A Telefónica Foundation exhibition entitled "We, robots” just finished. Although we do not see them, we live and work next to these machines without realizing it, because most are not humanoid.
One of the sections that interested me the most was the vision of the future. It proposed that the human being should not confront robots but should join them, and they should join us, too. It is about cyborgs: part machine, part living organism. Does it look like a science fiction movie? Not really. The anthropologist of cyborg issues, Amber Case, told me that from the moment we hold our smartphone in our hands, and we interact with it, we are already a cyborg.
Implants are part of cyborg technology. Implantable technologies for a human being are already on the horizon. And it will not be long for animals. Of course, a cow is not the same as a chicken, but we also have nanotechnology at our service.
It occurred to me that maybe microcomponents could be created to be implanted in the hatchery, directly in the egg (we already have in ovo vaccination). Could they be included in the feed? Perhaps these micro implants in the egg would help hatchability or already implanted in birds, stimulate the feed consumption at the time of the day it is most needed and avoid heat stress. Maybe it could help the metabolism to direct nutrients for the formation of muscle or egg protein, or it could regulate egg production through hormonal stimulation.
It sounds like I went crazy, but only a few years ago no one imagined that through our cell phones we could request private transport, shoot videos of the highest quality, or measure the heart rate and the calories consumed with a watch. Isn't it?
Could we then expect a cyborg poultry industry one of these days? What do you think?
