WEEK 3 "Mind Control and the Internet"

“In Chorost’s ideal world, which he lays out with the unequivocal zeal of a convert, we will all be connected directly to the Internet via a neural implant, so that the Internet would become seamlessly part of us, as natural and simple to use as our own hands.”

 Michael Chorost

I believe that Chorost’s ideal of the World Wide Mind is a very worrying concept for many people including myself. Perhaps it’s just my fear of change but I think there are many possibilities that the ideal can go wrong.  Therefore, the treatment of diseases and disabilities is one of its largest advantages.  However, just by imagining about Chorost’s ideal, several questions rise about our humanity in our future society.

·      Firstly, who would be control of the World Wide Mind? Today, we are already much controlled by the governments and surprisingly by Google. Therefore, if we allow the Internet into our brains and allow it to make decisions on behalf of us, what would our society look like? And will democracy still exist?

·      Secondly, how much would it cost?

Who will be able to use it? Will it be used globally? I guess due to the long-term research, high quality equipment, and the process of imputing the gadget in the brain would cost a lot of money. Thus, not everyone would have access to the technology. Then, issues of equality and cyborg vs. human may arise.

·      And lastly, will it really make us smarter?

Chorost claims that his ideal of the World Wide Mind will make us better humans as we become smarter. However, if there’s a faster way to get smarter than reading, studying and investigating what would happen to our education systems in the future? Perhaps if the system goes down, would cyborgs still be smart?

The concept of the World Wide Mind might be surprising and seem impossible for us at the moment. But in the early days people may have similar views about computers and the Internet before it was invented. Therefore, by looking at our present society we may already have become cyborgs as we are so attached to our phones and rely on the Internet and Google for all the information we need. 

Source:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jun/23/mind-control-and-internet/?pagination=false