Comments on: Brain enhancements | The augumented you http://armannd.com/brain-enhancements.html/ Things that matter Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:42:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Titus-Armandhttp://armannd.com/brain-enhancements.html/comment-page-1/#comment-465 Titus-Armand Fri, 05 Oct 2007 06:53:41 +0000 http://www.armannd.com/bio-enhancements.html#comment-465 That would be interesting indeed. If RSS survives... :) Maybe the information from the actual RSS feeds will simply be uploaded to our brains, wireless. We would simply *know* what's new on our favorite sites.Trying to picture life in a bio-enhanced world is an interesting (and exciting) imagination exercise. Highly suggested for everyone! That would be interesting indeed. If RSS survives… :) Maybe the information from the actual RSS feeds will simply be uploaded to our brains, wireless. We would simply *know* what’s new on our favorite sites.

Trying to picture life in a bio-enhanced world is an interesting (and exciting) imagination exercise. Highly suggested for everyone!

]]> By: Titus-Armandhttp://armannd.com/brain-enhancements.html/comment-page-1/#comment-53820 Titus-Armand Fri, 05 Oct 2007 03:53:00 +0000 http://www.armannd.com/bio-enhancements.html#comment-53820 That would be interesting indeed. If RSS survives... :) Maybe the information from the actual RSS feeds will simply be uploaded to our brains, wireless. We would simply *know* what's new on our favorite sites.Trying to picture life in a bio-enhanced world is an interesting (and exciting) imagination exercise. Highly suggested for everyone! That would be interesting indeed. If RSS survives… :) Maybe the information from the actual RSS feeds will simply be uploaded to our brains, wireless. We would simply *know* what’s new on our favorite sites.

Trying to picture life in a bio-enhanced world is an interesting (and exciting) imagination exercise. Highly suggested for everyone!

]]> By: Titus-Armandhttp://armannd.com/brain-enhancements.html/comment-page-1/#comment-463 Titus-Armand Fri, 05 Oct 2007 01:38:05 +0000 http://www.armannd.com/bio-enhancements.html#comment-463 To some degree I think that these modifications will be compulsory - a basic implementation would be required. Beyond their medical and cognitive uses, we must face the fact that this technology could be used to directly influence and control people. At the present moment schools are serving that purpose (control through formulaic means), but given that an increasingly number of people are becoming aware of school's "side effects," something will be changed. Maybe brain chips will become the next "school," who knows.About the greatly increased ambitions, I believe they will seem to be increased only when looked upon from the perspective of the present time, but in those future circumstances peoples ambitions will be as normal as ever. Everything evolves.Do we trust ourselves? This is a very good question, with many sides to it. Assuming that we will trust ourselves, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Handey" rel="nofollow">Jack Handey</a> said an interesting thing in one of his "Deep Thoughts": "I can picture in my mind a world with out war, a world with out hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it."We are - each of us - the only ones that can limit the potential misuses of such revolutionary technology. We can do that by educating ourselves and our thoughts, by knowing or striving to know the know the meaning of our lives, by helping each other out and by becoming aware that no matter how many new technologies time will bring us, this world will still remain just a place in our minds, nothing more than a persistent illusion...At the moment I'm very excited about these technologies and I have no doubt that they will further improve our lives in a very good way. There will be minor problems with it (there always are), but the only thing that worries me is: what will happen to blogging? :D To some degree I think that these modifications will be compulsory – a basic implementation would be required. Beyond their medical and cognitive uses, we must face the fact that this technology could be used to directly influence and control people.
At the present moment schools are serving that purpose (control through formulaic means), but given that an increasingly number of people are becoming aware of school’s “side effects,” something will be changed. Maybe brain chips will become the next “school,” who knows.

About the greatly increased ambitions, I believe they will seem to be increased only when looked upon from the perspective of the present time, but in those future circumstances peoples ambitions will be as normal as ever. Everything evolves.

Do we trust ourselves? This is a very good question, with many sides to it.
Assuming that we will trust ourselves, Jack Handey said an interesting thing in one of his “Deep Thoughts”:
“I can picture in my mind a world with out war, a world with out hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they’d never expect it.”

