A recent foray into my Wired magazine and a trip to Publix created, for me, one of those lightbulb moments. Two articles and a grocery trip came together in a revelatory understanding of the universe. Well, that’s perhaps an overstatement but I did find it all to be of interest.
The first article was about something that has been around for two decades and I had never heard the term, BCI. It was written by an endovascular neurosurgeon who has come to specialize in Brain Computer Interface procedures. A BCI is a device that lets the human brain communicate with and control external hardware and software. The BCI is designed to allow the subject to move a robotic limb or screen cursor using only their brain. Individuals with severely debilitating diseases like ALS can once again communicate with their world.
He describes using a new Stentrode which is inserted into the juggler vein and placed in blood vessels next to the brain. This is then connected to a device placed under the skin of their chest where it may communicate through Bluetooth to external computers or devices. The surgeon went on to predict that in the next decade, such surgeries will be more routine, even done by robots, to also treat seizures, depression, mood, and eating disorders, with further advancements in communication and motor function.
The second article was more cryptic. As someone who spent years working with computers but who was never a programmer, I could only glean a cursory understanding of the topic. It was written by an individual who had mastered Python, a mid-stack level programming language used to build websites, automate tasks, and do data analysis. It is an unspecialized language suitable for a wide range of tasks.
The article delved into what was described as our age of abstraction as discussed by German historian, Oswald Spengler. He went on to talk about the “stack” where the top of the stack communicates through the stack to the bottom of the stack where instructions are compiled into machine language of ones and zeros understandable by the computer’s central processing unit or CPU. If you aren’t bored yet, you should be. My only takeaway was that much of our existence has now been reduced to its basic form as coded in a binary world.
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| The Borg; Capt. Picard Assimilated |
Flash forward to that same afternoon after reading these two articles. I was making my semi-monthly Publix run for cocktail ice and things we can’t get through home delivery when I approached the area in front of the store. The entire paved area between the Publix and the parking lot has been wisely painted with broad white stripes to mark it as a pedestrian crossing.
As I approached this crossing area I had to hit my brakes as I saw a man slowly walking out of the parking area toward the crossing zone. His hand held a cell phone just inches from his face. He was unaware of his surroundings and thoroughly enthralled with whatever was on that small screen. He moved at but a glacial pace across the striped area and into the store. He never once looked up to see that people in cars approaching from both directions were awaiting the completion of his journey into Publix.
This person had become one with a Matrix of his own creation. His reality was but a simulation of reality as he chose to ignore the real world to live a binary existence and become a mere extension of a digital device. He had the luxury of not needing a BCI to communicate and navigate through his world but chose to live in a land of ones and zeros. His was a self-imposed isolation, an abstraction.
Beyond the reference to the Matrix, another analogy might be Star Trek and the assimilation of Capt. Picard. The part where he becomes part of the Borg Collective and a mere cog in their electronic thinking machine is most appropriate.
Artificial intelligence, I laugh at you. I will assume that AI is also laughing at us. I am reminded of the famous Timothy Leary quote, “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” I fear we have found our drug of choice and it has nothing to do with LSD, shrooms, or IRL.
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