The Age of Neuroelectronics [chapter]

Adam Keiper
2012 Nanotechnology, the Brain, and the Future  
Adam Keiper is managing editor of The New Atlantis. Every so often, when some new scientific paper is published or new experiment revealed, the press pronounces the creation of the first bionic man-part human, part machine. Science fiction, they say, has become scientific reality; the age of cyborgs is finally here. Many of these stories are gross exaggerations. But something more is also afoot: There is legitimate scientific interest in the possibility of connecting brains and computers-from
more » ... oducing robotic limbs controlled directly by brain activity to altering memory and mood with implanted electrodes to the far-out prospect of becoming immortal by "uploading" our minds into machines. This area of inquiry has seen remarkable advances in recent years, many of them aimed at helping the severely disabled to replace lost functions. Yet public understanding of this research is shaped by sensationalistic and misleading coverage in the press; it is colored by decades of fantastical science fiction portrayals; and it is distorted by the utopian hopes of a small but vocal band of enthusiasts who desire to eliminate the boundaries between brains and machines as part of a larger "transhumanist" project. It is also an area of inquiry with a scientific past that reaches further back in history than we usually remember. To see the future of neuroelectronics, it makes sense to reconsider how the modern scientific understanding of the mind emerged. The Body Electric The brain has been clearly understood to be the seat of the mind for less than four centuries. A number of anatomists, philosophers, and physicians had, since the days of the ancient Greeks, concluded that the soul was resident in the head. Pride of place was often given to the ventricles, empty spaces in the brain that were thought to be home to our intelligent and immaterial spirits. Others, however, followed Aristotle in believing that the brain was just an organ for cooling the body. The clues that suggested its true function-like the brain's proximity to most of the sensory organs, and the great safety of its bony encasement-were noticed but explained away. This is an understandable mistake. After all, how could that custard-like unmoving mass possibly house something as sublime and Adam Keiper is managing editor of The New Atlantis.
doi:10.1007/978-94-007-1787-9_7 fatcat:ze46iuo5knb57fmn6dfs5gokfu