The Bionic You

[Sean Hayden]

Some people think we'll be using computers to enhance ourselves very soon. They point to things like our use of handheld devices as memory augmentation, and then wave their arms and presto, we've got a better memory system. I'm skeptical. Obviously google is nothing like memory. Would having google inside your head be better than at your finger tips? It sounds silly. Oh, I've gotten rid of the need to go down to the library therefore I'm enhanced. No, you're still you, and if you couldn't use an encyclopedia to come up with anything worthwhile before, then having it inside your head may not improve things either.

Still, maybe we really can enhance things like memory. But what is a memory? Can you turbocharge a neuron? Who's running the "memory command center"? Can you give him/her/cis steroids? What about when you've reached the natural limits, where do you plug in, and how do you conserve what was there before you fiddled with it?

Is it all a fantasy?

[Hermit]

Some people think we'll be using computers to enhance ourselves very soon.

Computers enhance our memory like cars enhance our mobility, telephones enhance our ability to be heard over long distances and binoculars enhance our ability to see further. I have not encountered anyone arguing any such tools doing more than that.

[Clinton Huxley]

It'll all be brains in jars, if it isn't already.

[Sean Hayden]

Some people think we'll be using computers to enhance ourselves very soon.

Computers enhance our memory like cars enhance our mobility, telephones enhance our ability to be heard over long distances and binoculars enhance our ability to see further. I have not encountered anyone arguing any such tools doing more than that.

What do you think though, are we going to be able to enhance our cognitive abilities by plugging in?

What kind of problems do you see when you consider the possibility?

[Sean Hayden]

It'll all be brains in jars, if it isn't already.

Welcome back Huxley!

Think of the possible improvements to the quality of service your already outstanding staff provides.

-exciting times sir, exciting times

[Clinton Huxley]

McAfee for brains has detected a virus in your neuro-dongle. Please re-boot.

[Sean Hayden]

It's the ads we should worry about...

[Clinton Huxley]

It's the ads we should worry about...

People, and by people I mean me, are worried about the hacking of self-driving cars. Imagine the hacking of internet-connected brains. I don't want my cortex to be mining bitcoins on the sly.

[Hermit]

Some people think we'll be using computers to enhance ourselves very soon.

Computers enhance our memory like cars enhance our mobility, telephones enhance our ability to be heard over long distances and binoculars enhance our ability to see further. I have not encountered anyone arguing any such tools doing more than that.

What do you think though, are we going to be able to enhance our cognitive abilities by plugging in?

Obviously not computers. Nor cars. Nor telephones. A saner family background during childhood accompanied by a better education system might help.

[pErvinalia]

Some people think we'll be using computers to enhance ourselves very soon. They point to things like our use of handheld devices as memory augmentation, and then wave their arms and presto, we've got a better memory system. I'm skeptical. Obviously google is nothing like memory. Would having google inside your head be better than at your finger tips? It sounds silly. Oh, I've gotten rid of the need to go down to the library therefore I'm enhanced. No, you're still you, and if you couldn't use an encyclopedia to come up with anything worthwhile before, then having it inside your head may not improve things either.

Still, maybe we really can enhance things like memory. But what is a memory? Can you turbocharge a neuron? Who's running the "memory command center"? Can you give him/her/cis steroids? What about when you've reached the natural limits, where do you plug in, and how do you conserve what was there before you fiddled with it?

Is it all a fantasy?

Yeah, these tend to be my thoughts on the matter as well. Although, every now and then I listen to / read something that does make me stop and think that they could be on to something. Can't say I can recall any of those points at the moment. Fucken memory...

[Rum]

We may not be directly 'wired in' but we are networked pretty thoroughly already. From cars with GPS, to google on your phone telling you when the next train is and where to meet your friends, to consuming entertainment anywhere and any time - it doesn't seem to me to be all that big a step to the next stage of being physically connected - what are ear buds after all if not sound more or less delivered directly to the brain. Remember google glasses? Maybe just a bit too much before their time. But something similar will come along I'm sure and incrementally the machines will TAKE OVER!

[Sean Hayden]

Physically connected yes. But will computers be able to enhance our cognitive abilities at the level where cognitive functioning happens? That's actually a bit of a tough question for me to phrase correctly. Most analogies will fail I think because we don't have anything like an understanding of the mind as we do with say cars. So, it's not really possible to assume things like, well we can enhance memory by increasing storage, like we can increase the range of a vehicle by increasing the volume of fuel it can carry. We don't understand the system of memory to that level, do we? The same goes for the other parts of the mind.

[Sean Hayden]

Some people think we'll be using computers to enhance ourselves very soon.

Computers enhance our memory like cars enhance our mobility, telephones enhance our ability to be heard over long distances and binoculars enhance our ability to see further. I have not encountered anyone arguing any such tools doing more than that.

What do you think though, are we going to be able to enhance our cognitive abilities by plugging in?

Obviously not computers. Nor cars. Nor telephones. A saner family background during childhood accompanied by a better education system might help.

Computers may be able to do it.

As for family background and better education, I'm not as convinced by those things in this context as I used to be.

[Clinton Huxley]

What is it like to be a bat? Only a bat knows.

We each know what it feels like to be human (apart from you P-Zombies. Hi!)

We don't know why we perceive qualia as we do and so won't be able to replicate or simulate that feeling.

Or something

[Rum]

Physically connected yes. But will computers be able to enhance our cognitive abilities at the level where cognitive functioning happens? That's actually a bit of a tough question for me to phrase correctly. Most analogies will fail I think because we don't have anything like an understanding of the mind as we do with say cars. So, it's not really possible to assume things like, well we can enhance memory by increasing storage, like we can increase the range of a vehicle by increasing the volume of fuel it can carry. We don't understand the system of memory to that level, do we? The same goes for the other parts of the mind.

There is some evidence that young people are not bothering to commit information to memory - basically because they don't need to. They look it up more or less instantly and then forget it because they don't need it any more. Given the sheer amount of info available it is probably a sensible strategy, but I see no reason why technology could not eventually offer other forms of 'internal;' storage if we want it. I can't find the article I was reading about this but in looking for it I stumbled on this about 'digital enhancements'. http://www.wisdompage.com/Prensky01.html