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+"DR. MICHIO KAMI 
+
+PROFESSOR OF THEORETICAL PHYSICS 
+CITY UNIVERSITY OI : NEW YORK 
+
+THE SCIENTIFIC QUEST TO UNDERSTAND 
+ENHANCE, AND EMPOWER THE MIND 
+
+DOUBLEPAY 
+
+NEW YORK LONDON TORONTO 
+
+SYDNEY AUCKLAND 
+
+Copyright © 2014 by Michio Kaku 
+
+All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Random House, 
+LLC, New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, Penguin Random 
+House companies. 
+
+www.doubleday.com 
+
+doubleday and the portrayal of an anchor with a dolphin are registered trademarks of Random 
+House, LLC. 
+
+Illustrations by Jeffrey L. Ward 
+Jacket design by Michael J. Windsor 
+
+Jacket illustration © CLIP AREA/Custom media/Shutterstock 
+LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA 
+Kaku, Michio. 
+
+The future of the mind : the scientific quest to understand, enhance, and empower the mind / 
+Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of Theoretical Physics, City University of New York. — First edition, 
+pages cm 
+
+Includes bibliographical references."
+"Includes bibliographical references. 
+
+1. Neuropsychology. 2. Mind and body—Research. 
+
+3. Brain—Mathematical models. 4. Cognitive neuroscience. 
+
+5. Brain-computer interfaces. I. Title. 
+qp360.k 325 2014 
+612.8—dc23 
+
+2013017338 
+
+ISBN 978-0-385-53082-8 (hardcover) ISBN 978-0-385-53083-5 (eBook) 
+
+v3.1 
+
+This book is dedicated to my loving wife, Shizue, 
+
+and my daughters, Michelle and Alyson 
+
+CONTENTS 
+
+Cover 
+
+Title Page 
+
+Copyright 
+
+Dedication 
+
+ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
+
+INTRODUCTION 
+
+BOOK I: THE MIND AND CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+1 UNLOCKING THE MIND 
+
+2 CONSCIOUSNESS—A PHYSICIST’S VIEWPOINT 
+
+BOOK II: MIND OVER MATTER 
+
+3 TELEPATHY: A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS 
+
+4 TELEKINESIS: MIND CONTROLLING MATTER 
+
+5 MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS MADE TO ORDER 
+
+6 EINSTEIN’S BRAIN AND ENHANCING OUR INTELLIGENCE 
+
+BOOK III: ALTERED CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+7 IN YOUR DREAMS 
+
+8 CAN THE MIND BE CONTROLLED? 
+
+9 ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+10 THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+11 REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN"
+"10 THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+11 REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN 
+
+12 THE FUTURE: MIND BEYOND MATTER 
+
+13 THE MIND AS PURE ENERGY 
+
+14 THE ALIEN MIND 
+
+15 CONCLUDING REMARKS 
+
+APPENDIX: QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS? 
+
+NOTES 
+
+SUGGESTED READING 
+ILLUSTRATION CREDITS 
+A Note About the Author 
+
+Other Books by This Author 
+
+ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
+
+It has been my great pleasure to have interviewed and interacted with 
+the following prominent scientists, all of them leaders in their fields. I 
+would like to thank them for graciously giving up their time for 
+interviews and discussions about the future of science. They have given 
+me guidance and inspiration, as well as a firm foundation in their 
+respective fields. 
+
+I would like to thank these pioneers and trailblazers, especially those 
+who have agreed to appear on my TV specials for the BBC, Discovery, 
+and Science TV channels, and also on my national radio shows, Science 
+Fantastic and Explorations."
+"Peter Doherty, Nobel laureate, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital 
+
+Gerald Edelman, Nobel laureate, Scripps Research Institute 
+
+Leon Lederman, Nobel laureate, Illinois Institute of Technology 
+
+Murray Gell-Mann, Nobel laureate, Santa Fe Institute and Cal Tech 
+
+the late Henry Kendall, Nobel laureate, MIT 
+
+Walter Gilbert, Nobel laureate, Harvard University 
+
+David Gross, Nobel laureate, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics 
+
+Joseph Rotblat, Nobel laureate, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital 
+
+Yoichiro Nambu, Nobel laureate, University of Chicago 
+
+Steven Weinberg, Nobel laureate, University of Texas at Austin 
+
+Frank Wilczek, Nobel laureate, MIT 
+
+Amir Aczel, author of Uranium Wars 
+
+Buzz Aldrin, NASA astronaut, second man to walk on the moon 
+Geoff Andersen, U.S. Air Force Academy, author of The Telescope 
+
+Jay Barbree, author of Moon Shot 
+
+John Barrow, physicist, Cambridge University, author of Impossibility 
+
+Marcia Bartusiak, author of Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony"
+"Marcia Bartusiak, author of Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony 
+
+Jim Bell, Cornell University astronomer 
+
+Jeffrey Bennet, author of Beyond UFOs 
+
+Bob Berman, astronomer, author The Secrets of the Night Sky 
+
+Leslie Biesecker, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Piers Bizony, author of How to Build Your Own Starship 
+
+Michael Blaese, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Alex Boese, founder of Museum of Hoaxes 
+
+Nick Bostrom, transhumanist, Oxford University 
+
+Lt. Col. Robert Bowman, Institute for Space and Security Studies 
+
+Cynthia Breazeal, artificial intelligence, MIT Media Lab 
+
+Lawrence Brody, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Rodney Brooks, director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory 
+Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute 
+Michael Brown, astronomer, Cal Tech 
+James Canton, author of The Extreme Future 
+
+Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of 
+Pennsylvania"
+"Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of 
+Pennsylvania 
+
+Fritjof Capra, author of The Science of Leonardo 
+Sean Carroll, cosmologist, Cal Tech 
+Andrew Chaikin, author of A Man on the Moon 
+Leroy Chiao, NASA astronaut 
+
+Eric Chivian, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear 
+War 
+
+Deepak Chopra, author of Super Brain 
+
+George Church, director of Harvard’s Center for Computational 
+Genetics 
+
+Thomas Cochran, physicist, Natural Resources Defense Council 
+
+Christopher Cokinos, astronomer, author of Fallen Sky 
+
+Francis Collins, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Vicki Colvin, nanotechnologist, University of Texas 
+
+Neal Comins, author of Hazards of Space Travel 
+
+Steve Cook, NASA spokesperson 
+
+Christine Cosgrove, author of Normal at Any Cost 
+
+Steve Cousins, CEO of Willow Garage Personal Robots Program 
+
+Phillip Coyle, former assistant secretary of defense for the U.S. Defense 
+Department 
+
+Daniel Crevier, AI, CEO of Coreco"
+"Daniel Crevier, AI, CEO of Coreco 
+
+Ken Croswell, astronomer, author of Magnificent Universe 
+
+Steven Cummer, computer science, Duke University 
+
+Mark Cutkowsky, mechanical engineering, Stanford University 
+
+Paul Davies, physicist, author of Superforce 
+
+Daniel Dennet, philosopher, Tufts University 
+
+the late Michael Dertouzos, computer science, MIT 
+
+Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize winner, UCLA 
+
+Marriot DiChristina, Scientific American 
+
+Peter Dilworth, MIT AI Lab 
+
+John Donoghue, creator of Braingate, Brown University 
+Ann Druyan, widow of Carl Sagan, Cosmos Studios 
+Freeman Dyson, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University 
+David Eagleman, neuroscientist, Baylor College of Medicine 
+John Ellis, CERN physicist 
+
+Paul Erlich, environmentalist, Stanford University 
+Daniel Fairbanks, author of Relics of Eden 
+
+Timothy Ferris, University of California, author of Coming of Age in the 
+Milky Way Galaxy 
+
+Maria Finitzo, stem cell expert, Peabody Award winner 
+
+Robert Finkelstein, AI expert"
+"Maria Finitzo, stem cell expert, Peabody Award winner 
+
+Robert Finkelstein, AI expert 
+
+Christopher Flavin, World Watch Institute 
+
+Louis Friedman, cofounder of the Planetary Society 
+
+Jack Gallant, neuroscientist, University of California at Berkeley 
+
+James Garwin, NASA chief scientist 
+
+Evelyn Gates, author of Einstein’s Telescope 
+
+Michael Gazzaniga, neurologist, University of California at Santa 
+Barbara 
+
+Jack Geiger, cofounder, Physicians for Social Responsibility 
+
+David Gelertner, computer scientist, Yale University, University of 
+California 
+
+Neal Gershenfeld, MIT Media Lab 
+
+Daniel Gilbert, psychologist, Harvard University 
+
+Paul Gilster, author of Centauri Dreams 
+
+Rebecca Goldberg, Environmental Defense Fund 
+
+Don Goldsmith, astronomer, author of Runaway Universe 
+
+David Goodstein, assistant provost of Cal Tech 
+
+J. Richard Gott III, Princeton University, author of Time Travel in 
+Einstein’s Universe 
+
+Late Stephen Jay Gould, biologist, Harvard University"
+"Late Stephen Jay Gould, biologist, Harvard University 
+
+Ambassador Thomas Graham, spy satellites and intelligence gathering 
+
+John Grant, author of Corrupted Science 
+
+Eric Green, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Ronald Green, author of Babies by Design 
+
+Brian Greene, Columbia University, author of The Elegant Universe 
+Alan Guth, physicist, MIT, author of The Inflationary Universe 
+
+William Hanson, author of The Edge of Medicine 
+
+Leonard Hayflick, University of California at San Francisco Medical 
+School 
+
+Donald Hillebrand, Argonne National Labs, future of the car 
+Frank N. von Hippel, physicist, Princeton University 
+
+Allan Hobson, psychiatrist, Harvard University 
+Jeffrey Hoffman, NASA astronaut, MIT 
+
+Douglas Hofstadter, Pulitzer Prize winner, Indiana University, author 
+of Godel, Escher, Bach 
+
+John Horgan, Stevens Institute of Technology, author of The End of 
+Science 
+
+Jamie Hyneman, host of MythBusters 
+
+Chris Impey, astronomer, author of The Living Cosmos 
+
+Robert Irie, AI Lab, MIT"
+"Chris Impey, astronomer, author of The Living Cosmos 
+
+Robert Irie, AI Lab, MIT 
+
+P. J. Jacobowitz, PC magazine 
+
+Jay Jaroslav, MIT AI Lab 
+
+Donald Johanson, anthropologist, discoverer of Lucy 
+George Johnson, New York Times science journalist 
+Tom Jones, NASA astronaut 
+Steve Kates, astronomer 
+
+Jack Kessler, stem cell expert, Peabody Award winner 
+Robert Kirshner, astronomer, Harvard University 
+Kris Koenig, astronomer 
+
+Lawrence Krauss, Arizona State University, author of Physics of Star 
+Trek 
+
+Lawrence Kuhn, filmmaker and philosopher, Closer to Truth 
+
+Ray Kurzweil, inventor, author of The Age of Spiritual Machines 
+
+Robert Lanza, biotechnology, Advanced Cell Technologies 
+
+Roger Launius, author of Robots in Space 
+
+Stan Lee, creator of Marvel Comics and Spider-Man 
+
+Michael Lemonick, senior science editor of Time 
+
+Arthur Lerner-Lam, geologist, volcanist 
+
+Simon LeVay, author of When Science Goes Wrong 
+
+John Lewis, astronomer, University of Arizona 
+
+Alan Lightman, MIT, author of Einstein’s Dreams"
+"John Lewis, astronomer, University of Arizona 
+
+Alan Lightman, MIT, author of Einstein’s Dreams 
+
+George Linehan, author of Space One 
+
+Seth Lloyd, MIT, author of Programming the Universe 
+
+Werner R. Loewenstein, former director of Cell Physics Laboratory, 
+Columbia University 
+
+Joseph Lykken, physicist, Fermi National Laboratory 
+
+Pattie Maes, MIT Media Lab 
+
+Robert Mann, author of Forensic Detective 
+
+Michael Paul Mason, author of Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injury and 
+Its Aftermath 
+
+Patrick McCray, author of Keep Watching the Skies 
+
+Glenn McGee, author of The Perfect Baby 
+
+James McLurkin, MIT, AI Lab 
+
+Paul McMillan, director of Space Watch 
+
+Fulvia Melia, astronomer, University of Arizona 
+
+William Meller, author of Evolution Rx 
+
+Paul Meltzer, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Marvin Minsky, MIT, author of The Society of Minds 
+
+Hans Moravec, author of Robot 
+
+Late Phillip Morrison, physicist, MIT"
+"Hans Moravec, author of Robot 
+
+Late Phillip Morrison, physicist, MIT 
+
+Richard Muller, astrophysicist, University of California at Berkeley 
+David Nahamoo, IBM Human Language Technology 
+Christina Neal, volcanist 
+
+Miguel Nicolelis, neuroscientist, Duke University 
+
+Shinji Nishimoto, neurologist, University of California at Berkeley 
+
+Michael Novacek, American Museum of Natural History 
+
+Michael Oppenheimer, environmentalist, Princeton University 
+
+Dean Ornish, cancer and heart disease specialist 
+
+Peter Palese, virologist, Mount Sinai School of Medicine 
+
+Charles Pellerin, NASA official 
+
+Sidney Perkowitz, author of Hollywood Science 
+
+John Pike, GlobalSecurity.org 
+
+Jena Pincott, author of Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes? 
+
+Steven Pinker, psychologist, Harvard University 
+Thomas Poggio, MIT, artificial intelligence 
+Correy Powell, editor of Discover magazine 
+John Powell, founder of JP Aerospace"
+"Richard Preston, author of Hot Zone and Demon in the Freezer 
+Raman Prinja, astronomer, University College London 
+
+David Quammen, evolutionary biologist, author of The Reluctant Mr. 
+Darwin 
+
+Katherine Ramsland, forensic scientist 
+
+Lisa Randall, Harvard University, author of Warped Passages 
+
+Sir Martin Rees, Royal Astronomer of Great Britain, Cambridge 
+University, author of Before the Beginning 
+
+Jeremy Rifkin, Foundation for Economic Trends 
+David Riquier, MIT Media Lab 
+Jane Rissler, Union of Concerned Scientists 
+Steven Rosenberg, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Oliver Sacks, neurologist, Columbia University 
+Paul Saffo, futurist, Institute of the Future 
+Late Carl Sagan, Cornell University, author of Cosmos 
+Nick Sagan, coauthor of You Call This the Future? 
+
+Michael H. Salamon, NASA’s Beyond Einstein program 
+Adam Savage, host of MythBusters 
+
+Peter Schwartz, futurist, founder of Global Business Network 
+
+Michael Shermer, founder of Skeptic Society and Skeptic magazine"
+"Michael Shermer, founder of Skeptic Society and Skeptic magazine 
+
+Donna Shirley, NASA Mars program 
+
+Seth Shostak, SETI Institute 
+
+Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish 
+
+Paul Shurch, SETI League 
+
+Peter Singer, author of Wired for War 
+
+Simon Singh, author of The Big Bang 
+
+Gary Small, author of iBrain 
+
+Paul Spudis, author of Odyssey Moon Limited 
+
+Stephen Squyres, astronomer, Cornell University 
+
+Paul Steinhardt, Princeton University, author of Endless Universe 
+
+Jack Stern, stem cell surgeon 
+
+Gregory Stock, UCLA, author of Redesigning Humans 
+Richard Stone, author of NEOs and Tunguska 
+Brian Sullivan, Hayden Planetarium 
+Leonard Susskind, physicist, Stanford University 
+Daniel Tammet, author of Bom on a Blue Day 
+Geoffrey Taylor, physicist, University of Melbourne 
+Late Ted Taylor, designer of U.S. nuclear warheads 
+Max Tegmark, cosmologist, MIT 
+Alvin Toffler, author of The Third Wave 
+Patrick Tucker, World Future Society"
+"Chris Turney, University of Wollongong, author of Ice, Mud and Blood 
+Neil de Grasse Tyson, director of Hayden Planetarium 
+Sesh Velamoor, Foundation for the Future 
+
+Robert Wallace, author of Spycraft 
+
+Kevin Warwick, human cyborgs, University of Reading, UK 
+Fred Watson, astronomer, author of Stargazer 
+Late Mark Weiser, Xerox PARC 
+Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us 
+
+Daniel Wertheimer, SETI at Home, University of California at Berkeley 
+Mike Wessler, MIT AI Lab 
+
+Roger Wiens, astronomer, Los Alamos National Laboratory 
+Author Wiggins, author of The Joy of Physics 
+
+Anthony Wynshaw-Boris, National Institutes of Health 
+Carl Zimmer, biologist, author of Evolution 
+Robert Zimmerman, author of Leaving Earth 
+Robert Zubrin, founder of Mars Society"
+"I would also like to thank my agent, Stuart Krichevsky, who has been 
+at my side all these years and has given me helpful advice about my 
+books. I have always benefited from his sound judgment. In addition, I 
+would like to thank my editors, Edward Kastenmeier and Melissa 
+Danaczko, who have guided my book and provided invaluable editorial 
+advice. And I would like to thank Dr. Michelle Kaku, my daughter and a 
+neurology resident at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, for stimulating, 
+thoughtful, and fruitful discussions about the future of neurology. Her 
+careful and thorough reading of the manuscript has greatly enhanced the 
+presentation and content of this book. 
+
+INTRODUCTION"
+"INTRODUCTION 
+
+The two greatest mysteries in all of nature are the mind and the 
+universe. With our vast technology, we have been able to photograph 
+galaxies billions of light-years away, manipulate the genes that control 
+life, and probe the inner sanctum of the atom, but the mind and the 
+universe still elude and tantalize us. They are the most mysterious and 
+fascinating frontiers known to science. 
+
+If you want to appreciate the majesty of the universe, just turn your 
+gaze to the heavens at night, ablaze with billions of stars. Ever since our 
+ancestors first gasped at the splendor of the starry sky, we have puzzled 
+over these eternal questions: Where did it all come from? What does it 
+all mean?"
+"To witness the mystery of our mind, all we have to do is stare at 
+ourselves in the mirror and wonder, What lurks behind our eyes? This 
+raises haunting questions like: Do we have a soul? What happens to us 
+after we die? Who am “I” anyway? And most important, this brings us to 
+the ultimate question: Where do we fit into this great cosmic scheme? As 
+the great Victorian biologist Thomas Huxley once said, “The question of 
+all questions for humanity, the problem which lies behind all others and 
+is more interesting than any of them, is that of the determination of 
+man’s place in Nature and his relation to the Cosmos.”"
+"There are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, roughly the same 
+as the number of neurons in our brain. You may have to travel twenty- 
+four trillion miles, to the first star outside our solar system, to find an 
+object as complex as what is sitting on your shoulders. The mind and the 
+universe pose the greatest scientific challenge of all, but they also share 
+a curious relationship. On one hand they are polar opposites. One is 
+concerned with the vastness of outer space, where we encounter strange 
+denizens like black holes, exploding stars, and colliding galaxies. The 
+other is concerned with inner space, where we find our most intimate 
+and private hopes and desires. The mind is no farther than our next 
+
+thought, yet we are often clueless when asked to articulate and explain 
+it."
+"thought, yet we are often clueless when asked to articulate and explain 
+it. 
+
+But although they may be opposites in this respect, they also have a 
+common history and narrative. Both were shrouded in superstition and 
+magic since time immemorial. Astrologers and phrenologists claimed to 
+find the meaning of the universe in every constellation of the zodiac and 
+in every bump on your head. Meanwhile, mind readers and seers have 
+been alternately celebrated and vilified over the years."
+"The universe and the mind continue to intersect in a variety of ways, 
+thanks in no small part to some of the eye-opening ideas we often 
+encounter in science fiction. Reading these books as a child, I would 
+daydream about being a member of the Sian, a race of telepaths created 
+by A. E. van Vogt. I marveled at how a mutant called the Mule could 
+unleash his vast telepathic powers and nearly seize control of the 
+Galactic Empire in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. And in the movie 
+Forbidden Planet, I wondered how an advanced civilization millions of 
+years beyond ours could channel its enormous telekinetic powers to 
+reshape reality to its whims and wishes."
+"Then when I was about ten, “The Amazing Dunninger” appeared on 
+TV. He would dazzle his audience with his spectacular magic tricks. His 
+motto was “For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those 
+who do not believe, no explanation will suffice.” One day, he declared 
+that he would send his thoughts to millions of people throughout the 
+
+country. He closed his eyes and began to concentrate, stating that he was 
+beaming the name of a president of the United States. He asked people 
+to write down the name that popped into their heads on a postcard and 
+mail it in. The next week, he announced triumphantly that thousands of 
+postcards had come pouring in with the name “Roosevelt,” the very 
+same name he was “beaming” across the United States."
+"I wasn’t impressed. Back then, the legacy of Roosevelt was strong 
+among those who had lived through the Depression and World War II, so 
+this came as no surprise. (I thought to myself that it would have been 
+truly amazing if he had been thinking of President Millard Fillmore.) 
+
+Still, it stoked my imagination, and I couldn’t resist experimenting 
+with telepathy on my own, trying to read other people’s minds by 
+concentrating as hard as I could. Closing my eyes and focusing intently, I 
+would attempt to “listen” to other people’s thoughts and telekinetically 
+
+move objects around my room. 
+
+I failed."
+"move objects around my room. 
+
+I failed. 
+
+Maybe somewhere telepaths walked the Earth, but I wasn’t one of 
+them. In the process, I began to realize that the wondrous exploits of 
+telepaths were probably impossible—at least without outside assistance. 
+But in the years that followed, I also slowly learned another lesson: to 
+fathom the greatest secrets in the universe, one did not need telepathic 
+or superhuman abilities. One just had to have an open, determined, and 
+curious mind. In particular, in order to understand whether the fantastic 
+devices of science fiction are possible, you have to immerse yourself in 
+advanced physics. To understand the precise point when the possible 
+becomes the impossible, you have to appreciate and understand the laws 
+of physics."
+"These two passions have fired up my imagination all these years: to 
+understand the fundamental laws of physics, and to see how science will 
+shape the future of our lives. To illustrate this and to share my 
+excitement in probing the ultimate laws of physics, I have written the 
+books Hyperspace , Beyond Einstein, and Parallel Worlds. And to express 
+my fascination with the future, I have written Visions, Physics of the 
+Impossible, and Physics of the Future. Over the course of writing and 
+researching these books, I was continually reminded that the human 
+mind is still one of the greatest and most mysterious forces in the world. 
+
+Indeed, we’ve been at a loss to understand what it is or how it works 
+for most of history. The ancient Egyptians, for all their glorious 
+accomplishments in the arts and sciences, believed the brain to be a 
+useless organ and threw it away when embalming their pharaohs."
+"Aristotle was convinced that the soul resided in the heart, not the brain, 
+whose only function was to cool down the cardiovascular system. 
+Others, like Descartes, thought that the soul entered the body through 
+the tiny pineal gland of the brain. But in the absence of any solid 
+evidence, none of these theories could be proven. 
+
+This “dark age” persisted for thousands of years, and with good 
+reason. The brain weighs only three pounds, yet it is the most complex 
+object in the solar system. Although it occupies only 2 percent of the 
+body’s weight, the brain has a ravenous appetite, consuming fully 20 
+percent of our total energy (in newborns, the brain consumes an 
+astonishing 65 percent of the baby’s energy), while fully 80 percent of 
+
+our genes are coded for the brain. There are an estimated 100 billion 
+neurons residing inside the skull with an exponential amount of neural 
+connections and pathways."
+"Back in 1977, when the astronomer Carl Sagan wrote his Pulitzer 
+Prize-winning book, The Dragons of Eden, he broadly summarized what 
+was known about the brain up to that time. His book was beautifully 
+written and tried to represent the state of the art in neuroscience, which 
+at that time relied heavily on three main sources. The first was 
+comparing our brains with those of other species. This was tedious and 
+difficult because it involved dissecting the brains of thousands of 
+animals. The second method was equally indirect: analyzing victims of 
+strokes and disease, who often exhibit bizarre behavior because of their 
+illness. Only an autopsy performed after their death could reveal which 
+part of the brain was malfunctioning. Third, scientists could use 
+electrodes to probe the brain and slowly and painfully piece together 
+which part of the brain influenced which behavior."
+"But the basic tools of neuroscience did not provide a systematic way of 
+analyzing the brain. You could not simply requisition a stroke victim 
+with damage in the specific area you wanted to study. Since the brain is 
+a living, dynamic system, autopsies often did not uncover the most 
+interesting features, such as how the parts of the brain interact, let alone 
+how they produced such diverse thoughts as love, hate, jealousy, and 
+curiosity. 
+
+TWIN REVOLUTIONS 
+
+Four hundred years ago, the telescope was invented, and almost 
+overnight, this new, miraculous instrument peered into the heart of the 
+celestial bodies. It was one of the most revolutionary (and seditious) 
+instruments of all time. All of a sudden, with your own two eyes, you"
+"could see the myths and dogma of the past evaporate like the morning 
+mist. Instead of being perfect examples of divine wisdom, the moon had 
+jagged craters, the sun had black spots, Jupiter had moons, Venus had 
+phases, and Saturn had rings. More was learned about the universe in 
+the fifteen years after the invention of the telescope than in all human 
+history put together. 
+
+Like the invention of the telescope, the introduction of MRI machines 
+and a variety of advanced brain scans in the mid-1990s and 2000s has 
+transformed neuroscience. We have learned more about the brain in the 
+last fifteen years than in all prior human history, and the mind, once 
+considered out of reach, is finally assuming center stage."
+"Nobel laureate Eric R. Kandel of the Max Planck Institute in Tubingen, 
+Germany, writes, “The most valuable insights into the human mind to 
+emerge during this period did not come from the disciplines traditionally 
+concerned with the mind—philosophy, psychology, or psycho-analysis. 
+Instead they came from a merger of these disciplines with the biology of 
+the brain....” 
+
+Physicists have played a pivotal role in this endeavor, providing a 
+flood of new tools with acronyms like MRI, EEG, PET, CAT, TCM, TES, 
+and DBS that have dramatically changed the study of the brain. 
+Suddenly with these machines we could see thoughts moving within the 
+living, thinking brain. As neurologist V. S. Ramachandran of the 
+University of California, San Diego, says, “All of these questions that 
+philosophers have been studying for millennia, we scientists can begin to 
+explore by doing brain imaging and by studying patients and asking the 
+right questions.”"
+"Looking back, some of my initial forays into the world of physics 
+intersected with the very technologies that are now opening up the mind 
+for science. In high school, for instance, I became aware of a new form 
+of matter, called antimatter, and decided to conduct a science project on 
+the topic. As it is one of the most exotic substances on Earth, I had to 
+appeal to the old Atomic Energy Commission just to obtain a tiny 
+quantity of sodium-22, a substance that naturally emits a positive 
+electron (anti-electron, or positron). With my small sample in hand, I 
+was able to build a cloud chamber and powerful magnetic field that 
+allowed me to photograph the trails of vapor left by antimatter particles. 
+I didn’t know it at the time, but sodium-22 would soon become 
+instrumental in a new technology, called PET (positron emission 
+tomography), which has since given us startling new insights into the 
+thinking brain."
+"Yet another technology I experimented with in high school was 
+magnetic resonance. I attended a lecture by Felix Bloch of Stanford 
+
+University, who shared the 1952 Nobel Prize for Physics with Edward 
+
+Purcell for the discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance. Dr. Bloch 
+explained to us high school kids that if you had a powerful magnetic 
+field, the atoms would align vertically in that field like compass needles. 
+Then if you applied a radio pulse to these atoms at a precise resonant 
+frequency, you could make them flip over. When they eventually flipped 
+back, they would emit another pulse, like an echo, which would allow 
+you to determine the identity of these atoms. (Later, I used the principle 
+of magnetic resonance to build a 2.3-million-electron-volt particle 
+accelerator in my mom’s garage.)"
+"Just a couple of years later, as a freshman at Harvard University, it 
+was an honor to have Dr. Purcell teach me electrodynamics. Around that 
+same time, I also had a summer job and got a chance to work with Dr. 
+Richard Ernst, who was trying to generalize the work of Bloch and 
+Purcell on magnetic resonance. He succeeded spectacularly and would 
+eventually win the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1991 for laying the 
+foundation for the modern MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machine. 
+The MRI machine, in turn, has given us detailed photographs of the 
+living brain in even finer detail than PET scans. 
+
+EMPOWERING THE MIND"
+"EMPOWERING THE MIND 
+
+Eventually I became a professor of theoretical physics, but my 
+fascination with the mind remained. It is thrilling to see that, just within 
+the last decade, advances in physics have made possible some of the 
+feats of mentalism that excited me when I was a child. Using MRI scans, 
+scientists can now read thoughts circulating in our brains. Scientists can 
+also insert a chip into the brain of a patient who is totally paralyzed and 
+connect it to a computer, so that through thought alone that patient can 
+surf the web, read and write e-mails, play video games, control their 
+wheelchair, operate household appliances, and manipulate mechanical 
+arms. In fact, such patients can do anything a normal person can do via 
+a computer."
+"Scientists are now going even further, by connecting the brain directly 
+to an exoskeleton that these patients can wear around their paralyzed 
+limbs. Quadriplegics may one day lead near-normal lives. Such 
+exoskeletons may also give us superpowers enabling us to handle deadly 
+
+emergencies. One day, our astronauts may even explore the planets by 
+mentally controlling mechanical surrogates from the comfort of their 
+
+living rooms."
+"living rooms. 
+
+As in the movie The Matrix, we might one day be able to download 
+memories and skills using computers. In animal studies, scientists have 
+already been able to insert memories into the brain. Perhaps it’s only a 
+matter of time before we, too, can insert artificial memories into our 
+brains to learn new subjects, vacation in new places, and master new 
+hobbies. And if technical skills can be downloaded into the minds of 
+workers and scientists, this may even affect the world economy. We 
+might even be able to share these memories as well. One day, scientists 
+might construct an “Internet of the mind,” or a brain-net, where 
+thoughts and emotions are sent electronically around the world. Even 
+dreams will be videotaped and then “brain-mailed” across the Internet."
+"Technology may also give us the power to enhance our intelligence. 
+Progress has been made in understanding the extraordinary powers of 
+“savants” whose mental, artistic, and mathematical abilities are truly 
+astonishing. Furthermore, the genes that separate us from the apes are 
+now being sequenced, giving us an unparalleled glimpse into the 
+evolutionary origins of the brain. Genes have already been isolated in 
+animals that can increase their memory and mental performance."
+"The excitement and promise generated by these eye-opening advances 
+are so enormous that they have also caught the attention of the 
+politicians. In fact, brain science has suddenly become the source of a 
+transatlantic rivalry between the greatest economic powers on the 
+planet. In January 2013, both President Barack Obama and the European 
+Union announced what could eventually become multibillion-dollar 
+funding for two independent projects that would reverse engineer the 
+brain. Deciphering the intricate neural circuitry of the brain, once 
+considered hopelessly beyond the scope of modern science, is now the 
+focus of two crash projects that, like the Human Genome Project, will 
+change the scientific and medical landscape. Not only will this give us 
+unparalleled insight into the mind, it will also generate new industries, 
+spur economic activity, and open up new vistas for neuroscience."
+"Once the neural pathways of the brain are finally decoded, one can 
+envision understanding the precise origins of mental illness, perhaps 
+leading to a cure for this ancient affliction. This decoding also makes it 
+
+possible to create a copy of the brain, which raises philosophical and 
+ethical questions. Who are we, if our consciousness can be uploaded into 
+a computer? We can also toy with the concept of immortality. Our 
+bodies may eventually decay and die, but can our consciousness live 
+forever? 
+
+And beyond that, perhaps one day in the distant future the mind will 
+
+be freed of its bodily constraints and roam among the stars, as several 
+scientists have speculated. Centuries from now, one can imagine placing 
+our entire neural blueprint on laser beams, which will then be sent into 
+deep space, perhaps the most convenient way for our consciousness to 
+explore the stars."
+"A brilliant new scientific landscape that will reshape human destiny is 
+now truly opening up. We are now entering a new golden age of 
+neuroscience. 
+
+In making these predictions, I have had the invaluable assistance of 
+scientists who graciously allowed me to interview them, broadcast their 
+ideas on national radio, and even take a TV crew into their laboratories. 
+These are the scientists who are laying the foundation for the future of 
+the mind. For their ideas to be incorporated into this book, I made only 
+two requirements: (1) their predictions must rigorously obey the laws of 
+physics; and (2) prototypes must exist to show proof-of-principle for 
+these far-reaching ideas. 
+
+TOUCHED BY MENTAL ILLN ESS"
+"TOUCHED BY MENTAL ILLN ESS 
+
+I once wrote a biography of Albert Einstein, called Einstein’s Cosmos, and 
+had to delve into the minute details of his private life. I had known that 
+Einstein’s youngest son was afflicted with schizophrenia, but did not 
+realize the enormous emotional toll that it had taken on the great 
+scientist’s life. Einstein was also touched by mental illness in another 
+way; one of his closest colleagues was the physicist Paul Ehrenfest, who 
+helped Einstein create the theory of general relativity. After suffering 
+bouts of depression, Ehrenfest tragically killed his own son, who had 
+Down’s syndrome, and then committed suicide. Over the years, I have 
+found that many of my colleagues and friends have struggled to manage 
+mental illness in their families."
+"Mental illness has also deeply touched my own life. Several years ago, 
+my mother died after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. It was 
+heartbreaking to see her gradually lose her memories of her loved ones, 
+to gaze into her eyes and realize that she did not know who I was. I 
+could see the glimmer of humanity slowly being extinguished. She had 
+spent a lifetime struggling to raise a family, and instead of enjoying her 
+golden years, she was robbed of all the memories she held dear. 
+
+As the baby boomers age, the sad experience that I and many others 
+have had will be repeated across the world. My wish is that rapid 
+advances in neuroscience will one day alleviate the suffering felt by 
+those afflicted with mental illness and dementia. 
+
+WHAT IS DRIVING THIS REVOLUTION?"
+"WHAT IS DRIVING THIS REVOLUTION? 
+
+The data pouring in from brain scans are now being decoded, and the 
+progress is stunning. Several times a year, headlines herald a fresh 
+breakthrough. It took 350 years, since the invention of the telescope, to 
+enter the space age, but it has taken only fifteen years since the 
+introduction of the MRI and advanced brain scans to actively connect 
+the brain to the outside world. Why so quickly , and how much is there to 
+come?"
+"Part of this rapid progress has occurred because physicists today have 
+a good understanding of electromagnetism, which governs the electrical 
+signals racing through our neurons. The mathematical equations of 
+James Clerk Maxwell, which are used to calculate the physics of 
+antennas, radar, radio receivers, and microwave towers, form the very 
+cornerstone of MRI technology. It took centuries to finally solve the 
+secret of electromagnetism, but neuroscience can enjoy the fruits of this 
+grand endeavor. In Book I, I will survey the history of the brain and 
+explain how a galaxy of new instruments has left the physics labs and 
+given us glorious color pictures of the mechanics of thought. Because 
+consciousness plays so central a role in any discussion of the mind, I also 
+give a physicist’s perspective, offering a definition of consciousness that 
+includes the animal kingdom as well. In fact, I provide a ranking of 
+consciousness, showing how it is possible to assign a number to various"
+"consciousness, showing how it is possible to assign a number to various 
+types of consciousness."
+"But to fully answer the question of how this technology will advance, 
+we also have to look at Moore’s law, which states that computer power 
+doubles every two years. I often surprise people with the simple fact that 
+your cell phone today has more computer power than all of NASA when 
+it put two men on the moon in 1969. Computers are now powerful 
+enough to record the electrical signals emanating from the brain and 
+partially decode them into a familiar digital language. This makes it 
+possible for the brain to directly interface with computers to control any 
+object around it. The fast-growing field is called BMI (brain-machine 
+interface), and the key technology is the computer. In Book II, I’ll 
+explore this new technology, which has made recording memories, mind 
+reading, videotaping our dreams, and telekinesis possible."
+"In Book III, I’ll investigate alternate forms of consciousness, from 
+dreams, drugs, and mental illness to robots and even aliens from outer 
+space. Here we’ll also learn about the potential to control and 
+manipulate the brain to manage diseases such as depression, Parkinson’s, 
+Alzheimer’s, and many more. I will also elaborate on the Brain Research 
+Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (or BRAIN) project 
+
+announced by President Obama, and the Human Brain Project of the 
+European Union, which will potentially allocate billions of dollars to 
+decode the pathways of the brain, all the way down to the neural level. 
+These two crash programs will undoubtedly open up entirely new 
+research areas, giving us new ways to treat mental illness and also 
+revealing the deepest secrets of consciousness."
+"After we have given a definition of consciousness, we can use it to 
+explore nonhuman consciousness as well (i.e., the consciousness of 
+robots). How advanced can robots become? Can they have emotions? 
+Will they pose a threat? And we can also explore the consciousness of 
+aliens, who may have goals totally different from ours. 
+
+In the Appendix, I will discuss perhaps the strangest idea in all of 
+science, the concept from quantum physics that consciousness may be 
+the fundamental basis for reality. 
+
+There is no shortage of proposals for this exploding field. Only time 
+will tell which ones are mere pipe dreams created by the overheated 
+imagination of science-fiction writers and which ones represent solid 
+avenues for future scientific research. Progress in neuroscience has been 
+astronomical, and in many ways the key has been modern physics, 
+
+which uses the full power of the electromagnetic and nuclear forces to 
+probe the great secrets hidden within our minds."
+"I should stress that I am not a neuroscientist. I am a theoretical 
+physicist with an enduring interest in the mind. I hope that the vantage 
+point of a physicist can help further enrich our knowledge and give a 
+fresh new understanding of the most familiar and alien object in the 
+universe: our mind. 
+
+But given the dizzying pace with which radically new perspectives are 
+being developed, it is important that we have a firm grasp on how the 
+brain is put together. 
+
+So let us first discuss the origins of modern neuroscience, which some 
+historians believe began when an iron spike sailed through the brain of a 
+certain Phineas Gage. This seminal event set off a chain reaction that 
+helped open the brain to serious scientific investigation. Although it was 
+an unfortunate event for Mr. Gage, it paved the way for modern science. 
+
+BOOK I THE MIND AND CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+My fundamental premise about the brain is that its workings—"
+"BOOK I THE MIND AND CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+My fundamental premise about the brain is that its workings— 
+
+what we sometimes call “mind”—are a consequence of its 
+anatomy and physiology, and nothing more. 
+
+—CARL SAGAN 
+
+1 UNLOCKING THE MIND 
+
+In 1848, Phineas Gage was working as a railroad foreman in Vermont, 
+when dynamite accidentally went off, propelling a three-foot, seven-inch 
+spike straight into his face, through the front part of his brain, and out 
+the top of his skull, eventually landing eighty feet away. His fellow 
+workers, shocked to see part of their foreman’s brain blown off, 
+immediately called for a doctor. To the workers’ (and even the doctor’s) 
+amazement, Mr. Gage did not die on-site."
+"He was semiconscious for weeks, but eventually made what seemed 
+like a full recovery. (A rare photograph of Gage surfaced in 2009, 
+showing a handsome, confident man, with an injury to his head and left 
+eye, holding the iron rod.) But after this incident, his coworkers began to 
+notice a sharp change in his personality. A normally cheerful, helpful 
+foreman, Gage became abusive, hostile, and selfish. Ladies were warned 
+to stay clear of him. Dr. John Harlow, the doctor who treated him, 
+observed that Gage was “capricious and vacillating, devising many plans 
+of future operations, which are no sooner arranged than they are 
+abandoned in turn for others appearing more feasible. A child in his 
+intellectual capacity and manifestations, yet with the animal passions of 
+a strong man.” Dr. Harlow noted that he was “radically changed” and 
+that his fellow workers said that “he was no longer Gage.” After Gage’s 
+death in 1860, Dr. Harlow preserved both his skull and the rod that had"
+"death in 1860, Dr. Harlow preserved both his skull and the rod that had 
+smashed into it. Detailed X-ray scans of the skull have since confirmed 
+that the iron rod caused massive destruction in the area of the brain 
+behind the forehead known as the frontal lobe, in both the left and right 
+cerebral hemispheres."
+"This incredible accident would not only change the life of Phineas 
+Gage, it would alter the course of science as well. Previously, the 
+dominant thinking was that the brain and the soul were two separate 
+entities, a philosophy called dualism. But it became increasingly clear 
+that damage to the frontal lobe of his brain had caused abrupt changes 
+
+in Gage’s personality. This, in turn, created a paradigm shift in scientific 
+thinking: perhaps specific areas of the brain could be traced to certain 
+behaviors. 
+
+broca’s brain"
+"broca’s brain 
+
+In 1861, just a year after Gage’s death, this view was further cemented 
+through the work of Pierre Paul Broca, a physician in Paris who 
+documented a patient who appeared normal except that he had a severe 
+speech deficit. The patient could understand and comprehend speech 
+perfectly, but he could utter only one sound, the word “tan.” After the 
+patient died, Dr. Broca confirmed during the autopsy that the patient 
+suffered from a lesion in his left temporal lobe, a region of the brain near 
+his left ear. Dr. Broca would later confirm twelve similar cases of 
+patients with damage to this specific area of the brain. Today patients 
+who have damage to the temporal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, 
+are said to suffer from Broca’s aphasia. (In general, patients with this 
+disorder can understand speech but cannot say anything, or else they 
+drop many words when speaking.)"
+"Soon afterward, in 1874, German physician Carl Wernicke described 
+patients who suffered from the opposite problem. They could articulate 
+clearly, but they could not understand written or spoken speech. Often 
+these patients could speak fluently with correct grammar and syntax, but 
+with nonsensical words and meaningless jargon. Sadly, these patients 
+often didn’t know they were spouting gibberish. Wernicke confirmed 
+after performing autopsies that these patients had suffered damage to a 
+slightly different area of the left temporal lobe. 
+
+The works of Broca and Wernicke were landmark studies in 
+neuroscience, establishing a clear link between behavioral problems, 
+such as speech and language impairment, and damage to specific regions 
+of the brain."
+"Another breakthrough took place amid the chaos of war. Throughout 
+history, there were many religious taboos prohibiting the dissection of 
+the human body, which severely restricted progress in medicine. In 
+warfare, however, with tens of thousands of bleeding soldiers dying on 
+the battlefield, it became an urgent mission for doctors to develop any 
+
+medical treatment that worked. During the Prusso-Danish War in 1864, 
+German doctor Gustav Fritsch treated many soldiers with gaping wounds 
+to the brain and happened to notice that when he touched one 
+hemisphere of the brain, the opposite side of the body often twitched. 
+Later Fritsch systematically showed that, when he electrically stimulated 
+the brain, the left hemisphere controlled the right side of the body, and 
+vice versa. This was a stunning discovery, demonstrating that the brain 
+was basically electrical in nature and that a particular region of the 
+brain controlled a part on the other side of the body. (Curiously, the use"
+"of electrical probes on the brain was first recorded a couple of thousand 
+years earlier by the Romans. In the year A.D. 43, records show that the 
+court doctor to the emperor Claudius used electrically charged torpedo 
+fish, which were applied to the head of a patient suffering from severe 
+headaches.) 
+
+The realization that there were electrical pathways connecting the 
+brain to the body wasn’t systematically analyzed until the 1930s, when 
+Dr. Wilder Penfield began working with epilepsy patients, who often 
+suffered from debilitating convulsions and seizures that were potentially 
+life-threatening. For them, the last option was to have brain surgery, 
+which involved removing parts of the skull and exposing the brain. 
+(Since the brain has no pain sensors, a person can be conscious during 
+this entire procedure, so Dr. Penfield used only a local anesthetic during 
+the operation.)"
+"Dr. Penfield noticed that when he stimulated certain parts of the 
+cortex with an electrode, different parts of the body would respond. He 
+suddenly realized that he could draw a rough one-to-one correspondence 
+between specific regions of the cortex and the human body. His 
+drawings were so accurate that they are still used today in almost 
+unaltered form. They had an immediate impact on both the scientific 
+community and the general public. In one diagram, you could see which 
+region of the brain roughly controlled which function, and how 
+important each function was. For example, because our hands and 
+mouth are so vital for survival, a considerable amount of brain power is 
+devoted to controlling them, while the sensors in our back hardly 
+register at all. 
+
+Furthermore, Penfield found that by stimulating parts of the temporal 
+lobe, his patients suddenly relived long-forgotten memories in a crystal-"
+"clear fashion. He was shocked when a patient, in the middle of brain 
+surgery, suddenly blurted out, “It was like ... standing in the doorway at 
+[my] high school.... I heard my mother talking on the phone, telling my 
+aunt to come over that night.” Penfield realized that he was tapping into 
+memories buried deep inside the brain. When he published his results in 
+1951, they created another transformation in our understanding of the 
+brain. 
+
+Figure 1. This is the map of the motor cortex that was created by Dr. Wilder Penfield, showing which 
+region of the brain 
+
+controls which part of the body, (illustration credit 1.1) 
+
+A MAP OF THE BRAIN 
+
+By the 1950s and ’60s, it was possible to create a crude map of the brain, 
+locating different regions and even identifying the functions of a few of 
+them."
+"In Figure 2, we see the neocortex, which is the outer layer of the 
+brain, divided into four lobes. It is highly developed in humans. All the 
+lobes of the brain are devoted to processing signals from our senses, 
+except for one: the frontal lobe, located behind the forehead. The 
+prefrontal cortex, the foremost part of the frontal lobe, is where most 
+rational thought is processed. The information you are reading right now 
+is being processed in your prefrontal cortex. Damage to this area can 
+impair your ability to plan or contemplate the future, as in the case of 
+Phineas Gage. This is the region where information from our senses is 
+evaluated and a future course of action is carried out. 
+
+FRONTAL 
+LOBE 
+
+PARIETAL 
+LOBE 
+
+OCCIPITAL 
+
+LOBE 
+
+TEMPORAL 
+
+LOBE 
+
+Figure 2. The four lobes of the neocortex of the brain are responsible for different, though related, 
+functions, (illustration 
+
+credit 1.2)"
+"credit 1.2) 
+
+The parietal lobe is located at the top of our brains. The right 
+hemisphere controls sensory attention and body image; the left 
+hemisphere controls skilled movements and some aspects of language. 
+Damage to this area can cause many problems, such as difficulty in 
+locating parts of your own body. 
+
+The occipital lobe is located at the very back of the brain and 
+processes visual information from the eyes. Damage to this area can 
+cause blindness and visual impairment. 
+
+The temporal lobe controls language (on the left side only), as well as 
+the visual recognition of faces and certain emotional feelings. Damage to 
+this lobe can leave us speechless or without the ability to recognize 
+familiar faces. 
+
+THE EVOLVING BRAIN"
+"THE EVOLVING BRAIN 
+
+When you look at other organs of the body, such as our muscles, bones, 
+and lungs, there seems to be an obvious rhyme and reason to them that 
+we can immediately see. But the structure of the brain might seem 
+slapped together in a rather chaotic fashion. In fact, trying to map the 
+brain has often been called “cartography for fools.”"
+"To make sense of the seemingly random structure of the brain, in 1967 
+Dr. Paul MacLean of the National Institute of Mental Health applied 
+Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to the brain. He divided the brain 
+into three parts. (Since then, studies have shown that there are 
+refinements to this model, but we will use it as a rough organizing 
+principle to explain the overall structure of the brain.) First, he noticed 
+that the back and center part of our brains, containing the brain stem, 
+cerebellum, and basal ganglia, are almost identical to the brains of 
+reptiles. Known as the “reptilian brain,” these are the oldest structures of 
+the brain, governing basic animal functions such as balance, breathing, 
+digestion, heartbeat, and blood pressure. They also control behaviors 
+such as fighting, hunting, mating, and territoriality, which are necessary 
+for survival and reproduction. The reptilian brain can be traced back 
+about 500 million years. (See Figure 3.)"
+"But as we evolved from reptiles to mammals, the brain also became 
+more complex, evolving outward and creating entirely new structures. 
+
+Here we encounter the “mammalian brain,” or the limbic system, which 
+is located near the center of the brain, surrounding parts of the reptilian 
+brain. The limbic system is prominent among animals living in social 
+groups, such as the apes. It also contains structures that are involved in 
+emotions. Since the dynamics of social groups can be quite complex, the 
+limbic system is essential in sorting out potential enemies, allies, and 
+rivals. 
+
+HUMAN 
+
+BRAIN 
+
+Hypothalamus 
+
+MAMMALIAN 
+L BRAIN . 
+
+REPTILIAN 
+
+BRAIN 
+
+Corpus callosum 
+
+Cingulate gyrus 
+
+Frontal lobe 
+
+Hippocampus 
+
+Forn 
+
+Cerebellum 
+
+Brain stem 
+
+Pituitary 
+
+gland"
+"Frontal lobe 
+
+Hippocampus 
+
+Forn 
+
+Cerebellum 
+
+Brain stem 
+
+Pituitary 
+
+gland 
+
+Figure 3. The evolutionary history of the brain, with the reptilian brain, the limbic system (the 
+mammalian brain), and the 
+neocortex (the human brain). Roughly speaking, one can argue that the path of our brain’s evolution 
+passed from the 
+reptilian brain to the mammalian brain to the human brain, (illustration credit 1.3) 
+
+The different parts of the limbic system that control behaviors crucial 
+for social animals are: 
+
+• The hippocampus. This is the gateway to memory, where short-term 
+memories are processed into long-term memories. Its name means 
+“seahorse,” which describes its strange shape. Damage here will 
+destroy the ability to make new long-term memories. You are left a 
+prisoner of the present. 
+
+• The amygdala. This is the seat of emotions, especially fear, where 
+emotions are first registered and generated. Its name means 
+“almond.”"
+"• The thalamus. This is like a relay station, gathering sensory signals 
+from the brain stem and then sending them out to the various 
+cortices. Its name means “inner chamber.” 
+
+• The hypothalamus. This regulates body temperature, our circadian 
+rhythm, hunger, thirst, and aspects of reproduction and pleasure. It 
+lies below the thalamus—hence its name. 
+
+Finally, we have the third and most recent region of the mammalian 
+brain, the cerebral cortex, which is the outer layer of the brain. The 
+latest evolutionary structure within the cerebral cortex is the neocortex 
+(meaning “new bark”), which governs higher cognitive behavior. It is 
+most highly developed in humans: it makes up 80 percent of our brain’s 
+mass, yet is only as thick as a napkin. In rats the neocortex is smooth, 
+but it is highly convoluted in humans, which allows a large amount of 
+surface area to be crammed into the human skull."
+"In some sense, the human brain is like a museum containing remnants 
+of all the previous stages in our evolution over millions of years, 
+exploding outward and forward in size and function. (This is also 
+roughly the path taken when an infant is born. The infant brain expands 
+outward and toward the front, perhaps mimicking the stages of our 
+evolution.) 
+
+Although the neocortex seems unassuming, looks are deceiving. Under 
+a microscope you can appreciate the intricate architecture of the brain. 
+The gray matter of the brain consists of billions of tiny brain cells called 
+neurons. Like a gigantic telephone network, they receive messages from 
+other neurons via dendrites, which are like tendrils sprouting from one 
+end of the neuron. At the other end of the neuron, there is a long fiber 
+called the axon. Eventually the axon connects to as many as ten"
+"thousand other neurons via their dendrites. At the juncture between the 
+two, there is a tiny gap called the synapse. These synapses act like gates, 
+regulating the flow of information within the brain. Special chemicals 
+called neurotransmitters can enter the synapse and alter the flow of 
+signals. Because neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and 
+noradrenaline help control the stream of information moving across the 
+myriad pathways of the brain, they exert a powerful effect on our 
+moods, emotions, thoughts, and state of mind. (See Figure 4.) 
+
+This description of the brain roughly represented the state of 
+knowledge through the 1980s. In the 1990s, however, with the 
+introduction of new technologies from the field of physics, the 
+mechanics of thought began to be revealed in exquisite detail, 
+unleashing the current explosion of scientific discovery. One of the 
+workhorses of this revolution has been the MRI machine."
+"Figure 4. Diagram of a neuron. Electrical signals travel along the axon of the neuron until they hit the 
+synapse. 
+Neurotransmitters can regulate the flow of electrical signals past the synapse, (illustration credit 1.4) 
+
+THE MRI: WINDOW INTO THE BRAIN 
+
+To understand the reason why this radical new technology has helped 
+decode the thinking brain, we have to turn our attention to some basic 
+principles of physics. 
+
+Radio waves, a type of electromagnetic radiation, can pass right 
+
+through tissue without doing damage. MRI machines take advantage of 
+this fact, allowing electromagnetic waves to freely penetrate the skull. In 
+the process, this technology has given us glorious photographs of 
+something once thought to be impossible to capture: the inner workings 
+
+of the brain as it experiences sensations and emotions. Watching the 
+dance of lights flickering in a MRI machine, one can trace out the 
+thoughts moving within the brain. It’s like being able to see the inside of 
+a clock as it ticks."
+"The first thing you notice about an MRI machine is the huge, 
+cylindrical magnetic coils, which can produce a magnetic field twenty to 
+sixty thousand times greater than the strength of Earth’s. The giant 
+magnet is one of the principal reasons why an MRI machine can weigh a 
+ton, fill up an entire room, and cost several million dollars. (MRI 
+machines are safer than X-ray machines because they don’t create 
+harmful ions. CT scans, which can also create 3-D pictures, flood the 
+body with many times the dosage from an ordinary X-ray, and hence 
+have to be carefully regulated. By contrast, MRI machines are safe when 
+used properly. One problem, however, is the carelessness of workers. 
+The magnetic field is powerful enough to send tools hurling through the 
+air at high velocity when turned on at the wrong time. People have been 
+injured and even killed in this way.)"
+"MRI machines work as follows: Patients lie flat and are inserted into a 
+cylinder containing two large coils, which create the magnetic field. 
+When the magnetic field is turned on, the nuclei of the atoms inside your 
+body act very much like a compass needle: they align horizontally along 
+the direction of the field. Then a small pulse of radio energy is 
+generated, which causes some of the nuclei in our body to flip upside 
+down. When the nuclei later revert back to their normal position, they 
+emit a secondary pulse of radio energy, which is then analyzed by the 
+MRI machine. By analyzing these tiny “echoes,” one can then reconstruct 
+the location and nature of these atoms. Like a bat, which uses echoes to 
+determine the position of objects in its path, the echoes created by the 
+MRI machine allow scientists to re-create a remarkable image of the 
+inside of the brain. Computers then reconstruct the position of the 
+atoms, giving us beautiful diagrams in three dimensions."
+"When MRIs were originally introduced, they were able to show the 
+static structure of the brain and its various regions. However, in the mid- 
+1990s, a new type of MRI was invented, called “functional” MRI, or 
+fMRI, which detected the presence of oxygen in the blood in the brain. 
+(For different types of MRI machines, scientists sometimes put a 
+lowercase letter in front of “MRI,” but we will use the abbreviation MRI 
+
+to denote all the various types of MRI machines.) MRI scans cannot 
+directly detect the flow of electricity in the neurons, but since oxygen is 
+necessary to provide the energy for the neurons, oxygenated blood can 
+indirectly trace the flow of electrical energy in the neurons and show 
+how various regions of the brain interact with one another."
+"Already these MRI scans have definitively disproven the idea that 
+thinking is concentrated in a single center. Instead, one can see electrical 
+energy circulating across different parts of the brain as it thinks. By 
+tracing the path taken by our thoughts, MRI scans have shed new light 
+into the nature of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, schizophrenia, and a host of 
+other mental diseases. 
+
+The great advantage of MRI machines is their exquisite ability to 
+locate minute parts of the brain, down to a fraction of a millimeter in 
+size. An MRI scan will create not just dots on a two-dimensional screen, 
+called pixels, but dots in three-dimensional space, called “voxels,” 
+yielding a bright collection of tens of thousands of colored dots in 3-D, in 
+the shape of a brain."
+"Since different chemical elements respond to different frequencies of 
+radio, you can change the frequency of the radio pulse and therefore 
+identify different elements of the body. As noted, fMRI machines zero in 
+on the oxygen atom contained within blood in order to measure blood 
+flow, but MRI machines can also be tuned to identify other atoms. In just 
+the last decade, a new form of MRI was introduced called “diffusion 
+tensor imaging” MRI, which detects the flow of water in the brain. Since 
+water follows the neural pathways of the brain, DTI yields beautiful 
+pictures that resemble networks of vines growing in a garden. Scientists 
+can now instantly determine how certain parts of the brain are hooked 
+up with other parts."
+"There are a couple of drawbacks to MRI technology, however. 
+Although they are unparalleled in spatial resolution, locating voxels 
+down to the size of a pinpoint in three dimensions, MRIs are not that 
+good in temporal resolution. It takes almost a full second to follow the 
+path of blood in the brain, which may not sound like a lot, but 
+remember that electrical signals travel almost instantly throughout the 
+brain, and hence MRI scans can miss some of the intricate details of 
+thought patterns. 
+
+Another snag is the cost, which runs in the millions of dollars, so 
+
+doctors often have to share the machines. But like most technology, 
+developments should bring down the cost over time."
+"In the meantime, exorbitant costs haven’t stalled the hunt for 
+commercial applications. One idea is to use MRI scans as lie detectors, 
+which, according to some studies, can identify lies with 95 percent 
+accuracy or higher. The level of accuracy is still controversial, but the 
+basic idea is that when a person tells a lie, he simultaneously has to 
+know the truth, concoct the lie, and rapidly analyze the consistency of 
+this lie with previously known facts. Today some companies are claiming 
+that MRI technology shows that the prefrontal and parietal lobes light up 
+when someone tells a lie. More specifically, the “orbitofrontal cortex” 
+(which can serve, among other functions, as the brain’s “fact-checker” to 
+warn us when something is wrong) becomes active. This area is located 
+right behind the orbits of our eyes, and hence the name. The theory goes 
+that the orbitofrontal cortex understands the difference between the 
+truth and a lie and kicks into overdrive as a result. (Other areas of the"
+"truth and a lie and kicks into overdrive as a result. (Other areas of the 
+brain also light up when someone tells a lie, such as the superiormedial 
+and inferolateral prefrontal cortices, which are involved in cognition.)"
+"Already there are several commercial firms offering MRI machines as 
+lie detectors, and cases involving these machines are entering the court 
+system. But it’s important to note that these MRI scans indicate increased 
+brain activity only in certain areas. While DNA results can sometimes 
+have an accuracy of one part in 10 billion or better, MRI scans cannot, 
+because it takes many areas of the brain to concoct a lie, and these same 
+areas of the brain are responsible for processing other kinds of thoughts 
+as well. 
+
+EEG SCANS 
+
+Another useful tool to probe deep inside the brain is the EEG, the 
+electroencephalogram. The EEG was introduced all the way back in 
+1924, but only recently has it been possible to employ computers to 
+make sense out of all the data pouring in from each electrode. 
+
+To use the EEG machine, the patient usually puts on a futuristic- 
+looking helmet with scores of electrodes on the surface. (More advanced 
+versions place a hairnet over the head containing a series of tiny"
+"electrodes.) These electrodes detect the tiny electrical signals that are 
+circulating in the brain. 
+
+(illustration credit 1.5) 
+
+Figure 5. At the top, we see an image taken by a functional MRI machine, showing regions of high 
+mental activity. In the 
+
+bottom image, we see the flowerlike pattern created by a diffusion MRI machine, which can follow the 
+neural pathways 
+
+and connections of the brain, (illustration credit 1.5a)"
+"An EEG scan differs from an MRI scan in several crucial ways. The 
+MRI scan, as we have seen, shoots radio pulses into the brain and then 
+analyzes the “echoes” that come back. This means you can vary the 
+radio pulse to select different atoms for analysis, making it quite 
+versatile. The EEG machine, however, is strictly passive; that is, it 
+analyzes the tiny electromagnetic signals the brain naturally emits. The 
+EEG excels at recording the broad electromagnetic signals that surge 
+across the entire brain, which allows scientists to measure the overall 
+activity of the brain as it sleeps, concentrates, relaxes, dreams, etc. 
+Different states of consciousness vibrate at different frequencies. For 
+example, deep sleep corresponds to delta waves, which vibrate at .1 to 4 
+cycles per second. Active mental states, such as problem solving, 
+correspond to beta waves, vibrating from 12 to 30 cycles per second. 
+These vibrations allow various parts of the brain to share information"
+"These vibrations allow various parts of the brain to share information 
+and communicate with one another, even if they are located on opposite 
+sides of the brain. And while MRI scans measuring blood flow can be 
+taken only several times a second, EEG scans measure electrical activity 
+instantly."
+"The greatest advantage of the EEG scan, though, is its convenience 
+and cost. Even high school students have done experiments in their 
+living rooms with EEG sensors placed over their heads. 
+
+However, the main drawback to the EEG, which has held up its 
+development for decades, is its very poor spatial resolution. The EEG 
+picks up electrical signals that have already been diffused after passing 
+through the skull, making it difficult to detect abnormal activity when it 
+originates deep in the brain. Looking at the output of the muddled EEG 
+signals, it is almost impossible to say for sure which part of the brain 
+created it. Furthermore, slight motions, like moving a finger, can distort 
+the signal, sometimes rendering it useless. 
+
+PET SCANS 
+
+Yet another useful tool from the world of physics is the positron 
+emission topography (PET) scan, which calculates the flow of energy in"
+"the brain by locating the presence of glucose, the sugar molecule that 
+fuels cells. Like the cloud chamber I made as a high school student, PET 
+scans make use of the subatomic particles emitted from sodium-22 
+within the glucose. To start the PET scan, a special solution containing 
+slightly radioactive sugar is injected into the patient. The sodium atoms 
+inside the sugar molecules have been replaced by radioactive sodium-22 
+atoms. Every time a sodium atom decays, it emits a positive electron, or 
+positron, which is easily detected by sensors. By following the path of 
+the radioactive sodium atoms in sugar, one can then trace out the energy 
+flow within the living brain. 
+
+The PET scan shares many of the same advantages of MRI scans but 
+does not have the fine spatial resolution of an MRI photo. However, 
+instead of measuring blood flow, which is only an indirect indicator of 
+energy consumption in the body, PET scans measure energy 
+consumption, so it is more closely related to neural activity."
+"There is another drawback to PET scans, however. Unlike MRI and 
+EEG scans, PET scans are slightly radioactive, so patients cannot 
+continually take them. In general, a person is not allowed to have a PET 
+scan more than once a year because of the risk from radiation. 
+
+MAGNETISM IN THE BRAIN 
+
+Within the last decade, many new high-tech devices have entered the 
+tool kit of neuroscientists, including the transcranial electromagnetic 
+scanner (TES), magnetoencephalography (MEG), near-infrared 
+spectroscopy (NIRS), and optogenetics, among others."
+"In particular, magnetism has been used to systematically shut down 
+specific parts of the brain without cutting it open. The basic physics 
+behind these new tools is that a rapidly changing electric field can create 
+a magnetic field, and vice versa. MEGs passively measure the magnetic 
+fields produced by the changing electric fields of the brain. These 
+magnetic fields are weak and extremely tiny, only a billionth of Earth’s 
+magnetic field. Like the EEG, the MEG is extremely good at time 
+resolution, down to a thousandth of a second. Its spatial resolution, 
+however, is only a cubic centimeter. 
+
+Unlike the passive measurement of the MEG, the TES generates a large 
+
+pulse of electricity, which in turn creates a burst of magnetic energy. 
+The TES is placed next to the brain, so the magnetic pulse penetrates the 
+skull and creates yet another electric pulse inside the brain. This 
+secondary electrical pulse, in turn, is sufficient to turn off or dampen the 
+activity of selected areas of the brain."
+"Historically, scientists had to rely on strokes or tumors to silence 
+certain parts of the brain and hence determine what they do. But with 
+the TES, one can harmlessly turn off or dampen parts of the brain at will. 
+By shooting magnetic energy at a particular spot in the brain, one can 
+determine its function by simply watching how a person’s behavior has 
+changed. (For example, by shooting magnetic pulses into the left 
+temporal lobe, one can see that this adversely affects our ability to talk.)"
+"One potential drawback of the TES is that these magnetic fields do not 
+penetrate very far into the interior of the brain (because magnetic fields 
+decrease much faster than the usual inverse square law for electricity). 
+TES is quite useful in turning off parts of the brain near the skull, but the 
+magnetic field cannot reach important centers located deep in the brain, 
+such as the limbic system. But future generations of TES devices may 
+overcome this technical problem by increasing the intensity and 
+precision of the magnetic field. 
+
+Wire coil 
+
+Pulsed magnetic field 
+
+Stimulated 
+brain region 
+
+Positioning 
+
+frame 
+
+Figure 6. We see the transcranial electromagnetic scanner and the magnetoencephalograph, which uses 
+magnetism rather 
+than radio waves to penetrate the skull and determine the nature of thoughts within the brain. 
+Magnetism can 
+temporarily silence parts of the brain, allowing scientists to safely determine how these regions perform
+without relying"
+"on stroke victims, (illustration credit 1.6) 
+
+DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION 
+
+Yet another tool that has proven vital to neurologists is deep brain 
+stimulation (DBS). The probes originally used by Dr. Penfield were 
+relatively crude. Today these electrodes can be hairlike and reach 
+specific areas of the brain deep within its interior. Not only has DBS 
+allowed scientists to locate the function of various parts of the brain, it 
+can also be used to treat mental disorders. DBS has already proven its 
+
+worth with Parkinson’s disease, in which certain regions of the brain are 
+overactive and often create uncontrollable shaking of the hands. 
+
+More recently, these electrodes have targeted a new area of the brain 
+(called Brodmann’s area number 25) that is often overactive in 
+depressed patients who do not respond to psychotherapy or drugs. Deep 
+brain stimulation has given almost miraculous relief after decades of 
+torment and agony for these long-suffering patients."
+"Every year, new uses for deep brain stimulation are being found. In 
+fact, nearly all the major disorders of the brain are being reexamined in 
+light of this and other new brain-scanning technologies. This promises to 
+be an exciting new area for diagnosing and even treating illnesses. 
+
+OPTOGENETICS—LIGHTING UP THE BRAIN 
+
+But perhaps the newest and most exciting instrument in the neurologist’s 
+tool kit is optogenetics, which was once considered science fiction. Like 
+a magic wand, it allows you to activate certain pathways controlling 
+behavior by shining a light beam on the brain. 
+
+Incredibly, a light-sensitive gene that causes a cell to fire can be 
+inserted, with surgical precision, directly into a neuron. Then, by turning 
+on a light beam, the neuron is activated. More importantly, this allows 
+scientists to excite these pathways, so that you can turn on and off 
+certain behaviors by flicking a switch."
+"Although this technology is only a decade old, optogenetics has 
+already proven successful in controlling certain animal behaviors. By 
+
+turning on a light switch, it is possible to make fruit flies suddenly fly 
+off, worms stop wiggling, and mice run around madly in circles. Monkey 
+trials are now beginning, and even human trials are in discussion. There 
+is great hope that this technology will have a direct application in 
+treating disorders like Parkinson’s and depression. 
+
+THE TRANSPARENT BRAIN 
+
+Like optogenetics, another spectacular new development is making the 
+brain fully transparent so that its neural pathways are exposed to the 
+naked eye. In 2013, scientists at Stanford University announced that 
+
+they had successfully made the entire brain of a mouse transparent, as 
+well as parts of a human brain. The announcement was so stunning that 
+it made the front page of the New York Times, with the headline “Brain 
+as Clear as Jell-0 for Scientists to Explore.”"
+"At the cellular level, cells seen individually are transparent, with all 
+their microscopic components fully exposed. However, once billions of 
+cells come together to form organs like the brain, the addition of lipids 
+(fats, oils, waxes, and chemicals not soluble in water) helps make the 
+organ opaque. The key to the new technique is to remove the lipids 
+while keeping the neurons intact. The scientists at Stanford did this by 
+placing the brain in hydrogel (a gel-like substance mainly made of 
+water), which binds to all the brain’s molecules except the lipids. By 
+placing the brain in a soapy solution with an electric field, the solution 
+can be flushed out of the brain, carrying along the lipids, leaving the 
+brain transparent. The addition of dyes can then make the neural 
+pathways visible. This will help to identify and map the many neural 
+pathways of the brain."
+"Making tissue transparent is not new, but getting precisely the right 
+conditions necessary to make the entire brain transparent took a lot of 
+ingenuity. “I burned and melted more than a hundred brains,” confessed 
+Dr. Kwanghun Chung, one of the lead scientists in the study. The new 
+technique, called Clarity, can also be applied to other organs (and even 
+organs preserved years ago in chemicals like formalin). He has already 
+created transparent livers, lungs, and hearts. This new technique has 
+startling applications across all of medicine. In particular, it will 
+accelerate locating the neural pathways of the brain, which is the focus 
+of intense research and funding. 
+
+FOUR FUNDAMENTAL FORCES"
+"FOUR FUNDAMENTAL FORCES 
+
+The success of this first generation of brain scans has been nothing less 
+than spectacular. Before their introduction, only about thirty or so 
+regions of the brain were known with any certainty. Now the MRI 
+machine alone can identify two to three hundred regions of the brain, 
+opening up entirely new frontiers for brain science. With so many new 
+scanning technologies being introduced from physics just within the last 
+
+fifteen years, one might wonder: Are there more? The answer is yes, but 
+they will be variations and refinements of the previous ones, not 
+radically new technologies. This is because there are only four 
+fundamental forces—gravitational, electromagnetic, weak nuclear, and 
+strong nuclear—that rule the universe. (Physicists have tried to find 
+evidence for a fifth force, but so far all such attempts have failed.)"
+"The electromagnetic force, which lights up our cities and represents 
+the energy of electricity and magnetism, is the source of almost all the 
+new scanning technologies (with the exception of the PET scan, which is 
+governed by the weak nuclear force). Because physicists have had over 
+150 years of experience working with the electromagnetic force, there is 
+no mystery in creating new electric and magnetic fields, so any new 
+brain-scanning technology will most likely be a novel modification of 
+existing technologies, rather than being something entirely new. As with 
+most technology, the size and cost of these machines will drop, vastly 
+increasing the widespread use of these sophisticated instruments. 
+Already physicists are doing the basic calculations necessary to make an 
+MRI machine fit into a cell phone. At the same time, the fundamental 
+challenge facing these brain scans is resolution, both spatial and 
+temporal. The spatial resolution of MRI scans will increase as the"
+"temporal. The spatial resolution of MRI scans will increase as the 
+magnetic field becomes more uniform and as the electronics become 
+more sensitive. At present, MRI scans can see only dots or voxels within 
+a fraction of a millimeter. But each dot may contain hundreds of 
+thousands of neurons. New scanning technology should reduce this even 
+further. The holy grail of this approach would be to create an MRI-like 
+machine that could identify individual neurons and their connections."
+"The temporal resolution of MRI machines is also limited because they 
+analyze the flow of oxygenated blood in the brain. The machine itself 
+has very good temporal resolution, but tracing the flow of blood slows it 
+down. In the future, other MRI machines will be able to locate different 
+substances that are more directly connected to the firing of neurons, 
+thereby allowing real-time analysis of mental processes. No matter how 
+spectacular the successes of the past fifteen years, then, they were just a 
+taste of the future. 
+
+NEW MODELS OF THE BRAIN 
+
+Historically, with each new scientific discovery, a new model of the 
+brain has emerged. One of the earliest models of the brain was the 
+“homunculus,” a little man who lived inside the brain and made all the 
+decisions. This picture was not very helpful, since it did not explain what 
+was happening in the brain of the homunculus. Perhaps there was a 
+homunculus hiding inside the homunculus."
+"With the arrival of simple mechanical devices, another model of the 
+brain was proposed: that of a machine, such as a clock, with mechanical 
+wheels and gears. This analogy was useful for scientists and inventors 
+like Leonardo da Vinci, who actually designed a mechanical man."
+"During the late 1800s, when steam power was carving out new 
+empires, another analogy emerged, that of a steam engine, with flows of 
+energy competing with one another. This hydraulic model, historians 
+have conjectured, affected Sigmund Freud’s picture of the brain, in 
+which there was a continual struggle between three forces: the ego 
+(representing the self and rational thought), the id (representing 
+repressed desires), and the superego (representing our conscience). In 
+this model, if too much pressure built up because of a conflict among 
+these three, there could be a regression or general breakdown of the 
+entire system. This model was ingenious, but as even Freud himself 
+admitted, it required detailed studies of the brain at the neuronal level, 
+which would take another century."
+"Early in the last century, with the rise of the telephone, another 
+analogy surfaced—that of a giant switchboard. The brain was a mesh of 
+telephone lines connected into a vast network. Consciousness was a long 
+row of telephone operators sitting in front of a large panel of switches, 
+constantly plugging and unplugging wires. Unfortunately, this model 
+said nothing about how these messages were wired together to form the 
+brain. 
+
+With the rise of the transistor, yet another model became fashionable: 
+the computer. The old-fashioned switching stations were replaced by 
+microchips containing hundreds of millions of transistors. Perhaps the 
+“mind” was just a software program running on “wetware” (i.e., brain 
+tissue rather than transistors). This model is an enduring one, even 
+today, but it has limitations. The transistor model cannot explain how 
+the brain performs computations that would require a computer the size 
+of New York City. Plus the brain has no programming, no Windows"
+"operating system or Pentium chip. (Also, a PC with a Pentium chip is 
+extremely fast, but it has a bottleneck. All calculations must pass 
+
+through this single processor. The brain is the opposite. The firing of 
+each neuron is relatively slow, but it more than makes up for this by 
+having 100 billion neurons processing data simultaneously. Therefore a 
+slow parallel processor can trump a very fast single processor.) 
+
+The most recent analogy is that of the Internet, which lashes together 
+billions of computers. Consciousness, in this picture, is an “emergent” 
+phenomenon, miraculously arising out of the collective action of billions 
+of neurons. (The problem with this picture is that it says absolutely 
+nothing about how this miracle occurs. It brushes all the complexity of 
+the brain under the rug of chaos theory.)"
+"No doubt each of these analogies has kernels of truth, but none of 
+them truly captures the complexity of the brain. However, one analogy 
+for the brain that I have found useful (albeit still imperfect) is that of a 
+large corporation. In this analogy, there is a huge bureaucracy and lines 
+of authority, with vast flows of information channeled between different 
+offices. But the important information eventually winds up at the 
+command center with the CEO. There the final decisions are made. 
+
+If this analogy of the brain to a large corporation is valid, then it 
+should be able to explain certain peculiar features of the brain:"
+"• Most information is “subconscious” —that is, the CEO is blissfully 
+unaware of the vast, complex information that is constantly flowing 
+inside the bureaucracy. In fact, only a tiny amount of information 
+finally reaches the desk of the CEO, who can be compared to the 
+prefrontal cortex. The CEO just has to know information important 
+enough to get his attention; otherwise, he would be paralyzed by an 
+avalanche of extraneous information. 
+
+This arrangement is probably a by-product of evolution, since our 
+ancestors would have been overwhelmed with superfluous, 
+subconscious information flooding their brains when facing an 
+emergency. We are all mercifully unaware of the trillions of 
+calculations being processed in our brains. Upon encountering a 
+tiger in the forest, one does not have to be bothered with the status 
+of our stomach, toes, hair, etc. All one has to know is how to run. 
+
+• “Emotions” are rapid decisions made independently at a lower"
+"• “Emotions” are rapid decisions made independently at a lower 
+
+level. Since rational thought takes many seconds, this means that it 
+is often impossible to make a reasoned response to an emergency; 
+hence lower-level brain regions must rapidly assess the situation and 
+make a decision, an emotion, without permission from the top. 
+
+So emotions (fear, anger, horror, etc.) are instantaneous red flags 
+
+made at a lower level, generated by evolution, to warn the 
+command center of possibly dangerous or serious situations. We 
+have little conscious control over emotions. For example, no matter 
+how much we practice giving a speech to a large audience, we still 
+feel nervous. 
+
+Rita Carter, author of Mapping the Mind, writes, “Emotions are not 
+feelings at all but a set of body-rooted survival mechanisms that 
+have evolved to turn us away from danger and propel us forward to 
+things that may be of benefit.” 
+
+• There is a constant clamoring for the attention of the CEO."
+"• There is a constant clamoring for the attention of the CEO. 
+
+There is no single homunculus, CPU, or Pentium chip making 
+decisions; instead, the various subcenters within the command 
+center are in constant competition with one another, vying for the 
+attention of the CEO. So there is no smooth, steady continuity of 
+thought, but the cacophony of different feedback loops competing 
+with one another. The concept of “I,” as a single, unified whole 
+making all decisions continuously, is an illusion created by our own 
+subconscious minds. 
+
+Mentally we feel that our mind is a single entity, continuously and 
+smoothly processing information, totally in charge of our decisions. 
+But the picture emerging from brain scans is quite different from the 
+perception we have of our own mind. 
+
+MIT professor Marvin Minsky, one of the founding fathers of 
+artificial intelligence, told me that the mind is more like a “society 
+of minds,” with different submodules, each trying to compete with 
+the others."
+"When I interviewed Steven Pinker, a psychologist at Harvard 
+University, I asked him how consciousness emerges out of this mess. 
+He said that consciousness was like a storm raging in our brain. He 
+elaborated on this when he wrote that “the intuitive feeling we have 
+that there’s an executive T that sits in a control room of our brain, 
+
+scanning the screens of the senses and pushing the buttons of our 
+muscles, is an illusion. Consciousness turns out to consist of a 
+maelstrom of events distributed across the brain. These events 
+compete for attention, and as one process outshouts the others, the 
+brain rationalizes the outcome after the fact and concocts the 
+impression that a single self was in charge all along.” 
+
+• Final decisions are made by the CEO in the command center."
+"• Final decisions are made by the CEO in the command center. 
+
+Almost all the bureaucracy is devoted to accumulating and 
+assembling information for the CEO, who meets only with the 
+directors of each division. The CEO tries to mediate all the 
+conflicting information pouring into the command center. The buck 
+stops here. The CEO, located in the prefrontal cortex, has to make 
+the final decision. While most decisions are made by instinct in 
+animals, humans make higher-level decisions after sifting through 
+different bodies of information from our senses. 
+
+• Information flows are hierarchical. Because of the vast amount of 
+information that must flow upward toward the CEO’s office, or 
+downward to the support staff, information must be arranged in 
+complex arrays of nested networks, with many branches. Think of a 
+pine tree, with the command center on top and a pyramid of 
+branches flowing downward, branching out into many subcenters."
+"There are, of course, differences between a bureaucracy and the 
+structure of thought. The first rule of any bureaucracy is that “it 
+expands to fill the space allotted to it.” But wasting energy is a 
+luxury the brain cannot afford. The brain consumes only about 
+twenty watts of power (the power of a dim lightbulb), but that is 
+probably the maximum energy it can consume before the body 
+becomes dysfunctional. If it generates more heat, it will cause tissue 
+damage. Therefore the brain is constantly using shortcuts to 
+conserve energy. We will see throughout this book the clever and 
+ingenious devices that evolution has crafted, without our 
+knowledge, to cut corners. 
+
+IS “REALITY” REALLY REAL? 
+
+Everyone knows the expression “seeing is believing.” Yet much of what"
+"IS “REALITY” REALLY REAL? 
+
+Everyone knows the expression “seeing is believing.” Yet much of what 
+
+we see is actually an illusion. For example, when we see a typical 
+landscape, it seems like a smooth, movielike panorama. In reality, there 
+is a gaping hole in our field of vision, corresponding to the location of 
+the optic nerve in the retina. We should see this large ugly black spot 
+wherever we look. But our brains fill in that hole by papering it over, by 
+averaging it out. This means that part of our vision is actually fake, 
+generated by our subconscious minds to deceive us. 
+
+Also, we see only the center of our field of vision, called the fovea, 
+with clarity. The peripheral part is blurry, in order to save energy. But 
+the fovea is very small. To capture as much information as possible with 
+the tiny fovea, the eye darts around constantly. This rapid, jiggling 
+motion of our eyes is called saccades. All this is done subconsciously,"
+"giving us the false impression that our field of vision is clear and 
+focused. 
+
+When I was a child and first saw a diagram showing the 
+electromagnetic spectrum in its true glory, I was shocked. I had been 
+totally unaware that huge parts of the EM spectrum (e.g., infrared light, 
+UV light, X-rays, gamma rays) were totally invisible to us. I began to 
+realize that what I saw with my eyes was only a tiny, crude 
+approximation of reality. (There is an old saying: “If appearance and 
+essence were the same thing, there would be no need for science.”) We 
+have sensors in the retina that can detect only red, green, and blue. This 
+means that we’ve never actually seen yellow, brown, orange, and a host 
+of other colors. These colors do exist, but our brain can approximate 
+each of them only by mixing different amounts of red, green, and blue. 
+(You can see this if you look at an old color-TV screen very carefully. 
+You see only a collection of red, green, and blue dots. Color TV is 
+actually an illusion.)"
+"Our eyes also fool us into thinking we can see depth. The retinas of 
+our eyes are two-dimensional, but because we have two eyes separated 
+by a few inches, the left and right brain merge these two images, giving 
+us the false sense of a third dimension. For more distant objects, we can 
+judge how far an object is by observing how they move when we move 
+our head. This is called parallax. 
+
+(This parallax explains the fact that children sometimes complain that 
+“the moon is following me.” Because the brain has difficulty 
+comprehending the parallax of an object as distant as the moon, it 
+
+appears as if the moon is always a fixed distance “behind” them, but it’s 
+just an illusion caused by the brain taking a shortcut.) 
+
+THE SPLIT-BRAIN PARADOX"
+"THE SPLIT-BRAIN PARADOX 
+
+One way in which this picture, based on the corporate hierarchy of a 
+company, deviates from the actual structure of the brain can be seen in 
+the curious case of split-brain patients. One unusual feature of the brain 
+is that it has two nearly identical halves, or hemispheres, the left and 
+right. Scientists have long wondered why the brain has this unnecessary 
+redundancy, since the brain can operate even if one entire hemisphere is 
+completely removed. No normal corporate hierarchy has this strange 
+feature. Furthermore, if each hemisphere has consciousness, does this 
+mean that we have two separate centers of consciousness inside one 
+skull?"
+"Dr. Roger W. Sperry of the California Institute of Technology won the 
+Nobel Prize in 1981 for showing that the two hemispheres of the brain 
+are not exact carbon copies of each other, but actually perform different 
+duties. This result created a sensation in neurology (and also spawned a 
+cottage industry of dubious self-help books that claim to apply the left- 
+brain, right-brain dichotomy to your life). 
+
+Dr. Sperry was treating epileptics, who sometimes suffer from grand 
+mal seizures often caused by feedback loops between the two 
+hemispheres that go out of control. Like a microphone screeching in our 
+ears because of a feedback loop, these seizures can become life- 
+threatening. Dr. Sperry began by severing the corpus callosum, which 
+connects the two hemispheres of the brain, so that they no longer 
+communicated and shared information between the left and right side of 
+the body. This usually stopped the feedback loop and the seizures."
+"At first, these split-brain patients seemed perfectly normal. They were 
+alert and could carry on a natural conversation as if nothing had 
+happened. But a careful analysis of these individuals showed that 
+something was very different about them. 
+
+Normally the hemispheres complement each other as thoughts move 
+back and forth between the two. The left brain is more analytical and 
+logical. It is where verbal skills are found, while the right brain is more 
+
+holistic and artistic. But the left brain is the dominant one and makes the 
+final decisions. Commands pass from the left brain to the right brain via 
+the corpus callosum. But if that connection is cut, it means that the right 
+brain is now free from the dictatorship of the left brain. Perhaps the 
+right brain can have a will of its own, contradicting the wishes of the 
+dominant left brain."
+"In short, there could be two wills acting within one skull, sometimes 
+struggling for control of the body. This creates the bizarre situation 
+where the left hand (controlled by the right brain) starts to behave 
+independently of your wishes, as if it were an alien appendage. 
+
+There is one documented case in which a man was about to hug his 
+wife with one hand, only to find that the other hand had an entirely 
+different agenda. It delivered a right hook to her face. Another woman 
+reported that she would pick out a dress with one hand, only to see her 
+other hand grab an entirely different outfit. Meanwhile, one man had 
+difficulty sleeping at night thinking that his other rebellious hand might 
+strangle him. 
+
+At times, split-brain people think they are living in a cartoon, where 
+one hand struggles to control the other. Physicians sometimes call this 
+
+the Dr. Strangelove syndrome, because of a scene in the movie in which 
+one hand has to fight against the other hand."
+"Dr. Sperry, after detailed studies of split-brain patients, finally 
+concluded that there could be two distinct minds operating in a single 
+brain. He wrote that each hemisphere is “indeed a conscious system in 
+its own right, perceiving, thinking, remembering, reasoning, willing, and 
+emoting, all at a characteristically human level, and ... both the left and 
+right hemisphere may be conscious simultaneously in different, even in 
+mutually conflicting, mental experiences that run along in parallel.”"
+"When I interviewed Dr. Michael Gazzaniga of the University of 
+California, Santa Barbara, an authority on split-brain patients, I asked 
+him how experiments can be done to test this theory. There are a variety 
+of ways to communicate separately to each hemisphere without the 
+knowledge of the other hemisphere. One can, for example, have the 
+subject wear special glasses on which questions can be shown to each 
+eye separately, so that directing questions to each hemisphere is easy. 
+The hard part is trying to get an answer from each hemisphere. Since the 
+right brain cannot speak (the speech centers are located only in the left 
+
+brain), it is difficult to get answers from the right brain. Dr. Gazzaniga 
+told me that to find out what the right brain was thinking, he created an 
+experiment in which the (mute) right brain could “talk” by using 
+Scrabble letters."
+"He began by asking the patient’s left brain what he would do after 
+graduation. The patient replied that he wanted to become a draftsman. 
+But things got interesting when the (mute) right brain was asked the 
+same question. The right brain spelled out the words: “automobile 
+racer.” Unknown to the dominant left brain, the right brain secretly had 
+a completely different agenda for the future. The right brain literally had 
+a mind of its own. 
+
+Rita Carter writes, “The possible implications of this are mind- 
+boggling. It suggests that we might all be carrying around in our skulls a 
+mute prisoner with a personality, ambition, and self-awareness quite 
+different from the day-to-day entity we believe ourselves to be.”"
+"Perhaps there is truth to the oft-heard statement that “inside him, 
+there is someone yearning to be free.” This means that the two 
+hemispheres may even have different beliefs. For example, the 
+neurologist V. S. Ramanchandran describes one split-brain patient who, 
+when asked if he was a believer or not, said he was an atheist, but his 
+right brain declared he was a believer. Apparently, it is possible to have 
+two opposing religious beliefs residing in the same brain. Ramachandran 
+continues: “If that person dies, what happens? Does one hemisphere go 
+
+to heaven and the other go to hell? I don’t know the answer to that.” 
+
+(It is conceivable, therefore, that a person with a split-brain 
+personality might be both Republican and Democrat at the same time. If 
+you ask him whom he will vote for, he will give you the candidate of the 
+left brain, since the right brain cannot speak. But you can imagine the 
+chaos in the voting booth when he has to pull the lever with one hand.) 
+
+WHO IS IN CHARGE?"
+"WHO IS IN CHARGE? 
+
+One person who has spent considerable time and done much research to 
+understand the problem of the subconscious mind is Dr. David 
+Eagleman, a neuroscientist at the Baylor College of Medicine. When I 
+interviewed him, I asked him, If most of our mental processes are 
+
+subconscious, then why are we ignorant of this important fact? He gave 
+an example of a young king who inherits the throne and takes credit for 
+everything in the kingdom, but hasn’t the slightest clue about the 
+thousands of staff, soldiers, and peasants necessary to maintain the 
+throne."
+"Our choice of politicians, marriage partners, friends, and future 
+occupations are all influenced by things that we are not conscious of. 
+(For example, it is an odd result, he says, that “people named Denise or 
+Dennis are disproportionately likely to become dentists, while people 
+named Laura or Lawrence are more likely to become lawyers, and 
+people with names like George or Georgina to become geologists.”) This 
+also means that what we consider to be “reality” is only an 
+approximation that the brain makes to fill in the gaps. Each of us sees 
+reality in a slightly different way. For example, he pointed out, “at least 
+15 percent of human females possess a genetic mutation that gives them 
+an extra (fourth) type of color photoreceptor—and this allows them to 
+discriminate between colors that look identical to the majority of us with 
+a mere three types of color photoreceptors.”"
+"Clearly, the more we understand the mechanics of thought, the more 
+questions arise. Precisely what happens in the command center of the 
+mind when confronted with a rebellious shadow command center? What 
+do we mean by “consciousness” anyway, if it can be split in half? And 
+what is the relationship between consciousness and “self” and “self- 
+awareness”? 
+
+If we can answer these difficult questions, then perhaps it will pave 
+the way for understanding nonhuman consciousness, the consciousness 
+of robots and aliens from outer space, for example, which may be 
+
+entirely different from ours. 
+
+So let us now propose a clear answer to this deceptively complex 
+question: What is consciousness? 
+
+The mind of man is capable of anything ... because everything 
+is in it, all the past as well as all the future. 
+
+—JOSEPH CONRAD 
+
+Consciousness can reduce even the most fastidious thinker to 
+blabbering incoherence. 
+
+—COLIN MCGINN 
+
+2 CONSCIOUSNESS—A PHYSICIST’S VIEWPOINT"
+"—COLIN MCGINN 
+
+2 CONSCIOUSNESS—A PHYSICIST’S VIEWPOINT 
+
+The idea of consciousness has intrigued philosophers for centuries, but 
+it has resisted a simple definition, even to this day. The philosopher 
+David Chalmers has cataloged more than twenty thousand papers 
+written on the subject; nowhere in science have so many devoted so 
+much to create so little consensus. The seventeenth-century thinker 
+Gottfried Leibniz once wrote, “If you could blow the brain up to the size 
+of a mill and walk about inside, you would not find consciousness.” 
+
+Some philosophers doubt that a theory of consciousness is even 
+possible. They claim that consciousness can never be explained since an 
+object can never understand itself, so we don’t even have the mental 
+firepower to solve this perplexing question. Harvard psychologist Steven 
+Pinker writes, “We cannot see ultraviolet light. We cannot mentally 
+rotate an object in the fourth dimension. And perhaps we cannot solve 
+conundrums like free will and sentience.”"
+"In fact, for most of the twentieth century, one of the dominant theories 
+of psychology, behaviorism, denied the importance of consciousness 
+entirely. Behaviorism is based on the idea that only the objective 
+behavior of animals and people is worthy of study, not the subjective, 
+internal states of the mind. 
+
+Others have given up trying to define consciousness, and try simply to 
+describe it. Psychiatrist Giulio Tononi has said, “Everybody knows what 
+consciousness is: it is what abandons you every night when you fall into 
+dreamless sleep and returns the next morning when you wake up.” 
+
+Although the nature of consciousness has been debated for centuries, 
+there has been little resolution. Given that physicists created many of the 
+inventions that have made the explosive advancements in brain science 
+possible, perhaps it will be useful to follow an example from physics in 
+reexamining this ancient question. 
+
+HOW PHYSICISTS UNDERSTAND THE UNIVERSE"
+"HOW PHYSICISTS UNDERSTAND THE UNIVERSE 
+
+When a physicist tries to understand something, first he collects data and 
+then he proposes a “model,” a simplified version of the object he is 
+studying that captures its essential features. In physics, the model is 
+described by a series of parameters (e.g., temperature, energy, time). 
+Then the physicist uses the model to predict its future evolution by 
+simulating its motions. In fact, some of the world’s largest 
+supercomputers are used to simulate the evolution of models, which can 
+describe protons, nuclear explosions, weather patterns, the big bang, and 
+the center of black holes. Then you create a better model, using more 
+sophisticated parameters, and simulate it in time as well."
+"For example, when Isaac Newton was puzzling over the motion of the 
+moon, he created a simple model that would eventually change the 
+course of human history: he envisioned throwing an apple in the air. The 
+faster you threw the apple, he reasoned, the farther it would travel. If 
+you threw it fast enough, in fact, it would encircle the Earth entirely, 
+and might even return to its original point. Then, Newton claimed, this 
+model represented the path of the moon, so the forces that guided the 
+motion of the apple circling the Earth were identical to the forces 
+guiding the moon."
+"But the model, by itself, was still useless. The key breakthrough came 
+when Newton was able to use his new theory to simulate the future, to 
+calculate the future position of moving objects. This was a difficult 
+problem, requiring him to create an entirely new branch of mathematics, 
+called calculus. Using this new mathematics, Newton was then able to 
+predict the trajectory of not just the moon, but also Halley’s Comet and 
+the planets. Since then, scientists have used Newton’s laws to simulate 
+the future path of moving objects, from cannonballs, machines, 
+automobiles, and rockets to asteroids and meteors, and even stars and 
+galaxies. 
+
+The success or failure of a model depends on how faithfully it 
+reproduces the basic parameters of the original. In this case, the basic 
+parameter was the location of the apple and the moon in space and time. 
+By allowing this parameter to evolve (i.e., letting time move forward), 
+Newton unlocked, for the first time in history, the action of moving"
+"bodies, which is one of the most important discoveries in science. 
+
+Models are useful, until they are replaced by even more accurate 
+models described by better parameters. Einstein replaced Newton’s 
+
+picture of forces acting on apples and moons with a new model based on 
+a new parameter, the curvature of space and time. An apple moved not 
+because the Earth exerted a force on it, but because the fabric of space 
+and time was stretched by the Earth, so the apple was simply moving 
+along the surface of a curved space-time. From this, Einstein could then 
+simulate the future of the entire universe. Now, with computers, we can 
+run simulations of this model into the future and create gorgeous 
+pictures presenting the collisions of black holes. 
+
+Let us now incorporate this basic strategy into a new theory of 
+consciousness. 
+
+DEFINITION OF CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"DEFINITION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+I’ve taken bits and pieces from previous descriptions of consciousness in 
+the fields of neurology and biology in order to define consciousness as 
+follows: 
+
+Consciousness is the process of creating a model of the world 
+using multiple feedback loops in various parameters (e.g., in 
+temperature, space, time, and in relation to others), in order to 
+accomplish a goal (e.g., find mates, food, shelter). 
+
+I call this the “space-time theory of consciousness,” because it 
+emphasizes the idea that animals create a model of the world mainly in 
+relation to space, and to one another, while humans go beyond and 
+create a model of the world in relation to time, both forward and 
+backward."
+"For example, the lowest level of consciousness is Level 0, where an 
+organism is stationary or has limited mobility and creates a model of its 
+place using feedback loops in a few parameters (e.g., temperature). For 
+example, the simplest level of consciousness is a thermostat. It 
+automatically turns on an air conditioner or heater to adjust the 
+temperature in a room, without any help. The key is a feedback loop 
+that turns on a switch if the temperature gets too hot or cold. (For 
+example, metals expand when heated, so a thermostat can turn on a 
+switch if a metal strip expands beyond a certain point.) 
+
+Each feedback loop registers “one unit of consciousness,” so a 
+thermostat would have a single unit of Level 0 consciousness, that is, 
+Level 0:1."
+"In this way, we can rank consciousness numerically, on the basis of 
+the number and complexity of the feedback loops used to create a model 
+of the world. Consciousness is then no longer a vague collection of 
+undefined, circular concepts, but a system of hierarchies that can be 
+ranked numerically. For example, a bacterium or a flower has many 
+more feedback loops, so they would have a higher level of Level 0 
+consciousness. A flower with ten feedback loops (which measure 
+temperature, moisture, sunlight, gravity, etc.), would have a Level 0:10 
+consciousness."
+"Organisms that are mobile and have a central nervous system have 
+Level I consciousness, which includes a new set of parameters to 
+measure their changing location. One example of Level I consciousness 
+would be reptiles. They have so many feedback loops that they 
+developed a central nervous system to handle them. The reptilian brain 
+would have perhaps one hundred or more feedback loops (governing 
+their sense of smell, balance, touch, sound, sight, blood pressure, etc., 
+and each of these contains more feedback loops). For example, eyesight 
+alone involves a large number of feedback loops, since the eye can 
+recognize color, movement, shapes, light intensity, and shadows. 
+Similarly, the reptile’s other senses, such as hearing and taste, require 
+additional feedback loops. The totality of these numerous feedback loops 
+creates a mental picture of where the reptile is located in the world, and 
+where other animals (e.g., prey) are located as well. Level I"
+"where other animals (e.g., prey) are located as well. Level I 
+consciousness, in turn, is governed mainly by the reptilian brain, located 
+in the back and center of the human head."
+"Next we have Level II consciousness, where organisms create a model 
+of their place not only in space but also with respect to others (i.e., they 
+are social animals with emotions). The number of feedback loops for 
+Level II consciousness explodes exponentially, so it is useful to introduce 
+a new numerical ranking for this type of consciousness. Forming allies, 
+detecting enemies, serving the alpha male, etc., are all very complex 
+behaviors requiring a vastly expanded brain, so Level II consciousness 
+coincides with the formation of new structures of the brain in the form 
+of the limbic system. As noted earlier, the limbic system includes the 
+
+hippocampus (for memories), amygdala (for emotions), and the 
+thalamus (for sensory information), all of which provide new parameters 
+for creating models in relation to others. The number and type of 
+feedback loops therefore change."
+"We define the degree of Level II consciousness as the total number of 
+distinct feedback loops required for an animal to interact socially with 
+members of its grouping. Unfortunately, studies of animal consciousness 
+are extremely limited, so little work has been done to catalog all the 
+ways in which animals communicate socially with one another. But to a 
+crude first approximation, we can estimate Level II consciousness by 
+counting the number of fellow animals in its pack or tribe and then 
+listing the total number of ways in which the animal interacts 
+emotionally with each one. This would include recognizing rivals and 
+friends, forming bonds with others, reciprocating favors, building 
+coalitions, understanding your status and the social ranking of others, 
+respecting the status of your superiors, displaying your power over your 
+inferiors, plotting to rise on the social ladder, etc. (We exclude insects 
+from Level II, because although they have social relations with members"
+"from Level II, because although they have social relations with members 
+of their hive or group, they have no emotions as far as we can tell.)"
+"Despite the lack of empirical studies of animal behaviors, we can give 
+a very rough numerical rank to Level II consciousness by listing the total 
+number of distinct emotions and social behaviors that the animal can 
+exhibit. For example, if a wolf pack consists of ten wolves, and each wolf 
+interacts with all the others with fifteen different emotions and gestures, 
+then its level of consciousness, to a first approximation, is given by the 
+product of the two, or 150, so it would have Level 11:150 consciousness. 
+This number takes into account both the number of other animals it has 
+to interact with as well as the number of ways it can communicate with 
+each one. This number only approximates the total number of social 
+interactions that the animal can display, and will undoubtedly change as 
+we learn more about its behavior."
+"(Of course, because evolution is never clean and precise, there are 
+caveats that we have to explain, such as the level of consciousness of 
+social animals that are solitary hunters. We will do so in the notes.) 
+
+LEVEL III CONSCIOUSNESS: SIMULATING THE FUTURE 
+
+With this framework for consciousness, we see that humans are not 
+unique, and that there is a continuum of consciousness. As Charles 
+Darwin once commented, “The difference between man and the higher 
+animals, great as it is, is certainly one of degree and not of kind.” But 
+what separates human consciousness from the consciousness of animals? 
+Humans are alone in the animal kingdom in understanding the concept 
+of tomorrow. Unlike animals, we constantly ask ourselves “What if?” 
+weeks, months, and even years into the future, so I believe that Level III 
+consciousness creates a model of its place in the world and then 
+simulates it into the future, by making rough predictions. We can 
+summarize this as follows:"
+"Human consciousness is a specific form of consciousness that 
+creates a model of the world and then simulates it in time, by 
+evaluating the past to simulate the future. This requires 
+mediating and evaluating many feedback loops in order to 
+make a decision to achieve a goal. 
+
+By the time we reach Level III consciousness, there are so many 
+feedback loops that we need a CEO to sift through them in order to 
+simulate the future and make a final decision. Accordingly, our brains 
+differ from those of other animals, especially in the expanded prefrontal 
+cortex, located just behind the forehead, which allows us to “see” into 
+the future."
+"Dr. Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist, has written, “The greatest 
+achievement of the human brain is its ability to imagine objects and 
+episodes that do not exist in the realm of the real, and it is this ability 
+that allows us to think about the future. As one philosopher noted, the 
+human brain is an ‘anticipation machine,’ and ‘making the future’ is the 
+most important thing it does.” 
+
+Using brain scans, we can even propose a candidate for the precise 
+area of the brain where simulation of the future takes place. Neurologist 
+Michael Gazzaniga notes that “area 10 (the internal granular layer IV), 
+in the lateral prefrontal cortex, is almost twice as large in humans as in 
+apes. Area 10 is involved with memory and planning, cognitive 
+flexibility, abstract thinking, initiating appropriate behavior, and 
+inhibiting inappropriate behavior, learning rules, and picking out"
+"relevant information from what is perceived through the senses.” (For 
+this book, we will refer to this area, in which decision making is 
+concentrated, as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, although there is 
+some overlap with other areas of the brain.) 
+
+Although animals may have a well-defined understanding of their 
+place in space and some have a degree of awareness of others, it is not 
+clear if they systematically plan for the future and have an 
+understanding of “tomorrow.” Most animals, even social animals with 
+well-developed limbic systems, react to situations (e.g., the presence of 
+predators or potential mates) by relying mainly on instinct, rather than 
+systematically planning into the future."
+"For instance, mammals do not plan for the winter by preparing to 
+hibernate, but largely follow instinct as the temperature drops. There is 
+a feedback loop that regulates their hibernation. Their consciousness is 
+dominated by messages coming in from their senses. There is no 
+evidence that they systemically sift through various plans and schemes 
+
+as they prepare to hibernate. Predators, when they use cunning and 
+disguise to stalk an unsuspecting prey, do anticipate future events, but 
+this planning is limited only to instinct and the duration of the hunt. 
+Primates are adept at devising short-term plans (e.g., finding food), but 
+there is no indication that they plan more than a few hours ahead."
+"Humans are different. Although we do rely on instinct and emotions in 
+many situations, we also constantly analyze and evaluate information 
+from many feedback loops. We do this by running simulations sometimes 
+even beyond our own life span and even thousands of years into the 
+future. The point of running simulations is to evaluate various 
+possibilities to make the best decision to fulfill a goal. This occurs in the 
+prefrontal cortex, which allows us to simulate the future and evaluate 
+the possibilities in order to chart the best course of action. 
+
+This ability evolved for several reasons. First, having the ability to 
+peer into the future has enormous evolutionary benefits, such as evading 
+predators and finding food and mates. Second, it allows us to choose 
+among several different outcomes and to select the best one."
+"Third, the number of feedback loops explodes exponentially as we go 
+from Level 0 to Level I to Level II, so we need a “CEO” to evaluate all 
+these conflicting, competing messages. Instinct is no longer enough. 
+There has to be a central body that evaluates each of these feedback 
+
+loops. This distinguishes human consciousness from that of the animals. 
+These feedback loops are evaluated, in turn, by simulating them into the 
+future to obtain the best outcome. If we didn’t have a CEO, chaos would 
+ensue and we would have sensory overload. 
+
+A simple experiment can demonstrate this. David Eagleman describes 
+how you can take a male stickleback fish and have a female fish trespass 
+on its territory. The male gets confused, because it wants to mate with 
+the female, but it also wants to defend its territory. As a result, the male 
+stickleback fish will simultaneously attack the female while initiating 
+courtship behavior. The male is driven into a frenzy, trying to woo and 
+kill the female at the same time."
+"This works for mice as well. Put an electrode in front of a piece of 
+cheese. If the mouse gets too close, the electrode will shock it. One 
+feedback loop tells the mouse to eat the cheese, but another one tells the 
+mouse to stay away and avoid being shocked. By adjusting the location 
+of the electrode, you can get the mouse to oscillate, torn between two 
+conflicting feedback loops. While a human has a CEO in its brain to 
+evaluate the pros and cons of the situation, the mouse, governed by two 
+conflicting feedback loops, goes back and forth. (This is like the proverb 
+about the donkey that starves to death because it is placed between two 
+
+equal bales of hay.)"
+"equal bales of hay.) 
+
+Precisely how does the brain simulate the future? The human brain is 
+flooded by a large amount of sensory and emotional data. But the key is 
+to simulate the future by making causal links between events—that is, if 
+A happens, then B happens. But if B happens, then C and D might result. 
+This sets off a chain reaction of events, eventually creating a tree of 
+possible cascading futures with many branches. The CEO in the 
+prefrontal cortex evaluates the results of these causal trees in order to 
+make the ultimate decision. 
+
+Let’s say you want to rob a bank. How many realistic simulations of 
+this event can you make? To do this, you have to think of the various 
+causal links involving the police, bystanders, alarm systems, relations 
+with fellow criminals, traffic conditions, the DA’s office, etc. For a 
+successful simulation of the robbery, hundreds of causal links may have 
+to be evaluated."
+"It is also possible to measure this level of consciousness numerically. 
+Let’s say that a person is given a series of different situations like the one 
+
+above and is asked to simulate the future of each. The sum total number 
+of causal links that the person can make for all these situations can be 
+tabulated. (One complication is that there are an unlimited number of 
+causal links that a person might make for a variety of conceivable 
+situations. To get around this complication, we divide this number by 
+the average number of causal links obtained from a large control group. 
+Like the IQ exam, one may multiply this number by 100. So a person’s 
+level of consciousness, for example, might be Level 111:100, meaning that 
+the person can simulate future events just like the average person.) 
+
+We summarize these levels of consciousness in the following diagram: 
+
+LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS FOR DIFFERENT SPECIES 
+
+LEVEL 
+
+SPECIES 
+
+PARAMETER 
+
+BRAIN STRUCTURE 
+
+0 
+
+| Plants 
+
+| Temperature, sunshine 
+
+None 
+
+1"
+"SPECIES 
+
+PARAMETER 
+
+BRAIN STRUCTURE 
+
+0 
+
+| Plants 
+
+| Temperature, sunshine 
+
+None 
+
+1 
+
+Reptiles 
+
+j Space 
+
+Brain stem 
+
+II 
+
+| Mammals 
+
+| Social relations 
+
+j Limbic system 
+
+III 
+
+j Humans 
+
+| Time (esp. future) 
+
+j Prefrontal cortex 
+
+Space-time theory of consciousness. We define consciousness as the process of creating a model of the 
+world using 
+multiple feedback loops in various parameters (e.g., in space, time, and in relation to others), in order to
+accomplish a 
+goal. Human consciousness is a particular type that involves mediating between these feedback loops 
+by simulating the 
+
+future and evaluating the past."
+"future and evaluating the past. 
+
+(Notice that these categories correspond to the rough evolutionary 
+levels we find in nature—e.g., reptiles, mammals, and humans. However, 
+there are also gray areas, such as animals that might possess tiny aspects 
+of different levels of consciousness, animals that do some rudimentary 
+planning, or even single cells that communicate with one another. This 
+chart is meant only to give you the larger, global picture of how 
+consciousness is organized across the animal kingdom.) 
+
+WHAT IS HUMOR? WHY DO WE HAVE EMOTIONS? 
+
+All theories have to be falsifiable. The challenge for the space-time 
+theory of consciousness is to explain all aspects of human consciousness"
+"in this framework. It can be falsified if there are patterns of thought that 
+cannot be brought into this theory. A critic might say that surely our 
+sense of humor is so quixotic and ephemeral that it is beyond 
+explanation. We spend a great deal of time laughing with our friends or 
+at comedians, yet it seems that humor has nothing to do with our 
+simulations of the future. But consider this. Much of humor, such as 
+telling a joke, depends on the punch line."
+"When hearing a joke, we can’t help but simulate the future and 
+complete the story ourselves (even if we’re unaware that we’re doing 
+so). We know enough about the physical and social world that we can 
+anticipate the ending, so we burst out with laughter when the punch line 
+gives us a totally unexpected conclusion. The essence of humor is when 
+our simulation of the future is suddenly disrupted in surprising ways. 
+(This was historically important for our evolution since success depends, 
+in part, on our ability to simulate future events. Since life in the jungle is 
+full of unanticipated events, anyone who can foresee unexpected 
+outcomes has a better chance at survival. In this way, having a well- 
+developed sense of humor is actually one indication of our Level III 
+consciousness and intelligence; that is, the ability to simulate the future.)"
+"For example, W. C. Fields was once asked a question about social 
+activities for youth. He was asked, “Do you believe in clubs for young 
+people?” He replied, “Only when kindness fails.” 
+
+The joke has a punch line only because we mentally simulate a future 
+in which children have social clubs, while W. C. Fields simulates a 
+different future involving clubs as a weapon. (Of course, if a joke is 
+deconstructed, it loses its power, since we have already simulated 
+various possible futures in our minds.) 
+
+This also explains what every comedian knows: timing is the key to 
+humor. If the punch line is delivered too quickly, then the brain hasn’t 
+had time to simulate the future, so there is no experience of the 
+unanticipated. If the punch line is delivered too late, the brain has 
+already had time to simulate various possible futures, so again the punch 
+line loses the element of surprise."
+"(Humor has other functions, of course, such as bonding with fellow 
+members of our tribe. In fact, we use our sense of humor as a way to size 
+up the character of others. This, in turn, is essential to determine our 
+status within society. So in addition, laughter helps define our position 
+
+in the social world, i.e., Level II consciousness.) 
+
+WHY DO WE GOSSIP AND PLAY? 
+
+Even seemingly trivial activities, such as engaging in idle gossip or 
+horsing around with our friends, must be explained in this framework. 
+(If a Martian were to visit a supermarket checkout line and view the 
+huge display of gossip magazines, it might conclude that gossip is the 
+main activity of humans. This observation would not be far off.)"
+"Gossiping is essential for survival because the complex mechanics of 
+social interactions are constantly changing, so we have to make sense of 
+this ever-shifting social terrain. This is Level II consciousness at work. 
+But once we hear a piece of gossip, we immediately run simulations to 
+determine how this will affect our own standing in the community, 
+which moves us to Level III consciousness. Thousands of years ago, in 
+fact, gossip was the only way to obtain vital information about the tribe. 
+One’s very life often depended on knowing the latest gossip."
+"Something as superfluous as “play” is also an essential feature of 
+consciousness. If you ask children why they like to play, they will say, 
+“Because it’s fun.” But that invites the next question: What is fun? 
+Actually, when children play, they are often trying to reenact complex 
+human interactions in simplified form. Human society is extremely 
+sophisticated, much too involved for the developing brains of young 
+children, so children run simplified simulations of adult society, playing 
+games such as doctor, cops and robber, and school. Each game is a 
+model that allows children to experiment with a small segment of adult 
+behavior and then run simulations into the future. (Similarly, when 
+adults engage in play, such as a game of poker, the brain constantly 
+creates a model of what cards the various players possess, and then 
+projects that model into the future, using previous data about people’s 
+personality, ability to bluff, etc. The key to games like chess, cards, and"
+"personality, ability to bluff, etc. The key to games like chess, cards, and 
+gambling is the ability to simulate the future. Animals, which live 
+largely in the present, are not as good at games as humans are, 
+especially if they involve planning. Infant mammals do engage in a form 
+of play, but this is more for exercise, testing one another, practicing 
+future battles, and establishing the coming social pecking order rather"
+"than simulating the future.) 
+
+My space-time theory of consciousness might also shed light on 
+
+another controversial topic: intelligence. Although IQ exams claim to 
+measure “intelligence,” IQ exams actually give no definition of 
+intelligence in the first place. In fact, a cynic may claim, with some 
+justification, that IQ is a measure of “how well you do on IQ exams,” 
+which is circular. In addition, IQ exams have been criticized for being 
+too culturally biased. In this new framework, however, intelligence may 
+be viewed as the complexity of our simulations of the future. Hence, a 
+master criminal, who may be a dropout and functionally illiterate and 
+score dismally low on an IQ exam, may also far outstrip the ability of the 
+police. Outwitting the cops may entail simply being able to run more 
+sophisticated simulations of the future. 
+
+LEVEL I: STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"LEVEL I: STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+Humans are probably alone on this planet in being able to operate on all 
+levels of consciousness. Using MRI scans, we can break down the 
+different structures involved in each level of consciousness."
+"For us, Level I stream of consciousness is largely the interplay between 
+the prefrontal cortex and the thalamus. When taking a leisurely stroll in 
+the park, we are aware of the smells of the plants, the sensation of a 
+gentle breeze, the visual stimuli from the sun, and so on. Our senses send 
+signals to the spinal cord, the brain stem, and then to the thalamus, 
+which operates like a relay station, sorting out the stimuli and sending 
+them on to the various cortices of the brain. The images of the park, for 
+example, are sent to the occipital cortex in the back of the brain, while 
+the sense of touch from the wind is sent to the parietal lobe. The signals 
+are processed in appropriate cortices, and then sent to the prefrontal 
+cortex, where we finally become conscious of all these sensations. 
+
+This is illustrated in Figure 7. 
+
+LEVEL II: FINDING OUR PLACE IN SOCIETY"
+"This is illustrated in Figure 7. 
+
+LEVEL II: FINDING OUR PLACE IN SOCIETY 
+
+While Level I consciousness uses sensations to create a model of our 
+physical location in space, Level II consciousness creates a model of our 
+
+place in society. 
+
+Let’s say we are going to an important cocktail party, in which people 
+essential to our job will be present. As we scan the room, trying to 
+identify people from our workplace, there is an intense interplay 
+between the hippocampus (which processes memories), the amygdala 
+(which processes emotions), and the prefrontal cortex (which puts all 
+
+this information together). 
+
+Figure 7. In Level I consciousness, sensory information travels through the brain stem, past the 
+thalamus, onto the various 
+cortices of the brain, and finally to the prefrontal cortex. Thus this stream of Level I consciousness is 
+created by the flow 
+of information from the thalamus to the prefrontal cortex, (illustration credit 2.1)"
+"With each image, the brain automatically attaches an emotion, such as 
+happiness, fear, anger, or jealousy, and processes the emotion in the 
+
+amygdala. 
+
+If you spot your chief rival, whom you suspect of stabbing you in the 
+back, the emotion of fear is processed by the amygdala, which sends an 
+urgent message to the prefrontal cortex, alerting it to possible danger. At 
+the same time, signals are sent to your endocrine system to start 
+pumping adrenaline and other hormones into the blood, thereby 
+increasing your heartbeat and preparing you for a possible fight-or-flight 
+response. 
+
+This is illustrated in Figure 8."
+"This is illustrated in Figure 8. 
+
+But beyond simply recognizing other people, the brain has the 
+uncanny ability to guess what other people are thinking about. This is 
+called the Theory of Mind, a theory first proposed by Dr. David Premack 
+of the University of Pennsylvania, which is the ability to infer the 
+thoughts of others. In any complex society, anyone with the ability to 
+correctly guess the intentions, motives, and plans of other people has a 
+tremendous survival advantage over those who can’t. The Theory of 
+Mind allows you to form alliances with others, isolate your enemies, and 
+solidify your friendships, which vastly increases your power and chances 
+of survival and mating. Some anthropologists even believe that the 
+mastery of the Theory of Mind was essential in the evolution of the 
+brain."
+"Figure 8. Emotions originate and are processed in the limbic system. In Level II consciousness, we are 
+continually 
+bombarded with sensory information, but emotions are rapid-fire responses to emergencies from the 
+limbic system that 
+
+do not need permission from the prefrontal cortex. The hippocampus is also important for processing 
+memories. So Level 
+II consciousness, at its core, involves the reaction of the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex,
+(illustration 
+
+credit 2.2) 
+
+But how is the Theory of Mind accomplished? One clue came in 1996, 
+with the discovery of “mirror neurons” by Drs. Giacomo Rizzolatti, 
+Leonardo Fogassi, and Vittorio Gallese. These neurons fire when you are 
+performing a certain task and also when you see someone else 
+performing that same task. (Mirror neurons also fire for emotions as well 
+as physical acts. If you feel a certain emotion, and think another is 
+feeling that same emotion, then the mirror neurons will fire.)"
+"Mirror neurons are essential for mimicry and also for empathy, giving 
+
+us the ability not only to copy the complex tasks performed by others 
+but also to experience the emotions that person must be feeling. Mirror 
+neurons were thus probably essential for our evolution as human beings, 
+since cooperation is essential for holding the tribe together."
+"Mirror neurons were first found in the premotor areas of monkey 
+brains. But since then, they have been found in humans in the prefrontal 
+cortex. Dr. V. S. Ramachandran believes that mirror neurons were 
+essential in giving us the power of self-awareness and concludes, “I 
+predict that mirror neurons will do for psychology what DNA did for 
+biology: they will provide a unifying framework and help explain a host 
+of mental abilities that have hitherto remained mysterious and 
+inaccessible to experiments.” (We should point out, however, that all 
+scientific results have to be tested and reconfirmed. There is no doubt 
+that certain neurons are performing this crucial behavior involved with 
+empathy, mimicry, etc., but there is some debate about the identity of 
+these mirror neurons. For example, some critics claim that perhaps these 
+behaviors are common to many neurons, and that there is not a single 
+class of neurons dedicated to this behavior.) 
+
+LEVEL III: SIMULATING THE FUTURE"
+"LEVEL III: SIMULATING THE FUTURE 
+
+The highest level of consciousness, which is associated primarily with 
+Homo sapiens, is Level III consciousness, in which we take our model of 
+the world and then run simulations into the future. We do this by 
+analyzing past memories of people and events, and then simulating the 
+
+future by making many causal links to form a “causal” tree. As we look 
+at the various faces at the cocktail party, we begin to ask ourselves 
+simple questions: How can this individual help me? How will the gossip 
+floating in the room play out in the future? Is anyone out to get me? 
+
+Let’s say that you just lost your job and you are desperately looking 
+for a new one. In this case, as you talk to various people at the cocktail 
+party, your mind is feverishly simulating the future with each person 
+you talk to. You ask yourself, How can I impress this person? What 
+topics should I bring out to present my best case? Can he offer me a job?"
+"Figure 9. Simulating the future, the heart of Level III consciousness, is mediated by the dorsolateral 
+prefrontal cortex, the 
+CEO of the brain, with competition between the pleasure center and the orbitofrontal cortex (which acts
+to check our 
+impulses). This roughly resembles the outline given by Freud of the struggle between our conscience 
+and desires. The 
+actual process of simulating the future takes place when the prefrontal cortex accesses the memories of 
+the past in order 
+
+to approximate future events, (illustration credit 2.3)"
+"to approximate future events, (illustration credit 2.3) 
+
+Recent brain scans have shed partial light on how the brain simulates 
+the future. These simulations are done mainly in the dorsolateral 
+prefrontal cortex, the CEO of the brain, using memories of the past. On 
+one hand, simulations of the future may produce outcomes that are 
+desirable and pleasurable, in which case the pleasure centers of the brain 
+light up (in the nucleus accumbens and hypothalamus). On the other 
+hand, these outcomes may also have a downside to them, so the 
+orbitofrontal cortex kicks in to warn us of possible dangers. There is a 
+
+struggle, then, between different parts of the brain concerning the 
+future, which may have desirable and undesirable outcomes. Ultimately 
+it is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that mediates between these and 
+makes the final decisions. (See Figure 9.) (Some neurologists have 
+pointed out that this struggle resembles, in a crude way, the dynamics 
+between Freud’s ego, id, and superego.)"
+"THE MYSTERY OF SELF-AWARENESS 
+
+If the space-time theory of consciousness is correct, then it also gives us 
+a rigorous definition of self-awareness. Instead of vague, circular 
+references, we should be able to give a definition that is testable and 
+useful. We’ll define self-awareness as follows: 
+
+Self-awareness is creating a model of the world and simulating 
+
+the future in which you appear. 
+
+Animals therefore have some self-awareness, since they have to know 
+where they are located if they are going to survive and mate, but it is 
+limited largely by instinct. 
+
+When most animals are placed in front of a mirror, they either ignore 
+it or attack it, not realizing that it is an image of themselves. (This is 
+called the “mirror test,” which goes all the way back to Darwin.) 
+However, animals like elephants, the great apes, bottlenose dolphins, 
+orcas, and European magpies can figure out that the image they see in 
+the mirror represents themselves."
+"Humans, however, take a giant step forward and constantly run future 
+simulations in which we appear as a principal actor. We constantly 
+imagine ourselves faced with different situations—going on a date, 
+applying for a job, changing careers—none of which is determined by 
+instinct. It is extremely difficult to stop your brain from simulating the 
+future, though elaborate methods have been devised (for instance, 
+meditation) to attempt to do so. 
+
+Daydreaming, as an example, consists largely of our acting out 
+different possible futures to attain a goal. Since we pride ourselves in 
+knowing our limitations and strengths, it is not hard to put ourselves 
+
+inside the model and hit the “play” button so we begin to act out 
+hypothetical scenarios, like being an actor in a virtual play. 
+
+WHERE AM “I”?"
+"WHERE AM “I”? 
+
+There is probably a specific part of the brain whose job it is to unify the 
+signals from the two hemispheres to create a smooth, coherent sense of 
+self. Dr. Todd Heatherton, a psychologist at Dartmouth College, believes 
+that this region is located within the prefrontal cortex, in what is called 
+the medial prefrontal cortex. Biologist Dr. Carl Zimmer writes, “The 
+medial prefrontal cortex may play the same role for the self as the 
+hippocampus plays in memory ... [it] could be continually stitching 
+together a sense of who we are.” In other words, this may be the 
+gateway to the concept of “I,” the central region of the brain that fuses, 
+
+integrates, and concocts a unified narrative of who we are. (This does 
+not mean, however, that the medial prefrontal cortext is the homunculus 
+sitting in our brain that controls everything.)"
+"If this theory is true, then the resting brain, when we are idly 
+daydreaming about our friends and ourselves, should be more active 
+than normal, even when other parts of the brain’s sensory regions are 
+quiet. In fact, brain scans bear this out. Dr. Heatherton concludes, “Most 
+of the time we daydream—we think about something that happened to 
+us or what we think about other people. All this involves self-reflection.” 
+
+The space-time theory says that consciousness is cobbled together 
+from many subunits of the brain, each competing with the others to 
+create a model of the world, and yet our consciousness feels smooth and 
+continuous. How can this be, when we all have the feeling that our “self” 
+is uninterrupted and always in charge?"
+"In the previous chapter, we met the plight of split-brain patients, who 
+sometimes struggle with alien hands that literally have a mind of their 
+own. It does appear that there are two centers of consciousness living 
+within the same brain. So how does all this create the sense that we have 
+a unified, cohesive “self’ existing within our brains? 
+
+I asked one person who may have the answer: Dr. Michael Gazzaniga, 
+who has spent several decades studying the strange behavior of split- 
+brain patients. He noticed that the left brain of split-brain patients, when"
+"confronted with the fact that there seem to be two separate centers of 
+consciousness residing in the same skull, would simply make up strange 
+explanations, no matter how silly. He told me that, when presented with 
+an obvious paradox, the left brain will “confabulate” an answer to 
+explain inconvenient facts. Dr. Gazzaniga believes that this gives us the 
+false sense that we are unified and whole. He calls the left brain the 
+“interpreter,” which is constantly thinking up ideas to paper over 
+inconsistencies and gaps in our consciousness."
+"For example, in one experiment, he flashed the word “red” to just the 
+left brain of a patient, and the word “banana” to just the right brain. 
+(Notice that the dominant left brain therefore does not know about the 
+banana.) Then the subject was asked to pick up a pen with his left hand 
+(which is governed by the right brain) and draw a picture. Naturally he 
+drew a picture of a banana. Remember that the right brain could do this, 
+because it had seen the banana, but the left brain had no clue that the 
+banana had been flashed to the right brain. 
+
+Then he was asked why he had drawn the banana. Because only the 
+left brain controls speech, and because the left brain did not know"
+"anything about a banana, the patient should have said, “I don’t know.” 
+Instead he said, “It is easiest to draw with this hand because this hand 
+can pull down easier.” Dr. Gazzaniga noted that the left brain was trying 
+to find some excuse for this inconvenient fact, even though the patient 
+was clueless about why his right hand drew the banana. 
+
+Dr. Gazzaniga concludes, “It is the left hemisphere that engages in the 
+human tendency to find order in chaos, that tries to fit everything into a 
+story and put it into a context. It seems that it is driven to hypothesize 
+about the structure of the world even in the face of evidence that no 
+pattern exists.”"
+"This is where our sense of a unified “self’ comes from. Although 
+consciousness is a patchwork of competing and often contradictory 
+tendencies, the left brain ignores inconsistencies and papers over 
+obvious gaps in order to give us a smooth sense of a single “I.” In other 
+words, the left brain is constantly making excuses, some of them 
+harebrained and preposterous, to make sense of the world. It is 
+constantly asking “Why?” and dreaming up excuses even if the question 
+has no answer. 
+
+(There is probably an evolutionary reason that we evolved our split"
+"(There is probably an evolutionary reason that we evolved our split 
+
+brains. A seasoned CEO will often encourage his aides to take opposing 
+sides of an issue, to encourage thorough and thoughtful debate. 
+Oftentimes, the correct view emerges out of intense interaction with 
+incorrect ideas. Similarly, the two halves of the brain complement each 
+other, offering pessimistic/optimistic or analytical/holistic analysis of 
+the same idea. The two halves of the brain therefore play off each other. 
+Indeed, as we shall see, certain forms of mental illness may arise when 
+this interplay between the two brains goes awry.)"
+"Now that we have a working theory of consciousness, the time has come 
+to utilize it to understand how neuroscience will evolve in the future. 
+There is a vast and remarkable set of experiments now being done in 
+neuroscience that are fundamentally altering the entire scientific 
+landscape. Using the power of electromagnetism, scientists can now 
+probe people’s thoughts, send telepathic messages, telekinetically control 
+objects around us, record memories, and perhaps enhance our 
+intelligence. 
+
+Perhaps the most immediate and practical application of this new 
+technology is something once considered to be hopelessly impossible: 
+telepathy. 
+
+BOOK II MIND OVER MATTER 
+
+The brain, like it or not, is a machine. Scientists have come to 
+that conclusion, not because they are mechanistic killjoys, but 
+because they have amassed evidence that every aspect of 
+consciousness can be tied to the brain. 
+
+—STEVEN PINKER 
+
+3 TELEPATHY A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS"
+"—STEVEN PINKER 
+
+3 TELEPATHY A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS 
+
+Harry Houdini, some historians believe, was the greatest magician 
+who ever lived. His breathtaking escapes from locked, sealed chambers 
+and death-defying stunts left audiences gasping. He could make people 
+disappear and then reemerge in the most unexpected places. And he 
+could read people’s minds. 
+
+Or at least it seemed that way. 
+
+Houdini took pains to explain that everything he did was an illusion, a 
+series of clever sleight-of-hand tricks. Mind reading, he would remind 
+people, was impossible. He was so outraged that unscrupulous magicians 
+would cheat wealthy patrons by performing cheap parlor tricks and 
+seances that he even went around the country exposing fakes by 
+pledging he could duplicate any feat of mind reading performed by these 
+charlatans. He was even on a committee organized by Scientific American 
+that offered a generous reward to anyone who could positively prove 
+they had psychic power. (No one ever picked up the reward.)"
+"Houdini believed that telepathy was impossible. But science is proving 
+Houdini wrong. 
+
+Telepathy is now the subject of intense research at universities around 
+the world, where scientists have already been able to use advanced 
+sensors to read individual words, images, and thoughts in a person’s 
+brain. This could alter the way we communicate with stroke and 
+accident victims who are “locked in” their bodies, unable to articulate 
+their thoughts except through blinks. But that’s just the start. Telepathy 
+might also radically change the way we interact with computers and the 
+outside world. 
+
+Indeed, in a recent “Next 5 in 5 Forecast,” which predicts five 
+revolutionary developments in the next five years, IBM scientists claimed 
+that we will be able to mentally communicate with computers, perhaps 
+
+replacing the mouse and voice commands. This means using the power 
+of the mind to call people on the phone, pay credit card bills, drive cars,"
+"make appointments, create beautiful symphonies and works of art, etc. 
+The possibilities are endless, and it seems that everyone—from computer 
+giants, educators, video game companies, and music studios to the 
+Pentagon—is converging on this technology."
+"True telepathy, found in science-fiction and fantasy novels, is not 
+possible without outside assistance. As we know, the brain is electrical. 
+In general, anytime an electron is accelerated, it gives off 
+electromagnetic radiation. The same holds true for electrons oscillating 
+inside the brain, which broadcasts radio waves. But these signals are too 
+faint to be detected by others, and even if we could perceive these radio 
+waves, it would be difficult to make sense of them. Evolution has not 
+given us the ability to decipher this collection of random radio signals, 
+but computers can. Scientists have been able to get crude 
+approximations of a person’s thoughts using EEG scans. Subjects would 
+put on a helmet with EEG sensors and concentrate on certain pictures— 
+say, the image of a car. The EEG signals were then recorded for each 
+image and eventually a rudimentary dictionary of thought was created, 
+with a one-to-one correspondence between a person’s thoughts and the"
+"with a one-to-one correspondence between a person’s thoughts and the 
+EEG image. Then, when a person was shown a picture of another car, 
+the computer would recognize the EEG pattern as being from a car."
+"The advantage of EEG sensors is that they are noninvasive and quick. 
+You simply put a helmet containing many electrodes onto the surface of 
+the brain and the EEG can rapidly identify signals that change every 
+millisecond. But the problem with EEG sensors, as we have seen, is that 
+electromagnetic waves deteriorate as they pass through the skull, and it 
+is difficult to locate their precise source. This method can tell if you are 
+thinking of a car or a house, but it cannot re-create an image of the car. 
+That is where Dr. Jack Gallant’s work comes in. 
+
+VIDEOS OF THE MIND 
+
+The epicenter for much of this research is the University of California at 
+Berkeley, where I received my own Ph.D. in theoretical physics years 
+ago. I had the pleasure of touring the laboratory of Dr. Gallant, whose 
+group has accomplished a feat once considered to be impossible: 
+videotaping people’s thoughts. “This is a major leap forward 
+
+reconstructing internal imagery. We are opening a window into the"
+"reconstructing internal imagery. We are opening a window into the 
+
+movies in our mind,” says Gallant. 
+
+When I visited his laboratory, the first thing I noticed was the team of 
+young, eager postdoctoral and graduate students huddled in front of 
+their computer screens, looking intently at video images that were 
+reconstructed from someone’s brain scan. Talking to Gallant’s team, you 
+feel as though you are witnessing scientific history in the making."
+"Gallant explained to me that first the subject lies flat on a stretcher, 
+which is slowly inserted headfirst into a huge, state-of-the-art MRI 
+machine, costing upward of $3 million. The subject is then shown 
+several movie clips (such as movie trailers readily available on 
+YouTube). To accumulate enough data, the subject has to sit motionless 
+for hours watching these clips, a truly arduous task. I asked one of the 
+postdocs, Dr. Shinji Nishimoto, how they found volunteers who were 
+willing to lie still for hours on end with only fragments of video footage 
+to occupy the time. He said the people in the room, the grad students 
+and postdocs, volunteered to be guinea pigs for their own research."
+"As the subject watches the movies, the MRI machine creates a 3-D 
+image of the blood flow within the brain. The MRI image looks like a 
+vast collection of thirty thousand dots, or voxels. Each voxel represents a 
+pinpoint of neural energy, and the color of the dot corresponds to the 
+intensity of the signal and blood flow. Red dots represent points of large 
+neural activity, while blue dots represent points of less activity. (The 
+final image looks very much like thousands of Christmas lights in the 
+shape of the brain. Immediately you can see that the brain is 
+concentrating most of its mental energy in the visual cortex, which is 
+located at the back of the brain, while watching these videos.)"
+"Gallant’s MRI machine is so powerful it can identify two to three 
+hundred distinct regions of the brain and, on average, can take snapshots 
+that have one hundred dots per region of the brain. (One goal for future 
+generations of MRI technology is to provide an even sharper resolution 
+by increasing the number of dots per region of the brain.) 
+
+At first, this 3-D collection of colored dots looks like gibberish. But 
+after years of research, Dr. Gallant and his colleagues have developed a 
+mathematical formula that begins to find relationships between certain 
+features of a picture (edges, textures, intensity, etc.) and the MRI voxels. 
+For example, if you look at a boundary, you’ll notice it’s a region"
+"separating lighter and darker areas, and hence the edge generates a 
+certain pattern of voxels. By having subject after subject view such a 
+large library of movie clips, this mathematical formula is refined, 
+allowing the computer to analyze how all sorts of images are converted 
+into MRI voxels. Eventually the scientists were able to ascertain a direct 
+
+correlation between certain MRI patterns of voxels and features within 
+each picture."
+"correlation between certain MRI patterns of voxels and features within 
+each picture. 
+
+At this point, the subject is then shown another movie trailer. The 
+computer analyzes the voxels generated during this viewing and re¬ 
+creates a rough approximation of the original image. (The computer 
+selects images from one hundred movie clips that most closely resemble 
+the one that the subject just saw and then merges images to create a 
+close approximation.) In this way, the computer is able to create a fuzzy 
+video of the visual imagery going through your mind. Dr. Gallant’s 
+mathematical formula is so versatile that it can take a collection of MRI 
+voxels and convert it into a picture, or it can do the reverse, taking a 
+picture and then converting it to MRI voxels."
+"I had a chance to view the video created by Dr. Gallant’s group, and it 
+was very impressive. Watching it was like viewing a movie with faces, 
+animals, street scenes, and buildings through dark glasses. Although you 
+could not see the details within each face or animal, you could clearly 
+identify the kind of object you were seeing."
+"Not only can this program decode what you are looking at, it can also 
+decode imaginary images circulating in your head. Let’s say you are 
+asked to think of the Mona Lisa. We know from MRI scans that even 
+though you’re not viewing the painting with your eyes, the visual cortex 
+of your brain will light up. Dr. Gallant’s program then scans your brain 
+while you are thinking of the Mona Lisa and flips through its data files of 
+pictures, trying to find the closest match. In one experiment I saw, the 
+computer selected a picture of the actress Salma Hayek as the closest 
+approximation to the Mona Lisa. Of course, the average person can easily 
+recognize hundreds of faces, but the fact that the computer analyzed an 
+image within a person’s brain and then picked out this picture from 
+millions of random pictures at its disposal is still impressive."
+"The goal of this whole process is to create an accurate dictionary that 
+allows you to rapidly match an object in the real world with the MRI 
+pattern in your brain. In general, a detailed match is very difficult and 
+
+will take years, but some categories are actually easy to read just by 
+flipping through some photographs. Dr. Stanislas Dehaene of the College 
+de France in Paris was examining MRI scans of the parietal lobe, where 
+numbers are recognized, when one of his postdocs casually mentioned 
+that just by quickly scanning the MRI pattern, he could tell what number 
+the subject was looking at. In fact, certain numbers created distinctive 
+patterns on the MRI scan. He notes, “If you take 200 voxels in this area, 
+and look at which of them are active and which are inactive, you can 
+construct a machine-learning device that decodes which number is being 
+held in memory.”"
+"This leaves open the question of when we might be able to have 
+picture-quality videos of our thoughts. Unfortunately, information is lost 
+when a person is visualizing an image. Brain scans corroborate this. 
+When you compare the MRI scan of the brain as it is looking at a flower 
+to an MRI scan as the brain is thinking about a flower, you immediately 
+see that the second image has far fewer dots than the first. So although 
+this technology will vastly improve in the coming years, it will never be 
+perfect. (I once read a short story in which a man meets a genie who 
+offers to create anything that the person can imagine. The man 
+immediately asks for a luxury car, a jet plane, and a million dollars. At 
+first, the man is ecstatic. But when he looks at these items in detail, he 
+sees that the car and the plane have no engines, and the image on the 
+cash is all blurred. Everything is useless. This is because our memories 
+are only approximations of the real thing.)"
+"But given the rapidity with which scientists are beginning to decode 
+the MRI patterns in the brain, will we soon be able to actually read 
+words and thoughts circulating in the mind? 
+
+READING THE MIND 
+
+In fact, in a building next to Gallant’s laboratory, Dr. Brian Pasley and 
+his colleagues are literally reading thoughts—at least in principle. One of 
+the postdocs there, Dr. Sara Szczepanski, explained to me how they are 
+able to identify words inside the mind. 
+
+The scientists used what is called ECOG (electrocorticogram) 
+technology, which is a vast improvement over the jumble of signals that 
+
+EEG scans produce. ECOG scans are unprecedented in accuracy and 
+resolution, since signals are directly recorded from the brain and do not 
+pass through the skull. The flipside is that one has to remove a portion 
+of the skull to place a mesh, containing sixty-four electrodes in an eight- 
+by-eight grid, directly on top of the exposed brain."
+"Luckily they were able to get permission to conduct experiments with 
+ECOG scans on epileptic patients, who were suffering from debilitating 
+seizures. The ECOG mesh was placed on the patients’ brains while open- 
+brain surgery was being performed by doctors at the nearby University 
+of California at San Francisco. 
+
+As the patients hear various words, signals from their brains pass 
+through the electrodes and are then recorded. Eventually a dictionary is 
+formed, matching the word with the signals emanating from the 
+
+electrodes in the brain. Later, when a word is uttered, one can see the 
+same electrical pattern. This correspondence also means that if one is 
+thinking of a certain word, the computer can pick up the characteristic 
+signals and identify it."
+"With this technology, it might be possible to have a conversation that 
+takes place entirely telepathically. Also, stroke victims who are totally 
+paralyzed may be able to “talk” through a voice synthesizer that 
+recognizes the brain patterns of individual words. 
+
+Not surprisingly, BMI (brain-machine interface) has become a hot 
+field, with groups around the country making significant breakthroughs. 
+Similar results were obtained by scientists at the University of Utah in 
+2011. They placed grids, each containing sixteen electrodes, over the 
+facial motor cortex (which controls movements of the mouth, lips, 
+tongue, and face) and Wernicke’s area, which processes information 
+about language."
+"The person was then asked to say ten common words, such as “yes” 
+and “no,” “hot” and “cold,” “hungry” and “thirsty,” “hello” and “good¬ 
+bye,” and “more” and “less.” Using a computer to record the brain 
+signals when these words were uttered, the scientists were able to create 
+a rough one-to-one correspondence between spoken words and computer 
+signals from the brain. Later, when the patient voiced certain words, 
+they were able to correctly identify each one with an accuracy ranging 
+from 76 percent to 90 percent. The next step is to use grids with 121 
+electrodes to get better resolution. 
+
+In the future, this procedure may prove useful for individuals suffering 
+from strokes or paralyzing illnesses such as Lou Gehrig’s disease, who 
+would be able to speak using the brain-to-computer technique. 
+
+TYPING WITH THE MIND"
+"TYPING WITH THE MIND 
+
+At the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Dr. Jerry Shih has hooked up epileptic 
+patients via ECOG sensors so they can learn how to type with the mind. 
+The calibration of this device is simple. The patient is first shown a 
+series of letters and is told to focus mentally on each symbol. A 
+computer records the signals emanating from the brain as it scans each 
+letter. As with the other experiments, once this one-to-one dictionary is 
+created, it is then a simple matter for the person to merely think of the 
+letter and for the letter to be typed on a screen, using only the power of 
+the mind. 
+
+Dr. Shih, the leader of this project, says that the accuracy of his 
+
+machine is nearly 100 percent. Dr. Shih believes that he can next create 
+a machine to record images, not just words, that patients conceive in 
+their minds. This could have applications for artists and architects, but 
+the big drawback of ECOG technology, as we have mentioned, is that it 
+requires opening up patients’ brains."
+"Meanwhile, EEG typewriters, because they are noninvasive, are 
+entering the marketplace. They are not as accurate or precise as ECOG 
+typewriters, but they have the advantage that they can be sold over the 
+counter. Guger Technologies, based in Austria, recently demonstrated an 
+EEG typewriter at a trade show. According to their officials, it takes only 
+ten minutes or so for people to learn how to use this machine, and they 
+can then type at the rate of five to ten words per minute. 
+
+TELEPATHIC DICTATION AND MUSIC 
+
+The next step might be to transmit entire conversations, which could 
+rapidly speed up telepathic transmission. The problem, however, is that 
+it would require making a one-to-one map between thousands of words 
+and their EEG, MRI, or ECOG signals. But if one can, for example, 
+identify the brain signals of several hundred select words, then one"
+"might be able to rapidly transmit words found in a common 
+conversation. This means that one would think of the words in entire 
+sentences and paragraphs of a conversation and a computer would print 
+them out. 
+
+This could be extremely useful for journalists, writers, novelists, and 
+poets, who could simply think and have a computer take dictation. The 
+computer would also become a mental secretary. You would mentally 
+give instructions to the robo-secretary about a dinner, plane trip, or 
+vacation, and it would fill in all the details about the reservations."
+"Not only dictation but also music may one day be transcribed in this 
+way. Musicians would simply hum a few melodies in their head and a 
+computer would print them out, in musical notation. To do this, you 
+would ask someone to mentally hum a series of notes, which would 
+generate certain electrical signals for each one. A dictionary would again 
+be created in this way, so that when you think of a musical note, the 
+computer would print it out in musical notation. 
+
+In science fiction, telepaths often communicate across language 
+barriers, since thoughts are considered to be universal. However, this 
+might not be true. Emotions and feelings may well be nonverbal and 
+universal, so that one could telepathically send them to anyone, but 
+
+rational thinking is so closely tied to language that it is very unlikely 
+that complex thoughts could be sent across language barriers. Words will 
+still be sent telepathically in their original language. 
+
+TELEPATHY HELMETS"
+"TELEPATHY HELMETS 
+
+In science fiction, we also often encounter telepathy helmets. Put them 
+on, and—presto!—you can read other people’s minds. The U.S. Army, in 
+fact, has expressed interest in this technology. In a firefight, with 
+explosions going off and bullets whizzing overhead, a telepathy helmet 
+could be a lifesaver, since it can be difficult to communicate orders amid 
+the sound and fury of the battlefield. (I can personally testify to this. 
+Years ago, during the Vietnam War, I served in the U.S. Infantry at Fort 
+Benning, outside Atlanta, Georgia. During machine-gun training, the 
+sound of hand grenades and rounds of bullets going off on the battlefield 
+next to my ear was deafening; it was so intense I could not hear anything 
+
+else. Later, there was a loud ringing in my ear that lasted for three full 
+days.) With a telepathy helmet, a soldier could mentally communicate 
+with his platoon amid all the thunder and noise."
+"Recently, the army gave a $6.3 million grant to Dr. Gerwin Schalk at 
+Albany Medical College, but it knows that a fully functional telepathy 
+helmet is still years away. Dr. Schalk experiments with ECOG 
+technology, which, as we have seen, requires placing a mesh of 
+electrodes directly on top of the exposed brain. With this method, his 
+computers have been able to recognize vowels and thirty-six individual 
+words inside the thinking brain. In some of his experiments, he 
+approached 100 percent accuracy. But at present, this is still impractical 
+for the U.S. Army, since it requires removing part of the skull in the 
+clean, sterile environment of a hospital. And even then, recognizing 
+vowels and a handful of words is a far cry from sending urgent messages 
+to headquarters in a firefight. But his ECOG experiments have 
+demonstrated that it is possible to communicate mentally on the 
+battlefield."
+"Another method is being explored by Dr. David Poeppel of New York 
+University. Instead of opening up the skulls of his subjects, he employs 
+MEG technology, using tiny bursts of magnetic energy rather than 
+electrodes to create electrical charges in the brain. Besides being 
+noninvasive, the advantage of MEG technology is that it can precisely 
+measure fleeting neural activity, in contrast to the slower MRI scans. In 
+his experiments, Poeppel has been able to successfully record electrical 
+activity in the auditory cortex when people think silently of a certain 
+word. But the drawback is that this recording still requires the use of 
+
+large, table-size machines to generate a magnetic pulse. 
+
+Obviously, one wants a method that is noninvasive, portable, and 
+accurate. Dr. Poeppel hopes his work with MEG technology will 
+complement the work being done using EEG sensors. But true telepathy 
+helmets are still many years away, because MEG and EEG scans lack 
+accuracy. 
+
+MRI IN A CELL PHONE"
+"MRI IN A CELL PHONE 
+
+At present, we are hindered by the relatively crude nature of the existing 
+
+instruments. But, as time goes by, more and more sophisticated 
+instruments will probe deeper into the mind. The next big breakthrough 
+may be MRI machines that are handheld."
+"The reason why MRI machines have to be so huge right now is that 
+one needs a uniform magnetic field to get good resolution. The larger 
+the magnet, the more uniform one can make the field, and the better 
+accuracy one finds in the final pictures. However, physicists know the 
+exact mathematical properties of magnetic fields (they were worked out 
+by physicist James Clerk Maxwell back in the 1860S). In 1993 in 
+Germany, Dr. Bernhard Bliimich and his colleagues created the world’s 
+smallest MRI machine, which is the size of a briefcase. It uses a weak 
+and distorted magnetic field, but supercomputers can analyze the 
+magnetic field and correct for this so that the device produces realistic 3- 
+D pictures. Since computer power doubles roughly every two years, they 
+are now powerful enough to analyze the magnetic field created by the 
+briefcase-sized device and compensate for its distortion."
+"As a demonstration of their machine, in 2006 Dr. Bliimich and his 
+colleagues were able to take MRI scans of Otzi, the “Iceman,” who was 
+frozen in ice about 5,300 years ago toward the end of the last ice age. 
+Because Otzi was frozen in an awkward position, with his arms spread 
+apart, it was difficult to cram him inside the small cylinder of a 
+conventional MRI machine, but Dr. Bliimich’s portable machine easily 
+took MRI photographs. 
+
+These physicists estimate that, with increasing computer power, an 
+MRI machine of the future might be the size of a cell phone. The raw 
+data from this cell phone would be sent wirelessly to a supercomputer, 
+which would process the data from the weak magnetic field and then 
+create a 3-D image. (The weakness of the magnetic field is compensated 
+for by the increase in computer power.) This then could vastly accelerate 
+research. “Perhaps something like the Star Trek tricorder is not so far off"
+"after all,” Dr. Bliimich has said. (The tricorder is a small, handheld 
+scanning device that gives an instant diagnosis of any illness.) In the 
+future, you may have more computer power in your medicine cabinet 
+than there is in a modern university hospital today. Instead of waiting to 
+get permission from a hospital or university to use an expensive MRI 
+machine, you could gather data in your own living room by simply 
+waving the portable MRI over yourself and then e-mailing the results to 
+
+a lab for analysis."
+"a lab for analysis. 
+
+It could also mean that, at some point in the future, an MRI telepathy 
+helmet might be possible, with vastly better resolution than an EEG 
+scan. Here is how it may work in the coming decades. Inside the helmet, 
+there would be electromagnetic coils to produce a weak magnetic field 
+and radio pulses that probe the brain. The raw MRI signals would then 
+be sent to a pocketsize computer placed in your belt. The information 
+would then be radioed to a server located far from the battlefield. The 
+final processing of the data would be done by a supercomputer in a 
+distant city. Then the message would be radioed back to your troops on 
+the battlefield. The troops would hear the message either through 
+speakers or through electrodes placed in the auditory cortex of their 
+brains. 
+
+DARPA AND HUMAN ENHANCEMENT"
+"DARPA AND HUMAN ENHANCEMENT 
+
+Given the costs of all this research, it is legitimate to ask: Who is paying 
+for it? Private companies have only recently shown interest in this 
+cutting-edge technology, but it’s still a big gamble for many of them to 
+fund research that may never pay off. Instead, one of the main backers is 
+DARPA, the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, 
+which has spearheaded some of the most important technologies of the 
+twentieth century. 
+
+DARPA was originally set up by President Dwight Eisenhower after 
+the Russians sent Sputnik into orbit in 1957 and shocked the world. 
+Realizing that the United States might quickly be outpaced by the 
+Soviets in high technology, Eisenhower hastily established this agency to 
+keep the country competitive with the Russians. Over the years, the 
+numerous projects it started grew so large that they became independent 
+entities by themselves. One of its first spinoffs was NASA."
+"DARPA’s strategic plan reads like something from science fiction: its 
+“only charter is radical innovation.” The only justification for its 
+existence is “to accelerate the future into being.” DARPA scientists are 
+constantly pushing the boundaries of what is physically possible. As 
+
+former DARPA official Michael Goldblatt says, they try not to violate the 
+laws of physics, “or at least not knowingly. Or at least not more than one 
+
+per program.”"
+"per program.” 
+
+But what separates DARPA from science fiction is its track record, 
+which is truly astounding. One of its early projects in the 1960s was 
+Arpanet, which was a war-fighting telecommunications network that 
+would electronically connect scientists and officials during and after 
+World War III. In 1989, the National Science Foundation decided that, in 
+light of the breakup of the Soviet bloc, it was unnecessary to keep it a 
+secret, so it declassified this hush-hush military technology and 
+essentially gave codes and blueprints away for free. Arpanet would 
+eventually become the Internet. 
+
+When the U.S. Air Force needed a way to guide its ballistic missiles in 
+space, DARPA helped create Project 57, a top-secret project that was 
+designed to place H-bombs on hardened Soviet missile silos in a 
+thermonuclear exchange. It would later become the foundation for the 
+Global Positioning System (GPS). Instead of guiding missiles, today it 
+guides lost motorists."
+"DARPA has been a key player in a series of inventions that have 
+altered the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including cell phones, 
+night-vision goggles, telecommunications advances, and weather 
+satellites. I have had a chance to interact with DARPA scientists and 
+officials on several occasions. I once had lunch with one of the agency’s 
+former directors at a reception filled with many scientists and futurists. I 
+asked him a question that had always bothered me: Why do we have to 
+rely on dogs to sniff our luggage for the presence of high explosives? 
+Surely our sensors are sensitive enough to pick up the telltale signature 
+of explosive chemicals. He replied that DARPA had actively looked into 
+this same question but had come up against some severe technical 
+problems. The olfactory sensors of dogs, he said, had evolved over 
+millions of years to be able to detect a handful of molecules, and that 
+kind of sensitivity is extremely difficult to match, even with our most"
+"kind of sensitivity is extremely difficult to match, even with our most 
+finely tuned sensors. It’s likely that we will continue to rely on dogs at 
+airports for the foreseeable future."
+"On another occasion, a group of DARPA physicists and engineers came 
+to a talk I gave about the future of technology. Later I asked them if they 
+had any concerns of their own. One concern, they said, was their public 
+image. Most people have never heard of DARPA, but some link it to 
+dark, nefarious government conspiracies, everything from UFO cover- 
+
+ups, Area 51, and Roswell to weather control, etc. They sighed. If only 
+these rumors were true, they could certainly use help from alien 
+technology to jump-start their research!"
+"With a budget of $3 billion, DARPA has now set its sights on the 
+brain-machine interface. When discussing the potential applications, 
+former DARPA official Michael Goldblatt pushes the boundary of the 
+imagination. He says, “Imagine if soldiers could communicate by 
+thought alone.... Imagine the threat of biological attack being 
+inconsequential. And contemplate, for a moment, a world in which 
+learning is as easy as eating, and the replacement of damaged body parts 
+as convenient as a fast-food drive-through. As impossible as these visions 
+sound or as difficult as you might think the task would be, these visions 
+are the everyday work of the Defense Sciences Office [a branch of 
+DARPA].”"
+"Goldblatt believes that historians will conclude that the long-term 
+legacy of DARPA will be human enhancement, “our future historical 
+strength.” He notes that the famous army slogan “Be All You Can Be” 
+takes on a new meaning when contemplating the implications of human 
+enhancement. Perhaps it is no accident that Michael Goldblatt is pushing 
+human enhancement so vigorously at DARPA. His own daughter suffers 
+from cerebral palsy and has been confined to a wheelchair all her life. 
+Since she requires outside help, her illness has slowed her down, but she 
+has always risen above adversity. She is going to college and dreaming 
+of starting her own company. Goldblatt acknowledges that his daughter 
+is his inspiration. As Washington Post editor Joel Garreau has noted, 
+“What he is doing is spending untold millions of dollars to create what 
+might well be the next step in human evolution. And yet, it has occurred 
+to him that the technology he is helping create might someday allow his"
+"to him that the technology he is helping create might someday allow his 
+daughter not just to walk, but to transcend.”"
+"PRIVACY ISSUES 
+
+When hearing of mind-reading machines for the first time, the average 
+person might be concerned about privacy. The idea that a machine 
+concealed somewhere may be reading our intimate thoughts without our 
+permission is unnerving. Human consciousness, as we have stressed, 
+
+involves constantly running simulations of the future. In order for these 
+simulations to be accurate, we sometimes imagine scenarios that wade 
+into immoral or illegal territory, but whether or not we act on these 
+plans, we prefer to keep them private. 
+
+For scientists, life would be easier if they could simply read people’s 
+
+thoughts from a distance using portable devices (rather than by using 
+clumsy helmets or surgically opening up the skull), but the laws of 
+physics make this exceedingly difficult."
+"When I asked Dr. Nishimoto, who works in Dr. Gallant’s Berkeley lab, 
+about the question of privacy, he smiled and replied that radio signals 
+degrade quite rapidly outside the brain, so these signals would be too 
+diffuse and weak to make any sense to anyone standing more than a few 
+feet away. (In school, we learned about Newton’s laws and that gravity 
+diminishes as the square of the distance, so that if you doubled your 
+distance from a star, the gravity field diminishes by a factor of four. But 
+magnetic fields diminish much faster than the square of the distance. 
+Most signals decrease by the cube or quartic of the distance, so if you 
+double the distance from an MRI machine, the magnetic field goes down 
+by a factor of eight or more.)"
+"Furthermore, there would be interference from the outside world, 
+which would mask the faint signals coming from the brain. This is one 
+reason why scientists require strict laboratory conditions to do their 
+work, and even then they are able to extract only a few letters, words, or 
+images from the thinking brain at any given time. The technology is not 
+adequate to record the avalanche of thoughts that often circulate in our 
+brain as we simultaneously consider several letters, words, phrases, or 
+sensory information, so using these devices for mind reading as seen in 
+the movies is not possible today, and won’t be for decades to come."
+"For the foreseeable future, brain scans will continue to require direct 
+access to the human brain in laboratory conditions. But in the highly 
+unlikely event that someone in the future finds a way to read thoughts 
+from a distance, there are still countermeasures you can take. To keep 
+your most important thoughts private, you might use a shield to block 
+brain waves from entering the wrong hands. This can be done with 
+something called a Faraday cage, invented by the great British physicist 
+Michael Faraday in 1836, although the effect was first observed by 
+Benjamin Franklin. Basically, electricity will rapidly disperse around a"
+"metal cage, such that the electric field inside the cage is zero. To 
+demonstrate this, physicists (like myself) have entered a metallic cage on 
+which huge electrical bolts are fired. Miraculously, we are unscratched. 
+This is why airplanes can be hit by lightning bolts and not suffer 
+damage, and why cable wires are covered with metallic threads. 
+Similarly, a telepathy shield would consist of thin metal foil placed 
+around the brain. 
+
+TELEPATHY VIA NANOPROBES IN THE BRAIN"
+"TELEPATHY VIA NANOPROBES IN THE BRAIN 
+
+There is another way to partially solve the privacy issue, as well as the 
+difficulty of placing ECOG sensors into the brain. In the future, it may be 
+possible to exploit nanotechnology, the ability to manipulate individual 
+atoms, to insert a web of nanoprobes into the brain that can tap into 
+your thoughts. These nanoprobes might be made of carbon nanotubes, 
+which conduct electricity and are as thin as the laws of atomic physics 
+allow. These nanotubes are made of individual carbon atoms arrayed in 
+a tube a few molecules thick. (They are the subject of intense scientific 
+interest, and are expected in the coming decades to revolutionize the 
+way scientists probe the brain.)"
+"The nanoprobes would be placed precisely in those areas of the brain 
+devoted to certain activities. In order to convey speech and language, 
+they would be placed in the left temporal lobes. In order to process 
+visual images, they would be placed in the thalamus and visual cortex. 
+Emotions would be sent via nanoprobes in the amygdala and limbic 
+system. The signals from these nanoprobes would be sent to a small 
+computer, which would process the signals and wirelessly send 
+information to a server and then the Internet. 
+
+Privacy issues would be partially solved, since you would completely 
+control when your thoughts are being sent over cables or the Internet. 
+Radio signals can be detected by any bystander with a receiver, but 
+electrical signals sent along a cable cannot. The problem of opening up 
+the skull to use messy ECOG meshes is also solved, because the 
+nanoprobes can be inserted via microsurgery."
+"Some science-fiction writers have conjectured that when babies are 
+born in the future, these nanoprobes might be painlessly implanted, so 
+
+that telepathy becomes a way of life for them. In Star Trek, for example, 
+implants are routinely placed into the children of the Borg at birth so 
+that they can telepathically communicate with others. These children 
+cannot imagine a world where telepathy does not exist. They take it for 
+granted that telepathy is the norm. 
+
+Because these nanoprobes are tiny, they would be invisible to the 
+outside world, so there would be no social ostracism. Although society 
+might be repulsed at the idea of inserting probes permanently into the 
+brain, these science-fiction writers assume that people will get used to 
+the idea because the nanoprobes would be so useful, just like test-tube 
+babies have been accepted by society today after the initial controversy 
+surrounding them. 
+
+LEGAL ISSUES"
+"LEGAL ISSUES 
+
+For the foreseeable future, the question is not whether someone will be 
+able to read our thoughts secretly from a remote, concealed device, but 
+whether we will willingly allow our thoughts to be recorded. What 
+happens, then, if some unscrupulous person gets unauthorized access to 
+those files? This raises the issue of ethics, since we would not want our 
+thoughts to be read against our will. Dr. Brian Pasley says, “There are 
+ethical concerns, not with the current research, but with the possible 
+extensions of it. There has to be a balance. If we are somehow able to 
+decode someone’s thoughts instantaneously that might have great 
+benefits for the thousands of severely disabled people who are unable to 
+communicate right now. On the other hand, there are great concerns if 
+this were applied to people who didn’t want that.”"
+"Once it becomes possible to read people’s minds and make recordings, 
+a host of other ethical and legal questions will arise. This happens 
+whenever any new technology is introduced. Historically it often takes 
+years before the law is fully able to address their implications. 
+
+For instance, copyright laws may have to be rewritten. What happens 
+if someone steals your invention by reading your thoughts? Can you 
+patent your thoughts? Who actually owns the idea? 
+
+Another problem occurs if the government is involved. As John Perry 
+Barlow, poet and lyricist for the Grateful Dead, once said, “Relying on"
+"the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to 
+install your window blinds.” Would the police be allowed to read your 
+thoughts when you are being interrogated? Already courts have been 
+ruling on cases where an alleged criminal refused to submit his DNA as 
+evidence. In the future, will the government be allowed to read your 
+thoughts without your consent, and if so, will they be admissible in 
+court? How reliable would they be? In the same way that MRI lie 
+detectors measure only increased brain activity, it’s important to note 
+that thinking about a crime and actually committing one are two 
+different things. During cross-examination, a defense lawyer might argue 
+that these thoughts were just random musings and nothing more."
+"Another gray area concerns the rights of people who are paralyzed. If 
+they are drafting a will or legal document, can a brain scan be sufficient 
+to create a legal document? Assume that a totally paralyzed person has a 
+sharp, active mind and wants to sign a contract or manage his funds. Are 
+these documents legal, given that the technology may not be perfect? 
+
+There is no law of physics that can resolve these ethical questions. 
+Ultimately, as this technology matures, these issues will have to be 
+
+settled in court by judges and juries."
+"settled in court by judges and juries. 
+
+Meanwhile, governments and corporations might have to invent new 
+ways to prevent mental espionage. Industrial espionage is already a 
+multimillion-dollar industry, with governments and corporations 
+building expensive “safe rooms” that have been scanned for bugs and 
+listening devices. In the future (assuming that a method can be devised 
+to listen to brain waves from a distance), safe rooms may have to be 
+designed so that brain signals are not accidentally leaked to the outside 
+world. These safe rooms would be surrounded by metallic walls, which 
+would form a Faraday cage shielding the interior of the room from the 
+outside world."
+"Every time a new form of radiation has been exploited, spies have 
+tried to use it for espionage, and brain waves are probably no exception. 
+The most famous case involved a tiny microwave device hidden in the 
+Great Seal of the United States in the U.S. embassy in Moscow. From 
+1945 until 1952, it was transmitting top-secret messages from U.S. 
+diplomats directly to the Soviets. Even during the Berlin Crisis of 1948 
+and the Korean War, the Soviets used this bug to decipher what the 
+United States was planning. It might have continued to leak secrets even"
+"today, changing the course of the Cold War and world history, but it was 
+accidentally discovered when a British engineer heard secret 
+conversations on an open radio band. U.S. engineers were shocked when 
+they picked apart the bug; they failed to detect it for years because it 
+was passive, requiring no energy source. (The Soviets cleverly evaded 
+detection because the bug was energized by microwave beams from a 
+remote source.) It is possible that future espionage devices will be made 
+to intercept brain waves as well. 
+
+Although much of this technology is still primitive, telepathy is slowly 
+becoming a fact of life. In the future, we may interact with the world via 
+the mind. But scientists want to go beyond just reading the mind, which 
+is passive. They want to take an active role—to move objects with the 
+mind. Telekinesis is a power usually ascribed to the gods. It is the divine 
+power to shape reality to your wishes. It is the ultimate expression of our 
+thoughts and desires."
+"We will soon have it. 
+
+It is the business of the future to be dangerous.... The major 
+advances in civilization are processes that all but wreck the 
+societies in which they occur. 
+
+—ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD 
+
+4 TELEKINESIS MIND CONTROLLING MATTER 
+
+Cathy Hutchinson is trapped inside her body. 
+
+She was paralyzed fourteen years ago by a massive stroke. A 
+quadriplegic, she is like thousands of “locked-in” patients who have lost 
+control over most of their muscles and bodily functions. Most of the day, 
+she lies helpless, requiring continual nursing care, yet her mind is clear. 
+She is a prisoner in her own body."
+"But in May 2012, her fortunes changed radically. Scientists at Brown 
+University placed a tiny chip on top of her brain, called Braingate, which 
+is connected by wires to a computer. Signals from her brain are relayed 
+through the computer to a mechanical robotic arm. By simply thinking, 
+she gradually learns to control the motion of the arm so that it can, for 
+instance, grab a bottled drink and bring it to her mouth. For the first 
+time, she is able to have some control of the world around her."
+"Because she is paralyzed and cannot talk, she had to communicate her 
+excitement by making eye movements. A device tracks her eyes and then 
+translates her movements into a typed message. When she was asked 
+how she felt, after years of being imprisoned inside a shell called her 
+body, she replied, “Ecstatic!” Looking forward to the day when her other 
+limbs are connected to her brain via computer, she added, “I would love 
+to have a robotic leg support.” Before her stroke, she loved to cook and 
+tend her garden. “I know that someday this will happen again,” she 
+added. At the rate at which the field of cyber prosthetics is moving, she 
+might have her wish soon."
+"Professor John Donoghue and his colleagues at Brown University and 
+also at the University of Utah have created a tiny sensor that acts like a 
+bridge to the outside world for those who can no longer communicate. 
+When I interviewed him, he told me, “We have taken a tiny sensor, the 
+size of a baby aspirin, or four millimeters, and implanted it onto the 
+surface of the brain. Because of ninety-six little ‘hairs’ or electrodes that 
+pick up brain impulses, it can pick up signals of your intention to move 
+
+your arm. We target the arm because of its importance.” Because the 
+motor cortex has been carefully mapped over the decades, it is possible 
+to place the chip directly on top of the neurons that control specific 
+limbs."
+"The key to Braingate lies in translating neural signals from the chip 
+into meaningful commands that can move objects in the real world, 
+starting with the cursor of a computer screen. Donoghue told me that he 
+does this by asking the patient to imagine moving the cursor of a 
+computer screen in a certain way, e.g., moving it to the right. It takes 
+only a few minutes to record the brain signals corresponding to this task. 
+In this way, the computer recognizes that whenever it detects a brain 
+signal like that, it should move the cursor to the right. 
+
+Then, whenever that person thinks of moving the cursor to the right, 
+the computer actually moves the cursor in that direction. In this way, 
+there is a one-to-one map between certain actions that the patient 
+imagines and the actual action itself. A patient can immediately start to 
+control the movement of the cursor, practically on the first try."
+"Braingate opens the door to a new world of neuroprosthetics, allowing 
+a paralyzed person to move artificial limbs with the mind. In addition, it 
+lets the patient communicate directly with their loved ones. The first 
+version of this chip, tested in 2004, was designed so that paralyzed 
+patients could communicate with a laptop computer. Soon afterward, 
+these patients were surfing the web, reading and writing e-mails, and 
+controlling their wheelchairs. 
+
+More recently, the cosmologist Stephen Hawking had a 
+neuroprosthetic device attached to his glasses. Like an EEG sensor, it can 
+connect his thoughts to a computer so that he can maintain some contact 
+with the outside world. It is rather primitive, but eventually devices 
+similar to it will become much more sophisticated, with more channels 
+and greater sensitivity."
+"All this, Dr. Donoghue told me, could have a profound impact on the 
+lives of these patients: “Another useful thing is that you can connect this 
+computer to any device—a toaster, a coffee maker, an air conditioner, a 
+light switch, a typewriter. It’s really quite easy to do these things these 
+days, and it’s very inexpensive. For a quadriplegic who can’t get around, 
+they will be able to change the TV channel, turn the lights on, and do all 
+those things without anybody coming into the room and doing it for 
+
+them.” Eventually, they will be able to do anything a normal person can 
+do, via computers. 
+
+FIXING SPINAL CORD INJURIES 
+
+A number of other groups are entering the fray. Another breakthrough 
+was made by scientists at Northwestern University who have connected"
+"a monkey’s brain directly to his own arm, bypassing an injured spinal 
+cord. In 1995, there was the sad story of Christopher Reeve, who soared 
+into outer space in the Superman movies but was completely paralyzed 
+due to an injury to his spinal cord. Unfortunately, he was thrown off a 
+horse and landed on his neck, so the spinal cord was damaged just 
+beneath his head. If he had lived longer, he might have seen the work of 
+scientists who want to use computers to replace broken spinal cords. In 
+the United States alone, more than two hundred thousand people have 
+some form of spinal cord injury. In an earlier age, these individuals 
+might have died soon after the accident, but because of advances in 
+acute trauma care, the number of people who survive these sorts of 
+injuries has actually grown in recent years. We are also haunted by the 
+images of thousands of wounded warriors who were victims of roadside 
+bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. And if you include the number of"
+"bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. And if you include the number of 
+patients paralyzed by strokes and other illnesses, like amyotropic lateral 
+sclerosis (ALS), the number of patients swells to two million."
+"The scientists at Northwestern used a one-hundred-electrode chip, 
+which was placed directly on the brain of a monkey. The signals from 
+the brain were carefully recorded as the monkey grasped a ball, lifted it, 
+and released it into a tube. Since each task corresponds to a specific 
+firing of neurons, the scientists could gradually decode these signals. 
+
+When the monkey wanted to move his arm, the signals were processed 
+by a computer using this code, and, instead of sending the messages to a 
+mechanical arm, they sent the signals directly to the nerves of the 
+monkey’s real arm. “We are eavesdropping on the natural electrical 
+signals from the brain that tell the arm and hand how to move, and 
+sending those signals directly to the muscles,” says Dr. Lee Miller. 
+
+By trial and error, the monkey learned to coordinate the muscles in his 
+arm. “There is a process of motor learning that is very similar to the"
+"process you go through when you learn to use a new computer, mouse, 
+or a different tennis racquet,” adds Dr. Miller. 
+
+(It is remarkable that the monkey was able to master so many motions 
+of his arm, given the fact that there are only one hundred electrodes on 
+this brain chip. Dr. Miller points out that millions of neurons are 
+involved in controlling the arm. The reason that one hundred electrodes 
+can give a reasonable approximation to the output of millions of neurons 
+is that the chip connects to the output neurons, after all the complex 
+processing has already been done by the brain. With the sophisticated 
+analysis out of the way, the one hundred electrodes are responsible 
+simply for feeding that information to the arm.) 
+
+This device is one of several being devised at Northwestern that will"
+"This device is one of several being devised at Northwestern that will 
+
+allow patients to bypass their injured spinal cords. Another neural 
+prosthesis uses the motion of the shoulders to control the arm. An 
+upward shrug causes the hand to close. A downward shrug causes the 
+hand to open. The patient also has the ability to curl his fingers around 
+an object like a cup, or manipulate a key that is grasped between the 
+thumb and index finger. 
+
+Dr. Miller concludes, “This connection from brain to muscles might 
+someday be used to help patients paralyzed due to spinal cord injury 
+perform activities of daily living and achieve greater independence.” 
+
+REVOLUTIONIZING PROSTHETICS"
+"REVOLUTIONIZING PROSTHETICS 
+
+Much of the funding driving these remarkable developments comes from 
+a DARPA project called Revolutionizing Prosthetics, a $150 million 
+effort that has been bankrolling these efforts since 2006. One of the 
+driving forces behind Revolutionizing Prosthetics is retired U.S. Army 
+colonel Geoffrey Ling, who is a neurologist with several tours of duty in 
+Iraq and Afghanistan. He was appalled at the human carnage he 
+witnessed on the battlefield caused by roadside bombs. In previous wars, 
+many of these brave service members would have died on the spot. But 
+today, with helicopters and an extensive medical evacuation 
+infrastructure, many of them survive but still suffer from serious bodily 
+injuries. More than 1,300 service members have lost limbs after coming 
+back from the Middle East."
+"Dr. Ling asked himself whether there was a scientific way to replace 
+these lost limbs. Backed by funding from the Pentagon, he asked his staff 
+to come up with concrete solutions within five years. When he made that 
+request, he was met with incredulity. He recalled, “They thought we 
+were crazy. But it’s in insanity that things happen.” 
+
+Spurred into action by Dr. Ling’s boundless enthusiasm, his crew has 
+created miracles in the laboratory. For example, Revolutionary 
+Prosthetics funded scientists at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics 
+Laboratory who have created the most advanced mechanical arm on 
+Earth, which can duplicate nearly all the delicate motions of the fingers, 
+hand, and arm in three dimensions. It is the same size and has the same 
+strength and agility as a real arm. Although it is made of steel, if you 
+covered it up with flesh-colored plastic, it would be nearly 
+indistinguishable from a real arm."
+"This arm was attached to Jan Sherman, a quadriplegic who had 
+suffered from a genetic disease that damaged the connection between 
+her brain and her body, leaving her completely paralyzed from the neck 
+
+down. At the University of Pittsburgh, electrodes were placed directly on 
+top of her brain, which were then connected to a computer and then to a 
+mechanical arm. Five months after surgery to attach the arm, she 
+appeared on 60 Minutes. Before a national audience, she cheerfully used 
+her new arm to wave, greet the host, and shake his hand. She even gave 
+him a fist bump to show how sophisticated the arm was. 
+
+Dr. Ling says, “In my dream, we will be able to take this into all sorts 
+of patients, patients with strokes, cerebral palsy, and the elderly.” 
+
+TELEKINESIS IN YOUR LIFE"
+"TELEKINESIS IN YOUR LIFE 
+
+Not only scientists but also entrepreneurs are looking at brain-machine 
+interface (BMI). They wish to incorporate many of these dazzling 
+inventions as a permanent part of their business plans. BMI has already 
+penetrated the youth market, in the form of video games and toys that 
+use EEG sensors so that you can control objects with the mind in both 
+virtual reality and the real world. In 2009, NeuroSky marketed the first 
+toy, Mindflex, specifically designed to use EEG sensors to move a ball 
+through a maze. Concentrating while wearing the Mindflex EEG device 
+
+increases the speed of a fan within the maze and propels a tiny ball 
+down a pathway."
+"increases the speed of a fan within the maze and propels a tiny ball 
+down a pathway. 
+
+Mind-controlled video games are also blossoming. Seventeen hundred 
+software developers are working with NeuroSky, many of them on the 
+company’s $129 million Mindwave Mobile headset. These video games 
+use a small, portable EEG sensor wrapped around your forehead that 
+allows you to navigate in virtual reality, where the movements of your 
+avatar are controlled mentally. As you maneuver your avatar on the 
+video screen, you can fire weapons, evade enemies, rise to new levels, 
+score points, etc., as in an ordinary video game, except that everything is 
+hands-free. 
+
+“There’s going to be a whole ecosystem of new players, and NeuroSky 
+is very well positioned to be like the Intel of this new industry,” claims 
+Alvaro Fernandez of SharpBrains, a market research firm."
+"Besides firing virtual weapons, the EEG helmet can also detect when 
+your attention begins to flatten out. NeuroSky has been getting inquiries 
+from companies concerned about injuries to workers who lose 
+concentration while operating a dangerous machine or who fall asleep at 
+the wheel. This technology could be a lifesaver, alerting the worker or 
+driver that he is losing his focus. The EEG helmet would set off an alarm 
+when the wearer dozes off. (In Japan, this headset is already creating a 
+
+fad among partygoers. The EEG sensors look like cat ears when you put 
+them on your head. The ears suddenly rise when your attention is 
+focused and then flatten out when it fades. At parties, people can express 
+romantic interest just by thinking, so you know if you are impressing 
+someone.)"
+"But perhaps the most novel applications of this technology are being 
+pursued by Dr. Miguel Nicolelis of Duke University. When I interviewed 
+him, he told me that he thinks he can duplicate many of the devices 
+found only in science fiction. 
+
+SMART HANDS AND MIND MELDS 
+
+Dr. Nicolelis has shown that this brain-machine interface can be done 
+across continents. He places a monkey on a treadmill. A chip is 
+positioned on the monkey’s brain, which is connected to the Internet. On 
+
+the other side of the planet, in Kyoto, Japan, signals from the monkey 
+are used to control a robot that can walk. By walking on the treadmill in 
+North Carolina, the monkey controls a robot in Japan, which executes 
+the same walking motion. Using only his brain sensors and the reward of 
+a food pellet, Dr. Nicolelis has trained these monkeys to control a 
+humanoid robot called CB-1 halfway around the world."
+"He is also tackling one of the main problems with brain-machine 
+interface: the lack of feeling. Today’s prosthetic hands don’t have a sense 
+of touch, and hence they feel foreign; because there’s no feedback, they 
+might accidentally crush someone’s fingers while engaging in a 
+handshake. Picking up an eggshell with a mechanical arm would be 
+nearly impossible. 
+
+Nicolelis hopes to circumvent this problem by having a direct brain-to- 
+brain interface. Messages would be sent from the brain to a mechanical 
+arm that has sensors, which would then send messages directly back to 
+the brain, thereby bypassing the stem altogether. This brain-machine- 
+brain interface (BMBI) could enable a clean, direct feedback mechanism 
+to allow for the sensation of touch."
+"Dr. Nicolelis started by connecting the motor cortex of rhesus monkeys 
+to mechanical arms. These mechanical arms have sensors on them, 
+which then send signals back to the brain by electrodes connected to the 
+somatosensory cortex (which registers the sensation of touch). The 
+monkeys were given a reward after every successful trial; they learned 
+how to use this apparatus within four to nine trials. 
+
+To do this, Dr. Nicolelis had to invent a new code that would 
+represent different surfaces (which were rough or smooth). “After a 
+month of practice,” he told me, “this part of the brain learns this new 
+code, and starts to associate this new artificial code that we created with 
+different textures. So this is the first demonstration that we can create a 
+sensory channel” that can simulate sensations of the skin."
+"I mentioned to him that this idea sounds like the “holodeck” of Star 
+Trek, where you wander in a virtual world but feel sensations when you 
+bump into virtual objects, just as if they were real. This is called “haptic 
+technology,” which uses digital technology to simulate the sense of 
+touch. Nicolelis replied, “Yes, I think this is the first demonstration that 
+something like the holodeck will be possible in the near future.” 
+
+The holodeck of the future might use a combination of two 
+
+technologies. First, people in the holodeck would wear Internet contact 
+lenses, so that they would see an entirely new virtual world everywhere 
+they looked. The scenery in your contact lens would change instantly 
+with the push of a button. And if you touched any object in this world, 
+signals sent into the brain would simulate the sensation of touch, using 
+BMBI technology. In this way, objects in the virtual world you see inside 
+your contact lens would feel solid."
+"Brain-to-brain interface would make possible not only haptic 
+technology, but also an “Internet of the mind,” or brain-net, with direct 
+brain-to-brain contact. In 2013, Dr. Nicolelis was able to accomplish 
+something straight out of Star Trek, a “mind meld” between two brains. 
+He started with two groups of rats, one at Duke University, the other in 
+Natal, Brazil. The first group learned to press a lever when seeing a red 
+light. The second group learned to press a lever when their brains were 
+stimulated by a signal sent via an implant. Their reward for pressing the 
+lever was a sip of water. Then Dr. Nicolelis connected the motor cortices 
+of the brains of both groups via a fine wire through the Internet."
+"When the first group of rats saw the red light, a signal was sent over 
+the Internet to Brazil to the second group, which then pressed the lever. 
+In seven out of ten trials, the second group of rats correctly responded to 
+the signals sent by the first group. This was the first demonstration that 
+signals could be transferred and also interpreted correctly between two 
+brains. It’s still a far cry from the mind meld of science fiction, where 
+two minds merge into one, because this is still primitive and the sample 
+size is small, but it is a proof of principle that a brain-net might be 
+possible. 
+
+In 2013, the next important step was taken when scientists went 
+beyond animal studies and demonstrated the first direct human brain-to- 
+
+brain communication, with one human brain sending a message to 
+another via the Internet."
+"brain communication, with one human brain sending a message to 
+another via the Internet. 
+
+This milestone was achieved at the University of Washington, with 
+one scientist sending a brain signal (move your right arm) to another 
+scientist. The first scientist wore an EEG helmet and played a video 
+game. He fired a cannon by imagining moving his right arm, but was 
+careful not to move it physically. 
+
+The signal from the EEG helmet was sent over the Internet to another 
+scientist, who was wearing a transcranial magnetic helmet carefully 
+
+placed over the part of his brain that controlled his right arm. When the 
+signal reached the second scientist, the helmet would send a magnetic 
+pulse into his brain, which made his right arm move involuntarily, all by 
+itself. Thus, by remote control, one human brain could control the 
+movement of another."
+"This breakthrough opens up a number of possibilities, such as 
+exchanging nonverbal messages via the Internet. You might one day be 
+able to send the experience of dancing the tango, bungee jumping, or 
+skydiving to the people on your e-mail list. Not just physical activity, but 
+emotions and feelings as well might be sent via brain-to-brain 
+communication."
+"Nicolelis envisions a day when people all over the world could 
+participate in social networks not via keyboards, but directly through 
+their minds. Instead of just sending e-mails, people on the brain-net 
+would be able to telepathically exchange thoughts, emotions, and ideas 
+in real time. Today a phone call conveys only the information of the 
+conversation and the tone of voice, nothing more. Video conferencing is 
+a bit better, since you can read the body language of the person on the 
+other end. But a brain-net would be the ultimate in communications, 
+making it possible to share the totality of mental information in a 
+conversation, including emotions, nuances, and reservations. Minds 
+would be able to share their most intimate thoughts and feelings. 
+
+TOTAL IMMERSION ENTERTAINMENT"
+"TOTAL IMMERSION ENTERTAINMENT 
+
+Developing a brain-net may also have an impact on the multibillion- 
+dollar entertainment industry. Back in the 1920s, the technology of tape¬ 
+recording sound as well as light was perfected. This set off a 
+transformation in the entertainment industry as it made the transition 
+from silent movies to the “talkies.” This basic formula of combining 
+sound and sight hasn’t changed much for the past century. But in the 
+
+future, the entertainment industry may make the next transition, 
+recording all five senses, including smell, taste, and touch, as well as the 
+full range of emotions. Telepathic probes would be able to handle the 
+full range of senses and emotions that circulate in the brain, producing a 
+complete immersion of the audience in the story. Watching a romantic"
+"movie or an action thriller, we would be swimming in an ocean of 
+sensations, as if we were really there, experiencing all the rush of 
+feelings and the emotions of the actors. We would smell the perfume of 
+the heroine, feel the terror of the victims in a horror movie, and relish 
+the vanquishing of the bad guys."
+"This immersion would involve a radical shift in how movies are made. 
+First, actors would have to be trained to act out their roles with 
+EEG/MRI sensors and nanoprobes recording their sensations and 
+emotions. (This would place an added burden on the actors, who would 
+have to act out each scene by simulating all five senses. In the same way 
+that some actors could not make the transition from silent movies to the 
+talkies, perhaps a new generation of actors will emerge who can act out 
+scenes with all five senses.) Editing would require not just cutting and 
+splicing film, but also combining tapes of the various sensations within 
+each scene. And finally the audience, as they sit in their seats, would 
+have all these electrical signals fed into their brains. Instead of 3-D 
+glasses, the audience would wear brain sensors of some sort. Movie 
+theaters would also have to be retrofitted to process this data and then 
+send it to the people in the audience. 
+
+CREATING A BRAIN-NET"
+"CREATING A BRAIN-NET 
+
+Creating a brain-net that can transmit such information would have to 
+be done in stages. The first step would be inserting nanoprobes into 
+important parts of the brain, such as the left temporal lobe, which 
+governs speech, and the occipital lobe, which governs vision. Then 
+computers would analyze these signals and decode them. This 
+information in turn could be sent over the Internet by fiber-optic cables. 
+
+More difficult would be to insert these signals back into another 
+person’s brain, where they could be processed by the receiver. So far, 
+progress in this area has focused only on the hippocampus, but in the 
+future it should be possible to insert messages directly into other parts of 
+the brain corresponding to our sense of hearing, light, touch, etc. So 
+there is plenty of work to be done as scientists try to map the cortices of 
+the brain involved in these senses. Once these cortices have been 
+mapped—such as the hippocampus, which we’ll discuss in the next"
+"chapter—it should be possible to insert words, thoughts, memories, and 
+experiences into another brain. 
+
+Dr. Nicolelis writes, “It is not inconceivable that our human progeny 
+may indeed muster the skills, technology, and ethics needed to establish 
+a functional brain-net, a medium through which billions of human 
+beings consensually establish temporary direct contacts with fellow 
+human beings through thought alone. What such a colossus of collective 
+consciousness may look like, feel like, or do, neither I nor anyone in our 
+present time can possibly conceive or utter.” 
+
+THE BRAIN-NET AND CIVILIZATION"
+"A brain-net may even change the course of civilization itself. Each time a 
+new communication system has been introduced, it has irrevocably 
+accelerated changes in society, lifting us from one era to the next. In 
+prehistoric times, for thousands of years our ancestors were nomads 
+wandering in small tribes, communicating with one another through 
+body language and grunts. The coming of language allowed us for the 
+first time to communicate symbols and complex ideas, which facilitated 
+the rise of villages and eventually cities. Within the last few thousand 
+years, written language has enabled us to accumulate knowledge and 
+culture across generations, allowing for the rise of science, the arts, 
+architecture, and huge empires. The coming of the telephone, radio, and 
+TV extended the reach of communication across continents. The Internet 
+now makes possible the rise of a planetary civilization that will link all 
+the continents and peoples of the world. The next giant step might be a"
+"the continents and peoples of the world. The next giant step might be a 
+planetary brain-net, in which the full spectrum of senses, emotions, 
+memories, and thoughts are exchanged on a global scale."
+"‘WE WILL BE PART OF THEIR OPERATING SYSTEM' 
+
+When I interviewed Dr. Nicolelis, he told me that he became interested 
+in science at an early age while growing up in his native Brazil. He 
+remembers watching the Apollo moon shot, which captured the world’s 
+attention. To him, it was an amazing feat. And now, he told me, his own 
+“moon shot” is making it possible to move any object with the mind. 
+
+He became interested in the brain while still in high school, where he 
+came across a 1964 book by Isaac Asimov titled The Human Brain. But he 
+was disappointed by the end of the book. There was no discussion about 
+how all these structures interacted with one another to create the mind 
+
+(because no one knew the answer back then). It was a life-changing 
+moment and he realized that his own destiny might lie in trying to 
+understand the secrets of the brain."
+"About ten years ago, he told me, he began to look seriously into doing 
+research on his childhood dream. He started by taking a mouse and 
+letting it control a mechanical device. “We placed sensors into the mouse 
+which read the electrical signals from the brain. Then we transmitted 
+these signals to a little robotic lever that could bring water from a 
+fountain back to the mouse’s mouth. So the animal had to learn how to 
+mentally move the robotic device to bring the water back. That was the 
+first-ever demonstration that you could connect an animal to a machine 
+so that it could operate a machine without moving its own body,” he 
+explained to me."
+"Today he can analyze not just fifty but one thousand neurons in the 
+brain of a monkey, which can reproduce various movements in different 
+parts of the monkey’s body. Then the monkey can control various 
+devices, such as mechanical arms, or even virtual images in cyberspace. 
+“We even have a monkey avatar that can be controlled by the monkey’s 
+thoughts without the monkey making any movement,” he told me. This 
+is done by having the monkey watch a video in which he sees an avatar 
+that represents his body. Then, by mentally commanding his body to 
+move, the monkey makes the avatar move in the corresponding way. 
+
+Nicolelis envisions a day in the very near future when we will play 
+video games and control computers and appliances with our minds. “We 
+
+will be part of their operating system. We will be immersed in them with 
+mechanisms that are very similar to the experiments that I am 
+describing.” 
+
+EXOSKELETONS"
+"EXOSKELETONS 
+
+The next undertaking for Dr. Nicolelis is the Walk Again Project. Its goal 
+is nothing less than a complete exoskeleton for the body controlled by 
+the mind. At first, an exoskeleton conjures up an image of something 
+from the Iron Man movies. Actually, it is a special suit that encases the 
+entire body so that the arms and legs can move via motors. He calls it a 
+“wearable robot.” (See Figure 10.) 
+
+His goal, he said, is to help the paralyzed “walk by thinking.” He plans 
+to use wireless technology, “so there’s nothing sticking out of the head. 
+... We are going to record twenty to thirty thousand neurons, to 
+command a whole body robotic vest, so he can think and walk again and 
+
+move and grab objects.”"
+"move and grab objects.” 
+
+Nicolelis realizes that a series of hurdles must be overcome before the 
+exoskeleton becomes a reality. First, a new generation of microchips 
+must be created that can be placed in the brain safely and reliably for 
+years at a time. Second, wireless sensors must be created so the 
+exoskeleton can roam freely. The signals from the brain would be 
+received wirelessly by a computer the size of a cell phone that would 
+probably be attached to your belt. Third, new advances must be made in 
+deciphering and interpreting signals from the brain via computers. For 
+the monkeys, a few hundred neurons were necessary to control the 
+mechanical arms. For a human, you need, at minimum, several thousand 
+neurons to control an arm or leg. And fourth, a power supply must be 
+found that is portable and powerful enough to energize the entire 
+exoskeleton. 
+
+Figure 10. This is the exoskeleton that Dr. Nicolelis hopes will be controlled by the mind of a totally 
+paralyzed person."
+"(illustration credit 4.1) 
+
+Nicolelis’s goal is a lofty one: to have a working exoskeleton suit ready 
+for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where a quadriplegic Brazilian will 
+deliver the opening kick. He told me proudly, “This is our Brazilian 
+moon shot.” 
+
+AVATARS AND SURROGATES 
+
+In the movie Surrogates, Bruce Willis plays an FBI agent who is 
+investigating mysterious murders. Scientists have created exoskeletons so 
+perfect that they exceed human capabilities. These mechanical creatures 
+are super strong, with perfect bodies. In fact, they are so perfect that 
+humanity has become dependent on them. People live their entire life in 
+pods, mentally controlling their handsome, beautiful surrogate with"
+"wireless technology. Everywhere you go, you see busy “people” at work, 
+except they are all perfectly shaped surrogates. Their aging masters are 
+conveniently hidden from view. The plot takes a sharp twist, however, 
+when Bruce Willis discovers that the person behind these murders might 
+be linked to the same scientist who invented these surrogates in the first 
+place. That forces him to wonder whether the surrogates are a blessing 
+or a curse."
+"And in the blockbuster movie Avatar, in the year 2154 Earth has 
+depleted most of its minerals, so a mining company has journeyed to a 
+distant moon called Pandora in the Alpha Centauri star system in search 
+of a rare metal, unobtanium. There are native people who inhabit this 
+distant moon, called the Na’vi, who live in harmony with their lush 
+environment. In order to communicate with the native people, specially 
+trained workers are placed in pods, where they learn to mentally control 
+the body of a genetically engineered native. Although the atmosphere is 
+poisonous and the environment differs radically from Earth’s, avatars 
+have no difficulty living in this alien world. This uneasy relationship, 
+however, soon collapses when the mining company finds a rich deposit 
+of unobtainium underneath the Na’vi’s sacred ceremonial tree. Inevitably 
+a conflict arises between the mining company, which wants to destroy 
+the sacred tree and strip-mine the land for its rare metal, and the"
+"the sacred tree and strip-mine the land for its rare metal, and the 
+natives, who worship it. It looks like a lost cause for the natives until one 
+of the specially trained workers switches sides and leads the Na’vi to 
+victory."
