The Brave New World conference took place in the Netherlands this week.
One of the biggest ideas on display was that of bio-organic, 3D printed body parts.
Yes, 3D body parts have been around for a while. The list of replacement cells, arteries and organs scientists can design and manufacture is an impressive, growing one. The shiny new organs featured at the Brave New Word conference, however, represent a much braver future indeed: These organs are entirely new. Not replacement body parts then, but rather customised, designer organs imagined, designed and manufactured to enhance the human body as we know it – to turn humans into super-humans, extend the limits of our biology to the limits of our imagination.
(Of course, great minds, including Leonardo Da Vinci have been imagining imaginary body parts for centuries, they lacked, however, the technology that we have today to bring their franken-organs to life.)
The freshly-imagined organs on display included a new kind of gall-bladder to remove mucus from people suffering from cystic fibrosis and a bio-organic heart-add-on for people with rickety tickers.
This means we could soon order add-on body parts the same way we can order add-on extras from the car dealership for your new vehicle.
The implications are extraordinary. When you combine these inventions with CRISPR-cas9 technology and brain-neural interfaces, it is abundantly clear that intelligent design has taken over from natural selection. Homo Deus awakes.
A Brave New World indeed.