Tags
Christof Koch, Dystopian, Gabriel Vaughn, Gary Marcus, PnP, Privacy Breach, Science Fiction, Science Fiction plots, Superhuman Intelligence, Wired Brains, Writing Science Fiction, WSJ
In science fiction, we love the premise of enhanced brainpower. Wouldn’t you like to be Lucy, the main character in a recently released movie, who overdoses on a synthesized drug and ends up stimulating access to over 90% of her brain capacity to become a superhuman? Or how about Gabriel Vaughn in the TV series, Intelligence, an operative with a super-computer microchip in his brain and the first human directly connected to a globalized information grid.
We’ve been tinkering with the brain for centuries. Ever since cave dwellers discovered certain plants instilled feelings of euphoria, mankind has been on a quest to unlock the mysteries of our human processor, find ways to upgrade its abilities, repair and improve upon original sensory input devices. A recent article on the future of “wired” brains had me wondering if we were pushing a concept destined to backfire on us.