From: rc@euphoria.xis.xerox.com (Robert Cooperman)
Newsgroups: alt.consciousness
Subject: Re: Next?
Date: 30 Dec 92 19:45:49 GMT
Organization: Xerox Imaging Systems, Inc.

In article <aquilanm.725694316@helium> aquilanm@helium.gas.uug.arizona.edu (Mark T Aquilano ) writes:
>
>I've been reading the discussion about linking the human brain directly
>with a database containing the sum of human knowledge.  This is an idea that
>is gaining in popularity among computer buffs, if what I read in Mondo 2000
>from time to time is any indication.  But so far, no one on this discussion
>groups has questioned whether our brains have certain biological limits.
>Are our brains designed (by nature, not some omnipotent being!) to handle 
>enormous quantities of factual information of the sort we fill encyclopedias
>with?  Can our organic "neural network" be overloaded?  What would happen if 
>it were?  If we were to make such a radical change in the way one part of
>our bodies functioned, how would the rest of our bodies compensate for this 
>change?  Finally - a question that might sound really stupid on the surface, but
>with CD-ROMS aleady able to store whole libraries for us at their early
>stage of development, why would a direct connection to a database through our
>brains really be an improvement in the quality of our lives?

When adding additional capabilities to a human brain, one question
would be how much processing occurs in the original brain and in
additions made within it, and what processing would be external.

An example of an external addition, would be to have a database,
and a computation engine, perhaps an extremely intelligent one, that
the original brain accesses. This could be through a virtual reality
headset, data glove, etc., or it could be a direct input from parts of
the brain like the optic nerve and direct outputs from parts of the
brain like the cerebellum, the spinal cord, etc. These interfaces
would be at places where the brain already accesses external data from
the senses. The data inputs would mimic sensory input, and data
outputs would seem just like motor outputs (such as speech).

These sorts of additions would probably be assimilatable. Just as
people get used to driving cars, and watching video, they could use
their existing learning abilities to make use of direct inputs and
outputs. They would not overload themselves, as they would only use
these resources to the extent of their abilities. They would however,
possibly, provide a significantly faster input and output ability than
current media, such as computers with CD-ROM drives, displaying
results on a monitor, and accepting input with a keyboard and mouse,
as well as being usable in more places and situations.

Feeding into the optic nerve, bypasses much pre-processing done in the
retina. However, the visual cortex, where thought, memories, and more
sophisticated processing occurs, is getting the same sort of input as
it usually gets.

A more drastic addition would be to make additions to the parts of
the brain that are central, such as the visual cortex. Maybe it would
be possible to not only have a database of facts available to us, but
to have these integrated into our existing knowledge. Maybe it would
be possible to add to the number of things we can learn. Maybe these
new neurons could have a fast learning mode, where a database could be
downloaded quickly into them, and integrated with what we already
know, and our personal experiences.

Maybe if these new neurons couldn't be easily tacked on to our
existing ones, some of our existing memories and learning, could be
learned by it instead. Maybe both the old and the new visual cortex
could coexist, sort of the way our left and right hemispheres, coexist
with only a relatively small number of connections between them. I
believe that if the new neurons were given a rich set of
interconnections with the rest of the brain, it could be integrated
into an existing brain, after a few months of training. It would
supplement rather than replace the brain. It also could be faster,
less destructable, have upload and download capabilities.


Bob Cooperman
Newsgroups: alt.consciousness