Incredible but true: Terminally ill scientist extends life for decades by becoming "world's first full cyborg"
A British scientist who is terminally ill said he has transformed into “the world’s first full cyborg”.
61-year-old Peter Scott Morgan, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) in 2017, said he decided to extend his life using technology.
This week, the roboticist emerged after 24 days in intensive care to reveal that “Peter 2.0 is now online”.
“All medical procedures now complete and a huge success,” Scott-Morgan wrote on a Twitter post. “Long research road ahead but in great spirits.”
The processes Scott-Morgan underwent during his intensive care included a laryngectomy to avoid the danger of saliva potentially entering his lungs – which he described as trading his natural voice for “potentially decades of life”.
He also had a laser eye surgery and developed a life-like avatar of his face, which was designed to respond using artificially intelligent body language.
The scientist, who was told by experts he might only have until the end of this year to live, said last month: “I’m not dying, I’m transforming. Oh, how I love science.”
Scott-Morgan said the transition, which turned him into “the most advanced human cybernetic organism ever created in 13.8 billion years”, would not be his last.
“It won’t stop there; I’ve got more upgrades in progress than Microsoft,” he wrote on his website. “Mine isn’t just a version change. It’s a metamorphosis.”
Scott-Morgan said MND, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, should be seen as an opportunity to “upgrade” rather than a death sentence.
“Over time, more and more with MND, with extreme disability, with old age, with a passion simply to break free from their physical straightjacket, will choose to stand beside me,” he wrote.
He is now lobbying British MPs for support for his Right to Thrive campaign, which calls for increased access for people with MND to life-sustaining technologies, including tracheostomy and cough-assist machine.