December 21, 1986
Brain Upgrading & Consciousness Expansion Using Nanotechnology
Note: I first published this by uploading it to some Bay Area BBS while in college at the University of Arizona. I was still recovering from the shock of what nanotechnology could do after first hearing about it the month before in Omni magazine.
To start, for those of you who don't know about nanotechnology you can read all about in Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation or in Omni November, 1986.
There are angles (infinite angles!) to nano-technology that nobody has discussed yet (at least openly), and those are its implications to consciousness. I don't expect to finish discussing this very radical notion in this bulletin, so I will continue over several (whenever I can).
For those of you who have read William Gibson's 'Neuromancer' and the like, you are familiar with the concepts of Cyberspace - Cyber-telepathy, Super-virtual/non-local reality simulation/modulation and other neuro-electronic concepts. At present, these future technologies seem impossible. As it is, we barely understand the brain and its relation to conscious thought. So how could we possibly incorporate a cybernetic link to it with any sufficiency?
To begin, there are a few concepts that have to be put forward. Science has shown that 'we' are not the 'substance' but rather the 'form' that is the information transfer that is made possible through the physical substance. This has been shown using radioactive tracers. We replace all the cells in our body within a seven year period, yet 'we' still remain, we don't disappear. We are the form and not the substance. The implications to this are staggering! Immortality thus becomes a more feasible goal (although by no means an easy one).
Now, if 'we' are the information of the structure, then in order to define who 'we' are we would have to go to the deepest levels of physical reality to explore the information transfer going on.
Thus in order for us to model, to any degree of accuracy, the mind we will need to understand the brain and such all the way down past the molecular level into the quantum level and beyond. Neuroscientists are already figuring this out, and are researching molecular interactions in the neurons (i.e the thousands, perhaps millions of neurotransmitters that help define thought). But neurotransmitter are the result of a very large number of quantum interactions which define any particular molecule.
So, to finish off this first part of a series; if Cyberspace is ever going to become a reality, Nanotechnology is going to have to play a role. No other technology will be small and complex enough to recieve, integrate and transmit the billions of quantum signals that make up a single human thought.
Nano-technology (aka. Atomic Engineering) is to atoms what genetic engineering is to genes. Nano-technology is a concept that is becoming a reality. It is simply a natural progression of the chemical, biological and computer sciences. With nano-technology we will be able to engineer an atom at a time. The potential is both very promising and very threatening. This technology is inevitable, lets hope we have the wisdom to use it.
Nanotechnology and Consciousness: Beyond Drugs
The set of experiences made possible with a nanoengineered brain would be way beyond any drug. What I am about to describe could be a called a meta-drug; as nanotechnology would be to a psychedelic what a psychedelic is to water.
With nanotechnology, we will be able to make very extensive cybernetic maps of the brain and nervous system (neurologically, genetically,atomically)...LSD -- it is a simple molecule that interacts with the neurotransmitter serotonin to produce most of the effects of a 'trip' (on occasion, the effects occur on more fundamental levels). Most of what was experienced on LSD is the product of its simple molecular structure ad the accompanying neurotransmitter! This is only one of millions of possibilities!
Now comes along nanotechnology, with its ability to construct any possible atomic configuration - any chemical! Of course, most chemicals are not cybernetically suited to operate within the nervous brain, but that still leaves unlimited possibilities! Once we start making very extensive maps of the nervous system, nanotechnology will allow us to manipulate the nervous system with a million times the flexibility of any one psychedelic. Thus giving the nervous system higher and higher orders of complexity and freedom! Where other psychedelic take you on a
'trip', nanotechnology would be at your control. And that control would be nearly instantaneous, as the nano- to neuro- interfacing would be extremely efficient with the greater cybernetic mapping.
Thousands of molecular configurations would be interacting at any one instant. The interactions between these thousand would be in the millions. And the number of the possible interactions between those would be in the trillions! Why take LSD or any drug for that matter when nanotechnology allows for literally trillions of times more
possibilities. This is mind blowing! No wonder nobody has discussed this angle of nanotechnology - as it simply inconceivable.
