Digi, Nano, Bio, Neuro – or why we should care more about converging technologies

By now, democracies around the world are under great pressure. Propaganda, fake news and hate speech are polarizing and sowing doubt, while privacy is dwindling. We are in a kind of international information war for our minds, in which advertising companies, tech corporations, secret services and the military are fighting for influence over our thinking and behaviour. Meanwhile, the European Union's adopted the AI Act in an attempt to curb the aforementioned dangers.

However, digital technologies have developed at a breathtaking pace and new possibilities for manipulation are already emerging. Because, when digital and nanotechnology merge with modern biotechnology and neurotechnology, revolutionary applications become possible that were hardly imaginable before.

Microrobots for precision medicine

In personalized medicine, for example, the advancing miniaturization of electronics is increasingly making it possible to connect living organisms and humans with networked sensors and computing power. The WEF proclaimed the "Internet of Bodies" as early as 2020.^3,4

One example that combines conventional medication with a monitoring function is digital pills. These could control the medication and record a patient's physiological data (see also this blog post).

Experts expect sensor technology also to reach the nanoscale. Magnetic nanoparticles or nanoelectronic components, i.e. tiny particles invisible to the eye with a diameter up to 100 nanometers, would make it possible to transport active substances, interact with cells and record huge amounts of data on bodily functions. If introduced into the body, it is hoped that diseases could be detected at an early stage and treated in a personalized manner. This is also often referred to as high-precision medicine.

Nano-electrodes record brain function

Miniaturized electrodes that can simultaneously measure and manipulate the activity of thousands of neurons and ever-improving AI tools for the analysis of brain signals are two approaches that are now leading to much-discussed advances of the brain-computer interface. Brain activity mapping is also on the agenda. Thanks to nano-neurotechnology, it is imagined that smartphones and other AI applications could soon be controlled directly by thoughts.