digestive and respiratory tract functions were completely normal, just did not have the strength to digest and breathe.
These problems can be solved perfectly if external forces can be used to help them ingest food, or if the lungs are inflated by an air pump.
The robotic hand invented by Peter in 1983
Essentially, sustaining the lives of people with FROST is not a medical problem, but an engineering problem that can be solved by cutting-edge machinery.
Peter, who realized this, was so excited that who knew more about mechanics than himself, a Ph.D. in engineering and robotics scientist?
He suddenly remembered the belief he had held since he was a teenager: as long as humans were smart enough and bold enough, with the development of technology, any problem in the universe could be solved.
He was going to use his body to test this belief, "to experiment with life."
Ten-year-old Peter
Peter was born a "pioneer."
While studying at Imperial College, Peter became interested in robots because of a science fiction novel. Imperial did not have a robotics department, so he persuaded the college to allow him to take an indefinite leave of absence and teach himself robots.
After work, he was the most out of place. The leader did not like his proposal, so he bypassed the leader, directly promoted his ideas to the client, and pulled a big customer for the company, thus becoming the youngest junior partner in the company's history.
In 1983, the BCS Robotics Association sat Peter
Peter also used this boldness in the fight against the disease. Using engineer thinking, he envisioned three "pipe modification" surgeries to solve the problems of eating and excretion that may be faced at any time:
1, insert a tube in the stomach, used to send food and water, which is called "input";
2, a tube oozing out of the bladder to urinate, this is the "no. 1 output";
3. Another tube sticks out of the colon to defecate, which is the "second output".
To make the three surgeries sound more professional, Peter named them "tripleostomy." It was a word he coined himself, but he did not expect to be recognized by the medical community and written into the British Medical Journal.
Fragment from the documentary Peter: The Birth of the Human Cyborg
Peter is doing a pre-operative examination
The doctor was a little surprised to hear his thoughts, and no one had ever asked for surgery when these functions were still sound.
On the other hand, no insurance company was willing to insure him, and Peter had to bear all the costs of the treatment himself, which would likely cost him a lifetime of savings.
The documentary Peter: The Birth of the Cyborg of Humanity, filmed for Peter, chronicles the whole process of transformation.
Before the operation, Peter's relatives and friends came to encourage him
Considering Peter's body, doctors combined the three smaller surgeries into a monolithic operation, with an anesthesiologist, gastrointestinal surgeon, and urological surgeon.
Because there is almost no precedent for patients with motor neuron disease to undergo surgery, the specific execution process of the operation requires them to grope for themselves, and the anesthesia program is specially original for Peter.
Fortunately, the three surgeries were not difficult in themselves, and the triple stoma went well, except for a small episode that happened that night.
Peter woke up from his slumber and found himself unable to breathe on his own. He was immediately pushed into the operating room again, had a tracheostomy, and lived an early life of relying on a ventilator — triple stoma became quadruple stoma.
Schematic animation of laryngeal resection surgery
Solving the problems of eating, excretion, and breathing, Peter was faced with a new challenge.
Another common cause of death is an infection caused by sputum entering the lungs. The best solution is to have a laryngectomy, and the side effect is that you can no longer speak.
This is the final answer he handed over: "The future me, part of the wet part, part of the hardware." The wet pieces, the brain, will add a lot of mechanical nerves to become Peter 2.0; and the hardware, my body, will only be used to keep the brain running. ”
Before making a decision, Peter and Francis had a serious conversation. Francis doesn't have as much expertise and grand goals, he just wants his lover to be with him for a longer time: "You're not really dead than losing you completely, and there's still part of you alive that's always less terrible." ”
Francis's words made Peter determined to become cyborg, "to the best of his ability to be an immortal." ”
As if by fate, from childhood to adulthood, Peter gained everything because he did not conform to the rules: a robot degree, and a relatively solid accumulation of wealth, became the basis for the birth of Peter 2.0.
Preoperative Peter introduces the Peter 2.0 system
The first step to becoming Peter 2.0 is to let AI speak for itself, as Hawking did.
Peter's health was deteriorating at the time, and he could not even complete the movement of manipulating the wheelchair with his fingers. He began practicing typing with his eyes and facial muscles.
