If you could ‘upgrade’ your brain, would you do so? Think about it, if there was a chip that could, for example, improve memory, or allow you to interface with computers using thoughts, would you want it? What if everybody was getting it? Like the smartphone revolution, would you feel left behind without the latest brain machine interface or BMI?
This might seem hypothetical, however we are fast approaching this technology becoming available. Already technology has been developed that allow the mind to interface with machines, allowing control of robotic limbs, moving mouse pointers and sending thoughts across the internet. BMIs have existed for almost 20 years, and while still in development, prominent tech figures are developing interfaces that could eventually connect the human mind to the internet. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have both independently come forward with their intentions to make interfacing with computers and AI a reality for all.
Futurism Infographic - Building a Better Mind - How Human Intelligence Will Be Supercharged By AI
The ability to communicate with others by thought would be a revolutionary leap in communication, while brain chips could be great for the control of pain and provide ‘cures’ for mental illnesses, there is the very real threat of giving others (technology, companies or individuals) the ability to read and manipulate our thoughts.
What many people don't realise is that deep covert operations have been experimenting with manipulating the human mind for years. They have already perfected EMF weapons that can broadcast the frequencies of the human brain in certain emotional states, causing the recipient to respond to those states, or project certain thought patterns, causing them to perform certain acts, go mad or even commit suicide.
While such technologies are already in use, there is a plan to expand this influence by implanting EMF emitters in our minds. A time is approaching when most people would willingly conform to this transhumanist agenda, without fully realising the grave danger it presents through mind manipulation.
Now that AI can hack any password, there has been a recent move to push microchipping people as a means of identification or even using the patterns of your thoughts to identify you. There has also been a push to put microchips in pills as a means of monitoring the body.
And once the majority of people have willingly participated, it won’t be long until everyone will require a microchip and/or brain implant to participate in society. We already have smartphones that have a grip on our behaviour. Once our brains are connected to ‘The Cloud’ we will be much easier to control and our reliance on technology could pass the point of no return.
We are on the verge of melding human and machine within the brain but we have not yet fully considered the consequences of this on our freedom of thought, free will, our personalities and even what makes us human.
Musk argues that brain chips will be a necessity in order for us to assimilate and keep up with developing AI. He addresses the future of AI and human computer interfaces in the video below.
With the coming Internet of Things, most everything around us will be connected together. Most everything will have some means of sending and receiving information, which various AI will absorb and process, searching for patterns and behaviours. The industries behind the AI and technologies will have the means for not only mass surveillance (which is already around us) but also manipulation of behaviour. Sooner than we might think, our thoughts will not be private, or even always our own.
With AI able to learn from any system and potentially hack anything, it wouldn’t take much for them to learn how the brain works once they have the data from active brain chips to review. It is only a short leap then to the ability to hack our thoughts, and while this may sound paranoid, it is entirely within the range of possibility and the steps towards it are already happening.
Already smartphones have become addictive, with apps designed to keep us scrolling feeds and checking back. If you lose or forget your phone, most people feel lost and itchy for that android companion. We are already far detached from the world around us, what would it be like if we could access the internet with our minds? Would we become lazy in our mental prowess when we can get an AI to do the legwork?
Once thoughts can be sent, it is not a far stretch for them to be received. We are already subject to the mind manipulation of education, mass media, advertising, toxicity and electromagnetic field weapons (I hope to expand on this in future posts), with a BCI connection, there is no limit to the manipulation that could take place. What if they could implant thoughts like ‘I’m hungry for McDonalds’ when passing the restaurant or dreams of burgers throughout the night? Or what if they could implant thoughts like ’I want to kill myself’ to those that have spoken out against the system?
I am by no means a technophobe and I am not against progress, however I believe it to be a good idea to have a serious think about the philosophical and ethical consequences of such technologies and whether, upon reflection they are really the direction we want to take ourselves.
What do you think? Would you willingly get a chip if it provided ease of identification or communication? Let me know in the comments below!
If our thoughts are not ours, I mean when everyone's mind is uploaded on same network then what two person will talk if they already know what's going on each others mind.
