Throughout history, humans have been coming up with the ways to enhance cognitive abilities. Although we haven’t quite made it to the point of fusing our brains with technology for cognitive enhancement, we have taken other steps. There are supplements known as smart drugs or nootropics, that boost your brain power. In fact, some of these smart drugs are firmly embedded in our culture, like caffeine, commonly found in coffee and tea. Such smart drugs are also used to tackle diseases, such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.
But we are reaching the point where we are developing artificial implants to boost cognitive ability, prevent diseases and so forth. How plausible is this idea? If possible, how probable it is and when will use this new technology? More importantly, how will we use it?
Intelligence As Resource
Bryan Johnson founded Kernel, a company which started a $100 million project to focus on developing intelligence enhancing device. Bryan argues that intelligence is the most valuable resource of human existence.
He is currently studying how the brain of people with epilepsy work. But finding the errors that occur in their minds is just a first step. He emphasises that we explore how healthy brain works, which will allow them to mimic brain functioning, store that functionality in a device and then implant the device in the brains of people who have epilepsy.
But helping people with disabilities isn’t the only thing Kernel company has in mind. They also hope to improve brain in every sense of that word, enhance human ability to learn rapidly and memorise data more efficiently.
However, not everyone is optimistic. Neil Burgess from the University College London remains sceptical. He claims that even if Johnson could figure out the fundamental nature of how the brain works, it would still be hard to mimic its functions and then put it into practice.
The Complexity of the Brain
Emerson Pugh said that “If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn’t.” This quote strikes at the heart of our attempts to understand how our brain works.
First of all, there is a logical problem: we are using our brains to understand how our brains work, which is contradictory. It is as if you would try to describe the blue colour with the blue colour. Dr Thomas Insel, the Director of NIMH, claims that scientists are diving into the unknown when researching brain. We have a firm understanding of how our kidneys filter toxins, how the heart pumps blood, but we don’t know how the brain processes information. Furthermore, humans believe the brain is the creator of meaning, but we don’t know where is that meaning stored, what it is, etc.
Though not related to Neil Burgess scepticism, it does support it. It is not that Kernel won’t be able to make a device that will enhance human cognitive ability, it is just that this will be very hard to achieve.
There is also another problem; brains don’t like implants. Charles Lieber (Harvard University) argues that such implants induce scarring in human brains. Our bodies treat implant as a foreign object (as if it is a virus or parasite) and attack it, resulting in implant losing its functionality.
Contemplating Consequences
But let us assume that Kernel designs such device and that they solve all inherent engineering problems that come with the brain implant technology. This new technology would open up a lot of philosophical, religious and socioeconomic issues. Even if such technology is developed to advance human society, it could easily be used for personal gain.
Is it ethical to insert implants in the human brain in the first place? Most scientists would say that it is since it can cure various diseases. Furthermore, whenever there is a new technology on the market, it is usually expensive, and only the rich people would be able to purchase it and use it to their advantage, which would create an even more enormous gap between those at the top and those at the bottom.
It could also fall into the hands of a malevolent dictator who would breed a deadly army and gain an advantage over its enemies. All the problems mentioned in this article are just the tip of the iceberg, and it is essential to discuss these issues before we even develop such technology.
