How Far off Are We from Human Machines? (Humans Integrated With Technology)

For many years people have always toyed with the idea that one day humans will be integrated with technology. With people like Elon Musk pushing towards neural link - a device integrated in your brain to link your thoughts with databases of information - it seems that we are almost at that stage of man and machine.

But, what If I told you we are already at this stage. Introducing the smartphone.

I don't know one person that doesn't own a smartphone, well, my grandma but she has a different computing device on hand a computer (basically the same thing). Since smartphones were released into the market they slowly started slipping there way into our pockets and never leaving them. Smartphones have become another appendage of the human,24/7 humans have their phone very close to them. This makes sense as the uses we have for them are too good to put it down.

We sleep next to them and set an alarm, we use them to communicate, we use them to browse and stay connected on social media, we use them to check the news, we use them to play games in the washroom (cause reading shampoo bottles are not good enough anymore), we use them to check the weather, we use them to stay fit, we use them to look up new baking recipes, we use them to learn in school, we use them to take pictures, we use them to read mysillyblog, we use them to navigate, we use them to plan and schedule out life, we use them to the point that WE CAN'T FUNCTION ANYMORE WITHOUT THEM. Humans are addicted to their smartphones but the justification for using them make sense. However at this level of use they are a technological extension of the human body.

Elon Musks neural link has already happened - more than half the time people just google their thoughts on their smartphone, neural link will be no different, just more instant.

I had a fantastic conversation with one of my friends recently about these exact thoughts, how smartphones are connected to us. We both came to an agreement that a trend called "smart device cleanse" will happen in the next couple years. This means that people are going to suddenly realize how reliant they are on their phones and stop using it as much.

Most amazing inventions in this world usually come out of the gates with a ton of support. Next there is a sudden drop in usage. Finally an equilibrium of usage starts to develop. You can see this with almost any trend or invention (time lengths carry).

 Look at the gasoline car for example, when it was first released they got an immense amount of support, now they are being pushed back more than ever as electric cars are taking over, so I suspect them to have a sharp decline and then most likely will shift up in usage a little to reach an equilibrium. As silly as it sound fidget spinners are a good example. They were a fad basically over night - had a lot of support from everyone. Weeks after the release almost no-one used it, and now they have reached their equilibrium. Minecraft even is an example. When I was little and played the player base grew exponentially then there was a solid decline. Now from what I see Minecraft is on an uptrend which will most likely headed towards an equilibrium.

Now I have no scientific research baking these claims, these are patterns that I have just noticed. But I don't need scientific backing to prove that humans are basically part machines. You can witness this for yourself by just going outside. 

Cheers.