+"Avatars and surrogates are the stuff of science fiction today, but one 
+day they may become an essential tool for science. The human body is 
+frail, perhaps too delicate for the rigors of many dangerous missions, 
+including space travel. Although science fiction is filled with the heroic 
+exploits of brave astronauts traveling to the farthest reaches of our 
+galaxy, the reality is much different. Radiation in deep space is so 
+intense that our astronauts will have to be shielded or else face 
+premature aging, radiation sickness, and even cancer. Solar flares shot 
+from the sun can bathe a spacecraft in lethal radiation. A simple 
+transatlantic flight from the United States to Europe exposes you to a 
+millirem of radiation per hour, or roughly the same as a dental X-ray. 
+But in outer space, the radiation could be many times more intense, 
+especially in the presence of cosmic rays and solar bursts. (During"
+"intense solar storms, NASA has actually warned astronauts in the space 
+station to move to sections where there is more shielding against 
+radiation.) 
+
+In addition, there are many other dangers awaiting us in outer space, 
+such as micrometeorites, the effects of prolonged weightlessness, and the 
+problems of adjusting to different gravity fields. After just a few months 
+in weightlessness, the body loses a large fraction of its calcium and 
+minerals, leaving the astronauts incredibly weak, even if they exercise 
+every day. After a year in outer space, Russian astronauts had to crawl 
+out of their space capsules like worms. Furthermore, it is believed that 
+some of the effects of muscle and bone loss are permanent, so that 
+astronauts will feel the consequences of prolonged weightlessness for the 
+rest of their lives."
+"The dangers of micrometeorites and intense radiation fields on the 
+moon are so great that many scientists have proposed using a gigantic 
+underground cave as a permanent lunar space station to protect our 
+astronauts. These caves form naturally as lava tubes near extinct 
+volcanoes. But the safest way of building a moon base is to have our 
+astronauts sit in the comfort of their living rooms. This way they would 
+be shielded from all the hazards found on the moon, yet through 
+surrogates they would be able to perform the same tasks. This could 
+vastly reduce the cost of manned space travel, since providing life 
+support for human astronauts is very expensive. 
+
+Perhaps when the first interplanetary ship reaches a distant planet, 
+and an astronaut’s surrogate sets foot on this alien terrain, he or she 
+might start with “One small step for the mind ...”"
+"One possible problem with this approach is that it takes time for 
+messages to go to the moon and beyond. In a little over a second, a radio 
+message can travel from Earth to the moon, so surrogates on the moon 
+could be easily controlled by astronauts on Earth. More difficult would 
+be communicating with surrogates on Mars, since it can take twenty 
+minutes or more for radio signals to reach the Red Planet. 
+
+But surrogates have practical implications closer to home. In Japan, 
+the Fukushima reactor accident in 2011 caused billions of dollars in 
+damages. Because workers can’t enter areas with lethal levels of 
+radiation for more than a few minutes, the final cleanup may take up to 
+forty years. Unfortunately, robots are not sufficiently advanced to go"
+"into these blistering radiation fields and make needed repairs. In fact, 
+the only robots used at Fukushima are quite primitive, basically simple 
+cameras placed on top of a computer sitting on wheels. A full-blown 
+automaton that can think for itself (or be controlled by a remote 
+operator) and make repairs in high-radiation fields is many decades 
+away."
+"The lack of industrial robots caused an acute problem for the Soviets 
+as well during the 1986 Chernobyl accident in the Ukraine. Workers sent 
+directly to the accident site to put out the flames died horrible deaths 
+due to lethal exposure to radiation. Eventually Mikhail Gorbachev 
+ordered the air force to “sand bag” the reactor, dropping five thousand 
+tons of borated sand and cement by helicopter. Radiation levels were so 
+high that 250,000 workers were recruited to finally contain the accident. 
+Each worker could spend only a few minutes inside the reactor building 
+doing repairs. Many received the maximum lifetime allowed dose of 
+radiation. Each one got a medal. This massive project was the largest 
+civil engineering feat ever undertaken. It could not have been done by 
+today’s robots."
+"The Honda Corporation has, in fact, built a robot that may eventually 
+go into deadly radioactive environments, but it is not ready yet. Honda’s 
+scientists have placed an EEG sensor on the head of a worker, which is 
+connected to a computer that analyzes his brain waves. The computer is 
+then connected to a radio that sends messages to the robot, called 
+ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility). Hence, by altering his 
+own brain waves, a worker can control ASIMO by pure thought. 
+
+Unfortunately, this robot is incapable of making repairs at Fukushima 
+right now, since it can execute only four basic motions (all of which 
+involve moving its head and shoulders) while hundreds of motions are 
+required to make repairs at a shattered nuclear power plant. This system 
+is not developed enough to handle simple tasks such as turning a 
+screwdriver or swinging a hammer."
+"Other groups have also explored the possibility of mentally controlled 
+robots. At the University of Washington, Dr. Rajesh Rao has created a 
+similar robot that is controlled by a person wearing an EEG helmet. This 
+shiny humanoid robot is two feet tall and is called Morpheus (after a 
+character in the movie The Matrix, as well as the Greek god of dreams). 
+A student puts on the EEG helmet and then makes certain gestures, such"
+"as moving a hand, which creates an EEG signal that is recorded by a 
+computer. Eventually the computer has a library of such EEG signals, 
+each one corresponding to a specific motion of a limb. Then the robot is 
+programmed to move its hand whenever that EEG signal is sent to it. In 
+this way, if you think about moving your hand, the robot Morpheus 
+moves its hand as well. When you put on the EEG helmet for the first 
+time, it takes about ten minutes for the computer to calibrate to your 
+brain signals. Eventually you get the hang of making gestures with your 
+mind that control the robot. For example, you can have it walk toward 
+you, pick up a block from a table, walk six feet to another table, and 
+then place the block there."
+"Research is also progressing rapidly in Europe. In 2012, scientists in 
+Switzerland at the Ecole Poly technique Federate de Lausanne unveiled 
+their latest achievement, a robot controlled telepathically by EEG sensors 
+whose controller is located sixty miles away. The robot itself looks like 
+the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner now found in many living rooms. 
+But it is actually a highly sophisticated robot equipped with a camera 
+that can navigate its way through a crowded office. A paralyzed patient 
+can, for example, look at a computer screen, which is connected to a 
+video camera on the robot many miles away, and see through the eyes of 
+the robot. Then, by thinking, the patient is able to control the motion of 
+the robot as it moves past obstacles."
+"In the future, one can imagine the most dangerous jobs being done by 
+robots controlled by humans in this fashion. Dr. Nicolelis says, “We will 
+likely be able to operate remotely controlled envoys and ambassadors, 
+robots and airships of many shapes and sizes, sent on our behalf to 
+explore other planets and stars in distant corners of the universe.” 
+
+For example, in 2010 the world looked on in horror as 5 million 
+barrels of crude oil spilled unabated into the Gulf of Mexico. The 
+Deepwater Horizon spill was one of the largest oil disasters in history, 
+yet engineers were largely helpless for three months. Robotic subs, 
+which are controlled remotely, floundered for weeks trying to cap the 
+well because they lacked the dexterity and versatility necessary for this 
+underwater mission. If surrogate subs, which are much more sensitive in 
+manipulating tools, had been available, they might have capped the well 
+in the first few days of the spill, preventing billions in property damage 
+and lawsuits."
+"Another possibility is that surrogate submarines might one day enter 
+the human body and perform delicate surgery from the inside. This idea 
+was explored in the movie Fantastic Voyage, starring Raquel Welch, in 
+which a submarine was shrunk down to the size of a blood cell and then 
+injected into the bloodstream of someone who had a blood clot in his 
+brain. Shrinking atoms violates the laws of quantum physics, but one 
+day MEMS (micro-electrical-mechanical systems) the size of cells might 
+be able to enter a person’s bloodstream. MEMS are incredibly small 
+machines that can easily fit on a pinpoint. MEMS employ the same 
+etching technology used in Silicon Valley, which can put hundreds of 
+millions of transistors on a wafer the size of your fingernail. An 
+elaborate machine with gears, levers, pulleys, and even motors can be 
+made smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. One day a 
+person may be able to put on a telepathy helmet and then command a"
+"person may be able to put on a telepathy helmet and then command a 
+MEMS submarine using wireless technology to perform surgery inside a 
+patient."
+"So MEMS technology may open up an entirely new field of medicine, 
+based on microscopic machines entering the body. These MEMS 
+submarines might even guide nanoprobes as they enter the brain so that 
+they connect precisely to the neurons that are of interest. In this way, 
+nanoprobes might be able to receive and transmit signals from the 
+handful of neurons that are involved in specific behaviors. The hit-or- 
+miss approach of inserting electrodes into the brain will be eliminated. 
+
+THE FUTURE 
+
+In the short term, all these remarkable advances taking place in 
+
+laboratories around the world may alleviate the suffering of those 
+afflicted by paralysis and other disabilities. Using the power of their 
+minds, they will be able to communicate with loved ones, control their 
+wheelchairs and beds, walk by mentally guiding mechanical limbs, 
+manipulate household appliances, and lead seminormal lives."
+"But in the long term, these advances could have profound economic 
+and practical implications for the world. By mid-century, it could 
+become commonplace to interact with computers directly with the mind. 
+Since the computer business is a multitrillion-dollar industry that can 
+
+create young billionaires and corporations almost overnight, advances in 
+the mind-computer interface will reverberate on Wall Street—and also in 
+your living room. 
+
+All the devices we use to communicate with computers (the mouse, 
+keyboards, etc.) may eventually disappear. In the future, we may simply 
+give mental commands and our wishes will be silently carried out by 
+tiny chips hidden in the environment. While sitting in our offices, taking 
+a stroll in the park, doing window-shopping, or just relaxing, our minds 
+could be interacting with scores of hidden chips, allowing us to mentally 
+balance our finances, arrange for theater tickets, or make a reservation."
+"Artists may also make good use of this technology. If they can 
+visualize their artwork in their minds, then the image can be displayed 
+via EEG sensors on a holographic screen in 3-D. Since the image in the 
+mind is not as precise as the original object, the artist could then make 
+improvements on the 3-D image and dream up the next iteration. After 
+several cycles, the artist could print out the final image on a 3-D printer. 
+
+Similarly, engineers would be able to create scale models of bridges, 
+tunnels, and airports by simply using their imagination. They could also 
+rapidly make changes in their blueprints through thought alone. 
+Machine parts could fly off the computer screen and into a 3-D printer."
+"Some critics, however, have claimed that these telekinetic powers 
+have one great limitation: the lack of energy. In the movies, super beings 
+have the power to move mountains using their thoughts. In the movie X- 
+Men: The Last Stand, the super villain Magneto had the ability to move 
+the Golden Gate Bridge simply by pointing his fingers, but the human 
+body can muster only about one-fifth of a horsepower on average, which 
+is much too little power to perform the feats we see in the comic books. 
+Therefore, all the herculean feats of telekinetic super beings appear to be 
+pure fantasy. 
+
+There is one solution to this energy problem, however. You may be 
+able to connect your thoughts to a power source, which would then"
+"magnify your power millions of times. In this way, you could 
+approximate the power of a god. In one episode of Star Trek, the crew 
+journeys to a distant planet and meets a godlike creature who claims to 
+be Apollo, the Greek god of the sun. He can perform feats of magic that 
+dazzle the crew. He even claims to have visited Earth eons ago, where 
+the earthlings worshipped him. But the crew, not believing in gods, 
+
+suspect a fraud. Later they figure out that this “god” just mentally 
+controls a hidden power source, which then performs all the magic 
+tricks. When this power source is destroyed, he becomes a mere mortal."
+"Similarly, in the future our minds may mentally control a power 
+source that will then give us superpowers. For example, a construction 
+worker might telepathically exploit a power source that energizes heavy 
+machinery. Then a single worker might be able to build complex 
+buildings and houses just by using the power of his mind. All the heavy 
+lifting would be done by the power source, and the construction worker 
+would resemble a conductor, able to orchestrate the motion of colossal 
+cranes and powerful bulldozers through thought alone. 
+
+Science is beginning to catch up to science fiction in yet another way. 
+The Star Wars saga was supposed to take place in a time when 
+civilizations span the entire galaxy. The peace of the galaxy, in turn, is 
+maintained by the Jedi Knights, a highly trained cadre of warriors who 
+use the power of the “Force” to read minds and guide their lightsabers."
+"However, one need not wait until we have colonized the entire galaxy 
+to begin contemplating the Force. As we’ve seen, some aspects of the 
+Force are possible today, such as being able to tap into the thoughts of 
+others using ECOG electrodes or EEG helmets. But the telekinetic powers 
+of the Jedi Knights will also become a possibility as we learn to harness 
+a power source with our minds. The Jedi Knights, for example, can 
+summon a light-saber simply by waving their hands, but we can already 
+accomplish the same feat by exploiting the power of magnetism (much 
+as the magnet in an MRI machine can hurl a hammer across a room). By 
+mentally activating the power source, you can grab lightsabers from 
+across the room with today’s technology. 
+
+THE POWER OF A GOD"
+"THE POWER OF A GOD 
+
+Telekinesis is a power usually reserved for a deity or a superhero. In the 
+universe of superheros appearing in blockbuster Hollywood movies, 
+perhaps the most powerful character is Phoenix, a telekinetic woman 
+who can move any object at will. As a member of the X-Men, she can lift 
+heavy machinery, hold back floods, or raise jet airplanes via the power 
+
+of her mind. (However, when she is finally consumed by the dark side of 
+
+her power, she goes on a cosmic rampage, capable of incinerating entire 
+solar systems and destroying stars. Her power is so great and 
+uncontrollable that it leads to her eventual self-destruction.) 
+
+But how far can science go in harnessing telekinetic powers?"
+"But how far can science go in harnessing telekinetic powers? 
+
+In the future, even with an external power source to magnify our 
+thoughts, it is unlikely that people with telekinetic powers will be able 
+to move basic objects like a pencil or mug of coffee on command. As we 
+mentioned, there are only four known forces that rule the universe, and 
+none of them can move objects unless there is an external power source. 
+(Magnetism comes close, but magnetism can move only magnetic 
+objects. Objects made of plastic, water, or wood can easily pass through 
+magnetic fields.) Simple levitation, a trick found in most magicians’ 
+shows, is beyond our scientific capability. 
+
+So even with an external power supply, is it unlikely that a telekinetic 
+person would be able to move the objects around them at will. However, 
+there is a technology that may come close, and that involves the ability 
+to change one object into another."
+"The technology is called “programmable matter,” and it has become a 
+subject of intense research for the Intel Corporation. The idea behind 
+programmable matter is to create objects made of tiny “catoms,” which 
+are microscopic computer chips. Each catom can be controlled 
+wirelessly; it can be programmed to change the electrical charge on its 
+surface so it can bind with other catoms in different ways. By 
+programming the electric charges one way, the catoms bind together to 
+form, say, a cell phone. Push a button to change their programming, and 
+the catoms rearrange themselves to re-form into another object, like a 
+laptop."
+"I saw a demonstration of this technology at Carnegie Mellon 
+University in Pittsburgh, where scientists have been able to create a chip 
+the size of a pinpoint. To exam these catoms, I had to enter a “clean 
+room” wearing a special white uniform, plastic boots, and a cap to 
+prevent even the smallest dust particle from entering. Then, under a 
+microscope, I could see the intricate circuitry inside each catom, which 
+makes it possible to program it wirelessly to change the electrical charge 
+on its surface. In the same way we can program software today, in the 
+future it may be possible to program hardware. 
+
+The next step is to determine if these catoms can combine to form"
+"The next step is to determine if these catoms can combine to form 
+
+useful objects, and to see if they can be changed or morphed into 
+another object at will. It may take until mid-century before we have 
+working prototypes of programmable matter. Because of the complexity 
+of programming billions of catoms, a special computer would have to be 
+created to orchestrate the charge on each catom. Perhaps by the end of 
+this century, it will be possible to mentally control this computer so that 
+we can change one object into another. We would not have to memorize 
+the charges and configuration within an object. We would just give the 
+mental command to the computer to change one object into another."
+"Eventually we might have catalogs listing all the various objects that 
+are programmable, such as furniture, appliances, and electronics. Then 
+by telepathically communicating with the computer, it should be 
+possible to change one object into another. Redecorating your living 
+room, remodeling your kitchen, and buying Christmas presents could all 
+be done mentally. 
+
+A MORALITY TALE 
+
+Having every wish come true is something that only a divinity can 
+accomplish. However, there is also a downside to this celestial power. 
+All technologies can be used for good or for evil. Ultimately, science is a 
+double-edged sword. One side of the sword can cut against poverty, 
+disease, and ignorance. But the other side can cut against people, in 
+several ways."
+"These technologies could conceivably make wars even more vicious. 
+Perhaps one day, all hand-to-hand combat will be between two 
+surrogates, armed with a battery of high-tech weapons. The actual 
+warriors, sitting safely thousands of miles away, would unleash a 
+barrage of the latest high-tech weaponry with little regard for the 
+collateral damage they are inflicting on civilians. Although wars fought 
+with surrogates may preserve the lives of the soldiers themselves, they 
+might also cause horrendous civilian and property damage. 
+
+The bigger problem is that this power may also be too great for any 
+common mortal to control. In the novel Carrie, Stephen King explored 
+the world of a young girl who was constantly taunted by her peers. She 
+was ostracized by the in-crowd and her life became a never-ending series 
+
+of insults and humiliations. However, her tormentors did not know one 
+thing about her: she was telekinetic. 
+
+After enduring the taunts and having blood splashed all over her dress"
+"After enduring the taunts and having blood splashed all over her dress 
+
+at the prom, she finally cracks. She summons all her telekinetic power to 
+trap her classmates and then annihilate them one by one. In a final 
+gesture, she decides to burn the entire school down. But her telekinetic 
+power was too great to control. She ultimately perishes in the fire that 
+she started. 
+
+Not only can the awesome power of telekinesis backfire, but there is 
+another problem as well. Even if you have taken all the precautions to 
+understand and harness this power, it could still destroy you if, 
+ironically enough, it is too obedient to your thoughts and commands. 
+Then the very thoughts you conceive may spell your doom."
+"The movie Forbidden Planet (1956) is based on a play by William 
+Shakespeare, The Tempest, which begins with a sorcerer and his daughter 
+stranded on a deserted island. But in Forbidden Planet, a professor and his 
+daughter are stranded on a distant planet that was once the home of the 
+Krell, a civilization millions of years more advanced than ours. Their 
+greatest achievement was to create a device that gave them the ultimate 
+power of telekinesis, the power to control matter in all its forms by the 
+mind. Anything they desired suddenly materialized before them. This 
+was the power to reshape reality itself to their whims. 
+
+Yet on the eve of their greatest triumph, as they were turning on this 
+device the Krell disappeared without a trace. What could have possibly 
+destroyed this most advanced civilization?"
+"When a crew of earthmen land on the planet to rescue the man and 
+his daughter, they find that there is a hideous monster haunting the 
+planet, slaughtering crew members at will. Finally, one crew member 
+discovers the secret behind both the Krell and the monster. Before he 
+dies, he gasps, “Monsters from the id.” 
+
+Then the shocking truth suddenly dawns on the professor. The very 
+night that the Krell turned on their telekinesis machine, they fell asleep. 
+All the repressed desires from their ids then suddenly materialized. 
+Buried in the subconscious of these highly developed creatures were the 
+long-suppressed animal urges and desires of their ancient past. Every 
+fantasy, every dream of revenge suddenly came true, so this great 
+civilization destroyed itself overnight. They had conquered many worlds, 
+
+but there was one thing they could not control: their own subconscious 
+minds."
+"but there was one thing they could not control: their own subconscious 
+minds. 
+
+That is a lesson for anyone who desires to unleash the power of the 
+mind. Within the mind, you find the noblest achievements and thoughts 
+of humanity. But you will also find monsters from the id. 
+
+CHANGING WHO WE ARE: OUR MEMORIES AND INTELLIGENCE 
+
+So far, we have discussed the power of science to extend our mental 
+abilities via telepathy and telekinesis. We basically remain the same; 
+these developments do nothing to change the essence of who we are. 
+However, there is an entirely new frontier opening up that alters the 
+very nature of what it means to be human. Using the very latest in 
+genetics, electromagnetics, and drug therapy, it may become possible in 
+the near future to alter our memories and even enhance our intelligence. 
+The idea of downloading a memory, learning complex skills overnight, 
+and becoming super intelligent is slowly leaving the realm of science 
+fiction."
+"Without our memories, we are lost, cast adrift in an aimless sea of 
+pointless stimuli, unable to understand the past or ourselves. So what 
+happens if one day we can input artificial memories into our brains? 
+What happens when we can become a master of any discipline simply by 
+downloading the file into our memory? And what happens if we cannot 
+tell the difference between real and fake memories? Then who are we? 
+
+Scientists are moving past being passive observers of nature to actively 
+shaping and molding nature. This means that we might be able to 
+manipulate memories, thoughts, intelligence, and consciousness. Instead 
+of simply witnessing the intricate mechanics of the mind, in the future it 
+will be possible to orchestrate them. 
+
+So let us now answer this question: Can we download memories? 
+
+If our brains were simple enough to be understood, we 
+wouldn’t be smart enough to understand them. 
+
+—ANONYMOUS 
+
+5 MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS MADE TO ORDER"
+"—ANONYMOUS 
+
+5 MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS MADE TO ORDER 
+
+Neo is The One. Only he can lead a defeated humanity to victory 
+against the Machines. Only Neo can destroy the Matrix, which has 
+implanted false memories into our brains as a means to control us. 
+
+In a now-classic scene from the film The Matrix, the evil Sentinels, 
+who guard the Matrix, have finally cornered Neo. It looks like 
+humanity’s last hope is about to be terminated. But previously Neo had 
+
+had an electrode jacked into the back of his neck that could instantly 
+download martial-arts skills into his brain. In seconds, he becomes a 
+karate master able to take down the Sentinels with breathtaking aerial 
+kicks and well-placed strikes. 
+
+In The Matrix, learning the amazing skills of a black-belt karate master 
+is no harder than slipping an electrode into your brain and pushing the 
+“download” button. Perhaps one day we, too, may be able to download 
+memories, which will vastly increase our abilities."
+"But what happens when the memories downloaded into your brain are 
+false? In the movie Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger has fake 
+memories placed into his brain, so that the distinction between reality 
+and fiction becomes totally blurred. He valiantly fights off the bad guys 
+on Mars until the end of the movie, when he suddenly realizes that he 
+himself is their leader. He is shocked to find that his memories of being a 
+normal, law-abiding citizen are totally manufactured. 
+
+Hollywood is fond of movies that explore the fascinating but fictional 
+world of artificial memories. All this is impossible, of course, with 
+today’s technology, but one can envision a day, a few decades from now, 
+when artificial memories may indeed be inserted into the brain. 
+
+HOW WE REMEMBER 
+
+Like Phineas Gage’s, the strange case of Henry Gustav Molaison, known 
+in the scientific literature as simply HM, created a sensation in the field"
+"of neurology that led to many fundamental breakthroughs in 
+understanding the importance of the hippocampus in formulating 
+memories."
+"At the age of nine, HM suffered head injuries in an accident that 
+caused debilitating convulsions. In 1953, when he was twenty-five years 
+old, he underwent an operation that successfully relieved his symptoms. 
+But another problem surfaced because surgeons mistakenly cut out part 
+of his hippocampus. At first, HM appeared normal, but it soon became 
+apparent that something was terribly wrong; he could not retain new 
+memories. Instead, he constantly lived in the present, greeting the same 
+people several times a day with the same expressions, as if he were 
+seeing them for the first time. Everything that went into his memory 
+lasted only a few minutes before it disappeared. Like Bill Murray in the 
+movie Groundhog Day, HM was doomed to relive the same day, over and 
+over, for the rest of his life. But unlike Bill Murray’s character, he was 
+unable to recall the previous iterations. His long-term memory, however,"
+"was relatively intact and could remember his life before the surgery. But 
+without a functioning hippocampus, HM was unable to record new 
+experiences. For example, he would be horrified when looking in a 
+mirror, since he saw the face of an old man but thought he was still 
+twenty-five. But mercifully, the memory of being horrified would also 
+soon disappear into the fog. In some sense, HM was like an animal with 
+Level II consciousness, unable to recall the immediate past or simulate 
+the future. Without a functioning hippocampus, he regressed from Level 
+III down to Level II consciousness. 
+
+Today, further advances in neuroscience have given us the clearest 
+picture yet of how memories are formed, stored, and then recalled. “It 
+has all come together just in the past few years, due to two technical 
+developments—computers and modern brain scanning,” says Dr. 
+Stephen Kosslyn, a neuroscientist at Harvard."
+"As we know, sensory information (e.g., vision, touch, taste) must first 
+pass through the brain stem and onto the thalamus, which acts like a 
+relay station, directing the signals to the various sensory lobes of the 
+brain, where they are evaluated. The processed information reaches the 
+prefrontal cortex, where it enters our consciousness and forms what we 
+consider our short-term memory, which can range from several seconds 
+to minutes. (See Figure 11.)"
+"To store these memories for a longer duration, the information must 
+then run through the hippocampus, where memories are broken down 
+into different categories. Rather than storing all memories in one area of 
+the brain like a tape recorder or hard drive, the hippocampus redirects 
+the fragments to various cortices. (Storing memories in this way is 
+actually more efficient than storing them sequentially. If human 
+memories were stored sequentially, like on computer tape, a vast 
+amount of memory storage would br required. In fact, in the future, even 
+digital storage systems may adopt this trick from the living brain, rather 
+than storing whole memories sequentially.) For instance, emotional 
+memories are stored in the amygdala, but words are recorded in the 
+temporal lobe. Meanwhile, colors and other visual information are 
+collected in the occipital lobe, and the sense of touch and movement 
+reside in the parietal lobe. So far, scientists have identified more than"
+"reside in the parietal lobe. So far, scientists have identified more than 
+twenty categories of memories that are stored in different parts of the 
+brain, including fruits and vegetables, plants, animals, body parts, 
+colors, numbers, letters, nouns, verbs, proper names, faces, facial 
+expressions, and various emotions and sounds."
+"Figure 11. This shows the path taken to create memories. Impulses from the senses pass through the 
+brain stem, to the 
+
+thalamus, out to the various cortices, and then to the prefrontal cortex. They then pass to the 
+hippocampus to form long¬ 
+term memories, (illustration credit 5.1) 
+
+A single memory—for instance, a walk in the park—involves 
+information that is broken down and stored in various regions of the 
+brain, but reliving just one aspect of the memory (e.g., the smell of 
+freshly cut grass) can suddenly send the brain racing to pull the 
+fragments together to form a cohesive recollection. The ultimate goal of 
+memory research is, then, to figure out how these scattered fragments 
+are somehow reassembled when we recall an experience. This is called 
+the “binding problem,” and a solution could potentially explain many 
+puzzling aspects of memory. For instance, Dr. Antonio Damasio has 
+analyzed stroke patients who are incapable of identifying a single"
+"category, even though they are able to recall everything else. This is 
+because the stroke has affected just one particular area of the brain, 
+where that certain category was stored. 
+
+The binding problem is further complicated because all our memories 
+and experiences are highly personal. Memories might be customized for 
+the individual, so that the categories of memories for one person may 
+not correlate with the categories of memories for another. Wine tasters, 
+for example, may have many categories for labeling subtle variations in 
+taste, while physicists may have other categories for certain equations. 
+Categories, after all, are by-products of experience, and different people 
+may therefore have different categories."
+"One novel solution to the binding problem uses the fact that there are 
+electromagnetic vibrations oscillating across the entire brain at roughly 
+forty cycles per second, which can be picked up by EEG scans. One 
+fragment of memory might vibrate at a very precise frequency and 
+stimulate another fragment of memory stored in a distant part of the 
+brain. Previously it was thought that memories might be stored 
+physically close to one another, but this new theory says that memories 
+are not linked spatially but rather temporally, by vibrating in unison. If 
+this theory holds up, it means that there are electromagnetic vibrations 
+constantly flowing through the entire brain, linking up different regions 
+and thereby re-creating entire memories. Hence the constant flow of 
+information between the hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex, the 
+thalamus, and the different cortices might not be entirely neural after 
+all. Some of this flow may be in the form of resonance across different 
+brain structures."
+"RECORDING A MEMORY 
+
+Sadly, HM died in 2008 at the age of eighty-two, before he could take 
+advantage of some sensational results achieved by science: the ability to 
+create an artificial hippocampus and then insert memories into the brain. 
+This is something straight out of science fiction, but scientists at Wake 
+Forest University and the University of Southern California made history 
+in 2011 when they were able to record a memory made by mice and 
+store it digitally in a computer. This was a proof-of-principle experiment, 
+
+in which they showed that the dream of downloading memories into the 
+brain might one day become reality."
+"At first, the very idea of downloading memories into the brain seems 
+like an impossible dream, because, as we have seen, memories are 
+created by processing a variety of sensory experiences, which are then 
+stored in multiple places in the neocortex and limbic system. But as we 
+know from HM, there is one place through which all memories flow and 
+are converted into long-term memories: the hippocampus. Team leader 
+Dr. Theodore Berger of USC says, “If you can’t do it with the 
+hippocampus, you can’t do it anywhere.”"
+"The scientists at Wake Forest and USC first started with the 
+observation, garnered from brain scans, that there are at least two sets of 
+neurons in a mouse’s hippocampus, called CA1 and CA3, which 
+communicate with each other as a new task is learned. After training 
+mice to press two bars, one after the other, in order to get water, the 
+scientists reviewed the findings and attempted to decode these messages, 
+which proved frustrating at first since the signals between these two sets 
+of neurons didn’t appear to follow a pattern. But by monitoring the 
+signals millions of times, they were eventually able to determine which 
+electrical input created which output. With the use of probes in the 
+mice’s hippocampi, the scientists were able to record the signals between 
+CA1 and CA3 when the mice learned to press the two bars in sequence."
+"Then the scientists injected the mice with a special chemical, making 
+them forget the task. Finally they played back the memory into the same 
+mouse’s brain. Remarkably, the memory of the task returned, and the 
+mice could successfully reproduce the original task. Essentially, they had 
+created an artificial hippocampus with the ability to duplicate digital 
+memory. “Turn the switch on, the animal has the memory; turn it off 
+and they don’t,” says Dr. Berger. “It’s a very important step because it’s 
+the first time we have put all the pieces together.” 
+
+As Joel Davis of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, which 
+sponsored this work, said, “Using implantables to enhance competency is 
+down the road. It’s only a matter of time.”"
+"Not surprisingly, with so much at stake, this area of research is 
+moving very rapidly. In 2013, yet another breakthrough was made, this 
+time at MIT, by scientists who were able to implant not just ordinary 
+memories into a mouse, but false ones as well. This means that, one day, 
+
+memories of events that never took place may be implanted into the 
+brain, which would have a profound impact on fields like education and 
+entertainment. 
+
+The MIT scientists used a technique called optogenetics (which we will 
+discuss more in Chapter 8), which allows you to shine a light on specific 
+neurons to activate them. Using this powerful method, scientists can 
+identify the specific neurons responsible for certain memories."
+"Let’s say that a mouse enters a room and is given a shock. The neurons 
+responsible for the memory of that painful event can actually be isolated 
+and recorded by analyzing the hippocampus. Then the mouse is placed 
+in an entirely different room that is totally harmless. By turning on a 
+light on an optical fiber, one can use optogenetics to activate the 
+memory of the shock, and the mouse exhibits a fear response, although 
+the second room is totally safe. 
+
+In this way, the MIT scientists were able not only to implant ordinary 
+memories, but also memories of events that never took place. One day, 
+this technique may give educators the ability to implant memories of 
+new skills to retrain workers, or give Hollywood an entirely new form of 
+entertainment. 
+
+AN ARTIFICIAL HIPPOCAMPUS"
+"AN ARTIFICIAL HIPPOCAMPUS 
+
+At present, the artificial hippocampus is primitive, able to record only a 
+single memory at a time. But these scientists plan to increase the 
+complexity of their artificial hippocampus so that it can store a variety 
+of memories and record them for different animals, eventually working 
+up to monkeys. They also plan to make this technology wireless by 
+replacing the wires with tiny radios so that memories can be 
+downloaded remotely without the need for clumsy electrodes implanted 
+into the brain. 
+
+Because the hippocampus is involved with memory processing in 
+humans, scientists see a vast potential application in treating strokes, 
+dementia, Alzheimer’s, and a host of other problems that occur when 
+there is damage or deterioration in this region of the brain. 
+
+Many hurdles have to be negotiated, of course. Despite all we have 
+learned about the hippocampus since HM, it still remains something of a"
+"black box whose inner workings are largely unknown. As a result, it is 
+not possible to construct a memory from scratch, but once a task has 
+been performed and the memory processed, it is possible to record it and 
+play it back. 
+
+FUTURE DIRECTIONS 
+
+Working with the hippocampus of primates and even humans will be 
+more difficult, since their hippocampi are much larger and more 
+complex. The first step is to create a detailed neural map of the 
+hippocampus. This means placing electrodes at different parts of the 
+hippocampus to record the signals that are constantly being exchanged 
+between different regions. This will establish the flow of information 
+that constantly moves across the hippocampus. The hippocampus has 
+four basic divisions, CA1 to CA4, and hence scientists will record the 
+signals that are exchanged between them."
+"The second step involves the subject performing certain tasks, after 
+which scientists will record the impulses that flow across the various 
+regions of the hippocampus, thereby recording the memory. For 
+example, the memory of learning a certain task, such as jumping 
+through a hoop, will create electrical activity in the hippocampus that 
+can be recorded and carefully analyzed. Then a dictionary can be 
+created matching the memory with the flow of information across the 
+hippocampus. 
+
+Finally, step three involves making a recording of this memory and 
+feeding the electrical signal into the hippocampus of another subject via 
+electrodes, to see if that memory can been uploaded. In this fashion, the 
+subject may learn to jump through a hoop although it has never done so 
+before. If successful, scientists would gradually create a library 
+containing recordings of certain memories."
+"It may take decades to work all the way up to human memories, but 
+one can envision how it might work. In the future, people may be hired 
+to create certain memories, like a luxury vacation or a fictitious battle. 
+Nanoelectrodes will be placed at various places in their brain to record 
+the memory. These electrodes must be extremely small so that they do 
+not interfere with the formation of the memory. 
+
+The information from these electrodes will then be sent wirelessly to a 
+
+computer and then recorded. Later a subject who wants to experience 
+these memories will have similar electrodes placed in his hippocampus, 
+and the memory will be inserted into the brain."
+"(There are complications to this idea, of course. If we try to insert the 
+memory of physical activity, such as a martial art, we have the problem 
+of “muscle memory.” For example, when walking, we do not consciously 
+think about putting one leg in front of the other. Walking has become 
+second nature to us because we do it so often, and from an early age. 
+This means that the signals controlling our legs no longer originate 
+entirely in the hippocampus, but also in the motor cortex, the 
+cerebellum, and the basal ganglia. In the future, if we wish to insert 
+memories involving sports, scientists may have to decipher the way in 
+which memories are partially stored in other areas of the brain as well.) 
+
+VISION AND HUMAN MEMORIES"
+"VISION AND HUMAN MEMORIES 
+
+The formation of memories is quite complex, but the approach we have 
+been discussing takes a shortcut by eavesdropping on the signals moving 
+through the hippocampus, where the sensory impulses have already 
+been processed. In The Matrix, however, an electrode is placed in the 
+back of the head to upload memories directly into the brain. This 
+assumes that one can decode the raw, unprocessed impulses coming in 
+from the eyes, ears, skin, etc., that are moving up the spinal cord and 
+brain stem and into the thalamus. This is much more elaborate and 
+difficult than analyzing the processed messages circulating in the 
+hippocampus."
+"To give you a sense of the sheer volume of unprocessed information 
+that comes up the spinal cord into the thalamus, let’s consider just one 
+aspect: vision, since many of our memories are encoded this way. There 
+are roughly 130 million cells in the eye’s retina, called cones and rods; 
+they process and record 100 million bits of information from the 
+landscape at any time. 
+
+This vast amount of data is then collected and sent down the optic 
+nerve, which transports 9 million bits of information per second, and on 
+to the thalamus. From there, the information reaches the occipital lobe, 
+
+at the very back of the brain. This visual cortex, in turn, begins the 
+arduous process of analyzing this mountain of data. The visual cortex 
+consists of several patches at the back of the brain, each of which is 
+designed for a specific task. They are labeled VI to V8. 
+
+Remarkably, the area called VI is like a screen; it actually creates a"
+"Remarkably, the area called VI is like a screen; it actually creates a 
+
+pattern on the back of your brain very similar in shape and form to the 
+original image. This image bears a striking resemblance to the original, 
+except that the very center of your eye, the fovea, occupies a much 
+larger area in VI (since the fovea has the highest concentration of 
+neurons). The image cast on VI is therefore not a perfect replica of the 
+landscape but is distorted, with the central region of the image taking up 
+most of the space. 
+
+Besides VI, other areas of the occipital lobe process different aspects 
+of the image, including: 
+
+• Stereo vision. These neurons compare the images coming in from 
+each eye. This is done in area V2. 
+
+• Distance. These neurons calculate the distance to an object, using 
+shadows and other information from both eyes. This is done in area 
+V3. 
+
+• Colors are processed in area V4."
+"• Colors are processed in area V4. 
+
+• Motion. Different circuits can pick out different classes of motion, 
+including straight-line, spiral, and expanding motion. This is done in 
+area V5. 
+
+More than thirty different neural circuits involved with vision have 
+been identified, but there are probably many more. 
+
+From the occipital lobe, the information is sent to the prefrontal 
+cortex, where you finally “see” the image and form your short-term 
+memory. The information is then sent to the hippocampus, which 
+processes it and stores it for up to twenty-four hours. The memory is 
+then chopped up and scattered among the various cortices. 
+
+The point here is that vision, which we think happens effortlessly, 
+requires billions of neurons firing in sequence, transmitting millions of 
+bits of information per second. And remember that we have signals from 
+five sense organs, plus emotions associated with each image. All this"
+"information is processed by the hippocampus to create a simple memory 
+of an image. At present, no machine can match the sophistication of this 
+process, so replicating it presents an enormous challenge for scientists 
+who want to create an artificial hippocampus for the human brain. 
+
+REMEMBERING THE FUTURE 
+
+If encoding the memory of just one of the senses is such a complex 
+process, then how did we evolve the ability to store such vast amounts of 
+information in our long-term memory? Instinct, for the most part, guides 
+the behavior of animals, which do not appear to have much of a long¬ 
+term memory. But as neurobiologist Dr. James McGaugh of the 
+University of California at Irvine says, “The purpose of memory is to 
+predict the future,” which raises an interesting possibility. Perhaps long¬ 
+term memory evolved because it was useful for simulating the future. In 
+other words, the fact that we can remember back into the distant past is 
+due to the demands and advantages of simulating the future."
+"Indeed, brain scans done by scientists at Washington University in St. 
+Louis indicate that areas used to recall memories are the same as those 
+involved in simulating the future. In particular, the link between the 
+dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus lights up when a 
+person is engaged in planning for the future and remembering the past. 
+In some sense, the brain is trying to “recall the future,” drawing upon 
+memories of the past in order to determine how something will evolve 
+into the future. This may also explain the curious fact that people who 
+suffer from amnesia—such as HM—are often unable to visualize what 
+they will be doing in the future or even the very next day."
+"“You might look at it as mental time travel—the ability to take 
+thoughts about ourselves and project them either into the past or into 
+the future,” says Dr. Kathleen McDermott of Washington University. She 
+also notes that their study proves a “tentative answer to a longstanding 
+question regarding the evolutionary usefulness of memory. It may just be 
+that the reason we can recollect the past in vivid detail is that this set of 
+processes is important for being able to envision ourselves in future 
+scenarios. This ability to envision the future has clear and compelling 
+adaptive significance.” For an animal, the past is largely a waste of 
+
+precious resources, since it gives them little evolutionary advantage. But 
+simulating the future, given the lessons of the past, is an essential reason 
+why humans became intelligent. 
+
+AN ARTIFICIAL CORTEX"
+"AN ARTIFICIAL CORTEX 
+
+In 2012 the same scientists from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and 
+the University of Southern California who created an artificial 
+hippocampus in mice announced an even more far-reaching experiment. 
+Instead of recording a memory in the mouse hippocampus, they 
+duplicated the much more sophisticated thinking process of the cortex of 
+a primate."
+"They took five rhesus monkeys and inserted tiny electrodes into two 
+layers of their cortex, called the L2/3 and L5 layers. They then recorded 
+neural signals that went between these two layers as the monkeys 
+learned a task. (This task involved the monkeys seeing a set of pictures, 
+and then being rewarded if they could pick out these same pictures from 
+a much larger set.) With practice, the monkeys could perform the task 
+with 75 percent accuracy. But if the scientists fed the signal back into 
+the cortex as the monkey was performing the test, its performance 
+increased by 10 percent. When certain chemicals were given to the 
+monkey, its performance dropped by 20 percent. But if the recording 
+was fed back into the cortex, its performance exceeded its normal level. 
+Although this was a small sample size and there was only a modest 
+improvement in performance, the study still suggests that the scientists’ 
+recording accurately captured the decision-making process of the cortex."
+"Because this study was done on primates rather than mice and 
+involved the cortex and not the hippocampus, it could have vast 
+implications when human trials begin. Dr. Sam A. Deadwyler of Wake 
+Forest says, “The whole idea is that the device would generate an output 
+pattern that bypasses the damaged area, proving an alternative 
+connection” in the brain. This experiment has a possible application for 
+patients whose neocortex has been damaged. Like a crutch, this device 
+would perform the thinking operation of the damaged area. 
+
+AN ARTIFICIAL CEREBELLUM 
+
+It should also be pointed out that the artificial hippocampus and 
+neocortex are but the first steps. Eventually, other parts of the brain will 
+have artificial counterparts. For example, scientists at Tel Aviv 
+University in Israel have already created an artificial cerebellum for a 
+rat. The cerebellum is an essential part of the reptilian brain that 
+controls our balance and other basic bodily functions."
+"Usually when a puff of air is directed at a rat’s face, it blinks. If a 
+sound is made at the same time, the rat can be conditioned to blink just 
+by hearing the sound. The goal of the Israeli scientists was to create an 
+artificial cerebellum that could duplicate this feat. 
+
+First the scientists recorded the signals entering the brain stem when 
+the puff of air hit the rat’s face and the sound was heard. Then the signal 
+was processed and sent back to the brain stem at another location. As 
+expected, the rats blinked upon receiving the signal. Not only is this the 
+first time that an artificial cerebellum functioned correctly, it is the first 
+time that messages were received from one part of the brain, processed, 
+and then uploaded into a different part of the brain."
+"Commenting on this work, Francesco Sepulveda of the University of 
+Essex says, “This demonstrates how far we have come towards creating 
+circuitry that could one day replace damaged brain areas and even 
+enhance the power of the healthy brain.” 
+
+He also sees great potential for artificial brains in the future, adding, 
+“It will likely take us several decades to get there, but my bet is that 
+specific, well-organized brain parts such as the hippocampus or the 
+visual cortex will have synthetic correlates before the end of the 
+century.” 
+
+Although progress in creating artificial replacements for the brain is 
+moving remarkably fast given the complexity of the process, it is a race 
+against time when one considers the greatest threat facing our public 
+health system, the declining mental abilities of people with Alzheimer’s. 
+
+ALZHEIMER’S—DESTROYER OF MEMORY"
+"ALZHEIMER’S—DESTROYER OF MEMORY 
+
+Alzheimer’s disease, some people claim, might be the disease of the 
+century. There are 5.3 million Americans who currently have 
+Alzheimer’s, and the number is expected to quadruple by 2050. Five 
+
+percent of people from age sixty-five to seventy-four have Alzheimer’s, 
+but more than 50 percent of those over eighty-five have it, even if they 
+have no obvious risk factors. (Back in 1900, life expectancy in the 
+United States was forty-nine, so Alzheimer’s was not a significant 
+problem. But now, people over eighty are one of the fastest-growing 
+demographic groups in the country.)"
+"In the early stages of Alzheimer’s, the hippocampus, the part of the 
+brain through which memories are processed, begins to deteriorate. 
+Indeed, brain scans clearly show that the hippocampus shrinks in 
+Alzheimer’s patients, but the wiring linking the prefrontal cortex to the 
+hippocampus also thins, leaving the brain unable to properly process 
+short-term memories. Long-term memories already stored throughout 
+the cortices of the brain remain relatively intact, at least at first. This 
+creates a situation where you may not remember what you just did a few 
+minutes ago but can clearly recall events that took place decades ago. 
+
+Eventually, the disease progresses to the point where even basic long¬ 
+term memories are destroyed. The person is unable to recognize their 
+children or spouse and to remember who they are, and can even fall into 
+a comalike vegetative state. 
+
+Sadly, the basic mechanisms for Alzheimer’s have only recently begun"
+"Sadly, the basic mechanisms for Alzheimer’s have only recently begun 
+
+to be understood. One major breakthrough came in 2012, when it was 
+revealed that Alzheimer’s begins with the formation of tau amyloid 
+proteins, which in turn accelerates the formation of beta amyloid, a 
+gummy, gluelike substance that clogs up the brain. (Before, it was not 
+clear if Alzheimer’s was caused by these plaques or whether perhaps 
+these plaques were by-products of a more fundamental disorder.)"
+"What makes these amyloid plaques so difficult to target with drugs is 
+that they are most likely made of “prions,” which are misshapen protein 
+molecules. They are not bacteria or viruses, but nevertheless they can 
+reproduce. When viewed atomically, a protein molecule resembles a 
+jungle of ribbons of atoms tied together. This tangle of atoms must fold 
+onto itself correctly for the protein to assume the proper shape and 
+function. But prions are misshapen proteins that have folded incorrectly. 
+Worse, when they bump into healthy proteins, they cause them to fold 
+incorrectly as well. Hence one prion can cause a cascade of misshapen 
+proteins, creating a chain reaction that contaminates billions more. 
+
+At present, there is no known way to stop the inexorable progression"
+"At present, there is no known way to stop the inexorable progression 
+
+of Alzheimer’s. Now that the basic mechanics behind Alzheimer’s are 
+being unraveled, however, one promising method is to create antibodies 
+or a vaccine that might specifically target these misshapen protein 
+molecules. Another way might be to create an artificial hippocampus for 
+these individuals so that their short-term memory can be restored. 
+
+Yet another approach is to see if we can directly increase the brain’s 
+ability to create memories using genetics. Perhaps there are genes that 
+can improve our memory. The future of memory research may lie in the 
+“smart mouse.” 
+
+THE SMART MOUSE"
+"THE SMART MOUSE 
+
+In 1999, Dr. Joseph Tsien and colleagues at Princeton, MIT, and 
+Washington University found that adding a single extra gene 
+dramatically boosted a mouse’s memory and ability. These “smart mice” 
+could navigate mazes faster, remember events better, and outperform 
+other mice in a wide variety of tests. They were dubbed “Doogie mice,” 
+after the precocious character on the TV show Doogie Howser, M.D. 
+
+Dr. Tsien began by analyzing the gene NR2B, which acts like a switch 
+controlling the brain’s ability to associate one event with another. 
+(Scientists know this because when the gene is silenced or rendered 
+inactive, mice lose this ability.) All learning depends on NR2B, because 
+it controls the communication between memory cells of the"
+"hippocampus. First Dr. Tsien created a strain of mice that lacked NR2B, 
+and they showed impaired memory and learning disabilities. Then he 
+created a strain of mice that had more copies of NR2B than normal, and 
+found that the new mice had superior mental capabilities. Placed in a 
+shallow pan of water and forced to swim, normal mice would swim 
+randomly about. They had forgotten from just a few days before that 
+there was a hidden underwater platform. The smart mice, however, went 
+straight to the hidden platform on the first try. 
+
+Since then, researchers have been able to confirm these results in 
+other labs and create even smarter strains of mice. In 2009, Dr. Tsien 
+published a paper announcing yet another strain of smart mice, dubbed 
+“Hobbie-J” (named after a character in Chinese cartoons). Hobbie-J was 
+able to remember novel facts (such as the location of toys) three times"
+"longer than the genetically modified strain of mouse previously thought 
+to be the smartest. “This adds to the notion that NR2B is a universal 
+switch for memory formation,” remarked Dr. Tsien. “It’s like taking 
+Michael Jordon and making him a super Michael Jordan,” said graduate 
+student Deheng Wang. 
+
+There are limits, however, even to this new mice strain. When these 
+mice were given a choice to take a left or right turn to get a chocolate 
+reward, Hobbie-J was able to remember the correct path for much 
+longer than the normal mice, but after five minutes he, too, forgot. “We 
+can never turn it into a mathematician. They are rats, after all,” says Dr. 
+Tsien. 
+
+It should also be pointed out that some of the strains of smart mice 
+were exceptionally timid compared to normal mice. Some suspect that, if 
+your memory becomes too great, you also remember all the failures and 
+hurts as well, perhaps making you hesitant. So there is also a potential 
+downside to remembering too much."
+"Next, scientists hope to generalize their results to dogs, since we share 
+so many genes, and perhaps also to humans. 
+
+SMART FLIES AND DUMB MICE 
+
+The NR2B gene is not the only gene being studied by scientists for its 
+impact on memory. In yet another groundbreaking series of experiments, 
+scientists have been able to breed a strain of fruit flies with 
+“photographic memory,” and also a strain of mice that are amnesiac. 
+These experiments may eventually explain many mysteries of our long¬ 
+term memory, such as why cramming for an exam is not the best way to 
+
+study, and why we remember events if they are emotionally charged. 
+Scientists have found that there are two important genes, the CREB 
+activator (which stimulates the formation of new connections between 
+neurons) and the CREB repressor (which suppresses the formation of 
+new memories)."
+"Dr. Jerry Yin and Timothy Tully of Cold Spring Harbor have been 
+doing interesting experiments with fruit flies. Normally it takes ten trials 
+for them to learn a certain task (e.g., detecting an odor, avoiding a 
+shock). Fruit flies with an extra CREB repressor gene could not form 
+
+lasting memories at all, but the real surprise came when they tested fruit 
+flies with an extra CREB activator gene. They learned the task in just one 
+session. “This implies these flies have a photographic memory,” says Dr. 
+Tully. He said they are just like students “who could read a chapter of a 
+book once, see it in their mind, and tell you that the answer is in 
+paragraph three of page two seventy-four.”"
+"This effect is not just restricted to fruit flies. Dr. Alcino Silva, also at 
+Cold Spring Harbor, has been experimenting with mice. He found that 
+mice with a defect in their CREB activator gene were virtually incapable 
+of forming long-term memories. They were amnesiac mice. But even 
+these forgetful mice could learn a bit if they had short lessons with rest 
+in between. Scientists theorize that we have a fixed amount of CREB 
+activator in the brain that can limit the amount we can learn in any 
+specific time. If we try to cram before a test, it means that we quickly 
+exhaust the amount of CREB activators, and hence we cannot learn any 
+more—at least until we take a break to replenish the CREB activators. 
+
+“We can now give you a biological reason why cramming doesn’t 
+work,” says Dr. Tully. The best way to prepare for a final exam is to 
+mentally review the material periodically during the day, until the 
+material becomes part of your long-term memory."
+"This may also explain why emotionally charged memories are so vivid 
+and can last for decades. The CREB repressor gene is like a filter, 
+cleaning out useless information. But if a memory is associated with a 
+strong emotion, it can either remove the CREB repressor gene or increase 
+levels of the CREB activator gene. 
+
+In the future, we can expect more breakthroughs in understanding the 
+genetic basis of memory. Not just one but a sophisticated combination of 
+genes is probably required to shape the enormous capabilities of the 
+brain. These genes, in turn, have counterparts in the human genome, so 
+it is a distinct possibility that we can also enhance our memory and 
+mental skills genetically."
+"However, don’t think that you will be able to get a brain boost 
+anytime soon. Many hurdles still remain. First, it is not clear if these 
+results apply to humans. Often therapies that show great promise in 
+mice do not translate well to our species. Second, even if these results 
+can be applied to humans, we do not know what their impact will be. 
+For example, these genes may help improve our memory but not affect"
+"our general intelligence. Third, gene therapy (i.e., fixing broken genes) is 
+more difficult than previously thought. Only a small handful of genetic 
+diseases can be cured with this method. Even though scientists use 
+harmless viruses to infect cells with the “good” gene, the body still sends 
+antibodies to attack the intruder, often rendering the therapy useless. It’s 
+possible that the insertion of a gene to enhance memory would face a 
+similar fate. (In addition, the field of gene therapy suffered a major 
+setback a few years ago when a patient died at the University of 
+Pennsylvania during a gene therapy procedure. The work of modifying 
+human genes therefore faces many ethical and even legal questions.)"
+"Human trials, then, will progress much more slowly than animal trials. 
+However, one can foresee the day when this procedure might be 
+perfected and become a reality. Altering our genes in this way would 
+require no more than a simple shot in the arm. A harmless virus would 
+then enter our blood, which would then infect normal cells by injecting 
+its genes. Once the “smart gene” is successfully incorporated into our 
+cells, the gene becomes active and releases proteins that would increase 
+our memory and cognitive skills by affecting the hippocampus and 
+memory formation. 
+
+If the insertion of genes becomes too difficult, another possibility is to 
+insert the proper proteins directly into the body, bypassing the use of 
+gene therapy. Instead of getting a shot, we would swallow a pill. 
+
+A SMART PILL"
+"A SMART PILL 
+
+Ultimately, one goal of this research is to create a “smart pill” that could 
+boost concentration, improve memory, and maybe increase our 
+intelligence. Pharmaceutical companies have experimented with several 
+drugs, such as MEM 1003 and MEM 1414, that do seem to enhance 
+mental function. 
+
+Scientists have found that in animal studies, long-term memories are 
+made possible by the interaction of enzymes and genes. Learning takes 
+place when certain neural pathways are reinforced as specific genes are 
+activated, such as the CREB gene, which in turn emits a corresponding 
+protein. Basically, the more CREB proteins circulating in the brain, the 
+
+faster long-term memories are formed. This has been verified in studies 
+
+on sea mollusks, fruit flies, and mice. The key property of MEM 1414 is 
+that it accelerates the production of the CREB proteins. In lab tests, aged 
+animals given MEM 1414 were able to form long-term memories 
+significantly faster than a control group."
+"Scientists are also beginning to isolate the precise biochemistry 
+required in the formation of long-term memories, at both the genetic and 
+the molecular level. Once the process of memory formation is completely 
+understood, therapies will be devised to accelerate and strengthen this 
+key process. Not only the aged and Alzheimer’s patients but eventually 
+the average person may well benefit from this “brain boost.” 
+
+CAN MEMORIES BE ERASED?"
+"CAN MEMORIES BE ERASED? 
+
+Alzheimer’s may destroy memories indiscriminately, but what about 
+selectively erasing them? Amnesia is one of Hollywood’s favorite plot 
+devices. In The Bourne Identity, Jason Bourne (played by Matt Damon), a 
+skilled CIA agent, is found floating in the water, left for dead. When he 
+is revived, he has severe memory loss. He is being relentlessly chased by 
+assassins who want to kill him, but he does not know who he is, what 
+happened, or why they want him dead. The only clue to his memory is 
+his uncanny ability to instinctively engage in combat like a secret agent."
+"It is well documented that amnesia can occur accidentally through 
+trauma, such as a blow on the head. But can memories be selectively 
+erased? In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Jim 
+Carrey, two people meet accidentally on a train and are immediately 
+attracted to each other. However, they are shocked to find that they 
+were actually lovers years ago but have no memory of it. They learn that 
+they paid a company to wipe memories of each other after a particularly 
+bad fight. Apparently, fate has given them a second chance at love. 
+
+Selective amnesia was taken to an entirely new level in Men in Black, 
+in which Will Smith plays an agent from a shadowy, secret organization 
+that uses the “neuralizer” to selectively erase inconvenient memories of 
+UFOs and alien encounters. There is even a dial to determine how far 
+back the memories should be erased. 
+
+All these make for thrilling plot lines and box-office hits, but are any 
+of them really possible, even in the future?"
+"We know that amnesia is, indeed, possible, and that there are two 
+basic types, depending on whether short- or long-term memory has been 
+affected. “Retrograde amnesia” occurs when there is some trauma or 
+damage to the brain and preexisting memories are lost, usually dating 
+from the event that caused the amnesia. This would be similar to the 
+amnesia faced by Jason Bourne, who lost all memories from before he 
+was left for dead in the water. Here the hippocampus is still intact, so 
+new memories can be formed even though long-term memory has been 
+damaged. “Anterograde amnesia” occurs when short-term memory is 
+damaged, so the person has difficulty forming new memories after the 
+event that caused the amnesia. Usually, amnesia may last for minutes to 
+hours due to damage to the hippocampus. (Anterograde amnesia was 
+featured prominently in the movie Memento, where a man is bent on 
+revenge for the death of his wife. The problem, however, is that his"
+"revenge for the death of his wife. The problem, however, is that his 
+memory lasts only about fifteen minutes, so he has to continually write 
+messages on scraps of papers, photos, and even tattoos in order to 
+remember the clues he has uncovered about the murderer. By painfully 
+reading this trail of messages he has written to himself, he can 
+accumulate crucial evidence that he would have soon forgotten.)"
+"The point here is that memory loss dates back to the time of the 
+trauma or disease, which would make the selective amnesia of 
+Hollywood highly improbable. Movies like Men in Black assume that 
+memories are stored sequentially, as in a hard disk, so you just hit the 
+“erase” button after a designated point in time. However, we know that 
+memories are actually broken up, with separate pieces stored in different 
+places in the brain. 
+
+A FORGETFUL DRUG 
+
+Meanwhile, scientists are studying certain drugs that may erase 
+traumatic memories that continue to haunt and disturb us. In 2009, 
+Dutch scientists, led by Dr. Merel Kindt, announced that they had found 
+new uses for an old drug called propranolol, which could act like a 
+“miracle” drug to ease the pain associated with traumatic memories. The 
+drug did not induce amnesia that begins at a specific point in time, but it 
+did make the pain more manageable—and in just three days, the study 
+
+claimed."
+"claimed. 
+
+The discovery caused a flurry of headlines, in light of the thousands of 
+victims who suffer from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Everyone 
+from war veterans to victims of sexual abuse and horrific accidents could 
+apparently find relief from their symptoms. But it also seemed to fly in 
+the face of brain research, which shows that long-term memories are"
+"encoded not electrically, but at the level of protein molecules. Recent 
+experiments, however, suggest that recalling memories requires both the 
+retrieval and then the reassembly of the memory, so that the protein 
+structure might actually be rearranged in the process. In other words, 
+recalling a memory actually changes it. This may be the reason why the 
+drug works: propranolol is known to interfere with adrenaline 
+absorption, a key in creating the long-lasting, vivid memories that often 
+result from traumatic events. “Propranolol sits on that nerve cell and 
+blocks it. So adrenaline can be present, but it can’t do its job,” says Dr. 
+James McGaugh of the University of California at Irvine. In other words, 
+without adrenaline, the memory fades."
+"Controlled tests done on individuals with traumatic memories showed 
+very promising results. But the drug hit a brick wall when it came to the 
+ethics of erasing memory. Some ethicists did not dispute its 
+effectiveness, but they frowned on the very idea of a forgetfulness drug, 
+since memories are there for a purpose: to teach us the lessons of life. 
+Even unpleasant memories, they said, serve some larger purpose. The 
+drug got a thumbs-down from the President’s Council on Bioethics. Its 
+report concluded that “dulling our memory of terrible things [would] 
+make us too comfortable with the world, unmoved by suffering, 
+wrongdoing, or cruelty.... Can we become numb to life’s sharpest 
+sorrows without also becoming numb to its greatest joys?” 
+
+Dr. David Magus of Stanford University’s Center for Biomedical Ethics 
+says, “Our breakups, our relationships, as painful as they are, we learn 
+from some of those painful experiences. They make us better people.”"
+"Others disagree. Dr. Roger Pitman of Harvard University says that if a 
+doctor encounters an accident victim who is in intense pain, “should we 
+deprive them of morphine because we might be taking away the full 
+emotional experience? Who would ever argue with that? Why should 
+psychiatry be different? I think that somehow behind this argument 
+lurks the notion that mental disorders are not the same as physical 
+
+disorders.” 
+
+How this debate is ultimately resolved could have direct bearing on 
+the next generation of drugs, since propranolol is not the only one 
+involved. 
+
+In 2008, two independent groups, both working with animals, 
+announced other drugs that could actually erase memories, not just 
+manage the pain they cause. Dr. Joe Tsien of the Medical College of 
+Georgia and his colleagues in Shanghai stated that they had actually 
+eliminated a memory in mice using a protein called CaMKII, while 
+scientists at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn found that the"
+"molecule PKMzeta could also erase memories. Dr. Andre Fenson, one of 
+the authors of this second study, said, “If further work confirms this 
+view, we can expect to one day see therapies based on PKMzeta memory 
+erasure.” Not only may the drug erase painful memories, it also “might 
+be useful in treating depression, general anxiety, phobias, post-traumatic 
+stress, and addictions,” he added. 
+
+So far, research has been limited to animals, but human trials will 
+begin soon. If the results transfer from animals to humans, then a 
+forgetful pill may be a real possibility. It will not be the kind of pill seen 
+in Hollywood movies (which conveniently creates amnesia at a precise, 
+opportune time) but could have vast medical applications in the real 
+world for people haunted by traumatic memories. It remains to be seen, 
+though, how selective this memory erasure might be in humans. 
+
+WHAT CAN GO WRONG?"
+"WHAT CAN GO WRONG? 
+
+There may come a day, however, when we can carefully register all the 
+signals passing through the hippocampus, thalamus, and the rest of the 
+limbic system and make a faithful record. Then, by feeding this 
+information into our brains, we might be able to reexperience the 
+totality of what another person went through. Then the question is: 
+What can go wrong? 
+
+In fact, the implications of this idea were explored in a movie, 
+Brainstorm (1983), starring Natalie Wood, which was far ahead of its 
+time. In the movie, scientists create the Hat, a helmet full of electrodes 
+that can faithfully record all the sensations a person is experiencing."
+"Later, a person can have precisely the same sensory experience by 
+playing that tape back into his brain. For fun, one person puts on the Hat 
+when he is making love and tape-records the experience. Then the tape 
+is put into a loop so the experience is greatly magnified. But when 
+another person unknowingly inserts the experience into his brain, he 
+nearly dies because of a sensory overload. Later, one of the scientists 
+experiences a fatal heart attack. But before she dies, she records her final 
+moments on tape. When another person plays the death tape into his 
+brain, he, too, has a sudden heart attack and dies. 
+
+When news of this powerful machine finally leaks out, the military 
+wants to seize control. This sets off a power struggle between the 
+military, which views it as a powerful weapon, and the original 
+scientists, who want to use it to unlock the secrets of the mind. 
+
+Brainstorm prophetically highlighted not only the promise of this"
+"Brainstorm prophetically highlighted not only the promise of this 
+
+technology but also its potential pitfalls. It was meant to be science 
+fiction, but some scientists believe that sometime in the future, these 
+very issues may play out in our headlines and in our courts. 
+
+Earlier, we saw that there have been promising developments in 
+recording a single memory created by a mouse. It may take until mid¬ 
+century before we can reliably record a variety of memories in primates 
+and humans. But creating the Hat, which can record the totality of 
+stimulation entering into the brain, requires tapping into the raw, 
+sensory data surging up the spinal cord and into the thalamus. It may be 
+late in this century before this can be done. 
+
+SOCIAL AND LEGAL ISSUES"
+"SOCIAL AND LEGAL ISSUES 
+
+Some aspects of this dilemma may play out in our lifetimes. On one 
+hand, we may reach a point where we can learn calculus by simply 
+uploading the skill. The educational system would be turned upside 
+down; perhaps it would free teachers to spend more time mentoring 
+students and giving them one-on-one attention in areas of cognition that 
+are less skill-based and cannot be mastered by hitting a button. The rote 
+memorization necessary to become a professional doctor, lawyer, or 
+scientist could also be drastically reduced through this method. 
+
+In principle, it might even give us memories of vacations that never"
+"In principle, it might even give us memories of vacations that never 
+
+happened, prizes that we never won, lovers whom we never loved, or 
+families that we never had. It could make up for deficiencies, creating 
+perfect memories of a life never lived. Parents would love this, since 
+they could teach their children lessons taken from real memories. The 
+demand for such a device could be enormous. Some ethicists fear that 
+these fake memories would be so vivid that we would prefer to relive 
+imaginary lives rather than experiencing our real ones."
+"The unemployed may also benefit from being able to learn new 
+marketable skills by having memories implanted. Historically, millions 
+of workers were left behind every time a new technology was 
+introduced, often without any safety net. That’s why we don’t have 
+many blacksmiths or wagon makers anymore. They turned into 
+autoworkers and other industrial workers. But retraining requires a large 
+amount of time and commitment. If skills can be implanted into the 
+brain, there would be an immediate impact on the world economic 
+system, since we wouldn’t have to waste so much human capital. (To 
+some degree, the value of a certain skill may be devalued if memories 
+can be uploaded into anyone, but this is compensated for by the fact that 
+the number and quality of skilled workers would vastly increase.)"
+"The tourism industry will also experience a tremendous boost. One 
+barrier to foreign travel is the pain of learning new customs and 
+conversing with new phrases. Tourists would be able to share in the 
+experience of living in a foreign land, rather than getting bogged down 
+trying to master the local currency and the details of the transportation 
+system. (Although uploading an entire language, with tens of thousands 
+of words and expressions, would be difficult, it might be possible to 
+upload enough information to carry on a decent conversation.)"
+"Inevitably, these memory tapes will find their way onto social media. 
+In the future, you might be able to record a memory and upload it to the 
+Internet for millions to feel and experience. Previously, we discussed a 
+brain-net through which you can send thoughts. But if memories can be 
+recorded and created, you might also be able to send entire experiences. 
+If you just won a gold medal at the Olympic Games, why not share the 
+agony and the ecstasy of victory by putting your memories on the web? 
+Maybe the experience will go viral and billions can share in your 
+moment’s glory. (Children, who are often at the forefront of video games 
+and social media, may make a habit of recording memorable experiences"
+"and uploading them onto the Internet. Like taking a picture with a cell 
+phone, it would be second nature to them to record entire memories. 
+This would require both the sender and the receiver to have nearly 
+invisible nanowires connecting to their hippocampus. The information 
+would then be sent wirelessly to a server, which would convert the 
+message to a digital signal that can be carried by the Internet. In this 
+way, you could have blogs, message boards, social media, and chat 
+rooms where, instead of uploading pictures and videos, you would 
+upload memories and emotions.) 
+
+A LIBRARY OF SOULS"
+"A LIBRARY OF SOULS 
+
+People may also want to have a geneology of memories. When searching 
+records of our ancestors, we see only a one-dimensional portrait of their 
+lives. Throughout human history, people have lived, loved, and died 
+without leaving a substantial record of their existence. Mostly we just 
+find the birth and death dates of our relatives, with little in between. 
+Today we leave a long trail of electronic documents (credit card receipts, 
+bills, e-mails, bank statements, etc.). By default, the web is becoming a 
+giant repository of all the documents that describe our lives, but this still 
+doesn’t tell anyone much about what we were thinking or feeling. 
+Perhaps in the far future, the web could become a giant library 
+chronicling not just the details of our lives but also our consciousness."
+"In the future, people might routinely record their memories so their 
+descendants can share the same experiences. Visiting the library of 
+memories for your clan, you would be able to see and feel how they 
+lived, and also how you fit into the larger scheme of things. 
+
+This means that anyone could replay our lives, long after we have 
+died, by hitting the “play” button. If this vision is correct, it means that 
+we might be able to “bring back” our ancestors for an afternoon chat, 
+simply by inserting a disk into the library and pushing a button. 
+
+Meanwhile, if you want to share in the experiences of your favorite 
+historical figures, you might be able to have an intimate look into how 
+they felt as they confronted major crises in their lives. If you have a role 
+model and wish to know how they negotiated and survived the great 
+defeats of their life, you could experience their memory tapes and gain"
+"valuable insight. Imagine being able to share the memories of a Nobel 
+Prize-winning scientist. You might get clues about how great discoveries 
+are made. Or you might be able to share the memories of great 
+politicians and statesmen as they made crucial decisions that affected 
+world history. 
+
+Dr. Miguel Nicolelis believes all this will one day become reality. He 
+says, “Each of these perennial records would be revered as a uniquely 
+precious jewel, one among billions of equally exclusive minds that once 
+lived, loved, suffered, and prospered, until they, too, become 
+immortalized, not clad in cold and silent gravestones, but released 
+through vivid thoughts, intensely lived loves, and mutually endured 
+sorrows.” 
+
+THE DARK SIDE OF TECHNOLOGY"
+"THE DARK SIDE OF TECHNOLOGY 
+
+Some scientists have pondered the ethical implications of this 
+technology. Almost every new medical discovery caused ethical concerns 
+when it was introduced. Some of them had to be restricted or banned 
+when proven harmful (like the sleeping drug thalidomide, which caused 
+birth defects). Others have been so successful they changed our 
+conception of who we are, such as test-tube babies. When Louise Brown, 
+the first test-tube baby, was born in 1978, it created such a media storm 
+that even the pope issued a document critical of this technology. But 
+today, perhaps your sibling, child, spouse, or even you may be a product 
+of in vitro fertilization. Like many technologies, eventually the public 
+will simply get used to the idea that memories can be recorded and 
+shared."
+"Other bioethicists have different worries. What happens if memories 
+are given to us without our permission? What happens if these memories 
+are painful or destructive? Or what about Alzheimer’s patients, who are 
+eligible for memory uploads but are too sick to give permission? 
+
+The late Bernard Williams, a philosopher at Oxford University, 
+worried that this device might disturb the natural order of things, which 
+is to forget. “Forgetting is the most beneficial process we possess,” he 
+says. 
+
+If memories can be implanted like uploading computer files, it could"
+"If memories can be implanted like uploading computer files, it could 
+
+also shake the foundation of our legal system. One of the pillars of 
+justice is the eyewitness account, but what would happen if fake 
+memories were implanted? Also, if the memory of a crime can be 
+created, then it might secretly be implanted into the brain of an innocent 
+person. Or, if a criminal needs an alibi, he could secretly implant a 
+memory into another person’s brain, convincing him that they were 
+together when the crime was being committed. Furthermore, not just 
+verbal testimony but also legal documents would be suspect, since when 
+we sign affidavits and legal documents, we depend on our memory to 
+clarify what is true and false."
+"Safeguards would have to be introduced. Laws will have to be passed 
+that clearly define the limits of granting or denying access to memories. 
+Just as there are laws limiting the ability of the police or third parties to 
+enter your home, there would be laws to prevent people from accessing 
+your memories without your permission. There would also have to be a 
+way to mark these memories so that the person realizes that they are 
+fake. Thus, he would still be able to enjoy the memory of a nice 
+vacation, but he would also know that it never happened."
+"Taping, storing, and uploading our memories may allow us to record 
+the past and master new skills. But doing so will not alter our innate 
+ability to digest and process this large body of information. To do that, 
+we need to enhance our intelligence. Progress in this direction is 
+hindered by the fact that there is no universally accepted definition of 
+intelligence. However, there is one example of genius and intelligence 
+that no one can dispute, and that is Albert Einstein. Remarkably, sixty 
+years after his death, his brain is still yielding invaluable clues to the 
+nature of intelligence. 
+
+Some scientists believe that, using a combination of electromagnetics, 
+genetics, and drug therapy, it may be possible to boost our intelligence 
+to the genius level. They cite the fact that random injuries to the brain 
+have been documented that can suddenly change a person of normal 
+ability into a “savant,” one whose spectacular mental and artistic ability"
+"is off the scale. This can be achieved now by random accidents, but what 
+happens when science intervenes and illuminates the secret of this 
+process? 
+
+The brain is wider than the sky 
+For, put them side by side 
+The one the other will contain 
+With ease, and you beside. 
+
+—EMILY DICKINSON 
+
+Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no 
+one else can see. 
+
+—ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER 
+
+6 EINSTEIN’S BRAIN AND ENHANCING OUR 
+INTELLIGENCE 
+
+Albert Einstein’s brain is missing. 
+
+Or, at least it was for fifty years, until the heirs of the doctor who 
+spirited it away shortly after his death in 1955 finally returned it to the 
+National Museum of Health and Medicine in 2010. Analysis of his brain 
+may help clarify these questions: What is genius? How do you measure 
+intelligence and its relationship to success in life? There are also 
+philosophical questions: Is genius a function of our genes, or is it more a 
+question of personal struggle and achievement?"
+"And, finally, Einstein’s brain may help answer the key question: Can 
+we boost our own intelligence? 
+
+The word “Einstein” is no longer a proper noun that refers to a specific 
+person. It now simply means “genius.” The picture that the name 
+conjures up (baggy pants, flaming white hair, disheveled looks) is 
+equally iconic and instantly recognizable. 
+
+The legacy of Einstein has been enormous. When some physicists in 
+2011 raised the possibility that he was wrong, that particles could break 
+the light barrier, it created a firestorm of controversy in the physics 
+world that spilled over into the popular press. The very idea that 
+relativity, which forms the cornerstone of modern physics, could be 
+wrong had physicists around the world shaking their heads. As expected, 
+once the result was recalibrated, Einstein was shown to be right once 
+
+again. It is always dangerous to go up against Einstein."
+"again. It is always dangerous to go up against Einstein. 
+
+One way to gain insight into the question “What is genius?” is to 
+analyze Einstein’s brain. Apparently on the spur of the moment, Dr. 
+Thomas Harvey, the doctor at the Princeton hospital who was 
+performing the autopsy on Einstein, decided to secretly preserve his 
+brain, against the knowledge and wishes of Einstein’s family. 
+
+Perhaps he preserved Einstein’s brain with the vague notion that one 
+day it might unlock the secret of genius. Perhaps he thought, like many 
+
+others, that there was a peculiar part of Einstein’s brain that was the seat 
+of his vast intelligence. Brian Burrell, in his book Postcards from the Brain 
+Museum, speculates that perhaps Dr. Harvey “got caught up in the 
+moment and was transfixed in the presence of greatness. What he 
+quickly discovered was that he had bitten off more than he could chew.”"
+"What happened to Einstein’s brain after that sounds more like a 
+comedy than a science story. Over the years, Dr. Harvey promised to 
+publish his results of analyzing Einstein’s brain. But he was no brain 
+specialist, and kept making excuses. For decades, the brain sat in two 
+large mason jars filled with formaldehyde and placed in a cider box, 
+under a beer cooler. He had a technician slice the brain into 240 pieces, 
+and on rare occasions he would mail a few to scientists who wanted to 
+study them. Once, pieces were mailed to a scientist at Berkeley in a 
+mayonnaise container."
+"Forty years later, Dr. Harvey drove across the country in a Buick 
+Skylark carrying Einstein’s brain in a Tupperware container, hoping to 
+return it to Einstein’s granddaughter Evelyn. She refused to accept it. 
+After Dr. Harvey’s death in 2007, it was left to his heirs to properly 
+donate his collection of slides and portions of Einstein’s brain to science. 
+The history of Einstein’s brain is so unusual that a TV documentary was 
+filmed about it. 
+
+(It should be pointed out that Einstein’s brain was not the only one to 
+be preserved for posterity. The brain of one of the greatest geniuses of 
+mathematics, Carl Friedrich Gauss, often called the Prince of 
+Mathematicians, was also preserved by a doctor a century earlier. Back 
+then, the anatomy of the brain was largely unexplored, and no 
+conclusions could be drawn other than the fact that it had unusually 
+large convolutions or folds.)"
+"One might expect that Einstein’s brain was far beyond an ordinary 
+human’s, that it must have been huge, perhaps with areas that were 
+abnormally large. In fact, the opposite has been found (it is slightly 
+smaller, not larger, than normal). Overall, Einstein’s brain is quite 
+
+ordinary. If a neurologist did not know that this was Einstein��s brain, he 
+probably would not give it a second thought. 
+
+The only differences found in Einstein’s brain were rather minor. A 
+certain part of his brain, called the angular gyri, was larger than normal, 
+with the inferior parietal regions of both hemispheres 15 percent wider"
+"than average. Notably, these parts of the brain are involved in abstract 
+thought, in the manipulation of symbols such as writing and 
+mathematics, and in visual-spatial processing. But his brain was still 
+within the norm, so it is not clear whether the genius of Einstein lay in 
+the organic structure of his brain or in the force of his personality, his 
+outlook, and the times. In a biography that I once wrote of Einstein, 
+titled Einstein’s Cosmos, it was clear to me that certain features of his life 
+were just as important as any anomaly in his brain. Perhaps Einstein 
+himself said it best when he said, “I have no special talents.... I am only 
+passionately curious.” In fact, Einstein would confess that he had to 
+struggle with mathematics in his youth. To one group of schoolchildren, 
+he once confided, “No matter what difficulties you may have with 
+mathematics, mine were greater.” So why was Einstein Einstein?"
+"First, Einstein spent most of his time thinking via “thought 
+experiments.” He was a theoretical physicist, not an experimental one, 
+so he was continually running sophisticated simulations of the future in 
+his head. In other words, his laboratory was his mind."
+"Second, he was known to spend up to ten years or more on a single 
+thought experiment. From the age of sixteen to twenty-six, he focused on 
+the problem of light and whether it was possible to outrace a light beam. 
+This led to the birth of special relativity, which eventually revealed the 
+secret of the stars and gave us the atomic bomb. From the age of twenty- 
+six to thirty-six, he focused on a theory of gravity, which eventually gave 
+us black holes and the big-bang theory of the universe. And then from 
+the age of thirty-six to the end of his life, he tried to find a theory of 
+everything to unify all of physics. Clearly, the ability to spend ten or 
+more years on a single problem showed the tenacity with which he 
+would simulate experiments in his head."
+"Third, his personality was important. He was a bohemian, so it was 
+natural for him to rebel against the establishment in physics. Not every 
+physicist had the nerve or the imagination to challenge the prevailing 
+theory of Isaac Newton, which had held sway for two hundred years 
+before Einstein. 
+
+Fourth, the time was right for the emergence of an Einstein. In 1905, 
+the old physical world of Newton was crumbling in light of experiments 
+that clearly suggested a new physics was about to be born, waiting for a 
+
+genius to show the way. For example, the mysterious substance called 
+
+radium glowed in the dark all by itself indefinitely, as if energy was 
+being created out of thin air, violating the theory of conservation of 
+energy. In other words, Einstein was the right man for the times. If 
+somehow it becomes possible to clone Einstein from the cells in his 
+preserved brain, I suspect that the clone would not be the next Einstein. 
+The historic circumstances must also be right to create a genius."
+"The point here is that genius is perhaps a combination of being born 
+with certain mental abilities and also the determination and drive to 
+achieve great things. The essence of Einstein’s genius was probably his 
+extraordinary ability to simulate the future through thought 
+experiments, creating new physical principles via pictures. As Einstein 
+himself once said, “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but 
+imagination.” And to Einstein, imagination meant shattering the 
+boundaries of the known and entering the domain of the unknown. 
+
+All of us are born with certain abilities that are programmed into our 
+genes and the structure of our brains. That is the luck of the draw. But 
+how we arrange our thoughts and experiences and simulate the future is 
+something that is totally within our control. Charles Darwin himself once 
+wrote, “I have always maintained that, excepting fools, men did not 
+differ much in intellect, only in zeal and hard work.” 
+
+CAN GENIUS BE LEARNED?"
+"CAN GENIUS BE LEARNED? 
+
+This rekindles the question, Are geniuses made or born? How does the 
+nature/nurture debate solve the mystery of intelligence? Can an ordinary 
+person become a genius? 
+
+Since brain cells are notoriously hard to grow, it was once thought 
+that intelligence was fixed by the time we became young adults. But one 
+thing is becoming increasingly clear with new brain research: the brain 
+itself can change when it learns. Although brain cells are not being 
+added in the cortex, the connections between neurons are changing 
+every time a new task is learned. 
+
+For example, scientists in 2011 analyzed the brains of London’s 
+famous taxicab drivers, who have to laboriously memorize twenty-five 
+thousand streets in the dizzying maze that makes up modern London. It 
+takes three to four years to prepare for this arduous test, and only half 
+
+the trainees pass."
+"the trainees pass. 
+
+Scientists at University College London studied the brains of these 
+drivers before they took the test, and then tested them again three to 
+four years afterward. Those trainees who passed the test had a larger 
+volume of gray matter than before, in an area called the posterior and 
+the anterior hippocampus. The hippocampus, as we’ve seen, is where 
+memories are processed. (Curiously, tests also showed that these taxicab 
+drivers scored less than normal on processing visual information, so 
+perhaps there is a trade-off, a price to pay for learning this volume of 
+information.) 
+
+“The human brain remains ‘plastic,’ even in adult life, allowing it to 
+adapt when we learn new tasks,” says Eleanor Maguire of the Wellcome 
+Trust, which funded the study. “This offers encouragement for adults 
+who want to learn new skills later in life.”"
+"Similarly, the brains of mice that have learned many tasks are slightly 
+different from the brains of other mice that have not learned these tasks. 
+It is not so much that the number of neurons has changed, but rather 
+that the nature of the neural connections has been altered by the 
+learning process. In other words, learning actually changes the structure 
+of the brain. 
+
+This raises the old adage “practice makes perfect.” Canadian 
+psychologist Dr. Donald Hebb discovered an important fact about the 
+wiring of the brain: the more we exercise certain skills, the more certain 
+pathways in our brains become reinforced, so the task becomes easier. 
+Unlike a digital computer, which is just as dumb today as it was 
+yesterday, the brain is a learning machine with the ability to rewire its 
+neural pathways every time it learns something. This is a fundamental 
+difference between a digital computer and the brain."
+"This lesson applies not only to London taxicab drivers, but also to 
+accomplished concert musicians as well. According to psychologist Dr. K. 
+Anders Ericsson and colleagues, who studied master violinists at Berlin’s 
+elite Academy of Music, top concert violinists could easily rack up ten 
+thousand hours of grueling practice by the time they were twenty years 
+old, practicing more than thirty hours per week. By contrast, he found 
+that students who were merely exceptional studied only eight thousand 
+hours or fewer, and future music teachers practiced only a total of four 
+thousand hours. Neurologist Daniel Levitin says, “The emerging picture 
+
+from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to 
+achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert— 
+in anything.... In study after study, of composers, basketball players, 
+fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master"
+"criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again.” 
+Malcolm Gladwell, writing in the book Outliers, calls this the “10,000- 
+hour rule.” 
+
+HOW DO YOU MEASURE INTELLIGENCE? 
+
+But how do you measure intelligence? For centuries, any discussion of 
+intelligence relied on hearsay and anecdote. But now MRI studies have 
+shown that the principal activity of the brain while performing these 
+mathematical puzzles involves the pathway connecting the prefrontal 
+cortex (which engages in rational thought) with the parietal lobes 
+(which processes numbers). This correlates with the anatomical studies 
+of Einstein’s brain, which showed that his inferior parietal lobes were 
+larger than normal. So it is conceivable that mathematical ability 
+correlates with increased information flows between the prefrontal 
+cortex and the parietal lobes. But did the brain increase in size in this 
+area because of hard work and study, or was Einstein born that way? 
+The answer is still not clear."
+"The key problem is that there is no uniformly accepted definition of 
+intelligence, let alone a consensus among scientists as to its origin. But 
+the answer may prove critical if we wish to enhance it. 
+
+IQ EXAMS AND DR. TERMAN 
+
+By default, the most widely used measure of intelligence is the IQ exam, 
+pioneered by Dr. Lewis Terman of Stanford University, who in 1916 
+revised an earlier test devised by Alfred Binet for the French 
+government. For the next several decades, it became the gold standard 
+by which to measure intelligence. Terman, in fact, dedicated his life to 
+the proposition that intelligence could be measured and inherited, and 
+was the strongest predictor of success in life. 
+
+Five years later, Terman started a landmark study on schoolchildren,"
+"Five years later, Terman started a landmark study on schoolchildren, 
+
+The Genetic Studies of Genius. It was an ambitious project, whose scope 
+and duration were unprecedented back in the 1920s. It set the tone for 
+research in this field for an entire generation. He methodically 
+chronicled the successes and failures of these individuals throughout 
+their lives, compiling thick files of their achievements. These high-IQ 
+students were dubbed the “Termites.” 
+
+At first, Dr. Terman’s idea seemed to be a resounding success. It"
+"At first, Dr. Terman’s idea seemed to be a resounding success. It 
+
+became the standard by which both children and other tests were 
+measured. During World War I, 1.7 million soldiers were given this test. 
+But over the years, a different profile began to slowly emerge. Decades 
+later, children who scored high on the IQ exam were only moderately 
+more successful than those who did not. Terman could proudly point to 
+some of his students who went on to win awards and secure well-paying 
+jobs. But he became increasingly disturbed by the large number of his 
+brightest students whom society would consider to be failures, taking 
+menial, dead-end jobs, engaging in crime, or leading lives on the 
+margins of society. These results were quite upsetting to Dr. Terman, 
+who had dedicated his life to proving that high IQ meant success in life. 
+
+SUCCESS IN LIFE AND DELAYED GRATIFICATION"
+"SUCCESS IN LIFE AND DELAYED GRATIFICATION 
+
+A different approach was taken in 1972 by Dr. Walter Mischel, also of 
+Stanford, who analyzed yet another characteristic among children: the 
+ability to delay gratification. He pioneered the use of the “marshmallow 
+test,” that is, would children prefer one marshmallow now, or the 
+prospect of two marsh-mallows twenty minutes later? Six hundred 
+children, aged four to six, participated in this experiment. When Mischel 
+revisited the participants in 1988, he found that those who could delay 
+gratification were more competent than those who could not."
+"In 1990, another study showed a direct correlation between those who 
+could delay gratification and SAT scores. And a study done in 2011 
+indicated that this characteristic continued throughout a person’s life. 
+The results of these and other studies were eye-opening. The children 
+who exhibited delayed gratification scored higher on almost every 
+measure of success in life: higher-paying jobs, lower rates of drug 
+addiction, higher test scores, higher educational attainment, better social 
+
+integration, etc."
+"integration, etc. 
+
+But what was most intriguing was that brain scans of these individuals 
+revealed a definite pattern. They showed a distinct difference in the way 
+the prefrontal cortex interacted with the ventral striatum, a region 
+involved in addiction. (This is not surprising, since the ventral striatum 
+contains the nucleus accumbens, known as the “pleasure center.” So 
+there seems to be a struggle here between the pleasure-seeking part of 
+the brain and the rational part to control temptation, as we saw in 
+Chapter 2.) 
+
+This difference was no fluke. The result has been tested by many 
+independent groups over the years, with nearly identical results. Other 
+studies have also verified the difference in the frontal-striatal circuitry of 
+
+the brain, which appears to govern delayed gratification. It seems that 
+the one characteristic most closely correlated with success in life, which 
+has persisted over the decades, is the ability to delay gratification."
+"Although this is a gross simplification, what these brain scans show is 
+that the connection between the prefrontal and parietal lobes seems to 
+be important for mathematical and abstract thought, while the 
+connection between the prefrontal and limbic system (involving the 
+conscious control of our emotions and pleasure center) seems to be 
+essential for success in life. 
+
+Dr. Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin- 
+Madison, concludes, “Your grades in school, your scores on the SAT, 
+mean less for life success than your capacity to co-operate, your ability 
+to regulate your emotions, your capacity to delay your gratification, and 
+your capacity to focus your attention. Those skills are far more 
+important—all the data indicate—for life success than your IQ or your 
+grades.” 
+
+NEW MEASURES OF INTELLIGENCE"
+"NEW MEASURES OF INTELLIGENCE 
+
+Clearly there have to be new ways to measure intelligence and success in 
+life. IQ exams are not useless, but they measure only one limited form of 
+intelligence. Dr. Michael Sweeney, author of Brain: The Complete Mind, 
+notes, “Tests don’t measure motivation, persistence, social skills, and a 
+host of other attributes of a life that’s well lived.”"
+"The problem with many of these standardized tests is that there may 
+also be a subconscious bias due to cultural influences. In addition, these 
+tests are evaluating only one particular form of intelligence, which some 
+psychologists call “convergent” intelligence. Convergent intelligence 
+focuses on one line of thought, ignoring the more complex “divergent” 
+form of intelligence, which involves measuring differing factors. For 
+example, during World War II, the U.S. Army Air Forces asked scientists 
+to devise a psychological exam that would measure a pilot’s intelligence 
+and ability to handle difficult, unexpected situations. One question was: 
+If you are shot down deep in enemy territory and must somehow make it 
+back to friendly lines, what do you do? The results contradicted 
+conventional thinking."
+"Most psychologists expected that the air force study would show that 
+pilots with high IQs would score highly on this test as well. Actually, the 
+reverse was true. The pilots who scored highest were the ones with 
+higher levels of divergent thinking, who could see through many 
+different lines of thought. Pilots who excelled at this, for example, were 
+able to think up a variety of unorthodox and imaginative methods to 
+
+escape after they were captured behind enemy lines."
+"escape after they were captured behind enemy lines. 
+
+The difference between convergent and divergent thinking is also 
+reflected in studies on split-brain patients, which clearly show that each 
+hemisphere of the brain is principally hardwired for one or the other. Dr. 
+Ulrich Kraft of Fulda, Germany, writes, “The left hemisphere is 
+responsible for convergent thinking and the right hemisphere for 
+divergent thinking. The left side examines details and processes them 
+logically and analytically but lacks a sense of overriding, abstract 
+connections. The right side is more imaginative and intuitive and tends 
+to work holistically, integrating pieces of an informational puzzle into a 
+whole.”"
+"In this book, I take the position that human consciousness involves the 
+ability to create a model of the world and then simulate the model into 
+the future, in order to attain a goal. Pilots who demonstrated divergent 
+thinking were able to simulate many possible future events accurately 
+and with more complexity. Similarly, the children who mastered delayed 
+gratification in the famous marshmallow test appear to be the ones who 
+had the most ability to simulate the future, to see the long-term rewards 
+and not just the short-term, get-rich-quick schemes."
+"A more sophisticated intelligence exam that directly quantifies a 
+person’s ability to simulate the future would be difficult but not 
+impossible to create. A person could be asked to create as many realistic 
+scenarios for the future as possible to win a game, with a score assigned 
+depending on the number of simulations the person can imagine and the 
+number of causal links involved with each one. Instead of measuring a 
+person’s ability to simply assimilate information, this new method would 
+measure a person’s ability to manipulate and mold this information to 
+achieve a higher goal. For example, a person might be asked to figure 
+out how to escape from a deserted island full of hungry wild animals and 
+poisonous snakes. He would have to list all the various ways to survive, 
+fend off the dangerous animals, and leave the island, creating an 
+elaborate causal tree of possible outcomes and futures."
+"So we see that there is a common thread running through all this 
+discussion, and that is that intelligence seems to be correlated with the 
+complexity with which we can simulate future events, which correlates 
+with our earlier discussion of consciousness. 
+
+But given the rapid advances taking place in the world’s laboratories 
+concerning electromagnetic fields, genetics, and drug therapies, is it 
+possible not just to measure our intelligence, but to enhance it as well— 
+to become another Einstein? 
+
+BOOSTING OUR INTELLIGENCE 
+
+This possibility was explored in the novel Flowers for Algernon (1958), 
+later made into the Academy Award-winning movie Charly (1968). In it, 
+we follow the sad life of Charly Gordon, who has an IQ of 68 and a 
+menial job in a bakery. He lives a simple life, fails to understand that his 
+fellow workers are constantly making fun of him, and does not even 
+know how to spell his own name."
+"His only friend is Alice, a teacher who takes pity on him and tries to 
+teach him to read. But one day, scientists discover a new procedure that 
+can suddenly make ordinary mice intelligent. Alice hears about this and 
+decides to introduce Charly to these scientists, who agree to perform the 
+procedure on their first human subject. Within weeks, Charly has 
+noticeably changed. His vocabulary increases, he devours books from the 
+
+library, he becomes something of a ladies’ man, and his room explodes 
+with modern art. Soon he begins to read about relativity and the 
+quantum theory, pushing the boundaries of advanced physics. He and 
+Alice even become lovers."
+"But then the doctors notice that the mice have slowly lost their ability 
+and died. Realizing that he, too, might lose everything, Charly furiously 
+tries to use his superior intellect to find a cure, but instead he’s forced to 
+witness his own inexorable decline. His vocabulary shrinks, he forgets 
+mathematics and physics, and he slowly reverts back to his old self. In 
+the final scene, a heartbroken Alice watches as Charly plays with 
+children. 
+
+The novel and movie, although poignant and critically acclaimed, 
+were dismissed as sheer science fiction. The plot was moving and 
+original, but the idea of boosting one’s intelligence was considered 
+preposterous. Brain cells cannot regenerate, scientists said, so this 
+movie’s plot was obviously impossible. 
+
+But not anymore."
+"But not anymore. 
+
+Although it is still impossible to boost your intelligence, rapid 
+advances are being made in electromagnetic sensors, genetics, and stem 
+cells that may one day make this a real possibility. In particular, 
+scientific interest has focused on “autistic savants,” who possess 
+phenomenal, superhuman abilities that stagger the imagination. More 
+important, due to specific injuries to the brain, normal people can 
+rapidly acquire such near-miraculous powers. Some scientists even 
+believe that these uncanny abilities might be induced using 
+electromagnetic fields. 
+
+SAVANTS: SUPER GENIUSES? 
+
+A bullet went crashing through the skull of Mr. Z when he was nine 
+years old. It did not kill him, as his doctors feared, but wreaked 
+extensive damage to the left side of his brain, causing paralysis of the 
+right side of his body and leaving him permanently deaf and mute."
+"However, the bullet also had a bizarre side effect. Mr. Z developed 
+supernormal mechanical abilities and a prodigious memory, typical of 
+“savants.” 
+
+Mr. Z is not alone. In 1979, a ten-year-old boy named Orlando Serrell 
+was knocked unconscious by a baseball that hit the left side of his head. 
+At first, he complained of severe headaches. But after the pain subsided, 
+he was able to do remarkable mathematical calculations and had a near¬ 
+photographic memory of certain events happening in his life. He could 
+calculate dates thousands of years into the future. 
+
+In the entire world of roughly seven billion people, there are only 
+about one hundred documented cases of these astounding savants. (The 
+number is much larger if we include those whose mental skills are still 
+extraordinary but not superhuman. It is believed that about 10 percent 
+of autistic individuals show some savant capabilities.) These 
+extraordinary savants possess abilities far beyond our current scientific 
+understanding."
+"There are several types of savants that have recently elicited the 
+curiosity of scientists. About half of savants have some form of autism 
+(the other half display other forms of mental illness or psychological 
+disorder). They often have profound problems interacting socially, 
+leading to deep isolation. 
+
+Then there is the “acquired savant syndrome,” in which people who 
+appear perfectly normal suffer from some extreme trauma later in life 
+(e.g., hitting their head on the bottom of a swimming pool or being 
+struck by a baseball or a bullet), almost always on the left side of their 
+brain. Some scientists, however, suggest that this distinction is 
+misleading, that perhaps all savant skills are acquired. Since autistic 
+savants begin to show their abilities around age three or four, perhaps 
+their autism (like a blow to their head) is the origin of their abilities."
+"There is scientific disagreement about the origin of these extraordinary 
+abilities. Some believe that these individuals are simply born this way 
+and hence are unique, one-of-a-kind anomalies. Their skills, even if 
+
+awakened by a bullet, are hardwired into their brains from birth. If so, 
+then perhaps this skill can never be learned or transferred. 
+
+Others claim that such hardwiring violates the theory of evolution, 
+which takes place incrementally over long periods of time. If savant 
+geniuses exist, then the rest of us must also possess similar abilities, 
+although they are latent. Does this mean, then, that one day we might be 
+able to turn on these miraculous powers at will? Some believe so, and 
+there are even published papers claiming that some savant skills are"
+"latent in all of us and can be brought to light using the magnetic fields 
+generated by an electromagnetic scanner (TES). Or perhaps there is a 
+genetic basis to this skill, in which case gene therapy might re-create 
+these astonishing abilities. It might also be possible to cultivate stem 
+cells that would allow neurons to grow in the prefrontal cortex and other 
+key centers of the brain. Then we might be able to increase our mental 
+abilities. 
+
+All these avenues are the source of much speculation and research. 
+Not only might they allow doctors to reverse the ravages of diseases like 
+Alzheimer’s, but they could also enable us to enhance our own 
+intelligence. The possibilities are intriguing."
+"The first documented case of a savant was recorded in 1789 by Dr. 
+Benjamin Rush, who studied an individual who seemed to be mentally 
+handicapped. Yet when he was asked how many seconds a man had 
+lived (who was seventy years, seventeen days, and twelve hours old), it 
+took him only ninety seconds to give the correct answer of 
+2,210,500,800. 
+
+Dr. Darold Treffert, a Wisconsin physician, has studied these savants at 
+length. He recites one story of a blind savant who was asked a simple 
+question. If you put one corn kernel in the first square of a chess board, 
+two kernels in the second, four in the next, and keep doubling after that, 
+how many kernels would you have on the sixty-fourth square? It took 
+him just forty-five seconds to correctly reply: 
+18,446,744,073,709,551,616."
+"Perhaps the best-known example of a savant was the late Kim Peek, 
+who was the inspiration for the movie Rain Man, starring Dustin 
+Hoffman and Tom Cruise. Although Kim Peek was severely mentally 
+handicapped (he was incapable of living by himself and could barely tie 
+his shoelaces or button his shirt), he memorized about twelve thousand 
+books and could recite lines from them, word for word, on any particular 
+page. It took him about eight seconds to read a page. (He could 
+memorize a book in about half an hour, but he read them in an unusual 
+way. He could read both pages simultaneously, using each eye to read a 
+
+different page at the same time.) Although incredibly shy, he eventually 
+began to enjoy performing dazzling feats of mathematics before curious 
+onlookers, who would try to challenge him with tricky questions. 
+
+Scientists, of course, have to be careful in distinguishing true savant"
+"skills from simple memorization tricks. Their skills are not just 
+mathematical—they also extend to incredible musical, artistic, and 
+mechanical capabilities. Since autistic savants have great difficulty 
+verbally expressing their mental processes, another avenue is to 
+investigate individuals who have Asperger’s syndrome, which is a milder 
+form of autism. Only in 1994 was Asperger’s syndrome recognized as a 
+distinct psychological condition, so there is very little solid research in 
+this area. Like autistic individuals, people with Asperger’s have a 
+difficult time interacting socially with others. However, with proper 
+training, they can learn enough social skills to hold down a job and 
+articulate their mental processes. And a fraction of them have 
+remarkable savant skills. Some scientists believe that many great 
+scientists had Asperger’s syndrome. This might explain the strange, 
+reclusive nature of physicists like Isaac Newton and Paul Dirac (one of"
+"reclusive nature of physicists like Isaac Newton and Paul Dirac (one of 
+the founders of the quantum theory). Newton, in particular, was 
+pathologically incapable of small talk."
+"I had the pleasure of interviewing one such individual, Daniel 
+Tammet, who has written a best seller, Bom on a Blue Day. Almost alone 
+among these remarkable savants, he is able to articulate his thoughts in 
+books, on the radio, and in TV interviews. For someone who had such 
+difficulty relating to others as a child, he now has a superb grasp of 
+communication skills. 
+
+Daniel has the distinction of setting a world record for memorizing pi, 
+a fundamental number in geometry. He was able to memorize it to 
+22,514 decimal places. I asked him how he prepared for such a 
+herculean feat. Daniel told me that he associates a color or texture with 
+every number. Then I asked him the key question: If every digit has a 
+color or texture, then how does he remember tens of thousands of them? 
+Sadly, at that point he said he doesn’t know. It just comes to him. 
+Numbers have been his life ever since he was a child, and hence they 
+simply appear in his mind. His mind is a constant mixture of numbers 
+and colors."
+"ASPERGER’S AND SILICON VALLEY 
+
+So far, this discussion may seem abstract, without any direct bearing on 
+
+our daily lives. But the impact of people with mild autism and Asperger’s 
+may be more widespread than previously thought, especially in certain 
+high-tech fields. 
+
+In the hit television series The Big Bang Theory, we follow the antics of 
+several young scientists, mainly nerdy physicists, in their awkward quest 
+for female companionship. In every episode, there is a hilarious incident 
+that reveals how clueless and pathetic they are in this endeavor."
+"There is a tacit assumption running through the series that their 
+intellectual brilliance is matched only by their geekiness. And 
+anecdotally, people have noticed that among the high-tech gurus in 
+Silicon Valley, a higher percentage than normal seem to lack some social 
+skills. (There is a saying among women scientists who attend highly 
+specialized engineering universities, where the girl-to-guy ratio is 
+decidedly in their favor: “The odds are good, but the goods are odd.”) 
+
+Scientists set out to investigate this suspicion. The hypothesis is that 
+people with Asperger’s and other mild forms of autism have mental skills 
+ideally suited for certain fields, like the information technology industry. 
+Scientists at University College London examined sixteen people who 
+were diagnosed with a mild form of autism and compared them with 
+sixteen normal individuals. Both groups were shown slides containing 
+random numbers and letters arranged in increasingly complex patterns."
+"Their results showed that people with autism had a superior ability to 
+focus on the task. In fact, as the tasks became harder, the gap between 
+the intellectual skills of both groups began to widen, with the autistic 
+individuals performing significantly better than the control group. (The 
+test, however, also showed that these individuals were more easily 
+distracted by outside noises and blinking lights than the control group.) 
+
+Dr. Nilli Lavie says, “Our study confirms our hypothesis that people 
+with autism have higher perceptual capacity compared to the typical 
+population.... People with autism are able to perceive significantly more 
+information than the typical adult.” 
+
+This certainly does not prove that all people who are intellectually 
+brilliant have some form of Asperger’s. But it does indicate that fields 
+requiring the ability to focus intellectually might have a higher 
+proportion of people with Asperger’s. 
+
+BRAIN SCANS OF SAVANTS"
+"BRAIN SCANS OF SAVANTS 
+
+The subject of savants has always been shrouded in hearsay and amazing 
+anecdotal stories. But recently, the entire field has been turned upside 
+down with the development of MRI and other brain scans. 
+
+Kim Peek’s brain, for example, was unusual. MRI scans show that it 
+lacked the corpus callosum connecting the left and right brain, which is 
+probably why he could read two pages at the same time. His poor motor 
+skills were reflected in a deformed cerebellum, the area that controls 
+balance. Unfortunately, MRI scans could not reveal the exact origin of 
+his extraordinary abilities and photographic memory. But in general, 
+brain scans have shown that many suffering from acquired savant 
+syndrome have experienced damage to their left brain."
+"In particular, interest has focused on the left anterior temporal and 
+orbitofrontal cortices. Some believe that perhaps all savant skills 
+(autistic, acquired, and Asperger’s) arise from damage to this very 
+specific spot in the left temporal lobe. This area can act like a “censor” 
+that periodically flushes out irrelevant memories. But after damage 
+occurs to the left hemisphere, the right hemisphere starts to take over. 
+The right brain is much more precise than the left brain, which often 
+distorts reality and confabulates. In fact, it is believed that the right 
+brain must work extra hard because of damage to the left brain, and 
+hence savant skills develop as a consequence. For example, the right 
+brain is much more artistic than the left brain. Normally, the left brain 
+restricts this talent and holds it in check. But if the left brain is injured in 
+a certain way, it may unleash the artistic abilities latent in the right 
+brain, causing an explosion of artistic talent. So the key to unleashing"
+"brain, causing an explosion of artistic talent. So the key to unleashing 
+savant capabilities might be to dampen the left brain so that it can no 
+longer restrain the natural talents of the right brain. This is sometimes 
+referred to as “left brain injury, right brain compensation.”"
+"In 1998, Dr. Bruce Miller of the University of California at San 
+Francisco performed a series of studies that seem to back this idea up. 
+He and coworkers studied five normal individuals who began to show 
+signs of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). As their dementia started to 
+progress, savant abilities gradually began to emerge. As their dementia 
+got worse, several of these individuals began to exhibit even more 
+extraordinary artistic ability, although none had shown gifts in this area 
+
+before. Moreover, the abilities they exhibited were typical of savant 
+behavior. Their abilities were visual, not auditory, and their artworks, 
+remarkable as they were, were just copies lacking any original, abstract, 
+or symbolic qualities. (One patient actually got better during the study. 
+But her emerging savant skills were also reduced as a consequence. This 
+suggests a close relationship between emerging disorders of the left 
+temporal lobe and emerging savant skills.)"
+"Dr. Miller’s analysis seemed to show that degeneration of the left 
+anterior temporal and orbitofrontal cortices probably decreased 
+inhibition of the visual systems in the right hemisphere, thereby 
+increasing artistic abilities. Again, damaging the left hemisphere in a 
+particular location forced the right hemisphere to take over and develop."
+"In addition to the savants, MRI scans have also been done on people 
+with hyperthymestic syndrome, who also have photographic memories. 
+These people do not suffer from autism and mental disorders, but they 
+share some of their skills. In the entire United States, there are only four 
+documented cases of true photographic memory. One of them is Jill 
+Price, a school administrator in Los Angeles. She can recall precisely 
+what she was doing on any particular day going back decades. But she 
+complains that she finds it difficult to erase certain thoughts. Indeed, her 
+brain seems to be “stuck on autopilot.” She compares her memory to 
+watching the world through a split screen, in which the past and present 
+are constantly competing for her attention."
+"Since 2000, scientists at the University of California at Irvine have 
+scanned her brain, and they’ve found it to be unusual. Several regions 
+were larger than normal, such as the caudate nuclei (which is involved 
+with forming habits) and the temporal lobe (which stores facts and 
+figures). It is theorized that these two areas work in tandem to create her 
+photographic memory. Her brain is therefore different from the brains of 
+savants who suffer an injury or damage to their left temporal lobe. The 
+reason is unknown, but it points to another path by which one may 
+obtain these fantastic mental abilities. 
+
+CAN WE BECOME SAVANTS? 
+
+All this raises the intriguing possibility that one might be able to 
+
+deliberately deactivate parts of the left brain and thereby increase the 
+activity of the right brain, forcing it to acquire savant capabilities."
+"We recall that transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, allows one 
+to effectively silence parts of the brain. If so, then why can’t we silence 
+this part of the left anterior temporal and orbitofrontal cortices using the 
+TMS and turn on a savantlike genius at will? 
+
+This idea has actually been tried. Dr. Allan Snyder of the University of 
+Sydney, Australia, made headlines a few years ago when he claimed 
+that, by applying the TMS to a certain part of the left brain, his subjects 
+could suddenly perform savantlike feats. By directing low-frequency 
+magnetic waves into the left hemisphere, one can in principle turn off"
+"this dominant region of the brain so that the right hemisphere takes 
+over. Dr. Synder and his colleagues did an experiment with eleven male 
+volunteers. They applied the TMS to the subjects’ left frontotemporal 
+region while the subjects were performing tests involving reading and 
+drawing. This did not produce savant skills among the subjects, but two 
+of them had significant improvements in their ability to proofread words 
+and recognize duplicated words. In another experiment, Dr. R. L. Young 
+and his colleagues gave a battery of psychological tests to seventeen 
+individuals. The tests were specifically designed to test for savant skills. 
+(Tests of this sort analyze a person’s ability to memorize facts, 
+manipulate numbers and dates, create artwork, or perform music.) Five 
+of the subjects reported improvement in savantlike skills after treatment 
+with TMS."
+"Dr. Michael Sweeney has observed, “When applied to the prefrontal 
+lobes, TMS has been shown to enhance the speed and agility of cognitive 
+processing. The TMS bursts are like a localized jolt of caffeine, but 
+nobody knows for sure how the magnets actually do their work.” These 
+experiments hint, but by no means prove, that silencing a part of the left 
+frontotemporal region could initiate some enhanced skills. These skills 
+are a far cry from savant abilities, and we should also be careful to point 
+out that other groups have looked into these experiments, and the results 
+have been inconclusive. More experimental work must be done, so it is 
+still too early to render a final judgment one way or the other. 
+
+TMS probes are the easiest and most convenient instrument to use for 
+this purpose, since they can selectively silence various parts of the brain 
+at will without relying on brain damage and traumatic accidents. But it"
+"should also be noted that TMS probes are still crude, silencing millions 
+of neurons at a time. Magnetic fields, unlike electrical probes, are not 
+precise but spread out over several centimeters. We know that the left 
+anterior temporal and orbitofrontal cortices are damaged in savants and 
+likely responsible, at least in some part, for their unique abilities, but 
+perhaps the specific area that must be dampened is an even smaller 
+subregion. So each jolt of TMS might inadvertently deactivate some of 
+the areas that need to remain intact in order to produce savantlike skills."
+"In the future, with TMS probes we might be able to narrow down the 
+region of the brain involved with eliciting savant skills. Once this region 
+is identified, the next step would be to use highly accurate electrical 
+probes, like those used in deep brain stimulation, to dampen these areas 
+even more precisely. Then, with the push of a button, it might be 
+possible to use these probes to silence this tiny portion of the brain in 
+order to bring out savantlike skills. 
+
+FORGETTING TO FORGET AND PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY 
+
+Although savant skills may be initiated by some sort of injury to the left 
+brain (leading to right brain compensation), this still does not explain 
+precisely how the right brain can perform these miraculous feats of 
+memory. By what neural mechanism does photographic memory 
+emerge? The answer to this question may determine whether we can 
+become savants."
+"Until recently, it was thought that photographic memory was due to 
+the special ability of certain brains to remember. If so, then it might be 
+difficult for the average person to learn these memory skills, since only 
+exceptional brains are capable of them. But in 2012, a new study showed 
+that precisely the opposite may be true. 
+
+The key to photographic memory may not be the ability of remarkable 
+brains to learn; on the contrary, it may be their inability to forget. If this 
+is true, then perhaps photographic memory is not such a mysterious 
+thing after all. 
+
+The new study was done by scientists at the Scripps Research Institute 
+in Florida who were working with fruit flies. They found an interesting 
+way in which these fruit flies learn, which may overturn a cherished idea 
+
+of how memories are formed and forgotten. The fruit flies were exposed 
+to different smells and were given positive reinforcement (with food) or 
+negative reinforcement (with electric shocks)."
+"The scientists knew that the neurotransmitter dopamine was important 
+to forming memories. To their surprise, they found that dopamine 
+actively regulates both the formation and the forgetting of new 
+memories. In the process of creating new memories, the dCAl receptor 
+was activated. By contrast, forgetting was initiated by the activation of 
+the DAMB receptor. 
+
+Previously, it was thought that forgetting might be simply the 
+degradation of memories with time, which happens passively by itself. 
+This new study shows that forgetting is an active process, requiring 
+intervention by dopamine. 
+
+To prove their point, they showed that by interfering with the action 
+of the dCAl and DAMB receptors, they could, at will, increase or 
+decrease the ability of fruit flies to remember and forget. A mutation in 
+the dCAl receptor, for example, impaired the ability of the fruit flies to 
+remember. A mutation in the DAMB receptor decreased their ability to 
+forget."
+"The researchers speculate that this effect, in turn, may be partially 
+responsible for savants’ skills. Perhaps there is a deficiency in their 
+ability to forget. One of the graduate students involved in the study, 
+Jacob Berry, says, “Savants have a high capacity for memory. But maybe 
+it isn’t memory that gives them this capacity; maybe they have a bad 
+forgetting mechanism. This might also be the strategy for developing 
+drugs to promote cognition and memory—what about drugs that inhibit 
+forgetting as a cognitive enhancers?” 
+
+Assuming that this result holds up in human experiments as well, it 
+could encourage scientists to develop new drugs and neurotransmitters 
+that are able to dampen the forgetting process. One might thus be able 
+to selectively turn on photographic memories when needed by 
+neutralizing the forgetting process. In this way, we wouldn’t have the 
+continuous overflow of extraneous, useless information, which hinders 
+the thinking of people with savant syndrome."
+"What is also exciting is the possibility that the BRAIN project, which is 
+being championed by the Obama administration, might be able to 
+identify the specific pathways involved with acquired savant syndrome. 
+
+Transcranial magnetic fields are still too crude to pin down the handful 
+of neurons that may be involved. But using nanoprobes and the latest in 
+scanning technologies, the BRAIN project might be able to isolate the 
+precise neural pathways that make possible photographic memory and 
+incredible computational, artistic, and musical skills. Billions of research 
+dollars will be channeled into identifying the specific neural pathways 
+involved with mental disease and other afflictions of the brain, and the 
+secret of savant skills may be revealed in the process. Then it might be 
+possible to take normal individuals and make savants out of them. This 
+has happened many times in the past because of random accidents. In 
+the future, this may become a precise medical process. Time will tell."
+"So far, the methods analyzed here do not alter the nature of the brain 
+or the body. The hope is that through the use of magnetic fields, we will 
+be able to unleash the potential that already exists in our brains but is 
+latent. The philosophy underlying this idea is that we are all savants 
+waiting to happen, and it will just take some slight alteration of our 
+neural circuits to unleash this hidden talent. 
+
+Yet another tactic is to directly alter the brain and the genes, using the 
+latest in brain science and also genetics. One promising method is to use 
+stem cells. 
+
+STEM CELLS FOR THE BRAIN"
+"STEM CELLS FOR THE BRAIN 
+
+It was dogma for many decades that brain cells do not regenerate. It 
+seemed impossible that you could repair old, dying brain cells, or grow 
+new ones to boost your abilities, but all this changed in 1998. That year, 
+it was discovered that adult stem cells could be found in the 
+hippocampus, the olfactory bulb, and the caudate nucleus. In brief, stem 
+cells are the “mother of all cells.” Embryonic stem cells, for instance, can 
+readily develop into any other cell. Although each of our cells contains 
+all the genetic material necessary to construct a human being, only 
+embryonic stem cells have the ability to actually differentiate into any 
+type of cell in the body. 
+
+Adult stem cells have lost that chameleon-like ability, but they can 
+still reproduce and replace old, dying cells. As far as memory 
+enhancement goes, interest has focused on adult stem cells in the"
+"hippocampus. It turns out that thousands of new hippocampus cells are 
+born naturally each day, but most die soon afterward. However, it was 
+shown that rats that learned new skills retained more of their new cells. 
+A combination of exercise and mood-elevating chemicals can also boost 
+the survival rate of new hippocampus cells. It turns out that stress, on 
+the contrary, accelerates the death of new neurons."
+"In 2007, a breakthrough occurred when scientists in Wisconsin and 
+Japan were able to take ordinary human skin cells, reprogram their 
+genes, and turn them into stem cells. The hope is that these stem cells, 
+either found naturally or converted using genetic engineering, can one 
+day be injected into the brains of Alzheimer’s patients to replace dying 
+cells. (These new brain cells, because they do not yet have the proper 
+connections, would not be integrated into the brain’s neural architecture. 
+This means that a person would have to relearn certain skills to 
+incorporate these fresh new neurons.) 
+
+Stem cell research is naturally one of the most active areas in brain 
+research. “Stem cell research and regenerative medicine are in an 
+extremely exciting phase right now. We are gaining knowledge very fast 
+and many companies are being formed and are starting clinical trials in 
+different areas,” says Sweden’s Jonas Frisen of the Karolinska Institute. 
+
+GENETICS OF INTELLIGENCE"
+"GENETICS OF INTELLIGENCE 
+
+In addition to stem cells, another avenue of exploration involves 
+isolating the genes responsible for human intelligence. Biologists note 
+that we are about 98.5 percent genetically identical to a chimpanzee, yet 
+
+we live twice as long and have exploded in intellectual skills in the past 
+six million years. So among a handful of genes there must be the ones 
+responsible for giving us the human brain. Within a few years, scientists 
+will have a complete map of all these genetic differences, and the secret 
+to human longevity and enhanced intelligence may be found within this 
+tiny set. Scientists have focused on a few genes that possibly drove the 
+evolution of the human brain. 
+
+So perhaps the clue to revealing the secret of intelligence lies in our 
+understanding of our apelike ancestors. This raises another question: Can 
+this research make possible the Planet of the Apes ?"
+"In this long-running series of movies, a nuclear war destroys modern 
+civilization. Humanity is reduced to barbarism, but the radiation 
+somehow accelerates the evolution of the other primates, so that they 
+become the dominant species on the planet. They create an advanced 
+civilization, while humans are reduced to scruffy, smelly savages 
+roaming half naked in the forest. At best, humans become zoo animals. 
+The tables have turned on the humans, so the apes gawk at us outside 
+the bars of our cages."
+"In the latest installment, The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, scientists are 
+looking for a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Along the way, they stumble 
+on a virus that has the unintended consequence of increasing a 
+chimpanzee’s intelligence. Unfortunately, one of these enhanced apes is 
+treated cruelly when placed in a shelter for primates. Using his increased 
+intelligence, the ape breaks free, infects the other lab animals with the 
+virus to raise their intelligence, and then frees all of them from their 
+cages. Soon a caravan of shouting, intelligent apes runs amok on the 
+Golden Gate Bridge, completely overwhelming local and state police. 
+After a spectacular, harrowing confrontation with the authorities, the 
+movie ends with the apes peacefully finding refuge in a redwood forest 
+north of the bridge."
+"Is such a scenario realistic? In the short term, no, but it can’t be ruled 
+out in the future, since scientists in the coming years should be able to 
+catalog all the genetic changes that created Homo sapiens. But many 
+more mysteries have to be solved before we have intelligent apes. 
+
+One scientist who has been fascinated not by science fiction, but by 
+the genetics of what makes us “human,” is Dr. Katherine Pollard, an 
+expert in a field called “bioinformatics,” which barely existed a decade 
+ago. In this field of biology, instead of cutting open animals to 
+understand how they are put together, researchers use the vast power of 
+computers to mathematically analyze the genes in animals’ bodies. She 
+has been at the forefront of finding the genes that define the essence of 
+what separates us from the apes. Back in 2003, as a freshly minted Ph.D. 
+
+from the University of California at Berkeley, she got her chance."
+"from the University of California at Berkeley, she got her chance. 
+
+“I jumped at the opportunity to join the international team that was 
+identifying the sequence of DNA bases, or ‘letters,’ in the genome of the 
+common chimpanzee,” she recalled. Her goal was clear. She knew that 
+only fifteen million base pairs, or “letters,” that make up our genome 
+
+(out of three billion base pairs) separate us from the chimps, our closest 
+genetic neighbor. (Each “letter” in our genetic code refers to a nucleic 
+acid, of which there are four, labeled A,T,C, and G. So our genome 
+consists of three billion letters, arranged like ATTCCAGGG....) 
+
+“I was determined to find them,” she wrote."
+"“I was determined to find them,” she wrote. 
+
+Isolating these genes could have enormous implications for our future. 
+Once we know the genes that gave rise to Homo sapiens, it becomes 
+possible to determine how humans evolved. The secret of intelligence 
+might lie in these genes. It might even be possible to accelerate the path 
+taken by evolution and even enhance our intelligence. But even fifteen 
+million base pairs is a huge number to analyze. How can you find a 
+handful of genetic needles out of this genetic haystack?"
+"Dr. Pollard knew that most of our genome is made of “junk DNA” that 
+does not contain any genes and was largely unaffected by evolution. This 
+junk DNA slowly mutates at a known rate (roughly 1 percent of it 
+changes over four million years). Since we differ from the chimps in our 
+DNA by 1.5 percent, this means that we probably separated from the 
+chimpanzees about six million years ago. Hence there is a “molecular 
+clock” in each of our cells. And since evolution accelerates this mutation 
+rate, analyzing where this acceleration took place allows you to tell 
+which genes are driving evolution. 
+
+Dr. Pollard reasoned that if she could write a computer program that 
+could find where most of these accelerated changes are located in our 
+genome, she could isolate precisely the genes that gave birth to Homo 
+sapiens. After months of hard work and debugging, she finally placed her 
+program into the giant computers located at the University of California 
+at Santa Cruz. Anxiously she awaited the results."
+"When the computer printout finally arrived, it showed what she was 
+looking for: there are 201 regions of our genome showing accelerated 
+change. But the first one on her list caught her attention. 
+
+“With my mentor David Haussler leaning over my shoulder, I looked 
+at the top hit, a stretch of 118 bases that together became known as 
+human accelerated region 1 (HAR1),” she recalled. 
+
+She was ecstatic. Bingo! 
+
+“We had hit the jackpot,” she would write. It was a dream come true. 
+
+She was staring at an area of our genome containing only 118 base 
+pairs, with the largest divergence of mutations separating us from the 
+
+apes. Of these base pairs, only eighteen mutations were altered since we 
+became human. Her remarkable discovery showed that a small handful 
+of mutations could be responsible for raising us from the swamp of our 
+genetic past."
+"Next she and her colleagues tried to decipher the precise nature of this 
+mysterious cluster called HAR1. They found that HAR1 was remarkably 
+stable across millions of years of evolution. Primates separated from 
+chickens about three hundred million years ago, yet only two base pairs 
+differ between chimps and chickens. So HAR1 was virtually unchanged 
+for several hundred million years, with only two changes, in the letters G 
+and C. Yet in just six million years, HAR1 mutated eighteen times, 
+representing a huge acceleration in our evolution."
+"But what was more intriguing was the role HAR1 played in controlling 
+the overall layout of the cerebral cortex, which is famous for its wrinkled 
+appearance. A defect in the HAR1 region causes a disorder called 
+“lissencephaly,” or “smooth brain,” causing the cortex to fold 
+incorrectly. (Defects in this region are also linked to schizophrenia.) 
+Besides the large size of our cerebral cortex, one of its main 
+characteristics is that it is highly wrinkled and convoluted, vastly 
+increasing its surface area and hence its computational power. Dr. 
+Pollard’s work showed that changing just eighteen letters in our genome 
+was partially responsible for one of the major, defining genetic changes 
+in human history, vastly increasing our intelligence. (Recall that the 
+brain of Carl Friedrich Gauss, one of the greatest mathematicians in 
+history, was preserved after his death and showed unusual wrinkling.)"
+"Dr. Pollard’s list went even further and identified a few hundred other 
+areas that also showed accelerated change, some of which were already 
+known. FOX2, for example, is crucial for the development of speech, 
+another key characteristic of humans. (Individuals with a defective FOX2 
+gene have difficulty making the facial movements necessary for speech.) 
+Another region called HAR2 gives our fingers the dexterity required to 
+manipulate delicate tools. 
+
+Furthermore, since the genome of the Neanderthal has been 
+sequenced, it is possible to compare our genetic makeup with a species 
+even closer to us than the chimpanzees. (When analyzing the FOX2 gene 
+in Neanderthals, scientists found that we shared the same gene with 
+
+them. This means that there is a possibility that the Neanderthal could 
+
+vocalize and create speech, as we do.)"
+"vocalize and create speech, as we do.) 
+
+Another crucial gene is called ASPM, which is thought to be 
+responsible for the explosive growth of our brain capacity. Some 
+scientists believe that this and other genes may reveal why humans 
+became intelligent but the apes did not. (People with a defective version 
+of the ASPM gene often suffer from microcephaly, a severe form of 
+mental retardation, because they have a tiny skull, about the size of one 
+of our ancestors, Australopithecus.)"
+"Scientists have tracked the number of mutations within the ASPM 
+gene and found that it has mutated about fifteen times in the last five to 
+six million years, since we separated from the chimpanzee. More recent 
+mutations in these genes seem to be correlated with milestones in our 
+evolution. For example, one mutation occurred over one hundred 
+thousand years ago, when modern humans emerged in Africa, 
+indistinguishable in appearance from us. And the last mutation was 
+5,800 years ago, which coincides with the introduction of the written 
+language and agriculture. 
+
+Because these mutations coincide with periods of rapid growth in 
+intellect, it is tantalizing to speculate that ASPM is among the handful of 
+genes responsible for our increased intelligence. If this is true, then 
+perhaps we can determine whether these genes are still active today, and 
+whether they will continue to shape human evolution into the future."
+"All this research raises a question: Can manipulating a handful of 
+genes increase our intelligence? 
+
+Quite possibly. 
+
+Scientists are rapidly determining the precise mechanism by which 
+these genes gave rise to intelligence. In particular, genetic regions and 
+genes like HAR1 and ASPM could help solve a mystery concerning the 
+brain. If there are roughly twenty-three thousand genes in your genome, 
+then how can they possibly control the connections linking one hundred 
+billion neurons, containing a quadrillion total connections (1 with fifteen 
+zeros after it)? It seems mathematically impossible. The human genome 
+is about a trillion times too small to code for all our neural connections. 
+So our very existence seems to be a mathematical impossibility. 
+
+The answer may be that nature takes numerous shortcuts in creating 
+the brain. First, many neurons are connected randomly, so that a 
+detailed blueprint is not necessary, which means that these randomly"
+"connected regions organize themselves after a baby is born and starts to 
+interact with the environment. 
+
+And second, nature also uses modules that repeat themselves over and 
+over again. Once nature discovers something useful, she often repeats it. 
+This may explain why only a handful of genetic changes are responsible 
+for most of our explosive growth in intelligence in the last six million 
+years. 
+
+Size does matter in this case, then. If we tweak the ASPM and a few 
+other genes, the brain might become larger and more complex, thereby 
+making it possible to increase our intelligence. (Increasing our brain size 
+is not sufficient to do this, since how the brain is organized is also 
+crucially important. But increasing the gray matter of our brain is a 
+necessary precondition to increasing our intelligence.) 
+
+APES, GENES, AND GENIUS"
+"APES, GENES, AND GENIUS 
+
+Dr. Pollard’s research focused on areas of our genome that we share with 
+the chimpanzees but that are mutated. It is also possible that there are 
+areas in our genome found only in humans, independent of the apes. 
+One such gene was discovered recently, in November 2012. Scientists, 
+led by a team at the University of Edinburgh, isolated the RIM-941 gene, 
+which is the only gene ever discovered that is found strictly in Homo 
+sapiens and not in other primates. Also, geneticists can show that the 
+gene emerged between one and six million years ago (after the time 
+when humans and chimpanzees split about six million years ago)."
+"Unfortunately, this discovery also set off a huge firestorm in science 
+newsletters and blogs as misleading headlines blared across the Internet. 
+Breathless articles appeared claiming that scientists had found a single 
+gene that could, in principle, make chimpanzees intelligent. The essence 
+of “humanness” had finally been isolated at the genetic level, the 
+headlines shouted. 
+
+Reputable scientists soon stepped in and tried to calm things down. In 
+all likelihood, a series of genes, acting together in complex ways, is 
+responsible for human intelligence. No single gene can make a chimp 
+suddenly have human intelligence, they said. 
+
+Although these headlines were highly exaggerated, they did raise a 
+
+serious question: How realistic is Planet of the Apes ?"
+"There are a series of complications. If the HAR1 and ASPM genes are 
+tweaked so that the size and structure of the chimp brain suddenly 
+expand, then a series of other genes would have to be modified as well. 
+First, you would have to strengthen the chimp’s neck muscles and 
+increase its body size to support the larger head. But a large brain would 
+be useless unless it could control fingers capable of exploiting tools. So 
+the HAR2 gene would also have to be altered to increase their dexterity. 
+But since chimps often walk on their hands, another gene would have to 
+be altered so that the backbone would straighten out and an upright 
+posture would free up the hands. Intelligence is also useless unless 
+chimps can communicate with other members of the species. So the 
+FOX2 gene would also have to be mutated so that humanlike speech 
+would become possible. And lastly, if you want to create a species of 
+intelligent apes, you would have to modify the birth canal, since it is not"
+"intelligent apes, you would have to modify the birth canal, since it is not 
+large enough to accommodate the larger skull. You could either perform 
+caesarians to cut the fetus out or genetically alter the birth canal of the 
+chimps to accommodate the larger brain."
+"After all these necessary genetic adjustments, we are left with a 
+creature that would look very much like us. In other words, it may be 
+anatomically impossible to create intelligent apes, as in the movies, 
+without their also mutating into something closely resembling human 
+beings. 
+
+Clearly, creating intelligent apes is no simple matter, then. The 
+intelligent apes we see in Hollywood movies are actually monkey suits 
+with humans inside, or are computer-generated graphics, so all these 
+issues are conveniently brushed under the rug. But if scientists could 
+seriously use gene therapy to create intelligent apes, then they might 
+closely resemble us, with hands that can use tools, vocal cords that can 
+create speech, backbones that can support an upright posture, and large 
+neck muscles to support large heads, as we have."
+"All this raises ethical issues as well. Although society may allow 
+genetic studies of apes, it may not tolerate the manipulation of 
+intelligent creatures that can feel pain and distress. These creatures, after 
+all, would be intelligent and articulate enough to complain about their 
+situation and their fate, and their views would be heard in society. 
+
+Not surprisingly, this area of bioethics is so new that it is totally 
+
+unexplored. The technology is not yet ready, but in the coming decades, 
+as we identify all the genes and their functions that separate us from the 
+apes, the treatment of these enhanced animals could become a key 
+question."
+"We can see, therefore, that it is only a matter of time before all the 
+tiny genetic differences between us and the chimpanzees are carefully 
+sequenced, analyzed, and interpreted. But this still does not explain a 
+deeper question: What were the evolutionary forces that gave us this 
+genetic heritage after we separated from the apes? Why did genes like 
+ASPM, HAR1, and FOX2 develop in the first place? In other words, 
+genetics gives us the ability to understand how we became intelligent, 
+but it does not explain why this happened. 
+
+If we can understand this issue, it might provide clues as to how we 
+might evolve in the future. This takes us to the heart of the ongoing 
+debate: What is the origin of intelligence? 
+
+THE ORIGIN OF INTELLIGENCE 
+
+Many theories have been proposed as to why humans developed greater 
+intelligence, going all the way back to Charles Darwin."
+"According to one theory, the evolution of the human brain probably 
+took place in stages, with the earliest phase initiated by climate change 
+in Africa. As the weather cooled, the forests began to recede, forcing our 
+ancestors onto the open plains and savannahs, where they were exposed 
+to predators and the elements. To survive in this new, hostile 
+environment, they were forced to hunt and walk upright, which freed up 
+their hands and opposable thumbs to use tools. This in turn put a 
+premium on a larger brain to coordinate tool making. According to this 
+theory, ancient man did not simply make tools—“tools made man.”"
+"Our ancestors did not suddenly pick up tools and become intelligent. It 
+was the other way around. Those humans who picked up tools could 
+survive in the grasslands, while those who did not gradually died off. 
+The humans who then survived and thrived in the grasslands were those 
+who, through mutations, became increasingly adept at tool making, 
+which required an increasingly larger brain. 
+
+Another theory places a premium on our social, collective nature."
+"Another theory places a premium on our social, collective nature. 
+
+Humans can easily coordinate the behavior of over a hundred other 
+individuals involved in hunting, farming, warring, and building, groups 
+that are much larger than those found in other primates, which gave 
+humans an advantage over other animals. It takes a larger brain, 
+according to this theory, to be able to assess and control the behavior of 
+so many individuals. (The flip side of this theory is that it took a larger 
+brain to scheme, plot, deceive, and manipulate other intelligent beings 
+in your tribe. Individuals who could understand the motives of others 
+
+and then exploit them would have an advantage over those who could 
+not. This is the Machiavellian theory of intelligence.)"
+"Another theory maintains that the development of language, which 
+came later, helped accelerate the rise of intelligence. With language 
+comes abstract thought and the ability to plan, organize society, create 
+maps, etc. Humans have an extensive vocabulary unmatched by any 
+other animal, with words numbering in the tens of thousands for an 
+average person. With language, humans could coordinate and focus the 
+activities of scores of individuals, as well as manipulate abstract 
+concepts and ideas. Language meant you could manage teams of people 
+on a hunt, which is a great advantage when pursuing the woolly 
+mammoth. It meant you could tell others where game was plentiful or 
+where danger lurked."
+"Yet another theory is “sexual selection,” the idea that females prefer to 
+mate with intelligent males. In the animal kingdom, such as in a wolf 
+pack, the alpha male holds the pack together by brute force. Any 
+challenger to the alpha male has to be soundly beaten back by tooth and 
+claw. But millions of years ago, as humans became gradually more 
+intelligent, strength alone could not keep the tribe together. Anyone 
+with cunning and intelligence could ambush, lie or cheat, or form 
+factions within the tribe to take down the alpha male. Hence the new 
+generation of alpha males would not necessarily be the strongest. Over 
+time, the leader would become the most intelligent and cunning. This is 
+probably the reason why females choose smart males (not necessarily 
+nerdy smart, but “quarterback smart”). Sexual selection in turn 
+accelerated our evolution to become intelligent. So in this case the 
+engine that drove the expansion of our brain would be females who"
+"engine that drove the expansion of our brain would be females who 
+chose men who could strategize, become leaders of the tribe, and outwit 
+other males, which requires a large brain."
+"These are just a few of the theories about the origin of intelligence, 
+and each has its pros and cons. The common theme seems to be the 
+ability to simulate the future. For example, the purpose of the leader is 
+to choose the correct path for the tribe in the future. This means any 
+leader has to understand the intentions of others in order to plan 
+strategy for the future. Hence simulating the future was perhaps one of 
+the driving forces behind the evolution of our large brain and 
+intelligence. And the person who can best simulate the future is the one 
+who can plot, scheme, read the minds of many of his fellow tribesmen, 
+and win the arms race with his fellow man. 
+
+Similarly, language allows you to simulate the future. Animals possess 
+a rudimentary language, but it is mainly in the present tense. Their 
+language may warn them of an immediate threat, such as a predator 
+hiding among the trees. However, animal language apparently has no"
+"future or past tense. Animals do not conjugate their verbs. So perhaps 
+the ability to express the past and future tense was a key breakthrough 
+in the development of intelligence. 
+
+Dr. Daniel Gilbert, a psychologist at Harvard, writes, “For the first few 
+hundred million years after their initial appearance on our planet, our 
+brains were stuck in the permanent present, and most brains still are 
+today. But not yours and not mine, because two or three million years 
+ago our ancestors began a great escape from the here and now....” 
+
+THE FUTURE OF EVOLUTION 
+
+So far, we have seen that there are intriguing results indicating that one 
+can increase one’s memory and intelligence, largely by making the brain 
+more efficient and maximizing its natural capacity. A variety of methods 
+are being studied, such as certain drugs, genes, or devices (TES, for 
+example) that might increase the capabilities of our neurons."
+"So the concept of altering the brain size and capacity of the apes is a 
+distinct, though difficult, possibility. Gene therapy on this scale is still 
+many decades away. But this raises another difficult question: How far 
+can this go? Can one extend the intelligence of an organism indefinitely? 
+Or is there a limit to brain modification imposed by the laws of physics? 
+
+Surprisingly, the answer is yes. The laws of physics put an upper limit 
+
+to what can be done with genetic modification of the human brain, 
+given certain restraints. To see this limit, it is instructive to first examine 
+whether evolution is still increasing human intelligence, and then what 
+can be done to accelerate this natural process."
+"In popular culture, there is the notion that evolution will give us big 
+brains and small, hairless bodies in the future. Likewise, aliens from 
+space, because they are supposed to possess a superior level of 
+intelligence, are often portrayed in this fashion. Go to any novelty shop 
+and you will see the same extraterrestrial face, with big bug eyes, a huge 
+head, and green skin. 
+
+Actually, there are indications that gross human evolution (i.e., our 
+basic body shape and intelligence) has largely come to a halt. There are 
+several factors supporting this. First of all, since we are bipedal 
+mammals who walk upright, there are limitations to the maximum size 
+of an infant’s skull that can pass through the birth canal. Second, the rise 
+of modern technology has removed many of the harsh evolutionary 
+pressures faced by our ancestors."
+"However, evolution on a genetic and molecular basis continues 
+unabated. Although it’s difficult to see with the naked eye, there is 
+evidence that human biochemistry has changed to adjust to 
+environmental challenges, such as combating malaria in tropical areas. 
+Also, humans recently evolved enzymes to digest lactose sugar as we 
+learned to domesticate cows and drink milk. Mutations have occurred as 
+humans adjusted to a diet created by the agricultural revolution. 
+Moreover, people still choose to mate with others who are healthy and 
+fit, and so evolution continues to eliminate unsuitable genes at this level. 
+None of these mutations, however, has changed our basic body plan or 
+increased our brain size. (Modern technology is also influencing our 
+evolution to some degree. For example, there is no longer any selection 
+pressure on nearsighted people, since anyone today can be outfitted with 
+glasses or contact lenses.) 
+
+PHYSICS OF THE BRAIN"
+"PHYSICS OF THE BRAIN 
+
+So from an evolutionary and biological point of view, evolution is no 
+longer selecting for more intelligent people, at least not as rapidly as it 
+
+did thousands of years ago. 
+
+There are also indications from the laws of physics that we have 
+reached the maximum natural limit of intelligence, so that any 
+enhancement of our intelligence would have to come from external 
+means. Physicists who have studied the neurology of the brain conclude 
+that there are trade-offs preventing us from getting much smarter. Every 
+time we envision a brain that is larger, or denser, or more complex, we 
+bump up against these negative trade-offs."
+"The first principle of physics that we can apply to the brain is the 
+conservation of matter and energy; that is, the law stating that the total 
+amount of matter and energy in a system remains constant. In particular, 
+in order to carry out its incredible feats of mental gymnastics, the brain 
+has to conserve energy, and hence it takes many shortcuts. As we saw in 
+Chapter 1, what we see with our eyes is actually cobbled together using 
+energy-saving tricks. It would take too much time and energy for a 
+thoughtful analysis of every crisis, so the brain saves energy by making 
+snap judgments in the form of emotions. Forgetting is an alternative way 
+of saving energy. The conscious brain has access to only a tiny portion of 
+the memories that have an impact on the brain. 
+
+So the question is: Would increased brain size or density of neurons 
+give us more intelligence?"
+"So the question is: Would increased brain size or density of neurons 
+give us more intelligence? 
+
+Probably not. “Cortical gray matter neurons are working with axons 
+that are pretty close to the physical limit,” says Dr. Simon Laughlin of 
+Cambridge University. There are several ways in which one can increase 
+the intelligence of the brain using the laws of physics, but each has its 
+own problems: 
+
+• One can increase brain size and extend the length of neurons. The 
+problem here is that the brain now consumes more energy. This 
+generates more heat in the process, which is detrimental to our 
+survival. If the brain uses up more energy, it gets hotter, and tissue 
+damage results if the body temperature becomes too high. (The 
+chemical reactions of the human body and our metabolism require 
+temperatures to be in a precise range.) Also, longer neurons means 
+that it takes longer for signals to go across the brain, which slows 
+down the thinking process."
+"• One can pack more neurons into the same space by making them 
+
+thinner. But if neurons become thinner and thinner, the complex 
+chemical/electrical reactions that must take place inside the axons 
+fail, and eventually they begin to misfire more easily. Douglas Fox, 
+writing in Scientific American, says, “You might call it the mother of 
+all limitations: the proteins that neurons use to generate electrical 
+pulses, called ion channels, are inherently unstable.” 
+
+• One can increase the speed of the signal by making the neurons 
+thicker. But this also increases energy consumption and generates 
+more heat. It also increases the size of the brain, which increases the 
+time it takes for the signals to reach their destination. 
+
+• One can add more connections between neurons. But this again 
+increases energy consumption and heat generation, making the 
+brain larger and slower in the process."
+"So each time we tinker with the brain, we are checkmated. The laws 
+of physics seem to indicate that we have maxed out the intelligence that 
+we humans can attain in this way. Unless we can suddenly increase the 
+size of our skulls or the very nature of neurons in our brains, it seems we 
+are at the maximum level of intelligence. If we are to increase our 
+intelligence, it has to be done by making our brains more efficient (via 
+drugs, genes, and possibly TES-type machines). 
+
+PARTING THOUGHTS 
+
+In summary, it may be possible in the coming decades to use a"
+"PARTING THOUGHTS 
+
+In summary, it may be possible in the coming decades to use a 
+
+combination of gene therapy, drugs, and magnetic devices to increase 
+our intelligence. There are several avenues of exploration that are 
+revealing the secrets of intelligence and how it may be modified or 
+enhanced. But what would it do to society, though, if we could enhance 
+our intelligence and get a “brain boost”? Ethicists have seriously 
+contemplated this question, since the basic science is growing so rapidly. 
+The big fear is that society may bifurcate, with only the rich and 
+powerful having access to this technology, which they could use to 
+further solidify their exalted position in society. Meanwhile, the poor 
+won’t have access to additional brain power, making it more difficult to 
+move up in society."
+"This is certainly a valid concern, but it flies in the face of the history 
+of technology. Many of the technologies of the past were indeed initially 
+the province of the rich and powerful, but eventually mass production, 
+competition, better transportation, and improvements in technology 
+drove down the costs, so the average person could afford them. (For 
+example, we take for granted that we eat foods for breakfast that the 
+king of England could not have procured a century ago. Technology has 
+made it possible to purchase delicacies from around the world at any 
+supermarket that would be the envy of the aristocrats of the Victorian 
+era.) So if it becomes possible to increase our intelligence, the price of 
+this technology will gradually fall. Technology is never the monopoly of 
+the privileged rich. Sooner or later ingenuity, hard work, and simple 
+market forces will drive down its cost."
+"There is also the fear that the human race will split into those who 
+want their intelligence to be boosted and those who prefer to remain the 
+same, resulting in the nightmare of having a class of super-intelligent 
+brahmins lord over the masses of the less gifted. 
+
+But again, perhaps the fear of boosting intelligence has been 
+exaggerated. The average person has absolutely no interest in being able 
+to solve the complex tensor equations for a black hole. The average 
+person sees nothing to gain by mastering the mathematics of 
+hyperspatial dimensions or the physics of the quantum theory. On the 
+contrary, the average person may find such activities rather boring and 
+useless. So most of us are not going to become mathematical geniuses if 
+given the opportunity, because it is not in our character, and we see 
+nothing to gain from it."
+"Keep in mind that society already has a class of accomplished 
+mathematicians and physicists, and they are paid significantly less than 
+ordinary businessmen and wield much less power than average 
+politicians. Being super smart does not guarantee financial success in 
+life. In fact, being super smart may actually pigeonhole you in the lower 
+rungs of a society that values athletes, movie stars, comedians, and 
+
+entertainers more. 
+
+No one ever got rich doing relativity. 
+
+Also, a lot depends on precisely which traits are enhanced. There are 
+other forms of intelligence besides using mathematics. (Some argue that 
+intelligence must include artistic genius as well. In this case, one can 
+
+conceivably use this talent to make a comfortable living.)"
+"conceivably use this talent to make a comfortable living.) 
+
+Anxious parents of high school children may want to boost the IQ of 
+their kids as they prepare for standardized exams. But IQ, as we have 
+seen, does not necessarily correspond to success in life. Likewise, people 
+may want to enhance their memory, but, as we have seen with savants, 
+having a photographic memory can be a blessing as well as a curse. And 
+in both cases, enhancement is unlikely to contribute to a society splitting 
+in two. 
+
+Society as a whole, however, may benefit from this technology. 
+Workers with an enhanced intelligence would be better prepared to face 
+an ever-changing job market. Retraining workers for the jobs of the 
+future would be less of a drain on society. Furthermore, the public will 
+be able to make informed decisions about major technological issues of 
+the future (e.g., climate change, nuclear energy, space exploration) 
+because they will grasp these complex issues better."
+"Also, this technology may help even out the playing field. Children 
+today who go to exclusive private schools and have personal tutors are 
+better prepared for the job market because they have more opportunities 
+to master difficult materials. But if everyone has had their intelligence 
+enhanced, the fault lines within society will be evened out. Then how far 
+someone goes in life would be more related to their drive, ambition, 
+imagination, and resourcefulness rather than to being born with a silver 
+spoon in their mouth. 
+
+In addition, raising our intelligence may help speed up technological 
+innovation. Increased intelligence would mean a greater ability to 
+simulate the future, which would be invaluable in making scientific 
+discoveries. Often, science stagnates in certain areas because of a lack of 
+fresh new ideas to stimulate new avenues of research. Having an ability 
+to simulate different possible futures would vastly increase the rate of 
+scientific breakthroughs."
+"These scientific discoveries, in turn, could generate new industries, 
+which could enrich all of society, creating new markets, new jobs, and 
+new opportunities. History is full of technological breakthroughs 
+creating entirely new industries that benefited not just the few, but all of 
+
+society (think of the transistor and the laser, which today form the 
+foundation of the world economy). 
+
+However, in science fiction, there is the recurring theme of the super 
+
+criminal, who uses his superior brain power to embark on a crime spree 
+and thwart the superhero. Every Superman has his Lex Luthor, every 
+Spider-Man has his Green Goblin. Although it is certainly possible that a 
+criminal mind will use a brain booster to create super weapons and plan 
+the crime of the century, realize that members of the police force can 
+also have their intelligence boosted to outwit the evil mastermind. So 
+super criminals are dangerous only if they are the only ones in 
+possession of enhanced intelligence."
+"So far, we have examined the possibility that we can enhance or alter 
+our mental capabilities via telepathy, telekinesis, uploading memories, 
+or brain boosts. Such enhancement basically means modifying and 
+augmenting the mental capabilities of our consciousness. This tacitly 
+assumes that our normal consciousness is the only one, but I’d like to 
+explore whether there are different forms of consciousness. If so, there 
+could be other ways of thinking that lead to totally different outcomes 
+and consequences. Within our own thoughts, there are altered states of 
+consciousness, such as dreams, drug-induced hallucinations, and mental 
+illness. There is also nonhuman consciousness, the consciousness of 
+robots, and even that of aliens from outer space. We have to give up the 
+chauvinistic notion that our human consciousness is the only one. There 
+is more than one way to create a model of our world, and more than one 
+way to simulate its future."
+"Dreams, for example, are one of the most ancient forms of 
+consciousness and were studied by the ancients, yet very little progress 
+has been made in understanding them until recently. Perhaps dreams are 
+not silly, random events spliced together by the sleeping brain but 
+phenomena that may give insight into the meaning of consciousness. 
+Dreams may be a key to understanding altered states of consciousness. 
+
+BOOK III ALTEHED CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their 
+dreams. 
+
+—ELEANOR ROOSEVELT 
+
+7 IN YOUR DREAMS 
+
+Dreams can determine destiny."
+"—ELEANOR ROOSEVELT 
+
+7 IN YOUR DREAMS 
+
+Dreams can determine destiny. 
+
+Perhaps the most famous dream in antiquity took place in the year 
+A.D. 312, when the Roman emperor Constantine engaged in one of the 
+greatest battles of his life. Faced with a rival army twice the size of his 
+own, he realized that he probably would die in battle the next day. But 
+in a dream he had that night, an angel appeared before him bearing the 
+image of a cross, uttering the fateful words “By this symbol, you shall 
+conquer.” Immediately he ordered the shields of his troops adorned with 
+the symbol of the cross."
+"History records that he emerged triumphant the next day, cementing 
+his hold on the Roman Empire. He vowed to repay the blood debt to this 
+relatively obscure religion, Christianity, that had been persecuted for 
+centuries by previous Roman emperors and whose adherents were 
+regularly fed to the lions in the Colosseum. He signed laws that would 
+eventually pave the way for it to become an official religion of one of 
+the greatest empires in the world."
+"For thousands of years, kings and queens, as well as beggars and 
+thieves, have all wondered about dreams. The ancients considered 
+dreams to be omens about the future, so there have been countless 
+attempts throughout history to interpret them. The Bible records in 
+Genesis 41 the rise of Joseph, who was able to correctly interpret the 
+dreams of the Pharaoh of Egypt thousands of years ago. When the 
+Pharaoh dreamed about seven fat cows, followed by seven lean cows, he 
+was so disturbed by the imagery that he asked scribes and mystics 
+throughout the kingdom to find its meaning. All failed to give a 
+convincing explanation, until Joseph finally interpreted the dream to 
+mean that Egypt would have seven years of good harvests, followed by 
+seven years of drought and famine. So, said Joseph, Egypt must begin 
+stockpiling grain and supplies now, in preparation for the coming years 
+of want and desperation. When this came to pass, Joseph was considered 
+
+to be a prophet."
+"to be a prophet. 
+
+Dreams have long been associated with prophesy, but in more recent 
+times they’ve also been known to stimulate scientific discovery. The idea 
+that neurotransmitters could facilitate the movement of information past 
+a synapse, which forms the foundation of neuroscience, came to 
+pharmacologist Otto Loewi in a dream. Similarly, in 1865, August 
+Kekule had a dream about benzene, in which the bonds of carbon atoms 
+formed a chain that eventually wrapped around and finally formed a 
+
+circle, just like a snake biting its tail. This dream would unlock the 
+atomic structure of the benzene molecule. He concluded, “Let us learn to 
+dream!”"
+"Dreams have also been interpreted as a window onto our true 
+thoughts and intentions. The great Renaissance writer and essayist 
+Michel de Montaigne once wrote, “I believe it to be true that dreams are 
+the true interpretations of our inclinations, but there is art required to 
+sort and understand them.” More recently, Sigmund Freud proposed a 
+theory to explain the origin of dreams. In his signature work, The 
+Interpretation of Dreams, he claimed that they were manifestations of our 
+subconscious desires, which were often repressed by the waking mind 
+but which run wild every night. Dreams were not just the random 
+figments of our overheated imaginations but could actually uncover 
+deep secrets and truths about ourselves. “Dreams are the royal road to 
+the unconscious,” he wrote. Since then, people have amassed huge 
+encyclopedias that claim to reveal the hidden meaning behind every 
+disturbing image in terms of Freudian theory."
+"Hollywood takes advantage of our continuing fascination with dreams. 
+A favorite scene in many movies is when the hero experiences a 
+terrifying dream sequence and then suddenly wakes up from the 
+nightmare in a cold sweat. In the blockbuster movie Inception, Leonardo 
+DiCaprio plays a petty thief who steals intimate secrets from the most 
+unlikely of all places, people’s dreams. With a new invention, he is able 
+to enter people’s dreams and deceive them into giving up their financial 
+secrets. Corporations spend millions of dollars protecting industrial 
+secrets and patents. Billionaires jealously guard their wealth using 
+elaborate codes. His job is to steal them. The plot quickly escalates as 
+the characters enter dreams in which a person falls asleep and dreams 
+again. So these criminals descend deeper and deeper into multiple layers 
+
+of the subconscious."
+"of the subconscious. 
+
+But although dreams have always haunted and mystified us, only in 
+the last decade or so have scientists been able to peel away the mysteries 
+of dreams. In fact, scientists can now do something once considered 
+impossible: they are able to take rough photographs and videotapes of 
+dreams with MRI machines. One day, you may be able to view a video of 
+the dream you had the previous night and gain insight into your own 
+subconscious mind. With proper training, you might be able to 
+consciously control the nature of your dreams. And perhaps, like 
+DiCaprio’s character, with advanced technology you might even be able 
+to enter someone else’s dream. 
+
+THE NATURE OF DREAMS"
+"THE NATURE OF DREAMS 
+
+As mysterious as they are, dreams are not a superfluous luxury, the 
+useless ruminations of the idle brain. Dreams, in fact, are essential for 
+survival. Using brain scans, it is possible to show that certain animals 
+exhibit dreamlike brain activity. If deprived of dreams, these animals 
+would often die faster than they would by starvation, because such 
+deprivation severely disrupts their metabolism. Unfortunately, science 
+does not know exactly why this is the case. 
+
+Dreaming is an essential feature of our sleep cycle as well. We spend 
+roughly two hours a night dreaming when we sleep, with each dream 
+lasting five to twenty minutes. In fact, we spend about six years 
+dreaming during an average lifetime."
+"Dreams are also universal across the human race. Looking across 
+different cultures, scientists find common themes in dreams. Fifty 
+thousand dreams were recorded over a forty-year time period by 
+psychology professor Calvin Hall. He followed this up with one thousand 
+dream reports from college students. Not surprisingly, he found that 
+most people dreamed of the same things, such as personal experiences 
+from the previous days or week. (However, animals apparently dream 
+differently than we do. In the dolphin, for example, only one hemisphere 
+at a time sleeps in order to prevent drowning, because they are air- 
+breathing mammals, not fish. So if they dream, it is probably in only one 
+hemisphere at a time.)"
+"The brain, as we have seen, is not a digital computer, but rather a 
+neural network of some sort that constantly rewires itself after learning 
+new tasks. Scientists who work with neural networks noticed something 
+interesting, though. Often these systems would become saturated after 
+learning too much, and instead of processing more information they 
+would enter a “dream” state, whereby random memories would 
+sometimes drift and join together as the neural networks tried to digest 
+all the new material. Dreams, then, might reflect “house cleaning,” in 
+which the brain tries to organize its memories in a more coherent way. 
+(If this is true, then possibly all neural networks, including all organisms 
+that can learn, might enter a dream state in order to sort out their 
+memories. So dreams probably serve a purpose. Some scientists have 
+speculated that this might imply that robots that learn from experience 
+might also eventually dream as well.)"
+"Neurological studies seem to back up this conclusion. Studies have 
+shown that retaining memories can be improved by getting sufficient 
+sleep between the time of activity and a test. Neuroimaging shows that 
+the areas of the brain that are activated during sleep are the same as 
+those involved in learning a new task. Dreaming is perhaps useful in 
+
+consolidating this new information. 
+
+Also, some dreams can incorporate events that happened a few hours 
+earlier, just before sleep. But dreams mostly incorporate memories that 
+are a few days old. For example, experiments have shown that if you put 
+rose-colored glasses on a person, it takes a few days before the dreams 
+become rose-colored as well. 
+
+BRAIN SCANS OF DREAMS"
+"BRAIN SCANS OF DREAMS 
+
+Brain scans are now unveiling some of the mystery of dreams. Normally 
+EEG scans show that the brain is emitting steady electromagnetic waves 
+while we are awake. However, as we gradually fall asleep, our EEG 
+signals begin to change frequency. When we finally dream, waves of 
+electrical energy emanate from the brain stem that surge upward, rising 
+into the cortical areas of the brain, especially the visual cortex. This 
+confirms that visual images are an important component of dreams. 
+Finally, we enter a dream state, and our brain waves are typified by 
+
+rapid eye movements (REM). (Since some mammals also enter REM 
+sleep, we can infer that they might dream as well.)"
+"While the visual areas of the brain are active, other areas involved 
+with smell, taste, and touch are largely shut down. Almost all the images 
+and sensations processed by the body are self-generated, originating 
+from the electromagnetic vibrations from our brain stem, not from 
+external stimuli. The body is largely isolated from the outside world. 
+Also, when we dream, we are more or less paralyzed. (Perhaps this 
+paralysis is to prevent us from physically acting out our dreams, which 
+could be disastrous. About 6 percent of people suffer from “sleep 
+paralysis” disorder, in which they wake up from a dream still paralyzed. 
+Often these individuals wake up frightened and believing that there are 
+creatures pinning down their chest, arms, and legs. There are paintings 
+from the Victorian era of women waking up with a terrifying goblin 
+sitting on their chest glaring down at them. Some psychologists believe 
+that sleep paralysis could explain the origin of the alien abduction 
+syndrome.)"
+"The hippocampus is active when we dream, suggesting that dreams 
+draw upon our storehouse of memories. The amygdala and anterior 
+cingulate are also active, meaning that dreams can be highly emotional, 
+often involving fear. 
+
+But more revealing are the areas of the brain that are shut down, 
+including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (which is the command 
+
+center of the brain), the orbitofrontal cortex (which can act like a censor 
+or fact-checker), and the temporoparietal region (which processes 
+sensory motor signals and spatial awareness)."
+"When the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is shut down, we can’t count 
+on the rational, planning center of the brain. Instead, we drift aimlessly 
+in our dreams, with the visual center giving us images without rational 
+control. The orbitofrontal cortex, or the fact-checker, is also inactive. 
+Hence dreams are allowed to blissfully evolve without any constraints 
+from the laws of physics or common sense. And the temporoparietal 
+lobe, which helps coordinate our sense of where we are located using 
+signals from our eyes and inner ear, is also shut down, which may 
+explain our out-of-body experiences while we dream. 
+
+As we have emphasized, human consciousness mainly represents the 
+brain constantly creating models of the outside world and simulating 
+
+them into the future. If so, then dreams represent an alternate way in 
+which the future is simulated, one in which the laws of nature and social 
+interactions are temporarily suspended. 
+
+HOW DO WE DREAM?"
+"HOW DO WE DREAM? 
+
+But that leaves open this question: What generates our dreams? One of 
+the world’s authorities on dreams is Dr. Allan Hobson, a psychiatrist at 
+Harvard Medical School. He has devoted decades of his life to unveiling 
+the secrets of dreams. He claims that dreams, especially REM sleep, can 
+be studied at the neurological level, and that dreams arise when the 
+brain tries to make sense of the largely random signals emanating from 
+the brain stem. 
+
+When I interviewed him, he told me that after many decades of 
+cataloging dreams, he found five basic characteristics: 
+
+1. Intense emotions—this is due to the activation of the amygdala, 
+causing emotions such as fear. 
+
+2. Illogical content—dreams can rapidly shift from one scene to 
+another, in defiance of logic. 
+
+3. Apparent sensory impressions—dreams give us false sensations that 
+are internally generated. 
+
+4. Uncritical acceptance of dream events—we uncritically accept the 
+illogical nature of the dream."
+"5. Difficulty in being remembered—dreams are soon forgotten, within 
+minutes of waking up. 
+
+Dr. Hobson (with Dr. Robert McCarley) made history by proposing the 
+first serious challenge to Freud’s theory of dreams, called the “activation 
+synthesis theory.” In 1977, they proposed the idea that dreams originate 
+from random neural firings in the brain stem, which travel up to the 
+cortex, which then tries to make sense of these random signals. 
+
+The key to dreams lies in nodes found in the brain stem, the oldest 
+part of the brain, which squirts out special chemicals, called adrenergics, 
+that keep us alert. As we go to sleep, the brain stem activates another 
+
+system, the cholinergic, which emits chemicals that put us in a dream 
+state."
+"system, the cholinergic, which emits chemicals that put us in a dream 
+state. 
+
+As we dream, cholinergic neurons in the brain stem begin to fire, 
+setting off erratic pulses of electrical energy called PGO (pontine- 
+geniculate-occipital) waves. These waves travel up the brain stem into 
+the visual cortex, stimulating it to create dreams. Cells in the visual 
+cortex begin to resonate hundreds of times per second in an irregular 
+fashion, which is perhaps responsible for the sometimes incoherent 
+nature of dreams. 
+
+This system also emits chemicals that decouple parts of the brain 
+involved with reason and logic. The lack of checks coming from the 
+prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices, along with the brain becoming 
+extremely sensitive to stray thoughts, may account for the bizarre, 
+erratic nature of dreams."
+"Studies have shown that it is possible to enter the cholinergic state 
+without sleep. Dr. Edgar Garcia-Rill of the University of Arkansas claims 
+that meditation, worrying, or being placed in an isolation tank can 
+induce this cholinergic state. Pilots and drivers facing the monotony of a 
+blank windshield for many hours may also enter this state. In his 
+research, he has found that schizophrenics have an unusually large 
+number of cholinergic neurons in their brain stem, which may explain 
+some of their hallucinations. 
+
+To make his studies more efficient, Dr. Allan Hobson had his subjects 
+put on a special nightcap that can automatically record data during a 
+dream. One sensor connected to the nightcap registers the movements of 
+a person’s head (because head movements usually occur when dreams 
+end). Another sensor measures movements of the eyelids (because REM 
+sleep causes eyelids to move). When his subjects wake up, they 
+immediately record what they dreamed about, and the information from"
+"the nightcap is fed into a computer. 
+
+In this way, Dr. Hobson has accumulated a vast amount of information 
+about dreams. So what is the meaning of dreams? I asked him. He 
+dismisses what he calls the “mystique of fortune-cookie dream 
+interpretation.” He does not see any hidden message from the cosmos in 
+dreams. 
+
+Instead, he believes that after the PGO waves surge from the brain 
+stem into the cortical areas, the cortex is trying to make sense of these 
+
+erratic signals and winds up creating a narrative out of them: a dream. 
+
+PHOTOGRAPHING A DREAM"
+"erratic signals and winds up creating a narrative out of them: a dream. 
+
+PHOTOGRAPHING A DREAM 
+
+In the past, most scientists avoided the study of dreams, since they are so 
+subjective and have such a long historical association with mystics and 
+psychics. But with MRI scans, dreams are now revealing their secrets. In 
+fact, since the brain centers that control dreaming are nearly identical to 
+the ones that control vision, it is therefore possible to photograph a 
+dream. This pioneering work is being done in Kyoto, Japan, by scientists 
+at the ATR Computational and Neuroscience Laboratories."
+"Subjects are first placed in an MRI machine and shown four hundred 
+black-and-white images, each consisting of a set of dots within a ten-by- 
+ten-pixel framework. One picture is flashed at a time, and the MRI 
+records how the brain responds to each collection of pixels. As with 
+other groups working in this field of BMI, the scientists eventually create 
+an encyclopedia of images, with each image of pixels corresponding to a 
+specific MRI pattern. Here the scientists are able to work backward, to 
+correctly reconstruct self-generated images from MRI brain scans taken 
+while the subject dreams. 
+
+ATR chief scientist Yukiyasu Kamitani says, “This technology can also 
+be applied to senses other than vision. In the future, it may also be 
+possible to read feelings and complicated emotional states.” In fact, any 
+mental state of the brain might be imaged in this way, including dreams, 
+as long as a one-to-one map can be made between a certain mental state 
+and an MRI scan."
+"The Kyoto scientists have concentrated on analyzing still photographs 
+generated by the mind. In Chapter 3, we encountered a similar approach 
+pioneered by Dr. Jack Gallant, in which the voxels from 3-D MRI scans 
+of the brain can be used to reconstruct the actual image seen by the eye 
+with the help of a complex formula. A similar process has allowed Dr. 
+
+Gallant and his team to create a crude video of a dream. When I visited 
+the laboratory in Berkeley, I talked to a postdoctoral staff member, Dr. 
+Shinji Nishimoto, who allowed me to watch the video of one of his 
+dreams, one of the first ever done. I saw a series of faces flickering 
+across the computer screen, meaning that the subject (in this case Dr."
+"Nishimoto himself) was dreaming of people, rather than animals or 
+objects. This was amazing. Unfortunately, the technology is not yet good 
+enough to see the precise facial features of the people appearing in his 
+dream, so the next step is to increase the number of pixels so that more 
+complex images can be identified. Another advance will be to reproduce 
+images in color rather than black and white. 
+
+I then asked Dr. Nishimoto the crucial question: How do you know the 
+video is accurate? How do you know that the machine isn’t just making 
+things up? He was a bit sheepish when he replied that this was a weak 
+point in his research. Normally, you have only a few minutes after 
+waking up to record a dream. After that, most dreams are lost in the fog 
+of our consciousness, so it is not easy to verify the results."
+"Dr. Gallant told me that this research on videotaping dreams was still 
+a work in progress, and that is why it’s not ready for publication. There 
+is still a ways to go before we can watch a videotape of last night’s 
+dream. 
+
+LUCID DREAMS 
+
+Scientists are also investigating a form of dreaming that was once 
+thought to be a myth: lucid dreaming, or dreaming while you are 
+conscious. This sounds like a contradiction in terms, but it has been 
+verified in brain scans. In lucid dreaming, dreamers are aware that they 
+are dreaming and can consciously control the direction of the dream. 
+Although science has only recently begun to experiment with lucid 
+dreaming, there are references to this phenomenon dating back 
+centuries. In Buddhism, for example, there are books that refer to lucid 
+dreamers and how to train yourself to become one. Over the centuries, 
+several people in Europe have written detailed accounts of their lucid 
+dreams."
+"Brain scans of lucid dreamers show that this phenomenon is real; 
+during REM sleep, their dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is usually 
+dormant when a normal person dreams, is active, indicating that the 
+person is partially conscious while dreaming. In fact, the more lucid the 
+dream, the more active the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Since the 
+dorsolateral prefrontal cortex represents the conscious part of the brain, 
+
+the dreamer must be aware while he or she is dreaming."
+"the dreamer must be aware while he or she is dreaming. 
+
+Dr. Hobson told me that anyone can learn to do lucid dreaming by 
+practicing certain techniques. In particular, people who do lucid 
+dreaming should keep a notebook of dreams. Before going to sleep, they 
+should remind themselves that they will “wake up” in the middle of the 
+dream and realize that they are moving in a dream world. It is important 
+to have this frame of mind before hitting the pillow. Since the body is 
+largely paralyzed during REM sleep, it is difficult for the dreaming 
+person to send a signal to the outside world that he has entered a dream, 
+but Dr. Stephen LaBerge at Stanford University has studied lucid 
+dreamers (including himself) who can signal the outside world while 
+dreaming."
+"In 2011, for the first time, scientists used MRI and EEG sensors to 
+measure dream content and even make contact with a dreaming person. 
+At the Max Planck Institute in Munich and Leipzig, scientists enlisted the 
+help of lucid dreamers, who were fitted with EEG sensors on their heads 
+to help the scientists determine the moment they entered REM sleep; 
+they were then placed in an MRI machine. Before falling asleep, the 
+dreamers agreed to initiate a set of eye movements and breathing 
+patterns when dreaming, like a Morse code. They were told that once 
+they started dreaming, they should clench their right fist and then their 
+left one for ten seconds. That was the signal that they were dreaming."
+"The scientists found that, once the subjects entered their dream state, 
+the sensorimotor cortex of the brain (responsible for controlling motor 
+actions like clenching your fists) was activated. The MRI scans could 
+pick up that the fists were being clenched and which fist was being 
+clenched first. Then, using another sensor (a near-infrared spectrometer) 
+they were able to confirm that there was increased brain activity in the 
+region that controls the planning of movements. 
+
+“Our dreams are therefore not a ‘sleep cinema’ in which we merely 
+observe an event passively, but involve activity in the regions of the 
+brain that are relevant to the dream content,” says Michael Czisch, a 
+group leader at the Max Planck Institute. 
+
+ENTERING A DREAM 
+
+If we can communicate with a dreaming person, then is it also possible 
+to alter someone’s dream from the outside? Quite possibly. 
+
+First, as we have seen, scientists have already made the initial steps in"
+"First, as we have seen, scientists have already made the initial steps in 
+
+videotaping a person’s dream, and in the coming years, it should be 
+possible to create much more accurate pictures and videos of dreams. 
+Since scientists have already been able to establish a communication link 
+between the real world and the lucid dreamer in the fantasy world, then, 
+in principle, scientists should be able to deliberately alter the course of a 
+dream. Let’s say that scientists are viewing the video of a dream using an 
+MRI machine as the dream unfolds in real time. As the person wanders 
+around the dreamscape, the scientists can tell where he is going and give 
+directions for him to move in different ways. 
+
+So in the near future, it might be possible to watch a video of a 
+person’s dream and actually influence its general direction. But in the 
+movie Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio goes much further. He is able not 
+only to watch another person’s dream, but also to enter it. Is this 
+possible?"
+"We saw earlier that we are paralyzed when we dream so that we don’t 
+carry out our dream fantasies, which might be disastrous. However, 
+when people are sleepwalking, they often have their eyes open (although 
+their eyes look glazed over). So sleepwalkers live in a hybrid world, part 
+real and part dreamlike. There are many documented instances of people 
+walking around their homes, driving cars, cutting wood, and even 
+committing homicides while in this dream state, where reality and the 
+fantasy world are mixed. Hence it is possible that physical images that 
+the eye actually sees can freely interact with the fictitious images that 
+the brain is concocting during a dream."
+"The way to enter someone’s dream, then, might be to have the subject 
+wear contact lenses that can project images directly onto their retinas. 
+Already, prototypes of Internet contact lenses are being developed at the 
+University of Washington in Seattle. So if the observer wanted to enter 
+the subject’s dream, first he would sit in a studio and have a video 
+camera film him. His image could then be projected onto the contact 
+lenses of the dreamer, creating a composite image (the image of the 
+observer superimposed upon the imaginary image the brain is 
+manufacturing). 
+
+The observer could actually see this dream world as he wanders 
+
+around the dream, since he, too, would be wearing Internet contact 
+lenses. The MRI image of the subject’s dream, after it has been 
+deciphered by computer, would be sent directly into the observer’s 
+contact lenses."
+"Furthermore, you could actually change the direction of the dream 
+you have entered. As you walk around in the empty studio, you would 
+see the dream unfold in your contact lens, so you could start to interact 
+
+with the objects and people appearing in the dream. This would be quite 
+an experience, since the background would change without warning, 
+images would appear and disappear without reason, and the laws of 
+physics would be suspended. Anything goes."
+"Further into the future, it might even be possible to enter another 
+person’s dream by directly connecting two sleeping brains. Each brain 
+would have to be connected to MRI scanners that were connected to a 
+central computer, which would merge the two dreams into a single one. 
+The computer would first decipher each person’s MRI scans into a video 
+image. Then the dream of one person would be sent into the sensory 
+areas of the other person’s brain, so that the other dreamer’s dream 
+would merge with the first dreamer’s dream. However, the technology of 
+videotaping and interpreting dreams would have to become much more 
+advanced before this could become a possibility."
+"But this raises another question: If it’s possible to alter the course of 
+someone’s dream, is it possible to control not only that person’s dream 
+but that person’s mind as well? During the Cold War, this became a 
+serious issue as both the Soviet Union and the United States played a 
+deadly game, trying to use psychological techniques to control other 
+people’s wills. 
+
+Minds are simply what brains do. 
+
+—MARVIN MINSKY 
+
+8 CAN THE MIND BE CONTROLLED?"
+"Minds are simply what brains do. 
+
+—MARVIN MINSKY 
+
+8 CAN THE MIND BE CONTROLLED? 
+
+A raging bull is released into an empty arena in Cordoba, Spain. For 
+generations, this ferocious beast has been carefully bred to maximize its 
+killer instinct. Then a Yale professor calmly enters the same arena. 
+Rather than donning a tweed jacket, he is dressed like a dashing 
+matador, wearing a bright golden jacket and waving a red cape defiantly 
+in front of the bull, egging him on. Instead of running away in terror, the 
+professor looks calm, confident, and even detached. To a bystander, it 
+appears as if the professor has gone mad and wants to commit suicide."
+"Enraged, the bull locks onto the professor. Suddenly the bull charges, 
+aiming his deadly horns at him. The professor does not run away in fear. 
+Instead, he holds a small box in his hand. Then, in front of the cameras, 
+he presses a button on the box, and the bull stops dead in his tracks. The 
+professor is so confident of himself that he has risked his life to prove a 
+point, that he has mastered the art of controlling the mind of a mad bull. 
+
+The Yale professor is Dr. Jose Delgado, who was years ahead of his 
+time. He pioneered a series of remarkable but unsettling animal 
+experiments in the 1960s, in which he put electrodes into their brains 
+with the aim of trying to control their movement. To stop the bull, he 
+inserted electrodes into the striatum of the basal ganglia at the base of 
+the brain, which is involved with motor coordination."
+"He also did a series of other experiments on monkeys to see if he could 
+rearrange their social hierarchy with the push of a button. After 
+implanting electrodes into the caudate nucleus (a region associated with 
+motor control) of the alpha male within the group, Delgado could reduce 
+the aggressive tendencies of the leader on command. Without threats of 
+retaliation, the delta males began to assert themselves, taking over the 
+territory and privileges normally reserved for the alpha male. The alpha 
+male, meanwhile, appeared to have lost interest in defending his 
+territory. 
+
+Then Dr. Delgado pressed another button, and the alpha male 
+
+instantly sprung back to normal, resuming his aggressive behavior and 
+reestablishing his power as the king of the hill. The delta males 
+scrambled in fear. 
+
+Dr. Delgado was the first person in history to show that it was possible 
+to control the minds of animals in this way. The professor became the 
+puppet master, pulling the strings of living puppets."
+"As expected, the scientific community looked at Dr. Delgado’s work 
+with unease. To make matters worse, he wrote a book in 1969 with the 
+provocative title Physical Control of the Mind: Toward a Psychocivilized 
+Society. It raised an unsettling question: If scientists like Dr. Delgado are 
+pulling the strings, then who controls the puppet master?"
+"Dr. Delgado’s work puts into sharp focus the enormous promise and 
+perils of this technology. In the hands of an unscrupulous dictator, this 
+technology might be used to deceive and control his unfortunate 
+subjects. But it can also be used to free millions of people who are 
+trapped in mental illness, hounded by their hallucinations, or crushed by 
+their anxieties. (Years later, Dr. Delgado was asked by a journalist why 
+he initiated these controversial experiments. He said that he wanted to 
+correct the horrendous abuses being suffered by the mentally ill. They 
+often underwent radical lobotomies, in which the prefrontal cortex was 
+scrambled by a knife resembling an ice pick, which was hammered into 
+the brain above the eye socket. The results were often tragic, and some 
+of the horrors were exposed in Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the 
+Cuckoo’s Nest, which was made into a movie with Jack Nicholson. Some"
+"patients became calm and relaxed, but many others became zombies: 
+lethargic, indifferent to pain and feelings, and emotionally vacuous. The 
+practice was so widespread that in 1949, Antonio Moniz won the Nobel 
+Prize for perfecting the lobotomy. Ironically, in 1950, the Soviet Union 
+banned this technology, stating that “it was contrary to the principles of 
+humanity.” Lobotomies, the Soviet Union charged, turned “an insane 
+person into an idiot.” In total, it is estimated that forty thousand 
+lobotomies were performed in the United States alone over two 
+decades.) 
+
+MIND CONTROL AND THE COLD WAR 
+
+Another reason for the chilly reception of Dr. Delgado’s work was the 
+political climate of the time. It was the height of the Cold War, with 
+painful memories of captured U.S. soldiers being paraded in front of 
+cameras during the Korean War. With blank stares, they would admit 
+they were on secret spy missions, confess to horrific war crimes, and 
+denounce U.S. imperialism."
+"To make sense of this, the press used the term “brainwashing,” the 
+idea that the communists had developed secret drugs and techniques to 
+turn U.S. soldiers into pliable zombies. In this charged political climate, 
+Frank Sinatra starred in the 1962 Cold War thriller The Manchurian 
+Candidate, in which he tries to expose a secret communist “sleeper” 
+agent whose mission is to assassinate the president of the United States. 
+But there is a twist. The assassin is actually a trusted U.S. war hero, 
+someone who was captured and then brainwashed by the communists. 
+Coming from a well-connected family, the agent seems above suspicion 
+and is almost impossible to stop. The Manchurian Candidate mirrored the 
+anxieties of many Americans at that time."
+"Many of these fears were also stoked by Aldous Huxley’s prophetic 
+1931 novel Brave New World. In this dystopia, there are large test-tube- 
+baby factories that produce clones. By selectively depriving oxygen from 
+these fetuses, it is possible to produce children of different levels of brain 
+damage. At the top are the alphas, who suffer no brain damage and are 
+bred to rule society. At the bottom are the epsilons, who suffer 
+significant brain damage and are used as disposable, obedient workers. 
+In between are additional levels made up of other workers and the 
+bureaucracy. The elite then control society by flooding it with mind- 
+altering drugs, free love, and constant brainwashing. In this way, peace, 
+tranquility, and harmony are maintained, but the novel asked a 
+disturbing question that resonates even today: How much of our freedom 
+and basic humanity do we want to sacrifice in the name of peace and 
+social order? 
+
+CIA MIND-CONTROL EXPERIMENTS"
+"CIA MIND-CONTROL EXPERIMENTS 
+
+The Cold War hysteria eventually reached the highest levels of the CIA. 
+Convinced that the Soviets were far ahead in the science of brainwashing 
+
+and unorthodox scientific methods, the CIA embarked upon a variety of 
+classified projects, such as MKULTRA, which began in 1953, to explore 
+bizarre, fringe ideas. (In 1973, as the Watergate scandal spread panic 
+throughout the government, CIA director Richard Helms canceled 
+MKULTRA and hurriedly ordered all documents pertaining to the project 
+destroyed. However, a cache of twenty thousand documents somehow 
+survived the purge and were declassified in 1977 under the Freedom of 
+Information Act, revealing the full scope of this massive effort.)"
+"It is now known that, from 1953 to 1973, MULTRA funded 80 
+institutions, including 44 universities and colleges, and scores of 
+hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and prisons, often experimenting 
+on unsuspecting people without their permission, in 150 secret 
+operations. At one point, fully 6 percent of the entire CIA budget went 
+into MKULTRA. 
+
+Some of these mind-control projects included: 
+
+• developing a “truth serum” so prisoners would spill their secrets 
+
+• erasing memories via a U.S. Navy project called “Subproject 54” 
+
+• using hypnosis and a wide variety of drugs, especially LSD, to 
+control behavior 
+
+• investigating the use of mind-control drugs against foreign leaders, 
+e.g., Fidel Castro 
+
+• perfecting a variety of interrogation methods against prisoners 
+
+• developing a knockout drug that was fast working and left no trace 
+
+• altering people’s personality via drugs to make them more pliable"
+"• altering people’s personality via drugs to make them more pliable 
+
+Although some scientists questioned the validity of these studies, 
+others went along willingly. People from a wide range of disciplines 
+were recruited, including psychics, physicists, and computer scientists, to 
+investigate a variety of unorthodox projects: experimenting with mind- 
+altering drugs such as LSD, asking psychics to locate the position of 
+Soviet submarines patrolling the deep oceans, etc. In one sad incident, a 
+
+U.S. Army scientist was secretly given LSD. According to some reports, 
+he became so violently disoriented that he committed suicide by 
+jumping out a window."
+"Most of these experiments were justified on the grounds that the 
+Soviets were already ahead of us in terms of mind control. The U.S. 
+Senate was briefed in another secret report that the Soviets were 
+experimenting with beaming microwave radiation directly into the 
+brains of test subjects. Rather than denouncing the act, the United States 
+saw “great potential for development into a system for disorienting or 
+disrupting the behavior pattern of military or diplomatic personnel.” The 
+U.S. Army even claimed that it might be able to beam entire words and 
+speeches into the minds of the enemy: “One decoy and deception 
+concept ... is to remotely create noise in the heads of personnel by 
+exposing them to low power, pulsed microwaves.... By proper choice of 
+pulse characteristics, intelligible speech may be created.... Thus, it may 
+be possible to ‘talk’ to selected adversaries in a fashion that would be 
+most disturbing to them,” the report said."
+"Unfortunately, none of these experiments was peer-reviewed, so 
+millions of taxpayer dollars were spent on projects like this one, which 
+most likely violated the laws of physics, since the human brain cannot 
+receive microwave radiation and, more important, does not have the 
+ability to decode microwave messages. Dr. Steve Rose, a biologist at the 
+Open University, has called this far-fetched scheme a “neuro-scientific 
+impossibility.” 
+
+But for all the millions of dollars spent on these “black projects,” 
+apparently not a single piece of reliable science emerged. The use of 
+mind-altering drugs did, in fact, create disorientation and even panic 
+among the subjects who were tested, but the Pentagon failed to 
+accomplish the key goal: control of the conscious mind of another 
+person."
+"Also, according to psychologist Robert Jay Lifton, brainwashing by the 
+communists had little long-term effect. Most of the American troops who 
+denounced the United States during the Korean War reverted back to 
+their normal personalities soon after being released. In addition, studies 
+done on people who have been brainwashed by certain cults also show 
+that they revert back to their normal personality after leaving the cult. 
+So it seems that, in the long run, one’s basic personality is not affected 
+by brainwashing. 
+
+Of course, the military was not the first to experiment with mind 
+control. In ancient times, sorcerers and seers would claim that giving 
+
+magic potions to captured soldiers would make them talk or turn against 
+their leaders. One of the earliest of these mind-control methods was 
+hypnotism. 
+
+YOU ARE GETTING SLEEPY...."
+"YOU ARE GETTING SLEEPY.... 
+
+As a child, I remember seeing TV specials devoted to hypnosis. In one 
+show, a person was placed in a hypnotic trance and told that when he 
+woke up, he would be a chicken. The audience gasped as he began to 
+cluck and flap his arms around the stage. As dramatic as this 
+demonstration was, it’s simply an example of “stage hypnosis.” Books 
+written by professional magicians and showmen explain that they use 
+shills planted in the audience, the power of suggestion, and even the 
+willingness of the victim to play along with the ruse. 
+
+I once hosted a BBC/Discovery TV documentary called Time, and the 
+subject of long-lost memories came up. Is it possible to evoke such 
+distant memories through hypnosis? And if it is, can you then impose 
+your will on another? To test some of these ideas, I had myself 
+hypnotized for TV."
+"BBC hired a skilled professional hypnotist to begin the process. I was 
+asked to lie down on a bed in a quiet, darkened room. The hypnotist 
+spoke to me in slow, gentle tones, gradually making me relax. After a 
+while, he asked me to think back into the past, to perhaps a certain place 
+or incident that stood out even after all these years. And then he asked 
+me to reenter that place, reexperiencing its sights, sounds, and smells. 
+Remarkably, I did begin to see places and people’s faces that I had 
+forgotten about decades ago. It was like watching a blurred movie that 
+was slowly coming into focus. But then the recollections stopped. At a 
+certain point, I could not recapture any more memories. There was 
+clearly a limit to what hypnosis could do."
+"EEG and MRI scans show that during hypnosis the subject has minimal 
+sensory stimulation in the sensory cortices from the outside. In this way, 
+hypnosis can allow one to access some memories that are buried, but it 
+certainly cannot change one’s personality, goals, or wishes. A secret 
+1966 Pentagon document corroborates this, explaining that hypnotism 
+cannot be trusted as a military weapon. “It is probably significant that in 
+
+the long history of hypnosis, where the potential application to 
+intelligence has always been known, there are no reliable accounts of its 
+effective use by an intelligence service,” it read."
+"It should also be noted that brain scans show that hypnotism is not a 
+new state of consciousness, like dreaming and REM sleep. If we define 
+human consciousness as the process of continually building models of 
+the outside world and then simulating how they evolve into the future to 
+carry out a goal, we see that hypnosis cannot alter this basic process. 
+Hypnosis can accentuate certain aspects of consciousness and help 
+retrieve certain memories, but it cannot make you squawk like a chicken 
+without your permission. 
+
+MIND-ALTERING DRUGS AND TRUTH SERUMS 
+
+One of the goals of MKULTRA was the creation of a truth serum so that 
+spies and prisoners would reveal their secrets. Although MKULTRA was 
+canceled in 1973, U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals declassified 
+by the Pentagon in 1996 still recommended the use of truth serums 
+(although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that confessions obtained in this 
+way were “unconstitutionally coerced” and hence inadmissible in court)."
+"Anyone who watches Hollywood movies knows that sodium pentathol 
+is the truth serum of choice used by spies (as in the movies True Lies 
+with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Meet the Fockers with Robert De Niro). 
+Sodium pentathol is part of a larger class of barbiturates, sedatives, and 
+hypnotics that can evade the blood-brain barrier, which prevents most 
+harmful chemicals in the bloodstream from entering the brain."
+"Not surprisingly, most mind-altering drugs, such as alcohol, affect us 
+powerfully because they can evade this barrier. Sodium pentathol 
+depresses activity in the prefrontal cortex, so that a person becomes 
+more relaxed, talkative, and uninhibited. However, this does not mean 
+that they tell the truth. On the contrary, people under the influence of 
+sodium pentathol, like those who have imbibed a few too many, are 
+fully capable of lying. The “secrets” that come spilling out of the mouth 
+of someone under this drug may be total fabrications, so even the CIA 
+eventually gave up on drugs like this. 
+
+But this still leaves open the possibility that, one day, a wonder drug"
+"But this still leaves open the possibility that, one day, a wonder drug 
+
+might be found that could alter our basic consciousness. This drug would 
+work by changing the synapses between our nerve fibers by targeting 
+neurotransmitters that operate in this area, such as dopamine, serotonin, 
+or acetylcholine. If we think of the synapses as a series of tollbooths 
+along a superhighway, then certain drugs (such as stimulants like 
+cocaine) can open the tollbooth and let messages pass by unimpeded. 
+The sudden rush that drug addicts feel is caused when these tollbooths 
+are opened all at once, causing an avalanche of signals to flood by. But 
+
+when all the synapses have fired in unison, they cannot fire again until 
+hours later. It’s as if the tolls have closed, and this causes the sudden 
+depression one feels after the rush. The body’s desire to reexperience the 
+sudden rush then causes addiction. 
+
+HOW DRUGS ALTER THE MIND"
+"HOW DRUGS ALTER THE MIND 
+
+Although the biochemical basis for mind-altering drugs was not known 
+when the CIA first conducted its experiments on unsuspecting subjects, 
+since then the molecular basis of drug addiction has been studied in 
+detail. Studies in animals demonstrate how powerful drug addiction is: 
+rats, mice, and primates will, given the chance, take drugs like cocaine, 
+heroin, and amphetamines until they drop from exhaustion or die from 
+it."
+"To see how widespread this problem has become, consider that by 
+2007, thirteen million Americans aged twelve or over (or 5 percent of 
+the entire teen and adult population of the United States) had tried or 
+become addicted to methamphetamines. Drug addiction not only 
+destroys entire lives, it also systematically destroys the brain. MRI scans 
+of the brains of meth addicts show an 11 percent reduction in the size of 
+the limbic system, which processes emotions, and an 8 percent loss of 
+tissue in the hippocampus, which is the gateway for memory. MRI scans 
+show that the damage in some ways is comparable to that found in 
+Alzheimer’s patients. But no matter how much meth destroys the brain, 
+addicts crave it because its high is up to twelve times the rush caused by 
+eating a delicious meal or even having sex. 
+
+Basically, the “high” of drug addiction is due to the drug’s hijacking of 
+the brain’s own pleasure/reward system located in the limbic system."
+"This pleasure/reward circuit is very primitive, dating back millions of 
+years in evolutionary history, but it is still extremely important for 
+human survival because it rewards beneficial behavior and punishes 
+harmful acts. Once this circuit is taken over by drugs, however, the 
+result can be widespread havoc. These drugs first penetrate the blood- 
+brain barrier and then cause the overproduction of neurotransmitters 
+like dopamine, which then floods the nucleus accumbens, a tiny pleasure 
+center located deep in the brain near the amygdala. The dopamine, in 
+turn, is produced by certain brain cells in the ventral tegmental area, 
+called VTA cells. 
+
+All drugs basically work the same way: by crippling the VTA-nucleus 
+accumbens circuit, which controls the flow of dopamine and other 
+neurotransmitters to the pleasure center. Drugs differ only in the way in"
+"which this process takes place. There are at least three main drugs that 
+stimulate the pleasure center of the brain: dopamine, serotonin, and 
+noradrenaline; all of them give feelings of pleasure, euphoria, and false 
+confidence, and also produce a burst of energy. 
+
+Cocaine and other stimulants, for example, work in two ways. First, 
+they directly stimulate the VTA cells to produce more dopamine, hence 
+causing excess dopamine to flood into the nucleus accumbens. Second, 
+they prevent the VTA cells from going back to their “off” position, thus 
+keeping them continually producing dopamine. They also impede the 
+uptake of serotonin and noradrenaline. The simultaneous flooding of 
+neural circuits from all three of these neurotransmitters, then, creates 
+the tremendous high associated with cocaine. 
+
+Heroin and other opiates, by contrast, work by neutralizing the cells in 
+the VTA that can reduce the production of dopamine, thus causing the 
+VTA to overproduce dopamine."
+"Drugs like LSD operate by stimulating the production of serotonin, 
+inducing a feeling of well-being, purpose, and affection. But they also 
+activate areas of the temporal lobe involved in creating hallucinations. 
+(Only fifty micrograms of LSD can cause hallucinations. LSD binds so 
+tightly, in fact, that further increasing the dosage has no effect.) 
+
+Over time, the CIA came to realize that mind-altering drugs were not 
+the magic bullet they were looking for. The hallucinations and 
+addictions that accompany these drugs made them too unstable and 
+unpredictable, and they could cause more trouble than they were worth 
+
+in delicate political situations."
+"(It should be pointed out that just in the last few years, MRI brain 
+scans of drug addicts have indicated a novel way to possibly cure or 
+treat some forms of addiction. By accident, it was noticed that stroke 
+victims who have damage to the insula [located deep in the brain, 
+between the prefrontal cortex and the temporal cortex] have a 
+significantly easier time quitting smoking than the average smoker. This 
+result has also been verified among drug abusers using cocaine, alcohol, 
+opiates, and nicotine. If this result holds up, it might mean that one may 
+be able to dampen the activity of the insula using electrodes or magnetic 
+stimulators and hence treat addiction. “This is the first time we’ve shown 
+anything like this, that damage to a specific brain area could remove the 
+problem of addiction entirely. It’s mind-boggling,” says Dr. Nora 
+Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. At present, no 
+one knows how this works, because the insula is involved in a"
+"one knows how this works, because the insula is involved in a 
+bewildering variety of brain functions, including perception, motor 
+control, and self-awareness. But if this result bears out, it could change"
+"the entire landscape of addiction studies.) 
