Cognitive enhancements

[VelesHomais]

While neuroscientists still do not fully understand the brain, it is clear that intelligence is subject to modification. Paleoanthropology has provided us with the first insight into the matter. There is a clear correlation between the cranial capacity in Great Apes and their intelligence, manifested in production of tools and the development of creativity. There is a bit of a mystery in this regard when it comes to Homo neanderthalensis, but generally speaking, from Ausralapithecus Afarensis to Homo Habilis to Homo Erectus and to us, there is a clear trend. The problem with evolution as a method for increasing intelligence, is that it takes millions of years of trial and error. Today neuroscientists can, obviously, go far beyond Paleoanthropology in not only comprehending but also in modifying our intelligece. The research in the former has exploded particularly with the ubiquitous use of fMRI and the exponential increase in data processing capabilities. Already in the 1960s we had drugs that were being prescribed to people with cognitive disabilities for rectification purposes, I am primarily talking about Piracetam, of course.

Some, like Ray Kurzweil, are advocating the merging of natural intelligence with artificial intelligence, others suggest that our brains are capable of immense calculations if only we found proper methods of stimulation.

This thread is for discussing both the methods and implications of radical artificial enhancements of our cognitive abilities.

[ramanujann]

Interesting!

[VelesHomais]

Btw, I've begun taking some mild enhancers, to test them out for myself.

[Cosmin]

Our first Robomod is almost here.

[wjfox]

[DaiTengu]

Originally Posted by Cosmin

Our first Robomod is almost here.

I've been here for years.

[kayanathera]

pls define intelligence first

[Cosmin]

Go to DLM. Observe 80% of the people and discussions there.

The opposite of that.

[Tepes]

Enhancing the brains of living humans is very hard to do, but enhancing the collective intelligence of society is nearly technically possible. We have Einstein's brain and DNA, it's simply a matter of cloning him in large numbers.

Of course, good luck convincing the religious freaks and the freaks who believe that intelligence depends only on the environment of approving such human cloning.

[Spartan_X]

Maybe thats the next step in evolution. matter ---> organic matter ----> life ----> artificial life ?

[DaiTengu]

Originally Posted by kayanathera

pls define intelligence first

Someone capable of expressing themselves in complete, grammatically correct sentences?

[VelesHomais]

Originally Posted by Tepes

Enhancing the brains of living humans is very hard to do, but enhancing the collective intelligence of society is nearly technically possible. We have Einstein's brain and DNA, it's simply a matter of cloning him in large numbers.

Very hard to do is a subjective measure of difficulty. There are chemical compounds known to stimulate the neocortex to some extent that have been known for half a century. Research in this field is very sporadic and it is severely underfunded, most promising enhancers have been synthesized for the treatment of the Alzheimer's patients, which have an unintentional benefit for those with healthy brains. While the progress in the field is unpredictable, the pharmaceutical industry is on the cusp of becoming an information technology a little over a decade from now and should, by then, become subject to rapid progress.

This will certainly result in a mass impact before we start mass cloning Einstein.

[VelesHomais]

Originally Posted by Spartan_X

Maybe thats the next step in evolution. matter ---> organic matter ----> life ----> artificial life ?

Without a doubt. Ascendancy of our species will culminate in the domination over the painfully slow evolution and will lead to subsequent transcend from biological to a hybrid form of existence. Australian researcher, Hugo de Garis, believes that this will lead to an Artilect War; a war between those who upgrade and those who choose to stay behind, as well as the purely artificial life forms, but I hold this view to be overly pessimistic and believe that the transition is going to be gradual and highly beneficial for everyone.

[ramanujann]

Originally Posted by Tepes

Enhancing the brains of living humans is very hard to do, but enhancing the collective intelligence of society is nearly technically possible.

Good point. Collective intelligence is evolving and improving due to the growth of human population and accumulation of knowledge. More people - more great minds which are the core of the collective intelligence of humanity on Earth.

Originally Posted by Tepes

We have Einstein's brain and DNA, it's simply a matter of cloning him in large numbers.

Einstein? No need of his brain and DNA. Nowadays we have geniuses even better than him (for example Edward Witten). But there is no guarantee that the clone of a genius will be a genius too and will make some great discovery like his prototype. There are many other factors involved...

[Iluminat]

Originally Posted by VelesHomais

Without a doubt. Ascendancy of our species will culminate in the domination over the painfully slow evolution and will lead to subsequent transcend from biological to a hybrid form of existence. Australian researcher, Hugo de Garis, believes that this will lead to an Artilect War; a war between those who upgrade and those who choose to stay behind, as well as the purely artificial life forms, but I hold this view to be overly pessimistic and believe that the transition is going to be gradual and highly beneficial for everyone.

Eventually people will be forced to upgrade if they want to stay on the job market, army etc. "normal" people simply can't keep up no matter how good they are it will still be too slow, their bodies too weak etc. I doubt there will be a war though since police and military are first to upgrade themselves so who would have fight on the "natural" human side and with what? I imagine only small minority, mostly religious nuts and perhaps some leftists would refuse the change complitelly but that shouldn't be a problem, they can live in reservation all they want. Terrorist attacks are possible but not a real armed conflict.

[Spartan_X]

Purely artificial life forms however, raises other problems. Imagine robots with human appearance ( like, say, the terminator ). What rights do robots ( with a human personality ) have? If you destroy one, have you commited a murder? How would you treat one? I believe that this question will be a major problem for future societies.

[Iluminat]

I don't think it will be that big of a problem, even animals have rights this days so why not self-concious robots? But that's one of the resons probably not many of them will be produced though. We need artificial slaves that never get bored or dissatisfied with their work so making robots inteligent enough to do the job and deal with problems that arise but nothing more might be much more difficult.

[_BPS_]

Originally Posted by wjfox

Bizarre but without a doubt, it is possible and it will happen. The health benefits will be remarkable.

[VelesHomais]

Originally Posted by Spartan_X

Purely artificial life forms however, raises other problems. Imagine robots with human appearance ( like, say, the terminator ). What rights do robots ( with a human personality ) have? If you destroy one, have you commited a murder? How would you treat one? I believe that this question will be a major problem for future societies.

I think it's going to be more complicated than how it's been depicted in Science Fiction. Everything is going to be merged and interconnected. The issue will be in telling where one entity begins and another ends. Humans are going to be merged with artificial intelligence, while artificial intelligence is going to be everywhere; in advertising, in your walls, in your clothes, in the government, in cars, etc. I don't see why we would have a single independent artificial intelligence unit confined to a single android, like you say. It's more likely that we will have a collective artificial intelligence in charge of entire police departments or military operations.

[Spartan_X]

Yes, i agree that it is unlikely that we will ever see androids in the form of how science fiction depicts them. Not impossible to happen ( maybe only in a small scale, like a research project, or as a experiment ), but unlikely.

We are discussing about problems that future societies *may* encounter with our 2013 minds and thinking. I don't believe that we can have a answer about to what exactly future people will do about these matters.