You don’t want to improve your memory (whether neuroscientists figure out how it works or not); you don’t want to improve the “data processing” of your thinking; nor the speed at which you decide? If not, beware: your refusal will lead you to chaos.
The “digital” extension / enhancement of human capabilities, and indeed not only or so much physical but mainly intellectual, is the holy grail of cybernetic scientific research and commercial applications underway. (More in October, at the game over festival). One assumes that the proclamations in favor of this evolution are “positive”: a hymn to the new abilities that our species will acquire…
They are not the only ones. Elon Musk may not be as well known in our parts as a name, but he is as a “pioneer implementer”: he is the owner of the American automobile manufacturer Tesla, which is considered the spearhead of electric car production. He is also the owner of SpaceX, a company that funds the construction of the flying means (and not only) that will lead our species to Mars.
Now he is expanding into another field, through his new company, Neuralink. Its purpose is to create brain implants that will turn portable computers into a “natural” extension of the human brain.
Why such interest? Musk has a different argument for the necessity of the thing. “Artificial intelligence of machines,” he says, “is advancing so fast that if we DON’T interconnect with it, they will get out of control and will intellectually surpass us as a species”! It’s a matter of species survival (he says). Only if we interconnect absolutely with machines will we maintain the same level of intelligence as them…
This sounds like a threat! Is it, perhaps, a “smart thought”? It depends. Musk is already connected with new technologies – economically and commercially, of course. It’s a bond that makes him, indeed, “smarter”… (For his pocket…).