Claudia Hammond discusses how the body might evolve in the future with the help of technology. Transhumanism pushes the limits of what the human body can do by enhancing the body to give us new senses such as hearing colour. Scientists are looking at whether an extra limb will help us to work harder and be more efficient. The idea that some people could live way forever digitally is becoming possible. But is this all too risky? Could we end up with a super-enhanced elite, leaving the rest of struggling?

Recorded at the Wellcome Collection with a live audience Claudia’s three guests are already pushing towards the limits of what’s currently possible, each in very different ways. Ghislaine Boddington, who’s a Reader in Digital Immersion, Creative Professions and Digital Art at the University of Greenwich, Journalist Frank Swain, who writes for the New Scientist and Tamar Makin who is a neuroscientist at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London.

Picture: Heart shaped by human and robot hands, Credit: Dimdimich/Getty Images Show less