# A future where your brain is better (Oh really?)



## Allegra (Nov 9, 2007)

I think the top priority for the scientists should be to make brain implant feasible for brainless people, especially those among the politicians. 

BBC NEWS | Health | A future where your brain is better



> *From the odd capsule of fish oil to major brain surgery, the options for boosting our mental capacity are expanding all the time. Do we need to worry about the advent of a brave new world, where everyone is too clever by half?* The theory is this: if people are already willing to undergo the risks of plastic surgery in search of the perfect body, who is to suggest they would not do the same to better their brains.


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## iansales (Nov 9, 2007)

Not much in improving something you don't use


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## Phil Janes (Nov 9, 2007)

Brain upgrades are the carrot. The stick is a secret mind controler to be activated after 90% of the sheeple have been voluntarily implanted. It will recognize your incorrect thoughts---sexual or political---and cause varying degrees of discomfort until you think correctly; then, it will stimulate your pleasure center. 

Without the implant, you will be unable to compete in society; it will be a requirement for employment by most large corporations. 

This may be a moot point, since computers will need to keep only a few of us for pets and slaves after they take over the world.


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## matisamd (Nov 21, 2007)

iansales said:


> Not much in improving something you don't use



thats a very good point, if you dont use somthing properly you probably dont understand it right, so you cant improve on function, only increase those bits which beleaved are the brain ie if all we thought the brain was a calculating storage area thats all we'd improve but dosnt mean thats all the brain is.

And if we were all super intelligent would this iliminate all stupiderty ? i doubt it because i beleave most people choose to see the world the way they see ignorring the facts, becoming more intelligent might just be the best way to be ignorant


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## Curt Chiarelli (Nov 21, 2007)

Allegra said:


> I think the top priority for the scientists should be to make brain implant feasible for brainless people, especially those among the politicians.



Always the sunny optimist, Lily! 

What will shake down (and here I base my speculation upon history's grim precedent) is this: The uber-wealthy - who've always enjoyed improved longevity and better health due to class privilege - will receive the implants while rest of us (regardless of intellect) will languish. 

On the sunnyside up, just think: No more Dan Qualyes cluttering up our collective social awareness! 

However, on the darkside, imagine a world populated by a legion of sociopaths like George W. Bush who can actually find Iran on a world map so they can launch a preemptive "nucular" strike or will be able to comprehend a statistical analysis to figure out what the rate at which a "detention camp" built by Kellogg, Brown and Root will fill up once American dissenters begin to be rounded up . . . .


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## quixotic (Nov 21, 2007)

mm, I'd love a better brain 

If only I understood Legendre polynomials better


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## Curt Chiarelli (Nov 21, 2007)

quixotic said:


> mm, I'd love a better brain
> 
> If only I understood Legendre polynomials better



Life is always better when you understand Legendre polynomials!


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## quixotic (Nov 21, 2007)

and harmonic analysis, Hilbert spaces, differentials,tensor analysis, women

*particularly* women


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## Urien (Nov 21, 2007)

Ay wont 2 unnerstan a tryangle


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## Dave (Nov 21, 2007)

Curt Chiarelli said:


> The uber-wealthy - who've always enjoyed improved longevity and better health due to class privilege - will receive the implants while rest of us (regardless of intellect) will languish.
> 
> On the sunnyside up, just think: No more Dan Qualyes cluttering up our collective social awareness!


The downside is much worse - think of a society in which our rulers not only think they are better than us, but they can actually prove it. They no longer need to ask our opinion before making any decisions, because they already know best. Out goes Democracy, in comes Technocracy.

Some might see that as good government, but without the checks the democracy has on their power, they would very quickly come to make decisions based on what is best for their elitist group rather than what is best for society as a whole. 

The other thing I immediately thought of was 'Flowers for Algernon' by Daniel Keyes.


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## iansales (Nov 21, 2007)

Dave said:


> Some might see that as good government, but without the checks the democracy has on their power, they would very quickly come to make decisions based on what is best for their elitist group rather than what is best for society as a whole.



I thought they did that already... you know, like invading Iraq...?


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## Talysia (Nov 21, 2007)

I don't think I would like something like this, although I can see uses for it.  The ultimate in brain upgrades - like new computer software?  Not for me, I don't think.


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## Allegra (Nov 21, 2007)

Curt Chiarelli said:


> Always the sunny optimist, Lily!


 
Well... more like the pessimistic optimist. 




andrew.v.spencer said:


> Ay wont 2 unnerstan a tryangle


 
gudluc.


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## Teresa Edgerton (Nov 21, 2007)

I think when you're young and you know everything (or at least can access everything you know) this surgery would be superfluous.

When you reach an age when you can't remember where you put your ... what is it called?  The word is on the tip of my tongue.  It starts with S.  Or maybe G.  It's almost exactly like a ... well, you know ... except that it doesn't have that ... that, um ... 

I'm sorry, what was I saying?  

Oh yes.  When you reach a certain age, it begins to sound like it might be a good idea.


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## Dave (Nov 21, 2007)

Teresa Edgerton said:


> When you reach an age when you can't remember where you put your ... what is it called?


I think everyone of a certain age would subscribe to one of those, but I doubt there will be a solution for that very soon. The article described boosting brain power, presumably by increasing brain cells and the connections between them. Brain cells die off daily every day you live, even more quickly if you abuse your body, and the important connections get disconnected as you age.

I don't think organic changes to the Brain are going to be that important. Our Brains do things that computers cannot do, and seem unlikely to do very soon, otherwise we would already have Artificial Intelligences.

What computers do well is compute vast amounts of data quickly. The future is to have a minuture computers hardwired into our brains. Just imagine something that can do instant complex calculations, download information from the internet giving instant access to anything ever published, give us our precise geographical location and the time of day, remind us of appointments, store an infinite number of perfect photographic images, and communicate with anyone else with the same equipment. 

Computers, TV, Radio, Telephones, Libraries, Cameras, Sat Navs, Clocks, Diaries - all obsolete!

For a long time I thought this could only be a bad idea, I would quote Woody Allen in 'Sleeper' that no one messes with my brain, and that it was my second favourite organ, but in the last few years I have begun to change my mind. There could be all sorts of bad results from everyone having such a brain implant, but the advantages far outweigh the negatives.


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## Green (Nov 21, 2007)

I was talking to someone about this kind of thing recently. We have a bet on about "internet in the brain," which is pretty much the same as what Dave is talking about (and also the first steps towards the neural lace of Iain M. Banks' books). I believe that we'll have google at the tip of our thoughts within our lifetime. My friend disagrees, because he thinks people will be too scared of the technology/ramifications for it to take on wholesale. The winner collects £50. Although we'll both be losers by then.

Despite the possible problems (anyone who has read Reynolds' books and thinks of the 80 will know what I'm talking about), I would definitely sign up for the beta for these things. Maybe not the alpha, but definitely the beta  Bring on the future! I've been waiting too ******* long for it.

I was watching something a little while ago about true 3rd gen internet - about how it'll be with you at all times, whether that's in your TV, in your car, on the window of the bus, or wherever, and you won't need to carry around some clunky device any more. That sounds good, but the problem is that people won't let us have the internet for free. Until they get rid of charging for data services, the future is always going to be one of two things: boring, or expensive. This applies to all forms of technology that require monthly fees.


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