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The Era of Memory Engineering has Arrived

“We allow that our memories may fade and fail a bit, but otherwise, we go on the sanity-preserving assumption that there is one reason why we remember a particular thing: because we were there, and it actually happened. Now, a new set of experiments, led by MIT neuroscientists Steve Ramirez and Xu Liu in Susumu Tonegawa’s lab, shows that this needn’t be the case. Using a stunning set of molecular neuroscience techniques (no electrode caps involved), these scientists have captured specific memories in mice, altered them, and shown that the mice behave in accord with these new, false, implanted memories. The era of memory engineering is upon us, and naturally, there are big implications for basic science and, perhaps someday, human health and society…

…Naturally, one wonders whether these techniques might someday find human applications. Perhaps it would be possible to rebuild particularly cherished and important memories that have deteriorated with age or disease? Or perhaps, more provocatively, some might even embrace the idea of falsified memory – artificially adding in happiness where there is only remembered pain, or subtracting out enduring despair that’s long outlived its usefulness. These are some ethically tricky situations, to be sure. At the same time, though, it’s hard to not sympathize with someone, say a war veteran or a rape victim, who might want the emotional content of a specific, life-destroying memory modified.”

Gray: The Ethics and Politics of Cyborg Embodiment – Citizenship as a Hypervalue

“Cyborgs, extended and augmented by prosthetics, can be described as hyper-bodies. As human-based cyborgs proliferate in type and quantity what does this mean for ethics and politics in 21st century cyborg societies? The ontological instability of cyborgs warrants the use of political technologies such as manifestos and written constitutions in order to ameliorate the potential of cyborgization to fatally undermine political self-determination and the very idea of citizenship. A discussion of cyborg manifestos is followed by a proposal by the author for a Cyborg Bill of Rights and a new mechanism for determining citizenship based on the Turing test.”

Article Link: (Gray, 1997)

Transhumanism, Whole Brain Emulation, and Immortality–Inevitable?

Human knowledge currently doubles every 18 months, and this rate is increasing all the time. “Computers are getting evermore intelligent, and intelligence cannot be controlled”. It seems likely that in the near future we will have the technological ability to make ‘copies’ of our brains and upload them to computers in order to work on many projects simultaneously and to live forever. What will be the ramifications of this? It is contentious technology, because some people believe it is hubris, flying to close to the sun, and violating the sanctity of humanity and the ‘natural’ order of life.

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Alzheimer’s and Personhood

“The way that people understand and relate to each other contributes towards the acknowledgement or development and maintenance of personhood. Nevertheless, being an actual person in the first place is important and determining what or who is a person involves setting boundaries (Baldwin and Capstick, 2007). Where someone falls in relation to those boundaries will determine whether s/he is considered a person or a ‘non-person’.”

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The Self That Remains When Memory is Lost

“Professor Pribram felt that when we lose our memory, we lose our entire sense of self. When I saw Tom, something fundamentally Tom was still there. Some of us call it personality, or essence. Some call it the “soul.” Whatever it is, the tumor that took Tom’s memory had not touched it.”

Consciousness, Personhood, and Rights

What determines our personhood?

‘Artificial’ Intelligence and Personhood: a Defense by Captain Picard

What makes a being sentient? Can a computer achieve consciousness? Are human cyborgs less sentient due to their integration with inorganic technology? If people will one day be able to enhance their memory and intelligence with brain-computer interfaces, and even convert their consciousness into a computer chip, where can the line between sentient and non-sentient be drawn? Is there a point where the de-activation/destruction of a computer becomes murder?

One of the reasons why I love Star Trek TNG so much is their willingness to take on these questions. Captain Jean-Luc Picard gives a rousing argument in defense of Data’s personhood.

Basset & Graham: Memorabilities – Enduring Relationships, Memories and Abilities in Dementia

“This paper reports the findings of a one-year qualitative investigation of the memories and activities of people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s. We observed and interviewed 58 patient-carer dyads during home visits. The progression of the dementia symptoms was documented, and information was collected on social-relational events, as well as accounts of awareness, attention and anticipation, which are often neglected in research that focuses on the activities of daily living. The participants identified problems that were important to them; those with Alzheimer’s disease were aware that they were not as attentive as they once had been, that they could no longer rely upon the memory of, or consciously recollect and relive, a past experience, and that the future was more difficult to anticipate. The participants’ accounts describe relationships, memories and abilities – or ‘memor-abilities ’ – of a past and their effects on their present and future. Our findings differ from clinical representations of memory located solely in the individual. Instead, memories are regarded as a synergistic package of both social and individual meanings that ‘ leak ’ between the two. What experimental psychologists interpret as systems and processes are played out in the everyday world of people with Alzheimer’s disease as contextual, bounded and interdependent states of awareness, attention and anticipation. We maintain that memory is simultaneously individual and social, and that memorabilities are shared, co-constructed events and experiences in the past, present and future.”

Article Link: (Basset & Graham, 2007)

Peterson: Imaging God – Cyborgs, Brain-Machine Interfaces, and a More Human Future

“Recent developments in the neurosciences have made possible the advent of brain-machine interfaces, potentially altering our understanding of our relationship with technology and even the very meaning of what it is to be human. This article briefly examines some of the recent developments in neuroengineering and considers the ethical implications. Working from Jesus’ miracles as well as from a dynamic understanding of the image of God, I argue that the categories of healing and transformation should be employed in thinking through the implications of brain-machine interfaces specifically and neuroengineering generally. Although the vocabulary of the cyborg may represent the newfound freedom that this technology can bring, the category of the face may serve as a reminder of the boundedness of human nature.”

Article Link: (Peterson, 2005)

Maguire & McGee: Becoming Borg to Become Immortal – Regulating Brain Implant Technologies

“What would it be like to be an already aware individual with an ongoing history imprisoned in a child’s body?”

“Today, intense interest is focused on the development of drugs to enhance memory; yet, these drugs merely promise an improvement of normal memory, not the encyclopedic recall of a computer-enhanced mind combined with the ability to share information at a distance. The potential of brain chips for transforming humanity are astounding. This paper describes advances in hybrid brain–machine interfaces, offers some likely hypotheses concerning future developments, reflects on the implications of combining cloning and transplanted brain chips, and suggests some potential methods of regulating these technologies.”

Article Link: (Maguire & McGee, 2007)