Connecting Human Brains to Computers

One reason I wouldn’t want to be part of that is the computer will have to have access to our brains with some sort of a connection. Stories have come out which show under some circumstances today it is possible for a person using a computer hooked up to their brain to take over the brain of someone else and get them to perform any act they want them to. By the year 2050 this connection may be so refined it will be possible to do this without the person being controlled to ever know they were. The talk was this would be a great way for an agency like the CIA to get regular people to become assassins. They would have no control over their actions so essentially, they would be a robotic weapon. After the deed was done their memory would be able to be erased and they wouldn’t remember what they did or who made them do it. Yes, they might be the perfect assassin, but we would be sacrificing people who had no idea of what was going on.

Privacy would seem to be finished with an arrangement like this. We have little of it now unfortunately. Think of this. Maybe that was a poor choice of words. Let me put it another way, you get hooked up to this computer consciousness and suddenly your mind is an open book to others. Maybe we will be told this can’t happen, but I remember being told how secure certain things were on the internet only to see them get hacked. We were told years ago our nuclear codes were safe and yet in a test by a computer professional years ago who locked himself in a hotel room and had only an Apple computer, he was able to break the codes. The site nakedsecurity claims for 20 years our minutemen sites had a code of 00000000. If this is true we have even more reason not to trust anything that probes our minds no matter what guarantees are made. Can we trust the word of anyone or any government directors who would use a code like this to protect our brains?

I admire Elon Musk, he has been able to get some great ideas and devices out into the public sector. Having said this, I am not too excited about his idea to connect our brains to computers. He started a company named Neuralink and the aim of that company is to put implants into our brains which would allow us to wirelessly interface with a computer. Again, we are seeing an attempt to allow a computer, which is controlled by a human, to have the opportunity to influence us. The military is always looking for ways to create soldiers who will have no fear, be able to fight with grievous wounds and not be scared to die. Think about this, you are a soldier on a battlefield and a computer is controlling your brain. You might realize what is going on as the computer controls you and yet you are powerless to do anything about it even when you are sent into situations which will almost surely kill or severely injure you. Your freedom of choice is completely obliterated. The military needs to follow orders, but anyone who has been in it knows there are certain situations which call for a reasoned decision. In this military, officers wouldn’t even be necessary as computer operators are controlling the men much as they control drones.

A computer consciousness might give us other reasons for not wanting it. There are things on the internet some of us don’t want to see and don’t want our children to see. The connection might allow us to hear thoughts from others we wouldn’t want to know. Would you want to know what people really thought of you at times or have your children subjected to pornographic thoughts from others? One of the things that allows us to mix with others is some of our private thoughts are never known. We are only human and some of the things people think about should always be kept private and I don’t think anyone is for complete knowledge of others.

Lastly there is something else I wouldn’t ever want and I think most others wouldn’t either and that is making our brains available to be uploaded to a computer and computer consciousness seems to me to be a step in this direction. Those who want this seem to think it will somehow keep them alive after they die, but I don’t believe this for one second. What we would have is a computer which thinks it is us. When it starts to do things we would never do, will people then say oh what a rotten person we are, even though it really isn’t us? Could an uploaded human brain cause people to turn against the poor man or woman who was already dead and ruin their reputation?

I just don’t think connecting our brains to a computer consciousness is a good thing by any stretch of the imagination, unless there is some medical benefit for someone and even then, I believe they should be disconnected afterwards.