Seite - 119 - in Cyborg Mind - What Brain–Computer and Mind–Cyberspace Interfaces Mean for Cyberneuroethics

Cyberneuroethics • 119 Kurzweil further indicates that at this Singularity, there will be ‘a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed’.78 This would mean that individual biological brains, as such, would no longer be necessary, since most of the ‘intelligence’ would be transferred into com- puters and much of the ‘thinking’ into cyberspace.79 Kurzweil predicts that by the end of the twenty-first century, ‘human’ computer intelligence will be comparatively more powerful than its unaided biological equivalent.80 Neuronal networks will have been replaced by electronic circuits that are far more efficient than the workings of a biological brain, while being entirely immune from disease.81 However, he does admit that this massively intel- ligent mind will remain human, though it will be non-biological. At the Singularity, Kurzweil further explains that: We can imagine the possibility of our future intelligence spreading into other universes . . . This could potentially allow our future intelligence to go beyond any limits. If we gained the ability to create and colonize other universes . . . our intelligence would ultimately be capable of exceeding any specific finite level.82 He adds that: Ultimately, the entire universe will become saturated with our intelligence. This is the destiny of the universe. We will determine our own fate rather than having it determined by the current ‘dumb’ simple, machinelike forces that rules celestial mechanics.83 The language is full of hope and sounds victorious, but it is possible to question whether such an unlikely reality would actually be so positive. The English theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking indicates in this regard that: The danger is real that this computer intelligence will develop and take over the world. We must develop as quickly as possible technologies that make possible a direct connection between the brain and computer, so that artificial brains contribute to human intelligence rather than opposing it.84 What this would then mean for anthropology and the way in which ‘human- ity’ would be defined in the future will be considered later in this book. Free Will and Moral Responsibility Progress in brain research is enabling scientists to better understand the way in which connections in the brain affect higher brain functions, such This open access edition has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale.