Hi

Was just browsing the website as a general websurfer and was fascinated by the general perspectives on life and neuroscience...wondered what your perceptions were of the future...some questions that have come to mind:-

Let's say man can "explore, control, manage and manipulate" the human brain?

1) "programming" the brain to autonomically manage the mind and body - by that I mean change what we understand today by "medicine." The ultimate self monitoring and healing technology. Implying significantly increased life expectancy?

2) The ultimate redundancy of 'knowledge' as we understand it today. I see the website talks about "Truth" and "Self" and I can - to a certain level - believe in what this is saying. Knowledge in a less abstract sense too -"the information highway" directly to the brain?

3) Functioning by thought alone in all interactions? And in a single language?

4) What will the order, ethics and structure of the world have to become?

5) Is there a 'life energy' or 'life spirit' or 'soul' that is 'tangible enough' to interact with the brain? Would this be a good thing?

Cheers.
Simon Carter, UK

And I also wonder about the question asked somewhere else on the forum..would sleep be neccessary?

The foreseeable future of neuroscience will probably not involve doing everything by thought (like turning on a light, or flying a plane), but will involve enhanced modes of interaction between brain and environment, perhaps through brain-machine interfaces (ideally non-invasive or minimally so).

Dog eat dog ... cyborg eat cyborg ... robot eat robot.

Somethings will never change.

The truth in that suggestion is worrying perhaps mankind conquering the human brain and spirit is the ultimate battle...the rest is history

mm kay, first question. Would sleep be nessecary? Yes. the brain is an escapist, it loves to enjoy things besides the everyday drear of life, from going on holidays, day dreaming to doing something you wouldnt normally do, the mind loves escapism and sleeping provides that in full.

Not sleeping or lack of sleep makes it harder for the body to regenerate and the mind to relax, even if you could go without sleep and live, the result would be ending up being highly stressed, have great a deal of anxiety and probably experience several heart attacks.

Okay, here we go time to answer the rest of the questions for you.

1) Im not entirely sure what you are getting at here, if you are talking about not needing to take care of ones-self, then this is probably possible in the near future through use of automated systems. If you are talking about 'programming' the mind, then this is already possible through a wide assortment of psychological techniques.

The sub-conscious actually does most of what your talking about already, most people just dont realize it. Your sub-conscious controls everything from your heartbeat to persperation and even influencing single cells in your body. To obtain conscious control or modification of the sub-conscious is very simple, just 'talking' to your sub-conscious will suffice. I can provide a lot more info on so called 'programming' the mind, its one of the areas I know alot about, through numerous tests and rigerous reading on various techniques.

2) I actually dont know what your asking, sounds like your just making a statement?

3) We already do function by thought alone, if your talking about the consciousness singularity, well my friend you have a lot of reading to do. If you mean that we function without bodies, then you really are talking about consciousness singularity, I have written up a guide on the subject to help people who are new to the concept.

http://brainmeta.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=15655

4) Have to become for what? I dont understand, are you asking about the future of ethics ect. or are you asking in what way ethics ect. has to change in order to modify the world in some way??

5) Depends on your philosophy really, you will hear people who say there is and who say there isnt, I havent found scientific evidence if thats what your asking.

[quote name='SimonCarter' date='Nov 06, 2006, 05:50 AM' post='71447']


3) Functioning by thought alone in all interactions? And in a single language?

How is this possible?

The single and most universal language is of course mathematics.

Thinking in numbers and equations eh? How would you communicate love? Not 1+1=2, I hope!

nope. (x² + y² - 1)³ = x²y³

Welcome and good way to start the new year.




Nanotechnology give it time.However I still think that there are limitations.Computers etc are not capable of modelling the brain. And even when the technology becomes available (perhaps through regenerating tissue) their is a question of one would maintain identity through augmentation.Some monumental leaps have to be overcome to make for lack of a better word, integration possible though. A fascinating area of discussion all on its own with a myriad of philosophical of philosophical spin offs such as transhumanism. I think what is interesting is whether this would create further gaps between bourgoisie and proletariat. Because if only bourgeois have access to these technologies, then only bourgeois will become enhanced, leaving the labouring masses behind. Unless of course it becomes profitable for corporations to offer these technologies to their workers, in order to increase worker productivity.



This is something that many are hoping for, The question of course is how you going to filter the trusted knowledge from the memes?





You need to be a bit more specific. Right now we function by thought alone. I think that you may be leaning towards the consciousness singularity. Here again are area that need to overcome first... communication, (at the level of neurological pathways, which could be bridged through other means as long as our brains could be trained to respond to outside thoughts), and identity, (that the separation between individuals has been eliminated by the removal of the first obstacle and that the brain has to adapt to that concept too).

I think most people would find a real collective consciousness, (one where every thought and desire is shared and cooperatively pursued), to be an invasion of privacy. This is the individual's identity fighting for a master position in interpersonal relations. There needs to be some way of maintaining one's own identity, without resistence, even after giving up one's privacy. That means becoming absolutely honest and having integrity, towards your own intentions and the separation between individual and society.



Indeed. Ethics are going to change, I do not think that this is odd or unique, regardless of
advancement. Ethics by nature change...have to.



What do you think? On this forum there are distinct schools of thought on this matter.
Some have evidence and others do not.

I

I believe that if we can neurochemically engineer the mind to be completely happy and satisfied all the time (at a cost low enough that this benefit can be distributed to all minds), nobody will have reason to do harm to others. But admittedly some might do it for the heck of it anyway, so I dunno. One can hope not. But engineering the mind to be happy is at least one sure piece of a solution that I believe is not impossible.