The New York Times Magazine March 15, 1998
FAST FORWARD
BY BRAN FERREN
The Intercranial Internet
A wireless tap from the Web directly to your
brain may sound like a cheap scifi premise. But only
a generation ago, so did a pacemaker.
HISTORY HAS BEEN PUNCTUATED BY inventions with the potential to change everything. The technology of language made civilization possible while the atomic bomb gave us our first big shot (you should excuse the expression) at selfextinction.
Will we ever make the leap from cosmetic surgery to a new kind of physical selfimprovement? Have we come far enough in both our scientific knowledge and our disposition to ward selfmodification to seriously consider physically changing ourselves to become smarter, stronger, more perceptive, or just funnier? Sure - and the time is closer than you might believe.
Breakthroughs in miniaturization, genetic engineering, computer science and biology soon enable us to literally enhance ourselves. By 2100 we will be able to build armies of microscopic robots (thousands in an aspirinsize tablet) that travel through the body, fixing our defects and installing useful things. Imagine ingesting microbots (or even nanobots) that enter your bloodstream and chomp away arterial plaque, or others that can assemble and install (From microscopic parts) a replacement heart valve. Then again, with 100 years of progress in genetic medicine, we may not have much circulatory disease left to fix.
I would bet that all the technology needed for an early Internetconnection implant is no more than 25 years off. An internal computer that lets you, rather than your PC, hook up to the wireless information superhighway. Why risk it? Well, imagine that you could understand any language, remember every joke, solve any equation, get the latest news, balance your checkbook, communicate with others and have nearinstant access to any book ever published without ever having to leave the privacy of yourself. Not bad.
I might actually be tempted if I could get this done at less risk than a tonsillectomy (and it had a decent “off” switch). I guarantee you that many of our kids’ kids will choose a “Net job” as the preferred way of horrifying their parents (rather than just getting pierced, perforated and otherwise permanently decorated as they do now).
So now you’re thinking, “Yeah, right.” Except for a few brave earlyadopting selfmutilation fans, most of us can’t imagine doing this to ourselves. It’s just too weird. Yet history is filled with examples of our propensity to reject “radical” new ideas and then line up for them a few years later. Not long ago people reacted With horror when their cardiologists suggested placing what amounts to a miniature computer, EKG machine, nuclear battery and cattle prod in their chests. Now no one even blinks at the idea of a pacemaker.
The process by which we begin to entertain these challenging ideas is often quite indirect. Imagine that you awake to your doctor saying: “I’ve got some bad news and some good news. The accident has left you blind, but the good news is that we have an experimental procedure that might let you see again. We will implant a tiny computerized camera, and an electrode matrix in your visual cortex. If all goes well, you will instantly be able to see primitive but useful images. And it’s upgradeable technology. In a few years, we can make the picture as good as television, and after that even better.”
Now jump ahead 10 years. Your doctor greets you to discuss the latest bionic upgrades, including superhighdefinition television, a digital recorder (so you will never forget that shopping list) and night vision. His final question: “So, for another $150 do you want the fax, Email and Netsurfing options?” What the heck? Once people get used to the idea of advanced internal devices that improve their lives, the steps toward becoming really wired will be incremental, not revolutionary.
It’s happening now. Pacemakers, intraocular lenses, synthetic heart valves, replacement joints, computerized prosthetic limbs, internal insulin pumps, electronic relief for Parkinson’s, implantable hearing aids. The list grows every day, as does the acceptance that these devices aren’t making us less human but are, in fact, allowing us to better appreciate life, humanity and our amazing world.
Granted these early devices are used now to fix only serious problems, but elective uses will probably follow as we continue to be presented with tools of extraordinary potential. Eventually some of these technologies will be thought of as creativity or proficiency amplifiers and become an essential part of how many of us do our jobs. If it happens to you, odds are sooner than you expect, and it will improve our quality of life.
Sure, there will be problems and mistakes, and people will do things society deems inappropriate or even illegal. One can imagine the Orwellian consequences if we enable technology to involuntarily track people, monitor their activities or turn these gifts of knowledge into instruments of evil. As with anything new, we will learn to cope, and society will continue to make new rules to protect our freedoms, privacy and individuality.
The moral and ethical dilemmas presented by our inventions will persist forever. Is the problem guns or people who use guns? The intersection of technology and morality has always been thorny territory, and it isn’t going to get any easier in the future. Especially when we’re talking about altering what evolution and the Almighty gave us. The good news is that despite all predictions to the contrary, we’ve made it this far. Perhaps we’re even smart enough to make ourselves better. That’s what I’m betting on, but it doesn’t hurt to pay attention while we all go along for the ride and not be afraid occasionally (either as a society or as individuals) to just say no, or at least “not yet.”
Bran Ferren is executive vice president for creative technology for Wait Disney Imagineering.
ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN HERSEY