“Mankind is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell.” – George Orwell
Today several private and even governmental organizations exist, with massive funding, that are keen on revolutionizing the mechanism of intelligence. Leading examples are: Neuralink (an E. Musk company), Kernel, Facebook, and last but not least of all the US Government.
Neuralink and Kernell can be categorized within the same dimension: Implanting chips into humans for functional purposes. Facebook already developed mindreading breakthroughs using sensors and optical imaging. Regarding the US government, who knows what they are up to nowadays. Interestingly enough, during the Obama administration’s rule the BRAIN (Brain research through advancing innovative neurotechnologies) initiative was initialized. Brain aims to gain a deeper understanding on the 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion connections our brains make in order to perpetuate advances in science and medicine.
Don’t go making your faraday foil hats yet! While privacy concerns remain, and I would hate for a multinational to hack into my brain, the real risks should be centered around what enhanced capabilities could potentially do for those people of ill- or unintelligent intentions. Policies to handling these risks are yet to be understood and created. Personally, I hope we understand the risks and reactions to them before a natural experiment for this phenomena presents itself.
The 4th industrial revolution as we know it should not be on the impact of machines on the world. However, the inevitable revolution should be revolved around the empowerment of people! This empowerment, I believe, will be fueled by 4th Industrial revolution technologies such as AI, IoT, smart technologies, and eventually augmented reality.
Augmented reality should be viewed as Skywalker’s crème brulee when compared to the just-add-water brownies provided by virtual reality. And while brownies are delicious and virtual reality is nice to have, augmented reality presents a real opportunity for companies to combine various levels of knowledge gained through the 4th technologies in a simple way for the Rich and Poor to productively use.
Lastly, whether it’s the future business professional’s alarm clock that will select the most appropriate clothes configuration based on the best perspiration-to-humidity ratio or we are introduced into the age Skynet robots (Terminators), one thing remains. It is our collective development that will shape the future of this world and the roll of technology in it.
Sources:
https://www.braininitiative.nih.gov/?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
http://kernel.totemapp.net/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-25/elon-musk-s-neuralink-gets-27-million-to-build-brain-computers
https://www.wired.com/story/why-you-will-one-day-have-a-chip-in-your-brain
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/08/ai-and-human-stupidity
Implanting chips into humans is an interesting, yet somewhat troubling thought. Although it would be highly interesting to for example be able to replay the audio of a certain conversation, I think the privacy risks of someone stealing your personal data are considerable. It will be interesting to see how data-security firms will pick up this challenge, as the upside of this technology would be significant.