Introduction

This is the second part of the series on Brain-Computer Interfaces. By now, you are familiar with BCIs and up to speed with some of the most exciting current commercial developments in the field (if not, make sure to check out the first post, HERE). In the present post I will now cover a prediction on the future of BCIs, made by the world's most reliable and accurate technologist: Ray Kurzweil

Who is Ray Kurzweil ? 

Dr. Kurzweil is a director of engineering  at Google, focused on AI and language processing. He is one of the world's most brilliant technologists and futurists. Indeed, he has made more correct, and documented, technology predictions about the future than anyone else alive:

As reported,  "of the 147 predictions that Kurzweil has made since the 1990s, fully 115 of them have turned out to be correct, and another 12 have turned  out to be "essentially correct" (off by a year or two), giving his  predictions a stunning 86% accuracy rate."

Now, before we proceed, let me remind you that our brains are composed of 100 billion cells called neurons, making 100 trillion synaptic connections. These cells and their connections make you who you are and control everything you do, think and feel. In combination with your sensory organs (i.e., eyes, ears), these systems shape how you perceive the world. In fact, our entire subjective experience of the world literally stems from our brain.

To put into perspective, one could argue that the human brain is effectively a COMPUTER. (in fact, a quantum computer in my opinion - but I will cover this in another post). And our sensory organs are much like PERIPHERAL devices connected to the brain computer - much like you connect a camera (for vision), a microphone (for hearing) and speakers (for speech) to the computer. These peripheral devices - our sensory organs - send continuous data streams to the brain, which - as the world's m0st powerful pattern recognition software - decodes and encodes them, creates order out of disorder, ascribes meaning and creates a simulated experience. Much like the first iPod used Fourier Transform to compress, store and access many MBs of songs, our brain does much of the same with the sound waves that hit our cochlea, creating the experience of sound. So our subjective experience of the outside world is all just coming from inside our brains. I will not go on further with this (after all, the end of the rabbit hole points to the Simulation Theory, and I'll spare you another mind blow for now, and probably cover this in another post), and I will focus on the current topic. But keep the idea of data streams from our sensory organs hitting the brain, cause that's really what creates our sensory experience of the outside world. 

Prepare for the MIND BLOW

So what is Ray Kurzweil's wild wild prediction? (again, the man who has been the most accurate technologist). Here is it:

"In the 2030s, we are going to send nano-robots into the  brain (via capillaries) that will provide full immersion virtual reality from within the nervous system and will connect our neocortex to the cloud. Just like how we can wirelessly expand the power of our  smartphones 10,000-fold in the cloud today, we'll be able to expand our neocortex in the cloud."

Let  that sink in... BCI-powering nano robot neural laces in our brains, connected to the cloud, streaming data into our neocortex, replacing the data streams from our sensory organs, and giving rise to an entirely new, artificial, fully immersive virtual reality. Right from inside the brain. 

Does this sound completely futuristic and impossible?? It shouldn't! In fact, scientists are ALREADY managing to send functional electronics into our brains - check out this incredible Nature Nanotechnology publication on Syringe-injectable electronics (here's the link). 

Let's elaborate

Ray talks about how a connected neocortex will bring humanity to a higher order of existence and complexity — expanding our palate for emotion, art, humor, creativity, expression, and uniqueness. He says,  "We're going to be funnier. We're going to be sexier. We're going to be  better at expressing loving sentiment. We're going to add more levels to the hierarchy of brain modules and create deeper levels of expression.  People will be able to very deeply explore some particular type of music  in far greater degree than we can today. It'll lead to far greater individuality, not less." 

Inded, this sounds very futuristic. But let's remember that exponential technologies are initially deceptive, before they become disruptive. Today, there are numerous laboratories around the world working on our molecular machinery, CRISPR/Cas9 systems that allow us to edit our own genome, and brain-computer interfaces (through cortical implants and the field of optogenetics). 

So what if these fields of technological progress double every 18 months? In 15 years (2017 - 2032), we will have a 1,000-fold improvement over today. What does a future one thousand times better look like?  Perhaps it's what Ray describes…

Are you starting to see it...? In fact, the man himself who aspouses these predictions most that anyone else is probably, in my opinion, one of the greatest minds of Greek origin (my country has a tradition of bringing brilliant men to the world, and I look up to them dearly). I am talking about Peter Diamandis

Whos is Peter Diamandis?

I will take this straight from his self-published bio from SingularityHub:

Dr. Peter Diamandis was recently named by Fortune Magazine as one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders.
He is the founder and executive chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation which  leads the world in designing and operating large-scale incentive  competitions.
He is also the co-founder and executive chairman of Singularity University, a graduate-level Silicon Valley institution that counsels  the world’s leaders on exponentially growing technologies.
Diamandis is also the co-founder and vice-chairman of Human Longevity Inc. (HLI), a genomics and cell therapy-based company focused on extending the healthy human lifespan.
In the field of commercial space, Diamandis is co-founder and co-chairman of Planetary Resources, a company designing spacecraft to enable the detection and prospecting of asteroids for fuels and precious  materials. He is the also co-founder of Space Adventures and Zero Gravity Corporation. 

