January 29, 2000 ~ Uploading the Human Brain

I found an article that made me think quite a bit. [No longer online. I will try to find a copy and link it soon]. It was about how in the next thirty years we will have developed the technology to quite literally upload our brains onto a much more advanced internet, an internet that is virtually no different from this world, except that it is created by man. An internet which one can touch, taste, feel, see, hear and move about within as if possessing a body in it. It also talked a lot about how we can literally scan our brains and save them to a harddrive as an Artificial Intelligence. Technically, if I were to do this, a copy of my intelligence, personality, and thinking process would live on after I died. I had several thoughts on this article, which I have scribbled about below. It touches on several things, so I think I will try to break it all up into categories.

The Development of Technology

I found the statistics of how fast technology is developing to be very informative. It is very obvious that our rate of technological development is speeding up, you can tell by just looking around at the world today, and then remembering what it was like 10 years ago. Consider how much the Internet influences our lives today, and how normal it is to hear someone say, "Here's my web page address, tell me what you think," or, "Oh, just email me." The Internet didn't really even exist ten years ago with the exception of the occasional bulletin board, which was usually black and white, telnet style. The colorful, extensive expanse which we call the Internet really just developed very recently. And think of how fast it is taking hold. A world of information, just a click away.

What he said about how, when one form of technology grows and develops to its limit, another new technology is invented which takes up where the other left off was also very true. Just when you think the development of a certain type of technology is going to have to stop soon because all possible stretches and additions have been made, a new form of that particular technology becomes available.

Possible Applications of Nanobots, Neural Implants, and Neuron Transistors

In the article, a few applications of technology merged with biology were already mentioned.

"Neural implants are used to counteract tremors from Parkinson's disease as well as multiple sclerosis. I have a deaf friend who can now hear what I'm saying because of his cochlear implant. Under development is a retinal implant that will perform a similar function for blind people, basically replacing certain visual processing circuits of the brain. Recently, scientists from Emory University placed a chip in the brain of a paralyzed stroke victim who can now begin to communicate and control his environment directly from his brain."

I imagine that it would also be useful to be capable of installing memory chips in our brains to download information into. We would be able to store information in our mind in a much more efficient fashion. For that matter, we could store whole libraries on small chips in our heads. Writing would be much faster. Typing would become superfluous. We could directly transfer the words to the page by just thinking them.

People, however, cannot merely learn facts. They have to also learn how to use and apply that which they have learned. Schooling may take on an entirely different approach if this technology develops.

The Effect of Humans Becoming More Like Machines

What does this mean for humanity? The author said that this is our natural evolution. Will humans really evolve by means of technology instead of biology? Is that really evolving/improving humans in general, or is it closer to getting a "more advanced" wardrobe?

What will be the emotional/psychological impact on people? I imagine self-esteem will suffer some negative effects. For example, if people start completing tasks with their new mechanical parts that they would not have been capable of performing before, there will most likely be a strange inability to define what exactly they did, what exactly they, as individuals, are capable of achieving. Will people consider their electronic and computerized parts just as much a part of themselves as their hearts or their hands? Will people feel as if they can do nothing without their added-on parts? Will humanity become dependant on its cybernetic benefits? (As if we haven't already become dependant on technology). Will people who have computerized parts feel superior to those who don't? Will new prejudices develop?

A Three-Dimensional Internet/Alternate Reality

Consider the educational applications of a three-dimensional alternate world. People could be trained for endless professions and skills in a way which would have no consequences in reality. One could tour ancient Greece, or see what it feels like to scuba dive. Climbers could train on a duplicate Mt. Everest before they do the real thing. One could hold a conversation with a programmed Einstein, Adam Smith, Plato, or Napoleon.

I can certainly see the personal benefits of being able to experience things online in the same way we do in reality. My current relationship started out as a long distance one. To put it very simply, to love someone deeply who is more than 2,700 miles away is excruciatingly emotionally painful. What I would have given in those long months for a single hug! At the same time, the fact that our only communication was through words encouraged us to develop a very deep emotional/philosophical/intellectual connection without any physical distractions. We connected soul to soul, and it was an extremely rewarding experience. (You'd be surprised how powerful 26 letters and a few symbols can be).

However, I don't think looking into someone's digitally reproduced eyes online will ever replace the real thing.

One other consideration: What will happen when the entertainment industry takes up this new technology and runs with it? I fear that this could mean entire societies made up of zombies. People who shut off their bodies twenty-four seven to experience a continuous fantasy world where only what they want to happen may happen. Entire masses of people sitting silent with a dazed expression, an IV stuck in their arms, a bed-pan under their rears. This virtual fantasy world would be far more addictive than television. This is television that you can taste, smell, touch, and influence. You can be a character in the movie. (Anybody read Fahrenheit 451?). I don't even want to start thinking where pornography may go (Brave New World... weren't they called the "feelies" or something like that?). Total apathy would be much more common, I would imagine. If you can escape from this world at any time, why care deeply about it or the people in it? Especially if the virtual world is one which an individual can directly change.

How could people be prevented from immersing themselves in this fake world instead of the real one? How many people would prefer a human-made world (or even a self-made world) to this one? I fear to ask.

Would an existence limited to an artificial reality be just as fulfilling as this world? Personally, I think there is something beautiful about the spontaneity of this world. Sometimes it hurts, or is uncomfortable, sure, but that is how we learn. If it weren't for suffering, we probably wouldn't change all that much. I like the fact that humans didn't create this world. Other people, however, certainly don't hold my views.

I would like to share the optimism of this author, about how "the creative and constructive applications of this technology will persevere," but I honestly cannot say I do. I honestly don't believe all people will use these things in positive fashions. I was concerned with his warnings of how "Organizations, including governments, extremist groups or even a clever individual, could put trillions of undetectable nanobots in the water or food supply of an entire population. These "spy" nanobots could then monitor, influence and even control our thoughts and actions. In addition, authorized nanobots could be influenced by software viruses and other hacking techniques. Just as technology poses dangers today, there will be a panoply of risks in the decades ahead." Would there be any way to defend oneself against this?

The Main Issue: Uploading Human Brains

The author pointed out that the computerized version of yourself would only be a copy, not actually the same you. So this really isn't immortality. It is merely an immortalized copy.

As far as these copies go... Is an electronic brain saved in a few memory chips capable of true, new emotions, due simply to the fact that it has memory of emotions? I am skeptical about this. Let's pretend for a moment that this, for all intents and purposes, is a perfect copy of the human brain and functions exactly the same as a human brain does. Even then, is a brain, physical or electronic, all that is needed for the experience of emotion, or is something more required. I personally believe that emotions are more than mere neural transmissions.

In relation to the issue of emotions, I also believe that there is more to us than simply that which is physical and can be physically measured (and in this hypotetical argument, scanned and saved). Is my entire personality written in my DNA, and the physical layout of my brain? I am inclined to think not. Would these computer brains have souls? Can humans create a soul? Personally, I don't think so.

In the event that these computer brains really are capable of emotion and are sentient and conscious. . . will the fact that they are limited to the computer world bother them? Will they be jealous of humans who can go back and forth? Will android bodies be developed to house these computer brains so that they can interact in this world as well? What if a computer brain falls in love with a human and vice versa? What will be the implications, results, and consequences of that?

In Conclusion

It will be interesting to see if this technology develops. In the event that it does come about, the impact on society, religion, philosophy, and human interaction will be very intriguing to watch and take part in. I just hope that for once (unlike ever before in human history) this will be used for positive, creative, and compassionate causes, rather than harm, for if it is not, the consequences will be far-reaching and frightening.

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