To add to all of this, nanotechnology would operate at several orders of magnitude faster than the nervous system and have thousands of terabytes of usable memory.
To start, for those of you who don't know about nanotechnology you can read all about in Eric Drexler's Engines of Creation or in Omni November, 1986.
There are angles (infinite angles!) to nano-technology that nobody has discussed yet (at least openly), and those are its implications to consciousness. I don't expect to finish discussing this very radical notion in this bulletin, so I will continue over several (whenever I can).
For those of you who have read William Gibson's 'Neuromancer' and the like, you are familiar with the concepts of Cyberspace - Cyber-telepathy, Super-virtual/non-local reality simulation/modulation and other neuro-electronic concepts. At present, these future technologies seem impossible. As it is, we barely understand the brain and its relation to conscious thought. So how could we possibly incorporate a cybernetic link to it with any sufficiency?
To begin, there are a few concepts that have to be put forward. Science has shown that 'we' are not the 'substance' but rather the 'form' that is the information transfer that is made possible through the physical substance. This has been shown using radioactive tracers. We replace all the cells in our body within a seven year period, yet 'we' still remain, we don't disappear. We are the form and not the substance. The implications to this are staggering! Immortality thus becomes a more feasible goal (although by no means an easy one).
Now, if 'we' are the information of the structure, then in order to define who 'we' are we would have to go to the deepest levels of physical reality to explore the information transfer going on.
Thus in order for us to model, to any degree of accuracy, the mind we will need to understand the brain and such all the way down past the molecular level into the quantum level and beyond. Neuroscientists are already figuring this out, and are researching molecular interactions in the neurons (i.e the thousands, perhaps millions of neurotransmitters that help define thought). But neurotransmitter are the result of a very large number of quantum interactions which define any particular molecule.
So, to finish off this first part of a series; if Cyberspace is ever going to become a reality, Nanotechnology is going to have to play a role. No other technology will be small and complex enough to recieve, integrate and transmit the billions of quantum signals that make up a single human thought.
Nano-technology (aka. Atomic Engineering) is to atoms what genetic engineering is to genes. Nano-technology is a concept that is becoming a reality. It is simply a natural progression of the chemical, biological and computer sciences. With nano-technology we will be able to engineer an atom at a time. The potential is both very promising and very threatening. This technology is inevitable, lets hope we have the wisdom to use it.
Nanotechnology and Consciousness: Beyond Drugs
The set of experiences made possible with a nanoengineered brain would be way beyond any drug. What I am about to describe could be a called a meta-drug; as nanotechnology would be to a psychedelic what a psychedelic is to water.
With nanotechnology, we will be able to make very extensive cybernetic maps of the brain and nervous system (neurologically, genetically,atomically)...LSD -- it is a simple molecule that interacts with the neurotransmitter serotonin to produce most of the effects of a 'trip' (on occasion, the effects occur on more fundamental levels). Most of what was experienced on LSD is the product of its simple molecular structure ad the accompanying neurotransmitter! This is only one of millions of possibilities!
Now comes along nanotechnology, with its ability to construct any possible atomic configuration - any chemical! Of course, most chemicals are not cybernetically suited to operate within the nervous brain, but that still leaves unlimited possibilities! Once we start making very extensive maps of the nervous system, nanotechnology will allow us to manipulate the nervous system with a million times the flexibility of any one psychedelic. Thus giving the nervous system higher and higher orders of complexity and freedom! Where other psychedelic take you on a
'trip', nanotechnology would be at your control. And that control would be nearly instantaneous, as the nano- to neuro- interfacing would be extremely efficient with the greater cybernetic mapping.
Thousands of molecular configurations would be interacting at any one instant. The interactions between these thousand would be in the millions. And the number of the possible interactions between those would be in the trillions! Why take LSD or any drug for that matter when nanotechnology allows for literally trillions of times more
possibilities. This is mind blowing! No wonder nobody has discussed this angle of nanotechnology - as it simply inconceivable.
To add to all of this, nanotechnology would operate at several orders of magnitude faster than the nervous system and have thousands of terabytes of usable memory.