We are – each of us – the only ones that can limit the potential misuses of such revolutionary technology. We can do that by educating ourselves and our thoughts, by knowing or striving to know the know the meaning of our lives, by helping each other out and by becoming aware that no matter how many new technologies time will bring us, this world will still remain just a place in our minds, nothing more than a persistent illusion…

At the moment I’m very excited about these technologies and I have no doubt that they will further improve our lives in a very good way. There will be minor problems with it (there always are), but the only thing that worries me is: what will happen to blogging? :D

]]> By: Titus-Armandhttp://armannd.com/brain-enhancements.html/comment-page-1/#comment-53818 Titus-Armand Thu, 04 Oct 2007 22:38:00 +0000 http://www.armannd.com/bio-enhancements.html#comment-53818 To some degree I think that these modifications will be compulsory - a basic implementation would be required. Beyond their medical and cognitive uses, we must face the fact that this technology could be used to directly influence and control people. At the present moment schools are serving that purpose (control through formulaic means), but given that an increasingly number of people are becoming aware of school's "side effects," something will be changed. Maybe brain chips will become the next "school," who knows.About the greatly increased ambitions, I believe they will seem to be increased only when looked upon from the perspective of the present time, but in those future circumstances peoples ambitions will be as normal as ever. Everything evolves.Do we trust ourselves? This is a very good question, with many sides to it. Assuming that we will trust ourselves, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Handey" rel="nofollow">Jack Handey</a> said an interesting thing in one of his "Deep Thoughts": "I can picture in my mind a world with out war, a world with out hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it."We are - each of us - the only ones that can limit the potential misuses of such revolutionary technology. We can do that by educating ourselves and our thoughts, by knowing or striving to know the know the meaning of our lives, by helping each other out and by becoming aware that no matter how many new technologies time will bring us, this world will still remain just a place in our minds, nothing more than a persistent illusion...At the moment I'm very excited about these technologies and I have no doubt that they will further improve our lives in a very good way. There will be minor problems with it (there always are), but the only thing that worries me is: what will happen to blogging? :D To some degree I think that these modifications will be compulsory – a basic implementation would be required. Beyond their medical and cognitive uses, we must face the fact that this technology could be used to directly influence and control people.
At the present moment schools are serving that purpose (control through formulaic means), but given that an increasingly number of people are becoming aware of school’s “side effects,” something will be changed. Maybe brain chips will become the next “school,” who knows.

About the greatly increased ambitions, I believe they will seem to be increased only when looked upon from the perspective of the present time, but in those future circumstances peoples ambitions will be as normal as ever. Everything evolves.

Do we trust ourselves? This is a very good question, with many sides to it.
Assuming that we will trust ourselves, Jack Handey said an interesting thing in one of his “Deep Thoughts”:
“I can picture in my mind a world with out war, a world with out hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they’d never expect it.”

We are – each of us – the only ones that can limit the potential misuses of such revolutionary technology. We can do that by educating ourselves and our thoughts, by knowing or striving to know the know the meaning of our lives, by helping each other out and by becoming aware that no matter how many new technologies time will bring us, this world will still remain just a place in our minds, nothing more than a persistent illusion…

At the moment I’m very excited about these technologies and I have no doubt that they will further improve our lives in a very good way. There will be minor problems with it (there always are), but the only thing that worries me is: what will happen to blogging? :D

]]> By: Johnhttp://armannd.com/brain-enhancements.html/comment-page-1/#comment-464 John Thu, 04 Oct 2007 20:32:50 +0000 http://www.armannd.com/bio-enhancements.html#comment-464 Transcranial RSS feeds. Transcranial RSS feeds.

]]> By: Johnhttp://armannd.com/brain-enhancements.html/comment-page-1/#comment-53819 John Thu, 04 Oct 2007 20:32:00 +0000 http://www.armannd.com/bio-enhancements.html#comment-53819 Transcranial RSS feeds. Transcranial RSS feeds.