+
+PROBING THE BRAIN WITH OPTOGENETICS 
+
+These mind-control experiments were done mainly in an era when the 
+brain was largely a mystery, with hit-or-miss methods that often failed. 
+However, because of the explosion in devices that can probe the brain, 
+new opportunities have arisen that will both help us understand the 
+brain as well as possibly teach us how to control it. 
+
+Optogenetics, as we have seen, is one of the fastest-developing fields 
+in science today. The basic goal is to identify precisely which neural 
+pathway corresponds to which mode of behavior. Optogenetics starts 
+with a gene called opsin, which is quite unusual because it is sensitive to 
+light. (It is believed that the appearance of this gene hundreds of 
+millions of years ago was responsible for creating the first eye. In this 
+theory, a simple patch of skin sensitive to light due to opsin evolved into 
+the retina of the eye.)"
+"When the opsin gene is inserted into a neuron and exposed to light, 
+the neuron will fire on command. By flipping a switch, one can instantly 
+
+recognize the neural pathway for certain behaviors because the proteins 
+manufactured by opsin conduct electricity and will fire. 
+
+The hard part, though, is to insert this gene into a single neuron. To 
+do this, one uses a technique borrowed from genetic engineering. The 
+opsin gene is inserted into a harmless virus (which has had its bad genes 
+removed), and, using precision tools, it is then possible to apply this 
+virus to a single neuron. The virus then infects the neuron by inserting 
+its genes into the genes of the neuron. Then, when a light beam is 
+flashed onto neural tissue, the neuron is turned on. In this way, one can 
+establish the precise pathway that certain messages take."
+"Not only does optogenetics identify certain pathways by shining a 
+light beam on them, it also enables scientists to control behavior. 
+Already this method has been a proven success. It was long suspected 
+that a simple neural circuit must be responsible for fruit flies escaping 
+and flying away. Using this method, it was possible to finally identify the 
+precise pathway behind the quick getaway. By simply shining a beam 
+onto these fruit flies, they bolt on demand. 
+
+Scientists are also now able to make worms stop wiggling by flashing 
+light, and in 2011 yet another breakthrough was made. Scientists at 
+Stanford were able to insert the opsin gene into a precise region of the 
+
+amygdala of mice. These mice, which were specially bred to be timid, 
+cowered in their cage. But when a beam of light was flashed into their 
+brains, the mice suddenly lost their timidity and began to explore their 
+cage."
+"The implications are enormous. While fruit flies may have simple 
+reflex mechanisms involving a handful of neurons, mice have complete 
+limbic systems with counterparts in the human brain. Although many 
+experiments that work with mice do not translate to human beings, this 
+still holds out the possibility that scientists may one day find the precise 
+neural pathways for certain mental illnesses, and then be able to treat 
+them without any side effects. As Dr. Edward Boyden of MIT says, “If 
+you want to turn off a brain circuit and the alternative is surgical 
+removal of a brain region, optical fiber implants might seem preferable.” 
+
+One practical application is in treating Parkinson’s disease. As we have 
+seen, it can be treated by deep brain stimulation, but because the 
+positioning of electrodes in the brain lacks precision, there is always the 
+danger of strokes, bleeding, infections, etc. Deep brain stimulation can"
+"also cause side effects such as dizziness and muscle contractions, because 
+the electrodes can accidentally stimulate the wrong neurons. 
+Optogenetics may improve deep brain stimulation by identifying the 
+precise neural pathways that are misfiring, at the level of individual 
+neurons. 
+
+Victims of paralysis might also benefit from this new technology. As 
+we saw in Chapter 4, some paralyzed individuals have been hooked up 
+to a computer in order to control a mechanical arm, but because they 
+have no sense of touch, they often wind up dropping or crushing the 
+object they wish to grab. “By feeding information from sensors on the 
+prosthetic fingertips directly back to the brain using optogenetics, one 
+could in principle provide a high-fidelity sense of touch,” says Dr. 
+Krishna Shenoy of Stanford."
+"Optogenetics will also help clarify which neural pathways are involved 
+with human behavior. In fact, plans have already been drawn up to 
+experiment with this technique on human brains, especially with regard 
+to mental illness. There will be hurdles, of course. First, the technique 
+requires opening up the skull, and if the neurons that one wishes to 
+study are located deep inside the brain, the procedure will be even more 
+invasive. Lastly, one has to insert tiny wires into the brain that can shine 
+a light on this modified neuron so that it triggers the desired behavior. 
+
+Once these neural pathways have been deciphered, you can also 
+stimulate them, making animals perform strange behaviors (for example, 
+mice will run around in circles). Although scientists are just beginning to"
+"trace the neural pathways governing simple animal behaviors, in the 
+future they should have an encyclopedia of such behaviors, including 
+those of humans. In the wrong hands, however, optogenetics could 
+potentially be used to control human behavior. 
+
+In the main, the benefits of optogenetics greatly outweigh its 
+drawbacks. It can literally reveal the pathways of the brain in order to 
+treat mental illness and other diseases. This may then give scientists the 
+tools by which to repair the damage, perhaps curing diseases once 
+thought to be incurable. In the near future, then, the benefits are all 
+positive. But further in the future, once the pathways of human 
+behaviors are also understood, optogenetics could also be used to control 
+or at least modify human behavior as well. 
+
+MIND CONTROL AND THE FUTURE"
+"MIND CONTROL AND THE FUTURE 
+
+In summary, the use of drugs and hypnotism by the CIA was a flop. 
+These techniques were too unstable and unpredictable to be of any use 
+to the military. They can be used to induce hallucinations and 
+dependency, but they have failed to cleanly erase memories, make 
+people more pliant, or force people to perform acts against their will. 
+Governments will keep trying, but the goal is elusive. So far, drugs are 
+simply too blunt an instrument to allow you to control someone’s 
+behavior. 
+
+But this is also a cautionary tale. Carl Sagan mentions one nightmare 
+scenario that might actually work. He envisions a dictator taking 
+children and putting electrodes into their “pain” and “pleasure” centers. 
+These electrodes are then connected wirelessly to computers, so that the 
+dictator can control his subjects with the push of a button."
+"Another nightmare might involve probes placed in the brain that 
+could override our wishes and seize control of our muscles, forcing us to 
+perform tasks we don’t want to do. The work of Dr. Delgado was crude, 
+but it showed that bursts of electricity applied to motor areas of the 
+brain can overrule our conscious thoughts, so that our muscles are no 
+longer under our control. He was able to identify only a few behaviors in 
+animals that could be controlled with electric probes. In the future, it 
+may be possible to find a wide variety of behaviors that can be 
+controlled electronically with a switch."
+"If you are the person being controlled, it would be an unpleasant 
+experience. Although you may think you are master of your own body, 
+your muscles would actually fire without your permission, so you would 
+do things against your will. The electric impulse being fed into your 
+brain could be larger than the impulses you consciously send into your 
+muscles, so that it would appear as if someone had hijacked your body. 
+
+Your own body would become a foreign object. 
+
+In principle, some version of this nightmare might be possible in the 
+future. But there are several factors that may prevent this as well. First, 
+this is still an infant technology and it is not known how it will be 
+applied to human behavior, so there is still plenty of time to monitor its 
+development and perhaps create safeguards to see that it is not misused. 
+Second, a dictator might simply decide that propaganda and coercion,"
+"the usual methods of controlling a population, are cheaper and more 
+effective than putting electrodes into the brains of millions of children, 
+which would be costly and invasive. And third, in democratic societies, a 
+vigorous public debate would probably emerge concerning the promise 
+and limitations of this powerful technology. Laws would have to be 
+passed to prevent the abuse of these methods without impairing their 
+ability to reduce human suffering. Soon science will give us unparalleled 
+insight into the detailed neural pathways of the brain. A fine line has to 
+be drawn between technologies that can benefit society and technologies 
+that can control it. And the key to passing these laws is an educated, 
+informed public."
+"But the real impact of this technology, I believe, will be to liberate the 
+mind, not enslave it. These technologies can give hope to those who are 
+trapped in mental illness. Although there is as yet no permanent cure for 
+mental illness, these new technologies have given us deep insight into 
+how such disorders form and how they progress. One day, through 
+genetics, drugs, and a combination of high-tech methods, we will find a 
+way to manage and eventually cure these ancient diseases. 
+
+One of the recent attempts to exploit this new knowledge of the brain 
+is to understand historical personalities. Perhaps the insights from 
+modern science can help explain the mental states of those in the past. 
+
+And one of the most mystifying figures being analyzed today is Joan 
+of Arc. 
+
+Lovers and madmen have such seething brains.. 
+The lunatic, the lover, and the poet 
+Are of imagination all compact. 
+
+-WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT S DREAM 
+
+9 ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"-WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT S DREAM 
+
+9 ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+She was just an illiterate peasant girl who claimed to hear voices 
+directly from God. But Joan of Arc would rise from obscurity to lead a 
+demoralized army to victories that would change the course of nations, 
+making her one of the most fascinating, compelling, and tragic figures in 
+history."
+"During the chaos of the Hundred Years’ War, when northern France 
+was decimated by English troops and the French monarchy was in 
+retreat, a young girl from Orleans claimed to have divine instructions to 
+lead the French army to victory. With nothing to lose, Charles VII 
+allowed her to command some of his troops. To everyone’s shock and 
+wonder, she scored a series of triumphs over the English. News rapidly 
+spread about this remarkable young girl. With each victory, her 
+reputation began to grow, until she became a folk heroine, rallying the 
+French around her. French troops, once on the verge of total collapse, 
+scored decisive victories that paved the way for the coronation of the 
+new king."
+"However, she was betrayed and captured by the English. They realized 
+what a threat she posed to them, since she was a potent symbol for the 
+French and claimed guidance directly from God Himself, so they 
+subjected her to a show trial. After an elaborate interrogation, she was 
+found guilty of heresy and burned at the stake at the age of nineteen in 
+1431. 
+
+In the centuries that followed, hundreds of attempts have been made 
+to understand this remarkable teenager. Was she a prophet, a saint, or a 
+madwoman? More recently, scientists have tried to use modern 
+psychiatry and neuroscience to explain the lives of historical figures such 
+as Joan of Arc. 
+
+Few question her sincerity about claims of divine inspiration. But 
+many scientists have written that she might have suffered from 
+schizophrenia, since she heard voices. Others have disputed this fact,"
+"since the surviving records of her trial reveal a person of rational 
+thought and speech. The English laid several theological traps for her. 
+They asked, for example, if she was in God’s grace. If she answered yes, 
+then she would be a heretic, since no one can know for certain if they 
+are in God’s grace. If she said no, then she was confessing her guilt, and 
+that she was a fraud. Either way, she would lose. 
+
+In a response that stunned the audience, she answered, “If I am not, 
+may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.” The court 
+notary, in the records, wrote, “Those who were interrogating her were 
+
+stupefied.” 
+
+In fact, the transcripts of her interrogation are so remarkable that 
+George Bernard Shaw put literal translations of the court record in his 
+play Saint Joan."
+"More recently, another theory has emerged about this exceptional 
+woman: perhaps she actually suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy. 
+People who have this condition sometimes experience seizures, but some 
+of them also experience a curious side effect that may shed some light on 
+the structure of human beliefs. These patients suffer from 
+“hyperreligiosity,” and can’t help thinking that there is a spirit or 
+presence behind everything. Random events are never random, but have 
+some deep religious significance. Some psychologists have speculated 
+that a number of history’s prophets suffered from these temporal lobe 
+epileptic lesions, since they were convinced they talked to God. The 
+neuroscientist Dr. David Eagleman says, “Some fraction of history’s 
+prophets, martyrs, and leaders appear to have had temporal lobe 
+epilepsy. Consider Joan of Arc, the sixteen-year-old girl who managed to 
+turn the tide of the Hundred Years’ War because she believed (and"
+"turn the tide of the Hundred Years’ War because she believed (and 
+convinced the French soldiers) that she was hearing voices from Saint 
+Michael the archangel, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Margaret, 
+and Saint Gabriel.”"
+"This curious effect was noticed as far back as 1892, when textbooks on 
+mental illness noted a link between “religious emotionalism” and 
+epilepsy. It was first clinically described in 1975 by neurologist Norman 
+Geschwind of Boston Veterans Administration Hospital. He noticed that 
+epileptics who had electrical misfirings in their left temporal lobes often 
+had religious experiences, and he speculated that the electrical storm in 
+the brain somehow was the cause of these religious obsessions. 
+
+Dr. V. S. Ramachandran estimates that 30 to 40 percent of all the 
+temporal lobe epileptics whom he has seen suffer from hyperreligiosity. 
+He notes, “Sometimes it’s a personal God, sometimes it’s a more diffuse 
+feeling of being one with the cosmos. Everything seems suffused with 
+meaning. The patient will say, ‘Finally, I see what it is all really about, 
+Doctor. I really understand God. I understand my place in the universe— 
+the cosmic scheme.’ ”"
+"He also notes that many of these individuals are extremely adamant 
+and convincing in their beliefs. He says, “I sometimes wonder whether 
+such patients who have temporal lobe epilepsy have access to another 
+dimension of reality, a wormhole of sorts into a parallel universe. But I 
+usually don’t say this to my colleagues, lest they doubt my sanity.” He 
+has experimented on patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, and 
+confirmed that these individuals had a strong emotional reaction to the 
+
+word “God” but not to neutral words. This means that the link between 
+hyperreligiosity and temporal lobe epilepsy is real, not just anecdotal. 
+
+Psychologist Michael Persinger asserts that a certain type of 
+transcranial electrical stimulation (called transcranial magnetic 
+simulation, or TMS) can deliberately induce the effect of these epileptic 
+lesions. If this is so, is it possible that magnetic fields can be used to alter 
+one’s religious beliefs?"
+"In Dr. Persinger’s studies, the subject places a helmet on his head 
+(dubbed the “God helmet”), which contains a device that can send 
+magnetism into particular parts of the brain. Afterward, when the 
+subject is interviewed, he will often claim that he was in the presence of 
+some great spirit. David Biello, writing in Scientific American, says, 
+“During the three-minute bursts of stimulation, the affected subjects 
+translated this perception of the divine into their own cultural and 
+religious language—terming it God, Buddha, a benevolent presence, or 
+the wonder of the universe.” Since this effect is reproducible on demand, 
+it indicates that perhaps the brain is hardwired in some way to respond 
+to religious feelings."
+"Some scientists have gone further and have speculated that there is a 
+“God gene” that predisposes the brain to be religious. Since most 
+societies have created a religion of some sort, it seems plausible that our 
+ability to respond to religious feelings might be genetically programmed 
+into our genome. (Meanwhile, some evolutionary theorists have tried to 
+
+explain these facts by claiming that religion served to increase the 
+chances of survival for early humans. Religion helped bond bickering 
+individuals into a cohesive tribe with a common mythology, which 
+increased the chances that the tribe would stick together and survive.) 
+
+Would an experiment like the one using the “God helmet” shake a 
+person’s religious beliefs? And can an MRI machine record the brain 
+activity of someone who experiences a religious awakening?"
+"To test these ideas, Dr. Mario Beauregard of the University of 
+Montreal recruited a group of fifteen Carmelite nuns who agreed to put 
+their heads into an MRI machine. To qualify for the experiment, all of 
+them must “have had an experience of intense union with God.” 
+
+Originally, Dr. Beauregard had hoped that the nuns would have a 
+mystical communion with God, which could then be recorded by an MRI 
+scan. However, being shoved into an MRI machine, where you are 
+surrounded by tons of magnetic coils of wire and high-tech equipment, is 
+not an ideal setting for a religious epiphany. The best they could do was 
+to evoke memories of previous religious experiences. “God cannot be 
+
+summoned at will,” explained one of the nuns. 
+
+The final result was mixed and inconclusive, but several regions of the 
+brain clearly lit up during this experiment: 
+
+• The caudate nucleus, which is involved with learning and possibly 
+falling in love. (Perhaps the nuns were feeling the unconditional 
+love of God?)"
+"• The insula, which monitors body sensations and social emotions. 
+(Perhaps the nuns were feeling close to the other nuns as they were 
+reaching out to God?) 
+
+• The parietal lobe, which helps process spatial awareness. (Perhaps 
+the nuns felt they were in the physical presence of God?) 
+
+Dr. Beauregard had to admit that so many areas of the brain were 
+activated, with so many different possible interpretations, that he could 
+not say for sure whether hyperreligiosity could be induced. However, it 
+was clear to him that the nuns’ religious feelings were reflected in their 
+brain scans. 
+
+But did this experiment shake the nuns’ belief in God? No. In fact, the 
+
+nuns concluded that God placed this “radio” in the brain so that we 
+could communicate with Him."
+"nuns concluded that God placed this “radio” in the brain so that we 
+could communicate with Him. 
+
+Their conclusion was that God created humans to have this ability, so 
+the brain has a divine antenna given to us by God so that we can feel His 
+presence. David Biello concludes, “Although atheists might argue that 
+finding spirituality in the brain implies that religion is nothing more 
+than divine delusion, the nuns were thrilled by their brain scans for 
+precisely the opposite reason: they seemed to provide confirmation of 
+God’s interactions with them.” Dr. Beauregard concluded, “If you are an 
+atheist and you live a certain kind of experience, you will relate it to the 
+magnificence of the universe. If you are a Christian, you will associate it 
+with God. Who knows. Perhaps they are the same thing.” 
+
+Similarly, Dr. Richard Dawkins, a biologist at Oxford University and 
+an outspoken atheist, was once placed in the God helmet to see if his 
+religious beliefs would change. 
+
+They did not."
+"They did not. 
+
+So in conclusion, although hyperreligiosity may be induced via 
+temporal lobe epilepsy and even magnetic fields, there is no convincing 
+evidence that magnetic fields can alter one’s religious views. 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+But there is another altered state of consciousness that brings great 
+suffering, both to the person experiencing it and to his or her family, and 
+this is mental illness. Can brain scans and high technology reveal the 
+origin of this affliction and perhaps lead to a cure? If so, one of the 
+largest sources of human suffering could be eliminated."
+"For example, throughout history, the treatment of schizophrenia was 
+brutal and crude. People who suffer from this debilitating mental 
+disorder, which afflicts about 1 percent of the population, typically hear 
+imaginary voices and suffer from paranoid delusions and disorganized 
+thinking. Throughout history, they were considered to be “possessed” by 
+the devil and were banished, killed, or locked up. Gothic novels 
+sometimes refer to the strange, demented relative who lives in the 
+darkness of a hidden room or basement. The Bible even mentions an 
+incident when Jesus encountered two demoniacs. The demons begged 
+
+Jesus to drive them into a herd of swine. He said, “Go then.” When the 
+demons entered the swine, the whole herd rushed down the bank and 
+drowned in the sea."
+"Even today, you still see people with classic symptoms of 
+schizophrenia walking around having arguments with themselves. The 
+first indicators usually surface in the late teens (for men) or early 
+twenties (for women). Some schizophrenics have led normal lives and 
+even performed remarkable feats before the voices finally took over. The 
+most famous case is that of the 1994 Nobel Prize winner in economics, 
+John Nash, who was played by Russell Crowe in the movie A Beautiful 
+Mind. In his twenties, Nash did pioneering work in economics, game 
+theory, and pure mathematics at Princeton University. One of his 
+advisers wrote him a letter of recommendation with just one line: “This 
+man is a genius.” Remarkably, he was able to perform at such a high 
+intellectual level even while being hounded by delusions. He was finally 
+hospitalized when he had a breakdown at age thirty-one, and spent 
+many years in institutions or wandering around the world, fearing that 
+communist agents would kill him."
+"At present, there is no precise, universally accepted way to diagnose 
+mental illness. There is hope, however, that one day scientists will use 
+brain scans and other high-tech devices to create accurate diagnostic 
+tools. Progress in treating mental illness, therefore, has been painfully 
+slow. After centuries of suffering, victims of schizophrenia had their first 
+sign of relief when antipsychotic drugs like thorazine were found 
+
+accidentally in the 1950s that could miraculously control or even at 
+times eliminate the voices that haunted the mentally ill."
+"It is believed that these drugs work by regulating the level of certain 
+neurotransmitters, such as dopamine. Specifically, the theory is that 
+these drugs block the functioning of D2 receptors of certain nerve cells, 
+thereby reducing the level of dopamine. (This theory, that hallucinations 
+were in part caused by excess dopamine levels in the limbic system and 
+prefrontal cortex, also explained why people taking amphetamines 
+experienced similar hallucinations.) 
+
+Dopamine, because it is so essential for the synapses of the brain, has 
+been implicated in other disorders as well. One theory holds that 
+Parkinson’s disease is aggravated by a lack of dopamine in the synapses, 
+while Tourette’s syndrome can be triggered by an overabundance of it. 
+
+(People with Tourette’s syndrome have tics and unusual facial 
+movements. A small minority of them uncontrollably speak obscene 
+words and make profane, derogatory remarks.)"
+"More recently, scientists have zeroed in on another possible culprit: 
+abnormal glutamate levels in the brain. One reason for believing these 
+levels are involved is that PCP (angel dust) is known to create 
+hallucinations similar to those of schizophrenics by blocking a glutamate 
+receptor called NMDA. Clozapine, a relatively new drug for 
+schizophrenia that stimulates the production of glutamate, shows great 
+promise. 
+
+However, these antipsychotic drugs are not a cure-all. In about 20 
+percent of cases, such drugs stop all symptoms. About two-thirds find 
+some relief from their symptoms, but the rest are totally unaffected. 
+(According to one theory, antipsychotic drugs mimic a natural chemical 
+that is missing in schizophrenics’ brains, but it is not an exact copy. 
+Hence a patient has to try a variety of these antipsychotic drugs, almost 
+by trial and error. Moreover, they can have unpleasant side effects, so 
+schizophrenics often stop taking them and suffer a relapse.)"
+"Recently, brain scans of schizophrenics taken while they were having 
+auditory hallucinations have helped explain this ancient disorder. For 
+example, when we silently talk to ourselves, certain parts of the brain 
+light up on an MRI scan, especially in the temporal lobe (such as in 
+Wernicke’s area). When a schizophrenic hears voices, the very same 
+areas of the brain light up. The brain works hard to construct a 
+consistent narrative, so schizophrenics try to make sense of these 
+unauthorized voices, believing they originate from strange sources, such 
+as Martians secretly beaming thoughts into their brains. Dr. Michael 
+Sweeney of Ohio State writes, “Neurons wired for the sensation of sound 
+
+fire on their own, like gas-soaked rags igniting spontaneously in a hot, 
+dark garage. In the absence of sights and sounds in the surrounding 
+environment, the schizophrenic’s brain creates a powerful illusion of 
+reality.”"
+"Notably, these voices seem to be coming from a third party, who often 
+gives the subject commands, which are mostly mundane but sometimes 
+violent. Meanwhile, the simulation centers in the prefrontal cortex seem 
+to be on automatic pilot, so in a way it’s as though the consciousness of 
+a schizophrenic is running the same sort of simulations we all do, except 
+
+they’re done without his permission. The person is literally talking to 
+himself without his knowledge. 
+
+HALLUCINATIONS 
+
+The mind constantly generates hallucinations of its own, but for the 
+most part they are easily controlled. We see images that don’t exist or 
+hear spurious sounds, for example, so the anterior cingulate cortex is 
+vital to distinguish the real from the manufactured. This part of the 
+brain helps us distinguish between stimuli that are external and those 
+that are internally generated by the mind itself."
+"However, in schizophrenics, it is believed that this system is damaged, 
+so that the person cannot distinguish real from imaginary voices. (The 
+anterior cingulate cortex is vital because it lies in a strategic place, 
+between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system. The link between 
+these two areas is one of the most important in the brain, since one area 
+governs rational thinking, and the other emotions.) 
+
+Hallucinations, to some extent, can be created on demand. 
+Hallucinations occur naturally if you place someone in a pitch-black 
+room, an isolation chamber, or a creepy environment with strange 
+noises. These are examples of “our eyes playing tricks on us.” Actually, 
+the brain is tricking itself, internally creating false images, trying to 
+make sense of the world and identify threats. This effect is called 
+“pareidolia.” Every time we look at clouds in the sky, we see images of 
+animals, people, or our favorite cartoon characters. We have no choice. 
+It is hardwired into our brains."
+"In a sense, all images we see, both real and virtual, are hallucinations, 
+because the brain is constantly creating false images to “fill in the gaps.” 
+As we’ve seen, even real images are partly manufactured. But in the 
+mentally ill, regions of the brain such as the anterior cingulate cortex are 
+perhaps damaged, so the brain confuses reality and fantasy. 
+
+THE OBSESSIVE MIND 
+
+Another disorder in which drugs may be used to heal the mind is OCD 
+(obsessive-compulsive disorder). As we saw earlier, human 
+
+consciousness involves mediating between a number of feedback 
+mechanisms. Sometimes, however, the feedback mechanisms are stuck in 
+the “on” position."
+"One in forty Americans suffers from OCD. Cases can be mild, so that, 
+for example, people have to constantly go home to check that they 
+locked the door. The detective Adrian Monk on the TV show Monk has a 
+mild case of OCD. But OCD can also be so severe that people 
+compulsively scratch or wash their skin until it is left bleeding and raw. 
+Some people with OCD have been known to repeat obsessive behaviors 
+for hours, making it difficult to keep a job or have a family. 
+
+Normally these types of compulsive behaviors, in moderation, are 
+actually good for us, since they help us keep clean, healthy, and safe. 
+That is why we evolved these behaviors in the first place. But someone 
+with OCD cannot stop this behavior, and it spirals out of control."
+"Brain scans are now revealing how this takes place. They show that at 
+least three areas of the brain that normally help us keep ourselves 
+healthy get stuck in a feedback loop. First, there is the orbitofrontal 
+cortex, which we saw in Chapter 1 can act as a fact-checker, making sure 
+that we have properly locked the doors and washed our hands. It tells 
+us, “Hmm, something is wrong.” Second, the caudate nucleus, located in 
+the basal ganglia, governs learned activities that are automatic. It tells 
+the body to “do something.” And finally, we have the cingulate cortex, 
+which registers conscious emotions, including discomfort. It says, “I still 
+feel awful.”"
+"Psychiatry professor Jeffrey Schwartz of UCLA has tried to put this all 
+together to explain how OCD gets out of hand. Imagine you have the 
+urge to wash your hands. The orbitofrontal cortex recognizes that 
+something is wrong, that your hands are dirty. The caudate nucleus kicks 
+in and causes you to automatically wash your hands. Then the cingulate 
+cortex registers satisfaction that your hands are clean. 
+
+But in someone with OCD, this loop is altered. Even after he notices 
+that his hands are dirty and he washes them, he still has the 
+discomforting feeling that something is wrong, that they are still dirty. 
+So he is stuck in a feedback loop that won’t stop. 
+
+In the 1960s, the drug clomipramine hydrochloride began to give OCD 
+patients some relief. This and other drugs developed since then raise 
+levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the body. They can reduce"
+"symptoms of OCD by as much as 60 percent in clinical trials. Dr. 
+Schwartz says, “The brain’s gonna do what the brain’s gonna do, but you 
+don’t have to let it push you around.” These drugs are certainly not a 
+cure, but they have brought some relief to the sufferers of OCD. 
+
+BIPOLAR DISORDER 
+
+Another common form of mental illness is bipolar disorder, in which a 
+person suffers from extreme bouts of wild, delusional optimism, followed 
+by a crash and then periods of deep depression. Bipolar disorder also 
+seems to run in families and, curiously, strikes frequently in artists; 
+perhaps their great works of art were created during bursts of creativity 
+and optimism. A list of creative people who were afflicted by bipolar 
+disorder reads like a Who’s Who of Hollywood celebrities, musicians, 
+artists, and writers. Although the drug lithium seems to control many of 
+the symptoms of bipolar disorder, the causes are not entirely clear."
+"One theory states that bipolar disorder may be caused by an 
+imbalance between the left and right hemispheres. Dr. Michael Sweeney 
+notes, “Brain scans have led researchers to generally assign negative 
+emotions such as sadness to the right hemisphere and positive emotions 
+such as joy to the left hemisphere. For at least a century, neuroscientists 
+have noticed a link between damage to the brain’s left hemisphere and 
+negative moods, including depression and uncontrollable crying. 
+Damage to the right, however, has been associated with a broad array of 
+positive emotions.”"
+"So the left hemisphere, which is analytical and controls language, 
+tends to become manic if left to itself. The right hemisphere, on the 
+contrary, is holistic and tends to check this mania. Dr. V. S. 
+Ramachandran writes, “If left unchecked, the left hemisphere would 
+likely render a person delusional or manic.... So it seems reasonable to 
+postulate a ‘devil’s advocate’ in the right hemisphere that allows ‘you’ to 
+adopt a detached, objective (allocentric) view of yourself.” 
+
+If human consciousness involves simulating the future, it has to 
+compute the outcomes of future events with certain probabilities. It 
+needs, therefore, a delicate balance between optimism and pessimism to 
+estimate the chances of success or failures for certain courses of action."
+"But in some sense, depression is the price we pay for being able to 
+simulate the future. Our consciousness has the ability to conjure up all 
+sorts of horrific outcomes for the future, and is therefore aware of all the 
+bad things that could happen, even if they are not realistic."
+"It is hard to verify many of these theories, since brain scans of people 
+who are clinically depressed indicate that many brain areas are affected. 
+It is difficult to pinpoint the source of the problem, but among the 
+clinically depressed, activity in the parietal and temporal lobes seems to 
+be suppressed, perhaps indicating that the person is withdrawn from the 
+outside world and living in their own internal world. In particular, the 
+ventromedial cortex seems to play an important role. This area 
+apparently creates the feeling that there is a sense of meaning and 
+wholeness to the world, so that everything seems to have a purpose. 
+Overactivity in this area can cause mania, in which people think they are 
+omnipotent. Underactivity in this area is associated with depression and 
+the feeling that life is pointless. So it is possible that a defect in this area 
+may be responsible for some mood swings. 
+
+A THEORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND MENTAL ILLNESS"
+"A THEORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+So how does the space-time theory of consciousness apply to mental 
+illness? Can it give us a deeper insight into this disorder? As we 
+mentioned before, we define human consciousness as the process of 
+creating a model of our world in space and time (especially the future) 
+by evaluating many feedback loops in various parameters in order to 
+achieve a goal."
+"We have proposed that the key function of human consciousness is to 
+simulate the future, but this is not a trivial task. The brain accomplishes 
+it by having these feedback loops check and balance one another. For 
+example, a skillful CEO at a board meeting tries to draw out the 
+disagreement among staff members and to sharpen competing points of 
+view in order to sift through the various arguments and then make a 
+final decision. In the same way, various regions of the brain make 
+diverging assessments of the future, which are given to the dorsolateral 
+prefrontal cortex, the CEO of the brain. These competing assessments are 
+then evaluated and weighed until a balanced final decision is made. 
+
+We can now apply the space-time theory of consciousness to give us a 
+definition of most forms of mental illness: 
+
+Mental illness is largely caused by the disruption of the 
+delicate checks and balances between competing feedback"
+"loops that simulate the future (usually because one region of 
+the brain is overactive or underactive). 
+
+Because the CEO of the mind (the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) no 
+longer has a balanced assessment of the facts, due to this disruption in 
+feedback loops, it begins to make strange conclusions and act in bizarre 
+ways. The advantage of this theory is that it is testable. One has to 
+perform MRI scans of the brain of someone who is mentally ill as it 
+exhibits dysfunctional behavior, evaluating how its feedback loops are 
+performing, and compare it to the MRI scans of normal people. If this 
+theory is correct, the dysfunctional behavior (for example, hearing 
+voices or becoming obsessed) can be traced back to a malfunctioning of 
+the checks and balances between feedback loops. The theory can be 
+disproven if this dysfunctional behavior is totally independent of the 
+interplay between these regions of the brain."
+"Given this new theory of mental illness, we can now apply it to 
+various forms of mental disorders, summarizing the previous discussion 
+in this new light. 
+
+We saw earlier that the obsessive behavior of people suffering from 
+OCD might arise when the checks and balances between several 
+feedback loops are thrown out of balance: one registering something as 
+amiss, another carrying out corrective action, and another one signaling 
+that the matter has been taken care of. The failure of the checks and 
+balances within this loop can cause the brain to be locked into a vicious 
+cycle, so the mind never believes that the problem has been resolved."
+"The voices heard by schizophrenics might arise when several feedback 
+loops are no longer balancing one another. One feedback loop generates 
+spurious voices in the temporal cortex (i.e., the brain is talking to itself). 
+Auditory and visual hallucinations are often checked by the anterior 
+cingulate cortex, so a normal person can differentiate between real and 
+fictitious voices. But if this region of the brain is not working properly, 
+the brain is flooded with disembodied voices that it believes are real. 
+
+This can cause schizophrenic behavior. 
+
+Similarly, the manic-depressive swings of someone with bipolar 
+disorder might be traced to an imbalance between the left and right 
+hemispheres. The necessary interplay between optimistic and pessimistic 
+assessments is thrown off balance, and the person oscillates wildly 
+between these two diverging moods."
+"Paranoia may also be viewed in this light. It results from an imbalance 
+between the amygdala (which registers fear and exaggerates threats) and 
+the prefrontal cortex, which evaluates these threats and puts them into 
+
+perspective. 
+
+We should also stress that evolution has given us these feedback loops 
+for a reason: to protect us. They keep us clean, healthy, and socially 
+connected. The problem occurs when the dynamic between opposing 
+feedback loops is disrupted. 
+
+This theory can be roughly summarized as follows: 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+Paranoia 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #1 
+
+Perceiving a threat 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Discounting threats 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Amygdala/prefrontal lobe 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+Schizophrenia 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #1 
+
+Creating voices 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Discounting voices 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Left temporal lobe/anterior cingulate cortex 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+Bipolar disorder 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #1 
+
+Optimism 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Pessimism 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Left/right hemisphere"
+"Optimism 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Pessimism 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Left/right hemisphere 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+OCD 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #1 
+
+Anxiety 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Satisfaction 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Orbitofrontal cortex/caudate nucleus/cingulate cortex 
+
+According to the space-time theory of consciousness, many forms of mental illness are typified by the 
+disruption of the 
+checks and balances of opposing feedback loops in the brain that simulate the future. Brain scans are 
+gradually 
+identifying which regions these are. A more complete understanding of mental illness will undoubtedly 
+reveal the 
+involvement of many more regions of the brain. This is only a preliminary sketch. 
+
+DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION 
+
+Although the space-time theory of consciousness may give us insight into 
+the origin of mental illness, it doesn’t tell us how to create new therapies 
+and remedies."
+"How will science deal with mental illness in the future? This is hard to 
+predict, since we now realize that mental illness is not just one category, 
+but an entire range of illnesses that can afflict the mind in a bewildering 
+number of ways. Furthermore, the science behind mental illness is still in 
+
+its infancy, with huge areas totally unexplored and unexplained. 
+
+But a new method is being tried today to treat the unending agony of 
+people suffering from one of the most common yet stubbornly persistent 
+forms of mental disorder, depression, which afflicts twenty million 
+people in the United States. Ten percent of them, in turn, suffer from an 
+incurable form of depression that has resisted all medical advances. One 
+direct way of treating them, which holds much promise, is to place 
+probes deep inside certain regions of the brain."
+"An important clue to this disorder was discovered by Dr. Helen 
+Mayberg and colleagues, then doing research at Washington University 
+Medical School. Using brain scans, they identified an area of the brain, 
+called Brodmann area 25 (also called the subcallosal cingulate region), 
+in the cerebral cortex that is consistently hyperactive in depressed 
+individuals for whom all other forms of treatment have been 
+unsuccessful."
+"These scientists used deep brain stimulation (DBS) in this area, 
+inserting a small probe into the brain and applying an electrical shock, 
+much like a pacemaker. The success of DBS has been astonishing in the 
+treatment of various disorders. In the past decade, DBS has been used on 
+forty thousand patients for motor-related diseases, such as Parkinson’s 
+and epilepsy, which cause uncontrolled movements of the body. 
+Between 60 and 100 percent of patients report significant improvement 
+in controlling their shaking hands. More than 250 hospitals in the United 
+States alone now perform DBS treatments. 
+
+But then Dr. Mayberg had the idea of applying DBS directly to 
+Brodmann area 25 to treat depression as well. Her team took twelve 
+patients who were clinically depressed and had shown no improvement 
+after exhaustive use of drugs, psychotherapy, and electroshock therapy."
+"They found that eight of these chronically depressed individuals 
+immediately showed progress. Their success was so astonishing, in fact, 
+that other groups raced to duplicate these results and apply DBS to other 
+mental disorders. At present, DBS is being applied to thirty-five patients 
+at Emory University, and thirty at other institutions. 
+
+Dr. Mayberg says, “Depression 1.0 was psychotherapy—people 
+arguing about whose fault it was. Depression 2.0 was the idea that it’s a 
+chemical imbalance. This is Depression 3.0. What has captured 
+everyone’s imagination is that, by dissecting a complex behavior 
+
+disorder into its component systems, you have a new way of thinking 
+about it.”"
+"disorder into its component systems, you have a new way of thinking 
+about it.” 
+
+Although the success of DBS in treating depressed individuals is 
+remarkable, much more research needs to be done. First, it is not clear 
+why DBS works. It is thought that DBS destroys or impairs overactive 
+areas of the brain (as in Parkinson’s and Brodmann area 25) and is hence 
+effective only against ailments caused by such overactivity. Second, the 
+precision of this tool needs to be improved. Although this treatment has 
+been used to treat a variety of brain diseases, such as phantom limb pain 
+(when a person feels pain from a limb that has been amputated), 
+Tourette’s syndrome, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, the electrode 
+inserted into the brain is not precise, thus affecting perhaps several 
+million neurons rather than just the handful that are the source of 
+distress."
+"Time will only improve the effectiveness of this therapy. Using MEM 
+technology, one can create microscopic electrodes able to stimulate only 
+a few neurons at a time. Nanotechnology may also make possible neural 
+nanoprobes that are one molecule thick, as in carbon nanotubes. And as 
+MRI sensitivity increases, our capability to guide these electrodes to 
+more specific areas of the brain should grow more precise. 
+
+WAKING UP FROM A COMA 
+
+Deep brain stimulation has branched into several different avenues of 
+research, including a beneficial side effect: increasing the number of 
+memory cells within the hippocampus. Yet another application is to 
+revive some individuals in a coma."
+"Comas represent perhaps one of the most controversial forms of 
+consciousness, and often results in national headlines. The case of Terri 
+Schiavo, for example, riveted the public. Due to a heart attack, she 
+suffered a lack of oxygen, which caused massive brain injury. As a result, 
+Schiavo went into a coma in 1990. Her husband, with the approval of 
+doctors, wanted to allow her the dignity of dying peacefully. But her 
+family said this was cruelly pulling the plug on someone who still had 
+some responses to stimuli and might one day be miraculously revived. 
+They pointed out that there had been sensational cases in the past when 
+
+coma patients suddenly regained consciousness after many years in a 
+vegetative state. 
+
+Brain scans were used to settle the question. In 2003, most 
+neurologists, examining the CAT scans, concluded that the damage to 
+Schiavo’s brain was so extensive that she could never be revived, and 
+that she was in a permanent vegetative state (PVS). After she died in"
+"2005, an autopsy confirmed these results—there was no chance of 
+revival. 
+
+In some other cases involving coma patients, however, brain scans 
+show that the damage is not so severe, so there is a slim chance of 
+recovery. In the summer of 2007, a man in Cleveland woke up and 
+greeted his mother after undergoing deep brain stimulation. The man 
+had suffered extensive brain damage eight years earlier and fell into a 
+deep coma known as a minimally conscious state."
+"Dr. Ali Rezai led the team of surgeons who performed the operation. 
+They inserted a pair of wires into the patient’s brain until they reached 
+the thalamus, which, as we have seen, is the gateway where sensory 
+information is first processed. By sending a low-voltage current through 
+these wires, the doctors were able to stimulate the thalamus, which in 
+turn woke the man up from his deep coma. (Usually, sending electricity 
+into the brain causes that part of the brain to shut down, but under 
+certain circumstances it can act to jolt neurons into action.)"
+"Improvements in DBS technology should increase the number of 
+success stories in different fields. Today a DBS electrode is about 1.5 
+millimeters in diameter, but it touches up to a million neurons when 
+inserted into the brain, which can cause bleeding and damage to blood 
+vessels. One to three percent of DBS patients in fact have bleeding that 
+can progress to a stroke. The electric charge carried by DBS probes is 
+also still very crude, pulsing at a constant rate. Eventually, surgeons will 
+be able to adjust the electrical charge carried by the electrodes so that 
+each probe is made for a specific person and a specific ailment. The next 
+generation of DBS probes is bound to be safer and more precise. 
+
+THE GENETICS OF MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+Another attempt to understand and eventually treat mental illness"
+"Another attempt to understand and eventually treat mental illness 
+
+involves tracing its genetic roots. Many attempts have been made in this 
+area, with disappointing, mixed results. There is considerable evidence 
+that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder run in families, but attempts to 
+find the genes common to all these individuals have not been conclusive. 
+Occasionally scientists have followed the family trees of certain 
+individuals afflicted by mental illness and found a gene that is prevalent. 
+But attempts to generalize this result to other families have often failed. 
+At best, scientists have concluded that environmental factors as well as a 
+combination of several genes are necessary to trigger mental illness. 
+However, it has generally been accepted that each disorder has its own 
+genetic basis."
+"In 2012, however, one of the most comprehensive studies ever done 
+showed that there could in fact be a common genetic factor to mental 
+illness after all. Scientists from the Harvard Medical School and 
+Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed sixty thousand people 
+worldwide and found that there was a genetic link between five major 
+mental illnesses: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, major 
+depression, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). 
+Together they represent a significant fraction of all mentally ill patients."
+"After an exhaustive analysis of the subjects’ DNA, scientists found that 
+four genes increased the risk of mental illness. Two of them involved the 
+regulation of calcium channels in neurons. (Calcium is an essential 
+chemical involved in the processing of neural signals.) Dr. Jordan 
+Smoller of the Harvard Medical School says, “The calcium channels 
+findings suggest that perhaps—and that is a big if—treatments to affect 
+calcium channeling functioning might have effects across a range of 
+disorders.” Already, calcium channel blockers are being used to treat 
+people with bipolar disorder. In the future, these blockers may be used 
+to treat other mental illnesses as well. 
+
+This new result could help explain the curious fact that when mental 
+illness runs in a family, members may manifest different forms of 
+disorders. For example, if one twin has schizophrenia, then the other 
+twin might have a totally different disorder, such as bipolar disorder."
+"The point here is that although each mental illness has its own triggers 
+and genes, there could be a common thread running through them as 
+well. Isolating the common factors among these diseases could give us a 
+clue to which drugs might be most effective against them. 
+
+“What we have identified here is probably just the tip of the iceberg,” 
+says Dr. Smoller. “As these studies grow, we expect to find additional 
+genes that might overlap.” If more genes are found among these five 
+disorders, it could open up an entirely new approach to mental illness. 
+
+If more common genes are found, it could mean that gene therapy 
+might be able to repair the damage caused by defective genes. Or it 
+might give rise to new drugs that could treat the illness at the neural 
+level. 
+
+FUTURE AVENUES 
+
+So at present, there is no cure for patients with mental illness. 
+Historically, doctors were helpless in treating them. But modern"
+"medicine has given us a variety of new possibilities and therapies to 
+tackle this ancient problem. Just a few of them include: 
+
+1. Finding new neurotransmitters and new drugs that regulate the 
+signaling of neurons. 
+
+2. Locating the genes linked to various mental illnesses, and perhaps 
+using gene therapy. 
+
+3. Using deep brain stimulation to dampen or increase neural activity 
+in certain areas. 
+
+4. Using EEG, MRI, MEG, and TES to understand precisely how the 
+brain malfunctions. 
+
+5. And in the chapter on reverse engineering the brain, we will 
+explore yet another promising avenue, imaging the entire brain and 
+all its neural pathways. This may finally unravel the mystery of 
+mental illnesses. 
+
+But to make sense of the wide variety of mental illnesses, some 
+scientists believe that mental illnesses can be grouped into at least two 
+major groups, each one requiring a different approach: 
+
+1. Mental disorders involving injury to the brain"
+"1. Mental disorders involving injury to the brain 
+
+2. Mental disorders triggered by incorrect wiring within the brain 
+
+The first type includes Parkinson’s, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, and a wide 
+variety of disorders caused by strokes and tumors, in which brain tissue 
+is actually injured or malfunctioning. In the case of Parkinson’s and 
+epilepsy, there are neurons in a precise area of the brain that are 
+overactive. In Alzheimer’s, a buildup of amyloid plaque destroys brain 
+tissue, including the hippocampus. In strokes and tumors, certain parts 
+of the brain are silenced, causing numerous behavioral problems. Each 
+of these disorders has to be treated differently, since each injury is 
+different. Parkinson’s and epilepsy may require probes to silence the 
+overactive areas, while damage from Alzheimer’s, strokes, and tumors is 
+often incurable."
+"In the future, there will be advances in methods to deal with these 
+injured parts of the brain besides deep brain stimulation and magnetic 
+fields. One day stem cells may replace brain tissue that has been 
+damaged. Or perhaps artificial replacements can be found to compensate 
+for these injured areas using computers. In this case, the injured tissue is 
+removed or replaced, either organically or electronically. 
+
+The second category involves disorders caused by a miswiring of the 
+brain. Disorders like schizophrenia, OCD, depression, and bipolar 
+disorder might fall into this category. Each region of the brain may be 
+relatively healthy and intact, but one or more of them may be miswired, 
+causing messages to be processed incorrectly. This category is difficult to 
+treat, since the wiring of the brain is not well understood. So far, the 
+main way to deal with these disorders is through drugs that influence 
+neurotransmitters, but there is still a lot of hit or miss involved here."
+"But there is another altered state of consciousness that has given us 
+new insights into the working mind. It has also provided new 
+perspectives on how the brain works and what might happen if there is a 
+disorder. This is the field of AI, artificial intelligence. Although it is still 
+in its infancy, it has opened profound insights into the thinking process 
+and has even deepened our understanding of human consciousness. So 
+the questions are: Can silicon consciousness be achieved? If so, how 
+might it differ from human consciousness? And will it try one day to 
+control us? 
+
+No, I’m not interested in developing a powerful brain. All I’m 
+after is just a mediocre brain, something like the President of 
+the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. 
+
+—ALAN TURING 
+
+10 THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON 
+CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+In February 2011, history was made."
+"10 THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON 
+CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+In February 2011, history was made. 
+
+An IBM computer called Watson did what many critics thought was 
+impossible: it beat two contestants on a TV game show called Jeopardy! 
+Millions of viewers were glued to the screen as Watson methodically 
+annihilated its opponents on national TV, answering questions that 
+stumped the rival contestants, and thereby claiming the $1 million prize 
+money. 
+
+IBM pulled out all the stops in assembling a machine with a truly 
+monumental amount of computational firepower. Watson can process 
+data at the astonishing rate of five hundred gigabytes per second (or the 
+equivalent of a million books per second) with sixteen trillion bytes of 
+RAM memory. It also had access to two hundred million pages of 
+material in its memory, including the entire storehouse of knowledge 
+
+within Wikipedia. Watson could then analyze this mountain of 
+information on live TV."
+"within Wikipedia. Watson could then analyze this mountain of 
+information on live TV. 
+
+Watson is just the latest generation of “expert systems,” software 
+programs that use formal logic to access vast amounts of specialized 
+information. (When you talk on the phone to a machine that gives you a 
+menu of choices, this is a primitive expert system.) Expert systems will 
+continue to evolve, making our lives more convenient and efficient. 
+
+For example, engineers are currently working to create a “robo-doc,” 
+which will appear on your wristwatch or wall screen and give you basic 
+medical advice with 99 percent accuracy almost for free. You’d talk to it 
+about your symptoms, and it would access the databanks of the world’s 
+leading medical centers for the latest scientific information. This will 
+reduce unnecessary visits to the doctor, eliminate costly false alarms, 
+and make it effortless to have regular conversations with a doctor."
+"Eventually we might have robot lawyers that can answer all common 
+legal questions, or a robo-secretary that can plan vacations, trips, and 
+
+dinners. (Of course, for specialized services requiring professional 
+advice, you would still need to see a real doctor, lawyer, etc., but for 
+common, everyday advice, these programs would suffice.) 
+
+In addition, scientists have created “chat-bots” that can mimic 
+ordinary conversations. The average person may know tens of thousands 
+of words. Reading the newspaper may require about two thousand words 
+or more, but a casual conversation usually involves only a few hundred. 
+Robots can be programmed to converse with this limited vocabulary (as 
+long as the conversation is limited to certain well-defined subjects). 
+
+MEDIA HYPE—THE ROBOTS ARE COMING"
+"MEDIA HYPE—THE ROBOTS ARE COMING 
+
+Soon after Watson won that contest, some pundits were wringing their 
+hands, mourning the day when the machines will take over. Ken 
+Jennings, one of the contestants defeated by Watson, remarked to the 
+press, “I for one welcome our new computer overlords.” The pundits 
+asked, If Watson could defeat seasoned game show contestants in a 
+head-to-machine contest, then what chance do the rest of us mortals 
+have to stand up to the machines? Half jokingly, Jennings said, “Brad 
+[the other contestant] and I were the first knowledge-industry workers 
+put out of work by the new generation of ‘thinking’ machines.” 
+
+The commentators, however, forgot to mention that you could not go 
+up to Watson and congratulate it for winning. You could not slap it on"
+"its back, or share a champagne toast with it. It wouldn’t know what any 
+of that meant, and in fact Watson was totally unaware that it had won at 
+all. All the hype aside, the truth is that Watson is a highly sophisticated 
+adding machine, able to add (or search data files) billions of times faster 
+than the human brain, but it is totally lacking in self-awareness or 
+common sense. 
+
+On one hand, progress in artificial intelligence has been astounding, 
+especially in the area of raw computational power. Someone from the 
+year 1900, viewing the calculations performed by computers today, 
+would consider these machines to be miracles. But in another sense, 
+progress has been painstakingly slow in building machines that can think 
+for themselves (i.e., true automatons, without a puppet master, a 
+controller with a joystick, or someone with a remote-control panel). 
+
+Robots are totally unaware that they are robots."
+"Robots are totally unaware that they are robots. 
+
+Given the fact that computer power has been doubling every two years 
+for the past fifty years under Moore’s law, some say it is only a matter of 
+time before machines eventually acquire self-awareness that rivals 
+human intelligence. No one knows when this will happen, but humanity 
+should be prepared for the moment when machine consciousness leaves 
+the laboratory and enters the real world. How we deal with robot 
+consciousness could decide the future of the human race. 
+
+BOOM AND BUST CYCLES IN AI"
+"BOOM AND BUST CYCLES IN AI 
+
+It is difficult to foretell the fate of AI, since it has gone through three 
+cycles of boom and bust. Back in the 1950s, it seemed as if mechanical 
+maids and butlers were just around the corner. Machines were being 
+built that could play checkers and solve algebra problems. Robot arms 
+were developed that could recognize and pick up blocks. At Stanford 
+University, a robot was built called Shakey—basically a computer sitting 
+on top of wheels with a camera—which could wander around a room by 
+itself, avoiding obstacles."
+"Breathless articles were soon published in science magazines heralding 
+the coming of the robot companion. Some predictions were too 
+conservative. In 1949, Popular Mechanics stated that “in the future, 
+computers will weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” But others were wildly 
+optimistic in proclaiming that the day of the robots was near. Shakey 
+would one day become a mechanical maid or butler that would vacuum 
+our carpets and open our doors. Movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey 
+convinced us that robots would soon be piloting our rocket ships to 
+Jupiter and chatting with our astronauts. In 1965, Dr. Herbert Simon, 
+
+one of the founders of AI, said flatly, “Machines will be capable, within 
+20 years, of doing any work a man can do.” Two years later, another 
+founding father of AI, Dr. Marvin Minsky, said that “within a 
+generation ... the problem of creating ‘artificial intelligence’ will 
+substantially be solved.”"
+"But all this unbounded optimism collapsed in the 1970s. Checker¬ 
+playing machines could only play checkers, nothing more. Mechanical 
+arms could pick up blocks, but nothing else. They were like one-trick 
+
+ponies. The most advanced robots took hours just to walk across a room. 
+Shakey, placed in an unfamiliar environment, would easily get lost. And 
+scientists were nowhere near understanding consciousness. In 1974, AI 
+suffered a huge blow when both the U.S. and British governments 
+substantially curtailed funding in the field."
+"But as computer power steadily increased in the 1980s, a new gold 
+rush occurred in AI, fueled mainly by Pentagon planners hoping to put 
+robot soldiers on the battlefield. Funding for AI hit a billion dollars by 
+1985, with hundreds of millions of dollars spent on projects like the 
+Smart Truck, which was supposed to be an intelligent, autonomous truck 
+that could enter enemy lines, do reconnaissance by itself, perform 
+missions (such as rescuing prisoners), and then return to friendly 
+territory. Unfortunately, the only thing that the Smart Truck did was get 
+lost. The visible failures of these costly projects created yet another AI 
+winter in the 1990s. 
+
+Paul Abrahams, commenting about the years he spent at MIT as a 
+graduate student, has said, “It’s as though a group of people had 
+proposed to build a tower to the moon. Each year, they point with pride 
+at how much higher the tower is than it was the previous year. The only 
+trouble is that the moon isn’t getting much closer.”"
+"But now, with the relentless march of computer power, a new AI 
+renaissance has begun, and slow but substantial progress has been made. 
+In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue computer beat world chess champion Garry 
+Kasparov. In 2005, a robot car from Stanford won the DARPA Grand 
+Challenge for a driverless car. Milestones continue to be reached. 
+
+This question remains: Is the third try the charm? 
+
+Scientists now realize that they vastly underestimated the problem, 
+because most human thought is actually subconscious. The conscious 
+part of our thoughts, in fact, represents only the tiniest portion of our 
+computations. 
+
+Dr. Steve Pinker says, “I would pay a lot for a robot that would put 
+
+away the dishes or run simple errands, but I can’t, because all of the 
+little problems that you’d need to solve to build a robot do to that, like 
+recognizing objects, reasoning about the world, and controlling hands 
+and feet, are unsolved engineering problems.”"
+"Although Hollywood movies tell us that terrifying Terminator robots 
+may be just around the corner, the task of creating an artificial mind has 
+
+been much more difficult than previously thought. I once asked Dr. 
+Minsky when machines would equal and perhaps even surpass human 
+intelligence. He said that he was confident this would happen but that 
+he doesn’t make predictions about dates anymore. Given the roller¬ 
+coaster history of AI, perhaps this is the wisest approach, to map out the 
+future of AI without setting a specific timetable. 
+
+PATTERN RECOGNITION AND COMMON SENSE 
+
+There are at least two basic problems confronting AI: pattern recognition 
+and common sense."
+"There are at least two basic problems confronting AI: pattern recognition 
+and common sense. 
+
+Our best robots can barely recognize simple objects like a cup or a 
+ball. The robot’s eye may see details better than a natural eye, but the 
+robot brain cannot recognize what it is seeing. If you place a robot on a 
+strange, busy street, it quickly becomes disoriented and gets lost. Pattern 
+recognition (e.g., identifying objects) has progressed much more slowly 
+than previously estimated because of this problem."
+"When a robot walks into a room, it has to perform trillions of 
+calculations, breaking down the objects it sees into pixels, lines, circles, 
+squares, and triangles, and then trying to make a match with the 
+thousands of images stored in its memory. For instance, robots see a 
+chair as a hodgepodge of lines and dots, but they cannot easily identify 
+the essence of “chairness.” Even if a robot is able to successfully match 
+an object to an image in its database, a slight rotation (like a chair that’s 
+been knocked over on the floor) or change in perspective (viewing the 
+chair from a different angle) will mystify the robot. Our brains, however, 
+automatically take different perspectives and variations into account. 
+Our brains are subconsciously performing trillions of calculations, but 
+the process seems effortless to us."
+"Robots also have a problem with common sense. They do not 
+understand simple facts about the physical and biological world. There 
+isn’t an equation that can confirm something as self-evident (to us 
+humans) as “muggy weather is uncomfortable” or “mothers are older 
+than their daughters.” There has been some progress made in translating 
+
+this sort of information into mathematical logic, but to catalog the 
+common sense of a four-year-old child would require hundreds of 
+
+millions of lines of computer code. As Voltaire once said, “Common 
+sense is not so common.” 
+
+For example, one of our most advanced robots is called ASIMO, built 
+in Japan (where 30 percent of all industrial robots are made) by the 
+Honda Corporation. This marvelous robot, about the size of a young boy, 
+can walk, run, climb stairs, speak different languages, and dance (much 
+better than I do, in fact). I have interacted with ASIMO on TV several 
+times, and was very impressed by its abilities."
+"However, I met privately with the creators of ASIMO and asked them 
+this key question: How smart is ASIMO, if we compare it to an animal? 
+They admitted to me that it has the intelligence of a bug. All the walking 
+and talking is mostly for the press. The problem is that ASIMO is, by and 
+large, a big tape recorder. It has only a modest list of truly autonomous 
+functions, so almost every speech or motion has to be carefully scripted 
+ahead of time. For example, it took about three hours to film a short 
+sequence of me interacting with ASIMO, because the hand gesture and 
+other movement had to be programmed by a team of handlers."
+"If we consider this in relation to our definition of human 
+consciousness, it seems that our current robots are stuck at a very 
+primitive level, simply trying to make sense of the physical and social 
+world by learning basic facts. As a consequence, robots are not even at 
+the stage where they can plot realistic simulations of the future. Asking a 
+robot to craft a plan to rob a bank, for instance, assumes that the robot 
+knows all the fundamentals about banks, such as where the money is 
+stored, what sort of security system is in place, and how the police and 
+bystanders will react to the situation. Some of this can be programmed, 
+but there are hundreds of nuances that the human mind naturally 
+understands but robots do not."
+"Where robots excel is in simulating the future in just one precise field, 
+such as playing chess, modeling the weather, tracing the collision of 
+galaxies, etc. Since the laws of chess and gravity have been well known 
+for centuries, it is only a matter of raw computer power to simulate the 
+future of a chess game or a solar system. 
+
+Attempts to move beyond this level using brute force have also 
+floundered. One ambitious program, called CYC, was designed to solve 
+the commonsense problem. CYC would include millions of lines of 
+computer code containing all the information of common sense and 
+
+knowledge necessary to understand its physical and social environment. 
+Although CYC can process hundreds of thousands of facts and millions of 
+statements, it still cannot reproduce the level of thought of a four-year- 
+old human. Unfortunately, after some optimistic press releases, the effort 
+has stagnated. Many of its programmers left, deadlines have come and 
+gone, and yet the project still continues."
+"IS THE BRAIN A COMPUTER? 
+
+Where did we go wrong? For the past fifty years, scientists working in AI 
+have tried to model the brain by following the analogy with digital 
+computers. But perhaps this was too simplistic. As Joseph Campbell once 
+said, “Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no 
+mercy.” If you remove a single transistor from a Pentium chip, the 
+computer will crash immediately. But the human brain can perform 
+quite well even if half of it is missing."
+"This is because the brain is not a digital computer at all, but a highly 
+sophisticated neural network of some sort. Unlike a digital computer, 
+which has a fixed architecture (input, output, and processor), neural 
+networks are collections of neurons that constantly rewire and reinforce 
+themselves after learning a new task. The brain has no programming, no 
+operating system, no Windows, no central processor. Instead, its neural 
+networks are massively parallel, with one hundred billion neurons firing 
+at the same time in order to accomplish a single goal: to learn."
+"In light of this, AI researchers are beginning to reexamine the “top- 
+down approach” they have followed for the last fifty years (e.g., putting 
+all the rules of common sense on a CD). Now AI researchers are giving 
+the “bottom-up approach” a second look. This approach tries to follow 
+Mother Nature, which has created intelligent beings (us) via evolution, 
+starting with simple animals like worms and fish and then creating more 
+complex ones. Neural networks must learn the hard way, by bumping 
+into things and making mistakes. 
+
+Dr. Rodney Brooks, former director of the famed MIT Artificial 
+Intelligence Laboratory, and cofounder of iRobot, which makes those 
+mechanical vacuum cleaners found in many living rooms, introduced an 
+entirely new approach to AI. Instead of designing big, clumsy robots,"
+"why not build small, compact, insectlike robots that have to learn how 
+to walk, just as in nature?When I interviewed him, he told me that he 
+used to marvel at the mosquito, which had a nearly microscopic brain 
+with very few neurons, yet was able to maneuver in space better than 
+
+any robot airplane. He built a series of remarkably simple robots, 
+affectionately called “insectoids” or “bugbots,” which scurried around 
+the floors of MIT and could run circles around the more traditional 
+robots. The goal was to create robots that follow the trial-and-error 
+method of Mother Nature. In other words, these robots learn by bumping 
+into things. 
+
+(At first, it may seem that this requires a lot of programming. The 
+irony, however, is that neural networks require no programming at all. 
+The only thing that the neural network does is rewire itself, by changing 
+the strength of certain pathways each time it makes a right decision. So 
+programming is nothing; changing the network is everything.)"
+"Science-fiction writers once envisioned that robots on Mars would be 
+sophisticated humanoids, walking and moving just like us, with complex 
+programming that gave them human intelligence. The opposite has 
+happened. Today the grandchildren of this approach—like the Mars 
+Curiosity rover—are now roaming over the surface of Mars. They are not 
+programmed to walk like a human. Instead, they have the intelligence of 
+a bug, but they do quite fine in this terrain. These Mars rovers have 
+relatively little programming; instead, they learn as they bump into 
+obstacles. 
+
+ARE ROBOTS CONSCIOUS?"
+"ARE ROBOTS CONSCIOUS? 
+
+Perhaps the clearest way to see why true robot automatons do not yet 
+exist is to rank their level of consciousness. As we have seen in Chapter 
+2, we can rank consciousness in four levels. Level 0 consciousness 
+describes thermostats and plants; that is, it involves a few feedback loops 
+in a handful of simple parameters such as temperature or sunlight. Level 
+I consciousness describes insects and reptiles, which are mobile and have 
+a central nervous system; it involves creating a model of your world in 
+relationship to a new parameter, space. Then we have Level II 
+consciousness, which creates a model of the world in relationship to 
+
+others of its kind, requiring emotions. Finally we have Level III 
+consciousness, which describes humans, who incorporate time and self- 
+awareness to simulate how things will evolve in the future and 
+determine our own place in these models."
+"We can use this theory to rank the robots of today. The first 
+generation of robots were at Level 0, since they were static, without 
+wheels or treads. Today’s robots are at Level I, since they are mobile, but 
+they are at a very low echelon because they have tremendous difficulty 
+navigating in the real world. Their consciousness can be compared to 
+that of a worm or slow insect. To fully produce Level I consciousness, 
+
+scientists will have to create robots that can realistically duplicate the 
+consciousness of insects and reptiles. Even insects have abilities that 
+current robots do not have, such as rapidly finding hiding places, 
+locating mates in the forest, recognizing and evading predators, or 
+finding food and shelter."
+"As we mentioned earlier, we can numerically rank consciousness by 
+the number of feedback loops at each level. Robots that can see, for 
+example, may have several feedback loops because they have visual 
+sensors that can detect shadows, edges, curves, geometric shapes, etc., in 
+three-dimensional space. Similarly, robots that can hear require sensors 
+that can detect frequency, intensity, stress, pauses, etc. The total number 
+of these feedback loops may total ten or so (while an insect, because it 
+can forage in the wild, find mates, locate shelter, etc., may have fifty or 
+more feedback loops). A typical robot, therefore, may have Level 1:10 
+consciousness."
+"Robots will have to be able to create a model of the world in relation 
+to others if they are to enter Level II consciousness. As we mentioned 
+before, Level II consciousness, to a first approximation, is computed by 
+multiplying the number of members of its group times the number of 
+emotions and gestures that are used to communicate between them. 
+Robots would thus have a consciousness of Level 11:0. But hopefully, the 
+emotional robots being built in labs today may soon raise that number. 
+
+Current robots view humans as simply a collection of pixels moving on 
+their TV sensors, but some AI researchers are beginning to create robots 
+that can recognize emotions in our facial expressions and tone of voice. 
+This is a first step toward robots’ realizing that humans are more than 
+just random pixels, and that they have emotional states."
+"In the next few decades, robots will gradually rise in Level II 
+consciousness, becoming as intelligent as a mouse, rat, rabbit, and then a 
+cat. Perhaps late in this century, they will be as intelligent as a monkey, 
+and will begin to create goals of their own. 
+
+Once robots have a working knowledge of common sense and the 
+Theory of Mind, they will be able to run complex simulations into the 
+future featuring themselves as the principal actors and thus enter Level 
+III consciousness. They will leave the world of the present and enter the 
+world of the future. This is many decades beyond the capability of any 
+robot today. Running simulations of the future means that you have a 
+firm grasp of the laws of nature, causality, and common sense, so that 
+you can anticipate future events. It also means that you understand 
+human intentions and motivations, so you can predict their future 
+behavior as well."
+"The numerical value of Level III consciousness, as we mentioned, is 
+calculated by the total number of causal links one can make in 
+simulating the future in a variety of real-life situations, divided by the 
+average value of a control group. Computers today are able to make 
+limited simulations in a few parameters (e.g., the collision of two 
+galaxies, the flow of air around an airplane, the shaking of buildings in 
+an earthquake), but they are totally unprepared to simulate the future in 
+complex, real-life situations, so their level of consciousness would be 
+something like Level III: 5. 
+
+As we can see, it may take many decades of hard work before we have 
+a robot that can function normally in human society. 
+
+SPEED BUMPS ON THE WAY"
+"SPEED BUMPS ON THE WAY 
+
+So when might robots finally match and exceed humans in intelligence? 
+No one knows, but there have been many predictions. Most of them rely 
+on Moore’s law extending decades into the future. However, Moore’s law 
+is not a law at all, and in fact it ultimately violates a fundamental 
+physical law: the quantum theory. 
+
+As such, Moore’s law cannot last forever. In fact, we can already see it 
+slowing down now. It might flatten out by the end of this or the next 
+decade, and the consequences could be dire, especially for Silicon Valley."
+"The problem is simple. Right now, you can place hundreds of millions 
+of silicon transistors on a chip the size of your fingernail, but there is a 
+limit to how much you can cram onto these chips. Today the smallest 
+layer of silicon in your Pentium chip is about twenty atoms in width, 
+and by 2020 that layer might be five atoms across. But then Heisenberg’s 
+uncertainty principle kicks in, and you wouldn’t be able to determine 
+precisely where the electron is and it could “leak out” of the wire. (See 
+the Appendix, where we discuss the quantum theory and the uncertainty 
+principle in more detail.) The chip would short-circuit. In addition, it 
+would generate enough heat to fry an egg on it. So leakage and heat will 
+eventually doom Moore’s law, and a replacement will soon be necessary."
+"If packing transistors on flat chips is maxing out in computing power, 
+Intel is making a multibillion-dollar bet that chips will rise into the third 
+dimension. Time will tell if this gamble pays off (one major problem 
+with 3-D chips is that the heat generated rises rapidly with the height of 
+the chip). 
+
+Microsoft is looking into other options, such as expanding into 2-D 
+with parallel processing. One possibility is to spread chips horizontally 
+
+in a row. Then you break up a software problem into pieces, sort out 
+each piece on a small chip, and reassemble it at the end. However, it 
+may be a difficult process, and software grows at a much slower pace 
+than the supercharged exponential rate we are accustomed to with 
+Moore’s law."
+"These stopgap measures may add years to Moore’s law. But eventually, 
+all this must pass, too: the quantum theory inevitably takes over. This 
+means that physicists are experimenting with a wide variety of 
+alternatives after the Age of Silicon draws to a close, such as quantum 
+computers, molecular computers, nanocomputers, DNA computers, 
+optical computers, etc. None of these technologies, however, is ready for 
+prime time. 
+
+THE UNCANNY VALLEY 
+
+But assume for the moment that one day we will coexist with incredibly 
+sophisticated robots, perhaps using chips with molecular transistors 
+instead of silicon. How closely do we want our robots to look like us?"
+"Japan is the world’s leader in creating robots that resemble cuddly pets 
+and children, but their designers are careful not to make their robots 
+appear too human, which can be unnerving. This phenomenon was first 
+studied by Dr. Masahiro Mori in Japan in 1970, and is called the 
+“uncanny valley.” It posits that robots look creepy if they look too much 
+like humans. (The effect was actually first mentioned by Darwin in 1839 
+in The Voyage of the Beagle and again by Freud in 1919 in an essay titled 
+“The Uncanny.”) Since then, it has been studied very carefully not just 
+by AI researchers but also by animators, advertisers, and anyone 
+promoting a product involving humanlike figures. For instance, in a 
+review of the movie The Polar Express, a CNN writer noted, “Those 
+human characters in the film come across as downright ... well, creepy. 
+So The Polar Express is at best disconcerting, and at worst, a wee bit 
+horrifying.”"
+"According to Dr. Mori, the more a robot looks like a human, the more 
+we feel empathy toward it, but only up to a point. There is a dip in 
+empathy as the robot approaches actual human appearance—hence the 
+uncanny valley. If the robot looks very similar to us save for a few 
+features that are “uncanny,” it creates a feeling of revulsion and fear. If 
+the robot appears 100 percent human, indistinguishable from you and 
+me, then we’ll register positive emotions again. 
+
+This has practical implications. For example, should robots smile? At 
+first, it seems obvious that robots should smile to greet people and make"
+"them feel comfortable. Smiling is a universal gesture that signals warmth 
+and welcome. But if the robot smile is too realistic, it makes people’s 
+skin crawl. (For example, Halloween masks often feature fiendish- 
+looking ghouls that are grinning.) So robots should smile only if they are 
+childlike (i.e., with big eyes and a round face) or are perfectly human, 
+and nothing in between. (When we force a smile, we activate facial 
+muscles with our prefrontal cortex. But when we smile because we are in 
+a good mood, our nerves are controlled by our limbic system, which 
+activates a slightly different set of muscles. Our brains can tell the subtle 
+difference between the two, which was beneficial for our evolution.) 
+
+This effect can also be studied using brain scans. Let’s say that a 
+subject is placed into an MRI machine and is shown a picture of a robot 
+that looks perfectly human, except that its bodily motions are slightly 
+jerky and mechanical. The brain, whenever it sees anything, tries to"
+"predict that object’s motion into the future. So when looking at a robot 
+that appears to be human, the brain predicts that it will move like a 
+human. But when the robot moves like a machine, there is a mismatch, 
+which makes us uncomfortable. In particular, the parietal lobe lights up 
+(specifically, the part of the lobe where the motor cortex connects with 
+the visual cortex). It is believed that mirror neurons exist in this area of 
+the parietal lobe. This makes sense, because the visual cortex picks up 
+the image of the humanlike robot, and its motions are predicted via the 
+motor cortex and by mirror neurons. Finally, it is likely that the 
+orbitofrontal cortex, located right behind the eyes, puts everything 
+together and says, “Hmmm, something is not quite right.”"
+"Hollywood filmmakers are aware of this effect. When spending 
+millions on making a horror movie, they realize that the scariest scene is 
+not when a gigantic blob or Frankenstein’s monster pounces out of the 
+bushes. The scariest scene is when there is a perversion of the ordinary. 
+Think of the movie The Exorcist What scene made moviegoers vomit as 
+they ran to escape the theater or faint right in their seats? Was it the 
+scene when a demon appears? No. Theaters across the world erupted in 
+shrill screams and loud sobs when Linda Blair turned her head 
+completely around."
+"This effect can also be demonstrated in young monkeys. If you show 
+them pictures of Dracula or Frankenstein, they simply laugh and rip the 
+pictures apart. But what sends these young monkeys screaming in terror 
+is a picture of a decapitated monkey. Once again, it is the perversion of 
+the ordinary that elicits the greatest fear. (In Chapter 2, we mentioned 
+that the space-time theory of consciousness explains the nature of 
+humor, since the brain simulates the future of a joke, and then is 
+surprised to hear the punch line. This also explains the nature of horror. 
+The brain simulates the future of an ordinary, mundane event, but then 
+
+is shocked when things suddenly become horribly perverted.) 
+
+For this reason, robots will continue to look somewhat childlike in 
+appearance, even as they approach human intelligence. Only when 
+robots can act realistically like humans will their designers make them 
+look fully human. 
+
+SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+As we’ve seen, human consciousness is an imperfect patchwork of 
+different abilities developed over millions of years of evolution. Given 
+information about their physical and social world, robots may be able to 
+create simulations similar (or in some respects, even superior) to ours, 
+but silicon consciousness might differ from ours in two key areas: 
+emotions and goals. 
+
+Historically, AI researchers ignored the problem of emotions, 
+considering it a secondary issue. The goal was to create a robot that was 
+logical and rational, not scatterbrained and impulsive. Hence, the 
+science fiction of the 1950s and ’60s stressed robots (and humanoids like 
+Spock on Star Trek ) that had perfect, logical brains."
+"We saw with the uncanny valley that robots will have to look a certain 
+way if they’re to enter our homes, but some people argue that robots 
+must also have emotions so that we can bond with, take care of, and 
+interact productively with them. In other words, robots will need Level II 
+consciousness. To accomplish this, robots will first have to recognize the 
+full spectrum of human emotions. By analyzing subtle facial movements 
+of the eyebrows, eyelids, lips, cheeks, etc., a robot will be able to 
+identify the emotional state of a human, such as its owner. One 
+institution that has excelled in creating robots that recognize and mimic 
+emotion is the MIT Media Laboratory. I have had the pleasure of visiting 
+the laboratory, outside Boston, on several occasions, and it is like 
+visiting a toy factory for grown-ups. Everywhere you look, you see 
+futuristic, high-tech devices designed to make our lives more interesting, 
+enjoyable, and convenient."
+"As I looked around the room, I saw many of the high-tech graphics 
+that eventually found their way into Hollywood movies like Minority 
+Report and AI. As I wandered through this playground of the future, I 
+came across two intriguing robots, Huggable and Nexi. Their creator, Dr. 
+Cynthia Breazeal, explained to me that these robots have specific goals. 
+Huggable is a cute teddy bear-like robot that can bond with children. It 
+can identify the emotions of children; it has video cameras for eyes, a 
+speaker for its mouth, and sensors in its skin (so it can tell when it is 
+being tickled, poked, or hugged). Eventually, a robot like this might 
+become a tutor, babysitter, nurse’s aide, or a playmate. 
+
+Nexi, on the other hand, can bond with adults. It looks a little like the 
+Pillsbury Doughboy. It has a round, puffy, friendly face, with large eyes"
+"that can roll around. It has already been tested in a nursing home, and 
+the elderly patients all loved it. Once the seniors got accustomed to Nexi, 
+they would kiss it, talk to it, and miss it when it had to leave. (See 
+Figure 12.) 
+
+Dr. Breazeal told me she designed Huggable and Nexi because she was 
+not satisfied with earlier robots, which looked like tin cans full of wires, 
+gears, and motors. In order to design a robot that could interact 
+emotionally with people, she needed to figure out how she could get it 
+to perform and bond like us. Plus, she wanted robots that weren’t stuck 
+on a laboratory shelf but could venture out into the real world. The 
+former director of MIT’s Media Lab, Dr. Frank Moss, says, “That is why 
+Breazeal decided in 2004 that it was time to create a new generation of 
+social robots that could live anywhere: homes, schools, hospitals, elder 
+care facilities, and so on.”"
+"At Waseda University in Japan, scientists are working on a robot that 
+has upper-body motions representing emotions (fear, anger, surprise, 
+joy, disgust, sadness) and can hear, smell, see, and touch. It has been 
+programmed to carry out simple goals, such as satisfying its hunger for 
+energy and avoiding dangerous situations. Their goal is to integrate the 
+senses with the emotions, so that the robot acts appropriately in 
+different situations. 
+
+Figure 12. Huggable (top) and Nexi (bottom), two robots built at the MIT Media Laboratory that were 
+explicitly designed 
+
+to interact with humans via emotions, (illustration credit 10.1) 
+
+(illustration credit 10.2) 
+
+Not to be outdone, the European Commission is funding an ongoing 
+project, called Feelix Growing, which seeks to promote artificial 
+intelligence in the UK, France, Switzerland, Greece, and Denmark. 
+
+EMOTIONAL ROBOTS 
+
+Meet Nao."
+"EMOTIONAL ROBOTS 
+
+Meet Nao. 
+
+When he’s happy, he will stretch out his arms to greet you, wanting a 
+big hug. When he’s sad, he turns his head downward and appears 
+forlorn, with his shoulders hunched forward. When he’s scared, he 
+cowers in fear, until someone pats him reassuringly on the head. 
+
+He’s just like a one-year-old boy, except that he’s a robot. Nao is about 
+one and a half feet tall, and looks very much like some of the robots you 
+see in a toy store, like the Tranformers, except he’s one of the most 
+advanced emotional robots on earth. He was built by scientists at the 
+
+UK’s University of Hertfordshire, whose research was funded by the 
+European Union. 
+
+His creators have programmed him to show emotions like happiness, 
+sadness, fear, excitement, and pride. While other robots have 
+rudimentary facial and verbal gestures that communicate their emotions, 
+Nao excels in body language, such as posture and gesture. Nao even 
+dances."
+"Unlike other robots, which specialize in mastering just one area of the 
+emotions, Nao has mastered a wide range of emotional responses. First, 
+Nao locks onto visitors’ faces, identifies them, and remembers his 
+previous interactions with each of them. Second, he begins to follow 
+their movements. For example, he can follow their gaze and tell what 
+they are looking at. Third, he begins to bond with them and learns to 
+respond to their gestures. For example, if you smile at him, or pat him 
+on his head, he knows that this is a positive sign. Because his brain has 
+neural networks, he learns from interactions with humans. Fourth, Nao 
+exhibits emotions in response to his interactions with people. (His 
+emotional responses are all preprogrammed, like a tape recorder, but he 
+decides which emotion to choose to fit the situation.) And lastly, the 
+more Nao interacts with a human, the better he gets at understanding 
+the moods of that person and the stronger the bond becomes."
+"Not only does Nao have a personality, he can actually have several of 
+them. Because he learns from his interactions with humans and each 
+interaction is unique, eventually different personalities begin to emerge. 
+For example, one personality might be quite independent, not requiring 
+much human guidance. Another personality might be timid and fearful, 
+scared of objects in a room, constantly requiring human intervention. 
+
+The project leader for Nao is Dr. Lola Canamero, a computer scientist 
+at the University of Hertfordshire. To start this ambitious project, she 
+analyzed the interactions of chimpanzees. Her goal was to reproduce, as 
+closely as she could, the emotional behavior of a one-year-old 
+
+chimpanzee."
+"chimpanzee. 
+
+She sees immediate applications for these emotional robots. Like Dr. 
+Breazeal, she wants to use these robots to relieve the anxiety of young 
+children who are in hospitals. She says, “We want to explore different 
+roles—the robots will help the children to understand their treatment, 
+explain what they have to do. We want to help the children to control 
+
+their anxiety.” 
+
+Another possibility is that the robots will become companions at 
+nursing homes. Nao could become a valuable addition to the staff of a 
+hospital. At some point, robots like these might become playmates to 
+children and a part of the family."
+"“It’s hard to predict the future, but it won’t be too long before the 
+computer in front of you will be a social robot. You’ll be able to talk to 
+it, flirt with it, or even get angry and yell at it—and it will understand 
+you and your emotions,” says Dr. Terrence Sejnowski of the Salk 
+Institute, near San Diego. This is the easy part. The hard part is to gauge 
+the response of the robot, given this information. If the owner is angry 
+or displeased, the robot has to be able to factor this into its response. 
+
+EMOTIONS: DETERMINING WHAT IS IMPORTANT"
+"EMOTIONS: DETERMINING WHAT IS IMPORTANT 
+
+What’s more, AI researchers have begun to realize that emotions may be 
+a key to consciousness. Neuroscientists like Dr. Antonio Damasio have 
+found that when the link between the prefrontal lobe (which governs 
+rational thought) and the emotional centers (e.g., the limbic system) is 
+damaged, patients cannot make value judgments. They are paralyzed 
+when making the simplest of decisions (what things to buy, when to set 
+an appointment, which color pen to use) because everything has the 
+same value to them. Hence, emotions are not a luxury; they are 
+absolutely essential, and without them a robot will have difficulty 
+determining what is important and what is not. So emotions, instead of 
+being peripheral to the progress of artificial intelligence, are now 
+assuming central importance."
+"If a robot encounters a raging fire, it might rescue the computer files 
+first, not the people, since its programming might say that valuable 
+documents cannot be replaced but workers always can be. It is crucial 
+that robots be programmed to distinguish between what is important 
+and what is not, and emotions are shortcuts the brain uses to rapidly 
+determine this. Robots would thus have to be programmed to have a 
+value system—that human life is more important than material objects, 
+
+that children should be rescued first in an emergency, that objects with a 
+higher price are more valuable than objects with a lower price, etc. Since 
+
+robots do not come equipped with values, a huge list of value judgments 
+must be uploaded into them."
+"The problem with emotions, however, is that they are sometimes 
+irrational, while robots are mathematically precise. So silicon 
+consciousness may differ from human consciousness in key ways. For 
+example, humans have little control over emotions, since they happen so 
+rapidly and because they originate in the limbic system, not the 
+prefrontal cortex of the brain. Furthermore, our emotions are often 
+biased. Numerous tests have shown that we tend to overestimate the 
+abilities of people who are handsome or pretty. Good-looking people 
+tend to rise higher in society and have better jobs, although they may 
+not be as talented as others. As the expression goes, “Beauty has its 
+privileges.”"
+"Similarly, silicon consciousness may not take into account subtle cues 
+that humans use when they meet one another, such as body language. 
+When people enter a room, young people usually defer to older ones and 
+low-ranked staff members show extra courtesy to senior officials. We 
+show our deference in the way we move our bodies, our choice of words, 
+and our gestures. Because body language is older than language itself, it 
+is hardwired into the brain in subtle ways. Robots, if they are to interact 
+socially with people, will have to learn these unconscious cues. 
+
+Our consciousness is influenced by peculiarities in our evolutionary 
+past, which robots will not have, so silicon consciousness may not have 
+the same gaps or quirks as ours. 
+
+A MENU OF EMOTIONS 
+
+Since emotions have to be programmed into robots from the outside, 
+manufacturers may offer a menu of emotions carefully chosen on the 
+basis of whether they are necessary, useful, or will increase bonding 
+with the owner."
+"In all likelihood, robots will be programmed to have only a few 
+human emotions, depending on the situation. Perhaps the emotion most 
+valued by the robot’s owner will be loyalty. One wants a robot that 
+faithfully carries out its commands without complaints, that understands 
+the needs of the master and anticipates them. The last thing an owner 
+
+will want is a robot with an attitude, one that talks back, criticizes 
+people, and whines. Helpful criticisms are important, but they must be 
+made in a constructive, tactful way. Also, if humans give it conflicting 
+commands, the robot should know to ignore all of them except those 
+coming from its owner. 
+
+Empathy will be another emotion that will be valued by the owner. 
+Robots that have empathy will understand the problems of others and 
+will come to their aid. By interpreting facial movements and listening to 
+tone of voice, robots will be able to identify when a person is in distress 
+and will provide assistance when possible."
+"Strangely, fear is another emotion that is desirable. Evolution gave us 
+the feeling of fear for a reason, to avoid certain things that are 
+dangerous to us. Even though robots will be made of steel, they should 
+fear certain things that can damage them, like falling off tall buildings or 
+entering a raging fire. A totally fearless robot is a useless one if it 
+destroys itself. 
+
+But certain emotions may have to be deleted, forbidden, or highly 
+regulated, such as anger. Given that robots could be built to have great 
+physical strength, an angry robot could create tremendous problems in 
+the home and workplace. Anger could get in the way of its duties and 
+cause great damage to property. (The original evolutionary purpose of 
+anger was to show our dissatisfaction. This can be done in a rational, 
+dispassionate way, without getting angry.)"
+"Another emotion that should be deleted is the desire to be in 
+command. A bossy robot will only make trouble and might challenge the 
+judgment and wishes of the owner. (This point will also be important 
+later, when we discuss whether robots will one day take over from 
+humans.) Hence the robot will have to defer to the wishes of the owner, 
+even if this may not be the best path. 
+
+But perhaps the most difficult emotion to convey is humor, which is a 
+glue that can bond total strangers together. A simple joke can defuse a 
+tense situation or inflame it. The basic mechanics of humor are simple: 
+they involve a punch line that is unanticipated. But the subtleties of 
+humor can be enormous. In fact, we often size up other people on the 
+basis of how they react to certain jokes. If humans use humor as a gauge 
+to measure other humans, then one can appreciate the difficulty of 
+creating a robot that can tell if a joke is funny or not. President Ronald"
+"Reagan, for example, was famous for defusing the most difficult 
+questions with a quip. In fact, he accumulated a large card catalog of 
+jokes, barbs, and wisecracks, because he understood the power of 
+
+humor. (Some pundits concluded that he won the presidential debate 
+against Walter Mondale when he was asked if he was too old to be 
+president. Reagan replied that he would not hold the youth of his 
+opponent against him.) Also, laughing inappropriately could have 
+disastrous consequences (and is, in fact, sometimes a sign of mental 
+illness). The robot has to know the difference between laughing with or 
+at someone. (Actors are well aware of the diverse nature of laughter. 
+They are skilled enough to create laughter that can represent horror, 
+cynicism, joy, anger, sadness, etc.) So, at least until the theory of 
+artificial intelligence becomes more developed, robots should stay away 
+from humor and laughter. 
+
+PROGRAMMING EMOTIONS"
+"PROGRAMMING EMOTIONS 
+
+In this discussion we have so far avoided the difficult question of 
+precisely how these emotions would be programmed into a computer. 
+Because of their complexity, emotions will probably have to be 
+programmed in stages. 
+
+First, the easiest part is identifying an emotion by analyzing the 
+gestures in a person’s face, lips, eyebrows, and tone of voice. Today’s 
+facial recognition technology is already capable of creating a dictionary 
+of emotions, so that certain facial expressions mean certain things. This 
+process actually goes back to Charles Darwin, who spent a considerable 
+amount of time cataloging emotions common to animals and humans. 
+
+Second, the robot must respond rapidly to this emotion. This is also 
+easy. If someone is laughing, the robot will grin. If someone is angry, the 
+robot will get out of his way and avoid conflict. The robot would have a 
+large encyclopedia of emotions programmed into it, and hence would 
+know how to make a rapid response to each one."
+"The third stage is perhaps the most complex because it involves trying 
+to determine the underlying motivation behind the original emotion. 
+This is difficult, since a variety of situations can trigger a single emotion. 
+Laughter may mean that someone is happy, heard a joke, or watched 
+
+someone fall. Or it might mean that a person is nervous, anxious, or 
+insulting someone. Likewise, if someone is screaming, there may be an 
+emergency, or perhaps someone is just reacting with joy and surprise. 
+Determining the reason behind an emotion is a skill that even humans 
+have difficulty with. To do this, the robot will have to list the various 
+possible reasons behind an emotion and try to determine the reason that 
+makes the most sense. This means trying to find a reason behind the 
+emotion that fits the data best."
+"And fourth, once the robot has determined the origin of this emotion, 
+it has to make the appropriate response. This is also difficult, since there 
+are often several possible responses, and the wrong one may make the 
+situation worse. The robot already has, within its programming, a list of 
+possible responses to the original emotion. It has to calculate which one 
+will best serve the situation, which means simulating the future. 
+
+WILL ROBOTS LIE? 
+
+Normally, we might think of robots as being coldly analytical and 
+rational, always telling the truth. But once robots become integrated into 
+society, they will probably have to learn to lie or at least tactfully 
+restrain their comments."
+"In our own lives, several times in a typical day we are confronted with 
+situations where we have to tell a white lie. If people ask us how they 
+look, we often dare not tell the truth. White lies, in fact, are like a grease 
+that makes society run smoothly. If we were suddenly forced to tell the 
+whole truth (like Jim Carrey in Liar Liar), we most likely would wind up 
+creating chaos and hurting people. People would be insulted if you told 
+them what they really looked like or how you really felt. Bosses would 
+fire you. Lovers would dump you. Friends would abandon you. Strangers 
+would slap you. Some thoughts are better kept confidential."
+"In the same way, robots may have to learn how to lie or conceal the 
+truth, or else they might wind up offending people and being 
+decommissioned by their owners. At a party, if a robot tells the truth, it 
+could reflect badly on its owner and create an uproar. So if someone asks 
+for its opinion, it will have to learn how to be evasive, diplomatic, and 
+tactful. It must either dodge the question, change the subject, give 
+
+platitudes for answers, reply with a question, or tell white lies (all things 
+that today’s chat-bots are increasingly good at). This means that the 
+robot has already been programmed to have a list of possible evasive 
+responses, and must choose the one that creates the fewest 
+complications."
+"One of the few times that a robot would tell the entire truth would be 
+if asked a direct question by its owner, who understands that the answer 
+might be brutally honest. Perhaps the only other time when the robot 
+will tell the truth is when there is a police investigation and the absolute 
+truth is necessary. Other than that, robots will be able to freely lie or 
+conceal the whole truth to keep the wheels of society functioning. 
+
+In other words, robots have to be socialized, just like teenagers. 
+
+CAN ROBOTS FEEL PAIN? 
+
+Robots, in general, will be assigned to do types of tasks that are dull, 
+dirty, and dangerous. There is no reason why robots can’t do repetitive 
+or dirty jobs indefinitely, since we wouldn’t program them to feel 
+boredom or disgust. The real problem emerges when robots are faced 
+with dangerous jobs. At that point, we might actually want to program 
+them to feel pain."
+"We evolved the sense of pain because it helped us survive in a 
+dangerous environment. There is a genetic defect in which children are 
+born without the ability to feel pain. This is called congenital analgesia. 
+At first glance, this may seem to be a blessing, since these children do 
+not cry when they experience injury, but it is actually more of a curse. 
+Children with this affliction have serious problems, such as biting off 
+parts of their tongue, suffering severe skin burns, and cutting 
+themselves, often leading to amputations of their fingers. Pain alerts us 
+to danger, telling us when to move our hand away from the burning 
+stove or to stop running on a twisted ankle."
+"At some point robots must be programmed to feel pain, or else they 
+will not know when to avoid precarious situations. The first sense of 
+pain they must have is hunger (i.e., a craving for electrical energy). As 
+their batteries run out, they will get more desperate and urgent, 
+realizing that soon their circuits will shut down, leaving all their work in 
+
+disarray. The closer they are to running out of power, the more anxious 
+they will become. 
+
+Also, regardless of how strong they are, robots may accidentally pick 
+up an object that is too heavy, which could cause their limbs to break. 
+Or they may suffer overheating by working with molten metal in a steel 
+factory, or by entering a burning building to help firemen. Sensors for 
+temperature and stress would alert them that their design specifications 
+are being exceeded."
+"But once the sensation of pain is added to their menu of emotions, this 
+immediately raises ethical issues. Many people believe that we should 
+not inflict unnecessary pain on animals, and people may feel the same 
+about robots as well. This opens the door to robots’ rights. Laws may 
+have to be passed to restrict the amount of pain and danger that a robot 
+is allowed to face. People will not care if a robot is performing dull or 
+dirty tasks, but if they feel pain doing a dangerous one, they may begin 
+
+to lobby for laws to protect robots. This may even start a legal conflict, 
+with owners and manufacturers of robots arguing for increasing the level 
+of pain that robots can endure, while ethicists may argue for lowering it."
+"This, in turn, may set off other ethical debates about other robot 
+rights. Can robots own property? What happens if they accidentally hurt 
+someone? Can they be sued or punished? Who is responsible in a 
+lawsuit? Can a robot own another robot? This discussion raises another 
+sticky question: Should robots be given a sense of ethics? 
+
+ETHICAL ROBOTS 
+
+At first, the idea of ethical robots seems like a waste of time and effort. 
+However, this question takes on a sense of urgency when we realize that 
+robots will make life-and-death decisions. Since they will be physically 
+strong and have the capability of saving lives, they will have to make 
+split-second ethical choices about whom to save first."
+"Let’s say there is a catastrophic earthquake and children are trapped in 
+a rapidly crumbling building. How should the robot allocate its energy? 
+Should it try to save the largest number of children? Or the youngest? Or 
+the most vulnerable? If the debris is too heavy, the robot may damage its 
+electronics. So the robot has to decide yet another ethical question: How 
+
+does it weigh the number of children it saves versus the amount of 
+damage that it will sustain to its electronics? 
+
+Without proper programming, the robot may simply halt, waiting for a 
+human to make the final decision, wasting valuable time. So someone 
+will have to program it ahead of time so that the robot automatically 
+makes the “right” decision."
+"These ethical decisions will have to be preprogrammed into the 
+computer from the start, since there is no law of mathematics that can 
+put a value on saving a group of children. Within its programming, there 
+has to be a long list of things, ranked in terms of how important they 
+are. This is tedious business. In fact, it sometimes takes a human a 
+lifetime to learn these ethical lessons, but a robot has to learn them 
+rapidly, before it leaves the factory, if it is to safely enter society. 
+
+Only people can do this, and even then ethical dilemmas sometimes 
+confound us. But this raises questions: Who will make the decisions? 
+Who decides the order in which robots save human lives? 
+
+The question of how decisions will ultimately be made will probably"
+"The question of how decisions will ultimately be made will probably 
+
+be resolved via a combination of the law and the marketplace. Laws will 
+have to be passed so that there is, at minimum, a ranking of importance 
+of whom to save in an emergency. But beyond that, there are thousands 
+of finer ethical questions. These subtler decisions may be decided by the 
+marketplace and common sense. 
+
+If you work for a security firm guarding important people, you will 
+have to tell the robot how to save people in a precise order in different 
+situations, based on considerations such as fulfilling the primary duty 
+but also doing it within budget."
+"What happens if a criminal buys a robot and wants the robot to 
+commit a crime? This raises a question: Should a robot be allowed to 
+defy its owner if it is asked to break the law? We saw from the previous 
+example that robots must be programmed to understand the law and 
+also make ethical decisions. So if it decides that it is being asked to 
+break the law, it must be allowed to disobey its master. 
+
+There is also the ethical dilemma posed by robots reflecting the beliefs 
+of their owners, who may have diverging morals and social norms. The 
+“culture wars” that we see in society today will only be magnified when 
+we have robots that reflect the opinions and beliefs of their owners. In 
+some sense, this conflict is inevitable. Robots are mechanical extensions 
+
+of the dreams and wishes of their creators, and when robots are 
+sophisticated enough to make moral decisions, they will do so."
+"The fault lines of society may be stressed when robots begin to exhibit 
+behaviors that challenge our values and goals. Robots owned by youth 
+leaving a noisy, raucus rock concert may conflict with robots owned by 
+elderly residents of a quiet neighborhood. The first set of robots may be 
+programmed to amplify the sounds of the latest bands, while the second 
+set may be programmed to keep noise levels to an absolute minimum. 
+Robots owned by devout, churchgoing fundamentalists may get into 
+arguments with robots owned by atheists. Robots from different nations 
+and cultures may be designed to reflect the mores of their society, which 
+may clash (even for humans, let alone robots). 
+
+So how does one program robots to eliminate these conflicts?"
+"So how does one program robots to eliminate these conflicts? 
+
+You can’t. Robots will simply reflect the biases and prejudices of their 
+creators. Ultimately, the cultural and ethical differences between these 
+robots will have to be settled in the courts. There is no law of physics or 
+science that determines these moral questions, so eventually laws will 
+have to be written to handle these social conflicts. Robots cannot solve 
+the moral dilemmas created by humans. In fact, robots may amplify 
+them. 
+
+But if robots can make ethical and legal decisions, can they also feel 
+and understand sensations? If they succeed in saving someone, can they 
+experience joy? Or can they even feel things like the color red? Coldly 
+analyzing the ethics of whom to save is one thing, but understanding 
+and feeling is another. So can robots feel? 
+
+CAN ROBOTS UNDERSTAND OR FEEL?"
+"CAN ROBOTS UNDERSTAND OR FEEL? 
+
+Over the centuries, a great many theories have been advanced about 
+whether a machine can think and feel. My own philosophy is called 
+“constructivism”; that is, instead of endlessly debating the question, 
+which is pointless, we should be devoting our energy to creating an 
+automaton to see how far we can get. Otherwise we wind up in endless 
+philosophical debates that are never ultimately resolved. The advantage 
+of science is that, once everything is said and done, one can perform 
+experiments to settle a question decisively."
+"Thus, to settle the question of whether a robot can think, the final 
+resolution may be to build one. Some, however, have argued that 
+machines will never be able to think like a human. Their strongest 
+argument is that, although a robot can manipulate facts faster than a 
+human, it does not “understand” what it is manipulating. Although it 
+can process senses (e.g., color, sound) better than a human, it cannot 
+truly “feel” or “experience” the essence of these senses. 
+
+For example, philosopher David Chalmers has divided the problems of 
+AI into two categories, the Easy Problems and the Hard Problems. To 
+him, the Easy Problems are creating machines that can mimic more and 
+more human abilities, such as playing chess, adding numbers, 
+recognizing certain patterns, etc. The Hard Problems involve creating 
+machines that can understand feelings and subjective sensations, which 
+are called “qualia.”"
+"Just as it is impossible to teach the meaning of the color red to a blind 
+person, a robot will never be able to experience the subjective sensation 
+of the color red, they say. Or a computer might be able to translate 
+Chinese words into English with great fluency, but it will never be able 
+to understand what it is translating. In this picture, robots are like 
+glorified tape recorders or adding machines, able to recite and 
+manipulate information with incredible precision, but without any 
+understanding whatsoever. 
+
+These arguments have to be taken seriously, but there is also another 
+way of looking at the question of qualia and subjective experience. In"
+"the future, a machine most likely will be able to process a sensation, 
+such as the color red, much better than any human. It will be able to 
+describe the physical properties of red and even use it poetically in a 
+sentence better than a human. Does the robot “feel” the color red? The 
+point becomes irrelevant, since the word “feel” is not well defined. At 
+some point, a robot’s description of the color red may exceed a human’s, 
+and the robot may rightly ask: Do humans really understand the color 
+red? Perhaps humans cannot really understand the color red with all the 
+nuances and subtly that a robot can. 
+
+As behaviorist B. F. Skinner once said, “The real problem is not 
+whether machines think, but whether men do.” 
+
+Similarly, it is only a matter of time before a robot will be able to 
+define Chinese words and use them in context much better than any"
+"human. At that point, it becomes irrelevant whether the robot 
+“understands” the Chinese language. For all practical purposes, the 
+computer will know the Chinese language better than any human. In 
+other words, the word “understand” is not well defined. 
+
+One day, as robots surpass our ability to manipulate these words and 
+sensations, it will become irrelevant whether the robot “understands” or 
+“feels” them. The question will cease to have any importance. 
+
+As mathematician John von Neumann said, “In mathematics, you 
+don’t understand things. You just get used to them.” 
+
+So the problem lies not in the hardware but in the nature of human 
+language, in which words that are not well defined mean different things 
+to different people. The great quantum physicist Niels Bohr was once 
+asked how one could understand the deep paradoxes of the quantum 
+theory. The answer, he replied, lies in how you define the word 
+“understand.”"
+"Dr. Daniel Dennett, a philosopher at Tufts University, has written, 
+“There could not be an objective test to distinguish a clever robot from a 
+conscious person. Now you have a choice: you can either cling to the 
+Hard Problem, or you can shake your head in wonder and dismiss it. 
+Just let go.” 
+
+In other words, there is no such thing as the Hard Problem. 
+
+To the constructivist philosophy, the point is not to debate whether a 
+machine can experience the color red, but to construct the machine. In 
+this picture, there is a continuum of levels describing the words 
+“understand” and “feel.” (This means that it might even be possible to"
+"give numerical values to the degree of understanding and feeling.) At 
+one end we have the clumsy robots of today, which can manipulate a 
+few symbols but not much more. At the other end we have humans, who 
+pride themselves on feeling qualia. But as time goes by, robots will 
+eventually be able to describe sensations better than us on any level. 
+Then it will be obvious that robots understand. 
+
+This was the philosophy behind Alan Turing’s famous Turing test. He 
+predicted that one day a machine would be built that could answer any 
+question, so that it would be indistinguishable from a human. He said, 
+“A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a 
+human into believing that it was human.” 
+
+Physicist and Nobel laureate Francis Crick said it best. In the last"
+"Physicist and Nobel laureate Francis Crick said it best. In the last 
+
+century, he noted, biologists had heated debates over the question “What 
+is life?” Now, with our understanding of DNA, scientists realize that the 
+question is not well defined. There are many variations, layers, and 
+complexities to that simple question. The question “What is life?” simply 
+faded away. The same may eventually apply to feeling and 
+understanding. 
+
+SELF-AWARE ROBOTS 
+
+What steps must be taken before computers like Watson have self- 
+awareness? To answer this question, we have to refer back to our 
+definition of self-awareness: the ability to put one’s self inside a model of 
+the environment, and then run simulations of this model into the future 
+to achieve a goal. This first step requires a very high level of common 
+sense in order to anticipate a variety of events. Then the robot has to put 
+itself inside this model, which requires an understanding of the various 
+courses of action it may take."
+"At Meiji University, scientists have taken the first steps to create a 
+robot with self-awareness. This is a tall order, but they think they can do 
+it by creating robots with a Theory of Mind. They started by building 
+two robots. The first was programmed to execute certain motions. The 
+second was programmed to observe the first robot, and then to copy it. 
+They were able to create a second robot that could systematically mimic 
+the behavior of the first just by watching it. This is the first time in 
+history that a robot has been built specifically to have some sense of self- 
+awareness. The second robot has a Theory of Mind; that is, it is capable 
+of watching another robot and then mimicking its motions. 
+
+In 2012, the next step was taken by scientists at Yale University who"
+"In 2012, the next step was taken by scientists at Yale University who 
+
+created a robot that passed the mirror test. When animals are placed in 
+front of a mirror, most of them think the image in the mirror is that of 
+another animal. As we recall, only a few animals have passed the mirror 
+test, realizing that the mirror image was a reflection of themselves. The 
+scientists at Yale created a robot called Nico that resembles a gangly 
+skeleton made of twisted wires, with mechanical arms and two bulging 
+eyes sitting on top. When placed in front of a mirror, Nico not only 
+recognized itself but could also deduce the location of objects in a room 
+
+by looking at their images in the mirror. This is similar to what we do 
+when we look into a rearview mirror and infer the location of objects 
+behind us."
+"Nico’s programmer, Justin Hart, says, “To our knowledge, this is the 
+first robotic system to attempt to use a mirror in this way, representing a 
+significant step towards a cohesive architecture that allows robots to 
+learn about their bodies and appearance through self-observation, and 
+an important capability required in order to pass the mirror test.” 
+
+Because the robots at Meiji University and Yale University represent 
+the state of the art in terms of building robots with self-awareness, it is 
+easy to see that scientists have a long ways to go before they can create 
+robots with humanlike self-awareness. 
+
+Their work is just the first step, because our definition of self- 
+awareness demands that the robot use this information to create 
+simulations of the future. This is far beyond the capability of Nico or any 
+other robot."
+"This raises the important question: How can a computer gain full self- 
+awareness? In science fiction, we often encounter a situation where the 
+Internet suddenly becomes self-aware, as in the movie The Terminator. 
+Since the Internet is connected to the entire infrastructure of modern 
+society (e.g., our sewer system, our electricity, our telecommunications, 
+our weapons), it would be easy for a self-aware Internet to seize control 
+of society. We would be left helpless in this situation. Scientists have 
+written that this may happen as an example of an “emergent 
+phenomenon” (i.e., when you amass a sufficiently large number of 
+computers together, there can be a sudden phase transition to a higher 
+stage, without any input from the outside). 
+
+However, this says everything and it says nothing, because it leaves 
+out all the important steps in between. It’s like saying that a highway 
+can suddenly become self-aware if there are enough roads."
+"But in this book we have given a definition of consciousness and self- 
+awareness, so it should be possible to list the steps by which the Internet 
+
+can become self-aware. 
+
+First, an intelligent Internet would have to continually make models of 
+its place in the world. In principle, this information can be programmed 
+into the Internet from the outside. This would involve describing the 
+outside world (i.e., Earth, its cities, and its computers), all of which can 
+
+be found on the Internet itself. 
+
+Second, it would have to place itself in the model. This information is 
+also easily obtained. It would involve giving all the specifications of the 
+Internet (the number of computers, nodes, transmission lines, etc.) and 
+its relationship to the outside world."
+"But step three is by far the most difficult. It means continually running 
+simulations of this model into the future, consistent with a goal. This is 
+where we hit a brick wall. The Internet is not capable of running 
+simulations into the future, and it has no goals. Even in the scientific 
+world, simulations into the future are usually done in just a few 
+parameters (e.g., simulating the collision of two black holes). Running a 
+simulation of the model of the world containing the Internet is far 
+beyond the programming available today. It would have to incorporate 
+all the laws of common sense, all the laws of physics, chemistry, and 
+biology, as well as facts about human behavior and human society. 
+
+In addition, this intelligent Internet would have to have a goal. Today 
+it is just a passive highway, without any direction or purpose. Of course, 
+one can in principle impose a goal on the Internet. But let us consider 
+the following problem: Can you create an Internet whose goal is self- 
+preservation?"
+"This would be the simplest possible goal, but no one knows how to 
+program even this simple task. Such a program, for example, would have 
+to stop any attempt to shut down the Internet by pulling the plug. At 
+present, the Internet is totally incapable of recognizing a threat to its 
+existence, let alone plotting ways to prevent it. (For example, an Internet 
+capable of detecting threats to its existence would have to be able to 
+identify attempts to shut down its power, cut lines of communication, 
+destroy its servers, disable its fiber-optic and satellite connections, etc. 
+Furthermore, an Internet capable of defending itself against these attacks 
+would have to have countermeasures for each scenario and then run 
+these attempts into the future. No computer on Earth is capable of doing 
+even a fraction of such things.) 
+
+In other words, one day it may be possible to create self-aware robots, 
+even a self-aware Internet, but that day is far into the future, perhaps at 
+the end of this century."
+"But assume for the moment that the day has arrived, that self-aware 
+robots walk among us. If a self-aware robot has goals that are 
+
+compatible with our own, then this type of artificial intelligence will not 
+pose a problem. But what happens if the goals are different? The fear is 
+that humans may be outwitted by self-aware robots and then may be 
+enslaved. Because of their superior ability to simulate the future, the 
+robots could plot the outcomes of many scenarios to find the best way to 
+overthrow humanity. 
+
+One way this possibility may be controlled is to make sure that the 
+goals of these robots are benevolent. As we have seen, simulating the 
+future is not enough. These simulations must serve some final goal. If a 
+robot’s goal is merely to preserve itself, then it would react defensively 
+to any attempt to pull the plug, which could spell trouble for mankind. 
+
+WILL ROBOTS TAKE OVER?"
+"WILL ROBOTS TAKE OVER? 
+
+In almost all science-fiction tales, the robots become dangerous because 
+of their desire to take over. The word “robot,” in fact, comes from the 
+Czech word for “worker,” first seen in the 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum’s 
+Universal Robots) by Karel Capek, in which scientists create a new race of 
+mechanical beings that look identical to humans. Soon there are 
+thousands of these robots performing menial and dangerous tasks. 
+However, humans mistreat them badly, and one day they rebel and 
+destroy the human race. Although these robots have taken over Earth, 
+they have one defect: they cannot reproduce. But at the end of the play, 
+two robots fall in love. So perhaps a new branch of “humanity” emerges 
+once again."
+"A more realistic scenario comes from the movie The Terminator, in 
+which the military has created a supercomputer network called Skynet 
+that controls the entire U.S. nuclear stockpile. One day, it wakes up and 
+becomes sentient. The military tries to shut down Skynet but then 
+realizes there is a flaw in its programming: it is designed to protect itself, 
+and the only way to do so is by eliminating the problem—humanity. It 
+starts a nuclear war, which reduces humanity to a ragtag bunch of 
+misfits and rebels fighting the juggernaut of the machines. 
+
+It is certainly possible that robots could become a threat. The current 
+Predator drone can target its victims with deadly accuracy, but it is 
+controlled by someone with a joystick thousands of miles away."
+"According to the New York Times, the orders to fire come directly from 
+the president of the United States. But in the future, a Predator might 
+have face recognition technology and permission to fire if it is 99 
+percent confident of the identity of its target. Without human 
+intervention, it could automatically use this technology to fire at anyone 
+who fits the profile. 
+
+Now assume that such a drone suffers a breakdown, such that its facial 
+recognition software malfunctions. Then it becomes a rogue robot, with 
+permission to kill anyone in sight. Worse, imagine a fleet of such robots 
+controlled by a central command. If a single transistor were to blow out 
+in this central computer and malfunction, then the entire fleet might go 
+on a killing spree."
+"A more subtle problem is when robots perform perfectly well, without 
+any malfunctions, yet there is a tiny but fatal flaw in their programming 
+and goals. For a robot, self-preservation is one important goal. But so is 
+being helpful to humans. The real problem arises when these goals 
+contradict each other. 
+
+In the movie 1 , Robot, the computer system decides that humans are 
+self-destructive, with their never-ending wars and atrocities, and that the 
+only way to protect the human race is to take over and create a 
+benevolent dictatorship of the machine. The contradiction here is not 
+between two goals, but within a single goal that is not realistic. These 
+murderous robots do not malfunction—they logically conclude that the 
+only way to preserve humanity is to take control of society."
+"One solution to this problem is to create a hierarchy of goals. For 
+example, the desire to help humans must outrank self-preservation. This 
+theme was explored in the movie 2001 . The computer system HAL 9000 
+was a sentient computer capable of conversing easily with humans. But 
+the orders given to HAL 9000 were self-contradictory and could not be 
+logically carried out. By attempting to execute an impossible goal, it fell 
+off the mesa; it went crazy, and the only solution to obeying 
+contradictory commands from imperfect humans was to eliminate the 
+humans. 
+
+The best solution might be to create a new law of robotics, which 
+would state that robots cannot do harm to the human race, even if there 
+are contradictions within their previous directives. They must be 
+programmed to ignore lower-level contradictions within their orders and"
+"always preserve the supreme law. But this might still be an imperfect 
+system at best. (For example, if the robots’ central goal is to protect 
+humanity to the exclusion of all other goals, then it all depends on how 
+
+the robots define the word “protect.” Their mechanical definition of this 
+word may differ from ours.) 
+
+Instead of reacting with terror, some scientists, such as Dr. Douglas 
+Hofstadter, a cognitive scientist at Indiana University, do not fear this 
+possibility. When I interviewed him, he told me that robots are our 
+children, so why shouldn’t we love them like our own? His attitude, he 
+told me, is that we love our children, even though we know that they 
+will take over."
+"When I interviewed Dr. Hans Moravec, former director of the AI 
+Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University, he agreed with Dr. Hofstadter. 
+In his book Robot, he writes, “Unleashed from the plodding pace of 
+biological evolution, the children of our minds will be free to grow to 
+confront immense and fundamental challenges in the larger universe. 
+... We humans will benefit for a time from their labors, but ... like 
+natural children, they will seek their own fortunes, while we, their aged 
+parents, silently fade away.” 
+
+Others, on the contrary, think that this is a horrible solution. Perhaps 
+the problem can be solved if we make changes in our goals and priorities 
+now, before it is too late. Since these robots are our children, we should 
+“teach” them to be benevolent. 
+
+FRIENDLY AI"
+"FRIENDLY AI 
+
+Robots are mechanical creatures that we make in the laboratory, so 
+whether we have killer robots or friendly robots depends on the 
+direction of AI research. Much of the funding comes from the military, 
+which is specifically mandated to win wars, so killer robots are a definite 
+possibility. 
+
+However, since 30 percent of all commercial robots are manufactured 
+in Japan, there is another possibility: robots will be designed to become 
+helpful playmates and workers from the very beginning. This goal is 
+feasible if the consumer sector dominates robotics research. The 
+philosophy of “friendly AI” is that inventors should create robots that, 
+
+from the very first steps, are programmed to be beneficial to humans."
+"from the very first steps, are programmed to be beneficial to humans. 
+
+Culturally, the Japanese approach to robots is different from the 
+West’s. While kids in the West might feel terror watching rampaging 
+Terminatortype robots, kids in Japan are steeped in the Shinto religion, 
+which believes spirits live in all things, even mechanical robots. Instead 
+of being uncomfortable at the sight of robots, Japanese children squeal"
+"with delight upon encountering them. It’s no wonder, therefore, that 
+these robots in Japan are proliferating in the marketplace and in homes. 
+They greet you at department stores and educate you on TV. There is 
+even a serious play in Japan featuring a robot. (Japan has another 
+reason for embracing robots. These are the future robot nurses for an 
+aging country. Twenty-one percent of the population is over sixty-five, 
+and Japan is aging faster than any other nation. In some sense, Japan is 
+a train wreck in slow motion. Three demographic factors are at work. 
+First, Japanese women have the longest life expectancy of any ethnic 
+group in the world. Second, Japan has one of the world’s lowest 
+birthrates. Third, it has a strict immigration policy, with over 99 percent 
+of the population being pure Japanese. Without young immigrants to 
+take care of the elderly, Japan may rely on robot nurses. This problem is 
+not restricted to Japan; Europe is next. Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and"
+"not restricted to Japan; Europe is next. Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and 
+other European nations face similar demographic pressures. The 
+populations of Japan and Europe could experience severe shrinkage by 
+mid-century. The United States is not far behind. The birthrate of native- 
+born U.S. citizens has also fallen dramatically in the last few decades, 
+but immigration will keep the United States expanding into this century. 
+In other words, it could be a trilliondollar gamble to see if robots can 
+save us from these three demographic nightmares.)"
+"Japan leads the world in creating robots that can enter our personal 
+lives. The Japanese have built robots that can cook (one can make a 
+bowl of noodles in a minute and forty seconds). When you go to a 
+restaurant, you can place your order on a tablet computer and the robot 
+cook springs into action. It consists of two large, mechanical arms, which 
+grab the bowls, spoons, and knives and prepare the food for you. Some 
+robotic cooks even resemble human ones. 
+
+There are also musical robots for entertainment. One such robot 
+actually has accordion-like “lungs” by which it can generate music by 
+pumping air through an instrument. There are also robot maids. If you"
+"carefully prepare your laundry, it can fold it in front of you. There is 
+even a robot that can talk because it has artificial lungs, lips, tongue, 
+and nasal cavity. The Sony Corporation, for example, built the AIBO 
+robot, which resembles a dog and can register a number of emotions if 
+you pet it. Some futurists predict that the robotics industry may one day 
+become as large as the automobile industry is today. 
+
+The point here is that robots are not necessarily programmed to 
+destroy and dominate. The future of AI is up to us. 
+
+But some critics of friendly AI claim that robots may take over not 
+because they are aggressive, but because we are sloppy in creating them. 
+In other words, if the robots take over, it will be because we 
+
+programmed them to have conflicting goals. 
+
+“I AM A MACHINE”"
+"programmed them to have conflicting goals. 
+
+“I AM A MACHINE” 
+
+When I interviewed Dr. Rodney Brooks, former director of the MIT 
+Artificial Intelligence Lab and cofounder of iRobot, I asked him if he 
+thought machines would one day take over. He told me that we just 
+have to accept that we are machines ourselves. This means that one day, 
+we will be able to build machines that are just as alive as we are. But, he 
+cautioned, we will have to give up the concept of our “specialness.” 
+
+This evolution in human perspective started with Nicolaus Copernicus 
+when he realized that the Earth was not the center of the universe, but 
+rather goes around the sun. It continued with Darwin, who showed that 
+we were similar to the animals in our evolution. And it will continue 
+into the future, he told me, when we realize that we are machines, 
+except that we are made of wetware and not hardware."
+"It’s going to represent a major change in our world outlook to accept 
+that we, too, are machines, he believes. He writes, “We don’t like to give 
+up our specialness, so you know, having the idea that robots could really 
+have emotions, or that robots could be living creatures—I think is going 
+to be hard for us to accept. But we’re going to come to accept it over the 
+next fifty years.” 
+
+But on the question of whether the robots will eventually take over, he 
+says that this will probably not happen, for a variety of reasons. First, no 
+one is going to accidentally build a robot that wants to rule the world. 
+
+He says that creating a robot that can suddenly take over is like someone 
+accidentally building a 747 jetliner. Plus, there will be plenty of time to 
+stop this from happening. Before someone builds a “super-bad robot,” 
+someone has to build a “mildly bad robot,” and before that a “not-so-bad 
+robot.”"
+"His philosophy is summed up when he says, “The robots are coming, 
+but we don’t have too much to worry about. It’s going to be a lot of fun.” 
+To him, the robot revolution is a certainty, and he foresees the day when 
+robots will surpass human intelligence. The only question is when. But 
+there is nothing to fear, since we will have created them. We have the 
+choice to create them to help, and not hinder, us. 
+
+MERGE WITH THEM? 
+
+If you ask Dr. Brooks how we can coexist with these super-smart robots, 
+his reply is straightforward: we will merge with them. With advances in 
+robotics and neuroprosthetics, it becomes possible to incorporate AI into 
+our own bodies. 
+
+Dr. Brooks notes that the process, in some sense, has already begun. 
+Today, about twenty thousand people have had cochlear implants, 
+which have given them the gift of hearing. Sounds are picked up by a 
+tiny receiver, which converts sound waves to electrical signals, which 
+are then sent directly to the auditory nerves of the ear."
+"Similarly, at the University of Southern California and elsewhere, it is 
+possible to take a patient who is blind and implant an artificial retina. 
+One method places a mini video camera in eyeglasses, which converts an 
+image into digital signals. These are sent wirelessly to a chip placed in 
+the person’s retina. The chip activates the retina’s nerves, which then 
+send messages down the optic nerve to the occipital lobe of the brain. In 
+this way, a person who is totally blind can see a rough image of familiar 
+objects. Another design has a light-sensitive chip placed on the retina 
+itself, which then sends signals directly to the optic nerve. This design 
+does not need an external camera. 
+
+This also means that we can go even further and enhance ordinary 
+senses and abilities. With cochlear implants, it will be possible to hear 
+high frequencies that we have never heard before. Already with infrared"
+"glasses, one can see the specific type of light that emanates from hot 
+objects in the dark and that is normally invisible to the human eye. With 
+artificial retinas, it may be possible to enhance our ability to see 
+ultraviolet or infrared light. (Bees, for example, can see UV light because 
+they have to lock onto the sun in order to navigate to a flower bed.) 
+
+Some scientists even dream of the day when exoskeletons will have 
+superpowers like those found in comic books, with super strength, super 
+senses, and super abilities. We’d become a cyborg like Iron Man, a 
+normal human with superhuman abilities and powers. This means that 
+we might not have to worry about super-intelligent robots taking over. 
+We’d simply merge with them."
+"This, of course, is for the distant future. But some scientists, frustrated 
+that robots are not leaving the factory and entering our lives, point out 
+that Mother Nature has already created the human mind, so why not 
+copy it? Their strategy is to take the brain apart, neuron by neuron, and 
+then reassemble it. 
+
+But reverse engineering entails more than just creating a vast 
+
+blueprint to create a living brain. If the brain can be duplicated down to 
+the last neuron, perhaps we can upload our consciousness into a 
+computer. We’d have the ability to leave our mortal bodies behind. This 
+is beyond mind over matter. This is mind without matter. 
+
+I’m as fond of my body as anyone, but if I can be 200 with a 
+body of silicon, I’ll take it. 
+
+—DANIEL HILL, COFOUNDER OF THINKING MACHINES CORP. 
+
+11 REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN"
+"—DANIEL HILL, COFOUNDER OF THINKING MACHINES CORP. 
+
+11 REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN 
+
+In January 2013, two bombshells were dropped that could alter the 
+medical and scientific landscape forever. Overnight, reverse engineering 
+the brain, once considered to be too complex to solve, suddenly became 
+a focal point of scientific rivalry and pride between the greatest 
+economic powers on Earth."
+"First, in his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama 
+stunned the scientific community by announcing that federal research 
+funds, perhaps to the tune of $3 billion, might be allocated to the Brain 
+Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (or BRAIN) 
+Initiative. Like the Human Genome Project, which opened the floodgates 
+for genetic research, BRAIN will pry open the secrets of the brain at the 
+neural level by mapping its electrical pathways. Once the brain is 
+mapped, a host of intractable diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, 
+schizophrenia, dementia, and bipolar disorder might be understood and 
+possibly cured. To jump-start BRAIN, $100 million might be allocated in 
+2014 toward the project."
+"Almost simultaneously, the European Commission announced that the 
+Human Brain Project would be awarded 1.19 billion euros (about $1.6 
+billion) to create a computer simulation of the human brain. Using the 
+power of the biggest supercomputers on the planet, the Human Brain 
+Project will create a copy of the human brain made of transistors and 
+steel. 
+
+Proponents of both projects stressed the enormous benefits of these 
+endeavors. President Obama was quick to point out that not only would 
+BRAIN alleviate the suffering of millions of people, it will also generate 
+new revenue streams. For every dollar spent on the Human Genome 
+Project, he claimed, about $140 of economic activity was generated. 
+Entire industries, in fact, sprouted with the completion of the Human 
+Genome Project. For the taxpayer, BRAIN, like the Human Genome 
+
+Project, will be a win-win situation."
+"Project, will be a win-win situation. 
+
+Although Obama’s speech did not give details, scientists quickly filled 
+in many of the gaps. Neurologists pointed out that, on one hand, it is 
+now possible to use delicate instruments to monitor the electrical 
+activity of single neurons. On the other hand, using MRI machines, it is 
+possible to monitor the global behavior of the entire brain. What is 
+missing, they pointed out, is the middle ground, where most of the 
+interesting brain activity takes place. It is in this middle ground, 
+involving the pathways of thousands to millions of neurons, that there 
+are huge gaps in our understanding of mental disease and behavior."
+"To tackle this enormous problem, scientists laid out a tentative fifteen- 
+year program. In the first five years, neurologists hope to monitor the 
+electrical activity of tens of thousands of neurons. The short-term goals 
+might include reconstructing the electrical activity of important parts of 
+animal brains, such as the medulla of the Drosophila fruit fly or the 
+ganglion cells in a mouse retina (which has fifty thousand neurons). 
+
+Within ten years, that number should increase to hundreds of 
+thousands of neurons. This could include imaging the entire Drosophila 
+brain (135,000 neurons) or even the cortex of the Etruscan shrew, the 
+smallest known mammal, with a million neurons. 
+
+Finally, within fifteen years, it should be possible to monitor millions 
+of neurons, comparable to the zebrafish brain or the entire neocortex of 
+a mouse. This could pave the way toward imaging parts of the brains of 
+primates."
+"Meanwhile, in Europe, the Human Brain Project would tackle the 
+problem from a different point of view. Over a ten-year period, it will 
+use supercomputers to simulate the basic functioning of the brains of 
+different animals, starting with mice and working up to humans. Instead 
+of dealing with individual neurons, the Human Brain Project will use 
+transistors to mimic their behavior, so that there will be computer 
+modules that can act like the neocortex, the thalamus, and other parts of 
+the brain. 
+
+In the end, the rivalry between these two gigantic projects could 
+create a windfall by generating new discoveries for treating incurable 
+diseases and spawning new industries. But there is also another, unstated 
+goal. If one can eventually simulate a human brain, does it mean that 
+the brain can become immortal? Does it mean that consciousness can 
+now exist outside the body? Some of the thorniest theological and 
+
+metaphysical questions are raised by these ambitious projects. 
+
+BUILDING A BRAIN"
+"metaphysical questions are raised by these ambitious projects. 
+
+BUILDING A BRAIN 
+
+Like many other children, I used to love taking apart clocks, 
+disassembling them, screw for screw, and then trying to see how the 
+whole thing fit together. I would trace each part mentally, seeing how 
+one gear connected to the next one, until the whole thing fit together. I 
+realized the mainspring turned the main gear, which then fed a sequence 
+of smaller gears, which eventually turned the hands of the clock. 
+
+Today, on a much larger scale, computer scientists and neurologists 
+are trying to take apart an infinitely more complex object, the most 
+sophisticated object we know about in the universe: the human brain. 
+Moreover, they wish to reassemble it, neuron by neuron."
+"Because of rapid advances in automation, robotics, nanotechnology, 
+and neuroscience, reverse engineering the human brain is no longer idle 
+speculation for polite after-dinner banter. In the United States and 
+Europe, billions of dollars will soon be flowing into projects once 
+considered preposterous. Today a small band of visionary scientists are 
+dedicating their professional lives to a project that they may not live to 
+see completed. Tomorrow their ranks could swell into an entire army, 
+generously funded by the United States and the nations of Europe. 
+
+If successful, these scientists could alter the course of human history. 
+Not only might they find new cures and therapies for mental illnesses, 
+they might also unlock the secret of consciousness and perhaps upload it 
+into a computer."
+"It is a daunting task. The human brain consists of over one hundred 
+billion neurons, approximately as many stars as there are in the Milky 
+Way galaxy. Each neuron, in turn, is connected to perhaps ten thousand 
+other neurons, so altogether there are a total of ten million billion 
+possible connections (and that does not begin to compute the number of 
+pathways there are among this thicket of neurons). The number of 
+“thoughts” that a human brain can conceive of is therefore truly 
+astronomical and beyond human ken. 
+
+Yet that has not stopped a small bunch of fiercely dedicated scientists 
+from attempting to reconstruct the brain from scratch. There is an old 
+
+Chinese proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first 
+step.” That first step was actually taken when scientists decoded, neuron 
+for neuron, the nervous system of a nematode worm. This tiny creature,"
+"called C. elegans, has 302 neurons and 7,000 synapses, all of which have 
+been precisely recorded. A complete blueprint of its nervous system can 
+be found on the Internet. (Even today, it is the only living organism to 
+have its entire neural structure decoded in this way.) 
+
+At first, it was thought that the complete reverse engineering of this 
+simple organism would open the door to the human brain. Ironically, the 
+opposite has happened. Although the nematode’s neurons were finite in 
+number, the network is still so complex and sophisticated that it has 
+taken years to understand even simple facts about worm behavior, such 
+as which pathways are responsible for which behaviors. If even the 
+lowly nematode worm could elude our scientific understanding, 
+scientists were forced to appreciate how complex a human brain must 
+be. 
+
+THREE APPROACHES TO THE BRAIN"
+"THREE APPROACHES TO THE BRAIN 
+
+Because the brain is so complex, there are at least three distinct ways in 
+which it can be taken apart, neuron by neuron. The first is to simulate 
+the brain electronically with supercomputers, which is the approach 
+being taken by the Europeans. The second is to map out the neural 
+pathways of living brains, as in BRAIN. (This task, in turn, can be further 
+subdivided, depending on how these neurons are analyzed—either 
+anatomically, neuron by neuron, or by function and activity.) And third, 
+one can decipher the genes that control the development of the brain, 
+which is an approach pioneered by billionaire Paul Allen of Microsoft."
+"The first approach, simulating the brain using transistors and 
+computers, is forging ahead by reverse engineering the brains of animals 
+in a certain sequence: first a mouse, then a rat, rabbit, and a cat. The 
+Europeans are following the rough trail of evolution, starting with 
+simple brains and working upward. To a computer scientist, the solution 
+is raw computing power—the more, the better. And this means using 
+some of the largest computers on Earth to decipher the brains of mice 
+and men."
+"Their first target is the brain of a mouse, which is one-thousandth the 
+size of a human brain, containing about one hundred million neurons. 
+The thinking process behind a mouse brain is being analyzed by the IBM 
+Blue Gene computer, located at the Lawrence Livermore National 
+Laboratory in California, where some of the biggest computers in the 
+world are located; they’re used to design hydrogen warheads for the 
+Pentagon. This colossal collection of transistors, chips, and wires 
+contains 147,456 processors with a staggering 150,000 gigabytes of 
+memory. (A typical PC may have one processor and a few gigabytes of 
+
+memory.) 
+
+Progress has been slow but steady. Instead of modeling the entire 
+brain, scientists try to duplicate just the connections between the cortex 
+and the thalamus, where much of brain activity is concentrated. (This 
+means that the sensory connections to the outside world are missing in 
+this simulation.)"
+"In 2006, Dr. Dharmendra Modha of IBM partially simulated the mouse 
+brain in this way with 512 processors. In 2007, his group simulated the 
+rat brain with 2,048 processors. In 2009, the cat brain, with 1.6 billion 
+neurons and nine trillion connections, was simulated with 24,576 
+processors. 
+
+Today, using the full power of the Blue Gene computer, IBM scientists 
+have simulated 4.5 percent of the human brain’s neurons and synapses. 
+To begin a partial simulation of the human brain, one would need 
+880,000 processors, which might be possible around 2020. 
+
+I had a chance to film the Blue Gene computer. To get to the 
+laboratory, I had to go through layers and layers of security, since it is 
+the nation’s premier weapons laboratory, but once you have cleared all 
+the checkpoints, you enter a huge, air-conditioned room housing Blue 
+Gene."
+"The computer is truly a magnificent piece of hardware. It consists of 
+racks and racks of large black cabinets full of switches and blinking 
+lights, each about eight feet tall and roughly fifteen feet long. As I 
+walked among the cabinets that make up Blue Gene, I wondered what 
+kinds of operations it was performing. Most likely, it was modeling the 
+interior of a proton, calculating the decay of plutonium triggers, 
+simulating the collision of two black holes, and thinking of a mouse, all 
+at once. 
+
+Then I was told that even this supercomputer is giving way to the next 
+generation, the Blue Gene/Q Sequoia, which will take computing to a 
+new level. In June 2012, it set the world’s record for the fastest 
+supercomputer. At peak speed, it can perform operations at 20.1 PFLOPS 
+(or 20.1 trillion floating point operations per second). It covers an area 
+of three thousand square feet, and gobbles up electrical energy at the 
+rate of 7.9 megawatts, enough power to light up a small city."
+"But with all this massive computational firepower concentrated in one 
+computer, is it enough to rival the human brain? 
+
+Unfortunately, no. 
+
+These computer simulations try only to duplicate the interactions 
+between the cortex and the thalamus. Huge chunks of the brain are 
+therefore missing. Dr. Modha understands the enormity of his project. 
+His ambitious research has allowed him to estimate what it would take 
+to create a working model of the entire human brain, and not just a 
+portion or a pale version of it, complete with all parts of the neocortex 
+and connections to the senses. He envisions using not just a single Blue 
+Gene computer but thousands of them, which would fill up not just a 
+room but an entire city block. The energy consumption would be so 
+great that you would need a thousand-megawatt nuclear power plant to 
+generate all the electricity. And then, to cool off this monstrous 
+computer so it wouldn’t melt, you would need to divert a river and send 
+it through the computer circuits."
+"It is remarkable that a gigantic, city-size computer is required to 
+simulate a piece of human tissue that weighs three pounds, fits inside 
+your skull, raises your body temperature by only a few degrees, uses 
+twenty watts of power, and needs only a few hamburgers to keep it 
+going. 
+
+BUILDING A BRAIN 
+
+But perhaps the most ambitious scientist who has joined this campaign is 
+Dr. Henry Markram of the Ecole Polytechnique Federate de Lausanne, in 
+Switzerland. He is the driving force behind the Human Brain Project, 
+which has received over a billion dollars of funding from the European 
+Commission. He has spent the last seventeen years of his life trying to 
+
+decode the brain’s neural wiring. He, too, is using the Blue Gene 
+computer to reverse engineer the brain. At present, his Human Brain 
+Project is running up a bill of $140 million from the European Union, 
+and that represents only a fraction of the computer firepower he will 
+need in the coming decade."
+"Dr. Markram believes that this is no longer a science project but an 
+engineering endeavor, requiring vast sums of money. He says, “To build 
+this—the supercomputers, the software, the research—we need around 
+one billion dollars. This is not expensive when one considers that the 
+global burden of brain disease will exceed twenty percent of the world 
+gross domestic project very soon.” To him, a billion dollars is nothing, 
+just a pittance compared to the hundreds of billions in bills stemming 
+from Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other related diseases when the baby 
+boomers retire. 
+
+So to Dr. Markram, the solution is one of scale. Throw enough money 
+
+at the project, and the human brain will emerge. Now that he has won 
+the coveted billion-dollar prize from the European Commission, his 
+dream may become a reality."
+"He has a ready answer when asked what the average taxpayer will get 
+from this billion-dollar investment. There are three reasons, he says, for 
+embarking on this lonely but expensive quest. First, “It’s essential for us 
+to understand the human brain if we want to get along in society, and I 
+think that it is a key step in evolution. The second reason is, we cannot 
+keep doing animal experimentation forever.... It’s like a Noah’s Ark. It’s 
+like an archive. And the third reason is that there are two billion people 
+on this planet that are affected by mental disorder....” 
+
+To him, it is a scandal that so little is known about mental diseases, 
+which cause so much suffering to millions of people. He says, “There’s 
+not a single neurological disease today in which anybody knows what is 
+malfunctioning in this circuit—which pathway, which synapse, which 
+neuron, which receptor. This is shocking.”"
+"At first, it may sound impossible to complete this project, with so 
+many neurons and so many connections. It seems like a fool’s errand. 
+But these scientists think they have an ace in the hole. 
+
+The human genome consists of roughly twenty-three thousand genes, 
+yet it can somehow create the brain, which consists of one hundred 
+billion neurons. It seems to be a mathematical impossibility to create the 
+
+human brain from our genes, yet it happens every time an embryo is 
+conceived. How can so much information be crammed into something so 
+small? 
+
+The answer, Dr. Markram believes, is that nature uses shortcuts. The 
+key to his approach is that certain modules of neurons are repeated over 
+and over again once Mother Nature finds a good template. If you look at 
+microscopic slices of the brain, at first you see nothing but a random 
+tangle of neurons. But upon closer examination, patterns of modules that 
+are repeated over and over appear."
+"(Modules, in fact, are one reason why it is possible to assemble large 
+skyscrapers so rapidly. Once a single module is designed, it is possible to 
+repeat it endlessly on the assembly line. Then you can rapidly stack 
+them on top of one another to create the skyscraper. Once the 
+paperwork is all signed, an apartment building can be assembled using 
+modules in a few months.) 
+
+The key to Dr. Markram’s Blue Brain project is the “neocortical 
+column,” a module that is repeated over and over in the brain. In 
+
+humans, each column is about two millimeters tall, with a diameter of 
+half a millimeter, and contains sixty thousand neurons. (As a point of 
+comparison, rat neural modules contain only ten thousand neurons 
+each.) It took ten years, from 1995 to 2005, for Dr. Markram to map the 
+neurons in such a column and to figure out how it worked. Once that 
+was deciphered, he then went to IBM to create massive iterations of 
+these columns."
+"He is the eternal optimist. In 2009, at a TED conference, he claimed he 
+could finish the project in ten years. (Most likely, this will be for a 
+stripped-down version of the human brain without any attachment to 
+the other lobes or to the senses.) But he has claimed, “If we build it 
+correctly, it should speak and have an intelligence and behave very 
+much as a human does.” 
+
+Dr. Markram is a skilled defender of his work. He has an answer for 
+everything. When critics say that he is treading on forbidden territory, 
+he counters, “As scientists, we need to be not afraid of the truth. We 
+need to understand our brain. It’s natural that people would think that 
+the brain is sacred, that we shouldn’t tamper with it because it may be 
+where the secrets of the soul are. But I think, quite honestly, that if the 
+planet understood how the brain functions, we would resolve conflicts"
+"everywhere. Because people would understand how trivial and how 
+deterministic and how controlled conflicts and reactions and 
+misunderstandings are.” 
+
+When faced with the final criticism that he is “playing God,” he says, 
+“I think we’re far from playing God. God created the whole universe. 
+We’re just trying to build a little model.” 
+
+IS IT REALLY A BRAIN? 
+
+Although these scientists claim that their computer simulation of the 
+brain will begin to reach the capability of the human brain by around 
+2020, the main question is, How realistic is this simulation? Can the cat 
+simulation, for example, catch a mouse? Or play with a ball of yarn?"
+"The answer is no. These computer simulations try to match the sheer 
+power of the neurons firing in the cat brain, but they cannot duplicate 
+the way in which the regions of the brain are hooked together. The IBM 
+simulation is only for the thalamocortical system (i.e., the channel that 
+connects the thalamus to the cortex). The system does not have a 
+physical body, and hence all the complex interactions between the brain 
+and the environment are missing. The brain has no parietal lobe, so it 
+
+has no sensory or motor connections with the outside world. And even 
+within the thalamocortical system, the basic wiring does not respect the 
+thinking process of a cat. There are no feedback loops and memory 
+circuits for stalking prey or finding a mate. The computerized cat brain 
+is a blank slate, devoid of any memories or instinctual drives. In other 
+words, it cannot catch a mouse."
+"So even if it is possible to simulate a human brain by around 2020, 
+you will not be able to have a simple conversation with it. Without a 
+parietal lobe, it would be like a blank slate without sensations, devoid of 
+any knowledge of itself, people, and the world around it. Without a 
+temporal lobe, it would not be able to talk. Without a limbic system, it 
+would not have any emotions. In fact, it would have less brain power 
+than a newborn infant. 
+
+The challenge of hooking up the brain to the world of sensations, 
+emotions, language, and culture is just beginning. 
+
+THE SLICE-AND-DICE APPROACH 
+
+The next approach, favored by the Obama administration, is to map the 
+neurons of the brain directly. Instead of using transistors, this approach 
+analyzes the actual neural pathways of the brain. There are several 
+components to it."
+"One way to proceed is to physically identify each and every neuron 
+and synapse of the brain. (The neurons are usually destroyed by this 
+process.) This is called the anatomical approach. Another path is to 
+decipher the ways in which electrical signals flow across neurons when 
+the brain is performing certain functions. (The latter approach, which 
+stresses identifying the pathways of the living brain, is the one that 
+seems to be favored by the Obama administration.)"
+"The anatomical approach is to take apart the cells of an animal brain, 
+neuron by neuron, using the “slice-and-dice” method. In this way, the 
+full complexity of the environment, the body, and memories are already 
+encoded in the model. Instead of approximating a human brain by 
+assembling a huge number of transistors, these scientists want to identify 
+each neuron of the brain. After that, perhaps each neuron can be 
+simulated by a collection of transistors so that you’d have an exact 
+replica of the human brain, complete with memory, personality, and 
+connection to the senses. Once someone’s brain is fully reversed 
+engineered in this way, you should be able to have an informative 
+conversation with that person, complete with memories and a 
+personality."
+"No new physics is required to finish the project. Using a device similar 
+to a meat sheer in a delicatessen, Dr. Gerry Rubin of the Howard Hughes 
+Medical Institute has been slicing the brain of a fruit fly. This is not an 
+easy task, since the fruit fly brain is only three hundred micrometers 
+across, a tiny speck compared to the human brain. The fruit fly brain 
+contains about 150,000 neurons. Each slice, which is only fifty-billionths 
+of a meter across, is meticulously photographed with an electron 
+microscope, and the images are fed into a computer. Then a computer 
+program tries to reconstruct the wiring, neuron by neuron. At the 
+present rate, Dr. Rubin will be able to identify every neuron in the fruit 
+fly brain in twenty years. 
+
+The snail-like pace is due, in part, to current photographic technology,"
+"The snail-like pace is due, in part, to current photographic technology, 
+
+since a standard scanning microscope operates at about ten million 
+pixels per second. (That is about a third of the resolution achieved by a 
+standard TV screen per second.) The goal is to have an imaging machine 
+that can process ten billion pixels per second, which would be a world 
+record. 
+
+The problem of how to store the data pouring in from the microscope 
+is also staggering. Once his project gets up to speed, Rubin expects to 
+scan about a million gigabytes of data per day for just a single fruit fly, 
+so he envisions filling up huge warehouses full of hard drives. On top of 
+that, since every fruit fly brain is slightly different, he has to scan 
+hundreds of fruit fly brains in order to get an accurate approximation of 
+one."
+"Based on working with the fruit fly brain, how long will it take to 
+eventually slice up the human brain? “In a hundred years, I’d like to 
+know how human consciousness works. The ten- or twenty-year goal is 
+to understand the fruit fly brain,” he says. 
+
+This method can be speeded up with several technical advances. One 
+possibility is to use an automated device, so that the tedious process of 
+slicing the brain and analyzing each slide is done by machine. This could 
+rapidly reduce the time for the project. Automation, for example, vastly 
+reduced the cost of the Human Genome Project (although it was 
+budgeted at $3 billion, it was accomplished ahead of time and under 
+budget, which is unheard of in Washington). Another method is to use a 
+large variety of dyes that will tag different neurons and pathways, 
+making them easier to see. An alternative approach would be to create 
+an automated super microscope that can scan neurons one by one with 
+unparalleled detail."
+"Given that a complete mapping of the brain and all its senses will take 
+up to a hundred years, these scientists feel somewhat like the medieval 
+
+architects who designed the cathedrals of Europe, knowing that their 
+grandchildren would finally complete the project. 
+
+In addition to constructing an anatomical map of the brain, neuron by 
+neuron, there is a parallel effort called the “Human Connectome 
+Project,” which uses brain scans to reconstruct the pathways connecting 
+various regions of the brain. 
+
+THE HUMAN CONNECTOME PROJECT"
+"THE HUMAN CONNECTOME PROJECT 
+
+In 2010, the National Institutes of Health announced that it was 
+allocating $30 million, spread out over five years, to a consortium of 
+universities (including Washington University in St. Louis and the 
+University of Minnesota), and a $8.5 million grant over three years to a 
+consortium led by Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, 
+and UCLA. With this level of short-term funding, of course, researchers 
+cannot fully sequence the entire brain, but the funding was meant to 
+jump-start the effort."
+"Most likely, this effort will be folded into the BRAIN project, which 
+will vastly accelerate this work. The goal is to produce a neuronal map 
+of the human brain’s pathways that will elucidate brain disorders such as 
+autism and schizophrenia. One of the leaders of the Connectome Project, 
+Dr. Sebastian Seung, says, “Researchers have conjectured that the 
+neurons themselves are healthy, but maybe they are just wired together 
+in an abnormal way. But we’ve never had the technology to test that 
+hypothesis until now.” If these diseases are actually caused by the 
+miswiring of the brain, then the Human Connectome Project may give us 
+an invaluable clue as to how to treat these conditions."
+"When considering the ultimate goal of imaging the entire human 
+brain, sometimes Dr. Seung despairs of ever finishing this project. He 
+says, “In the seventeenth century, the mathematician and philosopher 
+Blaise Pascal wrote of his dread of the infinite, his feeling of 
+insignificance at contemplating the vast reaches of outer space. And as a 
+scientist, I’m not supposed to talk about my feelings.... I feel curiosity, 
+and I feel wonder, but at times I have also felt despair.” But he and 
+others like him persist, even if their project will take multiple 
+generations to finish. They have reason to hope, since one day 
+automated microscopes will tirelessly take the photographs and 
+artificially intelligent machines will analyze them twenty-four hours a 
+day. But right now, just imaging the human brain with ordinary electron 
+microscopes would consume about one zettabyte of data, which is 
+equivalent to all the data compiled in the world today on the web."
+"Dr. Seung even invites the public to participate in this great project by 
+
+visiting a website called EyeWire. There, the average “citizen scientist” 
+can view a mass of neural pathways and is asked to color them in 
+
+(staying within their boundaries). It’s like a virtual coloring book, except 
+images are of the actual neurons in the retina of an eye, taken by an 
+electron microscope. 
+
+THE ALLEN BRAIN ATLAS 
+
+Finally, there is a third way to map the brain. Instead of analyzing the 
+brain by using computer simulations or by identifying all the neural 
+pathways, yet another approach was taken with a generous grant of 
+$100 million from Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen. The goal was to 
+construct a map or atlas of the mouse brain, with the emphasis on 
+identifying the genes responsible for creating the brain."
+"It is hoped that this understanding of how genes are expressed in the 
+brain will help in understanding autism, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and 
+other disabilities. Since a large number of mouse genes are found in 
+humans, it’s possible that findings here will give us insight into the 
+human brain. 
+
+With this sudden infusion of funds, the project was completed in 2006, 
+and its results are freely available on the web. A follow-up project, the 
+Allen Human Brain Atlas, was announced soon afterward, with the hope 
+of creating an anatomically and genetically complete 3-D map of the 
+human brain. In 2011, the Allen Institute announced that it had mapped 
+the biochemistry of two human brains, finding one thousand anatomical 
+sites with one hundred million data points detailing how genes are 
+expressed in the underlying biochemistry. The study confirmed that 82 
+percent of our genes are expressed in the brain."
+"“Until now, a definitive map of the human brain, at this level of detail, 
+simply hasn’t existed,” says Dr. Allen Jones of the Allen Institute. “The 
+Allen Human Brain Atlas provides never-before-seen views into our most 
+complex and most important organ,” he adds. 
+
+OBJECTIONS TO REVERSE ENGINEERING 
+
+Scientists who have dedicated their lives to reverse engineering the brain 
+realize that decades of hard work lie ahead of them. But they are also 
+convinced of the practical implications of their work. They feel that even 
+
+partial results will help decode the mystery of mental diseases that have 
+afflicted humans throughout our history."
+"The cynics, however, may claim that, after this arduous task is 
+finished, we will have a mountain of data with no understanding of how 
+it all fits together. For example, imagine a Neanderthal who one day 
+comes across the complete blueprint for an IBM Blue Gene computer. All 
+the details are there in the blueprint, down to the very last transistor. 
+The blueprint is huge, taking up thousands of square feet of paper. The 
+Neanderthal may be dimly aware that this blueprint is the secret of a 
+super-powerful machine, but the sheer mass of technical data means 
+nothing to him. 
+
+Similarly, the fear is that, after spending billions deciphering the 
+location of every neuron of the brain, we won’t be able to understand 
+what it all means. It may take many more decades of hard work to see 
+how the whole thing functions."
+"For example, the Human Genome Project was a smashing success in 
+sequencing all the genes that make up the human genome, but it was a 
+huge disappointment for those who expected immediate cures for 
+genetic diseases. The Human Genome Project was like a gigantic 
+dictionary, with twenty-three thousand entries but no definitions. Page 
+after page of this dictionary is blank, yet the spelling of each gene is 
+perfect. The project was a breakthrough, but at the same time it’s just 
+the first step in a long journey to figure out what these genes do and 
+how they interact. 
+
+Similarly, just having a complete map of every single neural 
+connection in the brain does not guarantee that we will know what these 
+neurons are doing and how they react. Reverse engineering is the easy 
+part; after that, the hard part begins—making sense of all this data. 
+
+THE FUTURE"
+"THE FUTURE 
+
+But assume for now that the moment has finally arrived. With much 
+fanfare, scientists solemnly announce that they have successfully reverse 
+engineered the entire human brain. 
+
+Then what? 
+
+One immediate application is to find the origins of certain mental 
+
+diseases. It’s thought that many mental diseases are not caused by the 
+massive destruction of neurons, but by a simple misconnection. Think of 
+genetic diseases that are caused by a single mutation, like Huntington’s 
+disease, Tay-Sachs, or cystic fibrosis. Out of three billion base pairs, a 
+single misspelling (or repetition) can cause uncontrollable flailing of 
+your limbs and convulsions, as in Huntington’s disease. Even if the 
+genome is 99.9999999 percent accurate, a tiny flaw might invalidate the 
+entire sequence. That is why gene therapy has targeted these single 
+mutations as possible genetic diseases that can be fixed."
+"Likewise, once the brain is reverse engineered, it might be possible to 
+run simulations of the brain, deliberately disrupting a few connections to 
+see if you can induce certain illnesses. Only a handful of neurons may be 
+responsible for major disruptions of our cognition. Locating this tiny 
+collection of misfiring neurons may be one of the jobs of the reverse- 
+engineered brain."
+"One example might be Capgras delusion, in which you see someone 
+you recognize as your mother, but you believe that person to be an 
+impostor. According to Dr. V. S. Ramachandran, this rare disease might 
+be due to a misconnection between two parts of the brain. The fusiform 
+gyrus in the temporal lobe is responsible for recognizing the face of your 
+mother, but the amygdala is responsible for your emotional response in 
+seeing your mother. When the connection between these two centers is 
+disrupted, an individual can recognize his mother’s face perfectly well, 
+but, since there is no emotional response, he is also convinced that she is 
+an impostor."
+"Another use for the reverse-engineered brain is to pinpoint precisely 
+which cluster of neurons is misfiring. Deep brain stimulation, as we’ve 
+seen, involves using tiny probes to dampen the activity of a tiny portion 
+of the brain, such as Broadmann’s area 25, in the case of certain severe 
+forms of depression. Using the reverse-engineered map, it might be 
+possible to find precisely where the neurons are misfiring, which may 
+involve only a handful of neurons. 
+
+A reversed-engineered brain would also be of great help to AI. Vision 
+and face recognition are done effortlessly by the brain, but they still 
+elude our most advanced computers. For example, computers can 
+recognize with 95 percent or greater accuracy human faces that look 
+straight ahead and are part of a small data bank, but if you show the"
+"computer the same face from different angles or a face that’s not in the 
+database, the computer will most likely fail. Within .1 seconds, we can 
+recognize familiar faces from different angles; it’s so easy for our brains 
+that we are not even aware we are doing it. Reverse engineering the 
+brain may reveal the mystery of how this is done. 
+
+More complicated would be diseases that involve multiple failures of 
+the brain, such as schizophrenia. This disorder involves several genes, 
+plus interactions with the environment, which in turn cause unusual 
+activity in several areas of the brain. But even there, a reverse- 
+engineered brain would be able to tell precisely how certain symptoms 
+(such as hallucinations) are formed, and this might pave the way for a 
+possible cure."
+"A reverse-engineered brain would also solve such basic but unresolved 
+questions as how long-term memories are stored. It is known that certain 
+parts of the brain, such as the hippocampus and amygdala, store 
+memories, but how the memory is dispersed through various cortices 
+and then reassembled to create a memory is still unclear. 
+
+Once the reverse-engineered brain is fully functional, then it will be 
+time to turn on all its circuits to see if it can respond like a human (i.e., 
+to see if it can pass the Turing test). Since long-term memory is already 
+encoded in the neurons of the reverse-engineered brain, it should be 
+obvious very quickly whether the brain can respond in a way 
+indistinguishable from a human. 
+
+Finally, there is one impact of reverse engineering the brain that is 
+rarely discussed but is on many people’s minds: immortality. If 
+consciousness can be transferred into a computer, does that mean we 
+don’t have to die?"
+"Speculation is never a waste of time. It clears away the 
+deadwood in the thickets of deduction. 
+
+—ELIZABETH PETERS 
+
+We are a scientific civilization.... That means a civilization in 
+which knowledge and its integrity are crucial. Science is only a 
+Latin word for knowledge.... Knowledge is our destiny. 
+
+—JACOB BRONOWSKI 
+
+12 THE FUTURE MIND BEYOND MATTER 
+
+Can consciousness exist by itself, free from the constraints of the 
+physical body? Can we leave our mortal body and, like spirits, wander 
+around this playground called the universe? This was explored on Star"
+"Trek, when Captain Kirk of the starship Enterprise encounters a 
+superhuman race, almost a million years more advanced than the 
+Federation of Planets. They are so advanced that they have long since 
+abandoned their frail, mortal bodies, and now inhabit pulsating globes of 
+pure energy. It has been millennia since they could feel intoxicating 
+sensations, such as breathing fresh air, touching another’s hand, or 
+feeling physical love. Their leader, Sargon, welcomes the Enterprise to 
+their planet. Captain Kirk accepts the invitation, acutely aware that this 
+civilization could instantly vaporize the Enterprise if it wanted to. 
+
+But unknown to the crew, these super beings have a fatal weakness. 
+For all their advanced technology, they have been severed for hundreds 
+of thousands of years from their physical bodies. As such, they yearn to 
+feel the rush of physical sensations and long to become human again."
+"One of these super beings, in fact, is evil and determined to gain 
+possession of the physical bodies of the crew. He wants to live like a 
+human, even if it means destroying the mind of the body’s owner. Soon a 
+battle breaks out on the deck of the Enterprise, as the evil entity seizes 
+control of Spock’s body and the crew fights back. 
+
+Scientists have asked themselves, Is there a law of physics preventing 
+the mind from existing without the body? In particular, if the conscious 
+human mind is a device that constantly creates models of the world and 
+simulates them into the future, is it possible to create a machine that can 
+simulate this entire process? 
+
+Previously, we mentioned the possibility of having our bodies placed 
+in pods, as in the movie Surrogates, while we mentally control a robot. 
+The problem here is that our natural body will still gradually wither 
+away, even if our robot surrogate keeps on going. Serious scientists are"
+"contemplating whether we can actually transfer our minds into a robot 
+so we can become truly immortal. And who wouldn’t want a chance at 
+eternal life? As Woody Allen once said, “I don’t want to live forever 
+through my works. I want to live forever by not dying.” 
+
+Actually, millions of people already claim that it is possible for the 
+mind to leave the body. In fact, many insist that they have done it 
+themselves. 
+
+OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCES 
+
+The idea of minds without bodies is perhaps the oldest of our 
+superstitions, embedded deep within our myths, folklore, dreams, and 
+
+perhaps even our genes. Every society, it seems, has some tale of ghosts 
+and demons who can enter and leave the body at will."
+"Sadly, many innocents were persecuted to exorcize the demons that 
+were supposedly possessing their bodies. They probably suffered from 
+mental illness, such as schizophrenia, in which victims are often haunted 
+by voices generated by their own minds. Historians believe that one of 
+the Salem witches who was hung in 1692 for being possessed probably 
+had a rare genetic condition, called Huntington’s disease, that causes 
+uncontrolled flailing of the limbs. 
+
+Today some people claim that they have entered a trancelike state in 
+which their consciousness has left their body and is free to roam 
+throughout space, even able to look back at their mortal body. In a poll 
+of thirteen thousand Europeans, 5.8 percent claimed they had had an 
+out-of-body experience. Interviews with people in the United States 
+show similar numbers."
+"Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, always curious about new 
+phenomena, once placed himself in a sensory deprivation tank and tried 
+to leave his physical body. He was successful. He would later write that 
+he felt that he had left his body, drifted into space, and saw his 
+motionless body when he looked back. However, Feynman later 
+concluded that this was probably just his imagination, caused by sensory 
+deprivation. 
+
+Neurologists who have studied this phenomenon have a more prosaic 
+explanation. Dr. Olaf Blanke and his colleagues in Switzerland may have"
+"located the precise place in the brain that generates out-of-body 
+experiences. One of his patients was a forty-three-year-old woman who 
+suffered from debilitating seizures that came from her right temporal 
+lobe. A grid of about one hundred electrodes was placed over her brain 
+in order to locate the region responsible for her seizures. When the 
+electrodes stimulated the area between the parietal and temporal lobes, 
+she immediately had the sensation of leaving her body. “I see myself 
+lying in bed, from above, but I only see my legs and lower trunk!” she 
+exclaimed. She felt she was floating six feet above her body."
+"When the electrodes were turned off, however, the out-of-body 
+sensation disappeared immediately. In fact, Dr. Blanke found that he 
+could turn the out-of-body sensation on and off, like a light switch, by 
+repeatedly stimulating this area of the brain. As we saw in Chapter 9, 
+temporal lobe epileptic lesions can induce the feeling that there are evil 
+spirits behind every misfortune, so the concept of spirits leaving the 
+body is perhaps part of our neural makeup. (This may also explain the 
+presence of supernatural beings. When Dr. Blanke analyzed a twenty- 
+
+two-year-old woman who was suffering from intractable seizures, he 
+found that, by stimulating the temporoparietal area of the brain, he 
+could induce the sensation that there was a shadowy presence behind 
+her. She could describe this person, who even grabbed her arms, in 
+detail. His position would change with each appearance, but he would 
+always appear behind her.)"
+"Human consciousness, I believe, is the process of continually forming 
+a model of the world, in order to simulate the future and carry out a 
+goal. In particular, the brain is receiving sensations from the eyes and 
+inner ear to create a model of where we are in space. However, when 
+the signals from our eyes and ears are in contradiction, we become 
+confused about our location. We often get nauseous and throw up. For 
+example, many people develop sea sickness when they are on a rocking 
+boat because their eyes, looking at the cabin walls, tell them that they 
+are stationary, but their inner ear tells them that they are swaying. The 
+mismatch between these signals causes them to become nauseous. The 
+remedy is to look out at the horizon so that the visual image matches the 
+signals from the inner ear. (This same sense of nausea can be induced 
+even if you are stationary. If you look at a spinning garbage can with 
+bright vertical stripes painted on it, the stripes seem to move"
+"horizontally across your eyes, giving you the sensation that you are 
+moving. But your inner ear says you are stationary. The resulting 
+mismatch causes you to throw up after a few minutes, even if you are 
+sitting in a chair.) 
+
+The messages from the eyes and inner ear can also be disrupted 
+electrically, at the boundary of the temporal and parietal lobes, and this 
+is the origin of out-of-body experiences. When this sensitive area is 
+touched, the brain gets confused about where it is located in space. 
+(Notably, temporary loss of blood or oxygen or excess carbon dioxide in 
+the blood can also cause a disruption in the temporoparietal region and 
+induce out-of-body experiences, which may explain the prevalence of 
+these sensations during accidents, emergencies, heart attacks, etc.) 
+
+NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES"
+"NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES 
+
+But perhaps the most dramatic category of out-of-body experiences are 
+the near-death stories of individuals who have been declared dead but 
+then mysteriously regained consciousness. In fact, 6 to 12 percent of 
+survivors of cardiac arrest report having near-death experiences. It’s as 
+though they have cheated death itself. When interviewed, they have 
+dramatic tales of the same experience: they left their body and drifted 
+toward a bright light at the end of a long tunnel."
+"The media have seized upon this, with numerous best sellers and TV 
+documentaries devoted to these theatrical stories. Many bizarre theories 
+have been proposed to explain near-death experiences. In a poll of two 
+thousand people, fully 42 percent believed that near-death experiences 
+were proof of contact with the spiritual world that lies beyond death. 
+(Some believe that the body releases endorphins—natural narcotics— 
+before death. This may explain the euphoria that people feel, but not the 
+tunnel and the bright lights.) Carl Sagan even speculated that near-death 
+experiences were a reliving of the trauma of birth. The fact that these 
+individuals recount very similar experiences doesn’t necessarily 
+corroborate their glimpses into the afterlife; in fact, it seems to indicate 
+that there is some deep neurological event happening. 
+
+Neurologists have looked into this phenomenon seriously and suspect 
+that the key may be the decrease of blood flow to the brain that often"
+"accompanies near-death cases, and which also occurs in fainting. Dr. 
+Thomas Lempert, a neurologist at the Castle Park Clinic in Berlin, 
+conducted a series of experiments on forty-two healthy individuals, 
+causing them to faint under controlled laboratory conditions. Sixty 
+percent of them had visual hallucinations (e.g., bright lights and colored 
+patches). Forty-seven percent of them felt that they were entering 
+another world. Twenty percent claimed to have encountered a 
+supernatural being. Seventeen percent saw a bright light. Eight percent 
+saw a tunnel. So fainting can mimic all the sensations people have in 
+near-death experiences. But precisely how does this happen?"
+"The mystery of how fainting can simulate near-death experiences may 
+be solved by analyzing the experiences of military pilots. The U.S. Air 
+Force, for example, contacted neurophysiologist Dr. Edward Lambert to 
+analyze military pilots who blacked out when experiencing high g forces 
+(i.e., when executing a tight turn in a jet or pulling out of a dive). Dr. 
+Lampert placed pilots in an ultracentrifuge at the Mayo Clinic in 
+Rochester, Minnesota, which spun them around in a circle until they 
+experienced high g forces. As blood drained from their brain, they would 
+become unconscious after fifteen seconds of experiencing several g’s of 
+acceleration."
+"He found that after only five seconds, the blood flow to the pilots’ eyes 
+diminished, so that their peripheral vision dimmed, creating the image 
+of a long tunnel. This could explain the tunnel that is often seen by 
+people having a near-death experience. If the periphery of your vision 
+blacks out, all you see is the narrow tunnel in front of you. But because 
+Dr. Lampert could carefully adjust the velocity of the centrifuge by 
+turning a dial, he found he could keep the pilots in this state indefinitely, 
+allowing him to prove that this tunnel vision is caused by loss of blood 
+flow to the periphery of the eye. 
+
+CAN CONSCIOUSNESS LEAVE YOUR BODY? 
+
+Some scientists who have investigated near-death and out-of-body 
+experiences are convinced that they are by-products of the brain itself 
+when it is placed under stressful conditions and its wiring gets confused. 
+However, there are other scientists who believe that one day, when our"
+"technology is sufficiently advanced decades from now, one’s 
+consciousness may truly be able to leave the body. Several controversial 
+methods have been suggested."
+"One method has been pioneered by futurist and inventor Dr. Ray 
+Kurzweil, who believes that consciousness may one day be uploaded into 
+a supercomputer. We once spoke at a conference together, and he told 
+me his fascination with computers and artificial intelligence began when 
+he was five years old and his parents bought him all sorts of mechanical 
+devices and toys. He loved to tinker with these devices, and even as a 
+child he knew he was destined to become an inventor. At MIT, he 
+received his doctorate under Dr. Marvin Minsky, one of the founders of 
+AI. Afterward, he cut his teeth applying pattern-recognition technology 
+to musical instruments and text-to-sound machines. He was able to 
+translate AI research in these areas into a string of companies. (He sold 
+his first company when he was only twenty.) His optical reader, which 
+could recognize text and convert it into sound, was heralded as an aid 
+for the blind, and was even mentioned by Walter Cronkite on the 
+evening news."
+"In order to be a successful inventor, he said to me, you always have to 
+be ahead of the curve, to anticipate change, not react to it. Indeed, Dr. 
+Kurzweil loves to make predictions, and many of them have mirrored 
+the remarkable exponential growth of digital technology. He made the 
+following predictions: 
+
+• By 2019, a $1,000 PC will have the computing power of the human 
+brain—twenty million billion calculations per second. (This number 
+is obtained by taking the one hundred billion neurons of the brain, 
+multiplying one thousand connections per neuron, and two hundred 
+calculations per second per connection.) 
+
+• By 2029, a $1,000 PC will be a thousand times more powerful than 
+the human brain; the human brain itself will be successfully 
+reversed engineered. 
+
+• By 2055, $1,000 of computing power will equal the processing 
+
+power of all the humans on the planet. (He adds modestly, “I may 
+be off by a year or two.”)"
+"power of all the humans on the planet. (He adds modestly, “I may 
+be off by a year or two.”) 
+
+In particular, the year 2045 looms as an important one for Dr. 
+Kurzweil, since that is when he believes the “singularity” will take hold. 
+By then, he claims, machines will have surpassed humans in intelligence 
+and in fact will have created next-generation robots even smarter than 
+themselves. Since this process can continue indefinitely, it means, 
+according to Dr. Kurzweil, a never-ending acceleration of the power of 
+machines. In this scenario, we should either merge with our creations or 
+step out of their way. (Although these dates are in the far future, he told 
+me that he wants to live long enough to see the day when humans 
+finally become immortal; that is, he wants to live long enough to live 
+forever.)"
+"As we know from Moore’s law, at a certain point computer power can 
+no longer advance by creating smaller and smaller transistors. In 
+Kurzweil’s opinion, the only way to expand computing power further 
+would be to increase overall size, which would leave robots scavenging 
+for more computer power by devouring the minerals of the Earth. Once 
+the planet has become a gigantic computer, robots may be forced to go 
+into outer space, searching for more sources of computer power. 
+Eventually, they may consume the power of entire stars. 
+
+I once asked him if this cosmic growth of computers could alter the 
+cosmos itself. Yes, he replied. He told me that he sometimes looks at the 
+night sky, wondering if on some distant planet intelligent beings have 
+already attained the singularity. If so, then perhaps they should leave 
+some mark on the stars themselves that might be visible to the naked 
+eye."
+"One limitation he told me, is the speed of light. Unless these machines 
+can break the light barrier, this exponential rise in power may hit a 
+ceiling. When that happens, says Kurzweil, perhaps they will alter the 
+laws of physics themselves. 
+
+Anyone who makes predictions with such precision and scope 
+naturally invites criticism like a lightning rod, but it doesn’t seem to faze 
+him. People can quibble about this or that prediction, since Kurzweil has 
+missed some of his deadlines, but he is mainly concerned about the 
+thrust of his ideas, which predict the exponential growth of technology. 
+To be fair, most people working in the field of AI whom I have 
+interviewed agree that some form of a singularity will happen, but they 
+disagree sharply on when it might occur and how it will unfold. For"
+"example, Bill Gates, cofounder of Microsoft, believes that no one alive 
+today will live to see the day when computers are smart enough to pass 
+for a human. Kevin Kelly, an editor for Wired magazine, has said, 
+“People who predict a very utopian future always predict that it is going 
+to happen before they die.” 
+
+Indeed, one of Kurzweil’s many goals is to bring his father back to life. 
+Or rather, he wants to create a realistic simulation. There are several 
+possibilities, but all are still highly speculative. 
+
+Kurzweil proposes that perhaps DNA can be extracted from his father 
+(from his grave site, relatives, or organic materials he left behind). 
+Contained within roughly twenty-three thousand genes would be a 
+complete blueprint to re-create the body of that individual. Then a clone 
+could be grown from the DNA."
+"This is certainly a possibility. I once asked Dr. Robert Lanza of the 
+company Advanced Cell Technology how he was able to bring a long- 
+dead creature “back to life,” making history in the process. He told me 
+that the San Diego Zoo asked him to create a clone of a banteng, an 
+oxlike creature that had died out about twenty-five years earlier. The 
+hard part was extracting a usable cell for the purpose of cloning. 
+However, he was successful, and then he FedExed the cell to a farm, 
+where it was implanted into a female cow, which then gave birth to this 
+animal. Although no primate has ever been cloned, let alone a human, 
+Lanza feels it’s a technical problem, and that it’s only a matter of time 
+before someone clones a human."
+"This would be the easy part, though. The clone would be genetically 
+equivalent to the original, but without its memories. Artificial memories 
+might be uploaded to the brain using the pioneering methods described 
+in Chapter 5, such as inserting probes into the hippocampus or creating 
+an artificial hippocampus, but Kurzweil’s father has long passed, so it’s 
+impossible to make the recording in the first place. The best one can do 
+is to assemble piecemeal all historical data about that person, such as by 
+interviewing others who possess relevant memories, or accessing their 
+credit card transactions, etc., and then inputting them into the program. 
+
+A more practical way of inserting a person’s personality and memory 
+would be to create a large data file containing all known information 
+about a person’s habits and life. For example, today it is possible to store 
+all your e-mail, credit card transactions, records, schedules, electronic"
+"diaries, and life history onto a single file, which can create a remarkably 
+accurate picture of who you are. This file would represent your entire 
+“digital signature,” representing everything that is known about you. It 
+would be remarkably accurate and intimate, detailing what wines you 
+like, how you spend vacations, what kind of soap you use, your favorite 
+
+singer, and so on."
+"Also, with a questionnaire, it would be possible to create a rough 
+approximation of Kurzweil’s father’s personality. His friends, relatives, 
+and associates would fill out a questionnaire containing scores of 
+questions about his personality, such as whether he was shy, curious, 
+honest, hardworking, etc. Then they would assign a number to each trait 
+(e.g., a “10” would mean that you are very honest). This would create a 
+string of hundreds of numbers, each one ranking a specific personality 
+trait. Once this vast set of numbers was compiled, a computer program 
+would take these data and approximate how he would behave in 
+hypothetical situations. Let’s say that you are giving a speech and are 
+confronted with an especially obnoxious heckler. The computer program 
+would then scan the numbers and then predict one of several possible 
+outcomes (e.g., ignore the heckler, heckle back, or get into a brawl with 
+the heckler). In other words, his basic personality would be reduced to a"
+"the heckler). In other words, his basic personality would be reduced to a 
+long string of numbers, each from 1 to 10, which can be used by a 
+computer to predict how he would react to new situations."
+"The result would be a vast computer program that would respond to 
+new situations roughly the way the original person would have, using 
+the same verbal expressions and having the same quirks, all tempered 
+with the memories of that person. 
+
+Another possibility would be to forgo the whole cloning process and 
+simply create a robot resembling the original person. It would then be 
+straightforward to insert this program into a mechanical device that 
+looks like you, talks with the same accent and mannerisms, and moves 
+its arms and limbs the same way that you do. Adding your favorite 
+expressions (e.g., “you know ...”) would also be easy. 
+
+Of course, today it would be easy to detect that this robot is a fake. 
+However, in the coming decades, it may be possible to get closer and 
+closer to the original, so it might be good enough to fool some people. 
+
+But this raises a philosophical question. Is this “person” really the 
+same as the original? The original is still dead, so the clone or robot is,"
+"strictly speaking, still an impostor. A tape recorder, for example, might 
+reproduce a conversation we have with perfect fidelity, but that tape 
+recorder is certainly not the original. Can a clone or robot that behaves 
+just like the original be a valid substitute? 
+
+IMMORTALITY 
+
+These methods have been criticized because this process does not 
+realistically input your true personality and memories. A more faithful 
+way of putting a mind into a machine is via the Connectome Project, 
+which we discussed in the last chapter and which seeks to duplicate, 
+neuron for neuron, all the cellular pathways of your brain. All your 
+memories and personality quirks are already embedded in the 
+connectome."
+"The Connectome Project’s Dr. Sebastian Seung notes that some people 
+pay $100,000 or more to have their brains frozen in liquid nitrogen. 
+Certain animals, like fish and frogs, can be frozen solid in a block of ice 
+in winter yet be perfectly healthy after thawing out in spring. This is 
+because they use glucose as an antifreeze to alter the freezing point of 
+water in their blood. Thus their blood remains liquid, even though they 
+are encased in solid ice. This high concentration of glucose in the human 
+body, however, would probably be fatal, so freezing the human brain in 
+liquid nitrogen is a dubious pursuit because expanding ice crystals would 
+rupture the cell wall from the inside (and also, as brain cells die, calcium 
+ions rush in, causing the brain cells to expand until they finally rupture). 
+In either case, brain cells would most likely not survive the freezing 
+process."
+"Rather than freezing the body and having the cells rupture, a more 
+reliable process to attain immortality might be to have your connectome 
+completed. In this scenario, your doctor would have all your neural 
+connections on a hard drive. Basically, your soul would now be on a 
+disk, reduced to information. Then at a future point, someone would be 
+able to resurrect your connectome and, in principle, use either a clone or 
+a tangle of transistors to bring you back to life. 
+
+The Connectome Project, as we mentioned, is still far from being able 
+to record a human’s neural connections. But as Dr. Seung says, “Should 
+
+we ridicule the modern seekers of immortality, calling them fools? Or 
+will they someday chuckle over our graves?” 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS AND IMMORTALITY"
+"MENTAL ILLNESS AND IMMORTALITY 
+
+Immortality may have its drawbacks, however. The electronic brains 
+being built so far contain only the connections between the cortex and 
+the thalamus. The reverse-engineered brain, lacking a body, might begin 
+to suffer from sensory isolation and even manifest signs of mental illness, 
+as prisoners do when they are placed into solitary confinement. Perhaps 
+the price of creating an immortal, reverse-engineered brain is madness."
+"Subjects who are placed in isolation chambers, where they are 
+deprived of any contact with the outside world, eventually hallucinate. 
+In 2008, BBC-TV aired a science program titled Total Isolation, in which 
+they followed six volunteers as they were placed inside a nuclear bunker, 
+alone and in complete darkness. After just two days, three of the 
+volunteers began to see and hear things—snakes, cars, zebras, and 
+oysters. After they were released, doctors found that all of them suffered 
+from mental deterioration. One subject’s memory suffered a 36 percent 
+drop. One can imagine that, after a few weeks or months of this, most of 
+them might go insane."
+"To maintain the sanity of a reverse-engineered brain, it might be 
+essential to connect it to sensors that receive signals from the 
+environment so it would be able to see and feel sensations from the 
+outside world. But then another problem arises: it might feel that it is a 
+grotesque freak, an unwieldy scientific guinea pig living at the mercy of 
+a science experiment. Because this brain has the same memory and 
+personality as the original human, it would crave human contact. And 
+yet, lurking inside the memory of some supercomputer, with a macabre 
+jungle of electrodes dangling outside, the reverse-engineered brain 
+would be repulsive to any human. Bonding with it would be impossible. 
+Its friends would turn away. 
+
+THE CAVEMAN PRINCIPLE 
+
+At this point, what I call the Caveman Principle starts to kick in. Why do 
+
+so many reasonable predictions fail? And why would someone not want 
+to live forever inside a computer?"
+"The Caveman Principle is this: given a choice between high-tech or 
+high-touch, we opt for high-touch every time. For example, if we are 
+given a choice between tickets to see our favorite musician live or a CD 
+of the same musician in concert, which would we choose? Or if we are 
+given a choice between tickets to visit the Taj Mahal or just seeing a 
+beautiful picture of it, which would we prefer? More than likely the live 
+concert and the airplane tickets. 
+
+This is because we have inherited the consciousness of our apelike 
+ancestors. Some of our basic personality has probably not changed much 
+in the last one hundred thousand years, since the first modern humans 
+emerged in Africa. A large portion of our consciousness is devoted to 
+looking good and trying to impress members of the opposite sex and our 
+peers. This is hardwired into our brains. 
+
+More likely, given our basic, apelike consciousness, we will merge 
+with computers only if this enhances but does not totally replace our 
+present-day body."
+"The Caveman Principle probably explains why some reasonable 
+predictions about the future never materialized, such as “the paperless 
+office.” Computers were supposed to banish paper from the office; 
+ironically, computers have actually created even more paper. This is 
+because we are descended from hunters who need “proof of the kill” 
+(i.e., we trust concrete evidence, not ephemeral electrons dancing on a 
+computer screen that vanish when you turn it off). Likewise, the 
+“peopleless city,” where people would use virtual reality to go to 
+meetings instead of commuting, never materialized. Commuting to cities 
+is worse than ever. Why? Because we are social animals who like to 
+bond with others. Videoconferencing, although useful, cannot pick up 
+the full spectrum of subtle information offered via body language. A 
+boss, for example, may want to ferret out problems in his staff and 
+therefore wants to see them squirm and sweat under interrogation. You 
+can do this only in person. 
+
+CAVEMEN AND NEUROSCIENCE"
+"CAVEMEN AND NEUROSCIENCE 
+
+When I was a child, I read Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy and was 
+deeply influenced by it. First, it forced me to ask a simple question: 
+What will technology look like fifty thousand years in the future, when 
+we have a galactic empire? I also couldn’t help wondering throughout 
+the novel, Why do humans look and act the same as they do now? I 
+thought that surely thousands of years into the future humans should 
+have cyborg bodies with superhuman abilities. They should have given 
+up their puny human forms millennia ago."
+"I came up with two answers. First, Asimov wanted to appeal to a 
+young audience willing to buy his book, so he had to create characters 
+that those people could identify with, including all their faults. Second, 
+perhaps people in the future will have the option to have superpowered 
+bodies but prefer to look normal most of the time. This would be 
+because their minds have not changed since humans first emerged from 
+the forest, and so acceptance from their peers and the opposite sex still 
+determines what they look like and what they want out of life. 
+
+So now let us apply the Caveman Principle to the neuroscience of the 
+future. At the minimum, it means that any modification of the basic 
+human form would have to be nearly invisible on the outside. We don’t 
+want to resemble a refugee from a science-fiction movie, with electrodes 
+dangling from our head. Brain implants that might insert memories or 
+increase our intelligence will be adopted only if nanotechnology can"
+"make microscopic sensors and probes that are invisible to the naked eye. 
+In the future, it might be possible to make nanofibers, perhaps made of 
+carbon nanotubes one molecule thick, so thin that they would be able to 
+make contact with neurons with surgical precision and yet leave our 
+appearance unaltered, with our mental capabilities enhanced. 
+
+Meanwhile, if we need to be connected to a supercomputer to upload 
+information, we won’t want to be tied to a cable jacked into our spinal 
+cord, as in The Matrix. The connection will have to be wireless so we can 
+access vast amounts of computer power simply by mentally locating the 
+nearest server. 
+
+Today we have cochlear implants and artificial retinas that can give 
+the gift of sound and sight to patients, but in the future our senses will 
+be enhanced using nanotechnology while we preserve our basic human 
+form. For instance, we might have the option of enhancing our muscles, 
+via genetic modification or exoskeletons. There could be a human body"
+"shop from which we could order new spare parts as the old ones wear 
+out, but these and other physical enhancements of the body would have 
+to avoid abandoning the human form. 
+
+Another way to use this technology in accordance with the Caveman 
+Principle is to use it as an option, rather than a permanent way of life. 
+One might want the option of plugging into this technology and then 
+unplugging soon afterward. Scientists may want to boost their 
+intelligence to solve a particularly tricky problem. But afterward, they 
+will be able to take off their helmets or implants and go about their 
+business. In this way, we are not caught looking like a space cadet to our 
+friends. The point is that no one would force you to do any of this. We 
+would want the option of enjoying the benefits of this technology 
+without the downside of looking silly."
+"So in the centuries to come, it is likely our bodies will look very 
+similar to the ones we possess today, except that they will be perfect and 
+have enhanced powers. It is a relic of our apelike past that our 
+consciousness is dominated by ancient desires and wishes. 
+
+But what about immortality? As we have seen, a reverse-engineered 
+brain, with all the personality quirks of the original person, would 
+eventually go mad if placed inside a computer. Furthermore, connecting 
+this brain to external sensors so it could feel sensations from its 
+environment would create a grotesque monstrosity. One partial solution 
+to this problem is to connect the reverse-engineered brain to an 
+exoskeleton. If the exoskeleton acts like a surrogate, then the reverse- 
+engineered brain would be able to enjoy sensations such as touch and 
+sight without looking grotesque. Eventually the exoskeleton would go"
+"wireless, so that it would act like a human but be controlled by a 
+reverse-engineered brain “living” inside a computer. 
+
+This surrogate would have the best of both worlds. Being an 
+exoskeleton, it would be perfect. It would possess superpowers. Since it 
+would be wirelessly connected to a reverse-engineered brain inside a 
+large computer, it would also be immortal. And lastly, since it would 
+sense the environment and look appealingly like a real human, it would 
+not have as many problems interacting with humans, many of whom 
+will also have probably opted for this procedure. So the actual 
+connectome would reside in a stationary supercomputer, although its 
+consciousness would manifest itself in a perfect, mobile surrogate body. 
+
+All this would require a level of technology far beyond anything that 
+is attainable today. However, given the rapid pace of scientific progress, 
+this could become a reality by the end of the century. 
+
+GRADUAL TRANSFERENCE"
+"GRADUAL TRANSFERENCE 
+
+Right now the process of reverse engineering involves transferring the 
+information within the brain, neuron for neuron. The brain has to be cut 
+up into thin slices, since MRI scans are not yet refined enough to identify 
+the precise neural architecture of the living brain. So until that can be 
+done, the obvious disadvantage of this approach is that you have to die 
+before you can be reversed engineered. Since the brain degenerates 
+rapidly after death, its preservation would have to take place 
+immediately, which is very difficult to accomplish."
+"But there may be one way to attain immortality without having to die 
+first. This idea was pioneered by Dr. Hans Moravec, former director of 
+the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University. 
+When I interviewed him, he told me that he envisions a time in the 
+distant future when we will be able to reverse engineer the brain for a 
+specific purpose: to transfer the mind into an immortal robotic body 
+even while a person is still conscious. If we can reverse engineer every 
+neuron of the brain, why not create a copy made of transistors, 
+duplicating precisely the thought processes of the mind? In this way, you 
+do not have to die in order to live forever. You can be conscious 
+throughout the entire process."
+"He told me that this process would have to be done in steps. First, you 
+lie on a stretcher, next to a robot lacking a brain. Next, a robotic surgeon 
+extracts a few neurons from your brain, and then duplicates these 
+neurons with some transistors located in the robot. Wires connect your 
+brain to the transistors in the robot’s empty head. The neurons are then 
+
+thrown away and replaced by the transistor circuit. Since your brain 
+remains connected to these transistors via wires, it functions normally 
+and you are fully conscious during this process. Then the super surgeon 
+removes more and more neurons from your brain, each time duplicating 
+these neurons with transistors in the robot. Midway through the 
+operation, half of your brain is empty; the other half is connected by 
+
+wires to a large collection of transistors inside the robot’s head. 
+Eventually all the neurons in your brain have been removed, leaving a 
+robot brain that is an exact duplicate of your original brain, neuron for 
+neuron."
+"At the end of this process, however, you rise from the stretcher and 
+find that your body is perfectly formed. You are handsome and beautiful 
+beyond your dreams, with superhuman powers and abilities. As a perk, 
+you are also immortal. You gaze back at your original mortal body, 
+which is just an aging shell without a mind. 
+
+This technology, of course, is far ahead of our time. We cannot reverse 
+engineer the human brain, let alone make a carbon copy made of 
+transistors. (One of the main criticisms of this approach is that a 
+transistorized brain may not fit inside the skull. In fact, given the size of 
+electronic components, the transistorized brain may be the size of a huge 
+supercomputer. In this sense, this proposal begins to resemble the 
+previous one, in which the reverse-engineered brain is stored in a huge 
+supercomputer, which in turn controls a surrogate. But the great 
+advantage of this approach is that you don’t have to die; you’d be fully 
+conscious during the process.)"
+"One’s head spins contemplating these possibilities. All of them seem to 
+be consistent with the laws of physics, but the technological barriers to 
+achieving them are truly formidable. All these proposals for uploading 
+consciousness into a computer require a technology that is far into the 
+future. 
+
+But there is one last proposal for attaining immortality that does not 
+require reverse engineering the brain at all. It requires simply a 
+microscopic “nanobot” that can manipulate individual atoms. So why 
+not live forever in your own natural body, but with a periodic “tune-up” 
+that makes it immortal? 
+
+WHAT IS AGING? 
+
+This new approach incorporates the latest research into the aging 
+process. Traditionally there has been no consensus among biologists 
+
+about the source of the aging process. But within the last decade, a new 
+theory has gained gradual acceptance and has unified many strands of"
+"research into aging. Basically, aging is the buildup of errors, at the 
+genetic and cellular level. As cells get older, errors begin to build up in 
+their DNA and cellular debris also starts to accumulate, which makes 
+cells sluggish. As cells begin to slowly malfunction, skin begins to sag, 
+bones become frail, hair falls out, and our immune system deteriorates. 
+Eventually, we die. 
+
+But cells also have error-correcting mechanisms. Over time, however, 
+even these error-correcting mechanisms begin to fail, and aging 
+accelerates. The goal, therefore, is to strengthen the natural cell-repair 
+mechanisms, which can be done via gene therapy and the creation of 
+new enzymes. But there is also another way: using “nanobot” 
+assemblers."
+"One of the linchpins of this futuristic technology is something called 
+the “nanobot,” or an atomic machine, which patrols the bloodstream, 
+zapping cancer cells, repairing the damage from the aging process, and 
+keeping us forever young and healthy. Nature has already created some 
+nanobots, in the form of immune cells that patrol the body in the blood. 
+But these immune cells attack viruses and foreign bodies, not the aging 
+process. 
+
+Immortality is within reach if these nanobots can reverse the ravages 
+of the aging process at the molecular and cellular level. In this vision, 
+nanobots are like immune cells, tiny police patrolling your bloodstream. 
+They attack any cancer cells, neutralize viruses, and clean out the debris 
+and mutations. Then the possibility of immortality would be within 
+reach using our own bodies, not some robot or clone. 
+
+NANOBOTS—REAL OR FANTASY?"
+"NANOBOTS—REAL OR FANTASY? 
+
+My own personal philosophy is that if something is consistent with the 
+laws of physics, then it becomes an engineering and economics problem 
+to build it. The engineering and economic hurdles may be formidable, of 
+course, making it impractical for the present, but nonetheless it is still 
+possible. 
+
+On the surface, the nanobot is simple: an atomic machine with arms 
+and clippers that grabs molecules, cuts them at specific points, and then 
+splices them back together. By cutting and pasting various atoms, the"
+"nanobot can create almost any known molecule, like a magician pulling 
+something out of a hat. It can also self-reproduce, so it is necessary to 
+build only one nanobot. This nanobot will then take raw materials, 
+digest them, and create millions of other nanobots. This could trigger a 
+second Industrial Revolution, as the cost of building materials plummets. 
+One day, perhaps every home will have its own personal molecular 
+assembler, so you can have anything you want just by asking for it."
+"But the key question is: Are nanobots consistent with the laws of 
+physics? Back in 2001, two visionaries practically came to blows over 
+this crucial question. At stake was nothing less than a vision of the entire 
+future of technology. On one side was the late Richard Smalley, a Nobel 
+laureate in chemistry and skeptical of nanobots. On the other side was 
+Eric Drexler, one of the founding fathers of nanotechnology. Their 
+titanic, tit-for-tat battle played out in the pages of several scientific 
+magazines from 2001 to 2003."
+"Smalley said that, at the atomic scale, new quantum forces emerge 
+that make nanobots impossible. The error made by Drexler and others, 
+he claimed, is that the nanobot, with its clippers and arms, cannot 
+function at the atomic scale. There are novel forces (e.g., the Casimir 
+force) that cause atoms to repel or attract one another. He called this the 
+“sticky, fat fingers” problem, because the fingers of the nanobot are not 
+like delicate, precise pliers and wrenches. Quantum forces get in the 
+way, so it’s like trying to weld metals together while wearing gloves that 
+are many inches thick. Furthermore, every time you try to weld two 
+pieces of metal together, these pieces are either repelled or stick to you, 
+so you can never grab one properly."
+"Drexler then fired back, stating that nanobots are not science fiction— 
+they actually exist. Think of the ribosomes in our own body. They are 
+essential in creating and molding DNA molecules. They can cut and 
+splice DNA molecules at specific points, which makes possible the 
+creation of new DNA strands. 
+
+But Smalley wasn’t satisfied, stating that ribosomes are not all-purpose 
+machines that can cut and paste anything you want; they work 
+specifically on DNA molecules. Moreover, ribosomes are organic 
+chemicals that need enzymes to speed up the reaction, which occurs 
+only in a watery environment. Transistors are made of silicon, not water, 
+so these enzymes would never work, he concluded. Drexel, in turn, 
+
+mentioned that catalysts can work even without water. This heated 
+exchange went back and forth through several rounds. In the end, like 
+two evenly matched prizefighters, both sides seemed exhausted. Drexler 
+had to admit that the analogy to workers with cutters and blowtorches"
+"was too simplistic, that quantum forces do get in the way sometimes. But 
+Smalley had to concede that he was unable to score a knockout blow. 
+Nature had at least one way of evading the “sticky, fat fingers” problem, 
+with ribosomes, and perhaps there might be other subtle, unforeseen 
+ways as well. 
+
+Regardless of the details of this debate, Ray Kurzweil is convinced that 
+these nanobots, whether or not they have fat, sticky fingers, will one day 
+shape not just molecules, but society itself. He summarized his vision 
+when he said, “I’m not planning to die.... I see it, ultimately, as an 
+awakening of the whole universe. I think the whole universe right now is 
+basically made up of dumb matter and energy and I think it will wake 
+up. But if it becomes transformed into this sublimely intelligent matter 
+and energy, I hope to be part of that.”"
+"As fantastic as these speculations are, they are only a preface to the 
+next leap in speculation. Perhaps one day the mind will not only be free 
+of its material body, it will also be able to explore the universe as a 
+being of pure energy. The idea that consciousness will one day be free to 
+roam among the stars is the ultimate dream. As incredible as it may 
+sound, this is well within the laws of physics. 
+
+13 THE MIND AS PURE ENERGY 
+
+The idea that one day consciousness may spread throughout the 
+universe has been considered seriously by physicists. Sir Martin Rees, the 
+Royal Astronomer of Great Britain, has written, “Wormholes, extra 
+dimensions, and quantum computers open up speculative scenarios that 
+could transform our entire universe eventually into a ‘living cosmos’!”"
+"But will the mind one day be freed of its material body to explore the 
+entire universe? This was the theme explored in Isaac Asimov’s classic 
+science-fiction tale “The Last Question.” (He would fondly recall that this 
+was his favorite science-fiction short story of all the ones he had 
+written.) In it, billions of years into the future, humans will have placed 
+their physical bodies in pods on an obscure planet, freeing their minds to 
+control pure energy throughout the galaxy. Instead of surrogates made 
+of steel and silicon, these surrogates are pure energy beings that can 
+effortlessly roam the distant reaches of space, past exploding stars, 
+colliding galaxies, and other wonders of the universe. But no matter how 
+powerful humanity has become, it is helpless as it witnesses the ultimate 
+death of the universe itself in the Big Freeze. In desperation, humanity 
+constructs a supercomputer to answer the final question: Can the death"
+"constructs a supercomputer to answer the final question: Can the death 
+of the universe be reversed? The computer is so large and complex that 
+it has to be placed in hyperspace. But the computer simply responds that 
+there is insufficient information to give an answer."
