My article in FORBES published 25^thof May 2018.

It amused me to tears, but despite the strongly humoristic form, it contained a philosophical charge. I remembered them recently, while reading the text published on futurism.com. In the article “Humanity is about to transition to evolution by intelligent direction” the author is convinced that the evolutionary development of the human species has entered a new stage. “I believe that we are heading to the next evolutionary step and the birth of something that I call ‘metalaelectomy’. In the future, we will all be strongly connected, our brains will be connected. It will become possible thanks to the sharing of thoughts, knowledge and activities, and the technological basis of this process will be “CLOUD”.

The author, announcing the transformation of humanity and its transition to a different level of existence, lists the factors that will drive this process: global access to the network, creating an interface that will connect the brain with technological devices, progressive development of Artificial Intelligence and the conquest of the cosmos.

Money from the internet

The first element of this process has already been largely created. Connecting all people to the global Internet network becomes a fact and it is a matter of the coming years, so that every inhabitant of our planet can have full access to it. This means communication possibilities for us and unlimited use of digital data, products, services and content. Never before in the history of mankind has we faced a phenomenon so common and in fact democratic. Thanks to the “wiring” of our planet, each of us, whether now or soon, will be able to use all of the global, intellectual and cultural achievements of humanity.

Perhaps access to high quality content will be payable and available only to some of us. But in general, all mankind will benefit. Never before in history have we had so many opportunities to use any intellectual value created by us. This unrestricted access to knowledge, goods and services can transform our existence into a better one – we are moving forward with the thesis that the increase of knowledge and access to new information is important from the point of view of evolutionary processes.

Global Internet in just twenty years contributed to the creation of a global economy with its new business models and tools or communication platforms. And the cosmic dimensions, the set of freely flowing data (big data) is slowly becoming a solid, technological, inviolable basis for this economy. Each, or almost every one of us, thanks to the global network and tools available in it, can offer any business or social value and look for clients who would be interested in it.

The Internet, like no other invention of humanity, has contributed to the elimination of barriers in the process of civilizational and economic development. While the Internet revolution began in the 1990s, the consequences of which continue to this day, the 21st century revolution is the appearance of Artificial Intelligence in all spheres of our lives. Both change our lives to a serious degree.

Direct connection between the brains

The second factor, which the author of the mentioned article pointed out, is the idea of ​​an interface that is a direct connection between the human brain and the computer. For many science fiction experts, this is a well-known subject and has been present for years as a popular motif in pop culture and literature. It was initiated by the writer William Gibson in the book “Neuromancer”.

But what for a long time was only the fruit of the imagination of artists and futurologists, becomes a fact. At the level of physical contact with the computer, we are still using our hands and nothing has changed for decades. The change, which can be significant – for efficiency, time saving, and even the feeling that we are closer to the content we create, may be constructing an interface that would allow direct transmission of impulses (thoughts, commands) from our brain to the computer. Reports that research laboratories are working on creating broadband connections between the digital world and the cortex do not sound so sensational today. An example of activities aimed at realizing this idea is the Neuralink project created by Elon Musk, who invests millions of dollars in research into a better and more effective relationship between the human brain and the machine.

I will use here an example of the American company Kernel. In it’s research initiatives focuses on medical solutions that are supposed to lead to understanding the functioning of the human brain. The founder of the company, Brian Johnson, expresses the hope that one day he will be able to “enlarge” the human brain to make us smarter and healthier. Today, Kernel scientists are working on software that will help mitigate the effects of neurological diseases such as epilepsy and Alzheimer’s.

Ultimately, however, they are interested in the possibility of placing a chip in the human brain, which in turn would allow us to connect us to the cloud. The effect would be to increase our memory capacity and strengthen our cognitive functions to unimaginable boundaries. In fact, we would have the opportunity to connect with other human brains as we can today communicate with computers or phones belonging to other people. Thus, we would have a direct insight into all the content created in our entire human history and to the content that is created on an ongoing basis in the intellectual process.

For now, you must use your fingers to use the computer. It is important that it is convenient. See what keyboard models are available on the market.

A computer with memory disks and, in principle, any external device, would be unnecessary. It still sounds like a fantastic utopia, but the question of whether it is possible to implant chips into the human body, according to Johnson, is no longer valid, because the answer is yes. Now the only question is – when it will happen. And if this happens, does this mean the beginning and the actual birth of some cosmic, metalogical unknown to us? The vision is very suggestive, but its consequences are hard to imagine. However, if I would like to make any comment, I think that using all the knowledge of all of humanity, reaching for any information in a second, would mean a powerful progress and the birth of something that the author of the said article calls “metalaelectomy”.

Read more in the full article.

Link to the full article (in Polish)

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