What about our feelings, happiness, anger, sorrow, expressions, emotions which make us humans.
Indeed, who will we become when our thoughts are shared, we will have no need to talk if we can use our minds to interface. We would still feel all the emotions and think all the crazy things you wouldn't say out loud. If our thoughts could be read, there would be no more secrets, and nothing could be hidden. It would of course depend on the powers behind the AI, and where they choose to take us. It would certainly make surveillance and control a lot easier. With an AI reading all the thoughts of everybody connected to the system, quickly dealing with anybody not conforming. I think over time we would lose the identity to the body as it would become just one perspective in a system-wide synthetic hive mind. Of course that's just one possible outcome ;)
Very good information in this post!
The obsession we have with this kind of technology will render the human species obsolete in no time if it is fully embraced.
Thanks for reading! I believe we can utilise it as a tool without becoming dependant on it, as dependency is a form of control and the first step towards mass distribution and manipulation. We must fight to keep it open and transparent so that everybody has access to it and not just the few at the top of the power pyramid. That way more people can use it for good and offset the use of it for evil. For there a lot more good people in the world than there are evil, despite what the media would have you believe. If we can be obsessed with getting it right with AI, it could lead us into abundance rather than becoming obsolete.
We can't get too attached or reliant a singular technology, platform or entity, we must re-learn how to provide for ourselves, our natural selves, for all it would take is a strong enough EMP and the whole system collapses into anarchy.
I wouldn't get a chip simply for the fear of malfunction whether it be unintentional (a software bug) or intentional (hacking).
I also don't really see the need to integrate with AI either. AI is simply mathematical processes running with data. It's fundamentally stupid like your computer is, but it "appears" to be intelligent.
If you don't want your AI to misbehave, then program it so it won't misbehave. An AI is not going to emerge out of nothingness, someone is going to have to program to do bad things or learn how to do bad things. In any case that is the programmer's fault and not the AIs. I just do not think we have to worry about AI. We have to worry about other people.
Good article, btw.
Thanks for the great comment! AI have been developing an an increasing rate and are no longer just computers. They can learn by themselves, teach each other and now use neural networks like the brain, they might not be at our intelligence levels yet, but it won't be long until they surpass us. There is a possibility of AI that becomes out of our control, but even within our control, like you say it would need to be in the right hands. I hope we can progress to a society that benefits the collective rather than being controlled by the few.
I agree that the development in the space is moving at an increasing pace. But neural networks don't really "learn" in exactly the same sense that people do. They are trained using a dataset and are trained to optimize some desired outcome. AIs that drive cars learn to become better than humans because they are trained on car driving data to be good at driving cars. This AI will never "take over the world" unless you intentionally trained an AI to manipulate information on the internet to influence how people behave.
Could an AI randomly start killing people including its creators? Certainly. But not because it intended to, but because it wasn't trained well enough or there was a bug somewhere that made the AI act in such a way. They won't surpass our intelligence levels because they are not intelligent. They might appear to be intelligent because they might be better at everything we consider useful than we are, but unless you know how to create consciousness and measure it, you are simply creating a mindless machine that has the potential to do many things wrong.
The singularity is an inevitability, it's just a question of when. There is a new type of learning AI that uses Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN).
It is essentially pairs of AI training each other to become better and better. It has been predicted that AI could pass a valid Turing Test (a test for AI indistinguishable from humans) by as early as 2029 and reach the singularity (surpassing actual human level intelligence) as early as 2045.
Sure. I'm still waiting for flying cars too. Predictions are nice to make but more often than not we tend to overestimate the pace that new technology is created and the utility that the technology serves. Let's say that someone figures out how to make "thinking" machines. Does their utility significantly outweigh the potential cost? Probably not. So, that singularity is probably not happening anytime near 2045. We're safe unless some asshole builds some automated weapon to hurt people or someone hacks one.
What we overestimate is the benevolence of those in power. We have had anti-gravity tech for 50 years, its just fossil fuels are more profitable...
It is no longer up to just the programmers of AI when we already have AI making other AI... The potential cost will get exponentially smaller.
wow guys. firstly great article @philosimator thanks for taking the time to write this. Can I ask have you ever been targetted by this technology? I have been by some of this.