+"Eons later, as the stars begin to turn dark, all life in the universe is 
+about to die. But then the supercomputer finally discovers a way to 
+reverse the death of the universe. It collects dead stars from across the 
+universe, combines them into one gigantic cosmic ball, and ignites it. As 
+the ball explodes, the supercomputer announces, “Let there be light!” 
+
+And there was light. 
+
+So humanity, once freed of the physical body, is capable of playing 
+God and creating a new universe. 
+
+At first, Asimov’s fantastic tale of beings made of pure energy roaming 
+
+across the universe sounds impossible. We are accustomed to thinking of 
+beings made of flesh and blood, which are at the mercy of the laws of 
+physics and biology, living and breathing on Earth, and bound by the 
+gravity of our planet. The concept of conscious entities of energy, 
+soaring across the galaxy, unimpeded by the limitations of material 
+bodies, is a strange one."
+"Yet this dream of exploring the universe as beings of pure energy is 
+well within the laws of physics. Think of the most familiar form of pure 
+energy, a laser beam, which is capable of containing vast amounts of 
+information. Today trillions of signals in the form of phone calls, data 
+packages, videos, and e-mail messages are transmitted routinely by fiber¬ 
+optic cables carrying laser beams. One day, perhaps sometime in the 
+next century, we will be able to transmit the consciousness of our brains 
+throughout the solar system by placing our entire connectomes onto 
+powerful laser beams. A century beyond that, we may be able to send 
+our connectome to the stars, riding on a light beam."
+"(This is possible because the wavelength of a laser beam is 
+microscopic, i.e., measured in millionths of a meter. That means you can 
+compress vast amounts of information on its wave pattern. Think of 
+Morse code. The dots and dashes of Morse code can easily be 
+superimposed on the wave pattern of a laser beam. Even more 
+information can be transferred onto a beam of X-rays, which has a 
+wavelength even smaller than an atom.) 
+
+One way to explore the galaxy, unbound by the messy restrictions of 
+ordinary matter, is to place our connectomes onto laser beams directed 
+at the moon, the planets, and even the stars. Given the crash program to 
+find the pathways of the brain, the complete connectome of the human 
+brain will be available late in this century, and a form of the connectome 
+capable of being placed on a laser beam might be available in the next 
+century."
+"The laser beam would contain all the information necessary to 
+reassemble a conscious being. Although it may take years or even 
+centuries for the laser beam to reach its destination, from the point of 
+view of the person riding on the laser beam, the trip would be 
+instantaneous. Our consciousness is essentially frozen on the laser beam 
+as it soars through empty space, so the trip to the other side of the 
+galaxy appears to take place in the blink of an eye."
+"In this way, we avoid all the unpleasant features of interplanetary and 
+interstellar travel. First, there is no need to build colossal booster 
+rockets. Instead, you simply press the “on” button of a laser. Second, 
+there are no powerful g forces crushing your body as you accelerate into 
+space. Instead, you are boosted instantly to the speed of light, since you 
+are immaterial. Third, you don’t have to suffer the hazards of outer 
+space, such as meteor impacts and deadly cosmic rays, since asteroids 
+and radiation pass right through you harmlessly. Fourth, you don’t have 
+to freeze your body or endure years of boredom as you lumber tediously 
+inside a conventional rocket. Instead, you zip across space at the fastest 
+velocity in the universe, frozen in time."
+"Once we reach our destination, there would have to be a receiving 
+station to transfer the data of the laser beam onto a mainframe 
+computer, which then brings the conscious being back to life. The code 
+that was imprinted onto the laser beam now takes control of the 
+computer and redirects its programming. The connectome directs the 
+mainframe computer to begin simulating the future to attain its goals 
+(i.e., it becomes conscious). 
+
+This conscious being inside the mainframe then sends signals 
+wirelessly to a robotic surrogate body, which has been waiting for us at 
+the destination. In this way, we suddenly “wake up” on a distant planet 
+or star, as if the trip took place in the blink of an eye, inside the robotic 
+body of our surrogate. All the complex computations take place in a 
+large mainframe computer, which directs the movements of a surrogate 
+to carry on with our business on a distant star. We are oblivious to the 
+hazards of space travel, as if nothing had happened."
+"Now imagine a vast network of these stations spread out over the solar 
+system and even the galaxy. From our point of view, hopping from star 
+to star would be almost effortless, traveling at the speed of light in 
+journeys that are instantaneous. At each station, there is a robotic 
+surrogate waiting for us to enter its body, just like an empty hotel room 
+waiting for us to check in. We arrive at our destination refreshed and 
+equipped with a superhuman body. 
+
+The type of surrogate robotic body that awaits us at the end of this 
+
+journey would depend on the mission. If the job is to explore a new 
+world, then the surrogate body would have to work in harsh conditions. 
+It would have to adjust to a different gravitational field, a poisonous 
+
+atmosphere, freezing-cold or blistering-hot temperatures, different day- 
+night cycles, and a constant rain of deadly radiation. To survive under 
+these harsh conditions, the surrogate body would have to have super 
+strength and super senses."
+"If the surrogate body is purely for relaxation, then it would be 
+designed for leisurely activities. It would maximize the pleasure of 
+soaring through space on skis, surfboards, kites, gliders, or planes, or of 
+sending a ball through space propelled by the swing of a bat, club, or 
+racket. 
+
+Or if the job is to mingle with and study the local natives, then the 
+surrogate would approximate the bodily characteristics of the indigenous 
+population (as in the movie Avatar )."
+"Admittedly, in order to create this network of laser stations in the first 
+place, it might be necessary first to travel to the planets and stars in the 
+old-fashioned way, in more conventional rocket ships. Then one could 
+build the first set of these laser stations. (Perhaps the fastest, cheapest, 
+and most efficient way of creating this interstellar network would be to 
+send self-replicating robotic probes throughout the galaxy. Because they 
+can make copies of themselves, starting with one such probe, after many 
+generations there would be billions of such probes streaming out in all 
+directions, each one creating a laser station wherever it lands. We will 
+discuss this further in the next chapter.) 
+
+But once the network is fully established, one can conceive of a 
+continual stream of conscious beings roaming the galaxy, so that at any 
+time crowds of people are leaving and arriving from distant parts of the 
+galaxy. Any laser station in the network might look like Grand Central 
+Station."
+"As futuristic as this may sound, the basic physics for this concept are 
+already well established. This includes placing vast amounts of data onto 
+laser beams, sending this information across thousands of miles, and 
+then decoding the information at the other end. The major problems 
+facing this idea are therefore not in the physics, but in the engineering. 
+Because of this, it may take us until the next century to send our entire 
+connectome on laser beams powerful enough to reach the planets. It 
+might take us still another century to beam our minds to the stars. 
+
+To see if this is feasible, it is instructive to do a few simple, back-of- 
+the-envelope calculations. The first problem is that the photons inside a"
+"pencil-thin laser beam, although they appear to be in perfectly parallel 
+formation, actually diverge slightly in space. (When I was a child, I used 
+to shine a flashlight at the moon and wonder if the light ever reached it. 
+The answer is yes. The atmosphere absorbs over 90 percent of the 
+original beam, leaving some remaining to reach the moon. But the real 
+problem is that the image the flashlight finally casts on the moon is 
+miles across. This is because of the uncertainty principle; even laser 
+beams must diverge slowly. Since you cannot know the precise location 
+of the laser beam, it must, by the laws of quantum physics, slowly spread 
+out over time.)"
+"But beaming our connectomes to the moon does not give us much 
+advantage, since it’s easier simply to remain on Earth and control the 
+lunar surrogate directly by radio. The delay is only about a second when 
+issuing commands to the surrogate. The real advantage comes when 
+controlling surrogates on the planets, since a radio message may take 
+hours to reach a surrogate there. The process of issuing a series of radio 
+commands to a surrogate, waiting for a response, and issuing another 
+command would be painfully slow, taking days on end. 
+
+If you want to send a laser beam to the planets, you first have to 
+establish a battery of lasers on the moon, well above the atmosphere, so 
+there is no air to absorb the signal. Shot from the moon, a laser beam to 
+the planets could arrive in a matter of minutes to a few hours. Once the 
+laser beam has sent the connectome to the planets, then it’s possible to 
+directly control the surrogate without any delay factors at all."
+"So establishing a network of these laser stations throughout the solar 
+system could be accomplished by the next century. But the problems are 
+magnified when we try sending the beam to the stars. This means that 
+we must have relay stations placed on asteroids and space stations along 
+the way, in order to amplify the signal, reduce errors, and send the 
+message to the next relay station. This could potentially be done by 
+using the comets that lie between our sun and the nearby stars. For 
+example, extending about a light-year from the sun (or one-quarter of 
+the distance to the nearest star) is the Oort cloud of comets. It is a 
+spherical shell of billions of comets, many of which lie motionless in 
+empty space. There is probably a similar Oort cloud of comets 
+surrounding the Centauri star system, which is our nearest stellar 
+neighbor. Assuming that this Oort cloud also extends a light-year from"
+"those stars, then fully half the distance from our solar system to the next 
+contains stationary comets on which we can build laser relay stations. 
+
+Another problem is the sheer amount of data that must be sent by 
+laser beam. The total information contained in one’s connectome, 
+according to Dr. Sebastian Seung, is roughly one zettabyte (that is, a 1 
+with twenty-one zeros after it). This is roughly equivalent to the total 
+information contained in the World Wide Web today. Now consider 
+shooting a battery of laser beams into space carrying this vast mountain 
+of information. Optical fibers can carry terabytes of data per second (a 1 
+with twelve zeros after it). Within the next century, advances in 
+information storage, data compression, and bundling of laser beams may 
+increase this efficiency by a factor of a million. This means that it would 
+take a few hours or so to send the beam into space carrying all the 
+information contained within the brain."
+"So the problem is not the sheer amount of data sent on laser beams. In 
+principle, laser beams can carry an unlimited amount of data. The real 
+bottlenecks are the receiving stations at either end, which must have 
+switches that rapidly manipulate this amount of data at blinding speed. 
+Silicon transistors may not be fast enough to handle this volume of data. 
+Instead, we might have to use quantum computers, which compute not 
+on silicon transistors but on individual atoms. At present, quantum 
+computers are at a primitive level, but by the next century they might be 
+powerful enough to handle zettabytes of information. 
+
+FLOATING BEINGS OF ENERGY"
+"FLOATING BEINGS OF ENERGY 
+
+Another advantage of using quantum computers to process this 
+mountain of data is the chance to create beings of energy that can hover 
+and float in the air, which appear frequently in science fiction and 
+fantasy. These beings would represent consciousness in its purest form. 
+At first, however, they may seem to violate the laws of physics, since 
+light always travels at the speed of light. 
+
+But in the last decade, headlines were made by physicists at Harvard 
+University who announced that they were able to stop a beam of light 
+dead in its tracks. These physicists apparently accomplished the 
+impossible, slowing down a light beam to a leisurely pace until it could"
+"be placed in a bottle. Capturing a light beam in a bottle is not so 
+fantastic if you look carefully at a glass of water. As a light beam enters 
+the water, it slows down, bending as it enters the water at an angle. 
+Similarly, light bends as it enters glass, making telescopes and 
+microscopes possible. The reason for all this comes from the quantum 
+theory. 
+
+Think of the old Pony Express, which delivered the mail in the"
+"Think of the old Pony Express, which delivered the mail in the 
+
+nineteenth century in the American West. Each pony could sprint 
+between relay stations at great speed. But the bottleneck was the delay 
+factor at each relay station, where the mail, rider, and pony had to be 
+exchanged. This slowed down the average velocity of the mail 
+considerably. In the same way, in the vacuum between atoms, light still 
+travels at c, the speed of light, which is roughly 186,282 miles per second. 
+However, when it hits atoms, light is delayed; it is briefly absorbed and 
+then reemitted by atoms, sending it on its way a fraction of a second 
+later. This slight delay is responsible for light beams, on average, 
+apparently slowing down in glass or water."
+"The Harvard scientists exploited this phenomenon, taking a container 
+of gas and carefully cooling it down to near absolute zero. At these 
+freezing temperatures, the gas atoms absorbed a light beam for longer 
+and longer time periods before reemitting it. Thus, by increasing this 
+delay factor, they could slow down the light beam until it came to rest. 
+The light beam still traveled at the speed of light between the gas atoms, 
+but it spent an increasing amount of time being absorbed by them. 
+
+This raises the possibility that a conscious being, instead of assuming 
+control of a surrogate, may prefer to remain in the form of pure energy 
+and roam, almost ghostlike, as pure energy."
+"So in the future, as laser beams are sent to the stars containing our 
+connectomes, the beam may be transferred into a cloud of gas molecules 
+and then contained in a bottle. This “bottle of light” is very similar to a 
+quantum computer. Both of them have a collection of atoms vibrating in 
+unison, in which the atoms are in phase with one another. And both of 
+them can do complex computations that are far beyond an ordinary 
+computer’s capability. So if the problems of quantum computers can be 
+solved, it may also give us the ability to manipulate these “bottles of 
+light.” 
+
+FASTER THAN LIGHT? 
+
+We see, then, that all these problems are ones of engineering. There is no 
+law of physics preventing traveling on an energy beam in the next 
+century or beyond. So this is perhaps the most convenient way of 
+visiting the planets and stars. Instead of riding on a light beam, as the 
+poets dreamed, we become the light beam."
+"To truly realize the vision expressed in Asimov’s science-fiction tale, 
+we need to ask if faster-than-light intergalactic travel is truly possible. In 
+his short story, beings of immense power move freely between galaxies 
+separated by millions of light-years. 
+
+Is this possible? To answer this question, we have to push the very 
+boundaries of modern quantum physics. Ultimately, things called 
+“wormholes” may provide a shortcut through the vastness of space and 
+time. And beings made of pure energy rather than matter would have a 
+decisive advantage in passing through them."
+"Einstein, in some sense, is like the cop on the block, stating that you 
+cannot go faster than light, the ultimate velocity in the universe. 
+Traveling across the Milky Way galaxy, for example, would take one 
+hundred thousand years, even sailing on a laser beam. Although only an 
+instant of time has passed for the traveler, the time on the home planet 
+has progressed one hundred thousand years. And passing between 
+galaxies involves millions to billions of light-years. 
+
+But Einstein himself left a loophole in his work. In his general theory 
+of relativity of 1915, he showed that gravity arose from the warping of 
+space-time. Gravity is not the “pull” of a mysterious invisible force, as 
+Newton once thought, but actually a “push” caused by space itself 
+bending around an object. Not only did this brilliantly explain the 
+bending of starlight passing near stars and the expansion of the universe, 
+it left open the possibility of the fabric of space-time stretching until it 
+ripped."
+"In 1935, Einstein and his student Nathan Rosen introduced the 
+possibility that two black-hole solutions could be joined back to back, 
+like Siamese twins, so if you fell into one black hole, you could, in 
+principle, pass out of the other one. (Imagine joining two funnels at their 
+ends. Water that drains through one funnel emerges from the other.) 
+This “wormhole,” also called the Einstein-Rosen Bridge, introduced the 
+
+possibility of portals or gateways between universes. Einstein himself 
+dismissed the possibility that you could pass through a black hole, since 
+you would be crushed in the process, but several subsequent 
+developments have raised the possibility of faster-than-light travel 
+through a wormhole."
+"First, in 1963, mathematician Roy Kerr discovered that a spinning 
+black hole does not collapse into a single dot, as previously thought, but 
+into a rotating ring, spinning so fast that centrifugal forces prevent it 
+from collapsing. If you fell through the ring, then you could pass into 
+another universe. The gravitational forces would be large, but not 
+infinite. This would be like Alice’s Looking Glass, where you could pass 
+your hand through the mirror and enter a parallel universe. The rim of 
+the Looking Glass would be the ring forming the black hole itself. Since 
+Kerr’s discovery, scores of other solutions of Einstein’s equations have 
+shown that you can, in principle, pass between universes without being 
+immediately crushed. Since every black hole seen so far in space is 
+
+spinning rapidly (some of them clocked at one million miles per hour), 
+this means that these cosmic gateways could be commonplace."
+"In 1988, physicist Dr. Kip Thorne of Cal Tech and his colleagues 
+showed that, with enough “negative energy,” it might be possible to 
+stabilize a black hole so that a wormhole becomes “transversable” (i.e., 
+you can freely pass through it both ways without being crushed). 
+Negative energy is perhaps the most exotic substance in the universe, 
+but it actually exists and can be created (in microscopic quantities) in 
+the laboratory. 
+
+So here is the new paradigm. First, an advanced civilization would 
+concentrate enough positive energy at a single point, comparable to a 
+black hole, to open up a hole through space connecting two distant 
+points. Second, it would amass enough negative energy to keep the 
+gateway open, so that it is stable and does not close the instant you enter 
+it."
+"We can now put this idea into proper perspective. Mapping the entire 
+human connectome should be possible late in this century. An 
+interplanetary laser network could be established early in the next 
+century, so that consciousness can be beamed across the solar system. No 
+new law of physics would be required. A laser network that can go 
+between the stars may have to wait until the century after that. But a 
+
+civilization that can play with wormholes will have to be thousands of 
+years ahead of us in technology, stretching the boundaries of known 
+physics."
+"All this, then, has direct implications for whether consciousness can 
+pass between universes. If matter comes close to a black hole, the gravity 
+becomes so intense that your body becomes “spaghettified.” The gravity 
+pulling on your leg is greater than the gravity pulling on your head, so 
+your body is stretched by tidal forces. In fact, as you approach the black 
+hole, even the atoms of your body are stretched until the electrons are 
+ripped from the nuclei, causing your atoms to disintegrate."
+"(To see the power of tidal forces, just look at the tides of Earth and the 
+rings of Saturn. The gravity of the moon and sun exert a pull on Earth, 
+causing the oceans to rise several feet during high tide. And if a moon 
+comes too close to a giant planet like Saturn, the tidal forces will stretch 
+the moon and eventually tear it apart. The distance at which moons get 
+ripped apart by tidal forces is called the Roche limit. The rings of Saturn 
+lie exactly at the Roche limit, so they might have been caused by a moon 
+that wandered too close to the mother planet.) 
+
+Even if we enter a spinning black hole and use negative energy to 
+
+stabilize it, then, the gravity fields still might be so powerful that we’d 
+be spaghettified."
+"stabilize it, then, the gravity fields still might be so powerful that we’d 
+be spaghettified. 
+
+But here is where laser beams have an important advantage over 
+matter when passing through a wormhole. Laser light is immaterial, so it 
+cannot be stretched by tidal forces as it passes near a black hole. Instead, 
+light becomes “blue-shifted” (i.e., it gains energy and its frequency 
+increases). Even though the laser beam is distorted, the information 
+stored on it is untouched. For example, a message in Morse code carried 
+by a laser beam becomes compressed, but the information content 
+remains unchanged. Digital information is untouched by tidal forces. So 
+gravitational forces, which can be fatal to beings made of matter, may be 
+harmless to beings traveling on light beams. 
+
+In this way, consciousness carried by a laser beam, because it is 
+immaterial, has a decisive advantage over matter in passing through a 
+wormhole."
+"Laser beams have another advantage over matter when passing 
+through a wormhole. Some physicists have calculated that a microscopic 
+wormhole, perhaps the size of an atom, might be easier to create. Matter 
+
+would not be able to pass through such a tiny wormhole. But X-ray 
+lasers, with a wavelength smaller than an atom, might possibly be able 
+to pass through without difficulty."
+"Although Asimov’s brilliant short story was clearly a work of fantasy, 
+ironically a vast interstellar network of laser stations might already exist 
+within the galaxy, yet we are so primitive that we are totally unaware of 
+it. To a civilization thousands of years ahead of us, the technology to 
+digitalize their connectomes and send them to the stars would be child’s 
+play. In that case, it is conceivable that intelligent beings are already 
+zapping their consciousness across a vast network of laser beams in the 
+galaxy. Nothing we observe with our most advanced telescopes and 
+satellites prepares us to detect such an intergalactic network. 
+
+Carl Sagan once lamented the possibility that we might live in a world 
+surrounded by alien civilizations and not have the technology to realize 
+it. 
+
+Then the next question is: What lurks in the alien mind?"
+"Then the next question is: What lurks in the alien mind? 
+
+If we were to encounter such an advanced civilization, what kind of 
+consciousness might it have? One day, the destiny of the human race 
+may rest on answering this question. 
+
+Sometimes I think that the surest sign that intelligent life exists 
+elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact 
+us. 
+
+—BILL WATTERSON 
+
+Either intelligent life exists in outer space or it doesn’t. Either 
+thought is frightening. 
+
+—ARTHUR C. CLARKE 
+
+14 THE ALIEN MIND"
+"—ARTHUR C. CLARKE 
+
+14 THE ALIEN MIND 
+
+In War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, aliens from Mars attack Earth 
+because their home planet is dying. Armed with death rays and giant 
+walking machines, they quickly incinerate many cities and are on the 
+verge of seizing control of Earth’s major capitals. Just as the Martians 
+are crushing all signs of resistance and our civilization is about to be 
+reduced to rubble, they are mysteriously stopped cold in their tracks. 
+With all their advanced science and weaponry, they failed to factor in an 
+onslaught from the lowliest of creatures: our germs."
+"That single novel created an entire genre, launching a thousand 
+movies like Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and Independence Day. Most 
+scientists cringe, however, when they see how the aliens are described. 
+In the movies, aliens are often depicted as creatures with some sense of 
+human values and emotions. Even with glowing green skin and huge 
+heads, they still look like us to a certain degree. They also tend to speak 
+perfect English. 
+
+But, as many scientists have pointed out, we may have much more in 
+common with a lobster or a sea slug than we do with an alien from 
+space."
+"As with silicon consciousness, alien consciousness will most likely 
+have the general features described in our space-time theory; that is, the 
+ability to make a model of the world and then calculate how it will 
+evolve in time to achieve a goal. But while robots can be programmed so 
+that they emotionally bond with humans and have goals compatible 
+with ours, alien consciousness may have neither. It’s likely to have its 
+own set of values and goals, independent of humanity. One can only 
+speculate what these might be. 
+
+Physicist Dr. Freeman Dyson of the Institute for Advanced Study at 
+
+Princeton was a consultant to the movie 2001 . When he finally saw the 
+movie, he was delighted, not because of its dazzling special effects, but 
+because it was the first Hollywood movie ever to present an alien"
+"consciousness, with desires, goals, and intentions totally foreign to ours. 
+For the first time, the aliens were not simply human actors flailing 
+about, trying to act menacing in cheesy monster costumes. Instead, alien 
+consciousness was presented as something totally orthogonal to human 
+experience, something entirely outside our ken. 
+
+In 2011, Stephen Hawking raised another question. The noted 
+cosmologist made headlines when he said that we must be prepared for 
+a possible alien attack. He said that if we ever encounter an alien 
+civilization, it will be more advanced than ours and hence will pose a 
+mortal threat to our very existence."
+"We have only to see what happened to the Aztecs when they 
+encountered the bloodthirsty Hernan Cortes and his conquistadors to 
+imagine what might happen with such a fateful encounter. Armed with 
+technology that the Bronze Age Aztecs had never seen before, such as 
+iron swords, gunpowder, and the horse, this small band of cutthroats 
+was able to crush the ancient Aztec civilization in a matter of months in 
+1521. 
+
+All this raises these questions: What will alien consciousness be like? 
+How will their thinking process and goals differ from ours? What do 
+they want? 
+
+FIRST CONTACT IN THIS CENTURY 
+
+This is not an academic question. Given the remarkable advances in 
+astrophysics, we may actually make contact with an alien intelligence in 
+the coming decades. How we respond to them could determine one of 
+the most pivotal events in human history. 
+
+Several advances are making this day possible."
+"Several advances are making this day possible. 
+
+First, in 2011 the Kepler satellite, for the first time in history, gave 
+scientists a “census” of the Milky Way galaxy. After analyzing light from 
+thousands of stars, the Kepler satellite found that one in two hundred 
+might harbor an earthlike planet in the habitable zone. For the first time, 
+we can therefore calculate how many stars within the Milky Way galaxy 
+might be earthlike: about a billion. As we look at the distant stars, we 
+have genuine reason to wonder if anyone is looking back at us. 
+
+So far, more than one thousand exoplanets have been analyzed in"
+"So far, more than one thousand exoplanets have been analyzed in 
+
+detail by earthbound telescopes. (Astronomers find them at the rate of 
+about two exoplanets per week.) Unfortunately, nearly all of them are 
+Jupiter-size planets, probably devoid of any earthlike creatures, but 
+there are a handful of “super earths,” rocky planets that are a few times 
+larger than Earth. Already, the Kepler satellite has identified about 2,500 
+candidate exoplanets in space, a handful of which look very much like 
+Earth. These planets are at just the right distance from their mother stars 
+so that liquid oceans can exist. And liquid water is the “universal 
+solvent” that dissolves most organic chemicals like DNA and proteins."
+"In 2013, NASA scientists announced their most spectacular discovery 
+using the Kepler satellite: two exoplanets that are near twins of Earth. 
+They are located 1,200 light-years away in the constellation Lyra. They 
+are only 60 percent and 40 percent larger than Earth. More important, 
+both lie within the habitable zone of their mother star, so there is a 
+possibility that they have liquid oceans. Of all the planets analyzed so 
+far, they are the closest to being mirror images of Earth. 
+
+Furthermore, the Hubble Space Telescope has given us an estimate of 
+the total number of galaxies in the visible universe: one hundred billion. 
+Therefore, we can calculate the number of earthlike planets in the visible 
+universe: one billion times one hundred billion, or one hundred 
+quintillion earthlike planets."
+"This is a truly astronomical number, so the odds of life existing in the 
+universe are astronomically large, especially when you consider that the 
+universe is 13.8 billion years old, and there has been plenty of time for 
+intelligent empires to rise—and perhaps fall. In fact, it would be more 
+miraculous if another advanced civilization did not exist. 
+
+SETI AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS 
+
+Second, radio telescope technology is becoming more sophisticated. So 
+far, only about one thousand stars have been closely analyzed for signs 
+of intelligent life, but in the coming decade this number could rise by a 
+factor of one million. 
+
+Using radio telescopes to hunt for alien civilizations dates back to 
+1960, when astronomer Frank Drake initiated Project Ozma (after the 
+Queen of Oz), using the twenty-five-meter radio telescope in Green"
+"Bank, West Virginia. This marked the birth of the SETI project (the 
+Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). Unfortunately, no signals from 
+aliens were picked up, but in 1971 NASA proposed Project Cyclops, 
+which was supposed to have 1,500 radio telescopes at a cost of $10 
+billion. 
+
+Not surprisingly, it never went anywhere. Congress was not amused. 
+
+Funding did become available for a much more modest proposal: to 
+send a carefully coded message in 1971 to aliens in outer space. A coded 
+message containing 1,679 bits of information was transmitted via the 
+giant Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico toward the Globular Cluster 
+Ml 3, about 25,100 light-years away. It was the world’s first cosmic 
+greeting card, containing relevant information about the human race. 
+But no reply message was received. Perhaps the aliens were not 
+impressed with us, or possibly the speed of light got in the way. Given 
+the large distances involved, the earliest date for a reply message would 
+be 52,174 years from now."
+"Since then, some scientists have expressed misgivings about 
+advertising our existence to aliens in space, at least until we know their 
+intentions toward us. They disagree with the proponents of the METI 
+Project (Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) who actively 
+promote sending signals to alien civilizations in space. The reasoning 
+behind the METI Project is that Earth already sends vast amounts of 
+radio and TV signals into outer space, so a few more messages from the 
+METI Project will not make much difference. But the critics of METI 
+believe that we should not needlessly increase our chances of being 
+discovered by potentially hostile aliens."
+"In 1995, astronomers turned to private sources to start the SETI 
+Institute in Mountain View, California, to centralize research and initiate 
+Project Phoenix, which is trying to study one thousand nearby sunlike 
+stars in the l,200-to-3,000-megahertz radio range. The equipment is so 
+sensitive that it can pick up the emissions from an airport radar system 
+two hundred light-years away. Since its founding, the SETI Institute has 
+scanned more than one thousand stars at a cost of $5 million per year, 
+but still no luck. 
+
+A more novel approach is the SETI@home project, initiated by 
+astronomers at the University of California at Berkeley in 1999, which 
+uses an informal army of millions of amateur PC owners. Anyone can 
+
+join in this historic hunt. While you are sleeping at night, your screen 
+saver crunches some of the data pouring in from the Arecibo radio 
+telescope in Puerto Rico. So far, it has signed up 5.2 million users in 234 
+countries; perhaps these amateurs dream that they will be the first in"
+"human history to make contact with alien life. Like Columbus’s, their 
+names may go down in history. The SETI @home project has grown so 
+rapidly that it is, in fact, the largest computer project of this type ever 
+undertaken. 
+
+When I interviewed Dr. Dan Wertheimer, director of SETI@home, I 
+asked him how they can distinguish false messages from real ones. He 
+said something that surprised me. He told me that they sometimes 
+deliberately “seed” the data from radio telescopes with fake signals from 
+an imaginary intelligent civilization. If no one picks up these fake 
+messages, then they know that there is something wrong with their 
+software. The lesson here is that if your PC screen saver announces that 
+it has deciphered a message from an alien civilization, please do not 
+immediately call the police or the president of the United States. It might 
+be a fake message. 
+
+ALIEN HUNTERS"
+"ALIEN HUNTERS 
+
+One colleague of mine who has dedicated his life to finding intelligent 
+life in outer space is Dr. Seth Shostak, director of the SETI Institute. With 
+his Ph.D. in physics from the California Institute of Technology, I might 
+have expected him to become a distinguished physics professor lecturing 
+to eager Ph.D. students, but instead he spends his time in an entirely 
+different fashion: asking for donations to the SETI Institute from wealthy 
+individuals, poring over possible signals from outer space, and doing a 
+radio show. I once asked him about the “giggle factor”—do fellow 
+scientists giggle when he tells them that he listens to aliens from outer 
+space? Not anymore, he claims. With all the new discoveries in 
+astronomy, the tide has turned."
+"In fact, he even sticks his neck out and says flatly that we will make 
+contact with an alien civilization in the very near future. He has gone on 
+record as proclaiming that the 350-antenna Allen Telescope Array now 
+being built “will trip across a signal by the year 2025.” 
+
+Isn’t that a bit risky, I asked him? What makes him so sure? One factor 
+working in his favor has been the explosion in the number of radio 
+telescopes in the last few years. Although the U.S. government does not 
+fund his project, the SETI Institute recently hit pay dirt when it 
+convinced Paul Allen (the Microsoft billionaire) to donate over $30 
+million in funds to start the Allen Telescope Array at Hat Creek, 
+California, 290 miles north of San Francisco. It currently scans the 
+heavens with 42 radio telescopes, and eventually will reach up to 350. 
+(One problem, however, is the chronic lack of funding for these scientific 
+experiments. To make up for budget cuts, the Hat Creek facility is kept"
+"alive through partial funding from the military.) 
+
+One thing, he confessed to me, makes him squirm a bit, and that is 
+when people confuse the SETI Project with UFO hunters. The former, he 
+claims, is based on solid physics and astronomy, using the latest in 
+technology. The latter, however, base their theories on anecdotal 
+hearsay evidence that may or may not be based on truth. The problem is 
+that the mass of UFO sightings he gets in the mail are not reproducible 
+or testable. He urges anyone who claims to have been abducted by aliens 
+in a flying saucer to steal something—an alien pen or paperweight, for 
+example—to prove your case. Never leave a UFO empty-handed, he told 
+me."
+"He also concludes that there is no firm evidence that aliens have 
+visited our planet. I then asked him whether he thought the U.S. 
+government was deliberately covering up evidence of an alien 
+encounter, as many conspiracy theorists believe. He replied, “Would 
+they really be so efficient at covering up a big thing like this? 
+Remember, this is the same government that runs the post office.” 
+
+DRAKE’S EQUATION 
+
+When I asked Dr. Wertheimer why he is so sure that there is alien life in 
+outer space, he replied that the numbers are in his favor. Back in 1961, 
+astronomer Frank Drake tried to estimate the number of such intelligent 
+civilizations by making plausible assumptions. If we start with the 
+number one hundred billion, the number of stars in the Milky Way 
+galaxy, then we can estimate the fraction of them that are similar to our"
+"sun. We can reduce that number further by estimating the fraction of 
+them that have planets, the fraction of them that have earthlike planets, 
+etc. After making a number of reasonable assumptions, we come up with 
+an estimate of ten thousand advanced civilizations in our own Milky 
+Way galaxy. (Carl Sagan, with a different set of estimates, came up with 
+the number one million.)"
+"Since then, scientists have been able to make much better estimates of 
+the number of advanced civilizations in our galaxy. For example, we 
+know there are more planets orbiting stars than Drake originally 
+expected, and more earthlike planets as well. But we still face a problem. 
+Even if we know how many earthlike twins there are in space, we still 
+don’t know how many of them support intelligent life. Even on Earth, it 
+took 4.5 billion years before intelligent beings (us) finally arose from the 
+swamp. For about 3.5 billion years, life-forms have existed on Earth, but 
+only in the last one hundred thousand years or so have intelligent beings 
+
+like us emerged. So even on an earthlike planet like Earth itself, the rise 
+of truly intelligent life has been very difficult. 
+
+WHY DON’T THEY VISIT US?"
+"WHY DON’T THEY VISIT US? 
+
+But then I asked Dr. Seth Shostak of SETI this killer question: If there are 
+so many stars in the galaxy, and so many alien civilizations, then why 
+don’t they visit us? This is the Fermi paradox, named for Enrico Fermi, 
+the Nobel laureate who helped build the atomic bomb and unlocked the 
+secrets of the nucleus of the atom. 
+
+Many theories have been proposed. For one, the distance between 
+stars might be too great. It would take about seventy thousand years for 
+our most powerful chemical rockets to reach the stars nearest to Earth. 
+Perhaps a civilization thousands to millions of years more advanced than 
+ours may solve this problem, but there’s another possibility. Maybe they 
+annihilated themselves in a nuclear war. As John F. Kennedy once said, 
+“I am sorry to say there is too much point to the wisecrack that life is 
+extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced 
+than ours.”"
+"But perhaps the most logical reason is this: Imagine walking down a 
+country road and encountering an ant hill. Do we go down to the ants 
+
+and say, “I bring you trinkets. I bring you beads. I give you nuclear 
+energy. I will create an ant paradise for you. Take me to your leader”? 
+
+Probably not. 
+
+Now imagine that workers are building an eight-lane superhighway 
+next to the anthill. Would the ants know what frequency the workers are 
+talking on? Would they even know what an eight-lane superhighway 
+was? In the same fashion, any intelligent civilization that can reach 
+Earth from the stars would be thousands of years to millions of years 
+ahead of us, and we may have nothing to offer them. In other words, we 
+are arrogant to believe that aliens will travel trillions upon trillions of 
+miles just to see us. 
+
+More than likely, we are not on their radar screen. Ironically, the 
+galaxy could be teaming with intelligent life-forms and we are so 
+primitive that we are oblivious of them. 
+
+FIRST CONTACT"
+"FIRST CONTACT 
+
+But assume for the moment that the time will come, perhaps sooner 
+rather than later, when we make contact with an alien civilization. This 
+moment could be a turning point in the history of humanity. So the next 
+questions are: What do they want, and what will their consciousness be 
+like? 
+
+In the movies and in science-fiction novels, the aliens often want to 
+eat us, conquer us, mate with us, enslave us, or strip our planet of 
+valuable resources. But all this is highly improbable. 
+
+Our first contact with an alien civilization will probably not begin 
+with a flying saucer landing on the White House lawn. More likely, it 
+will happen when some teenager, running a screen saver from the 
+SETI@home project, announces that his or her PC has decoded signals 
+from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. Or perhaps when the 
+SETI project at Hat Creek detects a message that indicates intelligence."
+"Our first encounter will therefore be a one-way event. We will be able 
+to eavesdrop on intelligent messages, but a return message may take 
+decades or centuries to reach them. 
+
+The conversations that we hear on the radio may give us valuable 
+insight into this alien civilization. But most of the message will likely be 
+
+gossip, entertainment, music, etc., with little scientific content. 
+
+Then I asked Dr. Shostak the next key question: Will you keep it a 
+secret once First Contact is made? After all, won’t it cause mass panic, 
+religious hysteria, chaos, and spontaneous evacuations? I was a bit 
+surprised when he said no. They would give all the data to the 
+governments of the world and to the people. 
+
+The next questions are: What will they be like? How do they think? 
+
+To understand alien consciousness, perhaps it is instructive to analyze 
+another consciousness that is quite alien to us, the consciousness of 
+animals. We live with them, yet we are totally ignorant of what goes on 
+in their minds."
+"Understanding animal consciousness, in turn, may help us understand 
+alien consciousness. 
+
+ANIMAL CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+Do animals think? And if so, what do they think about? This question 
+has perplexed the greatest minds in history for thousands of years. The 
+Greek writers and historians Plutarch and Pliny both wrote about a 
+famous question that remains unsolved even today. Over the centuries, 
+many solutions have been given by the giants of philosophy. 
+
+A dog is traveling down a road, looking for its master, when it 
+encounters a fork that branches in three directions. The dog first takes 
+the left path, sniffs around, and then returns, knowing that his master 
+has not taken that road. Then it takes the right path, sniffs, and realizes 
+that his master has not taken this road either. But this time, the dog 
+triumphantly takes the middle road, without sniffing."
+"What was going on in the dog’s mind? Some of the greatest 
+philosophers have tackled this question, to no avail. The French 
+philosopher and essayist Michel de Montaigne wrote that the dog 
+obviously concluded that the only possible solution was to take the 
+middle road, a conclusion showing that dogs are capable of abstract 
+thought. 
+
+But St. Thomas Aquinas, arguing in the thirteenth century, said the 
+opposite—that the appearance of abstract thought is not the same thing 
+as genuine thinking. We can be fooled by superficial appearances of 
+
+intelligence, he claimed. 
+
+Centuries later, there was also a famous exchange between John Locke 
+and George Berkeley about animal consciousness. “Beasts abstract not,” 
+proclaimed Locke flatly. To which Bishop Berkeley responded, “If the 
+fact that brutes abstract not be made the distinguishing property of that 
+sort of animal, I fear a great many of those that pass for man must be 
+reckoned into their number.”"
+"Philosophers down the ages have tried to analyze this question in the 
+same manner: by imposing human consciousness on the dog. This is the 
+mistake of anthropomorphism, or assuming that animals think and 
+behave like us. But perhaps the real solution might be to look at this 
+question from the dog’s point of view, which could be quite alien. 
+
+In Chapter 2, I gave a definition of consciousness in which animals 
+were part of a continuum of consciousness. Animals can differ from us in 
+the parameters they use to create a model of the world. Dr. David 
+Eagleman says that psychologists call this “umwelt,” or the reality 
+perceived by other animals. He notes, “In the blind and deaf world of the 
+tick, the important signals are temperature and the odor of butyric acid. 
+For the black ghost knifefish, it’s electrical fields. For the echo locating 
+bat, air-compressed waves. Each organism inhabits its own umwelt, 
+
+which it presumably assumes to be the entire objective reality ‘out 
+there.’ ”"
+"which it presumably assumes to be the entire objective reality ‘out 
+there.’ ” 
+
+Consider the brain of a dog, which is constantly living in a swirl of 
+odors, by which it hunts for food or locates a mate. From these smells, 
+the dog then constructs a mental map of what exists in its surroundings. 
+This map of smells is totally different from the one we get from our eyes 
+and conveys an entirely different set of information. (Recall from 
+Chapter 1 that Dr. Penfield constructed a map of the cerebral cortex, 
+showing the distorted self-image of the body. Now imagine a Penfield 
+diagram of a dog’s brain. Most of it would be devoted to its nose, not its 
+fingers. Animals would have a totally different Penfield diagram. Aliens 
+in space would likely have an even stranger Penfield diagram.)"
+"Unfortunately, we tend to assign human consciousness to animals, 
+even though animals may have a totally different world outlook. For 
+example, when a dog faithfully follows its master’s orders, we 
+subconsciously assume that the dog is man’s best friend because he likes 
+us and respects us. But since the dog is descended from Cards lupus (the 
+
+gray wolf), which hunts in packs with a rigid pecking order, more than 
+likely the dog sees you as some sort of alpha male, or the leader of the 
+pack. You are, in some sense, the Top Dog. (This is probably one reason 
+why puppies are much easier to train than older dogs; it is likely easier 
+to imprint one’s presence on a puppy’s brain, while more mature dogs 
+realize that humans are not part of their pack.)"
+"Also, when a cat enters a new room and urinates all over the carpet, 
+we assume that the cat is angry or nervous, and we try to find out the 
+reason why the cat is upset. But perhaps the cat is simply marking its 
+territory with the smell of its urine to ward off other cats. So the cat is 
+not upset at all; it’s simply warning other cats to stay out of the house, 
+because the house belongs to it. 
+
+And if the cat purrs and rubs itself against your legs, we assume that it 
+is grateful to you for taking care of it, that this is a sign of warmth and 
+affection. More than likely, the cat is rubbing its hormone onto you to 
+claim ownership of its possession (i.e., you), to ward off other cats. In 
+the cat’s viewpoint, you are a servant of some sort, trained to give it 
+food several times a day, and rubbing its scent on you warns other cats 
+to stay away from this servant."
+"As the sixteenth-century philosopher Michel de Montaigne once wrote, 
+“When I play with my cat, how do I know that she is not playing with 
+me rather than I with her?” 
+
+And if the cat then stalks off to be alone, it is not necessarily a sign of 
+anger or aloofness. The cat is descended from the wildcat, which is a 
+
+solitary hunter, unlike the dog. There is no alpha male to slobber over, 
+as in the case of the dog. The proliferation of various “animal whisperer” 
+programs on TV is probably a sign of the problems we encounter when 
+we force human consciousness and intentions onto animals."
+"A bat would also have a much different consciousness, which would 
+be dominated by sounds. Almost blind, the bat requires constant 
+feedback from tiny squeaks it makes, which allow it to locate insects, 
+obstacles, and other bats via sonar. The Penfield map of its brain would 
+be quite alien to us, with a huge portion devoted to its ears. Similarly, 
+dolphins have a different consciousness than humans, which is also 
+based on sonar. Because dolphins have a smaller frontal cortex, it was 
+once thought that they were not so intelligent, but the dolphin 
+compensates for this by having a larger brain mass. If you unfold the 
+
+neocortex of the dolphin brain, it would cover six magazine pages, while 
+if you unfold the neocortex of a human, it would measure only four 
+magazine pages. Dolphins also have very well-developed parietal and 
+temporal cortices to analyze sonar signals in the water and are one of 
+the few animals that can recognize themselves in a mirror, probably 
+because of this fact."
+"In addition, the dolphin brain is actually structured differently from 
+humans’ because dolphin and human lineages diverged about ninety-five 
+million years ago. Dolphins have no need for a nose, so their olfactory 
+bulb disappears soon after birth. But thirty million years ago, their 
+auditory cortex exploded in size because dolphins learned to use 
+echolocation, or sonar, to find food. Like bats’, their world must be one 
+of whirling echoes and vibrations. Compared to humans, dolphins have 
+an extra lobe in their limbic system, called the “paralimbic” region, 
+which probably helps them forge strong social relations."
+"Meanwhile, dolphins also have a language that is intelligent. I once 
+swam in a pool of dolphins for a TV special for the Science Channel. I 
+put sonar sensors in the pool that could pick up the clicks and whistles 
+used by dolphins to talk to one another. These signals were recorded and 
+then analyzed by computer. There is a simple way to discern if there is 
+an intelligence lurking among this random set of squeals and chirps. In 
+the English language, for example, the letter e is the most commonly 
+used letter of the alphabet. In fact, we can create a list of all the letters 
+of the alphabet and how frequently they occur. No matter what book in 
+English we analyze by computer, it will roughly obey the same list of 
+commonly found letters of the alphabet. 
+
+Similarly, this computer program can be used to analyze the dolphins’ 
+language. Sure enough, we find a similar pattern indicating intelligence. 
+However, as we go to other mammals, the pattern begins to break down,"
+"and it finally collapses completely as we approach lower animals with 
+small brain sizes. Then the signals become nearly random. 
+
+INTELLIGENT BEES? 
+
+To get a sense of what alien consciousness might be like, consider the 
+strategies adopted by nature to reproduce life on Earth. There are two 
+
+basic reproductive strategies nature has taken, with profound 
+implications for evolution and consciousness. 
+
+The first, the strategy used by mammals, is to produce a small number 
+of young offspring and then carefully nurse each one to maturity. This is 
+a risky strategy, because only a few progeny are produced in each 
+generation, so it assumes that nurturing will even out the odds. This 
+means that every life is cherished and carefully nurtured for a length of 
+time."
+"But there is another, much older strategy that is used by much of the 
+plant and animal kingdom, including insects, reptiles, and most other 
+life-forms on Earth. This involves creating a large number of eggs or 
+seeds and then letting them fend for themselves. Without nurturing, 
+most of the offspring never survive, so only a few hardy individuals will 
+make it into the next generation. This means that the energy invested in 
+each generation by the parents is nil, and reproduction relies on the law 
+of averages to propagate the species."
+"These two strategies produce startlingly different attitudes toward life 
+and intelligence. The first strategy treasures each and every individual. 
+Love, nurturing, affection, and attachment are at a premium in this 
+group. This reproductive strategy can work only if the parents invest a 
+considerable amount of precious energy to preserve their young. The 
+second strategy, however, does not treasure the individual at all, but 
+rather emphasizes the survival of the species or group as a whole. To 
+them, individuality means nothing."
+"Furthermore, reproductive strategy has profound implications for the 
+evolution of intelligence. When two ants meet each other, for example, 
+they exchange a limited amount of information using chemical scents 
+and gestures. Although the information shared by two ants is minimal, 
+with this information they are capable of creating elaborate tunnels and 
+chambers necessary to build an anthill. Similarly, although honeybees 
+communicate with one another by performing a dance, they can 
+collectively create complex honeycombs and locate distant flower beds. 
+So their intelligence arises not so much from the individual, but from the 
+
+holistic interaction of the entire colony and from their genes. 
+
+So consider an intelligent extraterrestrial civilization based on the 
+second strategy, such as an intelligent race of honeybees. In this society, 
+the worker bees that fly out each day in search of pollen are expendable."
+"Worker bees do not reproduce at all, but instead live for one purpose, to 
+serve the hive and the queen, for which they willingly sacrifice 
+themselves. The bonds that link mammals together mean nothing to 
+them. 
+
+Hypothetically, this might affect the development of their space 
+program. Since we treasure the life of every astronaut, considerable 
+resources are devoted to bringing them back alive. Much of the cost of 
+space travel goes into life support so the astronauts can make the return 
+voyage home and reenter the atmosphere. But for a civilization of 
+intelligent honeybees, each worker’s life may not be worth that much, so 
+their space program would cost considerably less. Their workers would 
+not have to come back. Every voyage might be a one-way trip, and that 
+would represent significant savings."
+"Now imagine if we were to encounter an alien from space that was 
+actually similar to a honeybee worker. Normally, if we encounter a 
+honeybee in the forest, chances are it will completely ignore us, unless 
+we threaten it or the hive. It’s as if we did not exist. Similarly, this 
+worker would most likely not have the slightest interest in making 
+contact with us or sharing its knowledge. It would go on with its primary 
+mission and ignore us. Moreover, the values that we cherish would mean 
+little to it. 
+
+Back in the 1970s, there were two medallions put aboard the Pioneer 
+10 and 11 probes, containing crucial information about our world and 
+society. The medallions exalted the diversity and richness of life on 
+Earth. Scientists back then assumed that alien civilizations in space 
+would be like us, curious and interested in making contact. But if such 
+an alien worker bee were to find our medallion, chances are that it 
+would mean nothing to it."
+"Furthermore, each worker need not be very intelligent. They need to 
+be only intelligent enough to serve the interest of the hive. So if we were 
+to send a message to a planet of intelligent bees, chances are that they 
+would show little interest in sending a message back. 
+
+Even if contact could be made with such a civilization, it might be 
+difficult communicating with them. For example, when we communicate 
+with one another, we break ideas down into sentences, with a subject- 
+verb structure, in order to build a narrative, often a personal story. Most 
+
+of our sentences have the following structure: “I did this” or “They did 
+
+that.” In fact, most of our literature and conversations use storytelling, 
+often involving experiences and adventures that we or our role models 
+have had. This presupposes that our personal experiences are the 
+dominant way to convey information."
+"However, a civilization based on intelligent honeybees may not have 
+the least interest in personal narratives and storytelling. Being highly 
+collective, their messages may not be personal, but matter-of-fact, 
+containing vital information necessary for the hive rather than personal 
+trivia and gossip that might advance an individual’s social position. In 
+fact, they might find our storytelling language to be a bit repulsive, since 
+it puts the role of the individual before the needs of the collective. 
+
+Also, worker bees would have a totally different sense of time. Since 
+worker bees are expendable, they might not have a long life span. They 
+might only take on projects that are short and well defined."
+"However, humans live much longer, but we also have a tacit sense of 
+time; we take on projects and occupations that we can reasonably see to 
+the end within our lifetimes. We subconsciously pace our projects, our 
+relations with others, and our goals to accommodate a finite life span. In 
+other words, we live our lives in distinct phases: being single, married, 
+raising children, and eventually retiring. Often without being conscious 
+of it, we assume that we will live and eventually die within a finite time 
+frame."
+"But imagine beings that can live for thousands of years, or are perhaps 
+immortal. Their priorities, their goals, and their ambitions would be 
+completely different. They could take on projects that would normally 
+require scores of human lifetimes. Interstellar travel is often dismissed as 
+pure science fiction because, as we have seen, the time it takes for a 
+conventional rocket to reach nearby stars is roughly seventy thousand 
+years. For us, this is prohibitively long. But for an alien life-form, that 
+time may be totally irrelevant. For example, they might be able to 
+hibernate, slow down their metabolism, or simply live for an indefinite 
+amount of time. 
+
+WHAT DO THEY LOOK LIKE? 
+
+Our first translations of these alien messages will probably give us some"
+"Our first translations of these alien messages will probably give us some 
+
+insight into the aliens’ culture and way of life. For example, it is likely 
+that the aliens will have evolved from predators and hence still share 
+some of their characteristics. (In general, predators on Earth are smarter 
+than prey. Hunters like tigers, lions, cats, and dogs use their cunning to 
+stalk, ambush, and hide, all of which require intelligence. All these 
+predators have eyes on the front of the face, for stereo vision as they 
+focus their attention. Prey, which have eyes to the sides of the face to 
+spot a predator, have only to run. That is why we say “sly as a fox” and 
+“dumb bunny.”) The alien life-forms may have outgrown many of the 
+predator instincts of their distant ancestors, but it is likely that they will 
+still have some of a predator’s consciousness (i.e., territoriality, 
+expansion, and violence when necessary)."
+"If we examine the human race, we see that there were at least three 
+basic ingredients that set the stage for our becoming intelligent: 
+
+1 . the opposable thumb, which gives us the ability to manipulate and 
+
+reshape our environment via tools 
+
+2. stereo eyes or the 3-D eyes of a hunter 
+
+3. language, which allows us to accumulate knowledge, culture, and 
+
+wisdom across generations 
+
+When we compare these three ingredients with the traits found in the 
+animal kingdom, we see that very few animals meet these criteria for 
+intelligence. Cats and dogs, for example, do not have grasping ability or 
+a complex language. Octopi have sophisticated tentacles, but they don’t 
+see well and don’t have a complex language."
+"There may be variations of these three criteria. Instead of an 
+opposable thumb, an alien might have claws or tentacles. (The only 
+prerequisite is that they should be able to manipulate their environment 
+with tools created by these appendages.) Instead of having two eyes, 
+they may have many more, like insects. Or they may have sensors that 
+detect sound or UV light rather than visible light. More than likely, they 
+will have the stereo eyes of a hunter, because predators generally have a 
+higher level of intelligence than prey. Also, instead of a language based 
+on sounds, they may communicate via different forms of vibrations. (The 
+only requirement is that they exchange information among themselves to 
+
+create a culture spanning many generations.) 
+
+But beyond these three criteria, anything goes."
+"Next, the aliens may have a consciousness colored by their 
+environment. Astronomers now realize that the most plentiful habitat for 
+life in the universe may not be earthlike planets, where they can bask in 
+the warm sunlight of the mother star, but on icy-cold satellites orbiting 
+Jupiter-size planets billions of miles from the star. It is widely believed 
+that Europa, an ice-covered moon of Jupiter, has a liquid ocean beneath 
+the icy surface, heated by tidal forces. Because Europa tumbles as it 
+orbits Jupiter, it is squeezed in different directions by the huge 
+gravitational pull of Jupiter, which causes friction deep inside the moon. 
+This generates heat, forming volcanoes and ocean vents that melt the ice 
+and create liquid oceans. It is estimated that the oceans of Europa are 
+quite deep, and that their volume may be many times the volume of the 
+oceans of Earth. Since 50 percent of all stars in the heavens may have 
+Jupiter-size planets (a hundred times more plentiful than earthlike"
+"Jupiter-size planets (a hundred times more plentiful than earthlike 
+planets), the most plentiful form of life may be on the icy moons of gas 
+giants like Jupiter."
+"Therefore, when we encounter our first alien civilization in space, 
+more than likely it will have an aquatic origin. (Also, it is likely that 
+they will have migrated from the ocean and learned to live on the icy 
+surface of their moon away from the water, for several reasons. First, 
+any species that lives perpetually under the ice will have a quite limited 
+view of the universe. They will never develop astronomy or a space 
+program if they think that the universe is just the ocean underneath the 
+ice cover. Second, because water short-circuits electrical components, 
+they will never develop radio or TV if they stay underwater. If this 
+civilization is to advance, it must master electronics, which cannot exist 
+in the oceans. So, most likely, these aliens will have learned to leave the 
+oceans and survive on the land, as we did.)"
+"But what happens if this life-form evolves to create a space-faring 
+civilization, capable of reaching Earth? Will they still be biological 
+organisms like us, or will they be post-biological? 
+
+THE POST-BIOLOGICAL ERA 
+
+One person who has spent considerable time thinking about these 
+questions is my colleague Dr. Paul Davies of Arizona State University, 
+near Phoenix. When I interviewed him, he told me that we have to 
+expand our own horizon to contemplate what a civilization that is 
+thousands or more years ahead of us may look like. 
+
+Given the dangers of space travel, he believes that such beings will 
+have abandoned their biological form, much like the bodiless minds we 
+considered in the previous chapter. He writes, “My conclusion is a 
+startling one. I think it very likely—in fact inevitable—that biological"
+"intelligence is only a transitory phenomenon, a fleeting phase in the 
+evolution of intelligence in the universe. If we ever encounter 
+extraterrestrial intelligence, I believe it is overwhelmingly likely to be 
+post-biological in nature, a conclusion that has obvious and far-reaching 
+ramifications for SETI.” 
+
+In fact, if the aliens are thousands of years ahead of us, chances are 
+that they have abandoned their biological bodies eons ago to create the 
+most efficient computational body: a planet whose entire surface is 
+completely covered with computers. Dr. Davies says, “It isn’t hard to 
+envision the entire surface of a planet being covered with a single 
+integrated processing system.... Ray Bradbury has coined the term 
+‘Matrioshka brains’ for these awesome entities.”"
+"So to Dr. Davies, alien consciousness may lose the concept of “self” 
+and be absorbed into the collective World Wide Web of Minds, which 
+blankets the entire surface of the planet. Dr. Davies adds, “A powerful 
+computer network with no sense of self would have an enormous 
+advantage over human intelligence because it could redesign ‘itself,’ 
+fearlessly make changes, merge with whole systems, and grow. ‘Feeling 
+personal’ about it would be a distinct impediment to progress.” 
+
+So in the name of efficiency and increased computational ability, he 
+envisions members of this advanced civilization giving up their identity 
+and being absorbed into a collective consciousness. 
+
+Dr. Davies acknowledges that critics of his idea may find this concept 
+rather repulsive. It appears as if this alien species is sacrificing 
+individuality and creativity to the greater good of the collective or the 
+hive. This is not inevitable, he cautions, but it is the most efficient 
+option for civilization."
+"Dr. Davies also has a conjecture that he admits is rather depressing. 
+
+When I asked him why these civilizations don’t visit us, he gave me a 
+strange answer. He said that any civilization that advanced would also 
+have developed virtual realities far more interesting and challenging 
+than reality. The virtual reality of today would be a children’s toy 
+compared to the virtual reality of a civilization thousands of years more 
+advanced than us. 
+
+This means that perhaps their finest minds might have decided to play 
+out imaginary lives in different virtual worlds. It’s a discouraging 
+thought, he admitted, but certainly a possibility. In fact, it might even be 
+a warning for us as we perfect virtual reality. 
+
+WHAT DO THEY WANT?"
+"WHAT DO THEY WANT? 
+
+In the movie The Matrix, the machines take over and put humans into 
+pods, where they exploit us as batteries to energize themselves. That is 
+why they keep us alive. But since a single electrical plant produces more 
+power than the bodies of millions of humans, any alien looking for an 
+energy source would quickly see there is no need for human batteries. 
+(This seems to be lost on the machine overlords in the Matrix, but 
+hopefully aliens would see reason.)"
+"Another possibility is that they might want to eat us. This was 
+explored in an episode of The Twilight Zone, in which aliens land on 
+Earth and promise us the benefits of their advanced technology. They 
+even ask for volunteers to visit their beautiful home planet. The aliens 
+accidentally leave behind a book, called To Serve Man, which scientists 
+anxiously try to decipher in order to discover what wonders the aliens 
+will share with us. Instead, the scientists find out that the book is 
+actually a cookbook. (But since we will be made of entirely different 
+DNA and proteins from theirs, we could be difficult for their digestive 
+tracts to process.)"
+"Another possibility is that the aliens will want to strip Earth of 
+resources and valuable minerals. There may be some truth to this 
+argument, but if the aliens are advanced enough to travel effortlessly 
+from the stars, then there are plenty of uninhabited planets to plunder 
+for resources, without having to worry about restive natives. From their 
+point of view, it would be a waste of time to try to colonize an inhabited 
+
+planet when there are easy alternatives."
+"planet when there are easy alternatives. 
+
+So if the aliens do not want to enslave us or plunder our resources, 
+then what danger do they pose? Think of deer in a forest. Whom should 
+they fear the most—the ferocious hunter armed with a shotgun, or the 
+mild-mannered developer armed with a blueprint? Although the hunter 
+may scare the deer, only a few deer are threatened by him. More 
+dangerous to the deer is the developer, because the deer are not even on 
+his radar screen. The developer may not even think about the deer at all, 
+concentrating instead on developing the forest into usable property. In 
+view of this, what would an invasion actually look like?"
+"In Hollywood movies, there is one glaring flaw: the aliens are only a 
+century or so ahead of us, so we can usually devise a secret weapon or 
+exploit a simple weakness in their armor to fight them off, as in Earth vs. 
+the Flying Saucers. But as SETI director Dr. Seth Shostak once told me, a 
+battle with an advanced alien civilization will be like a battle between 
+Bambi and Godzilla. 
+
+In reality, the aliens might be millennia to millions of years ahead of 
+us in their weaponry. So, for the most part, there will be little we can do 
+to defend ourselves. But perhaps we can learn from the barbarians who 
+defeated the greatest military empire of its time, the Roman Empire. 
+
+The Romans were masters of engineering, able to create weapons that 
+could flatten barbarian villages and roads to supply distant military 
+outposts of a vast empire. The barbarians, who were barely emerging 
+from a nomadic existence, had little chance when encountering the 
+juggernaut of the Roman Imperial Army."
+"But history records that as the empire expanded, it was spread too 
+thin, with too many battles to fight, too many treaties bogging it down, 
+and not enough of an economy to support all this, especially with a 
+gradual decline in population. Moreover, the empire, always short on 
+recruits, had to enlist young barbarian soldiers and promote them to 
+leadership positions. Inevitably, the superior technology of the empire 
+began to filter down to the barbarians as well. In time, the barbarians 
+began to master the very military technologies that at first had 
+conquered them. 
+
+Toward the end, the empire, weakened by internal palace intrigues, 
+severe crop shortages, civil wars, and an overstretched army, faced 
+barbarians who were able to fight the Roman Imperial Army to a 
+
+standstill. The sacking of Rome in A.D. 410 and 455 paved the way for 
+the empire’s ultimate fall in A.D. 476."
+"In the same way, it is likely that earthlings will initially offer no real 
+threat to an alien invasion, but over time earthlings could learn the weak 
+points of the alien army, its power supplies, its command centers, and 
+most of all its weaponry. In order to control the human population, the 
+aliens will have to recruit collaborators and promote them. This will 
+result in a diffusion of their technology to the humans. 
+
+Then a ragtag army of earthlings might be able to mount a 
+counterattack. In Eastern military strategy, like the classic teachings of 
+Sun Tzu in The Art of War, there is a way to defeat even a superior army. 
+You first allow it to enter your territory. Once it has entered unfamiliar 
+land and its ranks are diffused, you can counterattack where they are 
+weakest."
+"Another technique is to use the enemy’s strength against it. In judo, 
+the principal strategy is to turn the momentum of the attacker to your 
+advantage. You let the enemy attack, and then trip them or throw them 
+off guard, exploiting the enemy’s own mass and energy. The bigger they 
+
+are, the harder they fall. In the same way, perhaps the only way to fight 
+a superior alien army is to allow it to invade your territory, learn its 
+weaponry and military secrets, and turn those very weapons and secrets 
+against it. 
+
+So a superior alien army cannot be defeated head-on. But it will 
+withdraw if it cannot win and the cost of a stalemate is too high. Success 
+means depriving the enemy of a victory."
+"But more than likely, I believe the aliens will be benevolent and, for 
+the most part, ignore us. We simply have nothing to offer them. If they 
+visit us, then it will be mainly out of curiosity or for reconnaissance. 
+(Since curiosity was an essential feature in our becoming intelligent, it is 
+likely that any alien species will be curious, and hence want to analyze 
+us, but not necessarily to make contact.) 
+
+MEETING AN ALIEN ASTRONAUT 
+
+Unlike in the movies, we will probably not meet the flesh-and-blood 
+alien creatures themselves. It would simply be too dangerous and 
+
+unnecessary. In the same way that we sent the Mars Rover to explore, 
+aliens will more than likely send organic/mechanical surrogates or 
+avatars instead, which can better handle the stresses of interstellar 
+travel. In this way, the “aliens” we meet on the White House lawn may 
+look nothing like their masters back on the home planet. Instead, the 
+masters will project their consciousness into space through proxies."
+"More than likely, though, they will send a robotic probe to our moon, 
+which is geologically stable, with no erosion. These probes are self- 
+replicating; that is, they will create a factory and manufacture, say, a 
+thousand copies of themselves. (These are called von Neumann probes, 
+after mathematician John von Neumann, who laid the foundation for 
+digital computers. Von Neumann was the first mathematician to 
+seriously consider the problem of machines that could reproduce 
+themselves.) These second-generation probes are then launched to other 
+star systems, where each one in turn creates a thousand more third- 
+generation probes, making a total of a million. Then these probes fan out 
+and create more factories, making a billion probes. Starting with just one 
+probe, we have one thousand, then a million, then a billion. Within five 
+generations, we have a quadrillion probes. Soon we have a gigantic 
+sphere, expanding at near light speed, containing trillions upon trillions"
+"sphere, expanding at near light speed, containing trillions upon trillions 
+of probes, colonizing the entire galaxy within a few hundred thousand 
+years."
+"Dr. Davies takes this idea of self-replicating von Neumann probes so 
+seriously that he has actually applied for funding to search the surface of 
+the moon for evidence of a previous alien visitation. He wishes to scan 
+the moon for radio emissions or radiation anomalies that would indicate 
+evidence of an alien visitation, perhaps millions of years ago. He wrote a 
+paper with Dr. Robert Wagner in the scientific journal Acta Astronautica 
+calling for a close examination of the photos from the Lunar 
+Reconnaissance Orbiter down to a resolution of about 1.5 feet."
+"They wrote, “Although there is only a tiny probability that alien 
+technology would have left traces on the moon in the form of an artifact 
+or surface modification of lunar features, this location has the virtue of 
+being close,” and also traces of an alien technology would remain 
+preserved over long periods of time. Since there is no erosion on the 
+moon, treadmarks left by aliens would still be visible (in the same way 
+that footprints left by our astronauts in the 1970s could, in principle, last 
+
+for billions of years). 
+
+One problem is that the von Neumann probe might be very small. 
+Nanoprobes use molecular machines and MEMs, and hence it might be 
+only as big as a bread box, he said to me, or even smaller. (In fact, if 
+such a probe landed on Earth in someone’s backyard, the owner might 
+not even notice.)"
+"This method, however, represents the most efficient way of colonizing 
+the galaxy, using the exponential growth of self-replicating von 
+Neumann probes. (This is also the way in which a virus infects our body. 
+Starting with a handful of viruses, they land on our cells, hijack the 
+reproductive machinery, and convert our cells into factories to create 
+more viruses. Within two weeks, a single virus can infect trillions of 
+cells, and we eventually sneeze.)"
+"If this scenario is correct, it means that our own moon is the most 
+likely place for an alien visitation. This is also the basis of the movie 
+2001: A Space Odyssey, which even today represents the most plausible 
+encounter with an extraterrestrial civilization. In the movie, a probe was 
+placed on our moon millions of years ago, mainly to observe the 
+evolution of life on Earth. At times, it interferes in our evolution and 
+gives us an added boost. This information is then sent to Jupiter, which 
+is a relay station, before heading to the home planet of this ancient alien 
+civilization. 
+
+From the point of view of this advanced civilization, which can 
+simultaneously scan billions of star systems, we can see that they have a 
+considerable choice in what planetary systems to colonize. Given the 
+sheer enormity of the galaxy, they can collect data and then best choose 
+
+which planets or moons would yield the best resources. From their 
+perspective, they might not find Earth very appealing."
+"The empires of the future will be empires of the mind. 
+
+—WINSTON CHURCHILL 
+
+If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom 
+prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner. 
+
+—GENERAL OMAR BRADLEY 
+
+15 CONCLUDING REMARKS 
+
+In 2000, a raging controversy erupted in the scientific community. 
+One of the founders of Sun Computers, Bill Joy, wrote an inflammatory 
+article denouncing the mortal threat we face from advanced technology. 
+In an article in Wired magazine with the provocative title “The Future 
+Does Not Need Us,” he wrote, “Our most powerful 21st century 
+technologies—robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech—are 
+threatening to make humans an endangered species.” That incendiary 
+article questioned the very morality of hundreds of dedicated scientists 
+toiling in their labs on the cutting edge of science. He challenged the 
+very core of their research, stating that the benefits of these technologies 
+were vastly overshadowed by the enormous threats they posed to 
+humanity."
+"He described a macabre dystopia in which all our technologies 
+conspire to destroy civilization. Three of our key creations will 
+eventually turn on us, he warned: 
+
+• One day, bioengineered germs may escape from the laboratory and 
+wreak havoc on the world. Since you cannot recapture these life- 
+forms, they might proliferate wildly and unleash a fatal plague on 
+the planet worse than those of the Middle Ages. Biotechnology may 
+even alter human evolution, creating “several separate and unequal 
+species ... that would threaten the notion of equality that is the very 
+cornerstone of our democracy.” 
+
+• One day, nanobots may go berserk and spew out unlimited 
+quantities of “gray goo,” which will blanket Earth, smothering all 
+life. Since these nanobots “digest” ordinary matter and create new 
+forms of matter, malfunctioning nanobots could run amok and"
+"digest much of Earth. “Gray goo would surely be a depressing 
+ending to our human adventure on Earth, far worse than mere fire 
+or ice, and one that could stem from a simple laboratory accident. 
+
+Oops,” he wrote. 
+
+• One day, the robots will take over and replace humanity. They will 
+become so intelligent that they will simply push humanity aside. We 
+will be left as an evolutionary footnote. “The robots would in no 
+sense be our children.... On this path our humanity may well be 
+lost,” he wrote."
+"Joy claimed that the dangers unleashed by these three technologies 
+dwarfed the dangers posed by the atomic bomb in the 1940s. Back then, 
+Einstein warned of the power of nuclear technology to destroy 
+civilization: “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has 
+exceeded our humanity.” But the atomic bomb was built by a huge 
+government program that could be tightly regulated, while these 
+technologies are being developed by private companies that are lightly 
+regulated, if at all, Joy pointed out. 
+
+Sure, he conceded, these technologies may alleviate some suffering in 
+the short term. But in the long term, the benefits are overwhelmed by 
+the fact that they may unleash a scientific Armageddon that may doom 
+the human race."
+"Joy even accused scientists of being selfish and naive as they try to 
+create a better society. He wrote, “A traditional utopia is a good society 
+and a good life. A good life involves other people. This techno utopia is 
+all about ‘I don’t get diseases; I don’t die; I get to have better eyesight 
+and be smarter’ and all this. If you described this to Socrates or Plato, 
+they would laugh at you.” 
+
+He concluded by stating, “I think it is no exaggeration to say we are 
+on the cusp of the further perfection of extreme evil, an evil whose 
+possibility spreads well beyond that which weapons of mass destruction 
+bequeathed to the nation-states....” 
+
+The conclusion to all this? “Something like extinction,” he warned. 
+
+As expected, the article sparked a firestorm of controversy."
+"As expected, the article sparked a firestorm of controversy. 
+
+That article was written over a decade ago. In terms of high 
+technology, that is a lifetime. It is now possible to view certain of its 
+predictions with some hindsight. Looking back at the article and putting 
+his warnings into perspective, we can easily see that Bill Joy exaggerated 
+many of the threats coming from these technologies, but he also spurred 
+
+scientists to face up to the ethical, moral, and societal consequences of 
+
+their work, which is always a good thing. 
+
+And his article opened up a discussion about who we are. In 
+unraveling the molecular, genetic, and neural secrets of the brain, 
+haven’t we in some sense dehumanized humanity, reducing it to a 
+bucket of atoms and neurons? If we completely map every neuron of the 
+brain and trace every neural pathway, doesn’t that remove the mystery 
+and magic of who we are? 
+
+A RESPONSE TO BILL JOY"
+"A RESPONSE TO BILL JOY 
+
+In retrospect, the threats from robotics and nanotechnology are more 
+distant than Bill Joy thought, and I would argue that with enough 
+warning, we can take a variety of countermeasures, such as banning 
+certain avenues of research if they lead to uncontrollable robots, placing 
+chips in them to shut them off if they become dangerous, and creating 
+fail-safe devices to immobilize all of them in an emergency. 
+
+More immediate is the threat from biotechnology, where there is the 
+realistic danger of biogerms that might escape the laboratory. In fact, 
+Ray Kurzweil and Bill Joy jointly wrote an article criticizing the 
+publication of the complete genome of the 1918 Spanish flu virus, one of 
+the most lethal germs in modern history, which killed more people than 
+World War I. Scientists were able to reassemble the long-dead virus by 
+examining the corpses and blood of its victims and sequencing its genes, 
+and then they published it on the web."
+"Safeguards already exist against the release of such a dangerous virus, 
+but steps must be taken to further strengthen them and add new layers 
+of security. In particular, if a new virus suddenly erupts in some distant 
+place on Earth, scientists must strengthen rapid-response teams that can 
+isolate the virus in the wild, sequence its genes, and then quickly 
+prepare a vaccine to prevent its spread. 
+
+IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF THE MIND 
+
+This debate also has a direct impact on the future of the mind. At 
+present, neuroscience is still rather primitive. Scientists can read and 
+videotape simple thoughts from the living brain, record a few memories, 
+
+connect the brain to mechanical arms, enable locked-in patients to 
+control machines around them, silence specific regions of the brain via 
+magnetism, and identify the regions of the brain that malfunction in 
+mental illness."
+"In the coming decades, however, the power of neuroscience may 
+become explosive. Current research is on the threshold of new scientific 
+discoveries that will likely leave us breathless. One day, we might 
+routinely control objects around us with the power of the mind, 
+download memories, cure mental illness, enhance our intelligence, 
+understand the brain neuron by neuron, create backup copies of the 
+brain, and communicate with one another telepathically. The world of 
+the future will be the world of the mind."
+"Bill Joy did not dispute the potential of this technology to relieve 
+human suffering and pain. But what made him look on it with horror 
+was the prospect of enhanced individuals who might cause the human 
+species to split apart. In the article, he painted a dismal dystopia in 
+which only a tiny elite have their intelligence and mental processes 
+enhanced, while the masses of people live in ignorance and poverty. He 
+worried that the human race would fission in two, or perhaps cease to be 
+human at all. 
+
+But as we have pointed out, almost all technologies when they are first 
+introduced are expensive and hence exclusively for the well-off. Because 
+of mass production, the falling cost of computers, competition, and 
+cheaper shipping, technologies inevitably filter down to the poor as well. 
+This was also the trajectory taken by phonographs, radio, TV, PCs, 
+laptops, and cell phones."
+"Far from creating a world of haves and have-nots, science has been the 
+engine of prosperity. Of all the tools that humanity has harnessed since 
+the dawn of time, by far the most powerful and productive has been 
+science. The incredible wealth we see all around us is directly due to 
+science. To appreciate how technology reduces, rather than accentuates, 
+societal fault lines, consider the lives of our ancestors around 1900. Life 
+expectancy in the United States back then was forty-nine years. Many 
+children died in infancy. Communicating with a neighbor involved 
+yelling out the window. The mail was delivered by horse, if it came at 
+all. Medicine was largely snake oil. The only treatments that actually 
+worked were amputations (without anesthetics) and morphine to deaden 
+
+the pain. Food rotted within days. Plumbing was nonexistent. Disease 
+was a constant threat. And the economy could support only a handful of 
+the rich and a tiny middle class."
+"Technology has changed everything. We no longer have to hunt for 
+our food; we simply go to the supermarket. We no longer have to carry 
+back-breaking supplies but instead simply get into our cars. (In fact, the 
+main threat we face from technology, one that has killed millions of 
+people, is not murderous robots or mad nanobots run amok—it’s our 
+indulgent lifestyle, which has created near-epidemic levels of diabetes, 
+obesity, heart disease, cancer, etc. And this problem is self-inflicted.) 
+
+We also see this on the global level. In the last few decades the world 
+has witnessed hundreds of millions of people being lifted out of grinding 
+poverty for the first time in history. If we view the bigger picture, we see 
+that a significant fraction of the human race has left the punishing 
+lifestyle of sustenance farming and entered the ranks of the middle class."
+"It took several hundred years for Western nations to industrialize, yet 
+China and India are doing it within a few decades, all due to the spread 
+of high technology. With wireless technology and the Internet, these 
+nations can leapfrog past other, more developed nations that have 
+laboriously wired their cities. While the West struggles with an aging, 
+decaying urban infrastructure, developing nations are building entire 
+cities with sparkling, state-of-the-art technology."
+"(When I was a graduate student getting my Ph.D., my counterparts in 
+China and India would have to wait several months to a year for 
+scientific journals to come in the mail. Plus, they had almost no direct 
+contact with scientists and engineers in the West, because few if any 
+could afford to travel here. This vastly impeded the flow of technology, 
+which moved at a glacial pace for these nations. Today, however, 
+scientists can read one another’s papers as soon as they are posted on the 
+Internet, and can electronically collaborate with other scientists around 
+the world. This has vastly accelerated the flow of information. And with 
+this technology comes progress and prosperity.)"
+"Furthermore, it’s not clear that having some form of enhanced 
+intelligence will cause a catastrophic splitting of the human race, even if 
+many people are unable to afford this procedure. For the most part, 
+being able to solve complex mathematical equations or have perfect 
+recall does not guarantee a higher income, respect from your peers, or 
+
+more popularity with the opposite sex, which are the incentives that 
+motivate most people. The Caveman Principle trumps having a brain 
+boost. 
+
+As Dr. Michael Gazzaniga notes, “The idea that we are messin’ with 
+our innards is disturbing to many. And just what would we do with 
+expanded intelligence? Are we going to use it for solving problems, or 
+will it just allow us to have longer Christmas card lists ...?”"
+"But as we discussed in Chapter 5, unemployed workers may benefit 
+from this technology, drastically reducing the time required to master 
+new technologies and skills. This might not only reduce the problems 
+associated with unemployment, it could also have an impact on the 
+world economy, making it more efficient and responsive to change. 
+
+WISDOM AND DEMOCRATIC DEBATE 
+
+In responding to Joy’s article, some critics pointed out that the debate is 
+not about a struggle between scientists and nature, as portrayed in the 
+article. The debate is actually between three parties: scientists, nature, 
+and society."
+"Computer scientists Drs. John Brown and Paul Duguid responded to 
+the article by stating, “Technologies—such as gunpowder, the printing 
+press, the railroad, the telegraph, and the Internet—can change society 
+in profound ways. But on the other hand, social systems—in the form of 
+governments, the courts, formal and informal organizations, social 
+movements, professional networks, local communities, market 
+institutions, and so forth—shape, moderate, and redirect the raw power 
+of technologies.” 
+
+The point is to analyze them in terms of society, and ultimately it is up 
+to us to adopt a new vision of the future that incorporates all the best 
+ideas. 
+
+To me, the ultimate source of wisdom in this respect comes from 
+vigorous democratic debate. In the coming decades, the public will be 
+asked to vote on a number of crucial scientific issues. Technology cannot 
+be debated in a vacuum. 
+
+PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS"
+"PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS 
+
+Lastly, some critics have claimed that the march of science has gone too 
+far in unveiling the secrets of the mind, an unveiling that has become 
+dehumanizing and degrading. Why bother to rejoice at discovering 
+something new, learning a new skill, or enjoying a leisurely vacation 
+when it can all be reduced to a few neurotransmitters activating a few 
+neural circuits? 
+
+In other words, just as astronomy has reduced us to insignificant 
+pieces of cosmic dust floating in an uncaring universe, neuroscience has 
+reduced us to electrical signals circulating within neural circuits. But is 
+this really true?"
+"We began our discussion by highlighting the two greatest mysteries in 
+all of science: the mind and the universe. Not only do they have a 
+common history and narrative, they also share a similar philosophy and 
+perhaps even destiny. Science, with all its power to peer into the heart of 
+black holes and land on distant planets, has given birth to two 
+overarching philosophies about the mind and the universe: the 
+Copernican Principle and the Anthropic Principle. Both are consistent 
+with everything known about science, but they are diametrical 
+opposites. 
+
+The first great philosophy, the Copernican Principle, was born with 
+the discovery of the telescope more than four hundred years ago. It 
+states that there is no privileged position for humanity. Such a 
+deceptively simple idea has overthrown thousands of years of cherished 
+myths and entrenched philosophies."
+"Ever since the biblical tale of Adam and Eve being exiled from the 
+Garden of Eden for biting into the Apple of Knowledge, there has been a 
+series of humiliating dethronements. First, the telescope of Galileo 
+clearly showed that Earth was not the center of the solar system—the 
+sun was. This picture was then overthrown when it was realized that the 
+solar system was just a speck in the Milky Way galaxy circulating about 
+thirty thousand light-years from the center. Then in the 1920s, Edwin 
+Hubble discovered there was a multitude of galaxies. The universe 
+suddenly got billions of times bigger. Now the Hubble Space Telescope 
+can reveal the presence of up to one hundred billion galaxies in the 
+visible universe. Our own Milky Way galaxy has been reduced to a 
+pinpoint in a much larger cosmic arena. 
+
+More recent cosmological theories further downgrade the position of"
+"More recent cosmological theories further downgrade the position of 
+
+humanity in the universe. The inflationary universe theory states that 
+our visible universe, with its one hundred billion galaxies, is just a 
+pinprick on a much larger, inflated universe that is so big that most light 
+has not had time to reach us yet from distant regions. There are vast 
+reaches of space that we cannot see with our telescopes and will never 
+be able to visit because we cannot go faster than light. And if string 
+theory (my specialty) is correct, it means that even the entire universe 
+coexists with other universes in eleven-dimensional hyperspace. So even 
+three-dimensional space is not the final word. The true arena for 
+physical phenomena is the multiverse of universes, full of floating 
+bubble universes. 
+
+The science-fiction writer Douglas Adams tried to summarize the sense 
+of being constantly overthrown by inventing the Total Perspective 
+Vortex in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It was designed to drive"
+"any sane person insane. When you enter the chamber, all you see is a 
+gigantic map of the entire universe. And on the map there is a tiny, 
+almost invisible arrow that says, “You are here.” 
+
+So on one hand, the Copernican Principle indicates that we are just 
+insignificant cosmic debris drifting aimlessly among the stars. But on the 
+other hand, all the latest cosmological data are consistent with yet 
+another theory, which gives us the opposite philosophy: the Anthropic 
+Principle. 
+
+This theory states that the universe is compatible with life. Again, this 
+deceptively simple statement has profound implications. On one hand, it 
+is impossible to dispute that life exists in the universe. But it’s clear that 
+the forces of the universe must be calibrated to a remarkable degree to 
+make life possible. As physicist Freeman Dyson once said, “The universe 
+seemed to know that we were coming.”"
+"For example, if the nuclear force were just a bit stronger, the sun 
+would have burned out billions of years ago, too soon to allow DNA to 
+get off the ground. If the nuclear force were a bit weaker, then the sun 
+would never have ignited to begin with, and we still would not be here. 
+
+Likewise, if gravity were stronger, the universe would have collapsed 
+into a Big Crunch billions of years ago, and we would all be roasted to 
+death. If it were a bit weaker, then the universe would have expanded so 
+fast it would have reached the Big Freeze, so we would all have frozen to 
+death. 
+
+This fine-tuning extends to every atom of the body. Physics says that 
+we are made of star dust, that the atoms we see all around us were 
+forged in the heat of a star. We are literally children of the stars."
+"But the nuclear reactions that burned hydrogen to create the higher 
+elements of our body are very complex and could have been derailed at 
+any number of points. Then it would have been impossible to create the 
+higher elements of our bodies, and the atoms of DNA and life would not 
+exist. 
+
+In other words, life is precious and a miracle. 
+
+There are so many parameters that have to be fine-tuned that some 
+claim this is not a coincidence. The weak form of the Anthropic Principle 
+implies that the existence of life forces the physical parameters of the 
+universe to be defined in a very precise way. The strong form of the 
+Anthropic Principle goes even further, stating that God or some designer 
+had to create a universe “just right” to make life possible. 
+
+PHILOSOPHY AND NEUROSCIENCE"
+"PHILOSOPHY AND NEUROSCIENCE 
+
+The debate between the Copernican Principle and the Anthropic 
+Principle also resonates in neuroscience. For example, some claim that 
+humans can be reduced to atoms, molecules, and neurons, and hence 
+there is no distinguished place for humanity in the universe. 
+
+Dr. David Eagleman writes, “The you that all your friends know and 
+love cannot exist unless the transistors and screws of our brain are in 
+place. If you don’t believe this, step into any neurology ward in any 
+hospital. Damage to even small parts of the brain can lead to the loss of 
+shockingly specific abilities; the ability to name animals, or to hear 
+music, or to manage risky behavior, or to distinguish colors, or to 
+arbitrate simple decisions.” 
+
+It seems that the brain cannot function without all its “transistors and 
+screws.” He concludes, “Our reality depends on what our biology is up 
+to.”"
+"So on one hand, our place in the universe seems to be diminished if 
+we can be reduced, like robots, to (biological) nuts and bolts. We are just 
+wetware, running software called the mind, nothing more or less. Our 
+thoughts, desires, hopes, and aspirations can be reduced to electrical 
+
+impulses circulating in some region of the prefrontal cortex. That is the 
+Copernican Principle applied to the mind. 
+
+But the Anthropic Principle can also be applied to the mind, and we 
+then reach the opposite conclusion. It simply says that conditions of the 
+universe make consciousness possible, even though it is extraordinarily 
+difficult to create the mind out of random events. The great Victorian 
+biologist Thomas Huxley said, “How it is that anything so remarkable as 
+a state of consciousness comes about as a result of irritating nervous 
+tissue, is just as unaccountable as the appearance of the Djinn, when 
+Aladdin rubbed his lamp.”"
+"Furthermore, most astronomers believe that although one day we may 
+find life on other planets, it will most likely be microbial life, which 
+ruled our oceans for billions of years. Instead of seeing great cities and 
+empires, we might only find oceans of drifting microorganisms. 
+
+When I interviewed the late Harvard biologist Stephen Jay Gould 
+about this, he explained to me his thinking as follows. If we were to 
+somehow create a twin of Earth as it was 4.5 billion years ago, would it 
+turn out the same way 4.5 billion years later? Most likely not. There is a 
+
+large probability that DNA and life would never have gotten off the 
+ground, and an even larger probability that intelligent life with 
+consciousness would never have risen from the swamp."
+"Gould wrote, “Homo sapiens is one small twig [on the tree of life]. 
+... Yet our twig, for better or worse, has developed the most 
+extraordinary new quality in all the history of multicellular life since the 
+Cambrian explosion (500 million years ago). We have invented 
+consciousness with all its sequelae from Hamlet to Hiroshima.”"
+"In fact, in the history of Earth, there are many times when intelligent 
+life was almost extinguished. In addition to the mass extinctions that 
+wiped out the dinosaurs and most life on Earth, humans have faced 
+additional near extinctions. For example, humans are all genetically 
+related to one another to a considerable degree, much closer than two 
+typical animals of the same species. Although humans may look diverse 
+from the outside, our genes and internal chemistry tell a different story. 
+In fact, any two humans are so closely related genetically that we can 
+actually do the math and calculate when a “genetic Eve” or “genetic 
+Adam” gave birth to the entire human race. Moreover, we can calculate 
+how many of us there were in the past."
+"The numbers are remarkable. Genetics shows that there were only a 
+few hundred to a few thousand humans alive about seventy to one 
+hundred thousand years ago and that they gave birth to the entire 
+human race. (One theory holds that the titanic explosion of the Toba 
+volcano in Indonesia about seventy thousand years ago caused 
+temperatures to drop so dramatically that most of the human race 
+perished, leaving only a handful to populate Earth.) From that small 
+band of humans came the adventurers and explorers who would 
+eventually colonize the entire planet. 
+
+Repeatedly in the history of Earth, intelligent life might have come to 
+a dead end. It is a miracle we survived. We can also conclude that 
+although life may exist on other planets, conscious life may exist on only 
+a tiny fraction of them. So we should treasure the consciousness that is 
+found on Earth. It is the highest form of complexity known in the 
+universe, and probably also the rarest."
+"Sometimes, when contemplating the future destiny of the human race, 
+I have to come to grips with the distinct possibility of its self-destruction. 
+Although volcanic eruptions and earthquakes could spell doom for the 
+human race, our worst fears may be realized through man-made 
+disasters, such as nuclear wars or bioengineered germs. If so, then 
+perhaps the only conscious life-form in this sector of the Milky Way 
+galaxy might be extinguished. This, I feel, would be a tragedy not just 
+for us, but for the universe as well. We take for granted that we are 
+
+conscious, but we don’t understand the long, tortuous sequence of 
+biological events that have transpired to make this possible. Psychologist 
+Steven Pinker writes, “I would argue that nothing gives life more 
+purpose than the realization that every moment of consciousness is a 
+precious and fragile gift.” 
+
+THE MIRACLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"THE MIRACLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+Lastly, there is the criticism of science that says to understand something 
+is to remove its mystery and magic. Science, by lifting the veil 
+concealing the secrets of the mind, is also making it more ordinary and 
+mundane. However, the more I learn about the sheer complexity of the 
+brain, the more amazed I am that something that sits on our shoulders is 
+
+the most sophisticated object we know about in the universe. As Dr. 
+David Eagleman says, “What a perplexing masterpiece the brain is, and 
+how lucky we are to be in a generation that has the technology and the 
+will to turn our attention to it. It is the most wondrous thing we have 
+discovered in the universe, and it is us.” Instead of diminishing the sense 
+of wonder, learning about the brain only increases it. 
+
+More than two thousand years ago, Socrates said, “To know thyself is 
+the beginning of wisdom.” We are on a long journey to complete his 
+wishes. 
+
+APPENDIX 
+
+QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS?"
+"APPENDIX 
+
+QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS? 
+
+In spite of all the miraculous advances in brain scans and high 
+technology, some people claim that we will never understand the secret 
+of consciousness, since consciousness is beyond our puny technology. In 
+fact, in their view consciousness is more fundamental than atoms, 
+molecules, and neurons and determines the nature of reality itself. To 
+them, consciousness is the fundamental entity out of which the material 
+world is created. And to prove their point, they refer to one of the 
+greatest paradoxes in all of science, which challenges our very definition 
+of reality: the Schrodinger’s Cat paradox. Even today, there is no 
+universal consensus on the question, with Nobel laureates taking 
+divergent stances. What is at stake is nothing less than the nature of 
+reality and thought."
+"The Schrodinger’s Cat paradox cuts to the very foundation of quantum 
+mechanics, a field that makes lasers, MRI scans, radio and TV, modern 
+electronics, the GPS, and telecommunications possible, upon which the 
+world economy depends. Many of quantum theory’s predictions have 
+been tested to an accuracy of one part in one hundred billion. 
+
+I have spent my entire professional career working on the quantum 
+theory. Yet I realize that it has feet of clay. It’s an unsettling feeling 
+knowing my life’s work is based on a theory whose very foundation is 
+based on a paradox."
+"This debate was sparked by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger, who 
+was one of the founding fathers of the quantum theory. He was trying to 
+explain the strange behavior of electrons, which seemed to exhibit both 
+wave and particle properties. How can an electron, a point particle, have 
+two divergent behaviors? Sometimes electrons acted like a particle, 
+creating well-defined tracks in a cloud chamber. Other times, electrons 
+acted like a wave, passing through tiny holes and creating wavelike 
+interference patterns, like those on the surface of a pond. 
+
+In 1925, Schrodinger put forward his celebrated wave equation, which"
+"In 1925, Schrodinger put forward his celebrated wave equation, which 
+
+bears his name and is one of the most important equations ever written. 
+It was an instant sensation, and won him the Nobel Prize in 1933. The 
+Schrodinger equation accurately described the wavelike behavior of 
+electrons and, when applied to the hydrogen atom, explained its strange 
+properties. Miraculously, it could also be applied to any atom and 
+explain most of the features of the periodic table of elements. It seemed 
+as if all chemistry (and hence all biology) were nothing but solutions of 
+this wave equation. Some physicists even claimed that the entire 
+universe, including all the stars, planets, and even us, was nothing but a 
+solution of this equation. 
+
+But then physicists began to ask a problematic question that resonates 
+even today: If the electron is described by a wave equation, then what is 
+waving?"
+"In 1927, Werner Heisenberg proposed a new principle that split the 
+physics community down the middle. Heisenberg’s celebrated 
+uncertainty principle states that you cannot know both the location and 
+the momentum of an electron with certainty. This uncertainty was not a 
+function of how crude your instruments were but was inherent in 
+physics itself. Even God or some celestial being could not know the 
+precise location and momentum of an electron. 
+
+So the wave function of Schrodinger actually described the probability 
+of finding the electron. Scientists had spent thousands of years painfully 
+
+trying to eliminate chance and probabilities in their work, and now 
+Heisenberg was allowing it in through the back door. 
+
+The new philosophy can be summed up as follows: the electron is a 
+point particle, but the probability of finding it is given by a wave. And 
+this wave obeys Schrodinger’s equation and gives rise to the uncertainty 
+principle."
+"The physics community cracked in half. On one side, we had 
+physicists like Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and most atomic 
+physicists eagerly adopting this new formulation. Almost daily, they 
+were announcing new breakthroughs in understanding the properties of 
+matter. Nobel Prizes were being handed out to quantum physicists like 
+Oscars. Quantum mechanics was becoming a cookbook. You did not 
+need to be a master physicist to make stellar contributions—you just 
+followed the recipes given by quantum mechanics and you would make 
+stunning breakthroughs. 
+
+On the other side, we had aging Nobel laureates like Albert Einstein, 
+Erwin Schrodinger, and Louis de Broglie who were raising philosophical 
+objections. Schrodinger, whose work helped start this whole process, 
+grumbled that if he had known that his equation would introduce 
+probability into physics, he would never have created it in the first 
+place."
+"Physicists embarked on an eighty-year debate that continues even 
+today. On one hand, Einstein would proclaim that “God does not play 
+dice with the world.” Niels Bohr, on the other hand, reportedly replied, 
+“Stop telling God what to do.” 
+
+In 1935, to demolish the quantum physicists once and for all, 
+Schrodinger proposed his celebrated cat problem. Place a cat in a sealed 
+box, with a container of poison gas. In the box, there is a lump of 
+uranium. The uranium atom is unstable and emits particles that can be 
+detected by a Geiger counter. The counter triggers a hammer, which falls 
+and breaks the glass, releasing the gas, which can kill the cat."
+"How do you describe the cat? A quantum physicist would say that the 
+uranium atom is described by a wave, which can either decay or not 
+decay. Therefore you have to add the two waves together. If the uranium 
+fires, then the cat dies, so that is described by one wave. If the uranium 
+does not fire, then the cat lives, and that is also described by a wave. To 
+describe the cat, you therefore have to add the wave of a dead cat to the 
+wave of a live cat. 
+
+This means that the cat is neither dead nor alive! The cat is in a 
+netherworld, between life and death, the sum of the wave describing a 
+
+dead cat with the wave of a live cat. 
+
+This is the crux of the problem, which has reverberated in the halls of 
+physics for almost a century. So how do you resolve this paradox? There 
+are at least three ways (and hundreds of variations on these three)."
+"The first is the original Copenhagen interpretation proposed by Bohr 
+and Heisenberg, the one that is quoted in textbooks around the world. (It 
+is the one that I start with when I teach quantum mechanics.) It says that 
+to determine the state of the cat, you must open the box and make a 
+measurement. The cat’s wave (which was the sum of a dead cat and a 
+live cat) now “collapses” into a single wave, so the cat is now known to 
+be alive (or dead). Thus, observation determines the existence and state 
+of the cat. The measurement process is thus responsible for two waves 
+
+magically dissolving into a single wave."
+"magically dissolving into a single wave. 
+
+Einstein hated this. For centuries, scientists have battled something 
+called “solipsism” or “subjective idealism,” which claims that objects 
+cannot exist unless there is someone there to observe them. Only the 
+mind is real—the material world exists only as ideas in the mind. Thus, 
+say the solipsists (such as Bishop George Berkeley), if a tree falls in the 
+forest but no one is there to observe it, perhaps the tree never fell. 
+Einstein, who thought all this was pure nonsense, promoted an opposing 
+theory called “objective reality,” which says simply that the universe 
+exists in a unique, definite state independent of any human observation. 
+It is the commonsense view of most people."
+"Objective reality goes back to Isaac Newton. In this scenario, the atom 
+and subatomic particles are like tiny steel balls, which exist at definite 
+points in space and time. There is no ambiguity or chance in locating the 
+position of these balls, whose motions can be determined by using the 
+laws of motion. Objective reality was spectacularly successful in 
+describing the motions of planets, stars, and galaxies. Using relativity, 
+this idea can also describe black holes and the expanding universe. But 
+there is one place where it fails miserably, and that is inside the atom. 
+
+Classical physicists like Newton and Einstein thought that objective 
+reality finally banished solipsism from physics. Walter Lippmann, the 
+columnist, summed it up when he wrote, “The radical novelty of modern 
+science lies precisely in the rejection of the belief ... that the forces 
+which move the stars and atoms are contingent upon the preferences of 
+the human heart.”"
+"But quantum mechanics allowed a new form of solipsism back into 
+physics. In this picture, before it is observed, a tree can exist in any 
+possible state (e.g., sapling, burned, sawdust, toothpicks, decayed). But 
+
+when you look at it, the wave suddenly collapses and it looks like a tree. 
+The original solipsists talked about trees that either fell or didn’t. The 
+new quantum solipsists were introducing all possible states of a tree. 
+
+This was too much for Einstein. He would ask guests at his house, 
+“Does the moon exist because a mouse looks at it?” To a quantum 
+physicist, in some sense the answer might be yes. 
+
+Einstein and his colleagues would challenge Bohr by asking: How can 
+the quantum microworld (with cats being dead and alive 
+simultaneously) coexist with the commonsense world we see around us?"
+"The answer was that there is a “wall” that separates our world from the 
+atomic world. On one side of the wall, common sense rules. On the other 
+side of the wall, the quantum theory rules. You can move the wall if you 
+want and the results are still the same. 
+
+This interpretation, no matter how strange, has been taught for eighty 
+years by quantum physicists. More recently, there have been some 
+doubts cast on the Copenhagen interpretation. Today we have 
+nanotechnology, with which we can manipulate individual atoms at will. 
+On a scanning tunneling microscope screen, atoms appear to be fuzzy 
+tennis balls. (For BBC-TV, I had a chance to fly out to IBM’s Almaden 
+Lab in San Jose, California, and actually push individual atoms around 
+with a tiny probe. It is now possible to play with atoms, which were 
+once thought to be so small they could never be seen.)"
+"As we’ve discussed, the Age of Silicon is slowly coming to an end, and 
+some believe that molecular transistors will replace silicon transistors. If 
+so, then the paradoxes of the quantum theory may lie at the very heart 
+of every computer of the future. The world economy may eventually rest 
+on these paradoxes. 
+
+COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS AND MULTIPLE UNIVERSES 
+
+There are two alternate interpretations of the cat paradox, which take us 
+to the strangest realms in all science: the realm of God and multiple 
+universes. 
+
+In 1967, the second resolution to the cat problem was formulated by 
+Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner, whose work was pivotal in laying the 
+foundation of quantum mechanics and also building the atomic bomb. 
+He said that only a conscious person can make an observation that 
+collapses the wave function. But who is to say that this person exists? 
+You cannot separate the observer from the observed, so maybe this"
+"person is also dead and alive. In other words, there has to be a new 
+wave function that includes both the cat and the observer. To make sure 
+that the observer is alive, you need a second observer to watch the first 
+observer. This second observer is called “Wigner’s friend,” and is 
+necessary to watch the first observer so that all waves collapse. But how 
+do we know that the second observer is alive? The second observer has 
+
+to be included in a still-larger wave function to make sure he is alive, 
+but this can be continued indefinitely. Since you need an infinite number 
+of “friends” to collapse the previous wave function to make sure they are 
+alive, you need some form of “cosmic consciousness,” or God. 
+
+Wigner concluded: “It was not possible to formulate the laws (of 
+quantum theory) in a fully consistent way without reference to 
+consciousness.” Toward the end of his life, he even became interested in 
+the Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism."
+"In this approach, God or some eternal consciousness watches over all 
+of us, collapsing our wave functions so that we can say we are alive. This 
+interpretation yields the same physical results as the Copenhagen 
+interpretation, so this theory cannot be disproven. But the implication is 
+that consciousness is the fundamental entity in the universe, more 
+fundamental than atoms. The material world may come and go, but 
+consciousness remains as the defining element, which means that 
+consciousness, in some sense, creates reality. The very existence of the 
+atoms we see around us is based on our ability to see and touch them."
+"(At this point, it’s important to note that some people think that 
+because consciousness determines existence, then consciousness can 
+therefore control existence, perhaps by meditation. They think that we 
+can create reality according to our wishes. This thinking, as attractive as 
+it might sound, goes against quantum mechanics. In quantum physics, 
+consciousness makes observations and therefore determines the state of 
+reality, but consciousness cannot choose ahead of time which state of 
+reality actually exists. Quantum mechanics allows you only to determine 
+the chance of finding one state, but we cannot bend reality to our 
+wishes. For example, in gambling, it is possible to mathematically 
+calculate the chances of getting a royal flush. However, this does not 
+mean that you can somehow control the cards to get the royal flush. You 
+cannot pick and choose universes, just as we have no control over 
+whether the cat is dead or alive.) 
+
+MULTIPLE UNIVERSES"
+"MULTIPLE UNIVERSES 
+
+The third way to resolve the paradox is the Everett, or many-worlds, 
+
+interpretation, which was proposed in 1957 by Hugh Everett. It is the 
+
+strangest theory of all. It says that the universe is constantly splitting 
+apart into a multiverse of universes. In one universe, we have a dead cat. 
+In another universe, we have a live cat. This approach can be 
+summarized as follows: wave functions never collapse, they just split. 
+The Everett many-worlds theory differs from the Copenhagen 
+interpretation only in that it drops the final assumption: the collapse of 
+the wave function. In some sense, it is the simplest formulation of 
+quantum mechanics, but also the most disturbing. 
+
+There are profound consequences to this third approach. It means that 
+all possible universes might exist, even ones that are bizarre and 
+seemingly impossible. (However, the more bizarre the universe, the 
+more unlikely it is.)"
+"This means people who have died in our universe are still alive in 
+another universe. And these dead people insist that their universe is the 
+correct one, and that our universe (in which they are dead) is fake. But if 
+these “ghosts” of dead people are still alive somewhere, then why can’t 
+we meet them? Why can’t we touch these parallel worlds? (As strange as 
+it may seem, in this picture Elvis is still alive in one of these universes.)"
+"What’s more, some of these universes may be dead, without any life, 
+but others may look exactly like ours, except for one key difference. For 
+example, the collision of a single cosmic ray is a tiny quantum event. But 
+what happens if this cosmic ray goes through Adolf Hitler’s mother, and 
+the infant Hitler dies in a miscarriage? Then a tiny quantum event, the 
+collision of a single cosmic ray, causes the universe to split in half. In 
+one universe, World War II never happened, and sixty million people did 
+not have to die. In the other universe, we’ve had the ravages of World 
+War II. These two universes grow to be quite far apart, yet they are 
+initially separated by one tiny quantum event."
+"This phenomenon was explored by science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick 
+in his novel The Man in the High Tower, where a parallel universe opens 
+up because of a single event: a bullet is fired at Franklin Roosevelt, who 
+is killed by an assassin. This pivotal event means that the United States 
+is not prepared for World War II, and the Nazis and Japanese are 
+victorious and eventually partition the United States in half. 
+
+But whether the bullet fires or misfires depends, in turn, on whether a 
+microscopic spark is set off in the gunpowder, which itself depends on 
+complex molecular reactions involving the motions of electrons. So 
+
+perhaps quantum fluctuations in the gunpowder may determine whether 
+the gun fires or misfires, which in turn determines whether the Allies or 
+the Nazis emerge victorious during World War II."
+"So there is no “wall” separating the quantum world and the 
+macroworld. The bizarre features of the quantum theory can creep into 
+our “commonsense” world. These wave functions never collapse—they 
+keep splitting endlessly into parallel realities. The creation of alternative 
+universes never stops. The paradoxes of the microworld (i.e., being dead 
+and alive simultaneously, being in two places at the same time, 
+disappearing and reappearing somewhere else) now enter into our world 
+as well. 
+
+But if the wave function is continually splitting apart, creating entirely 
+new universes in the process, then why can’t we visit them?"
+"Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg compares this to listening to the radio 
+in your living room. There are hundreds of radio waves simultaneously 
+filling up your room from all over the world, but your radio dial is tuned 
+to only one frequency. In other words, your radio has “decohered” from 
+all the other stations. (Coherence is when all waves vibrate in perfect 
+unison, as in a laser beam. Decoherence is when these waves begin to 
+fall out of phase, so they no longer vibrate in unison.) These other 
+frequencies all exist, but your radio cannot pick them up because they 
+are not vibrating at the same frequency that we are anymore. They have 
+decoupled; that is, they have decohered from us."
+"In the same way, the wave function of the dead and alive cat have 
+decohered as time goes on. The implications are rather staggering. In 
+your living room, you coexist with the waves of dinosaurs, pirates, aliens 
+from space, and monsters. Yet you are blissfully unaware that you are 
+sharing the same space as these strange denizens of quantum space, 
+because your atoms are no longer vibrating in unison with them. These 
+parallel universes do not exist in some distant never-never land. They 
+exist in your living room. 
+
+Entering one of these parallel worlds is called “quantum jumping” or 
+“sliding” and is a favorite gimmick of science fiction. To enter a parallel 
+universe, we need to take a quantum jump into it. (There was even a TV 
+series called Sliders where people slide back and forth between parallel 
+universes. The series began when a young boy read a book. That book is 
+actually my book Hyperspace, but I take no responsibility for the physics 
+
+behind that series.)"
+"behind that series.) 
+
+Actually, it’s not so simple to jump between universes. One problem 
+we sometimes give our Ph.D. students is to calculate the probability that 
+
+you will jump through a brick wall and wind up on the other side. The 
+result is sobering. You would have to wait longer than the lifetime of the 
+universe to experience jumping or sliding through a brick wall. 
+
+LOOKING IN THE MIRROR"
+"LOOKING IN THE MIRROR 
+
+When I look at myself in a mirror, I don’t really see myself as I truly am. 
+First, I see myself about a billionth of a second ago, since that is the time 
+that it takes a light beam to leave my face, hit a mirror, and enter my 
+eyes. Second, the image I see is really an average over billions and 
+billions of wave functions. This average certainly does resemble my 
+image, but it is not exact. Surrounding me are multiple images of myself 
+oozing in all directions. I am continually surrounded by alternate 
+universes, forever branching into different worlds, but the probability of 
+sliding between them is so tiny that Newtonian mechanics seems to be 
+correct."
+"At this point, some people ask this question: Why don’t scientists 
+simply do an experiment to determine which interpretation is valid? If 
+we run an experiment with an electron, all three interpretations will 
+yield the same result. All three are therefore serious, viable 
+interpretations of quantum mechanics, with the same underlying 
+quantum theory. What is different is how we explain the results. 
+
+Hundreds of years in the future, physicists and philosophers may still 
+be debating this question, with no resolution, because all three 
+interpretations yield the same physical results. But perhaps there is one 
+way in which this philosophical debate touches on the brain, and that is 
+the question of free will, which in turn affects the moral foundation of 
+human society. 
+
+FREE W ILT. 
+
+Our entire civilization is based on the concept of free will, which 
+impacts on the notions of reward, punishment, and personal"
+"responsibility. But does free will really exist? Or is it a clever way of 
+keeping society together although it violates scientific principles? The 
+controversy goes to the very heart of quantum mechanics itself. 
+
+It is safe to say that more and more neuroscientists are gradually 
+coming to the conclusion that free will does not exist, at least not in the 
+usual sense. If certain bizarre behaviors can be linked to precise defects 
+
+in the brain, then a person is not scientifically responsible for the crimes 
+he might commit. He might be too dangerous to be left walking the 
+streets and must be locked up in an institution of some sort, but 
+punishing someone for having a stroke or tumor in the brain is 
+misguided, they say. What that person needs is medical and 
+psychological help. Perhaps the brain damage can be treated (e.g., by 
+removing a tumor), and the person can become a productive member of 
+society."
+"For example, when I interviewed Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen, a 
+psychologist at Cambridge University, he told me that many (but not all) 
+pathological killers have a brain anomaly. Their brain scans show that 
+they lack empathy when seeing someone else in pain, and in fact they 
+might even take pleasure in watching this suffering (in these individuals, 
+the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens, the pleasure center, light up 
+when they view videos of people experiencing pain). 
+
+The conclusion some might draw from this is that these people are not 
+truly responsible for their heinous acts, although they should still be 
+removed from society. They need help, not punishment, because of a 
+problem with their brain. In a sense, they may not be acting with free 
+will when they commit their crimes."
+"An experiment done by Dr. Benjamin Libet in 1985 casts doubt on the 
+very existence of free will. Let’s say that you are asking subjects to watch 
+a clock and then to note precisely when they decide to move a finger. 
+Using EEG scans, one can detect exactly when the brain makes this 
+decision. When you compare the two times, you will find a mismatch. 
+The EEG scans show that the brain has actually made the decision about 
+three hundred milliseconds before the person becomes aware of it. 
+
+This means that, in some sense, free will is a fake. Decisions are made 
+ahead of time by the brain, without the input of consciousness, and then 
+later the brain tries to cover this up (as it’s wont to do) by claiming that 
+the decision was conscious. Dr. Michael Sweeney concludes, “Libet’s 
+
+findings suggested that the brain knows what a person will decide before 
+the person does.... The world must reassess not only the idea of 
+movements divided between voluntary and involuntary, but also the 
+very idea of free will.”"
+"All this seems to indicate that free will, the cornerstone of society, is a 
+fiction, an illusion created by our left brain. So are we masters of our 
+fate, or just pawns in a swindle perpetuated by the brain? 
+
+There are several ways to approach this sticky question. Free will goes 
+against a philosophy called determinism, which simply says that all 
+
+future events are determined by physical laws. According to Newton 
+himself, the universe was some sort of clock, ticking away since the 
+beginning of time, obeying the laws of motion. Hence all events are 
+predictable. 
+
+The question is: Are we part of this clock? Are all our actions also 
+determined? These questions have philosophical and theological 
+implications. For example, most religions adhere to some form of 
+determinism and predestination. Since God is omnipotent, omniscient, 
+and omnipresent, He knows the future, and hence the future is 
+determined ahead of time. He knows even before you are born whether 
+you will go to Heaven or Hell."
+"The Catholic Church split in half on this precise question during the 
+Protestant revolution. According to Catholic doctrine at that time, one 
+could change one’s ultimate fate with an indulgence, usually by making 
+generous financial donations to the Church. In other words, determinism 
+could be altered by the size of your wallet. Martin Luther specifically 
+singled out the corruption of the Church over indulgences when he 
+tacked his 95 Theses on the door of a church in 1517, triggering the 
+Protestant Reformation. This was one of the key reasons why the Church 
+split down the middle, causing casualties in the millions and laying 
+waste to entire regions of Europe."
+"But after 1925, uncertainty was introduced into physics via quantum 
+mechanics. Suddenly everything became uncertain; all you could 
+calculate was probabilities. In this sense, perhaps free will does exist, 
+and it’s a manifestation of quantum mechanics. So some claim that the 
+quantum theory reestablishes the concept of free will. The determinists 
+have fought back, however, claiming that quantum effects are extremely 
+small (at the level of atoms), too small to account for the free will of 
+
+large human beings. 
+
+The situation today is actually rather muddled. Perhaps the question 
+“Does free will exist?” is like the question “What is life?” The discovery 
+of DNA has rendered that question about life obsolete. We now realize 
+that the question has many layers and complexities. Perhaps the same 
+applies to free will, and there are many types."
+"If so, the very definition of “free will” becomes ambiguous. For 
+example, one way to define free will is to ask whether behavior can be 
+predicted. If free will exists, then behavior cannot be determined ahead 
+of time. Let’s say you watch a movie, for example. The plot is completely 
+determined, with no free will whatsoever. So the movie is completely 
+predictable. But our world cannot be like a movie, for two reasons. The 
+first is the quantum theory, as we have seen. The movie represents only 
+
+one possible timeline. The second reason is chaos theory. Although 
+classical physics says that all of the motions of atoms are completely 
+determined and predictable, in practice it is impossible to predict their 
+motions because there are so many atoms involved. The slightest 
+disturbance of a single atom can have a ripple effect, which can cascade 
+down to create enormous disturbances."
+"Think of the weather. In principle, if you knew the behavior of every 
+atom in the air, you could predict the weather a century from now if you 
+had a big enough computer. But in practice, this is impossible. After just 
+a few hours, the weather becomes so turbulent and complex that any 
+computer simulation is rendered useless. 
+
+This creates what is called the “butterfly effect,” which means that 
+even the beat of butterfly wings can cause tiny ripples in the 
+atmosphere, which grow and in turn can escalate into a thunderstorm. 
+So if even the flapping of butterfly wings can create thunderstorms, the 
+hope of accurately predicting the weather is far-fetched. 
+
+Let’s go back to the thought experiment described to me by Stephen 
+Jay Gould. He asked me to imagine Earth 4.5 billion years ago, when it 
+was born. Now imagine you could somehow create an identical copy of 
+Earth, and let it evolve. Would we still be here on this different Earth 4.5 
+billion years later?"
+"One could easily imagine, due to quantum effects or the chaotic nature 
+of the weather and oceans, that humanity would never evolve into 
+precisely the same creatures on this version of Earth. So ultimately, it 
+
+seems a combination of uncertainty and chaos makes a perfectly 
+deterministic world impossible. 
+
+THE QUANTUM BRAIN 
+
+This debate also affects the reverse engineering of the brain. If you can 
+successfully reverse engineer a brain made of transistors, this success 
+implies that the brain is deterministic and predictable. Ask it any 
+question and it repeats the exact same answer. Computers are 
+deterministic in this way, since they always give the same answer for 
+any question. 
+
+So it seems we have a problem. On one hand, quantum mechanics and 
+chaos theory claim that the universe is not predictable, and therefore, 
+free will seems to exist. But a reverse-engineered brain, made of 
+transistors, would by definition be predictable. Since the reverse-"
+"engineered brain is theoretically identical to a living brain, then the 
+human brain is also deterministic and there is no free will. Clearly, this 
+contradicts the first statement."
+"A minority of scientists claim that you cannot authentically reverse 
+engineer the brain, or ever create a true thinking machine, because of 
+the quantum theory. The brain, they argue, is a quantum device, not just 
+a collection of transistors. Hence this project is doomed to fail. In this 
+camp is Oxford physicist Dr. Roger Penrose, an authority on Einstein’s 
+theory of relativity, who claims that it is quantum processes that may 
+account for the consciousness of the human brain. Penrose starts by 
+saying that mathematician Kurt Godel has proven that arithmetic is 
+incomplete; that is, that there are true statements in arithmetic that 
+cannot be proven using the axioms of arithmetic. Similarly, not only is 
+mathematics incomplete, but so is physics. He concludes by stating that 
+the brain is basically a quantum mechanical device and there are 
+problems that no machine can solve because of Godel’s incompleteness 
+theorem. Humans, however, can make sense of these conundrums using 
+intuition."
+"Similarly, the reverse-engineered brain, no matter how complex, is 
+still a collection of transistors and wires. In such a deterministic system, 
+you can accurately predict its future behavior because the laws of 
+
+motion are well known. In a quantum system, however, the system is 
+inherently unpredictable. All you can calculate are the chances that 
+something will occur, because of the uncertainty principle. 
+
+If it turns out that the reverse-engineered brain cannot reproduce 
+human behavior, then scientists may be forced to admit that there are 
+unpredictable forces at work (i.e., quantum effects inside the brain). Dr. 
+Penrose argues that inside the neuron there are tiny structures, called 
+microtubules, where quantum processes dominate."
+"At present, there is no consensus on this problem. Judging from the 
+reaction to Penrose’s idea when it was first proposed, it would be safe to 
+say that most of the scientific community is skeptical of his approach. 
+Science, however, is never conducted as a popularity contest, but instead 
+advances through testable, reproducible, and falsifiable theories. 
+
+For my own part, I believe transistors cannot truly model all the 
+behaviors of neurons, which carry out both analog and digital 
+calculations. We know that neurons are messy. They can leak, misfire, 
+age, die, and are sensitive to the environment. To me, this suggests that 
+a collection of transistors can only approximately model the behavior of 
+neurons. For example, we saw earlier, in discussing the physics of the 
+brain, that if the axon of the neuron becomes thinner, then it begins to"
+"leak and also does not carry out chemical reactions that well. Some of 
+this leakage and these misfires will be due to quantum effects. As you try 
+to imagine neurons that are thinner, denser, and faster, quantum effects 
+become more obvious. This means that even for normal neurons there 
+are problems of leakage and instabilities, and these problems exist both 
+classically and quantum mechanically. 
+
+In conclusion, a reverse-engineered robot will give a good but not 
+perfect approximation of the human brain. Unlike Penrose, I think it is 
+possible to create a deterministic robot out of transistors that gives the 
+appearance of consciousness, but without any free will. It will pass the 
+Turing test. But I think there will be differences between such a robot 
+and humans due to these tiny quantum effects."
+"Ultimately, I think free will probably does exist, but it is not the free 
+will envisioned by rugged individualists who claim they are complete 
+masters of their fate. The brain is influenced by thousands of 
+unconscious factors that predispose us to make certain choices ahead of 
+time, even if we think we made them ourselves. This does not 
+
+necessarily mean that we are actors in a film that can be rewound 
+anytime. The end of the movie hasn’t been written yet, so strict 
+determinism is destroyed by a subtle combination of quantum effects 
+and chaos theory. In the end, we are still masters of our destiny. 
+
+NOTES 
+
+INTRODUCTION"
+"NOTES 
+
+INTRODUCTION 
+
+1 You may have to travel: To see this, define “complex” in terms of the 
+total amount of information that can be stored. The closest rival to the 
+brain might be the information contained within our DNA. There are 
+three billion base pairs in our DNA, each one containing one of four 
+nucleic acids, labeled A,T,C,G. Therefore the total amount of 
+information we can store in our DNA is four raised to the three- 
+billionth power. But the brain can store much more information 
+among its one hundred billion neurons, which can either fire or not 
+fire. Hence, there are two raised to the one-hundred-billionth power 
+possible initial states of the human brain. But while DNA is static, the 
+states of the brain change every few milliseconds. A simple thought 
+may contain one hundred generations of neural firings. Hence, there 
+are two raised to one hundred billion, all raised to the hundredth 
+power, possible thoughts contained in one hundred generations. But"
+"our brains are continually firing, day and night, ceaselessly 
+computing. Therefore the total number of thoughts possible within N 
+generations is two raised to the one-hundred-billionth power, all 
+raised to the Nth power, which is truly astronomical. Therefore the 
+amount of information that we can store in our brains far exceeds the 
+information stored within our DNA by a wide margin. In fact, it is the 
+largest amount of information that we can store in our solar system, 
+and even possibly in our sector of the Milky Way galaxy. 
+
+2 “The most valuable insights”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 89. 
+
+3 “All of these questions that philosophers”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 
+137. 
+
+CHAPTER 1: UNLOCKING THE MIND 
+
+1 He was semiconscious for weeks: See Sweeney, pp. 207-8. 
+
+2 Dr. John Harlow, the doctor who treated: Carter, p. 24. 
+
+3 In the year A.D. 43, records show: Horstman, p. 87. 
+
+4 “It was like ... standing in the doorway”: Carter, p. 28. 
+
+5 The Transparent Brain: New York Times, April 10, 2013, p. 1."
+"5 The Transparent Brain: New York Times, April 10, 2013, p. 1. 
+
+6 “Emotions are not feelings at all”: Carter, p. 83. 
+
+7 the mind is more like a “society of minds”: Interview with Dr. 
+Minsky for the BBC-TV series Visions of the Future, February 2007. 
+Also, interview for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast, 
+November 2009. 
+
+8 consciousness was like a storm raging: Interview with Dr. Pinker in 
+September 2003 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+9 “the intuitive feeling we have”: Pinker, “The Riddle of Knowing 
+You’re Here,” in Your Brain: A User’s Guide (New York: Time Inc. 
+Specials, 2011). 
+
+10 Consciousness turns out to consist of: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 111. 
+
+11 “indeed a conscious system in its own right”: Carter, p. 52. 
+
+12 I asked him how experiments: Interview with Dr. Michael 
+Gazzaniga in September 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio 
+broadcast. 
+
+13 “The possible implications of this”: Carter, p. 53. 
+
+14 “If that person dies, what happens?”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 119."
+"14 “If that person dies, what happens?”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 119. 
+
+15 a young king who inherits: Interview with Dr. David Eagleman in 
+May 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+16 “people named Denise or Dennis”: Eagleman, p. 63. 
+
+17 “at least 15 % of human females”: Eagleman, p. 43. 
+
+CHAPTER 2: CONSCIOUSNESS—A PHYSICIST’S VIEWPOINT 
+
+1 “We cannot see ultraviolet light”: Pinker, How the Mind Works, pp. 
+561-65. 
+
+2 “Everybody knows what consciousness is”: Biological Bulletin 215, 
+no. 3 (December 2008): 216."
+"2 “Everybody knows what consciousness is”: Biological Bulletin 215, 
+no. 3 (December 2008): 216. 
+
+3 We will do so in the notes: Level II consciousness can be counted by 
+listing the total number of distinct feedback loops when an animal 
+interacts with members of its species. As a rough guess, Level II 
+consciousness can be approximated by multiplying the number of 
+others in an animal’s pack or tribe, multiplied by the total number of 
+distinct emotions or gestures it uses to communicate with others. 
+There are caveats to this ranking, however, since this is just a first 
+guess. 
+
+For example, animals like the wildcat are social, but they are also 
+solitary hunters, so it appears as if the number of animals in its pack is 
+one. But that is true only when it is hunting. When it is time to 
+reproduce, wildcats engage in complex mating rituals, so its Level II 
+consciousness must take this into account."
+"Furthermore, when female wildcats give birth to litters of kittens, 
+which have to be nursed and fed, the number of social interactions 
+increases as a consequence. So even for solitary hunters, the number 
+of members of its species that it interacts with is not one, and the total 
+number of distinct feedback loops can be quite large. 
+
+Also, if the number of wolves in the pack decreases, then it appears 
+as if its Level II number decreases correspondingly. To account for 
+this, we have to introduce the concept of an average Level II number 
+that is common for the entire species, as well as a specific Level II 
+consciousness for an individual animal. 
+
+The average Level II number for a given species does not change if 
+the pack gets smaller, because it is common for the entire species, but 
+the individual Level II number (because it measures individual mental 
+activity and consciousness) does change."
+"When applied to humans, the average Level II number must take 
+into account the Dunbar number, which is 150, and represents roughly 
+
+the number of people in our social grouping that we can keep track of. 
+So the Level II number for humans as a species would be the total 
+number of distinct emotions and gestures we use to communicate, 
+multiplied by the Dunbar number of 150. (Individuals can have 
+different levels of Level II consciousness, since their circle of friends 
+and the ways they interact with them can vary considerably.) 
+
+We should also note that certain Level I organisms (like insects and 
+reptiles) can exhibit social behaviors. Ants, when they bump into one 
+another, exchange information via chemical scents, and bees dance to 
+communicate the location of flower beds. Reptiles even have a 
+primitive limbic system. But in the main, they do not exhibit 
+emotions. 
+
+4 “The difference between man”: Gazzaniga, p. 27. 
+
+5 “The greatest achievement of the human brain”: Gilbert, p. 5."
+"5 “The greatest achievement of the human brain”: Gilbert, p. 5. 
+
+6 “area 10 (the internal granular layer IV)”: Gazzaniga, p. 20. 
+
+7 The male gets confused, because it wants: Eagleman, p. 144. 
+
+8 “I predict that mirror neurons”: Brockman, p. xiii. 
+
+9 Biologist Carl Zimmer writes: Bloom, p. 51. 
+
+10 “Most of the time we daydream”: Bloom, p. 51. 
+
+Ill asked one person who may: Interview with Dr. Michael Gazzaniga 
+in September 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+12 “It is the left hemisphere”: Gazzaniga, p. 85. 
+
+CHAPTER 3: TELEPATHY—A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS 
+
+1 Indeed, in a recent “Next 5 in 5”: http://www.ibm.com/5in5. 
+
+2 I had the pleasure of touring: Interview with Dr. Gallant on July 11, 
+
+2012, at the University of California, Berkeley. Also, interview with 
+Dr. Gallant on Science Fantastic for national radio, July 2012. 
+
+3 “This is a major leap forward”: Berkeleyan Newsletter, September 
+22, 2011, http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/09/22/brain-movies."
+"4 “If you take 200 voxels”: Brockman, p. 236. 
+
+5 Dr. Brian Pasley and his colleagues: Visit to Dr. Pasley’s laboratory 
+on July 11, 2012, at the University of California, Berkeley. 
+
+6 Similar results were obtained: The Brain Institute, University of 
+Utah, Salt Lake City, http://brain.utah.edu. 
+
+7 This could have applications for artists: http://io9/543338/a- 
+device-that-lets-io9.com/543338/a-device-that-lets-ou-type-with-your- 
+mind. 
+
+8 According to their officials: http://news.discovery.com/tech/type- 
+with-your-mind-110309.html. 
+
+9 being explored by Dr. David Poeppel: Discover Magazine Presents the 
+Brain, Spring 2012, p. 43. 
+
+10 In 1993 in Germany: Scientific American, November 2008, p. 68. 
+
+11 The only justification for its existence: Garreau, pp. 23-24. 
+
+12 I once had lunch with: Symposium on the future of science 
+sponsored by the Science Fiction Channel at the Chabot Pace and 
+Science Center, Oakland, California, in May 2004."
+"13 On another occasion: Conference in Anaheim, California, April 
+2009. 
+
+14 He says, “Imagine if soldiers”: Garreau, p. 22. 
+
+15 “What he is doing is spending”: Ibid., p. 19. 
+
+16 When I asked Dr. Nishimoto: Visit to Dr. Gallant’s laboratory at the 
+University of California, Berkeley, on July 11, 2012. 
+
+17 “There are ethical concerns”: http://www.nbcnews.com/ 
+id/47447302/ns/health-health_care/t/paralyzed-woman-gets-robotic- 
+arm.html. 
+
+CHAPTER 4: TELEKINESIS: MIND CONTROLLING MATTER 
+
+1 “I would love to have”: New York Times, May 17, 2012, p. A17 and 
+http://www.msnbc.mns.eom/id/47447302/ns/health-health_care/t/ 
+parallyzed-woman-gets-robotic-arm.html. 
+
+2 “We have taken a tiny sensor”: Interview with Dr. John Donoghue in 
+November 2009 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+3 In the United States alone, more than two hundred thousand: 
+
+Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Washington, D.C. http:// 
+www. ede. go v/traumatiebraininj ury/scifacts. html ."
+"4 When the monkey wanted to move: 
+
+http://physio.northwestern.edu/faculty/miller.htm; http://www. 
+
+northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2012/04/miller-paralyzed- 
+
+technology.html. 
+
+5 “We are eavesdropping on the natural”: http://www.northwestern. 
+edu/newscenter/stories/2012/04/miller-paralyzed-technology.html. 
+
+6 More than 1,300 service members: http://www.darpa.mil/Our_ 
+Work/DSO/Programs/Revolutionizing_Prosthetics.aspx. CBS 60 
+Minutes, broadcast on December 30, 2012. 
+
+7 “They thought we were crazy”: Ibid. 
+
+8 she appeared on 60 Minutes: Ibid. 
+
+9 “There’s going to be a whole ecosystem”: Wall Street Journal, May 
+29, 2012. 
+
+10 But perhaps the most novel applications: Interview with Dr. 
+Nicolelis in April 2011 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast."
+"11 Smart Hands and Mind Melds: New York Times, March 13, 2013, 
+http://nytimes.com/2013/03/01/science/new-research-suggests-two- 
+rat-brains-can-be-linked. See also Huffington Post, February 28, 2013, 
+http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/28/mind-melds-brain- 
+communication_n_2781609.html. 
+
+12 In 2013, the next important step: USA Today, August 8, 2013, p. 
+ID. 
+
+13 About ten years ago: Interview with Dr. Nicolelis in April 2011. 
+
+14 “so there’s nothing sticking out”: For a full discussion of the 
+exoskeleton, see Nicolelis, pp. 303-7. 
+
+15 The Honda Corporation has: http://www.asimo.honda.com. Also, 
+interview with the creators of ASIMO in April 2007 for the BBC-TV 
+series Visions of the Future. 
+
+16 Eventually, you get the hang: http://discovermagazine.com/2007/ 
+may/re vie w-test- driving- the -future . 
+
+17 Then, by thinking, the patient: Discover, December 9, 2011, http:// 
+discovermagazine.com/2011/dec/09-mind-over-motor-controlling- 
+robots-with-your-thoughts."
+"18 “We will likely be able to operate”: Nicolelis, p. 315. 
+
+19 I saw a demonstration of this: Interview with the scientists at 
+Carnegie Mellon in August 2010 for the Discovery/Science Channel TV 
+series Sci Fi Science. 
+
+CHAPTER 5: MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS MADE TO ORDER 
+
+1 “It has all come together”: Wade, p. 89. 
+
+2 So far, scientists have identified: Ibid., p. 91. 
+
+3 For instance, Dr. Antonio Damasio: Damasio, pp. 130-53. 
+
+4 One fragment of memory might: Wade, p. 232. 
+
+5 “If you can’t do it”: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3488. 
+
+6 “Turn the switch on”: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011- 
+06/uosc-rmr06211 .php. 
+
+7 “Using implantables to enhance competency”: http://hplus 
+magazine.com/2009/03/18/artificial-hipppocampus. 
+
+8 Not surprisingly, with so much at stake: http://articles. 
+washingtonpost.com/2013-07-12/national/40863765_l_brain-cells- 
+mice-new-memories."
+"9 If encoding the memory: This brings up the question of whether 
+carrier pigeons, migratory birds, whales, etc., have a long-term 
+memory, given that they can migrate over hundreds to thousands of 
+
+miles in search of feeding and breeding grounds. Science knows little 
+about this question. But it is believed that their long-term memory is 
+based on locating certain landmarks along the way, rather than 
+recalling elaborate memories of past events. In other words, they do 
+not use memory of past events to help them simulate the future. Their 
+long-term memory consists of just a series of markers. Apparently, 
+only in humans are long-term memories used to help simulate the 
+future. 
+
+10 “The purpose of memory is”: Michael Lemonick, “Your Brain: A 
+User’s Guide,” Time, December 2011, p. 78. 
+
+11 “You might look at it”: http://sciencedaily.com/videos/2007/0210- 
+brain_scans_of_the_future.htm. 
+
+12 their study proves a “tentative answer”: http://www.sciencedaily. 
+com/videos/2007/0710."
+"12 their study proves a “tentative answer”: http://www.sciencedaily. 
+com/videos/2007/0710. 
+
+13 “The whole idea is that the device”: New York Times, September 
+
+12, 2012, p. A18. 
+
+14 “It will likely take us”: http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences- 
+features/58736-artificial-cerebellum-restores-rats. 
+
+15 There are 5.3 million Americans: Alzheimer’s Foundation of 
+America, http://www.alzfdn.org. 
+
+16 “This adds to the notion”: ScienceDaily.com, October 2009, http:// 
+www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091019122647.htm. 
+
+17 “We can never turn it into”: Ibid. 
+
+18 “This implies these flies have”: Wade, p. 113. 
+
+19 This effect is not just restricted: Ibid. 
+
+20 “We can now give you”: Ibid., p. 114. 
+
+21 Basically, the more CREB proteins: Bloom, p. 244. 
+
+22 “Propranolol sits on that nerve cell”: SATI e-News, June 28, 2007, 
+http://www.mysati.com/enews/June2007/ptsd.htm. 
+
+23 Its report concluded: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 104. 
+
+24 “Our breakups, our relationships”: Ibid."
+"23 Its report concluded: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 104. 
+
+24 “Our breakups, our relationships”: Ibid. 
+
+25 “should we deprive them of morphine”: Ibid., p. 105. 
+
+26 “If further work confirms this view”: Ibid., p. 106. 
+
+27 “Each of these perennial records”: Nicolelis, p. 318. 
+
+28 “Forgetting is the most beneficial process”: New Scientist, March 
+12, 2003, http://www.newscientists.com/article/dn3488. 
+
+CHAPTER 6: EINSTEIN’S BRAIN AND ENHANCING INTELLIGENCE 
+
+1 “got caught up in the moment”: 
+
+http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/einsteins-brain- 
+
+arrives-in-london-after-odd-journey. 
+
+2 “I have always maintained that”: Gould, p. 109. 
+
+3 “The human brain remains ‘plastic’ ”: www.sciencedaily.com/ 
+releases/2011/12/111208257120.htm. 
+
+4 “The emerging picture from such studies”: Gladwell, p. 40. 
+
+5 Five years later, Terman started: See C. K. Holahan and R.R. Sears, 
+The Gifted Group in Later Maturity (Stanford, CA: Stanford University 
+Press, 1995)."
+"6 “Your grades in school”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 48. 
+
+7 “Tests don’t measure motivation”: Sweeney, p. 26. 
+
+8 The pilots who scored highest: Bloom, p. 12. 
+
+9 “The left hemisphere is responsible”: Ibid., p. 15. 
+
+10 Dr. Darold Treffert, a Wisconsin physician: http://www.darold 
+treffert.com. 
+
+11 It took him just forty-five seconds: Tammet, p. 4. 
+
+12 I had the pleasure of interviewing: Interview with Mr. Daniel 
+Tammet in October 2007 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+13 “Our study confirms”: Science Daily, March 2012, http://www. 
+sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120322100313.htm. 
+
+14 Kim Peek’s brain: AP wire story, November 8, 2004, http://www. 
+Space.com. 
+
+15 In 1998 , Dr. Bruce Miller: Neurology 51 (October 1998): pp. 978- 
+82. See also http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant_ 
+syndrome/savant-articles/acquired_savant. 
+
+16 In addition to the savants: Sweeney, p. 252."
+"16 In addition to the savants: Sweeney, p. 252. 
+
+17 This idea has actually been tried: Center of the Mind, Sydney, 
+Australia, http://www.centerofthemind.com. 
+
+18 In another experiment, Dr. R. L. Young: R. L. Young, M. C. 
+Ridding, and T. L. Morrell, “Switching Skills on by Turning Off Part of 
+the Brain,” Neurocase 10 (2004): 215, 222. 
+
+19 “When applied to the prefrontal lobes”: Sweeney, p. 311. 
+
+20 Until recently, it was thought: Science Daily, May 2012, http:// 
+www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120509180113.htm. 
+
+21 “Savants have a high capacity”: Ibid. 
+
+22 In 2007 , a breakthrough occurred: Sweeney, p. 294. 
+
+23 “Stem cell research and regenerative medicine”: Sweeney, p. 295. 
+
+24 Scientists have focused on a few genes: Katherine S. Pollard, 
+“What Makes Us Different,” Scientific American Special Collectors Edition 
+(Winter 2013): 31-35. 
+
+25 “I jumped at the opportunity”: Ibid. 
+
+26 “With my mentor David Haussler”: Ibid."
+"25 “I jumped at the opportunity”: Ibid. 
+
+26 “With my mentor David Haussler”: Ibid. 
+
+27 One such gene was discovered: TG Daily, November 15, 2012. 
+http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences-features/67503-new-found- 
+gene-separates-man-from-apes. 
+
+28 Many theories have been proposed: See, for example, Gazzaniga, 
+Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique. 
+
+29 “For the first few hundred million years”: Gilbert, p. 15. 
+
+30 “Cortical gray matter neurons are working”: Douglas Fox, “The 
+Limits of Intelligence,” Scientific American, July 2011, p. 43. 
+
+31 “You might call it the mother”: Ibid., p. 42. 
+
+CHAPTER 7: IN YOUR DREAMS 
+
+1 He followed this up with one thousand: C. Hall and R. Van de 
+
+Castle, The Content Analysis of Dreams (New York: Appleton-Century- 
+Crofts, 1966). 
+
+2 When I interviewed him, he told me: Interview with Dr. Allan 
+Hobson in July 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+3 Studies have shown that it is possible: Wade, p. 229."
+"3 Studies have shown that it is possible: Wade, p. 229. 
+
+4 ATR chief scientist Yukiyasu Kamitani: New Scientist, December 12, 
+
+2008, http://www.newscientist.com/article/dnl 6267-mindreading- 
+
+software-could-record-your-dreams.html#.UvE9P0Qi07s. 
+
+5 When I visited the laboratory: Visit to Dr. Gallant’s laboratory on 
+July 11, 2012. 
+
+6 “Our dreams are therefore not”: Science Daily, October 28, 2011, 
+http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111028113626.htm. 
+
+7 Already, prototypes of Internet contact lenses: See the work of Dr. 
+Babak Parviz, http://www.wearable-technologies.com/262. 
+
+CHAPTER 8: CAN THE MIND BE CONTROLLED? 
+
+1 A raging bull is released: Miguel Nicolelis, Beyond Boundaries (New 
+York: Henry Holt, 2011), pp. 228-32. 
+
+2 The cold war hysteria eventually reached: “Project MKUltra, the"
+"2 The cold war hysteria eventually reached: “Project MKUltra, the 
+
+CIA’s Program of Research into Behavioral Modification. Joint 
+Hearings Before the Select Committee on Human Resources, U.S. 
+Senate, 95th Congress, First Session,” Government Printing Office, 
+August 8, 1977, Washington, D.C., http://www.nytimes.com/ 
+
+packages/pdf/national/13inmate_ProjectMKULTRA.pdf; “CIA Says It 
+Found More Secret Papers on Behavior Control,” New York Times, 
+September 3, 1977; “Government Mind Control Records of MKUltra 
+and Bluebird/Artichoke,” http://wanttoknow.info/mindcontrol.shtml; 
+“The Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with"
+"Respect to Intelligence Activities, Foreign and Military Intelligence.” 
+The Church Committee Report No. 94-755, 94th Congress, 2nd 
+Session, p. 392, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1976; 
+“Project MKUltra, the CIA’s Program of Research in Behavior 
+Modification,” http://scribd.com/doc/75512716/Project-MKUltra- 
+The-CIA-s-Program-of-Research-in-Behavior-Modification. 
+
+3 “great potential for development”: Rose, p. 292. 
+
+4 “neuro-scientific impossibility”: Ibid., p. 293. 
+
+5 “It is probably significant that”: “Hypnosis in Intelligence,” Black 
+Vault Freedom of Information Act Archive, 2008, http://documents. 
+theblackvault.com/documents/mindcontrol/hypnosisinintelligence. 
+pdf. 
+
+6 To see how widespread this problem: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 57. 
+
+7 Drugs like LSD: Sweeney, p. 200. 
+
+8 “This is the first time we’ve shown”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 58. 
+
+9 “If you want to turn off”: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/ 
+science/17optics.html."
+"9 “If you want to turn off”: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/ 
+science/17optics.html. 
+
+10 “By feeding information from sensors”: New York Times, March 17, 
+2011, http://nytimes.com/2011/05/17/science/17optics.html. 
+
+CHAPTER 9: ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+1 “Some fraction of history’s prophets”: Eagleman, p. 207. 
+
+2 “Sometimes it’s a personal God”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 122. 
+
+3 “ ‘Finally, I see what it is’ ”: Ramachandran, p. 280. 
+
+4 “During the three minute bursts”: David Biello, Scientific American, 
+p. 41, www.sciammind.com. 
+
+5 To test these ideas: Ibid., p. 42. 
+
+6 “Although atheists might argue”: Ibid., p. 45. 
+
+7 “If you are an atheist”: Ibid., p. 44. 
+
+8 One theory holds that Parkinson’s: Sweeney, p. 166. 
+
+9 “Neurons wired for the sensation”: Ibid., p. 90. 
+
+10 “The brain’s gonna do what”: Ibid., p. 165. 
+
+11 “Brain scans have led researchers”: Ibid., p. 208. 
+
+12 “If left unchecked, the left hemisphere”: Ramachandran, p. 267. 
+
+13 Underactivity in this area: Carter, pp. 100-103."
+"13 Underactivity in this area: Carter, pp. 100-103. 
+
+14 Ten percent of them, in turn: Baker, pp. 46-53. 
+
+15 “Depression 1.0 was psychotherapy”: Ibid., p. 3. 
+
+16 One to three percent of DBS patients: Carter, p. 98. 
+
+17 “The calcium channels findings suggest”: New York Times, 
+
+February 26, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/ 
+
+health/study-finds-genetic-risk-factors-shared-by-5-psychiatric- 
+disorders.html. 
+
+18 “What we have identified here”: Ibid. 
+
+CHAPTER 10: THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+1 “Machines will be capable”: Crevier, p. 109. 
+
+2 “within a generation ... the problem”: Ibid. 
+
+3 “It’s as though a group of people”: Kaku, p. 79. 
+
+4 “I would pay a lot for a robot”: Brockman, p. 2. 
+
+5 However, I met privately with: Interview with the creators of ASIMO 
+during a visit to Honda’s laboratory in Nagoya, Japan, in April 2007 
+for the BBC-TV series Visions of the Future."
+"6 he used to marvel at the mosquito: Interview with Dr. Rodney 
+Brooks in April 2002 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+7 I have had the pleasure of visiting: Visit to MIT Media Laboratory 
+for the Discovery/Science Channel TV series Sci Fi Science, April 13, 
+2010 . 
+
+8 “That is why Breazeal decided”: Moss, p. 168. 
+
+9 At Waseda University: Gazzaniga, p. 352. 
+
+10 Their goal is to integrate: Ibid., p. 252. 
+
+11 Meet Nao: Guardian, August 9, 2010, http://www.theguardian.com/ 
+technology/2010/aug/09/nao-robot-develop-display-emotions. 
+
+12 “It’s hard to predict the future”: http://cosmomagazine.com/news/ 
+4177/reverse-engineering-brain. 
+
+13 Neuroscientists like Dr. Antonio Damasio: Damasio, pp. 108-29. 
+
+14 “In mathematics, you don’t understand”: Kurzweil, p. 248. 
+
+15 “There could not be an objective test”: Pinker, “The Riddle of 
+Knowing You’re Here,” Your Brain: A User’s Guide, Winter, 2011, p. 19. 
+
+16 At Meiji University: Gazzaniga, p. 352."
+"16 At Meiji University: Gazzaniga, p. 352. 
+
+17 “To our knowledge, this is the first”: Kurzweil.net, August 24, 
+
+2012, http://www.kurzweilai.net/robot-learns-self-awareness. See also 
+Yale Daily News, September 25, 2012, 
+
+http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2012/09/25/first-self-aware-robot- 
+created. 
+
+18 When I interviewed Dr. Hans Moravec: Interview with Dr. Hans 
+Moravec in November 1998 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+19 “Unleashed from the plodding pace”: Sweeney, p. 316. 
+
+20 When I interviewed Dr. Rodney Brooks: Interview with Dr. Brooks 
+in April 2002 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+21 “We don’t like to give up”: TEDTalks, http://www.ted.com/talks/ 
+lang/en/rodney_brooks_on_robots.html. 
+
+22 Similarly, at the University of Southern California: http://phys. 
+org/news205059692.html. 
+
+CHAPTER 11: REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN 
+
+1 Almost simultaneously, the European Commission: http://actu. 
+epfl.ch/news/the-human-brain-project-wins-top-european-science."
+"2 “It’s essential for us to understand”: 
+
+http://blog.ted.eom/2009/l 0/15/supercomputing. 
+
+3 “There’s not a single neurological disease”: Kushner, p. 19. 
+
+4 “I think we’re far from playing God”: Ibid., p. 2. 
+
+5 “In a hundred years, I’d like”: Sally Adee, “Reverse Engineering the 
+Brain,” IEEE Spectrum, http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/ethics/ 
+reverse-engineering-the-brain. 
+
+6 “Researchers have conjectured”: 
+
+http://www.cnn.corn/2012/03/01/tech/innovation/brain-map- 
+
+connectome. 
+
+“In the seventeenth century”: 
+
+http: //www. ted. com/talks/lang/en/sebastian_seung .html . 
+
+8 “The Allen Human Brain Atlas provides”: http://ts-si.org/ 
+neuroscience/29735-allen-human-brain-atlas-updates-with- 
+comprehensive). 
+
+9 According to Dr. V. S. Ramachandran: TED Talks, January 2010, 
+http://www.ted.com. 
+
+CHAPTER 12: THE FUTURE: MIND BEYOND MATTER 
+
+1 5.8 percent claimed they had an out-of-body: Nelson, p. 137. 
+
+2 “I see myself lying in bed”: Ibid., p. 140."
+"2 “I see myself lying in bed”: Ibid., p. 140. 
+
+3 Notably, temporary loss of blood: National Geographic News, April 8, 
+2010, http://news.nationalgeographic.eom/news/2010/04/100408- 
+near-death-experiences-blood-carbon-dioxide; Nelson, p. 126 
+
+4 Dr. Thomas Lempert, neurologist: Nelson, p. 126. 
+
+5 The U.S. Air Force, for example: Ibid., p. 128. 
+
+6 We once spoke at a conference: Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 
+November 2012. Interviewed in February 2003 for Exploration 
+national radio broadcast. Interviewed in October 2012 for Science 
+
+Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+7 By 2055, $1,000 of computing power: Bloom, p. 191. 
+
+8 For example, Bill Gates, cofounder: Sweeney, p. 298. 
+
+9 “People who predict a very utopian future”: Carter, p. 298. 
+
+10 He told me that the San Diego Zoo: Interview with Dr. Robert 
+Lanza in September 2009 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+11 “Should we ridicule the modern seekers”: Sebastian Seung, 
+TEDTalks, http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/sebastian_seung.html ."
+"12 In 2008, BBC-TV aired: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/ 
+programmes/horizon/broadband/tx/isolation/timeline. 
+
+13 we will be able to reverse engineer: Interview with Dr. Moravec in 
+November 1998 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+14 On the other side was Eric Drexler: See a series of letter in 
+Chemical and Engineering News from 2003 to 2004. 
+
+15 “I’m not planning to die”: Garreau, p. 128. 
+
+CHAPTER 13: THE MIND AS PURE ENERGY 
+
+1 “Wormholes, extra dimensions”: Sir Martin Rees, Our Final Hour 
+(New York: Perseus Books, 2003), p. 182. 
+
+CHAPTER 14: THE ALIEN MIND 
+
+1 So far, more than one thousand: Kepler Web Page, http://kepler. 
+nasa.gov. 
+
+2 In 2013, NASA scientists announced: Ibid. 
+
+3 how they can distinguish false messages: Interview with Dr. 
+Wertheimer in June 1999 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+4 I once asked him about the giggle factor: Interview with Dr. Seth 
+Shostak in May 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+5 He has gone on record: Ibid."
+"5 He has gone on record: Ibid. 
+
+6 “Remember, this is the same government”: Davies, p. 22. 
+
+7 The Greek writers: Sagan, p. 221. 
+
+8 But St. Thomas Aquinas: Ibid. 
+
+9 We can be fooled: Ibid. 
+
+10 “If the fact that brutes abstract”: Ibid., p. 113. 
+
+11 “In the blind and deaf world”: Eagleman, p. 77. 
+
+12 we have to expand our own horizon: Interview with Dr. Paul 
+Davies in April 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+13 “My conclusion is a startling one”: Davies, p. 159. 
+
+14 “Although there is only a tiny probability”: Discovery News, 
+December 27, 2011, http://news.discovery.com/space/seti-to-scour- 
+the-moon-for-alien-tech-111227.htm. 
+
+CHAPTER 15: CONCLUDING REMARKS 
+
+1 In an article in Wired: Wired, April 2000, http://www.wired.com/ 
+wired/archive/8.04/joy.html. 
+
+2 “several separate and unequal species”: Garreau, p. 139. 
+
+3 “This techno utopia is all about”: Ibid., p. 180. 
+
+4 “The idea that we are messin’ ”: Ibid., p. 353. 
+
+5 “Technologies—such as gunpowder”: Ibid., p. 182."
+"5 “Technologies—such as gunpowder”: Ibid., p. 182. 
+
+6 “The you that all your friends know”: Eagleman, p. 205. 
+
+7 “Our reality depends on what”: Ibid., p. 208. 
+
+8 “How it is that anything so remarkable”: Pinker, p. 132. 
+
+9 somehow create a twin of the Earth: Interview with Dr. Stephen Jay 
+Gould in November 1996 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+10 “ Homo sapiens is one small twig”: Pinker, p. 133. 
+
+11 “nothing gives life more purpose”: Pinker, “The Riddle of Knowing 
+You’re Here,” Time: Your Brain: A User’s Guide (Winter 2011), p. 19. 
+
+12 “What a perplexing masterpiece”: Eagleman, p. 224. 
+
+APPENDIX: QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS? 
+
+1 many (but not all) pathological killers: Interview with Dr. Simon 
+Baron-Cohen in July 2005 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+2 Dr. Michael Sweeney concludes, “Libet’s findings”: Sweeney, p. 
+150. 
+
+SUGGESTED READING 
+
+Baker, Sherry. “Helen Mayberg.” Discover Magazine Presents the Brain. 
+Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing Co., Fall 2012."
+"Bloom, Floyd. Best of the Brain from Scientific American: Mind, Matter, and 
+Tomorrow’s Brain. New York: Dana Press, 2007. 
+
+Boleyn-Fitzgerald, Miriam. Pictures of the Mind: What the New 
+Neuroscience Tells Us About Who We Are. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: 
+Pearson Education, 2010. 
+
+Brockman, John, ed. The Mind: Leading Scientists Explore the Brain, 
+Memory, Personality, and Happiness. New York: Harper Perennial, 2011. 
+
+Calvin, William H. A Brief History of the Mind. New York: Oxford 
+University Press, 2004. 
+
+Carter, Rita. Mapping the Mind. Berkeley: University of California Press, 
+2010 . 
+
+Crevier, Daniel. AT. The Tumultuous History of the Search for Artificial 
+Intelligence. New York: Basic Books, 1993. 
+
+Crick, Francis. The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Science Search for the Soul. 
+New York: Touchstone, 1994. 
+
+Damasio, Antonio. Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain. 
+New York: Pantheon Books, 2010."
+"Davies, Paul. The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence. 
+New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010. 
+
+Dennet, Daniel C. Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. 
+New York: Viking, 2006. 
+
+-. Conscious Explained. New York: Back Bay Books, 1991. 
+
+DeSalle, Rob, and Ian Tattersall. The Brain: Big Bangs, Behaviors, and 
+Beliefs. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012. 
+
+Eagleman, David. Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain. New York: 
+
+Pantheon Books, 2011. 
+
+Fox, Douglas. “The Limits of Intelligence,” Scientific American, July 2011. 
+
+Garreau, Joel. Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our 
+Minds , Our Bodies—and What It Means to Be Human. New York: 
+Random House, 2005. 
+
+Gazzaniga, Michael S. Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique. 
+New York: HarperCollins, 2008. 
+
+Gilbert, Daniel. Stumbling on Happiness. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 
+
+2006. 
+
+Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Back Bay 
+Books, 2008."
+"2006. 
+
+Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Back Bay 
+Books, 2008. 
+
+Gould, Stephen Jay. The Mismeasure of Man. New York: W. W. Norton, 
+1996. 
+
+Horstman, Judith. The Scientific American Brave New Brain. San 
+Francisco: John Wiley and Sons, 2010. 
+
+Kaku, Michio. Physics of the Future. New York: Doubleday, 2009. 
+
+Kurzweil, Ray. How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought 
+Revealed. New York: Viking Books, 2012. 
+
+Kushner, David. “The Man Who Builds Brains.” Discover Magazine 
+Presents the Brain. Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing Co., Fall 2001. 
+
+Moravec, Hans. Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human 
+Intelligence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988. 
+
+Moss, Frank. The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices: How the Digital 
+Magicians of the MIT Media Lab Are Creating the Innovative Technologies 
+That Will Transform Our Lives. New York: Crown Business, 2011. 
+
+Nelson, Kevin. The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain. New York: Dutton, 
+2011."
+"Nelson, Kevin. The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain. New York: Dutton, 
+2011. 
+
+Nicolelis, Miguel. Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting 
+Brains with Machines—and How It Will Change Our Lives. New York: 
+Henry Holt and Co., 2011. 
+
+Pinker, Steven. How the Mind Works. New York: W. W. Norton, 2009. 
+
+-. The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human 
+
+Nature. New York: Viking, 2007. 
+
+-. “The Riddle of Knowing You’re Here.” In Your Brain: A 
+
+User’s Guide. New York: Time Inc. Specials, 2011. 
+
+Piore, Adam. “The Thought Helmet: The U.S. Army Wants to Train 
+Soldiers to Communicate Just by Thinking.” The Brain, Discover 
+Magazine Special, Spring 2012. 
+
+Purves, Dale, et al., eds. Neuroscience. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer 
+Associates, 2001. 
+
+Ramachandran, V. S. The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Quest for What 
+Makes Us Human. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011."
+"Rose, Steven. The Future of the Brain: The Promise and Perils of Tomorrow’s 
+Neuroscience. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2005. 
+
+Sagan, Carl. The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human 
+Intelligence. New York: Ballantine Books, 1977. 
+
+Sweeney, Michael S. Brain: The Complete Mind: How It Develops, How It 
+Works, and How to Keep It Sharp. Washington, D.C.: National 
+Geographic, 2009. 
+
+Tammet, Daniel. Bom on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an 
+Autistic Savant. New York: Free Press, 2006. 
+
+Wade, Nicholas, ed. The Science Times Book of the Brain. New York: New 
+York Times Books, 1998. 
+
+ILLUSTRATION CREDITS 
+
+1.1 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+1.2 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+1.3 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+1.4 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+1.5 AP Photo / David Duprey 
+
+1.5a Tom Barrick, Chris Clark / Science Source 
+
+1.6 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+2.1 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+2.2 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+2.3 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+4.1 The Laboratory of Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, Duke University 
+
+5.1 Jeffrey L. Ward"
+"4.1 The Laboratory of Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, Duke University 
+
+5.1 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+10.1 MIT Media Lab, Personal Robots Group 
+
+10.2 MIT Media Lab, Personal Robots Group, Mikey Siegel 
+
+A Note About the Author 
+
+MICHIO KAKU is a professor of theoretical physics at the City College 
+and City University of New York; cofounder of string field theory; the 
+author of several widely acclaimed science books, including Hyperspace, 
+Beyond Einstein, Physics of the Impossible, and Physics of the Future; and 
+host of numerous TV specials and a national science radio show. 
+
+Other titles by Michio Kaku available in eBook format 
+Parallel Worlds • 9780385514163 
+Physics of the Future • 9780385530811 
+Physics of the Impossible • 9780385525442 
+
+Visions • 9780307794772 
+
+Visit mkaku.org 
+
+For more information on Doubleday books 
+
+Visit: www.doubleday.com 
+Like: facebook.com/DoubledayBooks 
+Follow: @doubledaypub 
+
+ALSO BY THE AUTHOR 
+
+Physics of the Future 
+Physics of the Impossible 
+Parallel Worlds 
+Hyperspace 
+Visions"
+"Physics of the Future 
+Physics of the Impossible 
+Parallel Worlds 
+Hyperspace 
+Visions 
+
+Einstein’s Cosmos 
+Beyond Einstein"
+"DR. MICHIO KAMI 
+
+PROFESSOR OF THEORETICAL PHYSICS 
+CITY UNIVERSITY OI : NEW YORK 
+
+THE SCIENTIFIC QUEST TO UNDERSTAND 
+ENHANCE, AND EMPOWER THE MIND 
+
+DOUBLEPAY 
+
+NEW YORK LONDON TORONTO 
+
+SYDNEY AUCKLAND 
+
+Copyright © 2014 by Michio Kaku 
+
+All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Random House, 
+LLC, New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, Penguin Random 
+House companies. 
+
+www.doubleday.com 
+
+doubleday and the portrayal of an anchor with a dolphin are registered trademarks of Random 
+House, LLC. 
+
+Illustrations by Jeffrey L. Ward 
+Jacket design by Michael J. Windsor 
+
+Jacket illustration © CLIP AREA/Custom media/Shutterstock 
+LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA 
+Kaku, Michio. 
+
+The future of the mind : the scientific quest to understand, enhance, and empower the mind / 
+Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of Theoretical Physics, City University of New York. — First edition, 
+pages cm 
+
+Includes bibliographical references."
+"Includes bibliographical references. 
+
+1. Neuropsychology. 2. Mind and body—Research. 
+
+3. Brain—Mathematical models. 4. Cognitive neuroscience. 
+
+5. Brain-computer interfaces. I. Title. 
+qp360.k 325 2014 
+612.8—dc23 
+
+2013017338 
+
+ISBN 978-0-385-53082-8 (hardcover) ISBN 978-0-385-53083-5 (eBook) 
+
+v3.1 
+
+This book is dedicated to my loving wife, Shizue, 
+
+and my daughters, Michelle and Alyson 
+
+CONTENTS 
+
+Cover 
+
+Title Page 
+
+Copyright 
+
+Dedication 
+
+ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
+
+INTRODUCTION 
+
+BOOK I: THE MIND AND CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+1 UNLOCKING THE MIND 
+
+2 CONSCIOUSNESS—A PHYSICIST’S VIEWPOINT 
+
+BOOK II: MIND OVER MATTER 
+
+3 TELEPATHY: A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS 
+
+4 TELEKINESIS: MIND CONTROLLING MATTER 
+
+5 MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS MADE TO ORDER 
+
+6 EINSTEIN’S BRAIN AND ENHANCING OUR INTELLIGENCE 
+
+BOOK III: ALTERED CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+7 IN YOUR DREAMS 
+
+8 CAN THE MIND BE CONTROLLED? 
+
+9 ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+10 THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+11 REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN"
+"10 THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+11 REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN 
+
+12 THE FUTURE: MIND BEYOND MATTER 
+
+13 THE MIND AS PURE ENERGY 
+
+14 THE ALIEN MIND 
+
+15 CONCLUDING REMARKS 
+
+APPENDIX: QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS? 
+
+NOTES 
+
+SUGGESTED READING 
+ILLUSTRATION CREDITS 
+A Note About the Author 
+
+Other Books by This Author 
+
+ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
+
+It has been my great pleasure to have interviewed and interacted with 
+the following prominent scientists, all of them leaders in their fields. I 
+would like to thank them for graciously giving up their time for 
+interviews and discussions about the future of science. They have given 
+me guidance and inspiration, as well as a firm foundation in their 
+respective fields. 
+
+I would like to thank these pioneers and trailblazers, especially those 
+who have agreed to appear on my TV specials for the BBC, Discovery, 
+and Science TV channels, and also on my national radio shows, Science 
+Fantastic and Explorations."
+"Peter Doherty, Nobel laureate, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital 
+
+Gerald Edelman, Nobel laureate, Scripps Research Institute 
+
+Leon Lederman, Nobel laureate, Illinois Institute of Technology 
+
+Murray Gell-Mann, Nobel laureate, Santa Fe Institute and Cal Tech 
+
+the late Henry Kendall, Nobel laureate, MIT 
+
+Walter Gilbert, Nobel laureate, Harvard University 
+
+David Gross, Nobel laureate, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics 
+
+Joseph Rotblat, Nobel laureate, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital 
+
+Yoichiro Nambu, Nobel laureate, University of Chicago 
+
+Steven Weinberg, Nobel laureate, University of Texas at Austin 
+
+Frank Wilczek, Nobel laureate, MIT 
+
+Amir Aczel, author of Uranium Wars 
+
+Buzz Aldrin, NASA astronaut, second man to walk on the moon 
+Geoff Andersen, U.S. Air Force Academy, author of The Telescope 
+
+Jay Barbree, author of Moon Shot 
+
+John Barrow, physicist, Cambridge University, author of Impossibility 
+
+Marcia Bartusiak, author of Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony"
+"Marcia Bartusiak, author of Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony 
+
+Jim Bell, Cornell University astronomer 
+
+Jeffrey Bennet, author of Beyond UFOs 
+
+Bob Berman, astronomer, author The Secrets of the Night Sky 
+
+Leslie Biesecker, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Piers Bizony, author of How to Build Your Own Starship 
+
+Michael Blaese, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Alex Boese, founder of Museum of Hoaxes 
+
+Nick Bostrom, transhumanist, Oxford University 
+
+Lt. Col. Robert Bowman, Institute for Space and Security Studies 
+
+Cynthia Breazeal, artificial intelligence, MIT Media Lab 
+
+Lawrence Brody, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Rodney Brooks, director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory 
+Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute 
+Michael Brown, astronomer, Cal Tech 
+James Canton, author of The Extreme Future 
+
+Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of 
+Pennsylvania"
+"Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of 
+Pennsylvania 
+
+Fritjof Capra, author of The Science of Leonardo 
+Sean Carroll, cosmologist, Cal Tech 
+Andrew Chaikin, author of A Man on the Moon 
+Leroy Chiao, NASA astronaut 
+
+Eric Chivian, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear 
+War 
+
+Deepak Chopra, author of Super Brain 
+
+George Church, director of Harvard’s Center for Computational 
+Genetics 
+
+Thomas Cochran, physicist, Natural Resources Defense Council 
+
+Christopher Cokinos, astronomer, author of Fallen Sky 
+
+Francis Collins, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Vicki Colvin, nanotechnologist, University of Texas 
+
+Neal Comins, author of Hazards of Space Travel 
+
+Steve Cook, NASA spokesperson 
+
+Christine Cosgrove, author of Normal at Any Cost 
+
+Steve Cousins, CEO of Willow Garage Personal Robots Program 
+
+Phillip Coyle, former assistant secretary of defense for the U.S. Defense 
+Department 
+
+Daniel Crevier, AI, CEO of Coreco"
+"Daniel Crevier, AI, CEO of Coreco 
+
+Ken Croswell, astronomer, author of Magnificent Universe 
+
+Steven Cummer, computer science, Duke University 
+
+Mark Cutkowsky, mechanical engineering, Stanford University 
+
+Paul Davies, physicist, author of Superforce 
+
+Daniel Dennet, philosopher, Tufts University 
+
+the late Michael Dertouzos, computer science, MIT 
+
+Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize winner, UCLA 
+
+Marriot DiChristina, Scientific American 
+
+Peter Dilworth, MIT AI Lab 
+
+John Donoghue, creator of Braingate, Brown University 
+Ann Druyan, widow of Carl Sagan, Cosmos Studios 
+Freeman Dyson, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University 
+David Eagleman, neuroscientist, Baylor College of Medicine 
+John Ellis, CERN physicist 
+
+Paul Erlich, environmentalist, Stanford University 
+Daniel Fairbanks, author of Relics of Eden 
+
+Timothy Ferris, University of California, author of Coming of Age in the 
+Milky Way Galaxy 
+
+Maria Finitzo, stem cell expert, Peabody Award winner 
+
+Robert Finkelstein, AI expert"
+"Maria Finitzo, stem cell expert, Peabody Award winner 
+
+Robert Finkelstein, AI expert 
+
+Christopher Flavin, World Watch Institute 
+
+Louis Friedman, cofounder of the Planetary Society 
+
+Jack Gallant, neuroscientist, University of California at Berkeley 
+
+James Garwin, NASA chief scientist 
+
+Evelyn Gates, author of Einstein’s Telescope 
+
+Michael Gazzaniga, neurologist, University of California at Santa 
+Barbara 
+
+Jack Geiger, cofounder, Physicians for Social Responsibility 
+
+David Gelertner, computer scientist, Yale University, University of 
+California 
+
+Neal Gershenfeld, MIT Media Lab 
+
+Daniel Gilbert, psychologist, Harvard University 
+
+Paul Gilster, author of Centauri Dreams 
+
+Rebecca Goldberg, Environmental Defense Fund 
+
+Don Goldsmith, astronomer, author of Runaway Universe 
+
+David Goodstein, assistant provost of Cal Tech 
+
+J. Richard Gott III, Princeton University, author of Time Travel in 
+Einstein’s Universe 
+
+Late Stephen Jay Gould, biologist, Harvard University"
+"Late Stephen Jay Gould, biologist, Harvard University 
+
+Ambassador Thomas Graham, spy satellites and intelligence gathering 
+
+John Grant, author of Corrupted Science 
+
+Eric Green, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Ronald Green, author of Babies by Design 
+
+Brian Greene, Columbia University, author of The Elegant Universe 
+Alan Guth, physicist, MIT, author of The Inflationary Universe 
+
+William Hanson, author of The Edge of Medicine 
+
+Leonard Hayflick, University of California at San Francisco Medical 
+School 
+
+Donald Hillebrand, Argonne National Labs, future of the car 
+Frank N. von Hippel, physicist, Princeton University 
+
+Allan Hobson, psychiatrist, Harvard University 
+Jeffrey Hoffman, NASA astronaut, MIT 
+
+Douglas Hofstadter, Pulitzer Prize winner, Indiana University, author 
+of Godel, Escher, Bach 
+
+John Horgan, Stevens Institute of Technology, author of The End of 
+Science 
+
+Jamie Hyneman, host of MythBusters 
+
+Chris Impey, astronomer, author of The Living Cosmos 
+
+Robert Irie, AI Lab, MIT"
+"Chris Impey, astronomer, author of The Living Cosmos 
+
+Robert Irie, AI Lab, MIT 
+
+P. J. Jacobowitz, PC magazine 
+
+Jay Jaroslav, MIT AI Lab 
+
+Donald Johanson, anthropologist, discoverer of Lucy 
+George Johnson, New York Times science journalist 
+Tom Jones, NASA astronaut 
+Steve Kates, astronomer 
+
+Jack Kessler, stem cell expert, Peabody Award winner 
+Robert Kirshner, astronomer, Harvard University 
+Kris Koenig, astronomer 
+
+Lawrence Krauss, Arizona State University, author of Physics of Star 
+Trek 
+
+Lawrence Kuhn, filmmaker and philosopher, Closer to Truth 
+
+Ray Kurzweil, inventor, author of The Age of Spiritual Machines 
+
+Robert Lanza, biotechnology, Advanced Cell Technologies 
+
+Roger Launius, author of Robots in Space 
+
+Stan Lee, creator of Marvel Comics and Spider-Man 
+
+Michael Lemonick, senior science editor of Time 
+
+Arthur Lerner-Lam, geologist, volcanist 
+
+Simon LeVay, author of When Science Goes Wrong 
+
+John Lewis, astronomer, University of Arizona 
+
+Alan Lightman, MIT, author of Einstein’s Dreams"
+"John Lewis, astronomer, University of Arizona 
+
+Alan Lightman, MIT, author of Einstein’s Dreams 
+
+George Linehan, author of Space One 
+
+Seth Lloyd, MIT, author of Programming the Universe 
+
+Werner R. Loewenstein, former director of Cell Physics Laboratory, 
+Columbia University 
+
+Joseph Lykken, physicist, Fermi National Laboratory 
+
+Pattie Maes, MIT Media Lab 
+
+Robert Mann, author of Forensic Detective 
+
+Michael Paul Mason, author of Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injury and 
+Its Aftermath 
+
+Patrick McCray, author of Keep Watching the Skies 
+
+Glenn McGee, author of The Perfect Baby 
+
+James McLurkin, MIT, AI Lab 
+
+Paul McMillan, director of Space Watch 
+
+Fulvia Melia, astronomer, University of Arizona 
+
+William Meller, author of Evolution Rx 
+
+Paul Meltzer, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Marvin Minsky, MIT, author of The Society of Minds 
+
+Hans Moravec, author of Robot 
+
+Late Phillip Morrison, physicist, MIT"
+"Hans Moravec, author of Robot 
+
+Late Phillip Morrison, physicist, MIT 
+
+Richard Muller, astrophysicist, University of California at Berkeley 
+David Nahamoo, IBM Human Language Technology 
+Christina Neal, volcanist 
+
+Miguel Nicolelis, neuroscientist, Duke University 
+
+Shinji Nishimoto, neurologist, University of California at Berkeley 
+
+Michael Novacek, American Museum of Natural History 
+
+Michael Oppenheimer, environmentalist, Princeton University 
+
+Dean Ornish, cancer and heart disease specialist 
+
+Peter Palese, virologist, Mount Sinai School of Medicine 
+
+Charles Pellerin, NASA official 
+
+Sidney Perkowitz, author of Hollywood Science 
+
+John Pike, GlobalSecurity.org 
+
+Jena Pincott, author of Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes? 
+
+Steven Pinker, psychologist, Harvard University 
+Thomas Poggio, MIT, artificial intelligence 
+Correy Powell, editor of Discover magazine 
+John Powell, founder of JP Aerospace"
+"Richard Preston, author of Hot Zone and Demon in the Freezer 
+Raman Prinja, astronomer, University College London 
+
+David Quammen, evolutionary biologist, author of The Reluctant Mr. 
+Darwin 
+
+Katherine Ramsland, forensic scientist 
+
+Lisa Randall, Harvard University, author of Warped Passages 
+
+Sir Martin Rees, Royal Astronomer of Great Britain, Cambridge 
+University, author of Before the Beginning 
+
+Jeremy Rifkin, Foundation for Economic Trends 
+David Riquier, MIT Media Lab 
+Jane Rissler, Union of Concerned Scientists 
+Steven Rosenberg, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Oliver Sacks, neurologist, Columbia University 
+Paul Saffo, futurist, Institute of the Future 
+Late Carl Sagan, Cornell University, author of Cosmos 
+Nick Sagan, coauthor of You Call This the Future? 
+
+Michael H. Salamon, NASA’s Beyond Einstein program 
+Adam Savage, host of MythBusters 
+
+Peter Schwartz, futurist, founder of Global Business Network 
+
+Michael Shermer, founder of Skeptic Society and Skeptic magazine"
+"Michael Shermer, founder of Skeptic Society and Skeptic magazine 
+
+Donna Shirley, NASA Mars program 
+
+Seth Shostak, SETI Institute 
+
+Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish 
+
+Paul Shurch, SETI League 
+
+Peter Singer, author of Wired for War 
+
+Simon Singh, author of The Big Bang 
+
+Gary Small, author of iBrain 
+
+Paul Spudis, author of Odyssey Moon Limited 
+
+Stephen Squyres, astronomer, Cornell University 
+
+Paul Steinhardt, Princeton University, author of Endless Universe 
+
+Jack Stern, stem cell surgeon 
+
+Gregory Stock, UCLA, author of Redesigning Humans 
+Richard Stone, author of NEOs and Tunguska 
+Brian Sullivan, Hayden Planetarium 
+Leonard Susskind, physicist, Stanford University 
+Daniel Tammet, author of Bom on a Blue Day 
+Geoffrey Taylor, physicist, University of Melbourne 
+Late Ted Taylor, designer of U.S. nuclear warheads 
+Max Tegmark, cosmologist, MIT 
+Alvin Toffler, author of The Third Wave 
+Patrick Tucker, World Future Society"
+"Chris Turney, University of Wollongong, author of Ice, Mud and Blood 
+Neil de Grasse Tyson, director of Hayden Planetarium 
+Sesh Velamoor, Foundation for the Future 
+
+Robert Wallace, author of Spycraft 
+
+Kevin Warwick, human cyborgs, University of Reading, UK 
+Fred Watson, astronomer, author of Stargazer 
+Late Mark Weiser, Xerox PARC 
+Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us 
+
+Daniel Wertheimer, SETI at Home, University of California at Berkeley 
+Mike Wessler, MIT AI Lab 
+
+Roger Wiens, astronomer, Los Alamos National Laboratory 
+Author Wiggins, author of The Joy of Physics 
+
+Anthony Wynshaw-Boris, National Institutes of Health 
+Carl Zimmer, biologist, author of Evolution 
+Robert Zimmerman, author of Leaving Earth 
+Robert Zubrin, founder of Mars Society"
+"I would also like to thank my agent, Stuart Krichevsky, who has been 
+at my side all these years and has given me helpful advice about my 
+books. I have always benefited from his sound judgment. In addition, I 
+would like to thank my editors, Edward Kastenmeier and Melissa 
+Danaczko, who have guided my book and provided invaluable editorial 
+advice. And I would like to thank Dr. Michelle Kaku, my daughter and a 
+neurology resident at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, for stimulating, 
+thoughtful, and fruitful discussions about the future of neurology. Her 
+careful and thorough reading of the manuscript has greatly enhanced the 
+presentation and content of this book. 
+
+INTRODUCTION"
+"INTRODUCTION 
+
+The two greatest mysteries in all of nature are the mind and the 
+universe. With our vast technology, we have been able to photograph 
+galaxies billions of light-years away, manipulate the genes that control 
+life, and probe the inner sanctum of the atom, but the mind and the 
+universe still elude and tantalize us. They are the most mysterious and 
+fascinating frontiers known to science. 
+
+If you want to appreciate the majesty of the universe, just turn your 
+gaze to the heavens at night, ablaze with billions of stars. Ever since our 
+ancestors first gasped at the splendor of the starry sky, we have puzzled 
+over these eternal questions: Where did it all come from? What does it 
+all mean?"
+"To witness the mystery of our mind, all we have to do is stare at 
+ourselves in the mirror and wonder, What lurks behind our eyes? This 
+raises haunting questions like: Do we have a soul? What happens to us 
+after we die? Who am “I” anyway? And most important, this brings us to 
+the ultimate question: Where do we fit into this great cosmic scheme? As 
+the great Victorian biologist Thomas Huxley once said, “The question of 
+all questions for humanity, the problem which lies behind all others and 
+is more interesting than any of them, is that of the determination of 
+man’s place in Nature and his relation to the Cosmos.”"
+"There are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, roughly the same 
+as the number of neurons in our brain. You may have to travel twenty- 
+four trillion miles, to the first star outside our solar system, to find an 
+object as complex as what is sitting on your shoulders. The mind and the 
+universe pose the greatest scientific challenge of all, but they also share 
+a curious relationship. On one hand they are polar opposites. One is 
+concerned with the vastness of outer space, where we encounter strange 
+denizens like black holes, exploding stars, and colliding galaxies. The 
+other is concerned with inner space, where we find our most intimate 
+and private hopes and desires. The mind is no farther than our next 
+
+thought, yet we are often clueless when asked to articulate and explain 
+it."
+"thought, yet we are often clueless when asked to articulate and explain 
+it. 
+
+But although they may be opposites in this respect, they also have a 
+common history and narrative. Both were shrouded in superstition and 
+magic since time immemorial. Astrologers and phrenologists claimed to 
+find the meaning of the universe in every constellation of the zodiac and 
+in every bump on your head. Meanwhile, mind readers and seers have 
+been alternately celebrated and vilified over the years."
+"The universe and the mind continue to intersect in a variety of ways, 
+thanks in no small part to some of the eye-opening ideas we often 
+encounter in science fiction. Reading these books as a child, I would 
+daydream about being a member of the Sian, a race of telepaths created 
+by A. E. van Vogt. I marveled at how a mutant called the Mule could 
+unleash his vast telepathic powers and nearly seize control of the 
+Galactic Empire in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. And in the movie 
+Forbidden Planet, I wondered how an advanced civilization millions of 
+years beyond ours could channel its enormous telekinetic powers to 
+reshape reality to its whims and wishes."
+"Then when I was about ten, “The Amazing Dunninger” appeared on 
+TV. He would dazzle his audience with his spectacular magic tricks. His 
+motto was “For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those 
+who do not believe, no explanation will suffice.” One day, he declared 
+that he would send his thoughts to millions of people throughout the 
+
+country. He closed his eyes and began to concentrate, stating that he was 
+beaming the name of a president of the United States. He asked people 
+to write down the name that popped into their heads on a postcard and 
+mail it in. The next week, he announced triumphantly that thousands of 
+postcards had come pouring in with the name “Roosevelt,” the very 
+same name he was “beaming” across the United States."
+"I wasn’t impressed. Back then, the legacy of Roosevelt was strong 
+among those who had lived through the Depression and World War II, so 
+this came as no surprise. (I thought to myself that it would have been 
+truly amazing if he had been thinking of President Millard Fillmore.) 
+
+Still, it stoked my imagination, and I couldn’t resist experimenting 
+with telepathy on my own, trying to read other people’s minds by 
+concentrating as hard as I could. Closing my eyes and focusing intently, I 
+would attempt to “listen” to other people’s thoughts and telekinetically 
+
+move objects around my room. 
+
+I failed."
+"move objects around my room. 
+
+I failed. 
+
+Maybe somewhere telepaths walked the Earth, but I wasn’t one of 
+them. In the process, I began to realize that the wondrous exploits of 
+telepaths were probably impossible—at least without outside assistance. 
+But in the years that followed, I also slowly learned another lesson: to 
+fathom the greatest secrets in the universe, one did not need telepathic 
+or superhuman abilities. One just had to have an open, determined, and 
+curious mind. In particular, in order to understand whether the fantastic 
+devices of science fiction are possible, you have to immerse yourself in 
+advanced physics. To understand the precise point when the possible 
+becomes the impossible, you have to appreciate and understand the laws 
+of physics."
+"These two passions have fired up my imagination all these years: to 
+understand the fundamental laws of physics, and to see how science will 
+shape the future of our lives. To illustrate this and to share my 
+excitement in probing the ultimate laws of physics, I have written the 
+books Hyperspace , Beyond Einstein, and Parallel Worlds. And to express 
+my fascination with the future, I have written Visions, Physics of the 
+Impossible, and Physics of the Future. Over the course of writing and 
+researching these books, I was continually reminded that the human 
+mind is still one of the greatest and most mysterious forces in the world. 
+
+Indeed, we’ve been at a loss to understand what it is or how it works 
+for most of history. The ancient Egyptians, for all their glorious 
+accomplishments in the arts and sciences, believed the brain to be a 
+useless organ and threw it away when embalming their pharaohs."
+"Aristotle was convinced that the soul resided in the heart, not the brain, 
+whose only function was to cool down the cardiovascular system. 
+Others, like Descartes, thought that the soul entered the body through 
+the tiny pineal gland of the brain. But in the absence of any solid 
+evidence, none of these theories could be proven. 
+
+This “dark age” persisted for thousands of years, and with good 
+reason. The brain weighs only three pounds, yet it is the most complex 
+object in the solar system. Although it occupies only 2 percent of the 
+body’s weight, the brain has a ravenous appetite, consuming fully 20 
+percent of our total energy (in newborns, the brain consumes an 
+astonishing 65 percent of the baby’s energy), while fully 80 percent of 
+
+our genes are coded for the brain. There are an estimated 100 billion 
+neurons residing inside the skull with an exponential amount of neural 
+connections and pathways."
+"Back in 1977, when the astronomer Carl Sagan wrote his Pulitzer 
+Prize-winning book, The Dragons of Eden, he broadly summarized what 
+was known about the brain up to that time. His book was beautifully 
+written and tried to represent the state of the art in neuroscience, which 
+at that time relied heavily on three main sources. The first was 
+comparing our brains with those of other species. This was tedious and 
+difficult because it involved dissecting the brains of thousands of 
+animals. The second method was equally indirect: analyzing victims of 
+strokes and disease, who often exhibit bizarre behavior because of their 
+illness. Only an autopsy performed after their death could reveal which 
+part of the brain was malfunctioning. Third, scientists could use 
+electrodes to probe the brain and slowly and painfully piece together 
+which part of the brain influenced which behavior."
+"But the basic tools of neuroscience did not provide a systematic way of 
+analyzing the brain. You could not simply requisition a stroke victim 
+with damage in the specific area you wanted to study. Since the brain is 
+a living, dynamic system, autopsies often did not uncover the most 
+interesting features, such as how the parts of the brain interact, let alone 
+how they produced such diverse thoughts as love, hate, jealousy, and 
+curiosity. 
+
+TWIN REVOLUTIONS 
+
+Four hundred years ago, the telescope was invented, and almost 
+overnight, this new, miraculous instrument peered into the heart of the 
+celestial bodies. It was one of the most revolutionary (and seditious) 
+instruments of all time. All of a sudden, with your own two eyes, you"
+"could see the myths and dogma of the past evaporate like the morning 
+mist. Instead of being perfect examples of divine wisdom, the moon had 
+jagged craters, the sun had black spots, Jupiter had moons, Venus had 
+phases, and Saturn had rings. More was learned about the universe in 
+the fifteen years after the invention of the telescope than in all human 
+history put together. 
+
+Like the invention of the telescope, the introduction of MRI machines 
+and a variety of advanced brain scans in the mid-1990s and 2000s has 
+transformed neuroscience. We have learned more about the brain in the 
+last fifteen years than in all prior human history, and the mind, once 
+considered out of reach, is finally assuming center stage."
+"Nobel laureate Eric R. Kandel of the Max Planck Institute in Tubingen, 
+Germany, writes, “The most valuable insights into the human mind to 
+emerge during this period did not come from the disciplines traditionally 
+concerned with the mind—philosophy, psychology, or psycho-analysis. 
+Instead they came from a merger of these disciplines with the biology of 
+the brain....” 
+
+Physicists have played a pivotal role in this endeavor, providing a 
+flood of new tools with acronyms like MRI, EEG, PET, CAT, TCM, TES, 
+and DBS that have dramatically changed the study of the brain. 
+Suddenly with these machines we could see thoughts moving within the 
+living, thinking brain. As neurologist V. S. Ramachandran of the 
+University of California, San Diego, says, “All of these questions that 
+philosophers have been studying for millennia, we scientists can begin to 
+explore by doing brain imaging and by studying patients and asking the 
+right questions.”"
+"Looking back, some of my initial forays into the world of physics 
+intersected with the very technologies that are now opening up the mind 
+for science. In high school, for instance, I became aware of a new form 
+of matter, called antimatter, and decided to conduct a science project on 
+the topic. As it is one of the most exotic substances on Earth, I had to 
+appeal to the old Atomic Energy Commission just to obtain a tiny 
+quantity of sodium-22, a substance that naturally emits a positive 
+electron (anti-electron, or positron). With my small sample in hand, I 
+was able to build a cloud chamber and powerful magnetic field that 
+allowed me to photograph the trails of vapor left by antimatter particles. 
+I didn’t know it at the time, but sodium-22 would soon become 
+instrumental in a new technology, called PET (positron emission 
+tomography), which has since given us startling new insights into the 
+thinking brain."
+"Yet another technology I experimented with in high school was 
+magnetic resonance. I attended a lecture by Felix Bloch of Stanford 
+
+University, who shared the 1952 Nobel Prize for Physics with Edward 
+
+Purcell for the discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance. Dr. Bloch 
+explained to us high school kids that if you had a powerful magnetic 
+field, the atoms would align vertically in that field like compass needles. 
+Then if you applied a radio pulse to these atoms at a precise resonant 
+frequency, you could make them flip over. When they eventually flipped 
+back, they would emit another pulse, like an echo, which would allow 
+you to determine the identity of these atoms. (Later, I used the principle 
+of magnetic resonance to build a 2.3-million-electron-volt particle 
+accelerator in my mom’s garage.)"
+"Just a couple of years later, as a freshman at Harvard University, it 
+was an honor to have Dr. Purcell teach me electrodynamics. Around that 
+same time, I also had a summer job and got a chance to work with Dr. 
+Richard Ernst, who was trying to generalize the work of Bloch and 
+Purcell on magnetic resonance. He succeeded spectacularly and would 
+eventually win the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1991 for laying the 
+foundation for the modern MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machine. 
+The MRI machine, in turn, has given us detailed photographs of the 
+living brain in even finer detail than PET scans. 
+
+EMPOWERING THE MIND"
+"EMPOWERING THE MIND 
+
+Eventually I became a professor of theoretical physics, but my 
+fascination with the mind remained. It is thrilling to see that, just within 
+the last decade, advances in physics have made possible some of the 
+feats of mentalism that excited me when I was a child. Using MRI scans, 
+scientists can now read thoughts circulating in our brains. Scientists can 
+also insert a chip into the brain of a patient who is totally paralyzed and 
+connect it to a computer, so that through thought alone that patient can 
+surf the web, read and write e-mails, play video games, control their 
+wheelchair, operate household appliances, and manipulate mechanical 
+arms. In fact, such patients can do anything a normal person can do via 
+a computer."
+"Scientists are now going even further, by connecting the brain directly 
+to an exoskeleton that these patients can wear around their paralyzed 
+limbs. Quadriplegics may one day lead near-normal lives. Such 
+exoskeletons may also give us superpowers enabling us to handle deadly 
+
+emergencies. One day, our astronauts may even explore the planets by 
+mentally controlling mechanical surrogates from the comfort of their 
+
+living rooms."
+"living rooms. 
+
+As in the movie The Matrix, we might one day be able to download 
+memories and skills using computers. In animal studies, scientists have 
+already been able to insert memories into the brain. Perhaps it’s only a 
+matter of time before we, too, can insert artificial memories into our 
+brains to learn new subjects, vacation in new places, and master new 
+hobbies. And if technical skills can be downloaded into the minds of 
+workers and scientists, this may even affect the world economy. We 
+might even be able to share these memories as well. One day, scientists 
+might construct an “Internet of the mind,” or a brain-net, where 
+thoughts and emotions are sent electronically around the world. Even 
+dreams will be videotaped and then “brain-mailed” across the Internet."
+"Technology may also give us the power to enhance our intelligence. 
+Progress has been made in understanding the extraordinary powers of 
+“savants” whose mental, artistic, and mathematical abilities are truly 
+astonishing. Furthermore, the genes that separate us from the apes are 
+now being sequenced, giving us an unparalleled glimpse into the 
+evolutionary origins of the brain. Genes have already been isolated in 
+animals that can increase their memory and mental performance."
+"The excitement and promise generated by these eye-opening advances 
+are so enormous that they have also caught the attention of the 
+politicians. In fact, brain science has suddenly become the source of a 
+transatlantic rivalry between the greatest economic powers on the 
+planet. In January 2013, both President Barack Obama and the European 
+Union announced what could eventually become multibillion-dollar 
+funding for two independent projects that would reverse engineer the 
+brain. Deciphering the intricate neural circuitry of the brain, once 
+considered hopelessly beyond the scope of modern science, is now the 
+focus of two crash projects that, like the Human Genome Project, will 
+change the scientific and medical landscape. Not only will this give us 
+unparalleled insight into the mind, it will also generate new industries, 
+spur economic activity, and open up new vistas for neuroscience."
+"Once the neural pathways of the brain are finally decoded, one can 
+envision understanding the precise origins of mental illness, perhaps 
+leading to a cure for this ancient affliction. This decoding also makes it 
+
+possible to create a copy of the brain, which raises philosophical and 
+ethical questions. Who are we, if our consciousness can be uploaded into 
+a computer? We can also toy with the concept of immortality. Our 
+bodies may eventually decay and die, but can our consciousness live 
+forever? 
+
+And beyond that, perhaps one day in the distant future the mind will 
+
+be freed of its bodily constraints and roam among the stars, as several 
+scientists have speculated. Centuries from now, one can imagine placing 
+our entire neural blueprint on laser beams, which will then be sent into 
+deep space, perhaps the most convenient way for our consciousness to 
+explore the stars."
+"A brilliant new scientific landscape that will reshape human destiny is 
+now truly opening up. We are now entering a new golden age of 
+neuroscience. 
+
+In making these predictions, I have had the invaluable assistance of 
+scientists who graciously allowed me to interview them, broadcast their 
+ideas on national radio, and even take a TV crew into their laboratories. 
+These are the scientists who are laying the foundation for the future of 
+the mind. For their ideas to be incorporated into this book, I made only 
+two requirements: (1) their predictions must rigorously obey the laws of 
+physics; and (2) prototypes must exist to show proof-of-principle for 
+these far-reaching ideas. 
+
+TOUCHED BY MENTAL ILLN ESS"
+"TOUCHED BY MENTAL ILLN ESS 
+
+I once wrote a biography of Albert Einstein, called Einstein’s Cosmos, and 
+had to delve into the minute details of his private life. I had known that 
+Einstein’s youngest son was afflicted with schizophrenia, but did not 
+realize the enormous emotional toll that it had taken on the great 
+scientist’s life. Einstein was also touched by mental illness in another 
+way; one of his closest colleagues was the physicist Paul Ehrenfest, who 
+helped Einstein create the theory of general relativity. After suffering 
+bouts of depression, Ehrenfest tragically killed his own son, who had 
+Down’s syndrome, and then committed suicide. Over the years, I have 
+found that many of my colleagues and friends have struggled to manage 
+mental illness in their families."
+"Mental illness has also deeply touched my own life. Several years ago, 
+my mother died after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. It was 
+heartbreaking to see her gradually lose her memories of her loved ones, 
+to gaze into her eyes and realize that she did not know who I was. I 
+could see the glimmer of humanity slowly being extinguished. She had 
+spent a lifetime struggling to raise a family, and instead of enjoying her 
+golden years, she was robbed of all the memories she held dear. 
+
+As the baby boomers age, the sad experience that I and many others 
+have had will be repeated across the world. My wish is that rapid 
+advances in neuroscience will one day alleviate the suffering felt by 
+those afflicted with mental illness and dementia. 
+
+WHAT IS DRIVING THIS REVOLUTION?"
+"WHAT IS DRIVING THIS REVOLUTION? 
+
+The data pouring in from brain scans are now being decoded, and the 
+progress is stunning. Several times a year, headlines herald a fresh 
+breakthrough. It took 350 years, since the invention of the telescope, to 
+enter the space age, but it has taken only fifteen years since the 
+introduction of the MRI and advanced brain scans to actively connect 
+the brain to the outside world. Why so quickly , and how much is there to 
+come?"
+"Part of this rapid progress has occurred because physicists today have 
+a good understanding of electromagnetism, which governs the electrical 
+signals racing through our neurons. The mathematical equations of 
+James Clerk Maxwell, which are used to calculate the physics of 
+antennas, radar, radio receivers, and microwave towers, form the very 
+cornerstone of MRI technology. It took centuries to finally solve the 
+secret of electromagnetism, but neuroscience can enjoy the fruits of this 
+grand endeavor. In Book I, I will survey the history of the brain and 
+explain how a galaxy of new instruments has left the physics labs and 
+given us glorious color pictures of the mechanics of thought. Because 
+consciousness plays so central a role in any discussion of the mind, I also 
+give a physicist’s perspective, offering a definition of consciousness that 
+includes the animal kingdom as well. In fact, I provide a ranking of 
+consciousness, showing how it is possible to assign a number to various"
+"consciousness, showing how it is possible to assign a number to various 
+types of consciousness."
