***This post gets heavily into science and research; not so much the technical jargon, but more the case of me throwing science-filled books at you. Maybe you’re interested in this sort of thing, or maybe not. Just figured I’d give you a heads-up.***
When I wrote the story “Blue Girl and the Stars,” I wasn’t really giving any serious thought as to where we currently are with regard to science. I was simply writing fiction, or science fiction, as it were. I was, as usual, merely letting the words spill out onto the page. I did, of course, have the vague idea that it might be possible some day for humans to swap memories with each other, wirelessly; and that it was conceivable that there might be a chip implanted in our brains on which to store these memories. It all seems logical to me, and reasonable, that this could be a natural progression. And it seems possible that these memories could be swapped by way of Wi-fi, or Bluetooth; after all, we’re talking microchips and the processing of electrical signals. When neurons fire in the brain, electrical impulses or signals are given off, moving across synapses. There is such a thing as neurotransmitters, etc.
And here is where my nerdiness shows:
Now, let me state clearly that I am not a neuroscientist, or a doctor of any kind. Nor have I done any sort of scientific research on the subject. I am no more than an interested bystander, or layperson. I enjoy, periodically, picking up an interesting book on the subject of brain/mind research. I love reading about modern technology also; and there is a definite overlap between these two fields. Without the technological advances of the computer, there would not be the groundbreaking research being done on the brain. There certainly wouldn’t be such a thing as BMIs (Brain Machine Interfaces) which allow us (scientists, rather) to observe the pretty colored pictures of (or more accurately speaking, the graphical modelling of) neurons firing in the brain.
A few years back, I had read a book entitled, Beyond Boundaries, by Miguel Nicolelis, which was about one scientist’s life and research in this area. All I really remember about it is that the scientist had, in effect, paralyzed a monkey’s arm and was able to study the monkey’s neuronal signals in the brain as the monkey attempted to move the arm. The monkey, attached by way of electrodes to a computer, was able to think about moving his arm and, by doing so, eventually learned to manipulate a robotic arm that was situated halfway around the world (in Japan). Whether the mechanical hand picked up a banana or what, I don’t remember. The monkey, for his efforts, was rewarded in some way, of course; perhaps with banana pellets. “And who doesn’t like banana pellets?” (To quote the neuroscientist Dr. Indre Viskontas, from one of her courses (offered up by The Teaching Company in The Great Courses)). Pretty cool, I thought upon reading the book about such incredible research taking place. So yes, I was aware of BMI research before I wrote the story.
Did I do research for the story, or was I consciously thinking about this as I wrote? No, not really; though it is quite possible that all of this was floating around in my subconscious. As a writer, it isn’t uncommon for ideas to pop up in the mind as you write—after all, this is, in fact, the creative process at work. Often times, the beauty of it all is that two completely disparate ideas appear in the mind and come together to form something that is new and interesting. But how disparate were these ideas of brain/mind research and BMIs with regard to my story? Not very. In fact, these are almost boringly relative.
I, for whatever reason recently, was in the mood for a little science and decided to read something by Brian Greene or Michio Kaku. Having a few extra Audible credits that I needed to use, I began listening to samples of both author’s books. It was a tough decision. I ended up leaning toward Michio Kaku. I love all of Kaku’s work, and there is overlap between his books. I have read Physics of the Future, and also Physics of the Impossible, often getting the two books confused. But I had completely forgotten about having read Future of the Mind. Once I realized, I remembered not having been that enthused with the book at the time of the first reading. For some reason I remember thinking it was sort of “fluff.” It isn’t, really, not at all. Perhaps it might have been (in my mind) less detailed and interesting than the other two books, due to the nature of it being more broadly based, etc. Being so, Kaku sort of skirts across a wide spectrum of research. The field really is vast, with extensive research being done from all angles. I don’t know, maybe it was just my attention span at the time, or whatever. In any event, I decided to give the book another try. So, I started listening to the audible version, and then also grabbed the hardback copy of the book from the shelf to follow along. I’m completely enthralled this time. And what’s even more fascinating is that the book actually visits the same ideas I present in the Blue Girl story. Now, that’s not to say that I believe my idea was not something that any other logically thinking, normal person couldn’t have come up with—in fact, it seems to be really low-hanging fruit as far as ideas are concerned, scientific or otherwise. And even in Kaku’s book, mention is made of The Matrix movies, which covers the same ground (I had all but forgotten about the movies). And as I type this, Total Recall also comes to mind (both versions, though I enjoyed the more recent one the best). So, I can’t really claim that the idea of planting memories in the mind was mine at all. Oh sure, my specific story is mine, my creation. My story’s treatment or slant of the idea is my creation, and so too are the characters. But the overall idea, though I hadn’t given it much thought at the time of writing my story, this main idea seems to be floating around all over the place, and has been for years.
