Are we going to meld our brains with computers?
Where does science end and scince fiction start? From bidirectional brain computer interfaces to shaping our own evolution. Here’s neuroprosthetics…
I’m listening to my friend complaining: “This is overwhelming. Why has every single debate turned into a technology debate? Why do I worry about AI taking over while Siri can’t even book my flight for me yet?”
I wonder if every human on earth feared that they won’t be able to keep up with the pace of things in the future. Or is this concern about technology a 20th century thing? We tend to think that technology is always improving, always going forward automatically. The truth is that it only improves if really smart people work really hard on it and surely, 2017 was the year of the AI hype. With the rise of coverage of AI in media, came the countless scenarios of utopias and doomsdays. It provided the juicy stories for pop-science pages, divisions between scientists, academics and entrepreneurs yielded more content for products of popular culture. Neuroscience and engineering is ultimately cool.
In February this year, Elon Musk argued that sophisticated artificial intelligence might make ‘house cats’ of humans. Becoming cyborgs is inevitable if we want to stay relevant in the future. “Humans must augment their capabilities with a merger of biological intelligence and machine intelligence if we want to continue to add value to the economy.”
The idea of interfacing minds with machines has long captured the human imagination. Recent advances in neuroscience and engineering are making this idea a reality.* We’re entering the domain of brain-computer interface (BCI) which cut out the middlemen such as typing or talking with external devices. We are moving towards a mind that is connected directly with AI, robots and other minds to transcend our human limitations. A grand vision of; humanity to design how we evolve our brains rather than just letting it happen by the extremely slow and random process of natural selection.
Paul Sajda from Columbia University puts it as: “Rather than doomsday scenarios, let’s look at how the relationship between humans and machines can evolve.”
Neuroprosthetics, Today
There are already many devices that interface with the brain, for partly simple tasks. For instance, symptoms of parkinson’s and obsessive-compulsive disorder can be reduced with the implantation of a medical device which sends electrical impulses to specific targets in the brain (deep brain stimulation) for treating movement.
Paralyzed patients movement intentions can be extracted from their brain signals allowing them to use a tablet wirelessly. Amputees can operate and “feel” (two-way feedback) prosthetic legs, arms and hands. This involves decoding brain signals from the skull through EEG or via implanted electrodes then translating those signals into commands for the devices. And similarly, sending virtual sensations back to the brain for sensory feedback.
The Grand Vision
The theory is that with a better understanding of the neural activity in the brain, neuroprosthetics could expand beyond treating medical conditions. We could expect to see the engineering problems of these technologies getting solved within our lifetimes. It could be a part of our natural progression of how we augment ourselves with technology.
In the realm of human enhancement, some fundamental aspects of humanity can be changed. BCI’s might cross the threshold from where they are for someone who is ‘disabled’ and become something that a able-bodied person might actually want to have.
Some predictions about the applications of next generation of BCI’s are: additional cognitive abilities such as extra memory, brain-controlled robots, brain to brain communication, devices to augment memories (Here comes a million pop culture references.), additional sensory like night vision, apps that can recognize and help you cut out your unhealthy behaviours, devices to modulate our mood, individual identity chips and so on. Some also made extreme predictions- Elon Musk with Neurolink and Bryan Johnson with Kernel are sharing a vision of hacking the human brain. And upload humanity into the cloud. (The ultimate selfie?) Both companies are now working on hardware and software to augment human intelligence.
To understand how far off we are from the future where we are all enlightened cyborgs, Bryan Johnson explains: “We have over 80bn neurons in the brain. Our tools currently give us access to an extremely small number of neurons. With prosthetics, we’re maybe talking about 100 neurons. We need higher bandwidth interfaces.”
With our current devices like EEG caps, we can only listen to small parts of the brain and decode simple basic concepts like moving an elbow. We’re nowhere near understanding complex cognitive faculties like language and metaphor. Tools that are currently used for treatments are still rudimental, meaning scientist can fix certain aspects but they can’t really understand how these tools work.
Blake Richards, an assistant professor of biology at the University of Toronto remarks: “Figuring out how to answer someone when they ask you a question, putting on your clothes — these basic things are totally mysterious to us (from a neuroscience perspective)”
There is also what we can consider as a language barrier; communication of neurons are through complex interactions of electrical signals and chemical reactions. When we use electrical stimulation to the brain, it has a heavy electrical “accent” and hard for neurons to understand while with all the other ongoing neural activity. Yet, here is an engineering problem: How do you communicate with a large number of neurons in the brain over a long time without damaging them? Brain tissue is soft and the wires we connect tend to be harsh.
The bottom line is that the future of enhanced humans are coming faster than ever considered before. Whether it’s going to be BCI’s as consumer products or intelligently directing our own evolution, we need to talk about the ethics. The effects they might have on our society as humans considering agency, inequality, privacy and other aspects need to be discussed. Historically, protocols and regulations has been slow to catch up on rapid advances.
I’d like to finish with Bryan Johnson again: “You could say humans are ill-equipped to manage the affairs of society. Where’s the proof? Exhibit A is all of human history. If we had new tools, maybe we could become a better species.”
References:
*Rao, R. (2017). Brain-Computer Interfacing: An Introduction. [online]
Solon, O. (2017). Elon Musk says humans must become cyborgs to stay relevant. Is he right?. [online] the Guardian.
Futurism. (2017). Brain implants will drive our evolution and “extend our capabilities” [online]
The Conversation. (2017). Melding mind and machine: How close are we?. [online]
