Hyper-Perfectionism, Enhancement & Human-Robots: The Future of Exponential Technologies & Cosmetic/Prosthetic Surgery
The Scholar in Residence: TEJAL BIPATH, Engineer & Aspiring Entrepreneur
Summary: This article projects the possible evolution of beauty standards in the face of exponential technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and 3D printing. It identifies that the meaning of humanness will change significantly because these new technologies will alter the nature of beauty, human functionality, and identity.
Beneficial Audience: Medical professionals, technologists, cosmetic and prosthetic practitioners, and the curious-minded.
Introduction
Plastic surgery is so familiar it is considered a medical necessity. However, before the late 20th Century, corrective surgeries like cosmetic and prosthetic surgeries were the exception and not the norm. Today, cosmetic surgery is a cultural phenomenon driven by media and beauty standards.
During the Second World War, prosthetics and corrective surgery developed rapidly to meet severe and sometimes fatalistic medical needs. After the War, they were deployed for civilian use and evolved quickly as cosmetic procedures to help people keep up with the ever-evolving ideals of beauty.
Thus far, media and cultural pressure have driven the evolution of beauty standards as projected by the media and exceptional celebrities and models. Due to the limited technological resources available to our generation, we have been forced to apply cosmetic and prosthetic surgeries in a fairly limited manner. However, the introduction of exponential technologies will inevitably accelerate the process, and the modification of the human body is likely to happen at an unimaginably fast pace.
Aims & Objectives: This presentation examines the essential factors influencing how cosmetic and prosthetic surgery will change the human experience in the coming years. It will evaluate the process and scope of change and provide insights into possible models for deploying these new technologies to alter the physical human form.
Methods: This is an exploratory study. It applies an abductive analysis of the vital pointers that shape and define the combination of AI and other exponential technologies and how they interact with the human experience. This does not assume absolute accuracy but a speculative analysis of an almost unknowable phenomenon that is set to unfold.
Findings
The main drivers of change in plastic surgery are:
1. Purpose and transition
2. Media influence, and
3. Changes to human nature.
As identified above, plastic surgery and prosthetics have been used for reconstructive purposes until now. This includes helping burn victims, accident survivors, people with disabilities, and people with other skin conditions. In absolute terms, plastic surgery and prosthetics seek to help people regain normal functionality and self-confidence.
The media, at any point in time, influenced people to undergo surgical procedures to change their appearance. Once a person identifies, they can enhance a part of their body or alter their bodies to look like a person they admire, they get procedures done. People with disabilities consistently search for ways to change their appearance as and when possible. Usually, their doctors might find new approaches to their condition and ask them to authorize it.
Finally, the changing demands on humans, in general, force us to seek solutions that sometimes require prosthetic or reconstructive surgery. A person who has to drive for many more hours than their parents might need to get these surgeries because of the circumstances of their time.
The Unfolding Era of Hyper-Perfectionism
As exponential technologies become common and cheaper, our options will increase tremendously. If anyone can alter their looks in hours to attend an event and change it right after the event, "perfectionism" will take on a different meaning.
Film stars and other performers are known to alter their appearance and features so drastically that they become unidentifiable. In the era of exponential technologies, this will become so common that anyone can alter who they are and what they stand for quickly.
A culture of hyper-perfectionism will involve the pursuit of endless goals and desires. Since the means of achieving these goals are likely to be relatively infinitely available in the future, the trend of hyper-perfectionism will take a form we cannot imagine.
Prosthetic & Cosmetic Needs as Enhancement
New technologies allow for more functionalities to be integrated into human limbs. These range from vision glasses to other mobility enhancement tools that go beyond providing prosthetic users with normal human capabilities.
The notion of "beautiful" in cosmetic surgery is being replaced with "functionality." Thus, people can do more with new technologies built into the human body through enhanced futuristic standards.
Furthermore, competing technologies allow for more refined functions to be developed over time to make people who undergo these surgeries more functional. Thus, like computers, more sophisticated Internet of Things (IoT) components can be placed in and on the human body during these surgeries.
Human-Robot Integration
Leading firms and figures like Elon Musk are commercializing robots on a vast scale. It has been predicted that there will be a mass production of robots that will end the need for humans to work[1]. Human-robot collaboration continues to increase in terms of results and outcomes[2].
As the collaboration intensifies, more functionalities will likely be built into the human body to encourage greater engagement in a digital-driven world. Thus, notions of human appearance are likely to change. Cosmetic and prosthetic surgeries are likely to change in ways that fit the changing needs of the human body.
Analysis & Implications
Digital technologies will significantly modify traditional and democratic society as we know it. For surgery and the human body, this means technological devices will shape our thoughts, actions, and desires more significantly. Thus, beauty and the human body will be literally photoshopped and changed at will.
Self-perfection will soon be shaped by "futurism" and what we may call today "futuristic" technologies. Thus, the things we see in comic books will likely become the norm rather than the exception. Wearables will be permanently attached to the human body, which will define and influence beauty standards.
In the technical sense, hyper-perfectionism will be premised on a form of art that complies with standards of symmetry, mobility, and functionality that we consider impossible today.
Furthermore, the homo sapiens of today will most likely evolve to become the “ideal humanoid”. This means personhood will be based on a balance between human and robotic features.
Value & Application
This study shows the direction in which cosmetic and prosthetic surgeries will take. They will change the entire nature of humanity, and we may end up as a completely different "species" from our grandchildren.
Cosmetic AI and prosthetics hint at how things will change, and it is up to us to start making arrangements to create a world we might be more comfortable with.
The inevitable future involves investments of time, effort, and resources into the blend of human and computer apps and hardware. However, the permanent and more intimate attachment of hardware to the body will be done through surgeries or similar mechanisms.
Perfection standards will likely change from what we have known all our lives. At the same time, functionality will take over natural bodily appearance, and human beings are likely to tilt towards humanoids and other robots.
Ethical questions that will invariably come up include:
1. The need to control the pressure to upgrade,
2. The establishment of the identity of human beings, and
3. How to control accessibility and class differences in such a changing world.
Conclusion
Hyper-perfection, enhancement, and human-robot integrations drive cosmetic and prosthetic surgery in our era of exponential technologies. This will increase over time, and the notions of beauty and drivers of cosmetic and prosthetic surgeries are more likely to be technological rather than cultural and media pressures. Humans are less likely to be satisfied with restoring "normal" human function. We are likely to crave more, and with the hyperdevelopment of these exponential technologies, the world will change beyond recognition. This creates opportunities for investment of time, resources, and research into these new technologies. It also requires stringent debates on how to set controls to preserve our human identity and collective needs.
By Tejal Bipath,
Tejal is an advanced Mechanical Engineering candidate at the prestigious, world-renowned Witwatersrand University. She is an aspiring entrepreneur with interests in Artificial Intelligence, Technology, and Engineering.
She can be reached at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tejal-bipath/
[1] Kim Moody. "High Tech, Low Growth: Robots and the Future of Work" Historical Materialism, 2018
[2] Yujiiao Cheng, Liting Sun, Changliu Liu, & Masayoshi Tomizuka. "Towards Efficient Human-Robot Collaboration With Robust Plan Recognition and Trajectory Prediction" IEEE Robotics & Automation Letters 5 (2) 2020 pp2602-2609