+"But to fully answer the question of how this technology will advance, 
+we also have to look at Moore’s law, which states that computer power 
+doubles every two years. I often surprise people with the simple fact that 
+your cell phone today has more computer power than all of NASA when 
+it put two men on the moon in 1969. Computers are now powerful 
+enough to record the electrical signals emanating from the brain and 
+partially decode them into a familiar digital language. This makes it 
+possible for the brain to directly interface with computers to control any 
+object around it. The fast-growing field is called BMI (brain-machine 
+interface), and the key technology is the computer. In Book II, I’ll 
+explore this new technology, which has made recording memories, mind 
+reading, videotaping our dreams, and telekinesis possible."
+"In Book III, I’ll investigate alternate forms of consciousness, from 
+dreams, drugs, and mental illness to robots and even aliens from outer 
+space. Here we’ll also learn about the potential to control and 
+manipulate the brain to manage diseases such as depression, Parkinson’s, 
+Alzheimer’s, and many more. I will also elaborate on the Brain Research 
+Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (or BRAIN) project 
+
+announced by President Obama, and the Human Brain Project of the 
+European Union, which will potentially allocate billions of dollars to 
+decode the pathways of the brain, all the way down to the neural level. 
+These two crash programs will undoubtedly open up entirely new 
+research areas, giving us new ways to treat mental illness and also 
+revealing the deepest secrets of consciousness."
+"After we have given a definition of consciousness, we can use it to 
+explore nonhuman consciousness as well (i.e., the consciousness of 
+robots). How advanced can robots become? Can they have emotions? 
+Will they pose a threat? And we can also explore the consciousness of 
+aliens, who may have goals totally different from ours. 
+
+In the Appendix, I will discuss perhaps the strangest idea in all of 
+science, the concept from quantum physics that consciousness may be 
+the fundamental basis for reality. 
+
+There is no shortage of proposals for this exploding field. Only time 
+will tell which ones are mere pipe dreams created by the overheated 
+imagination of science-fiction writers and which ones represent solid 
+avenues for future scientific research. Progress in neuroscience has been 
+astronomical, and in many ways the key has been modern physics, 
+
+which uses the full power of the electromagnetic and nuclear forces to 
+probe the great secrets hidden within our minds."
+"I should stress that I am not a neuroscientist. I am a theoretical 
+physicist with an enduring interest in the mind. I hope that the vantage 
+point of a physicist can help further enrich our knowledge and give a 
+fresh new understanding of the most familiar and alien object in the 
+universe: our mind. 
+
+But given the dizzying pace with which radically new perspectives are 
+being developed, it is important that we have a firm grasp on how the 
+brain is put together. 
+
+So let us first discuss the origins of modern neuroscience, which some 
+historians believe began when an iron spike sailed through the brain of a 
+certain Phineas Gage. This seminal event set off a chain reaction that 
+helped open the brain to serious scientific investigation. Although it was 
+an unfortunate event for Mr. Gage, it paved the way for modern science. 
+
+BOOK I THE MIND AND CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+My fundamental premise about the brain is that its workings—"
+"BOOK I THE MIND AND CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+My fundamental premise about the brain is that its workings— 
+
+what we sometimes call “mind”—are a consequence of its 
+anatomy and physiology, and nothing more. 
+
+—CARL SAGAN 
+
+1 UNLOCKING THE MIND 
+
+In 1848, Phineas Gage was working as a railroad foreman in Vermont, 
+when dynamite accidentally went off, propelling a three-foot, seven-inch 
+spike straight into his face, through the front part of his brain, and out 
+the top of his skull, eventually landing eighty feet away. His fellow 
+workers, shocked to see part of their foreman’s brain blown off, 
+immediately called for a doctor. To the workers’ (and even the doctor’s) 
+amazement, Mr. Gage did not die on-site."
+"He was semiconscious for weeks, but eventually made what seemed 
+like a full recovery. (A rare photograph of Gage surfaced in 2009, 
+showing a handsome, confident man, with an injury to his head and left 
+eye, holding the iron rod.) But after this incident, his coworkers began to 
+notice a sharp change in his personality. A normally cheerful, helpful 
+foreman, Gage became abusive, hostile, and selfish. Ladies were warned 
+to stay clear of him. Dr. John Harlow, the doctor who treated him, 
+observed that Gage was “capricious and vacillating, devising many plans 
+of future operations, which are no sooner arranged than they are 
+abandoned in turn for others appearing more feasible. A child in his 
+intellectual capacity and manifestations, yet with the animal passions of 
+a strong man.” Dr. Harlow noted that he was “radically changed” and 
+that his fellow workers said that “he was no longer Gage.” After Gage’s 
+death in 1860, Dr. Harlow preserved both his skull and the rod that had"
+"death in 1860, Dr. Harlow preserved both his skull and the rod that had 
+smashed into it. Detailed X-ray scans of the skull have since confirmed 
+that the iron rod caused massive destruction in the area of the brain 
+behind the forehead known as the frontal lobe, in both the left and right 
+cerebral hemispheres."
+"This incredible accident would not only change the life of Phineas 
+Gage, it would alter the course of science as well. Previously, the 
+dominant thinking was that the brain and the soul were two separate 
+entities, a philosophy called dualism. But it became increasingly clear 
+that damage to the frontal lobe of his brain had caused abrupt changes 
+
+in Gage’s personality. This, in turn, created a paradigm shift in scientific 
+thinking: perhaps specific areas of the brain could be traced to certain 
+behaviors. 
+
+broca’s brain"
+"broca’s brain 
+
+In 1861, just a year after Gage’s death, this view was further cemented 
+through the work of Pierre Paul Broca, a physician in Paris who 
+documented a patient who appeared normal except that he had a severe 
+speech deficit. The patient could understand and comprehend speech 
+perfectly, but he could utter only one sound, the word “tan.” After the 
+patient died, Dr. Broca confirmed during the autopsy that the patient 
+suffered from a lesion in his left temporal lobe, a region of the brain near 
+his left ear. Dr. Broca would later confirm twelve similar cases of 
+patients with damage to this specific area of the brain. Today patients 
+who have damage to the temporal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, 
+are said to suffer from Broca’s aphasia. (In general, patients with this 
+disorder can understand speech but cannot say anything, or else they 
+drop many words when speaking.)"
+"Soon afterward, in 1874, German physician Carl Wernicke described 
+patients who suffered from the opposite problem. They could articulate 
+clearly, but they could not understand written or spoken speech. Often 
+these patients could speak fluently with correct grammar and syntax, but 
+with nonsensical words and meaningless jargon. Sadly, these patients 
+often didn’t know they were spouting gibberish. Wernicke confirmed 
+after performing autopsies that these patients had suffered damage to a 
+slightly different area of the left temporal lobe. 
+
+The works of Broca and Wernicke were landmark studies in 
+neuroscience, establishing a clear link between behavioral problems, 
+such as speech and language impairment, and damage to specific regions 
+of the brain."
+"Another breakthrough took place amid the chaos of war. Throughout 
+history, there were many religious taboos prohibiting the dissection of 
+the human body, which severely restricted progress in medicine. In 
+warfare, however, with tens of thousands of bleeding soldiers dying on 
+the battlefield, it became an urgent mission for doctors to develop any 
+
+medical treatment that worked. During the Prusso-Danish War in 1864, 
+German doctor Gustav Fritsch treated many soldiers with gaping wounds 
+to the brain and happened to notice that when he touched one 
+hemisphere of the brain, the opposite side of the body often twitched. 
+Later Fritsch systematically showed that, when he electrically stimulated 
+the brain, the left hemisphere controlled the right side of the body, and 
+vice versa. This was a stunning discovery, demonstrating that the brain 
+was basically electrical in nature and that a particular region of the 
+brain controlled a part on the other side of the body. (Curiously, the use"
+"of electrical probes on the brain was first recorded a couple of thousand 
+years earlier by the Romans. In the year A.D. 43, records show that the 
+court doctor to the emperor Claudius used electrically charged torpedo 
+fish, which were applied to the head of a patient suffering from severe 
+headaches.) 
+
+The realization that there were electrical pathways connecting the 
+brain to the body wasn’t systematically analyzed until the 1930s, when 
+Dr. Wilder Penfield began working with epilepsy patients, who often 
+suffered from debilitating convulsions and seizures that were potentially 
+life-threatening. For them, the last option was to have brain surgery, 
+which involved removing parts of the skull and exposing the brain. 
+(Since the brain has no pain sensors, a person can be conscious during 
+this entire procedure, so Dr. Penfield used only a local anesthetic during 
+the operation.)"
+"Dr. Penfield noticed that when he stimulated certain parts of the 
+cortex with an electrode, different parts of the body would respond. He 
+suddenly realized that he could draw a rough one-to-one correspondence 
+between specific regions of the cortex and the human body. His 
+drawings were so accurate that they are still used today in almost 
+unaltered form. They had an immediate impact on both the scientific 
+community and the general public. In one diagram, you could see which 
+region of the brain roughly controlled which function, and how 
+important each function was. For example, because our hands and 
+mouth are so vital for survival, a considerable amount of brain power is 
+devoted to controlling them, while the sensors in our back hardly 
+register at all. 
+
+Furthermore, Penfield found that by stimulating parts of the temporal 
+lobe, his patients suddenly relived long-forgotten memories in a crystal-"
+"clear fashion. He was shocked when a patient, in the middle of brain 
+surgery, suddenly blurted out, “It was like ... standing in the doorway at 
+[my] high school.... I heard my mother talking on the phone, telling my 
+aunt to come over that night.” Penfield realized that he was tapping into 
+memories buried deep inside the brain. When he published his results in 
+1951, they created another transformation in our understanding of the 
+brain. 
+
+Figure 1. This is the map of the motor cortex that was created by Dr. Wilder Penfield, showing which 
+region of the brain 
+
+controls which part of the body, (illustration credit 1.1) 
+
+A MAP OF THE BRAIN 
+
+By the 1950s and ’60s, it was possible to create a crude map of the brain, 
+locating different regions and even identifying the functions of a few of 
+them."
+"In Figure 2, we see the neocortex, which is the outer layer of the 
+brain, divided into four lobes. It is highly developed in humans. All the 
+lobes of the brain are devoted to processing signals from our senses, 
+except for one: the frontal lobe, located behind the forehead. The 
+prefrontal cortex, the foremost part of the frontal lobe, is where most 
+rational thought is processed. The information you are reading right now 
+is being processed in your prefrontal cortex. Damage to this area can 
+impair your ability to plan or contemplate the future, as in the case of 
+Phineas Gage. This is the region where information from our senses is 
+evaluated and a future course of action is carried out. 
+
+FRONTAL 
+LOBE 
+
+PARIETAL 
+LOBE 
+
+OCCIPITAL 
+
+LOBE 
+
+TEMPORAL 
+
+LOBE 
+
+Figure 2. The four lobes of the neocortex of the brain are responsible for different, though related, 
+functions, (illustration 
+
+credit 1.2)"
+"credit 1.2) 
+
+The parietal lobe is located at the top of our brains. The right 
+hemisphere controls sensory attention and body image; the left 
+hemisphere controls skilled movements and some aspects of language. 
+Damage to this area can cause many problems, such as difficulty in 
+locating parts of your own body. 
+
+The occipital lobe is located at the very back of the brain and 
+processes visual information from the eyes. Damage to this area can 
+cause blindness and visual impairment. 
+
+The temporal lobe controls language (on the left side only), as well as 
+the visual recognition of faces and certain emotional feelings. Damage to 
+this lobe can leave us speechless or without the ability to recognize 
+familiar faces. 
+
+THE EVOLVING BRAIN"
+"THE EVOLVING BRAIN 
+
+When you look at other organs of the body, such as our muscles, bones, 
+and lungs, there seems to be an obvious rhyme and reason to them that 
+we can immediately see. But the structure of the brain might seem 
+slapped together in a rather chaotic fashion. In fact, trying to map the 
+brain has often been called “cartography for fools.”"
+"To make sense of the seemingly random structure of the brain, in 1967 
+Dr. Paul MacLean of the National Institute of Mental Health applied 
+Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to the brain. He divided the brain 
+into three parts. (Since then, studies have shown that there are 
+refinements to this model, but we will use it as a rough organizing 
+principle to explain the overall structure of the brain.) First, he noticed 
+that the back and center part of our brains, containing the brain stem, 
+cerebellum, and basal ganglia, are almost identical to the brains of 
+reptiles. Known as the “reptilian brain,” these are the oldest structures of 
+the brain, governing basic animal functions such as balance, breathing, 
+digestion, heartbeat, and blood pressure. They also control behaviors 
+such as fighting, hunting, mating, and territoriality, which are necessary 
+for survival and reproduction. The reptilian brain can be traced back 
+about 500 million years. (See Figure 3.)"
+"But as we evolved from reptiles to mammals, the brain also became 
+more complex, evolving outward and creating entirely new structures. 
+
+Here we encounter the “mammalian brain,” or the limbic system, which 
+is located near the center of the brain, surrounding parts of the reptilian 
+brain. The limbic system is prominent among animals living in social 
+groups, such as the apes. It also contains structures that are involved in 
+emotions. Since the dynamics of social groups can be quite complex, the 
+limbic system is essential in sorting out potential enemies, allies, and 
+rivals. 
+
+HUMAN 
+
+BRAIN 
+
+Hypothalamus 
+
+MAMMALIAN 
+L BRAIN . 
+
+REPTILIAN 
+
+BRAIN 
+
+Corpus callosum 
+
+Cingulate gyrus 
+
+Frontal lobe 
+
+Hippocampus 
+
+Forn 
+
+Cerebellum 
+
+Brain stem 
+
+Pituitary 
+
+gland"
+"Frontal lobe 
+
+Hippocampus 
+
+Forn 
+
+Cerebellum 
+
+Brain stem 
+
+Pituitary 
+
+gland 
+
+Figure 3. The evolutionary history of the brain, with the reptilian brain, the limbic system (the 
+mammalian brain), and the 
+neocortex (the human brain). Roughly speaking, one can argue that the path of our brain’s evolution 
+passed from the 
+reptilian brain to the mammalian brain to the human brain, (illustration credit 1.3) 
+
+The different parts of the limbic system that control behaviors crucial 
+for social animals are: 
+
+• The hippocampus. This is the gateway to memory, where short-term 
+memories are processed into long-term memories. Its name means 
+“seahorse,” which describes its strange shape. Damage here will 
+destroy the ability to make new long-term memories. You are left a 
+prisoner of the present. 
+
+• The amygdala. This is the seat of emotions, especially fear, where 
+emotions are first registered and generated. Its name means 
+“almond.”"
+"• The thalamus. This is like a relay station, gathering sensory signals 
+from the brain stem and then sending them out to the various 
+cortices. Its name means “inner chamber.” 
+
+• The hypothalamus. This regulates body temperature, our circadian 
+rhythm, hunger, thirst, and aspects of reproduction and pleasure. It 
+lies below the thalamus—hence its name. 
+
+Finally, we have the third and most recent region of the mammalian 
+brain, the cerebral cortex, which is the outer layer of the brain. The 
+latest evolutionary structure within the cerebral cortex is the neocortex 
+(meaning “new bark”), which governs higher cognitive behavior. It is 
+most highly developed in humans: it makes up 80 percent of our brain’s 
+mass, yet is only as thick as a napkin. In rats the neocortex is smooth, 
+but it is highly convoluted in humans, which allows a large amount of 
+surface area to be crammed into the human skull."
+"In some sense, the human brain is like a museum containing remnants 
+of all the previous stages in our evolution over millions of years, 
+exploding outward and forward in size and function. (This is also 
+roughly the path taken when an infant is born. The infant brain expands 
+outward and toward the front, perhaps mimicking the stages of our 
+evolution.) 
+
+Although the neocortex seems unassuming, looks are deceiving. Under 
+a microscope you can appreciate the intricate architecture of the brain. 
+The gray matter of the brain consists of billions of tiny brain cells called 
+neurons. Like a gigantic telephone network, they receive messages from 
+other neurons via dendrites, which are like tendrils sprouting from one 
+end of the neuron. At the other end of the neuron, there is a long fiber 
+called the axon. Eventually the axon connects to as many as ten"
+"thousand other neurons via their dendrites. At the juncture between the 
+two, there is a tiny gap called the synapse. These synapses act like gates, 
+regulating the flow of information within the brain. Special chemicals 
+called neurotransmitters can enter the synapse and alter the flow of 
+signals. Because neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and 
+noradrenaline help control the stream of information moving across the 
+myriad pathways of the brain, they exert a powerful effect on our 
+moods, emotions, thoughts, and state of mind. (See Figure 4.) 
+
+This description of the brain roughly represented the state of 
+knowledge through the 1980s. In the 1990s, however, with the 
+introduction of new technologies from the field of physics, the 
+mechanics of thought began to be revealed in exquisite detail, 
+unleashing the current explosion of scientific discovery. One of the 
+workhorses of this revolution has been the MRI machine."
+"Figure 4. Diagram of a neuron. Electrical signals travel along the axon of the neuron until they hit the 
+synapse. 
+Neurotransmitters can regulate the flow of electrical signals past the synapse, (illustration credit 1.4) 
+
+THE MRI: WINDOW INTO THE BRAIN 
+
+To understand the reason why this radical new technology has helped 
+decode the thinking brain, we have to turn our attention to some basic 
+principles of physics. 
+
+Radio waves, a type of electromagnetic radiation, can pass right 
+
+through tissue without doing damage. MRI machines take advantage of 
+this fact, allowing electromagnetic waves to freely penetrate the skull. In 
+the process, this technology has given us glorious photographs of 
+something once thought to be impossible to capture: the inner workings 
+
+of the brain as it experiences sensations and emotions. Watching the 
+dance of lights flickering in a MRI machine, one can trace out the 
+thoughts moving within the brain. It’s like being able to see the inside of 
+a clock as it ticks."
+"The first thing you notice about an MRI machine is the huge, 
+cylindrical magnetic coils, which can produce a magnetic field twenty to 
+sixty thousand times greater than the strength of Earth’s. The giant 
+magnet is one of the principal reasons why an MRI machine can weigh a 
+ton, fill up an entire room, and cost several million dollars. (MRI 
+machines are safer than X-ray machines because they don’t create 
+harmful ions. CT scans, which can also create 3-D pictures, flood the 
+body with many times the dosage from an ordinary X-ray, and hence 
+have to be carefully regulated. By contrast, MRI machines are safe when 
+used properly. One problem, however, is the carelessness of workers. 
+The magnetic field is powerful enough to send tools hurling through the 
+air at high velocity when turned on at the wrong time. People have been 
+injured and even killed in this way.)"
+"MRI machines work as follows: Patients lie flat and are inserted into a 
+cylinder containing two large coils, which create the magnetic field. 
+When the magnetic field is turned on, the nuclei of the atoms inside your 
+body act very much like a compass needle: they align horizontally along 
+the direction of the field. Then a small pulse of radio energy is 
+generated, which causes some of the nuclei in our body to flip upside 
+down. When the nuclei later revert back to their normal position, they 
+emit a secondary pulse of radio energy, which is then analyzed by the 
+MRI machine. By analyzing these tiny “echoes,” one can then reconstruct 
+the location and nature of these atoms. Like a bat, which uses echoes to 
+determine the position of objects in its path, the echoes created by the 
+MRI machine allow scientists to re-create a remarkable image of the 
+inside of the brain. Computers then reconstruct the position of the 
+atoms, giving us beautiful diagrams in three dimensions."
+"When MRIs were originally introduced, they were able to show the 
+static structure of the brain and its various regions. However, in the mid- 
+1990s, a new type of MRI was invented, called “functional” MRI, or 
+fMRI, which detected the presence of oxygen in the blood in the brain. 
+(For different types of MRI machines, scientists sometimes put a 
+lowercase letter in front of “MRI,” but we will use the abbreviation MRI 
+
+to denote all the various types of MRI machines.) MRI scans cannot 
+directly detect the flow of electricity in the neurons, but since oxygen is 
+necessary to provide the energy for the neurons, oxygenated blood can 
+indirectly trace the flow of electrical energy in the neurons and show 
+how various regions of the brain interact with one another."
+"Already these MRI scans have definitively disproven the idea that 
+thinking is concentrated in a single center. Instead, one can see electrical 
+energy circulating across different parts of the brain as it thinks. By 
+tracing the path taken by our thoughts, MRI scans have shed new light 
+into the nature of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, schizophrenia, and a host of 
+other mental diseases. 
+
+The great advantage of MRI machines is their exquisite ability to 
+locate minute parts of the brain, down to a fraction of a millimeter in 
+size. An MRI scan will create not just dots on a two-dimensional screen, 
+called pixels, but dots in three-dimensional space, called “voxels,” 
+yielding a bright collection of tens of thousands of colored dots in 3-D, in 
+the shape of a brain."
+"Since different chemical elements respond to different frequencies of 
+radio, you can change the frequency of the radio pulse and therefore 
+identify different elements of the body. As noted, fMRI machines zero in 
+on the oxygen atom contained within blood in order to measure blood 
+flow, but MRI machines can also be tuned to identify other atoms. In just 
+the last decade, a new form of MRI was introduced called “diffusion 
+tensor imaging” MRI, which detects the flow of water in the brain. Since 
+water follows the neural pathways of the brain, DTI yields beautiful 
+pictures that resemble networks of vines growing in a garden. Scientists 
+can now instantly determine how certain parts of the brain are hooked 
+up with other parts."
+"There are a couple of drawbacks to MRI technology, however. 
+Although they are unparalleled in spatial resolution, locating voxels 
+down to the size of a pinpoint in three dimensions, MRIs are not that 
+good in temporal resolution. It takes almost a full second to follow the 
+path of blood in the brain, which may not sound like a lot, but 
+remember that electrical signals travel almost instantly throughout the 
+brain, and hence MRI scans can miss some of the intricate details of 
+thought patterns. 
+
+Another snag is the cost, which runs in the millions of dollars, so 
+
+doctors often have to share the machines. But like most technology, 
+developments should bring down the cost over time."
+"In the meantime, exorbitant costs haven’t stalled the hunt for 
+commercial applications. One idea is to use MRI scans as lie detectors, 
+which, according to some studies, can identify lies with 95 percent 
+accuracy or higher. The level of accuracy is still controversial, but the 
+basic idea is that when a person tells a lie, he simultaneously has to 
+know the truth, concoct the lie, and rapidly analyze the consistency of 
+this lie with previously known facts. Today some companies are claiming 
+that MRI technology shows that the prefrontal and parietal lobes light up 
+when someone tells a lie. More specifically, the “orbitofrontal cortex” 
+(which can serve, among other functions, as the brain’s “fact-checker” to 
+warn us when something is wrong) becomes active. This area is located 
+right behind the orbits of our eyes, and hence the name. The theory goes 
+that the orbitofrontal cortex understands the difference between the 
+truth and a lie and kicks into overdrive as a result. (Other areas of the"
+"truth and a lie and kicks into overdrive as a result. (Other areas of the 
+brain also light up when someone tells a lie, such as the superiormedial 
+and inferolateral prefrontal cortices, which are involved in cognition.)"
+"Already there are several commercial firms offering MRI machines as 
+lie detectors, and cases involving these machines are entering the court 
+system. But it’s important to note that these MRI scans indicate increased 
+brain activity only in certain areas. While DNA results can sometimes 
+have an accuracy of one part in 10 billion or better, MRI scans cannot, 
+because it takes many areas of the brain to concoct a lie, and these same 
+areas of the brain are responsible for processing other kinds of thoughts 
+as well. 
+
+EEG SCANS 
+
+Another useful tool to probe deep inside the brain is the EEG, the 
+electroencephalogram. The EEG was introduced all the way back in 
+1924, but only recently has it been possible to employ computers to 
+make sense out of all the data pouring in from each electrode. 
+
+To use the EEG machine, the patient usually puts on a futuristic- 
+looking helmet with scores of electrodes on the surface. (More advanced 
+versions place a hairnet over the head containing a series of tiny"
+"electrodes.) These electrodes detect the tiny electrical signals that are 
+circulating in the brain. 
+
+(illustration credit 1.5) 
+
+Figure 5. At the top, we see an image taken by a functional MRI machine, showing regions of high 
+mental activity. In the 
+
+bottom image, we see the flowerlike pattern created by a diffusion MRI machine, which can follow the 
+neural pathways 
+
+and connections of the brain, (illustration credit 1.5a)"
+"An EEG scan differs from an MRI scan in several crucial ways. The 
+MRI scan, as we have seen, shoots radio pulses into the brain and then 
+analyzes the “echoes” that come back. This means you can vary the 
+radio pulse to select different atoms for analysis, making it quite 
+versatile. The EEG machine, however, is strictly passive; that is, it 
+analyzes the tiny electromagnetic signals the brain naturally emits. The 
+EEG excels at recording the broad electromagnetic signals that surge 
+across the entire brain, which allows scientists to measure the overall 
+activity of the brain as it sleeps, concentrates, relaxes, dreams, etc. 
+Different states of consciousness vibrate at different frequencies. For 
+example, deep sleep corresponds to delta waves, which vibrate at .1 to 4 
+cycles per second. Active mental states, such as problem solving, 
+correspond to beta waves, vibrating from 12 to 30 cycles per second. 
+These vibrations allow various parts of the brain to share information"
+"These vibrations allow various parts of the brain to share information 
+and communicate with one another, even if they are located on opposite 
+sides of the brain. And while MRI scans measuring blood flow can be 
+taken only several times a second, EEG scans measure electrical activity 
+instantly."
+"The greatest advantage of the EEG scan, though, is its convenience 
+and cost. Even high school students have done experiments in their 
+living rooms with EEG sensors placed over their heads. 
+
+However, the main drawback to the EEG, which has held up its 
+development for decades, is its very poor spatial resolution. The EEG 
+picks up electrical signals that have already been diffused after passing 
+through the skull, making it difficult to detect abnormal activity when it 
+originates deep in the brain. Looking at the output of the muddled EEG 
+signals, it is almost impossible to say for sure which part of the brain 
+created it. Furthermore, slight motions, like moving a finger, can distort 
+the signal, sometimes rendering it useless. 
+
+PET SCANS 
+
+Yet another useful tool from the world of physics is the positron 
+emission topography (PET) scan, which calculates the flow of energy in"
+"the brain by locating the presence of glucose, the sugar molecule that 
+fuels cells. Like the cloud chamber I made as a high school student, PET 
+scans make use of the subatomic particles emitted from sodium-22 
+within the glucose. To start the PET scan, a special solution containing 
+slightly radioactive sugar is injected into the patient. The sodium atoms 
+inside the sugar molecules have been replaced by radioactive sodium-22 
+atoms. Every time a sodium atom decays, it emits a positive electron, or 
+positron, which is easily detected by sensors. By following the path of 
+the radioactive sodium atoms in sugar, one can then trace out the energy 
+flow within the living brain. 
+
+The PET scan shares many of the same advantages of MRI scans but 
+does not have the fine spatial resolution of an MRI photo. However, 
+instead of measuring blood flow, which is only an indirect indicator of 
+energy consumption in the body, PET scans measure energy 
+consumption, so it is more closely related to neural activity."
+"There is another drawback to PET scans, however. Unlike MRI and 
+EEG scans, PET scans are slightly radioactive, so patients cannot 
+continually take them. In general, a person is not allowed to have a PET 
+scan more than once a year because of the risk from radiation. 
+
+MAGNETISM IN THE BRAIN 
+
+Within the last decade, many new high-tech devices have entered the 
+tool kit of neuroscientists, including the transcranial electromagnetic 
+scanner (TES), magnetoencephalography (MEG), near-infrared 
+spectroscopy (NIRS), and optogenetics, among others."
+"In particular, magnetism has been used to systematically shut down 
+specific parts of the brain without cutting it open. The basic physics 
+behind these new tools is that a rapidly changing electric field can create 
+a magnetic field, and vice versa. MEGs passively measure the magnetic 
+fields produced by the changing electric fields of the brain. These 
+magnetic fields are weak and extremely tiny, only a billionth of Earth’s 
+magnetic field. Like the EEG, the MEG is extremely good at time 
+resolution, down to a thousandth of a second. Its spatial resolution, 
+however, is only a cubic centimeter. 
+
+Unlike the passive measurement of the MEG, the TES generates a large 
+
+pulse of electricity, which in turn creates a burst of magnetic energy. 
+The TES is placed next to the brain, so the magnetic pulse penetrates the 
+skull and creates yet another electric pulse inside the brain. This 
+secondary electrical pulse, in turn, is sufficient to turn off or dampen the 
+activity of selected areas of the brain."
+"Historically, scientists had to rely on strokes or tumors to silence 
+certain parts of the brain and hence determine what they do. But with 
+the TES, one can harmlessly turn off or dampen parts of the brain at will. 
+By shooting magnetic energy at a particular spot in the brain, one can 
+determine its function by simply watching how a person’s behavior has 
+changed. (For example, by shooting magnetic pulses into the left 
+temporal lobe, one can see that this adversely affects our ability to talk.)"
+"One potential drawback of the TES is that these magnetic fields do not 
+penetrate very far into the interior of the brain (because magnetic fields 
+decrease much faster than the usual inverse square law for electricity). 
+TES is quite useful in turning off parts of the brain near the skull, but the 
+magnetic field cannot reach important centers located deep in the brain, 
+such as the limbic system. But future generations of TES devices may 
+overcome this technical problem by increasing the intensity and 
+precision of the magnetic field. 
+
+Wire coil 
+
+Pulsed magnetic field 
+
+Stimulated 
+brain region 
+
+Positioning 
+
+frame 
+
+Figure 6. We see the transcranial electromagnetic scanner and the magnetoencephalograph, which uses 
+magnetism rather 
+than radio waves to penetrate the skull and determine the nature of thoughts within the brain. 
+Magnetism can 
+temporarily silence parts of the brain, allowing scientists to safely determine how these regions perform
+without relying"
+"on stroke victims, (illustration credit 1.6) 
+
+DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION 
+
+Yet another tool that has proven vital to neurologists is deep brain 
+stimulation (DBS). The probes originally used by Dr. Penfield were 
+relatively crude. Today these electrodes can be hairlike and reach 
+specific areas of the brain deep within its interior. Not only has DBS 
+allowed scientists to locate the function of various parts of the brain, it 
+can also be used to treat mental disorders. DBS has already proven its 
+
+worth with Parkinson’s disease, in which certain regions of the brain are 
+overactive and often create uncontrollable shaking of the hands. 
+
+More recently, these electrodes have targeted a new area of the brain 
+(called Brodmann’s area number 25) that is often overactive in 
+depressed patients who do not respond to psychotherapy or drugs. Deep 
+brain stimulation has given almost miraculous relief after decades of 
+torment and agony for these long-suffering patients."
+"Every year, new uses for deep brain stimulation are being found. In 
+fact, nearly all the major disorders of the brain are being reexamined in 
+light of this and other new brain-scanning technologies. This promises to 
+be an exciting new area for diagnosing and even treating illnesses. 
+
+OPTOGENETICS—LIGHTING UP THE BRAIN 
+
+But perhaps the newest and most exciting instrument in the neurologist’s 
+tool kit is optogenetics, which was once considered science fiction. Like 
+a magic wand, it allows you to activate certain pathways controlling 
+behavior by shining a light beam on the brain. 
+
+Incredibly, a light-sensitive gene that causes a cell to fire can be 
+inserted, with surgical precision, directly into a neuron. Then, by turning 
+on a light beam, the neuron is activated. More importantly, this allows 
+scientists to excite these pathways, so that you can turn on and off 
+certain behaviors by flicking a switch."
+"Although this technology is only a decade old, optogenetics has 
+already proven successful in controlling certain animal behaviors. By 
+
+turning on a light switch, it is possible to make fruit flies suddenly fly 
+off, worms stop wiggling, and mice run around madly in circles. Monkey 
+trials are now beginning, and even human trials are in discussion. There 
+is great hope that this technology will have a direct application in 
+treating disorders like Parkinson’s and depression. 
+
+THE TRANSPARENT BRAIN 
+
+Like optogenetics, another spectacular new development is making the 
+brain fully transparent so that its neural pathways are exposed to the 
+naked eye. In 2013, scientists at Stanford University announced that 
+
+they had successfully made the entire brain of a mouse transparent, as 
+well as parts of a human brain. The announcement was so stunning that 
+it made the front page of the New York Times, with the headline “Brain 
+as Clear as Jell-0 for Scientists to Explore.”"
+"At the cellular level, cells seen individually are transparent, with all 
+their microscopic components fully exposed. However, once billions of 
+cells come together to form organs like the brain, the addition of lipids 
+(fats, oils, waxes, and chemicals not soluble in water) helps make the 
+organ opaque. The key to the new technique is to remove the lipids 
+while keeping the neurons intact. The scientists at Stanford did this by 
+placing the brain in hydrogel (a gel-like substance mainly made of 
+water), which binds to all the brain’s molecules except the lipids. By 
+placing the brain in a soapy solution with an electric field, the solution 
+can be flushed out of the brain, carrying along the lipids, leaving the 
+brain transparent. The addition of dyes can then make the neural 
+pathways visible. This will help to identify and map the many neural 
+pathways of the brain."
+"Making tissue transparent is not new, but getting precisely the right 
+conditions necessary to make the entire brain transparent took a lot of 
+ingenuity. “I burned and melted more than a hundred brains,” confessed 
+Dr. Kwanghun Chung, one of the lead scientists in the study. The new 
+technique, called Clarity, can also be applied to other organs (and even 
+organs preserved years ago in chemicals like formalin). He has already 
+created transparent livers, lungs, and hearts. This new technique has 
+startling applications across all of medicine. In particular, it will 
+accelerate locating the neural pathways of the brain, which is the focus 
+of intense research and funding. 
+
+FOUR FUNDAMENTAL FORCES"
+"FOUR FUNDAMENTAL FORCES 
+
+The success of this first generation of brain scans has been nothing less 
+than spectacular. Before their introduction, only about thirty or so 
+regions of the brain were known with any certainty. Now the MRI 
+machine alone can identify two to three hundred regions of the brain, 
+opening up entirely new frontiers for brain science. With so many new 
+scanning technologies being introduced from physics just within the last 
+
+fifteen years, one might wonder: Are there more? The answer is yes, but 
+they will be variations and refinements of the previous ones, not 
+radically new technologies. This is because there are only four 
+fundamental forces—gravitational, electromagnetic, weak nuclear, and 
+strong nuclear—that rule the universe. (Physicists have tried to find 
+evidence for a fifth force, but so far all such attempts have failed.)"
+"The electromagnetic force, which lights up our cities and represents 
+the energy of electricity and magnetism, is the source of almost all the 
+new scanning technologies (with the exception of the PET scan, which is 
+governed by the weak nuclear force). Because physicists have had over 
+150 years of experience working with the electromagnetic force, there is 
+no mystery in creating new electric and magnetic fields, so any new 
+brain-scanning technology will most likely be a novel modification of 
+existing technologies, rather than being something entirely new. As with 
+most technology, the size and cost of these machines will drop, vastly 
+increasing the widespread use of these sophisticated instruments. 
+Already physicists are doing the basic calculations necessary to make an 
+MRI machine fit into a cell phone. At the same time, the fundamental 
+challenge facing these brain scans is resolution, both spatial and 
+temporal. The spatial resolution of MRI scans will increase as the"
+"temporal. The spatial resolution of MRI scans will increase as the 
+magnetic field becomes more uniform and as the electronics become 
+more sensitive. At present, MRI scans can see only dots or voxels within 
+a fraction of a millimeter. But each dot may contain hundreds of 
+thousands of neurons. New scanning technology should reduce this even 
+further. The holy grail of this approach would be to create an MRI-like 
+machine that could identify individual neurons and their connections."
+"The temporal resolution of MRI machines is also limited because they 
+analyze the flow of oxygenated blood in the brain. The machine itself 
+has very good temporal resolution, but tracing the flow of blood slows it 
+down. In the future, other MRI machines will be able to locate different 
+substances that are more directly connected to the firing of neurons, 
+thereby allowing real-time analysis of mental processes. No matter how 
+spectacular the successes of the past fifteen years, then, they were just a 
+taste of the future. 
+
+NEW MODELS OF THE BRAIN 
+
+Historically, with each new scientific discovery, a new model of the 
+brain has emerged. One of the earliest models of the brain was the 
+“homunculus,” a little man who lived inside the brain and made all the 
+decisions. This picture was not very helpful, since it did not explain what 
+was happening in the brain of the homunculus. Perhaps there was a 
+homunculus hiding inside the homunculus."
+"With the arrival of simple mechanical devices, another model of the 
+brain was proposed: that of a machine, such as a clock, with mechanical 
+wheels and gears. This analogy was useful for scientists and inventors 
+like Leonardo da Vinci, who actually designed a mechanical man."
+"During the late 1800s, when steam power was carving out new 
+empires, another analogy emerged, that of a steam engine, with flows of 
+energy competing with one another. This hydraulic model, historians 
+have conjectured, affected Sigmund Freud’s picture of the brain, in 
+which there was a continual struggle between three forces: the ego 
+(representing the self and rational thought), the id (representing 
+repressed desires), and the superego (representing our conscience). In 
+this model, if too much pressure built up because of a conflict among 
+these three, there could be a regression or general breakdown of the 
+entire system. This model was ingenious, but as even Freud himself 
+admitted, it required detailed studies of the brain at the neuronal level, 
+which would take another century."
+"Early in the last century, with the rise of the telephone, another 
+analogy surfaced—that of a giant switchboard. The brain was a mesh of 
+telephone lines connected into a vast network. Consciousness was a long 
+row of telephone operators sitting in front of a large panel of switches, 
+constantly plugging and unplugging wires. Unfortunately, this model 
+said nothing about how these messages were wired together to form the 
+brain. 
+
+With the rise of the transistor, yet another model became fashionable: 
+the computer. The old-fashioned switching stations were replaced by 
+microchips containing hundreds of millions of transistors. Perhaps the 
+“mind” was just a software program running on “wetware” (i.e., brain 
+tissue rather than transistors). This model is an enduring one, even 
+today, but it has limitations. The transistor model cannot explain how 
+the brain performs computations that would require a computer the size 
+of New York City. Plus the brain has no programming, no Windows"
+"operating system or Pentium chip. (Also, a PC with a Pentium chip is 
+extremely fast, but it has a bottleneck. All calculations must pass 
+
+through this single processor. The brain is the opposite. The firing of 
+each neuron is relatively slow, but it more than makes up for this by 
+having 100 billion neurons processing data simultaneously. Therefore a 
+slow parallel processor can trump a very fast single processor.) 
+
+The most recent analogy is that of the Internet, which lashes together 
+billions of computers. Consciousness, in this picture, is an “emergent” 
+phenomenon, miraculously arising out of the collective action of billions 
+of neurons. (The problem with this picture is that it says absolutely 
+nothing about how this miracle occurs. It brushes all the complexity of 
+the brain under the rug of chaos theory.)"
+"No doubt each of these analogies has kernels of truth, but none of 
+them truly captures the complexity of the brain. However, one analogy 
+for the brain that I have found useful (albeit still imperfect) is that of a 
+large corporation. In this analogy, there is a huge bureaucracy and lines 
+of authority, with vast flows of information channeled between different 
+offices. But the important information eventually winds up at the 
+command center with the CEO. There the final decisions are made. 
+
+If this analogy of the brain to a large corporation is valid, then it 
+should be able to explain certain peculiar features of the brain:"
+"• Most information is “subconscious” —that is, the CEO is blissfully 
+unaware of the vast, complex information that is constantly flowing 
+inside the bureaucracy. In fact, only a tiny amount of information 
+finally reaches the desk of the CEO, who can be compared to the 
+prefrontal cortex. The CEO just has to know information important 
+enough to get his attention; otherwise, he would be paralyzed by an 
+avalanche of extraneous information. 
+
+This arrangement is probably a by-product of evolution, since our 
+ancestors would have been overwhelmed with superfluous, 
+subconscious information flooding their brains when facing an 
+emergency. We are all mercifully unaware of the trillions of 
+calculations being processed in our brains. Upon encountering a 
+tiger in the forest, one does not have to be bothered with the status 
+of our stomach, toes, hair, etc. All one has to know is how to run. 
+
+• “Emotions” are rapid decisions made independently at a lower"
+"• “Emotions” are rapid decisions made independently at a lower 
+
+level. Since rational thought takes many seconds, this means that it 
+is often impossible to make a reasoned response to an emergency; 
+hence lower-level brain regions must rapidly assess the situation and 
+make a decision, an emotion, without permission from the top. 
+
+So emotions (fear, anger, horror, etc.) are instantaneous red flags 
+
+made at a lower level, generated by evolution, to warn the 
+command center of possibly dangerous or serious situations. We 
+have little conscious control over emotions. For example, no matter 
+how much we practice giving a speech to a large audience, we still 
+feel nervous. 
+
+Rita Carter, author of Mapping the Mind, writes, “Emotions are not 
+feelings at all but a set of body-rooted survival mechanisms that 
+have evolved to turn us away from danger and propel us forward to 
+things that may be of benefit.” 
+
+• There is a constant clamoring for the attention of the CEO."
+"• There is a constant clamoring for the attention of the CEO. 
+
+There is no single homunculus, CPU, or Pentium chip making 
+decisions; instead, the various subcenters within the command 
+center are in constant competition with one another, vying for the 
+attention of the CEO. So there is no smooth, steady continuity of 
+thought, but the cacophony of different feedback loops competing 
+with one another. The concept of “I,” as a single, unified whole 
+making all decisions continuously, is an illusion created by our own 
+subconscious minds. 
+
+Mentally we feel that our mind is a single entity, continuously and 
+smoothly processing information, totally in charge of our decisions. 
+But the picture emerging from brain scans is quite different from the 
+perception we have of our own mind. 
+
+MIT professor Marvin Minsky, one of the founding fathers of 
+artificial intelligence, told me that the mind is more like a “society 
+of minds,” with different submodules, each trying to compete with 
+the others."
+"When I interviewed Steven Pinker, a psychologist at Harvard 
+University, I asked him how consciousness emerges out of this mess. 
+He said that consciousness was like a storm raging in our brain. He 
+elaborated on this when he wrote that “the intuitive feeling we have 
+that there’s an executive T that sits in a control room of our brain, 
+
+scanning the screens of the senses and pushing the buttons of our 
+muscles, is an illusion. Consciousness turns out to consist of a 
+maelstrom of events distributed across the brain. These events 
+compete for attention, and as one process outshouts the others, the 
+brain rationalizes the outcome after the fact and concocts the 
+impression that a single self was in charge all along.” 
+
+• Final decisions are made by the CEO in the command center."
+"• Final decisions are made by the CEO in the command center. 
+
+Almost all the bureaucracy is devoted to accumulating and 
+assembling information for the CEO, who meets only with the 
+directors of each division. The CEO tries to mediate all the 
+conflicting information pouring into the command center. The buck 
+stops here. The CEO, located in the prefrontal cortex, has to make 
+the final decision. While most decisions are made by instinct in 
+animals, humans make higher-level decisions after sifting through 
+different bodies of information from our senses. 
+
+• Information flows are hierarchical. Because of the vast amount of 
+information that must flow upward toward the CEO’s office, or 
+downward to the support staff, information must be arranged in 
+complex arrays of nested networks, with many branches. Think of a 
+pine tree, with the command center on top and a pyramid of 
+branches flowing downward, branching out into many subcenters."
+"There are, of course, differences between a bureaucracy and the 
+structure of thought. The first rule of any bureaucracy is that “it 
+expands to fill the space allotted to it.” But wasting energy is a 
+luxury the brain cannot afford. The brain consumes only about 
+twenty watts of power (the power of a dim lightbulb), but that is 
+probably the maximum energy it can consume before the body 
+becomes dysfunctional. If it generates more heat, it will cause tissue 
+damage. Therefore the brain is constantly using shortcuts to 
+conserve energy. We will see throughout this book the clever and 
+ingenious devices that evolution has crafted, without our 
+knowledge, to cut corners. 
+
+IS “REALITY” REALLY REAL? 
+
+Everyone knows the expression “seeing is believing.” Yet much of what"
+"IS “REALITY” REALLY REAL? 
+
+Everyone knows the expression “seeing is believing.” Yet much of what 
+
+we see is actually an illusion. For example, when we see a typical 
+landscape, it seems like a smooth, movielike panorama. In reality, there 
+is a gaping hole in our field of vision, corresponding to the location of 
+the optic nerve in the retina. We should see this large ugly black spot 
+wherever we look. But our brains fill in that hole by papering it over, by 
+averaging it out. This means that part of our vision is actually fake, 
+generated by our subconscious minds to deceive us. 
+
+Also, we see only the center of our field of vision, called the fovea, 
+with clarity. The peripheral part is blurry, in order to save energy. But 
+the fovea is very small. To capture as much information as possible with 
+the tiny fovea, the eye darts around constantly. This rapid, jiggling 
+motion of our eyes is called saccades. All this is done subconsciously,"
+"giving us the false impression that our field of vision is clear and 
+focused. 
+
+When I was a child and first saw a diagram showing the 
+electromagnetic spectrum in its true glory, I was shocked. I had been 
+totally unaware that huge parts of the EM spectrum (e.g., infrared light, 
+UV light, X-rays, gamma rays) were totally invisible to us. I began to 
+realize that what I saw with my eyes was only a tiny, crude 
+approximation of reality. (There is an old saying: “If appearance and 
+essence were the same thing, there would be no need for science.”) We 
+have sensors in the retina that can detect only red, green, and blue. This 
+means that we’ve never actually seen yellow, brown, orange, and a host 
+of other colors. These colors do exist, but our brain can approximate 
+each of them only by mixing different amounts of red, green, and blue. 
+(You can see this if you look at an old color-TV screen very carefully. 
+You see only a collection of red, green, and blue dots. Color TV is 
+actually an illusion.)"
+"Our eyes also fool us into thinking we can see depth. The retinas of 
+our eyes are two-dimensional, but because we have two eyes separated 
+by a few inches, the left and right brain merge these two images, giving 
+us the false sense of a third dimension. For more distant objects, we can 
+judge how far an object is by observing how they move when we move 
+our head. This is called parallax. 
+
+(This parallax explains the fact that children sometimes complain that 
+“the moon is following me.” Because the brain has difficulty 
+comprehending the parallax of an object as distant as the moon, it 
+
+appears as if the moon is always a fixed distance “behind” them, but it’s 
+just an illusion caused by the brain taking a shortcut.) 
+
+THE SPLIT-BRAIN PARADOX"
+"THE SPLIT-BRAIN PARADOX 
+
+One way in which this picture, based on the corporate hierarchy of a 
+company, deviates from the actual structure of the brain can be seen in 
+the curious case of split-brain patients. One unusual feature of the brain 
+is that it has two nearly identical halves, or hemispheres, the left and 
+right. Scientists have long wondered why the brain has this unnecessary 
+redundancy, since the brain can operate even if one entire hemisphere is 
+completely removed. No normal corporate hierarchy has this strange 
+feature. Furthermore, if each hemisphere has consciousness, does this 
+mean that we have two separate centers of consciousness inside one 
+skull?"
+"Dr. Roger W. Sperry of the California Institute of Technology won the 
+Nobel Prize in 1981 for showing that the two hemispheres of the brain 
+are not exact carbon copies of each other, but actually perform different 
+duties. This result created a sensation in neurology (and also spawned a 
+cottage industry of dubious self-help books that claim to apply the left- 
+brain, right-brain dichotomy to your life). 
+
+Dr. Sperry was treating epileptics, who sometimes suffer from grand 
+mal seizures often caused by feedback loops between the two 
+hemispheres that go out of control. Like a microphone screeching in our 
+ears because of a feedback loop, these seizures can become life- 
+threatening. Dr. Sperry began by severing the corpus callosum, which 
+connects the two hemispheres of the brain, so that they no longer 
+communicated and shared information between the left and right side of 
+the body. This usually stopped the feedback loop and the seizures."
+"At first, these split-brain patients seemed perfectly normal. They were 
+alert and could carry on a natural conversation as if nothing had 
+happened. But a careful analysis of these individuals showed that 
+something was very different about them. 
+
+Normally the hemispheres complement each other as thoughts move 
+back and forth between the two. The left brain is more analytical and 
+logical. It is where verbal skills are found, while the right brain is more 
+
+holistic and artistic. But the left brain is the dominant one and makes the 
+final decisions. Commands pass from the left brain to the right brain via 
+the corpus callosum. But if that connection is cut, it means that the right 
+brain is now free from the dictatorship of the left brain. Perhaps the 
+right brain can have a will of its own, contradicting the wishes of the 
+dominant left brain."
+"In short, there could be two wills acting within one skull, sometimes 
+struggling for control of the body. This creates the bizarre situation 
+where the left hand (controlled by the right brain) starts to behave 
+independently of your wishes, as if it were an alien appendage. 
+
+There is one documented case in which a man was about to hug his 
+wife with one hand, only to find that the other hand had an entirely 
+different agenda. It delivered a right hook to her face. Another woman 
+reported that she would pick out a dress with one hand, only to see her 
+other hand grab an entirely different outfit. Meanwhile, one man had 
+difficulty sleeping at night thinking that his other rebellious hand might 
+strangle him. 
+
+At times, split-brain people think they are living in a cartoon, where 
+one hand struggles to control the other. Physicians sometimes call this 
+
+the Dr. Strangelove syndrome, because of a scene in the movie in which 
+one hand has to fight against the other hand."
+"Dr. Sperry, after detailed studies of split-brain patients, finally 
+concluded that there could be two distinct minds operating in a single 
+brain. He wrote that each hemisphere is “indeed a conscious system in 
+its own right, perceiving, thinking, remembering, reasoning, willing, and 
+emoting, all at a characteristically human level, and ... both the left and 
+right hemisphere may be conscious simultaneously in different, even in 
+mutually conflicting, mental experiences that run along in parallel.”"
+"When I interviewed Dr. Michael Gazzaniga of the University of 
+California, Santa Barbara, an authority on split-brain patients, I asked 
+him how experiments can be done to test this theory. There are a variety 
+of ways to communicate separately to each hemisphere without the 
+knowledge of the other hemisphere. One can, for example, have the 
+subject wear special glasses on which questions can be shown to each 
+eye separately, so that directing questions to each hemisphere is easy. 
+The hard part is trying to get an answer from each hemisphere. Since the 
+right brain cannot speak (the speech centers are located only in the left 
+
+brain), it is difficult to get answers from the right brain. Dr. Gazzaniga 
+told me that to find out what the right brain was thinking, he created an 
+experiment in which the (mute) right brain could “talk” by using 
+Scrabble letters."
+"He began by asking the patient’s left brain what he would do after 
+graduation. The patient replied that he wanted to become a draftsman. 
+But things got interesting when the (mute) right brain was asked the 
+same question. The right brain spelled out the words: “automobile 
+racer.” Unknown to the dominant left brain, the right brain secretly had 
+a completely different agenda for the future. The right brain literally had 
+a mind of its own. 
+
+Rita Carter writes, “The possible implications of this are mind- 
+boggling. It suggests that we might all be carrying around in our skulls a 
+mute prisoner with a personality, ambition, and self-awareness quite 
+different from the day-to-day entity we believe ourselves to be.”"
+"Perhaps there is truth to the oft-heard statement that “inside him, 
+there is someone yearning to be free.” This means that the two 
+hemispheres may even have different beliefs. For example, the 
+neurologist V. S. Ramanchandran describes one split-brain patient who, 
+when asked if he was a believer or not, said he was an atheist, but his 
+right brain declared he was a believer. Apparently, it is possible to have 
+two opposing religious beliefs residing in the same brain. Ramachandran 
+continues: “If that person dies, what happens? Does one hemisphere go 
+
+to heaven and the other go to hell? I don’t know the answer to that.” 
+
+(It is conceivable, therefore, that a person with a split-brain 
+personality might be both Republican and Democrat at the same time. If 
+you ask him whom he will vote for, he will give you the candidate of the 
+left brain, since the right brain cannot speak. But you can imagine the 
+chaos in the voting booth when he has to pull the lever with one hand.) 
+
+WHO IS IN CHARGE?"
+"WHO IS IN CHARGE? 
+
+One person who has spent considerable time and done much research to 
+understand the problem of the subconscious mind is Dr. David 
+Eagleman, a neuroscientist at the Baylor College of Medicine. When I 
+interviewed him, I asked him, If most of our mental processes are 
+
+subconscious, then why are we ignorant of this important fact? He gave 
+an example of a young king who inherits the throne and takes credit for 
+everything in the kingdom, but hasn’t the slightest clue about the 
+thousands of staff, soldiers, and peasants necessary to maintain the 
+throne."
+"Our choice of politicians, marriage partners, friends, and future 
+occupations are all influenced by things that we are not conscious of. 
+(For example, it is an odd result, he says, that “people named Denise or 
+Dennis are disproportionately likely to become dentists, while people 
+named Laura or Lawrence are more likely to become lawyers, and 
+people with names like George or Georgina to become geologists.”) This 
+also means that what we consider to be “reality” is only an 
+approximation that the brain makes to fill in the gaps. Each of us sees 
+reality in a slightly different way. For example, he pointed out, “at least 
+15 percent of human females possess a genetic mutation that gives them 
+an extra (fourth) type of color photoreceptor—and this allows them to 
+discriminate between colors that look identical to the majority of us with 
+a mere three types of color photoreceptors.”"
+"Clearly, the more we understand the mechanics of thought, the more 
+questions arise. Precisely what happens in the command center of the 
+mind when confronted with a rebellious shadow command center? What 
+do we mean by “consciousness” anyway, if it can be split in half? And 
+what is the relationship between consciousness and “self” and “self- 
+awareness”? 
+
+If we can answer these difficult questions, then perhaps it will pave 
+the way for understanding nonhuman consciousness, the consciousness 
+of robots and aliens from outer space, for example, which may be 
+
+entirely different from ours. 
+
+So let us now propose a clear answer to this deceptively complex 
+question: What is consciousness? 
+
+The mind of man is capable of anything ... because everything 
+is in it, all the past as well as all the future. 
+
+—JOSEPH CONRAD 
+
+Consciousness can reduce even the most fastidious thinker to 
+blabbering incoherence. 
+
+—COLIN MCGINN 
+
+2 CONSCIOUSNESS—A PHYSICIST’S VIEWPOINT"
+"—COLIN MCGINN 
+
+2 CONSCIOUSNESS—A PHYSICIST’S VIEWPOINT 
+
+The idea of consciousness has intrigued philosophers for centuries, but 
+it has resisted a simple definition, even to this day. The philosopher 
+David Chalmers has cataloged more than twenty thousand papers 
+written on the subject; nowhere in science have so many devoted so 
+much to create so little consensus. The seventeenth-century thinker 
+Gottfried Leibniz once wrote, “If you could blow the brain up to the size 
+of a mill and walk about inside, you would not find consciousness.” 
+
+Some philosophers doubt that a theory of consciousness is even 
+possible. They claim that consciousness can never be explained since an 
+object can never understand itself, so we don’t even have the mental 
+firepower to solve this perplexing question. Harvard psychologist Steven 
+Pinker writes, “We cannot see ultraviolet light. We cannot mentally 
+rotate an object in the fourth dimension. And perhaps we cannot solve 
+conundrums like free will and sentience.”"
+"In fact, for most of the twentieth century, one of the dominant theories 
+of psychology, behaviorism, denied the importance of consciousness 
+entirely. Behaviorism is based on the idea that only the objective 
+behavior of animals and people is worthy of study, not the subjective, 
+internal states of the mind. 
+
+Others have given up trying to define consciousness, and try simply to 
+describe it. Psychiatrist Giulio Tononi has said, “Everybody knows what 
+consciousness is: it is what abandons you every night when you fall into 
+dreamless sleep and returns the next morning when you wake up.” 
+
+Although the nature of consciousness has been debated for centuries, 
+there has been little resolution. Given that physicists created many of the 
+inventions that have made the explosive advancements in brain science 
+possible, perhaps it will be useful to follow an example from physics in 
+reexamining this ancient question. 
+
+HOW PHYSICISTS UNDERSTAND THE UNIVERSE"
+"HOW PHYSICISTS UNDERSTAND THE UNIVERSE 
+
+When a physicist tries to understand something, first he collects data and 
+then he proposes a “model,” a simplified version of the object he is 
+studying that captures its essential features. In physics, the model is 
+described by a series of parameters (e.g., temperature, energy, time). 
+Then the physicist uses the model to predict its future evolution by 
+simulating its motions. In fact, some of the world’s largest 
+supercomputers are used to simulate the evolution of models, which can 
+describe protons, nuclear explosions, weather patterns, the big bang, and 
+the center of black holes. Then you create a better model, using more 
+sophisticated parameters, and simulate it in time as well."
+"For example, when Isaac Newton was puzzling over the motion of the 
+moon, he created a simple model that would eventually change the 
+course of human history: he envisioned throwing an apple in the air. The 
+faster you threw the apple, he reasoned, the farther it would travel. If 
+you threw it fast enough, in fact, it would encircle the Earth entirely, 
+and might even return to its original point. Then, Newton claimed, this 
+model represented the path of the moon, so the forces that guided the 
+motion of the apple circling the Earth were identical to the forces 
+guiding the moon."
+"But the model, by itself, was still useless. The key breakthrough came 
+when Newton was able to use his new theory to simulate the future, to 
+calculate the future position of moving objects. This was a difficult 
+problem, requiring him to create an entirely new branch of mathematics, 
+called calculus. Using this new mathematics, Newton was then able to 
+predict the trajectory of not just the moon, but also Halley’s Comet and 
+the planets. Since then, scientists have used Newton’s laws to simulate 
+the future path of moving objects, from cannonballs, machines, 
+automobiles, and rockets to asteroids and meteors, and even stars and 
+galaxies. 
+
+The success or failure of a model depends on how faithfully it 
+reproduces the basic parameters of the original. In this case, the basic 
+parameter was the location of the apple and the moon in space and time. 
+By allowing this parameter to evolve (i.e., letting time move forward), 
+Newton unlocked, for the first time in history, the action of moving"
+"bodies, which is one of the most important discoveries in science. 
+
+Models are useful, until they are replaced by even more accurate 
+models described by better parameters. Einstein replaced Newton’s 
+
+picture of forces acting on apples and moons with a new model based on 
+a new parameter, the curvature of space and time. An apple moved not 
+because the Earth exerted a force on it, but because the fabric of space 
+and time was stretched by the Earth, so the apple was simply moving 
+along the surface of a curved space-time. From this, Einstein could then 
+simulate the future of the entire universe. Now, with computers, we can 
+run simulations of this model into the future and create gorgeous 
+pictures presenting the collisions of black holes. 
+
+Let us now incorporate this basic strategy into a new theory of 
+consciousness. 
+
+DEFINITION OF CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"DEFINITION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+I’ve taken bits and pieces from previous descriptions of consciousness in 
+the fields of neurology and biology in order to define consciousness as 
+follows: 
+
+Consciousness is the process of creating a model of the world 
+using multiple feedback loops in various parameters (e.g., in 
+temperature, space, time, and in relation to others), in order to 
+accomplish a goal (e.g., find mates, food, shelter). 
+
+I call this the “space-time theory of consciousness,” because it 
+emphasizes the idea that animals create a model of the world mainly in 
+relation to space, and to one another, while humans go beyond and 
+create a model of the world in relation to time, both forward and 
+backward."
+"For example, the lowest level of consciousness is Level 0, where an 
+organism is stationary or has limited mobility and creates a model of its 
+place using feedback loops in a few parameters (e.g., temperature). For 
+example, the simplest level of consciousness is a thermostat. It 
+automatically turns on an air conditioner or heater to adjust the 
+temperature in a room, without any help. The key is a feedback loop 
+that turns on a switch if the temperature gets too hot or cold. (For 
+example, metals expand when heated, so a thermostat can turn on a 
+switch if a metal strip expands beyond a certain point.) 
+
+Each feedback loop registers “one unit of consciousness,” so a 
+thermostat would have a single unit of Level 0 consciousness, that is, 
+Level 0:1."
+"In this way, we can rank consciousness numerically, on the basis of 
+the number and complexity of the feedback loops used to create a model 
+of the world. Consciousness is then no longer a vague collection of 
+undefined, circular concepts, but a system of hierarchies that can be 
+ranked numerically. For example, a bacterium or a flower has many 
+more feedback loops, so they would have a higher level of Level 0 
+consciousness. A flower with ten feedback loops (which measure 
+temperature, moisture, sunlight, gravity, etc.), would have a Level 0:10 
+consciousness."
+"Organisms that are mobile and have a central nervous system have 
+Level I consciousness, which includes a new set of parameters to 
+measure their changing location. One example of Level I consciousness 
+would be reptiles. They have so many feedback loops that they 
+developed a central nervous system to handle them. The reptilian brain 
+would have perhaps one hundred or more feedback loops (governing 
+their sense of smell, balance, touch, sound, sight, blood pressure, etc., 
+and each of these contains more feedback loops). For example, eyesight 
+alone involves a large number of feedback loops, since the eye can 
+recognize color, movement, shapes, light intensity, and shadows. 
+Similarly, the reptile’s other senses, such as hearing and taste, require 
+additional feedback loops. The totality of these numerous feedback loops 
+creates a mental picture of where the reptile is located in the world, and 
+where other animals (e.g., prey) are located as well. Level I"
+"where other animals (e.g., prey) are located as well. Level I 
+consciousness, in turn, is governed mainly by the reptilian brain, located 
+in the back and center of the human head."
+"Next we have Level II consciousness, where organisms create a model 
+of their place not only in space but also with respect to others (i.e., they 
+are social animals with emotions). The number of feedback loops for 
+Level II consciousness explodes exponentially, so it is useful to introduce 
+a new numerical ranking for this type of consciousness. Forming allies, 
+detecting enemies, serving the alpha male, etc., are all very complex 
+behaviors requiring a vastly expanded brain, so Level II consciousness 
+coincides with the formation of new structures of the brain in the form 
+of the limbic system. As noted earlier, the limbic system includes the 
+
+hippocampus (for memories), amygdala (for emotions), and the 
+thalamus (for sensory information), all of which provide new parameters 
+for creating models in relation to others. The number and type of 
+feedback loops therefore change."
+"We define the degree of Level II consciousness as the total number of 
+distinct feedback loops required for an animal to interact socially with 
+members of its grouping. Unfortunately, studies of animal consciousness 
+are extremely limited, so little work has been done to catalog all the 
+ways in which animals communicate socially with one another. But to a 
+crude first approximation, we can estimate Level II consciousness by 
+counting the number of fellow animals in its pack or tribe and then 
+listing the total number of ways in which the animal interacts 
+emotionally with each one. This would include recognizing rivals and 
+friends, forming bonds with others, reciprocating favors, building 
+coalitions, understanding your status and the social ranking of others, 
+respecting the status of your superiors, displaying your power over your 
+inferiors, plotting to rise on the social ladder, etc. (We exclude insects 
+from Level II, because although they have social relations with members"
+"from Level II, because although they have social relations with members 
+of their hive or group, they have no emotions as far as we can tell.)"
+"Despite the lack of empirical studies of animal behaviors, we can give 
+a very rough numerical rank to Level II consciousness by listing the total 
+number of distinct emotions and social behaviors that the animal can 
+exhibit. For example, if a wolf pack consists of ten wolves, and each wolf 
+interacts with all the others with fifteen different emotions and gestures, 
+then its level of consciousness, to a first approximation, is given by the 
+product of the two, or 150, so it would have Level 11:150 consciousness. 
+This number takes into account both the number of other animals it has 
+to interact with as well as the number of ways it can communicate with 
+each one. This number only approximates the total number of social 
+interactions that the animal can display, and will undoubtedly change as 
+we learn more about its behavior."
+"(Of course, because evolution is never clean and precise, there are 
+caveats that we have to explain, such as the level of consciousness of 
+social animals that are solitary hunters. We will do so in the notes.) 
+
+LEVEL III CONSCIOUSNESS: SIMULATING THE FUTURE 
+
+With this framework for consciousness, we see that humans are not 
+unique, and that there is a continuum of consciousness. As Charles 
+Darwin once commented, “The difference between man and the higher 
+animals, great as it is, is certainly one of degree and not of kind.” But 
+what separates human consciousness from the consciousness of animals? 
+Humans are alone in the animal kingdom in understanding the concept 
+of tomorrow. Unlike animals, we constantly ask ourselves “What if?” 
+weeks, months, and even years into the future, so I believe that Level III 
+consciousness creates a model of its place in the world and then 
+simulates it into the future, by making rough predictions. We can 
+summarize this as follows:"
+"Human consciousness is a specific form of consciousness that 
+creates a model of the world and then simulates it in time, by 
+evaluating the past to simulate the future. This requires 
+mediating and evaluating many feedback loops in order to 
+make a decision to achieve a goal. 
+
+By the time we reach Level III consciousness, there are so many 
+feedback loops that we need a CEO to sift through them in order to 
+simulate the future and make a final decision. Accordingly, our brains 
+differ from those of other animals, especially in the expanded prefrontal 
+cortex, located just behind the forehead, which allows us to “see” into 
+the future."
+"Dr. Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist, has written, “The greatest 
+achievement of the human brain is its ability to imagine objects and 
+episodes that do not exist in the realm of the real, and it is this ability 
+that allows us to think about the future. As one philosopher noted, the 
+human brain is an ‘anticipation machine,’ and ‘making the future’ is the 
+most important thing it does.” 
+
+Using brain scans, we can even propose a candidate for the precise 
+area of the brain where simulation of the future takes place. Neurologist 
+Michael Gazzaniga notes that “area 10 (the internal granular layer IV), 
+in the lateral prefrontal cortex, is almost twice as large in humans as in 
+apes. Area 10 is involved with memory and planning, cognitive 
+flexibility, abstract thinking, initiating appropriate behavior, and 
+inhibiting inappropriate behavior, learning rules, and picking out"
+"relevant information from what is perceived through the senses.” (For 
+this book, we will refer to this area, in which decision making is 
+concentrated, as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, although there is 
+some overlap with other areas of the brain.) 
+
+Although animals may have a well-defined understanding of their 
+place in space and some have a degree of awareness of others, it is not 
+clear if they systematically plan for the future and have an 
+understanding of “tomorrow.” Most animals, even social animals with 
+well-developed limbic systems, react to situations (e.g., the presence of 
+predators or potential mates) by relying mainly on instinct, rather than 
+systematically planning into the future."
+"For instance, mammals do not plan for the winter by preparing to 
+hibernate, but largely follow instinct as the temperature drops. There is 
+a feedback loop that regulates their hibernation. Their consciousness is 
+dominated by messages coming in from their senses. There is no 
+evidence that they systemically sift through various plans and schemes 
+
+as they prepare to hibernate. Predators, when they use cunning and 
+disguise to stalk an unsuspecting prey, do anticipate future events, but 
+this planning is limited only to instinct and the duration of the hunt. 
+Primates are adept at devising short-term plans (e.g., finding food), but 
+there is no indication that they plan more than a few hours ahead."
+"Humans are different. Although we do rely on instinct and emotions in 
+many situations, we also constantly analyze and evaluate information 
+from many feedback loops. We do this by running simulations sometimes 
+even beyond our own life span and even thousands of years into the 
+future. The point of running simulations is to evaluate various 
+possibilities to make the best decision to fulfill a goal. This occurs in the 
+prefrontal cortex, which allows us to simulate the future and evaluate 
+the possibilities in order to chart the best course of action. 
+
+This ability evolved for several reasons. First, having the ability to 
+peer into the future has enormous evolutionary benefits, such as evading 
+predators and finding food and mates. Second, it allows us to choose 
+among several different outcomes and to select the best one."
+"Third, the number of feedback loops explodes exponentially as we go 
+from Level 0 to Level I to Level II, so we need a “CEO” to evaluate all 
+these conflicting, competing messages. Instinct is no longer enough. 
+There has to be a central body that evaluates each of these feedback 
+
+loops. This distinguishes human consciousness from that of the animals. 
+These feedback loops are evaluated, in turn, by simulating them into the 
+future to obtain the best outcome. If we didn’t have a CEO, chaos would 
+ensue and we would have sensory overload. 
+
+A simple experiment can demonstrate this. David Eagleman describes 
+how you can take a male stickleback fish and have a female fish trespass 
+on its territory. The male gets confused, because it wants to mate with 
+the female, but it also wants to defend its territory. As a result, the male 
+stickleback fish will simultaneously attack the female while initiating 
+courtship behavior. The male is driven into a frenzy, trying to woo and 
+kill the female at the same time."
+"This works for mice as well. Put an electrode in front of a piece of 
+cheese. If the mouse gets too close, the electrode will shock it. One 
+feedback loop tells the mouse to eat the cheese, but another one tells the 
+mouse to stay away and avoid being shocked. By adjusting the location 
+of the electrode, you can get the mouse to oscillate, torn between two 
+conflicting feedback loops. While a human has a CEO in its brain to 
+evaluate the pros and cons of the situation, the mouse, governed by two 
+conflicting feedback loops, goes back and forth. (This is like the proverb 
+about the donkey that starves to death because it is placed between two 
+
+equal bales of hay.)"
+"equal bales of hay.) 
+
+Precisely how does the brain simulate the future? The human brain is 
+flooded by a large amount of sensory and emotional data. But the key is 
+to simulate the future by making causal links between events—that is, if 
+A happens, then B happens. But if B happens, then C and D might result. 
+This sets off a chain reaction of events, eventually creating a tree of 
+possible cascading futures with many branches. The CEO in the 
+prefrontal cortex evaluates the results of these causal trees in order to 
+make the ultimate decision. 
+
+Let’s say you want to rob a bank. How many realistic simulations of 
+this event can you make? To do this, you have to think of the various 
+causal links involving the police, bystanders, alarm systems, relations 
+with fellow criminals, traffic conditions, the DA’s office, etc. For a 
+successful simulation of the robbery, hundreds of causal links may have 
+to be evaluated."
+"It is also possible to measure this level of consciousness numerically. 
+Let’s say that a person is given a series of different situations like the one 
+
+above and is asked to simulate the future of each. The sum total number 
+of causal links that the person can make for all these situations can be 
+tabulated. (One complication is that there are an unlimited number of 
+causal links that a person might make for a variety of conceivable 
+situations. To get around this complication, we divide this number by 
+the average number of causal links obtained from a large control group. 
+Like the IQ exam, one may multiply this number by 100. So a person’s 
+level of consciousness, for example, might be Level 111:100, meaning that 
+the person can simulate future events just like the average person.) 
+
+We summarize these levels of consciousness in the following diagram: 
+
+LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS FOR DIFFERENT SPECIES 
+
+LEVEL 
+
+SPECIES 
+
+PARAMETER 
+
+BRAIN STRUCTURE 
+
+0 
+
+| Plants 
+
+| Temperature, sunshine 
+
+None 
+
+1"
+"SPECIES 
+
+PARAMETER 
+
+BRAIN STRUCTURE 
+
+0 
+
+| Plants 
+
+| Temperature, sunshine 
+
+None 
+
+1 
+
+Reptiles 
+
+j Space 
+
+Brain stem 
+
+II 
+
+| Mammals 
+
+| Social relations 
+
+j Limbic system 
+
+III 
+
+j Humans 
+
+| Time (esp. future) 
+
+j Prefrontal cortex 
+
+Space-time theory of consciousness. We define consciousness as the process of creating a model of the 
+world using 
+multiple feedback loops in various parameters (e.g., in space, time, and in relation to others), in order to
+accomplish a 
+goal. Human consciousness is a particular type that involves mediating between these feedback loops 
+by simulating the 
+
+future and evaluating the past."
+"future and evaluating the past. 
+
+(Notice that these categories correspond to the rough evolutionary 
+levels we find in nature—e.g., reptiles, mammals, and humans. However, 
+there are also gray areas, such as animals that might possess tiny aspects 
+of different levels of consciousness, animals that do some rudimentary 
+planning, or even single cells that communicate with one another. This 
+chart is meant only to give you the larger, global picture of how 
+consciousness is organized across the animal kingdom.) 
+
+WHAT IS HUMOR? WHY DO WE HAVE EMOTIONS? 
+
+All theories have to be falsifiable. The challenge for the space-time 
+theory of consciousness is to explain all aspects of human consciousness"
+"in this framework. It can be falsified if there are patterns of thought that 
+cannot be brought into this theory. A critic might say that surely our 
+sense of humor is so quixotic and ephemeral that it is beyond 
+explanation. We spend a great deal of time laughing with our friends or 
+at comedians, yet it seems that humor has nothing to do with our 
+simulations of the future. But consider this. Much of humor, such as 
+telling a joke, depends on the punch line."
+"When hearing a joke, we can’t help but simulate the future and 
+complete the story ourselves (even if we’re unaware that we’re doing 
+so). We know enough about the physical and social world that we can 
+anticipate the ending, so we burst out with laughter when the punch line 
+gives us a totally unexpected conclusion. The essence of humor is when 
+our simulation of the future is suddenly disrupted in surprising ways. 
+(This was historically important for our evolution since success depends, 
+in part, on our ability to simulate future events. Since life in the jungle is 
+full of unanticipated events, anyone who can foresee unexpected 
+outcomes has a better chance at survival. In this way, having a well- 
+developed sense of humor is actually one indication of our Level III 
+consciousness and intelligence; that is, the ability to simulate the future.)"
+"For example, W. C. Fields was once asked a question about social 
+activities for youth. He was asked, “Do you believe in clubs for young 
+people?” He replied, “Only when kindness fails.” 
+
+The joke has a punch line only because we mentally simulate a future 
+in which children have social clubs, while W. C. Fields simulates a 
+different future involving clubs as a weapon. (Of course, if a joke is 
+deconstructed, it loses its power, since we have already simulated 
+various possible futures in our minds.) 
+
+This also explains what every comedian knows: timing is the key to 
+humor. If the punch line is delivered too quickly, then the brain hasn’t 
+had time to simulate the future, so there is no experience of the 
+unanticipated. If the punch line is delivered too late, the brain has 
+already had time to simulate various possible futures, so again the punch 
+line loses the element of surprise."
+"(Humor has other functions, of course, such as bonding with fellow 
+members of our tribe. In fact, we use our sense of humor as a way to size 
+up the character of others. This, in turn, is essential to determine our 
+status within society. So in addition, laughter helps define our position 
+
+in the social world, i.e., Level II consciousness.) 
+
+WHY DO WE GOSSIP AND PLAY? 
+
+Even seemingly trivial activities, such as engaging in idle gossip or 
+horsing around with our friends, must be explained in this framework. 
+(If a Martian were to visit a supermarket checkout line and view the 
+huge display of gossip magazines, it might conclude that gossip is the 
+main activity of humans. This observation would not be far off.)"
+"Gossiping is essential for survival because the complex mechanics of 
+social interactions are constantly changing, so we have to make sense of 
+this ever-shifting social terrain. This is Level II consciousness at work. 
+But once we hear a piece of gossip, we immediately run simulations to 
+determine how this will affect our own standing in the community, 
+which moves us to Level III consciousness. Thousands of years ago, in 
+fact, gossip was the only way to obtain vital information about the tribe. 
+One’s very life often depended on knowing the latest gossip."
+"Something as superfluous as “play” is also an essential feature of 
+consciousness. If you ask children why they like to play, they will say, 
+“Because it’s fun.” But that invites the next question: What is fun? 
+Actually, when children play, they are often trying to reenact complex 
+human interactions in simplified form. Human society is extremely 
+sophisticated, much too involved for the developing brains of young 
+children, so children run simplified simulations of adult society, playing 
+games such as doctor, cops and robber, and school. Each game is a 
+model that allows children to experiment with a small segment of adult 
+behavior and then run simulations into the future. (Similarly, when 
+adults engage in play, such as a game of poker, the brain constantly 
+creates a model of what cards the various players possess, and then 
+projects that model into the future, using previous data about people’s 
+personality, ability to bluff, etc. The key to games like chess, cards, and"
+"personality, ability to bluff, etc. The key to games like chess, cards, and 
+gambling is the ability to simulate the future. Animals, which live 
+largely in the present, are not as good at games as humans are, 
+especially if they involve planning. Infant mammals do engage in a form 
+of play, but this is more for exercise, testing one another, practicing 
+future battles, and establishing the coming social pecking order rather"
+"than simulating the future.) 
+
+My space-time theory of consciousness might also shed light on 
+
+another controversial topic: intelligence. Although IQ exams claim to 
+measure “intelligence,” IQ exams actually give no definition of 
+intelligence in the first place. In fact, a cynic may claim, with some 
+justification, that IQ is a measure of “how well you do on IQ exams,” 
+which is circular. In addition, IQ exams have been criticized for being 
+too culturally biased. In this new framework, however, intelligence may 
+be viewed as the complexity of our simulations of the future. Hence, a 
+master criminal, who may be a dropout and functionally illiterate and 
+score dismally low on an IQ exam, may also far outstrip the ability of the 
+police. Outwitting the cops may entail simply being able to run more 
+sophisticated simulations of the future. 
+
+LEVEL I: STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"LEVEL I: STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+Humans are probably alone on this planet in being able to operate on all 
+levels of consciousness. Using MRI scans, we can break down the 
+different structures involved in each level of consciousness."
+"For us, Level I stream of consciousness is largely the interplay between 
+the prefrontal cortex and the thalamus. When taking a leisurely stroll in 
+the park, we are aware of the smells of the plants, the sensation of a 
+gentle breeze, the visual stimuli from the sun, and so on. Our senses send 
+signals to the spinal cord, the brain stem, and then to the thalamus, 
+which operates like a relay station, sorting out the stimuli and sending 
+them on to the various cortices of the brain. The images of the park, for 
+example, are sent to the occipital cortex in the back of the brain, while 
+the sense of touch from the wind is sent to the parietal lobe. The signals 
+are processed in appropriate cortices, and then sent to the prefrontal 
+cortex, where we finally become conscious of all these sensations. 
+
+This is illustrated in Figure 7. 
+
+LEVEL II: FINDING OUR PLACE IN SOCIETY"
+"This is illustrated in Figure 7. 
+
+LEVEL II: FINDING OUR PLACE IN SOCIETY 
+
+While Level I consciousness uses sensations to create a model of our 
+physical location in space, Level II consciousness creates a model of our 
+
+place in society. 
+
+Let’s say we are going to an important cocktail party, in which people 
+essential to our job will be present. As we scan the room, trying to 
+identify people from our workplace, there is an intense interplay 
+between the hippocampus (which processes memories), the amygdala 
+(which processes emotions), and the prefrontal cortex (which puts all 
+
+this information together). 
+
+Figure 7. In Level I consciousness, sensory information travels through the brain stem, past the 
+thalamus, onto the various 
+cortices of the brain, and finally to the prefrontal cortex. Thus this stream of Level I consciousness is 
+created by the flow 
+of information from the thalamus to the prefrontal cortex, (illustration credit 2.1)"
+"With each image, the brain automatically attaches an emotion, such as 
+happiness, fear, anger, or jealousy, and processes the emotion in the 
+
+amygdala. 
+
+If you spot your chief rival, whom you suspect of stabbing you in the 
+back, the emotion of fear is processed by the amygdala, which sends an 
+urgent message to the prefrontal cortex, alerting it to possible danger. At 
+the same time, signals are sent to your endocrine system to start 
+pumping adrenaline and other hormones into the blood, thereby 
+increasing your heartbeat and preparing you for a possible fight-or-flight 
+response. 
+
+This is illustrated in Figure 8."
+"This is illustrated in Figure 8. 
+
+But beyond simply recognizing other people, the brain has the 
+uncanny ability to guess what other people are thinking about. This is 
+called the Theory of Mind, a theory first proposed by Dr. David Premack 
+of the University of Pennsylvania, which is the ability to infer the 
+thoughts of others. In any complex society, anyone with the ability to 
+correctly guess the intentions, motives, and plans of other people has a 
+tremendous survival advantage over those who can’t. The Theory of 
+Mind allows you to form alliances with others, isolate your enemies, and 
+solidify your friendships, which vastly increases your power and chances 
+of survival and mating. Some anthropologists even believe that the 
+mastery of the Theory of Mind was essential in the evolution of the 
+brain."
+"Figure 8. Emotions originate and are processed in the limbic system. In Level II consciousness, we are 
+continually 
+bombarded with sensory information, but emotions are rapid-fire responses to emergencies from the 
+limbic system that 
+
+do not need permission from the prefrontal cortex. The hippocampus is also important for processing 
+memories. So Level 
+II consciousness, at its core, involves the reaction of the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex,
+(illustration 
+
+credit 2.2) 
+
+But how is the Theory of Mind accomplished? One clue came in 1996, 
+with the discovery of “mirror neurons” by Drs. Giacomo Rizzolatti, 
+Leonardo Fogassi, and Vittorio Gallese. These neurons fire when you are 
+performing a certain task and also when you see someone else 
+performing that same task. (Mirror neurons also fire for emotions as well 
+as physical acts. If you feel a certain emotion, and think another is 
+feeling that same emotion, then the mirror neurons will fire.)"
+"Mirror neurons are essential for mimicry and also for empathy, giving 
+
+us the ability not only to copy the complex tasks performed by others 
+but also to experience the emotions that person must be feeling. Mirror 
+neurons were thus probably essential for our evolution as human beings, 
+since cooperation is essential for holding the tribe together."
+"Mirror neurons were first found in the premotor areas of monkey 
+brains. But since then, they have been found in humans in the prefrontal 
+cortex. Dr. V. S. Ramachandran believes that mirror neurons were 
+essential in giving us the power of self-awareness and concludes, “I 
+predict that mirror neurons will do for psychology what DNA did for 
+biology: they will provide a unifying framework and help explain a host 
+of mental abilities that have hitherto remained mysterious and 
+inaccessible to experiments.” (We should point out, however, that all 
+scientific results have to be tested and reconfirmed. There is no doubt 
+that certain neurons are performing this crucial behavior involved with 
+empathy, mimicry, etc., but there is some debate about the identity of 
+these mirror neurons. For example, some critics claim that perhaps these 
+behaviors are common to many neurons, and that there is not a single 
+class of neurons dedicated to this behavior.) 
+
+LEVEL III: SIMULATING THE FUTURE"
+"LEVEL III: SIMULATING THE FUTURE 
+
+The highest level of consciousness, which is associated primarily with 
+Homo sapiens, is Level III consciousness, in which we take our model of 
+the world and then run simulations into the future. We do this by 
+analyzing past memories of people and events, and then simulating the 
+
+future by making many causal links to form a “causal” tree. As we look 
+at the various faces at the cocktail party, we begin to ask ourselves 
+simple questions: How can this individual help me? How will the gossip 
+floating in the room play out in the future? Is anyone out to get me? 
+
+Let’s say that you just lost your job and you are desperately looking 
+for a new one. In this case, as you talk to various people at the cocktail 
+party, your mind is feverishly simulating the future with each person 
+you talk to. You ask yourself, How can I impress this person? What 
+topics should I bring out to present my best case? Can he offer me a job?"
+"Figure 9. Simulating the future, the heart of Level III consciousness, is mediated by the dorsolateral 
+prefrontal cortex, the 
+CEO of the brain, with competition between the pleasure center and the orbitofrontal cortex (which acts
+to check our 
+impulses). This roughly resembles the outline given by Freud of the struggle between our conscience 
+and desires. The 
+actual process of simulating the future takes place when the prefrontal cortex accesses the memories of 
+the past in order 
+
+to approximate future events, (illustration credit 2.3)"
+"to approximate future events, (illustration credit 2.3) 
+
+Recent brain scans have shed partial light on how the brain simulates 
+the future. These simulations are done mainly in the dorsolateral 
+prefrontal cortex, the CEO of the brain, using memories of the past. On 
+one hand, simulations of the future may produce outcomes that are 
+desirable and pleasurable, in which case the pleasure centers of the brain 
+light up (in the nucleus accumbens and hypothalamus). On the other 
+hand, these outcomes may also have a downside to them, so the 
+orbitofrontal cortex kicks in to warn us of possible dangers. There is a 
+
+struggle, then, between different parts of the brain concerning the 
+future, which may have desirable and undesirable outcomes. Ultimately 
+it is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that mediates between these and 
+makes the final decisions. (See Figure 9.) (Some neurologists have 
+pointed out that this struggle resembles, in a crude way, the dynamics 
+between Freud’s ego, id, and superego.)"
+"THE MYSTERY OF SELF-AWARENESS 
+
+If the space-time theory of consciousness is correct, then it also gives us 
+a rigorous definition of self-awareness. Instead of vague, circular 
+references, we should be able to give a definition that is testable and 
+useful. We’ll define self-awareness as follows: 
+
+Self-awareness is creating a model of the world and simulating 
+
+the future in which you appear. 
+
+Animals therefore have some self-awareness, since they have to know 
+where they are located if they are going to survive and mate, but it is 
+limited largely by instinct. 
+
+When most animals are placed in front of a mirror, they either ignore 
+it or attack it, not realizing that it is an image of themselves. (This is 
+called the “mirror test,” which goes all the way back to Darwin.) 
+However, animals like elephants, the great apes, bottlenose dolphins, 
+orcas, and European magpies can figure out that the image they see in 
+the mirror represents themselves."
+"Humans, however, take a giant step forward and constantly run future 
+simulations in which we appear as a principal actor. We constantly 
+imagine ourselves faced with different situations—going on a date, 
+applying for a job, changing careers—none of which is determined by 
+instinct. It is extremely difficult to stop your brain from simulating the 
+future, though elaborate methods have been devised (for instance, 
+meditation) to attempt to do so. 
+
+Daydreaming, as an example, consists largely of our acting out 
+different possible futures to attain a goal. Since we pride ourselves in 
+knowing our limitations and strengths, it is not hard to put ourselves 
+
+inside the model and hit the “play” button so we begin to act out 
+hypothetical scenarios, like being an actor in a virtual play. 
+
+WHERE AM “I”?"
+"WHERE AM “I”? 
+
+There is probably a specific part of the brain whose job it is to unify the 
+signals from the two hemispheres to create a smooth, coherent sense of 
+self. Dr. Todd Heatherton, a psychologist at Dartmouth College, believes 
+that this region is located within the prefrontal cortex, in what is called 
+the medial prefrontal cortex. Biologist Dr. Carl Zimmer writes, “The 
+medial prefrontal cortex may play the same role for the self as the 
+hippocampus plays in memory ... [it] could be continually stitching 
+together a sense of who we are.” In other words, this may be the 
+gateway to the concept of “I,” the central region of the brain that fuses, 
+
+integrates, and concocts a unified narrative of who we are. (This does 
+not mean, however, that the medial prefrontal cortext is the homunculus 
+sitting in our brain that controls everything.)"
+"If this theory is true, then the resting brain, when we are idly 
+daydreaming about our friends and ourselves, should be more active 
+than normal, even when other parts of the brain’s sensory regions are 
+quiet. In fact, brain scans bear this out. Dr. Heatherton concludes, “Most 
+of the time we daydream—we think about something that happened to 
+us or what we think about other people. All this involves self-reflection.” 
+
+The space-time theory says that consciousness is cobbled together 
+from many subunits of the brain, each competing with the others to 
+create a model of the world, and yet our consciousness feels smooth and 
+continuous. How can this be, when we all have the feeling that our “self” 
+is uninterrupted and always in charge?"
+"In the previous chapter, we met the plight of split-brain patients, who 
+sometimes struggle with alien hands that literally have a mind of their 
+own. It does appear that there are two centers of consciousness living 
+within the same brain. So how does all this create the sense that we have 
+a unified, cohesive “self’ existing within our brains? 
+
+I asked one person who may have the answer: Dr. Michael Gazzaniga, 
+who has spent several decades studying the strange behavior of split- 
+brain patients. He noticed that the left brain of split-brain patients, when"
+"confronted with the fact that there seem to be two separate centers of 
+consciousness residing in the same skull, would simply make up strange 
+explanations, no matter how silly. He told me that, when presented with 
+an obvious paradox, the left brain will “confabulate” an answer to 
+explain inconvenient facts. Dr. Gazzaniga believes that this gives us the 
+false sense that we are unified and whole. He calls the left brain the 
+“interpreter,” which is constantly thinking up ideas to paper over 
+inconsistencies and gaps in our consciousness."
+"For example, in one experiment, he flashed the word “red” to just the 
+left brain of a patient, and the word “banana” to just the right brain. 
+(Notice that the dominant left brain therefore does not know about the 
+banana.) Then the subject was asked to pick up a pen with his left hand 
+(which is governed by the right brain) and draw a picture. Naturally he 
+drew a picture of a banana. Remember that the right brain could do this, 
+because it had seen the banana, but the left brain had no clue that the 
+banana had been flashed to the right brain. 
+
+Then he was asked why he had drawn the banana. Because only the 
+left brain controls speech, and because the left brain did not know"
+"anything about a banana, the patient should have said, “I don’t know.” 
+Instead he said, “It is easiest to draw with this hand because this hand 
+can pull down easier.” Dr. Gazzaniga noted that the left brain was trying 
+to find some excuse for this inconvenient fact, even though the patient 
+was clueless about why his right hand drew the banana. 
+
+Dr. Gazzaniga concludes, “It is the left hemisphere that engages in the 
+human tendency to find order in chaos, that tries to fit everything into a 
+story and put it into a context. It seems that it is driven to hypothesize 
+about the structure of the world even in the face of evidence that no 
+pattern exists.”"
+"This is where our sense of a unified “self’ comes from. Although 
+consciousness is a patchwork of competing and often contradictory 
+tendencies, the left brain ignores inconsistencies and papers over 
+obvious gaps in order to give us a smooth sense of a single “I.” In other 
+words, the left brain is constantly making excuses, some of them 
+harebrained and preposterous, to make sense of the world. It is 
+constantly asking “Why?” and dreaming up excuses even if the question 
+has no answer. 
+
+(There is probably an evolutionary reason that we evolved our split"
+"(There is probably an evolutionary reason that we evolved our split 
+
+brains. A seasoned CEO will often encourage his aides to take opposing 
+sides of an issue, to encourage thorough and thoughtful debate. 
+Oftentimes, the correct view emerges out of intense interaction with 
+incorrect ideas. Similarly, the two halves of the brain complement each 
+other, offering pessimistic/optimistic or analytical/holistic analysis of 
+the same idea. The two halves of the brain therefore play off each other. 
+Indeed, as we shall see, certain forms of mental illness may arise when 
+this interplay between the two brains goes awry.)"
+"Now that we have a working theory of consciousness, the time has come 
+to utilize it to understand how neuroscience will evolve in the future. 
+There is a vast and remarkable set of experiments now being done in 
+neuroscience that are fundamentally altering the entire scientific 
+landscape. Using the power of electromagnetism, scientists can now 
+probe people’s thoughts, send telepathic messages, telekinetically control 
+objects around us, record memories, and perhaps enhance our 
+intelligence. 
+
+Perhaps the most immediate and practical application of this new 
+technology is something once considered to be hopelessly impossible: 
+telepathy. 
+
+BOOK II MIND OVER MATTER 
+
+The brain, like it or not, is a machine. Scientists have come to 
+that conclusion, not because they are mechanistic killjoys, but 
+because they have amassed evidence that every aspect of 
+consciousness can be tied to the brain. 
+
+—STEVEN PINKER 
+
+3 TELEPATHY A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS"
+"—STEVEN PINKER 
+
+3 TELEPATHY A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS 
+
+Harry Houdini, some historians believe, was the greatest magician 
+who ever lived. His breathtaking escapes from locked, sealed chambers 
+and death-defying stunts left audiences gasping. He could make people 
+disappear and then reemerge in the most unexpected places. And he 
+could read people’s minds. 
+
+Or at least it seemed that way. 
+
+Houdini took pains to explain that everything he did was an illusion, a 
+series of clever sleight-of-hand tricks. Mind reading, he would remind 
+people, was impossible. He was so outraged that unscrupulous magicians 
+would cheat wealthy patrons by performing cheap parlor tricks and 
+seances that he even went around the country exposing fakes by 
+pledging he could duplicate any feat of mind reading performed by these 
+charlatans. He was even on a committee organized by Scientific American 
+that offered a generous reward to anyone who could positively prove 
+they had psychic power. (No one ever picked up the reward.)"
+"Houdini believed that telepathy was impossible. But science is proving 
+Houdini wrong. 
+
+Telepathy is now the subject of intense research at universities around 
+the world, where scientists have already been able to use advanced 
+sensors to read individual words, images, and thoughts in a person’s 
+brain. This could alter the way we communicate with stroke and 
+accident victims who are “locked in” their bodies, unable to articulate 
+their thoughts except through blinks. But that’s just the start. Telepathy 
+might also radically change the way we interact with computers and the 
+outside world. 
+
+Indeed, in a recent “Next 5 in 5 Forecast,” which predicts five 
+revolutionary developments in the next five years, IBM scientists claimed 
+that we will be able to mentally communicate with computers, perhaps 
+
+replacing the mouse and voice commands. This means using the power 
+of the mind to call people on the phone, pay credit card bills, drive cars,"
+"make appointments, create beautiful symphonies and works of art, etc. 
+The possibilities are endless, and it seems that everyone—from computer 
+giants, educators, video game companies, and music studios to the 
+Pentagon—is converging on this technology."
+"True telepathy, found in science-fiction and fantasy novels, is not 
+possible without outside assistance. As we know, the brain is electrical. 
+In general, anytime an electron is accelerated, it gives off 
+electromagnetic radiation. The same holds true for electrons oscillating 
+inside the brain, which broadcasts radio waves. But these signals are too 
+faint to be detected by others, and even if we could perceive these radio 
+waves, it would be difficult to make sense of them. Evolution has not 
+given us the ability to decipher this collection of random radio signals, 
+but computers can. Scientists have been able to get crude 
+approximations of a person’s thoughts using EEG scans. Subjects would 
+put on a helmet with EEG sensors and concentrate on certain pictures— 
+say, the image of a car. The EEG signals were then recorded for each 
+image and eventually a rudimentary dictionary of thought was created, 
+with a one-to-one correspondence between a person’s thoughts and the"
+"with a one-to-one correspondence between a person’s thoughts and the 
+EEG image. Then, when a person was shown a picture of another car, 
+the computer would recognize the EEG pattern as being from a car."
+"The advantage of EEG sensors is that they are noninvasive and quick. 
+You simply put a helmet containing many electrodes onto the surface of 
+the brain and the EEG can rapidly identify signals that change every 
+millisecond. But the problem with EEG sensors, as we have seen, is that 
+electromagnetic waves deteriorate as they pass through the skull, and it 
+is difficult to locate their precise source. This method can tell if you are 
+thinking of a car or a house, but it cannot re-create an image of the car. 
+That is where Dr. Jack Gallant’s work comes in. 
+
+VIDEOS OF THE MIND 
+
+The epicenter for much of this research is the University of California at 
+Berkeley, where I received my own Ph.D. in theoretical physics years 
+ago. I had the pleasure of touring the laboratory of Dr. Gallant, whose 
+group has accomplished a feat once considered to be impossible: 
+videotaping people’s thoughts. “This is a major leap forward 
+
+reconstructing internal imagery. We are opening a window into the"
+"reconstructing internal imagery. We are opening a window into the 
+
+movies in our mind,” says Gallant. 
+
+When I visited his laboratory, the first thing I noticed was the team of 
+young, eager postdoctoral and graduate students huddled in front of 
+their computer screens, looking intently at video images that were 
+reconstructed from someone’s brain scan. Talking to Gallant’s team, you 
+feel as though you are witnessing scientific history in the making."
+"Gallant explained to me that first the subject lies flat on a stretcher, 
+which is slowly inserted headfirst into a huge, state-of-the-art MRI 
+machine, costing upward of $3 million. The subject is then shown 
+several movie clips (such as movie trailers readily available on 
+YouTube). To accumulate enough data, the subject has to sit motionless 
+for hours watching these clips, a truly arduous task. I asked one of the 
+postdocs, Dr. Shinji Nishimoto, how they found volunteers who were 
+willing to lie still for hours on end with only fragments of video footage 
+to occupy the time. He said the people in the room, the grad students 
+and postdocs, volunteered to be guinea pigs for their own research."
+"As the subject watches the movies, the MRI machine creates a 3-D 
+image of the blood flow within the brain. The MRI image looks like a 
+vast collection of thirty thousand dots, or voxels. Each voxel represents a 
+pinpoint of neural energy, and the color of the dot corresponds to the 
+intensity of the signal and blood flow. Red dots represent points of large 
+neural activity, while blue dots represent points of less activity. (The 
+final image looks very much like thousands of Christmas lights in the 
+shape of the brain. Immediately you can see that the brain is 
+concentrating most of its mental energy in the visual cortex, which is 
+located at the back of the brain, while watching these videos.)"
+"Gallant’s MRI machine is so powerful it can identify two to three 
+hundred distinct regions of the brain and, on average, can take snapshots 
+that have one hundred dots per region of the brain. (One goal for future 
+generations of MRI technology is to provide an even sharper resolution 
+by increasing the number of dots per region of the brain.) 
+
+At first, this 3-D collection of colored dots looks like gibberish. But 
+after years of research, Dr. Gallant and his colleagues have developed a 
+mathematical formula that begins to find relationships between certain 
+features of a picture (edges, textures, intensity, etc.) and the MRI voxels. 
+For example, if you look at a boundary, you’ll notice it’s a region"
+"separating lighter and darker areas, and hence the edge generates a 
+certain pattern of voxels. By having subject after subject view such a 
+large library of movie clips, this mathematical formula is refined, 
+allowing the computer to analyze how all sorts of images are converted 
+into MRI voxels. Eventually the scientists were able to ascertain a direct 
+
+correlation between certain MRI patterns of voxels and features within 
+each picture."
+"correlation between certain MRI patterns of voxels and features within 
+each picture. 
+
+At this point, the subject is then shown another movie trailer. The 
+computer analyzes the voxels generated during this viewing and re¬ 
+creates a rough approximation of the original image. (The computer 
+selects images from one hundred movie clips that most closely resemble 
+the one that the subject just saw and then merges images to create a 
+close approximation.) In this way, the computer is able to create a fuzzy 
+video of the visual imagery going through your mind. Dr. Gallant’s 
+mathematical formula is so versatile that it can take a collection of MRI 
+voxels and convert it into a picture, or it can do the reverse, taking a 
+picture and then converting it to MRI voxels."
+"I had a chance to view the video created by Dr. Gallant’s group, and it 
+was very impressive. Watching it was like viewing a movie with faces, 
+animals, street scenes, and buildings through dark glasses. Although you 
+could not see the details within each face or animal, you could clearly 
+identify the kind of object you were seeing."
+"Not only can this program decode what you are looking at, it can also 
+decode imaginary images circulating in your head. Let’s say you are 
+asked to think of the Mona Lisa. We know from MRI scans that even 
+though you’re not viewing the painting with your eyes, the visual cortex 
+of your brain will light up. Dr. Gallant’s program then scans your brain 
+while you are thinking of the Mona Lisa and flips through its data files of 
+pictures, trying to find the closest match. In one experiment I saw, the 
+computer selected a picture of the actress Salma Hayek as the closest 
+approximation to the Mona Lisa. Of course, the average person can easily 
+recognize hundreds of faces, but the fact that the computer analyzed an 
+image within a person’s brain and then picked out this picture from 
+millions of random pictures at its disposal is still impressive."
+"The goal of this whole process is to create an accurate dictionary that 
+allows you to rapidly match an object in the real world with the MRI 
+pattern in your brain. In general, a detailed match is very difficult and 
+
+will take years, but some categories are actually easy to read just by 
+flipping through some photographs. Dr. Stanislas Dehaene of the College 
+de France in Paris was examining MRI scans of the parietal lobe, where 
+numbers are recognized, when one of his postdocs casually mentioned 
+that just by quickly scanning the MRI pattern, he could tell what number 
+the subject was looking at. In fact, certain numbers created distinctive 
+patterns on the MRI scan. He notes, “If you take 200 voxels in this area, 
+and look at which of them are active and which are inactive, you can 
+construct a machine-learning device that decodes which number is being 
+held in memory.”"
+"This leaves open the question of when we might be able to have 
+picture-quality videos of our thoughts. Unfortunately, information is lost 
+when a person is visualizing an image. Brain scans corroborate this. 
+When you compare the MRI scan of the brain as it is looking at a flower 
+to an MRI scan as the brain is thinking about a flower, you immediately 
+see that the second image has far fewer dots than the first. So although 
+this technology will vastly improve in the coming years, it will never be 
+perfect. (I once read a short story in which a man meets a genie who 
+offers to create anything that the person can imagine. The man 
+immediately asks for a luxury car, a jet plane, and a million dollars. At 
+first, the man is ecstatic. But when he looks at these items in detail, he 
+sees that the car and the plane have no engines, and the image on the 
+cash is all blurred. Everything is useless. This is because our memories 
+are only approximations of the real thing.)"
+"But given the rapidity with which scientists are beginning to decode 
+the MRI patterns in the brain, will we soon be able to actually read 
+words and thoughts circulating in the mind? 
+
+READING THE MIND 
+
+In fact, in a building next to Gallant’s laboratory, Dr. Brian Pasley and 
+his colleagues are literally reading thoughts—at least in principle. One of 
+the postdocs there, Dr. Sara Szczepanski, explained to me how they are 
+able to identify words inside the mind. 
+
+The scientists used what is called ECOG (electrocorticogram) 
+technology, which is a vast improvement over the jumble of signals that 
+
+EEG scans produce. ECOG scans are unprecedented in accuracy and 
+resolution, since signals are directly recorded from the brain and do not 
+pass through the skull. The flipside is that one has to remove a portion 
+of the skull to place a mesh, containing sixty-four electrodes in an eight- 
+by-eight grid, directly on top of the exposed brain."
+"Luckily they were able to get permission to conduct experiments with 
+ECOG scans on epileptic patients, who were suffering from debilitating 
+seizures. The ECOG mesh was placed on the patients’ brains while open- 
+brain surgery was being performed by doctors at the nearby University 
+of California at San Francisco. 
+
+As the patients hear various words, signals from their brains pass 
+through the electrodes and are then recorded. Eventually a dictionary is 
+formed, matching the word with the signals emanating from the 
+
+electrodes in the brain. Later, when a word is uttered, one can see the 
+same electrical pattern. This correspondence also means that if one is 
+thinking of a certain word, the computer can pick up the characteristic 
+signals and identify it."
+"With this technology, it might be possible to have a conversation that 
+takes place entirely telepathically. Also, stroke victims who are totally 
+paralyzed may be able to “talk” through a voice synthesizer that 
+recognizes the brain patterns of individual words. 
+
+Not surprisingly, BMI (brain-machine interface) has become a hot 
+field, with groups around the country making significant breakthroughs. 
+Similar results were obtained by scientists at the University of Utah in 
+2011. They placed grids, each containing sixteen electrodes, over the 
+facial motor cortex (which controls movements of the mouth, lips, 
+tongue, and face) and Wernicke’s area, which processes information 
+about language."
+"The person was then asked to say ten common words, such as “yes” 
+and “no,” “hot” and “cold,” “hungry” and “thirsty,” “hello” and “good¬ 
+bye,” and “more” and “less.” Using a computer to record the brain 
+signals when these words were uttered, the scientists were able to create 
+a rough one-to-one correspondence between spoken words and computer 
+signals from the brain. Later, when the patient voiced certain words, 
+they were able to correctly identify each one with an accuracy ranging 
+from 76 percent to 90 percent. The next step is to use grids with 121 
+electrodes to get better resolution. 
+
+In the future, this procedure may prove useful for individuals suffering 
+from strokes or paralyzing illnesses such as Lou Gehrig’s disease, who 
+would be able to speak using the brain-to-computer technique. 
+
+TYPING WITH THE MIND"
+"TYPING WITH THE MIND 
+
+At the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Dr. Jerry Shih has hooked up epileptic 
+patients via ECOG sensors so they can learn how to type with the mind. 
+The calibration of this device is simple. The patient is first shown a 
+series of letters and is told to focus mentally on each symbol. A 
+computer records the signals emanating from the brain as it scans each 
+letter. As with the other experiments, once this one-to-one dictionary is 
+created, it is then a simple matter for the person to merely think of the 
+letter and for the letter to be typed on a screen, using only the power of 
+the mind. 
+
+Dr. Shih, the leader of this project, says that the accuracy of his 
+
+machine is nearly 100 percent. Dr. Shih believes that he can next create 
+a machine to record images, not just words, that patients conceive in 
+their minds. This could have applications for artists and architects, but 
+the big drawback of ECOG technology, as we have mentioned, is that it 
+requires opening up patients’ brains."
+"Meanwhile, EEG typewriters, because they are noninvasive, are 
+entering the marketplace. They are not as accurate or precise as ECOG 
+typewriters, but they have the advantage that they can be sold over the 
+counter. Guger Technologies, based in Austria, recently demonstrated an 
+EEG typewriter at a trade show. According to their officials, it takes only 
+ten minutes or so for people to learn how to use this machine, and they 
+can then type at the rate of five to ten words per minute. 
+
+TELEPATHIC DICTATION AND MUSIC 
+
+The next step might be to transmit entire conversations, which could 
+rapidly speed up telepathic transmission. The problem, however, is that 
+it would require making a one-to-one map between thousands of words 
+and their EEG, MRI, or ECOG signals. But if one can, for example, 
+identify the brain signals of several hundred select words, then one"
+"might be able to rapidly transmit words found in a common 
+conversation. This means that one would think of the words in entire 
+sentences and paragraphs of a conversation and a computer would print 
+them out. 
+
+This could be extremely useful for journalists, writers, novelists, and 
+poets, who could simply think and have a computer take dictation. The 
+computer would also become a mental secretary. You would mentally 
+give instructions to the robo-secretary about a dinner, plane trip, or 
+vacation, and it would fill in all the details about the reservations."
+"Not only dictation but also music may one day be transcribed in this 
+way. Musicians would simply hum a few melodies in their head and a 
+computer would print them out, in musical notation. To do this, you 
+would ask someone to mentally hum a series of notes, which would 
+generate certain electrical signals for each one. A dictionary would again 
+be created in this way, so that when you think of a musical note, the 
+computer would print it out in musical notation. 
+
+In science fiction, telepaths often communicate across language 
+barriers, since thoughts are considered to be universal. However, this 
+might not be true. Emotions and feelings may well be nonverbal and 
+universal, so that one could telepathically send them to anyone, but 
+
+rational thinking is so closely tied to language that it is very unlikely 
+that complex thoughts could be sent across language barriers. Words will 
+still be sent telepathically in their original language. 
+
+TELEPATHY HELMETS"
+"TELEPATHY HELMETS 
+
+In science fiction, we also often encounter telepathy helmets. Put them 
+on, and—presto!—you can read other people’s minds. The U.S. Army, in 
+fact, has expressed interest in this technology. In a firefight, with 
+explosions going off and bullets whizzing overhead, a telepathy helmet 
+could be a lifesaver, since it can be difficult to communicate orders amid 
+the sound and fury of the battlefield. (I can personally testify to this. 
+Years ago, during the Vietnam War, I served in the U.S. Infantry at Fort 
+Benning, outside Atlanta, Georgia. During machine-gun training, the 
+sound of hand grenades and rounds of bullets going off on the battlefield 
+next to my ear was deafening; it was so intense I could not hear anything 
+
+else. Later, there was a loud ringing in my ear that lasted for three full 
+days.) With a telepathy helmet, a soldier could mentally communicate 
+with his platoon amid all the thunder and noise."
+"Recently, the army gave a $6.3 million grant to Dr. Gerwin Schalk at 
+Albany Medical College, but it knows that a fully functional telepathy 
+helmet is still years away. Dr. Schalk experiments with ECOG 
+technology, which, as we have seen, requires placing a mesh of 
+electrodes directly on top of the exposed brain. With this method, his 
+computers have been able to recognize vowels and thirty-six individual 
+words inside the thinking brain. In some of his experiments, he 
+approached 100 percent accuracy. But at present, this is still impractical 
+for the U.S. Army, since it requires removing part of the skull in the 
+clean, sterile environment of a hospital. And even then, recognizing 
+vowels and a handful of words is a far cry from sending urgent messages 
+to headquarters in a firefight. But his ECOG experiments have 
+demonstrated that it is possible to communicate mentally on the 
+battlefield."
+"Another method is being explored by Dr. David Poeppel of New York 
+University. Instead of opening up the skulls of his subjects, he employs 
+MEG technology, using tiny bursts of magnetic energy rather than 
+electrodes to create electrical charges in the brain. Besides being 
+noninvasive, the advantage of MEG technology is that it can precisely 
+measure fleeting neural activity, in contrast to the slower MRI scans. In 
+his experiments, Poeppel has been able to successfully record electrical 
+activity in the auditory cortex when people think silently of a certain 
+word. But the drawback is that this recording still requires the use of 
+
+large, table-size machines to generate a magnetic pulse. 
+
+Obviously, one wants a method that is noninvasive, portable, and 
+accurate. Dr. Poeppel hopes his work with MEG technology will 
+complement the work being done using EEG sensors. But true telepathy 
+helmets are still many years away, because MEG and EEG scans lack 
+accuracy. 
+
+MRI IN A CELL PHONE"
+"MRI IN A CELL PHONE 
+
+At present, we are hindered by the relatively crude nature of the existing 
+
+instruments. But, as time goes by, more and more sophisticated 
+instruments will probe deeper into the mind. The next big breakthrough 
+may be MRI machines that are handheld."
+"The reason why MRI machines have to be so huge right now is that 
+one needs a uniform magnetic field to get good resolution. The larger 
+the magnet, the more uniform one can make the field, and the better 
+accuracy one finds in the final pictures. However, physicists know the 
+exact mathematical properties of magnetic fields (they were worked out 
+by physicist James Clerk Maxwell back in the 1860S). In 1993 in 
+Germany, Dr. Bernhard Bliimich and his colleagues created the world’s 
+smallest MRI machine, which is the size of a briefcase. It uses a weak 
+and distorted magnetic field, but supercomputers can analyze the 
+magnetic field and correct for this so that the device produces realistic 3- 
+D pictures. Since computer power doubles roughly every two years, they 
+are now powerful enough to analyze the magnetic field created by the 
+briefcase-sized device and compensate for its distortion."
+"As a demonstration of their machine, in 2006 Dr. Bliimich and his 
+colleagues were able to take MRI scans of Otzi, the “Iceman,” who was 
+frozen in ice about 5,300 years ago toward the end of the last ice age. 
+Because Otzi was frozen in an awkward position, with his arms spread 
+apart, it was difficult to cram him inside the small cylinder of a 
+conventional MRI machine, but Dr. Bliimich’s portable machine easily 
+took MRI photographs. 
+
+These physicists estimate that, with increasing computer power, an 
+MRI machine of the future might be the size of a cell phone. The raw 
+data from this cell phone would be sent wirelessly to a supercomputer, 
+which would process the data from the weak magnetic field and then 
+create a 3-D image. (The weakness of the magnetic field is compensated 
+for by the increase in computer power.) This then could vastly accelerate 
+research. “Perhaps something like the Star Trek tricorder is not so far off"
+"after all,” Dr. Bliimich has said. (The tricorder is a small, handheld 
+scanning device that gives an instant diagnosis of any illness.) In the 
+future, you may have more computer power in your medicine cabinet 
+than there is in a modern university hospital today. Instead of waiting to 
+get permission from a hospital or university to use an expensive MRI 
+machine, you could gather data in your own living room by simply 
+waving the portable MRI over yourself and then e-mailing the results to 
+
+a lab for analysis."
+"a lab for analysis. 
+
+It could also mean that, at some point in the future, an MRI telepathy 
+helmet might be possible, with vastly better resolution than an EEG 
+scan. Here is how it may work in the coming decades. Inside the helmet, 
+there would be electromagnetic coils to produce a weak magnetic field 
+and radio pulses that probe the brain. The raw MRI signals would then 
+be sent to a pocketsize computer placed in your belt. The information 
+would then be radioed to a server located far from the battlefield. The 
+final processing of the data would be done by a supercomputer in a 
+distant city. Then the message would be radioed back to your troops on 
+the battlefield. The troops would hear the message either through 
+speakers or through electrodes placed in the auditory cortex of their 
+brains. 
+
+DARPA AND HUMAN ENHANCEMENT"
+"DARPA AND HUMAN ENHANCEMENT 
+
+Given the costs of all this research, it is legitimate to ask: Who is paying 
+for it? Private companies have only recently shown interest in this 
+cutting-edge technology, but it’s still a big gamble for many of them to 
+fund research that may never pay off. Instead, one of the main backers is 
+DARPA, the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, 
+which has spearheaded some of the most important technologies of the 
+twentieth century. 
+
+DARPA was originally set up by President Dwight Eisenhower after 
+the Russians sent Sputnik into orbit in 1957 and shocked the world. 
+Realizing that the United States might quickly be outpaced by the 
+Soviets in high technology, Eisenhower hastily established this agency to 
+keep the country competitive with the Russians. Over the years, the 
+numerous projects it started grew so large that they became independent 
+entities by themselves. One of its first spinoffs was NASA."
+"DARPA’s strategic plan reads like something from science fiction: its 
+“only charter is radical innovation.” The only justification for its 
+existence is “to accelerate the future into being.” DARPA scientists are 
+constantly pushing the boundaries of what is physically possible. As 
+
+former DARPA official Michael Goldblatt says, they try not to violate the 
+laws of physics, “or at least not knowingly. Or at least not more than one 
+
+per program.”"
+"per program.” 
+
+But what separates DARPA from science fiction is its track record, 
+which is truly astounding. One of its early projects in the 1960s was 
+Arpanet, which was a war-fighting telecommunications network that 
+would electronically connect scientists and officials during and after 
+World War III. In 1989, the National Science Foundation decided that, in 
+light of the breakup of the Soviet bloc, it was unnecessary to keep it a 
+secret, so it declassified this hush-hush military technology and 
+essentially gave codes and blueprints away for free. Arpanet would 
+eventually become the Internet. 
+
+When the U.S. Air Force needed a way to guide its ballistic missiles in 
+space, DARPA helped create Project 57, a top-secret project that was 
+designed to place H-bombs on hardened Soviet missile silos in a 
+thermonuclear exchange. It would later become the foundation for the 
+Global Positioning System (GPS). Instead of guiding missiles, today it 
+guides lost motorists."
+"DARPA has been a key player in a series of inventions that have 
+altered the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including cell phones, 
+night-vision goggles, telecommunications advances, and weather 
+satellites. I have had a chance to interact with DARPA scientists and 
+officials on several occasions. I once had lunch with one of the agency’s 
+former directors at a reception filled with many scientists and futurists. I 
+asked him a question that had always bothered me: Why do we have to 
+rely on dogs to sniff our luggage for the presence of high explosives? 
+Surely our sensors are sensitive enough to pick up the telltale signature 
+of explosive chemicals. He replied that DARPA had actively looked into 
+this same question but had come up against some severe technical 
+problems. The olfactory sensors of dogs, he said, had evolved over 
+millions of years to be able to detect a handful of molecules, and that 
+kind of sensitivity is extremely difficult to match, even with our most"
+"kind of sensitivity is extremely difficult to match, even with our most 
+finely tuned sensors. It’s likely that we will continue to rely on dogs at 
+airports for the foreseeable future."
+"On another occasion, a group of DARPA physicists and engineers came 
+to a talk I gave about the future of technology. Later I asked them if they 
+had any concerns of their own. One concern, they said, was their public 
+image. Most people have never heard of DARPA, but some link it to 
+dark, nefarious government conspiracies, everything from UFO cover- 
+
+ups, Area 51, and Roswell to weather control, etc. They sighed. If only 
+these rumors were true, they could certainly use help from alien 
+technology to jump-start their research!"
+"With a budget of $3 billion, DARPA has now set its sights on the 
+brain-machine interface. When discussing the potential applications, 
+former DARPA official Michael Goldblatt pushes the boundary of the 
+imagination. He says, “Imagine if soldiers could communicate by 
+thought alone.... Imagine the threat of biological attack being 
+inconsequential. And contemplate, for a moment, a world in which 
+learning is as easy as eating, and the replacement of damaged body parts 
+as convenient as a fast-food drive-through. As impossible as these visions 
+sound or as difficult as you might think the task would be, these visions 
+are the everyday work of the Defense Sciences Office [a branch of 
+DARPA].”"
+"Goldblatt believes that historians will conclude that the long-term 
+legacy of DARPA will be human enhancement, “our future historical 
+strength.” He notes that the famous army slogan “Be All You Can Be” 
+takes on a new meaning when contemplating the implications of human 
+enhancement. Perhaps it is no accident that Michael Goldblatt is pushing 
+human enhancement so vigorously at DARPA. His own daughter suffers 
+from cerebral palsy and has been confined to a wheelchair all her life. 
+Since she requires outside help, her illness has slowed her down, but she 
+has always risen above adversity. She is going to college and dreaming 
+of starting her own company. Goldblatt acknowledges that his daughter 
+is his inspiration. As Washington Post editor Joel Garreau has noted, 
+“What he is doing is spending untold millions of dollars to create what 
+might well be the next step in human evolution. And yet, it has occurred 
+to him that the technology he is helping create might someday allow his"
+"to him that the technology he is helping create might someday allow his 
+daughter not just to walk, but to transcend.”"
+"PRIVACY ISSUES 
+
+When hearing of mind-reading machines for the first time, the average 
+person might be concerned about privacy. The idea that a machine 
+concealed somewhere may be reading our intimate thoughts without our 
+permission is unnerving. Human consciousness, as we have stressed, 
+
+involves constantly running simulations of the future. In order for these 
+simulations to be accurate, we sometimes imagine scenarios that wade 
+into immoral or illegal territory, but whether or not we act on these 
+plans, we prefer to keep them private. 
+
+For scientists, life would be easier if they could simply read people’s 
+
+thoughts from a distance using portable devices (rather than by using 
+clumsy helmets or surgically opening up the skull), but the laws of 
+physics make this exceedingly difficult."
+"When I asked Dr. Nishimoto, who works in Dr. Gallant’s Berkeley lab, 
+about the question of privacy, he smiled and replied that radio signals 
+degrade quite rapidly outside the brain, so these signals would be too 
+diffuse and weak to make any sense to anyone standing more than a few 
+feet away. (In school, we learned about Newton’s laws and that gravity 
+diminishes as the square of the distance, so that if you doubled your 
+distance from a star, the gravity field diminishes by a factor of four. But 
+magnetic fields diminish much faster than the square of the distance. 
+Most signals decrease by the cube or quartic of the distance, so if you 
+double the distance from an MRI machine, the magnetic field goes down 
+by a factor of eight or more.)"
+"Furthermore, there would be interference from the outside world, 
+which would mask the faint signals coming from the brain. This is one 
+reason why scientists require strict laboratory conditions to do their 
+work, and even then they are able to extract only a few letters, words, or 
+images from the thinking brain at any given time. The technology is not 
+adequate to record the avalanche of thoughts that often circulate in our 
+brain as we simultaneously consider several letters, words, phrases, or 
+sensory information, so using these devices for mind reading as seen in 
+the movies is not possible today, and won’t be for decades to come."
+"For the foreseeable future, brain scans will continue to require direct 
+access to the human brain in laboratory conditions. But in the highly 
+unlikely event that someone in the future finds a way to read thoughts 
+from a distance, there are still countermeasures you can take. To keep 
+your most important thoughts private, you might use a shield to block 
+brain waves from entering the wrong hands. This can be done with 
+something called a Faraday cage, invented by the great British physicist 
+Michael Faraday in 1836, although the effect was first observed by 
+Benjamin Franklin. Basically, electricity will rapidly disperse around a"
+"metal cage, such that the electric field inside the cage is zero. To 
+demonstrate this, physicists (like myself) have entered a metallic cage on 
+which huge electrical bolts are fired. Miraculously, we are unscratched. 
+This is why airplanes can be hit by lightning bolts and not suffer 
+damage, and why cable wires are covered with metallic threads. 
+Similarly, a telepathy shield would consist of thin metal foil placed 
+around the brain. 
+
+TELEPATHY VIA NANOPROBES IN THE BRAIN"
+"TELEPATHY VIA NANOPROBES IN THE BRAIN 
+
+There is another way to partially solve the privacy issue, as well as the 
+difficulty of placing ECOG sensors into the brain. In the future, it may be 
+possible to exploit nanotechnology, the ability to manipulate individual 
+atoms, to insert a web of nanoprobes into the brain that can tap into 
+your thoughts. These nanoprobes might be made of carbon nanotubes, 
+which conduct electricity and are as thin as the laws of atomic physics 
+allow. These nanotubes are made of individual carbon atoms arrayed in 
+a tube a few molecules thick. (They are the subject of intense scientific 
+interest, and are expected in the coming decades to revolutionize the 
+way scientists probe the brain.)"
+"The nanoprobes would be placed precisely in those areas of the brain 
+devoted to certain activities. In order to convey speech and language, 
+they would be placed in the left temporal lobes. In order to process 
+visual images, they would be placed in the thalamus and visual cortex. 
+Emotions would be sent via nanoprobes in the amygdala and limbic 
+system. The signals from these nanoprobes would be sent to a small 
+computer, which would process the signals and wirelessly send 
+information to a server and then the Internet. 
+
+Privacy issues would be partially solved, since you would completely 
+control when your thoughts are being sent over cables or the Internet. 
+Radio signals can be detected by any bystander with a receiver, but 
+electrical signals sent along a cable cannot. The problem of opening up 
+the skull to use messy ECOG meshes is also solved, because the 
+nanoprobes can be inserted via microsurgery."
+"Some science-fiction writers have conjectured that when babies are 
+born in the future, these nanoprobes might be painlessly implanted, so 
+
+that telepathy becomes a way of life for them. In Star Trek, for example, 
+implants are routinely placed into the children of the Borg at birth so 
+that they can telepathically communicate with others. These children 
+cannot imagine a world where telepathy does not exist. They take it for 
+granted that telepathy is the norm. 
+
+Because these nanoprobes are tiny, they would be invisible to the 
+outside world, so there would be no social ostracism. Although society 
+might be repulsed at the idea of inserting probes permanently into the 
+brain, these science-fiction writers assume that people will get used to 
+the idea because the nanoprobes would be so useful, just like test-tube 
+babies have been accepted by society today after the initial controversy 
+surrounding them. 
+
+LEGAL ISSUES"
+"LEGAL ISSUES 
+
+For the foreseeable future, the question is not whether someone will be 
+able to read our thoughts secretly from a remote, concealed device, but 
+whether we will willingly allow our thoughts to be recorded. What 
+happens, then, if some unscrupulous person gets unauthorized access to 
+those files? This raises the issue of ethics, since we would not want our 
+thoughts to be read against our will. Dr. Brian Pasley says, “There are 
+ethical concerns, not with the current research, but with the possible 
+extensions of it. There has to be a balance. If we are somehow able to 
+decode someone’s thoughts instantaneously that might have great 
+benefits for the thousands of severely disabled people who are unable to 
+communicate right now. On the other hand, there are great concerns if 
+this were applied to people who didn’t want that.”"
+"Once it becomes possible to read people’s minds and make recordings, 
+a host of other ethical and legal questions will arise. This happens 
+whenever any new technology is introduced. Historically it often takes 
+years before the law is fully able to address their implications. 
+
+For instance, copyright laws may have to be rewritten. What happens 
+if someone steals your invention by reading your thoughts? Can you 
+patent your thoughts? Who actually owns the idea? 
+
+Another problem occurs if the government is involved. As John Perry 
+Barlow, poet and lyricist for the Grateful Dead, once said, “Relying on"
+"the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to 
+install your window blinds.” Would the police be allowed to read your 
+thoughts when you are being interrogated? Already courts have been 
+ruling on cases where an alleged criminal refused to submit his DNA as 
+evidence. In the future, will the government be allowed to read your 
+thoughts without your consent, and if so, will they be admissible in 
+court? How reliable would they be? In the same way that MRI lie 
+detectors measure only increased brain activity, it’s important to note 
+that thinking about a crime and actually committing one are two 
+different things. During cross-examination, a defense lawyer might argue 
+that these thoughts were just random musings and nothing more."
+"Another gray area concerns the rights of people who are paralyzed. If 
+they are drafting a will or legal document, can a brain scan be sufficient 
+to create a legal document? Assume that a totally paralyzed person has a 
+sharp, active mind and wants to sign a contract or manage his funds. Are 
+these documents legal, given that the technology may not be perfect? 
+
+There is no law of physics that can resolve these ethical questions. 
+Ultimately, as this technology matures, these issues will have to be 
+
+settled in court by judges and juries."
+"settled in court by judges and juries. 
+
+Meanwhile, governments and corporations might have to invent new 
+ways to prevent mental espionage. Industrial espionage is already a 
+multimillion-dollar industry, with governments and corporations 
+building expensive “safe rooms” that have been scanned for bugs and 
+listening devices. In the future (assuming that a method can be devised 
+to listen to brain waves from a distance), safe rooms may have to be 
+designed so that brain signals are not accidentally leaked to the outside 
+world. These safe rooms would be surrounded by metallic walls, which 
+would form a Faraday cage shielding the interior of the room from the 
+outside world."
+"Every time a new form of radiation has been exploited, spies have 
+tried to use it for espionage, and brain waves are probably no exception. 
+The most famous case involved a tiny microwave device hidden in the 
+Great Seal of the United States in the U.S. embassy in Moscow. From 
+1945 until 1952, it was transmitting top-secret messages from U.S. 
+diplomats directly to the Soviets. Even during the Berlin Crisis of 1948 
+and the Korean War, the Soviets used this bug to decipher what the 
+United States was planning. It might have continued to leak secrets even"
+"today, changing the course of the Cold War and world history, but it was 
+accidentally discovered when a British engineer heard secret 
+conversations on an open radio band. U.S. engineers were shocked when 
+they picked apart the bug; they failed to detect it for years because it 
+was passive, requiring no energy source. (The Soviets cleverly evaded 
+detection because the bug was energized by microwave beams from a 
+remote source.) It is possible that future espionage devices will be made 
+to intercept brain waves as well. 
+
+Although much of this technology is still primitive, telepathy is slowly 
+becoming a fact of life. In the future, we may interact with the world via 
+the mind. But scientists want to go beyond just reading the mind, which 
+is passive. They want to take an active role—to move objects with the 
+mind. Telekinesis is a power usually ascribed to the gods. It is the divine 
+power to shape reality to your wishes. It is the ultimate expression of our 
+thoughts and desires."
+"We will soon have it. 
+
+It is the business of the future to be dangerous.... The major 
+advances in civilization are processes that all but wreck the 
+societies in which they occur. 
+
+—ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD 
+
+4 TELEKINESIS MIND CONTROLLING MATTER 
+
+Cathy Hutchinson is trapped inside her body. 
+
+She was paralyzed fourteen years ago by a massive stroke. A 
+quadriplegic, she is like thousands of “locked-in” patients who have lost 
+control over most of their muscles and bodily functions. Most of the day, 
+she lies helpless, requiring continual nursing care, yet her mind is clear. 
+She is a prisoner in her own body."
+"But in May 2012, her fortunes changed radically. Scientists at Brown 
+University placed a tiny chip on top of her brain, called Braingate, which 
+is connected by wires to a computer. Signals from her brain are relayed 
+through the computer to a mechanical robotic arm. By simply thinking, 
+she gradually learns to control the motion of the arm so that it can, for 
+instance, grab a bottled drink and bring it to her mouth. For the first 
+time, she is able to have some control of the world around her."
+"Because she is paralyzed and cannot talk, she had to communicate her 
+excitement by making eye movements. A device tracks her eyes and then 
+translates her movements into a typed message. When she was asked 
+how she felt, after years of being imprisoned inside a shell called her 
+body, she replied, “Ecstatic!” Looking forward to the day when her other 
+limbs are connected to her brain via computer, she added, “I would love 
+to have a robotic leg support.” Before her stroke, she loved to cook and 
+tend her garden. “I know that someday this will happen again,” she 
+added. At the rate at which the field of cyber prosthetics is moving, she 
+might have her wish soon."
+"Professor John Donoghue and his colleagues at Brown University and 
+also at the University of Utah have created a tiny sensor that acts like a 
+bridge to the outside world for those who can no longer communicate. 
+When I interviewed him, he told me, “We have taken a tiny sensor, the 
+size of a baby aspirin, or four millimeters, and implanted it onto the 
+surface of the brain. Because of ninety-six little ‘hairs’ or electrodes that 
+pick up brain impulses, it can pick up signals of your intention to move 
+
+your arm. We target the arm because of its importance.” Because the 
+motor cortex has been carefully mapped over the decades, it is possible 
+to place the chip directly on top of the neurons that control specific 
+limbs."
+"The key to Braingate lies in translating neural signals from the chip 
+into meaningful commands that can move objects in the real world, 
+starting with the cursor of a computer screen. Donoghue told me that he 
+does this by asking the patient to imagine moving the cursor of a 
+computer screen in a certain way, e.g., moving it to the right. It takes 
+only a few minutes to record the brain signals corresponding to this task. 
+In this way, the computer recognizes that whenever it detects a brain 
+signal like that, it should move the cursor to the right. 
+
+Then, whenever that person thinks of moving the cursor to the right, 
+the computer actually moves the cursor in that direction. In this way, 
+there is a one-to-one map between certain actions that the patient 
+imagines and the actual action itself. A patient can immediately start to 
+control the movement of the cursor, practically on the first try."
+"Braingate opens the door to a new world of neuroprosthetics, allowing 
+a paralyzed person to move artificial limbs with the mind. In addition, it 
+lets the patient communicate directly with their loved ones. The first 
+version of this chip, tested in 2004, was designed so that paralyzed 
+patients could communicate with a laptop computer. Soon afterward, 
+these patients were surfing the web, reading and writing e-mails, and 
+controlling their wheelchairs. 
+
+More recently, the cosmologist Stephen Hawking had a 
+neuroprosthetic device attached to his glasses. Like an EEG sensor, it can 
+connect his thoughts to a computer so that he can maintain some contact 
+with the outside world. It is rather primitive, but eventually devices 
+similar to it will become much more sophisticated, with more channels 
+and greater sensitivity."
+"All this, Dr. Donoghue told me, could have a profound impact on the 
+lives of these patients: “Another useful thing is that you can connect this 
+computer to any device—a toaster, a coffee maker, an air conditioner, a 
+light switch, a typewriter. It’s really quite easy to do these things these 
+days, and it’s very inexpensive. For a quadriplegic who can’t get around, 
+they will be able to change the TV channel, turn the lights on, and do all 
+those things without anybody coming into the room and doing it for 
+
+them.” Eventually, they will be able to do anything a normal person can 
+do, via computers. 
+
+FIXING SPINAL CORD INJURIES 
+
+A number of other groups are entering the fray. Another breakthrough 
+was made by scientists at Northwestern University who have connected"
+"a monkey’s brain directly to his own arm, bypassing an injured spinal 
+cord. In 1995, there was the sad story of Christopher Reeve, who soared 
+into outer space in the Superman movies but was completely paralyzed 
+due to an injury to his spinal cord. Unfortunately, he was thrown off a 
+horse and landed on his neck, so the spinal cord was damaged just 
+beneath his head. If he had lived longer, he might have seen the work of 
+scientists who want to use computers to replace broken spinal cords. In 
+the United States alone, more than two hundred thousand people have 
+some form of spinal cord injury. In an earlier age, these individuals 
+might have died soon after the accident, but because of advances in 
+acute trauma care, the number of people who survive these sorts of 
+injuries has actually grown in recent years. We are also haunted by the 
+images of thousands of wounded warriors who were victims of roadside 
+bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. And if you include the number of"
+"bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. And if you include the number of 
+patients paralyzed by strokes and other illnesses, like amyotropic lateral 
+sclerosis (ALS), the number of patients swells to two million."
+"The scientists at Northwestern used a one-hundred-electrode chip, 
+which was placed directly on the brain of a monkey. The signals from 
+the brain were carefully recorded as the monkey grasped a ball, lifted it, 
+and released it into a tube. Since each task corresponds to a specific 
+firing of neurons, the scientists could gradually decode these signals. 
+
+When the monkey wanted to move his arm, the signals were processed 
+by a computer using this code, and, instead of sending the messages to a 
+mechanical arm, they sent the signals directly to the nerves of the 
+monkey’s real arm. “We are eavesdropping on the natural electrical 
+signals from the brain that tell the arm and hand how to move, and 
+sending those signals directly to the muscles,” says Dr. Lee Miller. 
+
+By trial and error, the monkey learned to coordinate the muscles in his 
+arm. “There is a process of motor learning that is very similar to the"
+"process you go through when you learn to use a new computer, mouse, 
+or a different tennis racquet,” adds Dr. Miller. 
+
+(It is remarkable that the monkey was able to master so many motions 
+of his arm, given the fact that there are only one hundred electrodes on 
+this brain chip. Dr. Miller points out that millions of neurons are 
+involved in controlling the arm. The reason that one hundred electrodes 
+can give a reasonable approximation to the output of millions of neurons 
+is that the chip connects to the output neurons, after all the complex 
+processing has already been done by the brain. With the sophisticated 
+analysis out of the way, the one hundred electrodes are responsible 
+simply for feeding that information to the arm.) 
+
+This device is one of several being devised at Northwestern that will"
+"This device is one of several being devised at Northwestern that will 
+
+allow patients to bypass their injured spinal cords. Another neural 
+prosthesis uses the motion of the shoulders to control the arm. An 
+upward shrug causes the hand to close. A downward shrug causes the 
+hand to open. The patient also has the ability to curl his fingers around 
+an object like a cup, or manipulate a key that is grasped between the 
+thumb and index finger. 
+
+Dr. Miller concludes, “This connection from brain to muscles might 
+someday be used to help patients paralyzed due to spinal cord injury 
+perform activities of daily living and achieve greater independence.” 
+
+REVOLUTIONIZING PROSTHETICS"
+"REVOLUTIONIZING PROSTHETICS 
+
+Much of the funding driving these remarkable developments comes from 
+a DARPA project called Revolutionizing Prosthetics, a $150 million 
+effort that has been bankrolling these efforts since 2006. One of the 
+driving forces behind Revolutionizing Prosthetics is retired U.S. Army 
+colonel Geoffrey Ling, who is a neurologist with several tours of duty in 
+Iraq and Afghanistan. He was appalled at the human carnage he 
+witnessed on the battlefield caused by roadside bombs. In previous wars, 
+many of these brave service members would have died on the spot. But 
+today, with helicopters and an extensive medical evacuation 
+infrastructure, many of them survive but still suffer from serious bodily 
+injuries. More than 1,300 service members have lost limbs after coming 
+back from the Middle East."
+"Dr. Ling asked himself whether there was a scientific way to replace 
+these lost limbs. Backed by funding from the Pentagon, he asked his staff 
+to come up with concrete solutions within five years. When he made that 
+request, he was met with incredulity. He recalled, “They thought we 
+were crazy. But it’s in insanity that things happen.” 
+
+Spurred into action by Dr. Ling’s boundless enthusiasm, his crew has 
+created miracles in the laboratory. For example, Revolutionary 
+Prosthetics funded scientists at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics 
+Laboratory who have created the most advanced mechanical arm on 
+Earth, which can duplicate nearly all the delicate motions of the fingers, 
+hand, and arm in three dimensions. It is the same size and has the same 
+strength and agility as a real arm. Although it is made of steel, if you 
+covered it up with flesh-colored plastic, it would be nearly 
+indistinguishable from a real arm."
+"This arm was attached to Jan Sherman, a quadriplegic who had 
+suffered from a genetic disease that damaged the connection between 
+her brain and her body, leaving her completely paralyzed from the neck 
+
+down. At the University of Pittsburgh, electrodes were placed directly on 
+top of her brain, which were then connected to a computer and then to a 
+mechanical arm. Five months after surgery to attach the arm, she 
+appeared on 60 Minutes. Before a national audience, she cheerfully used 
+her new arm to wave, greet the host, and shake his hand. She even gave 
+him a fist bump to show how sophisticated the arm was. 
+
+Dr. Ling says, “In my dream, we will be able to take this into all sorts 
+of patients, patients with strokes, cerebral palsy, and the elderly.” 
+
+TELEKINESIS IN YOUR LIFE"
+"TELEKINESIS IN YOUR LIFE 
+
+Not only scientists but also entrepreneurs are looking at brain-machine 
+interface (BMI). They wish to incorporate many of these dazzling 
+inventions as a permanent part of their business plans. BMI has already 
+penetrated the youth market, in the form of video games and toys that 
+use EEG sensors so that you can control objects with the mind in both 
+virtual reality and the real world. In 2009, NeuroSky marketed the first 
+toy, Mindflex, specifically designed to use EEG sensors to move a ball 
+through a maze. Concentrating while wearing the Mindflex EEG device 
+
+increases the speed of a fan within the maze and propels a tiny ball 
+down a pathway."
+"increases the speed of a fan within the maze and propels a tiny ball 
+down a pathway. 
+
+Mind-controlled video games are also blossoming. Seventeen hundred 
+software developers are working with NeuroSky, many of them on the 
+company’s $129 million Mindwave Mobile headset. These video games 
+use a small, portable EEG sensor wrapped around your forehead that 
+allows you to navigate in virtual reality, where the movements of your 
+avatar are controlled mentally. As you maneuver your avatar on the 
+video screen, you can fire weapons, evade enemies, rise to new levels, 
+score points, etc., as in an ordinary video game, except that everything is 
+hands-free. 
+
+“There’s going to be a whole ecosystem of new players, and NeuroSky 
+is very well positioned to be like the Intel of this new industry,” claims 
+Alvaro Fernandez of SharpBrains, a market research firm."
+"Besides firing virtual weapons, the EEG helmet can also detect when 
+your attention begins to flatten out. NeuroSky has been getting inquiries 
+from companies concerned about injuries to workers who lose 
+concentration while operating a dangerous machine or who fall asleep at 
+the wheel. This technology could be a lifesaver, alerting the worker or 
+driver that he is losing his focus. The EEG helmet would set off an alarm 
+when the wearer dozes off. (In Japan, this headset is already creating a 
+
+fad among partygoers. The EEG sensors look like cat ears when you put 
+them on your head. The ears suddenly rise when your attention is 
+focused and then flatten out when it fades. At parties, people can express 
+romantic interest just by thinking, so you know if you are impressing 
+someone.)"
+"But perhaps the most novel applications of this technology are being 
+pursued by Dr. Miguel Nicolelis of Duke University. When I interviewed 
+him, he told me that he thinks he can duplicate many of the devices 
+found only in science fiction. 
+
+SMART HANDS AND MIND MELDS 
+
+Dr. Nicolelis has shown that this brain-machine interface can be done 
+across continents. He places a monkey on a treadmill. A chip is 
+positioned on the monkey’s brain, which is connected to the Internet. On 
+
+the other side of the planet, in Kyoto, Japan, signals from the monkey 
+are used to control a robot that can walk. By walking on the treadmill in 
+North Carolina, the monkey controls a robot in Japan, which executes 
+the same walking motion. Using only his brain sensors and the reward of 
+a food pellet, Dr. Nicolelis has trained these monkeys to control a 
+humanoid robot called CB-1 halfway around the world."
+"He is also tackling one of the main problems with brain-machine 
+interface: the lack of feeling. Today’s prosthetic hands don’t have a sense 
+of touch, and hence they feel foreign; because there’s no feedback, they 
+might accidentally crush someone’s fingers while engaging in a 
+handshake. Picking up an eggshell with a mechanical arm would be 
+nearly impossible. 
+
+Nicolelis hopes to circumvent this problem by having a direct brain-to- 
+brain interface. Messages would be sent from the brain to a mechanical 
+arm that has sensors, which would then send messages directly back to 
+the brain, thereby bypassing the stem altogether. This brain-machine- 
+brain interface (BMBI) could enable a clean, direct feedback mechanism 
+to allow for the sensation of touch."
+"Dr. Nicolelis started by connecting the motor cortex of rhesus monkeys 
+to mechanical arms. These mechanical arms have sensors on them, 
+which then send signals back to the brain by electrodes connected to the 
+somatosensory cortex (which registers the sensation of touch). The 
+monkeys were given a reward after every successful trial; they learned 
+how to use this apparatus within four to nine trials. 
+
+To do this, Dr. Nicolelis had to invent a new code that would 
+represent different surfaces (which were rough or smooth). “After a 
+month of practice,” he told me, “this part of the brain learns this new 
+code, and starts to associate this new artificial code that we created with 
+different textures. So this is the first demonstration that we can create a 
+sensory channel” that can simulate sensations of the skin."
+"I mentioned to him that this idea sounds like the “holodeck” of Star 
+Trek, where you wander in a virtual world but feel sensations when you 
+bump into virtual objects, just as if they were real. This is called “haptic 
+technology,” which uses digital technology to simulate the sense of 
+touch. Nicolelis replied, “Yes, I think this is the first demonstration that 
+something like the holodeck will be possible in the near future.” 
+
+The holodeck of the future might use a combination of two 
+
+technologies. First, people in the holodeck would wear Internet contact 
+lenses, so that they would see an entirely new virtual world everywhere 
+they looked. The scenery in your contact lens would change instantly 
+with the push of a button. And if you touched any object in this world, 
+signals sent into the brain would simulate the sensation of touch, using 
+BMBI technology. In this way, objects in the virtual world you see inside 
+your contact lens would feel solid."
+"Brain-to-brain interface would make possible not only haptic 
+technology, but also an “Internet of the mind,” or brain-net, with direct 
+brain-to-brain contact. In 2013, Dr. Nicolelis was able to accomplish 
+something straight out of Star Trek, a “mind meld” between two brains. 
+He started with two groups of rats, one at Duke University, the other in 
+Natal, Brazil. The first group learned to press a lever when seeing a red 
+light. The second group learned to press a lever when their brains were 
+stimulated by a signal sent via an implant. Their reward for pressing the 
+lever was a sip of water. Then Dr. Nicolelis connected the motor cortices 
+of the brains of both groups via a fine wire through the Internet."
+"When the first group of rats saw the red light, a signal was sent over 
+the Internet to Brazil to the second group, which then pressed the lever. 
+In seven out of ten trials, the second group of rats correctly responded to 
+the signals sent by the first group. This was the first demonstration that 
+signals could be transferred and also interpreted correctly between two 
+brains. It’s still a far cry from the mind meld of science fiction, where 
+two minds merge into one, because this is still primitive and the sample 
+size is small, but it is a proof of principle that a brain-net might be 
+possible. 
+
+In 2013, the next important step was taken when scientists went 
+beyond animal studies and demonstrated the first direct human brain-to- 
+
+brain communication, with one human brain sending a message to 
+another via the Internet."
+"brain communication, with one human brain sending a message to 
+another via the Internet. 
+
+This milestone was achieved at the University of Washington, with 
+one scientist sending a brain signal (move your right arm) to another 
+scientist. The first scientist wore an EEG helmet and played a video 
+game. He fired a cannon by imagining moving his right arm, but was 
+careful not to move it physically. 
+
+The signal from the EEG helmet was sent over the Internet to another 
+scientist, who was wearing a transcranial magnetic helmet carefully 
+
+placed over the part of his brain that controlled his right arm. When the 
+signal reached the second scientist, the helmet would send a magnetic 
+pulse into his brain, which made his right arm move involuntarily, all by 
+itself. Thus, by remote control, one human brain could control the 
+movement of another."
+"This breakthrough opens up a number of possibilities, such as 
+exchanging nonverbal messages via the Internet. You might one day be 
+able to send the experience of dancing the tango, bungee jumping, or 
+skydiving to the people on your e-mail list. Not just physical activity, but 
+emotions and feelings as well might be sent via brain-to-brain 
+communication."
+"Nicolelis envisions a day when people all over the world could 
+participate in social networks not via keyboards, but directly through 
+their minds. Instead of just sending e-mails, people on the brain-net 
+would be able to telepathically exchange thoughts, emotions, and ideas 
+in real time. Today a phone call conveys only the information of the 
+conversation and the tone of voice, nothing more. Video conferencing is 
+a bit better, since you can read the body language of the person on the 
+other end. But a brain-net would be the ultimate in communications, 
+making it possible to share the totality of mental information in a 
+conversation, including emotions, nuances, and reservations. Minds 
+would be able to share their most intimate thoughts and feelings. 
+
+TOTAL IMMERSION ENTERTAINMENT"
+"TOTAL IMMERSION ENTERTAINMENT 
+
+Developing a brain-net may also have an impact on the multibillion- 
+dollar entertainment industry. Back in the 1920s, the technology of tape¬ 
+recording sound as well as light was perfected. This set off a 
+transformation in the entertainment industry as it made the transition 
+from silent movies to the “talkies.” This basic formula of combining 
+sound and sight hasn’t changed much for the past century. But in the 
+
+future, the entertainment industry may make the next transition, 
+recording all five senses, including smell, taste, and touch, as well as the 
+full range of emotions. Telepathic probes would be able to handle the 
+full range of senses and emotions that circulate in the brain, producing a 
+complete immersion of the audience in the story. Watching a romantic"
+"movie or an action thriller, we would be swimming in an ocean of 
+sensations, as if we were really there, experiencing all the rush of 
+feelings and the emotions of the actors. We would smell the perfume of 
+the heroine, feel the terror of the victims in a horror movie, and relish 
+the vanquishing of the bad guys."
+"This immersion would involve a radical shift in how movies are made. 
+First, actors would have to be trained to act out their roles with 
+EEG/MRI sensors and nanoprobes recording their sensations and 
+emotions. (This would place an added burden on the actors, who would 
+have to act out each scene by simulating all five senses. In the same way 
+that some actors could not make the transition from silent movies to the 
+talkies, perhaps a new generation of actors will emerge who can act out 
+scenes with all five senses.) Editing would require not just cutting and 
+splicing film, but also combining tapes of the various sensations within 
+each scene. And finally the audience, as they sit in their seats, would 
+have all these electrical signals fed into their brains. Instead of 3-D 
+glasses, the audience would wear brain sensors of some sort. Movie 
+theaters would also have to be retrofitted to process this data and then 
+send it to the people in the audience. 
+
+CREATING A BRAIN-NET"
+"CREATING A BRAIN-NET 
+
+Creating a brain-net that can transmit such information would have to 
+be done in stages. The first step would be inserting nanoprobes into 
+important parts of the brain, such as the left temporal lobe, which 
+governs speech, and the occipital lobe, which governs vision. Then 
+computers would analyze these signals and decode them. This 
+information in turn could be sent over the Internet by fiber-optic cables. 
+
+More difficult would be to insert these signals back into another 
+person’s brain, where they could be processed by the receiver. So far, 
+progress in this area has focused only on the hippocampus, but in the 
+future it should be possible to insert messages directly into other parts of 
+the brain corresponding to our sense of hearing, light, touch, etc. So 
+there is plenty of work to be done as scientists try to map the cortices of 
+the brain involved in these senses. Once these cortices have been 
+mapped—such as the hippocampus, which we’ll discuss in the next"
+"chapter—it should be possible to insert words, thoughts, memories, and 
+experiences into another brain. 
+
+Dr. Nicolelis writes, “It is not inconceivable that our human progeny 
+may indeed muster the skills, technology, and ethics needed to establish 
+a functional brain-net, a medium through which billions of human 
+beings consensually establish temporary direct contacts with fellow 
+human beings through thought alone. What such a colossus of collective 
+consciousness may look like, feel like, or do, neither I nor anyone in our 
+present time can possibly conceive or utter.” 
+
+THE BRAIN-NET AND CIVILIZATION"
+"A brain-net may even change the course of civilization itself. Each time a 
+new communication system has been introduced, it has irrevocably 
+accelerated changes in society, lifting us from one era to the next. In 
+prehistoric times, for thousands of years our ancestors were nomads 
+wandering in small tribes, communicating with one another through 
+body language and grunts. The coming of language allowed us for the 
+first time to communicate symbols and complex ideas, which facilitated 
+the rise of villages and eventually cities. Within the last few thousand 
+years, written language has enabled us to accumulate knowledge and 
+culture across generations, allowing for the rise of science, the arts, 
+architecture, and huge empires. The coming of the telephone, radio, and 
+TV extended the reach of communication across continents. The Internet 
+now makes possible the rise of a planetary civilization that will link all 
+the continents and peoples of the world. The next giant step might be a"
+"the continents and peoples of the world. The next giant step might be a 
+planetary brain-net, in which the full spectrum of senses, emotions, 
+memories, and thoughts are exchanged on a global scale."
+"‘WE WILL BE PART OF THEIR OPERATING SYSTEM' 
+
+When I interviewed Dr. Nicolelis, he told me that he became interested 
+in science at an early age while growing up in his native Brazil. He 
+remembers watching the Apollo moon shot, which captured the world’s 
+attention. To him, it was an amazing feat. And now, he told me, his own 
+“moon shot” is making it possible to move any object with the mind. 
+
+He became interested in the brain while still in high school, where he 
+came across a 1964 book by Isaac Asimov titled The Human Brain. But he 
+was disappointed by the end of the book. There was no discussion about 
+how all these structures interacted with one another to create the mind 
+
+(because no one knew the answer back then). It was a life-changing 
+moment and he realized that his own destiny might lie in trying to 
+understand the secrets of the brain."
+"About ten years ago, he told me, he began to look seriously into doing 
+research on his childhood dream. He started by taking a mouse and 
+letting it control a mechanical device. “We placed sensors into the mouse 
+which read the electrical signals from the brain. Then we transmitted 
+these signals to a little robotic lever that could bring water from a 
+fountain back to the mouse’s mouth. So the animal had to learn how to 
+mentally move the robotic device to bring the water back. That was the 
+first-ever demonstration that you could connect an animal to a machine 
+so that it could operate a machine without moving its own body,” he 
+explained to me."
+"Today he can analyze not just fifty but one thousand neurons in the 
+brain of a monkey, which can reproduce various movements in different 
+parts of the monkey’s body. Then the monkey can control various 
+devices, such as mechanical arms, or even virtual images in cyberspace. 
+“We even have a monkey avatar that can be controlled by the monkey’s 
+thoughts without the monkey making any movement,” he told me. This 
+is done by having the monkey watch a video in which he sees an avatar 
+that represents his body. Then, by mentally commanding his body to 
+move, the monkey makes the avatar move in the corresponding way. 
+
+Nicolelis envisions a day in the very near future when we will play 
+video games and control computers and appliances with our minds. “We 
+
+will be part of their operating system. We will be immersed in them with 
+mechanisms that are very similar to the experiments that I am 
+describing.” 
+
+EXOSKELETONS"
+"EXOSKELETONS 
+
+The next undertaking for Dr. Nicolelis is the Walk Again Project. Its goal 
+is nothing less than a complete exoskeleton for the body controlled by 
+the mind. At first, an exoskeleton conjures up an image of something 
+from the Iron Man movies. Actually, it is a special suit that encases the 
+entire body so that the arms and legs can move via motors. He calls it a 
+“wearable robot.” (See Figure 10.) 
+
+His goal, he said, is to help the paralyzed “walk by thinking.” He plans 
+to use wireless technology, “so there’s nothing sticking out of the head. 
+... We are going to record twenty to thirty thousand neurons, to 
+command a whole body robotic vest, so he can think and walk again and 
+
+move and grab objects.”"
+"move and grab objects.” 
+
+Nicolelis realizes that a series of hurdles must be overcome before the 
+exoskeleton becomes a reality. First, a new generation of microchips 
+must be created that can be placed in the brain safely and reliably for 
+years at a time. Second, wireless sensors must be created so the 
+exoskeleton can roam freely. The signals from the brain would be 
+received wirelessly by a computer the size of a cell phone that would 
+probably be attached to your belt. Third, new advances must be made in 
+deciphering and interpreting signals from the brain via computers. For 
+the monkeys, a few hundred neurons were necessary to control the 
+mechanical arms. For a human, you need, at minimum, several thousand 
+neurons to control an arm or leg. And fourth, a power supply must be 
+found that is portable and powerful enough to energize the entire 
+exoskeleton. 
+
+Figure 10. This is the exoskeleton that Dr. Nicolelis hopes will be controlled by the mind of a totally 
+paralyzed person."
+"(illustration credit 4.1) 
+
+Nicolelis’s goal is a lofty one: to have a working exoskeleton suit ready 
+for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where a quadriplegic Brazilian will 
+deliver the opening kick. He told me proudly, “This is our Brazilian 
+moon shot.” 
+
+AVATARS AND SURROGATES 
+
+In the movie Surrogates, Bruce Willis plays an FBI agent who is 
+investigating mysterious murders. Scientists have created exoskeletons so 
+perfect that they exceed human capabilities. These mechanical creatures 
+are super strong, with perfect bodies. In fact, they are so perfect that 
+humanity has become dependent on them. People live their entire life in 
+pods, mentally controlling their handsome, beautiful surrogate with"
+"wireless technology. Everywhere you go, you see busy “people” at work, 
+except they are all perfectly shaped surrogates. Their aging masters are 
+conveniently hidden from view. The plot takes a sharp twist, however, 
+when Bruce Willis discovers that the person behind these murders might 
+be linked to the same scientist who invented these surrogates in the first 
+place. That forces him to wonder whether the surrogates are a blessing 
+or a curse."
+"And in the blockbuster movie Avatar, in the year 2154 Earth has 
+depleted most of its minerals, so a mining company has journeyed to a 
+distant moon called Pandora in the Alpha Centauri star system in search 
+of a rare metal, unobtanium. There are native people who inhabit this 
+distant moon, called the Na’vi, who live in harmony with their lush 
+environment. In order to communicate with the native people, specially 
+trained workers are placed in pods, where they learn to mentally control 
+the body of a genetically engineered native. Although the atmosphere is 
+poisonous and the environment differs radically from Earth’s, avatars 
+have no difficulty living in this alien world. This uneasy relationship, 
+however, soon collapses when the mining company finds a rich deposit 
+of unobtainium underneath the Na’vi’s sacred ceremonial tree. Inevitably 
+a conflict arises between the mining company, which wants to destroy 
+the sacred tree and strip-mine the land for its rare metal, and the"
+"the sacred tree and strip-mine the land for its rare metal, and the 
+natives, who worship it. It looks like a lost cause for the natives until one 
+of the specially trained workers switches sides and leads the Na’vi to 
+victory."
+"Avatars and surrogates are the stuff of science fiction today, but one 
+day they may become an essential tool for science. The human body is 
+frail, perhaps too delicate for the rigors of many dangerous missions, 
+including space travel. Although science fiction is filled with the heroic 
+exploits of brave astronauts traveling to the farthest reaches of our 
+galaxy, the reality is much different. Radiation in deep space is so 
+intense that our astronauts will have to be shielded or else face 
+premature aging, radiation sickness, and even cancer. Solar flares shot 
+from the sun can bathe a spacecraft in lethal radiation. A simple 
+transatlantic flight from the United States to Europe exposes you to a 
+millirem of radiation per hour, or roughly the same as a dental X-ray. 
+But in outer space, the radiation could be many times more intense, 
+especially in the presence of cosmic rays and solar bursts. (During"
+"intense solar storms, NASA has actually warned astronauts in the space 
+station to move to sections where there is more shielding against 
+radiation.) 
+
+In addition, there are many other dangers awaiting us in outer space, 
+such as micrometeorites, the effects of prolonged weightlessness, and the 
+problems of adjusting to different gravity fields. After just a few months 
+in weightlessness, the body loses a large fraction of its calcium and 
+minerals, leaving the astronauts incredibly weak, even if they exercise 
+every day. After a year in outer space, Russian astronauts had to crawl 
+out of their space capsules like worms. Furthermore, it is believed that 
+some of the effects of muscle and bone loss are permanent, so that 
+astronauts will feel the consequences of prolonged weightlessness for the 
+rest of their lives."
+"The dangers of micrometeorites and intense radiation fields on the 
+moon are so great that many scientists have proposed using a gigantic 
+underground cave as a permanent lunar space station to protect our 
+astronauts. These caves form naturally as lava tubes near extinct 
+volcanoes. But the safest way of building a moon base is to have our 
+astronauts sit in the comfort of their living rooms. This way they would 
+be shielded from all the hazards found on the moon, yet through 
+surrogates they would be able to perform the same tasks. This could 
+vastly reduce the cost of manned space travel, since providing life 
+support for human astronauts is very expensive. 
+
+Perhaps when the first interplanetary ship reaches a distant planet, 
+and an astronaut’s surrogate sets foot on this alien terrain, he or she 
+might start with “One small step for the mind ...”"
+"One possible problem with this approach is that it takes time for 
+messages to go to the moon and beyond. In a little over a second, a radio 
+message can travel from Earth to the moon, so surrogates on the moon 
+could be easily controlled by astronauts on Earth. More difficult would 
+be communicating with surrogates on Mars, since it can take twenty 
+minutes or more for radio signals to reach the Red Planet. 
+
+But surrogates have practical implications closer to home. In Japan, 
+the Fukushima reactor accident in 2011 caused billions of dollars in 
+damages. Because workers can’t enter areas with lethal levels of 
+radiation for more than a few minutes, the final cleanup may take up to 
+forty years. Unfortunately, robots are not sufficiently advanced to go"
+"into these blistering radiation fields and make needed repairs. In fact, 
+the only robots used at Fukushima are quite primitive, basically simple 
+cameras placed on top of a computer sitting on wheels. A full-blown 
+automaton that can think for itself (or be controlled by a remote 
+operator) and make repairs in high-radiation fields is many decades 
+away."
+"The lack of industrial robots caused an acute problem for the Soviets 
+as well during the 1986 Chernobyl accident in the Ukraine. Workers sent 
+directly to the accident site to put out the flames died horrible deaths 
+due to lethal exposure to radiation. Eventually Mikhail Gorbachev 
+ordered the air force to “sand bag” the reactor, dropping five thousand 
+tons of borated sand and cement by helicopter. Radiation levels were so 
+high that 250,000 workers were recruited to finally contain the accident. 
+Each worker could spend only a few minutes inside the reactor building 
+doing repairs. Many received the maximum lifetime allowed dose of 
+radiation. Each one got a medal. This massive project was the largest 
+civil engineering feat ever undertaken. It could not have been done by 
+today’s robots."
+"The Honda Corporation has, in fact, built a robot that may eventually 
+go into deadly radioactive environments, but it is not ready yet. Honda’s 
+scientists have placed an EEG sensor on the head of a worker, which is 
+connected to a computer that analyzes his brain waves. The computer is 
+then connected to a radio that sends messages to the robot, called 
+ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility). Hence, by altering his 
+own brain waves, a worker can control ASIMO by pure thought. 
+
+Unfortunately, this robot is incapable of making repairs at Fukushima 
+right now, since it can execute only four basic motions (all of which 
+involve moving its head and shoulders) while hundreds of motions are 
+required to make repairs at a shattered nuclear power plant. This system 
+is not developed enough to handle simple tasks such as turning a 
+screwdriver or swinging a hammer."
+"Other groups have also explored the possibility of mentally controlled 
+robots. At the University of Washington, Dr. Rajesh Rao has created a 
+similar robot that is controlled by a person wearing an EEG helmet. This 
+shiny humanoid robot is two feet tall and is called Morpheus (after a 
+character in the movie The Matrix, as well as the Greek god of dreams). 
+A student puts on the EEG helmet and then makes certain gestures, such"
+"as moving a hand, which creates an EEG signal that is recorded by a 
+computer. Eventually the computer has a library of such EEG signals, 
+each one corresponding to a specific motion of a limb. Then the robot is 
+programmed to move its hand whenever that EEG signal is sent to it. In 
+this way, if you think about moving your hand, the robot Morpheus 
+moves its hand as well. When you put on the EEG helmet for the first 
+time, it takes about ten minutes for the computer to calibrate to your 
+brain signals. Eventually you get the hang of making gestures with your 
+mind that control the robot. For example, you can have it walk toward 
+you, pick up a block from a table, walk six feet to another table, and 
+then place the block there."
+"Research is also progressing rapidly in Europe. In 2012, scientists in 
+Switzerland at the Ecole Poly technique Federate de Lausanne unveiled 
+their latest achievement, a robot controlled telepathically by EEG sensors 
+whose controller is located sixty miles away. The robot itself looks like 
+the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner now found in many living rooms. 
+But it is actually a highly sophisticated robot equipped with a camera 
+that can navigate its way through a crowded office. A paralyzed patient 
+can, for example, look at a computer screen, which is connected to a 
+video camera on the robot many miles away, and see through the eyes of 
+the robot. Then, by thinking, the patient is able to control the motion of 
+the robot as it moves past obstacles."
+"In the future, one can imagine the most dangerous jobs being done by 
+robots controlled by humans in this fashion. Dr. Nicolelis says, “We will 
+likely be able to operate remotely controlled envoys and ambassadors, 
+robots and airships of many shapes and sizes, sent on our behalf to 
+explore other planets and stars in distant corners of the universe.” 
+
+For example, in 2010 the world looked on in horror as 5 million 
+barrels of crude oil spilled unabated into the Gulf of Mexico. The 
+Deepwater Horizon spill was one of the largest oil disasters in history, 
+yet engineers were largely helpless for three months. Robotic subs, 
+which are controlled remotely, floundered for weeks trying to cap the 
+well because they lacked the dexterity and versatility necessary for this 
+underwater mission. If surrogate subs, which are much more sensitive in 
+manipulating tools, had been available, they might have capped the well 
+in the first few days of the spill, preventing billions in property damage 
+and lawsuits."
+"Another possibility is that surrogate submarines might one day enter 
+the human body and perform delicate surgery from the inside. This idea 
+was explored in the movie Fantastic Voyage, starring Raquel Welch, in 
+which a submarine was shrunk down to the size of a blood cell and then 
+injected into the bloodstream of someone who had a blood clot in his 
+brain. Shrinking atoms violates the laws of quantum physics, but one 
+day MEMS (micro-electrical-mechanical systems) the size of cells might 
+be able to enter a person’s bloodstream. MEMS are incredibly small 
+machines that can easily fit on a pinpoint. MEMS employ the same 
+etching technology used in Silicon Valley, which can put hundreds of 
+millions of transistors on a wafer the size of your fingernail. An 
+elaborate machine with gears, levers, pulleys, and even motors can be 
+made smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. One day a 
+person may be able to put on a telepathy helmet and then command a"
+"person may be able to put on a telepathy helmet and then command a 
+MEMS submarine using wireless technology to perform surgery inside a 
+patient."
+"So MEMS technology may open up an entirely new field of medicine, 
+based on microscopic machines entering the body. These MEMS 
+submarines might even guide nanoprobes as they enter the brain so that 
+they connect precisely to the neurons that are of interest. In this way, 
+nanoprobes might be able to receive and transmit signals from the 
+handful of neurons that are involved in specific behaviors. The hit-or- 
+miss approach of inserting electrodes into the brain will be eliminated. 
+
+THE FUTURE 
+
+In the short term, all these remarkable advances taking place in 
+
+laboratories around the world may alleviate the suffering of those 
+afflicted by paralysis and other disabilities. Using the power of their 
+minds, they will be able to communicate with loved ones, control their 
+wheelchairs and beds, walk by mentally guiding mechanical limbs, 
+manipulate household appliances, and lead seminormal lives."
+"But in the long term, these advances could have profound economic 
+and practical implications for the world. By mid-century, it could 
+become commonplace to interact with computers directly with the mind. 
+Since the computer business is a multitrillion-dollar industry that can 
+
+create young billionaires and corporations almost overnight, advances in 
+the mind-computer interface will reverberate on Wall Street—and also in 
+your living room. 
+
+All the devices we use to communicate with computers (the mouse, 
+keyboards, etc.) may eventually disappear. In the future, we may simply 
+give mental commands and our wishes will be silently carried out by 
+tiny chips hidden in the environment. While sitting in our offices, taking 
+a stroll in the park, doing window-shopping, or just relaxing, our minds 
+could be interacting with scores of hidden chips, allowing us to mentally 
+balance our finances, arrange for theater tickets, or make a reservation."
+"Artists may also make good use of this technology. If they can 
+visualize their artwork in their minds, then the image can be displayed 
+via EEG sensors on a holographic screen in 3-D. Since the image in the 
+mind is not as precise as the original object, the artist could then make 
+improvements on the 3-D image and dream up the next iteration. After 
+several cycles, the artist could print out the final image on a 3-D printer. 
+
+Similarly, engineers would be able to create scale models of bridges, 
+tunnels, and airports by simply using their imagination. They could also 
+rapidly make changes in their blueprints through thought alone. 
+Machine parts could fly off the computer screen and into a 3-D printer."
+"Some critics, however, have claimed that these telekinetic powers 
+have one great limitation: the lack of energy. In the movies, super beings 
+have the power to move mountains using their thoughts. In the movie X- 
+Men: The Last Stand, the super villain Magneto had the ability to move 
+the Golden Gate Bridge simply by pointing his fingers, but the human 
+body can muster only about one-fifth of a horsepower on average, which 
+is much too little power to perform the feats we see in the comic books. 
+Therefore, all the herculean feats of telekinetic super beings appear to be 
+pure fantasy. 
+
+There is one solution to this energy problem, however. You may be 
+able to connect your thoughts to a power source, which would then"
+"magnify your power millions of times. In this way, you could 
+approximate the power of a god. In one episode of Star Trek, the crew 
+journeys to a distant planet and meets a godlike creature who claims to 
+be Apollo, the Greek god of the sun. He can perform feats of magic that 
+dazzle the crew. He even claims to have visited Earth eons ago, where 
+the earthlings worshipped him. But the crew, not believing in gods, 
+
+suspect a fraud. Later they figure out that this “god” just mentally 
+controls a hidden power source, which then performs all the magic 
+tricks. When this power source is destroyed, he becomes a mere mortal."
+"Similarly, in the future our minds may mentally control a power 
+source that will then give us superpowers. For example, a construction 
+worker might telepathically exploit a power source that energizes heavy 
+machinery. Then a single worker might be able to build complex 
+buildings and houses just by using the power of his mind. All the heavy 
+lifting would be done by the power source, and the construction worker 
+would resemble a conductor, able to orchestrate the motion of colossal 
+cranes and powerful bulldozers through thought alone. 
+
+Science is beginning to catch up to science fiction in yet another way. 
+The Star Wars saga was supposed to take place in a time when 
+civilizations span the entire galaxy. The peace of the galaxy, in turn, is 
+maintained by the Jedi Knights, a highly trained cadre of warriors who 
+use the power of the “Force” to read minds and guide their lightsabers."
+"However, one need not wait until we have colonized the entire galaxy 
+to begin contemplating the Force. As we’ve seen, some aspects of the 
+Force are possible today, such as being able to tap into the thoughts of 
+others using ECOG electrodes or EEG helmets. But the telekinetic powers 
+of the Jedi Knights will also become a possibility as we learn to harness 
+a power source with our minds. The Jedi Knights, for example, can 
+summon a light-saber simply by waving their hands, but we can already 
+accomplish the same feat by exploiting the power of magnetism (much 
+as the magnet in an MRI machine can hurl a hammer across a room). By 
+mentally activating the power source, you can grab lightsabers from 
+across the room with today’s technology. 
+
+THE POWER OF A GOD"
+"THE POWER OF A GOD 
+
+Telekinesis is a power usually reserved for a deity or a superhero. In the 
+universe of superheros appearing in blockbuster Hollywood movies, 
+perhaps the most powerful character is Phoenix, a telekinetic woman 
+who can move any object at will. As a member of the X-Men, she can lift 
+heavy machinery, hold back floods, or raise jet airplanes via the power 
+
+of her mind. (However, when she is finally consumed by the dark side of 
+
+her power, she goes on a cosmic rampage, capable of incinerating entire 
+solar systems and destroying stars. Her power is so great and 
+uncontrollable that it leads to her eventual self-destruction.) 
+
+But how far can science go in harnessing telekinetic powers?"
+"But how far can science go in harnessing telekinetic powers? 
+
+In the future, even with an external power source to magnify our 
+thoughts, it is unlikely that people with telekinetic powers will be able 
+to move basic objects like a pencil or mug of coffee on command. As we 
+mentioned, there are only four known forces that rule the universe, and 
+none of them can move objects unless there is an external power source. 
+(Magnetism comes close, but magnetism can move only magnetic 
+objects. Objects made of plastic, water, or wood can easily pass through 
+magnetic fields.) Simple levitation, a trick found in most magicians’ 
+shows, is beyond our scientific capability. 
+
+So even with an external power supply, is it unlikely that a telekinetic 
+person would be able to move the objects around them at will. However, 
+there is a technology that may come close, and that involves the ability 
+to change one object into another."
+"The technology is called “programmable matter,” and it has become a 
+subject of intense research for the Intel Corporation. The idea behind 
+programmable matter is to create objects made of tiny “catoms,” which 
+are microscopic computer chips. Each catom can be controlled 
+wirelessly; it can be programmed to change the electrical charge on its 
+surface so it can bind with other catoms in different ways. By 
+programming the electric charges one way, the catoms bind together to 
+form, say, a cell phone. Push a button to change their programming, and 
+the catoms rearrange themselves to re-form into another object, like a 
+laptop."
+"I saw a demonstration of this technology at Carnegie Mellon 
+University in Pittsburgh, where scientists have been able to create a chip 
+the size of a pinpoint. To exam these catoms, I had to enter a “clean 
+room” wearing a special white uniform, plastic boots, and a cap to 
+prevent even the smallest dust particle from entering. Then, under a 
+microscope, I could see the intricate circuitry inside each catom, which 
+makes it possible to program it wirelessly to change the electrical charge 
+on its surface. In the same way we can program software today, in the 
+future it may be possible to program hardware. 
+
+The next step is to determine if these catoms can combine to form"
+"The next step is to determine if these catoms can combine to form 
+
+useful objects, and to see if they can be changed or morphed into 
+another object at will. It may take until mid-century before we have 
+working prototypes of programmable matter. Because of the complexity 
+of programming billions of catoms, a special computer would have to be 
+created to orchestrate the charge on each catom. Perhaps by the end of 
+this century, it will be possible to mentally control this computer so that 
+we can change one object into another. We would not have to memorize 
+the charges and configuration within an object. We would just give the 
+mental command to the computer to change one object into another."
+"Eventually we might have catalogs listing all the various objects that 
+are programmable, such as furniture, appliances, and electronics. Then 
+by telepathically communicating with the computer, it should be 
+possible to change one object into another. Redecorating your living 
+room, remodeling your kitchen, and buying Christmas presents could all 
+be done mentally. 
+
+A MORALITY TALE 
+
+Having every wish come true is something that only a divinity can 
+accomplish. However, there is also a downside to this celestial power. 
+All technologies can be used for good or for evil. Ultimately, science is a 
+double-edged sword. One side of the sword can cut against poverty, 
+disease, and ignorance. But the other side can cut against people, in 
+several ways."
+"These technologies could conceivably make wars even more vicious. 
+Perhaps one day, all hand-to-hand combat will be between two 
+surrogates, armed with a battery of high-tech weapons. The actual 
+warriors, sitting safely thousands of miles away, would unleash a 
+barrage of the latest high-tech weaponry with little regard for the 
+collateral damage they are inflicting on civilians. Although wars fought 
+with surrogates may preserve the lives of the soldiers themselves, they 
+might also cause horrendous civilian and property damage. 
+
+The bigger problem is that this power may also be too great for any 
+common mortal to control. In the novel Carrie, Stephen King explored 
+the world of a young girl who was constantly taunted by her peers. She 
+was ostracized by the in-crowd and her life became a never-ending series 
+
+of insults and humiliations. However, her tormentors did not know one 
+thing about her: she was telekinetic. 
+
+After enduring the taunts and having blood splashed all over her dress"
+"After enduring the taunts and having blood splashed all over her dress 
+
+at the prom, she finally cracks. She summons all her telekinetic power to 
+trap her classmates and then annihilate them one by one. In a final 
+gesture, she decides to burn the entire school down. But her telekinetic 
+power was too great to control. She ultimately perishes in the fire that 
+she started. 
+
+Not only can the awesome power of telekinesis backfire, but there is 
+another problem as well. Even if you have taken all the precautions to 
+understand and harness this power, it could still destroy you if, 
+ironically enough, it is too obedient to your thoughts and commands. 
+Then the very thoughts you conceive may spell your doom."
+"The movie Forbidden Planet (1956) is based on a play by William 
+Shakespeare, The Tempest, which begins with a sorcerer and his daughter 
+stranded on a deserted island. But in Forbidden Planet, a professor and his 
+daughter are stranded on a distant planet that was once the home of the 
+Krell, a civilization millions of years more advanced than ours. Their 
+greatest achievement was to create a device that gave them the ultimate 
+power of telekinesis, the power to control matter in all its forms by the 
+mind. Anything they desired suddenly materialized before them. This 
+was the power to reshape reality itself to their whims. 
+
+Yet on the eve of their greatest triumph, as they were turning on this 
+device the Krell disappeared without a trace. What could have possibly 
+destroyed this most advanced civilization?"
+"When a crew of earthmen land on the planet to rescue the man and 
+his daughter, they find that there is a hideous monster haunting the 
+planet, slaughtering crew members at will. Finally, one crew member 
+discovers the secret behind both the Krell and the monster. Before he 
+dies, he gasps, “Monsters from the id.” 
+
+Then the shocking truth suddenly dawns on the professor. The very 
+night that the Krell turned on their telekinesis machine, they fell asleep. 
+All the repressed desires from their ids then suddenly materialized. 
+Buried in the subconscious of these highly developed creatures were the 
+long-suppressed animal urges and desires of their ancient past. Every 
+fantasy, every dream of revenge suddenly came true, so this great 
+civilization destroyed itself overnight. They had conquered many worlds, 
+
+but there was one thing they could not control: their own subconscious 
+minds."
+"but there was one thing they could not control: their own subconscious 
+minds. 
+
+That is a lesson for anyone who desires to unleash the power of the 
+mind. Within the mind, you find the noblest achievements and thoughts 
+of humanity. But you will also find monsters from the id. 
+
+CHANGING WHO WE ARE: OUR MEMORIES AND INTELLIGENCE 
+
+So far, we have discussed the power of science to extend our mental 
+abilities via telepathy and telekinesis. We basically remain the same; 
+these developments do nothing to change the essence of who we are. 
+However, there is an entirely new frontier opening up that alters the 
+very nature of what it means to be human. Using the very latest in 
+genetics, electromagnetics, and drug therapy, it may become possible in 
+the near future to alter our memories and even enhance our intelligence. 
+The idea of downloading a memory, learning complex skills overnight, 
+and becoming super intelligent is slowly leaving the realm of science 
+fiction."
+"Without our memories, we are lost, cast adrift in an aimless sea of 
+pointless stimuli, unable to understand the past or ourselves. So what 
+happens if one day we can input artificial memories into our brains? 
+What happens when we can become a master of any discipline simply by 
+downloading the file into our memory? And what happens if we cannot 
+tell the difference between real and fake memories? Then who are we? 
+
+Scientists are moving past being passive observers of nature to actively 
+shaping and molding nature. This means that we might be able to 
+manipulate memories, thoughts, intelligence, and consciousness. Instead 
+of simply witnessing the intricate mechanics of the mind, in the future it 
+will be possible to orchestrate them. 
+
+So let us now answer this question: Can we download memories? 
+
+If our brains were simple enough to be understood, we 
+wouldn’t be smart enough to understand them. 
+
+—ANONYMOUS 
+
+5 MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS MADE TO ORDER"
+"—ANONYMOUS 
+
+5 MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS MADE TO ORDER 
+
+Neo is The One. Only he can lead a defeated humanity to victory 
+against the Machines. Only Neo can destroy the Matrix, which has 
+implanted false memories into our brains as a means to control us. 
+
+In a now-classic scene from the film The Matrix, the evil Sentinels, 
+who guard the Matrix, have finally cornered Neo. It looks like 
+humanity’s last hope is about to be terminated. But previously Neo had 
+
+had an electrode jacked into the back of his neck that could instantly 
+download martial-arts skills into his brain. In seconds, he becomes a 
+karate master able to take down the Sentinels with breathtaking aerial 
+kicks and well-placed strikes. 
+
+In The Matrix, learning the amazing skills of a black-belt karate master 
+is no harder than slipping an electrode into your brain and pushing the 
+“download” button. Perhaps one day we, too, may be able to download 
+memories, which will vastly increase our abilities."
+"But what happens when the memories downloaded into your brain are 
+false? In the movie Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger has fake 
+memories placed into his brain, so that the distinction between reality 
+and fiction becomes totally blurred. He valiantly fights off the bad guys 
+on Mars until the end of the movie, when he suddenly realizes that he 
+himself is their leader. He is shocked to find that his memories of being a 
+normal, law-abiding citizen are totally manufactured. 
+
+Hollywood is fond of movies that explore the fascinating but fictional 
+world of artificial memories. All this is impossible, of course, with 
+today’s technology, but one can envision a day, a few decades from now, 
+when artificial memories may indeed be inserted into the brain. 
+
+HOW WE REMEMBER 
+
+Like Phineas Gage’s, the strange case of Henry Gustav Molaison, known 
+in the scientific literature as simply HM, created a sensation in the field"
+"of neurology that led to many fundamental breakthroughs in 
+understanding the importance of the hippocampus in formulating 
+memories."
+"At the age of nine, HM suffered head injuries in an accident that 
+caused debilitating convulsions. In 1953, when he was twenty-five years 
+old, he underwent an operation that successfully relieved his symptoms. 
+But another problem surfaced because surgeons mistakenly cut out part 
+of his hippocampus. At first, HM appeared normal, but it soon became 
+apparent that something was terribly wrong; he could not retain new 
+memories. Instead, he constantly lived in the present, greeting the same 
+people several times a day with the same expressions, as if he were 
+seeing them for the first time. Everything that went into his memory 
+lasted only a few minutes before it disappeared. Like Bill Murray in the 
+movie Groundhog Day, HM was doomed to relive the same day, over and 
+over, for the rest of his life. But unlike Bill Murray’s character, he was 
+unable to recall the previous iterations. His long-term memory, however,"
+"was relatively intact and could remember his life before the surgery. But 
+without a functioning hippocampus, HM was unable to record new 
+experiences. For example, he would be horrified when looking in a 
+mirror, since he saw the face of an old man but thought he was still 
+twenty-five. But mercifully, the memory of being horrified would also 
+soon disappear into the fog. In some sense, HM was like an animal with 
+Level II consciousness, unable to recall the immediate past or simulate 
+the future. Without a functioning hippocampus, he regressed from Level 
+III down to Level II consciousness. 
+
+Today, further advances in neuroscience have given us the clearest 
+picture yet of how memories are formed, stored, and then recalled. “It 
+has all come together just in the past few years, due to two technical 
+developments—computers and modern brain scanning,” says Dr. 
+Stephen Kosslyn, a neuroscientist at Harvard."
+"As we know, sensory information (e.g., vision, touch, taste) must first 
+pass through the brain stem and onto the thalamus, which acts like a 
+relay station, directing the signals to the various sensory lobes of the 
+brain, where they are evaluated. The processed information reaches the 
+prefrontal cortex, where it enters our consciousness and forms what we 
+consider our short-term memory, which can range from several seconds 
+to minutes. (See Figure 11.)"
+"To store these memories for a longer duration, the information must 
+then run through the hippocampus, where memories are broken down 
+into different categories. Rather than storing all memories in one area of 
+the brain like a tape recorder or hard drive, the hippocampus redirects 
+the fragments to various cortices. (Storing memories in this way is 
+actually more efficient than storing them sequentially. If human 
+memories were stored sequentially, like on computer tape, a vast 
+amount of memory storage would br required. In fact, in the future, even 
+digital storage systems may adopt this trick from the living brain, rather 
+than storing whole memories sequentially.) For instance, emotional 
+memories are stored in the amygdala, but words are recorded in the 
+temporal lobe. Meanwhile, colors and other visual information are 
+collected in the occipital lobe, and the sense of touch and movement 
+reside in the parietal lobe. So far, scientists have identified more than"
+"reside in the parietal lobe. So far, scientists have identified more than 
+twenty categories of memories that are stored in different parts of the 
+brain, including fruits and vegetables, plants, animals, body parts, 
+colors, numbers, letters, nouns, verbs, proper names, faces, facial 
+expressions, and various emotions and sounds."
+"Figure 11. This shows the path taken to create memories. Impulses from the senses pass through the 
+brain stem, to the 
+
+thalamus, out to the various cortices, and then to the prefrontal cortex. They then pass to the 
+hippocampus to form long¬ 
+term memories, (illustration credit 5.1) 
+
+A single memory—for instance, a walk in the park—involves 
+information that is broken down and stored in various regions of the 
+brain, but reliving just one aspect of the memory (e.g., the smell of 
+freshly cut grass) can suddenly send the brain racing to pull the 
+fragments together to form a cohesive recollection. The ultimate goal of 
+memory research is, then, to figure out how these scattered fragments 
+are somehow reassembled when we recall an experience. This is called 
+the “binding problem,” and a solution could potentially explain many 
+puzzling aspects of memory. For instance, Dr. Antonio Damasio has 
+analyzed stroke patients who are incapable of identifying a single"
+"category, even though they are able to recall everything else. This is 
+because the stroke has affected just one particular area of the brain, 
+where that certain category was stored. 
+
+The binding problem is further complicated because all our memories 
+and experiences are highly personal. Memories might be customized for 
+the individual, so that the categories of memories for one person may 
+not correlate with the categories of memories for another. Wine tasters, 
+for example, may have many categories for labeling subtle variations in 
+taste, while physicists may have other categories for certain equations. 
+Categories, after all, are by-products of experience, and different people 
+may therefore have different categories."
+"One novel solution to the binding problem uses the fact that there are 
+electromagnetic vibrations oscillating across the entire brain at roughly 
+forty cycles per second, which can be picked up by EEG scans. One 
+fragment of memory might vibrate at a very precise frequency and 
+stimulate another fragment of memory stored in a distant part of the 
+brain. Previously it was thought that memories might be stored 
+physically close to one another, but this new theory says that memories 
+are not linked spatially but rather temporally, by vibrating in unison. If 
+this theory holds up, it means that there are electromagnetic vibrations 
+constantly flowing through the entire brain, linking up different regions 
+and thereby re-creating entire memories. Hence the constant flow of 
+information between the hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex, the 
+thalamus, and the different cortices might not be entirely neural after 
+all. Some of this flow may be in the form of resonance across different 
+brain structures."
+"RECORDING A MEMORY 
+
+Sadly, HM died in 2008 at the age of eighty-two, before he could take 
+advantage of some sensational results achieved by science: the ability to 
+create an artificial hippocampus and then insert memories into the brain. 
+This is something straight out of science fiction, but scientists at Wake 
+Forest University and the University of Southern California made history 
+in 2011 when they were able to record a memory made by mice and 
+store it digitally in a computer. This was a proof-of-principle experiment, 
+
+in which they showed that the dream of downloading memories into the 
+brain might one day become reality."
+"At first, the very idea of downloading memories into the brain seems 
+like an impossible dream, because, as we have seen, memories are 
+created by processing a variety of sensory experiences, which are then 
+stored in multiple places in the neocortex and limbic system. But as we 
+know from HM, there is one place through which all memories flow and 
+are converted into long-term memories: the hippocampus. Team leader 
+Dr. Theodore Berger of USC says, “If you can’t do it with the 
+hippocampus, you can’t do it anywhere.”"
+"The scientists at Wake Forest and USC first started with the 
+observation, garnered from brain scans, that there are at least two sets of 
+neurons in a mouse’s hippocampus, called CA1 and CA3, which 
+communicate with each other as a new task is learned. After training 
+mice to press two bars, one after the other, in order to get water, the 
+scientists reviewed the findings and attempted to decode these messages, 
+which proved frustrating at first since the signals between these two sets 
+of neurons didn’t appear to follow a pattern. But by monitoring the 
+signals millions of times, they were eventually able to determine which 
+electrical input created which output. With the use of probes in the 
+mice’s hippocampi, the scientists were able to record the signals between 
+CA1 and CA3 when the mice learned to press the two bars in sequence."
+"Then the scientists injected the mice with a special chemical, making 
+them forget the task. Finally they played back the memory into the same 
+mouse’s brain. Remarkably, the memory of the task returned, and the 
+mice could successfully reproduce the original task. Essentially, they had 
+created an artificial hippocampus with the ability to duplicate digital 
+memory. “Turn the switch on, the animal has the memory; turn it off 
+and they don’t,” says Dr. Berger. “It’s a very important step because it’s 
+the first time we have put all the pieces together.” 
+
+As Joel Davis of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, which 
+sponsored this work, said, “Using implantables to enhance competency is 
+down the road. It’s only a matter of time.”"
+"Not surprisingly, with so much at stake, this area of research is 
+moving very rapidly. In 2013, yet another breakthrough was made, this 
+time at MIT, by scientists who were able to implant not just ordinary 
+memories into a mouse, but false ones as well. This means that, one day, 
+
+memories of events that never took place may be implanted into the 
+brain, which would have a profound impact on fields like education and 
+entertainment. 
+
+The MIT scientists used a technique called optogenetics (which we will 
+discuss more in Chapter 8), which allows you to shine a light on specific 
+neurons to activate them. Using this powerful method, scientists can 
+identify the specific neurons responsible for certain memories."
+"Let’s say that a mouse enters a room and is given a shock. The neurons 
+responsible for the memory of that painful event can actually be isolated 
+and recorded by analyzing the hippocampus. Then the mouse is placed 
+in an entirely different room that is totally harmless. By turning on a 
+light on an optical fiber, one can use optogenetics to activate the 
+memory of the shock, and the mouse exhibits a fear response, although 
+the second room is totally safe. 
+
+In this way, the MIT scientists were able not only to implant ordinary 
+memories, but also memories of events that never took place. One day, 
+this technique may give educators the ability to implant memories of 
+new skills to retrain workers, or give Hollywood an entirely new form of 
+entertainment. 
+
+AN ARTIFICIAL HIPPOCAMPUS"
+"AN ARTIFICIAL HIPPOCAMPUS 
+
+At present, the artificial hippocampus is primitive, able to record only a 
+single memory at a time. But these scientists plan to increase the 
+complexity of their artificial hippocampus so that it can store a variety 
+of memories and record them for different animals, eventually working 
+up to monkeys. They also plan to make this technology wireless by 
+replacing the wires with tiny radios so that memories can be 
+downloaded remotely without the need for clumsy electrodes implanted 
+into the brain. 
+
+Because the hippocampus is involved with memory processing in 
+humans, scientists see a vast potential application in treating strokes, 
+dementia, Alzheimer’s, and a host of other problems that occur when 
+there is damage or deterioration in this region of the brain. 
+
+Many hurdles have to be negotiated, of course. Despite all we have 
+learned about the hippocampus since HM, it still remains something of a"
+"black box whose inner workings are largely unknown. As a result, it is 
+not possible to construct a memory from scratch, but once a task has 
+been performed and the memory processed, it is possible to record it and 
+play it back. 
+
+FUTURE DIRECTIONS 
+
+Working with the hippocampus of primates and even humans will be 
+more difficult, since their hippocampi are much larger and more 
+complex. The first step is to create a detailed neural map of the 
+hippocampus. This means placing electrodes at different parts of the 
+hippocampus to record the signals that are constantly being exchanged 
+between different regions. This will establish the flow of information 
+that constantly moves across the hippocampus. The hippocampus has 
+four basic divisions, CA1 to CA4, and hence scientists will record the 
+signals that are exchanged between them."
+"The second step involves the subject performing certain tasks, after 
+which scientists will record the impulses that flow across the various 
+regions of the hippocampus, thereby recording the memory. For 
+example, the memory of learning a certain task, such as jumping 
+through a hoop, will create electrical activity in the hippocampus that 
+can be recorded and carefully analyzed. Then a dictionary can be 
+created matching the memory with the flow of information across the 
+hippocampus. 
+
+Finally, step three involves making a recording of this memory and 
+feeding the electrical signal into the hippocampus of another subject via 
+electrodes, to see if that memory can been uploaded. In this fashion, the 
+subject may learn to jump through a hoop although it has never done so 
+before. If successful, scientists would gradually create a library 
+containing recordings of certain memories."
+"It may take decades to work all the way up to human memories, but 
+one can envision how it might work. In the future, people may be hired 
+to create certain memories, like a luxury vacation or a fictitious battle. 
+Nanoelectrodes will be placed at various places in their brain to record 
+the memory. These electrodes must be extremely small so that they do 
+not interfere with the formation of the memory. 
+
+The information from these electrodes will then be sent wirelessly to a 
+
+computer and then recorded. Later a subject who wants to experience 
+these memories will have similar electrodes placed in his hippocampus, 
+and the memory will be inserted into the brain."
+"(There are complications to this idea, of course. If we try to insert the 
+memory of physical activity, such as a martial art, we have the problem 
+of “muscle memory.” For example, when walking, we do not consciously 
+think about putting one leg in front of the other. Walking has become 
+second nature to us because we do it so often, and from an early age. 
