Before we come up with some kind of evil Hollywood sci-fi artificial intelligence that for some reason uses the horribly inefficient human body as a power source, we’re stuck with brains. We are already doing to the brain what machines do to humans in the classic movie “The Matrix.”
Animal brains, that is. Scientists at the University of Reading removed the neural cortex from a rat fetus, placed it in a nutrient-rich, neuron-rich broth that surrounded a circuit board, and waited. More than 300,000 rat neurons eventually forged their own unique new connections with the cortex and the circuit board:
“After about five days, patterns of electrical activity can be detected as neurons transmit signals around what has become a very dense network of axons and dendrites. The neurons appear to fire randomly, producing pulses of voltage known as action potentials. Often, however, many or all of them will fire in unison, a phenomenon known as ‘popping’.”
Once this biocomputer reached sufficient maturity, they equipped it with wheels and sensors. Strangely, it automatically moved and avoided the walls like a rat. The full article and demo video are on New Scientist. Don’t expect your mechanical Roomba to become obsolete anytime soon, but instead teach your cat some self-control while he waits.
There are also test flights of moths remotely controlled very precisely by human hands due to insect brain-chip interfaces. Using a specific species of moth that triggers flight is a mere on/off signal, instead of requiring a signal for each beat of its wings, has been a huge leap. Scientists can now control these insects remotely with much less battery power, more precision (even monitoring their location and speed mid-flight), and better video feedback systems. Cockroaches are old news when it comes to this kind of insect domination, already being considered vehicles honed to the level of remote-controlled toys.
Obviously, everyone is going to be concerned about privacy. Thinking ahead: invest in the fumigation and extermination industry while it’s still cheap.
As for human brains, we’re a bit more complicated than insects, so luckily we have a few decades left before total domination by the evil Illuminati-sponsored, elitist and technocratic machine overlords. But in reality, there are brilliant studies going on right now in human neuroengineering that are sure to fuel the flame of controversy between conspiracy theorists and religious fundamentalists around the world.
There are already multiple robots controlled entirely by human thoughts without physical controls. Brown University (Shameless Plug: Go Bruno!), is leading research on brain control of robotic prosthetics for people with disabilities with the BrainGate program. Many deaf people can now hear well due to the direct interface between the brain and the implant.
Where is all this leading? Renowned engineer and futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts that many of us will choose to add computing power and knowledge to our biological brains (just like the rest of our bodies), improving our mental health, capabilities, and intelligence while retaining our core personality, individuality, and humanity. Some say we will lose our unique individualism as we merge with the machines, I predict otherwise. Just as an uneducated and starving brain from medieval Middle Ages or poverty-stricken Africa is limited compared to an educated and healthy brain, in the future our minds will expand and become more varied in psychology, ideas, creativity, and perception as we willingly tinker with our intelligence, speed of thought, memory, and even how the building blocks of our brain are organized. Just like a prosthetic leg helps you walk again or a pacemaker allows you to live years longer, brain-computer interfaces will be just another step.
Evolution, however haphazard, is quite inefficient. Evolution has taken us to great places, but also to great suffering. As Kurzweil says, we will transcend the limitations of our biology.
Just another step in the natural evolution of the universe, I think.
What do you think?