November 2020 – Article 2:
Imagine your deepest, private thoughts posted on Facebook.
Can’t happen? Stay tuned.
That could become reality as the rush to better link humans with computers picks up steam.
Facebook is pursuing a brain-reading helmet-like device that uses infrared light to peer into the brain that would allow people to type 100 words per minute just by thinking.
“You’ll be able to think something and your friends will be able to immediately experience it too if you’d like,” Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has explained: “This will be the ultimate communication technology.”
Questions Need Answers Before Proceeding
A key issue that will need to be addressed is how will the “if you’d like” work? How will you be able to only share what you want to and block out any thoughts you want to keep private?
Put another way, what will happen when we can compulsively check social media just by thinking? Which thoughts will be shared, and which won’t? What about when we’re just daydreaming?
These developments will go far beyond how we’ve been able to interact with computers. For example, paraplegics can currently type or move robotic arms by blinking their eyelids – but that will look like ancient history soon.
Georgia Right to Life (GRTL) is especially concerned about what all this will mean to the God-given right of Personhood. Will society only value computer-enhanced humans? Will those who can’t afford it be forced into second-class citizenship? Will these technologies be used to enhance linking humans and animals in a new twist of transhumanism?
One researcher already knows part of the answer.
Neurobiologist Expresses Concerns
“Forget the Coved crisis,” Dr. Rafael Yuste at Columbia University recently told The New York Times. “What’s coming with this new tech can change humanity.”
The key to controling computers just by thinking is brain implants. One of the companies at the leading edge of such research is Elon Musk’s Neuralink.
The implant is a thin, flexible sensor that can adjust to the mountainous topography of the brain. It has hair-like filaments that sink into brain tissue. Each filament contains multiple sensors that theoretically allow the capture of more data than flatter designs that just sit on the brain’s surface.
Musk recently announced that he has several pigs walking around with a “neuralink” implanted in their brains, enabling their brain activity to be transmitted wirelessly to a nearby computer.
Musk, who plans to start human implant trials soon, explained that the technology would allow a stroke victim who is unable to speak to simply think, and their words could be spoken aloud by a computer or typed onto a screen.
The high profile entrepreneur does not hide the fact that he takes his inspiration from science fiction and wants humans to keep up with artificial intelligence.
Hopefully, Musk and others involved in such research will consider how these advancements will affect our Personhood as well as our privacy, security, identity, equality, and personal protection.
Dr. Yuste, a neurobiologist, has expressed concern about how this technology could blur the boundaries of what we consider to be our personalities.
In fact, he told The New York Times that such blurring already is an issue, noting that Parkinson’s patients with implants report sometimes feeling more aggressive than usual.
Patient Reports Feeling Artificial
Depressed patients undergoing deep brain stimulation sometimes wonder if they’re really themselves anymore. “You kind of feel artificial,” one patient told researchers. It’s seemingly changing their sense of self.
The paper asks the question: what happens if people are no longer sure if their emotions are theirs or the effects of the machines they’re connected to?
Clearly, there are serious privacy concerns over these developments. Those who value Personhood are strongly encouraged to prayerfully consider whether or not to use any of these forthcoming technologies.
Sources: nytimes.com; theconversation.com; bioedge.com; cnn.com.
By Wayne DuBois
Georgia Right to Life
Media Relations Advisor