*If those company names sound familiar, it's because Bryan Johnson of Kernel invested in them (see Part 1)

Diamandis is a New York Times bestselling author of two books: Abundance  – The Future Is Better Than You Think and BOLD – How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World.

He earned degrees in Molecular Genetics and Aerospace Engineering from MIT, and holds an M.D. from Harvard Medical School.

His motto is, “The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself.”

So how does Peter Diamandis envision a world where Ray Kurzweil's predictions come to life?

I can go about paraphrasing how Dr. Diamandis describes the future, but he is so eloquent that I cannot help but give you his descriptions intact. The information retrieved is from his article in SingularityHub, which is also my main reference for this post (source at the end of the post).

Brain-to-Brain Communication

BCIs will deliver a new level of human intimacy, where you can truly know what your lover, friend or child is feeling. Intimacy far beyond what we experience today by mere human conversation. Forget email,  texting, phone calls, and so on — you'll be able to send your thoughts to someone simply by thinking them. 

Google on the Brain

You'll have the ability to "know" anything you desire, at the moment  you want to know it. You'll have access to the world's information at the tip of your neurons. You'll be able to calculate complex math equations in seconds. You'll be able to navigate the streets of any cities, intuitively. You'll be able to hop into a fighter jet and fly it perfectly. You'll be able to speak and translate any language effortlessly. 

Scalable Intelligence

Just imagine that you're in a bind and you need to solve a problem (quickly). In this future world, you'll be able to scale up the computational power of your brain on demand, 10x or 1,000x…in much the same way that algorithms today can spool up 1,000 processor cores on Amazon Web Service servers. 

Living in the Virtual World

If our brains can truly connect at high bandwidth, you will be able  to bypass our current sensory organs (eyes, ears, touch) to the point where brain's perception of reality can be driven completely by a gaming engine — a virtual world. Likewise, the connections would exist in the motor cortex of your brain as well. When you move your limbs, imagine a  corresponding set of virtual limbs (your avatar) moving perfectly in the virtual world. This is about creation of The Matrix x 1,000. 

Extended Immune System

In my webinar discussion with Ray, he outlined how we already have intelligent biological devices, the size of blood cells, that kill disease. They are called T-cells. They can recognize an enemy and attack  it, but they don't work on cancer, retroviruses, et cetera. In the future, nanorobots will be able to communicate wirelessly, download software when new pathogens arrives, and attack cancer, cancer stem cells, bacteria, viruses, and all the disease agents. They can also work  on metabolic diseases like diabetes. They could also maintain healthy levels of everything you need in the blood, including nutrients, and basically repair and eventually replace damaged organs. 

Downloadable Expertise

Remember the scene in The Matrix where Trinity needs to learn how to  fly a helicopter, and Tank downloads a program teaching her how to do  it? We'll be able to do this. Need to perform emergency surgery? Just download the ER doctor program. Need to learn a new language? Download it. Want to cook the perfect meal? Download the chef module. In fact,  you probably won't even need to download it — which takes up memory —  you'll probably just "stream" expertise from the cloud. 

Expanded and Searchable Memories

We'll be able to remember everything that ever happened to us  (because we'll store our memories in the cloud), and we'll be able to search that memory database for useful information. When our memories will become searchable, we'll also be able to make them contextual by cross-referencing our calendars, GPS coordinates, health data, stock market, current news, weather conditions, and anything else that might be relevant to that particular moment in time.

Folks...this is NOT science-fiction. Look at the world around you; self-driving cars, smartphones, robots, AI, drones and space exploration around the corner. The world TODAY was science fiction 20-30 years ago.

What are your thoughts??

Very curious to hear what you think. Make sure to comment!

Concerns

So, granted, that's probably how our world will look like in the 2030s. Or perhaps a decade or two later, same thing! But, isn't the whole idea of everyone's mind plugged into the cloud kind of scary?? What about privacy? You wouldn't want anyone hijacking your thoughts and polluting your mind. What about memory and identity sovereignty? What about ethical standards? 

Facebook is currently developing a BCI that will allow you to type on your smartphone with JUST YOUR THOUGHTS (see Part 1). Meanwhile, FB is closing in on 2 BILLION monthly users and also has a VR headset (Oculus). If anyone is  most properly positioned to bring about a mass-scale commercial implementation of BCIs, it's Facebook. Would you want this beautifu future, that Ray Kurzweil and Peter Diamandis describe, controlled by Facebook???! It can't be right. Those suckers would probably charge you with your unused brain cycles in order to access the coolest new features, or have advertisements sent right into your subconscious. 

So what's the alternative? You probably have already guessed: THE BLOCKCHAIN.

A decentralized, blockchain-based inter-connected BCI CloudMind! 

How would that work?? What are the mechanics, implications and potential applications? Could Steemit perhaps play the role of Facebook? To answer these questions, and more, Check out Part 3 of the series soon! :) 

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Image Sources: 

Picture 1 , GIF 1 , Picture 2

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References:

https://singularityhub.com/2016/12/05/the-brain-tech-to-merge-humans-and-ai-is-already-being-developed/ 

https://singularityhub.com/2015/10/12/ray-kurzweils-wildest-prediction-nanobots-will-plug-our-brains-into-the-web-by-the-2030s/

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