]]> By: Johnhttp://armannd.com/brain-enhancements.html/comment-page-1/#comment-462 John Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:04:31 +0000 http://www.armannd.com/bio-enhancements.html#comment-462 As with any tool, the ability to work with the brain directly comes with many sticky ethical questions. These are not simple questions, either. An example off the top of my head would be "will the ability to use these techniques be available for all, or will it be limited to a few?", along the same lines as you expressed. Or how about "Will such modification be compulsory?"The tools themselves are not the problem. We are. If (and admittedly it's a big "if") we are strong enough, wise enough, and compassionate enough, new tools and techniques will only serve us.My projection is that during the initial phases there are going to be a few "loose cannons", but that by the time the technology matures, society will have regulated it so that abuses of the technology will be at a minimum. I can only imagine what the penalties would be.Of course, this does assume that society will survive the initial phase. Robert Heinlein in the short story "Gulf", suggested that the defining characteristic of a superman was that the superman takes humankind's evolutionary advantage, thought, to a new level. It is possible (albeit unlikely in my opinion), that someone who has gotten a cognitive boost may have greatly increased ambitions.In the end it comes down to a simple question: Do we trust ourselves? The answer to that, I leave to you. As with any tool, the ability to work with the brain directly comes with many sticky ethical questions. These are not simple questions, either. An example off the top of my head would be “will the ability to use these techniques be available for all, or will it be limited to a few?”, along the same lines as you expressed. Or how about “Will such modification be compulsory?”

The tools themselves are not the problem. We are. If (and admittedly it’s a big “if”) we are strong enough, wise enough, and compassionate enough, new tools and techniques will only serve us.

My projection is that during the initial phases there are going to be a few “loose cannons”, but that by the time the technology matures, society will have regulated it so that abuses of the technology will be at a minimum. I can only imagine what the penalties would be.

Of course, this does assume that society will survive the initial phase. Robert Heinlein in the short story “Gulf”, suggested that the defining characteristic of a superman was that the superman takes humankind’s evolutionary advantage, thought, to a new level. It is possible (albeit unlikely in my opinion), that someone who has gotten a cognitive boost may have greatly increased ambitions.

In the end it comes down to a simple question: Do we trust ourselves? The answer to that, I leave to you.

]]> By: Johnhttp://armannd.com/brain-enhancements.html/comment-page-1/#comment-53817 John Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:04:00 +0000 http://www.armannd.com/bio-enhancements.html#comment-53817 As with any tool, the ability to work with the brain directly comes with many sticky ethical questions. These are not simple questions, either. An example off the top of my head would be "will the ability to use these techniques be available for all, or will it be limited to a few?", along the same lines as you expressed. Or how about "Will such modification be compulsory?"The tools themselves are not the problem. We are. If (and admittedly it's a big "if") we are strong enough, wise enough, and compassionate enough, new tools and techniques will only serve us.My projection is that during the initial phases there are going to be a few "loose cannons", but that by the time the technology matures, society will have regulated it so that abuses of the technology will be at a minimum. I can only imagine what the penalties would be.Of course, this does assume that society will survive the initial phase. Robert Heinlein in the short story "Gulf", suggested that the defining characteristic of a superman was that the superman takes humankind's evolutionary advantage, thought, to a new level. It is possible (albeit unlikely in my opinion), that someone who has gotten a cognitive boost may have greatly increased ambitions.In the end it comes down to a simple question: Do we trust ourselves? The answer to that, I leave to you. As with any tool, the ability to work with the brain directly comes with many sticky ethical questions. These are not simple questions, either. An example off the top of my head would be “will the ability to use these techniques be available for all, or will it be limited to a few?”, along the same lines as you expressed. Or how about “Will such modification be compulsory?”

The tools themselves are not the problem. We are. If (and admittedly it’s a big “if”) we are strong enough, wise enough, and compassionate enough, new tools and techniques will only serve us.

My projection is that during the initial phases there are going to be a few “loose cannons”, but that by the time the technology matures, society will have regulated it so that abuses of the technology will be at a minimum. I can only imagine what the penalties would be.

Of course, this does assume that society will survive the initial phase. Robert Heinlein in the short story “Gulf”, suggested that the defining characteristic of a superman was that the superman takes humankind’s evolutionary advantage, thought, to a new level. It is possible (albeit unlikely in my opinion), that someone who has gotten a cognitive boost may have greatly increased ambitions.

In the end it comes down to a simple question: Do we trust ourselves? The answer to that, I leave to you.

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