Computers in Your Brain As computer get smaller and more powerful and biological technology increases the day is coming when we will be able to implant powerful computers directly into your brain. And I believe that this technology is only 10 to 20 years away. "Computers in my brain? No Way! That's immoral! No one's going to put a computer in my brain." Yes but computers are everywhere. They are in everything. Having a computer in your brain isn't as weird as it sounds. Here's why. I have a Casio Databank watch (The official watch of the computer nerd. Al Gore wears one.) This watch not only keeps time but has a calculator, an appointment calendar, a phone book, and a stop watch. I wear it on my wrist and interface to it using my fingers and my eyes. Imagine this watch, which is technically a computer, were implanted into my brain. The actual chip is very small and could easily be powered from chemicals in my blood. The only piece that is lacking is the interface into the brain itself but in the next 10 to 20 years surely we can build a neural interface. What would this mean. Well except for the interface into the brain it would be just like I have now except it would be more convenient. I wouldn't have this black thing on my wrist and I wouldn't have to deal with putting it on or taking it off. Nor would I have to deal with trying to read it in the dark. I would have time, date, a calculator, an alarm clock, appointment calendar, and a phone book right in my brain. How wonderful! The only difference between now and 20 years from now is location. Is it on my wrist or in my head? What's the difference? Does this make me some kind of space mutant? I think not. Let's take this a step further. Suppose instead of a watch in my head that this computer is similar to a standard desktop PC. It has say 500 megabytes of storage and a lot of software on it. Now we have databases and sorting and complex mathematics, graphing, and communications built in. Is this weird? No. We have that today but we have to use our fingers and eyes to interface into the machine. All I'm talking about is a different location and interface. You wouldn't have to go to your computer because it would always be with you. It would take some getting used to. It's something you would learn to access. Certain thoughts you create would trigger it and it's totally under your control. You turn it on and off. It only does what you tell it just like your desktop PC does. Yes it's unnatural, but no more unnatural than driving a car or flying in a plane. But what would it be like to live that way? Well, first of all you would never forget a name or phone number. You would just store any information you want and you remember it. Likewise if you want to forget a phone number you forget it. No getting lost because you have maps stored in your brain. You know where you are because there is a satellite network that transmits location information that is picked up by your brain computer and locates your position on the map. If you want to go somewhere then software calculates the route. You don't have to do things this way if you don't want. If you don't want maps in your brain then you could just dig up an old paper map and use it but why would you want to? Why waste the trees? It's all right there and you can access it. And it doesn't have to store everything. If you are close to a data access interface then you can tie your computer into other large computer networks and download the information you need. Other features that your brain might have is a device control feature. If you are cold in the middle of the night you wouldn't have to get up out of bed to turn up the heat. All you would have to do is think about turning up the heat and the thermostat would respond. Same with all the other appliances in your house. No more wall switches to turn on the lights, just a thought and the lights come on. They might even have computer implants for your cats brain so it can learn to open the door to let itself out at night. I'm serious! No longer would you have to dial the telephone. The telephone would respond to your mental commands. All you would have to do is decide you want to talk to someone. But why talk to them? If you want to get a message to someone all you would have to do is send a mental digital message through the computer network and it will be routed to the desired person. Such a digital message will become a new electronic language allowing people to communicate thought faster and more accurately that by voice or through written language. As technology increases you will be able to get better computers. Upgrading is no problem. You just have a little access port behind your ear where the old computer can be removed and a new one installed. You could buy a new one at Wal-Mart for $39.95 on special. But what would it do to your brain? That's what get's interesting. If you had digital memory and all this computing power in a chip then it would seem that it would free up a lot of tasks that your biological brain does now. I would think that in time your brain would reprogram itself to be smarter, more imaginative. I think that it would free up your brain to be able to do more things than it can do now because now you have to store all this information. We are on the verge of an evolutionary leap forward for our species. Over the next 100 years we will not really be the same species that we are today. We will evolve into something that is different. And what we become depends on the choices we as a species make today.