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Verena Fulde

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Help! – "Normal" humans are dying out

It's hard work to learn a foreign language. You have to learn a new grammar and memorize a lot of new vocabulary. Sometimes, in my daydreams, I think about how cool it would be to be able to acquire a foreign language in a flash. What if you could just download something that would make you a fluent speaker of Mandarin, Norwegian or Spanish? Just select a language. Click on the link. And you're all set! What a beautiful dream! Or what if you could just "think" a text into your laptop, without having to type or dictate it? That would be practical indeed!

Einführung-EN

After a little googling, I've discovered that such things could soon become reality. The technical term for what's involved in this is the "brain-machine interface." And when you explore this subject, you soon run into some familiar names, such as Elon Musk (yes, that CEO of Tesla, the company with the cool electric cars). This year, Musk founded "Neuralink," a company that conducts research into ways of linking the human brain with computers.

With a special chip implanted into our brains, we would be able not only to download knowledge and languages, but also to control systems with our thoughts. Such a system, for example, could enable paraplegics to walk again, by enabling them to control a robotic framework that would support and move their legs.

It all sounds both fascinating and disconcerting, if you ask me. The possibilities sound wonderful! I'd love to have some of the abilities envisioned. But would I be willing to have them at the cost of having a chip implanted? In my brain?  I'm not sure. I definitely have my doubts, because it seems clear that an awful lot could go wrong. And if my chip would give me remote control over things, would other people be able to commandeer my chip and then use it to control me? Might they even be able to hack my brain?

I think I would not want to be part of the first group of test volunteers. I would want to watch closely from the sidelines and wait until such issues have been cleared up.

And then? Will we all have chips in our brains at some point?  Might every newborn immediately receive a brain-computer interface? Paid for by a health-insurance company, just like a measles or rubella vaccination?

Some researchers casually liken such implanted chips to a morning cup of coffee. "I think that we all want to become the best that we can be. We drink coffee in order to feel good. We dress well in order to look nice. We read books in order to keep learning. I think that this technology will give us a natural way to become the best that we can be," states Bryan Johnson in our video interview (link). Johnson, along with Musk, is one of the pioneers and driving forces in this area.

But what if I don't want any part of it all? Would I have the right to stay "dumb"? Maybe someday we would see signs like this on certain cages in zoos:

"Here, you see one of the last specimens of homo sapiens.
This species is rapidly becoming extinct in the "wild."
Please do not feed."

Is this scenario scary – or wonderful? What do you think?

PS: Here is a link to a report about cyborgs that was written by my colleague Andreas Kadelke, from Telegraphen_lounge (German).

Interesting and well-written background article.

Image AI

Pimp my body, pimp my brain

An interface between our brains and computers could turn us into "better" people – and thereby create a new species, homo digitalis.

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