The Transhuman Terminator
<http://forgetomori.com/2008/science/the-transhuman-terminator/>
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers
knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom“, as He used to say
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov> . And truly, Mindhacks
published a disturbing note
<http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/04/neuroweapons_war_cr.html> ,
involving so many profound and complex questions, and the saddest thing
is that it seems society will not only be incapable to understand much
less correctly judge its implications until long after they are in full
effect.

By now you must probably be aware of decades-old research on brain
activity and free-will
<http://forgetomori.com/2007/skepticism/mind-under-matter/> , pointing
that our decision-making process is certainly different from the concept
of an immaterial puff-puff white cloud making the choices and somehow
transmitting those to a mostly useless gray matter inside our heads. In
fact, unconscious processes on that brain anticipate the conscious
perception of a decision, suggesting that the decision emerges from
activities on that gray matter about which that imaginary puff-puff
cloud called consciousness never becomes aware of.

Such cerebral activity was originally measured in EEG scans, being
confirmed as years passed by and having been recently confirmed even in
fMRI scans
<http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/mind_decision> .
This more recent study suggests that unconscious cerebral activity may
anticipate a conscious choice on up to seven seconds
<http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2008/04/unconscious_brain_acti\
vity_shapes_our_decisions.php> . That may seem bizarre, but only if you
are stuck into that puff-puff cloud concept.

If you rather realize that it’s only natural that our decisions
come from many processes in our minds combining memory, reasoning,
emotion and even some randomness, otherwise called creativity or
“free will”, then those scientific findings are no big
surprise.

Now, remember DARPA, which created among other things this sacred
Internet. It has funded for years many projects trying to create better
man-machine interfaces
<http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2007/05/binoculars> ,
and those include brain activity scanners, which may eventually allow
one to pilot an airplane just by sheer “mind power”, for
instance. Remotely. Combine that with the abolition of the puff-puff
cloud concept, and you may be very scared.

The external control of an object may be accomplished in part or as a
whole by reading unconscious brain activity. They may not even be
“unconscious thoughts”, as they could be distant from what
we would consider a “full thought”. Those unconscious
cerebral functions may anticipate decisions that may never have been
actually “made” consciously. And that, effectively, would
not be felt afterwards as beings made by oneself, as the ideomotor
effect commonly demonstrates
<http://forgetomori.com/2007/skepticism/all-we-zombies/> .

Which finally leads us to mention lawyer Stephen White article on the
Cornell International Law Journal pondering on just how war crimes and
responsibility may be affected by such novelties: ‘Brave New
World: Neurowarfare and the Limits of International Humanitarian Law
<http://organizations.lawschool.cornell.edu/ilj/issues/41.1/CIN109.pdf>
‘ (PDF).

Could a soldier be prosecuted by the consequences of his unconscious
cerebral activity, of which he by definition has no control of? Who
would be responsible for an act? White suggests that the responsibility
should be better spread over those involved in the development and
application of the technology, and in all concludes that law must be
discussed and revised for this new 21st century
“neurowarfare”.

Which only emphasizes that man-machine integration on a full unconscious
level may fundamentally change our perception and perhaps even nature.
Transhumanism <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism> may seem
like a silly gadgety “philosophy”, but a transhuman will
not be just an Iron Man <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_man> with
increased physical powers. A transhuman will not even be someone with
the entire Internet embedded on his brain. Being able to access all the
information in the world with your conscious mind is one thing.

Having information and actions scanned and executed from your
unconscious mind, and going even further, having information injected
unconsciously in our brain to affect your consciousness would be
something completely different. Something transhuman
<http://posthumanblues.blogspot.com/> . Terrifyingly transhuman.

And this not only will be, but it’s being funded by DARPA right
now. The first true transhuman may be, ironically, a soldier under
command. “So say we all”.






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