Humanity is on the verge of being replaced by a race of superhuman hybrids with powers only dreamt about in movies.
Herbert Sim, a millionaire tech investor and futurist in London, has begun pouring his wealth into the study of transhumanism – the enhancement of humans through science and technology.
Sim told Dailymail.com that a new mutant race could be walking among ordinary humans within the next five years.
At that point, Sim claims that the human race will essentially be obsolete as these real life ‘X-Men’ make it impossible for regular people to match their abilities.
His tech start-up, Neurochip.com, has been exploring how to make transhumans a reality, upgrading the mind using a helmet that reads brainwaves.
The brainwaves are projected onto a computer which then reads and turns them into actions.
Sim said it’s one of the first steps in ‘upgrading’ humanity, allowing this new race of mutants to live longer and defeat diseases.
‘Transhumanism can help to extend your life for 500 years and then it’s amazing to think what we can achieve,’ Sim said.
Herbert Sim (pictured) works with his company’s transhuman helmet, turning his brainwaves into readable actions for a computer
‘Humanity has now reached a point where we are at a crossroads and we’re trying to accept technology into our lives to enhance our lifestyles,’ the entrepreneur said.
Although X-Men may still sound like something that only exists in science-fiction, animal-human hybrids (mutants) have already been created in Japan.
In March 2019, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology lifted a ban on creating animal embryos with human cells and allowing them to be brought to term in surrogate animals.
This allowed stem cell biologist Hiromitsu Nakauchi from the University of Tokyo to inject human stem cells into rodent embryos, creating a hybrid that couldn’t form a normal rodent pancreas.
The goal of the project was to grow a human-compatible pancreas in these rodents instead, which could then be used for organ transplantation.
‘All of this technology is here to help humans transcend and live longer,’ Sim explained.
‘These are possible superpowers that humans can have through the use of genetic technology,’ he added.
Sim compared the rare sight of a mutant in today’s world to ancient humans claiming they saw dragons.
Herbert Sim (right) said that advanced genetics and robotics will soon make the human race obsolete as a new race of advanced beings surpass our abilities
Transhumanism describes the enhancement of humans through science and technology, such as genetic engineering and advanced robotics (Stock image)
While the accounts seem fantastic and hard to believe, the futurist argued that too many different cultures share the same stories and depictions of these mythical creatures for them to be fake.
However, Sim warned that human mutants won’t go extinct like the dragon presumably has; mutants will grow in numbers and eventually take over society.
‘Because of these very dominant [new] races, they will be better than humans in every single way,’ Sim revealed.
‘The humans that are left over, they will not be able to contribute to society as effectively as these transhumans, and this is when humanity will then become obsolete,’ he added.
The topic of superpowered mutants has been a fantasy of the entertainment world for decades, with shows like X-Men and the Bionic Woman imagining how genetics and robotics could one day improve humanity.
However, studies reveal that transhumans are already walking around society today.
This month, researchers from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard reported in Science that they have created a new tool using CRISPR (a gene-editing method) to insert large pieces of DNA into human cells with incredible precision.
This could be used to fix genetic diseases or even improve traits like extending longevity.
In March, MIT scientists announced they figured out how to turn human skin cells directly into brain cells (neurons) without extra steps, making the process 100 times more efficient than before.
They tested the new brain cells by putting them in mouse brains, where they worked perfectly. This could help fix brain damage in people with diseases like Parkinson’s.
In July 2022, a company called Synchron put a tiny chip in the brain of someone with ALS, a disease that makes it hard to move or speak.
They inserted the chip through a vein in the neck, so it was less invasive than brain surgery.
The chip let the person control things like a computer or phone just by thinking, like sending texts or browsing the web – similar to Sim’s newest breakthrough in reading brainwaves.
‘At the moment, lots of people have only seen this technology in films and see it as a downfall but I believe it’s our redemption,’ Sim said.
‘The way I see it is that technology and science are here to empower humans the same way medicines and phones are here to make our lives better.’