So why am I so excited? Perhaps it’s the idea that the research and technology seem really close to becoming a reality, at least in some respects. In other respects, due to ethical concerns and societal acceptance, not to mention federal approval, having chips implanted in our brains could all be decades (possibly even half a century) away.
It isn’t a case of the Kaku book centering on the idea that I presented in the story, it doesn’t. There is, however, a sentence here and there, and another one or two elsewhere, that touch directly and specifically on what I wrote. For example, there is a brief sentence or two discussing whether the transference of memories, or insertion of memories into an Alzheimer patient’s brain would be ethical. The book questions “consent,” which I sort of skirt around in the story. How could the patient legally consent to the insertion of memory? They couldn’t, not being of sound mind in the first place. However, at least in my opinion, the patient might be of sound mind, and just not be able to express it, or make a connection with the outside world. And then again, what is “sound mind?” But then too, with the viewing of neuronal firing of the brain—I mean, if nothing is happening—perhaps I’m wrong in thinking the person is of sound mind and just trapped.
Okay, this following bit of info won’t mean much to you unless you’ve read my story. You can use the Look Inside feature on Amazon and read enough of the story to get the gist of what’s going on. You can also click on view/purchase books on my site, to get to the sample and read it, if you want.
So, in the story, I was thinking that March’s mother might just be in some special place, as when Consuella disappeared to some safe place and wasn’t connecting or interacting with March or with any of the outside world. I almost went back and added this idea to the story in more distinct and direct terms. I wanted to go back and have March state that he imagined his mother on some island, stranded or shipwrecked, so to speak. I wanted to have him imagine that she was in a sort of paradise of her own, and that sustenance was always at hand. Perhaps he would envision his mother sitting on a beautiful beach, just awaiting a ship to arrive to bring her back to the world. My idea was that she, like Consuella, was somewhere safe. Though obviously, in metaphorical terms or otherwise, a ship isn’t ever going to arrive. She won’t ever be able to return. In this respect she is in a totally different place than Consuella was.
So, anyway, getting back to the science behind it all, and the Kaku book, I’m really excited by all the research being done. And the Kaku book was published in 2014, which was ages ago as far as strides in scientific research goes. And of course, DARPA (DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY) is probably way ahead of the game as far as ideas go, and most likely has the funding to make such ideas a reality. As Annie Jacobsen says in the intro to her tome of a book The Pentagon’s Brain, “. . . at any given time in history, what DARPA scientists are working on—most notably in the agency’s classified programs—is ten to twenty years ahead of the technology in the public domain.” If you are interested in really digging into DARPA, I would highly recommend her book. If, however, you prefer something a little lighter on the subject, then you can read The Department of Mad Scientists by Michael Belfiore.
There is way too much information in the Michio Kaku book to cover much of it here, in a single post. I can only mention tidbits. I will concede, the first five chapters have been extremely fascinating. So here are some of the tidbits:
The brain does in fact give off electrical signals that can be picked up and mapped out by/on a computer. The signal is extremely weak, however. The skull presents a problem. Electrodes can be surgically implanted, of course, and the patient, with the skull removed, can be awake while the experiment is going on—which is really freaky if you think about it. At this point, I’m having visions of a scene from the second Silence of the Lambs movie (Red Dragon?).
Electrodes can be less invasively placed on the outside of the skull, or the patient can wear a cap with electrodes affixed to it. You’ve probably already seen or read about this at some point.
Anyway, let me now jump to a particular experiment mentioned in the book. This experiment is intriguing and humorous to me. In the experiment, a group of individual subjects are asked to think of an image of the Da Vinci painting, the Mona Lisa. The subjects do not have a copy of the painting in front of them, but are only asked to think of the painting. Once the person has the painting in mind, the computer then searches through a database of files to come up with a picture that is close to what the person is imagining. Now, the computer, keep in mind (no pun intended), is only reading a pattern of neuronal firings within the person’s brain (as these specific neuronal firings have been mapped out in recent years). And what does the computer come up with as the closest thing to what the person is thinking? What photo, in the computer’s estimation is the closest match to the Mona Lisa image the individual has in mind? A photo of the actress Salma Hayek. This really cracks me up. And it also has me wondering. . . What if the subjects were asked to imagine a self-portrait of Frida Kahlo? Would the computer have picked Salma Hayek then? Considering Hayek played the artist in the movie Frida (2002), Maybe? Or would the computer have perhaps picked out a photo of the Mona Lisa? All intriguing questions, at least to me. The researchers probably had far too many other, more pressing experiments in mind to have taken the time to follow the research down this one particular narrow pathway. Personally, I would have gone down the rabbit hole on this one. I would have had the subjects actually hold and study photos of Salma Hayek (first with unibrow—as in the Kahlo movie–and then without) to see whether the computer picked the Kahlo self-portrait or the Mona Lisa, or possibly even the Salma Hayek photo that it had originally picked. Okay, there probably would have been some confusion; and it would have been tough, I would imagine, to find a photo of Kahlo with her hair down. Most of the portraits of Kahlo that I have seen have the hair up.
