Personal Computing - Really Personal

Written by John Abram

Science and Technology Part II 

At the same time, top-of-the-hierarchy computers are transforming into quantum super machines, personal computing devices are coming closer to home. As neurophysiologists map out more of the brain, neuroelectrical computer engineers are inventing computer-controlled devices to interact with it. These systems have already been proven to have extracted information such as words and decisions from the brain and have also been proven to have transmitted information to the brain. Perhaps even more surprising is the fact that these machines have already been able to connect brains and allow the people to whom they belong to work together to solve a problem.

Can you imagine a virtual interface that you could control with your thoughts? Elon Musk talks about a third layer of the human consciousness. It is a layer beyond our (intellectual) cortical and (instinctual) limbic systems. It is the connected brain—our online self—and yours and mine could one day be one of many in an artificially super-intelligent digital network. Computer and neurophysiological engineering technologies could bring us a personal computing experience with a deeper connection to and dependence on the Intelligent Internet, a user experience nearer to real-time thought, and a bigger role for the online mind. Our physical actions, like turning off the lights, could begin to be able to be controlled by our e-brain. Speech and writing could become thought-controlled too. We could begin to live virtually and mentally through a brain-Net interface.

Let’s get something out of the way: the worst-case scenario. Imagine a human life in which most of one’s existence is carried out online. Can you see people sitting still in coma-like thought, hooked up to food supplies, working and carrying out their lives with their online minds in a digital reality? Will the brain device we wear be the mark on our foreheads in apocalyptic times? Well, only in the absolute worst case.

Wait, I take that back. Imagine if these devices, controlled by intelligent quantum machines at the top, began to show initiative on their own. A smart network itself, it will not only machine-learn but could even begin to make decisions on our behalf. Would we then be subject to a cold, machine-like external artificial intelligence at the core of the network? Will the Quantum Super-program usurp our thinking brains?

The future will be brighter, we hope and pray, and trust that it will not bring us said extremes. But our interface to the Net may indeed evolve from the handheld and portable devices we use today into devices that piggyback off the neuroelectrical circuit of the human brain. Although these devices may one day form part of our lives, one can only hope that they will be optional. 

Images: IEEE Spectrum