The Real Electronic Brain Implantation Enhancement

by Shawn Frederick  (waxycast@hotmail.com)

I am not a medical doctor, nor does my background in science reflect much neurology.

I am, however, a scientist, and currently work for two different laboratories.  This article will offer information on the factual and idealistic concept of electronic implants working for or alongside the biological nervous system and brain of man.  To keep the attention of my audience I will do this with as minimal biological workings (no more than high school biology) as possible.  The theories are my own.

The Human Brain

Computers only rely on the laws of Boolean mathematics while the biological makeup of man's brain follows the laws of physics.

There are more chemicals in the human brain that modern medicine does not understand or know of than there are those which are understood.  These chemicals can be responsible for such things as anger, happiness, and even thirst; they also are responsible for invoking long- and short-term memory.

The human brain is extremely complex, but what if it were broken down into a more simplistic system that resembled computer functionality?

• Human Memory (database)
• Cerebellum or Thymus (the browser/search engine)
• Human Awareness (artificial intelligence)

The Database

There are a few different theories on how the brain's memory (database) works.  For the purposes of a short article we will focus on the more popular theories.

Short-term memory is described as the mind holding a thought via an electrical circuit.  As long as the circuit is continued the memory can be held.  If it is continuously stimulated the short-term memory may then transform to permanent memory where the human brain physically changes its shape.

It is believed that the brain stores information on the cellular level.  With all the different theories there are about how the brain actually works, the truth is that no one knows for sure how it really functions.

Medicine has a general idea of the mind s mysterious mechanics, but still is closer to uniting quantum physics with Einstein's classic physics (this is a joke).

The Browser Offers Info to Human Awareness (AI)

Whereas science has a grasp on how the brain essentially works, we are still in the dark as far as understanding human consciousness.

For example: 2 + 2 = 4

Yes, a computer can tell you this and yes, it reacts a certain way based on an answered value.  For humans however it's more than just Boolean.  How does one understand and manipulate the meaning of a number or creatively envision and paint a picture?

This article is not asking the age-old question "What does it all mean?" but merely acknowledging that in all its obviousness human awareness will play a large role in the times of brain implantation.

Broken down as simply as possible, the cells of one's brain hold information.

The cerebellum is the command center and let's say it's believed to retrieve the needed information your brain cells (database) are holding.  It then browses using a type of "search engine" and, with the information found, offers it up to the human consciousness (AI).

Humans are still very primitive; some are running Internet Explorer and Netscape while others are using Firefox or Lynx.  The truth of the matter is that from the most superior geniuses at NASA to the mentally impaired, the difference is almost none when looking at the vast picture.  Kim Peek is a prime example of this.

At this moment and time it's impossible to scientifically explain human awareness, but some refer to it as the soul.  It is linked to creativity and free will.  Human awareness is only as good as the "database" and "browser" one has.

The analogy of quantum physics meets Einstein's classic physics was used once already in this article and seems fitting to use again talking about the "browser" of the human brain offering information up to human awareness.

There are a few good theories on the medical explanation of human awareness but I recommend Francis Crick's Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul if interested.

Humans Interact with the Mattered Universe

The most advanced brain-driven mechanical instruments we have are a few robots and electroencephalogram machines.

I also have read that the military has Virtual Reality (VR) that imprints images directly on one's retina (different subject).  As cool as the brain-driven robots and EEG machines are, these technologies have little room for advancement and are really no better than a mood ring.

The technology reacts to human electrical stimulation.  What is really needed is to be able to think a thought or a number and have it appear on a computer screen, enhancing one's intellect by physically jacking into or wirelessly jumping onto the Internet.  Unfortunately the "code" of the human mind must be cracked before we can truly see any brain implants or VR worth obtaining.

How I Believe It Will Come to Pass

How do we as humans feel the soft touch of a woman or interact with the surrounding world of matter that we live in?

In order to react and comprehend the matter of the universe, we have electrical impulses and chemicals that flood our brain at any given time.  But broken down it looks like this:

• Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
• Central Nervous System (CNS)
• Brain

The peripheral nervous system connects the CNS and the brain.