Okay, getting back to the actual research, obviously, things are kind of sketchy at this point (or at least things were sketchy seven plus years ago); and yet the experiment is amazing all the same. You have the computer interacting with the brain at this point. The thing is, also, that scientific research moves exponentially ahead by leaps and bounds, so who knows where things stand now?
And as to another thought, at what point would doing this experiment become no more than an exercise in running facial recognition software—though, granted, it is a round-about way of going about it? And in essence, that is exactly what’s happening on the back end, once the computer forms the image that the subject has created in his or her brain.
If you are interested in reading about this particular experiment and have the hardcover copy of Kaku’s book handy (perhaps you happen to be in a library or in your local bookstore) you can turn to the bottom of page 66 to read about it. The whole thing is no more than a couple of paragraphs. And that’s a little frustrating, too, considering I want more details on the experiment’s parameters, etc. And is this why I might have thought the book “fluff” the first time? Just because I yearned for more detail on some of the experiments or research? I mean, isn’t that always the case? You read something and it whets your appetite . . .
If you want to read about Dr. Nicolelis’ experiment with the monkey, without going too in depth, or having to read his book (though I would highly recommend reading his book), then turn to page 86 in the Kaku book where an experiment is discussed in brief.
Like I said, I’ve only read/listened (this time around) up through the first five chapters. Who knows what is in store for me in the rest of the book? If only I had a chip implanted in my brain to store the copy of the book, or some memory of the first time I had read it. Hmm.
Another little tidbit that I find interesting and can share is that scientists have, in fact, been able to wipe clean a mouse’s memory (certain parts of it) and then re-establish, or re-insert specific memories.
At what point do they, the scientists, move on to humans? I mean, actually, the experimentation, as you have just read, is already happening.
This is all very intriguing, fascinating, and yes, scary!
I have to say also, however, that all of this is certainly a lot of fun to write and speculate about; scary though all of it might be.
If you are interested in reading more about research in this field, there are quite a few good books out there. There are the several books I’ve mentioned previously, and another one I picked up a while back that looks interesting, though I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, called The Body Builders by Adam Piore.
There is a much older book that is extremely difficult to find these days titled The Natural History of the Mind (1979). It’s by a man named Gordon Rattray Taylor. This book is obviously dated, and doesn’t touch on tech so much as it does the history of brain trauma and the studies conducted over the years. This book was the first time I read of a man named Gage, who was a railroad worker who had a stake driven up through his brain in an accident. He lived, but had a definite behavioral change. The study of Gage is mentioned in most of the books on brain research, including Kaku’s The Future of the Mind.
Another case study mentioned in most books is one dealing with a patient who for years was only known by the initials HM. He had suffered an injury as a child and afterward suffered from convulsions. HM had surgery several years later to relieve seizures and afterward, after the surgery, had no short-term memory. Someone could walk into a room and introduce themselves to HM and then leave the room, only to return fifteen minutes later; upon the person’s return, HM would greet the person again as though meeting them for the first time. There is a book written specifically about HM but I can’t at the moment remember the title of it. The problem was that surgeons had mistakenly cut out part of HM’s hippocampus.
Also, if you are interested, there was a documentary done on Savants (I believe that might be what it is called, actually, “Savants”) that aired years ago. You might be able to find it on You Tube. If you do a search for Kim Peek (who I believe was the model for the movie Rain Man), you might be able to find the documentary. Kim Peek was featured prominently in the documentary.
I don’t know about you, but I love this kind of stuff. Although, I am veering off the track of science as it relates to my somewhat futuristic story . . .
So how close are we to having chips planted in our brains to enhance or supplement our memory? How soon will we be able to swap memories, feelings and all? Only time will tell. I do hope I’m around to witness the technology. Whether I get the chip implanted in my brain or not is a whole different question. I might just be up for it. Who knows?
How about you?
Anyway, I’m sorry to say, I haven’t even touched on AI in this post (Anyone up for watching the movie Ex Machina?). Well, AI and robotics is fictionally covered in the second story of my Blue Girl book. The second story is about creepy robot children, titled “The Last Child.” I won’t get into that story here. Maybe in another post.
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I had a really difficult time writing this post. I kept wanting to stuff more books into it as suggestions. And I wanted to dig deeper as far as the research goes. I had to finally concede that my posts aren’t part of a Science/Tech website. I’ll try to keep things relatively in the books and writing realm from here on out. Can’t swear that I won’t veer off on occasion however.
I did finish reading The Future of the Mind and highly recommend it. The last few chapters of the book are really mind-blowing!