+This means that the signals controlling our legs no longer originate 
+entirely in the hippocampus, but also in the motor cortex, the 
+cerebellum, and the basal ganglia. In the future, if we wish to insert 
+memories involving sports, scientists may have to decipher the way in 
+which memories are partially stored in other areas of the brain as well.) 
+
+VISION AND HUMAN MEMORIES"
+"VISION AND HUMAN MEMORIES 
+
+The formation of memories is quite complex, but the approach we have 
+been discussing takes a shortcut by eavesdropping on the signals moving 
+through the hippocampus, where the sensory impulses have already 
+been processed. In The Matrix, however, an electrode is placed in the 
+back of the head to upload memories directly into the brain. This 
+assumes that one can decode the raw, unprocessed impulses coming in 
+from the eyes, ears, skin, etc., that are moving up the spinal cord and 
+brain stem and into the thalamus. This is much more elaborate and 
+difficult than analyzing the processed messages circulating in the 
+hippocampus."
+"To give you a sense of the sheer volume of unprocessed information 
+that comes up the spinal cord into the thalamus, let’s consider just one 
+aspect: vision, since many of our memories are encoded this way. There 
+are roughly 130 million cells in the eye’s retina, called cones and rods; 
+they process and record 100 million bits of information from the 
+landscape at any time. 
+
+This vast amount of data is then collected and sent down the optic 
+nerve, which transports 9 million bits of information per second, and on 
+to the thalamus. From there, the information reaches the occipital lobe, 
+
+at the very back of the brain. This visual cortex, in turn, begins the 
+arduous process of analyzing this mountain of data. The visual cortex 
+consists of several patches at the back of the brain, each of which is 
+designed for a specific task. They are labeled VI to V8. 
+
+Remarkably, the area called VI is like a screen; it actually creates a"
+"Remarkably, the area called VI is like a screen; it actually creates a 
+
+pattern on the back of your brain very similar in shape and form to the 
+original image. This image bears a striking resemblance to the original, 
+except that the very center of your eye, the fovea, occupies a much 
+larger area in VI (since the fovea has the highest concentration of 
+neurons). The image cast on VI is therefore not a perfect replica of the 
+landscape but is distorted, with the central region of the image taking up 
+most of the space. 
+
+Besides VI, other areas of the occipital lobe process different aspects 
+of the image, including: 
+
+• Stereo vision. These neurons compare the images coming in from 
+each eye. This is done in area V2. 
+
+• Distance. These neurons calculate the distance to an object, using 
+shadows and other information from both eyes. This is done in area 
+V3. 
+
+• Colors are processed in area V4."
+"• Colors are processed in area V4. 
+
+• Motion. Different circuits can pick out different classes of motion, 
+including straight-line, spiral, and expanding motion. This is done in 
+area V5. 
+
+More than thirty different neural circuits involved with vision have 
+been identified, but there are probably many more. 
+
+From the occipital lobe, the information is sent to the prefrontal 
+cortex, where you finally “see” the image and form your short-term 
+memory. The information is then sent to the hippocampus, which 
+processes it and stores it for up to twenty-four hours. The memory is 
+then chopped up and scattered among the various cortices. 
+
+The point here is that vision, which we think happens effortlessly, 
+requires billions of neurons firing in sequence, transmitting millions of 
+bits of information per second. And remember that we have signals from 
+five sense organs, plus emotions associated with each image. All this"
+"information is processed by the hippocampus to create a simple memory 
+of an image. At present, no machine can match the sophistication of this 
+process, so replicating it presents an enormous challenge for scientists 
+who want to create an artificial hippocampus for the human brain. 
+
+REMEMBERING THE FUTURE 
+
+If encoding the memory of just one of the senses is such a complex 
+process, then how did we evolve the ability to store such vast amounts of 
+information in our long-term memory? Instinct, for the most part, guides 
+the behavior of animals, which do not appear to have much of a long¬ 
+term memory. But as neurobiologist Dr. James McGaugh of the 
+University of California at Irvine says, “The purpose of memory is to 
+predict the future,” which raises an interesting possibility. Perhaps long¬ 
+term memory evolved because it was useful for simulating the future. In 
+other words, the fact that we can remember back into the distant past is 
+due to the demands and advantages of simulating the future."
+"Indeed, brain scans done by scientists at Washington University in St. 
+Louis indicate that areas used to recall memories are the same as those 
+involved in simulating the future. In particular, the link between the 
+dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus lights up when a 
+person is engaged in planning for the future and remembering the past. 
+In some sense, the brain is trying to “recall the future,” drawing upon 
+memories of the past in order to determine how something will evolve 
+into the future. This may also explain the curious fact that people who 
+suffer from amnesia—such as HM—are often unable to visualize what 
+they will be doing in the future or even the very next day."
+"“You might look at it as mental time travel—the ability to take 
+thoughts about ourselves and project them either into the past or into 
+the future,” says Dr. Kathleen McDermott of Washington University. She 
+also notes that their study proves a “tentative answer to a longstanding 
+question regarding the evolutionary usefulness of memory. It may just be 
+that the reason we can recollect the past in vivid detail is that this set of 
+processes is important for being able to envision ourselves in future 
+scenarios. This ability to envision the future has clear and compelling 
+adaptive significance.” For an animal, the past is largely a waste of 
+
+precious resources, since it gives them little evolutionary advantage. But 
+simulating the future, given the lessons of the past, is an essential reason 
+why humans became intelligent. 
+
+AN ARTIFICIAL CORTEX"
+"AN ARTIFICIAL CORTEX 
+
+In 2012 the same scientists from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and 
+the University of Southern California who created an artificial 
+hippocampus in mice announced an even more far-reaching experiment. 
+Instead of recording a memory in the mouse hippocampus, they 
+duplicated the much more sophisticated thinking process of the cortex of 
+a primate."
+"They took five rhesus monkeys and inserted tiny electrodes into two 
+layers of their cortex, called the L2/3 and L5 layers. They then recorded 
+neural signals that went between these two layers as the monkeys 
+learned a task. (This task involved the monkeys seeing a set of pictures, 
+and then being rewarded if they could pick out these same pictures from 
+a much larger set.) With practice, the monkeys could perform the task 
+with 75 percent accuracy. But if the scientists fed the signal back into 
+the cortex as the monkey was performing the test, its performance 
+increased by 10 percent. When certain chemicals were given to the 
+monkey, its performance dropped by 20 percent. But if the recording 
+was fed back into the cortex, its performance exceeded its normal level. 
+Although this was a small sample size and there was only a modest 
+improvement in performance, the study still suggests that the scientists’ 
+recording accurately captured the decision-making process of the cortex."
+"Because this study was done on primates rather than mice and 
+involved the cortex and not the hippocampus, it could have vast 
+implications when human trials begin. Dr. Sam A. Deadwyler of Wake 
+Forest says, “The whole idea is that the device would generate an output 
+pattern that bypasses the damaged area, proving an alternative 
+connection” in the brain. This experiment has a possible application for 
+patients whose neocortex has been damaged. Like a crutch, this device 
+would perform the thinking operation of the damaged area. 
+
+AN ARTIFICIAL CEREBELLUM 
+
+It should also be pointed out that the artificial hippocampus and 
+neocortex are but the first steps. Eventually, other parts of the brain will 
+have artificial counterparts. For example, scientists at Tel Aviv 
+University in Israel have already created an artificial cerebellum for a 
+rat. The cerebellum is an essential part of the reptilian brain that 
+controls our balance and other basic bodily functions."
+"Usually when a puff of air is directed at a rat’s face, it blinks. If a 
+sound is made at the same time, the rat can be conditioned to blink just 
+by hearing the sound. The goal of the Israeli scientists was to create an 
+artificial cerebellum that could duplicate this feat. 
+
+First the scientists recorded the signals entering the brain stem when 
+the puff of air hit the rat’s face and the sound was heard. Then the signal 
+was processed and sent back to the brain stem at another location. As 
+expected, the rats blinked upon receiving the signal. Not only is this the 
+first time that an artificial cerebellum functioned correctly, it is the first 
+time that messages were received from one part of the brain, processed, 
+and then uploaded into a different part of the brain."
+"Commenting on this work, Francesco Sepulveda of the University of 
+Essex says, “This demonstrates how far we have come towards creating 
+circuitry that could one day replace damaged brain areas and even 
+enhance the power of the healthy brain.” 
+
+He also sees great potential for artificial brains in the future, adding, 
+“It will likely take us several decades to get there, but my bet is that 
+specific, well-organized brain parts such as the hippocampus or the 
+visual cortex will have synthetic correlates before the end of the 
+century.” 
+
+Although progress in creating artificial replacements for the brain is 
+moving remarkably fast given the complexity of the process, it is a race 
+against time when one considers the greatest threat facing our public 
+health system, the declining mental abilities of people with Alzheimer’s. 
+
+ALZHEIMER’S—DESTROYER OF MEMORY"
+"ALZHEIMER’S—DESTROYER OF MEMORY 
+
+Alzheimer’s disease, some people claim, might be the disease of the 
+century. There are 5.3 million Americans who currently have 
+Alzheimer’s, and the number is expected to quadruple by 2050. Five 
+
+percent of people from age sixty-five to seventy-four have Alzheimer’s, 
+but more than 50 percent of those over eighty-five have it, even if they 
+have no obvious risk factors. (Back in 1900, life expectancy in the 
+United States was forty-nine, so Alzheimer’s was not a significant 
+problem. But now, people over eighty are one of the fastest-growing 
+demographic groups in the country.)"
+"In the early stages of Alzheimer’s, the hippocampus, the part of the 
+brain through which memories are processed, begins to deteriorate. 
+Indeed, brain scans clearly show that the hippocampus shrinks in 
+Alzheimer’s patients, but the wiring linking the prefrontal cortex to the 
+hippocampus also thins, leaving the brain unable to properly process 
+short-term memories. Long-term memories already stored throughout 
+the cortices of the brain remain relatively intact, at least at first. This 
+creates a situation where you may not remember what you just did a few 
+minutes ago but can clearly recall events that took place decades ago. 
+
+Eventually, the disease progresses to the point where even basic long¬ 
+term memories are destroyed. The person is unable to recognize their 
+children or spouse and to remember who they are, and can even fall into 
+a comalike vegetative state. 
+
+Sadly, the basic mechanisms for Alzheimer’s have only recently begun"
+"Sadly, the basic mechanisms for Alzheimer’s have only recently begun 
+
+to be understood. One major breakthrough came in 2012, when it was 
+revealed that Alzheimer’s begins with the formation of tau amyloid 
+proteins, which in turn accelerates the formation of beta amyloid, a 
+gummy, gluelike substance that clogs up the brain. (Before, it was not 
+clear if Alzheimer’s was caused by these plaques or whether perhaps 
+these plaques were by-products of a more fundamental disorder.)"
+"What makes these amyloid plaques so difficult to target with drugs is 
+that they are most likely made of “prions,” which are misshapen protein 
+molecules. They are not bacteria or viruses, but nevertheless they can 
+reproduce. When viewed atomically, a protein molecule resembles a 
+jungle of ribbons of atoms tied together. This tangle of atoms must fold 
+onto itself correctly for the protein to assume the proper shape and 
+function. But prions are misshapen proteins that have folded incorrectly. 
+Worse, when they bump into healthy proteins, they cause them to fold 
+incorrectly as well. Hence one prion can cause a cascade of misshapen 
+proteins, creating a chain reaction that contaminates billions more. 
+
+At present, there is no known way to stop the inexorable progression"
+"At present, there is no known way to stop the inexorable progression 
+
+of Alzheimer’s. Now that the basic mechanics behind Alzheimer’s are 
+being unraveled, however, one promising method is to create antibodies 
+or a vaccine that might specifically target these misshapen protein 
+molecules. Another way might be to create an artificial hippocampus for 
+these individuals so that their short-term memory can be restored. 
+
+Yet another approach is to see if we can directly increase the brain’s 
+ability to create memories using genetics. Perhaps there are genes that 
+can improve our memory. The future of memory research may lie in the 
+“smart mouse.” 
+
+THE SMART MOUSE"
+"THE SMART MOUSE 
+
+In 1999, Dr. Joseph Tsien and colleagues at Princeton, MIT, and 
+Washington University found that adding a single extra gene 
+dramatically boosted a mouse’s memory and ability. These “smart mice” 
+could navigate mazes faster, remember events better, and outperform 
+other mice in a wide variety of tests. They were dubbed “Doogie mice,” 
+after the precocious character on the TV show Doogie Howser, M.D. 
+
+Dr. Tsien began by analyzing the gene NR2B, which acts like a switch 
+controlling the brain’s ability to associate one event with another. 
+(Scientists know this because when the gene is silenced or rendered 
+inactive, mice lose this ability.) All learning depends on NR2B, because 
+it controls the communication between memory cells of the"
+"hippocampus. First Dr. Tsien created a strain of mice that lacked NR2B, 
+and they showed impaired memory and learning disabilities. Then he 
+created a strain of mice that had more copies of NR2B than normal, and 
+found that the new mice had superior mental capabilities. Placed in a 
+shallow pan of water and forced to swim, normal mice would swim 
+randomly about. They had forgotten from just a few days before that 
+there was a hidden underwater platform. The smart mice, however, went 
+straight to the hidden platform on the first try. 
+
+Since then, researchers have been able to confirm these results in 
+other labs and create even smarter strains of mice. In 2009, Dr. Tsien 
+published a paper announcing yet another strain of smart mice, dubbed 
+“Hobbie-J” (named after a character in Chinese cartoons). Hobbie-J was 
+able to remember novel facts (such as the location of toys) three times"
+"longer than the genetically modified strain of mouse previously thought 
+to be the smartest. “This adds to the notion that NR2B is a universal 
+switch for memory formation,” remarked Dr. Tsien. “It’s like taking 
+Michael Jordon and making him a super Michael Jordan,” said graduate 
+student Deheng Wang. 
+
+There are limits, however, even to this new mice strain. When these 
+mice were given a choice to take a left or right turn to get a chocolate 
+reward, Hobbie-J was able to remember the correct path for much 
+longer than the normal mice, but after five minutes he, too, forgot. “We 
+can never turn it into a mathematician. They are rats, after all,” says Dr. 
+Tsien. 
+
+It should also be pointed out that some of the strains of smart mice 
+were exceptionally timid compared to normal mice. Some suspect that, if 
+your memory becomes too great, you also remember all the failures and 
+hurts as well, perhaps making you hesitant. So there is also a potential 
+downside to remembering too much."
+"Next, scientists hope to generalize their results to dogs, since we share 
+so many genes, and perhaps also to humans. 
+
+SMART FLIES AND DUMB MICE 
+
+The NR2B gene is not the only gene being studied by scientists for its 
+impact on memory. In yet another groundbreaking series of experiments, 
+scientists have been able to breed a strain of fruit flies with 
+“photographic memory,” and also a strain of mice that are amnesiac. 
+These experiments may eventually explain many mysteries of our long¬ 
+term memory, such as why cramming for an exam is not the best way to 
+
+study, and why we remember events if they are emotionally charged. 
+Scientists have found that there are two important genes, the CREB 
+activator (which stimulates the formation of new connections between 
+neurons) and the CREB repressor (which suppresses the formation of 
+new memories)."
+"Dr. Jerry Yin and Timothy Tully of Cold Spring Harbor have been 
+doing interesting experiments with fruit flies. Normally it takes ten trials 
+for them to learn a certain task (e.g., detecting an odor, avoiding a 
+shock). Fruit flies with an extra CREB repressor gene could not form 
+
+lasting memories at all, but the real surprise came when they tested fruit 
+flies with an extra CREB activator gene. They learned the task in just one 
+session. “This implies these flies have a photographic memory,” says Dr. 
+Tully. He said they are just like students “who could read a chapter of a 
+book once, see it in their mind, and tell you that the answer is in 
+paragraph three of page two seventy-four.”"
+"This effect is not just restricted to fruit flies. Dr. Alcino Silva, also at 
+Cold Spring Harbor, has been experimenting with mice. He found that 
+mice with a defect in their CREB activator gene were virtually incapable 
+of forming long-term memories. They were amnesiac mice. But even 
+these forgetful mice could learn a bit if they had short lessons with rest 
+in between. Scientists theorize that we have a fixed amount of CREB 
+activator in the brain that can limit the amount we can learn in any 
+specific time. If we try to cram before a test, it means that we quickly 
+exhaust the amount of CREB activators, and hence we cannot learn any 
+more—at least until we take a break to replenish the CREB activators. 
+
+“We can now give you a biological reason why cramming doesn’t 
+work,” says Dr. Tully. The best way to prepare for a final exam is to 
+mentally review the material periodically during the day, until the 
+material becomes part of your long-term memory."
+"This may also explain why emotionally charged memories are so vivid 
+and can last for decades. The CREB repressor gene is like a filter, 
+cleaning out useless information. But if a memory is associated with a 
+strong emotion, it can either remove the CREB repressor gene or increase 
+levels of the CREB activator gene. 
+
+In the future, we can expect more breakthroughs in understanding the 
+genetic basis of memory. Not just one but a sophisticated combination of 
+genes is probably required to shape the enormous capabilities of the 
+brain. These genes, in turn, have counterparts in the human genome, so 
+it is a distinct possibility that we can also enhance our memory and 
+mental skills genetically."
+"However, don’t think that you will be able to get a brain boost 
+anytime soon. Many hurdles still remain. First, it is not clear if these 
+results apply to humans. Often therapies that show great promise in 
+mice do not translate well to our species. Second, even if these results 
+can be applied to humans, we do not know what their impact will be. 
+For example, these genes may help improve our memory but not affect"
+"our general intelligence. Third, gene therapy (i.e., fixing broken genes) is 
+more difficult than previously thought. Only a small handful of genetic 
+diseases can be cured with this method. Even though scientists use 
+harmless viruses to infect cells with the “good” gene, the body still sends 
+antibodies to attack the intruder, often rendering the therapy useless. It’s 
+possible that the insertion of a gene to enhance memory would face a 
+similar fate. (In addition, the field of gene therapy suffered a major 
+setback a few years ago when a patient died at the University of 
+Pennsylvania during a gene therapy procedure. The work of modifying 
+human genes therefore faces many ethical and even legal questions.)"
+"Human trials, then, will progress much more slowly than animal trials. 
+However, one can foresee the day when this procedure might be 
+perfected and become a reality. Altering our genes in this way would 
+require no more than a simple shot in the arm. A harmless virus would 
+then enter our blood, which would then infect normal cells by injecting 
+its genes. Once the “smart gene” is successfully incorporated into our 
+cells, the gene becomes active and releases proteins that would increase 
+our memory and cognitive skills by affecting the hippocampus and 
+memory formation. 
+
+If the insertion of genes becomes too difficult, another possibility is to 
+insert the proper proteins directly into the body, bypassing the use of 
+gene therapy. Instead of getting a shot, we would swallow a pill. 
+
+A SMART PILL"
+"A SMART PILL 
+
+Ultimately, one goal of this research is to create a “smart pill” that could 
+boost concentration, improve memory, and maybe increase our 
+intelligence. Pharmaceutical companies have experimented with several 
+drugs, such as MEM 1003 and MEM 1414, that do seem to enhance 
+mental function. 
+
+Scientists have found that in animal studies, long-term memories are 
+made possible by the interaction of enzymes and genes. Learning takes 
+place when certain neural pathways are reinforced as specific genes are 
+activated, such as the CREB gene, which in turn emits a corresponding 
+protein. Basically, the more CREB proteins circulating in the brain, the 
+
+faster long-term memories are formed. This has been verified in studies 
+
+on sea mollusks, fruit flies, and mice. The key property of MEM 1414 is 
+that it accelerates the production of the CREB proteins. In lab tests, aged 
+animals given MEM 1414 were able to form long-term memories 
+significantly faster than a control group."
+"Scientists are also beginning to isolate the precise biochemistry 
+required in the formation of long-term memories, at both the genetic and 
+the molecular level. Once the process of memory formation is completely 
+understood, therapies will be devised to accelerate and strengthen this 
+key process. Not only the aged and Alzheimer’s patients but eventually 
+the average person may well benefit from this “brain boost.” 
+
+CAN MEMORIES BE ERASED?"
+"CAN MEMORIES BE ERASED? 
+
+Alzheimer’s may destroy memories indiscriminately, but what about 
+selectively erasing them? Amnesia is one of Hollywood’s favorite plot 
+devices. In The Bourne Identity, Jason Bourne (played by Matt Damon), a 
+skilled CIA agent, is found floating in the water, left for dead. When he 
+is revived, he has severe memory loss. He is being relentlessly chased by 
+assassins who want to kill him, but he does not know who he is, what 
+happened, or why they want him dead. The only clue to his memory is 
+his uncanny ability to instinctively engage in combat like a secret agent."
+"It is well documented that amnesia can occur accidentally through 
+trauma, such as a blow on the head. But can memories be selectively 
+erased? In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Jim 
+Carrey, two people meet accidentally on a train and are immediately 
+attracted to each other. However, they are shocked to find that they 
+were actually lovers years ago but have no memory of it. They learn that 
+they paid a company to wipe memories of each other after a particularly 
+bad fight. Apparently, fate has given them a second chance at love. 
+
+Selective amnesia was taken to an entirely new level in Men in Black, 
+in which Will Smith plays an agent from a shadowy, secret organization 
+that uses the “neuralizer” to selectively erase inconvenient memories of 
+UFOs and alien encounters. There is even a dial to determine how far 
+back the memories should be erased. 
+
+All these make for thrilling plot lines and box-office hits, but are any 
+of them really possible, even in the future?"
+"We know that amnesia is, indeed, possible, and that there are two 
+basic types, depending on whether short- or long-term memory has been 
+affected. “Retrograde amnesia” occurs when there is some trauma or 
+damage to the brain and preexisting memories are lost, usually dating 
+from the event that caused the amnesia. This would be similar to the 
+amnesia faced by Jason Bourne, who lost all memories from before he 
+was left for dead in the water. Here the hippocampus is still intact, so 
+new memories can be formed even though long-term memory has been 
+damaged. “Anterograde amnesia” occurs when short-term memory is 
+damaged, so the person has difficulty forming new memories after the 
+event that caused the amnesia. Usually, amnesia may last for minutes to 
+hours due to damage to the hippocampus. (Anterograde amnesia was 
+featured prominently in the movie Memento, where a man is bent on 
+revenge for the death of his wife. The problem, however, is that his"
+"revenge for the death of his wife. The problem, however, is that his 
+memory lasts only about fifteen minutes, so he has to continually write 
+messages on scraps of papers, photos, and even tattoos in order to 
+remember the clues he has uncovered about the murderer. By painfully 
+reading this trail of messages he has written to himself, he can 
+accumulate crucial evidence that he would have soon forgotten.)"
+"The point here is that memory loss dates back to the time of the 
+trauma or disease, which would make the selective amnesia of 
+Hollywood highly improbable. Movies like Men in Black assume that 
+memories are stored sequentially, as in a hard disk, so you just hit the 
+“erase” button after a designated point in time. However, we know that 
+memories are actually broken up, with separate pieces stored in different 
+places in the brain. 
+
+A FORGETFUL DRUG 
+
+Meanwhile, scientists are studying certain drugs that may erase 
+traumatic memories that continue to haunt and disturb us. In 2009, 
+Dutch scientists, led by Dr. Merel Kindt, announced that they had found 
+new uses for an old drug called propranolol, which could act like a 
+“miracle” drug to ease the pain associated with traumatic memories. The 
+drug did not induce amnesia that begins at a specific point in time, but it 
+did make the pain more manageable—and in just three days, the study 
+
+claimed."
+"claimed. 
+
+The discovery caused a flurry of headlines, in light of the thousands of 
+victims who suffer from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Everyone 
+from war veterans to victims of sexual abuse and horrific accidents could 
+apparently find relief from their symptoms. But it also seemed to fly in 
+the face of brain research, which shows that long-term memories are"
+"encoded not electrically, but at the level of protein molecules. Recent 
+experiments, however, suggest that recalling memories requires both the 
+retrieval and then the reassembly of the memory, so that the protein 
+structure might actually be rearranged in the process. In other words, 
+recalling a memory actually changes it. This may be the reason why the 
+drug works: propranolol is known to interfere with adrenaline 
+absorption, a key in creating the long-lasting, vivid memories that often 
+result from traumatic events. “Propranolol sits on that nerve cell and 
+blocks it. So adrenaline can be present, but it can’t do its job,” says Dr. 
+James McGaugh of the University of California at Irvine. In other words, 
+without adrenaline, the memory fades."
+"Controlled tests done on individuals with traumatic memories showed 
+very promising results. But the drug hit a brick wall when it came to the 
+ethics of erasing memory. Some ethicists did not dispute its 
+effectiveness, but they frowned on the very idea of a forgetfulness drug, 
+since memories are there for a purpose: to teach us the lessons of life. 
+Even unpleasant memories, they said, serve some larger purpose. The 
+drug got a thumbs-down from the President’s Council on Bioethics. Its 
+report concluded that “dulling our memory of terrible things [would] 
+make us too comfortable with the world, unmoved by suffering, 
+wrongdoing, or cruelty.... Can we become numb to life’s sharpest 
+sorrows without also becoming numb to its greatest joys?” 
+
+Dr. David Magus of Stanford University’s Center for Biomedical Ethics 
+says, “Our breakups, our relationships, as painful as they are, we learn 
+from some of those painful experiences. They make us better people.”"
+"Others disagree. Dr. Roger Pitman of Harvard University says that if a 
+doctor encounters an accident victim who is in intense pain, “should we 
+deprive them of morphine because we might be taking away the full 
+emotional experience? Who would ever argue with that? Why should 
+psychiatry be different? I think that somehow behind this argument 
+lurks the notion that mental disorders are not the same as physical 
+
+disorders.” 
+
+How this debate is ultimately resolved could have direct bearing on 
+the next generation of drugs, since propranolol is not the only one 
+involved. 
+
+In 2008, two independent groups, both working with animals, 
+announced other drugs that could actually erase memories, not just 
+manage the pain they cause. Dr. Joe Tsien of the Medical College of 
+Georgia and his colleagues in Shanghai stated that they had actually 
+eliminated a memory in mice using a protein called CaMKII, while 
+scientists at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn found that the"
+"molecule PKMzeta could also erase memories. Dr. Andre Fenson, one of 
+the authors of this second study, said, “If further work confirms this 
+view, we can expect to one day see therapies based on PKMzeta memory 
+erasure.” Not only may the drug erase painful memories, it also “might 
+be useful in treating depression, general anxiety, phobias, post-traumatic 
+stress, and addictions,” he added. 
+
+So far, research has been limited to animals, but human trials will 
+begin soon. If the results transfer from animals to humans, then a 
+forgetful pill may be a real possibility. It will not be the kind of pill seen 
+in Hollywood movies (which conveniently creates amnesia at a precise, 
+opportune time) but could have vast medical applications in the real 
+world for people haunted by traumatic memories. It remains to be seen, 
+though, how selective this memory erasure might be in humans. 
+
+WHAT CAN GO WRONG?"
+"WHAT CAN GO WRONG? 
+
+There may come a day, however, when we can carefully register all the 
+signals passing through the hippocampus, thalamus, and the rest of the 
+limbic system and make a faithful record. Then, by feeding this 
+information into our brains, we might be able to reexperience the 
+totality of what another person went through. Then the question is: 
+What can go wrong? 
+
+In fact, the implications of this idea were explored in a movie, 
+Brainstorm (1983), starring Natalie Wood, which was far ahead of its 
+time. In the movie, scientists create the Hat, a helmet full of electrodes 
+that can faithfully record all the sensations a person is experiencing."
+"Later, a person can have precisely the same sensory experience by 
+playing that tape back into his brain. For fun, one person puts on the Hat 
+when he is making love and tape-records the experience. Then the tape 
+is put into a loop so the experience is greatly magnified. But when 
+another person unknowingly inserts the experience into his brain, he 
+nearly dies because of a sensory overload. Later, one of the scientists 
+experiences a fatal heart attack. But before she dies, she records her final 
+moments on tape. When another person plays the death tape into his 
+brain, he, too, has a sudden heart attack and dies. 
+
+When news of this powerful machine finally leaks out, the military 
+wants to seize control. This sets off a power struggle between the 
+military, which views it as a powerful weapon, and the original 
+scientists, who want to use it to unlock the secrets of the mind. 
+
+Brainstorm prophetically highlighted not only the promise of this"
+"Brainstorm prophetically highlighted not only the promise of this 
+
+technology but also its potential pitfalls. It was meant to be science 
+fiction, but some scientists believe that sometime in the future, these 
+very issues may play out in our headlines and in our courts. 
+
+Earlier, we saw that there have been promising developments in 
+recording a single memory created by a mouse. It may take until mid¬ 
+century before we can reliably record a variety of memories in primates 
+and humans. But creating the Hat, which can record the totality of 
+stimulation entering into the brain, requires tapping into the raw, 
+sensory data surging up the spinal cord and into the thalamus. It may be 
+late in this century before this can be done. 
+
+SOCIAL AND LEGAL ISSUES"
+"SOCIAL AND LEGAL ISSUES 
+
+Some aspects of this dilemma may play out in our lifetimes. On one 
+hand, we may reach a point where we can learn calculus by simply 
+uploading the skill. The educational system would be turned upside 
+down; perhaps it would free teachers to spend more time mentoring 
+students and giving them one-on-one attention in areas of cognition that 
+are less skill-based and cannot be mastered by hitting a button. The rote 
+memorization necessary to become a professional doctor, lawyer, or 
+scientist could also be drastically reduced through this method. 
+
+In principle, it might even give us memories of vacations that never"
+"In principle, it might even give us memories of vacations that never 
+
+happened, prizes that we never won, lovers whom we never loved, or 
+families that we never had. It could make up for deficiencies, creating 
+perfect memories of a life never lived. Parents would love this, since 
+they could teach their children lessons taken from real memories. The 
+demand for such a device could be enormous. Some ethicists fear that 
+these fake memories would be so vivid that we would prefer to relive 
+imaginary lives rather than experiencing our real ones."
+"The unemployed may also benefit from being able to learn new 
+marketable skills by having memories implanted. Historically, millions 
+of workers were left behind every time a new technology was 
+introduced, often without any safety net. That’s why we don’t have 
+many blacksmiths or wagon makers anymore. They turned into 
+autoworkers and other industrial workers. But retraining requires a large 
+amount of time and commitment. If skills can be implanted into the 
+brain, there would be an immediate impact on the world economic 
+system, since we wouldn’t have to waste so much human capital. (To 
+some degree, the value of a certain skill may be devalued if memories 
+can be uploaded into anyone, but this is compensated for by the fact that 
+the number and quality of skilled workers would vastly increase.)"
+"The tourism industry will also experience a tremendous boost. One 
+barrier to foreign travel is the pain of learning new customs and 
+conversing with new phrases. Tourists would be able to share in the 
+experience of living in a foreign land, rather than getting bogged down 
+trying to master the local currency and the details of the transportation 
+system. (Although uploading an entire language, with tens of thousands 
+of words and expressions, would be difficult, it might be possible to 
+upload enough information to carry on a decent conversation.)"
+"Inevitably, these memory tapes will find their way onto social media. 
+In the future, you might be able to record a memory and upload it to the 
+Internet for millions to feel and experience. Previously, we discussed a 
+brain-net through which you can send thoughts. But if memories can be 
+recorded and created, you might also be able to send entire experiences. 
+If you just won a gold medal at the Olympic Games, why not share the 
+agony and the ecstasy of victory by putting your memories on the web? 
+Maybe the experience will go viral and billions can share in your 
+moment’s glory. (Children, who are often at the forefront of video games 
+and social media, may make a habit of recording memorable experiences"
+"and uploading them onto the Internet. Like taking a picture with a cell 
+phone, it would be second nature to them to record entire memories. 
+This would require both the sender and the receiver to have nearly 
+invisible nanowires connecting to their hippocampus. The information 
+would then be sent wirelessly to a server, which would convert the 
+message to a digital signal that can be carried by the Internet. In this 
+way, you could have blogs, message boards, social media, and chat 
+rooms where, instead of uploading pictures and videos, you would 
+upload memories and emotions.) 
+
+A LIBRARY OF SOULS"
+"A LIBRARY OF SOULS 
+
+People may also want to have a geneology of memories. When searching 
+records of our ancestors, we see only a one-dimensional portrait of their 
+lives. Throughout human history, people have lived, loved, and died 
+without leaving a substantial record of their existence. Mostly we just 
+find the birth and death dates of our relatives, with little in between. 
+Today we leave a long trail of electronic documents (credit card receipts, 
+bills, e-mails, bank statements, etc.). By default, the web is becoming a 
+giant repository of all the documents that describe our lives, but this still 
+doesn’t tell anyone much about what we were thinking or feeling. 
+Perhaps in the far future, the web could become a giant library 
+chronicling not just the details of our lives but also our consciousness."
+"In the future, people might routinely record their memories so their 
+descendants can share the same experiences. Visiting the library of 
+memories for your clan, you would be able to see and feel how they 
+lived, and also how you fit into the larger scheme of things. 
+
+This means that anyone could replay our lives, long after we have 
+died, by hitting the “play” button. If this vision is correct, it means that 
+we might be able to “bring back” our ancestors for an afternoon chat, 
+simply by inserting a disk into the library and pushing a button. 
+
+Meanwhile, if you want to share in the experiences of your favorite 
+historical figures, you might be able to have an intimate look into how 
+they felt as they confronted major crises in their lives. If you have a role 
+model and wish to know how they negotiated and survived the great 
+defeats of their life, you could experience their memory tapes and gain"
+"valuable insight. Imagine being able to share the memories of a Nobel 
+Prize-winning scientist. You might get clues about how great discoveries 
+are made. Or you might be able to share the memories of great 
+politicians and statesmen as they made crucial decisions that affected 
+world history. 
+
+Dr. Miguel Nicolelis believes all this will one day become reality. He 
+says, “Each of these perennial records would be revered as a uniquely 
+precious jewel, one among billions of equally exclusive minds that once 
+lived, loved, suffered, and prospered, until they, too, become 
+immortalized, not clad in cold and silent gravestones, but released 
+through vivid thoughts, intensely lived loves, and mutually endured 
+sorrows.” 
+
+THE DARK SIDE OF TECHNOLOGY"
+"THE DARK SIDE OF TECHNOLOGY 
+
+Some scientists have pondered the ethical implications of this 
+technology. Almost every new medical discovery caused ethical concerns 
+when it was introduced. Some of them had to be restricted or banned 
+when proven harmful (like the sleeping drug thalidomide, which caused 
+birth defects). Others have been so successful they changed our 
+conception of who we are, such as test-tube babies. When Louise Brown, 
+the first test-tube baby, was born in 1978, it created such a media storm 
+that even the pope issued a document critical of this technology. But 
+today, perhaps your sibling, child, spouse, or even you may be a product 
+of in vitro fertilization. Like many technologies, eventually the public 
+will simply get used to the idea that memories can be recorded and 
+shared."
+"Other bioethicists have different worries. What happens if memories 
+are given to us without our permission? What happens if these memories 
+are painful or destructive? Or what about Alzheimer’s patients, who are 
+eligible for memory uploads but are too sick to give permission? 
+
+The late Bernard Williams, a philosopher at Oxford University, 
+worried that this device might disturb the natural order of things, which 
+is to forget. “Forgetting is the most beneficial process we possess,” he 
+says. 
+
+If memories can be implanted like uploading computer files, it could"
+"If memories can be implanted like uploading computer files, it could 
+
+also shake the foundation of our legal system. One of the pillars of 
+justice is the eyewitness account, but what would happen if fake 
+memories were implanted? Also, if the memory of a crime can be 
+created, then it might secretly be implanted into the brain of an innocent 
+person. Or, if a criminal needs an alibi, he could secretly implant a 
+memory into another person’s brain, convincing him that they were 
+together when the crime was being committed. Furthermore, not just 
+verbal testimony but also legal documents would be suspect, since when 
+we sign affidavits and legal documents, we depend on our memory to 
+clarify what is true and false."
+"Safeguards would have to be introduced. Laws will have to be passed 
+that clearly define the limits of granting or denying access to memories. 
+Just as there are laws limiting the ability of the police or third parties to 
+enter your home, there would be laws to prevent people from accessing 
+your memories without your permission. There would also have to be a 
+way to mark these memories so that the person realizes that they are 
+fake. Thus, he would still be able to enjoy the memory of a nice 
+vacation, but he would also know that it never happened."
+"Taping, storing, and uploading our memories may allow us to record 
+the past and master new skills. But doing so will not alter our innate 
+ability to digest and process this large body of information. To do that, 
+we need to enhance our intelligence. Progress in this direction is 
+hindered by the fact that there is no universally accepted definition of 
+intelligence. However, there is one example of genius and intelligence 
+that no one can dispute, and that is Albert Einstein. Remarkably, sixty 
+years after his death, his brain is still yielding invaluable clues to the 
+nature of intelligence. 
+
+Some scientists believe that, using a combination of electromagnetics, 
+genetics, and drug therapy, it may be possible to boost our intelligence 
+to the genius level. They cite the fact that random injuries to the brain 
+have been documented that can suddenly change a person of normal 
+ability into a “savant,” one whose spectacular mental and artistic ability"
+"is off the scale. This can be achieved now by random accidents, but what 
+happens when science intervenes and illuminates the secret of this 
+process? 
+
+The brain is wider than the sky 
+For, put them side by side 
+The one the other will contain 
+With ease, and you beside. 
+
+—EMILY DICKINSON 
+
+Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no 
+one else can see. 
+
+—ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER 
+
+6 EINSTEIN’S BRAIN AND ENHANCING OUR 
+INTELLIGENCE 
+
+Albert Einstein’s brain is missing. 
+
+Or, at least it was for fifty years, until the heirs of the doctor who 
+spirited it away shortly after his death in 1955 finally returned it to the 
+National Museum of Health and Medicine in 2010. Analysis of his brain 
+may help clarify these questions: What is genius? How do you measure 
+intelligence and its relationship to success in life? There are also 
+philosophical questions: Is genius a function of our genes, or is it more a 
+question of personal struggle and achievement?"
+"And, finally, Einstein’s brain may help answer the key question: Can 
+we boost our own intelligence? 
+
+The word “Einstein” is no longer a proper noun that refers to a specific 
+person. It now simply means “genius.” The picture that the name 
+conjures up (baggy pants, flaming white hair, disheveled looks) is 
+equally iconic and instantly recognizable. 
+
+The legacy of Einstein has been enormous. When some physicists in 
+2011 raised the possibility that he was wrong, that particles could break 
+the light barrier, it created a firestorm of controversy in the physics 
+world that spilled over into the popular press. The very idea that 
+relativity, which forms the cornerstone of modern physics, could be 
+wrong had physicists around the world shaking their heads. As expected, 
+once the result was recalibrated, Einstein was shown to be right once 
+
+again. It is always dangerous to go up against Einstein."
+"again. It is always dangerous to go up against Einstein. 
+
+One way to gain insight into the question “What is genius?” is to 
+analyze Einstein’s brain. Apparently on the spur of the moment, Dr. 
+Thomas Harvey, the doctor at the Princeton hospital who was 
+performing the autopsy on Einstein, decided to secretly preserve his 
+brain, against the knowledge and wishes of Einstein’s family. 
+
+Perhaps he preserved Einstein’s brain with the vague notion that one 
+day it might unlock the secret of genius. Perhaps he thought, like many 
+
+others, that there was a peculiar part of Einstein’s brain that was the seat 
+of his vast intelligence. Brian Burrell, in his book Postcards from the Brain 
+Museum, speculates that perhaps Dr. Harvey “got caught up in the 
+moment and was transfixed in the presence of greatness. What he 
+quickly discovered was that he had bitten off more than he could chew.”"
+"What happened to Einstein’s brain after that sounds more like a 
+comedy than a science story. Over the years, Dr. Harvey promised to 
+publish his results of analyzing Einstein’s brain. But he was no brain 
+specialist, and kept making excuses. For decades, the brain sat in two 
+large mason jars filled with formaldehyde and placed in a cider box, 
+under a beer cooler. He had a technician slice the brain into 240 pieces, 
+and on rare occasions he would mail a few to scientists who wanted to 
+study them. Once, pieces were mailed to a scientist at Berkeley in a 
+mayonnaise container."
+"Forty years later, Dr. Harvey drove across the country in a Buick 
+Skylark carrying Einstein’s brain in a Tupperware container, hoping to 
+return it to Einstein’s granddaughter Evelyn. She refused to accept it. 
+After Dr. Harvey’s death in 2007, it was left to his heirs to properly 
+donate his collection of slides and portions of Einstein’s brain to science. 
+The history of Einstein’s brain is so unusual that a TV documentary was 
+filmed about it. 
+
+(It should be pointed out that Einstein’s brain was not the only one to 
+be preserved for posterity. The brain of one of the greatest geniuses of 
+mathematics, Carl Friedrich Gauss, often called the Prince of 
+Mathematicians, was also preserved by a doctor a century earlier. Back 
+then, the anatomy of the brain was largely unexplored, and no 
+conclusions could be drawn other than the fact that it had unusually 
+large convolutions or folds.)"
+"One might expect that Einstein’s brain was far beyond an ordinary 
+human’s, that it must have been huge, perhaps with areas that were 
+abnormally large. In fact, the opposite has been found (it is slightly 
+smaller, not larger, than normal). Overall, Einstein’s brain is quite 
+
+ordinary. If a neurologist did not know that this was Einstein’s brain, he 
+probably would not give it a second thought. 
+
+The only differences found in Einstein’s brain were rather minor. A 
+certain part of his brain, called the angular gyri, was larger than normal, 
+with the inferior parietal regions of both hemispheres 15 percent wider"
+"than average. Notably, these parts of the brain are involved in abstract 
+thought, in the manipulation of symbols such as writing and 
+mathematics, and in visual-spatial processing. But his brain was still 
+within the norm, so it is not clear whether the genius of Einstein lay in 
+the organic structure of his brain or in the force of his personality, his 
+outlook, and the times. In a biography that I once wrote of Einstein, 
+titled Einstein’s Cosmos, it was clear to me that certain features of his life 
+were just as important as any anomaly in his brain. Perhaps Einstein 
+himself said it best when he said, “I have no special talents.... I am only 
+passionately curious.” In fact, Einstein would confess that he had to 
+struggle with mathematics in his youth. To one group of schoolchildren, 
+he once confided, “No matter what difficulties you may have with 
+mathematics, mine were greater.” So why was Einstein Einstein?"
+"First, Einstein spent most of his time thinking via “thought 
+experiments.” He was a theoretical physicist, not an experimental one, 
+so he was continually running sophisticated simulations of the future in 
+his head. In other words, his laboratory was his mind."
+"Second, he was known to spend up to ten years or more on a single 
+thought experiment. From the age of sixteen to twenty-six, he focused on 
+the problem of light and whether it was possible to outrace a light beam. 
+This led to the birth of special relativity, which eventually revealed the 
+secret of the stars and gave us the atomic bomb. From the age of twenty- 
+six to thirty-six, he focused on a theory of gravity, which eventually gave 
+us black holes and the big-bang theory of the universe. And then from 
+the age of thirty-six to the end of his life, he tried to find a theory of 
+everything to unify all of physics. Clearly, the ability to spend ten or 
+more years on a single problem showed the tenacity with which he 
+would simulate experiments in his head."
+"Third, his personality was important. He was a bohemian, so it was 
+natural for him to rebel against the establishment in physics. Not every 
+physicist had the nerve or the imagination to challenge the prevailing 
+theory of Isaac Newton, which had held sway for two hundred years 
+before Einstein. 
+
+Fourth, the time was right for the emergence of an Einstein. In 1905, 
+the old physical world of Newton was crumbling in light of experiments 
+that clearly suggested a new physics was about to be born, waiting for a 
+
+genius to show the way. For example, the mysterious substance called 
+
+radium glowed in the dark all by itself indefinitely, as if energy was 
+being created out of thin air, violating the theory of conservation of 
+energy. In other words, Einstein was the right man for the times. If 
+somehow it becomes possible to clone Einstein from the cells in his 
+preserved brain, I suspect that the clone would not be the next Einstein. 
+The historic circumstances must also be right to create a genius."
+"The point here is that genius is perhaps a combination of being born 
+with certain mental abilities and also the determination and drive to 
+achieve great things. The essence of Einstein’s genius was probably his 
+extraordinary ability to simulate the future through thought 
+experiments, creating new physical principles via pictures. As Einstein 
+himself once said, “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but 
+imagination.” And to Einstein, imagination meant shattering the 
+boundaries of the known and entering the domain of the unknown. 
+
+All of us are born with certain abilities that are programmed into our 
+genes and the structure of our brains. That is the luck of the draw. But 
+how we arrange our thoughts and experiences and simulate the future is 
+something that is totally within our control. Charles Darwin himself once 
+wrote, “I have always maintained that, excepting fools, men did not 
+differ much in intellect, only in zeal and hard work.” 
+
+CAN GENIUS BE LEARNED?"
+"CAN GENIUS BE LEARNED? 
+
+This rekindles the question, Are geniuses made or born? How does the 
+nature/nurture debate solve the mystery of intelligence? Can an ordinary 
+person become a genius? 
+
+Since brain cells are notoriously hard to grow, it was once thought 
+that intelligence was fixed by the time we became young adults. But one 
+thing is becoming increasingly clear with new brain research: the brain 
+itself can change when it learns. Although brain cells are not being 
+added in the cortex, the connections between neurons are changing 
+every time a new task is learned. 
+
+For example, scientists in 2011 analyzed the brains of London’s 
+famous taxicab drivers, who have to laboriously memorize twenty-five 
+thousand streets in the dizzying maze that makes up modern London. It 
+takes three to four years to prepare for this arduous test, and only half 
+
+the trainees pass."
+"the trainees pass. 
+
+Scientists at University College London studied the brains of these 
+drivers before they took the test, and then tested them again three to 
+four years afterward. Those trainees who passed the test had a larger 
+volume of gray matter than before, in an area called the posterior and 
+the anterior hippocampus. The hippocampus, as we’ve seen, is where 
+memories are processed. (Curiously, tests also showed that these taxicab 
+drivers scored less than normal on processing visual information, so 
+perhaps there is a trade-off, a price to pay for learning this volume of 
+information.) 
+
+“The human brain remains ‘plastic,’ even in adult life, allowing it to 
+adapt when we learn new tasks,” says Eleanor Maguire of the Wellcome 
+Trust, which funded the study. “This offers encouragement for adults 
+who want to learn new skills later in life.”"
+"Similarly, the brains of mice that have learned many tasks are slightly 
+different from the brains of other mice that have not learned these tasks. 
+It is not so much that the number of neurons has changed, but rather 
+that the nature of the neural connections has been altered by the 
+learning process. In other words, learning actually changes the structure 
+of the brain. 
+
+This raises the old adage “practice makes perfect.” Canadian 
+psychologist Dr. Donald Hebb discovered an important fact about the 
+wiring of the brain: the more we exercise certain skills, the more certain 
+pathways in our brains become reinforced, so the task becomes easier. 
+Unlike a digital computer, which is just as dumb today as it was 
+yesterday, the brain is a learning machine with the ability to rewire its 
+neural pathways every time it learns something. This is a fundamental 
+difference between a digital computer and the brain."
+"This lesson applies not only to London taxicab drivers, but also to 
+accomplished concert musicians as well. According to psychologist Dr. K. 
+Anders Ericsson and colleagues, who studied master violinists at Berlin’s 
+elite Academy of Music, top concert violinists could easily rack up ten 
+thousand hours of grueling practice by the time they were twenty years 
+old, practicing more than thirty hours per week. By contrast, he found 
+that students who were merely exceptional studied only eight thousand 
+hours or fewer, and future music teachers practiced only a total of four 
+thousand hours. Neurologist Daniel Levitin says, “The emerging picture 
+
+from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to 
+achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert— 
+in anything.... In study after study, of composers, basketball players, 
+fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master"
+"criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again.” 
+Malcolm Gladwell, writing in the book Outliers, calls this the “10,000- 
+hour rule.” 
+
+HOW DO YOU MEASURE INTELLIGENCE? 
+
+But how do you measure intelligence? For centuries, any discussion of 
+intelligence relied on hearsay and anecdote. But now MRI studies have 
+shown that the principal activity of the brain while performing these 
+mathematical puzzles involves the pathway connecting the prefrontal 
+cortex (which engages in rational thought) with the parietal lobes 
+(which processes numbers). This correlates with the anatomical studies 
+of Einstein’s brain, which showed that his inferior parietal lobes were 
+larger than normal. So it is conceivable that mathematical ability 
+correlates with increased information flows between the prefrontal 
+cortex and the parietal lobes. But did the brain increase in size in this 
+area because of hard work and study, or was Einstein born that way? 
+The answer is still not clear."
+"The key problem is that there is no uniformly accepted definition of 
+intelligence, let alone a consensus among scientists as to its origin. But 
+the answer may prove critical if we wish to enhance it. 
+
+IQ EXAMS AND DR. TERMAN 
+
+By default, the most widely used measure of intelligence is the IQ exam, 
+pioneered by Dr. Lewis Terman of Stanford University, who in 1916 
+revised an earlier test devised by Alfred Binet for the French 
+government. For the next several decades, it became the gold standard 
+by which to measure intelligence. Terman, in fact, dedicated his life to 
+the proposition that intelligence could be measured and inherited, and 
+was the strongest predictor of success in life. 
+
+Five years later, Terman started a landmark study on schoolchildren,"
+"Five years later, Terman started a landmark study on schoolchildren, 
+
+The Genetic Studies of Genius. It was an ambitious project, whose scope 
+and duration were unprecedented back in the 1920s. It set the tone for 
+research in this field for an entire generation. He methodically 
+chronicled the successes and failures of these individuals throughout 
+their lives, compiling thick files of their achievements. These high-IQ 
+students were dubbed the “Termites.” 
+
+At first, Dr. Terman’s idea seemed to be a resounding success. It"
+"At first, Dr. Terman’s idea seemed to be a resounding success. It 
+
+became the standard by which both children and other tests were 
+measured. During World War I, 1.7 million soldiers were given this test. 
+But over the years, a different profile began to slowly emerge. Decades 
+later, children who scored high on the IQ exam were only moderately 
+more successful than those who did not. Terman could proudly point to 
+some of his students who went on to win awards and secure well-paying 
+jobs. But he became increasingly disturbed by the large number of his 
+brightest students whom society would consider to be failures, taking 
+menial, dead-end jobs, engaging in crime, or leading lives on the 
+margins of society. These results were quite upsetting to Dr. Terman, 
+who had dedicated his life to proving that high IQ meant success in life. 
+
+SUCCESS IN LIFE AND DELAYED GRATIFICATION"
+"SUCCESS IN LIFE AND DELAYED GRATIFICATION 
+
+A different approach was taken in 1972 by Dr. Walter Mischel, also of 
+Stanford, who analyzed yet another characteristic among children: the 
+ability to delay gratification. He pioneered the use of the “marshmallow 
+test,” that is, would children prefer one marshmallow now, or the 
+prospect of two marsh-mallows twenty minutes later? Six hundred 
+children, aged four to six, participated in this experiment. When Mischel 
+revisited the participants in 1988, he found that those who could delay 
+gratification were more competent than those who could not."
+"In 1990, another study showed a direct correlation between those who 
+could delay gratification and SAT scores. And a study done in 2011 
+indicated that this characteristic continued throughout a person’s life. 
+The results of these and other studies were eye-opening. The children 
+who exhibited delayed gratification scored higher on almost every 
+measure of success in life: higher-paying jobs, lower rates of drug 
+addiction, higher test scores, higher educational attainment, better social 
+
+integration, etc."
+"integration, etc. 
+
+But what was most intriguing was that brain scans of these individuals 
+revealed a definite pattern. They showed a distinct difference in the way 
+the prefrontal cortex interacted with the ventral striatum, a region 
+involved in addiction. (This is not surprising, since the ventral striatum 
+contains the nucleus accumbens, known as the “pleasure center.” So 
+there seems to be a struggle here between the pleasure-seeking part of 
+the brain and the rational part to control temptation, as we saw in 
+Chapter 2.) 
+
+This difference was no fluke. The result has been tested by many 
+independent groups over the years, with nearly identical results. Other 
+studies have also verified the difference in the frontal-striatal circuitry of 
+
+the brain, which appears to govern delayed gratification. It seems that 
+the one characteristic most closely correlated with success in life, which 
+has persisted over the decades, is the ability to delay gratification."
+"Although this is a gross simplification, what these brain scans show is 
+that the connection between the prefrontal and parietal lobes seems to 
+be important for mathematical and abstract thought, while the 
+connection between the prefrontal and limbic system (involving the 
+conscious control of our emotions and pleasure center) seems to be 
+essential for success in life. 
+
+Dr. Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin- 
+Madison, concludes, “Your grades in school, your scores on the SAT, 
+mean less for life success than your capacity to co-operate, your ability 
+to regulate your emotions, your capacity to delay your gratification, and 
+your capacity to focus your attention. Those skills are far more 
+important—all the data indicate—for life success than your IQ or your 
+grades.” 
+
+NEW MEASURES OF INTELLIGENCE"
+"NEW MEASURES OF INTELLIGENCE 
+
+Clearly there have to be new ways to measure intelligence and success in 
+life. IQ exams are not useless, but they measure only one limited form of 
+intelligence. Dr. Michael Sweeney, author of Brain: The Complete Mind, 
+notes, “Tests don’t measure motivation, persistence, social skills, and a 
+host of other attributes of a life that’s well lived.”"
+"The problem with many of these standardized tests is that there may 
+also be a subconscious bias due to cultural influences. In addition, these 
+tests are evaluating only one particular form of intelligence, which some 
+psychologists call “convergent” intelligence. Convergent intelligence 
+focuses on one line of thought, ignoring the more complex “divergent” 
+form of intelligence, which involves measuring differing factors. For 
+example, during World War II, the U.S. Army Air Forces asked scientists 
+to devise a psychological exam that would measure a pilot’s intelligence 
+and ability to handle difficult, unexpected situations. One question was: 
+If you are shot down deep in enemy territory and must somehow make it 
+back to friendly lines, what do you do? The results contradicted 
+conventional thinking."
+"Most psychologists expected that the air force study would show that 
+pilots with high IQs would score highly on this test as well. Actually, the 
+reverse was true. The pilots who scored highest were the ones with 
+higher levels of divergent thinking, who could see through many 
+different lines of thought. Pilots who excelled at this, for example, were 
+able to think up a variety of unorthodox and imaginative methods to 
+
+escape after they were captured behind enemy lines."
+"escape after they were captured behind enemy lines. 
+
+The difference between convergent and divergent thinking is also 
+reflected in studies on split-brain patients, which clearly show that each 
+hemisphere of the brain is principally hardwired for one or the other. Dr. 
+Ulrich Kraft of Fulda, Germany, writes, “The left hemisphere is 
+responsible for convergent thinking and the right hemisphere for 
+divergent thinking. The left side examines details and processes them 
+logically and analytically but lacks a sense of overriding, abstract 
+connections. The right side is more imaginative and intuitive and tends 
+to work holistically, integrating pieces of an informational puzzle into a 
+whole.”"
+"In this book, I take the position that human consciousness involves the 
+ability to create a model of the world and then simulate the model into 
+the future, in order to attain a goal. Pilots who demonstrated divergent 
+thinking were able to simulate many possible future events accurately 
+and with more complexity. Similarly, the children who mastered delayed 
+gratification in the famous marshmallow test appear to be the ones who 
+had the most ability to simulate the future, to see the long-term rewards 
+and not just the short-term, get-rich-quick schemes."
+"A more sophisticated intelligence exam that directly quantifies a 
+person’s ability to simulate the future would be difficult but not 
+impossible to create. A person could be asked to create as many realistic 
+scenarios for the future as possible to win a game, with a score assigned 
+depending on the number of simulations the person can imagine and the 
+number of causal links involved with each one. Instead of measuring a 
+person’s ability to simply assimilate information, this new method would 
+measure a person’s ability to manipulate and mold this information to 
+achieve a higher goal. For example, a person might be asked to figure 
+out how to escape from a deserted island full of hungry wild animals and 
+poisonous snakes. He would have to list all the various ways to survive, 
+fend off the dangerous animals, and leave the island, creating an 
+elaborate causal tree of possible outcomes and futures."
+"So we see that there is a common thread running through all this 
+discussion, and that is that intelligence seems to be correlated with the 
+complexity with which we can simulate future events, which correlates 
+with our earlier discussion of consciousness. 
+
+But given the rapid advances taking place in the world’s laboratories 
+concerning electromagnetic fields, genetics, and drug therapies, is it 
+possible not just to measure our intelligence, but to enhance it as well— 
+to become another Einstein? 
+
+BOOSTING OUR INTELLIGENCE 
+
+This possibility was explored in the novel Flowers for Algernon (1958), 
+later made into the Academy Award-winning movie Charly (1968). In it, 
+we follow the sad life of Charly Gordon, who has an IQ of 68 and a 
+menial job in a bakery. He lives a simple life, fails to understand that his 
+fellow workers are constantly making fun of him, and does not even 
+know how to spell his own name."
+"His only friend is Alice, a teacher who takes pity on him and tries to 
+teach him to read. But one day, scientists discover a new procedure that 
+can suddenly make ordinary mice intelligent. Alice hears about this and 
+decides to introduce Charly to these scientists, who agree to perform the 
+procedure on their first human subject. Within weeks, Charly has 
+noticeably changed. His vocabulary increases, he devours books from the 
+
+library, he becomes something of a ladies’ man, and his room explodes 
+with modern art. Soon he begins to read about relativity and the 
+quantum theory, pushing the boundaries of advanced physics. He and 
+Alice even become lovers."
+"But then the doctors notice that the mice have slowly lost their ability 
+and died. Realizing that he, too, might lose everything, Charly furiously 
+tries to use his superior intellect to find a cure, but instead he’s forced to 
+witness his own inexorable decline. His vocabulary shrinks, he forgets 
+mathematics and physics, and he slowly reverts back to his old self. In 
+the final scene, a heartbroken Alice watches as Charly plays with 
+children. 
+
+The novel and movie, although poignant and critically acclaimed, 
+were dismissed as sheer science fiction. The plot was moving and 
+original, but the idea of boosting one’s intelligence was considered 
+preposterous. Brain cells cannot regenerate, scientists said, so this 
+movie’s plot was obviously impossible. 
+
+But not anymore."
+"But not anymore. 
+
+Although it is still impossible to boost your intelligence, rapid 
+advances are being made in electromagnetic sensors, genetics, and stem 
+cells that may one day make this a real possibility. In particular, 
+scientific interest has focused on “autistic savants,” who possess 
+phenomenal, superhuman abilities that stagger the imagination. More 
+important, due to specific injuries to the brain, normal people can 
+rapidly acquire such near-miraculous powers. Some scientists even 
+believe that these uncanny abilities might be induced using 
+electromagnetic fields. 
+
+SAVANTS: SUPER GENIUSES? 
+
+A bullet went crashing through the skull of Mr. Z when he was nine 
+years old. It did not kill him, as his doctors feared, but wreaked 
+extensive damage to the left side of his brain, causing paralysis of the 
+right side of his body and leaving him permanently deaf and mute."
+"However, the bullet also had a bizarre side effect. Mr. Z developed 
+supernormal mechanical abilities and a prodigious memory, typical of 
+“savants.” 
+
+Mr. Z is not alone. In 1979, a ten-year-old boy named Orlando Serrell 
+was knocked unconscious by a baseball that hit the left side of his head. 
+At first, he complained of severe headaches. But after the pain subsided, 
+he was able to do remarkable mathematical calculations and had a near¬ 
+photographic memory of certain events happening in his life. He could 
+calculate dates thousands of years into the future. 
+
+In the entire world of roughly seven billion people, there are only 
+about one hundred documented cases of these astounding savants. (The 
+number is much larger if we include those whose mental skills are still 
+extraordinary but not superhuman. It is believed that about 10 percent 
+of autistic individuals show some savant capabilities.) These 
+extraordinary savants possess abilities far beyond our current scientific 
+understanding."
+"There are several types of savants that have recently elicited the 
+curiosity of scientists. About half of savants have some form of autism 
+(the other half display other forms of mental illness or psychological 
+disorder). They often have profound problems interacting socially, 
+leading to deep isolation. 
+
+Then there is the “acquired savant syndrome,” in which people who 
+appear perfectly normal suffer from some extreme trauma later in life 
+(e.g., hitting their head on the bottom of a swimming pool or being 
+struck by a baseball or a bullet), almost always on the left side of their 
+brain. Some scientists, however, suggest that this distinction is 
+misleading, that perhaps all savant skills are acquired. Since autistic 
+savants begin to show their abilities around age three or four, perhaps 
+their autism (like a blow to their head) is the origin of their abilities."
+"There is scientific disagreement about the origin of these extraordinary 
+abilities. Some believe that these individuals are simply born this way 
+and hence are unique, one-of-a-kind anomalies. Their skills, even if 
+
+awakened by a bullet, are hardwired into their brains from birth. If so, 
+then perhaps this skill can never be learned or transferred. 
+
+Others claim that such hardwiring violates the theory of evolution, 
+which takes place incrementally over long periods of time. If savant 
+geniuses exist, then the rest of us must also possess similar abilities, 
+although they are latent. Does this mean, then, that one day we might be 
+able to turn on these miraculous powers at will? Some believe so, and 
+there are even published papers claiming that some savant skills are"
+"latent in all of us and can be brought to light using the magnetic fields 
+generated by an electromagnetic scanner (TES). Or perhaps there is a 
+genetic basis to this skill, in which case gene therapy might re-create 
+these astonishing abilities. It might also be possible to cultivate stem 
+cells that would allow neurons to grow in the prefrontal cortex and other 
+key centers of the brain. Then we might be able to increase our mental 
+abilities. 
+
+All these avenues are the source of much speculation and research. 
+Not only might they allow doctors to reverse the ravages of diseases like 
+Alzheimer’s, but they could also enable us to enhance our own 
+intelligence. The possibilities are intriguing."
+"The first documented case of a savant was recorded in 1789 by Dr. 
+Benjamin Rush, who studied an individual who seemed to be mentally 
+handicapped. Yet when he was asked how many seconds a man had 
+lived (who was seventy years, seventeen days, and twelve hours old), it 
+took him only ninety seconds to give the correct answer of 
+2,210,500,800. 
+
+Dr. Darold Treffert, a Wisconsin physician, has studied these savants at 
+length. He recites one story of a blind savant who was asked a simple 
+question. If you put one corn kernel in the first square of a chess board, 
+two kernels in the second, four in the next, and keep doubling after that, 
+how many kernels would you have on the sixty-fourth square? It took 
+him just forty-five seconds to correctly reply: 
+18,446,744,073,709,551,616."
+"Perhaps the best-known example of a savant was the late Kim Peek, 
+who was the inspiration for the movie Rain Man, starring Dustin 
+Hoffman and Tom Cruise. Although Kim Peek was severely mentally 
+handicapped (he was incapable of living by himself and could barely tie 
+his shoelaces or button his shirt), he memorized about twelve thousand 
+books and could recite lines from them, word for word, on any particular 
+page. It took him about eight seconds to read a page. (He could 
+memorize a book in about half an hour, but he read them in an unusual 
+way. He could read both pages simultaneously, using each eye to read a 
+
+different page at the same time.) Although incredibly shy, he eventually 
+began to enjoy performing dazzling feats of mathematics before curious 
+onlookers, who would try to challenge him with tricky questions. 
+
+Scientists, of course, have to be careful in distinguishing true savant"
+"skills from simple memorization tricks. Their skills are not just 
+mathematical—they also extend to incredible musical, artistic, and 
+mechanical capabilities. Since autistic savants have great difficulty 
+verbally expressing their mental processes, another avenue is to 
+investigate individuals who have Asperger’s syndrome, which is a milder 
+form of autism. Only in 1994 was Asperger’s syndrome recognized as a 
+distinct psychological condition, so there is very little solid research in 
+this area. Like autistic individuals, people with Asperger’s have a 
+difficult time interacting socially with others. However, with proper 
+training, they can learn enough social skills to hold down a job and 
+articulate their mental processes. And a fraction of them have 
+remarkable savant skills. Some scientists believe that many great 
+scientists had Asperger’s syndrome. This might explain the strange, 
+reclusive nature of physicists like Isaac Newton and Paul Dirac (one of"
+"reclusive nature of physicists like Isaac Newton and Paul Dirac (one of 
+the founders of the quantum theory). Newton, in particular, was 
+pathologically incapable of small talk."
+"I had the pleasure of interviewing one such individual, Daniel 
+Tammet, who has written a best seller, Bom on a Blue Day. Almost alone 
+among these remarkable savants, he is able to articulate his thoughts in 
+books, on the radio, and in TV interviews. For someone who had such 
+difficulty relating to others as a child, he now has a superb grasp of 
+communication skills. 
+
+Daniel has the distinction of setting a world record for memorizing pi, 
+a fundamental number in geometry. He was able to memorize it to 
+22,514 decimal places. I asked him how he prepared for such a 
+herculean feat. Daniel told me that he associates a color or texture with 
+every number. Then I asked him the key question: If every digit has a 
+color or texture, then how does he remember tens of thousands of them? 
+Sadly, at that point he said he doesn’t know. It just comes to him. 
+Numbers have been his life ever since he was a child, and hence they 
+simply appear in his mind. His mind is a constant mixture of numbers 
+and colors."
+"ASPERGER’S AND SILICON VALLEY 
+
+So far, this discussion may seem abstract, without any direct bearing on 
+
+our daily lives. But the impact of people with mild autism and Asperger’s 
+may be more widespread than previously thought, especially in certain 
+high-tech fields. 
+
+In the hit television series The Big Bang Theory, we follow the antics of 
+several young scientists, mainly nerdy physicists, in their awkward quest 
+for female companionship. In every episode, there is a hilarious incident 
+that reveals how clueless and pathetic they are in this endeavor."
+"There is a tacit assumption running through the series that their 
+intellectual brilliance is matched only by their geekiness. And 
+anecdotally, people have noticed that among the high-tech gurus in 
+Silicon Valley, a higher percentage than normal seem to lack some social 
+skills. (There is a saying among women scientists who attend highly 
+specialized engineering universities, where the girl-to-guy ratio is 
+decidedly in their favor: “The odds are good, but the goods are odd.”) 
+
+Scientists set out to investigate this suspicion. The hypothesis is that 
+people with Asperger’s and other mild forms of autism have mental skills 
+ideally suited for certain fields, like the information technology industry. 
+Scientists at University College London examined sixteen people who 
+were diagnosed with a mild form of autism and compared them with 
+sixteen normal individuals. Both groups were shown slides containing 
+random numbers and letters arranged in increasingly complex patterns."
+"Their results showed that people with autism had a superior ability to 
+focus on the task. In fact, as the tasks became harder, the gap between 
+the intellectual skills of both groups began to widen, with the autistic 
+individuals performing significantly better than the control group. (The 
+test, however, also showed that these individuals were more easily 
+distracted by outside noises and blinking lights than the control group.) 
+
+Dr. Nilli Lavie says, “Our study confirms our hypothesis that people 
+with autism have higher perceptual capacity compared to the typical 
+population.... People with autism are able to perceive significantly more 
+information than the typical adult.” 
+
+This certainly does not prove that all people who are intellectually 
+brilliant have some form of Asperger’s. But it does indicate that fields 
+requiring the ability to focus intellectually might have a higher 
+proportion of people with Asperger’s. 
+
+BRAIN SCANS OF SAVANTS"
+"BRAIN SCANS OF SAVANTS 
+
+The subject of savants has always been shrouded in hearsay and amazing 
+anecdotal stories. But recently, the entire field has been turned upside 
+down with the development of MRI and other brain scans. 
+
+Kim Peek’s brain, for example, was unusual. MRI scans show that it 
+lacked the corpus callosum connecting the left and right brain, which is 
+probably why he could read two pages at the same time. His poor motor 
+skills were reflected in a deformed cerebellum, the area that controls 
+balance. Unfortunately, MRI scans could not reveal the exact origin of 
+his extraordinary abilities and photographic memory. But in general, 
+brain scans have shown that many suffering from acquired savant 
+syndrome have experienced damage to their left brain."
+"In particular, interest has focused on the left anterior temporal and 
+orbitofrontal cortices. Some believe that perhaps all savant skills 
+(autistic, acquired, and Asperger’s) arise from damage to this very 
+specific spot in the left temporal lobe. This area can act like a “censor” 
+that periodically flushes out irrelevant memories. But after damage 
+occurs to the left hemisphere, the right hemisphere starts to take over. 
+The right brain is much more precise than the left brain, which often 
+distorts reality and confabulates. In fact, it is believed that the right 
+brain must work extra hard because of damage to the left brain, and 
+hence savant skills develop as a consequence. For example, the right 
+brain is much more artistic than the left brain. Normally, the left brain 
+restricts this talent and holds it in check. But if the left brain is injured in 
+a certain way, it may unleash the artistic abilities latent in the right 
+brain, causing an explosion of artistic talent. So the key to unleashing"
+"brain, causing an explosion of artistic talent. So the key to unleashing 
+savant capabilities might be to dampen the left brain so that it can no 
+longer restrain the natural talents of the right brain. This is sometimes 
+referred to as “left brain injury, right brain compensation.”"
+"In 1998, Dr. Bruce Miller of the University of California at San 
+Francisco performed a series of studies that seem to back this idea up. 
+He and coworkers studied five normal individuals who began to show 
+signs of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). As their dementia started to 
+progress, savant abilities gradually began to emerge. As their dementia 
+got worse, several of these individuals began to exhibit even more 
+extraordinary artistic ability, although none had shown gifts in this area 
+
+before. Moreover, the abilities they exhibited were typical of savant 
+behavior. Their abilities were visual, not auditory, and their artworks, 
+remarkable as they were, were just copies lacking any original, abstract, 
+or symbolic qualities. (One patient actually got better during the study. 
+But her emerging savant skills were also reduced as a consequence. This 
+suggests a close relationship between emerging disorders of the left 
+temporal lobe and emerging savant skills.)"
+"Dr. Miller’s analysis seemed to show that degeneration of the left 
+anterior temporal and orbitofrontal cortices probably decreased 
+inhibition of the visual systems in the right hemisphere, thereby 
+increasing artistic abilities. Again, damaging the left hemisphere in a 
+particular location forced the right hemisphere to take over and develop."
+"In addition to the savants, MRI scans have also been done on people 
+with hyperthymestic syndrome, who also have photographic memories. 
+These people do not suffer from autism and mental disorders, but they 
+share some of their skills. In the entire United States, there are only four 
+documented cases of true photographic memory. One of them is Jill 
+Price, a school administrator in Los Angeles. She can recall precisely 
+what she was doing on any particular day going back decades. But she 
+complains that she finds it difficult to erase certain thoughts. Indeed, her 
+brain seems to be “stuck on autopilot.” She compares her memory to 
+watching the world through a split screen, in which the past and present 
+are constantly competing for her attention."
+"Since 2000, scientists at the University of California at Irvine have 
+scanned her brain, and they’ve found it to be unusual. Several regions 
+were larger than normal, such as the caudate nuclei (which is involved 
+with forming habits) and the temporal lobe (which stores facts and 
+figures). It is theorized that these two areas work in tandem to create her 
+photographic memory. Her brain is therefore different from the brains of 
+savants who suffer an injury or damage to their left temporal lobe. The 
+reason is unknown, but it points to another path by which one may 
+obtain these fantastic mental abilities. 
+
+CAN WE BECOME SAVANTS? 
+
+All this raises the intriguing possibility that one might be able to 
+
+deliberately deactivate parts of the left brain and thereby increase the 
+activity of the right brain, forcing it to acquire savant capabilities."
+"We recall that transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, allows one 
+to effectively silence parts of the brain. If so, then why can’t we silence 
+this part of the left anterior temporal and orbitofrontal cortices using the 
+TMS and turn on a savantlike genius at will? 
+
+This idea has actually been tried. Dr. Allan Snyder of the University of 
+Sydney, Australia, made headlines a few years ago when he claimed 
+that, by applying the TMS to a certain part of the left brain, his subjects 
+could suddenly perform savantlike feats. By directing low-frequency 
+magnetic waves into the left hemisphere, one can in principle turn off"
+"this dominant region of the brain so that the right hemisphere takes 
+over. Dr. Synder and his colleagues did an experiment with eleven male 
+volunteers. They applied the TMS to the subjects’ left frontotemporal 
+region while the subjects were performing tests involving reading and 
+drawing. This did not produce savant skills among the subjects, but two 
+of them had significant improvements in their ability to proofread words 
+and recognize duplicated words. In another experiment, Dr. R. L. Young 
+and his colleagues gave a battery of psychological tests to seventeen 
+individuals. The tests were specifically designed to test for savant skills. 
+(Tests of this sort analyze a person’s ability to memorize facts, 
+manipulate numbers and dates, create artwork, or perform music.) Five 
+of the subjects reported improvement in savantlike skills after treatment 
+with TMS."
+"Dr. Michael Sweeney has observed, “When applied to the prefrontal 
+lobes, TMS has been shown to enhance the speed and agility of cognitive 
+processing. The TMS bursts are like a localized jolt of caffeine, but 
+nobody knows for sure how the magnets actually do their work.” These 
+experiments hint, but by no means prove, that silencing a part of the left 
+frontotemporal region could initiate some enhanced skills. These skills 
+are a far cry from savant abilities, and we should also be careful to point 
+out that other groups have looked into these experiments, and the results 
+have been inconclusive. More experimental work must be done, so it is 
+still too early to render a final judgment one way or the other. 
+
+TMS probes are the easiest and most convenient instrument to use for 
+this purpose, since they can selectively silence various parts of the brain 
+at will without relying on brain damage and traumatic accidents. But it"
+"should also be noted that TMS probes are still crude, silencing millions 
+of neurons at a time. Magnetic fields, unlike electrical probes, are not 
+precise but spread out over several centimeters. We know that the left 
+anterior temporal and orbitofrontal cortices are damaged in savants and 
+likely responsible, at least in some part, for their unique abilities, but 
+perhaps the specific area that must be dampened is an even smaller 
+subregion. So each jolt of TMS might inadvertently deactivate some of 
+the areas that need to remain intact in order to produce savantlike skills."
+"In the future, with TMS probes we might be able to narrow down the 
+region of the brain involved with eliciting savant skills. Once this region 
+is identified, the next step would be to use highly accurate electrical 
+probes, like those used in deep brain stimulation, to dampen these areas 
+even more precisely. Then, with the push of a button, it might be 
+possible to use these probes to silence this tiny portion of the brain in 
+order to bring out savantlike skills. 
+
+FORGETTING TO FORGET AND PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY 
+
+Although savant skills may be initiated by some sort of injury to the left 
+brain (leading to right brain compensation), this still does not explain 
+precisely how the right brain can perform these miraculous feats of 
+memory. By what neural mechanism does photographic memory 
+emerge? The answer to this question may determine whether we can 
+become savants."
+"Until recently, it was thought that photographic memory was due to 
+the special ability of certain brains to remember. If so, then it might be 
+difficult for the average person to learn these memory skills, since only 
+exceptional brains are capable of them. But in 2012, a new study showed 
+that precisely the opposite may be true. 
+
+The key to photographic memory may not be the ability of remarkable 
+brains to learn; on the contrary, it may be their inability to forget. If this 
+is true, then perhaps photographic memory is not such a mysterious 
+thing after all. 
+
+The new study was done by scientists at the Scripps Research Institute 
+in Florida who were working with fruit flies. They found an interesting 
+way in which these fruit flies learn, which may overturn a cherished idea 
+
+of how memories are formed and forgotten. The fruit flies were exposed 
+to different smells and were given positive reinforcement (with food) or 
+negative reinforcement (with electric shocks)."
+"The scientists knew that the neurotransmitter dopamine was important 
+to forming memories. To their surprise, they found that dopamine 
+actively regulates both the formation and the forgetting of new 
+memories. In the process of creating new memories, the dCAl receptor 
+was activated. By contrast, forgetting was initiated by the activation of 
+the DAMB receptor. 
+
+Previously, it was thought that forgetting might be simply the 
+degradation of memories with time, which happens passively by itself. 
+This new study shows that forgetting is an active process, requiring 
+intervention by dopamine. 
+
+To prove their point, they showed that by interfering with the action 
+of the dCAl and DAMB receptors, they could, at will, increase or 
+decrease the ability of fruit flies to remember and forget. A mutation in 
+the dCAl receptor, for example, impaired the ability of the fruit flies to 
+remember. A mutation in the DAMB receptor decreased their ability to 
+forget."
+"The researchers speculate that this effect, in turn, may be partially 
+responsible for savants’ skills. Perhaps there is a deficiency in their 
+ability to forget. One of the graduate students involved in the study, 
+Jacob Berry, says, “Savants have a high capacity for memory. But maybe 
+it isn’t memory that gives them this capacity; maybe they have a bad 
+forgetting mechanism. This might also be the strategy for developing 
+drugs to promote cognition and memory—what about drugs that inhibit 
+forgetting as a cognitive enhancers?” 
+
+Assuming that this result holds up in human experiments as well, it 
+could encourage scientists to develop new drugs and neurotransmitters 
+that are able to dampen the forgetting process. One might thus be able 
+to selectively turn on photographic memories when needed by 
+neutralizing the forgetting process. In this way, we wouldn’t have the 
+continuous overflow of extraneous, useless information, which hinders 
+the thinking of people with savant syndrome."
+"What is also exciting is the possibility that the BRAIN project, which is 
+being championed by the Obama administration, might be able to 
+identify the specific pathways involved with acquired savant syndrome. 
+
+Transcranial magnetic fields are still too crude to pin down the handful 
+of neurons that may be involved. But using nanoprobes and the latest in 
+scanning technologies, the BRAIN project might be able to isolate the 
+precise neural pathways that make possible photographic memory and 
+incredible computational, artistic, and musical skills. Billions of research 
+dollars will be channeled into identifying the specific neural pathways 
+involved with mental disease and other afflictions of the brain, and the 
+secret of savant skills may be revealed in the process. Then it might be 
+possible to take normal individuals and make savants out of them. This 
+has happened many times in the past because of random accidents. In 
+the future, this may become a precise medical process. Time will tell."
+"So far, the methods analyzed here do not alter the nature of the brain 
+or the body. The hope is that through the use of magnetic fields, we will 
+be able to unleash the potential that already exists in our brains but is 
+latent. The philosophy underlying this idea is that we are all savants 
+waiting to happen, and it will just take some slight alteration of our 
+neural circuits to unleash this hidden talent. 
+
+Yet another tactic is to directly alter the brain and the genes, using the 
+latest in brain science and also genetics. One promising method is to use 
+stem cells. 
+
+STEM CELLS FOR THE BRAIN"
+"STEM CELLS FOR THE BRAIN 
+
+It was dogma for many decades that brain cells do not regenerate. It 
+seemed impossible that you could repair old, dying brain cells, or grow 
+new ones to boost your abilities, but all this changed in 1998. That year, 
+it was discovered that adult stem cells could be found in the 
+hippocampus, the olfactory bulb, and the caudate nucleus. In brief, stem 
+cells are the “mother of all cells.” Embryonic stem cells, for instance, can 
+readily develop into any other cell. Although each of our cells contains 
+all the genetic material necessary to construct a human being, only 
+embryonic stem cells have the ability to actually differentiate into any 
+type of cell in the body. 
+
+Adult stem cells have lost that chameleon-like ability, but they can 
+still reproduce and replace old, dying cells. As far as memory 
+enhancement goes, interest has focused on adult stem cells in the"
+"hippocampus. It turns out that thousands of new hippocampus cells are 
+born naturally each day, but most die soon afterward. However, it was 
+shown that rats that learned new skills retained more of their new cells. 
+A combination of exercise and mood-elevating chemicals can also boost 
+the survival rate of new hippocampus cells. It turns out that stress, on 
+the contrary, accelerates the death of new neurons."
+"In 2007, a breakthrough occurred when scientists in Wisconsin and 
+Japan were able to take ordinary human skin cells, reprogram their 
+genes, and turn them into stem cells. The hope is that these stem cells, 
+either found naturally or converted using genetic engineering, can one 
+day be injected into the brains of Alzheimer’s patients to replace dying 
+cells. (These new brain cells, because they do not yet have the proper 
+connections, would not be integrated into the brain’s neural architecture. 
+This means that a person would have to relearn certain skills to 
+incorporate these fresh new neurons.) 
+
+Stem cell research is naturally one of the most active areas in brain 
+research. “Stem cell research and regenerative medicine are in an 
+extremely exciting phase right now. We are gaining knowledge very fast 
+and many companies are being formed and are starting clinical trials in 
+different areas,” says Sweden’s Jonas Frisen of the Karolinska Institute. 
+
+GENETICS OF INTELLIGENCE"
+"GENETICS OF INTELLIGENCE 
+
+In addition to stem cells, another avenue of exploration involves 
+isolating the genes responsible for human intelligence. Biologists note 
+that we are about 98.5 percent genetically identical to a chimpanzee, yet 
+
+we live twice as long and have exploded in intellectual skills in the past 
+six million years. So among a handful of genes there must be the ones 
+responsible for giving us the human brain. Within a few years, scientists 
+will have a complete map of all these genetic differences, and the secret 
+to human longevity and enhanced intelligence may be found within this 
+tiny set. Scientists have focused on a few genes that possibly drove the 
+evolution of the human brain. 
+
+So perhaps the clue to revealing the secret of intelligence lies in our 
+understanding of our apelike ancestors. This raises another question: Can 
+this research make possible the Planet of the Apes ?"
+"In this long-running series of movies, a nuclear war destroys modern 
+civilization. Humanity is reduced to barbarism, but the radiation 
+somehow accelerates the evolution of the other primates, so that they 
+become the dominant species on the planet. They create an advanced 
+civilization, while humans are reduced to scruffy, smelly savages 
+roaming half naked in the forest. At best, humans become zoo animals. 
+The tables have turned on the humans, so the apes gawk at us outside 
+the bars of our cages."
+"In the latest installment, The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, scientists are 
+looking for a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Along the way, they stumble 
+on a virus that has the unintended consequence of increasing a 
+chimpanzee’s intelligence. Unfortunately, one of these enhanced apes is 
+treated cruelly when placed in a shelter for primates. Using his increased 
+intelligence, the ape breaks free, infects the other lab animals with the 
+virus to raise their intelligence, and then frees all of them from their 
+cages. Soon a caravan of shouting, intelligent apes runs amok on the 
+Golden Gate Bridge, completely overwhelming local and state police. 
+After a spectacular, harrowing confrontation with the authorities, the 
+movie ends with the apes peacefully finding refuge in a redwood forest 
+north of the bridge."
+"Is such a scenario realistic? In the short term, no, but it can’t be ruled 
+out in the future, since scientists in the coming years should be able to 
+catalog all the genetic changes that created Homo sapiens. But many 
+more mysteries have to be solved before we have intelligent apes. 
+
+One scientist who has been fascinated not by science fiction, but by 
+the genetics of what makes us “human,” is Dr. Katherine Pollard, an 
+expert in a field called “bioinformatics,” which barely existed a decade 
+ago. In this field of biology, instead of cutting open animals to 
+understand how they are put together, researchers use the vast power of 
+computers to mathematically analyze the genes in animals’ bodies. She 
+has been at the forefront of finding the genes that define the essence of 
+what separates us from the apes. Back in 2003, as a freshly minted Ph.D. 
+
+from the University of California at Berkeley, she got her chance."
+"from the University of California at Berkeley, she got her chance. 
+
+“I jumped at the opportunity to join the international team that was 
+identifying the sequence of DNA bases, or ‘letters,’ in the genome of the 
+common chimpanzee,” she recalled. Her goal was clear. She knew that 
+only fifteen million base pairs, or “letters,” that make up our genome 
+
+(out of three billion base pairs) separate us from the chimps, our closest 
+genetic neighbor. (Each “letter” in our genetic code refers to a nucleic 
+acid, of which there are four, labeled A,T,C, and G. So our genome 
+consists of three billion letters, arranged like ATTCCAGGG....) 
+
+“I was determined to find them,” she wrote."
+"“I was determined to find them,” she wrote. 
+
+Isolating these genes could have enormous implications for our future. 
+Once we know the genes that gave rise to Homo sapiens, it becomes 
+possible to determine how humans evolved. The secret of intelligence 
+might lie in these genes. It might even be possible to accelerate the path 
+taken by evolution and even enhance our intelligence. But even fifteen 
+million base pairs is a huge number to analyze. How can you find a 
+handful of genetic needles out of this genetic haystack?"
+"Dr. Pollard knew that most of our genome is made of “junk DNA” that 
+does not contain any genes and was largely unaffected by evolution. This 
+junk DNA slowly mutates at a known rate (roughly 1 percent of it 
+changes over four million years). Since we differ from the chimps in our 
+DNA by 1.5 percent, this means that we probably separated from the 
+chimpanzees about six million years ago. Hence there is a “molecular 
+clock” in each of our cells. And since evolution accelerates this mutation 
+rate, analyzing where this acceleration took place allows you to tell 
+which genes are driving evolution. 
+
+Dr. Pollard reasoned that if she could write a computer program that 
+could find where most of these accelerated changes are located in our 
+genome, she could isolate precisely the genes that gave birth to Homo 
+sapiens. After months of hard work and debugging, she finally placed her 
+program into the giant computers located at the University of California 
+at Santa Cruz. Anxiously she awaited the results."
+"When the computer printout finally arrived, it showed what she was 
+looking for: there are 201 regions of our genome showing accelerated 
+change. But the first one on her list caught her attention. 
+
+“With my mentor David Haussler leaning over my shoulder, I looked 
+at the top hit, a stretch of 118 bases that together became known as 
+human accelerated region 1 (HAR1),” she recalled. 
+
+She was ecstatic. Bingo! 
+
+“We had hit the jackpot,” she would write. It was a dream come true. 
+
+She was staring at an area of our genome containing only 118 base 
+pairs, with the largest divergence of mutations separating us from the 
+
+apes. Of these base pairs, only eighteen mutations were altered since we 
+became human. Her remarkable discovery showed that a small handful 
+of mutations could be responsible for raising us from the swamp of our 
+genetic past."
+"Next she and her colleagues tried to decipher the precise nature of this 
+mysterious cluster called HAR1. They found that HAR1 was remarkably 
+stable across millions of years of evolution. Primates separated from 
+chickens about three hundred million years ago, yet only two base pairs 
+differ between chimps and chickens. So HAR1 was virtually unchanged 
+for several hundred million years, with only two changes, in the letters G 
+and C. Yet in just six million years, HAR1 mutated eighteen times, 
+representing a huge acceleration in our evolution."
+"But what was more intriguing was the role HAR1 played in controlling 
+the overall layout of the cerebral cortex, which is famous for its wrinkled 
+appearance. A defect in the HAR1 region causes a disorder called 
+“lissencephaly,” or “smooth brain,” causing the cortex to fold 
+incorrectly. (Defects in this region are also linked to schizophrenia.) 
+Besides the large size of our cerebral cortex, one of its main 
+characteristics is that it is highly wrinkled and convoluted, vastly 
+increasing its surface area and hence its computational power. Dr. 
+Pollard’s work showed that changing just eighteen letters in our genome 
+was partially responsible for one of the major, defining genetic changes 
+in human history, vastly increasing our intelligence. (Recall that the 
+brain of Carl Friedrich Gauss, one of the greatest mathematicians in 
+history, was preserved after his death and showed unusual wrinkling.)"
+"Dr. Pollard’s list went even further and identified a few hundred other 
+areas that also showed accelerated change, some of which were already 
+known. FOX2, for example, is crucial for the development of speech, 
+another key characteristic of humans. (Individuals with a defective FOX2 
+gene have difficulty making the facial movements necessary for speech.) 
+Another region called HAR2 gives our fingers the dexterity required to 
+manipulate delicate tools. 
+
+Furthermore, since the genome of the Neanderthal has been 
+sequenced, it is possible to compare our genetic makeup with a species 
+even closer to us than the chimpanzees. (When analyzing the FOX2 gene 
+in Neanderthals, scientists found that we shared the same gene with 
+
+them. This means that there is a possibility that the Neanderthal could 
+
+vocalize and create speech, as we do.)"
+"vocalize and create speech, as we do.) 
+
+Another crucial gene is called ASPM, which is thought to be 
+responsible for the explosive growth of our brain capacity. Some 
+scientists believe that this and other genes may reveal why humans 
+became intelligent but the apes did not. (People with a defective version 
+of the ASPM gene often suffer from microcephaly, a severe form of 
+mental retardation, because they have a tiny skull, about the size of one 
+of our ancestors, Australopithecus.)"
+"Scientists have tracked the number of mutations within the ASPM 
+gene and found that it has mutated about fifteen times in the last five to 
+six million years, since we separated from the chimpanzee. More recent 
+mutations in these genes seem to be correlated with milestones in our 
+evolution. For example, one mutation occurred over one hundred 
+thousand years ago, when modern humans emerged in Africa, 
+indistinguishable in appearance from us. And the last mutation was 
+5,800 years ago, which coincides with the introduction of the written 
+language and agriculture. 
+
+Because these mutations coincide with periods of rapid growth in 
+intellect, it is tantalizing to speculate that ASPM is among the handful of 
+genes responsible for our increased intelligence. If this is true, then 
+perhaps we can determine whether these genes are still active today, and 
+whether they will continue to shape human evolution into the future."
+"All this research raises a question: Can manipulating a handful of 
+genes increase our intelligence? 
+
+Quite possibly. 
+
+Scientists are rapidly determining the precise mechanism by which 
+these genes gave rise to intelligence. In particular, genetic regions and 
+genes like HAR1 and ASPM could help solve a mystery concerning the 
+brain. If there are roughly twenty-three thousand genes in your genome, 
+then how can they possibly control the connections linking one hundred 
+billion neurons, containing a quadrillion total connections (1 with fifteen 
+zeros after it)? It seems mathematically impossible. The human genome 
+is about a trillion times too small to code for all our neural connections. 
+So our very existence seems to be a mathematical impossibility. 
+
+The answer may be that nature takes numerous shortcuts in creating 
+the brain. First, many neurons are connected randomly, so that a 
+detailed blueprint is not necessary, which means that these randomly"
+"connected regions organize themselves after a baby is born and starts to 
+interact with the environment. 
+
+And second, nature also uses modules that repeat themselves over and 
+over again. Once nature discovers something useful, she often repeats it. 
+This may explain why only a handful of genetic changes are responsible 
+for most of our explosive growth in intelligence in the last six million 
+years. 
+
+Size does matter in this case, then. If we tweak the ASPM and a few 
+other genes, the brain might become larger and more complex, thereby 
+making it possible to increase our intelligence. (Increasing our brain size 
+is not sufficient to do this, since how the brain is organized is also 
+crucially important. But increasing the gray matter of our brain is a 
+necessary precondition to increasing our intelligence.) 
+
+APES, GENES, AND GENIUS"
+"APES, GENES, AND GENIUS 
+
+Dr. Pollard’s research focused on areas of our genome that we share with 
+the chimpanzees but that are mutated. It is also possible that there are 
+areas in our genome found only in humans, independent of the apes. 
+One such gene was discovered recently, in November 2012. Scientists, 
+led by a team at the University of Edinburgh, isolated the RIM-941 gene, 
+which is the only gene ever discovered that is found strictly in Homo 
+sapiens and not in other primates. Also, geneticists can show that the 
+gene emerged between one and six million years ago (after the time 
+when humans and chimpanzees split about six million years ago)."
+"Unfortunately, this discovery also set off a huge firestorm in science 
+newsletters and blogs as misleading headlines blared across the Internet. 
+Breathless articles appeared claiming that scientists had found a single 
+gene that could, in principle, make chimpanzees intelligent. The essence 
+of “humanness” had finally been isolated at the genetic level, the 
+headlines shouted. 
+
+Reputable scientists soon stepped in and tried to calm things down. In 
+all likelihood, a series of genes, acting together in complex ways, is 
+responsible for human intelligence. No single gene can make a chimp 
+suddenly have human intelligence, they said. 
+
+Although these headlines were highly exaggerated, they did raise a 
+
+serious question: How realistic is Planet of the Apes ?"
+"There are a series of complications. If the HAR1 and ASPM genes are 
+tweaked so that the size and structure of the chimp brain suddenly 
+expand, then a series of other genes would have to be modified as well. 
+First, you would have to strengthen the chimp’s neck muscles and 
+increase its body size to support the larger head. But a large brain would 
+be useless unless it could control fingers capable of exploiting tools. So 
+the HAR2 gene would also have to be altered to increase their dexterity. 
+But since chimps often walk on their hands, another gene would have to 
+be altered so that the backbone would straighten out and an upright 
+posture would free up the hands. Intelligence is also useless unless 
+chimps can communicate with other members of the species. So the 
+FOX2 gene would also have to be mutated so that humanlike speech 
+would become possible. And lastly, if you want to create a species of 
+intelligent apes, you would have to modify the birth canal, since it is not"
+"intelligent apes, you would have to modify the birth canal, since it is not 
+large enough to accommodate the larger skull. You could either perform 
+caesarians to cut the fetus out or genetically alter the birth canal of the 
+chimps to accommodate the larger brain."
+"After all these necessary genetic adjustments, we are left with a 
+creature that would look very much like us. In other words, it may be 
+anatomically impossible to create intelligent apes, as in the movies, 
+without their also mutating into something closely resembling human 
+beings. 
+
+Clearly, creating intelligent apes is no simple matter, then. The 
+intelligent apes we see in Hollywood movies are actually monkey suits 
+with humans inside, or are computer-generated graphics, so all these 
+issues are conveniently brushed under the rug. But if scientists could 
+seriously use gene therapy to create intelligent apes, then they might 
+closely resemble us, with hands that can use tools, vocal cords that can 
+create speech, backbones that can support an upright posture, and large 
+neck muscles to support large heads, as we have."
+"All this raises ethical issues as well. Although society may allow 
+genetic studies of apes, it may not tolerate the manipulation of 
+intelligent creatures that can feel pain and distress. These creatures, after 
+all, would be intelligent and articulate enough to complain about their 
+situation and their fate, and their views would be heard in society. 
+
+Not surprisingly, this area of bioethics is so new that it is totally 
+
+unexplored. The technology is not yet ready, but in the coming decades, 
+as we identify all the genes and their functions that separate us from the 
+apes, the treatment of these enhanced animals could become a key 
+question."
+"We can see, therefore, that it is only a matter of time before all the 
+tiny genetic differences between us and the chimpanzees are carefully 
+sequenced, analyzed, and interpreted. But this still does not explain a 
+deeper question: What were the evolutionary forces that gave us this 
+genetic heritage after we separated from the apes? Why did genes like 
+ASPM, HAR1, and FOX2 develop in the first place? In other words, 
+genetics gives us the ability to understand how we became intelligent, 
+but it does not explain why this happened. 
+
+If we can understand this issue, it might provide clues as to how we 
+might evolve in the future. This takes us to the heart of the ongoing 
+debate: What is the origin of intelligence? 
+
+THE ORIGIN OF INTELLIGENCE 
+
+Many theories have been proposed as to why humans developed greater 
+intelligence, going all the way back to Charles Darwin."
+"According to one theory, the evolution of the human brain probably 
+took place in stages, with the earliest phase initiated by climate change 
+in Africa. As the weather cooled, the forests began to recede, forcing our 
+ancestors onto the open plains and savannahs, where they were exposed 
+to predators and the elements. To survive in this new, hostile 
+environment, they were forced to hunt and walk upright, which freed up 
+their hands and opposable thumbs to use tools. This in turn put a 
+premium on a larger brain to coordinate tool making. According to this 
+theory, ancient man did not simply make tools—“tools made man.”"
+"Our ancestors did not suddenly pick up tools and become intelligent. It 
+was the other way around. Those humans who picked up tools could 
+survive in the grasslands, while those who did not gradually died off. 
+The humans who then survived and thrived in the grasslands were those 
+who, through mutations, became increasingly adept at tool making, 
+which required an increasingly larger brain. 
+
+Another theory places a premium on our social, collective nature."
+"Another theory places a premium on our social, collective nature. 
+
+Humans can easily coordinate the behavior of over a hundred other 
+individuals involved in hunting, farming, warring, and building, groups 
+that are much larger than those found in other primates, which gave 
+humans an advantage over other animals. It takes a larger brain, 
+according to this theory, to be able to assess and control the behavior of 
+so many individuals. (The flip side of this theory is that it took a larger 
+brain to scheme, plot, deceive, and manipulate other intelligent beings 
+in your tribe. Individuals who could understand the motives of others 
+
+and then exploit them would have an advantage over those who could 
+not. This is the Machiavellian theory of intelligence.)"
+"Another theory maintains that the development of language, which 
+came later, helped accelerate the rise of intelligence. With language 
+comes abstract thought and the ability to plan, organize society, create 
+maps, etc. Humans have an extensive vocabulary unmatched by any 
+other animal, with words numbering in the tens of thousands for an 
+average person. With language, humans could coordinate and focus the 
+activities of scores of individuals, as well as manipulate abstract 
+concepts and ideas. Language meant you could manage teams of people 
+on a hunt, which is a great advantage when pursuing the woolly 
+mammoth. It meant you could tell others where game was plentiful or 
+where danger lurked."
+"Yet another theory is “sexual selection,” the idea that females prefer to 
+mate with intelligent males. In the animal kingdom, such as in a wolf 
+pack, the alpha male holds the pack together by brute force. Any 
+challenger to the alpha male has to be soundly beaten back by tooth and 
+claw. But millions of years ago, as humans became gradually more 
+intelligent, strength alone could not keep the tribe together. Anyone 
+with cunning and intelligence could ambush, lie or cheat, or form 
+factions within the tribe to take down the alpha male. Hence the new 
+generation of alpha males would not necessarily be the strongest. Over 
+time, the leader would become the most intelligent and cunning. This is 
+probably the reason why females choose smart males (not necessarily 
+nerdy smart, but “quarterback smart”). Sexual selection in turn 
+accelerated our evolution to become intelligent. So in this case the 
+engine that drove the expansion of our brain would be females who"
+"engine that drove the expansion of our brain would be females who 
+chose men who could strategize, become leaders of the tribe, and outwit 
+other males, which requires a large brain."
+"These are just a few of the theories about the origin of intelligence, 
+and each has its pros and cons. The common theme seems to be the 
+ability to simulate the future. For example, the purpose of the leader is 
+to choose the correct path for the tribe in the future. This means any 
+leader has to understand the intentions of others in order to plan 
+strategy for the future. Hence simulating the future was perhaps one of 
+the driving forces behind the evolution of our large brain and 
+intelligence. And the person who can best simulate the future is the one 
+who can plot, scheme, read the minds of many of his fellow tribesmen, 
+and win the arms race with his fellow man. 
+
+Similarly, language allows you to simulate the future. Animals possess 
+a rudimentary language, but it is mainly in the present tense. Their 
+language may warn them of an immediate threat, such as a predator 
+hiding among the trees. However, animal language apparently has no"
+"future or past tense. Animals do not conjugate their verbs. So perhaps 
+the ability to express the past and future tense was a key breakthrough 
+in the development of intelligence. 
+
+Dr. Daniel Gilbert, a psychologist at Harvard, writes, “For the first few 
+hundred million years after their initial appearance on our planet, our 
+brains were stuck in the permanent present, and most brains still are 
+today. But not yours and not mine, because two or three million years 
+ago our ancestors began a great escape from the here and now....” 
+
+THE FUTURE OF EVOLUTION 
+
+So far, we have seen that there are intriguing results indicating that one 
+can increase one’s memory and intelligence, largely by making the brain 
+more efficient and maximizing its natural capacity. A variety of methods 
+are being studied, such as certain drugs, genes, or devices (TES, for 
+example) that might increase the capabilities of our neurons."
+"So the concept of altering the brain size and capacity of the apes is a 
+distinct, though difficult, possibility. Gene therapy on this scale is still 
+many decades away. But this raises another difficult question: How far 
+can this go? Can one extend the intelligence of an organism indefinitely? 
+Or is there a limit to brain modification imposed by the laws of physics? 
+
+Surprisingly, the answer is yes. The laws of physics put an upper limit 
+
+to what can be done with genetic modification of the human brain, 
+given certain restraints. To see this limit, it is instructive to first examine 
+whether evolution is still increasing human intelligence, and then what 
+can be done to accelerate this natural process."
+"In popular culture, there is the notion that evolution will give us big 
+brains and small, hairless bodies in the future. Likewise, aliens from 
+space, because they are supposed to possess a superior level of 
+intelligence, are often portrayed in this fashion. Go to any novelty shop 
+and you will see the same extraterrestrial face, with big bug eyes, a huge 
+head, and green skin. 
+
+Actually, there are indications that gross human evolution (i.e., our 
+basic body shape and intelligence) has largely come to a halt. There are 
+several factors supporting this. First of all, since we are bipedal 
+mammals who walk upright, there are limitations to the maximum size 
+of an infant’s skull that can pass through the birth canal. Second, the rise 
+of modern technology has removed many of the harsh evolutionary 
+pressures faced by our ancestors."
+"However, evolution on a genetic and molecular basis continues 
+unabated. Although it’s difficult to see with the naked eye, there is 
+evidence that human biochemistry has changed to adjust to 
+environmental challenges, such as combating malaria in tropical areas. 
+Also, humans recently evolved enzymes to digest lactose sugar as we 
+learned to domesticate cows and drink milk. Mutations have occurred as 
+humans adjusted to a diet created by the agricultural revolution. 
+Moreover, people still choose to mate with others who are healthy and 
+fit, and so evolution continues to eliminate unsuitable genes at this level. 
+None of these mutations, however, has changed our basic body plan or 
+increased our brain size. (Modern technology is also influencing our 
+evolution to some degree. For example, there is no longer any selection 
+pressure on nearsighted people, since anyone today can be outfitted with 
+glasses or contact lenses.) 
+
+PHYSICS OF THE BRAIN"
+"PHYSICS OF THE BRAIN 
+
+So from an evolutionary and biological point of view, evolution is no 
+longer selecting for more intelligent people, at least not as rapidly as it 
+
+did thousands of years ago. 
+
+There are also indications from the laws of physics that we have 
+reached the maximum natural limit of intelligence, so that any 
+enhancement of our intelligence would have to come from external 
+means. Physicists who have studied the neurology of the brain conclude 
+that there are trade-offs preventing us from getting much smarter. Every 
+time we envision a brain that is larger, or denser, or more complex, we 
+bump up against these negative trade-offs."
+"The first principle of physics that we can apply to the brain is the 
+conservation of matter and energy; that is, the law stating that the total 
+amount of matter and energy in a system remains constant. In particular, 
+in order to carry out its incredible feats of mental gymnastics, the brain 
+has to conserve energy, and hence it takes many shortcuts. As we saw in 
+Chapter 1, what we see with our eyes is actually cobbled together using 
+energy-saving tricks. It would take too much time and energy for a 
+thoughtful analysis of every crisis, so the brain saves energy by making 
+snap judgments in the form of emotions. Forgetting is an alternative way 
+of saving energy. The conscious brain has access to only a tiny portion of 
+the memories that have an impact on the brain. 
+
+So the question is: Would increased brain size or density of neurons 
+give us more intelligence?"
+"So the question is: Would increased brain size or density of neurons 
+give us more intelligence? 
+
+Probably not. “Cortical gray matter neurons are working with axons 
+that are pretty close to the physical limit,” says Dr. Simon Laughlin of 
+Cambridge University. There are several ways in which one can increase 
+the intelligence of the brain using the laws of physics, but each has its 
+own problems: 
+
+• One can increase brain size and extend the length of neurons. The 
+problem here is that the brain now consumes more energy. This 
+generates more heat in the process, which is detrimental to our 
+survival. If the brain uses up more energy, it gets hotter, and tissue 
+damage results if the body temperature becomes too high. (The 
+chemical reactions of the human body and our metabolism require 
+temperatures to be in a precise range.) Also, longer neurons means 
+that it takes longer for signals to go across the brain, which slows 
+down the thinking process."
+"• One can pack more neurons into the same space by making them 
+
+thinner. But if neurons become thinner and thinner, the complex 
+chemical/electrical reactions that must take place inside the axons 
+fail, and eventually they begin to misfire more easily. Douglas Fox, 
+writing in Scientific American, says, “You might call it the mother of 
+all limitations: the proteins that neurons use to generate electrical 
+pulses, called ion channels, are inherently unstable.” 
+
+• One can increase the speed of the signal by making the neurons 
+thicker. But this also increases energy consumption and generates 
+more heat. It also increases the size of the brain, which increases the 
+time it takes for the signals to reach their destination. 
+
+• One can add more connections between neurons. But this again 
+increases energy consumption and heat generation, making the 
+brain larger and slower in the process."
+"So each time we tinker with the brain, we are checkmated. The laws 
+of physics seem to indicate that we have maxed out the intelligence that 
+we humans can attain in this way. Unless we can suddenly increase the 
+size of our skulls or the very nature of neurons in our brains, it seems we 
+are at the maximum level of intelligence. If we are to increase our 
+intelligence, it has to be done by making our brains more efficient (via 
+drugs, genes, and possibly TES-type machines). 
+
+PARTING THOUGHTS 
+
+In summary, it may be possible in the coming decades to use a"
+"PARTING THOUGHTS 
+
+In summary, it may be possible in the coming decades to use a 
+
+combination of gene therapy, drugs, and magnetic devices to increase 
+our intelligence. There are several avenues of exploration that are 
+revealing the secrets of intelligence and how it may be modified or 
+enhanced. But what would it do to society, though, if we could enhance 
+our intelligence and get a “brain boost”? Ethicists have seriously 
+contemplated this question, since the basic science is growing so rapidly. 
+The big fear is that society may bifurcate, with only the rich and 
+powerful having access to this technology, which they could use to 
+further solidify their exalted position in society. Meanwhile, the poor 
+won’t have access to additional brain power, making it more difficult to 
+move up in society."
+"This is certainly a valid concern, but it flies in the face of the history 
+of technology. Many of the technologies of the past were indeed initially 
+the province of the rich and powerful, but eventually mass production, 
+competition, better transportation, and improvements in technology 
+drove down the costs, so the average person could afford them. (For 
+example, we take for granted that we eat foods for breakfast that the 
+king of England could not have procured a century ago. Technology has 
+made it possible to purchase delicacies from around the world at any 
+supermarket that would be the envy of the aristocrats of the Victorian 
+era.) So if it becomes possible to increase our intelligence, the price of 
+this technology will gradually fall. Technology is never the monopoly of 
+the privileged rich. Sooner or later ingenuity, hard work, and simple 
+market forces will drive down its cost."
+"There is also the fear that the human race will split into those who 
+want their intelligence to be boosted and those who prefer to remain the 
+same, resulting in the nightmare of having a class of super-intelligent 
+brahmins lord over the masses of the less gifted. 
+
+But again, perhaps the fear of boosting intelligence has been 
+exaggerated. The average person has absolutely no interest in being able 
+to solve the complex tensor equations for a black hole. The average 
+person sees nothing to gain by mastering the mathematics of 
+hyperspatial dimensions or the physics of the quantum theory. On the 
+contrary, the average person may find such activities rather boring and 
+useless. So most of us are not going to become mathematical geniuses if 
+given the opportunity, because it is not in our character, and we see 
+nothing to gain from it."
+"Keep in mind that society already has a class of accomplished 
+mathematicians and physicists, and they are paid significantly less than 
+ordinary businessmen and wield much less power than average 
+politicians. Being super smart does not guarantee financial success in 
+life. In fact, being super smart may actually pigeonhole you in the lower 
+rungs of a society that values athletes, movie stars, comedians, and 
+
+entertainers more. 
+
+No one ever got rich doing relativity. 
+
+Also, a lot depends on precisely which traits are enhanced. There are 
+other forms of intelligence besides using mathematics. (Some argue that 
+intelligence must include artistic genius as well. In this case, one can 
+
+conceivably use this talent to make a comfortable living.)"
+"conceivably use this talent to make a comfortable living.) 
+
+Anxious parents of high school children may want to boost the IQ of 
+their kids as they prepare for standardized exams. But IQ, as we have 
+seen, does not necessarily correspond to success in life. Likewise, people 
+may want to enhance their memory, but, as we have seen with savants, 
+having a photographic memory can be a blessing as well as a curse. And 
+in both cases, enhancement is unlikely to contribute to a society splitting 
+in two. 
+
+Society as a whole, however, may benefit from this technology. 
+Workers with an enhanced intelligence would be better prepared to face 
+an ever-changing job market. Retraining workers for the jobs of the 
+future would be less of a drain on society. Furthermore, the public will 
+be able to make informed decisions about major technological issues of 
+the future (e.g., climate change, nuclear energy, space exploration) 
+because they will grasp these complex issues better."
+"Also, this technology may help even out the playing field. Children 
+today who go to exclusive private schools and have personal tutors are 
+better prepared for the job market because they have more opportunities 
+to master difficult materials. But if everyone has had their intelligence 
+enhanced, the fault lines within society will be evened out. Then how far 
+someone goes in life would be more related to their drive, ambition, 
+imagination, and resourcefulness rather than to being born with a silver 
+spoon in their mouth. 
+
+In addition, raising our intelligence may help speed up technological 
+innovation. Increased intelligence would mean a greater ability to 
+simulate the future, which would be invaluable in making scientific 
+discoveries. Often, science stagnates in certain areas because of a lack of 
+fresh new ideas to stimulate new avenues of research. Having an ability 
+to simulate different possible futures would vastly increase the rate of 
+scientific breakthroughs."
+"These scientific discoveries, in turn, could generate new industries, 
+which could enrich all of society, creating new markets, new jobs, and 
+new opportunities. History is full of technological breakthroughs 
+creating entirely new industries that benefited not just the few, but all of 
+
+society (think of the transistor and the laser, which today form the 
+foundation of the world economy). 
+
+However, in science fiction, there is the recurring theme of the super 
+
+criminal, who uses his superior brain power to embark on a crime spree 
+and thwart the superhero. Every Superman has his Lex Luthor, every 
+Spider-Man has his Green Goblin. Although it is certainly possible that a 
+criminal mind will use a brain booster to create super weapons and plan 
+the crime of the century, realize that members of the police force can 
+also have their intelligence boosted to outwit the evil mastermind. So 
+super criminals are dangerous only if they are the only ones in 
+possession of enhanced intelligence."
+"So far, we have examined the possibility that we can enhance or alter 
+our mental capabilities via telepathy, telekinesis, uploading memories, 
+or brain boosts. Such enhancement basically means modifying and 
+augmenting the mental capabilities of our consciousness. This tacitly 
+assumes that our normal consciousness is the only one, but I’d like to 
+explore whether there are different forms of consciousness. If so, there 
+could be other ways of thinking that lead to totally different outcomes 
+and consequences. Within our own thoughts, there are altered states of 
+consciousness, such as dreams, drug-induced hallucinations, and mental 
+illness. There is also nonhuman consciousness, the consciousness of 
+robots, and even that of aliens from outer space. We have to give up the 
+chauvinistic notion that our human consciousness is the only one. There 
+is more than one way to create a model of our world, and more than one 
+way to simulate its future."
+"Dreams, for example, are one of the most ancient forms of 
+consciousness and were studied by the ancients, yet very little progress 
+has been made in understanding them until recently. Perhaps dreams are 
+not silly, random events spliced together by the sleeping brain but 
+phenomena that may give insight into the meaning of consciousness. 
+Dreams may be a key to understanding altered states of consciousness. 
+
+BOOK III ALTEHED CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their 
+dreams. 
+
+—ELEANOR ROOSEVELT 
+
+7 IN YOUR DREAMS 
+
+Dreams can determine destiny."
+"—ELEANOR ROOSEVELT 
+
+7 IN YOUR DREAMS 
+
+Dreams can determine destiny. 
+
+Perhaps the most famous dream in antiquity took place in the year 
+A.D. 312, when the Roman emperor Constantine engaged in one of the 
+greatest battles of his life. Faced with a rival army twice the size of his 
+own, he realized that he probably would die in battle the next day. But 
+in a dream he had that night, an angel appeared before him bearing the 
+image of a cross, uttering the fateful words “By this symbol, you shall 
+conquer.” Immediately he ordered the shields of his troops adorned with 
+the symbol of the cross."
+"History records that he emerged triumphant the next day, cementing 
+his hold on the Roman Empire. He vowed to repay the blood debt to this 
+relatively obscure religion, Christianity, that had been persecuted for 
+centuries by previous Roman emperors and whose adherents were 
+regularly fed to the lions in the Colosseum. He signed laws that would 
+eventually pave the way for it to become an official religion of one of 
+the greatest empires in the world."
+"For thousands of years, kings and queens, as well as beggars and 
+thieves, have all wondered about dreams. The ancients considered 
+dreams to be omens about the future, so there have been countless 
+attempts throughout history to interpret them. The Bible records in 
+Genesis 41 the rise of Joseph, who was able to correctly interpret the 
+dreams of the Pharaoh of Egypt thousands of years ago. When the 
+Pharaoh dreamed about seven fat cows, followed by seven lean cows, he 
+was so disturbed by the imagery that he asked scribes and mystics 
+throughout the kingdom to find its meaning. All failed to give a 
+convincing explanation, until Joseph finally interpreted the dream to 
+mean that Egypt would have seven years of good harvests, followed by 
+seven years of drought and famine. So, said Joseph, Egypt must begin 
+stockpiling grain and supplies now, in preparation for the coming years 
+of want and desperation. When this came to pass, Joseph was considered 
+
+to be a prophet."
+"to be a prophet. 
+
+Dreams have long been associated with prophesy, but in more recent 
+times they’ve also been known to stimulate scientific discovery. The idea 
+that neurotransmitters could facilitate the movement of information past 
+a synapse, which forms the foundation of neuroscience, came to 
+pharmacologist Otto Loewi in a dream. Similarly, in 1865, August 
+Kekule had a dream about benzene, in which the bonds of carbon atoms 
+formed a chain that eventually wrapped around and finally formed a 
+
+circle, just like a snake biting its tail. This dream would unlock the 
+atomic structure of the benzene molecule. He concluded, “Let us learn to 
+dream!”"
+"Dreams have also been interpreted as a window onto our true 
+thoughts and intentions. The great Renaissance writer and essayist 
+Michel de Montaigne once wrote, “I believe it to be true that dreams are 
+the true interpretations of our inclinations, but there is art required to 
+sort and understand them.” More recently, Sigmund Freud proposed a 
+theory to explain the origin of dreams. In his signature work, The 
+Interpretation of Dreams, he claimed that they were manifestations of our 
+subconscious desires, which were often repressed by the waking mind 
+but which run wild every night. Dreams were not just the random 
+figments of our overheated imaginations but could actually uncover 
+deep secrets and truths about ourselves. “Dreams are the royal road to 
+the unconscious,” he wrote. Since then, people have amassed huge 
+encyclopedias that claim to reveal the hidden meaning behind every 
+disturbing image in terms of Freudian theory."
+"Hollywood takes advantage of our continuing fascination with dreams. 
+A favorite scene in many movies is when the hero experiences a 
+terrifying dream sequence and then suddenly wakes up from the 
+nightmare in a cold sweat. In the blockbuster movie Inception, Leonardo 
+DiCaprio plays a petty thief who steals intimate secrets from the most 
+unlikely of all places, people’s dreams. With a new invention, he is able 
+to enter people’s dreams and deceive them into giving up their financial 
+secrets. Corporations spend millions of dollars protecting industrial 
+secrets and patents. Billionaires jealously guard their wealth using 
+elaborate codes. His job is to steal them. The plot quickly escalates as 
+the characters enter dreams in which a person falls asleep and dreams 
+again. So these criminals descend deeper and deeper into multiple layers 
+
+of the subconscious."
+"of the subconscious. 
+
+But although dreams have always haunted and mystified us, only in 
+the last decade or so have scientists been able to peel away the mysteries 
+of dreams. In fact, scientists can now do something once considered 
+impossible: they are able to take rough photographs and videotapes of 
+dreams with MRI machines. One day, you may be able to view a video of 
+the dream you had the previous night and gain insight into your own 
+subconscious mind. With proper training, you might be able to 
+consciously control the nature of your dreams. And perhaps, like 
+DiCaprio’s character, with advanced technology you might even be able 
+to enter someone else’s dream. 
+
+THE NATURE OF DREAMS"
+"THE NATURE OF DREAMS 
+
+As mysterious as they are, dreams are not a superfluous luxury, the 
+useless ruminations of the idle brain. Dreams, in fact, are essential for 
+survival. Using brain scans, it is possible to show that certain animals 
+exhibit dreamlike brain activity. If deprived of dreams, these animals 
+would often die faster than they would by starvation, because such 
+deprivation severely disrupts their metabolism. Unfortunately, science 
+does not know exactly why this is the case. 
+
+Dreaming is an essential feature of our sleep cycle as well. We spend 
+roughly two hours a night dreaming when we sleep, with each dream 
+lasting five to twenty minutes. In fact, we spend about six years 
+dreaming during an average lifetime."
+"Dreams are also universal across the human race. Looking across 
+different cultures, scientists find common themes in dreams. Fifty 
+thousand dreams were recorded over a forty-year time period by 
+psychology professor Calvin Hall. He followed this up with one thousand 
+dream reports from college students. Not surprisingly, he found that 
+most people dreamed of the same things, such as personal experiences 
+from the previous days or week. (However, animals apparently dream 
+differently than we do. In the dolphin, for example, only one hemisphere 
+at a time sleeps in order to prevent drowning, because they are air- 
+breathing mammals, not fish. So if they dream, it is probably in only one 
+hemisphere at a time.)"
+"The brain, as we have seen, is not a digital computer, but rather a 
+neural network of some sort that constantly rewires itself after learning 
+new tasks. Scientists who work with neural networks noticed something 
+interesting, though. Often these systems would become saturated after 
+learning too much, and instead of processing more information they 
+would enter a “dream” state, whereby random memories would 
+sometimes drift and join together as the neural networks tried to digest 
+all the new material. Dreams, then, might reflect “house cleaning,” in 
+which the brain tries to organize its memories in a more coherent way. 
+(If this is true, then possibly all neural networks, including all organisms 
+that can learn, might enter a dream state in order to sort out their 
+memories. So dreams probably serve a purpose. Some scientists have 
+speculated that this might imply that robots that learn from experience 
+might also eventually dream as well.)"
+"Neurological studies seem to back up this conclusion. Studies have 
+shown that retaining memories can be improved by getting sufficient 
+sleep between the time of activity and a test. Neuroimaging shows that 
+the areas of the brain that are activated during sleep are the same as 
+those involved in learning a new task. Dreaming is perhaps useful in 
+
+consolidating this new information. 
+
+Also, some dreams can incorporate events that happened a few hours 
+earlier, just before sleep. But dreams mostly incorporate memories that 
+are a few days old. For example, experiments have shown that if you put 
+rose-colored glasses on a person, it takes a few days before the dreams 
+become rose-colored as well. 
+
+BRAIN SCANS OF DREAMS"
+"BRAIN SCANS OF DREAMS 
+
+Brain scans are now unveiling some of the mystery of dreams. Normally 
+EEG scans show that the brain is emitting steady electromagnetic waves 
+while we are awake. However, as we gradually fall asleep, our EEG 
+signals begin to change frequency. When we finally dream, waves of 
+electrical energy emanate from the brain stem that surge upward, rising 
+into the cortical areas of the brain, especially the visual cortex. This 
+confirms that visual images are an important component of dreams. 
+Finally, we enter a dream state, and our brain waves are typified by 
+
+rapid eye movements (REM). (Since some mammals also enter REM 
+sleep, we can infer that they might dream as well.)"
+"While the visual areas of the brain are active, other areas involved 
+with smell, taste, and touch are largely shut down. Almost all the images 
+and sensations processed by the body are self-generated, originating 
+from the electromagnetic vibrations from our brain stem, not from 
+external stimuli. The body is largely isolated from the outside world. 
+Also, when we dream, we are more or less paralyzed. (Perhaps this 
+paralysis is to prevent us from physically acting out our dreams, which 
+could be disastrous. About 6 percent of people suffer from “sleep 
+paralysis” disorder, in which they wake up from a dream still paralyzed. 
+Often these individuals wake up frightened and believing that there are 
+creatures pinning down their chest, arms, and legs. There are paintings 
+from the Victorian era of women waking up with a terrifying goblin 
+sitting on their chest glaring down at them. Some psychologists believe 
+that sleep paralysis could explain the origin of the alien abduction 
+syndrome.)"
+"The hippocampus is active when we dream, suggesting that dreams 
+draw upon our storehouse of memories. The amygdala and anterior 
+cingulate are also active, meaning that dreams can be highly emotional, 
+often involving fear. 
+
+But more revealing are the areas of the brain that are shut down, 
+including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (which is the command 
+
+center of the brain), the orbitofrontal cortex (which can act like a censor 
+or fact-checker), and the temporoparietal region (which processes 
+sensory motor signals and spatial awareness)."
+"When the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is shut down, we can’t count 
+on the rational, planning center of the brain. Instead, we drift aimlessly 
+in our dreams, with the visual center giving us images without rational 
+control. The orbitofrontal cortex, or the fact-checker, is also inactive. 
+Hence dreams are allowed to blissfully evolve without any constraints 
+from the laws of physics or common sense. And the temporoparietal 
+lobe, which helps coordinate our sense of where we are located using 
+signals from our eyes and inner ear, is also shut down, which may 
+explain our out-of-body experiences while we dream. 
+
+As we have emphasized, human consciousness mainly represents the 
+brain constantly creating models of the outside world and simulating 
+
+them into the future. If so, then dreams represent an alternate way in 
+which the future is simulated, one in which the laws of nature and social 
+interactions are temporarily suspended. 
+
+HOW DO WE DREAM?"
+"HOW DO WE DREAM? 
+
+But that leaves open this question: What generates our dreams? One of 
+the world’s authorities on dreams is Dr. Allan Hobson, a psychiatrist at 
+Harvard Medical School. He has devoted decades of his life to unveiling 
+the secrets of dreams. He claims that dreams, especially REM sleep, can 
+be studied at the neurological level, and that dreams arise when the 
+brain tries to make sense of the largely random signals emanating from 
+the brain stem. 
+
+When I interviewed him, he told me that after many decades of 
+cataloging dreams, he found five basic characteristics: 
+
+1. Intense emotions—this is due to the activation of the amygdala, 
+causing emotions such as fear. 
+
+2. Illogical content—dreams can rapidly shift from one scene to 
+another, in defiance of logic. 
+
+3. Apparent sensory impressions—dreams give us false sensations that 
+are internally generated. 
+
+4. Uncritical acceptance of dream events—we uncritically accept the 
+illogical nature of the dream."
+"5. Difficulty in being remembered—dreams are soon forgotten, within 
+minutes of waking up. 
+
+Dr. Hobson (with Dr. Robert McCarley) made history by proposing the 
+first serious challenge to Freud’s theory of dreams, called the “activation 
+synthesis theory.” In 1977, they proposed the idea that dreams originate 
+from random neural firings in the brain stem, which travel up to the 
+cortex, which then tries to make sense of these random signals. 
+
+The key to dreams lies in nodes found in the brain stem, the oldest 
+part of the brain, which squirts out special chemicals, called adrenergics, 
+that keep us alert. As we go to sleep, the brain stem activates another 
+
+system, the cholinergic, which emits chemicals that put us in a dream 
+state."
+"system, the cholinergic, which emits chemicals that put us in a dream 
+state. 
+
+As we dream, cholinergic neurons in the brain stem begin to fire, 
+setting off erratic pulses of electrical energy called PGO (pontine- 
+geniculate-occipital) waves. These waves travel up the brain stem into 
+the visual cortex, stimulating it to create dreams. Cells in the visual 
+cortex begin to resonate hundreds of times per second in an irregular 
+fashion, which is perhaps responsible for the sometimes incoherent 
+nature of dreams. 
+
+This system also emits chemicals that decouple parts of the brain 
+involved with reason and logic. The lack of checks coming from the 
+prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices, along with the brain becoming 
+extremely sensitive to stray thoughts, may account for the bizarre, 
+erratic nature of dreams."
+"Studies have shown that it is possible to enter the cholinergic state 
+without sleep. Dr. Edgar Garcia-Rill of the University of Arkansas claims 
+that meditation, worrying, or being placed in an isolation tank can 
+induce this cholinergic state. Pilots and drivers facing the monotony of a 
+blank windshield for many hours may also enter this state. In his 
+research, he has found that schizophrenics have an unusually large 
+number of cholinergic neurons in their brain stem, which may explain 
+some of their hallucinations. 
+
+To make his studies more efficient, Dr. Allan Hobson had his subjects 
+put on a special nightcap that can automatically record data during a 
+dream. One sensor connected to the nightcap registers the movements of 
+a person’s head (because head movements usually occur when dreams 
+end). Another sensor measures movements of the eyelids (because REM 
+sleep causes eyelids to move). When his subjects wake up, they 
+immediately record what they dreamed about, and the information from"
+"the nightcap is fed into a computer. 
+
+In this way, Dr. Hobson has accumulated a vast amount of information 
+about dreams. So what is the meaning of dreams? I asked him. He 
+dismisses what he calls the “mystique of fortune-cookie dream 
+interpretation.” He does not see any hidden message from the cosmos in 
+dreams. 
+
+Instead, he believes that after the PGO waves surge from the brain 
+stem into the cortical areas, the cortex is trying to make sense of these 
+
+erratic signals and winds up creating a narrative out of them: a dream. 
+
+PHOTOGRAPHING A DREAM"
+"erratic signals and winds up creating a narrative out of them: a dream. 
+
+PHOTOGRAPHING A DREAM 
+
+In the past, most scientists avoided the study of dreams, since they are so 
+subjective and have such a long historical association with mystics and 
+psychics. But with MRI scans, dreams are now revealing their secrets. In 
+fact, since the brain centers that control dreaming are nearly identical to 
+the ones that control vision, it is therefore possible to photograph a 
+dream. This pioneering work is being done in Kyoto, Japan, by scientists 
+at the ATR Computational and Neuroscience Laboratories."
+"Subjects are first placed in an MRI machine and shown four hundred 
+black-and-white images, each consisting of a set of dots within a ten-by- 
+ten-pixel framework. One picture is flashed at a time, and the MRI 
+records how the brain responds to each collection of pixels. As with 
+other groups working in this field of BMI, the scientists eventually create 
+an encyclopedia of images, with each image of pixels corresponding to a 
+specific MRI pattern. Here the scientists are able to work backward, to 
+correctly reconstruct self-generated images from MRI brain scans taken 
+while the subject dreams. 
+
+ATR chief scientist Yukiyasu Kamitani says, “This technology can also 
+be applied to senses other than vision. In the future, it may also be 
+possible to read feelings and complicated emotional states.” In fact, any 
+mental state of the brain might be imaged in this way, including dreams, 
+as long as a one-to-one map can be made between a certain mental state 
+and an MRI scan."
+"The Kyoto scientists have concentrated on analyzing still photographs 
+generated by the mind. In Chapter 3, we encountered a similar approach 
+pioneered by Dr. Jack Gallant, in which the voxels from 3-D MRI scans 
+of the brain can be used to reconstruct the actual image seen by the eye 
+with the help of a complex formula. A similar process has allowed Dr. 
+
+Gallant and his team to create a crude video of a dream. When I visited 
+the laboratory in Berkeley, I talked to a postdoctoral staff member, Dr. 
+Shinji Nishimoto, who allowed me to watch the video of one of his 
+dreams, one of the first ever done. I saw a series of faces flickering 
+across the computer screen, meaning that the subject (in this case Dr."
+"Nishimoto himself) was dreaming of people, rather than animals or 
+objects. This was amazing. Unfortunately, the technology is not yet good 
+enough to see the precise facial features of the people appearing in his 
+dream, so the next step is to increase the number of pixels so that more 
+complex images can be identified. Another advance will be to reproduce 
+images in color rather than black and white. 
+
+I then asked Dr. Nishimoto the crucial question: How do you know the 
+video is accurate? How do you know that the machine isn’t just making 
+things up? He was a bit sheepish when he replied that this was a weak 
+point in his research. Normally, you have only a few minutes after 
+waking up to record a dream. After that, most dreams are lost in the fog 
+of our consciousness, so it is not easy to verify the results."
+"Dr. Gallant told me that this research on videotaping dreams was still 
+a work in progress, and that is why it’s not ready for publication. There 
+is still a ways to go before we can watch a videotape of last night’s 
+dream. 
+
+LUCID DREAMS 
+
+Scientists are also investigating a form of dreaming that was once 
+thought to be a myth: lucid dreaming, or dreaming while you are 
+conscious. This sounds like a contradiction in terms, but it has been 
+verified in brain scans. In lucid dreaming, dreamers are aware that they 
+are dreaming and can consciously control the direction of the dream. 
+Although science has only recently begun to experiment with lucid 
+dreaming, there are references to this phenomenon dating back 
+centuries. In Buddhism, for example, there are books that refer to lucid 
+dreamers and how to train yourself to become one. Over the centuries, 
+several people in Europe have written detailed accounts of their lucid 
+dreams."
+"Brain scans of lucid dreamers show that this phenomenon is real; 
+during REM sleep, their dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is usually 
+dormant when a normal person dreams, is active, indicating that the 
+person is partially conscious while dreaming. In fact, the more lucid the 
+dream, the more active the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Since the 
+dorsolateral prefrontal cortex represents the conscious part of the brain, 
+
+the dreamer must be aware while he or she is dreaming."
+"the dreamer must be aware while he or she is dreaming. 
+
+Dr. Hobson told me that anyone can learn to do lucid dreaming by 
+practicing certain techniques. In particular, people who do lucid 
+dreaming should keep a notebook of dreams. Before going to sleep, they 
+should remind themselves that they will “wake up” in the middle of the 
+dream and realize that they are moving in a dream world. It is important 
+to have this frame of mind before hitting the pillow. Since the body is 
+largely paralyzed during REM sleep, it is difficult for the dreaming 
+person to send a signal to the outside world that he has entered a dream, 
+but Dr. Stephen LaBerge at Stanford University has studied lucid 
+dreamers (including himself) who can signal the outside world while 
+dreaming."
+"In 2011, for the first time, scientists used MRI and EEG sensors to 
+measure dream content and even make contact with a dreaming person. 
+At the Max Planck Institute in Munich and Leipzig, scientists enlisted the 
+help of lucid dreamers, who were fitted with EEG sensors on their heads 
+to help the scientists determine the moment they entered REM sleep; 
+they were then placed in an MRI machine. Before falling asleep, the 
+dreamers agreed to initiate a set of eye movements and breathing 
+patterns when dreaming, like a Morse code. They were told that once 
+they started dreaming, they should clench their right fist and then their 
+left one for ten seconds. That was the signal that they were dreaming."
+"The scientists found that, once the subjects entered their dream state, 
+the sensorimotor cortex of the brain (responsible for controlling motor 
+actions like clenching your fists) was activated. The MRI scans could 
+pick up that the fists were being clenched and which fist was being 
+clenched first. Then, using another sensor (a near-infrared spectrometer) 
+they were able to confirm that there was increased brain activity in the 
+region that controls the planning of movements. 
+
+“Our dreams are therefore not a ‘sleep cinema’ in which we merely 
+observe an event passively, but involve activity in the regions of the 
+brain that are relevant to the dream content,” says Michael Czisch, a 
+group leader at the Max Planck Institute. 
+
+ENTERING A DREAM 
+
+If we can communicate with a dreaming person, then is it also possible 
+to alter someone’s dream from the outside? Quite possibly. 
+
+First, as we have seen, scientists have already made the initial steps in"
+"First, as we have seen, scientists have already made the initial steps in 
+
+videotaping a person’s dream, and in the coming years, it should be 
+possible to create much more accurate pictures and videos of dreams. 
+Since scientists have already been able to establish a communication link 
+between the real world and the lucid dreamer in the fantasy world, then, 
+in principle, scientists should be able to deliberately alter the course of a 
+dream. Let’s say that scientists are viewing the video of a dream using an 
+MRI machine as the dream unfolds in real time. As the person wanders 
+around the dreamscape, the scientists can tell where he is going and give 
+directions for him to move in different ways. 
+
+So in the near future, it might be possible to watch a video of a 
+person’s dream and actually influence its general direction. But in the 
+movie Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio goes much further. He is able not 
+only to watch another person’s dream, but also to enter it. Is this 
+possible?"
+"We saw earlier that we are paralyzed when we dream so that we don’t 
+carry out our dream fantasies, which might be disastrous. However, 
+when people are sleepwalking, they often have their eyes open (although 
+their eyes look glazed over). So sleepwalkers live in a hybrid world, part 
+real and part dreamlike. There are many documented instances of people 
+walking around their homes, driving cars, cutting wood, and even 
+committing homicides while in this dream state, where reality and the 
+fantasy world are mixed. Hence it is possible that physical images that 
+the eye actually sees can freely interact with the fictitious images that 
+the brain is concocting during a dream."
+"The way to enter someone’s dream, then, might be to have the subject 
+wear contact lenses that can project images directly onto their retinas. 
+Already, prototypes of Internet contact lenses are being developed at the 
+University of Washington in Seattle. So if the observer wanted to enter 
+the subject’s dream, first he would sit in a studio and have a video 
+camera film him. His image could then be projected onto the contact 
+lenses of the dreamer, creating a composite image (the image of the 
+observer superimposed upon the imaginary image the brain is 
+manufacturing). 
+
+The observer could actually see this dream world as he wanders 
+
+around the dream, since he, too, would be wearing Internet contact 
+lenses. The MRI image of the subject’s dream, after it has been 
+deciphered by computer, would be sent directly into the observer’s 
+contact lenses."
+"Furthermore, you could actually change the direction of the dream 
+you have entered. As you walk around in the empty studio, you would 
+see the dream unfold in your contact lens, so you could start to interact 
+
+with the objects and people appearing in the dream. This would be quite 
+an experience, since the background would change without warning, 
+images would appear and disappear without reason, and the laws of 
+physics would be suspended. Anything goes."
+"Further into the future, it might even be possible to enter another 
+person’s dream by directly connecting two sleeping brains. Each brain 
+would have to be connected to MRI scanners that were connected to a 
+central computer, which would merge the two dreams into a single one. 
+The computer would first decipher each person’s MRI scans into a video 
+image. Then the dream of one person would be sent into the sensory 
+areas of the other person’s brain, so that the other dreamer’s dream 
+would merge with the first dreamer’s dream. However, the technology of 
+videotaping and interpreting dreams would have to become much more 
+advanced before this could become a possibility."
+"But this raises another question: If it’s possible to alter the course of 
+someone’s dream, is it possible to control not only that person’s dream 
+but that person’s mind as well? During the Cold War, this became a 
+serious issue as both the Soviet Union and the United States played a 
+deadly game, trying to use psychological techniques to control other 
+people’s wills. 
+
+Minds are simply what brains do. 
+
+—MARVIN MINSKY 
+
+8 CAN THE MIND BE CONTROLLED?"
+"Minds are simply what brains do. 
+
+—MARVIN MINSKY 
+
+8 CAN THE MIND BE CONTROLLED? 
+
+A raging bull is released into an empty arena in Cordoba, Spain. For 
+generations, this ferocious beast has been carefully bred to maximize its 
+killer instinct. Then a Yale professor calmly enters the same arena. 
+Rather than donning a tweed jacket, he is dressed like a dashing 
+matador, wearing a bright golden jacket and waving a red cape defiantly 
+in front of the bull, egging him on. Instead of running away in terror, the 
+professor looks calm, confident, and even detached. To a bystander, it 
+appears as if the professor has gone mad and wants to commit suicide."
+"Enraged, the bull locks onto the professor. Suddenly the bull charges, 
+aiming his deadly horns at him. The professor does not run away in fear. 
+Instead, he holds a small box in his hand. Then, in front of the cameras, 
+he presses a button on the box, and the bull stops dead in his tracks. The 
+professor is so confident of himself that he has risked his life to prove a 
+point, that he has mastered the art of controlling the mind of a mad bull. 
+
+The Yale professor is Dr. Jose Delgado, who was years ahead of his 
+time. He pioneered a series of remarkable but unsettling animal 
+experiments in the 1960s, in which he put electrodes into their brains 
+with the aim of trying to control their movement. To stop the bull, he 
+inserted electrodes into the striatum of the basal ganglia at the base of 
+the brain, which is involved with motor coordination."
+"He also did a series of other experiments on monkeys to see if he could 
+rearrange their social hierarchy with the push of a button. After 
+implanting electrodes into the caudate nucleus (a region associated with 
+motor control) of the alpha male within the group, Delgado could reduce 
+the aggressive tendencies of the leader on command. Without threats of 
+retaliation, the delta males began to assert themselves, taking over the 
+territory and privileges normally reserved for the alpha male. The alpha 
+male, meanwhile, appeared to have lost interest in defending his 
+territory. 
+
+Then Dr. Delgado pressed another button, and the alpha male 
+
+instantly sprung back to normal, resuming his aggressive behavior and 
+reestablishing his power as the king of the hill. The delta males 
+scrambled in fear. 
+
+Dr. Delgado was the first person in history to show that it was possible 
+to control the minds of animals in this way. The professor became the 
+puppet master, pulling the strings of living puppets."
+"As expected, the scientific community looked at Dr. Delgado’s work 
+with unease. To make matters worse, he wrote a book in 1969 with the 
+provocative title Physical Control of the Mind: Toward a Psychocivilized 
+Society. It raised an unsettling question: If scientists like Dr. Delgado are 
+pulling the strings, then who controls the puppet master?"
+"Dr. Delgado’s work puts into sharp focus the enormous promise and 
+perils of this technology. In the hands of an unscrupulous dictator, this 
+technology might be used to deceive and control his unfortunate 
+subjects. But it can also be used to free millions of people who are 
+trapped in mental illness, hounded by their hallucinations, or crushed by 
+their anxieties. (Years later, Dr. Delgado was asked by a journalist why 
+he initiated these controversial experiments. He said that he wanted to 
+correct the horrendous abuses being suffered by the mentally ill. They 
+often underwent radical lobotomies, in which the prefrontal cortex was 
+scrambled by a knife resembling an ice pick, which was hammered into 
+the brain above the eye socket. The results were often tragic, and some 
+of the horrors were exposed in Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the 
+Cuckoo’s Nest, which was made into a movie with Jack Nicholson. Some"
+"patients became calm and relaxed, but many others became zombies: 
+lethargic, indifferent to pain and feelings, and emotionally vacuous. The 
+practice was so widespread that in 1949, Antonio Moniz won the Nobel 
+Prize for perfecting the lobotomy. Ironically, in 1950, the Soviet Union 
+banned this technology, stating that “it was contrary to the principles of 
+humanity.” Lobotomies, the Soviet Union charged, turned “an insane 
+person into an idiot.” In total, it is estimated that forty thousand 
+lobotomies were performed in the United States alone over two 
+decades.) 
+
+MIND CONTROL AND THE COLD WAR 
+
+Another reason for the chilly reception of Dr. Delgado’s work was the 
+political climate of the time. It was the height of the Cold War, with 
+painful memories of captured U.S. soldiers being paraded in front of 
+cameras during the Korean War. With blank stares, they would admit 
+they were on secret spy missions, confess to horrific war crimes, and 
+denounce U.S. imperialism."
+"To make sense of this, the press used the term “brainwashing,” the 
+idea that the communists had developed secret drugs and techniques to 
+turn U.S. soldiers into pliable zombies. In this charged political climate, 
+Frank Sinatra starred in the 1962 Cold War thriller The Manchurian 
+Candidate, in which he tries to expose a secret communist “sleeper” 
+agent whose mission is to assassinate the president of the United States. 
+But there is a twist. The assassin is actually a trusted U.S. war hero, 
+someone who was captured and then brainwashed by the communists. 
+Coming from a well-connected family, the agent seems above suspicion 
+and is almost impossible to stop. The Manchurian Candidate mirrored the 
+anxieties of many Americans at that time."
+"Many of these fears were also stoked by Aldous Huxley’s prophetic 
+1931 novel Brave New World. In this dystopia, there are large test-tube- 
+baby factories that produce clones. By selectively depriving oxygen from 
+these fetuses, it is possible to produce children of different levels of brain 
+damage. At the top are the alphas, who suffer no brain damage and are 
+bred to rule society. At the bottom are the epsilons, who suffer 
+significant brain damage and are used as disposable, obedient workers. 
+In between are additional levels made up of other workers and the 
+bureaucracy. The elite then control society by flooding it with mind- 
+altering drugs, free love, and constant brainwashing. In this way, peace, 
+tranquility, and harmony are maintained, but the novel asked a 
+disturbing question that resonates even today: How much of our freedom 
+and basic humanity do we want to sacrifice in the name of peace and 
+social order? 
+
+CIA MIND-CONTROL EXPERIMENTS"
+"CIA MIND-CONTROL EXPERIMENTS 
+
+The Cold War hysteria eventually reached the highest levels of the CIA. 
+Convinced that the Soviets were far ahead in the science of brainwashing 
+
+and unorthodox scientific methods, the CIA embarked upon a variety of 
+classified projects, such as MKULTRA, which began in 1953, to explore 
+bizarre, fringe ideas. (In 1973, as the Watergate scandal spread panic 
+throughout the government, CIA director Richard Helms canceled 
+MKULTRA and hurriedly ordered all documents pertaining to the project 
+destroyed. However, a cache of twenty thousand documents somehow 
+survived the purge and were declassified in 1977 under the Freedom of 
+Information Act, revealing the full scope of this massive effort.)"
+"It is now known that, from 1953 to 1973, MULTRA funded 80 
+institutions, including 44 universities and colleges, and scores of 
+hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and prisons, often experimenting 
+on unsuspecting people without their permission, in 150 secret 
+operations. At one point, fully 6 percent of the entire CIA budget went 
+into MKULTRA. 
+
+Some of these mind-control projects included: 
+
+• developing a “truth serum” so prisoners would spill their secrets 
+
+• erasing memories via a U.S. Navy project called “Subproject 54” 
+
+• using hypnosis and a wide variety of drugs, especially LSD, to 
+control behavior 
+
+• investigating the use of mind-control drugs against foreign leaders, 
+e.g., Fidel Castro 
+
+• perfecting a variety of interrogation methods against prisoners 
+
+• developing a knockout drug that was fast working and left no trace 
+
+• altering people’s personality via drugs to make them more pliable"
+"• altering people’s personality via drugs to make them more pliable 
+
+Although some scientists questioned the validity of these studies, 
+others went along willingly. People from a wide range of disciplines 
+were recruited, including psychics, physicists, and computer scientists, to 
+investigate a variety of unorthodox projects: experimenting with mind- 
+altering drugs such as LSD, asking psychics to locate the position of 
+Soviet submarines patrolling the deep oceans, etc. In one sad incident, a 
+
+U.S. Army scientist was secretly given LSD. According to some reports, 
+he became so violently disoriented that he committed suicide by 
+jumping out a window."
+"Most of these experiments were justified on the grounds that the 
+Soviets were already ahead of us in terms of mind control. The U.S. 
+Senate was briefed in another secret report that the Soviets were 
+experimenting with beaming microwave radiation directly into the 
+brains of test subjects. Rather than denouncing the act, the United States 
+saw “great potential for development into a system for disorienting or 
+disrupting the behavior pattern of military or diplomatic personnel.” The 
+U.S. Army even claimed that it might be able to beam entire words and 
+speeches into the minds of the enemy: “One decoy and deception 
+concept ... is to remotely create noise in the heads of personnel by 
+exposing them to low power, pulsed microwaves.... By proper choice of 
+pulse characteristics, intelligible speech may be created.... Thus, it may 
+be possible to ‘talk’ to selected adversaries in a fashion that would be 
+most disturbing to them,” the report said."
+"Unfortunately, none of these experiments was peer-reviewed, so 
+millions of taxpayer dollars were spent on projects like this one, which 
+most likely violated the laws of physics, since the human brain cannot 
+receive microwave radiation and, more important, does not have the 
+ability to decode microwave messages. Dr. Steve Rose, a biologist at the 
+Open University, has called this far-fetched scheme a “neuro-scientific 
+impossibility.” 
+
+But for all the millions of dollars spent on these “black projects,” 
+apparently not a single piece of reliable science emerged. The use of 
+mind-altering drugs did, in fact, create disorientation and even panic 
+among the subjects who were tested, but the Pentagon failed to 
+accomplish the key goal: control of the conscious mind of another 
+person."
+"Also, according to psychologist Robert Jay Lifton, brainwashing by the 
+communists had little long-term effect. Most of the American troops who 
+denounced the United States during the Korean War reverted back to 
+their normal personalities soon after being released. In addition, studies 
+done on people who have been brainwashed by certain cults also show 
+that they revert back to their normal personality after leaving the cult. 
+So it seems that, in the long run, one’s basic personality is not affected 
+by brainwashing. 
+
+Of course, the military was not the first to experiment with mind 
+control. In ancient times, sorcerers and seers would claim that giving 
+
+magic potions to captured soldiers would make them talk or turn against 
+their leaders. One of the earliest of these mind-control methods was 
+hypnotism. 
+
+YOU ARE GETTING SLEEPY...."
+"YOU ARE GETTING SLEEPY.... 
+
+As a child, I remember seeing TV specials devoted to hypnosis. In one 
+show, a person was placed in a hypnotic trance and told that when he 
+woke up, he would be a chicken. The audience gasped as he began to 
+cluck and flap his arms around the stage. As dramatic as this 
+demonstration was, it’s simply an example of “stage hypnosis.” Books 
+written by professional magicians and showmen explain that they use 
+shills planted in the audience, the power of suggestion, and even the 
+willingness of the victim to play along with the ruse. 
+
+I once hosted a BBC/Discovery TV documentary called Time, and the 
+subject of long-lost memories came up. Is it possible to evoke such 
+distant memories through hypnosis? And if it is, can you then impose 
+your will on another? To test some of these ideas, I had myself 
+hypnotized for TV."
+"BBC hired a skilled professional hypnotist to begin the process. I was 
+asked to lie down on a bed in a quiet, darkened room. The hypnotist 
+spoke to me in slow, gentle tones, gradually making me relax. After a 
+while, he asked me to think back into the past, to perhaps a certain place 
+or incident that stood out even after all these years. And then he asked 
+me to reenter that place, reexperiencing its sights, sounds, and smells. 
+Remarkably, I did begin to see places and people’s faces that I had 
+forgotten about decades ago. It was like watching a blurred movie that 
+was slowly coming into focus. But then the recollections stopped. At a 
+certain point, I could not recapture any more memories. There was 
+clearly a limit to what hypnosis could do."
+"EEG and MRI scans show that during hypnosis the subject has minimal 
+sensory stimulation in the sensory cortices from the outside. In this way, 
+hypnosis can allow one to access some memories that are buried, but it 
+certainly cannot change one’s personality, goals, or wishes. A secret 
+1966 Pentagon document corroborates this, explaining that hypnotism 
+cannot be trusted as a military weapon. “It is probably significant that in 
+
+the long history of hypnosis, where the potential application to 
+intelligence has always been known, there are no reliable accounts of its 
+effective use by an intelligence service,” it read."
+"It should also be noted that brain scans show that hypnotism is not a 
+new state of consciousness, like dreaming and REM sleep. If we define 
+human consciousness as the process of continually building models of 
+the outside world and then simulating how they evolve into the future to 
+carry out a goal, we see that hypnosis cannot alter this basic process. 
+Hypnosis can accentuate certain aspects of consciousness and help 
+retrieve certain memories, but it cannot make you squawk like a chicken 
+without your permission. 
+
+MIND-ALTERING DRUGS AND TRUTH SERUMS 
+
+One of the goals of MKULTRA was the creation of a truth serum so that 
+spies and prisoners would reveal their secrets. Although MKULTRA was 
+canceled in 1973, U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals declassified 
+by the Pentagon in 1996 still recommended the use of truth serums 
+(although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that confessions obtained in this 
+way were “unconstitutionally coerced” and hence inadmissible in court)."
+"Anyone who watches Hollywood movies knows that sodium pentathol 
+is the truth serum of choice used by spies (as in the movies True Lies 
+with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Meet the Fockers with Robert De Niro). 
+Sodium pentathol is part of a larger class of barbiturates, sedatives, and 
+hypnotics that can evade the blood-brain barrier, which prevents most 
+harmful chemicals in the bloodstream from entering the brain."
+"Not surprisingly, most mind-altering drugs, such as alcohol, affect us 
+powerfully because they can evade this barrier. Sodium pentathol 
+depresses activity in the prefrontal cortex, so that a person becomes 
+more relaxed, talkative, and uninhibited. However, this does not mean 
+that they tell the truth. On the contrary, people under the influence of 
+sodium pentathol, like those who have imbibed a few too many, are 
+fully capable of lying. The “secrets” that come spilling out of the mouth 
+of someone under this drug may be total fabrications, so even the CIA 
+eventually gave up on drugs like this. 
+
+But this still leaves open the possibility that, one day, a wonder drug"
+"But this still leaves open the possibility that, one day, a wonder drug 
+
+might be found that could alter our basic consciousness. This drug would 
+work by changing the synapses between our nerve fibers by targeting 
+neurotransmitters that operate in this area, such as dopamine, serotonin, 
+or acetylcholine. If we think of the synapses as a series of tollbooths 
+along a superhighway, then certain drugs (such as stimulants like 
+cocaine) can open the tollbooth and let messages pass by unimpeded. 
+The sudden rush that drug addicts feel is caused when these tollbooths 
+are opened all at once, causing an avalanche of signals to flood by. But 
+
+when all the synapses have fired in unison, they cannot fire again until 
+hours later. It’s as if the tolls have closed, and this causes the sudden 
+depression one feels after the rush. The body’s desire to reexperience the 
+sudden rush then causes addiction. 
+
+HOW DRUGS ALTER THE MIND"
+"HOW DRUGS ALTER THE MIND 
+
+Although the biochemical basis for mind-altering drugs was not known 
+when the CIA first conducted its experiments on unsuspecting subjects, 
+since then the molecular basis of drug addiction has been studied in 
+detail. Studies in animals demonstrate how powerful drug addiction is: 
+rats, mice, and primates will, given the chance, take drugs like cocaine, 
+heroin, and amphetamines until they drop from exhaustion or die from 
+it."
+"To see how widespread this problem has become, consider that by 
+2007, thirteen million Americans aged twelve or over (or 5 percent of 
+the entire teen and adult population of the United States) had tried or 
+become addicted to methamphetamines. Drug addiction not only 
+destroys entire lives, it also systematically destroys the brain. MRI scans 
+of the brains of meth addicts show an 11 percent reduction in the size of 
+the limbic system, which processes emotions, and an 8 percent loss of 
+tissue in the hippocampus, which is the gateway for memory. MRI scans 
+show that the damage in some ways is comparable to that found in 
+Alzheimer’s patients. But no matter how much meth destroys the brain, 
+addicts crave it because its high is up to twelve times the rush caused by 
+eating a delicious meal or even having sex. 
+
+Basically, the “high” of drug addiction is due to the drug’s hijacking of 
+the brain’s own pleasure/reward system located in the limbic system."
+"This pleasure/reward circuit is very primitive, dating back millions of 
+years in evolutionary history, but it is still extremely important for 
+human survival because it rewards beneficial behavior and punishes 
+harmful acts. Once this circuit is taken over by drugs, however, the 
+result can be widespread havoc. These drugs first penetrate the blood- 
+brain barrier and then cause the overproduction of neurotransmitters 
+like dopamine, which then floods the nucleus accumbens, a tiny pleasure 
+center located deep in the brain near the amygdala. The dopamine, in 
+turn, is produced by certain brain cells in the ventral tegmental area, 
+called VTA cells. 
+
+All drugs basically work the same way: by crippling the VTA-nucleus 
+accumbens circuit, which controls the flow of dopamine and other 
+neurotransmitters to the pleasure center. Drugs differ only in the way in"
+"which this process takes place. There are at least three main drugs that 
+stimulate the pleasure center of the brain: dopamine, serotonin, and 
+noradrenaline; all of them give feelings of pleasure, euphoria, and false 
+confidence, and also produce a burst of energy. 
+
+Cocaine and other stimulants, for example, work in two ways. First, 
+they directly stimulate the VTA cells to produce more dopamine, hence 
+causing excess dopamine to flood into the nucleus accumbens. Second, 
+they prevent the VTA cells from going back to their “off” position, thus 
+keeping them continually producing dopamine. They also impede the 
+uptake of serotonin and noradrenaline. The simultaneous flooding of 
+neural circuits from all three of these neurotransmitters, then, creates 
+the tremendous high associated with cocaine. 
+
+Heroin and other opiates, by contrast, work by neutralizing the cells in 
+the VTA that can reduce the production of dopamine, thus causing the 
+VTA to overproduce dopamine."
+"Drugs like LSD operate by stimulating the production of serotonin, 
+inducing a feeling of well-being, purpose, and affection. But they also 
+activate areas of the temporal lobe involved in creating hallucinations. 
+(Only fifty micrograms of LSD can cause hallucinations. LSD binds so 
+tightly, in fact, that further increasing the dosage has no effect.) 
+
+Over time, the CIA came to realize that mind-altering drugs were not 
+the magic bullet they were looking for. The hallucinations and 
+addictions that accompany these drugs made them too unstable and 
+unpredictable, and they could cause more trouble than they were worth 
+
+in delicate political situations."
+"(It should be pointed out that just in the last few years, MRI brain 
+scans of drug addicts have indicated a novel way to possibly cure or 
+treat some forms of addiction. By accident, it was noticed that stroke 
+victims who have damage to the insula [located deep in the brain, 
+between the prefrontal cortex and the temporal cortex] have a 
+significantly easier time quitting smoking than the average smoker. This 
+result has also been verified among drug abusers using cocaine, alcohol, 
+opiates, and nicotine. If this result holds up, it might mean that one may 
+be able to dampen the activity of the insula using electrodes or magnetic 
+stimulators and hence treat addiction. “This is the first time we’ve shown 
+anything like this, that damage to a specific brain area could remove the 
+problem of addiction entirely. It’s mind-boggling,” says Dr. Nora 
+Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. At present, no 
+one knows how this works, because the insula is involved in a"
+"one knows how this works, because the insula is involved in a 
+bewildering variety of brain functions, including perception, motor 
+control, and self-awareness. But if this result bears out, it could change"
+"the entire landscape of addiction studies.) 
+
+PROBING THE BRAIN WITH OPTOGENETICS 
+
+These mind-control experiments were done mainly in an era when the 
+brain was largely a mystery, with hit-or-miss methods that often failed. 
+However, because of the explosion in devices that can probe the brain, 
+new opportunities have arisen that will both help us understand the 
+brain as well as possibly teach us how to control it. 
+
+Optogenetics, as we have seen, is one of the fastest-developing fields 
+in science today. The basic goal is to identify precisely which neural 
+pathway corresponds to which mode of behavior. Optogenetics starts 
+with a gene called opsin, which is quite unusual because it is sensitive to 
+light. (It is believed that the appearance of this gene hundreds of 
+millions of years ago was responsible for creating the first eye. In this 
+theory, a simple patch of skin sensitive to light due to opsin evolved into 
+the retina of the eye.)"
+"When the opsin gene is inserted into a neuron and exposed to light, 
+the neuron will fire on command. By flipping a switch, one can instantly 
+
+recognize the neural pathway for certain behaviors because the proteins 
+manufactured by opsin conduct electricity and will fire. 
+
+The hard part, though, is to insert this gene into a single neuron. To 
+do this, one uses a technique borrowed from genetic engineering. The 
+opsin gene is inserted into a harmless virus (which has had its bad genes 
+removed), and, using precision tools, it is then possible to apply this 
+virus to a single neuron. The virus then infects the neuron by inserting 
+its genes into the genes of the neuron. Then, when a light beam is 
+flashed onto neural tissue, the neuron is turned on. In this way, one can 
+establish the precise pathway that certain messages take."
+"Not only does optogenetics identify certain pathways by shining a 
+light beam on them, it also enables scientists to control behavior. 
+Already this method has been a proven success. It was long suspected 
+that a simple neural circuit must be responsible for fruit flies escaping 
+and flying away. Using this method, it was possible to finally identify the 
+precise pathway behind the quick getaway. By simply shining a beam 
+onto these fruit flies, they bolt on demand. 
+
+Scientists are also now able to make worms stop wiggling by flashing 
+light, and in 2011 yet another breakthrough was made. Scientists at 
+Stanford were able to insert the opsin gene into a precise region of the 
+
+amygdala of mice. These mice, which were specially bred to be timid, 
+cowered in their cage. But when a beam of light was flashed into their 
+brains, the mice suddenly lost their timidity and began to explore their 
+cage."
+"The implications are enormous. While fruit flies may have simple 
+reflex mechanisms involving a handful of neurons, mice have complete 
+limbic systems with counterparts in the human brain. Although many 
+experiments that work with mice do not translate to human beings, this 
+still holds out the possibility that scientists may one day find the precise 
+neural pathways for certain mental illnesses, and then be able to treat 
+them without any side effects. As Dr. Edward Boyden of MIT says, “If 
+you want to turn off a brain circuit and the alternative is surgical 
+removal of a brain region, optical fiber implants might seem preferable.” 
+
+One practical application is in treating Parkinson’s disease. As we have 
+seen, it can be treated by deep brain stimulation, but because the 
+positioning of electrodes in the brain lacks precision, there is always the 
+danger of strokes, bleeding, infections, etc. Deep brain stimulation can"
+"also cause side effects such as dizziness and muscle contractions, because 
+the electrodes can accidentally stimulate the wrong neurons. 
+Optogenetics may improve deep brain stimulation by identifying the 
+precise neural pathways that are misfiring, at the level of individual 
+neurons. 
+
+Victims of paralysis might also benefit from this new technology. As 
+we saw in Chapter 4, some paralyzed individuals have been hooked up 
+to a computer in order to control a mechanical arm, but because they 
+have no sense of touch, they often wind up dropping or crushing the 
+object they wish to grab. “By feeding information from sensors on the 
+prosthetic fingertips directly back to the brain using optogenetics, one 
+could in principle provide a high-fidelity sense of touch,” says Dr. 
+Krishna Shenoy of Stanford."
+"Optogenetics will also help clarify which neural pathways are involved 
+with human behavior. In fact, plans have already been drawn up to 
+experiment with this technique on human brains, especially with regard 
+to mental illness. There will be hurdles, of course. First, the technique 
+requires opening up the skull, and if the neurons that one wishes to 
+study are located deep inside the brain, the procedure will be even more 
+invasive. Lastly, one has to insert tiny wires into the brain that can shine 
+a light on this modified neuron so that it triggers the desired behavior. 
+
+Once these neural pathways have been deciphered, you can also 
+stimulate them, making animals perform strange behaviors (for example, 
+mice will run around in circles). Although scientists are just beginning to"
+"trace the neural pathways governing simple animal behaviors, in the 
+future they should have an encyclopedia of such behaviors, including 
+those of humans. In the wrong hands, however, optogenetics could 
+potentially be used to control human behavior. 
+
+In the main, the benefits of optogenetics greatly outweigh its 
+drawbacks. It can literally reveal the pathways of the brain in order to 
+treat mental illness and other diseases. This may then give scientists the 
+tools by which to repair the damage, perhaps curing diseases once 
+thought to be incurable. In the near future, then, the benefits are all 
+positive. But further in the future, once the pathways of human 
+behaviors are also understood, optogenetics could also be used to control 
+or at least modify human behavior as well. 
+
+MIND CONTROL AND THE FUTURE"
+"MIND CONTROL AND THE FUTURE 
+
+In summary, the use of drugs and hypnotism by the CIA was a flop. 
+These techniques were too unstable and unpredictable to be of any use 
+to the military. They can be used to induce hallucinations and 
+dependency, but they have failed to cleanly erase memories, make 
+people more pliant, or force people to perform acts against their will. 
+Governments will keep trying, but the goal is elusive. So far, drugs are 
+simply too blunt an instrument to allow you to control someone’s 
+behavior. 
+
+But this is also a cautionary tale. Carl Sagan mentions one nightmare 
+scenario that might actually work. He envisions a dictator taking 
+children and putting electrodes into their “pain” and “pleasure” centers. 
+These electrodes are then connected wirelessly to computers, so that the 
+dictator can control his subjects with the push of a button."
+"Another nightmare might involve probes placed in the brain that 
+could override our wishes and seize control of our muscles, forcing us to 
+perform tasks we don’t want to do. The work of Dr. Delgado was crude, 
+but it showed that bursts of electricity applied to motor areas of the 
+brain can overrule our conscious thoughts, so that our muscles are no 
+longer under our control. He was able to identify only a few behaviors in 
+animals that could be controlled with electric probes. In the future, it 
+may be possible to find a wide variety of behaviors that can be 
+controlled electronically with a switch."
+"If you are the person being controlled, it would be an unpleasant 
+experience. Although you may think you are master of your own body, 
+your muscles would actually fire without your permission, so you would 
+do things against your will. The electric impulse being fed into your 
+brain could be larger than the impulses you consciously send into your 
+muscles, so that it would appear as if someone had hijacked your body. 
+
+Your own body would become a foreign object. 
+
+In principle, some version of this nightmare might be possible in the 
+future. But there are several factors that may prevent this as well. First, 
+this is still an infant technology and it is not known how it will be 
+applied to human behavior, so there is still plenty of time to monitor its 
+development and perhaps create safeguards to see that it is not misused. 
+Second, a dictator might simply decide that propaganda and coercion,"
+"the usual methods of controlling a population, are cheaper and more 
+effective than putting electrodes into the brains of millions of children, 
+which would be costly and invasive. And third, in democratic societies, a 
+vigorous public debate would probably emerge concerning the promise 
+and limitations of this powerful technology. Laws would have to be 
+passed to prevent the abuse of these methods without impairing their 
+ability to reduce human suffering. Soon science will give us unparalleled 
+insight into the detailed neural pathways of the brain. A fine line has to 
+be drawn between technologies that can benefit society and technologies 
+that can control it. And the key to passing these laws is an educated, 
+informed public."
+"But the real impact of this technology, I believe, will be to liberate the 
+mind, not enslave it. These technologies can give hope to those who are 
+trapped in mental illness. Although there is as yet no permanent cure for 
+mental illness, these new technologies have given us deep insight into 
+how such disorders form and how they progress. One day, through 
+genetics, drugs, and a combination of high-tech methods, we will find a 
+way to manage and eventually cure these ancient diseases. 
+
+One of the recent attempts to exploit this new knowledge of the brain 
+is to understand historical personalities. Perhaps the insights from 
+modern science can help explain the mental states of those in the past. 
+
+And one of the most mystifying figures being analyzed today is Joan 
+of Arc. 
+
+Lovers and madmen have such seething brains.. 
+The lunatic, the lover, and the poet 
+Are of imagination all compact. 
+
+-WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT S DREAM 
+
+9 ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"-WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT S DREAM 
+
+9 ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+She was just an illiterate peasant girl who claimed to hear voices 
+directly from God. But Joan of Arc would rise from obscurity to lead a 
+demoralized army to victories that would change the course of nations, 
+making her one of the most fascinating, compelling, and tragic figures in 
+history."
+"During the chaos of the Hundred Years’ War, when northern France 
+was decimated by English troops and the French monarchy was in 
+retreat, a young girl from Orleans claimed to have divine instructions to 
+lead the French army to victory. With nothing to lose, Charles VII 
+allowed her to command some of his troops. To everyone’s shock and 
+wonder, she scored a series of triumphs over the English. News rapidly 
+spread about this remarkable young girl. With each victory, her 
+reputation began to grow, until she became a folk heroine, rallying the 
+French around her. French troops, once on the verge of total collapse, 
+scored decisive victories that paved the way for the coronation of the 
+new king."
+"However, she was betrayed and captured by the English. They realized 
+what a threat she posed to them, since she was a potent symbol for the 
+French and claimed guidance directly from God Himself, so they 
+subjected her to a show trial. After an elaborate interrogation, she was 
+found guilty of heresy and burned at the stake at the age of nineteen in 
+1431. 
+
+In the centuries that followed, hundreds of attempts have been made 
+to understand this remarkable teenager. Was she a prophet, a saint, or a 
+madwoman? More recently, scientists have tried to use modern 
+psychiatry and neuroscience to explain the lives of historical figures such 
+as Joan of Arc. 
+
+Few question her sincerity about claims of divine inspiration. But 
+many scientists have written that she might have suffered from 
+schizophrenia, since she heard voices. Others have disputed this fact,"
+"since the surviving records of her trial reveal a person of rational 
+thought and speech. The English laid several theological traps for her. 
+They asked, for example, if she was in God’s grace. If she answered yes, 
+then she would be a heretic, since no one can know for certain if they 
+are in God’s grace. If she said no, then she was confessing her guilt, and 
+that she was a fraud. Either way, she would lose. 
+
+In a response that stunned the audience, she answered, “If I am not, 
+may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.” The court 
+notary, in the records, wrote, “Those who were interrogating her were 
+
+stupefied.” 
+
+In fact, the transcripts of her interrogation are so remarkable that 
+George Bernard Shaw put literal translations of the court record in his 
+play Saint Joan."
+"More recently, another theory has emerged about this exceptional 
+woman: perhaps she actually suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy. 
+People who have this condition sometimes experience seizures, but some 
+of them also experience a curious side effect that may shed some light on 
+the structure of human beliefs. These patients suffer from 
+“hyperreligiosity,” and can’t help thinking that there is a spirit or 
+presence behind everything. Random events are never random, but have 
+some deep religious significance. Some psychologists have speculated 
+that a number of history’s prophets suffered from these temporal lobe 
+epileptic lesions, since they were convinced they talked to God. The 
+neuroscientist Dr. David Eagleman says, “Some fraction of history’s 
+prophets, martyrs, and leaders appear to have had temporal lobe 
+epilepsy. Consider Joan of Arc, the sixteen-year-old girl who managed to 
+turn the tide of the Hundred Years’ War because she believed (and"
+"turn the tide of the Hundred Years’ War because she believed (and 
+convinced the French soldiers) that she was hearing voices from Saint 
+Michael the archangel, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Margaret, 
+and Saint Gabriel.”"
+"This curious effect was noticed as far back as 1892, when textbooks on 
+mental illness noted a link between “religious emotionalism” and 
+epilepsy. It was first clinically described in 1975 by neurologist Norman 
+Geschwind of Boston Veterans Administration Hospital. He noticed that 
+epileptics who had electrical misfirings in their left temporal lobes often 
+had religious experiences, and he speculated that the electrical storm in 
+the brain somehow was the cause of these religious obsessions. 
+
+Dr. V. S. Ramachandran estimates that 30 to 40 percent of all the 
+temporal lobe epileptics whom he has seen suffer from hyperreligiosity. 
+He notes, “Sometimes it’s a personal God, sometimes it’s a more diffuse 
+feeling of being one with the cosmos. Everything seems suffused with 
+meaning. The patient will say, ‘Finally, I see what it is all really about, 
+Doctor. I really understand God. I understand my place in the universe— 
+the cosmic scheme.’ ”"
+"He also notes that many of these individuals are extremely adamant 
+and convincing in their beliefs. He says, “I sometimes wonder whether 
+such patients who have temporal lobe epilepsy have access to another 
+dimension of reality, a wormhole of sorts into a parallel universe. But I 
+usually don’t say this to my colleagues, lest they doubt my sanity.” He 
+has experimented on patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, and 
+confirmed that these individuals had a strong emotional reaction to the 
+
+word “God” but not to neutral words. This means that the link between 
+hyperreligiosity and temporal lobe epilepsy is real, not just anecdotal. 
+
+Psychologist Michael Persinger asserts that a certain type of 
+transcranial electrical stimulation (called transcranial magnetic 
+simulation, or TMS) can deliberately induce the effect of these epileptic 
+lesions. If this is so, is it possible that magnetic fields can be used to alter 
+one’s religious beliefs?"
+"In Dr. Persinger’s studies, the subject places a helmet on his head 
+(dubbed the “God helmet”), which contains a device that can send 
+magnetism into particular parts of the brain. Afterward, when the 
+subject is interviewed, he will often claim that he was in the presence of 
+some great spirit. David Biello, writing in Scientific American, says, 
+“During the three-minute bursts of stimulation, the affected subjects 
+translated this perception of the divine into their own cultural and 
+religious language—terming it God, Buddha, a benevolent presence, or 
+the wonder of the universe.” Since this effect is reproducible on demand, 
+it indicates that perhaps the brain is hardwired in some way to respond 
+to religious feelings."
+"Some scientists have gone further and have speculated that there is a 
+“God gene” that predisposes the brain to be religious. Since most 
+societies have created a religion of some sort, it seems plausible that our 
+ability to respond to religious feelings might be genetically programmed 
+into our genome. (Meanwhile, some evolutionary theorists have tried to 
+
+explain these facts by claiming that religion served to increase the 
+chances of survival for early humans. Religion helped bond bickering 
+individuals into a cohesive tribe with a common mythology, which 
+increased the chances that the tribe would stick together and survive.) 
+
+Would an experiment like the one using the “God helmet” shake a 
+person’s religious beliefs? And can an MRI machine record the brain 
+activity of someone who experiences a religious awakening?"
+"To test these ideas, Dr. Mario Beauregard of the University of 
+Montreal recruited a group of fifteen Carmelite nuns who agreed to put 
+their heads into an MRI machine. To qualify for the experiment, all of 
+them must “have had an experience of intense union with God.” 
+
+Originally, Dr. Beauregard had hoped that the nuns would have a 
+mystical communion with God, which could then be recorded by an MRI 
+scan. However, being shoved into an MRI machine, where you are 
+surrounded by tons of magnetic coils of wire and high-tech equipment, is 
+not an ideal setting for a religious epiphany. The best they could do was 
+to evoke memories of previous religious experiences. “God cannot be 
+
+summoned at will,” explained one of the nuns. 
+
+The final result was mixed and inconclusive, but several regions of the 
+brain clearly lit up during this experiment: 
+
+• The caudate nucleus, which is involved with learning and possibly 
+falling in love. (Perhaps the nuns were feeling the unconditional 
+love of God?)"
+"• The insula, which monitors body sensations and social emotions. 
+(Perhaps the nuns were feeling close to the other nuns as they were 
+reaching out to God?) 
+
+• The parietal lobe, which helps process spatial awareness. (Perhaps 
+the nuns felt they were in the physical presence of God?) 
+
+Dr. Beauregard had to admit that so many areas of the brain were 
+activated, with so many different possible interpretations, that he could 
+not say for sure whether hyperreligiosity could be induced. However, it 
+was clear to him that the nuns’ religious feelings were reflected in their 
+brain scans. 
+
+But did this experiment shake the nuns’ belief in God? No. In fact, the 
+
+nuns concluded that God placed this “radio” in the brain so that we 
+could communicate with Him."
+"nuns concluded that God placed this “radio” in the brain so that we 
+could communicate with Him. 
+
+Their conclusion was that God created humans to have this ability, so 
+the brain has a divine antenna given to us by God so that we can feel His 
+presence. David Biello concludes, “Although atheists might argue that 
+finding spirituality in the brain implies that religion is nothing more 
+than divine delusion, the nuns were thrilled by their brain scans for 
+precisely the opposite reason: they seemed to provide confirmation of 
+God’s interactions with them.” Dr. Beauregard concluded, “If you are an 
+atheist and you live a certain kind of experience, you will relate it to the 
+magnificence of the universe. If you are a Christian, you will associate it 
+with God. Who knows. Perhaps they are the same thing.” 
+
+Similarly, Dr. Richard Dawkins, a biologist at Oxford University and 
+an outspoken atheist, was once placed in the God helmet to see if his 
+religious beliefs would change. 
+
+They did not."
+"They did not. 
+
+So in conclusion, although hyperreligiosity may be induced via 
+temporal lobe epilepsy and even magnetic fields, there is no convincing 
+evidence that magnetic fields can alter one’s religious views. 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+But there is another altered state of consciousness that brings great 
+suffering, both to the person experiencing it and to his or her family, and 
+this is mental illness. Can brain scans and high technology reveal the 
+origin of this affliction and perhaps lead to a cure? If so, one of the 
+largest sources of human suffering could be eliminated."
+"For example, throughout history, the treatment of schizophrenia was 
+brutal and crude. People who suffer from this debilitating mental 
+disorder, which afflicts about 1 percent of the population, typically hear 
+imaginary voices and suffer from paranoid delusions and disorganized 
+thinking. Throughout history, they were considered to be “possessed” by 
+the devil and were banished, killed, or locked up. Gothic novels 
+sometimes refer to the strange, demented relative who lives in the 
+darkness of a hidden room or basement. The Bible even mentions an 
+incident when Jesus encountered two demoniacs. The demons begged 
+
+Jesus to drive them into a herd of swine. He said, “Go then.” When the 
+demons entered the swine, the whole herd rushed down the bank and 
+drowned in the sea."
+"Even today, you still see people with classic symptoms of 
+schizophrenia walking around having arguments with themselves. The 
+first indicators usually surface in the late teens (for men) or early 
+twenties (for women). Some schizophrenics have led normal lives and 
+even performed remarkable feats before the voices finally took over. The 
+most famous case is that of the 1994 Nobel Prize winner in economics, 
+John Nash, who was played by Russell Crowe in the movie A Beautiful 
+Mind. In his twenties, Nash did pioneering work in economics, game 
+theory, and pure mathematics at Princeton University. One of his 
+advisers wrote him a letter of recommendation with just one line: “This 
+man is a genius.” Remarkably, he was able to perform at such a high 
+intellectual level even while being hounded by delusions. He was finally 
+hospitalized when he had a breakdown at age thirty-one, and spent 
+many years in institutions or wandering around the world, fearing that 
+communist agents would kill him."
+"At present, there is no precise, universally accepted way to diagnose 
+mental illness. There is hope, however, that one day scientists will use 
+brain scans and other high-tech devices to create accurate diagnostic 
+tools. Progress in treating mental illness, therefore, has been painfully 
+slow. After centuries of suffering, victims of schizophrenia had their first 
+sign of relief when antipsychotic drugs like thorazine were found 
+
+accidentally in the 1950s that could miraculously control or even at 
+times eliminate the voices that haunted the mentally ill."
+"It is believed that these drugs work by regulating the level of certain 
+neurotransmitters, such as dopamine. Specifically, the theory is that 
+these drugs block the functioning of D2 receptors of certain nerve cells, 
+thereby reducing the level of dopamine. (This theory, that hallucinations 
+were in part caused by excess dopamine levels in the limbic system and 
+prefrontal cortex, also explained why people taking amphetamines 
+experienced similar hallucinations.) 
+
+Dopamine, because it is so essential for the synapses of the brain, has 
+been implicated in other disorders as well. One theory holds that 
+Parkinson’s disease is aggravated by a lack of dopamine in the synapses, 
+while Tourette’s syndrome can be triggered by an overabundance of it. 
+
+(People with Tourette’s syndrome have tics and unusual facial 
+movements. A small minority of them uncontrollably speak obscene 
+words and make profane, derogatory remarks.)"
+"More recently, scientists have zeroed in on another possible culprit: 
+abnormal glutamate levels in the brain. One reason for believing these 
+levels are involved is that PCP (angel dust) is known to create 
+hallucinations similar to those of schizophrenics by blocking a glutamate 
+receptor called NMDA. Clozapine, a relatively new drug for 
+schizophrenia that stimulates the production of glutamate, shows great 
+promise. 
+
+However, these antipsychotic drugs are not a cure-all. In about 20 
+percent of cases, such drugs stop all symptoms. About two-thirds find 
+some relief from their symptoms, but the rest are totally unaffected. 
+(According to one theory, antipsychotic drugs mimic a natural chemical 
+that is missing in schizophrenics’ brains, but it is not an exact copy. 
+Hence a patient has to try a variety of these antipsychotic drugs, almost 
+by trial and error. Moreover, they can have unpleasant side effects, so 
+schizophrenics often stop taking them and suffer a relapse.)"
+"Recently, brain scans of schizophrenics taken while they were having 
+auditory hallucinations have helped explain this ancient disorder. For 
+example, when we silently talk to ourselves, certain parts of the brain 
+light up on an MRI scan, especially in the temporal lobe (such as in 
+Wernicke’s area). When a schizophrenic hears voices, the very same 
+areas of the brain light up. The brain works hard to construct a 
+consistent narrative, so schizophrenics try to make sense of these 
+unauthorized voices, believing they originate from strange sources, such 
+as Martians secretly beaming thoughts into their brains. Dr. Michael 
+Sweeney of Ohio State writes, “Neurons wired for the sensation of sound 
+
+fire on their own, like gas-soaked rags igniting spontaneously in a hot, 
+dark garage. In the absence of sights and sounds in the surrounding 
+environment, the schizophrenic’s brain creates a powerful illusion of 
+reality.”"
+"Notably, these voices seem to be coming from a third party, who often 
+gives the subject commands, which are mostly mundane but sometimes 
+violent. Meanwhile, the simulation centers in the prefrontal cortex seem 
+to be on automatic pilot, so in a way it’s as though the consciousness of 
+a schizophrenic is running the same sort of simulations we all do, except 
+
+they’re done without his permission. The person is literally talking to 
+himself without his knowledge. 
+
+HALLUCINATIONS 
+
+The mind constantly generates hallucinations of its own, but for the 
+most part they are easily controlled. We see images that don’t exist or 
+hear spurious sounds, for example, so the anterior cingulate cortex is 
+vital to distinguish the real from the manufactured. This part of the 
+brain helps us distinguish between stimuli that are external and those 
+that are internally generated by the mind itself."
+"However, in schizophrenics, it is believed that this system is damaged, 
+so that the person cannot distinguish real from imaginary voices. (The 
+anterior cingulate cortex is vital because it lies in a strategic place, 
+between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system. The link between 
+these two areas is one of the most important in the brain, since one area 
+governs rational thinking, and the other emotions.) 
+
+Hallucinations, to some extent, can be created on demand. 
+Hallucinations occur naturally if you place someone in a pitch-black 
+room, an isolation chamber, or a creepy environment with strange 
+noises. These are examples of “our eyes playing tricks on us.” Actually, 
+the brain is tricking itself, internally creating false images, trying to 
+make sense of the world and identify threats. This effect is called 
+“pareidolia.” Every time we look at clouds in the sky, we see images of 
+animals, people, or our favorite cartoon characters. We have no choice. 
+It is hardwired into our brains."
+"In a sense, all images we see, both real and virtual, are hallucinations, 
+because the brain is constantly creating false images to “fill in the gaps.” 
+As we’ve seen, even real images are partly manufactured. But in the 
+mentally ill, regions of the brain such as the anterior cingulate cortex are 
+perhaps damaged, so the brain confuses reality and fantasy. 
+
+THE OBSESSIVE MIND 
+
+Another disorder in which drugs may be used to heal the mind is OCD 
+(obsessive-compulsive disorder). As we saw earlier, human 
+
+consciousness involves mediating between a number of feedback 
+mechanisms. Sometimes, however, the feedback mechanisms are stuck in 
+the “on” position."
+"One in forty Americans suffers from OCD. Cases can be mild, so that, 
+for example, people have to constantly go home to check that they 
+locked the door. The detective Adrian Monk on the TV show Monk has a 
+mild case of OCD. But OCD can also be so severe that people 
+compulsively scratch or wash their skin until it is left bleeding and raw. 
+Some people with OCD have been known to repeat obsessive behaviors 
+for hours, making it difficult to keep a job or have a family. 
+
+Normally these types of compulsive behaviors, in moderation, are 
+actually good for us, since they help us keep clean, healthy, and safe. 
+That is why we evolved these behaviors in the first place. But someone 
+with OCD cannot stop this behavior, and it spirals out of control."
+"Brain scans are now revealing how this takes place. They show that at 
+least three areas of the brain that normally help us keep ourselves 
+healthy get stuck in a feedback loop. First, there is the orbitofrontal 
+cortex, which we saw in Chapter 1 can act as a fact-checker, making sure 
+that we have properly locked the doors and washed our hands. It tells 
+us, “Hmm, something is wrong.” Second, the caudate nucleus, located in 
+the basal ganglia, governs learned activities that are automatic. It tells 
+the body to “do something.” And finally, we have the cingulate cortex, 
+which registers conscious emotions, including discomfort. It says, “I still 
+feel awful.”"
+"Psychiatry professor Jeffrey Schwartz of UCLA has tried to put this all 
+together to explain how OCD gets out of hand. Imagine you have the 
+urge to wash your hands. The orbitofrontal cortex recognizes that 
+something is wrong, that your hands are dirty. The caudate nucleus kicks 
+in and causes you to automatically wash your hands. Then the cingulate 
+cortex registers satisfaction that your hands are clean. 
+
+But in someone with OCD, this loop is altered. Even after he notices 
+that his hands are dirty and he washes them, he still has the 
+discomforting feeling that something is wrong, that they are still dirty. 
+So he is stuck in a feedback loop that won’t stop. 
+
+In the 1960s, the drug clomipramine hydrochloride began to give OCD 
+patients some relief. This and other drugs developed since then raise 
+levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the body. They can reduce"
+"symptoms of OCD by as much as 60 percent in clinical trials. Dr. 
+Schwartz says, “The brain’s gonna do what the brain’s gonna do, but you 
+don’t have to let it push you around.” These drugs are certainly not a 
+cure, but they have brought some relief to the sufferers of OCD. 
+
+BIPOLAR DISORDER 
+
+Another common form of mental illness is bipolar disorder, in which a 
+person suffers from extreme bouts of wild, delusional optimism, followed 
+by a crash and then periods of deep depression. Bipolar disorder also 
+seems to run in families and, curiously, strikes frequently in artists; 
+perhaps their great works of art were created during bursts of creativity 
+and optimism. A list of creative people who were afflicted by bipolar 
+disorder reads like a Who’s Who of Hollywood celebrities, musicians, 
+artists, and writers. Although the drug lithium seems to control many of 
+the symptoms of bipolar disorder, the causes are not entirely clear."
+"One theory states that bipolar disorder may be caused by an 
+imbalance between the left and right hemispheres. Dr. Michael Sweeney 
+notes, “Brain scans have led researchers to generally assign negative 
+emotions such as sadness to the right hemisphere and positive emotions 
+such as joy to the left hemisphere. For at least a century, neuroscientists 
+have noticed a link between damage to the brain’s left hemisphere and 
+negative moods, including depression and uncontrollable crying. 
+Damage to the right, however, has been associated with a broad array of 
+positive emotions.”"
+"So the left hemisphere, which is analytical and controls language, 
+tends to become manic if left to itself. The right hemisphere, on the 
+contrary, is holistic and tends to check this mania. Dr. V. S. 
+Ramachandran writes, “If left unchecked, the left hemisphere would 
+likely render a person delusional or manic.... So it seems reasonable to 
+postulate a ‘devil’s advocate’ in the right hemisphere that allows ‘you’ to 
+adopt a detached, objective (allocentric) view of yourself.” 
+
+If human consciousness involves simulating the future, it has to 
+compute the outcomes of future events with certain probabilities. It 
+needs, therefore, a delicate balance between optimism and pessimism to 
+estimate the chances of success or failures for certain courses of action."
+"But in some sense, depression is the price we pay for being able to 
+simulate the future. Our consciousness has the ability to conjure up all 
+sorts of horrific outcomes for the future, and is therefore aware of all the 
+bad things that could happen, even if they are not realistic."
+"It is hard to verify many of these theories, since brain scans of people 
+who are clinically depressed indicate that many brain areas are affected. 
+It is difficult to pinpoint the source of the problem, but among the 
+clinically depressed, activity in the parietal and temporal lobes seems to 
+be suppressed, perhaps indicating that the person is withdrawn from the 
+outside world and living in their own internal world. In particular, the 
+ventromedial cortex seems to play an important role. This area 
+apparently creates the feeling that there is a sense of meaning and 
+wholeness to the world, so that everything seems to have a purpose. 
+Overactivity in this area can cause mania, in which people think they are 
+omnipotent. Underactivity in this area is associated with depression and 
+the feeling that life is pointless. So it is possible that a defect in this area 
+may be responsible for some mood swings. 
+
+A THEORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND MENTAL ILLNESS"
+"A THEORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+So how does the space-time theory of consciousness apply to mental 
+illness? Can it give us a deeper insight into this disorder? As we 
+mentioned before, we define human consciousness as the process of 
+creating a model of our world in space and time (especially the future) 
+by evaluating many feedback loops in various parameters in order to 
+achieve a goal."
+"We have proposed that the key function of human consciousness is to 
+simulate the future, but this is not a trivial task. The brain accomplishes 
+it by having these feedback loops check and balance one another. For 
+example, a skillful CEO at a board meeting tries to draw out the 
+disagreement among staff members and to sharpen competing points of 
+view in order to sift through the various arguments and then make a 
+final decision. In the same way, various regions of the brain make 
+diverging assessments of the future, which are given to the dorsolateral 
+prefrontal cortex, the CEO of the brain. These competing assessments are 
+then evaluated and weighed until a balanced final decision is made. 
+
+We can now apply the space-time theory of consciousness to give us a 
+definition of most forms of mental illness: 
+
+Mental illness is largely caused by the disruption of the 
+delicate checks and balances between competing feedback"
+"loops that simulate the future (usually because one region of 
+the brain is overactive or underactive). 
+
+Because the CEO of the mind (the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) no 
+longer has a balanced assessment of the facts, due to this disruption in 
+feedback loops, it begins to make strange conclusions and act in bizarre 
+ways. The advantage of this theory is that it is testable. One has to 
+perform MRI scans of the brain of someone who is mentally ill as it 
+exhibits dysfunctional behavior, evaluating how its feedback loops are 
+performing, and compare it to the MRI scans of normal people. If this 
+theory is correct, the dysfunctional behavior (for example, hearing 
+voices or becoming obsessed) can be traced back to a malfunctioning of 
+the checks and balances between feedback loops. The theory can be 
+disproven if this dysfunctional behavior is totally independent of the 
+interplay between these regions of the brain."
+"Given this new theory of mental illness, we can now apply it to 
+various forms of mental disorders, summarizing the previous discussion 
+in this new light. 
+
+We saw earlier that the obsessive behavior of people suffering from 
+OCD might arise when the checks and balances between several 
+feedback loops are thrown out of balance: one registering something as 
+amiss, another carrying out corrective action, and another one signaling 
+that the matter has been taken care of. The failure of the checks and 
+balances within this loop can cause the brain to be locked into a vicious 
+cycle, so the mind never believes that the problem has been resolved."
+"The voices heard by schizophrenics might arise when several feedback 
+loops are no longer balancing one another. One feedback loop generates 
+spurious voices in the temporal cortex (i.e., the brain is talking to itself). 
+Auditory and visual hallucinations are often checked by the anterior 
+cingulate cortex, so a normal person can differentiate between real and 
+fictitious voices. But if this region of the brain is not working properly, 
+the brain is flooded with disembodied voices that it believes are real. 
+
+This can cause schizophrenic behavior. 
+
+Similarly, the manic-depressive swings of someone with bipolar 
+disorder might be traced to an imbalance between the left and right 
+hemispheres. The necessary interplay between optimistic and pessimistic 
+assessments is thrown off balance, and the person oscillates wildly 
+between these two diverging moods."
+"Paranoia may also be viewed in this light. It results from an imbalance 
+between the amygdala (which registers fear and exaggerates threats) and 
+the prefrontal cortex, which evaluates these threats and puts them into 
+
+perspective. 
+
+We should also stress that evolution has given us these feedback loops 
+for a reason: to protect us. They keep us clean, healthy, and socially 
+connected. The problem occurs when the dynamic between opposing 
+feedback loops is disrupted. 
+
+This theory can be roughly summarized as follows: 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+Paranoia 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #1 
+
+Perceiving a threat 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Discounting threats 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Amygdala/prefrontal lobe 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+Schizophrenia 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #1 
+
+Creating voices 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Discounting voices 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Left temporal lobe/anterior cingulate cortex 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+Bipolar disorder 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #1 
+
+Optimism 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Pessimism 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Left/right hemisphere"
+"Optimism 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Pessimism 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Left/right hemisphere 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+OCD 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #1 
+
+Anxiety 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Satisfaction 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Orbitofrontal cortex/caudate nucleus/cingulate cortex 
+
+According to the space-time theory of consciousness, many forms of mental illness are typified by the 
+disruption of the 
+checks and balances of opposing feedback loops in the brain that simulate the future. Brain scans are 
+gradually 
+identifying which regions these are. A more complete understanding of mental illness will undoubtedly 
+reveal the 
+involvement of many more regions of the brain. This is only a preliminary sketch. 
+
+DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION 
+
+Although the space-time theory of consciousness may give us insight into 
+the origin of mental illness, it doesn’t tell us how to create new therapies 
+and remedies."
+"How will science deal with mental illness in the future? This is hard to 
+predict, since we now realize that mental illness is not just one category, 
+but an entire range of illnesses that can afflict the mind in a bewildering 
+number of ways. Furthermore, the science behind mental illness is still in 
+
+its infancy, with huge areas totally unexplored and unexplained. 