"I was a little unaccustomed at first, but after about a year, I started expressing my thoughts with my eyes in my dreams, and it was very natural. The human brain is really too powerful! ”
With the help of tech companies, Peter has a multifunctional wheelchair similar to Hawking's, equipped with robotic arms, cameras, laptops and other equipment. As he types, the camera tracks his eyes, types out the corresponding letters, and then plays them.
However, Peter was not satisfied with Hawking's mechanical tone, and he hoped that everyone would still hear his own voice.
Peter is recording
The process was longer than Peter had imagined.
He spent 30 hours in the studio, recording thousands of soundtracks. After that, the professional company used voice cloning technology to produce a synthesized voice that was very similar to Peter's tone, and experienced many reworks during the process.
In order to get Peter 2.0 to say as many words as possible, they employed a more complex "unit selection method". "For example, I've never recorded the word 'one,' but AI will help me put together the syllables I need and pronounce them out in my voice."
By the time the final results were reached, it had been more than a year since Peter had first stepped into the company.
Peter doing facial motion capture
Meanwhile, Peter is busy with another thing – making himself a "Avatar."
This technique is usually used in special effects movies, where avatars look exactly like Peter and can simulate his facial muscles, opening and shutting their mouths in response to what he says.
The whole process was done at The Pinewood Studios, which had done special effects for Star Wars and the 007 series. Peter's face was marked with more than 30 marker dots, "he did all the expressions that people can do, read countless words", and used more than 50 high-definition cameras to save his facial expressions and muscle movements.
Finally, by combining Peter's "voice" and "avatar," a talking, virtual "Peter" is born.
And that's not the end of it.
Ideally, Peter 2.0 also needs to have a certain degree of autonomy, peter typing with his eyes at the same time, AI can predict the words and sentences he wants to say, automatically generate some alternatives, let Peter choose from, "a bit similar to the prediction function when the phone is typing, but more advanced." ”
After completing a passage, Peter can perform the final proofreading and polishing, and after confirmation, the text is converted into audio, which is played after fusing Peter's voice.
The facial muscles had not yet completely atrophied when Peter
Early Peter 2.0 avatar
Peter explained to us that he was using a "self-learning" AI that was developed by Intel's team.
Their latest breakthrough is to let Peter 2.0 choose different answers according to the identities and relationships of different participants.
"If a stranger asks me what the weather is like outside, I'll tell him the truth. But if a close friend asks me that, I'll say, 'Won't you see for yourself?' ’”
Interestingly, Hawking also uses this AI system, but Peter wants AI to achieve the exact opposite of Hawking's. Hawking wanted complete control, and what he said and wrote was exactly as word for word as he had in his mind.
But Peter is the other extreme. He does not reject "symbiosis" with AI, and even expects AI to be "self-taught". He describes AI as an actor who improvises while himself is a film director, "No matter how ai performs, this is still my film." ”
Of course, Peter 2.0 also makes mistakes. Peter tells us a story that he has never told any other media.
Peter had a good friend named Jerry, and once they were on a video call, Jerry made a very clever proposal and Peter wanted to reply to him: "You are incredible Jerry!
Peter hasn't figured out how Peter 2.0 learned to say "bastard," and I swear I've never said the word in front of it, it's either a bug or a malicious cyber humor." ”
Peter announced on social networks that Peter 2.0 was online
In 1984, Peter published his first robotics textbook, in which he concluded:
"One day, humans will replace fragile flesh with more durable machinery and use supercomputers as intelligence amplifiers."
More than thirty years later, the post-operative Peter became the best example of this prophecy.
In October 2019, after completing all the preparations before the birth of Peter 2.0, Peter took the most important step, which was to perform total laryngectomy. Before the operation, he uttered his last words to Francis: "I love you." ”
A month after the operation, he announced on social networks that Peter 1.0 was dead and Peter 2.0 was officially launched.
Two years on, although the physical Peter can only lie in bed, Peter 2.0 can appear in different places at the same time, giving one-on-one interviews with reporters in New York and giving a speech in Beijing with Chinese. "It's a miracle that I'm still alive and not a living dead."
