- seCtIon sIx: seLF AnD otHeR
machines’ (p. 212). To some extent this is already happening, with hip replace-
ments, artificial skin, heart pace-makers, and cochlear implants. These electronic
devices cannot yet match the sensitivity of a real human cochlear, or the number
of connections to the brain, but they already enable profoundly deaf people to
hear a good range of sounds, and even to enjoy music. Retinal implants are more
difficult because of the number of neurons that join real retinas to their brains,
but they are now available too: electrodes implanted in the retina detect light
rays falling on to the retina, and convert them into electrical pulses which travel
along the optic nerve to the brain. This allows blind people to read signs, tell the
time on clocks, and distinguish red wine from white.
Replacements, or enhancements, for other body parts may be all metal and
plastic, but they may alternatively be made from organic tissue, grown specially
outside the body. ‘Bioprinting’ is an extension of 3D printing using plastic, human
stem cells, water, and biocompatible material mixed to create living human tissue
that can be matured into skin, liver, kidney, and other tissue types. Some severely
disabled people can already control external devices by thinking, and some
patients with locked-in syndrome are now able to communicate with the outside
world. This is made possible by implanted electrodes that detect brain activity in
motor cortex and use the signals to control wheelchairs, robots, or a computer
mouse. ‘The distinction between us and robots is going to disappear’, says Brooks
(2002, p. 236).
Imagine now a more exciting possibility: rather than a cochlear or retinal implant
you can have an extra memory chip, an implanted mobile phone, or a direct brain
link to the internet. Fanciful as these may seem at the moment, they are clearly
not impossible, and would have implications for consciousness if they came
about. So some speculation may be interesting.
Let’s consider first the memory chip. Suppose that you have tiny devices implanted
in your brain and can buy vast quantities of information to load into them. Since
they have direct neural connections, the result is that your memory is vastly
expanded. What would this feel like? It might, oddly enough, not feel odd at all.
Let me ask you a question. What is the capital of France? I presume that the
answer just ‘popped into your mind’ (whatever that means) and that you have
no idea where it came from or how ‘your brain’ found it. The situation with the
memory chip would be just the same, only the world available to you would be
greatly expanded.
Now add the implanted mobile phone, so that you can contact anyone at any
time. With electrodes to detect your motor intentions, you could phone a friend
any time by just thinking about them. And, finally, add permanent access to the
web with search facilities and browsers all implanted in your head. With electrodes
detecting your intentions, you would only have to think your question clearly
enough and the answer would pop into your mind, just as the word ‘Paris’ did.
What would it be like to be such an enhanced person? Perhaps it would seem as
though the whole of the web is as good as part of your own memory. Much of
what you find on the web is junk and lies, but then ordinary memory is like that
too. The skill of navigating through the vastness of cyberspace would only be an
extension of the skills of using ordinary, fallible memory now. The odd thing is
that everyone would have access to a lot of the same material.
‘The distinction between
us and robots is going to
disappear’
(Brooks, 2002, p. 236)