+
+But a new method is being tried today to treat the unending agony of 
+people suffering from one of the most common yet stubbornly persistent 
+forms of mental disorder, depression, which afflicts twenty million 
+people in the United States. Ten percent of them, in turn, suffer from an 
+incurable form of depression that has resisted all medical advances. One 
+direct way of treating them, which holds much promise, is to place 
+probes deep inside certain regions of the brain."
+"An important clue to this disorder was discovered by Dr. Helen 
+Mayberg and colleagues, then doing research at Washington University 
+Medical School. Using brain scans, they identified an area of the brain, 
+called Brodmann area 25 (also called the subcallosal cingulate region), 
+in the cerebral cortex that is consistently hyperactive in depressed 
+individuals for whom all other forms of treatment have been 
+unsuccessful."
+"These scientists used deep brain stimulation (DBS) in this area, 
+inserting a small probe into the brain and applying an electrical shock, 
+much like a pacemaker. The success of DBS has been astonishing in the 
+treatment of various disorders. In the past decade, DBS has been used on 
+forty thousand patients for motor-related diseases, such as Parkinson’s 
+and epilepsy, which cause uncontrolled movements of the body. 
+Between 60 and 100 percent of patients report significant improvement 
+in controlling their shaking hands. More than 250 hospitals in the United 
+States alone now perform DBS treatments. 
+
+But then Dr. Mayberg had the idea of applying DBS directly to 
+Brodmann area 25 to treat depression as well. Her team took twelve 
+patients who were clinically depressed and had shown no improvement 
+after exhaustive use of drugs, psychotherapy, and electroshock therapy."
+"They found that eight of these chronically depressed individuals 
+immediately showed progress. Their success was so astonishing, in fact, 
+that other groups raced to duplicate these results and apply DBS to other 
+mental disorders. At present, DBS is being applied to thirty-five patients 
+at Emory University, and thirty at other institutions. 
+
+Dr. Mayberg says, “Depression 1.0 was psychotherapy—people 
+arguing about whose fault it was. Depression 2.0 was the idea that it’s a 
+chemical imbalance. This is Depression 3.0. What has captured 
+everyone’s imagination is that, by dissecting a complex behavior 
+
+disorder into its component systems, you have a new way of thinking 
+about it.”"
+"disorder into its component systems, you have a new way of thinking 
+about it.” 
+
+Although the success of DBS in treating depressed individuals is 
+remarkable, much more research needs to be done. First, it is not clear 
+why DBS works. It is thought that DBS destroys or impairs overactive 
+areas of the brain (as in Parkinson’s and Brodmann area 25) and is hence 
+effective only against ailments caused by such overactivity. Second, the 
+precision of this tool needs to be improved. Although this treatment has 
+been used to treat a variety of brain diseases, such as phantom limb pain 
+(when a person feels pain from a limb that has been amputated), 
+Tourette’s syndrome, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, the electrode 
+inserted into the brain is not precise, thus affecting perhaps several 
+million neurons rather than just the handful that are the source of 
+distress."
+"Time will only improve the effectiveness of this therapy. Using MEM 
+technology, one can create microscopic electrodes able to stimulate only 
+a few neurons at a time. Nanotechnology may also make possible neural 
+nanoprobes that are one molecule thick, as in carbon nanotubes. And as 
+MRI sensitivity increases, our capability to guide these electrodes to 
+more specific areas of the brain should grow more precise. 
+
+WAKING UP FROM A COMA 
+
+Deep brain stimulation has branched into several different avenues of 
+research, including a beneficial side effect: increasing the number of 
+memory cells within the hippocampus. Yet another application is to 
+revive some individuals in a coma."
+"Comas represent perhaps one of the most controversial forms of 
+consciousness, and often results in national headlines. The case of Terri 
+Schiavo, for example, riveted the public. Due to a heart attack, she 
+suffered a lack of oxygen, which caused massive brain injury. As a result, 
+Schiavo went into a coma in 1990. Her husband, with the approval of 
+doctors, wanted to allow her the dignity of dying peacefully. But her 
+family said this was cruelly pulling the plug on someone who still had 
+some responses to stimuli and might one day be miraculously revived. 
+They pointed out that there had been sensational cases in the past when 
+
+coma patients suddenly regained consciousness after many years in a 
+vegetative state. 
+
+Brain scans were used to settle the question. In 2003, most 
+neurologists, examining the CAT scans, concluded that the damage to 
+Schiavo’s brain was so extensive that she could never be revived, and 
+that she was in a permanent vegetative state (PVS). After she died in"
+"2005, an autopsy confirmed these results—there was no chance of 
+revival. 
+
+In some other cases involving coma patients, however, brain scans 
+show that the damage is not so severe, so there is a slim chance of 
+recovery. In the summer of 2007, a man in Cleveland woke up and 
+greeted his mother after undergoing deep brain stimulation. The man 
+had suffered extensive brain damage eight years earlier and fell into a 
+deep coma known as a minimally conscious state."
+"Dr. Ali Rezai led the team of surgeons who performed the operation. 
+They inserted a pair of wires into the patient’s brain until they reached 
+the thalamus, which, as we have seen, is the gateway where sensory 
+information is first processed. By sending a low-voltage current through 
+these wires, the doctors were able to stimulate the thalamus, which in 
+turn woke the man up from his deep coma. (Usually, sending electricity 
+into the brain causes that part of the brain to shut down, but under 
+certain circumstances it can act to jolt neurons into action.)"
+"Improvements in DBS technology should increase the number of 
+success stories in different fields. Today a DBS electrode is about 1.5 
+millimeters in diameter, but it touches up to a million neurons when 
+inserted into the brain, which can cause bleeding and damage to blood 
+vessels. One to three percent of DBS patients in fact have bleeding that 
+can progress to a stroke. The electric charge carried by DBS probes is 
+also still very crude, pulsing at a constant rate. Eventually, surgeons will 
+be able to adjust the electrical charge carried by the electrodes so that 
+each probe is made for a specific person and a specific ailment. The next 
+generation of DBS probes is bound to be safer and more precise. 
+
+THE GENETICS OF MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+Another attempt to understand and eventually treat mental illness"
+"Another attempt to understand and eventually treat mental illness 
+
+involves tracing its genetic roots. Many attempts have been made in this 
+area, with disappointing, mixed results. There is considerable evidence 
+that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder run in families, but attempts to 
+find the genes common to all these individuals have not been conclusive. 
+Occasionally scientists have followed the family trees of certain 
+individuals afflicted by mental illness and found a gene that is prevalent. 
+But attempts to generalize this result to other families have often failed. 
+At best, scientists have concluded that environmental factors as well as a 
+combination of several genes are necessary to trigger mental illness. 
+However, it has generally been accepted that each disorder has its own 
+genetic basis."
+"In 2012, however, one of the most comprehensive studies ever done 
+showed that there could in fact be a common genetic factor to mental 
+illness after all. Scientists from the Harvard Medical School and 
+Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed sixty thousand people 
+worldwide and found that there was a genetic link between five major 
+mental illnesses: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, major 
+depression, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). 
+Together they represent a significant fraction of all mentally ill patients."
+"After an exhaustive analysis of the subjects’ DNA, scientists found that 
+four genes increased the risk of mental illness. Two of them involved the 
+regulation of calcium channels in neurons. (Calcium is an essential 
+chemical involved in the processing of neural signals.) Dr. Jordan 
+Smoller of the Harvard Medical School says, “The calcium channels 
+findings suggest that perhaps—and that is a big if—treatments to affect 
+calcium channeling functioning might have effects across a range of 
+disorders.” Already, calcium channel blockers are being used to treat 
+people with bipolar disorder. In the future, these blockers may be used 
+to treat other mental illnesses as well. 
+
+This new result could help explain the curious fact that when mental 
+illness runs in a family, members may manifest different forms of 
+disorders. For example, if one twin has schizophrenia, then the other 
+twin might have a totally different disorder, such as bipolar disorder."
+"The point here is that although each mental illness has its own triggers 
+and genes, there could be a common thread running through them as 
+well. Isolating the common factors among these diseases could give us a 
+clue to which drugs might be most effective against them. 
+
+“What we have identified here is probably just the tip of the iceberg,” 
+says Dr. Smoller. “As these studies grow, we expect to find additional 
+genes that might overlap.” If more genes are found among these five 
+disorders, it could open up an entirely new approach to mental illness. 
+
+If more common genes are found, it could mean that gene therapy 
+might be able to repair the damage caused by defective genes. Or it 
+might give rise to new drugs that could treat the illness at the neural 
+level. 
+
+FUTURE AVENUES 
+
+So at present, there is no cure for patients with mental illness. 
+Historically, doctors were helpless in treating them. But modern"
+"medicine has given us a variety of new possibilities and therapies to 
+tackle this ancient problem. Just a few of them include: 
+
+1. Finding new neurotransmitters and new drugs that regulate the 
+signaling of neurons. 
+
+2. Locating the genes linked to various mental illnesses, and perhaps 
+using gene therapy. 
+
+3. Using deep brain stimulation to dampen or increase neural activity 
+in certain areas. 
+
+4. Using EEG, MRI, MEG, and TES to understand precisely how the 
+brain malfunctions. 
+
+5. And in the chapter on reverse engineering the brain, we will 
+explore yet another promising avenue, imaging the entire brain and 
+all its neural pathways. This may finally unravel the mystery of 
+mental illnesses. 
+
+But to make sense of the wide variety of mental illnesses, some 
+scientists believe that mental illnesses can be grouped into at least two 
+major groups, each one requiring a different approach: 
+
+1. Mental disorders involving injury to the brain"
+"1. Mental disorders involving injury to the brain 
+
+2. Mental disorders triggered by incorrect wiring within the brain 
+
+The first type includes Parkinson’s, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, and a wide 
+variety of disorders caused by strokes and tumors, in which brain tissue 
+is actually injured or malfunctioning. In the case of Parkinson’s and 
+epilepsy, there are neurons in a precise area of the brain that are 
+overactive. In Alzheimer’s, a buildup of amyloid plaque destroys brain 
+tissue, including the hippocampus. In strokes and tumors, certain parts 
+of the brain are silenced, causing numerous behavioral problems. Each 
+of these disorders has to be treated differently, since each injury is 
+different. Parkinson’s and epilepsy may require probes to silence the 
+overactive areas, while damage from Alzheimer’s, strokes, and tumors is 
+often incurable."
+"In the future, there will be advances in methods to deal with these 
+injured parts of the brain besides deep brain stimulation and magnetic 
+fields. One day stem cells may replace brain tissue that has been 
+damaged. Or perhaps artificial replacements can be found to compensate 
+for these injured areas using computers. In this case, the injured tissue is 
+removed or replaced, either organically or electronically. 
+
+The second category involves disorders caused by a miswiring of the 
+brain. Disorders like schizophrenia, OCD, depression, and bipolar 
+disorder might fall into this category. Each region of the brain may be 
+relatively healthy and intact, but one or more of them may be miswired, 
+causing messages to be processed incorrectly. This category is difficult to 
+treat, since the wiring of the brain is not well understood. So far, the 
+main way to deal with these disorders is through drugs that influence 
+neurotransmitters, but there is still a lot of hit or miss involved here."
+"But there is another altered state of consciousness that has given us 
+new insights into the working mind. It has also provided new 
+perspectives on how the brain works and what might happen if there is a 
+disorder. This is the field of AI, artificial intelligence. Although it is still 
+in its infancy, it has opened profound insights into the thinking process 
+and has even deepened our understanding of human consciousness. So 
+the questions are: Can silicon consciousness be achieved? If so, how 
+might it differ from human consciousness? And will it try one day to 
+control us? 
+
+No, I’m not interested in developing a powerful brain. All I’m 
+after is just a mediocre brain, something like the President of 
+the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. 
+
+—ALAN TURING 
+
+10 THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON 
+CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+In February 2011, history was made."
+"10 THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON 
+CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+In February 2011, history was made. 
+
+An IBM computer called Watson did what many critics thought was 
+impossible: it beat two contestants on a TV game show called Jeopardy! 
+Millions of viewers were glued to the screen as Watson methodically 
+annihilated its opponents on national TV, answering questions that 
+stumped the rival contestants, and thereby claiming the $1 million prize 
+money. 
+
+IBM pulled out all the stops in assembling a machine with a truly 
+monumental amount of computational firepower. Watson can process 
+data at the astonishing rate of five hundred gigabytes per second (or the 
+equivalent of a million books per second) with sixteen trillion bytes of 
+RAM memory. It also had access to two hundred million pages of 
+material in its memory, including the entire storehouse of knowledge 
+
+within Wikipedia. Watson could then analyze this mountain of 
+information on live TV."
+"within Wikipedia. Watson could then analyze this mountain of 
+information on live TV. 
+
+Watson is just the latest generation of “expert systems,” software 
+programs that use formal logic to access vast amounts of specialized 
+information. (When you talk on the phone to a machine that gives you a 
+menu of choices, this is a primitive expert system.) Expert systems will 
+continue to evolve, making our lives more convenient and efficient. 
+
+For example, engineers are currently working to create a “robo-doc,” 
+which will appear on your wristwatch or wall screen and give you basic 
+medical advice with 99 percent accuracy almost for free. You’d talk to it 
+about your symptoms, and it would access the databanks of the world’s 
+leading medical centers for the latest scientific information. This will 
+reduce unnecessary visits to the doctor, eliminate costly false alarms, 
+and make it effortless to have regular conversations with a doctor."
+"Eventually we might have robot lawyers that can answer all common 
+legal questions, or a robo-secretary that can plan vacations, trips, and 
+
+dinners. (Of course, for specialized services requiring professional 
+advice, you would still need to see a real doctor, lawyer, etc., but for 
+common, everyday advice, these programs would suffice.) 
+
+In addition, scientists have created “chat-bots” that can mimic 
+ordinary conversations. The average person may know tens of thousands 
+of words. Reading the newspaper may require about two thousand words 
+or more, but a casual conversation usually involves only a few hundred. 
+Robots can be programmed to converse with this limited vocabulary (as 
+long as the conversation is limited to certain well-defined subjects). 
+
+MEDIA HYPE—THE ROBOTS ARE COMING"
+"MEDIA HYPE—THE ROBOTS ARE COMING 
+
+Soon after Watson won that contest, some pundits were wringing their 
+hands, mourning the day when the machines will take over. Ken 
+Jennings, one of the contestants defeated by Watson, remarked to the 
+press, “I for one welcome our new computer overlords.” The pundits 
+asked, If Watson could defeat seasoned game show contestants in a 
+head-to-machine contest, then what chance do the rest of us mortals 
+have to stand up to the machines? Half jokingly, Jennings said, “Brad 
+[the other contestant] and I were the first knowledge-industry workers 
+put out of work by the new generation of ‘thinking’ machines.” 
+
+The commentators, however, forgot to mention that you could not go 
+up to Watson and congratulate it for winning. You could not slap it on"
+"its back, or share a champagne toast with it. It wouldn’t know what any 
+of that meant, and in fact Watson was totally unaware that it had won at 
+all. All the hype aside, the truth is that Watson is a highly sophisticated 
+adding machine, able to add (or search data files) billions of times faster 
+than the human brain, but it is totally lacking in self-awareness or 
+common sense. 
+
+On one hand, progress in artificial intelligence has been astounding, 
+especially in the area of raw computational power. Someone from the 
+year 1900, viewing the calculations performed by computers today, 
+would consider these machines to be miracles. But in another sense, 
+progress has been painstakingly slow in building machines that can think 
+for themselves (i.e., true automatons, without a puppet master, a 
+controller with a joystick, or someone with a remote-control panel). 
+
+Robots are totally unaware that they are robots."
+"Robots are totally unaware that they are robots. 
+
+Given the fact that computer power has been doubling every two years 
+for the past fifty years under Moore’s law, some say it is only a matter of 
+time before machines eventually acquire self-awareness that rivals 
+human intelligence. No one knows when this will happen, but humanity 
+should be prepared for the moment when machine consciousness leaves 
+the laboratory and enters the real world. How we deal with robot 
+consciousness could decide the future of the human race. 
+
+BOOM AND BUST CYCLES IN AI"
+"BOOM AND BUST CYCLES IN AI 
+
+It is difficult to foretell the fate of AI, since it has gone through three 
+cycles of boom and bust. Back in the 1950s, it seemed as if mechanical 
+maids and butlers were just around the corner. Machines were being 
+built that could play checkers and solve algebra problems. Robot arms 
+were developed that could recognize and pick up blocks. At Stanford 
+University, a robot was built called Shakey—basically a computer sitting 
+on top of wheels with a camera—which could wander around a room by 
+itself, avoiding obstacles."
+"Breathless articles were soon published in science magazines heralding 
+the coming of the robot companion. Some predictions were too 
+conservative. In 1949, Popular Mechanics stated that “in the future, 
+computers will weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” But others were wildly 
+optimistic in proclaiming that the day of the robots was near. Shakey 
+would one day become a mechanical maid or butler that would vacuum 
+our carpets and open our doors. Movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey 
+convinced us that robots would soon be piloting our rocket ships to 
+Jupiter and chatting with our astronauts. In 1965, Dr. Herbert Simon, 
+
+one of the founders of AI, said flatly, “Machines will be capable, within 
+20 years, of doing any work a man can do.” Two years later, another 
+founding father of AI, Dr. Marvin Minsky, said that “within a 
+generation ... the problem of creating ‘artificial intelligence’ will 
+substantially be solved.”"
+"But all this unbounded optimism collapsed in the 1970s. Checker¬ 
+playing machines could only play checkers, nothing more. Mechanical 
+arms could pick up blocks, but nothing else. They were like one-trick 
+
+ponies. The most advanced robots took hours just to walk across a room. 
+Shakey, placed in an unfamiliar environment, would easily get lost. And 
+scientists were nowhere near understanding consciousness. In 1974, AI 
+suffered a huge blow when both the U.S. and British governments 
+substantially curtailed funding in the field."
+"But as computer power steadily increased in the 1980s, a new gold 
+rush occurred in AI, fueled mainly by Pentagon planners hoping to put 
+robot soldiers on the battlefield. Funding for AI hit a billion dollars by 
+1985, with hundreds of millions of dollars spent on projects like the 
+Smart Truck, which was supposed to be an intelligent, autonomous truck 
+that could enter enemy lines, do reconnaissance by itself, perform 
+missions (such as rescuing prisoners), and then return to friendly 
+territory. Unfortunately, the only thing that the Smart Truck did was get 
+lost. The visible failures of these costly projects created yet another AI 
+winter in the 1990s. 
+
+Paul Abrahams, commenting about the years he spent at MIT as a 
+graduate student, has said, “It’s as though a group of people had 
+proposed to build a tower to the moon. Each year, they point with pride 
+at how much higher the tower is than it was the previous year. The only 
+trouble is that the moon isn’t getting much closer.”"
+"But now, with the relentless march of computer power, a new AI 
+renaissance has begun, and slow but substantial progress has been made. 
+In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue computer beat world chess champion Garry 
+Kasparov. In 2005, a robot car from Stanford won the DARPA Grand 
+Challenge for a driverless car. Milestones continue to be reached. 
+
+This question remains: Is the third try the charm? 
+
+Scientists now realize that they vastly underestimated the problem, 
+because most human thought is actually subconscious. The conscious 
+part of our thoughts, in fact, represents only the tiniest portion of our 
+computations. 
+
+Dr. Steve Pinker says, “I would pay a lot for a robot that would put 
+
+away the dishes or run simple errands, but I can’t, because all of the 
+little problems that you’d need to solve to build a robot do to that, like 
+recognizing objects, reasoning about the world, and controlling hands 
+and feet, are unsolved engineering problems.”"
+"Although Hollywood movies tell us that terrifying Terminator robots 
+may be just around the corner, the task of creating an artificial mind has 
+
+been much more difficult than previously thought. I once asked Dr. 
+Minsky when machines would equal and perhaps even surpass human 
+intelligence. He said that he was confident this would happen but that 
+he doesn’t make predictions about dates anymore. Given the roller¬ 
+coaster history of AI, perhaps this is the wisest approach, to map out the 
+future of AI without setting a specific timetable. 
+
+PATTERN RECOGNITION AND COMMON SENSE 
+
+There are at least two basic problems confronting AI: pattern recognition 
+and common sense."
+"There are at least two basic problems confronting AI: pattern recognition 
+and common sense. 
+
+Our best robots can barely recognize simple objects like a cup or a 
+ball. The robot’s eye may see details better than a natural eye, but the 
+robot brain cannot recognize what it is seeing. If you place a robot on a 
+strange, busy street, it quickly becomes disoriented and gets lost. Pattern 
+recognition (e.g., identifying objects) has progressed much more slowly 
+than previously estimated because of this problem."
+"When a robot walks into a room, it has to perform trillions of 
+calculations, breaking down the objects it sees into pixels, lines, circles, 
+squares, and triangles, and then trying to make a match with the 
+thousands of images stored in its memory. For instance, robots see a 
+chair as a hodgepodge of lines and dots, but they cannot easily identify 
+the essence of “chairness.” Even if a robot is able to successfully match 
+an object to an image in its database, a slight rotation (like a chair that’s 
+been knocked over on the floor) or change in perspective (viewing the 
+chair from a different angle) will mystify the robot. Our brains, however, 
+automatically take different perspectives and variations into account. 
+Our brains are subconsciously performing trillions of calculations, but 
+the process seems effortless to us."
+"Robots also have a problem with common sense. They do not 
+understand simple facts about the physical and biological world. There 
+isn’t an equation that can confirm something as self-evident (to us 
+humans) as “muggy weather is uncomfortable” or “mothers are older 
+than their daughters.” There has been some progress made in translating 
+
+this sort of information into mathematical logic, but to catalog the 
+common sense of a four-year-old child would require hundreds of 
+
+millions of lines of computer code. As Voltaire once said, “Common 
+sense is not so common.” 
+
+For example, one of our most advanced robots is called ASIMO, built 
+in Japan (where 30 percent of all industrial robots are made) by the 
+Honda Corporation. This marvelous robot, about the size of a young boy, 
+can walk, run, climb stairs, speak different languages, and dance (much 
+better than I do, in fact). I have interacted with ASIMO on TV several 
+times, and was very impressed by its abilities."
+"However, I met privately with the creators of ASIMO and asked them 
+this key question: How smart is ASIMO, if we compare it to an animal? 
+They admitted to me that it has the intelligence of a bug. All the walking 
+and talking is mostly for the press. The problem is that ASIMO is, by and 
+large, a big tape recorder. It has only a modest list of truly autonomous 
+functions, so almost every speech or motion has to be carefully scripted 
+ahead of time. For example, it took about three hours to film a short 
+sequence of me interacting with ASIMO, because the hand gesture and 
+other movement had to be programmed by a team of handlers."
+"If we consider this in relation to our definition of human 
+consciousness, it seems that our current robots are stuck at a very 
+primitive level, simply trying to make sense of the physical and social 
+world by learning basic facts. As a consequence, robots are not even at 
+the stage where they can plot realistic simulations of the future. Asking a 
+robot to craft a plan to rob a bank, for instance, assumes that the robot 
+knows all the fundamentals about banks, such as where the money is 
+stored, what sort of security system is in place, and how the police and 
+bystanders will react to the situation. Some of this can be programmed, 
+but there are hundreds of nuances that the human mind naturally 
+understands but robots do not."
+"Where robots excel is in simulating the future in just one precise field, 
+such as playing chess, modeling the weather, tracing the collision of 
+galaxies, etc. Since the laws of chess and gravity have been well known 
+for centuries, it is only a matter of raw computer power to simulate the 
+future of a chess game or a solar system. 
+
+Attempts to move beyond this level using brute force have also 
+floundered. One ambitious program, called CYC, was designed to solve 
+the commonsense problem. CYC would include millions of lines of 
+computer code containing all the information of common sense and 
+
+knowledge necessary to understand its physical and social environment. 
+Although CYC can process hundreds of thousands of facts and millions of 
+statements, it still cannot reproduce the level of thought of a four-year- 
+old human. Unfortunately, after some optimistic press releases, the effort 
+has stagnated. Many of its programmers left, deadlines have come and 
+gone, and yet the project still continues."
+"IS THE BRAIN A COMPUTER? 
+
+Where did we go wrong? For the past fifty years, scientists working in AI 
+have tried to model the brain by following the analogy with digital 
+computers. But perhaps this was too simplistic. As Joseph Campbell once 
+said, “Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no 
+mercy.” If you remove a single transistor from a Pentium chip, the 
+computer will crash immediately. But the human brain can perform 
+quite well even if half of it is missing."
+"This is because the brain is not a digital computer at all, but a highly 
+sophisticated neural network of some sort. Unlike a digital computer, 
+which has a fixed architecture (input, output, and processor), neural 
+networks are collections of neurons that constantly rewire and reinforce 
+themselves after learning a new task. The brain has no programming, no 
+operating system, no Windows, no central processor. Instead, its neural 
+networks are massively parallel, with one hundred billion neurons firing 
+at the same time in order to accomplish a single goal: to learn."
+"In light of this, AI researchers are beginning to reexamine the “top- 
+down approach” they have followed for the last fifty years (e.g., putting 
+all the rules of common sense on a CD). Now AI researchers are giving 
+the “bottom-up approach” a second look. This approach tries to follow 
+Mother Nature, which has created intelligent beings (us) via evolution, 
+starting with simple animals like worms and fish and then creating more 
+complex ones. Neural networks must learn the hard way, by bumping 
+into things and making mistakes. 
+
+Dr. Rodney Brooks, former director of the famed MIT Artificial 
+Intelligence Laboratory, and cofounder of iRobot, which makes those 
+mechanical vacuum cleaners found in many living rooms, introduced an 
+entirely new approach to AI. Instead of designing big, clumsy robots,"
+"why not build small, compact, insectlike robots that have to learn how 
+to walk, just as in nature?When I interviewed him, he told me that he 
+used to marvel at the mosquito, which had a nearly microscopic brain 
+with very few neurons, yet was able to maneuver in space better than 
+
+any robot airplane. He built a series of remarkably simple robots, 
+affectionately called “insectoids” or “bugbots,” which scurried around 
+the floors of MIT and could run circles around the more traditional 
+robots. The goal was to create robots that follow the trial-and-error 
+method of Mother Nature. In other words, these robots learn by bumping 
+into things. 
+
+(At first, it may seem that this requires a lot of programming. The 
+irony, however, is that neural networks require no programming at all. 
+The only thing that the neural network does is rewire itself, by changing 
+the strength of certain pathways each time it makes a right decision. So 
+programming is nothing; changing the network is everything.)"
+"Science-fiction writers once envisioned that robots on Mars would be 
+sophisticated humanoids, walking and moving just like us, with complex 
+programming that gave them human intelligence. The opposite has 
+happened. Today the grandchildren of this approach—like the Mars 
+Curiosity rover—are now roaming over the surface of Mars. They are not 
+programmed to walk like a human. Instead, they have the intelligence of 
+a bug, but they do quite fine in this terrain. These Mars rovers have 
+relatively little programming; instead, they learn as they bump into 
+obstacles. 
+
+ARE ROBOTS CONSCIOUS?"
+"ARE ROBOTS CONSCIOUS? 
+
+Perhaps the clearest way to see why true robot automatons do not yet 
+exist is to rank their level of consciousness. As we have seen in Chapter 
+2, we can rank consciousness in four levels. Level 0 consciousness 
+describes thermostats and plants; that is, it involves a few feedback loops 
+in a handful of simple parameters such as temperature or sunlight. Level 
+I consciousness describes insects and reptiles, which are mobile and have 
+a central nervous system; it involves creating a model of your world in 
+relationship to a new parameter, space. Then we have Level II 
+consciousness, which creates a model of the world in relationship to 
+
+others of its kind, requiring emotions. Finally we have Level III 
+consciousness, which describes humans, who incorporate time and self- 
+awareness to simulate how things will evolve in the future and 
+determine our own place in these models."
+"We can use this theory to rank the robots of today. The first 
+generation of robots were at Level 0, since they were static, without 
+wheels or treads. Today’s robots are at Level I, since they are mobile, but 
+they are at a very low echelon because they have tremendous difficulty 
+navigating in the real world. Their consciousness can be compared to 
+that of a worm or slow insect. To fully produce Level I consciousness, 
+
+scientists will have to create robots that can realistically duplicate the 
+consciousness of insects and reptiles. Even insects have abilities that 
+current robots do not have, such as rapidly finding hiding places, 
+locating mates in the forest, recognizing and evading predators, or 
+finding food and shelter."
+"As we mentioned earlier, we can numerically rank consciousness by 
+the number of feedback loops at each level. Robots that can see, for 
+example, may have several feedback loops because they have visual 
+sensors that can detect shadows, edges, curves, geometric shapes, etc., in 
+three-dimensional space. Similarly, robots that can hear require sensors 
+that can detect frequency, intensity, stress, pauses, etc. The total number 
+of these feedback loops may total ten or so (while an insect, because it 
+can forage in the wild, find mates, locate shelter, etc., may have fifty or 
+more feedback loops). A typical robot, therefore, may have Level 1:10 
+consciousness."
+"Robots will have to be able to create a model of the world in relation 
+to others if they are to enter Level II consciousness. As we mentioned 
+before, Level II consciousness, to a first approximation, is computed by 
+multiplying the number of members of its group times the number of 
+emotions and gestures that are used to communicate between them. 
+Robots would thus have a consciousness of Level 11:0. But hopefully, the 
+emotional robots being built in labs today may soon raise that number. 
+
+Current robots view humans as simply a collection of pixels moving on 
+their TV sensors, but some AI researchers are beginning to create robots 
+that can recognize emotions in our facial expressions and tone of voice. 
+This is a first step toward robots’ realizing that humans are more than 
+just random pixels, and that they have emotional states."
+"In the next few decades, robots will gradually rise in Level II 
+consciousness, becoming as intelligent as a mouse, rat, rabbit, and then a 
+cat. Perhaps late in this century, they will be as intelligent as a monkey, 
+and will begin to create goals of their own. 
+
+Once robots have a working knowledge of common sense and the 
+Theory of Mind, they will be able to run complex simulations into the 
+future featuring themselves as the principal actors and thus enter Level 
+III consciousness. They will leave the world of the present and enter the 
+world of the future. This is many decades beyond the capability of any 
+robot today. Running simulations of the future means that you have a 
+firm grasp of the laws of nature, causality, and common sense, so that 
+you can anticipate future events. It also means that you understand 
+human intentions and motivations, so you can predict their future 
+behavior as well."
+"The numerical value of Level III consciousness, as we mentioned, is 
+calculated by the total number of causal links one can make in 
+simulating the future in a variety of real-life situations, divided by the 
+average value of a control group. Computers today are able to make 
+limited simulations in a few parameters (e.g., the collision of two 
+galaxies, the flow of air around an airplane, the shaking of buildings in 
+an earthquake), but they are totally unprepared to simulate the future in 
+complex, real-life situations, so their level of consciousness would be 
+something like Level III: 5. 
+
+As we can see, it may take many decades of hard work before we have 
+a robot that can function normally in human society. 
+
+SPEED BUMPS ON THE WAY"
+"SPEED BUMPS ON THE WAY 
+
+So when might robots finally match and exceed humans in intelligence? 
+No one knows, but there have been many predictions. Most of them rely 
+on Moore’s law extending decades into the future. However, Moore’s law 
+is not a law at all, and in fact it ultimately violates a fundamental 
+physical law: the quantum theory. 
+
+As such, Moore’s law cannot last forever. In fact, we can already see it 
+slowing down now. It might flatten out by the end of this or the next 
+decade, and the consequences could be dire, especially for Silicon Valley."
+"The problem is simple. Right now, you can place hundreds of millions 
+of silicon transistors on a chip the size of your fingernail, but there is a 
+limit to how much you can cram onto these chips. Today the smallest 
+layer of silicon in your Pentium chip is about twenty atoms in width, 
+and by 2020 that layer might be five atoms across. But then Heisenberg’s 
+uncertainty principle kicks in, and you wouldn’t be able to determine 
+precisely where the electron is and it could “leak out” of the wire. (See 
+the Appendix, where we discuss the quantum theory and the uncertainty 
+principle in more detail.) The chip would short-circuit. In addition, it 
+would generate enough heat to fry an egg on it. So leakage and heat will 
+eventually doom Moore’s law, and a replacement will soon be necessary."
+"If packing transistors on flat chips is maxing out in computing power, 
+Intel is making a multibillion-dollar bet that chips will rise into the third 
+dimension. Time will tell if this gamble pays off (one major problem 
+with 3-D chips is that the heat generated rises rapidly with the height of 
+the chip). 
+
+Microsoft is looking into other options, such as expanding into 2-D 
+with parallel processing. One possibility is to spread chips horizontally 
+
+in a row. Then you break up a software problem into pieces, sort out 
+each piece on a small chip, and reassemble it at the end. However, it 
+may be a difficult process, and software grows at a much slower pace 
+than the supercharged exponential rate we are accustomed to with 
+Moore’s law."
+"These stopgap measures may add years to Moore’s law. But eventually, 
+all this must pass, too: the quantum theory inevitably takes over. This 
+means that physicists are experimenting with a wide variety of 
+alternatives after the Age of Silicon draws to a close, such as quantum 
+computers, molecular computers, nanocomputers, DNA computers, 
+optical computers, etc. None of these technologies, however, is ready for 
+prime time. 
+
+THE UNCANNY VALLEY 
+
+But assume for the moment that one day we will coexist with incredibly 
+sophisticated robots, perhaps using chips with molecular transistors 
+instead of silicon. How closely do we want our robots to look like us?"
+"Japan is the world’s leader in creating robots that resemble cuddly pets 
+and children, but their designers are careful not to make their robots 
+appear too human, which can be unnerving. This phenomenon was first 
+studied by Dr. Masahiro Mori in Japan in 1970, and is called the 
+“uncanny valley.” It posits that robots look creepy if they look too much 
+like humans. (The effect was actually first mentioned by Darwin in 1839 
+in The Voyage of the Beagle and again by Freud in 1919 in an essay titled 
+“The Uncanny.”) Since then, it has been studied very carefully not just 
+by AI researchers but also by animators, advertisers, and anyone 
+promoting a product involving humanlike figures. For instance, in a 
+review of the movie The Polar Express, a CNN writer noted, “Those 
+human characters in the film come across as downright ... well, creepy. 
+So The Polar Express is at best disconcerting, and at worst, a wee bit 
+horrifying.”"
+"According to Dr. Mori, the more a robot looks like a human, the more 
+we feel empathy toward it, but only up to a point. There is a dip in 
+empathy as the robot approaches actual human appearance—hence the 
+uncanny valley. If the robot looks very similar to us save for a few 
+features that are “uncanny,” it creates a feeling of revulsion and fear. If 
+the robot appears 100 percent human, indistinguishable from you and 
+me, then we’ll register positive emotions again. 
+
+This has practical implications. For example, should robots smile? At 
+first, it seems obvious that robots should smile to greet people and make"
+"them feel comfortable. Smiling is a universal gesture that signals warmth 
+and welcome. But if the robot smile is too realistic, it makes people’s 
+skin crawl. (For example, Halloween masks often feature fiendish- 
+looking ghouls that are grinning.) So robots should smile only if they are 
+childlike (i.e., with big eyes and a round face) or are perfectly human, 
+and nothing in between. (When we force a smile, we activate facial 
+muscles with our prefrontal cortex. But when we smile because we are in 
+a good mood, our nerves are controlled by our limbic system, which 
+activates a slightly different set of muscles. Our brains can tell the subtle 
+difference between the two, which was beneficial for our evolution.) 
+
+This effect can also be studied using brain scans. Let’s say that a 
+subject is placed into an MRI machine and is shown a picture of a robot 
+that looks perfectly human, except that its bodily motions are slightly 
+jerky and mechanical. The brain, whenever it sees anything, tries to"
+"predict that object’s motion into the future. So when looking at a robot 
+that appears to be human, the brain predicts that it will move like a 
+human. But when the robot moves like a machine, there is a mismatch, 
+which makes us uncomfortable. In particular, the parietal lobe lights up 
+(specifically, the part of the lobe where the motor cortex connects with 
+the visual cortex). It is believed that mirror neurons exist in this area of 
+the parietal lobe. This makes sense, because the visual cortex picks up 
+the image of the humanlike robot, and its motions are predicted via the 
+motor cortex and by mirror neurons. Finally, it is likely that the 
+orbitofrontal cortex, located right behind the eyes, puts everything 
+together and says, “Hmmm, something is not quite right.”"
+"Hollywood filmmakers are aware of this effect. When spending 
+millions on making a horror movie, they realize that the scariest scene is 
+not when a gigantic blob or Frankenstein’s monster pounces out of the 
+bushes. The scariest scene is when there is a perversion of the ordinary. 
+Think of the movie The Exorcist What scene made moviegoers vomit as 
+they ran to escape the theater or faint right in their seats? Was it the 
+scene when a demon appears? No. Theaters across the world erupted in 
+shrill screams and loud sobs when Linda Blair turned her head 
+completely around."
+"This effect can also be demonstrated in young monkeys. If you show 
+them pictures of Dracula or Frankenstein, they simply laugh and rip the 
+pictures apart. But what sends these young monkeys screaming in terror 
+is a picture of a decapitated monkey. Once again, it is the perversion of 
+the ordinary that elicits the greatest fear. (In Chapter 2, we mentioned 
+that the space-time theory of consciousness explains the nature of 
+humor, since the brain simulates the future of a joke, and then is 
+surprised to hear the punch line. This also explains the nature of horror. 
+The brain simulates the future of an ordinary, mundane event, but then 
+
+is shocked when things suddenly become horribly perverted.) 
+
+For this reason, robots will continue to look somewhat childlike in 
+appearance, even as they approach human intelligence. Only when 
+robots can act realistically like humans will their designers make them 
+look fully human. 
+
+SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+As we’ve seen, human consciousness is an imperfect patchwork of 
+different abilities developed over millions of years of evolution. Given 
+information about their physical and social world, robots may be able to 
+create simulations similar (or in some respects, even superior) to ours, 
+but silicon consciousness might differ from ours in two key areas: 
+emotions and goals. 
+
+Historically, AI researchers ignored the problem of emotions, 
+considering it a secondary issue. The goal was to create a robot that was 
+logical and rational, not scatterbrained and impulsive. Hence, the 
+science fiction of the 1950s and ’60s stressed robots (and humanoids like 
+Spock on Star Trek ) that had perfect, logical brains."
+"We saw with the uncanny valley that robots will have to look a certain 
+way if they’re to enter our homes, but some people argue that robots 
+must also have emotions so that we can bond with, take care of, and 
+interact productively with them. In other words, robots will need Level II 
+consciousness. To accomplish this, robots will first have to recognize the 
+full spectrum of human emotions. By analyzing subtle facial movements 
+of the eyebrows, eyelids, lips, cheeks, etc., a robot will be able to 
+identify the emotional state of a human, such as its owner. One 
+institution that has excelled in creating robots that recognize and mimic 
+emotion is the MIT Media Laboratory. I have had the pleasure of visiting 
+the laboratory, outside Boston, on several occasions, and it is like 
+visiting a toy factory for grown-ups. Everywhere you look, you see 
+futuristic, high-tech devices designed to make our lives more interesting, 
+enjoyable, and convenient."
+"As I looked around the room, I saw many of the high-tech graphics 
+that eventually found their way into Hollywood movies like Minority 
+Report and AI. As I wandered through this playground of the future, I 
+came across two intriguing robots, Huggable and Nexi. Their creator, Dr. 
+Cynthia Breazeal, explained to me that these robots have specific goals. 
+Huggable is a cute teddy bear-like robot that can bond with children. It 
+can identify the emotions of children; it has video cameras for eyes, a 
+speaker for its mouth, and sensors in its skin (so it can tell when it is 
+being tickled, poked, or hugged). Eventually, a robot like this might 
+become a tutor, babysitter, nurse’s aide, or a playmate. 
+
+Nexi, on the other hand, can bond with adults. It looks a little like the 
+Pillsbury Doughboy. It has a round, puffy, friendly face, with large eyes"
+"that can roll around. It has already been tested in a nursing home, and 
+the elderly patients all loved it. Once the seniors got accustomed to Nexi, 
+they would kiss it, talk to it, and miss it when it had to leave. (See 
+Figure 12.) 
+
+Dr. Breazeal told me she designed Huggable and Nexi because she was 
+not satisfied with earlier robots, which looked like tin cans full of wires, 
+gears, and motors. In order to design a robot that could interact 
+emotionally with people, she needed to figure out how she could get it 
+to perform and bond like us. Plus, she wanted robots that weren’t stuck 
+on a laboratory shelf but could venture out into the real world. The 
+former director of MIT’s Media Lab, Dr. Frank Moss, says, “That is why 
+Breazeal decided in 2004 that it was time to create a new generation of 
+social robots that could live anywhere: homes, schools, hospitals, elder 
+care facilities, and so on.”"
+"At Waseda University in Japan, scientists are working on a robot that 
+has upper-body motions representing emotions (fear, anger, surprise, 
+joy, disgust, sadness) and can hear, smell, see, and touch. It has been 
+programmed to carry out simple goals, such as satisfying its hunger for 
+energy and avoiding dangerous situations. Their goal is to integrate the 
+senses with the emotions, so that the robot acts appropriately in 
+different situations. 
+
+Figure 12. Huggable (top) and Nexi (bottom), two robots built at the MIT Media Laboratory that were 
+explicitly designed 
+
+to interact with humans via emotions, (illustration credit 10.1) 
+
+(illustration credit 10.2) 
+
+Not to be outdone, the European Commission is funding an ongoing 
+project, called Feelix Growing, which seeks to promote artificial 
+intelligence in the UK, France, Switzerland, Greece, and Denmark. 
+
+EMOTIONAL ROBOTS 
+
+Meet Nao."
+"EMOTIONAL ROBOTS 
+
+Meet Nao. 
+
+When he’s happy, he will stretch out his arms to greet you, wanting a 
+big hug. When he’s sad, he turns his head downward and appears 
+forlorn, with his shoulders hunched forward. When he’s scared, he 
+cowers in fear, until someone pats him reassuringly on the head. 
+
+He’s just like a one-year-old boy, except that he’s a robot. Nao is about 
+one and a half feet tall, and looks very much like some of the robots you 
+see in a toy store, like the Tranformers, except he’s one of the most 
+advanced emotional robots on earth. He was built by scientists at the 
+
+UK’s University of Hertfordshire, whose research was funded by the 
+European Union. 
+
+His creators have programmed him to show emotions like happiness, 
+sadness, fear, excitement, and pride. While other robots have 
+rudimentary facial and verbal gestures that communicate their emotions, 
+Nao excels in body language, such as posture and gesture. Nao even 
+dances."
+"Unlike other robots, which specialize in mastering just one area of the 
+emotions, Nao has mastered a wide range of emotional responses. First, 
+Nao locks onto visitors’ faces, identifies them, and remembers his 
+previous interactions with each of them. Second, he begins to follow 
+their movements. For example, he can follow their gaze and tell what 
+they are looking at. Third, he begins to bond with them and learns to 
+respond to their gestures. For example, if you smile at him, or pat him 
+on his head, he knows that this is a positive sign. Because his brain has 
+neural networks, he learns from interactions with humans. Fourth, Nao 
+exhibits emotions in response to his interactions with people. (His 
+emotional responses are all preprogrammed, like a tape recorder, but he 
+decides which emotion to choose to fit the situation.) And lastly, the 
+more Nao interacts with a human, the better he gets at understanding 
+the moods of that person and the stronger the bond becomes."
+"Not only does Nao have a personality, he can actually have several of 
+them. Because he learns from his interactions with humans and each 
+interaction is unique, eventually different personalities begin to emerge. 
+For example, one personality might be quite independent, not requiring 
+much human guidance. Another personality might be timid and fearful, 
+scared of objects in a room, constantly requiring human intervention. 
+
+The project leader for Nao is Dr. Lola Canamero, a computer scientist 
+at the University of Hertfordshire. To start this ambitious project, she 
+analyzed the interactions of chimpanzees. Her goal was to reproduce, as 
+closely as she could, the emotional behavior of a one-year-old 
+
+chimpanzee."
+"chimpanzee. 
+
+She sees immediate applications for these emotional robots. Like Dr. 
+Breazeal, she wants to use these robots to relieve the anxiety of young 
+children who are in hospitals. She says, “We want to explore different 
+roles—the robots will help the children to understand their treatment, 
+explain what they have to do. We want to help the children to control 
+
+their anxiety.” 
+
+Another possibility is that the robots will become companions at 
+nursing homes. Nao could become a valuable addition to the staff of a 
+hospital. At some point, robots like these might become playmates to 
+children and a part of the family."
+"“It’s hard to predict the future, but it won’t be too long before the 
+computer in front of you will be a social robot. You’ll be able to talk to 
+it, flirt with it, or even get angry and yell at it—and it will understand 
+you and your emotions,” says Dr. Terrence Sejnowski of the Salk 
+Institute, near San Diego. This is the easy part. The hard part is to gauge 
+the response of the robot, given this information. If the owner is angry 
+or displeased, the robot has to be able to factor this into its response. 
+
+EMOTIONS: DETERMINING WHAT IS IMPORTANT"
+"EMOTIONS: DETERMINING WHAT IS IMPORTANT 
+
+What’s more, AI researchers have begun to realize that emotions may be 
+a key to consciousness. Neuroscientists like Dr. Antonio Damasio have 
+found that when the link between the prefrontal lobe (which governs 
+rational thought) and the emotional centers (e.g., the limbic system) is 
+damaged, patients cannot make value judgments. They are paralyzed 
+when making the simplest of decisions (what things to buy, when to set 
+an appointment, which color pen to use) because everything has the 
+same value to them. Hence, emotions are not a luxury; they are 
+absolutely essential, and without them a robot will have difficulty 
+determining what is important and what is not. So emotions, instead of 
+being peripheral to the progress of artificial intelligence, are now 
+assuming central importance."
+"If a robot encounters a raging fire, it might rescue the computer files 
+first, not the people, since its programming might say that valuable 
+documents cannot be replaced but workers always can be. It is crucial 
+that robots be programmed to distinguish between what is important 
+and what is not, and emotions are shortcuts the brain uses to rapidly 
+determine this. Robots would thus have to be programmed to have a 
+value system—that human life is more important than material objects, 
+
+that children should be rescued first in an emergency, that objects with a 
+higher price are more valuable than objects with a lower price, etc. Since 
+
+robots do not come equipped with values, a huge list of value judgments 
+must be uploaded into them."
+"The problem with emotions, however, is that they are sometimes 
+irrational, while robots are mathematically precise. So silicon 
+consciousness may differ from human consciousness in key ways. For 
+example, humans have little control over emotions, since they happen so 
+rapidly and because they originate in the limbic system, not the 
+prefrontal cortex of the brain. Furthermore, our emotions are often 
+biased. Numerous tests have shown that we tend to overestimate the 
+abilities of people who are handsome or pretty. Good-looking people 
+tend to rise higher in society and have better jobs, although they may 
+not be as talented as others. As the expression goes, “Beauty has its 
+privileges.”"
+"Similarly, silicon consciousness may not take into account subtle cues 
+that humans use when they meet one another, such as body language. 
+When people enter a room, young people usually defer to older ones and 
+low-ranked staff members show extra courtesy to senior officials. We 
+show our deference in the way we move our bodies, our choice of words, 
+and our gestures. Because body language is older than language itself, it 
+is hardwired into the brain in subtle ways. Robots, if they are to interact 
+socially with people, will have to learn these unconscious cues. 
+
+Our consciousness is influenced by peculiarities in our evolutionary 
+past, which robots will not have, so silicon consciousness may not have 
+the same gaps or quirks as ours. 
+
+A MENU OF EMOTIONS 
+
+Since emotions have to be programmed into robots from the outside, 
+manufacturers may offer a menu of emotions carefully chosen on the 
+basis of whether they are necessary, useful, or will increase bonding 
+with the owner."
+"In all likelihood, robots will be programmed to have only a few 
+human emotions, depending on the situation. Perhaps the emotion most 
+valued by the robot’s owner will be loyalty. One wants a robot that 
+faithfully carries out its commands without complaints, that understands 
+the needs of the master and anticipates them. The last thing an owner 
+
+will want is a robot with an attitude, one that talks back, criticizes 
+people, and whines. Helpful criticisms are important, but they must be 
+made in a constructive, tactful way. Also, if humans give it conflicting 
+commands, the robot should know to ignore all of them except those 
+coming from its owner. 
+
+Empathy will be another emotion that will be valued by the owner. 
+Robots that have empathy will understand the problems of others and 
+will come to their aid. By interpreting facial movements and listening to 
+tone of voice, robots will be able to identify when a person is in distress 
+and will provide assistance when possible."
+"Strangely, fear is another emotion that is desirable. Evolution gave us 
+the feeling of fear for a reason, to avoid certain things that are 
+dangerous to us. Even though robots will be made of steel, they should 
+fear certain things that can damage them, like falling off tall buildings or 
+entering a raging fire. A totally fearless robot is a useless one if it 
+destroys itself. 
+
+But certain emotions may have to be deleted, forbidden, or highly 
+regulated, such as anger. Given that robots could be built to have great 
+physical strength, an angry robot could create tremendous problems in 
+the home and workplace. Anger could get in the way of its duties and 
+cause great damage to property. (The original evolutionary purpose of 
+anger was to show our dissatisfaction. This can be done in a rational, 
+dispassionate way, without getting angry.)"
+"Another emotion that should be deleted is the desire to be in 
+command. A bossy robot will only make trouble and might challenge the 
+judgment and wishes of the owner. (This point will also be important 
+later, when we discuss whether robots will one day take over from 
+humans.) Hence the robot will have to defer to the wishes of the owner, 
+even if this may not be the best path. 
+
+But perhaps the most difficult emotion to convey is humor, which is a 
+glue that can bond total strangers together. A simple joke can defuse a 
+tense situation or inflame it. The basic mechanics of humor are simple: 
+they involve a punch line that is unanticipated. But the subtleties of 
+humor can be enormous. In fact, we often size up other people on the 
+basis of how they react to certain jokes. If humans use humor as a gauge 
+to measure other humans, then one can appreciate the difficulty of 
+creating a robot that can tell if a joke is funny or not. President Ronald"
+"Reagan, for example, was famous for defusing the most difficult 
+questions with a quip. In fact, he accumulated a large card catalog of 
+jokes, barbs, and wisecracks, because he understood the power of 
+
+humor. (Some pundits concluded that he won the presidential debate 
+against Walter Mondale when he was asked if he was too old to be 
+president. Reagan replied that he would not hold the youth of his 
+opponent against him.) Also, laughing inappropriately could have 
+disastrous consequences (and is, in fact, sometimes a sign of mental 
+illness). The robot has to know the difference between laughing with or 
+at someone. (Actors are well aware of the diverse nature of laughter. 
+They are skilled enough to create laughter that can represent horror, 
+cynicism, joy, anger, sadness, etc.) So, at least until the theory of 
+artificial intelligence becomes more developed, robots should stay away 
+from humor and laughter. 
+
+PROGRAMMING EMOTIONS"
+"PROGRAMMING EMOTIONS 
+
+In this discussion we have so far avoided the difficult question of 
+precisely how these emotions would be programmed into a computer. 
+Because of their complexity, emotions will probably have to be 
+programmed in stages. 
+
+First, the easiest part is identifying an emotion by analyzing the 
+gestures in a person’s face, lips, eyebrows, and tone of voice. Today’s 
+facial recognition technology is already capable of creating a dictionary 
+of emotions, so that certain facial expressions mean certain things. This 
+process actually goes back to Charles Darwin, who spent a considerable 
+amount of time cataloging emotions common to animals and humans. 
+
+Second, the robot must respond rapidly to this emotion. This is also 
+easy. If someone is laughing, the robot will grin. If someone is angry, the 
+robot will get out of his way and avoid conflict. The robot would have a 
+large encyclopedia of emotions programmed into it, and hence would 
+know how to make a rapid response to each one."
+"The third stage is perhaps the most complex because it involves trying 
+to determine the underlying motivation behind the original emotion. 
+This is difficult, since a variety of situations can trigger a single emotion. 
+Laughter may mean that someone is happy, heard a joke, or watched 
+
+someone fall. Or it might mean that a person is nervous, anxious, or 
+insulting someone. Likewise, if someone is screaming, there may be an 
+emergency, or perhaps someone is just reacting with joy and surprise. 
+Determining the reason behind an emotion is a skill that even humans 
+have difficulty with. To do this, the robot will have to list the various 
+possible reasons behind an emotion and try to determine the reason that 
+makes the most sense. This means trying to find a reason behind the 
+emotion that fits the data best."
+"And fourth, once the robot has determined the origin of this emotion, 
+it has to make the appropriate response. This is also difficult, since there 
+are often several possible responses, and the wrong one may make the 
+situation worse. The robot already has, within its programming, a list of 
+possible responses to the original emotion. It has to calculate which one 
+will best serve the situation, which means simulating the future. 
+
+WILL ROBOTS LIE? 
+
+Normally, we might think of robots as being coldly analytical and 
+rational, always telling the truth. But once robots become integrated into 
+society, they will probably have to learn to lie or at least tactfully 
+restrain their comments."
+"In our own lives, several times in a typical day we are confronted with 
+situations where we have to tell a white lie. If people ask us how they 
+look, we often dare not tell the truth. White lies, in fact, are like a grease 
+that makes society run smoothly. If we were suddenly forced to tell the 
+whole truth (like Jim Carrey in Liar Liar), we most likely would wind up 
+creating chaos and hurting people. People would be insulted if you told 
+them what they really looked like or how you really felt. Bosses would 
+fire you. Lovers would dump you. Friends would abandon you. Strangers 
+would slap you. Some thoughts are better kept confidential."
+"In the same way, robots may have to learn how to lie or conceal the 
+truth, or else they might wind up offending people and being 
+decommissioned by their owners. At a party, if a robot tells the truth, it 
+could reflect badly on its owner and create an uproar. So if someone asks 
+for its opinion, it will have to learn how to be evasive, diplomatic, and 
+tactful. It must either dodge the question, change the subject, give 
+
+platitudes for answers, reply with a question, or tell white lies (all things 
+that today’s chat-bots are increasingly good at). This means that the 
+robot has already been programmed to have a list of possible evasive 
+responses, and must choose the one that creates the fewest 
+complications."
+"One of the few times that a robot would tell the entire truth would be 
+if asked a direct question by its owner, who understands that the answer 
+might be brutally honest. Perhaps the only other time when the robot 
+will tell the truth is when there is a police investigation and the absolute 
+truth is necessary. Other than that, robots will be able to freely lie or 
+conceal the whole truth to keep the wheels of society functioning. 
+
+In other words, robots have to be socialized, just like teenagers. 
+
+CAN ROBOTS FEEL PAIN? 
+
+Robots, in general, will be assigned to do types of tasks that are dull, 
+dirty, and dangerous. There is no reason why robots can’t do repetitive 
+or dirty jobs indefinitely, since we wouldn’t program them to feel 
+boredom or disgust. The real problem emerges when robots are faced 
+with dangerous jobs. At that point, we might actually want to program 
+them to feel pain."
+"We evolved the sense of pain because it helped us survive in a 
+dangerous environment. There is a genetic defect in which children are 
+born without the ability to feel pain. This is called congenital analgesia. 
+At first glance, this may seem to be a blessing, since these children do 
+not cry when they experience injury, but it is actually more of a curse. 
+Children with this affliction have serious problems, such as biting off 
+parts of their tongue, suffering severe skin burns, and cutting 
+themselves, often leading to amputations of their fingers. Pain alerts us 
+to danger, telling us when to move our hand away from the burning 
+stove or to stop running on a twisted ankle."
+"At some point robots must be programmed to feel pain, or else they 
+will not know when to avoid precarious situations. The first sense of 
+pain they must have is hunger (i.e., a craving for electrical energy). As 
+their batteries run out, they will get more desperate and urgent, 
+realizing that soon their circuits will shut down, leaving all their work in 
+
+disarray. The closer they are to running out of power, the more anxious 
+they will become. 
+
+Also, regardless of how strong they are, robots may accidentally pick 
+up an object that is too heavy, which could cause their limbs to break. 
+Or they may suffer overheating by working with molten metal in a steel 
+factory, or by entering a burning building to help firemen. Sensors for 
+temperature and stress would alert them that their design specifications 
+are being exceeded."
+"But once the sensation of pain is added to their menu of emotions, this 
+immediately raises ethical issues. Many people believe that we should 
+not inflict unnecessary pain on animals, and people may feel the same 
+about robots as well. This opens the door to robots’ rights. Laws may 
+have to be passed to restrict the amount of pain and danger that a robot 
+is allowed to face. People will not care if a robot is performing dull or 
+dirty tasks, but if they feel pain doing a dangerous one, they may begin 
+
+to lobby for laws to protect robots. This may even start a legal conflict, 
+with owners and manufacturers of robots arguing for increasing the level 
+of pain that robots can endure, while ethicists may argue for lowering it."
+"This, in turn, may set off other ethical debates about other robot 
+rights. Can robots own property? What happens if they accidentally hurt 
+someone? Can they be sued or punished? Who is responsible in a 
+lawsuit? Can a robot own another robot? This discussion raises another 
+sticky question: Should robots be given a sense of ethics? 
+
+ETHICAL ROBOTS 
+
+At first, the idea of ethical robots seems like a waste of time and effort. 
+However, this question takes on a sense of urgency when we realize that 
+robots will make life-and-death decisions. Since they will be physically 
+strong and have the capability of saving lives, they will have to make 
+split-second ethical choices about whom to save first."
+"Let’s say there is a catastrophic earthquake and children are trapped in 
+a rapidly crumbling building. How should the robot allocate its energy? 
+Should it try to save the largest number of children? Or the youngest? Or 
+the most vulnerable? If the debris is too heavy, the robot may damage its 
+electronics. So the robot has to decide yet another ethical question: How 
+
+does it weigh the number of children it saves versus the amount of 
+damage that it will sustain to its electronics? 
+
+Without proper programming, the robot may simply halt, waiting for a 
+human to make the final decision, wasting valuable time. So someone 
+will have to program it ahead of time so that the robot automatically 
+makes the “right” decision."
+"These ethical decisions will have to be preprogrammed into the 
+computer from the start, since there is no law of mathematics that can 
+put a value on saving a group of children. Within its programming, there 
+has to be a long list of things, ranked in terms of how important they 
+are. This is tedious business. In fact, it sometimes takes a human a 
+lifetime to learn these ethical lessons, but a robot has to learn them 
+rapidly, before it leaves the factory, if it is to safely enter society. 
+
+Only people can do this, and even then ethical dilemmas sometimes 
+confound us. But this raises questions: Who will make the decisions? 
+Who decides the order in which robots save human lives? 
+
+The question of how decisions will ultimately be made will probably"
+"The question of how decisions will ultimately be made will probably 
+
+be resolved via a combination of the law and the marketplace. Laws will 
+have to be passed so that there is, at minimum, a ranking of importance 
+of whom to save in an emergency. But beyond that, there are thousands 
+of finer ethical questions. These subtler decisions may be decided by the 
+marketplace and common sense. 
+
+If you work for a security firm guarding important people, you will 
+have to tell the robot how to save people in a precise order in different 
+situations, based on considerations such as fulfilling the primary duty 
+but also doing it within budget."
+"What happens if a criminal buys a robot and wants the robot to 
+commit a crime? This raises a question: Should a robot be allowed to 
+defy its owner if it is asked to break the law? We saw from the previous 
+example that robots must be programmed to understand the law and 
+also make ethical decisions. So if it decides that it is being asked to 
+break the law, it must be allowed to disobey its master. 
+
+There is also the ethical dilemma posed by robots reflecting the beliefs 
+of their owners, who may have diverging morals and social norms. The 
+“culture wars” that we see in society today will only be magnified when 
+we have robots that reflect the opinions and beliefs of their owners. In 
+some sense, this conflict is inevitable. Robots are mechanical extensions 
+
+of the dreams and wishes of their creators, and when robots are 
+sophisticated enough to make moral decisions, they will do so."
+"The fault lines of society may be stressed when robots begin to exhibit 
+behaviors that challenge our values and goals. Robots owned by youth 
+leaving a noisy, raucus rock concert may conflict with robots owned by 
+elderly residents of a quiet neighborhood. The first set of robots may be 
+programmed to amplify the sounds of the latest bands, while the second 
+set may be programmed to keep noise levels to an absolute minimum. 
+Robots owned by devout, churchgoing fundamentalists may get into 
+arguments with robots owned by atheists. Robots from different nations 
+and cultures may be designed to reflect the mores of their society, which 
+may clash (even for humans, let alone robots). 
+
+So how does one program robots to eliminate these conflicts?"
+"So how does one program robots to eliminate these conflicts? 
+
+You can’t. Robots will simply reflect the biases and prejudices of their 
+creators. Ultimately, the cultural and ethical differences between these 
+robots will have to be settled in the courts. There is no law of physics or 
+science that determines these moral questions, so eventually laws will 
+have to be written to handle these social conflicts. Robots cannot solve 
+the moral dilemmas created by humans. In fact, robots may amplify 
+them. 
+
+But if robots can make ethical and legal decisions, can they also feel 
+and understand sensations? If they succeed in saving someone, can they 
+experience joy? Or can they even feel things like the color red? Coldly 
+analyzing the ethics of whom to save is one thing, but understanding 
+and feeling is another. So can robots feel? 
+
+CAN ROBOTS UNDERSTAND OR FEEL?"
+"CAN ROBOTS UNDERSTAND OR FEEL? 
+
+Over the centuries, a great many theories have been advanced about 
+whether a machine can think and feel. My own philosophy is called 
+“constructivism”; that is, instead of endlessly debating the question, 
+which is pointless, we should be devoting our energy to creating an 
+automaton to see how far we can get. Otherwise we wind up in endless 
+philosophical debates that are never ultimately resolved. The advantage 
+of science is that, once everything is said and done, one can perform 
+experiments to settle a question decisively."
+"Thus, to settle the question of whether a robot can think, the final 
+resolution may be to build one. Some, however, have argued that 
+machines will never be able to think like a human. Their strongest 
+argument is that, although a robot can manipulate facts faster than a 
+human, it does not “understand” what it is manipulating. Although it 
+can process senses (e.g., color, sound) better than a human, it cannot 
+truly “feel” or “experience” the essence of these senses. 
+
+For example, philosopher David Chalmers has divided the problems of 
+AI into two categories, the Easy Problems and the Hard Problems. To 
+him, the Easy Problems are creating machines that can mimic more and 
+more human abilities, such as playing chess, adding numbers, 
+recognizing certain patterns, etc. The Hard Problems involve creating 
+machines that can understand feelings and subjective sensations, which 
+are called “qualia.”"
+"Just as it is impossible to teach the meaning of the color red to a blind 
+person, a robot will never be able to experience the subjective sensation 
+of the color red, they say. Or a computer might be able to translate 
+Chinese words into English with great fluency, but it will never be able 
+to understand what it is translating. In this picture, robots are like 
+glorified tape recorders or adding machines, able to recite and 
+manipulate information with incredible precision, but without any 
+understanding whatsoever. 
+
+These arguments have to be taken seriously, but there is also another 
+way of looking at the question of qualia and subjective experience. In"
+"the future, a machine most likely will be able to process a sensation, 
+such as the color red, much better than any human. It will be able to 
+describe the physical properties of red and even use it poetically in a 
+sentence better than a human. Does the robot “feel” the color red? The 
+point becomes irrelevant, since the word “feel” is not well defined. At 
+some point, a robot’s description of the color red may exceed a human’s, 
+and the robot may rightly ask: Do humans really understand the color 
+red? Perhaps humans cannot really understand the color red with all the 
+nuances and subtly that a robot can. 
+
+As behaviorist B. F. Skinner once said, “The real problem is not 
+whether machines think, but whether men do.” 
+
+Similarly, it is only a matter of time before a robot will be able to 
+define Chinese words and use them in context much better than any"
+"human. At that point, it becomes irrelevant whether the robot 
+“understands” the Chinese language. For all practical purposes, the 
+computer will know the Chinese language better than any human. In 
+other words, the word “understand” is not well defined. 
+
+One day, as robots surpass our ability to manipulate these words and 
+sensations, it will become irrelevant whether the robot “understands” or 
+“feels” them. The question will cease to have any importance. 
+
+As mathematician John von Neumann said, “In mathematics, you 
+don’t understand things. You just get used to them.” 
+
+So the problem lies not in the hardware but in the nature of human 
+language, in which words that are not well defined mean different things 
+to different people. The great quantum physicist Niels Bohr was once 
+asked how one could understand the deep paradoxes of the quantum 
+theory. The answer, he replied, lies in how you define the word 
+“understand.”"
+"Dr. Daniel Dennett, a philosopher at Tufts University, has written, 
+“There could not be an objective test to distinguish a clever robot from a 
+conscious person. Now you have a choice: you can either cling to the 
+Hard Problem, or you can shake your head in wonder and dismiss it. 
+Just let go.” 
+
+In other words, there is no such thing as the Hard Problem. 
+
+To the constructivist philosophy, the point is not to debate whether a 
+machine can experience the color red, but to construct the machine. In 
+this picture, there is a continuum of levels describing the words 
+“understand” and “feel.” (This means that it might even be possible to"
+"give numerical values to the degree of understanding and feeling.) At 
+one end we have the clumsy robots of today, which can manipulate a 
+few symbols but not much more. At the other end we have humans, who 
+pride themselves on feeling qualia. But as time goes by, robots will 
+eventually be able to describe sensations better than us on any level. 
+Then it will be obvious that robots understand. 
+
+This was the philosophy behind Alan Turing’s famous Turing test. He 
+predicted that one day a machine would be built that could answer any 
+question, so that it would be indistinguishable from a human. He said, 
+“A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a 
+human into believing that it was human.” 
+
+Physicist and Nobel laureate Francis Crick said it best. In the last"
+"Physicist and Nobel laureate Francis Crick said it best. In the last 
+
+century, he noted, biologists had heated debates over the question “What 
+is life?” Now, with our understanding of DNA, scientists realize that the 
+question is not well defined. There are many variations, layers, and 
+complexities to that simple question. The question “What is life?” simply 
+faded away. The same may eventually apply to feeling and 
+understanding. 
+
+SELF-AWARE ROBOTS 
+
+What steps must be taken before computers like Watson have self- 
+awareness? To answer this question, we have to refer back to our 
+definition of self-awareness: the ability to put one’s self inside a model of 
+the environment, and then run simulations of this model into the future 
+to achieve a goal. This first step requires a very high level of common 
+sense in order to anticipate a variety of events. Then the robot has to put 
+itself inside this model, which requires an understanding of the various 
+courses of action it may take."
+"At Meiji University, scientists have taken the first steps to create a 
+robot with self-awareness. This is a tall order, but they think they can do 
+it by creating robots with a Theory of Mind. They started by building 
+two robots. The first was programmed to execute certain motions. The 
+second was programmed to observe the first robot, and then to copy it. 
+They were able to create a second robot that could systematically mimic 
+the behavior of the first just by watching it. This is the first time in 
+history that a robot has been built specifically to have some sense of self- 
+awareness. The second robot has a Theory of Mind; that is, it is capable 
+of watching another robot and then mimicking its motions. 
+
+In 2012, the next step was taken by scientists at Yale University who"
+"In 2012, the next step was taken by scientists at Yale University who 
+
+created a robot that passed the mirror test. When animals are placed in 
+front of a mirror, most of them think the image in the mirror is that of 
+another animal. As we recall, only a few animals have passed the mirror 
+test, realizing that the mirror image was a reflection of themselves. The 
+scientists at Yale created a robot called Nico that resembles a gangly 
+skeleton made of twisted wires, with mechanical arms and two bulging 
+eyes sitting on top. When placed in front of a mirror, Nico not only 
+recognized itself but could also deduce the location of objects in a room 
+
+by looking at their images in the mirror. This is similar to what we do 
+when we look into a rearview mirror and infer the location of objects 
+behind us."
+"Nico’s programmer, Justin Hart, says, “To our knowledge, this is the 
+first robotic system to attempt to use a mirror in this way, representing a 
+significant step towards a cohesive architecture that allows robots to 
+learn about their bodies and appearance through self-observation, and 
+an important capability required in order to pass the mirror test.” 
+
+Because the robots at Meiji University and Yale University represent 
+the state of the art in terms of building robots with self-awareness, it is 
+easy to see that scientists have a long ways to go before they can create 
+robots with humanlike self-awareness. 
+
+Their work is just the first step, because our definition of self- 
+awareness demands that the robot use this information to create 
+simulations of the future. This is far beyond the capability of Nico or any 
+other robot."
+"This raises the important question: How can a computer gain full self- 
+awareness? In science fiction, we often encounter a situation where the 
+Internet suddenly becomes self-aware, as in the movie The Terminator. 
+Since the Internet is connected to the entire infrastructure of modern 
+society (e.g., our sewer system, our electricity, our telecommunications, 
+our weapons), it would be easy for a self-aware Internet to seize control 
+of society. We would be left helpless in this situation. Scientists have 
+written that this may happen as an example of an “emergent 
+phenomenon” (i.e., when you amass a sufficiently large number of 
+computers together, there can be a sudden phase transition to a higher 
+stage, without any input from the outside). 
+
+However, this says everything and it says nothing, because it leaves 
+out all the important steps in between. It’s like saying that a highway 
+can suddenly become self-aware if there are enough roads."
+"But in this book we have given a definition of consciousness and self- 
+awareness, so it should be possible to list the steps by which the Internet 
+
+can become self-aware. 
+
+First, an intelligent Internet would have to continually make models of 
+its place in the world. In principle, this information can be programmed 
+into the Internet from the outside. This would involve describing the 
+outside world (i.e., Earth, its cities, and its computers), all of which can 
+
+be found on the Internet itself. 
+
+Second, it would have to place itself in the model. This information is 
+also easily obtained. It would involve giving all the specifications of the 
+Internet (the number of computers, nodes, transmission lines, etc.) and 
+its relationship to the outside world."
+"But step three is by far the most difficult. It means continually running 
+simulations of this model into the future, consistent with a goal. This is 
+where we hit a brick wall. The Internet is not capable of running 
+simulations into the future, and it has no goals. Even in the scientific 
+world, simulations into the future are usually done in just a few 
+parameters (e.g., simulating the collision of two black holes). Running a 
+simulation of the model of the world containing the Internet is far 
+beyond the programming available today. It would have to incorporate 
+all the laws of common sense, all the laws of physics, chemistry, and 
+biology, as well as facts about human behavior and human society. 
+
+In addition, this intelligent Internet would have to have a goal. Today 
+it is just a passive highway, without any direction or purpose. Of course, 
+one can in principle impose a goal on the Internet. But let us consider 
+the following problem: Can you create an Internet whose goal is self- 
+preservation?"
+"This would be the simplest possible goal, but no one knows how to 
+program even this simple task. Such a program, for example, would have 
+to stop any attempt to shut down the Internet by pulling the plug. At 
+present, the Internet is totally incapable of recognizing a threat to its 
+existence, let alone plotting ways to prevent it. (For example, an Internet 
+capable of detecting threats to its existence would have to be able to 
+identify attempts to shut down its power, cut lines of communication, 
+destroy its servers, disable its fiber-optic and satellite connections, etc. 
+Furthermore, an Internet capable of defending itself against these attacks 
+would have to have countermeasures for each scenario and then run 
+these attempts into the future. No computer on Earth is capable of doing 
+even a fraction of such things.) 
+
+In other words, one day it may be possible to create self-aware robots, 
+even a self-aware Internet, but that day is far into the future, perhaps at 
+the end of this century."
+"But assume for the moment that the day has arrived, that self-aware 
+robots walk among us. If a self-aware robot has goals that are 
+
+compatible with our own, then this type of artificial intelligence will not 
+pose a problem. But what happens if the goals are different? The fear is 
+that humans may be outwitted by self-aware robots and then may be 
+enslaved. Because of their superior ability to simulate the future, the 
+robots could plot the outcomes of many scenarios to find the best way to 
+overthrow humanity. 
+
+One way this possibility may be controlled is to make sure that the 
+goals of these robots are benevolent. As we have seen, simulating the 
+future is not enough. These simulations must serve some final goal. If a 
+robot’s goal is merely to preserve itself, then it would react defensively 
+to any attempt to pull the plug, which could spell trouble for mankind. 
+
+WILL ROBOTS TAKE OVER?"
+"WILL ROBOTS TAKE OVER? 
+
+In almost all science-fiction tales, the robots become dangerous because 
+of their desire to take over. The word “robot,” in fact, comes from the 
+Czech word for “worker,” first seen in the 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum’s 
+Universal Robots) by Karel Capek, in which scientists create a new race of 
+mechanical beings that look identical to humans. Soon there are 
+thousands of these robots performing menial and dangerous tasks. 
+However, humans mistreat them badly, and one day they rebel and 
+destroy the human race. Although these robots have taken over Earth, 
+they have one defect: they cannot reproduce. But at the end of the play, 
+two robots fall in love. So perhaps a new branch of “humanity” emerges 
+once again."
+"A more realistic scenario comes from the movie The Terminator, in 
+which the military has created a supercomputer network called Skynet 
+that controls the entire U.S. nuclear stockpile. One day, it wakes up and 
+becomes sentient. The military tries to shut down Skynet but then 
+realizes there is a flaw in its programming: it is designed to protect itself, 
+and the only way to do so is by eliminating the problem—humanity. It 
+starts a nuclear war, which reduces humanity to a ragtag bunch of 
+misfits and rebels fighting the juggernaut of the machines. 
+
+It is certainly possible that robots could become a threat. The current 
+Predator drone can target its victims with deadly accuracy, but it is 
+controlled by someone with a joystick thousands of miles away."
+"According to the New York Times, the orders to fire come directly from 
+the president of the United States. But in the future, a Predator might 
+have face recognition technology and permission to fire if it is 99 
+percent confident of the identity of its target. Without human 
+intervention, it could automatically use this technology to fire at anyone 
+who fits the profile. 
+
+Now assume that such a drone suffers a breakdown, such that its facial 
+recognition software malfunctions. Then it becomes a rogue robot, with 
+permission to kill anyone in sight. Worse, imagine a fleet of such robots 
+controlled by a central command. If a single transistor were to blow out 
+in this central computer and malfunction, then the entire fleet might go 
+on a killing spree."
+"A more subtle problem is when robots perform perfectly well, without 
+any malfunctions, yet there is a tiny but fatal flaw in their programming 
+and goals. For a robot, self-preservation is one important goal. But so is 
+being helpful to humans. The real problem arises when these goals 
+contradict each other. 
+
+In the movie 1 , Robot, the computer system decides that humans are 
+self-destructive, with their never-ending wars and atrocities, and that the 
+only way to protect the human race is to take over and create a 
+benevolent dictatorship of the machine. The contradiction here is not 
+between two goals, but within a single goal that is not realistic. These 
+murderous robots do not malfunction—they logically conclude that the 
+only way to preserve humanity is to take control of society."
+"One solution to this problem is to create a hierarchy of goals. For 
+example, the desire to help humans must outrank self-preservation. This 
+theme was explored in the movie 2001 . The computer system HAL 9000 
+was a sentient computer capable of conversing easily with humans. But 
+the orders given to HAL 9000 were self-contradictory and could not be 
+logically carried out. By attempting to execute an impossible goal, it fell 
+off the mesa; it went crazy, and the only solution to obeying 
+contradictory commands from imperfect humans was to eliminate the 
+humans. 
+
+The best solution might be to create a new law of robotics, which 
+would state that robots cannot do harm to the human race, even if there 
+are contradictions within their previous directives. They must be 
+programmed to ignore lower-level contradictions within their orders and"
+"always preserve the supreme law. But this might still be an imperfect 
+system at best. (For example, if the robots’ central goal is to protect 
+humanity to the exclusion of all other goals, then it all depends on how 
+
+the robots define the word “protect.” Their mechanical definition of this 
+word may differ from ours.) 
+
+Instead of reacting with terror, some scientists, such as Dr. Douglas 
+Hofstadter, a cognitive scientist at Indiana University, do not fear this 
+possibility. When I interviewed him, he told me that robots are our 
+children, so why shouldn’t we love them like our own? His attitude, he 
+told me, is that we love our children, even though we know that they 
+will take over."
+"When I interviewed Dr. Hans Moravec, former director of the AI 
+Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University, he agreed with Dr. Hofstadter. 
+In his book Robot, he writes, “Unleashed from the plodding pace of 
+biological evolution, the children of our minds will be free to grow to 
+confront immense and fundamental challenges in the larger universe. 
+... We humans will benefit for a time from their labors, but ... like 
+natural children, they will seek their own fortunes, while we, their aged 
+parents, silently fade away.” 
+
+Others, on the contrary, think that this is a horrible solution. Perhaps 
+the problem can be solved if we make changes in our goals and priorities 
+now, before it is too late. Since these robots are our children, we should 
+“teach” them to be benevolent. 
+
+FRIENDLY AI"
+"FRIENDLY AI 
+
+Robots are mechanical creatures that we make in the laboratory, so 
+whether we have killer robots or friendly robots depends on the 
+direction of AI research. Much of the funding comes from the military, 
+which is specifically mandated to win wars, so killer robots are a definite 
+possibility. 
+
+However, since 30 percent of all commercial robots are manufactured 
+in Japan, there is another possibility: robots will be designed to become 
+helpful playmates and workers from the very beginning. This goal is 
+feasible if the consumer sector dominates robotics research. The 
+philosophy of “friendly AI” is that inventors should create robots that, 
+
+from the very first steps, are programmed to be beneficial to humans."
+"from the very first steps, are programmed to be beneficial to humans. 
+
+Culturally, the Japanese approach to robots is different from the 
+West’s. While kids in the West might feel terror watching rampaging 
+Terminatortype robots, kids in Japan are steeped in the Shinto religion, 
+which believes spirits live in all things, even mechanical robots. Instead 
+of being uncomfortable at the sight of robots, Japanese children squeal"
+"with delight upon encountering them. It’s no wonder, therefore, that 
+these robots in Japan are proliferating in the marketplace and in homes. 
+They greet you at department stores and educate you on TV. There is 
+even a serious play in Japan featuring a robot. (Japan has another 
+reason for embracing robots. These are the future robot nurses for an 
+aging country. Twenty-one percent of the population is over sixty-five, 
+and Japan is aging faster than any other nation. In some sense, Japan is 
+a train wreck in slow motion. Three demographic factors are at work. 
+First, Japanese women have the longest life expectancy of any ethnic 
+group in the world. Second, Japan has one of the world’s lowest 
+birthrates. Third, it has a strict immigration policy, with over 99 percent 
+of the population being pure Japanese. Without young immigrants to 
+take care of the elderly, Japan may rely on robot nurses. This problem is 
+not restricted to Japan; Europe is next. Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and"
+"not restricted to Japan; Europe is next. Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and 
+other European nations face similar demographic pressures. The 
+populations of Japan and Europe could experience severe shrinkage by 
+mid-century. The United States is not far behind. The birthrate of native- 
+born U.S. citizens has also fallen dramatically in the last few decades, 
+but immigration will keep the United States expanding into this century. 
+In other words, it could be a trilliondollar gamble to see if robots can 
+save us from these three demographic nightmares.)"
+"Japan leads the world in creating robots that can enter our personal 
+lives. The Japanese have built robots that can cook (one can make a 
+bowl of noodles in a minute and forty seconds). When you go to a 
+restaurant, you can place your order on a tablet computer and the robot 
+cook springs into action. It consists of two large, mechanical arms, which 
+grab the bowls, spoons, and knives and prepare the food for you. Some 
+robotic cooks even resemble human ones. 
+
+There are also musical robots for entertainment. One such robot 
+actually has accordion-like “lungs” by which it can generate music by 
+pumping air through an instrument. There are also robot maids. If you"
+"carefully prepare your laundry, it can fold it in front of you. There is 
+even a robot that can talk because it has artificial lungs, lips, tongue, 
+and nasal cavity. The Sony Corporation, for example, built the AIBO 
+robot, which resembles a dog and can register a number of emotions if 
+you pet it. Some futurists predict that the robotics industry may one day 
+become as large as the automobile industry is today. 
+
+The point here is that robots are not necessarily programmed to 
+destroy and dominate. The future of AI is up to us. 
+
+But some critics of friendly AI claim that robots may take over not 
+because they are aggressive, but because we are sloppy in creating them. 
+In other words, if the robots take over, it will be because we 
+
+programmed them to have conflicting goals. 
+
+“I AM A MACHINE”"
+"programmed them to have conflicting goals. 
+
+“I AM A MACHINE” 
+
+When I interviewed Dr. Rodney Brooks, former director of the MIT 
+Artificial Intelligence Lab and cofounder of iRobot, I asked him if he 
+thought machines would one day take over. He told me that we just 
+have to accept that we are machines ourselves. This means that one day, 
+we will be able to build machines that are just as alive as we are. But, he 
+cautioned, we will have to give up the concept of our “specialness.” 
+
+This evolution in human perspective started with Nicolaus Copernicus 
+when he realized that the Earth was not the center of the universe, but 
+rather goes around the sun. It continued with Darwin, who showed that 
+we were similar to the animals in our evolution. And it will continue 
+into the future, he told me, when we realize that we are machines, 
+except that we are made of wetware and not hardware."
+"It’s going to represent a major change in our world outlook to accept 
+that we, too, are machines, he believes. He writes, “We don’t like to give 
+up our specialness, so you know, having the idea that robots could really 
+have emotions, or that robots could be living creatures—I think is going 
+to be hard for us to accept. But we’re going to come to accept it over the 
+next fifty years.” 
+
+But on the question of whether the robots will eventually take over, he 
+says that this will probably not happen, for a variety of reasons. First, no 
+one is going to accidentally build a robot that wants to rule the world. 
+
+He says that creating a robot that can suddenly take over is like someone 
+accidentally building a 747 jetliner. Plus, there will be plenty of time to 
+stop this from happening. Before someone builds a “super-bad robot,” 
+someone has to build a “mildly bad robot,” and before that a “not-so-bad 
+robot.”"
+"His philosophy is summed up when he says, “The robots are coming, 
+but we don’t have too much to worry about. It’s going to be a lot of fun.” 
+To him, the robot revolution is a certainty, and he foresees the day when 
+robots will surpass human intelligence. The only question is when. But 
+there is nothing to fear, since we will have created them. We have the 
+choice to create them to help, and not hinder, us. 
+
+MERGE WITH THEM? 
+
+If you ask Dr. Brooks how we can coexist with these super-smart robots, 
+his reply is straightforward: we will merge with them. With advances in 
+robotics and neuroprosthetics, it becomes possible to incorporate AI into 
+our own bodies. 
+
+Dr. Brooks notes that the process, in some sense, has already begun. 
+Today, about twenty thousand people have had cochlear implants, 
+which have given them the gift of hearing. Sounds are picked up by a 
+tiny receiver, which converts sound waves to electrical signals, which 
+are then sent directly to the auditory nerves of the ear."
+"Similarly, at the University of Southern California and elsewhere, it is 
+possible to take a patient who is blind and implant an artificial retina. 
+One method places a mini video camera in eyeglasses, which converts an 
+image into digital signals. These are sent wirelessly to a chip placed in 
+the person’s retina. The chip activates the retina’s nerves, which then 
+send messages down the optic nerve to the occipital lobe of the brain. In 
+this way, a person who is totally blind can see a rough image of familiar 
+objects. Another design has a light-sensitive chip placed on the retina 
+itself, which then sends signals directly to the optic nerve. This design 
+does not need an external camera. 
+
+This also means that we can go even further and enhance ordinary 
+senses and abilities. With cochlear implants, it will be possible to hear 
+high frequencies that we have never heard before. Already with infrared"
+"glasses, one can see the specific type of light that emanates from hot 
+objects in the dark and that is normally invisible to the human eye. With 
+artificial retinas, it may be possible to enhance our ability to see 
+ultraviolet or infrared light. (Bees, for example, can see UV light because 
+they have to lock onto the sun in order to navigate to a flower bed.) 
+
+Some scientists even dream of the day when exoskeletons will have 
+superpowers like those found in comic books, with super strength, super 
+senses, and super abilities. We’d become a cyborg like Iron Man, a 
+normal human with superhuman abilities and powers. This means that 
+we might not have to worry about super-intelligent robots taking over. 
+We’d simply merge with them."
+"This, of course, is for the distant future. But some scientists, frustrated 
+that robots are not leaving the factory and entering our lives, point out 
+that Mother Nature has already created the human mind, so why not 
+copy it? Their strategy is to take the brain apart, neuron by neuron, and 
+then reassemble it. 
+
+But reverse engineering entails more than just creating a vast 
+
+blueprint to create a living brain. If the brain can be duplicated down to 
+the last neuron, perhaps we can upload our consciousness into a 
+computer. We’d have the ability to leave our mortal bodies behind. This 
+is beyond mind over matter. This is mind without matter. 
+
+I’m as fond of my body as anyone, but if I can be 200 with a 
+body of silicon, I’ll take it. 
+
+—DANIEL HILL, COFOUNDER OF THINKING MACHINES CORP. 
+
+11 REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN"
+"—DANIEL HILL, COFOUNDER OF THINKING MACHINES CORP. 
+
+11 REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN 
+
+In January 2013, two bombshells were dropped that could alter the 
+medical and scientific landscape forever. Overnight, reverse engineering 
+the brain, once considered to be too complex to solve, suddenly became 
+a focal point of scientific rivalry and pride between the greatest 
+economic powers on Earth."
+"First, in his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama 
+stunned the scientific community by announcing that federal research 
+funds, perhaps to the tune of $3 billion, might be allocated to the Brain 
+Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (or BRAIN) 
+Initiative. Like the Human Genome Project, which opened the floodgates 
+for genetic research, BRAIN will pry open the secrets of the brain at the 
+neural level by mapping its electrical pathways. Once the brain is 
+mapped, a host of intractable diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, 
+schizophrenia, dementia, and bipolar disorder might be understood and 
+possibly cured. To jump-start BRAIN, $100 million might be allocated in 
+2014 toward the project."
+"Almost simultaneously, the European Commission announced that the 
+Human Brain Project would be awarded 1.19 billion euros (about $1.6 
+billion) to create a computer simulation of the human brain. Using the 
+power of the biggest supercomputers on the planet, the Human Brain 
+Project will create a copy of the human brain made of transistors and 
+steel. 
+
+Proponents of both projects stressed the enormous benefits of these 
+endeavors. President Obama was quick to point out that not only would 
+BRAIN alleviate the suffering of millions of people, it will also generate 
+new revenue streams. For every dollar spent on the Human Genome 
+Project, he claimed, about $140 of economic activity was generated. 
+Entire industries, in fact, sprouted with the completion of the Human 
+Genome Project. For the taxpayer, BRAIN, like the Human Genome 
+
+Project, will be a win-win situation."
+"Project, will be a win-win situation. 
+
+Although Obama’s speech did not give details, scientists quickly filled 
+in many of the gaps. Neurologists pointed out that, on one hand, it is 
+now possible to use delicate instruments to monitor the electrical 
+activity of single neurons. On the other hand, using MRI machines, it is 
+possible to monitor the global behavior of the entire brain. What is 
+missing, they pointed out, is the middle ground, where most of the 
+interesting brain activity takes place. It is in this middle ground, 
+involving the pathways of thousands to millions of neurons, that there 
+are huge gaps in our understanding of mental disease and behavior."
+"To tackle this enormous problem, scientists laid out a tentative fifteen- 
+year program. In the first five years, neurologists hope to monitor the 
+electrical activity of tens of thousands of neurons. The short-term goals 
+might include reconstructing the electrical activity of important parts of 
+animal brains, such as the medulla of the Drosophila fruit fly or the 
+ganglion cells in a mouse retina (which has fifty thousand neurons). 
+
+Within ten years, that number should increase to hundreds of 
+thousands of neurons. This could include imaging the entire Drosophila 
+brain (135,000 neurons) or even the cortex of the Etruscan shrew, the 
+smallest known mammal, with a million neurons. 
+
+Finally, within fifteen years, it should be possible to monitor millions 
+of neurons, comparable to the zebrafish brain or the entire neocortex of 
+a mouse. This could pave the way toward imaging parts of the brains of 
+primates."
+"Meanwhile, in Europe, the Human Brain Project would tackle the 
+problem from a different point of view. Over a ten-year period, it will 
+use supercomputers to simulate the basic functioning of the brains of 
+different animals, starting with mice and working up to humans. Instead 
+of dealing with individual neurons, the Human Brain Project will use 
+transistors to mimic their behavior, so that there will be computer 
+modules that can act like the neocortex, the thalamus, and other parts of 
+the brain. 
+
+In the end, the rivalry between these two gigantic projects could 
+create a windfall by generating new discoveries for treating incurable 
+diseases and spawning new industries. But there is also another, unstated 
+goal. If one can eventually simulate a human brain, does it mean that 
+the brain can become immortal? Does it mean that consciousness can 
+now exist outside the body? Some of the thorniest theological and 
+
+metaphysical questions are raised by these ambitious projects. 
+
+BUILDING A BRAIN"
+"metaphysical questions are raised by these ambitious projects. 
+
+BUILDING A BRAIN 
+
+Like many other children, I used to love taking apart clocks, 
+disassembling them, screw for screw, and then trying to see how the 
+whole thing fit together. I would trace each part mentally, seeing how 
+one gear connected to the next one, until the whole thing fit together. I 
+realized the mainspring turned the main gear, which then fed a sequence 
+of smaller gears, which eventually turned the hands of the clock. 
+
+Today, on a much larger scale, computer scientists and neurologists 
+are trying to take apart an infinitely more complex object, the most 
+sophisticated object we know about in the universe: the human brain. 
+Moreover, they wish to reassemble it, neuron by neuron."
+"Because of rapid advances in automation, robotics, nanotechnology, 
+and neuroscience, reverse engineering the human brain is no longer idle 
+speculation for polite after-dinner banter. In the United States and 
+Europe, billions of dollars will soon be flowing into projects once 
+considered preposterous. Today a small band of visionary scientists are 
+dedicating their professional lives to a project that they may not live to 
+see completed. Tomorrow their ranks could swell into an entire army, 
+generously funded by the United States and the nations of Europe. 
+
+If successful, these scientists could alter the course of human history. 
+Not only might they find new cures and therapies for mental illnesses, 
+they might also unlock the secret of consciousness and perhaps upload it 
+into a computer."
+"It is a daunting task. The human brain consists of over one hundred 
+billion neurons, approximately as many stars as there are in the Milky 
+Way galaxy. Each neuron, in turn, is connected to perhaps ten thousand 
+other neurons, so altogether there are a total of ten million billion 
+possible connections (and that does not begin to compute the number of 
+pathways there are among this thicket of neurons). The number of 
+“thoughts” that a human brain can conceive of is therefore truly 
+astronomical and beyond human ken. 
+
+Yet that has not stopped a small bunch of fiercely dedicated scientists 
+from attempting to reconstruct the brain from scratch. There is an old 
+
+Chinese proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first 
+step.” That first step was actually taken when scientists decoded, neuron 
+for neuron, the nervous system of a nematode worm. This tiny creature,"
+"called C. elegans, has 302 neurons and 7,000 synapses, all of which have 
+been precisely recorded. A complete blueprint of its nervous system can 
+be found on the Internet. (Even today, it is the only living organism to 
+have its entire neural structure decoded in this way.) 
+
+At first, it was thought that the complete reverse engineering of this 
+simple organism would open the door to the human brain. Ironically, the 
+opposite has happened. Although the nematode’s neurons were finite in 
+number, the network is still so complex and sophisticated that it has 
+taken years to understand even simple facts about worm behavior, such 
+as which pathways are responsible for which behaviors. If even the 
+lowly nematode worm could elude our scientific understanding, 
+scientists were forced to appreciate how complex a human brain must 
+be. 
+
+THREE APPROACHES TO THE BRAIN"
+"THREE APPROACHES TO THE BRAIN 
+
+Because the brain is so complex, there are at least three distinct ways in 
+which it can be taken apart, neuron by neuron. The first is to simulate 
+the brain electronically with supercomputers, which is the approach 
+being taken by the Europeans. The second is to map out the neural 
+pathways of living brains, as in BRAIN. (This task, in turn, can be further 
+subdivided, depending on how these neurons are analyzed—either 
+anatomically, neuron by neuron, or by function and activity.) And third, 
+one can decipher the genes that control the development of the brain, 
+which is an approach pioneered by billionaire Paul Allen of Microsoft."
+"The first approach, simulating the brain using transistors and 
+computers, is forging ahead by reverse engineering the brains of animals 
+in a certain sequence: first a mouse, then a rat, rabbit, and a cat. The 
+Europeans are following the rough trail of evolution, starting with 
+simple brains and working upward. To a computer scientist, the solution 
+is raw computing power—the more, the better. And this means using 
+some of the largest computers on Earth to decipher the brains of mice 
+and men."
+"Their first target is the brain of a mouse, which is one-thousandth the 
+size of a human brain, containing about one hundred million neurons. 
+The thinking process behind a mouse brain is being analyzed by the IBM 
+Blue Gene computer, located at the Lawrence Livermore National 
+Laboratory in California, where some of the biggest computers in the 
+world are located; they’re used to design hydrogen warheads for the 
+Pentagon. This colossal collection of transistors, chips, and wires 
+contains 147,456 processors with a staggering 150,000 gigabytes of 
+memory. (A typical PC may have one processor and a few gigabytes of 
+
+memory.) 
+
+Progress has been slow but steady. Instead of modeling the entire 
+brain, scientists try to duplicate just the connections between the cortex 
+and the thalamus, where much of brain activity is concentrated. (This 
+means that the sensory connections to the outside world are missing in 
+this simulation.)"
+"In 2006, Dr. Dharmendra Modha of IBM partially simulated the mouse 
+brain in this way with 512 processors. In 2007, his group simulated the 
+rat brain with 2,048 processors. In 2009, the cat brain, with 1.6 billion 
+neurons and nine trillion connections, was simulated with 24,576 
+processors. 
+
+Today, using the full power of the Blue Gene computer, IBM scientists 
+have simulated 4.5 percent of the human brain’s neurons and synapses. 
+To begin a partial simulation of the human brain, one would need 
+880,000 processors, which might be possible around 2020. 
+
+I had a chance to film the Blue Gene computer. To get to the 
+laboratory, I had to go through layers and layers of security, since it is 
+the nation’s premier weapons laboratory, but once you have cleared all 
+the checkpoints, you enter a huge, air-conditioned room housing Blue 
+Gene."
+"The computer is truly a magnificent piece of hardware. It consists of 
+racks and racks of large black cabinets full of switches and blinking 
+lights, each about eight feet tall and roughly fifteen feet long. As I 
+walked among the cabinets that make up Blue Gene, I wondered what 
+kinds of operations it was performing. Most likely, it was modeling the 
+interior of a proton, calculating the decay of plutonium triggers, 
+simulating the collision of two black holes, and thinking of a mouse, all 
+at once. 
+
+Then I was told that even this supercomputer is giving way to the next 
+generation, the Blue Gene/Q Sequoia, which will take computing to a 
+new level. In June 2012, it set the world’s record for the fastest 
+supercomputer. At peak speed, it can perform operations at 20.1 PFLOPS 
+(or 20.1 trillion floating point operations per second). It covers an area 
+of three thousand square feet, and gobbles up electrical energy at the 
+rate of 7.9 megawatts, enough power to light up a small city."
+"But with all this massive computational firepower concentrated in one 
+computer, is it enough to rival the human brain? 
+
+Unfortunately, no. 
+
+These computer simulations try only to duplicate the interactions 
+between the cortex and the thalamus. Huge chunks of the brain are 
+therefore missing. Dr. Modha understands the enormity of his project. 
+His ambitious research has allowed him to estimate what it would take 
+to create a working model of the entire human brain, and not just a 
+portion or a pale version of it, complete with all parts of the neocortex 
+and connections to the senses. He envisions using not just a single Blue 
+Gene computer but thousands of them, which would fill up not just a 
+room but an entire city block. The energy consumption would be so 
+great that you would need a thousand-megawatt nuclear power plant to 
+generate all the electricity. And then, to cool off this monstrous 
+computer so it wouldn’t melt, you would need to divert a river and send 
+it through the computer circuits."
+"It is remarkable that a gigantic, city-size computer is required to 
+simulate a piece of human tissue that weighs three pounds, fits inside 
+your skull, raises your body temperature by only a few degrees, uses 
+twenty watts of power, and needs only a few hamburgers to keep it 
+going. 
+
+BUILDING A BRAIN 
+
+But perhaps the most ambitious scientist who has joined this campaign is 
+Dr. Henry Markram of the Ecole Polytechnique Federate de Lausanne, in 
+Switzerland. He is the driving force behind the Human Brain Project, 
+which has received over a billion dollars of funding from the European 
+Commission. He has spent the last seventeen years of his life trying to 
+
+decode the brain’s neural wiring. He, too, is using the Blue Gene 
+computer to reverse engineer the brain. At present, his Human Brain 
+Project is running up a bill of $140 million from the European Union, 
+and that represents only a fraction of the computer firepower he will 
+need in the coming decade."
+"Dr. Markram believes that this is no longer a science project but an 
+engineering endeavor, requiring vast sums of money. He says, “To build 
+this—the supercomputers, the software, the research—we need around 
+one billion dollars. This is not expensive when one considers that the 
+global burden of brain disease will exceed twenty percent of the world 
+gross domestic project very soon.” To him, a billion dollars is nothing, 
+just a pittance compared to the hundreds of billions in bills stemming 
+from Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other related diseases when the baby 
+boomers retire. 
+
+So to Dr. Markram, the solution is one of scale. Throw enough money 
+
+at the project, and the human brain will emerge. Now that he has won 
+the coveted billion-dollar prize from the European Commission, his 
+dream may become a reality."
+"He has a ready answer when asked what the average taxpayer will get 
+from this billion-dollar investment. There are three reasons, he says, for 
+embarking on this lonely but expensive quest. First, “It’s essential for us 
+to understand the human brain if we want to get along in society, and I 
+think that it is a key step in evolution. The second reason is, we cannot 
+keep doing animal experimentation forever.... It’s like a Noah’s Ark. It’s 
+like an archive. And the third reason is that there are two billion people 
+on this planet that are affected by mental disorder....” 
+
+To him, it is a scandal that so little is known about mental diseases, 
+which cause so much suffering to millions of people. He says, “There’s 
+not a single neurological disease today in which anybody knows what is 
+malfunctioning in this circuit—which pathway, which synapse, which 
+neuron, which receptor. This is shocking.”"
+"At first, it may sound impossible to complete this project, with so 
+many neurons and so many connections. It seems like a fool’s errand. 
+But these scientists think they have an ace in the hole. 
+
+The human genome consists of roughly twenty-three thousand genes, 
+yet it can somehow create the brain, which consists of one hundred 
+billion neurons. It seems to be a mathematical impossibility to create the 
+
+human brain from our genes, yet it happens every time an embryo is 
+conceived. How can so much information be crammed into something so 
+small? 
+
+The answer, Dr. Markram believes, is that nature uses shortcuts. The 
+key to his approach is that certain modules of neurons are repeated over 
+and over again once Mother Nature finds a good template. If you look at 
+microscopic slices of the brain, at first you see nothing but a random 
+tangle of neurons. But upon closer examination, patterns of modules that 
+are repeated over and over appear."
+"(Modules, in fact, are one reason why it is possible to assemble large 
+skyscrapers so rapidly. Once a single module is designed, it is possible to 
+repeat it endlessly on the assembly line. Then you can rapidly stack 
+them on top of one another to create the skyscraper. Once the 
+paperwork is all signed, an apartment building can be assembled using 
+modules in a few months.) 
+
+The key to Dr. Markram’s Blue Brain project is the “neocortical 
+column,” a module that is repeated over and over in the brain. In 
+
+humans, each column is about two millimeters tall, with a diameter of 
+half a millimeter, and contains sixty thousand neurons. (As a point of 
+comparison, rat neural modules contain only ten thousand neurons 
+each.) It took ten years, from 1995 to 2005, for Dr. Markram to map the 
+neurons in such a column and to figure out how it worked. Once that 
+was deciphered, he then went to IBM to create massive iterations of 
+these columns."
+"He is the eternal optimist. In 2009, at a TED conference, he claimed he 
+could finish the project in ten years. (Most likely, this will be for a 
+stripped-down version of the human brain without any attachment to 
+the other lobes or to the senses.) But he has claimed, “If we build it 
+correctly, it should speak and have an intelligence and behave very 
+much as a human does.” 
+
+Dr. Markram is a skilled defender of his work. He has an answer for 
+everything. When critics say that he is treading on forbidden territory, 
+he counters, “As scientists, we need to be not afraid of the truth. We 
+need to understand our brain. It’s natural that people would think that 
+the brain is sacred, that we shouldn’t tamper with it because it may be 
+where the secrets of the soul are. But I think, quite honestly, that if the 
+planet understood how the brain functions, we would resolve conflicts"
+"everywhere. Because people would understand how trivial and how 
+deterministic and how controlled conflicts and reactions and 
+misunderstandings are.” 
+
+When faced with the final criticism that he is “playing God,” he says, 
+“I think we’re far from playing God. God created the whole universe. 
+We’re just trying to build a little model.” 
+
+IS IT REALLY A BRAIN? 
+
+Although these scientists claim that their computer simulation of the 
+brain will begin to reach the capability of the human brain by around 
+2020, the main question is, How realistic is this simulation? Can the cat 
+simulation, for example, catch a mouse? Or play with a ball of yarn?"
+"The answer is no. These computer simulations try to match the sheer 
+power of the neurons firing in the cat brain, but they cannot duplicate 
+the way in which the regions of the brain are hooked together. The IBM 
+simulation is only for the thalamocortical system (i.e., the channel that 
+connects the thalamus to the cortex). The system does not have a 
+physical body, and hence all the complex interactions between the brain 
+and the environment are missing. The brain has no parietal lobe, so it 
+
+has no sensory or motor connections with the outside world. And even 
+within the thalamocortical system, the basic wiring does not respect the 
+thinking process of a cat. There are no feedback loops and memory 
+circuits for stalking prey or finding a mate. The computerized cat brain 
+is a blank slate, devoid of any memories or instinctual drives. In other 
+words, it cannot catch a mouse."
+"So even if it is possible to simulate a human brain by around 2020, 
+you will not be able to have a simple conversation with it. Without a 
+parietal lobe, it would be like a blank slate without sensations, devoid of 
+any knowledge of itself, people, and the world around it. Without a 
+temporal lobe, it would not be able to talk. Without a limbic system, it 
+would not have any emotions. In fact, it would have less brain power 
+than a newborn infant. 
+
+The challenge of hooking up the brain to the world of sensations, 
+emotions, language, and culture is just beginning. 
+
+THE SLICE-AND-DICE APPROACH 
+
+The next approach, favored by the Obama administration, is to map the 
+neurons of the brain directly. Instead of using transistors, this approach 
+analyzes the actual neural pathways of the brain. There are several 
+components to it."
+"One way to proceed is to physically identify each and every neuron 
+and synapse of the brain. (The neurons are usually destroyed by this 
+process.) This is called the anatomical approach. Another path is to 
+decipher the ways in which electrical signals flow across neurons when 
+the brain is performing certain functions. (The latter approach, which 
+stresses identifying the pathways of the living brain, is the one that 
+seems to be favored by the Obama administration.)"
+"The anatomical approach is to take apart the cells of an animal brain, 
+neuron by neuron, using the “slice-and-dice” method. In this way, the 
+full complexity of the environment, the body, and memories are already 
+encoded in the model. Instead of approximating a human brain by 
+assembling a huge number of transistors, these scientists want to identify 
+each neuron of the brain. After that, perhaps each neuron can be 
+simulated by a collection of transistors so that you’d have an exact 
+replica of the human brain, complete with memory, personality, and 
+connection to the senses. Once someone’s brain is fully reversed 
+engineered in this way, you should be able to have an informative 
+conversation with that person, complete with memories and a 
+personality."
+"No new physics is required to finish the project. Using a device similar 
+to a meat sheer in a delicatessen, Dr. Gerry Rubin of the Howard Hughes 
+Medical Institute has been slicing the brain of a fruit fly. This is not an 
+easy task, since the fruit fly brain is only three hundred micrometers 
+across, a tiny speck compared to the human brain. The fruit fly brain 
+contains about 150,000 neurons. Each slice, which is only fifty-billionths 
+of a meter across, is meticulously photographed with an electron 
+microscope, and the images are fed into a computer. Then a computer 
+program tries to reconstruct the wiring, neuron by neuron. At the 
+present rate, Dr. Rubin will be able to identify every neuron in the fruit 
+fly brain in twenty years. 
+
+The snail-like pace is due, in part, to current photographic technology,"
+"The snail-like pace is due, in part, to current photographic technology, 
+
+since a standard scanning microscope operates at about ten million 
+pixels per second. (That is about a third of the resolution achieved by a 
+standard TV screen per second.) The goal is to have an imaging machine 
+that can process ten billion pixels per second, which would be a world 
+record. 
+
+The problem of how to store the data pouring in from the microscope 
+is also staggering. Once his project gets up to speed, Rubin expects to 
+scan about a million gigabytes of data per day for just a single fruit fly, 
+so he envisions filling up huge warehouses full of hard drives. On top of 
+that, since every fruit fly brain is slightly different, he has to scan 
+hundreds of fruit fly brains in order to get an accurate approximation of 
+one."
+"Based on working with the fruit fly brain, how long will it take to 
+eventually slice up the human brain? “In a hundred years, I’d like to 
+know how human consciousness works. The ten- or twenty-year goal is 
+to understand the fruit fly brain,” he says. 
+
+This method can be speeded up with several technical advances. One 
+possibility is to use an automated device, so that the tedious process of 
+slicing the brain and analyzing each slide is done by machine. This could 
+rapidly reduce the time for the project. Automation, for example, vastly 
+reduced the cost of the Human Genome Project (although it was 
+budgeted at $3 billion, it was accomplished ahead of time and under 
+budget, which is unheard of in Washington). Another method is to use a 
+large variety of dyes that will tag different neurons and pathways, 
+making them easier to see. An alternative approach would be to create 
+an automated super microscope that can scan neurons one by one with 
+unparalleled detail."
+"Given that a complete mapping of the brain and all its senses will take 
+up to a hundred years, these scientists feel somewhat like the medieval 
+
+architects who designed the cathedrals of Europe, knowing that their 
+grandchildren would finally complete the project. 
+
+In addition to constructing an anatomical map of the brain, neuron by 
+neuron, there is a parallel effort called the “Human Connectome 
+Project,” which uses brain scans to reconstruct the pathways connecting 
+various regions of the brain. 
+
+THE HUMAN CONNECTOME PROJECT"
+"THE HUMAN CONNECTOME PROJECT 
+
+In 2010, the National Institutes of Health announced that it was 
+allocating $30 million, spread out over five years, to a consortium of 
+universities (including Washington University in St. Louis and the 
+University of Minnesota), and a $8.5 million grant over three years to a 
+consortium led by Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, 
+and UCLA. With this level of short-term funding, of course, researchers 
+cannot fully sequence the entire brain, but the funding was meant to 
+jump-start the effort."
+"Most likely, this effort will be folded into the BRAIN project, which 
+will vastly accelerate this work. The goal is to produce a neuronal map 
+of the human brain’s pathways that will elucidate brain disorders such as 
+autism and schizophrenia. One of the leaders of the Connectome Project, 
+Dr. Sebastian Seung, says, “Researchers have conjectured that the 
+neurons themselves are healthy, but maybe they are just wired together 
+in an abnormal way. But we’ve never had the technology to test that 
+hypothesis until now.” If these diseases are actually caused by the 
+miswiring of the brain, then the Human Connectome Project may give us 
+an invaluable clue as to how to treat these conditions."
+"When considering the ultimate goal of imaging the entire human 
+brain, sometimes Dr. Seung despairs of ever finishing this project. He 
+says, “In the seventeenth century, the mathematician and philosopher 
+Blaise Pascal wrote of his dread of the infinite, his feeling of 
+insignificance at contemplating the vast reaches of outer space. And as a 
+scientist, I’m not supposed to talk about my feelings.... I feel curiosity, 
+and I feel wonder, but at times I have also felt despair.” But he and 
+others like him persist, even if their project will take multiple 
+generations to finish. They have reason to hope, since one day 
+automated microscopes will tirelessly take the photographs and 
+artificially intelligent machines will analyze them twenty-four hours a 
+day. But right now, just imaging the human brain with ordinary electron 
+microscopes would consume about one zettabyte of data, which is 
+equivalent to all the data compiled in the world today on the web."
+"Dr. Seung even invites the public to participate in this great project by 
+
+visiting a website called EyeWire. There, the average “citizen scientist” 
+can view a mass of neural pathways and is asked to color them in 
+
+(staying within their boundaries). It’s like a virtual coloring book, except 
+images are of the actual neurons in the retina of an eye, taken by an 
+electron microscope. 
+
+THE ALLEN BRAIN ATLAS 
+
+Finally, there is a third way to map the brain. Instead of analyzing the 
+brain by using computer simulations or by identifying all the neural 
+pathways, yet another approach was taken with a generous grant of 
+$100 million from Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen. The goal was to 
+construct a map or atlas of the mouse brain, with the emphasis on 
+identifying the genes responsible for creating the brain."
+"It is hoped that this understanding of how genes are expressed in the 
+brain will help in understanding autism, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and 
+other disabilities. Since a large number of mouse genes are found in 
+humans, it’s possible that findings here will give us insight into the 
+human brain. 
+
+With this sudden infusion of funds, the project was completed in 2006, 
+and its results are freely available on the web. A follow-up project, the 
+Allen Human Brain Atlas, was announced soon afterward, with the hope 
+of creating an anatomically and genetically complete 3-D map of the 
+human brain. In 2011, the Allen Institute announced that it had mapped 
+the biochemistry of two human brains, finding one thousand anatomical 
+sites with one hundred million data points detailing how genes are 
+expressed in the underlying biochemistry. The study confirmed that 82 
+percent of our genes are expressed in the brain."
+"“Until now, a definitive map of the human brain, at this level of detail, 
+simply hasn’t existed,” says Dr. Allen Jones of the Allen Institute. “The 
+Allen Human Brain Atlas provides never-before-seen views into our most 
+complex and most important organ,” he adds. 
+
+OBJECTIONS TO REVERSE ENGINEERING 
+
+Scientists who have dedicated their lives to reverse engineering the brain 
+realize that decades of hard work lie ahead of them. But they are also 
+convinced of the practical implications of their work. They feel that even 
+
+partial results will help decode the mystery of mental diseases that have 
+afflicted humans throughout our history."
+"The cynics, however, may claim that, after this arduous task is 
+finished, we will have a mountain of data with no understanding of how 
+it all fits together. For example, imagine a Neanderthal who one day 
+comes across the complete blueprint for an IBM Blue Gene computer. All 
+the details are there in the blueprint, down to the very last transistor. 
+The blueprint is huge, taking up thousands of square feet of paper. The 
+Neanderthal may be dimly aware that this blueprint is the secret of a 
+super-powerful machine, but the sheer mass of technical data means 
+nothing to him. 
+
+Similarly, the fear is that, after spending billions deciphering the 
+location of every neuron of the brain, we won’t be able to understand 
+what it all means. It may take many more decades of hard work to see 
+how the whole thing functions."
+"For example, the Human Genome Project was a smashing success in 
+sequencing all the genes that make up the human genome, but it was a 
+huge disappointment for those who expected immediate cures for 
+genetic diseases. The Human Genome Project was like a gigantic 
+dictionary, with twenty-three thousand entries but no definitions. Page 
+after page of this dictionary is blank, yet the spelling of each gene is 
+perfect. The project was a breakthrough, but at the same time it’s just 
+the first step in a long journey to figure out what these genes do and 
+how they interact. 
+
+Similarly, just having a complete map of every single neural 
+connection in the brain does not guarantee that we will know what these 
+neurons are doing and how they react. Reverse engineering is the easy 
+part; after that, the hard part begins—making sense of all this data. 
+
+THE FUTURE"
+"THE FUTURE 
+
+But assume for now that the moment has finally arrived. With much 
+fanfare, scientists solemnly announce that they have successfully reverse 
+engineered the entire human brain. 
+
+Then what? 
+
+One immediate application is to find the origins of certain mental 
+
+diseases. It’s thought that many mental diseases are not caused by the 
+massive destruction of neurons, but by a simple misconnection. Think of 
+genetic diseases that are caused by a single mutation, like Huntington’s 
+disease, Tay-Sachs, or cystic fibrosis. Out of three billion base pairs, a 
+single misspelling (or repetition) can cause uncontrollable flailing of 
+your limbs and convulsions, as in Huntington’s disease. Even if the 
+genome is 99.9999999 percent accurate, a tiny flaw might invalidate the 
+entire sequence. That is why gene therapy has targeted these single 
+mutations as possible genetic diseases that can be fixed."
+"Likewise, once the brain is reverse engineered, it might be possible to 
+run simulations of the brain, deliberately disrupting a few connections to 
+see if you can induce certain illnesses. Only a handful of neurons may be 
+responsible for major disruptions of our cognition. Locating this tiny 
+collection of misfiring neurons may be one of the jobs of the reverse- 
+engineered brain."
+"One example might be Capgras delusion, in which you see someone 
+you recognize as your mother, but you believe that person to be an 
+impostor. According to Dr. V. S. Ramachandran, this rare disease might 
+be due to a misconnection between two parts of the brain. The fusiform 
+gyrus in the temporal lobe is responsible for recognizing the face of your 
+mother, but the amygdala is responsible for your emotional response in 
+seeing your mother. When the connection between these two centers is 
+disrupted, an individual can recognize his mother’s face perfectly well, 
+but, since there is no emotional response, he is also convinced that she is 
+an impostor."
+"Another use for the reverse-engineered brain is to pinpoint precisely 
+which cluster of neurons is misfiring. Deep brain stimulation, as we’ve 
+seen, involves using tiny probes to dampen the activity of a tiny portion 
+of the brain, such as Broadmann’s area 25, in the case of certain severe 
+forms of depression. Using the reverse-engineered map, it might be 
+possible to find precisely where the neurons are misfiring, which may 
+involve only a handful of neurons. 
+
+A reversed-engineered brain would also be of great help to AI. Vision 
+and face recognition are done effortlessly by the brain, but they still 
+elude our most advanced computers. For example, computers can 
+recognize with 95 percent or greater accuracy human faces that look 
+straight ahead and are part of a small data bank, but if you show the"
+"computer the same face from different angles or a face that’s not in the 
+database, the computer will most likely fail. Within .1 seconds, we can 
+recognize familiar faces from different angles; it’s so easy for our brains 
+that we are not even aware we are doing it. Reverse engineering the 
+brain may reveal the mystery of how this is done. 
+
+More complicated would be diseases that involve multiple failures of 
+the brain, such as schizophrenia. This disorder involves several genes, 
+plus interactions with the environment, which in turn cause unusual 
+activity in several areas of the brain. But even there, a reverse- 
+engineered brain would be able to tell precisely how certain symptoms 
+(such as hallucinations) are formed, and this might pave the way for a 
+possible cure."
+"A reverse-engineered brain would also solve such basic but unresolved 
+questions as how long-term memories are stored. It is known that certain 
+parts of the brain, such as the hippocampus and amygdala, store 
+memories, but how the memory is dispersed through various cortices 
+and then reassembled to create a memory is still unclear. 
+
+Once the reverse-engineered brain is fully functional, then it will be 
+time to turn on all its circuits to see if it can respond like a human (i.e., 
+to see if it can pass the Turing test). Since long-term memory is already 
+encoded in the neurons of the reverse-engineered brain, it should be 
+obvious very quickly whether the brain can respond in a way 
+indistinguishable from a human. 
+
+Finally, there is one impact of reverse engineering the brain that is 
+rarely discussed but is on many people’s minds: immortality. If 
+consciousness can be transferred into a computer, does that mean we 
+don’t have to die?"
+"Speculation is never a waste of time. It clears away the 
+deadwood in the thickets of deduction. 
+
+—ELIZABETH PETERS 
+
+We are a scientific civilization.... That means a civilization in 
+which knowledge and its integrity are crucial. Science is only a 
+Latin word for knowledge.... Knowledge is our destiny. 
+
+—JACOB BRONOWSKI 
+
+12 THE FUTURE MIND BEYOND MATTER 
+
+Can consciousness exist by itself, free from the constraints of the 
+physical body? Can we leave our mortal body and, like spirits, wander 
+around this playground called the universe? This was explored on Star"
+"Trek, when Captain Kirk of the starship Enterprise encounters a 
+superhuman race, almost a million years more advanced than the 
+Federation of Planets. They are so advanced that they have long since 
+abandoned their frail, mortal bodies, and now inhabit pulsating globes of 
+pure energy. It has been millennia since they could feel intoxicating 
+sensations, such as breathing fresh air, touching another’s hand, or 
+feeling physical love. Their leader, Sargon, welcomes the Enterprise to 
+their planet. Captain Kirk accepts the invitation, acutely aware that this 
+civilization could instantly vaporize the Enterprise if it wanted to. 
+
+But unknown to the crew, these super beings have a fatal weakness. 
+For all their advanced technology, they have been severed for hundreds 
+of thousands of years from their physical bodies. As such, they yearn to 
+feel the rush of physical sensations and long to become human again."
+"One of these super beings, in fact, is evil and determined to gain 
+possession of the physical bodies of the crew. He wants to live like a 
+human, even if it means destroying the mind of the body’s owner. Soon a 
+battle breaks out on the deck of the Enterprise, as the evil entity seizes 
+control of Spock’s body and the crew fights back. 
+
+Scientists have asked themselves, Is there a law of physics preventing 
+the mind from existing without the body? In particular, if the conscious 
+human mind is a device that constantly creates models of the world and 
+simulates them into the future, is it possible to create a machine that can 
+simulate this entire process? 
+
+Previously, we mentioned the possibility of having our bodies placed 
+in pods, as in the movie Surrogates, while we mentally control a robot. 
+The problem here is that our natural body will still gradually wither 
+away, even if our robot surrogate keeps on going. Serious scientists are"
+"contemplating whether we can actually transfer our minds into a robot 
+so we can become truly immortal. And who wouldn’t want a chance at 
+eternal life? As Woody Allen once said, “I don’t want to live forever 
+through my works. I want to live forever by not dying.” 
+
+Actually, millions of people already claim that it is possible for the 
+mind to leave the body. In fact, many insist that they have done it 
+themselves. 
+
+OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCES 
+
+The idea of minds without bodies is perhaps the oldest of our 
+superstitions, embedded deep within our myths, folklore, dreams, and 
+
+perhaps even our genes. Every society, it seems, has some tale of ghosts 
+and demons who can enter and leave the body at will."
+"Sadly, many innocents were persecuted to exorcize the demons that 
+were supposedly possessing their bodies. They probably suffered from 
+mental illness, such as schizophrenia, in which victims are often haunted 
+by voices generated by their own minds. Historians believe that one of 
+the Salem witches who was hung in 1692 for being possessed probably 
+had a rare genetic condition, called Huntington’s disease, that causes 
+uncontrolled flailing of the limbs. 
+
+Today some people claim that they have entered a trancelike state in 
+which their consciousness has left their body and is free to roam 
+throughout space, even able to look back at their mortal body. In a poll 
+of thirteen thousand Europeans, 5.8 percent claimed they had had an 
+out-of-body experience. Interviews with people in the United States 
+show similar numbers."
+"Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, always curious about new 
+phenomena, once placed himself in a sensory deprivation tank and tried 
+to leave his physical body. He was successful. He would later write that 
+he felt that he had left his body, drifted into space, and saw his 
+motionless body when he looked back. However, Feynman later 
+concluded that this was probably just his imagination, caused by sensory 
+deprivation. 
+
+Neurologists who have studied this phenomenon have a more prosaic 
+explanation. Dr. Olaf Blanke and his colleagues in Switzerland may have"
+"located the precise place in the brain that generates out-of-body 
+experiences. One of his patients was a forty-three-year-old woman who 
+suffered from debilitating seizures that came from her right temporal 
+lobe. A grid of about one hundred electrodes was placed over her brain 
+in order to locate the region responsible for her seizures. When the 
+electrodes stimulated the area between the parietal and temporal lobes, 
+she immediately had the sensation of leaving her body. “I see myself 
+lying in bed, from above, but I only see my legs and lower trunk!” she 
+exclaimed. She felt she was floating six feet above her body."
+"When the electrodes were turned off, however, the out-of-body 
+sensation disappeared immediately. In fact, Dr. Blanke found that he 
+could turn the out-of-body sensation on and off, like a light switch, by 
+repeatedly stimulating this area of the brain. As we saw in Chapter 9, 
+temporal lobe epileptic lesions can induce the feeling that there are evil 
+spirits behind every misfortune, so the concept of spirits leaving the 
+body is perhaps part of our neural makeup. (This may also explain the 
+presence of supernatural beings. When Dr. Blanke analyzed a twenty- 
+
+two-year-old woman who was suffering from intractable seizures, he 
+found that, by stimulating the temporoparietal area of the brain, he 
+could induce the sensation that there was a shadowy presence behind 
+her. She could describe this person, who even grabbed her arms, in 
+detail. His position would change with each appearance, but he would 
+always appear behind her.)"
+"Human consciousness, I believe, is the process of continually forming 
+a model of the world, in order to simulate the future and carry out a 
+goal. In particular, the brain is receiving sensations from the eyes and 
+inner ear to create a model of where we are in space. However, when 
+the signals from our eyes and ears are in contradiction, we become 
+confused about our location. We often get nauseous and throw up. For 
+example, many people develop sea sickness when they are on a rocking 
+boat because their eyes, looking at the cabin walls, tell them that they 
+are stationary, but their inner ear tells them that they are swaying. The 
+mismatch between these signals causes them to become nauseous. The 
+remedy is to look out at the horizon so that the visual image matches the 
+signals from the inner ear. (This same sense of nausea can be induced 
+even if you are stationary. If you look at a spinning garbage can with 
+bright vertical stripes painted on it, the stripes seem to move"
+"horizontally across your eyes, giving you the sensation that you are 
+moving. But your inner ear says you are stationary. The resulting 
+mismatch causes you to throw up after a few minutes, even if you are 
+sitting in a chair.) 
+
+The messages from the eyes and inner ear can also be disrupted 
+electrically, at the boundary of the temporal and parietal lobes, and this 
+is the origin of out-of-body experiences. When this sensitive area is 
+touched, the brain gets confused about where it is located in space. 
+(Notably, temporary loss of blood or oxygen or excess carbon dioxide in 
+the blood can also cause a disruption in the temporoparietal region and 
+induce out-of-body experiences, which may explain the prevalence of 
+these sensations during accidents, emergencies, heart attacks, etc.) 
+
+NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES"
+"NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES 
+
+But perhaps the most dramatic category of out-of-body experiences are 
+the near-death stories of individuals who have been declared dead but 
+then mysteriously regained consciousness. In fact, 6 to 12 percent of 
+survivors of cardiac arrest report having near-death experiences. It’s as 
+though they have cheated death itself. When interviewed, they have 
+dramatic tales of the same experience: they left their body and drifted 
+toward a bright light at the end of a long tunnel."
+"The media have seized upon this, with numerous best sellers and TV 
+documentaries devoted to these theatrical stories. Many bizarre theories 
+have been proposed to explain near-death experiences. In a poll of two 
+thousand people, fully 42 percent believed that near-death experiences 
+were proof of contact with the spiritual world that lies beyond death. 
+(Some believe that the body releases endorphins—natural narcotics— 
+before death. This may explain the euphoria that people feel, but not the 
+tunnel and the bright lights.) Carl Sagan even speculated that near-death 
+experiences were a reliving of the trauma of birth. The fact that these 
+individuals recount very similar experiences doesn’t necessarily 
+corroborate their glimpses into the afterlife; in fact, it seems to indicate 
+that there is some deep neurological event happening. 
+
+Neurologists have looked into this phenomenon seriously and suspect 
+that the key may be the decrease of blood flow to the brain that often"
+"accompanies near-death cases, and which also occurs in fainting. Dr. 
+Thomas Lempert, a neurologist at the Castle Park Clinic in Berlin, 
+conducted a series of experiments on forty-two healthy individuals, 
+causing them to faint under controlled laboratory conditions. Sixty 
+percent of them had visual hallucinations (e.g., bright lights and colored 
+patches). Forty-seven percent of them felt that they were entering 
+another world. Twenty percent claimed to have encountered a 
+supernatural being. Seventeen percent saw a bright light. Eight percent 
+saw a tunnel. So fainting can mimic all the sensations people have in 
+near-death experiences. But precisely how does this happen?"
+"The mystery of how fainting can simulate near-death experiences may 
+be solved by analyzing the experiences of military pilots. The U.S. Air 
+Force, for example, contacted neurophysiologist Dr. Edward Lambert to 
+analyze military pilots who blacked out when experiencing high g forces 
+(i.e., when executing a tight turn in a jet or pulling out of a dive). Dr. 
+Lampert placed pilots in an ultracentrifuge at the Mayo Clinic in 
+Rochester, Minnesota, which spun them around in a circle until they 
+experienced high g forces. As blood drained from their brain, they would 
+become unconscious after fifteen seconds of experiencing several g’s of 
+acceleration."
+"He found that after only five seconds, the blood flow to the pilots’ eyes 
+diminished, so that their peripheral vision dimmed, creating the image 
+of a long tunnel. This could explain the tunnel that is often seen by 
+people having a near-death experience. If the periphery of your vision 
+blacks out, all you see is the narrow tunnel in front of you. But because 
+Dr. Lampert could carefully adjust the velocity of the centrifuge by 
+turning a dial, he found he could keep the pilots in this state indefinitely, 
+allowing him to prove that this tunnel vision is caused by loss of blood 
+flow to the periphery of the eye. 
+
+CAN CONSCIOUSNESS LEAVE YOUR BODY? 
+
+Some scientists who have investigated near-death and out-of-body 
+experiences are convinced that they are by-products of the brain itself 
+when it is placed under stressful conditions and its wiring gets confused. 
+However, there are other scientists who believe that one day, when our"
+"technology is sufficiently advanced decades from now, one’s 
+consciousness may truly be able to leave the body. Several controversial 
+methods have been suggested."
+"One method has been pioneered by futurist and inventor Dr. Ray 
+Kurzweil, who believes that consciousness may one day be uploaded into 
+a supercomputer. We once spoke at a conference together, and he told 
+me his fascination with computers and artificial intelligence began when 
+he was five years old and his parents bought him all sorts of mechanical 
+devices and toys. He loved to tinker with these devices, and even as a 
+child he knew he was destined to become an inventor. At MIT, he 
+received his doctorate under Dr. Marvin Minsky, one of the founders of 
+AI. Afterward, he cut his teeth applying pattern-recognition technology 
+to musical instruments and text-to-sound machines. He was able to 
+translate AI research in these areas into a string of companies. (He sold 
+his first company when he was only twenty.) His optical reader, which 
+could recognize text and convert it into sound, was heralded as an aid 
+for the blind, and was even mentioned by Walter Cronkite on the 
+evening news."
+"In order to be a successful inventor, he said to me, you always have to 
+be ahead of the curve, to anticipate change, not react to it. Indeed, Dr. 
+Kurzweil loves to make predictions, and many of them have mirrored 
+the remarkable exponential growth of digital technology. He made the 
+following predictions: 
+
+• By 2019, a $1,000 PC will have the computing power of the human 
+brain—twenty million billion calculations per second. (This number 
+is obtained by taking the one hundred billion neurons of the brain, 
+multiplying one thousand connections per neuron, and two hundred 
+calculations per second per connection.) 
+
+• By 2029, a $1,000 PC will be a thousand times more powerful than 
+the human brain; the human brain itself will be successfully 
+reversed engineered. 
+
+• By 2055, $1,000 of computing power will equal the processing 
+
+power of all the humans on the planet. (He adds modestly, “I may 
+be off by a year or two.”)"
+"power of all the humans on the planet. (He adds modestly, “I may 
+be off by a year or two.”) 
+
+In particular, the year 2045 looms as an important one for Dr. 
+Kurzweil, since that is when he believes the “singularity” will take hold. 
+By then, he claims, machines will have surpassed humans in intelligence 
+and in fact will have created next-generation robots even smarter than 
+themselves. Since this process can continue indefinitely, it means, 
+according to Dr. Kurzweil, a never-ending acceleration of the power of 
+machines. In this scenario, we should either merge with our creations or 
+step out of their way. (Although these dates are in the far future, he told 
+me that he wants to live long enough to see the day when humans 
+finally become immortal; that is, he wants to live long enough to live 
+forever.)"
+"As we know from Moore’s law, at a certain point computer power can 
+no longer advance by creating smaller and smaller transistors. In 
+Kurzweil’s opinion, the only way to expand computing power further 
+would be to increase overall size, which would leave robots scavenging 
+for more computer power by devouring the minerals of the Earth. Once 
+the planet has become a gigantic computer, robots may be forced to go 
+into outer space, searching for more sources of computer power. 
+Eventually, they may consume the power of entire stars. 
+
+I once asked him if this cosmic growth of computers could alter the 
+cosmos itself. Yes, he replied. He told me that he sometimes looks at the 
+night sky, wondering if on some distant planet intelligent beings have 
+already attained the singularity. If so, then perhaps they should leave 
+some mark on the stars themselves that might be visible to the naked 
+eye."
+"One limitation he told me, is the speed of light. Unless these machines 
+can break the light barrier, this exponential rise in power may hit a 
+ceiling. When that happens, says Kurzweil, perhaps they will alter the 
+laws of physics themselves. 
+
+Anyone who makes predictions with such precision and scope 
+naturally invites criticism like a lightning rod, but it doesn’t seem to faze 
+him. People can quibble about this or that prediction, since Kurzweil has 
+missed some of his deadlines, but he is mainly concerned about the 
+thrust of his ideas, which predict the exponential growth of technology. 
+To be fair, most people working in the field of AI whom I have 
+interviewed agree that some form of a singularity will happen, but they 
+disagree sharply on when it might occur and how it will unfold. For"
+"example, Bill Gates, cofounder of Microsoft, believes that no one alive 
+today will live to see the day when computers are smart enough to pass 
+for a human. Kevin Kelly, an editor for Wired magazine, has said, 
+“People who predict a very utopian future always predict that it is going 
+to happen before they die.” 
+
+Indeed, one of Kurzweil’s many goals is to bring his father back to life. 
+Or rather, he wants to create a realistic simulation. There are several 
+possibilities, but all are still highly speculative. 
+
+Kurzweil proposes that perhaps DNA can be extracted from his father 
+(from his grave site, relatives, or organic materials he left behind). 
+Contained within roughly twenty-three thousand genes would be a 
+complete blueprint to re-create the body of that individual. Then a clone 
+could be grown from the DNA."
+"This is certainly a possibility. I once asked Dr. Robert Lanza of the 
+company Advanced Cell Technology how he was able to bring a long- 
+dead creature “back to life,” making history in the process. He told me 
+that the San Diego Zoo asked him to create a clone of a banteng, an 
+oxlike creature that had died out about twenty-five years earlier. The 
+hard part was extracting a usable cell for the purpose of cloning. 
+However, he was successful, and then he FedExed the cell to a farm, 
+where it was implanted into a female cow, which then gave birth to this 
+animal. Although no primate has ever been cloned, let alone a human, 
+Lanza feels it’s a technical problem, and that it’s only a matter of time 
+before someone clones a human."
+"This would be the easy part, though. The clone would be genetically 
+equivalent to the original, but without its memories. Artificial memories 
+might be uploaded to the brain using the pioneering methods described 
+in Chapter 5, such as inserting probes into the hippocampus or creating 
+an artificial hippocampus, but Kurzweil’s father has long passed, so it’s 
+impossible to make the recording in the first place. The best one can do 
+is to assemble piecemeal all historical data about that person, such as by 
+interviewing others who possess relevant memories, or accessing their 
+credit card transactions, etc., and then inputting them into the program. 
+
+A more practical way of inserting a person’s personality and memory 
+would be to create a large data file containing all known information 
+about a person’s habits and life. For example, today it is possible to store 
+all your e-mail, credit card transactions, records, schedules, electronic"
+"diaries, and life history onto a single file, which can create a remarkably 
+accurate picture of who you are. This file would represent your entire 
+“digital signature,” representing everything that is known about you. It 
+would be remarkably accurate and intimate, detailing what wines you 
+like, how you spend vacations, what kind of soap you use, your favorite 
+
+singer, and so on."
+"Also, with a questionnaire, it would be possible to create a rough 
+approximation of Kurzweil’s father’s personality. His friends, relatives, 
+and associates would fill out a questionnaire containing scores of 
+questions about his personality, such as whether he was shy, curious, 
+honest, hardworking, etc. Then they would assign a number to each trait 
+(e.g., a “10” would mean that you are very honest). This would create a 
+string of hundreds of numbers, each one ranking a specific personality 
+trait. Once this vast set of numbers was compiled, a computer program 
+would take these data and approximate how he would behave in 
+hypothetical situations. Let’s say that you are giving a speech and are 
+confronted with an especially obnoxious heckler. The computer program 
+would then scan the numbers and then predict one of several possible 
+outcomes (e.g., ignore the heckler, heckle back, or get into a brawl with 
+the heckler). In other words, his basic personality would be reduced to a"
+"the heckler). In other words, his basic personality would be reduced to a 
+long string of numbers, each from 1 to 10, which can be used by a 
+computer to predict how he would react to new situations."
+"The result would be a vast computer program that would respond to 
+new situations roughly the way the original person would have, using 
+the same verbal expressions and having the same quirks, all tempered 
+with the memories of that person. 
+
+Another possibility would be to forgo the whole cloning process and 
+simply create a robot resembling the original person. It would then be 
+straightforward to insert this program into a mechanical device that 
+looks like you, talks with the same accent and mannerisms, and moves 
+its arms and limbs the same way that you do. Adding your favorite 
+expressions (e.g., “you know ...”) would also be easy. 
+
+Of course, today it would be easy to detect that this robot is a fake. 
+However, in the coming decades, it may be possible to get closer and 
+closer to the original, so it might be good enough to fool some people. 
+
+But this raises a philosophical question. Is this “person” really the 
+same as the original? The original is still dead, so the clone or robot is,"
+"strictly speaking, still an impostor. A tape recorder, for example, might 
+reproduce a conversation we have with perfect fidelity, but that tape 
+recorder is certainly not the original. Can a clone or robot that behaves 
+just like the original be a valid substitute? 
+
+IMMORTALITY 
+
+These methods have been criticized because this process does not 
+realistically input your true personality and memories. A more faithful 
+way of putting a mind into a machine is via the Connectome Project, 
+which we discussed in the last chapter and which seeks to duplicate, 
+neuron for neuron, all the cellular pathways of your brain. All your 
+memories and personality quirks are already embedded in the 
+connectome."
+"The Connectome Project’s Dr. Sebastian Seung notes that some people 
+pay $100,000 or more to have their brains frozen in liquid nitrogen. 
+Certain animals, like fish and frogs, can be frozen solid in a block of ice 
+in winter yet be perfectly healthy after thawing out in spring. This is 
+because they use glucose as an antifreeze to alter the freezing point of 
+water in their blood. Thus their blood remains liquid, even though they 
+are encased in solid ice. This high concentration of glucose in the human 
+body, however, would probably be fatal, so freezing the human brain in 
+liquid nitrogen is a dubious pursuit because expanding ice crystals would 
+rupture the cell wall from the inside (and also, as brain cells die, calcium 
+ions rush in, causing the brain cells to expand until they finally rupture). 
+In either case, brain cells would most likely not survive the freezing 
+process."
+"Rather than freezing the body and having the cells rupture, a more 
+reliable process to attain immortality might be to have your connectome 
+completed. In this scenario, your doctor would have all your neural 
+connections on a hard drive. Basically, your soul would now be on a 
+disk, reduced to information. Then at a future point, someone would be 
+able to resurrect your connectome and, in principle, use either a clone or 
+a tangle of transistors to bring you back to life. 
+
+The Connectome Project, as we mentioned, is still far from being able 
+to record a human’s neural connections. But as Dr. Seung says, “Should 
+
+we ridicule the modern seekers of immortality, calling them fools? Or 
+will they someday chuckle over our graves?” 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS AND IMMORTALITY"
+"MENTAL ILLNESS AND IMMORTALITY 
+
+Immortality may have its drawbacks, however. The electronic brains 
+being built so far contain only the connections between the cortex and 
+the thalamus. The reverse-engineered brain, lacking a body, might begin 
+to suffer from sensory isolation and even manifest signs of mental illness, 
+as prisoners do when they are placed into solitary confinement. Perhaps 
+the price of creating an immortal, reverse-engineered brain is madness."
+"Subjects who are placed in isolation chambers, where they are 
+deprived of any contact with the outside world, eventually hallucinate. 
+In 2008, BBC-TV aired a science program titled Total Isolation, in which 
+they followed six volunteers as they were placed inside a nuclear bunker, 
+alone and in complete darkness. After just two days, three of the 
+volunteers began to see and hear things—snakes, cars, zebras, and 
+oysters. After they were released, doctors found that all of them suffered 
+from mental deterioration. One subject’s memory suffered a 36 percent 
+drop. One can imagine that, after a few weeks or months of this, most of 
+them might go insane."
+"To maintain the sanity of a reverse-engineered brain, it might be 
+essential to connect it to sensors that receive signals from the 
+environment so it would be able to see and feel sensations from the 
+outside world. But then another problem arises: it might feel that it is a 
+grotesque freak, an unwieldy scientific guinea pig living at the mercy of 
+a science experiment. Because this brain has the same memory and 
+personality as the original human, it would crave human contact. And 
+yet, lurking inside the memory of some supercomputer, with a macabre 
+jungle of electrodes dangling outside, the reverse-engineered brain 
+would be repulsive to any human. Bonding with it would be impossible. 
+Its friends would turn away. 
+
+THE CAVEMAN PRINCIPLE 
+
+At this point, what I call the Caveman Principle starts to kick in. Why do 
+
+so many reasonable predictions fail? And why would someone not want 
+to live forever inside a computer?"
+"The Caveman Principle is this: given a choice between high-tech or 
+high-touch, we opt for high-touch every time. For example, if we are 
+given a choice between tickets to see our favorite musician live or a CD 
+of the same musician in concert, which would we choose? Or if we are 
+given a choice between tickets to visit the Taj Mahal or just seeing a 
+beautiful picture of it, which would we prefer? More than likely the live 
+concert and the airplane tickets. 
+
+This is because we have inherited the consciousness of our apelike 
+ancestors. Some of our basic personality has probably not changed much 
+in the last one hundred thousand years, since the first modern humans 
+emerged in Africa. A large portion of our consciousness is devoted to 
+looking good and trying to impress members of the opposite sex and our 
+peers. This is hardwired into our brains. 
+
+More likely, given our basic, apelike consciousness, we will merge 
+with computers only if this enhances but does not totally replace our 
+present-day body."
+"The Caveman Principle probably explains why some reasonable 
+predictions about the future never materialized, such as “the paperless 
+office.” Computers were supposed to banish paper from the office; 
+ironically, computers have actually created even more paper. This is 
+because we are descended from hunters who need “proof of the kill” 
+(i.e., we trust concrete evidence, not ephemeral electrons dancing on a 
+computer screen that vanish when you turn it off). Likewise, the 
+“peopleless city,” where people would use virtual reality to go to 
+meetings instead of commuting, never materialized. Commuting to cities 
+is worse than ever. Why? Because we are social animals who like to 
+bond with others. Videoconferencing, although useful, cannot pick up 
+the full spectrum of subtle information offered via body language. A 
+boss, for example, may want to ferret out problems in his staff and 
+therefore wants to see them squirm and sweat under interrogation. You 
+can do this only in person. 
+
+CAVEMEN AND NEUROSCIENCE"
+"CAVEMEN AND NEUROSCIENCE 
+
+When I was a child, I read Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy and was 
+deeply influenced by it. First, it forced me to ask a simple question: 
+What will technology look like fifty thousand years in the future, when 
+we have a galactic empire? I also couldn’t help wondering throughout 
+the novel, Why do humans look and act the same as they do now? I 
+thought that surely thousands of years into the future humans should 
+have cyborg bodies with superhuman abilities. They should have given 
+up their puny human forms millennia ago."
+"I came up with two answers. First, Asimov wanted to appeal to a 
+young audience willing to buy his book, so he had to create characters 
+that those people could identify with, including all their faults. Second, 
+perhaps people in the future will have the option to have superpowered 
+bodies but prefer to look normal most of the time. This would be 
+because their minds have not changed since humans first emerged from 
+the forest, and so acceptance from their peers and the opposite sex still 
+determines what they look like and what they want out of life. 
+
+So now let us apply the Caveman Principle to the neuroscience of the 
+future. At the minimum, it means that any modification of the basic 
+human form would have to be nearly invisible on the outside. We don’t 
+want to resemble a refugee from a science-fiction movie, with electrodes 
+dangling from our head. Brain implants that might insert memories or 
+increase our intelligence will be adopted only if nanotechnology can"
+"make microscopic sensors and probes that are invisible to the naked eye. 
+In the future, it might be possible to make nanofibers, perhaps made of 
+carbon nanotubes one molecule thick, so thin that they would be able to 
+make contact with neurons with surgical precision and yet leave our 
+appearance unaltered, with our mental capabilities enhanced. 
+
+Meanwhile, if we need to be connected to a supercomputer to upload 
+information, we won’t want to be tied to a cable jacked into our spinal 
+cord, as in The Matrix. The connection will have to be wireless so we can 
+access vast amounts of computer power simply by mentally locating the 
+nearest server. 
+
+Today we have cochlear implants and artificial retinas that can give 
+the gift of sound and sight to patients, but in the future our senses will 
+be enhanced using nanotechnology while we preserve our basic human 
+form. For instance, we might have the option of enhancing our muscles, 
+via genetic modification or exoskeletons. There could be a human body"
+"shop from which we could order new spare parts as the old ones wear 
+out, but these and other physical enhancements of the body would have 
+to avoid abandoning the human form. 
+
+Another way to use this technology in accordance with the Caveman 
+Principle is to use it as an option, rather than a permanent way of life. 
+One might want the option of plugging into this technology and then 
+unplugging soon afterward. Scientists may want to boost their 
+intelligence to solve a particularly tricky problem. But afterward, they 
+will be able to take off their helmets or implants and go about their 
+business. In this way, we are not caught looking like a space cadet to our 
+friends. The point is that no one would force you to do any of this. We 
+would want the option of enjoying the benefits of this technology 
+without the downside of looking silly."
+"So in the centuries to come, it is likely our bodies will look very 
+similar to the ones we possess today, except that they will be perfect and 
+have enhanced powers. It is a relic of our apelike past that our 
+consciousness is dominated by ancient desires and wishes. 
+
+But what about immortality? As we have seen, a reverse-engineered 
+brain, with all the personality quirks of the original person, would 
+eventually go mad if placed inside a computer. Furthermore, connecting 
+this brain to external sensors so it could feel sensations from its 
+environment would create a grotesque monstrosity. One partial solution 
+to this problem is to connect the reverse-engineered brain to an 
+exoskeleton. If the exoskeleton acts like a surrogate, then the reverse- 
+engineered brain would be able to enjoy sensations such as touch and 
+sight without looking grotesque. Eventually the exoskeleton would go"
+"wireless, so that it would act like a human but be controlled by a 
+reverse-engineered brain “living” inside a computer. 
+
+This surrogate would have the best of both worlds. Being an 
+exoskeleton, it would be perfect. It would possess superpowers. Since it 
+would be wirelessly connected to a reverse-engineered brain inside a 
+large computer, it would also be immortal. And lastly, since it would 
+sense the environment and look appealingly like a real human, it would 
+not have as many problems interacting with humans, many of whom 
+will also have probably opted for this procedure. So the actual 
+connectome would reside in a stationary supercomputer, although its 
+consciousness would manifest itself in a perfect, mobile surrogate body. 
+
+All this would require a level of technology far beyond anything that 
+is attainable today. However, given the rapid pace of scientific progress, 
+this could become a reality by the end of the century. 
+
+GRADUAL TRANSFERENCE"
+"GRADUAL TRANSFERENCE 
+
+Right now the process of reverse engineering involves transferring the 
+information within the brain, neuron for neuron. The brain has to be cut 
+up into thin slices, since MRI scans are not yet refined enough to identify 
+the precise neural architecture of the living brain. So until that can be 
+done, the obvious disadvantage of this approach is that you have to die 
+before you can be reversed engineered. Since the brain degenerates 
+rapidly after death, its preservation would have to take place 
+immediately, which is very difficult to accomplish."
+"But there may be one way to attain immortality without having to die 
+first. This idea was pioneered by Dr. Hans Moravec, former director of 
+the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University. 
+When I interviewed him, he told me that he envisions a time in the 
+distant future when we will be able to reverse engineer the brain for a 
+specific purpose: to transfer the mind into an immortal robotic body 
+even while a person is still conscious. If we can reverse engineer every 
+neuron of the brain, why not create a copy made of transistors, 
+duplicating precisely the thought processes of the mind? In this way, you 
+do not have to die in order to live forever. You can be conscious 
+throughout the entire process."
+"He told me that this process would have to be done in steps. First, you 
+lie on a stretcher, next to a robot lacking a brain. Next, a robotic surgeon 
+extracts a few neurons from your brain, and then duplicates these 
+neurons with some transistors located in the robot. Wires connect your 
+brain to the transistors in the robot’s empty head. The neurons are then 
+
+thrown away and replaced by the transistor circuit. Since your brain 
+remains connected to these transistors via wires, it functions normally 
+and you are fully conscious during this process. Then the super surgeon 
+removes more and more neurons from your brain, each time duplicating 
+these neurons with transistors in the robot. Midway through the 
+operation, half of your brain is empty; the other half is connected by 
+
+wires to a large collection of transistors inside the robot’s head. 
+Eventually all the neurons in your brain have been removed, leaving a 
+robot brain that is an exact duplicate of your original brain, neuron for 
+neuron."
+"At the end of this process, however, you rise from the stretcher and 
+find that your body is perfectly formed. You are handsome and beautiful 
+beyond your dreams, with superhuman powers and abilities. As a perk, 
+you are also immortal. You gaze back at your original mortal body, 
+which is just an aging shell without a mind. 
+
+This technology, of course, is far ahead of our time. We cannot reverse 
+engineer the human brain, let alone make a carbon copy made of 
+transistors. (One of the main criticisms of this approach is that a 
+transistorized brain may not fit inside the skull. In fact, given the size of 
+electronic components, the transistorized brain may be the size of a huge 
+supercomputer. In this sense, this proposal begins to resemble the 
+previous one, in which the reverse-engineered brain is stored in a huge 
+supercomputer, which in turn controls a surrogate. But the great 
+advantage of this approach is that you don’t have to die; you’d be fully 
+conscious during the process.)"
+"One’s head spins contemplating these possibilities. All of them seem to 
+be consistent with the laws of physics, but the technological barriers to 
+achieving them are truly formidable. All these proposals for uploading 
+consciousness into a computer require a technology that is far into the 
+future. 
+
+But there is one last proposal for attaining immortality that does not 
+require reverse engineering the brain at all. It requires simply a 
+microscopic “nanobot” that can manipulate individual atoms. So why 
+not live forever in your own natural body, but with a periodic “tune-up” 
+that makes it immortal? 
+
+WHAT IS AGING? 
+
+This new approach incorporates the latest research into the aging 
+process. Traditionally there has been no consensus among biologists 
+
+about the source of the aging process. But within the last decade, a new 
+theory has gained gradual acceptance and has unified many strands of"
+"research into aging. Basically, aging is the buildup of errors, at the 
+genetic and cellular level. As cells get older, errors begin to build up in 
+their DNA and cellular debris also starts to accumulate, which makes 
+cells sluggish. As cells begin to slowly malfunction, skin begins to sag, 
+bones become frail, hair falls out, and our immune system deteriorates. 
+Eventually, we die. 
+
+But cells also have error-correcting mechanisms. Over time, however, 
+even these error-correcting mechanisms begin to fail, and aging 
+accelerates. The goal, therefore, is to strengthen the natural cell-repair 
+mechanisms, which can be done via gene therapy and the creation of 
+new enzymes. But there is also another way: using “nanobot” 
+assemblers."
+"One of the linchpins of this futuristic technology is something called 
+the “nanobot,” or an atomic machine, which patrols the bloodstream, 
+zapping cancer cells, repairing the damage from the aging process, and 
+keeping us forever young and healthy. Nature has already created some 
+nanobots, in the form of immune cells that patrol the body in the blood. 
+But these immune cells attack viruses and foreign bodies, not the aging 
+process. 
+
+Immortality is within reach if these nanobots can reverse the ravages 
+of the aging process at the molecular and cellular level. In this vision, 
+nanobots are like immune cells, tiny police patrolling your bloodstream. 
+They attack any cancer cells, neutralize viruses, and clean out the debris 
+and mutations. Then the possibility of immortality would be within 
+reach using our own bodies, not some robot or clone. 
+
+NANOBOTS—REAL OR FANTASY?"
+"NANOBOTS—REAL OR FANTASY? 
+
+My own personal philosophy is that if something is consistent with the 
+laws of physics, then it becomes an engineering and economics problem 
+to build it. The engineering and economic hurdles may be formidable, of 
+course, making it impractical for the present, but nonetheless it is still 
+possible. 
+
+On the surface, the nanobot is simple: an atomic machine with arms 
+and clippers that grabs molecules, cuts them at specific points, and then 
+splices them back together. By cutting and pasting various atoms, the"
+"nanobot can create almost any known molecule, like a magician pulling 
+something out of a hat. It can also self-reproduce, so it is necessary to 
+build only one nanobot. This nanobot will then take raw materials, 
+digest them, and create millions of other nanobots. This could trigger a 
+second Industrial Revolution, as the cost of building materials plummets. 
+One day, perhaps every home will have its own personal molecular 
+assembler, so you can have anything you want just by asking for it."
+"But the key question is: Are nanobots consistent with the laws of 
+physics? Back in 2001, two visionaries practically came to blows over 
+this crucial question. At stake was nothing less than a vision of the entire 
+future of technology. On one side was the late Richard Smalley, a Nobel 
+laureate in chemistry and skeptical of nanobots. On the other side was 
+Eric Drexler, one of the founding fathers of nanotechnology. Their 
+titanic, tit-for-tat battle played out in the pages of several scientific 
+magazines from 2001 to 2003."
+"Smalley said that, at the atomic scale, new quantum forces emerge 
+that make nanobots impossible. The error made by Drexler and others, 
+he claimed, is that the nanobot, with its clippers and arms, cannot 
+function at the atomic scale. There are novel forces (e.g., the Casimir 
+force) that cause atoms to repel or attract one another. He called this the 
+“sticky, fat fingers” problem, because the fingers of the nanobot are not 
+like delicate, precise pliers and wrenches. Quantum forces get in the 
+way, so it’s like trying to weld metals together while wearing gloves that 
+are many inches thick. Furthermore, every time you try to weld two 
+pieces of metal together, these pieces are either repelled or stick to you, 
+so you can never grab one properly."
+"Drexler then fired back, stating that nanobots are not science fiction— 
+they actually exist. Think of the ribosomes in our own body. They are 
+essential in creating and molding DNA molecules. They can cut and 
+splice DNA molecules at specific points, which makes possible the 
+creation of new DNA strands. 
+
+But Smalley wasn’t satisfied, stating that ribosomes are not all-purpose 
+machines that can cut and paste anything you want; they work 
+specifically on DNA molecules. Moreover, ribosomes are organic 
+chemicals that need enzymes to speed up the reaction, which occurs 
+only in a watery environment. Transistors are made of silicon, not water, 
+so these enzymes would never work, he concluded. Drexel, in turn, 
+
+mentioned that catalysts can work even without water. This heated 
+exchange went back and forth through several rounds. In the end, like 
+two evenly matched prizefighters, both sides seemed exhausted. Drexler 
+had to admit that the analogy to workers with cutters and blowtorches"
+"was too simplistic, that quantum forces do get in the way sometimes. But 
+Smalley had to concede that he was unable to score a knockout blow. 
+Nature had at least one way of evading the “sticky, fat fingers” problem, 
+with ribosomes, and perhaps there might be other subtle, unforeseen 
+ways as well. 
+
+Regardless of the details of this debate, Ray Kurzweil is convinced that 
+these nanobots, whether or not they have fat, sticky fingers, will one day 
+shape not just molecules, but society itself. He summarized his vision 
+when he said, “I’m not planning to die.... I see it, ultimately, as an 
+awakening of the whole universe. I think the whole universe right now is 
+basically made up of dumb matter and energy and I think it will wake 
+up. But if it becomes transformed into this sublimely intelligent matter 
+and energy, I hope to be part of that.”"
+"As fantastic as these speculations are, they are only a preface to the 
+next leap in speculation. Perhaps one day the mind will not only be free 
+of its material body, it will also be able to explore the universe as a 
+being of pure energy. The idea that consciousness will one day be free to 
+roam among the stars is the ultimate dream. As incredible as it may 
+sound, this is well within the laws of physics. 
+
+13 THE MIND AS PURE ENERGY 
+
+The idea that one day consciousness may spread throughout the 
+universe has been considered seriously by physicists. Sir Martin Rees, the 
+Royal Astronomer of Great Britain, has written, “Wormholes, extra 
+dimensions, and quantum computers open up speculative scenarios that 
+could transform our entire universe eventually into a ‘living cosmos’!”"
+"But will the mind one day be freed of its material body to explore the 
+entire universe? This was the theme explored in Isaac Asimov’s classic 
+science-fiction tale “The Last Question.” (He would fondly recall that this 
+was his favorite science-fiction short story of all the ones he had 
+written.) In it, billions of years into the future, humans will have placed 
+their physical bodies in pods on an obscure planet, freeing their minds to 
+control pure energy throughout the galaxy. Instead of surrogates made 
+of steel and silicon, these surrogates are pure energy beings that can 
+effortlessly roam the distant reaches of space, past exploding stars, 
+colliding galaxies, and other wonders of the universe. But no matter how 
+powerful humanity has become, it is helpless as it witnesses the ultimate 
+death of the universe itself in the Big Freeze. In desperation, humanity 
+constructs a supercomputer to answer the final question: Can the death"
+"constructs a supercomputer to answer the final question: Can the death 
+of the universe be reversed? The computer is so large and complex that 
+it has to be placed in hyperspace. But the computer simply responds that 
+there is insufficient information to give an answer."
+"Eons later, as the stars begin to turn dark, all life in the universe is 
+about to die. But then the supercomputer finally discovers a way to 
+reverse the death of the universe. It collects dead stars from across the 
+universe, combines them into one gigantic cosmic ball, and ignites it. As 
+the ball explodes, the supercomputer announces, “Let there be light!” 
+
+And there was light. 
+
+So humanity, once freed of the physical body, is capable of playing 
+God and creating a new universe. 
+
+At first, Asimov’s fantastic tale of beings made of pure energy roaming 
+
+across the universe sounds impossible. We are accustomed to thinking of 
+beings made of flesh and blood, which are at the mercy of the laws of 
+physics and biology, living and breathing on Earth, and bound by the 
+gravity of our planet. The concept of conscious entities of energy, 
+soaring across the galaxy, unimpeded by the limitations of material 
+bodies, is a strange one."
+"Yet this dream of exploring the universe as beings of pure energy is 
+well within the laws of physics. Think of the most familiar form of pure 
+energy, a laser beam, which is capable of containing vast amounts of 
+information. Today trillions of signals in the form of phone calls, data 
+packages, videos, and e-mail messages are transmitted routinely by fiber¬ 
+optic cables carrying laser beams. One day, perhaps sometime in the 
+next century, we will be able to transmit the consciousness of our brains 
+throughout the solar system by placing our entire connectomes onto 
+powerful laser beams. A century beyond that, we may be able to send 
+our connectome to the stars, riding on a light beam."
+"(This is possible because the wavelength of a laser beam is 
+microscopic, i.e., measured in millionths of a meter. That means you can 
+compress vast amounts of information on its wave pattern. Think of 
+Morse code. The dots and dashes of Morse code can easily be 
+superimposed on the wave pattern of a laser beam. Even more 
+information can be transferred onto a beam of X-rays, which has a 
+wavelength even smaller than an atom.) 
+
+One way to explore the galaxy, unbound by the messy restrictions of 
+ordinary matter, is to place our connectomes onto laser beams directed 
+at the moon, the planets, and even the stars. Given the crash program to 
+find the pathways of the brain, the complete connectome of the human 
+brain will be available late in this century, and a form of the connectome 
+capable of being placed on a laser beam might be available in the next 
+century."
+"The laser beam would contain all the information necessary to 
+reassemble a conscious being. Although it may take years or even 
+centuries for the laser beam to reach its destination, from the point of 
+view of the person riding on the laser beam, the trip would be 
+instantaneous. Our consciousness is essentially frozen on the laser beam 
+as it soars through empty space, so the trip to the other side of the 
+galaxy appears to take place in the blink of an eye."
+"In this way, we avoid all the unpleasant features of interplanetary and 
+interstellar travel. First, there is no need to build colossal booster 
+rockets. Instead, you simply press the “on” button of a laser. Second, 
+there are no powerful g forces crushing your body as you accelerate into 
+space. Instead, you are boosted instantly to the speed of light, since you 
+are immaterial. Third, you don’t have to suffer the hazards of outer 
+space, such as meteor impacts and deadly cosmic rays, since asteroids 
+and radiation pass right through you harmlessly. Fourth, you don’t have 
+to freeze your body or endure years of boredom as you lumber tediously 
+inside a conventional rocket. Instead, you zip across space at the fastest 
+velocity in the universe, frozen in time."
+"Once we reach our destination, there would have to be a receiving 
+station to transfer the data of the laser beam onto a mainframe 
+computer, which then brings the conscious being back to life. The code 
+that was imprinted onto the laser beam now takes control of the 
+computer and redirects its programming. The connectome directs the 
+mainframe computer to begin simulating the future to attain its goals 
+(i.e., it becomes conscious). 
+
+This conscious being inside the mainframe then sends signals 
+wirelessly to a robotic surrogate body, which has been waiting for us at 
+the destination. In this way, we suddenly “wake up” on a distant planet 
+or star, as if the trip took place in the blink of an eye, inside the robotic 
+body of our surrogate. All the complex computations take place in a 
+large mainframe computer, which directs the movements of a surrogate 
+to carry on with our business on a distant star. We are oblivious to the 
+hazards of space travel, as if nothing had happened."
+"Now imagine a vast network of these stations spread out over the solar 
+system and even the galaxy. From our point of view, hopping from star 
+to star would be almost effortless, traveling at the speed of light in 
+journeys that are instantaneous. At each station, there is a robotic 
+surrogate waiting for us to enter its body, just like an empty hotel room 
+waiting for us to check in. We arrive at our destination refreshed and 
+equipped with a superhuman body. 
+
+The type of surrogate robotic body that awaits us at the end of this 
+
+journey would depend on the mission. If the job is to explore a new 
+world, then the surrogate body would have to work in harsh conditions. 
+It would have to adjust to a different gravitational field, a poisonous 
+
+atmosphere, freezing-cold or blistering-hot temperatures, different day- 
+night cycles, and a constant rain of deadly radiation. To survive under 
+these harsh conditions, the surrogate body would have to have super 
+strength and super senses."
+"If the surrogate body is purely for relaxation, then it would be 
+designed for leisurely activities. It would maximize the pleasure of 
+soaring through space on skis, surfboards, kites, gliders, or planes, or of 
+sending a ball through space propelled by the swing of a bat, club, or 
+racket. 
+
+Or if the job is to mingle with and study the local natives, then the 
+surrogate would approximate the bodily characteristics of the indigenous 
+population (as in the movie Avatar )."
+"Admittedly, in order to create this network of laser stations in the first 
+place, it might be necessary first to travel to the planets and stars in the 
+old-fashioned way, in more conventional rocket ships. Then one could 
+build the first set of these laser stations. (Perhaps the fastest, cheapest, 
+and most efficient way of creating this interstellar network would be to 
+send self-replicating robotic probes throughout the galaxy. Because they 
+can make copies of themselves, starting with one such probe, after many 
+generations there would be billions of such probes streaming out in all 
+directions, each one creating a laser station wherever it lands. We will 
+discuss this further in the next chapter.) 
+
+But once the network is fully established, one can conceive of a 
+continual stream of conscious beings roaming the galaxy, so that at any 
+time crowds of people are leaving and arriving from distant parts of the 
+galaxy. Any laser station in the network might look like Grand Central 
+Station."
+"As futuristic as this may sound, the basic physics for this concept are 
+already well established. This includes placing vast amounts of data onto 
+laser beams, sending this information across thousands of miles, and 
+then decoding the information at the other end. The major problems 
+facing this idea are therefore not in the physics, but in the engineering. 
+Because of this, it may take us until the next century to send our entire 
+connectome on laser beams powerful enough to reach the planets. It 
+might take us still another century to beam our minds to the stars. 
+
+To see if this is feasible, it is instructive to do a few simple, back-of- 
+the-envelope calculations. The first problem is that the photons inside a"
+"pencil-thin laser beam, although they appear to be in perfectly parallel 
+formation, actually diverge slightly in space. (When I was a child, I used 
+to shine a flashlight at the moon and wonder if the light ever reached it. 
+The answer is yes. The atmosphere absorbs over 90 percent of the 
+original beam, leaving some remaining to reach the moon. But the real 
+problem is that the image the flashlight finally casts on the moon is 
+miles across. This is because of the uncertainty principle; even laser 
+beams must diverge slowly. Since you cannot know the precise location 
+of the laser beam, it must, by the laws of quantum physics, slowly spread 
+out over time.)"
+"But beaming our connectomes to the moon does not give us much 
+advantage, since it’s easier simply to remain on Earth and control the 
+lunar surrogate directly by radio. The delay is only about a second when 
+issuing commands to the surrogate. The real advantage comes when 
+controlling surrogates on the planets, since a radio message may take 
+hours to reach a surrogate there. The process of issuing a series of radio 
+commands to a surrogate, waiting for a response, and issuing another 
+command would be painfully slow, taking days on end. 
+
+If you want to send a laser beam to the planets, you first have to 
+establish a battery of lasers on the moon, well above the atmosphere, so 
+there is no air to absorb the signal. Shot from the moon, a laser beam to 
+the planets could arrive in a matter of minutes to a few hours. Once the 
+laser beam has sent the connectome to the planets, then it’s possible to 
+directly control the surrogate without any delay factors at all."
+"So establishing a network of these laser stations throughout the solar 
+system could be accomplished by the next century. But the problems are 
+magnified when we try sending the beam to the stars. This means that 
+we must have relay stations placed on asteroids and space stations along 
+the way, in order to amplify the signal, reduce errors, and send the 
+message to the next relay station. This could potentially be done by 
+using the comets that lie between our sun and the nearby stars. For 
+example, extending about a light-year from the sun (or one-quarter of 
+the distance to the nearest star) is the Oort cloud of comets. It is a 
+spherical shell of billions of comets, many of which lie motionless in 
+empty space. There is probably a similar Oort cloud of comets 
+surrounding the Centauri star system, which is our nearest stellar 
+neighbor. Assuming that this Oort cloud also extends a light-year from"
+"those stars, then fully half the distance from our solar system to the next 
+contains stationary comets on which we can build laser relay stations. 
+
+Another problem is the sheer amount of data that must be sent by 
+laser beam. The total information contained in one’s connectome, 
+according to Dr. Sebastian Seung, is roughly one zettabyte (that is, a 1 
+with twenty-one zeros after it). This is roughly equivalent to the total 
+information contained in the World Wide Web today. Now consider 
+shooting a battery of laser beams into space carrying this vast mountain 
+of information. Optical fibers can carry terabytes of data per second (a 1 
+with twelve zeros after it). Within the next century, advances in 
+information storage, data compression, and bundling of laser beams may 
+increase this efficiency by a factor of a million. This means that it would 
+take a few hours or so to send the beam into space carrying all the 
+information contained within the brain."
+"So the problem is not the sheer amount of data sent on laser beams. In 
+principle, laser beams can carry an unlimited amount of data. The real 
+bottlenecks are the receiving stations at either end, which must have 
+switches that rapidly manipulate this amount of data at blinding speed. 
+Silicon transistors may not be fast enough to handle this volume of data. 
+Instead, we might have to use quantum computers, which compute not 
+on silicon transistors but on individual atoms. At present, quantum 
+computers are at a primitive level, but by the next century they might be 
+powerful enough to handle zettabytes of information. 
+
+FLOATING BEINGS OF ENERGY"
+"FLOATING BEINGS OF ENERGY 
+
+Another advantage of using quantum computers to process this 
+mountain of data is the chance to create beings of energy that can hover 
+and float in the air, which appear frequently in science fiction and 
+fantasy. These beings would represent consciousness in its purest form. 
+At first, however, they may seem to violate the laws of physics, since 
+light always travels at the speed of light. 
+
+But in the last decade, headlines were made by physicists at Harvard 
+University who announced that they were able to stop a beam of light 
+dead in its tracks. These physicists apparently accomplished the 
+impossible, slowing down a light beam to a leisurely pace until it could"
+"be placed in a bottle. Capturing a light beam in a bottle is not so 
+fantastic if you look carefully at a glass of water. As a light beam enters 
+the water, it slows down, bending as it enters the water at an angle. 
+Similarly, light bends as it enters glass, making telescopes and 
+microscopes possible. The reason for all this comes from the quantum 
+theory. 
+
+Think of the old Pony Express, which delivered the mail in the"
+"Think of the old Pony Express, which delivered the mail in the 
+
+nineteenth century in the American West. Each pony could sprint 
+between relay stations at great speed. But the bottleneck was the delay 
+factor at each relay station, where the mail, rider, and pony had to be 
+exchanged. This slowed down the average velocity of the mail 
+considerably. In the same way, in the vacuum between atoms, light still 
+travels at c, the speed of light, which is roughly 186,282 miles per second. 
+However, when it hits atoms, light is delayed; it is briefly absorbed and 
+then reemitted by atoms, sending it on its way a fraction of a second 
+later. This slight delay is responsible for light beams, on average, 
+apparently slowing down in glass or water."
+"The Harvard scientists exploited this phenomenon, taking a container 
+of gas and carefully cooling it down to near absolute zero. At these 
+freezing temperatures, the gas atoms absorbed a light beam for longer 
+and longer time periods before reemitting it. Thus, by increasing this 
+delay factor, they could slow down the light beam until it came to rest. 
+The light beam still traveled at the speed of light between the gas atoms, 
+but it spent an increasing amount of time being absorbed by them. 
+
+This raises the possibility that a conscious being, instead of assuming 
+control of a surrogate, may prefer to remain in the form of pure energy 
+and roam, almost ghostlike, as pure energy."
+"So in the future, as laser beams are sent to the stars containing our 
+connectomes, the beam may be transferred into a cloud of gas molecules 
+and then contained in a bottle. This “bottle of light” is very similar to a 
+quantum computer. Both of them have a collection of atoms vibrating in 
+unison, in which the atoms are in phase with one another. And both of 
+them can do complex computations that are far beyond an ordinary 
+computer’s capability. So if the problems of quantum computers can be 
+solved, it may also give us the ability to manipulate these “bottles of 
+light.” 
+
+FASTER THAN LIGHT? 
+
+We see, then, that all these problems are ones of engineering. There is no 
+law of physics preventing traveling on an energy beam in the next 
+century or beyond. So this is perhaps the most convenient way of 
+visiting the planets and stars. Instead of riding on a light beam, as the 
+poets dreamed, we become the light beam."
+"To truly realize the vision expressed in Asimov’s science-fiction tale, 
+we need to ask if faster-than-light intergalactic travel is truly possible. In 
+his short story, beings of immense power move freely between galaxies 
+separated by millions of light-years. 
+
+Is this possible? To answer this question, we have to push the very 
+boundaries of modern quantum physics. Ultimately, things called 
+“wormholes” may provide a shortcut through the vastness of space and 
+time. And beings made of pure energy rather than matter would have a 
+decisive advantage in passing through them."
+"Einstein, in some sense, is like the cop on the block, stating that you 
+cannot go faster than light, the ultimate velocity in the universe. 
+Traveling across the Milky Way galaxy, for example, would take one 
+hundred thousand years, even sailing on a laser beam. Although only an 
+instant of time has passed for the traveler, the time on the home planet 
+has progressed one hundred thousand years. And passing between 
+galaxies involves millions to billions of light-years. 
+
+But Einstein himself left a loophole in his work. In his general theory 
+of relativity of 1915, he showed that gravity arose from the warping of 
+space-time. Gravity is not the “pull” of a mysterious invisible force, as 
+Newton once thought, but actually a “push” caused by space itself 
+bending around an object. Not only did this brilliantly explain the 
+bending of starlight passing near stars and the expansion of the universe, 
+it left open the possibility of the fabric of space-time stretching until it 
+ripped."
+"In 1935, Einstein and his student Nathan Rosen introduced the 
+possibility that two black-hole solutions could be joined back to back, 
+like Siamese twins, so if you fell into one black hole, you could, in 
+principle, pass out of the other one. (Imagine joining two funnels at their 
+ends. Water that drains through one funnel emerges from the other.) 
+This “wormhole,” also called the Einstein-Rosen Bridge, introduced the 
+
+possibility of portals or gateways between universes. Einstein himself 
+dismissed the possibility that you could pass through a black hole, since 
+you would be crushed in the process, but several subsequent 
+developments have raised the possibility of faster-than-light travel 
+through a wormhole."
+"First, in 1963, mathematician Roy Kerr discovered that a spinning 
+black hole does not collapse into a single dot, as previously thought, but 
+into a rotating ring, spinning so fast that centrifugal forces prevent it 
+from collapsing. If you fell through the ring, then you could pass into 
+another universe. The gravitational forces would be large, but not 
+infinite. This would be like Alice’s Looking Glass, where you could pass 
+your hand through the mirror and enter a parallel universe. The rim of 
+the Looking Glass would be the ring forming the black hole itself. Since 
+Kerr’s discovery, scores of other solutions of Einstein’s equations have 
+shown that you can, in principle, pass between universes without being 
+immediately crushed. Since every black hole seen so far in space is 
+
+spinning rapidly (some of them clocked at one million miles per hour), 
+this means that these cosmic gateways could be commonplace."
+"In 1988, physicist Dr. Kip Thorne of Cal Tech and his colleagues 
+showed that, with enough “negative energy,” it might be possible to 
+stabilize a black hole so that a wormhole becomes “transversable” (i.e., 
+you can freely pass through it both ways without being crushed). 
+Negative energy is perhaps the most exotic substance in the universe, 
+but it actually exists and can be created (in microscopic quantities) in 
+the laboratory. 
+
+So here is the new paradigm. First, an advanced civilization would 
+concentrate enough positive energy at a single point, comparable to a 
+black hole, to open up a hole through space connecting two distant 
+points. Second, it would amass enough negative energy to keep the 
+gateway open, so that it is stable and does not close the instant you enter 
+it."
+"We can now put this idea into proper perspective. Mapping the entire 
+human connectome should be possible late in this century. An 
+interplanetary laser network could be established early in the next 
+century, so that consciousness can be beamed across the solar system. No 
+new law of physics would be required. A laser network that can go 
+between the stars may have to wait until the century after that. But a 
+
+civilization that can play with wormholes will have to be thousands of 
+years ahead of us in technology, stretching the boundaries of known 
+physics."
+"All this, then, has direct implications for whether consciousness can 
+pass between universes. If matter comes close to a black hole, the gravity 
+becomes so intense that your body becomes “spaghettified.” The gravity 
+pulling on your leg is greater than the gravity pulling on your head, so 
+your body is stretched by tidal forces. In fact, as you approach the black 
+hole, even the atoms of your body are stretched until the electrons are 
+ripped from the nuclei, causing your atoms to disintegrate."
+"(To see the power of tidal forces, just look at the tides of Earth and the 
+rings of Saturn. The gravity of the moon and sun exert a pull on Earth, 
+causing the oceans to rise several feet during high tide. And if a moon 
+comes too close to a giant planet like Saturn, the tidal forces will stretch 
+the moon and eventually tear it apart. The distance at which moons get 
+ripped apart by tidal forces is called the Roche limit. The rings of Saturn 
+lie exactly at the Roche limit, so they might have been caused by a moon 
+that wandered too close to the mother planet.) 
+
+Even if we enter a spinning black hole and use negative energy to 
+
+stabilize it, then, the gravity fields still might be so powerful that we’d 
+be spaghettified."
+"stabilize it, then, the gravity fields still might be so powerful that we’d 
+be spaghettified. 
+
+But here is where laser beams have an important advantage over 
+matter when passing through a wormhole. Laser light is immaterial, so it 
+cannot be stretched by tidal forces as it passes near a black hole. Instead, 
+light becomes “blue-shifted” (i.e., it gains energy and its frequency 
+increases). Even though the laser beam is distorted, the information 
+stored on it is untouched. For example, a message in Morse code carried 
+by a laser beam becomes compressed, but the information content 
+remains unchanged. Digital information is untouched by tidal forces. So 
+gravitational forces, which can be fatal to beings made of matter, may be 
+harmless to beings traveling on light beams. 
+
+In this way, consciousness carried by a laser beam, because it is 
+immaterial, has a decisive advantage over matter in passing through a 
+wormhole."
+"Laser beams have another advantage over matter when passing 
+through a wormhole. Some physicists have calculated that a microscopic 
+wormhole, perhaps the size of an atom, might be easier to create. Matter 
+
+would not be able to pass through such a tiny wormhole. But X-ray 
+lasers, with a wavelength smaller than an atom, might possibly be able 
+to pass through without difficulty."
+"Although Asimov’s brilliant short story was clearly a work of fantasy, 
+ironically a vast interstellar network of laser stations might already exist 
+within the galaxy, yet we are so primitive that we are totally unaware of 
+it. To a civilization thousands of years ahead of us, the technology to 
+digitalize their connectomes and send them to the stars would be child’s 
+play. In that case, it is conceivable that intelligent beings are already 
+zapping their consciousness across a vast network of laser beams in the 
+galaxy. Nothing we observe with our most advanced telescopes and 
+satellites prepares us to detect such an intergalactic network. 
+
+Carl Sagan once lamented the possibility that we might live in a world 
+surrounded by alien civilizations and not have the technology to realize 
+it. 
+
+Then the next question is: What lurks in the alien mind?"
+"Then the next question is: What lurks in the alien mind? 
+
+If we were to encounter such an advanced civilization, what kind of 
+consciousness might it have? One day, the destiny of the human race 
+may rest on answering this question. 
+
+Sometimes I think that the surest sign that intelligent life exists 
+elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact 
+us. 
+
+—BILL WATTERSON 
+
+Either intelligent life exists in outer space or it doesn’t. Either 
+thought is frightening. 
+
+—ARTHUR C. CLARKE 
+
+14 THE ALIEN MIND"
+"—ARTHUR C. CLARKE 
+
+14 THE ALIEN MIND 
+
+In War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, aliens from Mars attack Earth 
+because their home planet is dying. Armed with death rays and giant 
+walking machines, they quickly incinerate many cities and are on the 
+verge of seizing control of Earth’s major capitals. Just as the Martians 
+are crushing all signs of resistance and our civilization is about to be 
+reduced to rubble, they are mysteriously stopped cold in their tracks. 
+With all their advanced science and weaponry, they failed to factor in an 
+onslaught from the lowliest of creatures: our germs."
+"That single novel created an entire genre, launching a thousand 
+movies like Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and Independence Day. Most 
+scientists cringe, however, when they see how the aliens are described. 
+In the movies, aliens are often depicted as creatures with some sense of 
+human values and emotions. Even with glowing green skin and huge 
+heads, they still look like us to a certain degree. They also tend to speak 
+perfect English. 
+
+But, as many scientists have pointed out, we may have much more in 
+common with a lobster or a sea slug than we do with an alien from 
+space."
+"As with silicon consciousness, alien consciousness will most likely 
+have the general features described in our space-time theory; that is, the 
+ability to make a model of the world and then calculate how it will 
+evolve in time to achieve a goal. But while robots can be programmed so 
+that they emotionally bond with humans and have goals compatible 
+with ours, alien consciousness may have neither. It’s likely to have its 
+own set of values and goals, independent of humanity. One can only 
+speculate what these might be. 
+
+Physicist Dr. Freeman Dyson of the Institute for Advanced Study at 
+
+Princeton was a consultant to the movie 2001 . When he finally saw the 
+movie, he was delighted, not because of its dazzling special effects, but 
+because it was the first Hollywood movie ever to present an alien"
+"consciousness, with desires, goals, and intentions totally foreign to ours. 
+For the first time, the aliens were not simply human actors flailing 
+about, trying to act menacing in cheesy monster costumes. Instead, alien 
+consciousness was presented as something totally orthogonal to human 
+experience, something entirely outside our ken. 
+
+In 2011, Stephen Hawking raised another question. The noted 
+cosmologist made headlines when he said that we must be prepared for 
+a possible alien attack. He said that if we ever encounter an alien 
+civilization, it will be more advanced than ours and hence will pose a 
+mortal threat to our very existence."
+"We have only to see what happened to the Aztecs when they 
+encountered the bloodthirsty Hernan Cortes and his conquistadors to 
+imagine what might happen with such a fateful encounter. Armed with 
+technology that the Bronze Age Aztecs had never seen before, such as 
+iron swords, gunpowder, and the horse, this small band of cutthroats 
+was able to crush the ancient Aztec civilization in a matter of months in 
+1521. 
+
+All this raises these questions: What will alien consciousness be like? 
+How will their thinking process and goals differ from ours? What do 
+they want? 
+
+FIRST CONTACT IN THIS CENTURY 
+
+This is not an academic question. Given the remarkable advances in 
+astrophysics, we may actually make contact with an alien intelligence in 
+the coming decades. How we respond to them could determine one of 
+the most pivotal events in human history. 
+
+Several advances are making this day possible."
+"Several advances are making this day possible. 
+
+First, in 2011 the Kepler satellite, for the first time in history, gave 
+scientists a “census” of the Milky Way galaxy. After analyzing light from 
+thousands of stars, the Kepler satellite found that one in two hundred 
+might harbor an earthlike planet in the habitable zone. For the first time, 
+we can therefore calculate how many stars within the Milky Way galaxy 
+might be earthlike: about a billion. As we look at the distant stars, we 
+have genuine reason to wonder if anyone is looking back at us. 
+
+So far, more than one thousand exoplanets have been analyzed in"
+"So far, more than one thousand exoplanets have been analyzed in 
+
+detail by earthbound telescopes. (Astronomers find them at the rate of 
+about two exoplanets per week.) Unfortunately, nearly all of them are 
+Jupiter-size planets, probably devoid of any earthlike creatures, but 
+there are a handful of “super earths,” rocky planets that are a few times 
+larger than Earth. Already, the Kepler satellite has identified about 2,500 
+candidate exoplanets in space, a handful of which look very much like 
+Earth. These planets are at just the right distance from their mother stars 
+so that liquid oceans can exist. And liquid water is the “universal 
+solvent” that dissolves most organic chemicals like DNA and proteins."
+"In 2013, NASA scientists announced their most spectacular discovery 
+using the Kepler satellite: two exoplanets that are near twins of Earth. 
+They are located 1,200 light-years away in the constellation Lyra. They 
+are only 60 percent and 40 percent larger than Earth. More important, 
+both lie within the habitable zone of their mother star, so there is a 
+possibility that they have liquid oceans. Of all the planets analyzed so 
+far, they are the closest to being mirror images of Earth. 
+
+Furthermore, the Hubble Space Telescope has given us an estimate of 
+the total number of galaxies in the visible universe: one hundred billion. 
+Therefore, we can calculate the number of earthlike planets in the visible 
+universe: one billion times one hundred billion, or one hundred 
+quintillion earthlike planets."
+"This is a truly astronomical number, so the odds of life existing in the 
+universe are astronomically large, especially when you consider that the 
+universe is 13.8 billion years old, and there has been plenty of time for 
+intelligent empires to rise—and perhaps fall. In fact, it would be more 
+miraculous if another advanced civilization did not exist. 
+
+SETI AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS 
+
+Second, radio telescope technology is becoming more sophisticated. So 
+far, only about one thousand stars have been closely analyzed for signs 
+of intelligent life, but in the coming decade this number could rise by a 
+factor of one million. 
+
+Using radio telescopes to hunt for alien civilizations dates back to 
+1960, when astronomer Frank Drake initiated Project Ozma (after the 
+Queen of Oz), using the twenty-five-meter radio telescope in Green"
+"Bank, West Virginia. This marked the birth of the SETI project (the 
+Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). Unfortunately, no signals from 
+aliens were picked up, but in 1971 NASA proposed Project Cyclops, 
+which was supposed to have 1,500 radio telescopes at a cost of $10 
+billion. 
+
+Not surprisingly, it never went anywhere. Congress was not amused. 
+
+Funding did become available for a much more modest proposal: to 
+send a carefully coded message in 1971 to aliens in outer space. A coded 
+message containing 1,679 bits of information was transmitted via the 
+giant Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico toward the Globular Cluster 
+Ml 3, about 25,100 light-years away. It was the world’s first cosmic 
+greeting card, containing relevant information about the human race. 
+But no reply message was received. Perhaps the aliens were not 
+impressed with us, or possibly the speed of light got in the way. Given 
+the large distances involved, the earliest date for a reply message would 
+be 52,174 years from now."
+"Since then, some scientists have expressed misgivings about 
+advertising our existence to aliens in space, at least until we know their 
+intentions toward us. They disagree with the proponents of the METI 
+Project (Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) who actively 
+promote sending signals to alien civilizations in space. The reasoning 
+behind the METI Project is that Earth already sends vast amounts of 
+radio and TV signals into outer space, so a few more messages from the 
+METI Project will not make much difference. But the critics of METI 
+believe that we should not needlessly increase our chances of being 
+discovered by potentially hostile aliens."
+"In 1995, astronomers turned to private sources to start the SETI 
+Institute in Mountain View, California, to centralize research and initiate 
+Project Phoenix, which is trying to study one thousand nearby sunlike 
+stars in the l,200-to-3,000-megahertz radio range. The equipment is so 
+sensitive that it can pick up the emissions from an airport radar system 
+two hundred light-years away. Since its founding, the SETI Institute has 
+scanned more than one thousand stars at a cost of $5 million per year, 
+but still no luck. 
+
+A more novel approach is the SETI@home project, initiated by 
+astronomers at the University of California at Berkeley in 1999, which 
+uses an informal army of millions of amateur PC owners. Anyone can 
+
+join in this historic hunt. While you are sleeping at night, your screen 
+saver crunches some of the data pouring in from the Arecibo radio 
+telescope in Puerto Rico. So far, it has signed up 5.2 million users in 234 
+countries; perhaps these amateurs dream that they will be the first in"
+"human history to make contact with alien life. Like Columbus’s, their 
+names may go down in history. The SETI @home project has grown so 
+rapidly that it is, in fact, the largest computer project of this type ever 
+undertaken. 
+
+When I interviewed Dr. Dan Wertheimer, director of SETI@home, I 
+asked him how they can distinguish false messages from real ones. He 
+said something that surprised me. He told me that they sometimes 
+deliberately “seed” the data from radio telescopes with fake signals from 
+an imaginary intelligent civilization. If no one picks up these fake 
+messages, then they know that there is something wrong with their 
+software. The lesson here is that if your PC screen saver announces that 
+it has deciphered a message from an alien civilization, please do not 
+immediately call the police or the president of the United States. It might 
+be a fake message. 
+
+ALIEN HUNTERS"
+"ALIEN HUNTERS 
+
+One colleague of mine who has dedicated his life to finding intelligent 
+life in outer space is Dr. Seth Shostak, director of the SETI Institute. With 
+his Ph.D. in physics from the California Institute of Technology, I might 
+have expected him to become a distinguished physics professor lecturing 
+to eager Ph.D. students, but instead he spends his time in an entirely 
+different fashion: asking for donations to the SETI Institute from wealthy 
+individuals, poring over possible signals from outer space, and doing a 
+radio show. I once asked him about the “giggle factor”—do fellow 
+scientists giggle when he tells them that he listens to aliens from outer 
+space? Not anymore, he claims. With all the new discoveries in 
+astronomy, the tide has turned."
+"In fact, he even sticks his neck out and says flatly that we will make 
+contact with an alien civilization in the very near future. He has gone on 
+record as proclaiming that the 350-antenna Allen Telescope Array now 
+being built “will trip across a signal by the year 2025.” 
+
+Isn’t that a bit risky, I asked him? What makes him so sure? One factor 
+working in his favor has been the explosion in the number of radio 
+telescopes in the last few years. Although the U.S. government does not 
+fund his project, the SETI Institute recently hit pay dirt when it 
+convinced Paul Allen (the Microsoft billionaire) to donate over $30 
+million in funds to start the Allen Telescope Array at Hat Creek, 
+California, 290 miles north of San Francisco. It currently scans the 
+heavens with 42 radio telescopes, and eventually will reach up to 350. 
+(One problem, however, is the chronic lack of funding for these scientific 
+experiments. To make up for budget cuts, the Hat Creek facility is kept"
+"alive through partial funding from the military.) 
+
+One thing, he confessed to me, makes him squirm a bit, and that is 
+when people confuse the SETI Project with UFO hunters. The former, he 
+claims, is based on solid physics and astronomy, using the latest in 
+technology. The latter, however, base their theories on anecdotal 
+hearsay evidence that may or may not be based on truth. The problem is 
+that the mass of UFO sightings he gets in the mail are not reproducible 
+or testable. He urges anyone who claims to have been abducted by aliens 
+in a flying saucer to steal something—an alien pen or paperweight, for 
+example—to prove your case. Never leave a UFO empty-handed, he told 
+me."
+"He also concludes that there is no firm evidence that aliens have 
+visited our planet. I then asked him whether he thought the U.S. 
+government was deliberately covering up evidence of an alien 
+encounter, as many conspiracy theorists believe. He replied, “Would 
+they really be so efficient at covering up a big thing like this? 
+Remember, this is the same government that runs the post office.” 
+
+DRAKE’S EQUATION 
+
+When I asked Dr. Wertheimer why he is so sure that there is alien life in 
+outer space, he replied that the numbers are in his favor. Back in 1961, 
+astronomer Frank Drake tried to estimate the number of such intelligent 
+civilizations by making plausible assumptions. If we start with the 
+number one hundred billion, the number of stars in the Milky Way 
+galaxy, then we can estimate the fraction of them that are similar to our"
+"sun. We can reduce that number further by estimating the fraction of 
+them that have planets, the fraction of them that have earthlike planets, 
+etc. After making a number of reasonable assumptions, we come up with 
+an estimate of ten thousand advanced civilizations in our own Milky 
+Way galaxy. (Carl Sagan, with a different set of estimates, came up with 
+the number one million.)"
+"Since then, scientists have been able to make much better estimates of 
+the number of advanced civilizations in our galaxy. For example, we 
+know there are more planets orbiting stars than Drake originally 
+expected, and more earthlike planets as well. But we still face a problem. 
+Even if we know how many earthlike twins there are in space, we still 
+don’t know how many of them support intelligent life. Even on Earth, it 
+took 4.5 billion years before intelligent beings (us) finally arose from the 
+swamp. For about 3.5 billion years, life-forms have existed on Earth, but 
+only in the last one hundred thousand years or so have intelligent beings 
+
+like us emerged. So even on an earthlike planet like Earth itself, the rise 
+of truly intelligent life has been very difficult. 
+
+WHY DON’T THEY VISIT US?"
+"WHY DON’T THEY VISIT US? 
+
+But then I asked Dr. Seth Shostak of SETI this killer question: If there are 
+so many stars in the galaxy, and so many alien civilizations, then why 
+don’t they visit us? This is the Fermi paradox, named for Enrico Fermi, 
+the Nobel laureate who helped build the atomic bomb and unlocked the 
+secrets of the nucleus of the atom. 
+
+Many theories have been proposed. For one, the distance between 
+stars might be too great. It would take about seventy thousand years for 
+our most powerful chemical rockets to reach the stars nearest to Earth. 
+Perhaps a civilization thousands to millions of years more advanced than 
+ours may solve this problem, but there’s another possibility. Maybe they 
+annihilated themselves in a nuclear war. As John F. Kennedy once said, 
+“I am sorry to say there is too much point to the wisecrack that life is 
+extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced 
+than ours.”"
+"But perhaps the most logical reason is this: Imagine walking down a 
+country road and encountering an ant hill. Do we go down to the ants 
+
+and say, “I bring you trinkets. I bring you beads. I give you nuclear 
+energy. I will create an ant paradise for you. Take me to your leader”? 
+
+Probably not. 
