Why Brains Beat Bytes

At Summer WEF last month, I was struck by the content on artificial intelligence and the human brain.  

Breakthroughs in brain science rarely make the headlines, and that’s too bad. The brain is the seat of all human perception, action, thought, and decision-making. It’s far more important to our lives, and to the future of the planet, than any silicon wafer. 

Governments know this, and have made brain research a priority. Europe, Israel, Japan, and the United States all have launched regional or national brain research initiatives. 

China is making a push as well. Its 13th Five Year Plan includes a focus on brain research, while membership in the China Neuroscience Society has swelled to 6,000, four times as many as 10 years ago. And those scientists have access to a population of 1.3 billion people, creating a bigger-than-average dataset to analyze. 

Neuroscience has always fascinated me (I actually have a masters degree in the subject), and it should fascinate anyone with an interest in our future. A few recent advances give some idea of the progress that’s been made, and the potential for future breakthroughs: 

Advanced scanning technology. Over the last two decades, advanced scanning technology has enabled us to learn more about the mechanisms of dreaming, thought, and consciousness than we did in the previous 20,000 years. Before the advent of technologies such as MRI and PET scans, the only way we could know what was going on inside the brain of a living subject was to connect electrodes to the person’s skull, and then study the shapes of the few electrical waves that are detectable through this method. Today, we can visualize activity in the human brain with pinpoint precision and clarity; within a few years, it may be possible to scan individual human brain cells. 

Brain scan technology is also enabling us to detect signs of Alzheimer’s 10 years before the onset of any symptoms. This could help researchers find ways to slow the progress of Alzheimer’s just as they’ve done with other neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease. It could even help them find a cure one day.

Brain-computer interface. Direct links between the brain and machines create amazing new possibilities for the disabled. For example, scientists at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab have designed a robotic arm that users control with their thoughts. One patient is a man who lost his arms as a teenager when he ran into a set of power lines. Engineers re-mapped the nerves remaining in the man’s amputated arms in a way that allowed him to send brain signals to the prosthetic arms and move them with his thoughts.  

Another example of the brain-computer interface is the “attention-powered car.”  Developed in Australia, it uses a headset that links the driver’s brain function directly to the car’s engine. Sensors in the headset detect brain activity and assess the driver’s state of alertness or fatigue. If the driver turns her head away from the road, gets sleepy, or just “zones out” for a minute, the headset commands the car to slow down or stop.  The car won’t start again until the driver’s brain activity indicates that she is alert. 

Brain-to-brain interface. Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle were able to transmit signals from the brain of one person directly to the brain of another. The sender, playing a video game, was able to control the hand movements of the recipient, who was not playing the game and was in a different location. In other words, Participant A thought, “Fire laser cannons!” and Participant B – half a mile away – instantaneously and without seeing the target or knowing what the game was about, pressed a button that destroyed the alien space army. Making the thoughts of one person control the movements of another is much more than a clever trick. Someday, scientists may be able to transmit the “motor program” from someone with a healthy brain to a patient whose brain has been damaged.   

The Kurzweil Factor

If none of that is impressive enough for you, consider this prediction from author and inventor Ray Kurzweil: “In the 2030s, we are going to send nano-robots into the brain (via capillaries) that will provide full immersion virtual reality from within the nervous system and will connect our neo-cortex to the cloud.”  

Some of Kurzweil’s predictions have been more accurate than others. But as far-fetched as the nano-bot scenario may sound, last month the World Economic Forum called nanosensors one of the top 10 emerging technologies of 2016. A WEF report notes that the sensors, which power the Internet of things, are getting smaller, shrinking “from millimeters or microns in size to the nanometer scale, small enough to circulate within living bodies.” 

In a recent newsletter, entrepreneur and futurist Peter Diamandis hypothesizes that Kurzweil’s vision of “cloud-connected brains” might enable us to do some pretty amazing things:

• Communicate telepathically with others
• Remember everything that ever happened to us – or selectively purge unwanted memories
• Fortify our immune systems with nanobots in our bloodstream
• Instantly download skills that would otherwise take years of practice (yes, just like in The Matrix)
• Enjoy Virtual Reality without a head-mounted display 

Neuroscience has applications that are already being used in very down-to-earth ways. For example, marketers have tried to harness the power of the brain in order to sell more effectively. This has spawned an entire field, neuromarketing, along with variants such as “neuro-pricing,” which uses brain data to identify the highest price consumers will pay for a given product or service. 

Brain science extends into many different fields, and we should all pay closer attention to how our brains influence our thoughts and actions. 

How might a clearer understanding of the brain help you in your industry?