Is the ultimate goal of the development of wearable devices to replace human organs?

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Although wearable devices have experienced many years of development, they are still controversial. However, this controversy is an inevitable phenomenon in the development of new industries, especially for disruptive industries such as wearable devices, most people do not have a clear understanding of them. The current limited understanding is basically based on the most basic products such as smart glasses, smart watches, and smart bracelets. Obviously, this understanding cannot represent real wearable devices.

Wearable devices are still in the early stages of development, that is, monitoring some basic life characteristics. Strictly speaking, wearable devices can be divided into four stages:

The first stage is the digitization of human body characteristics; the second stage is to become the control center of the Internet of Things; the third stage is the expansion of human sensory functions; and the fourth stage is the integration or replacement of human organs.

From the perspective of the entire wearable device industry, it is still at the initial stage, that is, the exploration of the digitization of human body characteristics. It can be predicted that in the coming 2016, the focus of the entire wearable device industry will still be on the digitization of human body characteristics.

Whether it is the technical level of the industry chain or the industry talents, it is determined that this stage will take some time to develop. And this stage will have a long period of exploration and application process, the most typical of which is the gradual maturity of wearable medical products, which will, to a certain extent, promote the reconstruction of the entire medical technology and model.

Similarly, it does not mean that wearable devices have lost their value in the first stage. On the contrary, the value of this stage is very huge. On the one hand, the digitization of human body characteristics is the basis for all subsequent stages, including the value of the Internet of Things, which is also released based on this precondition; on the other hand, the digitization of human body characteristics truly realizes the purpose of science and technology serving mankind.

Obviously, this stage and process are the most challenging. It is a creation process from 0 to 1, including industrial chain technology, big data standards, etc.

Because this stage is difficult, we have seen that after several years of development, the wearable devices on the market have shown a certain degree of convergence. From the perspective of product form, they are mainly wearable devices outside the body, mainly smart watches, bracelets, glasses, etc. From a technical perspective, they are basically centered around sports and some relatively basic life and health indicator monitoring. If we look at the present from the future, we can say that the entire wearable device is currently in a stage where the input is the highest, but the harvest is relatively slow.

When wearable devices continue to develop, they will enter the second stage after experiencing and completing the maturity and stability of the first stage, which is the stage of the control center of the Internet of Things. When everything is intelligent, all "things" in the physical world are equipped with sensors and smart wearable devices, and wearable devices become the only bridge between people and things.

Wearable devices will play a more important role at this stage, upgrading from the first stage around people to the control center of people and everything. Whether it is smart home, smart city, or daily life and travel, wearable devices will become our indispensable smart "assistants".

Although wearable devices are still in the early stages, there are still people who explore wearables from the perspective of the third stage, that is, based on the expansion of human sensory functions. For example, wearable devices can be used to build a dialogue between normal people and deaf-mute people, to build barrier-free communication between people of different nationalities and different language systems, and to expand the human sensory functions such as vision, hearing, and taste.

However, from the current stage of industrial development, this stage is only in the exploratory stage, and it is difficult to truly achieve and enter this stage in a short period of time. When wearable devices truly enter the stage of expanding human sensory functions, the clairvoyance and super hearing described in Journey to the West will become a reality.

Of course, the final stage of wearable devices is to integrate or replace human organs, allowing humans to enter an era of "superhumans". Especially with the emergence and maturity of biochips, and the emergence and maturity of artificial intelligence combined with human brain technology, including the combination of some organs and wearable devices, humans will eventually merge with robots. It is foreseeable that wearable devices will lead humans into a true "superhuman" era, and the form of future society will appear and exist in a way that exceeds our current cognition.