VISIBLE EVOLUTION

Here in Maine we have had torrential rain for the last two days.   Yesterday I drove into town and on the way I saw a young woman walking in the downpour, holding an umbrella while focusing on her cell phone held a foot from her face.   I could not help but wonder what world her mind was in. 

In 1970 Alvin Toffler’s book Future Shock pose the proposition that man could not adapt to rapid change; that like evolution, social and environmental changes must occur slowly in order for humans to adapt.   This is now easily disproved.

The most massive changes in human history has occurred over the last forty years and man not only adapted, but led the demand.

During the 1980’s basic personal computers became available.  These computers were able to run simple word processing programs and games.   Since that time, we have the internet, a truly world wide web, extremely powerful personal computers, cell phones, social media, GPS and now driverless cars.    Changes have come so fast that often a product is outmoded before it’s released.   People will wait in lines all night to buy the newest iPhone. 

This technology has brought about a rapid cultural change.  People have become less personally interactive as they live vicarious lives on social media.   A recent study claimed that people between the age of 16 and 35 will interact with their cell phones an average of 150 times a day: e-mails, social media, blogs, text messages, phone calls, games, photos, special aps – the cell phone now tends to regulate our life.

This constant obsession of being plugged into technology has got to be rewiring our brain and, perhaps in a dystopian fashion, leaving us vulnerable to programming by those that would control us. 

the Ol'Buzzard

SCIENCE FICTION OFTEN LEADS REAL SCIENCE BY DECADES

From Buck Rogers’ space suit, to the flip phones where the message was usually, ‘Beam me up Scotty,’ science fiction has been the catalyst for many scientific developments. 

One of my old man diatribes is that cell phones have become a grafted appendage on the human race.   Whether running from a terrorist attack, walking down the street or sitting in a restaurant, people can’t ignore their cell phones.

 

Stephen King wrote an apocalyptic novel titled: Cell.   The story line begins where every cell phone provider is hacked and infected with a virus that causes people to turn into murderous psychopaths when they try to make a phone call.   The only people that aren’t affected are people that have forgotten their phones or old buzzards like me that rarely use one

We know that the human brain is effectively a biological computer chip with circuits and wiring that determine our intelligence and actions.   We also know that when certain sections of the brain are desensitized or damaged, behaviors can be modified.   

The brain gives off electrical pulses that can be measured, and for years, scientist have been trying to decode these voltage readings.  

If you could modify these voltages could you reprogram the brain? Will the time come when the brain could be reprogrammed by downloading an app?  

It might start out as a medical research to repair brain function for Parkinson or Alzheimer etc.     But let your mind conceive programmable humans.   

Is this a possibility or a probability?      And how far in the future?

the Ol’Buzzard