He always gladly accepted media interviews, lying in bed, covered with tubes. Most of the time he would be with Francis, who waited for Peter 2.0 to finish what he wanted to say before making the necessary additions. When it comes to excitement, Peter 2.0 will also grab Francis' head.
Sometimes, he would appear on the interview site in the form of a "virtual avatar". His voice sounded more real than it had been a year ago, but his facial expressions and movements weren't too smooth, but Peter believed that as the technology improved, it would get closer and closer to a real person.
We carefully asked him what would happen to Peter 2.0 when he died physically. Peter replied generously, "It depends on when Peter's flesh dies." ”
"If I'm unlucky enough to die within a few years, and Peter 2.0 hasn't developed enough, it's a very ordinary artificial intelligence." But if I could live another 20 years, it would be very different! ”
He speculated that Peter 2.0 at that time would have a mechanical body that could move, learn most of Peter's consciousness, and achieve "eternal life" . People may already have advanced brain-computer interface technology, biological brains and artificial intelligence systems are getting better and better integrated, and Peter 2.0 will even have a touch, can feel hugs and kisses.
Speaking of the current concept of the exploding metaverse, he is even more excited: "The metacosm will change our perception of 'what people are', and by 2050, it may completely replace our 'real world'." ”
When everyone lives in a virtual world, there is no longer a difference between Peter and Peter 2.0.
Peter has been actively telling the world about his experience. In 2020, he began writing his autobiography, Peter 2.0. The first 3/4 of the book was done by Peter himself, and the last part was completed by Peter 2.0.
The film adaptation rights based on his story also sold well, to a production company that won the Academy Award for Best Picture for "The King's Speech."
Peter also founded a foundation with friends and worked with tech companies from around the world to revolutionize the lives of people with disabilities by using cutting-edge technology. In particular, he mentioned, "I believe that in the field of artificial intelligence, China will make the greatest contribution." ”
"I want to give people some hope. Not only for those who are experiencing illness, but also for all those who are pessimistic about their lives and futures. ”
Peter in 2005
Q: One
A: Peter
Q: Let's introduce ourselves to a reader of a piece! Do you consider yourself an independent individual?
A: I position myself as a "cyborg" in transition, half human and half machine. What's most different from others is that my core part of the machine is artificial intelligence, not pure machinery.
My brain wants to communicate with the outside world, but now I can only move my eyes. It's like I live in a private world and can only communicate with you in Morse code, so I need AI to guess the message I want to convey.
I'm also planning to use more and more AI to work with me, from talking, to controlling the body, and even walking around. Like you said, I'll get closer and closer to an independent individual.
Q: It's been four years since you were diagnosed. How are you doing now?
A: My body stopped working a long time ago, and now I rely on high-tech instruments to keep it running. I couldn't move anymore, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't eat, I didn't have a sense of smell and taste, I had a strong sense of touch, but I couldn't touch anything.
My eyes, ears, and brain are still functioning, but they are all trapped on this "living corpse."
On the bright side, I either sit or lie down every day, and no one complains about me, which is great! So the most important thing for me in these four years is to realize that happiness, contentment, happiness, and fun in life are not the result of circumstances as many people think.
It is an act of will.
Peter's last public speech
Q: What is your daily life like now?
A: Twice a day, someone will do my daily maintenance, wake up and before going to bed, and deal with various problems of my paralyzed body. And the only meaning of my physical existence is to provide my brain with a warm, moist, nutritious environment to keep it alive.
On top of that, I work 60 hours a week and deal with all sorts of things like answering your questions.
Q: Do you have autonomous feelings or desires now? As a cyborg, you can't do these things yourself, does that bother you?
A: You say I can't do something I could have done before? That's right. But why should I live like I used to?!?
It was like I was back in my youth, able to grow up again and break rules that I had never questioned.
For example, I can eat and drink while sleeping; I never have to get up at night to go to the bathroom, even though I'm hydrated almost 24 hours a day; I'll never get caught up in a cold again; I can speak any language; I have a wider vocal range than any professional singer, a memory stronger than any professional actor.
So, my life changed completely!
And even more amazing things! My future is tied to computing power, and the stronger the computing power— especially for artificial intelligence— the greater my ability will be.
According to Moore's Law, computing power doubles every two years at the same cost. In just twenty years, its power can be increased by a thousand times! My future potential is so great!
Peter and his technical team
Q: Peter's biological brain and Peter 2.0's artificial intelligence brain, I guess they are co-existing relationships. Will these two brains clash because of their different ideas? Or is there a situation where who rules whom?
A: Peter's relationship with Peter 2.0 is a bit like my relationship with Francis. I don't want control, and of course I don't want AI to be above my will, at least not more than Francis.
As I've always advocated, let AI be our partner, not our competitor.
For example, the AI Brain is a brilliant jazz pianist who can bring great solo performances to the audience, but its potential is far more than that.
If the pianist could work with a talented singer, they would be able to bring a more beautiful performance as a group.
I believe that the best state of humanity in the future is for people to work together with artificial intelligence to become human-centric AI. In other words, artificial intelligence and people live in harmony, not their own solo performances, but interdependence and synergy, just like the combination of jazz pianists and singers.
So I don't care at all that sometimes AI dominates my thinking, as long as it makes me sound smarter and more interesting, or at least makes me less forgetful, and I'm willing to give up some control to sustain the relationship.
Q: I'm sorry I had to ask this question, what would happen to Peter 2.0 if Peter died?
A: This question gets to the heart of the puzzle I posed in the final chapters of Peter 2.0 – what happens when a cyborg dies?
More precisely, what happens to Cyborg when the main part of Cyborg is advanced artificial intelligence?
Going back to my metaphor for jazz, when one of the group dies, it's still good to hear the pianist solo again. If the pianist had learned to sing like a singer, everything would have been even more different.
When one's consciousness is so closely intertwined with the technology around one, perhaps biological death no longer means ultimate death. That's what I'm trying to make readers realize that most of the people alive today will usher in a new human age.
Of course, I know that even after 50 years, I'm unlikely to be alive, let alone centuries, or longer. But for scientists like me, "unlikely" and "impossible" are still different, and this cannot be overemphasized.
As a scientist, I want to be an important player in that, and my inner romance wants to be with the people I've loved all my life.
Peter and his family before the operation
Q: What was your family's reaction after making the decision to become cyborg?
A: I'm sure there are a lot of people who will choose a different path than I did, but luckily Francis and my family are very supportive of me. Now, my family lives next door to me and Francis.
Q: What was the biggest challenge you faced throughout your illness?
A: COVID-19! In the early months of the outbreak, I received an official letter from the UK's National Health System (NHS) informing me that I was a highly susceptible person to the virus. If I get COVID-19, even the intensive care unit won't be able to take care of me, and we'll have to rely on ourselves.
Later Francis and I set up our own intensive care unit at home, and we assembled a carefully selected nursing team, each of whom had a mastery of the intensive care unit treatment plan and advanced protective equipment.
These people were all picked by Francis. After I had a triple stoma, he went to get professional medical training. He is now one of the few people in the whole of the UK who is qualified to replace the pipes for me.
Now that I have received three doses of the vaccine, even if I am infected with the new crown virus, I can get proper treatment at home.
Q: With the development of technology, what kind of ideal state do you hope to eventually achieve?
A: It's just getting started, and it's still in its infancy. There's still a lot of work to be done over the next decade, but no one is doing it! So, three years ago, Francis and I came up with an idea: to start a philanthropic research institute, the Scott Morgan Foundation.
Peter Foundation meeting
We will use human-centered artificial intelligence and cutting-edge technology to change the future of people with disabilities. Not just people with frostbite, but also various types of disabilities caused by accidents, diseases, genetics, aging, and even dementia. At the end of the day, it's about everyone on the planet!
We've brought together some of the most influential tech companies from around the world and pooled their time and resources to achieve this goal. I was fortunate enough to be a prototype, an early experiment in how humanity can take a huge step into the future.
Q: Is there anything you would like to say to the Chinese audience?
A: China will lead the world in artificial intelligence, with more companies and researchers focused on artificial intelligence than anywhere else in the world. This brings exciting opportunities and also awe-inspiring responsibilities.
It's a new era, and we're finally freed from the shackles of the flesh and begin to explore the infinite space of the metaverse. You're not going to be a bystander...
You will be at the center of action!
Title image source: Stills from the movie "Wolf"