You’ve just gotten back from a trip abroad and you’re meeting a friend for coffee. “How was the vacation?” she asks. “Let me show you this beach we went to," you reply. "It was beautiful.” With a moment of concentration you proceed to telepathically send your friend a memory. She accepts the data, allowing your experience of the beach to upload directly to her brain. Instead of listening to your inadequate description, she can now see the brilliant colors, feel and smell the ocean breeze, hear the waves and exotic birds, and even taste the daiquiri you were sipping. “Wow! You must have been sad to come home.” “Well,” you respond, “in a way I was able to come home and stay there. I can just replay this memory whenever I want to. In fact I could have saved some money and not gone at all. For a small fee you can download a custom beach experience and relive it as often as you want.”
Obviously we are nowhere near the kind of technology that would make this scenario plausible. But unlike the possibility of making contact with intelligent life outside of Earth, or of greatly extending the span of our own lives, both of which remain completely theoretical, our species has actually taken concrete steps toward the kind of direct brain interfacing that could one day allow for such fantastical transactions as the one described above. Such technologies have the potential to radically change humanity, for better or worse.
The nervous system is a marvelous critter. It controls our bodies, enabling us to breathe, pump blood, run, grab objects, etc. Through the use of our five senses it also creates a subjective experience of the world around us. As amazing as this is, the economy of the mind, no matter what it's doing, always trades in the same basic currency: electrical impulses between neurons. With the right technology we can divert the brain's outputs into external devices, such as computer screens and robotic arms. We can also bypass the body's sense organs and send impulses directly to the brain.
Direct communication with the brain began in the 1920s with the use of electroencephalograms (EEGs). By placing electrodes on different parts of the scalp researchers could pinpoint which areas of the brain were most active while the subject was engaged in a particular cognitive task. More recently surgeons have successfully implanted arrays of sensors directly onto the brain. While such an invasive procedure is risky, it provides a much more detailed map of brain function. For example, we now know the precise locations in the brain that control individual fingers: it turns out there is some overlap in the pinky and ring finger areas, which is why these fingers tend to be harder to move independently!
The last twenty years has seen much progress in devices that interface directly with the brain or other parts of the nervous system. Perhaps the most widespread are implants designed to treat epilepsy, depression, Parkinson’s disease, and even addiction. But other successful applications have also begun to appear. Several people who had previously been totally blind now have partial sight through the use of a bionic eye connected to the optic nerve. Other patients have had their sense of hearing or touch restored. A man paralyzed from the neck down after a fall is now able to control a computer screen and send text messages through implants in the motor control area of his brain. Another man who lost an arm to cancer has been fitted with a robotic hand that he can control entirely with his mind.
And there’s no reason such technologies will be limited to restoring lost functionality. Recently a designer in England has developed a device called the Third Thumb. It is just that: an artificial thumb that straps onto the hand opposite one’s biological thumb. Its two knuckles are connected via Bluetooth to a smaller device on the wearer’s toe. By flexing the toe this Third Thumb can grasp, swipe, and flick. While the sheer novelty of this extra digit seems to outweigh its practical applications, it is an interesting proof of concept for further ways to augment the human body. Of course prostheses like these offer the potential for greatly enhanced strength and dexterity. But why stop there? Will we someday be able to install a third eye on the back of the head? One that can see ultraviolet light and identify unfamiliar faces? Or perhaps smell as well as a bear can, sense temperature as well as a snake can, or even "see" the Earth's magnetic field as some birds do?
While it’s easy to imagine the cool possibilities of devices that interface with the brain, there are clearly pitfalls to avoid as well. Currently direct brain implants are considered a last resort because they are medically risky. This may change over time, though, as safer procedures and technologies are developed. For instance, some implants have been installed via stents in blood vessels, avoiding open brain surgery. For implants that interact with other people or devices there is also the worry that they could be hacked. It’s a scary possibility, and one we should be well prepared for. But beyond the safety concerns there are ethical considerations as well. As with extended life spans there is the potential that neural implants will benefit the rich and powerful more than the rest of us, thereby widening the gap between the haves and have-nots. And even if society can somehow prevent such inequity, other issues remain. A Pew Research poll published in 2016 showed that a majority of Americans would not want a brain implant that improved concentration, and deemed such technology morally unacceptable. I have a feeling these statistics will change dramatically once these devices are widely available, and people have to choose whether they or their kids will be left behind. But regardless it is an interesting philosophical question. How much should we adhere to the mental and physical limitations of our “birth bodies”, once we have the option to greatly surpass them?
Presently human beings use all sorts of technologies to enhance our brains and bodies. The smart phones in our pockets allow us to communicate, calculate, plan, navigate, multitask, learn and remember far more and far faster than our ancestors. A variety of tools give us the strength, dexterity and perception to do things we ordinarily could not. What happens when these technologies are no longer external, but are linked directly to the brain, and therefore become part of us? What does humanity look like when even tapping a few commands on a computer is no longer a necessary step in performing the tasks that make our species so unique in the animal kingdom? In a sense we are entering a post-biological future. Compared to ourselves, our progeny, some of whom will build new worlds on other planets and moons, will be very different creatures indeed. Let’s hope that among the many new powers they inherit is the knowledge of how to use them for good rather than evil.
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