Parshall Partners

Mind Over Machine

         We are able to do so many different things with our 21^st century gadgets.  Our SMARTPHONES can take pictures, load them into something called “the cloud,” and download them for viewing whenever we want.  But would you want a computer that could upload and download your thoughts?

         Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk isn’t satisfied with building a colony on Mars and manufacturing an electric car, now he wants to connect your brain to your computer.

         Musk has started another new company called “Neuralink” which would utilize technology called “neural lace.”

         Neural lace technology requires the implanting of electrodes in the brain, allowing people the ability to upload or download their thoughts to or from a computer.  Neural lace would also allegedly allow humans to achieve higher levels of cognitive function.

         When the Wall Street Journal reached out to Musk for a comment, he didn’t respond but someone identifying himself as part of the “founding team” confirmed that Musk is indeed involved with the company, which he described as “embryonic.”

         Musk has an interesting reason for wanting to wade into these new technological waters.  These human brain-computers will be marketed as a way to treat brain disease initially but the real goal, according to Musk, is to prevent a take-over by machines.

         The Wall Street Journal quoted Musk, speaking at a conference saying, “If you assume any rate of advancement in [artificial intelligence], we will be left behind by a lot.”

         The solution?  Musk thinks the answer is a “direct cortical interface”—a layer of artificial intelligence inside the brain—that would help people reach higher levels of functioning.

         But Musk isn’t the only one exploring this brave, new world.  FACEBOOK is working on a secretive program that is developing noninvasive brain-computer interface technology, allowing people to communicate with external hardware devices.

         As often happens when we push the outside of the technology envelop, the idea of a human brain-computer connection will probably, once it’s fully developed, be embraced for its potential in helping people with brain diseases like epilepsy, depression and paraplegia.  But, given the state of the human mind and the heart, will science stop at the edge of this new frontier?

         Consider the challenges we already face with computers.  It’s devastating to have your banking information hacked, or your social security stolen on-line, but imagine what would happen if our “thoughts” were stolen?

         The very thing that makes us human – and different from all creation – is how we think, and process information.  Thinking and feeling are interconnected so will computers, someday, through Artificial Intelligence, not only keep and track our thoughts, but tell us how to feel?  Can a computer know pain, or love or loneliness? And where does the soul fit into all of this?

         My computer doesn’t have free will.  What makes me different from a machine is not only that computers must have intelligence programmed in and human have original intelligence.  But, I, unlike my desktop computer, was made in the image of God.

         We need to be cautious about this new technology.  Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “Men are not prisoners of fate, but prisoners of their own minds.”  May we not also become prisoners of our machines.

         That’s my opinion.  I’m Janet Parshall.