Their working together is the only way humans understand textures of the world in which we live.  When programming a computer one feels the keys because a chemical is released, read by receptors, and electrical impulses passed from node to node to the spinal cord.  The message is then sent and encoded just before or in the brain.

I use the word "encoded" because the spinal cord doesn't tell the brain that the PNS is feeling a rough or coarse textured surface.  From my understanding it is all sent via an electronic biochemical reaction that travels nodule to nodule on the axons.  The message must be coded until the brain gets the info and can explain or "decode" what is electronically being sent.

I will add to this that the electrical mode of transmitted information is actually biochemical.  The electrical impulses (the jumping from node to node) are stable until reacted upon.  An impulse is produced chemically from an inverse reaction of naturally charged atoms of potassium (K) and magnesium (Mg), which are cations (positively charged) with a few anions (negatively charged) chloride (Cl) and bicarbonate (HCO₃).  The electrical charge is significant to the audience of this article.

Brain + human awareness + nervous + muscular and skeletal system = action upon matter.

Anything else reacted upon or observed in our universe is photonic (nothing more than light photons bouncing off matter) or sound waves (matter is only understood to the brain when it s told electronically).

Human awareness, soul, AI, consciousness, whatever you will call it is needed for understanding the processed/ decoded information - that a picture on the wall is a picture and not just a bunch of bouncing photons.

The Day of Brain Implantation

If humanity does not destroy itself first there will be a day that electronic implantation will be as natural as human sexuality.

But the most brilliant of hackers couldn't develop an implant with the great potentials that have been discussed.  A programmed implant interacting simultaneously with the nervous system and mind would be a true feat, done by a team of doctors, research scientists, and programmers.

When brain implants come to pass they will need to be implanted where the spinal cord meets the brain (foramen magnum).  This is believed to be true based on knowledge that information is electronically sent and possibly interpreted in that general area.

Obviously any implant created could not be plug-and-play.

Every individual is unique in the way his or her brain works, both biochemically and electrically.  The future implant will not only have to sometimes share or piggyback off the electrical impulses that are being sent via the spinal cord.  It would either have to manipulate the spinal cord or use it analogically like a USB cord.

The future may allow advancement to bypass the spinal cord completely, sending its electrical messages directly to the "decoder" (possibly thymus) of the brain, then on to the "browser."

The implant would need to do this while three other parts of the implanted device simultaneously worked on the brain.  One part would be located deep in the brain, another would sit in the center of the spinal cord, and a third would spider around the dark and light matter of the brain sensing and identifying the chemical changes happening there.

The first implant would only be able to hook up to an external computer with a specially developed browser and search engine.  When a person is asked a question the implant would scan the brain cells for an answer, displaying it on the screen.

Technology then would advance so that if one didn't have the information stored somewhere within the brain cells it would search an online database for the correct response.

The Internet would be better protected than just SSL.  And if not the Internet, then an Internet type of system where people's brains would be linked from birth in groups of hundreds for their entire lives.

After all, hundreds of brains working together are better than one.  In time a computer screen would be absolute.  A part of the retina would be dedicated to computer info (soon there will be a contact lens that displays the time and date for the individual wearing it, which should do away with watches).

Problems with Brain Implants

As most testing goes, it will start out in a laboratory on some animal, more than likely chimps.

It's scary because we are a primitive species.  There is no doubt that no sooner will we discover how to create such a device than someone will use it for the worst possible thing imaginable.

It will be advertised as a harmless monitored environment.  But how can anyone be sure that he or she isn't being used or manipulated? Evolution is responsible for enhancing man's mind and controlling it chemically and electronically.

Implants will be commonly used unfortunately.  There will be no need for memory or for us to use our biochemical minds as nature intended.  The human species will have taken the role of half biological half robotic while our brains evolve to mush, totally useless, and completely reliant on implants.

I hope it doesn't happen like this.  But in addition, there is the prospect of genetic enhancements in mankind's evolutionary future.  That is a whole different article but offers the same wonders and terrors.