What is the Biodigital Convergence
The "Biodigital Convergence" is the merging of digital technology with the human body as well as every living thing on earth, such as trees, plants, and animals. It also includes incorporating digital technology into entire ecosystems. The purpose is to connect everyone and everything to a wireless grid spanning the entire globe. This grid can be monitored, controlled, accessed and manipulated remotely.
Documents from governments and international organizations explaining the Biodigital Convergence:
U.S.
Canada
U.K.
“The imperative to use human augmentation may ultimately not be dictated by any explicit ethical argument, but by national interest.”
“The future of human augmentation should not, however, be decided by ethicists or public opinion, although both will be important voices; rather, governments will need to develop a clear policy position that maximises the use of human augmentation in support of prosperity, safety and security, without undermining our values.”
“Ethics will be a critical aspect when considering whether to adopt human augmentation, but national interest will also inform, and may even fundamentally reshape, the moral calculation.”
“There may be a moral obligation to augment people, particularly in cases where it promotes well-being or protects us from novel threats. It could be argued that treatments involving novel vaccination processes and gene and cell therapies are examples of human augmentation already in the pipeline.”
“The ethical and moral implications of human augmentation are profound…Does human augmentation go against nature and undermine people's dignity by robbing them of the ability to live a 'natural', 'authentic' life?”
“Human Augmentation – The Dawn of a New Paradigm”
European Union
“By 2050, a new form of human (a trans-human) will emerge…”
European Commission: Digital Futures Final Report
IEC
IEEE
World Economic Forum
“This Fourth Industrial Revolution is, however, fundamentally different. It is characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, impacting all disciplines, economies and industries, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human.”
The Fourth Industrial Revolution, by Klaus Schwab
This connects with the aforementioned IEEE:
IEEE: Industrial Cyberphysical Systems: A Backbone of the Fourth Industrial Revolution
World Health Organization
“The World Health Organization (WHO) has established a global, multi-disciplinary expert panel to examine the scientific, ethical, social and legal challenges associated with human genome editing (both somatic and germline). The Committee includes members from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Oceania, North America and South America.
The Committee has been tasked to advise and make recommendations on appropriate institutional, national, regional and global governance mechanisms for human genome editing. During the course of its work, the Committee will review literature on current human genome editing research and its applications, consider existing proposals for governance and relevant ongoing initiatives, as well as solicit information about societal attitudes towards the different uses of this technology.”
Augmented Humans International Conference
“The conference focuses on physical, cognitive, and perceptual augmentation of humans through digital technologies. The plural – humans – emphasizes the move towards technologies that enhance human capabilities beyond the individual and will have the potential for impact on a societal scale.”
Topics discussed include: security, privacy and trust aspects of augmented human technology, augmentation of human health through digital technologies, brain-machine interfaces, augmented virtual and mixed reality, bionic systems for amplification and augmentation of human abilities, and digital technologies for physical, cognitive, mental, and perceptional augmentation.
Since 2010, annual international conferences on human augmentation have been held.
Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno
A concept associated with the Biodigital Convergence is Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno (NBIC), which encompasses the converging of nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, information technologies, and cognitive science technologies. These are the four, sometimes overlapping, broad categories that make up NBIC. Of these four, nanotechnologies are the most prominent. Nanotechnology, along with the other technologies, are discussed more in depth on the following pages.