1.5 Contemporary Issues: The Future and Transhumanism

At the end of each chapter, there will be a section about some aspect of neuroscience that has particular relevance today, and these issues relate to some degree to the content in the chapter. For example, in Chapter 2 “Functional Anatomy”, we’ll look at international brain projects where different labs are collaborating to tackle big questions in neuroscience. In Chapter 9 “Sleep, Dreaming, and Circadian Rhythms”, we’ll look at new research showing how the three pounds of bacteria in our gut affect mood, stress, and diseases like autism and Parkinson’s disease. In Chapter 15 “Addiction, Developmental Disorders, Anxiety, and Affective Disorders”, we’ll look at the current research using hallucinogens (LSD, magic mushrooms, and ketamine) as possible treatments for depression, anxiety, and addiction. However, it might be a bit difficult to discuss a current topic in neuroscience before you have had a chance to learn some basics about the brain and nervous system. Therefore, I thought we could discuss one of my favorite topics, the future of neuroscience. There have been several books written lately about the future of the brain and neuroscience that I recommend at the end of this chapter. In these books, they discuss how understanding the advances in neuroscience research today is a good way to predict the near future (next 10–20 years) and deep future (next 50–100 years). Because it’s about the future, the authors typically sprinkle in a little science fiction for fun.

As the famed baseball manager Yogi Berra once said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” As self-evident as this saying is, it is also particularly true about science, technology, and neuroscience. French artist Jean-Marc Côté took on this challenge when he created paintings around the year 1900 of what the world might be like in 100 years. The series was called En L’An 2000 (In the Year 2000). These were beautiful paintings depicting firefighters with wings putting out fires in tall buildings and automated machines cleaning floors (predicting the Roomba). But my favorite is a painting of books being ground up and fed directly into students sitting in class (refer to Figure 1.14). (Refer also to The Public Domain Review’s website.) We’re not quite there yet, but let’s look at a few predictions about how technology may change neuroscience and, for that matter, humans in fundamental ways in the future.

We already have ways of using brain activity to control computers, robots, and other technologies, and this is known as brain–computer or brain–machine interface. Companies like Neurosky and Emotiv have developed headsets that read brain waves and then use algorithms to convert those signals to control objects on a computer screen or robotics (Zhang et al., 2010). Even with training, these devices provide only rudimentary control, but the company BrainGate has implanted computer chips directly into the brain that allowed people who are paralyzed to move robotic arms and hands with some level of dexterity (Zerris et al., 2005). Computer chips have also been implanted in the spine of people unable to move their legs, enabling them to stand, balance, and walk with some assistance (Formento et al., 2018). These technologies are predicted only to get more accurate and precise. In the near future, computers and technology will fuse more seamlessly with the organic tissue in the nervous system. These will allow artificial eyes to cure visual impairments and may also enable enhanced visual abilities such as night vision or magnification—these are already being developed and tested.

Computer processing will likely continue to get faster, cheaper, and smaller. The field of nanotechnologyThe field of science and technology that works with materials, computing, and machines at the microscopic level. creates material, technical devices, and machines that are at the microscopic level. In July of 2023, Columbia University held the one-day NanoNeuro symposium, where researchers from around the world discussed such topics as microscopic devices that can interface with nervous tissue (Ledesma et al., 2019) and molecular tools for mapping memories.  Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have already created what they call neural dustThe name given to a timing recorder and transmitter device that can be implanted into nervous tissue. that can record and transmit the activity of neural signals (Patch, 2021). Researchers at Berkeley have also been developing a tiny device (1.7 mm³) called StimDust that can be implanted and activate or deactivate nervous tissue wirelessly (Piech et al., 2020). Perhaps in the not-so-distant future, the tiny processor will be able to replace the neurons in the brain following damage due to an accident or neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer’s. In the distant future, science writer and futurist Ray Kurzweil suggests, we could someday replace our entire carbon-based nervous system with an equally efficient or enhanced silicon-based nanocomputer nervous system (refer to Figure 1.15). This could enable our consciousness to be uploaded and maintained in a virtual reality in a process called whole brain emulationA futuristic concept of possibly uploading brain consciousness to a computer.. This last idea is still more science fiction than reality, and many doubt the ability to emulate the consciousness of a human brain, but others think it is only a matter of time. If, as many have suggested, it has not happened already and we currently live in a simulated world—again a sprinkle of science fiction for interest.

The idea of technology altering humans has sparked a movement known as transhumanismThe movement that follows the idea that computing, robotics, genomics, and advances in neuroscience are fundamentally changing human beings., which is the idea that humans will evolve beyond our current state with the help of genetic engineering, nanotechnology, computing, material science, and brain–computer connection. We already genetically altered most of the plant foods we eat. Additionally, we have genetically changed animals like salmon that grow twice as fast, pigs that have leaner meat, hundreds of mice genetically modified for research, and don’t forget about the glow-in-the-dark monkeys. Just recently, a researcher in China genetically altered one of two twins to be more resistant to the virus that causes HIV/AIDS (Klein & Le Page, 2018), and while many scientists think genetically modifying humans is unethical, others predict this practice might become more common. In some ways, humans are already changing, with titanium hips and knees, artificial hearts and kidneys, 3-D printed organs like bladders, hearing aids, cochlear implants, and artificial retinas (refer to Chapter 6 “Vision and Chemoreception”). As technology advances, the question remains how far this will go. What choices would you be willing to make to change yourself or your children? I think the questions and dilemmas that you will face in the future may surprise you.