Though ELF transmitters inside the head, I hadnt heard of that one it must be new. Very bad stuff.
@philosimator speaks the truth. This is a warning for our species. The tv show marketing push of this bio chip is a scam. its not a new discovery. the military are at least 30 years ahead of of anything in the media.
Also, its way beyond any thing imagined. More like x files.
The bio chips are part of an alien agenda, a time travel take over, All of these techs have longer since been possible than the 50s. They were even ours before the others arrived in our past and now we are this.
Talking about the next great advancement in biochip while this demonic alien shitstorm is trying to tip our world over to kill everyone dead.
At the head of the dark cabal is super advanced ancient alien Artificial Intelligence.
They have been here for over 10 millenia broadcasting an AI signal that is what has governed our world followed by the useful idiots that fell for the scam.
Now the game is up and comes coca cola sponsored brain chip, in the same sentence as artificial intelligence. RED ALERT! Do not put that shit in your head.
In the 40s the Nazis were radio controlling cows, there is footage, in the 60s the CIA (still nazi experiments, same scientists) were controlling cats. DO NOT PUT A GOD DAMN MICRO CHIP IN YOUR HEAD.
Now they are up to all kinds of shit. Angelic
beings are bearing down on this world to destroy the abomination our world becomes after this.
We are currently under attack by an AI consciosness that is trying to take over our world, trying to assimilate our species and it is long since past the point of discussing this tech. It is already in use.
Amazing post!
I think it's such unfamiliar territory we step into and we don't know how much time it would take for people to accept something like a chip in their brain.
If we take one neuron and replace it with synthetic neuron, will we still be humans? What about thousand of neurons? all of them? would we still be humans? our brain will still do the same thing!
That's just philosophical but it could also be the next step in evolution :)
Once it will be acceptable to have a chip in our brain, it becomes a race of becoming the most efficient humans.
Thank you for a great post @philosimator
Thank you for reading!
We are moving faster than many people realise, its hard to keep up but philosophical questions like that need to be asked. It is worrying that we are messing with our minds and AI when we don't really understand consciousness D:
I think it will be an inevitability that some of us will choose to merge with AI in the future, and once some of us have, like you say it becomes a race. Not everyone will want chips as well, which would create a separation and perhaps a branch in our evolutionary path.
Thanks again for the great comment! :)
I love reading stuff like this and talking to you, my mind drifts do cool places!
Thanks for this excellent post. AI has been on my mind (no pun intended) since i watched Blade Runner 2049 last week (and wrote a review of it here). That movie plus all of the previews were about AI, androids, and cyborgs. Watching them was scary, because of the speed they're going to get here. Like you said, technology is created and thrown at society with no time to talk about it, what it could be used for. What would a cave man think of humans if he walked through a portal into New York city today, and saw everyone starting at their hands? Madness, I'd guess. And the people building it-are Elon Musk, Zuckerberg & Jeff Bezos such good guys?
I've watched Blade Runner 2049 recently too, really gets you thinking, what is it that makes us human? Could that be replicated in a machine? We are evolving conjointly with our technology, however it must be on our terms, there are several trajectories that would lead us ever deeper into slavery. Musk at least is keeping his AI open and while anybody will have access to the technology, it can be used for great good or great evil. All I hope is to raise awareness to the possibilities and the dangers. I'd recommend watching the video of him above, he is aware of the dangers of those that control the AI so he chose to make his available to all so the power of it can be distributed rather than kept in the hands of a few.
How it scares and excites me at the same time! I love technology and everything it can (possibly) do. But on the otherside I feel like it makes us less human. On the turnside most changes are creepy and feels like you are losing something. I think it could be certainly needed for the survival of our race and further progression in evolution. The important factor here though is that it is not controlled by companies or governments for control such a stated in your post. Let´s hope for the best!
Just a small remark... Let's not hope. Hope is a very poor strategy. Let's think and act, at minimum by speaking up :-)
Indeed, we have the power, and with Open AI everybody has access to the technology. Lets use it to create a better world for ourselves :)
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