Bugs in the Brain...

In an effort to publish more blogs, I've decided to start writing on my phone when I'm at work in the mountains.   I hope this will allow me to both alleviate some boredom at work, and to finally solve my lack of writing here.   We'll see how it goes.   So, welcome to Random Musings 2.0.

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I was reading a story the other day about a company that is doing work towards implementing nanites that would allow your brain instant access to the Internet.   Basically, it would be similar to the scenes in the Matrix, where they would learn Kung fu, or how to fly a helicopter.   If you wanted to learn something, you would be able to have immediate access to everything there is to know about it.

I find this tremendously exciting.   I wish I was twenty years younger, as I fear that by the time this becomes a reality, I'll be dead or too old to really be able to expect to benefit from it.   My guess is that when it does happen, it will be primarily used in younger, healthier bodies, which I don't even possess now.   I'm envious of the people that will be able to take advantage of that technology.

Now, I'm sure many of my half-dozen readers would have many fears about this.   Some of those are certainly justified.   But I like to take the optimistic approach whenever possible.   Obviously, there's a fear that the technology is going to cause physical harm to the person using it.   Either in the form of cancer, stroke, brain aneurisms, etc., or the fear that whoever installs and/or controls the nanites will have the ability to flip some nefarious switch and kill you, or worse yet, turn you into some mindless zombie.   But I believe that the former will be solved before mass consumption by humans becomes reality, and the latter will simply be fear-mongering by the same conservative elements of society that rail against any type of advancement of the species.

I also see many people being worried about issues of privacy.   Both their own, and that of others.   But honestly, this isn't going to change either of those things.   The people that are afraid of their own privacy being violated (i.e. the government using some technology to be able to look inside your head), need to realize that you have no privacy anymore.   Your digital footprint is already available to the government.   Every Google search you've ever run, ever photo you've taken, every bit of porn you've looked at, every embarrassing tidbit of information there is about you on the web, the government can get to it (as can anyone else with enough time and/or money).   As for the privacy of others (i.e. someone stalking someone online, data/identity theft, etc.), once again, they can already do it.   This will allow someone to find things out faster, but it's not going to give them any more information than what they can already find out.  

So, that's the downside.   Now, take a moment to look at the upside to this.   Seriously, I don't think you can possibly overestimate the good that can come from this.

Think of something you've always wanted to do.  Anything at all.   You would now have access to all information on that thing, and be able to do it without fear.   Want to travel to a foreign country, but don't know the language?  Forget the Rosetta Stone programs, you would now be able to learn how to say only the words and phrases that you needed in that moment, rather than trying to learn an entire language.   Want to learn how to play an instrument?   How to fix your car?  How to fix your computer?   It's all right there in your brain, instantly, with the ability to recall any information you need over and over until you get it right.

But seriously, that's just the tip of the iceberg, because that's thinking small.   That's thinking as an individual.   Think societal.  Think global.  Think of the ability to interact as a group with that level of speed and recall.   Hive minds, where you get a half-dozen brilliant people coming up with solutions to problems for communities, for countries, for the world at large.    Institutions will change, because college will no longer be needed.   Why go $200K in debt to get a masters degree when you can access everything you needed for that degree instantly.   Bernie Sanders is campaigning on, among other things, the desire to make college tuition free.   This goes way beyond that.

Right now, the animosity between political parties in this country, and the animosity between different religions globally, make us only think of how we can benefit in the moment.   Politics in general is about the current cycle, and how to maintain accrued power for as long as possible.   One of the ways that is accomplished is by limiting access to knowledge, and driving the conversation forward by focusing on small issues in the grand scheme.   This would eliminate the ability to do that.   This is giving all of the people all of the knowledge.

Some of you probably think that I'm looking at the world with rose colored glasses.   Maybe.   Maybe.   But I like to think that the more knowledge that is out in the world, the better choices people make with it.   You might see a world of drones, where the government feeds information as it sees fit.   I believe that it will be impossible to control information on this scale.   And once that genie is out of the bottle, it's never going back in.   I see the dawn of a new age on the horizon.   I simply hope that I'm around to see it happen.