Nightmare vision of mind and machine
IT'S happening - the world is being taken over by computers and it seems we may see in our lifetime the crossing of the one unconquered frontier.
That's right - in a bid to improve the interface between the human mind and computers and move the interaction beyond today's apparently inefficient hand-and-eye connection, scientists and researchers have started to talk about the once unthinkable: a direct connection between mind and machine via small computer chips implanted in the human body.
According to a recent article in London's The Sunday Times, US and British scientists are developing a type of 'chip grafting' technology which would allow an implanted computer chip to translate human thought patterns into computer code which could be transmitted by infra-red technology to a computer: no wires, no plugs, no fuss.
Besides the obvious military applications to fly aircraft and launch missiles, researchers talk about the ultimate in direct connectivity to the Internet and the application of this emerging technology in restoring site to the blind and feeling and movement to the paralysed.
And what about 'virtual tourism'? The ultimate multi-sensory experience could be produced using a direct nervous system-to-silicon connection.
The scientists make it sound like a glorious new future for man and machine with the ultimate promise: the duplication of any human emotion or experience through technology.
To me, it sounds more scary than brilliant. Not only does the idea evoke a sense of dread at the potential for thought control, and a Big Brother nightmare beyond anything George Orwell could have imagined, but the whole concept of the technology also does not take into consideration a series of other human factors.
Some would argue, after all, that we are already bombarded with so much information that we don't know what to do with it, and we often cannot handle it.
If there is so much information using the types of inefficient interfaces available to the world today, can one assume it is psychologically healthy to open up the type of greater access to continuous stream information which the computer-chip-in-the-neck scenario presents? Already people are talking about Net addiction - with this new technology it would not be hard to imagine new generations of young people addicted to non-stop information flows; teenagers who cannot sit still or be calm without constant bombardment from the information superhighway.
And, what about privacy? Does this type of computer chip connection entail a constant open link between individual brains and the worldwide computer network. Would this open up anyone's private thoughts and feelings to storage, transmission and prying by any hacker of the future? Even if security were to ensure that someone's brain could not be invaded by unwelcome visitors, how would the computer chip know which thoughts and feelings to transmit? Could someone suddenly find their private fantasies broadcast over the Internet and popping up in newsgroups (assuming there are newsgroups once people's brains are on direct-connect to the Net)? One would hope not. After all, who would want the world to know their inner-most feelings, thoughts and fantasies? I certainly would not.
