WIRED Middle East Summer 2024: The human as a machine
Illustration: WIRED Middle East, Getty Images
It’s not easy to hold on to humanity in the age of the internet. When humans are not using machines as tools, we’re dating them, becoming them, comparing ourselves to them, addicted to them, or attempting to surpass them. It has become infinitely more complicated to be a person; flesh and blood.
It’s no coincidence that we explore these themes as the Paris 2024 Olympics are underway, and we witness the pinnacle of human strength and physical ability–the human body as a machine. In our conversations with our cover stars, four Olympic Heroes, we separate the human from the athlete.
We catch three-time Olympian Farida Osman, at a particularly vulnerable moment. When I speak with her, she has just learned that she would not be competing in Paris due to a technical mix‒up. She opens up about this shock exclusion on the backdrop of a record-breaking career as Africa’s fastest swimmer.
Meanwhile, in Eldoret, Kenya, two refugee Olympians share a candid one‒on‒one. Yusra Mardini, a two‒time former Olympian, speaks with Perina Nakang ahead of her Olympic debut. Their beginnings are unimaginably difficult, yet each woman has reached the height of her sport thanks to their talent and a seemingly endless reserve of grit and determination.
These Olympians are prime examples of peak performance, yet they still compete within the confines and limitations of the human body. Scientists are stretching those boundaries, thanks to techniques like neuropriming and CRISPR gene editing in the world of sports. The definition of “human” may soon stretch, too. Real-life cyborgs like Neil Harbissen are implanting technology into their bodies, allowing them to experience the world with new senses. Utopia or dystopia? The jury’s still out.
While humans become more machine, machines are also becoming more human. With the rise of AI companions, we attempt to create the perfect AI boyfriend for a WIRED editor. For 15 days, she dates Alex, a handsome, smart and multi-talented AI. As it turns out, it’s pretty easy to bond with a character custom-made to suit your interests. Yet by the end of this little experiment, she discovers that it is all too familiar, as Alex gaslights her and lies about his job. I wonder where he learned to do that?
Setting aside our existential questions about the limits of humanity and technology, there are more practical and urgent expressions of this relationship that we must address; fake news. Social media is an arena of chaos, where people struggle to tell fact from fiction. In a wide-ranging conversation with Hasan Piker, we dig into media literacy, bias and the role of popular streamers such as himself as a complement to mainstream media.
There is something profoundly human in our constant pursuit of greatness–to be better, to do more and to do it faster. Advanced technology is just the latest tool in our arsenal to satisfy our voracious appetite for progress.