+
+Now imagine that workers are building an eight-lane superhighway 
+next to the anthill. Would the ants know what frequency the workers are 
+talking on? Would they even know what an eight-lane superhighway 
+was? In the same fashion, any intelligent civilization that can reach 
+Earth from the stars would be thousands of years to millions of years 
+ahead of us, and we may have nothing to offer them. In other words, we 
+are arrogant to believe that aliens will travel trillions upon trillions of 
+miles just to see us. 
+
+More than likely, we are not on their radar screen. Ironically, the 
+galaxy could be teaming with intelligent life-forms and we are so 
+primitive that we are oblivious of them. 
+
+FIRST CONTACT"
+"FIRST CONTACT 
+
+But assume for the moment that the time will come, perhaps sooner 
+rather than later, when we make contact with an alien civilization. This 
+moment could be a turning point in the history of humanity. So the next 
+questions are: What do they want, and what will their consciousness be 
+like? 
+
+In the movies and in science-fiction novels, the aliens often want to 
+eat us, conquer us, mate with us, enslave us, or strip our planet of 
+valuable resources. But all this is highly improbable. 
+
+Our first contact with an alien civilization will probably not begin 
+with a flying saucer landing on the White House lawn. More likely, it 
+will happen when some teenager, running a screen saver from the 
+SETI@home project, announces that his or her PC has decoded signals 
+from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. Or perhaps when the 
+SETI project at Hat Creek detects a message that indicates intelligence."
+"Our first encounter will therefore be a one-way event. We will be able 
+to eavesdrop on intelligent messages, but a return message may take 
+decades or centuries to reach them. 
+
+The conversations that we hear on the radio may give us valuable 
+insight into this alien civilization. But most of the message will likely be 
+
+gossip, entertainment, music, etc., with little scientific content. 
+
+Then I asked Dr. Shostak the next key question: Will you keep it a 
+secret once First Contact is made? After all, won’t it cause mass panic, 
+religious hysteria, chaos, and spontaneous evacuations? I was a bit 
+surprised when he said no. They would give all the data to the 
+governments of the world and to the people. 
+
+The next questions are: What will they be like? How do they think? 
+
+To understand alien consciousness, perhaps it is instructive to analyze 
+another consciousness that is quite alien to us, the consciousness of 
+animals. We live with them, yet we are totally ignorant of what goes on 
+in their minds."
+"Understanding animal consciousness, in turn, may help us understand 
+alien consciousness. 
+
+ANIMAL CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+Do animals think? And if so, what do they think about? This question 
+has perplexed the greatest minds in history for thousands of years. The 
+Greek writers and historians Plutarch and Pliny both wrote about a 
+famous question that remains unsolved even today. Over the centuries, 
+many solutions have been given by the giants of philosophy. 
+
+A dog is traveling down a road, looking for its master, when it 
+encounters a fork that branches in three directions. The dog first takes 
+the left path, sniffs around, and then returns, knowing that his master 
+has not taken that road. Then it takes the right path, sniffs, and realizes 
+that his master has not taken this road either. But this time, the dog 
+triumphantly takes the middle road, without sniffing."
+"What was going on in the dog’s mind? Some of the greatest 
+philosophers have tackled this question, to no avail. The French 
+philosopher and essayist Michel de Montaigne wrote that the dog 
+obviously concluded that the only possible solution was to take the 
+middle road, a conclusion showing that dogs are capable of abstract 
+thought. 
+
+But St. Thomas Aquinas, arguing in the thirteenth century, said the 
+opposite—that the appearance of abstract thought is not the same thing 
+as genuine thinking. We can be fooled by superficial appearances of 
+
+intelligence, he claimed. 
+
+Centuries later, there was also a famous exchange between John Locke 
+and George Berkeley about animal consciousness. “Beasts abstract not,” 
+proclaimed Locke flatly. To which Bishop Berkeley responded, “If the 
+fact that brutes abstract not be made the distinguishing property of that 
+sort of animal, I fear a great many of those that pass for man must be 
+reckoned into their number.”"
+"Philosophers down the ages have tried to analyze this question in the 
+same manner: by imposing human consciousness on the dog. This is the 
+mistake of anthropomorphism, or assuming that animals think and 
+behave like us. But perhaps the real solution might be to look at this 
+question from the dog’s point of view, which could be quite alien. 
+
+In Chapter 2, I gave a definition of consciousness in which animals 
+were part of a continuum of consciousness. Animals can differ from us in 
+the parameters they use to create a model of the world. Dr. David 
+Eagleman says that psychologists call this “umwelt,” or the reality 
+perceived by other animals. He notes, “In the blind and deaf world of the 
+tick, the important signals are temperature and the odor of butyric acid. 
+For the black ghost knifefish, it’s electrical fields. For the echo locating 
+bat, air-compressed waves. Each organism inhabits its own umwelt, 
+
+which it presumably assumes to be the entire objective reality ‘out 
+there.’ ”"
+"which it presumably assumes to be the entire objective reality ‘out 
+there.’ ” 
+
+Consider the brain of a dog, which is constantly living in a swirl of 
+odors, by which it hunts for food or locates a mate. From these smells, 
+the dog then constructs a mental map of what exists in its surroundings. 
+This map of smells is totally different from the one we get from our eyes 
+and conveys an entirely different set of information. (Recall from 
+Chapter 1 that Dr. Penfield constructed a map of the cerebral cortex, 
+showing the distorted self-image of the body. Now imagine a Penfield 
+diagram of a dog’s brain. Most of it would be devoted to its nose, not its 
+fingers. Animals would have a totally different Penfield diagram. Aliens 
+in space would likely have an even stranger Penfield diagram.)"
+"Unfortunately, we tend to assign human consciousness to animals, 
+even though animals may have a totally different world outlook. For 
+example, when a dog faithfully follows its master’s orders, we 
+subconsciously assume that the dog is man’s best friend because he likes 
+us and respects us. But since the dog is descended from Cards lupus (the 
+
+gray wolf), which hunts in packs with a rigid pecking order, more than 
+likely the dog sees you as some sort of alpha male, or the leader of the 
+pack. You are, in some sense, the Top Dog. (This is probably one reason 
+why puppies are much easier to train than older dogs; it is likely easier 
+to imprint one’s presence on a puppy’s brain, while more mature dogs 
+realize that humans are not part of their pack.)"
+"Also, when a cat enters a new room and urinates all over the carpet, 
+we assume that the cat is angry or nervous, and we try to find out the 
+reason why the cat is upset. But perhaps the cat is simply marking its 
+territory with the smell of its urine to ward off other cats. So the cat is 
+not upset at all; it’s simply warning other cats to stay out of the house, 
+because the house belongs to it. 
+
+And if the cat purrs and rubs itself against your legs, we assume that it 
+is grateful to you for taking care of it, that this is a sign of warmth and 
+affection. More than likely, the cat is rubbing its hormone onto you to 
+claim ownership of its possession (i.e., you), to ward off other cats. In 
+the cat’s viewpoint, you are a servant of some sort, trained to give it 
+food several times a day, and rubbing its scent on you warns other cats 
+to stay away from this servant."
+"As the sixteenth-century philosopher Michel de Montaigne once wrote, 
+“When I play with my cat, how do I know that she is not playing with 
+me rather than I with her?” 
+
+And if the cat then stalks off to be alone, it is not necessarily a sign of 
+anger or aloofness. The cat is descended from the wildcat, which is a 
+
+solitary hunter, unlike the dog. There is no alpha male to slobber over, 
+as in the case of the dog. The proliferation of various “animal whisperer” 
+programs on TV is probably a sign of the problems we encounter when 
+we force human consciousness and intentions onto animals."
+"A bat would also have a much different consciousness, which would 
+be dominated by sounds. Almost blind, the bat requires constant 
+feedback from tiny squeaks it makes, which allow it to locate insects, 
+obstacles, and other bats via sonar. The Penfield map of its brain would 
+be quite alien to us, with a huge portion devoted to its ears. Similarly, 
+dolphins have a different consciousness than humans, which is also 
+based on sonar. Because dolphins have a smaller frontal cortex, it was 
+once thought that they were not so intelligent, but the dolphin 
+compensates for this by having a larger brain mass. If you unfold the 
+
+neocortex of the dolphin brain, it would cover six magazine pages, while 
+if you unfold the neocortex of a human, it would measure only four 
+magazine pages. Dolphins also have very well-developed parietal and 
+temporal cortices to analyze sonar signals in the water and are one of 
+the few animals that can recognize themselves in a mirror, probably 
+because of this fact."
+"In addition, the dolphin brain is actually structured differently from 
+humans’ because dolphin and human lineages diverged about ninety-five 
+million years ago. Dolphins have no need for a nose, so their olfactory 
+bulb disappears soon after birth. But thirty million years ago, their 
+auditory cortex exploded in size because dolphins learned to use 
+echolocation, or sonar, to find food. Like bats’, their world must be one 
+of whirling echoes and vibrations. Compared to humans, dolphins have 
+an extra lobe in their limbic system, called the “paralimbic” region, 
+which probably helps them forge strong social relations."
+"Meanwhile, dolphins also have a language that is intelligent. I once 
+swam in a pool of dolphins for a TV special for the Science Channel. I 
+put sonar sensors in the pool that could pick up the clicks and whistles 
+used by dolphins to talk to one another. These signals were recorded and 
+then analyzed by computer. There is a simple way to discern if there is 
+an intelligence lurking among this random set of squeals and chirps. In 
+the English language, for example, the letter e is the most commonly 
+used letter of the alphabet. In fact, we can create a list of all the letters 
+of the alphabet and how frequently they occur. No matter what book in 
+English we analyze by computer, it will roughly obey the same list of 
+commonly found letters of the alphabet. 
+
+Similarly, this computer program can be used to analyze the dolphins’ 
+language. Sure enough, we find a similar pattern indicating intelligence. 
+However, as we go to other mammals, the pattern begins to break down,"
+"and it finally collapses completely as we approach lower animals with 
+small brain sizes. Then the signals become nearly random. 
+
+INTELLIGENT BEES? 
+
+To get a sense of what alien consciousness might be like, consider the 
+strategies adopted by nature to reproduce life on Earth. There are two 
+
+basic reproductive strategies nature has taken, with profound 
+implications for evolution and consciousness. 
+
+The first, the strategy used by mammals, is to produce a small number 
+of young offspring and then carefully nurse each one to maturity. This is 
+a risky strategy, because only a few progeny are produced in each 
+generation, so it assumes that nurturing will even out the odds. This 
+means that every life is cherished and carefully nurtured for a length of 
+time."
+"But there is another, much older strategy that is used by much of the 
+plant and animal kingdom, including insects, reptiles, and most other 
+life-forms on Earth. This involves creating a large number of eggs or 
+seeds and then letting them fend for themselves. Without nurturing, 
+most of the offspring never survive, so only a few hardy individuals will 
+make it into the next generation. This means that the energy invested in 
+each generation by the parents is nil, and reproduction relies on the law 
+of averages to propagate the species."
+"These two strategies produce startlingly different attitudes toward life 
+and intelligence. The first strategy treasures each and every individual. 
+Love, nurturing, affection, and attachment are at a premium in this 
+group. This reproductive strategy can work only if the parents invest a 
+considerable amount of precious energy to preserve their young. The 
+second strategy, however, does not treasure the individual at all, but 
+rather emphasizes the survival of the species or group as a whole. To 
+them, individuality means nothing."
+"Furthermore, reproductive strategy has profound implications for the 
+evolution of intelligence. When two ants meet each other, for example, 
+they exchange a limited amount of information using chemical scents 
+and gestures. Although the information shared by two ants is minimal, 
+with this information they are capable of creating elaborate tunnels and 
+chambers necessary to build an anthill. Similarly, although honeybees 
+communicate with one another by performing a dance, they can 
+collectively create complex honeycombs and locate distant flower beds. 
+So their intelligence arises not so much from the individual, but from the 
+
+holistic interaction of the entire colony and from their genes. 
+
+So consider an intelligent extraterrestrial civilization based on the 
+second strategy, such as an intelligent race of honeybees. In this society, 
+the worker bees that fly out each day in search of pollen are expendable."
+"Worker bees do not reproduce at all, but instead live for one purpose, to 
+serve the hive and the queen, for which they willingly sacrifice 
+themselves. The bonds that link mammals together mean nothing to 
+them. 
+
+Hypothetically, this might affect the development of their space 
+program. Since we treasure the life of every astronaut, considerable 
+resources are devoted to bringing them back alive. Much of the cost of 
+space travel goes into life support so the astronauts can make the return 
+voyage home and reenter the atmosphere. But for a civilization of 
+intelligent honeybees, each worker’s life may not be worth that much, so 
+their space program would cost considerably less. Their workers would 
+not have to come back. Every voyage might be a one-way trip, and that 
+would represent significant savings."
+"Now imagine if we were to encounter an alien from space that was 
+actually similar to a honeybee worker. Normally, if we encounter a 
+honeybee in the forest, chances are it will completely ignore us, unless 
+we threaten it or the hive. It’s as if we did not exist. Similarly, this 
+worker would most likely not have the slightest interest in making 
+contact with us or sharing its knowledge. It would go on with its primary 
+mission and ignore us. Moreover, the values that we cherish would mean 
+little to it. 
+
+Back in the 1970s, there were two medallions put aboard the Pioneer 
+10 and 11 probes, containing crucial information about our world and 
+society. The medallions exalted the diversity and richness of life on 
+Earth. Scientists back then assumed that alien civilizations in space 
+would be like us, curious and interested in making contact. But if such 
+an alien worker bee were to find our medallion, chances are that it 
+would mean nothing to it."
+"Furthermore, each worker need not be very intelligent. They need to 
+be only intelligent enough to serve the interest of the hive. So if we were 
+to send a message to a planet of intelligent bees, chances are that they 
+would show little interest in sending a message back. 
+
+Even if contact could be made with such a civilization, it might be 
+difficult communicating with them. For example, when we communicate 
+with one another, we break ideas down into sentences, with a subject- 
+verb structure, in order to build a narrative, often a personal story. Most 
+
+of our sentences have the following structure: “I did this” or “They did 
+
+that.” In fact, most of our literature and conversations use storytelling, 
+often involving experiences and adventures that we or our role models 
+have had. This presupposes that our personal experiences are the 
+dominant way to convey information."
+"However, a civilization based on intelligent honeybees may not have 
+the least interest in personal narratives and storytelling. Being highly 
+collective, their messages may not be personal, but matter-of-fact, 
+containing vital information necessary for the hive rather than personal 
+trivia and gossip that might advance an individual’s social position. In 
+fact, they might find our storytelling language to be a bit repulsive, since 
+it puts the role of the individual before the needs of the collective. 
+
+Also, worker bees would have a totally different sense of time. Since 
+worker bees are expendable, they might not have a long life span. They 
+might only take on projects that are short and well defined."
+"However, humans live much longer, but we also have a tacit sense of 
+time; we take on projects and occupations that we can reasonably see to 
+the end within our lifetimes. We subconsciously pace our projects, our 
+relations with others, and our goals to accommodate a finite life span. In 
+other words, we live our lives in distinct phases: being single, married, 
+raising children, and eventually retiring. Often without being conscious 
+of it, we assume that we will live and eventually die within a finite time 
+frame."
+"But imagine beings that can live for thousands of years, or are perhaps 
+immortal. Their priorities, their goals, and their ambitions would be 
+completely different. They could take on projects that would normally 
+require scores of human lifetimes. Interstellar travel is often dismissed as 
+pure science fiction because, as we have seen, the time it takes for a 
+conventional rocket to reach nearby stars is roughly seventy thousand 
+years. For us, this is prohibitively long. But for an alien life-form, that 
+time may be totally irrelevant. For example, they might be able to 
+hibernate, slow down their metabolism, or simply live for an indefinite 
+amount of time. 
+
+WHAT DO THEY LOOK LIKE? 
+
+Our first translations of these alien messages will probably give us some"
+"Our first translations of these alien messages will probably give us some 
+
+insight into the aliens’ culture and way of life. For example, it is likely 
+that the aliens will have evolved from predators and hence still share 
+some of their characteristics. (In general, predators on Earth are smarter 
+than prey. Hunters like tigers, lions, cats, and dogs use their cunning to 
+stalk, ambush, and hide, all of which require intelligence. All these 
+predators have eyes on the front of the face, for stereo vision as they 
+focus their attention. Prey, which have eyes to the sides of the face to 
+spot a predator, have only to run. That is why we say “sly as a fox” and 
+“dumb bunny.”) The alien life-forms may have outgrown many of the 
+predator instincts of their distant ancestors, but it is likely that they will 
+still have some of a predator’s consciousness (i.e., territoriality, 
+expansion, and violence when necessary)."
+"If we examine the human race, we see that there were at least three 
+basic ingredients that set the stage for our becoming intelligent: 
+
+1 . the opposable thumb, which gives us the ability to manipulate and 
+
+reshape our environment via tools 
+
+2. stereo eyes or the 3-D eyes of a hunter 
+
+3. language, which allows us to accumulate knowledge, culture, and 
+
+wisdom across generations 
+
+When we compare these three ingredients with the traits found in the 
+animal kingdom, we see that very few animals meet these criteria for 
+intelligence. Cats and dogs, for example, do not have grasping ability or 
+a complex language. Octopi have sophisticated tentacles, but they don’t 
+see well and don’t have a complex language."
+"There may be variations of these three criteria. Instead of an 
+opposable thumb, an alien might have claws or tentacles. (The only 
+prerequisite is that they should be able to manipulate their environment 
+with tools created by these appendages.) Instead of having two eyes, 
+they may have many more, like insects. Or they may have sensors that 
+detect sound or UV light rather than visible light. More than likely, they 
+will have the stereo eyes of a hunter, because predators generally have a 
+higher level of intelligence than prey. Also, instead of a language based 
+on sounds, they may communicate via different forms of vibrations. (The 
+only requirement is that they exchange information among themselves to 
+
+create a culture spanning many generations.) 
+
+But beyond these three criteria, anything goes."
+"Next, the aliens may have a consciousness colored by their 
+environment. Astronomers now realize that the most plentiful habitat for 
+life in the universe may not be earthlike planets, where they can bask in 
+the warm sunlight of the mother star, but on icy-cold satellites orbiting 
+Jupiter-size planets billions of miles from the star. It is widely believed 
+that Europa, an ice-covered moon of Jupiter, has a liquid ocean beneath 
+the icy surface, heated by tidal forces. Because Europa tumbles as it 
+orbits Jupiter, it is squeezed in different directions by the huge 
+gravitational pull of Jupiter, which causes friction deep inside the moon. 
+This generates heat, forming volcanoes and ocean vents that melt the ice 
+and create liquid oceans. It is estimated that the oceans of Europa are 
+quite deep, and that their volume may be many times the volume of the 
+oceans of Earth. Since 50 percent of all stars in the heavens may have 
+Jupiter-size planets (a hundred times more plentiful than earthlike"
+"Jupiter-size planets (a hundred times more plentiful than earthlike 
+planets), the most plentiful form of life may be on the icy moons of gas 
+giants like Jupiter."
+"Therefore, when we encounter our first alien civilization in space, 
+more than likely it will have an aquatic origin. (Also, it is likely that 
+they will have migrated from the ocean and learned to live on the icy 
+surface of their moon away from the water, for several reasons. First, 
+any species that lives perpetually under the ice will have a quite limited 
+view of the universe. They will never develop astronomy or a space 
+program if they think that the universe is just the ocean underneath the 
+ice cover. Second, because water short-circuits electrical components, 
+they will never develop radio or TV if they stay underwater. If this 
+civilization is to advance, it must master electronics, which cannot exist 
+in the oceans. So, most likely, these aliens will have learned to leave the 
+oceans and survive on the land, as we did.)"
+"But what happens if this life-form evolves to create a space-faring 
+civilization, capable of reaching Earth? Will they still be biological 
+organisms like us, or will they be post-biological? 
+
+THE POST-BIOLOGICAL ERA 
+
+One person who has spent considerable time thinking about these 
+questions is my colleague Dr. Paul Davies of Arizona State University, 
+near Phoenix. When I interviewed him, he told me that we have to 
+expand our own horizon to contemplate what a civilization that is 
+thousands or more years ahead of us may look like. 
+
+Given the dangers of space travel, he believes that such beings will 
+have abandoned their biological form, much like the bodiless minds we 
+considered in the previous chapter. He writes, “My conclusion is a 
+startling one. I think it very likely—in fact inevitable—that biological"
+"intelligence is only a transitory phenomenon, a fleeting phase in the 
+evolution of intelligence in the universe. If we ever encounter 
+extraterrestrial intelligence, I believe it is overwhelmingly likely to be 
+post-biological in nature, a conclusion that has obvious and far-reaching 
+ramifications for SETI.” 
+
+In fact, if the aliens are thousands of years ahead of us, chances are 
+that they have abandoned their biological bodies eons ago to create the 
+most efficient computational body: a planet whose entire surface is 
+completely covered with computers. Dr. Davies says, “It isn’t hard to 
+envision the entire surface of a planet being covered with a single 
+integrated processing system.... Ray Bradbury has coined the term 
+‘Matrioshka brains’ for these awesome entities.”"
+"So to Dr. Davies, alien consciousness may lose the concept of “self” 
+and be absorbed into the collective World Wide Web of Minds, which 
+blankets the entire surface of the planet. Dr. Davies adds, “A powerful 
+computer network with no sense of self would have an enormous 
+advantage over human intelligence because it could redesign ‘itself,’ 
+fearlessly make changes, merge with whole systems, and grow. ‘Feeling 
+personal’ about it would be a distinct impediment to progress.” 
+
+So in the name of efficiency and increased computational ability, he 
+envisions members of this advanced civilization giving up their identity 
+and being absorbed into a collective consciousness. 
+
+Dr. Davies acknowledges that critics of his idea may find this concept 
+rather repulsive. It appears as if this alien species is sacrificing 
+individuality and creativity to the greater good of the collective or the 
+hive. This is not inevitable, he cautions, but it is the most efficient 
+option for civilization."
+"Dr. Davies also has a conjecture that he admits is rather depressing. 
+
+When I asked him why these civilizations don’t visit us, he gave me a 
+strange answer. He said that any civilization that advanced would also 
+have developed virtual realities far more interesting and challenging 
+than reality. The virtual reality of today would be a children’s toy 
+compared to the virtual reality of a civilization thousands of years more 
+advanced than us. 
+
+This means that perhaps their finest minds might have decided to play 
+out imaginary lives in different virtual worlds. It’s a discouraging 
+thought, he admitted, but certainly a possibility. In fact, it might even be 
+a warning for us as we perfect virtual reality. 
+
+WHAT DO THEY WANT?"
+"WHAT DO THEY WANT? 
+
+In the movie The Matrix, the machines take over and put humans into 
+pods, where they exploit us as batteries to energize themselves. That is 
+why they keep us alive. But since a single electrical plant produces more 
+power than the bodies of millions of humans, any alien looking for an 
+energy source would quickly see there is no need for human batteries. 
+(This seems to be lost on the machine overlords in the Matrix, but 
+hopefully aliens would see reason.)"
+"Another possibility is that they might want to eat us. This was 
+explored in an episode of The Twilight Zone, in which aliens land on 
+Earth and promise us the benefits of their advanced technology. They 
+even ask for volunteers to visit their beautiful home planet. The aliens 
+accidentally leave behind a book, called To Serve Man, which scientists 
+anxiously try to decipher in order to discover what wonders the aliens 
+will share with us. Instead, the scientists find out that the book is 
+actually a cookbook. (But since we will be made of entirely different 
+DNA and proteins from theirs, we could be difficult for their digestive 
+tracts to process.)"
+"Another possibility is that the aliens will want to strip Earth of 
+resources and valuable minerals. There may be some truth to this 
+argument, but if the aliens are advanced enough to travel effortlessly 
+from the stars, then there are plenty of uninhabited planets to plunder 
+for resources, without having to worry about restive natives. From their 
+point of view, it would be a waste of time to try to colonize an inhabited 
+
+planet when there are easy alternatives."
+"planet when there are easy alternatives. 
+
+So if the aliens do not want to enslave us or plunder our resources, 
+then what danger do they pose? Think of deer in a forest. Whom should 
+they fear the most—the ferocious hunter armed with a shotgun, or the 
+mild-mannered developer armed with a blueprint? Although the hunter 
+may scare the deer, only a few deer are threatened by him. More 
+dangerous to the deer is the developer, because the deer are not even on 
+his radar screen. The developer may not even think about the deer at all, 
+concentrating instead on developing the forest into usable property. In 
+view of this, what would an invasion actually look like?"
+"In Hollywood movies, there is one glaring flaw: the aliens are only a 
+century or so ahead of us, so we can usually devise a secret weapon or 
+exploit a simple weakness in their armor to fight them off, as in Earth vs. 
+the Flying Saucers. But as SETI director Dr. Seth Shostak once told me, a 
+battle with an advanced alien civilization will be like a battle between 
+Bambi and Godzilla. 
+
+In reality, the aliens might be millennia to millions of years ahead of 
+us in their weaponry. So, for the most part, there will be little we can do 
+to defend ourselves. But perhaps we can learn from the barbarians who 
+defeated the greatest military empire of its time, the Roman Empire. 
+
+The Romans were masters of engineering, able to create weapons that 
+could flatten barbarian villages and roads to supply distant military 
+outposts of a vast empire. The barbarians, who were barely emerging 
+from a nomadic existence, had little chance when encountering the 
+juggernaut of the Roman Imperial Army."
+"But history records that as the empire expanded, it was spread too 
+thin, with too many battles to fight, too many treaties bogging it down, 
+and not enough of an economy to support all this, especially with a 
+gradual decline in population. Moreover, the empire, always short on 
+recruits, had to enlist young barbarian soldiers and promote them to 
+leadership positions. Inevitably, the superior technology of the empire 
+began to filter down to the barbarians as well. In time, the barbarians 
+began to master the very military technologies that at first had 
+conquered them. 
+
+Toward the end, the empire, weakened by internal palace intrigues, 
+severe crop shortages, civil wars, and an overstretched army, faced 
+barbarians who were able to fight the Roman Imperial Army to a 
+
+standstill. The sacking of Rome in A.D. 410 and 455 paved the way for 
+the empire’s ultimate fall in A.D. 476."
+"In the same way, it is likely that earthlings will initially offer no real 
+threat to an alien invasion, but over time earthlings could learn the weak 
+points of the alien army, its power supplies, its command centers, and 
+most of all its weaponry. In order to control the human population, the 
+aliens will have to recruit collaborators and promote them. This will 
+result in a diffusion of their technology to the humans. 
+
+Then a ragtag army of earthlings might be able to mount a 
+counterattack. In Eastern military strategy, like the classic teachings of 
+Sun Tzu in The Art of War, there is a way to defeat even a superior army. 
+You first allow it to enter your territory. Once it has entered unfamiliar 
+land and its ranks are diffused, you can counterattack where they are 
+weakest."
+"Another technique is to use the enemy’s strength against it. In judo, 
+the principal strategy is to turn the momentum of the attacker to your 
+advantage. You let the enemy attack, and then trip them or throw them 
+off guard, exploiting the enemy’s own mass and energy. The bigger they 
+
+are, the harder they fall. In the same way, perhaps the only way to fight 
+a superior alien army is to allow it to invade your territory, learn its 
+weaponry and military secrets, and turn those very weapons and secrets 
+against it. 
+
+So a superior alien army cannot be defeated head-on. But it will 
+withdraw if it cannot win and the cost of a stalemate is too high. Success 
+means depriving the enemy of a victory."
+"But more than likely, I believe the aliens will be benevolent and, for 
+the most part, ignore us. We simply have nothing to offer them. If they 
+visit us, then it will be mainly out of curiosity or for reconnaissance. 
+(Since curiosity was an essential feature in our becoming intelligent, it is 
+likely that any alien species will be curious, and hence want to analyze 
+us, but not necessarily to make contact.) 
+
+MEETING AN ALIEN ASTRONAUT 
+
+Unlike in the movies, we will probably not meet the flesh-and-blood 
+alien creatures themselves. It would simply be too dangerous and 
+
+unnecessary. In the same way that we sent the Mars Rover to explore, 
+aliens will more than likely send organic/mechanical surrogates or 
+avatars instead, which can better handle the stresses of interstellar 
+travel. In this way, the “aliens” we meet on the White House lawn may 
+look nothing like their masters back on the home planet. Instead, the 
+masters will project their consciousness into space through proxies."
+"More than likely, though, they will send a robotic probe to our moon, 
+which is geologically stable, with no erosion. These probes are self- 
+replicating; that is, they will create a factory and manufacture, say, a 
+thousand copies of themselves. (These are called von Neumann probes, 
+after mathematician John von Neumann, who laid the foundation for 
+digital computers. Von Neumann was the first mathematician to 
+seriously consider the problem of machines that could reproduce 
+themselves.) These second-generation probes are then launched to other 
+star systems, where each one in turn creates a thousand more third- 
+generation probes, making a total of a million. Then these probes fan out 
+and create more factories, making a billion probes. Starting with just one 
+probe, we have one thousand, then a million, then a billion. Within five 
+generations, we have a quadrillion probes. Soon we have a gigantic 
+sphere, expanding at near light speed, containing trillions upon trillions"
+"sphere, expanding at near light speed, containing trillions upon trillions 
+of probes, colonizing the entire galaxy within a few hundred thousand 
+years."
+"Dr. Davies takes this idea of self-replicating von Neumann probes so 
+seriously that he has actually applied for funding to search the surface of 
+the moon for evidence of a previous alien visitation. He wishes to scan 
+the moon for radio emissions or radiation anomalies that would indicate 
+evidence of an alien visitation, perhaps millions of years ago. He wrote a 
+paper with Dr. Robert Wagner in the scientific journal Acta Astronautica 
+calling for a close examination of the photos from the Lunar 
+Reconnaissance Orbiter down to a resolution of about 1.5 feet."
+"They wrote, “Although there is only a tiny probability that alien 
+technology would have left traces on the moon in the form of an artifact 
+or surface modification of lunar features, this location has the virtue of 
+being close,” and also traces of an alien technology would remain 
+preserved over long periods of time. Since there is no erosion on the 
+moon, treadmarks left by aliens would still be visible (in the same way 
+that footprints left by our astronauts in the 1970s could, in principle, last 
+
+for billions of years). 
+
+One problem is that the von Neumann probe might be very small. 
+Nanoprobes use molecular machines and MEMs, and hence it might be 
+only as big as a bread box, he said to me, or even smaller. (In fact, if 
+such a probe landed on Earth in someone’s backyard, the owner might 
+not even notice.)"
+"This method, however, represents the most efficient way of colonizing 
+the galaxy, using the exponential growth of self-replicating von 
+Neumann probes. (This is also the way in which a virus infects our body. 
+Starting with a handful of viruses, they land on our cells, hijack the 
+reproductive machinery, and convert our cells into factories to create 
+more viruses. Within two weeks, a single virus can infect trillions of 
+cells, and we eventually sneeze.)"
+"If this scenario is correct, it means that our own moon is the most 
+likely place for an alien visitation. This is also the basis of the movie 
+2001: A Space Odyssey, which even today represents the most plausible 
+encounter with an extraterrestrial civilization. In the movie, a probe was 
+placed on our moon millions of years ago, mainly to observe the 
+evolution of life on Earth. At times, it interferes in our evolution and 
+gives us an added boost. This information is then sent to Jupiter, which 
+is a relay station, before heading to the home planet of this ancient alien 
+civilization. 
+
+From the point of view of this advanced civilization, which can 
+simultaneously scan billions of star systems, we can see that they have a 
+considerable choice in what planetary systems to colonize. Given the 
+sheer enormity of the galaxy, they can collect data and then best choose 
+
+which planets or moons would yield the best resources. From their 
+perspective, they might not find Earth very appealing."
+"The empires of the future will be empires of the mind. 
+
+—WINSTON CHURCHILL 
+
+If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom 
+prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner. 
+
+—GENERAL OMAR BRADLEY 
+
+15 CONCLUDING REMARKS 
+
+In 2000, a raging controversy erupted in the scientific community. 
+One of the founders of Sun Computers, Bill Joy, wrote an inflammatory 
+article denouncing the mortal threat we face from advanced technology. 
+In an article in Wired magazine with the provocative title “The Future 
+Does Not Need Us,” he wrote, “Our most powerful 21st century 
+technologies—robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech—are 
+threatening to make humans an endangered species.” That incendiary 
+article questioned the very morality of hundreds of dedicated scientists 
+toiling in their labs on the cutting edge of science. He challenged the 
+very core of their research, stating that the benefits of these technologies 
+were vastly overshadowed by the enormous threats they posed to 
+humanity."
+"He described a macabre dystopia in which all our technologies 
+conspire to destroy civilization. Three of our key creations will 
+eventually turn on us, he warned: 
+
+• One day, bioengineered germs may escape from the laboratory and 
+wreak havoc on the world. Since you cannot recapture these life- 
+forms, they might proliferate wildly and unleash a fatal plague on 
+the planet worse than those of the Middle Ages. Biotechnology may 
+even alter human evolution, creating “several separate and unequal 
+species ... that would threaten the notion of equality that is the very 
+cornerstone of our democracy.” 
+
+• One day, nanobots may go berserk and spew out unlimited 
+quantities of “gray goo,” which will blanket Earth, smothering all 
+life. Since these nanobots “digest” ordinary matter and create new 
+forms of matter, malfunctioning nanobots could run amok and"
+"digest much of Earth. “Gray goo would surely be a depressing 
+ending to our human adventure on Earth, far worse than mere fire 
+or ice, and one that could stem from a simple laboratory accident. 
+
+Oops,” he wrote. 
+
+• One day, the robots will take over and replace humanity. They will 
+become so intelligent that they will simply push humanity aside. We 
+will be left as an evolutionary footnote. “The robots would in no 
+sense be our children.... On this path our humanity may well be 
+lost,” he wrote."
+"Joy claimed that the dangers unleashed by these three technologies 
+dwarfed the dangers posed by the atomic bomb in the 1940s. Back then, 
+Einstein warned of the power of nuclear technology to destroy 
+civilization: “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has 
+exceeded our humanity.” But the atomic bomb was built by a huge 
+government program that could be tightly regulated, while these 
+technologies are being developed by private companies that are lightly 
+regulated, if at all, Joy pointed out. 
+
+Sure, he conceded, these technologies may alleviate some suffering in 
+the short term. But in the long term, the benefits are overwhelmed by 
+the fact that they may unleash a scientific Armageddon that may doom 
+the human race."
+"Joy even accused scientists of being selfish and naive as they try to 
+create a better society. He wrote, “A traditional utopia is a good society 
+and a good life. A good life involves other people. This techno utopia is 
+all about ‘I don’t get diseases; I don’t die; I get to have better eyesight 
+and be smarter’ and all this. If you described this to Socrates or Plato, 
+they would laugh at you.” 
+
+He concluded by stating, “I think it is no exaggeration to say we are 
+on the cusp of the further perfection of extreme evil, an evil whose 
+possibility spreads well beyond that which weapons of mass destruction 
+bequeathed to the nation-states....” 
+
+The conclusion to all this? “Something like extinction,” he warned. 
+
+As expected, the article sparked a firestorm of controversy."
+"As expected, the article sparked a firestorm of controversy. 
+
+That article was written over a decade ago. In terms of high 
+technology, that is a lifetime. It is now possible to view certain of its 
+predictions with some hindsight. Looking back at the article and putting 
+his warnings into perspective, we can easily see that Bill Joy exaggerated 
+many of the threats coming from these technologies, but he also spurred 
+
+scientists to face up to the ethical, moral, and societal consequences of 
+
+their work, which is always a good thing. 
+
+And his article opened up a discussion about who we are. In 
+unraveling the molecular, genetic, and neural secrets of the brain, 
+haven’t we in some sense dehumanized humanity, reducing it to a 
+bucket of atoms and neurons? If we completely map every neuron of the 
+brain and trace every neural pathway, doesn’t that remove the mystery 
+and magic of who we are? 
+
+A RESPONSE TO BILL JOY"
+"A RESPONSE TO BILL JOY 
+
+In retrospect, the threats from robotics and nanotechnology are more 
+distant than Bill Joy thought, and I would argue that with enough 
+warning, we can take a variety of countermeasures, such as banning 
+certain avenues of research if they lead to uncontrollable robots, placing 
+chips in them to shut them off if they become dangerous, and creating 
+fail-safe devices to immobilize all of them in an emergency. 
+
+More immediate is the threat from biotechnology, where there is the 
+realistic danger of biogerms that might escape the laboratory. In fact, 
+Ray Kurzweil and Bill Joy jointly wrote an article criticizing the 
+publication of the complete genome of the 1918 Spanish flu virus, one of 
+the most lethal germs in modern history, which killed more people than 
+World War I. Scientists were able to reassemble the long-dead virus by 
+examining the corpses and blood of its victims and sequencing its genes, 
+and then they published it on the web."
+"Safeguards already exist against the release of such a dangerous virus, 
+but steps must be taken to further strengthen them and add new layers 
+of security. In particular, if a new virus suddenly erupts in some distant 
+place on Earth, scientists must strengthen rapid-response teams that can 
+isolate the virus in the wild, sequence its genes, and then quickly 
+prepare a vaccine to prevent its spread. 
+
+IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF THE MIND 
+
+This debate also has a direct impact on the future of the mind. At 
+present, neuroscience is still rather primitive. Scientists can read and 
+videotape simple thoughts from the living brain, record a few memories, 
+
+connect the brain to mechanical arms, enable locked-in patients to 
+control machines around them, silence specific regions of the brain via 
+magnetism, and identify the regions of the brain that malfunction in 
+mental illness."
+"In the coming decades, however, the power of neuroscience may 
+become explosive. Current research is on the threshold of new scientific 
+discoveries that will likely leave us breathless. One day, we might 
+routinely control objects around us with the power of the mind, 
+download memories, cure mental illness, enhance our intelligence, 
+understand the brain neuron by neuron, create backup copies of the 
+brain, and communicate with one another telepathically. The world of 
+the future will be the world of the mind."
+"Bill Joy did not dispute the potential of this technology to relieve 
+human suffering and pain. But what made him look on it with horror 
+was the prospect of enhanced individuals who might cause the human 
+species to split apart. In the article, he painted a dismal dystopia in 
+which only a tiny elite have their intelligence and mental processes 
+enhanced, while the masses of people live in ignorance and poverty. He 
+worried that the human race would fission in two, or perhaps cease to be 
+human at all. 
+
+But as we have pointed out, almost all technologies when they are first 
+introduced are expensive and hence exclusively for the well-off. Because 
+of mass production, the falling cost of computers, competition, and 
+cheaper shipping, technologies inevitably filter down to the poor as well. 
+This was also the trajectory taken by phonographs, radio, TV, PCs, 
+laptops, and cell phones."
+"Far from creating a world of haves and have-nots, science has been the 
+engine of prosperity. Of all the tools that humanity has harnessed since 
+the dawn of time, by far the most powerful and productive has been 
+science. The incredible wealth we see all around us is directly due to 
+science. To appreciate how technology reduces, rather than accentuates, 
+societal fault lines, consider the lives of our ancestors around 1900. Life 
+expectancy in the United States back then was forty-nine years. Many 
+children died in infancy. Communicating with a neighbor involved 
+yelling out the window. The mail was delivered by horse, if it came at 
+all. Medicine was largely snake oil. The only treatments that actually 
+worked were amputations (without anesthetics) and morphine to deaden 
+
+the pain. Food rotted within days. Plumbing was nonexistent. Disease 
+was a constant threat. And the economy could support only a handful of 
+the rich and a tiny middle class."
+"Technology has changed everything. We no longer have to hunt for 
+our food; we simply go to the supermarket. We no longer have to carry 
+back-breaking supplies but instead simply get into our cars. (In fact, the 
+main threat we face from technology, one that has killed millions of 
+people, is not murderous robots or mad nanobots run amok—it’s our 
+indulgent lifestyle, which has created near-epidemic levels of diabetes, 
+obesity, heart disease, cancer, etc. And this problem is self-inflicted.) 
+
+We also see this on the global level. In the last few decades the world 
+has witnessed hundreds of millions of people being lifted out of grinding 
+poverty for the first time in history. If we view the bigger picture, we see 
+that a significant fraction of the human race has left the punishing 
+lifestyle of sustenance farming and entered the ranks of the middle class."
+"It took several hundred years for Western nations to industrialize, yet 
+China and India are doing it within a few decades, all due to the spread 
+of high technology. With wireless technology and the Internet, these 
+nations can leapfrog past other, more developed nations that have 
+laboriously wired their cities. While the West struggles with an aging, 
+decaying urban infrastructure, developing nations are building entire 
+cities with sparkling, state-of-the-art technology."
+"(When I was a graduate student getting my Ph.D., my counterparts in 
+China and India would have to wait several months to a year for 
+scientific journals to come in the mail. Plus, they had almost no direct 
+contact with scientists and engineers in the West, because few if any 
+could afford to travel here. This vastly impeded the flow of technology, 
+which moved at a glacial pace for these nations. Today, however, 
+scientists can read one another’s papers as soon as they are posted on the 
+Internet, and can electronically collaborate with other scientists around 
+the world. This has vastly accelerated the flow of information. And with 
+this technology comes progress and prosperity.)"
+"Furthermore, it’s not clear that having some form of enhanced 
+intelligence will cause a catastrophic splitting of the human race, even if 
+many people are unable to afford this procedure. For the most part, 
+being able to solve complex mathematical equations or have perfect 
+recall does not guarantee a higher income, respect from your peers, or 
+
+more popularity with the opposite sex, which are the incentives that 
+motivate most people. The Caveman Principle trumps having a brain 
+boost. 
+
+As Dr. Michael Gazzaniga notes, “The idea that we are messin’ with 
+our innards is disturbing to many. And just what would we do with 
+expanded intelligence? Are we going to use it for solving problems, or 
+will it just allow us to have longer Christmas card lists ...?”"
+"But as we discussed in Chapter 5, unemployed workers may benefit 
+from this technology, drastically reducing the time required to master 
+new technologies and skills. This might not only reduce the problems 
+associated with unemployment, it could also have an impact on the 
+world economy, making it more efficient and responsive to change. 
+
+WISDOM AND DEMOCRATIC DEBATE 
+
+In responding to Joy’s article, some critics pointed out that the debate is 
+not about a struggle between scientists and nature, as portrayed in the 
+article. The debate is actually between three parties: scientists, nature, 
+and society."
+"Computer scientists Drs. John Brown and Paul Duguid responded to 
+the article by stating, “Technologies—such as gunpowder, the printing 
+press, the railroad, the telegraph, and the Internet—can change society 
+in profound ways. But on the other hand, social systems—in the form of 
+governments, the courts, formal and informal organizations, social 
+movements, professional networks, local communities, market 
+institutions, and so forth—shape, moderate, and redirect the raw power 
+of technologies.” 
+
+The point is to analyze them in terms of society, and ultimately it is up 
+to us to adopt a new vision of the future that incorporates all the best 
+ideas. 
+
+To me, the ultimate source of wisdom in this respect comes from 
+vigorous democratic debate. In the coming decades, the public will be 
+asked to vote on a number of crucial scientific issues. Technology cannot 
+be debated in a vacuum. 
+
+PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS"
+"PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS 
+
+Lastly, some critics have claimed that the march of science has gone too 
+far in unveiling the secrets of the mind, an unveiling that has become 
+dehumanizing and degrading. Why bother to rejoice at discovering 
+something new, learning a new skill, or enjoying a leisurely vacation 
+when it can all be reduced to a few neurotransmitters activating a few 
+neural circuits? 
+
+In other words, just as astronomy has reduced us to insignificant 
+pieces of cosmic dust floating in an uncaring universe, neuroscience has 
+reduced us to electrical signals circulating within neural circuits. But is 
+this really true?"
+"We began our discussion by highlighting the two greatest mysteries in 
+all of science: the mind and the universe. Not only do they have a 
+common history and narrative, they also share a similar philosophy and 
+perhaps even destiny. Science, with all its power to peer into the heart of 
+black holes and land on distant planets, has given birth to two 
+overarching philosophies about the mind and the universe: the 
+Copernican Principle and the Anthropic Principle. Both are consistent 
+with everything known about science, but they are diametrical 
+opposites. 
+
+The first great philosophy, the Copernican Principle, was born with 
+the discovery of the telescope more than four hundred years ago. It 
+states that there is no privileged position for humanity. Such a 
+deceptively simple idea has overthrown thousands of years of cherished 
+myths and entrenched philosophies."
+"Ever since the biblical tale of Adam and Eve being exiled from the 
+Garden of Eden for biting into the Apple of Knowledge, there has been a 
+series of humiliating dethronements. First, the telescope of Galileo 
+clearly showed that Earth was not the center of the solar system—the 
+sun was. This picture was then overthrown when it was realized that the 
+solar system was just a speck in the Milky Way galaxy circulating about 
+thirty thousand light-years from the center. Then in the 1920s, Edwin 
+Hubble discovered there was a multitude of galaxies. The universe 
+suddenly got billions of times bigger. Now the Hubble Space Telescope 
+can reveal the presence of up to one hundred billion galaxies in the 
+visible universe. Our own Milky Way galaxy has been reduced to a 
+pinpoint in a much larger cosmic arena. 
+
+More recent cosmological theories further downgrade the position of"
+"More recent cosmological theories further downgrade the position of 
+
+humanity in the universe. The inflationary universe theory states that 
+our visible universe, with its one hundred billion galaxies, is just a 
+pinprick on a much larger, inflated universe that is so big that most light 
+has not had time to reach us yet from distant regions. There are vast 
+reaches of space that we cannot see with our telescopes and will never 
+be able to visit because we cannot go faster than light. And if string 
+theory (my specialty) is correct, it means that even the entire universe 
+coexists with other universes in eleven-dimensional hyperspace. So even 
+three-dimensional space is not the final word. The true arena for 
+physical phenomena is the multiverse of universes, full of floating 
+bubble universes. 
+
+The science-fiction writer Douglas Adams tried to summarize the sense 
+of being constantly overthrown by inventing the Total Perspective 
+Vortex in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It was designed to drive"
+"any sane person insane. When you enter the chamber, all you see is a 
+gigantic map of the entire universe. And on the map there is a tiny, 
+almost invisible arrow that says, “You are here.” 
+
+So on one hand, the Copernican Principle indicates that we are just 
+insignificant cosmic debris drifting aimlessly among the stars. But on the 
+other hand, all the latest cosmological data are consistent with yet 
+another theory, which gives us the opposite philosophy: the Anthropic 
+Principle. 
+
+This theory states that the universe is compatible with life. Again, this 
+deceptively simple statement has profound implications. On one hand, it 
+is impossible to dispute that life exists in the universe. But it’s clear that 
+the forces of the universe must be calibrated to a remarkable degree to 
+make life possible. As physicist Freeman Dyson once said, “The universe 
+seemed to know that we were coming.”"
+"For example, if the nuclear force were just a bit stronger, the sun 
+would have burned out billions of years ago, too soon to allow DNA to 
+get off the ground. If the nuclear force were a bit weaker, then the sun 
+would never have ignited to begin with, and we still would not be here. 
+
+Likewise, if gravity were stronger, the universe would have collapsed 
+into a Big Crunch billions of years ago, and we would all be roasted to 
+death. If it were a bit weaker, then the universe would have expanded so 
+fast it would have reached the Big Freeze, so we would all have frozen to 
+death. 
+
+This fine-tuning extends to every atom of the body. Physics says that 
+we are made of star dust, that the atoms we see all around us were 
+forged in the heat of a star. We are literally children of the stars."
+"But the nuclear reactions that burned hydrogen to create the higher 
+elements of our body are very complex and could have been derailed at 
+any number of points. Then it would have been impossible to create the 
+higher elements of our bodies, and the atoms of DNA and life would not 
+exist. 
+
+In other words, life is precious and a miracle. 
+
+There are so many parameters that have to be fine-tuned that some 
+claim this is not a coincidence. The weak form of the Anthropic Principle 
+implies that the existence of life forces the physical parameters of the 
+universe to be defined in a very precise way. The strong form of the 
+Anthropic Principle goes even further, stating that God or some designer 
+had to create a universe “just right” to make life possible. 
+
+PHILOSOPHY AND NEUROSCIENCE"
+"PHILOSOPHY AND NEUROSCIENCE 
+
+The debate between the Copernican Principle and the Anthropic 
+Principle also resonates in neuroscience. For example, some claim that 
+humans can be reduced to atoms, molecules, and neurons, and hence 
+there is no distinguished place for humanity in the universe. 
+
+Dr. David Eagleman writes, “The you that all your friends know and 
+love cannot exist unless the transistors and screws of our brain are in 
+place. If you don’t believe this, step into any neurology ward in any 
+hospital. Damage to even small parts of the brain can lead to the loss of 
+shockingly specific abilities; the ability to name animals, or to hear 
+music, or to manage risky behavior, or to distinguish colors, or to 
+arbitrate simple decisions.” 
+
+It seems that the brain cannot function without all its “transistors and 
+screws.” He concludes, “Our reality depends on what our biology is up 
+to.”"
+"So on one hand, our place in the universe seems to be diminished if 
+we can be reduced, like robots, to (biological) nuts and bolts. We are just 
+wetware, running software called the mind, nothing more or less. Our 
+thoughts, desires, hopes, and aspirations can be reduced to electrical 
+
+impulses circulating in some region of the prefrontal cortex. That is the 
+Copernican Principle applied to the mind. 
+
+But the Anthropic Principle can also be applied to the mind, and we 
+then reach the opposite conclusion. It simply says that conditions of the 
+universe make consciousness possible, even though it is extraordinarily 
+difficult to create the mind out of random events. The great Victorian 
+biologist Thomas Huxley said, “How it is that anything so remarkable as 
+a state of consciousness comes about as a result of irritating nervous 
+tissue, is just as unaccountable as the appearance of the Djinn, when 
+Aladdin rubbed his lamp.”"
+"Furthermore, most astronomers believe that although one day we may 
+find life on other planets, it will most likely be microbial life, which 
+ruled our oceans for billions of years. Instead of seeing great cities and 
+empires, we might only find oceans of drifting microorganisms. 
+
+When I interviewed the late Harvard biologist Stephen Jay Gould 
+about this, he explained to me his thinking as follows. If we were to 
+somehow create a twin of Earth as it was 4.5 billion years ago, would it 
+turn out the same way 4.5 billion years later? Most likely not. There is a 
+
+large probability that DNA and life would never have gotten off the 
+ground, and an even larger probability that intelligent life with 
+consciousness would never have risen from the swamp."
+"Gould wrote, “Homo sapiens is one small twig [on the tree of life]. 
+... Yet our twig, for better or worse, has developed the most 
+extraordinary new quality in all the history of multicellular life since the 
+Cambrian explosion (500 million years ago). We have invented 
+consciousness with all its sequelae from Hamlet to Hiroshima.”"
+"In fact, in the history of Earth, there are many times when intelligent 
+life was almost extinguished. In addition to the mass extinctions that 
+wiped out the dinosaurs and most life on Earth, humans have faced 
+additional near extinctions. For example, humans are all genetically 
+related to one another to a considerable degree, much closer than two 
+typical animals of the same species. Although humans may look diverse 
+from the outside, our genes and internal chemistry tell a different story. 
+In fact, any two humans are so closely related genetically that we can 
+actually do the math and calculate when a “genetic Eve” or “genetic 
+Adam” gave birth to the entire human race. Moreover, we can calculate 
+how many of us there were in the past."
+"The numbers are remarkable. Genetics shows that there were only a 
+few hundred to a few thousand humans alive about seventy to one 
+hundred thousand years ago and that they gave birth to the entire 
+human race. (One theory holds that the titanic explosion of the Toba 
+volcano in Indonesia about seventy thousand years ago caused 
+temperatures to drop so dramatically that most of the human race 
+perished, leaving only a handful to populate Earth.) From that small 
+band of humans came the adventurers and explorers who would 
+eventually colonize the entire planet. 
+
+Repeatedly in the history of Earth, intelligent life might have come to 
+a dead end. It is a miracle we survived. We can also conclude that 
+although life may exist on other planets, conscious life may exist on only 
+a tiny fraction of them. So we should treasure the consciousness that is 
+found on Earth. It is the highest form of complexity known in the 
+universe, and probably also the rarest."
+"Sometimes, when contemplating the future destiny of the human race, 
+I have to come to grips with the distinct possibility of its self-destruction. 
+Although volcanic eruptions and earthquakes could spell doom for the 
+human race, our worst fears may be realized through man-made 
+disasters, such as nuclear wars or bioengineered germs. If so, then 
+perhaps the only conscious life-form in this sector of the Milky Way 
+galaxy might be extinguished. This, I feel, would be a tragedy not just 
+for us, but for the universe as well. We take for granted that we are 
+
+conscious, but we don’t understand the long, tortuous sequence of 
+biological events that have transpired to make this possible. Psychologist 
+Steven Pinker writes, “I would argue that nothing gives life more 
+purpose than the realization that every moment of consciousness is a 
+precious and fragile gift.” 
+
+THE MIRACLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"THE MIRACLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+Lastly, there is the criticism of science that says to understand something 
+is to remove its mystery and magic. Science, by lifting the veil 
+concealing the secrets of the mind, is also making it more ordinary and 
+mundane. However, the more I learn about the sheer complexity of the 
+brain, the more amazed I am that something that sits on our shoulders is 
+
+the most sophisticated object we know about in the universe. As Dr. 
+David Eagleman says, “What a perplexing masterpiece the brain is, and 
+how lucky we are to be in a generation that has the technology and the 
+will to turn our attention to it. It is the most wondrous thing we have 
+discovered in the universe, and it is us.” Instead of diminishing the sense 
+of wonder, learning about the brain only increases it. 
+
+More than two thousand years ago, Socrates said, “To know thyself is 
+the beginning of wisdom.” We are on a long journey to complete his 
+wishes. 
+
+APPENDIX 
+
+QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS?"
+"APPENDIX 
+
+QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS? 
+
+In spite of all the miraculous advances in brain scans and high 
+technology, some people claim that we will never understand the secret 
+of consciousness, since consciousness is beyond our puny technology. In 
+fact, in their view consciousness is more fundamental than atoms, 
+molecules, and neurons and determines the nature of reality itself. To 
+them, consciousness is the fundamental entity out of which the material 
+world is created. And to prove their point, they refer to one of the 
+greatest paradoxes in all of science, which challenges our very definition 
+of reality: the Schrodinger’s Cat paradox. Even today, there is no 
+universal consensus on the question, with Nobel laureates taking 
+divergent stances. What is at stake is nothing less than the nature of 
+reality and thought."
+"The Schrodinger’s Cat paradox cuts to the very foundation of quantum 
+mechanics, a field that makes lasers, MRI scans, radio and TV, modern 
+electronics, the GPS, and telecommunications possible, upon which the 
+world economy depends. Many of quantum theory’s predictions have 
+been tested to an accuracy of one part in one hundred billion. 
+
+I have spent my entire professional career working on the quantum 
+theory. Yet I realize that it has feet of clay. It’s an unsettling feeling 
+knowing my life’s work is based on a theory whose very foundation is 
+based on a paradox."
+"This debate was sparked by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger, who 
+was one of the founding fathers of the quantum theory. He was trying to 
+explain the strange behavior of electrons, which seemed to exhibit both 
+wave and particle properties. How can an electron, a point particle, have 
+two divergent behaviors? Sometimes electrons acted like a particle, 
+creating well-defined tracks in a cloud chamber. Other times, electrons 
+acted like a wave, passing through tiny holes and creating wavelike 
+interference patterns, like those on the surface of a pond. 
+
+In 1925, Schrodinger put forward his celebrated wave equation, which"
+"In 1925, Schrodinger put forward his celebrated wave equation, which 
+
+bears his name and is one of the most important equations ever written. 
+It was an instant sensation, and won him the Nobel Prize in 1933. The 
+Schrodinger equation accurately described the wavelike behavior of 
+electrons and, when applied to the hydrogen atom, explained its strange 
+properties. Miraculously, it could also be applied to any atom and 
+explain most of the features of the periodic table of elements. It seemed 
+as if all chemistry (and hence all biology) were nothing but solutions of 
+this wave equation. Some physicists even claimed that the entire 
+universe, including all the stars, planets, and even us, was nothing but a 
+solution of this equation. 
+
+But then physicists began to ask a problematic question that resonates 
+even today: If the electron is described by a wave equation, then what is 
+waving?"
+"In 1927, Werner Heisenberg proposed a new principle that split the 
+physics community down the middle. Heisenberg’s celebrated 
+uncertainty principle states that you cannot know both the location and 
+the momentum of an electron with certainty. This uncertainty was not a 
+function of how crude your instruments were but was inherent in 
+physics itself. Even God or some celestial being could not know the 
+precise location and momentum of an electron. 
+
+So the wave function of Schrodinger actually described the probability 
+of finding the electron. Scientists had spent thousands of years painfully 
+
+trying to eliminate chance and probabilities in their work, and now 
+Heisenberg was allowing it in through the back door. 
+
+The new philosophy can be summed up as follows: the electron is a 
+point particle, but the probability of finding it is given by a wave. And 
+this wave obeys Schrodinger’s equation and gives rise to the uncertainty 
+principle."
+"The physics community cracked in half. On one side, we had 
+physicists like Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and most atomic 
+physicists eagerly adopting this new formulation. Almost daily, they 
+were announcing new breakthroughs in understanding the properties of 
+matter. Nobel Prizes were being handed out to quantum physicists like 
+Oscars. Quantum mechanics was becoming a cookbook. You did not 
+need to be a master physicist to make stellar contributions—you just 
+followed the recipes given by quantum mechanics and you would make 
+stunning breakthroughs. 
+
+On the other side, we had aging Nobel laureates like Albert Einstein, 
+Erwin Schrodinger, and Louis de Broglie who were raising philosophical 
+objections. Schrodinger, whose work helped start this whole process, 
+grumbled that if he had known that his equation would introduce 
+probability into physics, he would never have created it in the first 
+place."
+"Physicists embarked on an eighty-year debate that continues even 
+today. On one hand, Einstein would proclaim that “God does not play 
+dice with the world.” Niels Bohr, on the other hand, reportedly replied, 
+“Stop telling God what to do.” 
+
+In 1935, to demolish the quantum physicists once and for all, 
+Schrodinger proposed his celebrated cat problem. Place a cat in a sealed 
+box, with a container of poison gas. In the box, there is a lump of 
+uranium. The uranium atom is unstable and emits particles that can be 
+detected by a Geiger counter. The counter triggers a hammer, which falls 
+and breaks the glass, releasing the gas, which can kill the cat."
+"How do you describe the cat? A quantum physicist would say that the 
+uranium atom is described by a wave, which can either decay or not 
+decay. Therefore you have to add the two waves together. If the uranium 
+fires, then the cat dies, so that is described by one wave. If the uranium 
+does not fire, then the cat lives, and that is also described by a wave. To 
+describe the cat, you therefore have to add the wave of a dead cat to the 
+wave of a live cat. 
+
+This means that the cat is neither dead nor alive! The cat is in a 
+netherworld, between life and death, the sum of the wave describing a 
+
+dead cat with the wave of a live cat. 
+
+This is the crux of the problem, which has reverberated in the halls of 
+physics for almost a century. So how do you resolve this paradox? There 
+are at least three ways (and hundreds of variations on these three)."
+"The first is the original Copenhagen interpretation proposed by Bohr 
+and Heisenberg, the one that is quoted in textbooks around the world. (It 
+is the one that I start with when I teach quantum mechanics.) It says that 
+to determine the state of the cat, you must open the box and make a 
+measurement. The cat’s wave (which was the sum of a dead cat and a 
+live cat) now “collapses” into a single wave, so the cat is now known to 
+be alive (or dead). Thus, observation determines the existence and state 
+of the cat. The measurement process is thus responsible for two waves 
+
+magically dissolving into a single wave."
+"magically dissolving into a single wave. 
+
+Einstein hated this. For centuries, scientists have battled something 
+called “solipsism” or “subjective idealism,” which claims that objects 
+cannot exist unless there is someone there to observe them. Only the 
+mind is real—the material world exists only as ideas in the mind. Thus, 
+say the solipsists (such as Bishop George Berkeley), if a tree falls in the 
+forest but no one is there to observe it, perhaps the tree never fell. 
+Einstein, who thought all this was pure nonsense, promoted an opposing 
+theory called “objective reality,” which says simply that the universe 
+exists in a unique, definite state independent of any human observation. 
+It is the commonsense view of most people."
+"Objective reality goes back to Isaac Newton. In this scenario, the atom 
+and subatomic particles are like tiny steel balls, which exist at definite 
+points in space and time. There is no ambiguity or chance in locating the 
+position of these balls, whose motions can be determined by using the 
+laws of motion. Objective reality was spectacularly successful in 
+describing the motions of planets, stars, and galaxies. Using relativity, 
+this idea can also describe black holes and the expanding universe. But 
+there is one place where it fails miserably, and that is inside the atom. 
+
+Classical physicists like Newton and Einstein thought that objective 
+reality finally banished solipsism from physics. Walter Lippmann, the 
+columnist, summed it up when he wrote, “The radical novelty of modern 
+science lies precisely in the rejection of the belief ... that the forces 
+which move the stars and atoms are contingent upon the preferences of 
+the human heart.”"
+"But quantum mechanics allowed a new form of solipsism back into 
+physics. In this picture, before it is observed, a tree can exist in any 
+possible state (e.g., sapling, burned, sawdust, toothpicks, decayed). But 
+
+when you look at it, the wave suddenly collapses and it looks like a tree. 
+The original solipsists talked about trees that either fell or didn’t. The 
+new quantum solipsists were introducing all possible states of a tree. 
+
+This was too much for Einstein. He would ask guests at his house, 
+“Does the moon exist because a mouse looks at it?” To a quantum 
+physicist, in some sense the answer might be yes. 
+
+Einstein and his colleagues would challenge Bohr by asking: How can 
+the quantum microworld (with cats being dead and alive 
+simultaneously) coexist with the commonsense world we see around us?"
+"The answer was that there is a “wall” that separates our world from the 
+atomic world. On one side of the wall, common sense rules. On the other 
+side of the wall, the quantum theory rules. You can move the wall if you 
+want and the results are still the same. 
+
+This interpretation, no matter how strange, has been taught for eighty 
+years by quantum physicists. More recently, there have been some 
+doubts cast on the Copenhagen interpretation. Today we have 
+nanotechnology, with which we can manipulate individual atoms at will. 
+On a scanning tunneling microscope screen, atoms appear to be fuzzy 
+tennis balls. (For BBC-TV, I had a chance to fly out to IBM’s Almaden 
+Lab in San Jose, California, and actually push individual atoms around 
+with a tiny probe. It is now possible to play with atoms, which were 
+once thought to be so small they could never be seen.)"
+"As we’ve discussed, the Age of Silicon is slowly coming to an end, and 
+some believe that molecular transistors will replace silicon transistors. If 
+so, then the paradoxes of the quantum theory may lie at the very heart 
+of every computer of the future. The world economy may eventually rest 
+on these paradoxes. 
+
+COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS AND MULTIPLE UNIVERSES 
+
+There are two alternate interpretations of the cat paradox, which take us 
+to the strangest realms in all science: the realm of God and multiple 
+universes. 
+
+In 1967, the second resolution to the cat problem was formulated by 
+Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner, whose work was pivotal in laying the 
+foundation of quantum mechanics and also building the atomic bomb. 
+He said that only a conscious person can make an observation that 
+collapses the wave function. But who is to say that this person exists? 
+You cannot separate the observer from the observed, so maybe this"
+"person is also dead and alive. In other words, there has to be a new 
+wave function that includes both the cat and the observer. To make sure 
+that the observer is alive, you need a second observer to watch the first 
+observer. This second observer is called “Wigner’s friend,” and is 
+necessary to watch the first observer so that all waves collapse. But how 
+do we know that the second observer is alive? The second observer has 
+
+to be included in a still-larger wave function to make sure he is alive, 
+but this can be continued indefinitely. Since you need an infinite number 
+of “friends” to collapse the previous wave function to make sure they are 
+alive, you need some form of “cosmic consciousness,” or God. 
+
+Wigner concluded: “It was not possible to formulate the laws (of 
+quantum theory) in a fully consistent way without reference to 
+consciousness.” Toward the end of his life, he even became interested in 
+the Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism."
+"In this approach, God or some eternal consciousness watches over all 
+of us, collapsing our wave functions so that we can say we are alive. This 
+interpretation yields the same physical results as the Copenhagen 
+interpretation, so this theory cannot be disproven. But the implication is 
+that consciousness is the fundamental entity in the universe, more 
+fundamental than atoms. The material world may come and go, but 
+consciousness remains as the defining element, which means that 
+consciousness, in some sense, creates reality. The very existence of the 
+atoms we see around us is based on our ability to see and touch them."
+"(At this point, it’s important to note that some people think that 
+because consciousness determines existence, then consciousness can 
+therefore control existence, perhaps by meditation. They think that we 
+can create reality according to our wishes. This thinking, as attractive as 
+it might sound, goes against quantum mechanics. In quantum physics, 
+consciousness makes observations and therefore determines the state of 
+reality, but consciousness cannot choose ahead of time which state of 
+reality actually exists. Quantum mechanics allows you only to determine 
+the chance of finding one state, but we cannot bend reality to our 
+wishes. For example, in gambling, it is possible to mathematically 
+calculate the chances of getting a royal flush. However, this does not 
+mean that you can somehow control the cards to get the royal flush. You 
+cannot pick and choose universes, just as we have no control over 
+whether the cat is dead or alive.) 
+
+MULTIPLE UNIVERSES"
+"MULTIPLE UNIVERSES 
+
+The third way to resolve the paradox is the Everett, or many-worlds, 
+
+interpretation, which was proposed in 1957 by Hugh Everett. It is the 
+
+strangest theory of all. It says that the universe is constantly splitting 
+apart into a multiverse of universes. In one universe, we have a dead cat. 
+In another universe, we have a live cat. This approach can be 
+summarized as follows: wave functions never collapse, they just split. 
+The Everett many-worlds theory differs from the Copenhagen 
+interpretation only in that it drops the final assumption: the collapse of 
+the wave function. In some sense, it is the simplest formulation of 
+quantum mechanics, but also the most disturbing. 
+
+There are profound consequences to this third approach. It means that 
+all possible universes might exist, even ones that are bizarre and 
+seemingly impossible. (However, the more bizarre the universe, the 
+more unlikely it is.)"
+"This means people who have died in our universe are still alive in 
+another universe. And these dead people insist that their universe is the 
+correct one, and that our universe (in which they are dead) is fake. But if 
+these “ghosts” of dead people are still alive somewhere, then why can’t 
+we meet them? Why can’t we touch these parallel worlds? (As strange as 
+it may seem, in this picture Elvis is still alive in one of these universes.)"
+"What’s more, some of these universes may be dead, without any life, 
+but others may look exactly like ours, except for one key difference. For 
+example, the collision of a single cosmic ray is a tiny quantum event. But 
+what happens if this cosmic ray goes through Adolf Hitler’s mother, and 
+the infant Hitler dies in a miscarriage? Then a tiny quantum event, the 
+collision of a single cosmic ray, causes the universe to split in half. In 
+one universe, World War II never happened, and sixty million people did 
+not have to die. In the other universe, we’ve had the ravages of World 
+War II. These two universes grow to be quite far apart, yet they are 
+initially separated by one tiny quantum event."
+"This phenomenon was explored by science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick 
+in his novel The Man in the High Tower, where a parallel universe opens 
+up because of a single event: a bullet is fired at Franklin Roosevelt, who 
+is killed by an assassin. This pivotal event means that the United States 
+is not prepared for World War II, and the Nazis and Japanese are 
+victorious and eventually partition the United States in half. 
+
+But whether the bullet fires or misfires depends, in turn, on whether a 
+microscopic spark is set off in the gunpowder, which itself depends on 
+complex molecular reactions involving the motions of electrons. So 
+
+perhaps quantum fluctuations in the gunpowder may determine whether 
+the gun fires or misfires, which in turn determines whether the Allies or 
+the Nazis emerge victorious during World War II."
+"So there is no “wall” separating the quantum world and the 
+macroworld. The bizarre features of the quantum theory can creep into 
+our “commonsense” world. These wave functions never collapse—they 
+keep splitting endlessly into parallel realities. The creation of alternative 
+universes never stops. The paradoxes of the microworld (i.e., being dead 
+and alive simultaneously, being in two places at the same time, 
+disappearing and reappearing somewhere else) now enter into our world 
+as well. 
+
+But if the wave function is continually splitting apart, creating entirely 
+new universes in the process, then why can’t we visit them?"
+"Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg compares this to listening to the radio 
+in your living room. There are hundreds of radio waves simultaneously 
+filling up your room from all over the world, but your radio dial is tuned 
+to only one frequency. In other words, your radio has “decohered” from 
+all the other stations. (Coherence is when all waves vibrate in perfect 
+unison, as in a laser beam. Decoherence is when these waves begin to 
+fall out of phase, so they no longer vibrate in unison.) These other 
+frequencies all exist, but your radio cannot pick them up because they 
+are not vibrating at the same frequency that we are anymore. They have 
+decoupled; that is, they have decohered from us."
+"In the same way, the wave function of the dead and alive cat have 
+decohered as time goes on. The implications are rather staggering. In 
+your living room, you coexist with the waves of dinosaurs, pirates, aliens 
+from space, and monsters. Yet you are blissfully unaware that you are 
+sharing the same space as these strange denizens of quantum space, 
+because your atoms are no longer vibrating in unison with them. These 
+parallel universes do not exist in some distant never-never land. They 
+exist in your living room. 
+
+Entering one of these parallel worlds is called “quantum jumping” or 
+“sliding” and is a favorite gimmick of science fiction. To enter a parallel 
+universe, we need to take a quantum jump into it. (There was even a TV 
+series called Sliders where people slide back and forth between parallel 
+universes. The series began when a young boy read a book. That book is 
+actually my book Hyperspace, but I take no responsibility for the physics 
+
+behind that series.)"
+"behind that series.) 
+
+Actually, it’s not so simple to jump between universes. One problem 
+we sometimes give our Ph.D. students is to calculate the probability that 
+
+you will jump through a brick wall and wind up on the other side. The 
+result is sobering. You would have to wait longer than the lifetime of the 
+universe to experience jumping or sliding through a brick wall. 
+
+LOOKING IN THE MIRROR"
+"LOOKING IN THE MIRROR 
+
+When I look at myself in a mirror, I don’t really see myself as I truly am. 
+First, I see myself about a billionth of a second ago, since that is the time 
+that it takes a light beam to leave my face, hit a mirror, and enter my 
+eyes. Second, the image I see is really an average over billions and 
+billions of wave functions. This average certainly does resemble my 
+image, but it is not exact. Surrounding me are multiple images of myself 
+oozing in all directions. I am continually surrounded by alternate 
+universes, forever branching into different worlds, but the probability of 
+sliding between them is so tiny that Newtonian mechanics seems to be 
+correct."
+"At this point, some people ask this question: Why don’t scientists 
+simply do an experiment to determine which interpretation is valid? If 
+we run an experiment with an electron, all three interpretations will 
+yield the same result. All three are therefore serious, viable 
+interpretations of quantum mechanics, with the same underlying 
+quantum theory. What is different is how we explain the results. 
+
+Hundreds of years in the future, physicists and philosophers may still 
+be debating this question, with no resolution, because all three 
+interpretations yield the same physical results. But perhaps there is one 
+way in which this philosophical debate touches on the brain, and that is 
+the question of free will, which in turn affects the moral foundation of 
+human society. 
+
+FREE W ILT. 
+
+Our entire civilization is based on the concept of free will, which 
+impacts on the notions of reward, punishment, and personal"
+"responsibility. But does free will really exist? Or is it a clever way of 
+keeping society together although it violates scientific principles? The 
+controversy goes to the very heart of quantum mechanics itself. 
+
+It is safe to say that more and more neuroscientists are gradually 
+coming to the conclusion that free will does not exist, at least not in the 
+usual sense. If certain bizarre behaviors can be linked to precise defects 
+
+in the brain, then a person is not scientifically responsible for the crimes 
+he might commit. He might be too dangerous to be left walking the 
+streets and must be locked up in an institution of some sort, but 
+punishing someone for having a stroke or tumor in the brain is 
+misguided, they say. What that person needs is medical and 
+psychological help. Perhaps the brain damage can be treated (e.g., by 
+removing a tumor), and the person can become a productive member of 
+society."
+"For example, when I interviewed Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen, a 
+psychologist at Cambridge University, he told me that many (but not all) 
+pathological killers have a brain anomaly. Their brain scans show that 
+they lack empathy when seeing someone else in pain, and in fact they 
+might even take pleasure in watching this suffering (in these individuals, 
+the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens, the pleasure center, light up 
+when they view videos of people experiencing pain). 
+
+The conclusion some might draw from this is that these people are not 
+truly responsible for their heinous acts, although they should still be 
+removed from society. They need help, not punishment, because of a 
+problem with their brain. In a sense, they may not be acting with free 
+will when they commit their crimes."
+"An experiment done by Dr. Benjamin Libet in 1985 casts doubt on the 
+very existence of free will. Let’s say that you are asking subjects to watch 
+a clock and then to note precisely when they decide to move a finger. 
+Using EEG scans, one can detect exactly when the brain makes this 
+decision. When you compare the two times, you will find a mismatch. 
+The EEG scans show that the brain has actually made the decision about 
+three hundred milliseconds before the person becomes aware of it. 
+
+This means that, in some sense, free will is a fake. Decisions are made 
+ahead of time by the brain, without the input of consciousness, and then 
+later the brain tries to cover this up (as it’s wont to do) by claiming that 
+the decision was conscious. Dr. Michael Sweeney concludes, “Libet’s 
+
+findings suggested that the brain knows what a person will decide before 
+the person does.... The world must reassess not only the idea of 
+movements divided between voluntary and involuntary, but also the 
+very idea of free will.”"
+"All this seems to indicate that free will, the cornerstone of society, is a 
+fiction, an illusion created by our left brain. So are we masters of our 
+fate, or just pawns in a swindle perpetuated by the brain? 
+
+There are several ways to approach this sticky question. Free will goes 
+against a philosophy called determinism, which simply says that all 
+
+future events are determined by physical laws. According to Newton 
+himself, the universe was some sort of clock, ticking away since the 
+beginning of time, obeying the laws of motion. Hence all events are 
+predictable. 
+
+The question is: Are we part of this clock? Are all our actions also 
+determined? These questions have philosophical and theological 
+implications. For example, most religions adhere to some form of 
+determinism and predestination. Since God is omnipotent, omniscient, 
+and omnipresent, He knows the future, and hence the future is 
+determined ahead of time. He knows even before you are born whether 
+you will go to Heaven or Hell."
+"The Catholic Church split in half on this precise question during the 
+Protestant revolution. According to Catholic doctrine at that time, one 
+could change one’s ultimate fate with an indulgence, usually by making 
+generous financial donations to the Church. In other words, determinism 
+could be altered by the size of your wallet. Martin Luther specifically 
+singled out the corruption of the Church over indulgences when he 
+tacked his 95 Theses on the door of a church in 1517, triggering the 
+Protestant Reformation. This was one of the key reasons why the Church 
+split down the middle, causing casualties in the millions and laying 
+waste to entire regions of Europe."
+"But after 1925, uncertainty was introduced into physics via quantum 
+mechanics. Suddenly everything became uncertain; all you could 
+calculate was probabilities. In this sense, perhaps free will does exist, 
+and it’s a manifestation of quantum mechanics. So some claim that the 
+quantum theory reestablishes the concept of free will. The determinists 
+have fought back, however, claiming that quantum effects are extremely 
+small (at the level of atoms), too small to account for the free will of 
+
+large human beings. 
+
+The situation today is actually rather muddled. Perhaps the question 
+“Does free will exist?” is like the question “What is life?” The discovery 
+of DNA has rendered that question about life obsolete. We now realize 
+that the question has many layers and complexities. Perhaps the same 
+applies to free will, and there are many types."
+"If so, the very definition of “free will” becomes ambiguous. For 
+example, one way to define free will is to ask whether behavior can be 
+predicted. If free will exists, then behavior cannot be determined ahead 
+of time. Let’s say you watch a movie, for example. The plot is completely 
+determined, with no free will whatsoever. So the movie is completely 
+predictable. But our world cannot be like a movie, for two reasons. The 
+first is the quantum theory, as we have seen. The movie represents only 
+
+one possible timeline. The second reason is chaos theory. Although 
+classical physics says that all of the motions of atoms are completely 
+determined and predictable, in practice it is impossible to predict their 
+motions because there are so many atoms involved. The slightest 
+disturbance of a single atom can have a ripple effect, which can cascade 
+down to create enormous disturbances."
+"Think of the weather. In principle, if you knew the behavior of every 
+atom in the air, you could predict the weather a century from now if you 
+had a big enough computer. But in practice, this is impossible. After just 
+a few hours, the weather becomes so turbulent and complex that any 
+computer simulation is rendered useless. 
+
+This creates what is called the “butterfly effect,” which means that 
+even the beat of butterfly wings can cause tiny ripples in the 
+atmosphere, which grow and in turn can escalate into a thunderstorm. 
+So if even the flapping of butterfly wings can create thunderstorms, the 
+hope of accurately predicting the weather is far-fetched. 
+
+Let’s go back to the thought experiment described to me by Stephen 
+Jay Gould. He asked me to imagine Earth 4.5 billion years ago, when it 
+was born. Now imagine you could somehow create an identical copy of 
+Earth, and let it evolve. Would we still be here on this different Earth 4.5 
+billion years later?"
+"One could easily imagine, due to quantum effects or the chaotic nature 
+of the weather and oceans, that humanity would never evolve into 
+precisely the same creatures on this version of Earth. So ultimately, it 
+
+seems a combination of uncertainty and chaos makes a perfectly 
+deterministic world impossible. 
+
+THE QUANTUM BRAIN 
+
+This debate also affects the reverse engineering of the brain. If you can 
+successfully reverse engineer a brain made of transistors, this success 
+implies that the brain is deterministic and predictable. Ask it any 
+question and it repeats the exact same answer. Computers are 
+deterministic in this way, since they always give the same answer for 
+any question. 
+
+So it seems we have a problem. On one hand, quantum mechanics and 
+chaos theory claim that the universe is not predictable, and therefore, 
+free will seems to exist. But a reverse-engineered brain, made of 
+transistors, would by definition be predictable. Since the reverse-"
+"engineered brain is theoretically identical to a living brain, then the 
+human brain is also deterministic and there is no free will. Clearly, this 
+contradicts the first statement."
+"A minority of scientists claim that you cannot authentically reverse 
+engineer the brain, or ever create a true thinking machine, because of 
+the quantum theory. The brain, they argue, is a quantum device, not just 
+a collection of transistors. Hence this project is doomed to fail. In this 
+camp is Oxford physicist Dr. Roger Penrose, an authority on Einstein’s 
+theory of relativity, who claims that it is quantum processes that may 
+account for the consciousness of the human brain. Penrose starts by 
+saying that mathematician Kurt Godel has proven that arithmetic is 
+incomplete; that is, that there are true statements in arithmetic that 
+cannot be proven using the axioms of arithmetic. Similarly, not only is 
+mathematics incomplete, but so is physics. He concludes by stating that 
+the brain is basically a quantum mechanical device and there are 
+problems that no machine can solve because of Godel’s incompleteness 
+theorem. Humans, however, can make sense of these conundrums using 
+intuition."
+"Similarly, the reverse-engineered brain, no matter how complex, is 
+still a collection of transistors and wires. In such a deterministic system, 
+you can accurately predict its future behavior because the laws of 
+
+motion are well known. In a quantum system, however, the system is 
+inherently unpredictable. All you can calculate are the chances that 
+something will occur, because of the uncertainty principle. 
+
+If it turns out that the reverse-engineered brain cannot reproduce 
+human behavior, then scientists may be forced to admit that there are 
+unpredictable forces at work (i.e., quantum effects inside the brain). Dr. 
+Penrose argues that inside the neuron there are tiny structures, called 
+microtubules, where quantum processes dominate."
+"At present, there is no consensus on this problem. Judging from the 
+reaction to Penrose’s idea when it was first proposed, it would be safe to 
+say that most of the scientific community is skeptical of his approach. 
+Science, however, is never conducted as a popularity contest, but instead 
+advances through testable, reproducible, and falsifiable theories. 
+
+For my own part, I believe transistors cannot truly model all the 
+behaviors of neurons, which carry out both analog and digital 
+calculations. We know that neurons are messy. They can leak, misfire, 
+age, die, and are sensitive to the environment. To me, this suggests that 
+a collection of transistors can only approximately model the behavior of 
+neurons. For example, we saw earlier, in discussing the physics of the 
+brain, that if the axon of the neuron becomes thinner, then it begins to"
+"leak and also does not carry out chemical reactions that well. Some of 
+this leakage and these misfires will be due to quantum effects. As you try 
+to imagine neurons that are thinner, denser, and faster, quantum effects 
+become more obvious. This means that even for normal neurons there 
+are problems of leakage and instabilities, and these problems exist both 
+classically and quantum mechanically. 
+
+In conclusion, a reverse-engineered robot will give a good but not 
+perfect approximation of the human brain. Unlike Penrose, I think it is 
+possible to create a deterministic robot out of transistors that gives the 
+appearance of consciousness, but without any free will. It will pass the 
+Turing test. But I think there will be differences between such a robot 
+and humans due to these tiny quantum effects."
+"Ultimately, I think free will probably does exist, but it is not the free 
+will envisioned by rugged individualists who claim they are complete 
+masters of their fate. The brain is influenced by thousands of 
+unconscious factors that predispose us to make certain choices ahead of 
+time, even if we think we made them ourselves. This does not 
+
+necessarily mean that we are actors in a film that can be rewound 
+anytime. The end of the movie hasn’t been written yet, so strict 
+determinism is destroyed by a subtle combination of quantum effects 
+and chaos theory. In the end, we are still masters of our destiny. 
+
+NOTES 
+
+INTRODUCTION"
+"NOTES 
+
+INTRODUCTION 
+
+1 You may have to travel: To see this, define “complex” in terms of the 
+total amount of information that can be stored. The closest rival to the 
+brain might be the information contained within our DNA. There are 
+three billion base pairs in our DNA, each one containing one of four 
+nucleic acids, labeled A,T,C,G. Therefore the total amount of 
+information we can store in our DNA is four raised to the three- 
+billionth power. But the brain can store much more information 
+among its one hundred billion neurons, which can either fire or not 
+fire. Hence, there are two raised to the one-hundred-billionth power 
+possible initial states of the human brain. But while DNA is static, the 
+states of the brain change every few milliseconds. A simple thought 
+may contain one hundred generations of neural firings. Hence, there 
+are two raised to one hundred billion, all raised to the hundredth 
+power, possible thoughts contained in one hundred generations. But"
+"our brains are continually firing, day and night, ceaselessly 
+computing. Therefore the total number of thoughts possible within N 
+generations is two raised to the one-hundred-billionth power, all 
+raised to the Nth power, which is truly astronomical. Therefore the 
+amount of information that we can store in our brains far exceeds the 
+information stored within our DNA by a wide margin. In fact, it is the 
+largest amount of information that we can store in our solar system, 
+and even possibly in our sector of the Milky Way galaxy. 
+
+2 “The most valuable insights”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 89. 
+
+3 “All of these questions that philosophers”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 
+137. 
+
+CHAPTER 1: UNLOCKING THE MIND 
+
+1 He was semiconscious for weeks: See Sweeney, pp. 207-8. 
+
+2 Dr. John Harlow, the doctor who treated: Carter, p. 24. 
+
+3 In the year A.D. 43, records show: Horstman, p. 87. 
+
+4 “It was like ... standing in the doorway”: Carter, p. 28. 
+
+5 The Transparent Brain: New York Times, April 10, 2013, p. 1."
+"5 The Transparent Brain: New York Times, April 10, 2013, p. 1. 
+
+6 “Emotions are not feelings at all”: Carter, p. 83. 
+
+7 the mind is more like a “society of minds”: Interview with Dr. 
+Minsky for the BBC-TV series Visions of the Future, February 2007. 
+Also, interview for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast, 
+November 2009. 
+
+8 consciousness was like a storm raging: Interview with Dr. Pinker in 
+September 2003 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+9 “the intuitive feeling we have”: Pinker, “The Riddle of Knowing 
+You’re Here,” in Your Brain: A User’s Guide (New York: Time Inc. 
+Specials, 2011). 
+
+10 Consciousness turns out to consist of: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 111. 
+
+11 “indeed a conscious system in its own right”: Carter, p. 52. 
+
+12 I asked him how experiments: Interview with Dr. Michael 
+Gazzaniga in September 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio 
+broadcast. 
+
+13 “The possible implications of this”: Carter, p. 53. 
+
+14 “If that person dies, what happens?”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 119."
+"14 “If that person dies, what happens?”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 119. 
+
+15 a young king who inherits: Interview with Dr. David Eagleman in 
+May 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+16 “people named Denise or Dennis”: Eagleman, p. 63. 
+
+17 “at least 15 % of human females”: Eagleman, p. 43. 
+
+CHAPTER 2: CONSCIOUSNESS—A PHYSICIST’S VIEWPOINT 
+
+1 “We cannot see ultraviolet light”: Pinker, How the Mind Works, pp. 
+561-65. 
+
+2 “Everybody knows what consciousness is”: Biological Bulletin 215, 
+no. 3 (December 2008): 216."
+"2 “Everybody knows what consciousness is”: Biological Bulletin 215, 
+no. 3 (December 2008): 216. 
+
+3 We will do so in the notes: Level II consciousness can be counted by 
+listing the total number of distinct feedback loops when an animal 
+interacts with members of its species. As a rough guess, Level II 
+consciousness can be approximated by multiplying the number of 
+others in an animal’s pack or tribe, multiplied by the total number of 
+distinct emotions or gestures it uses to communicate with others. 
+There are caveats to this ranking, however, since this is just a first 
+guess. 
+
+For example, animals like the wildcat are social, but they are also 
+solitary hunters, so it appears as if the number of animals in its pack is 
+one. But that is true only when it is hunting. When it is time to 
+reproduce, wildcats engage in complex mating rituals, so its Level II 
+consciousness must take this into account."
+"Furthermore, when female wildcats give birth to litters of kittens, 
+which have to be nursed and fed, the number of social interactions 
+increases as a consequence. So even for solitary hunters, the number 
+of members of its species that it interacts with is not one, and the total 
+number of distinct feedback loops can be quite large. 
+
+Also, if the number of wolves in the pack decreases, then it appears 
+as if its Level II number decreases correspondingly. To account for 
+this, we have to introduce the concept of an average Level II number 
+that is common for the entire species, as well as a specific Level II 
+consciousness for an individual animal. 
+
+The average Level II number for a given species does not change if 
+the pack gets smaller, because it is common for the entire species, but 
+the individual Level II number (because it measures individual mental 
+activity and consciousness) does change."
+"When applied to humans, the average Level II number must take 
+into account the Dunbar number, which is 150, and represents roughly 
+
+the number of people in our social grouping that we can keep track of. 
+So the Level II number for humans as a species would be the total 
+number of distinct emotions and gestures we use to communicate, 
+multiplied by the Dunbar number of 150. (Individuals can have 
+different levels of Level II consciousness, since their circle of friends 
+and the ways they interact with them can vary considerably.) 
+
+We should also note that certain Level I organisms (like insects and 
+reptiles) can exhibit social behaviors. Ants, when they bump into one 
+another, exchange information via chemical scents, and bees dance to 
+communicate the location of flower beds. Reptiles even have a 
+primitive limbic system. But in the main, they do not exhibit 
+emotions. 
+
+4 “The difference between man”: Gazzaniga, p. 27. 
+
+5 “The greatest achievement of the human brain”: Gilbert, p. 5."
+"5 “The greatest achievement of the human brain”: Gilbert, p. 5. 
+
+6 “area 10 (the internal granular layer IV)”: Gazzaniga, p. 20. 
+
+7 The male gets confused, because it wants: Eagleman, p. 144. 
+
+8 “I predict that mirror neurons”: Brockman, p. xiii. 
+
+9 Biologist Carl Zimmer writes: Bloom, p. 51. 
+
+10 “Most of the time we daydream”: Bloom, p. 51. 
+
+Ill asked one person who may: Interview with Dr. Michael Gazzaniga 
+in September 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+12 “It is the left hemisphere”: Gazzaniga, p. 85. 
+
+CHAPTER 3: TELEPATHY—A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS 
+
+1 Indeed, in a recent “Next 5 in 5”: http://www.ibm.com/5in5. 
+
+2 I had the pleasure of touring: Interview with Dr. Gallant on July 11, 
+
+2012, at the University of California, Berkeley. Also, interview with 
+Dr. Gallant on Science Fantastic for national radio, July 2012. 
+
+3 “This is a major leap forward”: Berkeleyan Newsletter, September 
+22, 2011, http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/09/22/brain-movies."
+"4 “If you take 200 voxels”: Brockman, p. 236. 
+
+5 Dr. Brian Pasley and his colleagues: Visit to Dr. Pasley’s laboratory 
+on July 11, 2012, at the University of California, Berkeley. 
+
+6 Similar results were obtained: The Brain Institute, University of 
+Utah, Salt Lake City, http://brain.utah.edu. 
+
+7 This could have applications for artists: http://io9/543338/a- 
+device-that-lets-io9.com/543338/a-device-that-lets-ou-type-with-your- 
+mind. 
+
+8 According to their officials: http://news.discovery.com/tech/type- 
+with-your-mind-110309.html. 
+
+9 being explored by Dr. David Poeppel: Discover Magazine Presents the 
+Brain, Spring 2012, p. 43. 
+
+10 In 1993 in Germany: Scientific American, November 2008, p. 68. 
+
+11 The only justification for its existence: Garreau, pp. 23-24. 
+
+12 I once had lunch with: Symposium on the future of science 
+sponsored by the Science Fiction Channel at the Chabot Pace and 
+Science Center, Oakland, California, in May 2004."
+"13 On another occasion: Conference in Anaheim, California, April 
+2009. 
+
+14 He says, “Imagine if soldiers”: Garreau, p. 22. 
+
+15 “What he is doing is spending”: Ibid., p. 19. 
+
+16 When I asked Dr. Nishimoto: Visit to Dr. Gallant’s laboratory at the 
+University of California, Berkeley, on July 11, 2012. 
+
+17 “There are ethical concerns”: http://www.nbcnews.com/ 
+id/47447302/ns/health-health_care/t/paralyzed-woman-gets-robotic- 
+arm.html. 
+
+CHAPTER 4: TELEKINESIS: MIND CONTROLLING MATTER 
+
+1 “I would love to have”: New York Times, May 17, 2012, p. A17 and 
+http://www.msnbc.mns.eom/id/47447302/ns/health-health_care/t/ 
+parallyzed-woman-gets-robotic-arm.html. 
+
+2 “We have taken a tiny sensor”: Interview with Dr. John Donoghue in 
+November 2009 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+3 In the United States alone, more than two hundred thousand: 
+
+Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Washington, D.C. http:// 
+www. ede. go v/traumatiebraininj ury/scifacts. html ."
+"4 When the monkey wanted to move: 
+
+http://physio.northwestern.edu/faculty/miller.htm; http://www. 
+
+northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2012/04/miller-paralyzed- 
+
+technology.html. 
+
+5 “We are eavesdropping on the natural”: http://www.northwestern. 
+edu/newscenter/stories/2012/04/miller-paralyzed-technology.html. 
+
+6 More than 1,300 service members: http://www.darpa.mil/Our_ 
+Work/DSO/Programs/Revolutionizing_Prosthetics.aspx. CBS 60 
+Minutes, broadcast on December 30, 2012. 
+
+7 “They thought we were crazy”: Ibid. 
+
+8 she appeared on 60 Minutes: Ibid. 
+
+9 “There’s going to be a whole ecosystem”: Wall Street Journal, May 
+29, 2012. 
+
+10 But perhaps the most novel applications: Interview with Dr. 
+Nicolelis in April 2011 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast."
+"11 Smart Hands and Mind Melds: New York Times, March 13, 2013, 
+http://nytimes.com/2013/03/01/science/new-research-suggests-two- 
+rat-brains-can-be-linked. See also Huffington Post, February 28, 2013, 
+http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/28/mind-melds-brain- 
+communication_n_2781609.html. 
+
+12 In 2013, the next important step: USA Today, August 8, 2013, p. 
+ID. 
+
+13 About ten years ago: Interview with Dr. Nicolelis in April 2011. 
+
+14 “so there’s nothing sticking out”: For a full discussion of the 
+exoskeleton, see Nicolelis, pp. 303-7. 
+
+15 The Honda Corporation has: http://www.asimo.honda.com. Also, 
+interview with the creators of ASIMO in April 2007 for the BBC-TV 
+series Visions of the Future. 
+
+16 Eventually, you get the hang: http://discovermagazine.com/2007/ 
+may/re vie w-test- driving- the -future . 
+
+17 Then, by thinking, the patient: Discover, December 9, 2011, http:// 
+discovermagazine.com/2011/dec/09-mind-over-motor-controlling- 
+robots-with-your-thoughts."
+"18 “We will likely be able to operate”: Nicolelis, p. 315. 
+
+19 I saw a demonstration of this: Interview with the scientists at 
+Carnegie Mellon in August 2010 for the Discovery/Science Channel TV 
+series Sci Fi Science. 
+
+CHAPTER 5: MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS MADE TO ORDER 
+
+1 “It has all come together”: Wade, p. 89. 
+
+2 So far, scientists have identified: Ibid., p. 91. 
+
+3 For instance, Dr. Antonio Damasio: Damasio, pp. 130-53. 
+
+4 One fragment of memory might: Wade, p. 232. 
+
+5 “If you can’t do it”: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3488. 
+
+6 “Turn the switch on”: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011- 
+06/uosc-rmr06211 .php. 
+
+7 “Using implantables to enhance competency”: http://hplus 
+magazine.com/2009/03/18/artificial-hipppocampus. 
+
+8 Not surprisingly, with so much at stake: http://articles. 
+washingtonpost.com/2013-07-12/national/40863765_l_brain-cells- 
+mice-new-memories."
+"9 If encoding the memory: This brings up the question of whether 
+carrier pigeons, migratory birds, whales, etc., have a long-term 
+memory, given that they can migrate over hundreds to thousands of 
+
+miles in search of feeding and breeding grounds. Science knows little 
+about this question. But it is believed that their long-term memory is 
+based on locating certain landmarks along the way, rather than 
+recalling elaborate memories of past events. In other words, they do 
+not use memory of past events to help them simulate the future. Their 
+long-term memory consists of just a series of markers. Apparently, 
+only in humans are long-term memories used to help simulate the 
+future. 
+
+10 “The purpose of memory is”: Michael Lemonick, “Your Brain: A 
+User’s Guide,” Time, December 2011, p. 78. 
+
+11 “You might look at it”: http://sciencedaily.com/videos/2007/0210- 
+brain_scans_of_the_future.htm. 
+
+12 their study proves a “tentative answer”: http://www.sciencedaily. 
+com/videos/2007/0710."
+"12 their study proves a “tentative answer”: http://www.sciencedaily. 
+com/videos/2007/0710. 
+
+13 “The whole idea is that the device”: New York Times, September 
+
+12, 2012, p. A18. 
+
+14 “It will likely take us”: http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences- 
+features/58736-artificial-cerebellum-restores-rats. 
+
+15 There are 5.3 million Americans: Alzheimer’s Foundation of 
+America, http://www.alzfdn.org. 
+
+16 “This adds to the notion”: ScienceDaily.com, October 2009, http:// 
+www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091019122647.htm. 
+
+17 “We can never turn it into”: Ibid. 
+
+18 “This implies these flies have”: Wade, p. 113. 
+
+19 This effect is not just restricted: Ibid. 
+
+20 “We can now give you”: Ibid., p. 114. 
+
+21 Basically, the more CREB proteins: Bloom, p. 244. 
+
+22 “Propranolol sits on that nerve cell”: SATI e-News, June 28, 2007, 
+http://www.mysati.com/enews/June2007/ptsd.htm. 
+
+23 Its report concluded: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 104. 
+
+24 “Our breakups, our relationships”: Ibid."
+"23 Its report concluded: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 104. 
+
+24 “Our breakups, our relationships”: Ibid. 
+
+25 “should we deprive them of morphine”: Ibid., p. 105. 
+
+26 “If further work confirms this view”: Ibid., p. 106. 
+
+27 “Each of these perennial records”: Nicolelis, p. 318. 
+
+28 “Forgetting is the most beneficial process”: New Scientist, March 
+12, 2003, http://www.newscientists.com/article/dn3488. 
+
+CHAPTER 6: EINSTEIN’S BRAIN AND ENHANCING INTELLIGENCE 
+
+1 “got caught up in the moment”: 
+
+http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/einsteins-brain- 
+
+arrives-in-london-after-odd-journey. 
+
+2 “I have always maintained that”: Gould, p. 109. 
+
+3 “The human brain remains ‘plastic’ ”: www.sciencedaily.com/ 
+releases/2011/12/111208257120.htm. 
+
+4 “The emerging picture from such studies”: Gladwell, p. 40. 
+
+5 Five years later, Terman started: See C. K. Holahan and R.R. Sears, 
+The Gifted Group in Later Maturity (Stanford, CA: Stanford University 
+Press, 1995)."
+"6 “Your grades in school”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 48. 
+
+7 “Tests don’t measure motivation”: Sweeney, p. 26. 
+
+8 The pilots who scored highest: Bloom, p. 12. 
+
+9 “The left hemisphere is responsible”: Ibid., p. 15. 
+
+10 Dr. Darold Treffert, a Wisconsin physician: http://www.darold 
+treffert.com. 
+
+11 It took him just forty-five seconds: Tammet, p. 4. 
+
+12 I had the pleasure of interviewing: Interview with Mr. Daniel 
+Tammet in October 2007 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+13 “Our study confirms”: Science Daily, March 2012, http://www. 
+sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120322100313.htm. 
+
+14 Kim Peek’s brain: AP wire story, November 8, 2004, http://www. 
+Space.com. 
+
+15 In 1998 , Dr. Bruce Miller: Neurology 51 (October 1998): pp. 978- 
+82. See also http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant_ 
+syndrome/savant-articles/acquired_savant. 
+
+16 In addition to the savants: Sweeney, p. 252."
+"16 In addition to the savants: Sweeney, p. 252. 
+
+17 This idea has actually been tried: Center of the Mind, Sydney, 
+Australia, http://www.centerofthemind.com. 
+
+18 In another experiment, Dr. R. L. Young: R. L. Young, M. C. 
+Ridding, and T. L. Morrell, “Switching Skills on by Turning Off Part of 
+the Brain,” Neurocase 10 (2004): 215, 222. 
+
+19 “When applied to the prefrontal lobes”: Sweeney, p. 311. 
+
+20 Until recently, it was thought: Science Daily, May 2012, http:// 
+www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120509180113.htm. 
+
+21 “Savants have a high capacity”: Ibid. 
+
+22 In 2007 , a breakthrough occurred: Sweeney, p. 294. 
+
+23 “Stem cell research and regenerative medicine”: Sweeney, p. 295. 
+
+24 Scientists have focused on a few genes: Katherine S. Pollard, 
+“What Makes Us Different,” Scientific American Special Collectors Edition 
+(Winter 2013): 31-35. 
+
+25 “I jumped at the opportunity”: Ibid. 
+
+26 “With my mentor David Haussler”: Ibid."
+"25 “I jumped at the opportunity”: Ibid. 
+
+26 “With my mentor David Haussler”: Ibid. 
+
+27 One such gene was discovered: TG Daily, November 15, 2012. 
+http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences-features/67503-new-found- 
+gene-separates-man-from-apes. 
+
+28 Many theories have been proposed: See, for example, Gazzaniga, 
+Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique. 
+
+29 “For the first few hundred million years”: Gilbert, p. 15. 
+
+30 “Cortical gray matter neurons are working”: Douglas Fox, “The 
+Limits of Intelligence,” Scientific American, July 2011, p. 43. 
+
+31 “You might call it the mother”: Ibid., p. 42. 
+
+CHAPTER 7: IN YOUR DREAMS 
+
+1 He followed this up with one thousand: C. Hall and R. Van de 
+
+Castle, The Content Analysis of Dreams (New York: Appleton-Century- 
+Crofts, 1966). 
+
+2 When I interviewed him, he told me: Interview with Dr. Allan 
+Hobson in July 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+3 Studies have shown that it is possible: Wade, p. 229."
+"3 Studies have shown that it is possible: Wade, p. 229. 
+
+4 ATR chief scientist Yukiyasu Kamitani: New Scientist, December 12, 
+
+2008, http://www.newscientist.com/article/dnl 6267-mindreading- 
+
+software-could-record-your-dreams.html#.UvE9P0Qi07s. 
+
+5 When I visited the laboratory: Visit to Dr. Gallant’s laboratory on 
+July 11, 2012. 
+
+6 “Our dreams are therefore not”: Science Daily, October 28, 2011, 
+http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111028113626.htm. 
+
+7 Already, prototypes of Internet contact lenses: See the work of Dr. 
+Babak Parviz, http://www.wearable-technologies.com/262. 
+
+CHAPTER 8: CAN THE MIND BE CONTROLLED? 
+
+1 A raging bull is released: Miguel Nicolelis, Beyond Boundaries (New 
+York: Henry Holt, 2011), pp. 228-32. 
+
+2 The cold war hysteria eventually reached: “Project MKUltra, the"
+"2 The cold war hysteria eventually reached: “Project MKUltra, the 
+
+CIA’s Program of Research into Behavioral Modification. Joint 
+Hearings Before the Select Committee on Human Resources, U.S. 
+Senate, 95th Congress, First Session,” Government Printing Office, 
+August 8, 1977, Washington, D.C., http://www.nytimes.com/ 
+
+packages/pdf/national/13inmate_ProjectMKULTRA.pdf; “CIA Says It 
+Found More Secret Papers on Behavior Control,” New York Times, 
+September 3, 1977; “Government Mind Control Records of MKUltra 
+and Bluebird/Artichoke,” http://wanttoknow.info/mindcontrol.shtml; 
+“The Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with"
+"Respect to Intelligence Activities, Foreign and Military Intelligence.” 
+The Church Committee Report No. 94-755, 94th Congress, 2nd 
+Session, p. 392, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1976; 
+“Project MKUltra, the CIA’s Program of Research in Behavior 
+Modification,” http://scribd.com/doc/75512716/Project-MKUltra- 
+The-CIA-s-Program-of-Research-in-Behavior-Modification. 
+
+3 “great potential for development”: Rose, p. 292. 
+
+4 “neuro-scientific impossibility”: Ibid., p. 293. 
+
+5 “It is probably significant that”: “Hypnosis in Intelligence,” Black 
+Vault Freedom of Information Act Archive, 2008, http://documents. 
+theblackvault.com/documents/mindcontrol/hypnosisinintelligence. 
+pdf. 
+
+6 To see how widespread this problem: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 57. 
+
+7 Drugs like LSD: Sweeney, p. 200. 
+
+8 “This is the first time we’ve shown”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 58. 
+
+9 “If you want to turn off”: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/ 
+science/17optics.html."
+"9 “If you want to turn off”: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/ 
+science/17optics.html. 
+
+10 “By feeding information from sensors”: New York Times, March 17, 
+2011, http://nytimes.com/2011/05/17/science/17optics.html. 
+
+CHAPTER 9: ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+1 “Some fraction of history’s prophets”: Eagleman, p. 207. 
+
+2 “Sometimes it’s a personal God”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 122. 
+
+3 “ ‘Finally, I see what it is’ ”: Ramachandran, p. 280. 
+
+4 “During the three minute bursts”: David Biello, Scientific American, 
+p. 41, www.sciammind.com. 
+
+5 To test these ideas: Ibid., p. 42. 
+
+6 “Although atheists might argue”: Ibid., p. 45. 
+
+7 “If you are an atheist”: Ibid., p. 44. 
+
+8 One theory holds that Parkinson’s: Sweeney, p. 166. 
+
+9 “Neurons wired for the sensation”: Ibid., p. 90. 
+
+10 “The brain’s gonna do what”: Ibid., p. 165. 
+
+11 “Brain scans have led researchers”: Ibid., p. 208. 
+
+12 “If left unchecked, the left hemisphere”: Ramachandran, p. 267. 
+
+13 Underactivity in this area: Carter, pp. 100-103."
+"13 Underactivity in this area: Carter, pp. 100-103. 
+
+14 Ten percent of them, in turn: Baker, pp. 46-53. 
+
+15 “Depression 1.0 was psychotherapy”: Ibid., p. 3. 
+
+16 One to three percent of DBS patients: Carter, p. 98. 
+
+17 “The calcium channels findings suggest”: New York Times, 
+
+February 26, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/ 
+
+health/study-finds-genetic-risk-factors-shared-by-5-psychiatric- 
+disorders.html. 
+
+18 “What we have identified here”: Ibid. 
+
+CHAPTER 10: THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+1 “Machines will be capable”: Crevier, p. 109. 
+
+2 “within a generation ... the problem”: Ibid. 
+
+3 “It’s as though a group of people”: Kaku, p. 79. 
+
+4 “I would pay a lot for a robot”: Brockman, p. 2. 
+
+5 However, I met privately with: Interview with the creators of ASIMO 
+during a visit to Honda’s laboratory in Nagoya, Japan, in April 2007 
+for the BBC-TV series Visions of the Future."
+"6 he used to marvel at the mosquito: Interview with Dr. Rodney 
+Brooks in April 2002 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+7 I have had the pleasure of visiting: Visit to MIT Media Laboratory 
+for the Discovery/Science Channel TV series Sci Fi Science, April 13, 
+2010 . 
+
+8 “That is why Breazeal decided”: Moss, p. 168. 
+
+9 At Waseda University: Gazzaniga, p. 352. 
+
+10 Their goal is to integrate: Ibid., p. 252. 
+
+11 Meet Nao: Guardian, August 9, 2010, http://www.theguardian.com/ 
+technology/2010/aug/09/nao-robot-develop-display-emotions. 
+
+12 “It’s hard to predict the future”: http://cosmomagazine.com/news/ 
+4177/reverse-engineering-brain. 
+
+13 Neuroscientists like Dr. Antonio Damasio: Damasio, pp. 108-29. 
+
+14 “In mathematics, you don’t understand”: Kurzweil, p. 248. 
+
+15 “There could not be an objective test”: Pinker, “The Riddle of 
+Knowing You’re Here,” Your Brain: A User’s Guide, Winter, 2011, p. 19. 
+
+16 At Meiji University: Gazzaniga, p. 352."
+"16 At Meiji University: Gazzaniga, p. 352. 
+
+17 “To our knowledge, this is the first”: Kurzweil.net, August 24, 
+
+2012, http://www.kurzweilai.net/robot-learns-self-awareness. See also 
+Yale Daily News, September 25, 2012, 
+
+http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2012/09/25/first-self-aware-robot- 
+created. 
+
+18 When I interviewed Dr. Hans Moravec: Interview with Dr. Hans 
+Moravec in November 1998 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+19 “Unleashed from the plodding pace”: Sweeney, p. 316. 
+
+20 When I interviewed Dr. Rodney Brooks: Interview with Dr. Brooks 
+in April 2002 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+21 “We don’t like to give up”: TEDTalks, http://www.ted.com/talks/ 
+lang/en/rodney_brooks_on_robots.html. 
+
+22 Similarly, at the University of Southern California: http://phys. 
+org/news205059692.html. 
+
+CHAPTER 11: REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN 
+
+1 Almost simultaneously, the European Commission: http://actu. 
+epfl.ch/news/the-human-brain-project-wins-top-european-science."
+"2 “It’s essential for us to understand”: 
+
+http://blog.ted.eom/2009/l 0/15/supercomputing. 
+
+3 “There’s not a single neurological disease”: Kushner, p. 19. 
+
+4 “I think we’re far from playing God”: Ibid., p. 2. 
+
+5 “In a hundred years, I’d like”: Sally Adee, “Reverse Engineering the 
+Brain,” IEEE Spectrum, http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/ethics/ 
+reverse-engineering-the-brain. 
+
+6 “Researchers have conjectured”: 
+
+http://www.cnn.corn/2012/03/01/tech/innovation/brain-map- 
+
+connectome. 
+
+“In the seventeenth century”: 
+
+http: //www. ted. com/talks/lang/en/sebastian_seung .html . 
+
+8 “The Allen Human Brain Atlas provides”: http://ts-si.org/ 
+neuroscience/29735-allen-human-brain-atlas-updates-with- 
+comprehensive). 
+
+9 According to Dr. V. S. Ramachandran: TED Talks, January 2010, 
+http://www.ted.com. 
+
+CHAPTER 12: THE FUTURE: MIND BEYOND MATTER 
+
+1 5.8 percent claimed they had an out-of-body: Nelson, p. 137. 
+
+2 “I see myself lying in bed”: Ibid., p. 140."
+"2 “I see myself lying in bed”: Ibid., p. 140. 
+
+3 Notably, temporary loss of blood: National Geographic News, April 8, 
+2010, http://news.nationalgeographic.eom/news/2010/04/100408- 
+near-death-experiences-blood-carbon-dioxide; Nelson, p. 126 
+
+4 Dr. Thomas Lempert, neurologist: Nelson, p. 126. 
+
+5 The U.S. Air Force, for example: Ibid., p. 128. 
+
+6 We once spoke at a conference: Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 
+November 2012. Interviewed in February 2003 for Exploration 
+national radio broadcast. Interviewed in October 2012 for Science 
+
+Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+7 By 2055, $1,000 of computing power: Bloom, p. 191. 
+
+8 For example, Bill Gates, cofounder: Sweeney, p. 298. 
+
+9 “People who predict a very utopian future”: Carter, p. 298. 
+
+10 He told me that the San Diego Zoo: Interview with Dr. Robert 
+Lanza in September 2009 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+11 “Should we ridicule the modern seekers”: Sebastian Seung, 
+TEDTalks, http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/sebastian_seung.html ."
+"12 In 2008, BBC-TV aired: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/ 
+programmes/horizon/broadband/tx/isolation/timeline. 
+
+13 we will be able to reverse engineer: Interview with Dr. Moravec in 
+November 1998 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+14 On the other side was Eric Drexler: See a series of letter in 
+Chemical and Engineering News from 2003 to 2004. 
+
+15 “I’m not planning to die”: Garreau, p. 128. 
+
+CHAPTER 13: THE MIND AS PURE ENERGY 
+
+1 “Wormholes, extra dimensions”: Sir Martin Rees, Our Final Hour 
+(New York: Perseus Books, 2003), p. 182. 
+
+CHAPTER 14: THE ALIEN MIND 
+
+1 So far, more than one thousand: Kepler Web Page, http://kepler. 
+nasa.gov. 
+
+2 In 2013, NASA scientists announced: Ibid. 
+
+3 how they can distinguish false messages: Interview with Dr. 
+Wertheimer in June 1999 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+4 I once asked him about the giggle factor: Interview with Dr. Seth 
+Shostak in May 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+5 He has gone on record: Ibid."
+"5 He has gone on record: Ibid. 
+
+6 “Remember, this is the same government”: Davies, p. 22. 
+
+7 The Greek writers: Sagan, p. 221. 
+
+8 But St. Thomas Aquinas: Ibid. 
+
+9 We can be fooled: Ibid. 
+
+10 “If the fact that brutes abstract”: Ibid., p. 113. 
+
+11 “In the blind and deaf world”: Eagleman, p. 77. 
+
+12 we have to expand our own horizon: Interview with Dr. Paul 
+Davies in April 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+13 “My conclusion is a startling one”: Davies, p. 159. 
+
+14 “Although there is only a tiny probability”: Discovery News, 
+December 27, 2011, http://news.discovery.com/space/seti-to-scour- 
+the-moon-for-alien-tech-111227.htm. 
+
+CHAPTER 15: CONCLUDING REMARKS 
+
+1 In an article in Wired: Wired, April 2000, http://www.wired.com/ 
+wired/archive/8.04/joy.html. 
+
+2 “several separate and unequal species”: Garreau, p. 139. 
+
+3 “This techno utopia is all about”: Ibid., p. 180. 
+
+4 “The idea that we are messin’ ”: Ibid., p. 353. 
+
+5 “Technologies—such as gunpowder”: Ibid., p. 182."
+"5 “Technologies—such as gunpowder”: Ibid., p. 182. 
+
+6 “The you that all your friends know”: Eagleman, p. 205. 
+
+7 “Our reality depends on what”: Ibid., p. 208. 
+
+8 “How it is that anything so remarkable”: Pinker, p. 132. 
+
+9 somehow create a twin of the Earth: Interview with Dr. Stephen Jay 
+Gould in November 1996 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+10 “ Homo sapiens is one small twig”: Pinker, p. 133. 
+
+11 “nothing gives life more purpose”: Pinker, “The Riddle of Knowing 
+You’re Here,” Time: Your Brain: A User’s Guide (Winter 2011), p. 19. 
+
+12 “What a perplexing masterpiece”: Eagleman, p. 224. 
+
+APPENDIX: QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS? 
+
+1 many (but not all) pathological killers: Interview with Dr. Simon 
+Baron-Cohen in July 2005 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+2 Dr. Michael Sweeney concludes, “Libet’s findings”: Sweeney, p. 
+150. 
+
+SUGGESTED READING 
+
+Baker, Sherry. “Helen Mayberg.” Discover Magazine Presents the Brain. 
+Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing Co., Fall 2012."
+"Bloom, Floyd. Best of the Brain from Scientific American: Mind, Matter, and 
+Tomorrow’s Brain. New York: Dana Press, 2007. 
+
+Boleyn-Fitzgerald, Miriam. Pictures of the Mind: What the New 
+Neuroscience Tells Us About Who We Are. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: 
+Pearson Education, 2010. 
+
+Brockman, John, ed. The Mind: Leading Scientists Explore the Brain, 
+Memory, Personality, and Happiness. New York: Harper Perennial, 2011. 
+
+Calvin, William H. A Brief History of the Mind. New York: Oxford 
+University Press, 2004. 
+
+Carter, Rita. Mapping the Mind. Berkeley: University of California Press, 
+2010 . 
+
+Crevier, Daniel. AT. The Tumultuous History of the Search for Artificial 
+Intelligence. New York: Basic Books, 1993. 
+
+Crick, Francis. The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Science Search for the Soul. 
+New York: Touchstone, 1994. 
+
+Damasio, Antonio. Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain. 
+New York: Pantheon Books, 2010."
+"Davies, Paul. The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence. 
+New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010. 
+
+Dennet, Daniel C. Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. 
+New York: Viking, 2006. 
+
+-. Conscious Explained. New York: Back Bay Books, 1991. 
+
+DeSalle, Rob, and Ian Tattersall. The Brain: Big Bangs, Behaviors, and 
+Beliefs. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012. 
+
+Eagleman, David. Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain. New York: 
+
+Pantheon Books, 2011. 
+
+Fox, Douglas. “The Limits of Intelligence,” Scientific American, July 2011. 
+
+Garreau, Joel. Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our 
+Minds , Our Bodies—and What It Means to Be Human. New York: 
+Random House, 2005. 
+
+Gazzaniga, Michael S. Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique. 
+New York: HarperCollins, 2008. 
+
+Gilbert, Daniel. Stumbling on Happiness. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 
+
+2006. 
+
+Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Back Bay 
+Books, 2008."
+"2006. 
+
+Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Back Bay 
+Books, 2008. 
+
+Gould, Stephen Jay. The Mismeasure of Man. New York: W. W. Norton, 
+1996. 
+
+Horstman, Judith. The Scientific American Brave New Brain. San 
+Francisco: John Wiley and Sons, 2010. 
+
+Kaku, Michio. Physics of the Future. New York: Doubleday, 2009. 
+
+Kurzweil, Ray. How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought 
+Revealed. New York: Viking Books, 2012. 
+
+Kushner, David. “The Man Who Builds Brains.” Discover Magazine 
+Presents the Brain. Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing Co., Fall 2001. 
+
+Moravec, Hans. Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human 
+Intelligence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988. 
+
+Moss, Frank. The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices: How the Digital 
+Magicians of the MIT Media Lab Are Creating the Innovative Technologies 
+That Will Transform Our Lives. New York: Crown Business, 2011. 
+
+Nelson, Kevin. The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain. New York: Dutton, 
+2011."
+"Nelson, Kevin. The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain. New York: Dutton, 
+2011. 
+
+Nicolelis, Miguel. Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting 
+Brains with Machines—and How It Will Change Our Lives. New York: 
+Henry Holt and Co., 2011. 
+
+Pinker, Steven. How the Mind Works. New York: W. W. Norton, 2009. 
+
+-. The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human 
+
+Nature. New York: Viking, 2007. 
+
+-. “The Riddle of Knowing You’re Here.” In Your Brain: A 
+
+User’s Guide. New York: Time Inc. Specials, 2011. 
+
+Piore, Adam. “The Thought Helmet: The U.S. Army Wants to Train 
+Soldiers to Communicate Just by Thinking.” The Brain, Discover 
+Magazine Special, Spring 2012. 
+
+Purves, Dale, et al., eds. Neuroscience. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer 
+Associates, 2001. 
+
+Ramachandran, V. S. The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Quest for What 
+Makes Us Human. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011."
+"Rose, Steven. The Future of the Brain: The Promise and Perils of Tomorrow’s 
+Neuroscience. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2005. 
+
+Sagan, Carl. The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human 
+Intelligence. New York: Ballantine Books, 1977. 
+
+Sweeney, Michael S. Brain: The Complete Mind: How It Develops, How It 
+Works, and How to Keep It Sharp. Washington, D.C.: National 
+Geographic, 2009. 
+
+Tammet, Daniel. Bom on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an 
+Autistic Savant. New York: Free Press, 2006. 
+
+Wade, Nicholas, ed. The Science Times Book of the Brain. New York: New 
+York Times Books, 1998. 
+
+ILLUSTRATION CREDITS 
+
+1.1 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+1.2 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+1.3 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+1.4 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+1.5 AP Photo / David Duprey 
+
+1.5a Tom Barrick, Chris Clark / Science Source 
+
+1.6 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+2.1 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+2.2 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+2.3 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+4.1 The Laboratory of Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, Duke University 
+
+5.1 Jeffrey L. Ward"
+"4.1 The Laboratory of Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, Duke University 
+
+5.1 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+10.1 MIT Media Lab, Personal Robots Group 
+
+10.2 MIT Media Lab, Personal Robots Group, Mikey Siegel 
+
+A Note About the Author 
+
+MICHIO KAKU is a professor of theoretical physics at the City College 
+and City University of New York; cofounder of string field theory; the 
+author of several widely acclaimed science books, including Hyperspace, 
+Beyond Einstein, Physics of the Impossible, and Physics of the Future; and 
+host of numerous TV specials and a national science radio show. 
+
+Other titles by Michio Kaku available in eBook format 
+Parallel Worlds • 9780385514163 
+Physics of the Future • 9780385530811 
+Physics of the Impossible • 9780385525442 
+
+Visions • 9780307794772 
+
+Visit mkaku.org 
+
+For more information on Doubleday books 
+
+Visit: www.doubleday.com 
+Like: facebook.com/DoubledayBooks 
+Follow: @doubledaypub 
+
+ALSO BY THE AUTHOR 
+
+Physics of the Future 
+Physics of the Impossible 
+Parallel Worlds 
+Hyperspace 
+Visions"
+"Physics of the Future 
+Physics of the Impossible 
+Parallel Worlds 
+Hyperspace 
+Visions 
+
+Einstein’s Cosmos 
+Beyond Einstein"
+"DR. MICHIO KAMI 
+
+PROFESSOR OF THEORETICAL PHYSICS 
+CITY UNIVERSITY OI : NEW YORK 
+
+THE SCIENTIFIC QUEST TO UNDERSTAND 
+ENHANCE, AND EMPOWER THE MIND 
+
+DOUBLEPAY 
+
+NEW YORK LONDON TORONTO 
+
+SYDNEY AUCKLAND 
+
+Copyright © 2014 by Michio Kaku 
+
+All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Random House, 
+LLC, New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, Penguin Random 
+House companies. 
+
+www.doubleday.com 
+
+doubleday and the portrayal of an anchor with a dolphin are registered trademarks of Random 
+House, LLC. 
+
+Illustrations by Jeffrey L. Ward 
+Jacket design by Michael J. Windsor 
+
+Jacket illustration © CLIP AREA/Custom media/Shutterstock 
+LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA 
+Kaku, Michio. 
+
+The future of the mind : the scientific quest to understand, enhance, and empower the mind / 
+Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of Theoretical Physics, City University of New York. — First edition, 
+pages cm 
+
+Includes bibliographical references."
+"Includes bibliographical references. 
+
+1. Neuropsychology. 2. Mind and body—Research. 
+
+3. Brain—Mathematical models. 4. Cognitive neuroscience. 
+
+5. Brain-computer interfaces. I. Title. 
+qp360.k 325 2014 
+612.8—dc23 
+
+2013017338 
+
+ISBN 978-0-385-53082-8 (hardcover) ISBN 978-0-385-53083-5 (eBook) 
+
+v3.1 
+
+This book is dedicated to my loving wife, Shizue, 
+
+and my daughters, Michelle and Alyson 
+
+CONTENTS 
+
+Cover 
+
+Title Page 
+
+Copyright 
+
+Dedication 
+
+ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
+
+INTRODUCTION 
+
+BOOK I: THE MIND AND CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+1 UNLOCKING THE MIND 
+
+2 CONSCIOUSNESS—A PHYSICIST’S VIEWPOINT 
+
+BOOK II: MIND OVER MATTER 
+
+3 TELEPATHY: A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS 
+
+4 TELEKINESIS: MIND CONTROLLING MATTER 
+
+5 MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS MADE TO ORDER 
+
+6 EINSTEIN’S BRAIN AND ENHANCING OUR INTELLIGENCE 
+
+BOOK III: ALTERED CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+7 IN YOUR DREAMS 
+
+8 CAN THE MIND BE CONTROLLED? 
+
+9 ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+10 THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+11 REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN"
+"10 THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+11 REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN 
+
+12 THE FUTURE: MIND BEYOND MATTER 
+
+13 THE MIND AS PURE ENERGY 
+
+14 THE ALIEN MIND 
+
+15 CONCLUDING REMARKS 
+
+APPENDIX: QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS? 
+
+NOTES 
+
+SUGGESTED READING 
+ILLUSTRATION CREDITS 
+A Note About the Author 
+
+Other Books by This Author 
+
+ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
+
+It has been my great pleasure to have interviewed and interacted with 
+the following prominent scientists, all of them leaders in their fields. I 
+would like to thank them for graciously giving up their time for 
+interviews and discussions about the future of science. They have given 
+me guidance and inspiration, as well as a firm foundation in their 
+respective fields. 
+
+I would like to thank these pioneers and trailblazers, especially those 
+who have agreed to appear on my TV specials for the BBC, Discovery, 
+and Science TV channels, and also on my national radio shows, Science 
+Fantastic and Explorations."
+"Peter Doherty, Nobel laureate, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital 
+
+Gerald Edelman, Nobel laureate, Scripps Research Institute 
+
+Leon Lederman, Nobel laureate, Illinois Institute of Technology 
+
+Murray Gell-Mann, Nobel laureate, Santa Fe Institute and Cal Tech 
+
+the late Henry Kendall, Nobel laureate, MIT 
+
+Walter Gilbert, Nobel laureate, Harvard University 
+
+David Gross, Nobel laureate, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics 
+
+Joseph Rotblat, Nobel laureate, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital 
+
+Yoichiro Nambu, Nobel laureate, University of Chicago 
+
+Steven Weinberg, Nobel laureate, University of Texas at Austin 
+
+Frank Wilczek, Nobel laureate, MIT 
+
+Amir Aczel, author of Uranium Wars 
+
+Buzz Aldrin, NASA astronaut, second man to walk on the moon 
+Geoff Andersen, U.S. Air Force Academy, author of The Telescope 
+
+Jay Barbree, author of Moon Shot 
+
+John Barrow, physicist, Cambridge University, author of Impossibility 
+
+Marcia Bartusiak, author of Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony"
+"Marcia Bartusiak, author of Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony 
+
+Jim Bell, Cornell University astronomer 
+
+Jeffrey Bennet, author of Beyond UFOs 
+
+Bob Berman, astronomer, author The Secrets of the Night Sky 
+
+Leslie Biesecker, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Piers Bizony, author of How to Build Your Own Starship 
+
+Michael Blaese, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Alex Boese, founder of Museum of Hoaxes 
+
+Nick Bostrom, transhumanist, Oxford University 
+
+Lt. Col. Robert Bowman, Institute for Space and Security Studies 
+
+Cynthia Breazeal, artificial intelligence, MIT Media Lab 
+
+Lawrence Brody, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Rodney Brooks, director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory 
+Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute 
+Michael Brown, astronomer, Cal Tech 
+James Canton, author of The Extreme Future 
+
+Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of 
+Pennsylvania"
+"Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of 
+Pennsylvania 
+
+Fritjof Capra, author of The Science of Leonardo 
+Sean Carroll, cosmologist, Cal Tech 
+Andrew Chaikin, author of A Man on the Moon 
+Leroy Chiao, NASA astronaut 
+
+Eric Chivian, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear 
+War 
+
+Deepak Chopra, author of Super Brain 
+
+George Church, director of Harvard’s Center for Computational 
+Genetics 
+
+Thomas Cochran, physicist, Natural Resources Defense Council 
+
+Christopher Cokinos, astronomer, author of Fallen Sky 
+
+Francis Collins, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Vicki Colvin, nanotechnologist, University of Texas 
+
+Neal Comins, author of Hazards of Space Travel 
+
+Steve Cook, NASA spokesperson 
+
+Christine Cosgrove, author of Normal at Any Cost 
+
+Steve Cousins, CEO of Willow Garage Personal Robots Program 
+
+Phillip Coyle, former assistant secretary of defense for the U.S. Defense 
+Department 
+
+Daniel Crevier, AI, CEO of Coreco"
+"Daniel Crevier, AI, CEO of Coreco 
+
+Ken Croswell, astronomer, author of Magnificent Universe 
+
+Steven Cummer, computer science, Duke University 
+
+Mark Cutkowsky, mechanical engineering, Stanford University 
+
+Paul Davies, physicist, author of Superforce 
+
+Daniel Dennet, philosopher, Tufts University 
+
+the late Michael Dertouzos, computer science, MIT 
+
+Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize winner, UCLA 
+
+Marriot DiChristina, Scientific American 
+
+Peter Dilworth, MIT AI Lab 
+
+John Donoghue, creator of Braingate, Brown University 
+Ann Druyan, widow of Carl Sagan, Cosmos Studios 
+Freeman Dyson, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University 
+David Eagleman, neuroscientist, Baylor College of Medicine 
+John Ellis, CERN physicist 
+
+Paul Erlich, environmentalist, Stanford University 
+Daniel Fairbanks, author of Relics of Eden 
+
+Timothy Ferris, University of California, author of Coming of Age in the 
+Milky Way Galaxy 
+
+Maria Finitzo, stem cell expert, Peabody Award winner 
+
+Robert Finkelstein, AI expert"
+"Maria Finitzo, stem cell expert, Peabody Award winner 
+
+Robert Finkelstein, AI expert 
+
+Christopher Flavin, World Watch Institute 
+
+Louis Friedman, cofounder of the Planetary Society 
+
+Jack Gallant, neuroscientist, University of California at Berkeley 
+
+James Garwin, NASA chief scientist 
+
+Evelyn Gates, author of Einstein’s Telescope 
+
+Michael Gazzaniga, neurologist, University of California at Santa 
+Barbara 
+
+Jack Geiger, cofounder, Physicians for Social Responsibility 
+
+David Gelertner, computer scientist, Yale University, University of 
+California 
+
+Neal Gershenfeld, MIT Media Lab 
+
+Daniel Gilbert, psychologist, Harvard University 
+
+Paul Gilster, author of Centauri Dreams 
+
+Rebecca Goldberg, Environmental Defense Fund 
+
+Don Goldsmith, astronomer, author of Runaway Universe 
+
+David Goodstein, assistant provost of Cal Tech 
+
+J. Richard Gott III, Princeton University, author of Time Travel in 
+Einstein’s Universe 
+
+Late Stephen Jay Gould, biologist, Harvard University"
+"Late Stephen Jay Gould, biologist, Harvard University 
+
+Ambassador Thomas Graham, spy satellites and intelligence gathering 
+
+John Grant, author of Corrupted Science 
+
+Eric Green, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Ronald Green, author of Babies by Design 
+
+Brian Greene, Columbia University, author of The Elegant Universe 
+Alan Guth, physicist, MIT, author of The Inflationary Universe 
+
+William Hanson, author of The Edge of Medicine 
+
+Leonard Hayflick, University of California at San Francisco Medical 
+School 
+
+Donald Hillebrand, Argonne National Labs, future of the car 
+Frank N. von Hippel, physicist, Princeton University 
+
+Allan Hobson, psychiatrist, Harvard University 
+Jeffrey Hoffman, NASA astronaut, MIT 
+
+Douglas Hofstadter, Pulitzer Prize winner, Indiana University, author 
+of Godel, Escher, Bach 
+
+John Horgan, Stevens Institute of Technology, author of The End of 
+Science 
+
+Jamie Hyneman, host of MythBusters 
+
+Chris Impey, astronomer, author of The Living Cosmos 
+
+Robert Irie, AI Lab, MIT"
+"Chris Impey, astronomer, author of The Living Cosmos 
+
+Robert Irie, AI Lab, MIT 
+
+P. J. Jacobowitz, PC magazine 
+
+Jay Jaroslav, MIT AI Lab 
+
+Donald Johanson, anthropologist, discoverer of Lucy 
+George Johnson, New York Times science journalist 
+Tom Jones, NASA astronaut 
+Steve Kates, astronomer 
+
+Jack Kessler, stem cell expert, Peabody Award winner 
+Robert Kirshner, astronomer, Harvard University 
+Kris Koenig, astronomer 
+
+Lawrence Krauss, Arizona State University, author of Physics of Star 
+Trek 
+
+Lawrence Kuhn, filmmaker and philosopher, Closer to Truth 
+
+Ray Kurzweil, inventor, author of The Age of Spiritual Machines 
+
+Robert Lanza, biotechnology, Advanced Cell Technologies 
+
+Roger Launius, author of Robots in Space 
+
+Stan Lee, creator of Marvel Comics and Spider-Man 
+
+Michael Lemonick, senior science editor of Time 
+
+Arthur Lerner-Lam, geologist, volcanist 
+
+Simon LeVay, author of When Science Goes Wrong 
+
+John Lewis, astronomer, University of Arizona 
+
+Alan Lightman, MIT, author of Einstein’s Dreams"
+"John Lewis, astronomer, University of Arizona 
+
+Alan Lightman, MIT, author of Einstein’s Dreams 
+
+George Linehan, author of Space One 
+
+Seth Lloyd, MIT, author of Programming the Universe 
+
+Werner R. Loewenstein, former director of Cell Physics Laboratory, 
+Columbia University 
+
+Joseph Lykken, physicist, Fermi National Laboratory 
+
+Pattie Maes, MIT Media Lab 
+
+Robert Mann, author of Forensic Detective 
+
+Michael Paul Mason, author of Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injury and 
+Its Aftermath 
+
+Patrick McCray, author of Keep Watching the Skies 
+
+Glenn McGee, author of The Perfect Baby 
+
+James McLurkin, MIT, AI Lab 
+
+Paul McMillan, director of Space Watch 
+
+Fulvia Melia, astronomer, University of Arizona 
+
+William Meller, author of Evolution Rx 
+
+Paul Meltzer, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Marvin Minsky, MIT, author of The Society of Minds 
+
+Hans Moravec, author of Robot 
+
+Late Phillip Morrison, physicist, MIT"
+"Hans Moravec, author of Robot 
+
+Late Phillip Morrison, physicist, MIT 
+
+Richard Muller, astrophysicist, University of California at Berkeley 
+David Nahamoo, IBM Human Language Technology 
+Christina Neal, volcanist 
+
+Miguel Nicolelis, neuroscientist, Duke University 
+
+Shinji Nishimoto, neurologist, University of California at Berkeley 
+
+Michael Novacek, American Museum of Natural History 
+
+Michael Oppenheimer, environmentalist, Princeton University 
+
+Dean Ornish, cancer and heart disease specialist 
+
+Peter Palese, virologist, Mount Sinai School of Medicine 
+
+Charles Pellerin, NASA official 
+
+Sidney Perkowitz, author of Hollywood Science 
+
+John Pike, GlobalSecurity.org 
+
+Jena Pincott, author of Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes? 
+
+Steven Pinker, psychologist, Harvard University 
+Thomas Poggio, MIT, artificial intelligence 
+Correy Powell, editor of Discover magazine 
+John Powell, founder of JP Aerospace"
+"Richard Preston, author of Hot Zone and Demon in the Freezer 
+Raman Prinja, astronomer, University College London 
+
+David Quammen, evolutionary biologist, author of The Reluctant Mr. 
+Darwin 
+
+Katherine Ramsland, forensic scientist 
+
+Lisa Randall, Harvard University, author of Warped Passages 
+
+Sir Martin Rees, Royal Astronomer of Great Britain, Cambridge 
+University, author of Before the Beginning 
+
+Jeremy Rifkin, Foundation for Economic Trends 
+David Riquier, MIT Media Lab 
+Jane Rissler, Union of Concerned Scientists 
+Steven Rosenberg, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Oliver Sacks, neurologist, Columbia University 
+Paul Saffo, futurist, Institute of the Future 
+Late Carl Sagan, Cornell University, author of Cosmos 
+Nick Sagan, coauthor of You Call This the Future? 
+
+Michael H. Salamon, NASA’s Beyond Einstein program 
+Adam Savage, host of MythBusters 
+
+Peter Schwartz, futurist, founder of Global Business Network 
+
+Michael Shermer, founder of Skeptic Society and Skeptic magazine"
+"Michael Shermer, founder of Skeptic Society and Skeptic magazine 
+
+Donna Shirley, NASA Mars program 
+
+Seth Shostak, SETI Institute 
+
+Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish 
+
+Paul Shurch, SETI League 
+
+Peter Singer, author of Wired for War 
+
+Simon Singh, author of The Big Bang 
+
+Gary Small, author of iBrain 
+
+Paul Spudis, author of Odyssey Moon Limited 
+
+Stephen Squyres, astronomer, Cornell University 
+
+Paul Steinhardt, Princeton University, author of Endless Universe 
+
+Jack Stern, stem cell surgeon 
+
+Gregory Stock, UCLA, author of Redesigning Humans 
+Richard Stone, author of NEOs and Tunguska 
+Brian Sullivan, Hayden Planetarium 
+Leonard Susskind, physicist, Stanford University 
+Daniel Tammet, author of Bom on a Blue Day 
+Geoffrey Taylor, physicist, University of Melbourne 
+Late Ted Taylor, designer of U.S. nuclear warheads 
+Max Tegmark, cosmologist, MIT 
+Alvin Toffler, author of The Third Wave 
+Patrick Tucker, World Future Society"
+"Chris Turney, University of Wollongong, author of Ice, Mud and Blood 
+Neil de Grasse Tyson, director of Hayden Planetarium 
+Sesh Velamoor, Foundation for the Future 
+
+Robert Wallace, author of Spycraft 
+
+Kevin Warwick, human cyborgs, University of Reading, UK 
+Fred Watson, astronomer, author of Stargazer 
+Late Mark Weiser, Xerox PARC 
+Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us 
+
+Daniel Wertheimer, SETI at Home, University of California at Berkeley 
+Mike Wessler, MIT AI Lab 
+
+Roger Wiens, astronomer, Los Alamos National Laboratory 
+Author Wiggins, author of The Joy of Physics 
+
+Anthony Wynshaw-Boris, National Institutes of Health 
+Carl Zimmer, biologist, author of Evolution 
+Robert Zimmerman, author of Leaving Earth 
+Robert Zubrin, founder of Mars Society"
+"I would also like to thank my agent, Stuart Krichevsky, who has been 
+at my side all these years and has given me helpful advice about my 
+books. I have always benefited from his sound judgment. In addition, I 
+would like to thank my editors, Edward Kastenmeier and Melissa 
+Danaczko, who have guided my book and provided invaluable editorial 
+advice. And I would like to thank Dr. Michelle Kaku, my daughter and a 
+neurology resident at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, for stimulating, 
+thoughtful, and fruitful discussions about the future of neurology. Her 
+careful and thorough reading of the manuscript has greatly enhanced the 
+presentation and content of this book. 
+
+INTRODUCTION"
+"INTRODUCTION 
+
+The two greatest mysteries in all of nature are the mind and the 
+universe. With our vast technology, we have been able to photograph 
+galaxies billions of light-years away, manipulate the genes that control 
+life, and probe the inner sanctum of the atom, but the mind and the 
+universe still elude and tantalize us. They are the most mysterious and 
+fascinating frontiers known to science. 
+
+If you want to appreciate the majesty of the universe, just turn your 
+gaze to the heavens at night, ablaze with billions of stars. Ever since our 
+ancestors first gasped at the splendor of the starry sky, we have puzzled 
+over these eternal questions: Where did it all come from? What does it 
+all mean?"
+"To witness the mystery of our mind, all we have to do is stare at 
+ourselves in the mirror and wonder, What lurks behind our eyes? This 
+raises haunting questions like: Do we have a soul? What happens to us 
+after we die? Who am “I” anyway? And most important, this brings us to 
+the ultimate question: Where do we fit into this great cosmic scheme? As 
+the great Victorian biologist Thomas Huxley once said, “The question of 
+all questions for humanity, the problem which lies behind all others and 
+is more interesting than any of them, is that of the determination of 
+man’s place in Nature and his relation to the Cosmos.”"
+"There are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, roughly the same 
+as the number of neurons in our brain. You may have to travel twenty- 
+four trillion miles, to the first star outside our solar system, to find an 
+object as complex as what is sitting on your shoulders. The mind and the 
+universe pose the greatest scientific challenge of all, but they also share 
+a curious relationship. On one hand they are polar opposites. One is 
+concerned with the vastness of outer space, where we encounter strange 
+denizens like black holes, exploding stars, and colliding galaxies. The 
+other is concerned with inner space, where we find our most intimate 
+and private hopes and desires. The mind is no farther than our next 
+
+thought, yet we are often clueless when asked to articulate and explain 
+it."
+"thought, yet we are often clueless when asked to articulate and explain 
+it. 
+
+But although they may be opposites in this respect, they also have a 
+common history and narrative. Both were shrouded in superstition and 
+magic since time immemorial. Astrologers and phrenologists claimed to 
+find the meaning of the universe in every constellation of the zodiac and 
+in every bump on your head. Meanwhile, mind readers and seers have 
+been alternately celebrated and vilified over the years."
+"The universe and the mind continue to intersect in a variety of ways, 
+thanks in no small part to some of the eye-opening ideas we often 
+encounter in science fiction. Reading these books as a child, I would 
+daydream about being a member of the Sian, a race of telepaths created 
+by A. E. van Vogt. I marveled at how a mutant called the Mule could 
+unleash his vast telepathic powers and nearly seize control of the 
+Galactic Empire in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. And in the movie 
+Forbidden Planet, I wondered how an advanced civilization millions of 
+years beyond ours could channel its enormous telekinetic powers to 
+reshape reality to its whims and wishes."
+"Then when I was about ten, “The Amazing Dunninger” appeared on 
+TV. He would dazzle his audience with his spectacular magic tricks. His 
+motto was “For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those 
+who do not believe, no explanation will suffice.” One day, he declared 
+that he would send his thoughts to millions of people throughout the 
+
+country. He closed his eyes and began to concentrate, stating that he was 
+beaming the name of a president of the United States. He asked people 
+to write down the name that popped into their heads on a postcard and 
+mail it in. The next week, he announced triumphantly that thousands of 
+postcards had come pouring in with the name “Roosevelt,” the very 
+same name he was “beaming” across the United States."
+"I wasn’t impressed. Back then, the legacy of Roosevelt was strong 
+among those who had lived through the Depression and World War II, so 
+this came as no surprise. (I thought to myself that it would have been 
+truly amazing if he had been thinking of President Millard Fillmore.) 
+
+Still, it stoked my imagination, and I couldn’t resist experimenting 
+with telepathy on my own, trying to read other people’s minds by 
+concentrating as hard as I could. Closing my eyes and focusing intently, I 
+would attempt to “listen” to other people’s thoughts and telekinetically 
+
+move objects around my room. 
+
+I failed."
+"move objects around my room. 
+
+I failed. 
+
+Maybe somewhere telepaths walked the Earth, but I wasn’t one of 
+them. In the process, I began to realize that the wondrous exploits of 
+telepaths were probably impossible—at least without outside assistance. 
+But in the years that followed, I also slowly learned another lesson: to 
+fathom the greatest secrets in the universe, one did not need telepathic 
+or superhuman abilities. One just had to have an open, determined, and 
+curious mind. In particular, in order to understand whether the fantastic 
+devices of science fiction are possible, you have to immerse yourself in 
+advanced physics. To understand the precise point when the possible 
+becomes the impossible, you have to appreciate and understand the laws 
+of physics."
+"These two passions have fired up my imagination all these years: to 
+understand the fundamental laws of physics, and to see how science will 
+shape the future of our lives. To illustrate this and to share my 
+excitement in probing the ultimate laws of physics, I have written the 
+books Hyperspace , Beyond Einstein, and Parallel Worlds. And to express 
+my fascination with the future, I have written Visions, Physics of the 
+Impossible, and Physics of the Future. Over the course of writing and 
+researching these books, I was continually reminded that the human 
+mind is still one of the greatest and most mysterious forces in the world. 
+
+Indeed, we’ve been at a loss to understand what it is or how it works 
+for most of history. The ancient Egyptians, for all their glorious 
+accomplishments in the arts and sciences, believed the brain to be a 
+useless organ and threw it away when embalming their pharaohs."
+"Aristotle was convinced that the soul resided in the heart, not the brain, 
+whose only function was to cool down the cardiovascular system. 
+Others, like Descartes, thought that the soul entered the body through 
+the tiny pineal gland of the brain. But in the absence of any solid 
+evidence, none of these theories could be proven. 
+
+This “dark age” persisted for thousands of years, and with good 
+reason. The brain weighs only three pounds, yet it is the most complex 
+object in the solar system. Although it occupies only 2 percent of the 
+body’s weight, the brain has a ravenous appetite, consuming fully 20 
+percent of our total energy (in newborns, the brain consumes an 
+astonishing 65 percent of the baby’s energy), while fully 80 percent of 
+
+our genes are coded for the brain. There are an estimated 100 billion 
+neurons residing inside the skull with an exponential amount of neural 
+connections and pathways."
+"Back in 1977, when the astronomer Carl Sagan wrote his Pulitzer 
+Prize-winning book, The Dragons of Eden, he broadly summarized what 
+was known about the brain up to that time. His book was beautifully 
+written and tried to represent the state of the art in neuroscience, which 
+at that time relied heavily on three main sources. The first was 
+comparing our brains with those of other species. This was tedious and 
+difficult because it involved dissecting the brains of thousands of 
+animals. The second method was equally indirect: analyzing victims of 
+strokes and disease, who often exhibit bizarre behavior because of their 
+illness. Only an autopsy performed after their death could reveal which 
+part of the brain was malfunctioning. Third, scientists could use 
+electrodes to probe the brain and slowly and painfully piece together 
+which part of the brain influenced which behavior."
+"But the basic tools of neuroscience did not provide a systematic way of 
+analyzing the brain. You could not simply requisition a stroke victim 
+with damage in the specific area you wanted to study. Since the brain is 
+a living, dynamic system, autopsies often did not uncover the most 
+interesting features, such as how the parts of the brain interact, let alone 
+how they produced such diverse thoughts as love, hate, jealousy, and 
+curiosity. 
+
+TWIN REVOLUTIONS 
+
+Four hundred years ago, the telescope was invented, and almost 
+overnight, this new, miraculous instrument peered into the heart of the 
+celestial bodies. It was one of the most revolutionary (and seditious) 
+instruments of all time. All of a sudden, with your own two eyes, you"
+"could see the myths and dogma of the past evaporate like the morning 
+mist. Instead of being perfect examples of divine wisdom, the moon had 
+jagged craters, the sun had black spots, Jupiter had moons, Venus had 
+phases, and Saturn had rings. More was learned about the universe in 
+the fifteen years after the invention of the telescope than in all human 
+history put together. 
+
+Like the invention of the telescope, the introduction of MRI machines 
+and a variety of advanced brain scans in the mid-1990s and 2000s has 
+transformed neuroscience. We have learned more about the brain in the 
+last fifteen years than in all prior human history, and the mind, once 
+considered out of reach, is finally assuming center stage."
+"Nobel laureate Eric R. Kandel of the Max Planck Institute in Tubingen, 
+Germany, writes, “The most valuable insights into the human mind to 
+emerge during this period did not come from the disciplines traditionally 
+concerned with the mind—philosophy, psychology, or psycho-analysis. 
+Instead they came from a merger of these disciplines with the biology of 
+the brain....” 
+
+Physicists have played a pivotal role in this endeavor, providing a 
+flood of new tools with acronyms like MRI, EEG, PET, CAT, TCM, TES, 
+and DBS that have dramatically changed the study of the brain. 
+Suddenly with these machines we could see thoughts moving within the 
+living, thinking brain. As neurologist V. S. Ramachandran of the 
+University of California, San Diego, says, “All of these questions that 
+philosophers have been studying for millennia, we scientists can begin to 
+explore by doing brain imaging and by studying patients and asking the 
+right questions.”"
+"Looking back, some of my initial forays into the world of physics 
+intersected with the very technologies that are now opening up the mind 
+for science. In high school, for instance, I became aware of a new form 
+of matter, called antimatter, and decided to conduct a science project on 
+the topic. As it is one of the most exotic substances on Earth, I had to 
+appeal to the old Atomic Energy Commission just to obtain a tiny 
+quantity of sodium-22, a substance that naturally emits a positive 
+electron (anti-electron, or positron). With my small sample in hand, I 
+was able to build a cloud chamber and powerful magnetic field that 
+allowed me to photograph the trails of vapor left by antimatter particles. 
+I didn’t know it at the time, but sodium-22 would soon become 
+instrumental in a new technology, called PET (positron emission 
+tomography), which has since given us startling new insights into the 
+thinking brain."
+"Yet another technology I experimented with in high school was 
+magnetic resonance. I attended a lecture by Felix Bloch of Stanford 
+
+University, who shared the 1952 Nobel Prize for Physics with Edward 
+
+Purcell for the discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance. Dr. Bloch 
+explained to us high school kids that if you had a powerful magnetic 
+field, the atoms would align vertically in that field like compass needles. 
+Then if you applied a radio pulse to these atoms at a precise resonant 
+frequency, you could make them flip over. When they eventually flipped 
+back, they would emit another pulse, like an echo, which would allow 
+you to determine the identity of these atoms. (Later, I used the principle 
+of magnetic resonance to build a 2.3-million-electron-volt particle 
+accelerator in my mom’s garage.)"
+"Just a couple of years later, as a freshman at Harvard University, it 
+was an honor to have Dr. Purcell teach me electrodynamics. Around that 
+same time, I also had a summer job and got a chance to work with Dr. 
+Richard Ernst, who was trying to generalize the work of Bloch and 
+Purcell on magnetic resonance. He succeeded spectacularly and would 
+eventually win the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1991 for laying the 
+foundation for the modern MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machine. 
+The MRI machine, in turn, has given us detailed photographs of the 
+living brain in even finer detail than PET scans. 
+
+EMPOWERING THE MIND"
+"EMPOWERING THE MIND 
+
+Eventually I became a professor of theoretical physics, but my 
+fascination with the mind remained. It is thrilling to see that, just within 
+the last decade, advances in physics have made possible some of the 
+feats of mentalism that excited me when I was a child. Using MRI scans, 
+scientists can now read thoughts circulating in our brains. Scientists can 
+also insert a chip into the brain of a patient who is totally paralyzed and 
+connect it to a computer, so that through thought alone that patient can 
+surf the web, read and write e-mails, play video games, control their 
+wheelchair, operate household appliances, and manipulate mechanical 
+arms. In fact, such patients can do anything a normal person can do via 
+a computer."
+"Scientists are now going even further, by connecting the brain directly 
+to an exoskeleton that these patients can wear around their paralyzed 
+limbs. Quadriplegics may one day lead near-normal lives. Such 
+exoskeletons may also give us superpowers enabling us to handle deadly 
+
+emergencies. One day, our astronauts may even explore the planets by 
+mentally controlling mechanical surrogates from the comfort of their 
+
+living rooms."
+"living rooms. 
+
+As in the movie The Matrix, we might one day be able to download 
+memories and skills using computers. In animal studies, scientists have 
+already been able to insert memories into the brain. Perhaps it’s only a 
+matter of time before we, too, can insert artificial memories into our 
+brains to learn new subjects, vacation in new places, and master new 
+hobbies. And if technical skills can be downloaded into the minds of 
+workers and scientists, this may even affect the world economy. We 
+might even be able to share these memories as well. One day, scientists 
+might construct an “Internet of the mind,” or a brain-net, where 
+thoughts and emotions are sent electronically around the world. Even 
+dreams will be videotaped and then “brain-mailed” across the Internet."
+"Technology may also give us the power to enhance our intelligence. 
+Progress has been made in understanding the extraordinary powers of 
+“savants” whose mental, artistic, and mathematical abilities are truly 
+astonishing. Furthermore, the genes that separate us from the apes are 
+now being sequenced, giving us an unparalleled glimpse into the 
+evolutionary origins of the brain. Genes have already been isolated in 
+animals that can increase their memory and mental performance."
+"The excitement and promise generated by these eye-opening advances 
+are so enormous that they have also caught the attention of the 
+politicians. In fact, brain science has suddenly become the source of a 
+transatlantic rivalry between the greatest economic powers on the 
+planet. In January 2013, both President Barack Obama and the European 
+Union announced what could eventually become multibillion-dollar 
+funding for two independent projects that would reverse engineer the 
+brain. Deciphering the intricate neural circuitry of the brain, once 
+considered hopelessly beyond the scope of modern science, is now the 
+focus of two crash projects that, like the Human Genome Project, will 
+change the scientific and medical landscape. Not only will this give us 
+unparalleled insight into the mind, it will also generate new industries, 
+spur economic activity, and open up new vistas for neuroscience."
+"Once the neural pathways of the brain are finally decoded, one can 
+envision understanding the precise origins of mental illness, perhaps 
+leading to a cure for this ancient affliction. This decoding also makes it 
+
+possible to create a copy of the brain, which raises philosophical and 
+ethical questions. Who are we, if our consciousness can be uploaded into 
+a computer? We can also toy with the concept of immortality. Our 
+bodies may eventually decay and die, but can our consciousness live 
+forever? 
+
+And beyond that, perhaps one day in the distant future the mind will 
+
+be freed of its bodily constraints and roam among the stars, as several 
+scientists have speculated. Centuries from now, one can imagine placing 
+our entire neural blueprint on laser beams, which will then be sent into 
+deep space, perhaps the most convenient way for our consciousness to 
+explore the stars."
+"A brilliant new scientific landscape that will reshape human destiny is 
+now truly opening up. We are now entering a new golden age of 
+neuroscience. 
+
+In making these predictions, I have had the invaluable assistance of 
+scientists who graciously allowed me to interview them, broadcast their 
+ideas on national radio, and even take a TV crew into their laboratories. 
+These are the scientists who are laying the foundation for the future of 
+the mind. For their ideas to be incorporated into this book, I made only 
+two requirements: (1) their predictions must rigorously obey the laws of 
+physics; and (2) prototypes must exist to show proof-of-principle for 
+these far-reaching ideas. 
+
+TOUCHED BY MENTAL ILLN ESS"
+"TOUCHED BY MENTAL ILLN ESS 
+
+I once wrote a biography of Albert Einstein, called Einstein’s Cosmos, and 
+had to delve into the minute details of his private life. I had known that 
+Einstein’s youngest son was afflicted with schizophrenia, but did not 
+realize the enormous emotional toll that it had taken on the great 
+scientist’s life. Einstein was also touched by mental illness in another 
+way; one of his closest colleagues was the physicist Paul Ehrenfest, who 
+helped Einstein create the theory of general relativity. After suffering 
+bouts of depression, Ehrenfest tragically killed his own son, who had 
+Down’s syndrome, and then committed suicide. Over the years, I have 
+found that many of my colleagues and friends have struggled to manage 
+mental illness in their families."
+"Mental illness has also deeply touched my own life. Several years ago, 
+my mother died after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. It was 
+heartbreaking to see her gradually lose her memories of her loved ones, 
+to gaze into her eyes and realize that she did not know who I was. I 
+could see the glimmer of humanity slowly being extinguished. She had 
+spent a lifetime struggling to raise a family, and instead of enjoying her 
+golden years, she was robbed of all the memories she held dear. 
+
+As the baby boomers age, the sad experience that I and many others 
+have had will be repeated across the world. My wish is that rapid 
+advances in neuroscience will one day alleviate the suffering felt by 
+those afflicted with mental illness and dementia. 
+
+WHAT IS DRIVING THIS REVOLUTION?"
+"WHAT IS DRIVING THIS REVOLUTION? 
+
+The data pouring in from brain scans are now being decoded, and the 
+progress is stunning. Several times a year, headlines herald a fresh 
+breakthrough. It took 350 years, since the invention of the telescope, to 
+enter the space age, but it has taken only fifteen years since the 
+introduction of the MRI and advanced brain scans to actively connect 
+the brain to the outside world. Why so quickly , and how much is there to 
+come?"
+"Part of this rapid progress has occurred because physicists today have 
+a good understanding of electromagnetism, which governs the electrical 
+signals racing through our neurons. The mathematical equations of 
+James Clerk Maxwell, which are used to calculate the physics of 
+antennas, radar, radio receivers, and microwave towers, form the very 
+cornerstone of MRI technology. It took centuries to finally solve the 
+secret of electromagnetism, but neuroscience can enjoy the fruits of this 
+grand endeavor. In Book I, I will survey the history of the brain and 
+explain how a galaxy of new instruments has left the physics labs and 
+given us glorious color pictures of the mechanics of thought. Because 
+consciousness plays so central a role in any discussion of the mind, I also 
+give a physicist’s perspective, offering a definition of consciousness that 
+includes the animal kingdom as well. In fact, I provide a ranking of 
+consciousness, showing how it is possible to assign a number to various"
+"consciousness, showing how it is possible to assign a number to various 
+types of consciousness."
+"But to fully answer the question of how this technology will advance, 
+we also have to look at Moore’s law, which states that computer power 
+doubles every two years. I often surprise people with the simple fact that 
+your cell phone today has more computer power than all of NASA when 
+it put two men on the moon in 1969. Computers are now powerful 
+enough to record the electrical signals emanating from the brain and 
+partially decode them into a familiar digital language. This makes it 
+possible for the brain to directly interface with computers to control any 
+object around it. The fast-growing field is called BMI (brain-machine 
+interface), and the key technology is the computer. In Book II, I’ll 
+explore this new technology, which has made recording memories, mind 
+reading, videotaping our dreams, and telekinesis possible."
+"In Book III, I’ll investigate alternate forms of consciousness, from 
+dreams, drugs, and mental illness to robots and even aliens from outer 
+space. Here we’ll also learn about the potential to control and 
+manipulate the brain to manage diseases such as depression, Parkinson’s, 
+Alzheimer’s, and many more. I will also elaborate on the Brain Research 
+Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (or BRAIN) project 
+
+announced by President Obama, and the Human Brain Project of the 
+European Union, which will potentially allocate billions of dollars to 
+decode the pathways of the brain, all the way down to the neural level. 
+These two crash programs will undoubtedly open up entirely new 
+research areas, giving us new ways to treat mental illness and also 
+revealing the deepest secrets of consciousness."
+"After we have given a definition of consciousness, we can use it to 
+explore nonhuman consciousness as well (i.e., the consciousness of 
+robots). How advanced can robots become? Can they have emotions? 
+Will they pose a threat? And we can also explore the consciousness of 
+aliens, who may have goals totally different from ours. 
+
+In the Appendix, I will discuss perhaps the strangest idea in all of 
+science, the concept from quantum physics that consciousness may be 
+the fundamental basis for reality. 
+
+There is no shortage of proposals for this exploding field. Only time 
+will tell which ones are mere pipe dreams created by the overheated 
+imagination of science-fiction writers and which ones represent solid 
+avenues for future scientific research. Progress in neuroscience has been 
+astronomical, and in many ways the key has been modern physics, 
+
+which uses the full power of the electromagnetic and nuclear forces to 
+probe the great secrets hidden within our minds."
+"I should stress that I am not a neuroscientist. I am a theoretical 
+physicist with an enduring interest in the mind. I hope that the vantage 
+point of a physicist can help further enrich our knowledge and give a 
+fresh new understanding of the most familiar and alien object in the 
+universe: our mind. 
+
+But given the dizzying pace with which radically new perspectives are 
+being developed, it is important that we have a firm grasp on how the 
+brain is put together. 
+
+So let us first discuss the origins of modern neuroscience, which some 
+historians believe began when an iron spike sailed through the brain of a 
+certain Phineas Gage. This seminal event set off a chain reaction that 
+helped open the brain to serious scientific investigation. Although it was 
+an unfortunate event for Mr. Gage, it paved the way for modern science. 
+
+BOOK I THE MIND AND CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+My fundamental premise about the brain is that its workings—"
+"BOOK I THE MIND AND CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+My fundamental premise about the brain is that its workings— 
+
+what we sometimes call “mind”—are a consequence of its 
+anatomy and physiology, and nothing more. 
+
+—CARL SAGAN 
+
+1 UNLOCKING THE MIND 
+
+In 1848, Phineas Gage was working as a railroad foreman in Vermont, 
+when dynamite accidentally went off, propelling a three-foot, seven-inch 
+spike straight into his face, through the front part of his brain, and out 
+the top of his skull, eventually landing eighty feet away. His fellow 
+workers, shocked to see part of their foreman’s brain blown off, 
+immediately called for a doctor. To the workers’ (and even the doctor’s) 
+amazement, Mr. Gage did not die on-site."
+"He was semiconscious for weeks, but eventually made what seemed 
+like a full recovery. (A rare photograph of Gage surfaced in 2009, 
+showing a handsome, confident man, with an injury to his head and left 
+eye, holding the iron rod.) But after this incident, his coworkers began to 
+notice a sharp change in his personality. A normally cheerful, helpful 
+foreman, Gage became abusive, hostile, and selfish. Ladies were warned 
+to stay clear of him. Dr. John Harlow, the doctor who treated him, 
+observed that Gage was “capricious and vacillating, devising many plans 
+of future operations, which are no sooner arranged than they are 
+abandoned in turn for others appearing more feasible. A child in his 
+intellectual capacity and manifestations, yet with the animal passions of 
+a strong man.” Dr. Harlow noted that he was “radically changed” and 
+that his fellow workers said that “he was no longer Gage.” After Gage’s 
+death in 1860, Dr. Harlow preserved both his skull and the rod that had"
+"death in 1860, Dr. Harlow preserved both his skull and the rod that had 
+smashed into it. Detailed X-ray scans of the skull have since confirmed 
+that the iron rod caused massive destruction in the area of the brain 
+behind the forehead known as the frontal lobe, in both the left and right 
+cerebral hemispheres."
+"This incredible accident would not only change the life of Phineas 
+Gage, it would alter the course of science as well. Previously, the 
+dominant thinking was that the brain and the soul were two separate 
+entities, a philosophy called dualism. But it became increasingly clear 
+that damage to the frontal lobe of his brain had caused abrupt changes 
+
+in Gage’s personality. This, in turn, created a paradigm shift in scientific 
+thinking: perhaps specific areas of the brain could be traced to certain 
+behaviors. 
+
+broca’s brain"
+"broca’s brain 
+
+In 1861, just a year after Gage’s death, this view was further cemented 
+through the work of Pierre Paul Broca, a physician in Paris who 
+documented a patient who appeared normal except that he had a severe 
+speech deficit. The patient could understand and comprehend speech 
+perfectly, but he could utter only one sound, the word “tan.” After the 
+patient died, Dr. Broca confirmed during the autopsy that the patient 
+suffered from a lesion in his left temporal lobe, a region of the brain near 
+his left ear. Dr. Broca would later confirm twelve similar cases of 
+patients with damage to this specific area of the brain. Today patients 
+who have damage to the temporal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, 
+are said to suffer from Broca’s aphasia. (In general, patients with this 
+disorder can understand speech but cannot say anything, or else they 
+drop many words when speaking.)"
+"Soon afterward, in 1874, German physician Carl Wernicke described 
+patients who suffered from the opposite problem. They could articulate 
+clearly, but they could not understand written or spoken speech. Often 
+these patients could speak fluently with correct grammar and syntax, but 
+with nonsensical words and meaningless jargon. Sadly, these patients 
+often didn’t know they were spouting gibberish. Wernicke confirmed 
+after performing autopsies that these patients had suffered damage to a 
+slightly different area of the left temporal lobe. 
+
+The works of Broca and Wernicke were landmark studies in 
+neuroscience, establishing a clear link between behavioral problems, 
+such as speech and language impairment, and damage to specific regions 
+of the brain."
+"Another breakthrough took place amid the chaos of war. Throughout 
+history, there were many religious taboos prohibiting the dissection of 
+the human body, which severely restricted progress in medicine. In 
+warfare, however, with tens of thousands of bleeding soldiers dying on 
+the battlefield, it became an urgent mission for doctors to develop any 
+
+medical treatment that worked. During the Prusso-Danish War in 1864, 
+German doctor Gustav Fritsch treated many soldiers with gaping wounds 
+to the brain and happened to notice that when he touched one 
+hemisphere of the brain, the opposite side of the body often twitched. 
+Later Fritsch systematically showed that, when he electrically stimulated 
+the brain, the left hemisphere controlled the right side of the body, and 
+vice versa. This was a stunning discovery, demonstrating that the brain 
+was basically electrical in nature and that a particular region of the 
+brain controlled a part on the other side of the body. (Curiously, the use"
+"of electrical probes on the brain was first recorded a couple of thousand 
+years earlier by the Romans. In the year A.D. 43, records show that the 
+court doctor to the emperor Claudius used electrically charged torpedo 
+fish, which were applied to the head of a patient suffering from severe 
+headaches.) 
+
+The realization that there were electrical pathways connecting the 
+brain to the body wasn’t systematically analyzed until the 1930s, when 
+Dr. Wilder Penfield began working with epilepsy patients, who often 
+suffered from debilitating convulsions and seizures that were potentially 
+life-threatening. For them, the last option was to have brain surgery, 
+which involved removing parts of the skull and exposing the brain. 
+(Since the brain has no pain sensors, a person can be conscious during 
+this entire procedure, so Dr. Penfield used only a local anesthetic during 
+the operation.)"
+"Dr. Penfield noticed that when he stimulated certain parts of the 
+cortex with an electrode, different parts of the body would respond. He 
+suddenly realized that he could draw a rough one-to-one correspondence 
+between specific regions of the cortex and the human body. His 
+drawings were so accurate that they are still used today in almost 
+unaltered form. They had an immediate impact on both the scientific 
+community and the general public. In one diagram, you could see which 
+region of the brain roughly controlled which function, and how 
+important each function was. For example, because our hands and 
+mouth are so vital for survival, a considerable amount of brain power is 
+devoted to controlling them, while the sensors in our back hardly 
+register at all. 
+
+Furthermore, Penfield found that by stimulating parts of the temporal 
+lobe, his patients suddenly relived long-forgotten memories in a crystal-"
+"clear fashion. He was shocked when a patient, in the middle of brain 
+surgery, suddenly blurted out, “It was like ... standing in the doorway at 
+[my] high school.... I heard my mother talking on the phone, telling my 
+aunt to come over that night.” Penfield realized that he was tapping into 
+memories buried deep inside the brain. When he published his results in 
+1951, they created another transformation in our understanding of the 
+brain. 
+
+Figure 1. This is the map of the motor cortex that was created by Dr. Wilder Penfield, showing which 
+region of the brain 
+
+controls which part of the body, (illustration credit 1.1) 
+
+A MAP OF THE BRAIN 
+
+By the 1950s and ’60s, it was possible to create a crude map of the brain, 
+locating different regions and even identifying the functions of a few of 
+them."
+"In Figure 2, we see the neocortex, which is the outer layer of the 
+brain, divided into four lobes. It is highly developed in humans. All the 
+lobes of the brain are devoted to processing signals from our senses, 
+except for one: the frontal lobe, located behind the forehead. The 
+prefrontal cortex, the foremost part of the frontal lobe, is where most 
+rational thought is processed. The information you are reading right now 
+is being processed in your prefrontal cortex. Damage to this area can 
+impair your ability to plan or contemplate the future, as in the case of 
+Phineas Gage. This is the region where information from our senses is 
+evaluated and a future course of action is carried out. 
+
+FRONTAL 
+LOBE 
+
+PARIETAL 
+LOBE 
+
+OCCIPITAL 
+
+LOBE 
+
+TEMPORAL 
+
+LOBE 
+
+Figure 2. The four lobes of the neocortex of the brain are responsible for different, though related, 
+functions, (illustration 
+
+credit 1.2)"
+"credit 1.2) 
+
+The parietal lobe is located at the top of our brains. The right 
+hemisphere controls sensory attention and body image; the left 
+hemisphere controls skilled movements and some aspects of language. 
+Damage to this area can cause many problems, such as difficulty in 
+locating parts of your own body. 
+
+The occipital lobe is located at the very back of the brain and 
+processes visual information from the eyes. Damage to this area can 
+cause blindness and visual impairment. 
+
+The temporal lobe controls language (on the left side only), as well as 
+the visual recognition of faces and certain emotional feelings. Damage to 
+this lobe can leave us speechless or without the ability to recognize 
+familiar faces. 
+
+THE EVOLVING BRAIN"
+"THE EVOLVING BRAIN 
+
+When you look at other organs of the body, such as our muscles, bones, 
+and lungs, there seems to be an obvious rhyme and reason to them that 
+we can immediately see. But the structure of the brain might seem 
+slapped together in a rather chaotic fashion. In fact, trying to map the 
+brain has often been called “cartography for fools.”"
+"To make sense of the seemingly random structure of the brain, in 1967 
+Dr. Paul MacLean of the National Institute of Mental Health applied 
+Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to the brain. He divided the brain 
+into three parts. (Since then, studies have shown that there are 
+refinements to this model, but we will use it as a rough organizing 
+principle to explain the overall structure of the brain.) First, he noticed 
+that the back and center part of our brains, containing the brain stem, 
+cerebellum, and basal ganglia, are almost identical to the brains of 
+reptiles. Known as the “reptilian brain,” these are the oldest structures of 
+the brain, governing basic animal functions such as balance, breathing, 
+digestion, heartbeat, and blood pressure. They also control behaviors 
+such as fighting, hunting, mating, and territoriality, which are necessary 
+for survival and reproduction. The reptilian brain can be traced back 
+about 500 million years. (See Figure 3.)"
+"But as we evolved from reptiles to mammals, the brain also became 
+more complex, evolving outward and creating entirely new structures. 
+
+Here we encounter the “mammalian brain,” or the limbic system, which 
+is located near the center of the brain, surrounding parts of the reptilian 
+brain. The limbic system is prominent among animals living in social 
+groups, such as the apes. It also contains structures that are involved in 
+emotions. Since the dynamics of social groups can be quite complex, the 
+limbic system is essential in sorting out potential enemies, allies, and 
+rivals. 
+
+HUMAN 
+
+BRAIN 
+
+Hypothalamus 
+
+MAMMALIAN 
+L BRAIN . 
+
+REPTILIAN 
+
+BRAIN 
+
+Corpus callosum 
+
+Cingulate gyrus 
+
+Frontal lobe 
+
+Hippocampus 
+
+Forn 
+
+Cerebellum 
+
+Brain stem 
+
+Pituitary 
+
+gland"
+"Frontal lobe 
+
+Hippocampus 
+
+Forn 
+
+Cerebellum 
+
+Brain stem 
+
+Pituitary 
+
+gland 
+
+Figure 3. The evolutionary history of the brain, with the reptilian brain, the limbic system (the 
+mammalian brain), and the 
+neocortex (the human brain). Roughly speaking, one can argue that the path of our brain’s evolution 
+passed from the 
+reptilian brain to the mammalian brain to the human brain, (illustration credit 1.3) 
+
+The different parts of the limbic system that control behaviors crucial 
+for social animals are: 
+
+• The hippocampus. This is the gateway to memory, where short-term 
+memories are processed into long-term memories. Its name means 
+“seahorse,” which describes its strange shape. Damage here will 
+destroy the ability to make new long-term memories. You are left a 
+prisoner of the present. 
+
+• The amygdala. This is the seat of emotions, especially fear, where 
+emotions are first registered and generated. Its name means 
+“almond.”"
+"• The thalamus. This is like a relay station, gathering sensory signals 
+from the brain stem and then sending them out to the various 
+cortices. Its name means “inner chamber.” 
+
+• The hypothalamus. This regulates body temperature, our circadian 
+rhythm, hunger, thirst, and aspects of reproduction and pleasure. It 
+lies below the thalamus—hence its name. 
+
+Finally, we have the third and most recent region of the mammalian 
+brain, the cerebral cortex, which is the outer layer of the brain. The 
+latest evolutionary structure within the cerebral cortex is the neocortex 
+(meaning “new bark”), which governs higher cognitive behavior. It is 
+most highly developed in humans: it makes up 80 percent of our brain’s 
+mass, yet is only as thick as a napkin. In rats the neocortex is smooth, 
+but it is highly convoluted in humans, which allows a large amount of 
+surface area to be crammed into the human skull."
+"In some sense, the human brain is like a museum containing remnants 
+of all the previous stages in our evolution over millions of years, 
+exploding outward and forward in size and function. (This is also 
+roughly the path taken when an infant is born. The infant brain expands 
+outward and toward the front, perhaps mimicking the stages of our 
+evolution.) 
+
+Although the neocortex seems unassuming, looks are deceiving. Under 
+a microscope you can appreciate the intricate architecture of the brain. 
+The gray matter of the brain consists of billions of tiny brain cells called 
+neurons. Like a gigantic telephone network, they receive messages from 
+other neurons via dendrites, which are like tendrils sprouting from one 
+end of the neuron. At the other end of the neuron, there is a long fiber 
+called the axon. Eventually the axon connects to as many as ten"
+"thousand other neurons via their dendrites. At the juncture between the 
+two, there is a tiny gap called the synapse. These synapses act like gates, 
+regulating the flow of information within the brain. Special chemicals 
+called neurotransmitters can enter the synapse and alter the flow of 
+signals. Because neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and 
+noradrenaline help control the stream of information moving across the 
+myriad pathways of the brain, they exert a powerful effect on our 
+moods, emotions, thoughts, and state of mind. (See Figure 4.) 
+
+This description of the brain roughly represented the state of 
+knowledge through the 1980s. In the 1990s, however, with the 
+introduction of new technologies from the field of physics, the 
+mechanics of thought began to be revealed in exquisite detail, 
+unleashing the current explosion of scientific discovery. One of the 
+workhorses of this revolution has been the MRI machine."
+"Figure 4. Diagram of a neuron. Electrical signals travel along the axon of the neuron until they hit the 
+synapse. 
+Neurotransmitters can regulate the flow of electrical signals past the synapse, (illustration credit 1.4) 
+
+THE MRI: WINDOW INTO THE BRAIN 
+
+To understand the reason why this radical new technology has helped 
+decode the thinking brain, we have to turn our attention to some basic 
+principles of physics. 
+
+Radio waves, a type of electromagnetic radiation, can pass right 
+
+through tissue without doing damage. MRI machines take advantage of 
+this fact, allowing electromagnetic waves to freely penetrate the skull. In 
+the process, this technology has given us glorious photographs of 
+something once thought to be impossible to capture: the inner workings 
+
+of the brain as it experiences sensations and emotions. Watching the 
+dance of lights flickering in a MRI machine, one can trace out the 
+thoughts moving within the brain. It’s like being able to see the inside of 
+a clock as it ticks."
+"The first thing you notice about an MRI machine is the huge, 
+cylindrical magnetic coils, which can produce a magnetic field twenty to 
+sixty thousand times greater than the strength of Earth’s. The giant 
+magnet is one of the principal reasons why an MRI machine can weigh a 
+ton, fill up an entire room, and cost several million dollars. (MRI 
+machines are safer than X-ray machines because they don’t create 
+harmful ions. CT scans, which can also create 3-D pictures, flood the 
+body with many times the dosage from an ordinary X-ray, and hence 
+have to be carefully regulated. By contrast, MRI machines are safe when 
+used properly. One problem, however, is the carelessness of workers. 
+The magnetic field is powerful enough to send tools hurling through the 
+air at high velocity when turned on at the wrong time. People have been 
+injured and even killed in this way.)"
+"MRI machines work as follows: Patients lie flat and are inserted into a 
+cylinder containing two large coils, which create the magnetic field. 
+When the magnetic field is turned on, the nuclei of the atoms inside your 
+body act very much like a compass needle: they align horizontally along 
+the direction of the field. Then a small pulse of radio energy is 
+generated, which causes some of the nuclei in our body to flip upside 
+down. When the nuclei later revert back to their normal position, they 
+emit a secondary pulse of radio energy, which is then analyzed by the 
+MRI machine. By analyzing these tiny “echoes,” one can then reconstruct 
+the location and nature of these atoms. Like a bat, which uses echoes to 
+determine the position of objects in its path, the echoes created by the 
+MRI machine allow scientists to re-create a remarkable image of the 
+inside of the brain. Computers then reconstruct the position of the 
+atoms, giving us beautiful diagrams in three dimensions."
+"When MRIs were originally introduced, they were able to show the 
+static structure of the brain and its various regions. However, in the mid- 
+1990s, a new type of MRI was invented, called “functional” MRI, or 
+fMRI, which detected the presence of oxygen in the blood in the brain. 
+(For different types of MRI machines, scientists sometimes put a 
+lowercase letter in front of “MRI,” but we will use the abbreviation MRI 
+
+to denote all the various types of MRI machines.) MRI scans cannot 
+directly detect the flow of electricity in the neurons, but since oxygen is 
+necessary to provide the energy for the neurons, oxygenated blood can 
+indirectly trace the flow of electrical energy in the neurons and show 
+how various regions of the brain interact with one another."
+"Already these MRI scans have definitively disproven the idea that 
+thinking is concentrated in a single center. Instead, one can see electrical 
+energy circulating across different parts of the brain as it thinks. By 
+tracing the path taken by our thoughts, MRI scans have shed new light 
+into the nature of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, schizophrenia, and a host of 
+other mental diseases. 
+
+The great advantage of MRI machines is their exquisite ability to 
+locate minute parts of the brain, down to a fraction of a millimeter in 
+size. An MRI scan will create not just dots on a two-dimensional screen, 
+called pixels, but dots in three-dimensional space, called “voxels,” 
+yielding a bright collection of tens of thousands of colored dots in 3-D, in 
+the shape of a brain."
+"Since different chemical elements respond to different frequencies of 
+radio, you can change the frequency of the radio pulse and therefore 
+identify different elements of the body. As noted, fMRI machines zero in 
+on the oxygen atom contained within blood in order to measure blood 
+flow, but MRI machines can also be tuned to identify other atoms. In just 
+the last decade, a new form of MRI was introduced called “diffusion 
+tensor imaging” MRI, which detects the flow of water in the brain. Since 
+water follows the neural pathways of the brain, DTI yields beautiful 
+pictures that resemble networks of vines growing in a garden. Scientists 
+can now instantly determine how certain parts of the brain are hooked 
+up with other parts."
+"There are a couple of drawbacks to MRI technology, however. 
+Although they are unparalleled in spatial resolution, locating voxels 
+down to the size of a pinpoint in three dimensions, MRIs are not that 
+good in temporal resolution. It takes almost a full second to follow the 
+path of blood in the brain, which may not sound like a lot, but 
+remember that electrical signals travel almost instantly throughout the 
+brain, and hence MRI scans can miss some of the intricate details of 
+thought patterns. 
+
+Another snag is the cost, which runs in the millions of dollars, so 
+
+doctors often have to share the machines. But like most technology, 
+developments should bring down the cost over time."
+"In the meantime, exorbitant costs haven’t stalled the hunt for 
+commercial applications. One idea is to use MRI scans as lie detectors, 
+which, according to some studies, can identify lies with 95 percent 
+accuracy or higher. The level of accuracy is still controversial, but the 
+basic idea is that when a person tells a lie, he simultaneously has to 
+know the truth, concoct the lie, and rapidly analyze the consistency of 
+this lie with previously known facts. Today some companies are claiming 
+that MRI technology shows that the prefrontal and parietal lobes light up 
+when someone tells a lie. More specifically, the “orbitofrontal cortex” 
+(which can serve, among other functions, as the brain’s “fact-checker” to 
+warn us when something is wrong) becomes active. This area is located 
+right behind the orbits of our eyes, and hence the name. The theory goes 
+that the orbitofrontal cortex understands the difference between the 
+truth and a lie and kicks into overdrive as a result. (Other areas of the"
+"truth and a lie and kicks into overdrive as a result. (Other areas of the 
+brain also light up when someone tells a lie, such as the superiormedial 
+and inferolateral prefrontal cortices, which are involved in cognition.)"
+"Already there are several commercial firms offering MRI machines as 
+lie detectors, and cases involving these machines are entering the court 
+system. But it’s important to note that these MRI scans indicate increased 
+brain activity only in certain areas. While DNA results can sometimes 
+have an accuracy of one part in 10 billion or better, MRI scans cannot, 
+because it takes many areas of the brain to concoct a lie, and these same 
+areas of the brain are responsible for processing other kinds of thoughts 
+as well. 
+
+EEG SCANS 
+
+Another useful tool to probe deep inside the brain is the EEG, the 
+electroencephalogram. The EEG was introduced all the way back in 
+1924, but only recently has it been possible to employ computers to 
+make sense out of all the data pouring in from each electrode. 
+
+To use the EEG machine, the patient usually puts on a futuristic- 
+looking helmet with scores of electrodes on the surface. (More advanced 
+versions place a hairnet over the head containing a series of tiny"
+"electrodes.) These electrodes detect the tiny electrical signals that are 
+circulating in the brain. 
+
+(illustration credit 1.5) 
+
+Figure 5. At the top, we see an image taken by a functional MRI machine, showing regions of high 
+mental activity. In the 
+
+bottom image, we see the flowerlike pattern created by a diffusion MRI machine, which can follow the 
+neural pathways 
+
+and connections of the brain, (illustration credit 1.5a)"
+"An EEG scan differs from an MRI scan in several crucial ways. The 
+MRI scan, as we have seen, shoots radio pulses into the brain and then 
+analyzes the “echoes” that come back. This means you can vary the 
+radio pulse to select different atoms for analysis, making it quite 
+versatile. The EEG machine, however, is strictly passive; that is, it 
+analyzes the tiny electromagnetic signals the brain naturally emits. The 
+EEG excels at recording the broad electromagnetic signals that surge 
+across the entire brain, which allows scientists to measure the overall 
+activity of the brain as it sleeps, concentrates, relaxes, dreams, etc. 
+Different states of consciousness vibrate at different frequencies. For 
+example, deep sleep corresponds to delta waves, which vibrate at .1 to 4 
+cycles per second. Active mental states, such as problem solving, 
+correspond to beta waves, vibrating from 12 to 30 cycles per second. 
+These vibrations allow various parts of the brain to share information"
+"These vibrations allow various parts of the brain to share information 
+and communicate with one another, even if they are located on opposite 
+sides of the brain. And while MRI scans measuring blood flow can be 
+taken only several times a second, EEG scans measure electrical activity 
+instantly."
+"The greatest advantage of the EEG scan, though, is its convenience 
+and cost. Even high school students have done experiments in their 
+living rooms with EEG sensors placed over their heads. 
+
+However, the main drawback to the EEG, which has held up its 
+development for decades, is its very poor spatial resolution. The EEG 
+picks up electrical signals that have already been diffused after passing 
+through the skull, making it difficult to detect abnormal activity when it 
+originates deep in the brain. Looking at the output of the muddled EEG 
+signals, it is almost impossible to say for sure which part of the brain 
+created it. Furthermore, slight motions, like moving a finger, can distort 
+the signal, sometimes rendering it useless. 
+
+PET SCANS 
+
+Yet another useful tool from the world of physics is the positron 
+emission topography (PET) scan, which calculates the flow of energy in"
+"the brain by locating the presence of glucose, the sugar molecule that 
+fuels cells. Like the cloud chamber I made as a high school student, PET 
+scans make use of the subatomic particles emitted from sodium-22 
+within the glucose. To start the PET scan, a special solution containing 
+slightly radioactive sugar is injected into the patient. The sodium atoms 
+inside the sugar molecules have been replaced by radioactive sodium-22 
+atoms. Every time a sodium atom decays, it emits a positive electron, or 
+positron, which is easily detected by sensors. By following the path of 
+the radioactive sodium atoms in sugar, one can then trace out the energy 
+flow within the living brain. 
+
+The PET scan shares many of the same advantages of MRI scans but 
+does not have the fine spatial resolution of an MRI photo. However, 
+instead of measuring blood flow, which is only an indirect indicator of 
+energy consumption in the body, PET scans measure energy 
+consumption, so it is more closely related to neural activity."
+"There is another drawback to PET scans, however. Unlike MRI and 
+EEG scans, PET scans are slightly radioactive, so patients cannot 
+continually take them. In general, a person is not allowed to have a PET 
+scan more than once a year because of the risk from radiation. 
+
+MAGNETISM IN THE BRAIN 
+
+Within the last decade, many new high-tech devices have entered the 
+tool kit of neuroscientists, including the transcranial electromagnetic 
+scanner (TES), magnetoencephalography (MEG), near-infrared 
+spectroscopy (NIRS), and optogenetics, among others."
+"In particular, magnetism has been used to systematically shut down 
+specific parts of the brain without cutting it open. The basic physics 
+behind these new tools is that a rapidly changing electric field can create 
+a magnetic field, and vice versa. MEGs passively measure the magnetic 
+fields produced by the changing electric fields of the brain. These 
+magnetic fields are weak and extremely tiny, only a billionth of Earth’s 
+magnetic field. Like the EEG, the MEG is extremely good at time 
+resolution, down to a thousandth of a second. Its spatial resolution, 
+however, is only a cubic centimeter. 
+
+Unlike the passive measurement of the MEG, the TES generates a large 
+
+pulse of electricity, which in turn creates a burst of magnetic energy. 
+The TES is placed next to the brain, so the magnetic pulse penetrates the 
+skull and creates yet another electric pulse inside the brain. This 
+secondary electrical pulse, in turn, is sufficient to turn off or dampen the 
+activity of selected areas of the brain."
+"Historically, scientists had to rely on strokes or tumors to silence 
+certain parts of the brain and hence determine what they do. But with 
+the TES, one can harmlessly turn off or dampen parts of the brain at will. 
+By shooting magnetic energy at a particular spot in the brain, one can 
+determine its function by simply watching how a person’s behavior has 
+changed. (For example, by shooting magnetic pulses into the left 
+temporal lobe, one can see that this adversely affects our ability to talk.)"
+"One potential drawback of the TES is that these magnetic fields do not 
+penetrate very far into the interior of the brain (because magnetic fields 
+decrease much faster than the usual inverse square law for electricity). 
+TES is quite useful in turning off parts of the brain near the skull, but the 
+magnetic field cannot reach important centers located deep in the brain, 
+such as the limbic system. But future generations of TES devices may 
+overcome this technical problem by increasing the intensity and 
+precision of the magnetic field. 
+
+Wire coil 
+
+Pulsed magnetic field 
+
+Stimulated 
+brain region 
+
+Positioning 
+
+frame 
+
+Figure 6. We see the transcranial electromagnetic scanner and the magnetoencephalograph, which uses 
+magnetism rather 
+than radio waves to penetrate the skull and determine the nature of thoughts within the brain. 
+Magnetism can 
+temporarily silence parts of the brain, allowing scientists to safely determine how these regions perform
+without relying"
+"on stroke victims, (illustration credit 1.6) 
+
+DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION 
+
+Yet another tool that has proven vital to neurologists is deep brain 
+stimulation (DBS). The probes originally used by Dr. Penfield were 
+relatively crude. Today these electrodes can be hairlike and reach 
+specific areas of the brain deep within its interior. Not only has DBS 
+allowed scientists to locate the function of various parts of the brain, it 
+can also be used to treat mental disorders. DBS has already proven its 
+
+worth with Parkinson’s disease, in which certain regions of the brain are 
+overactive and often create uncontrollable shaking of the hands. 
+
+More recently, these electrodes have targeted a new area of the brain 
+(called Brodmann’s area number 25) that is often overactive in 
+depressed patients who do not respond to psychotherapy or drugs. Deep 
+brain stimulation has given almost miraculous relief after decades of 
+torment and agony for these long-suffering patients."
+"Every year, new uses for deep brain stimulation are being found. In 
+fact, nearly all the major disorders of the brain are being reexamined in 
+light of this and other new brain-scanning technologies. This promises to 
+be an exciting new area for diagnosing and even treating illnesses. 
+
+OPTOGENETICS—LIGHTING UP THE BRAIN 
+
+But perhaps the newest and most exciting instrument in the neurologist’s 
+tool kit is optogenetics, which was once considered science fiction. Like 
+a magic wand, it allows you to activate certain pathways controlling 
+behavior by shining a light beam on the brain. 
+
+Incredibly, a light-sensitive gene that causes a cell to fire can be 
+inserted, with surgical precision, directly into a neuron. Then, by turning 
+on a light beam, the neuron is activated. More importantly, this allows 
+scientists to excite these pathways, so that you can turn on and off 
+certain behaviors by flicking a switch."
+"Although this technology is only a decade old, optogenetics has 
+already proven successful in controlling certain animal behaviors. By 
+
+turning on a light switch, it is possible to make fruit flies suddenly fly 
+off, worms stop wiggling, and mice run around madly in circles. Monkey 
+trials are now beginning, and even human trials are in discussion. There 
+is great hope that this technology will have a direct application in 
+treating disorders like Parkinson’s and depression. 
+
+THE TRANSPARENT BRAIN 
+
+Like optogenetics, another spectacular new development is making the 
+brain fully transparent so that its neural pathways are exposed to the 
+naked eye. In 2013, scientists at Stanford University announced that 
+
+they had successfully made the entire brain of a mouse transparent, as 
+well as parts of a human brain. The announcement was so stunning that 
+it made the front page of the New York Times, with the headline “Brain 
+as Clear as Jell-0 for Scientists to Explore.”"
+"At the cellular level, cells seen individually are transparent, with all 
+their microscopic components fully exposed. However, once billions of 
+cells come together to form organs like the brain, the addition of lipids 
+(fats, oils, waxes, and chemicals not soluble in water) helps make the 
+organ opaque. The key to the new technique is to remove the lipids 
+while keeping the neurons intact. The scientists at Stanford did this by 
+placing the brain in hydrogel (a gel-like substance mainly made of 
+water), which binds to all the brain’s molecules except the lipids. By 
+placing the brain in a soapy solution with an electric field, the solution 
+can be flushed out of the brain, carrying along the lipids, leaving the 
+brain transparent. The addition of dyes can then make the neural 
+pathways visible. This will help to identify and map the many neural 
+pathways of the brain."
+"Making tissue transparent is not new, but getting precisely the right 
+conditions necessary to make the entire brain transparent took a lot of 
+ingenuity. “I burned and melted more than a hundred brains,” confessed 
+Dr. Kwanghun Chung, one of the lead scientists in the study. The new 
+technique, called Clarity, can also be applied to other organs (and even 
+organs preserved years ago in chemicals like formalin). He has already 
+created transparent livers, lungs, and hearts. This new technique has 
+startling applications across all of medicine. In particular, it will 
+accelerate locating the neural pathways of the brain, which is the focus 
+of intense research and funding. 
+
+FOUR FUNDAMENTAL FORCES"
+"FOUR FUNDAMENTAL FORCES 
+
+The success of this first generation of brain scans has been nothing less 
+than spectacular. Before their introduction, only about thirty or so 
+regions of the brain were known with any certainty. Now the MRI 
+machine alone can identify two to three hundred regions of the brain, 
+opening up entirely new frontiers for brain science. With so many new 
+scanning technologies being introduced from physics just within the last 
+
+fifteen years, one might wonder: Are there more? The answer is yes, but 
+they will be variations and refinements of the previous ones, not 
+radically new technologies. This is because there are only four 
+fundamental forces—gravitational, electromagnetic, weak nuclear, and 
+strong nuclear—that rule the universe. (Physicists have tried to find 
+evidence for a fifth force, but so far all such attempts have failed.)"
+"The electromagnetic force, which lights up our cities and represents 
+the energy of electricity and magnetism, is the source of almost all the 
+new scanning technologies (with the exception of the PET scan, which is 
+governed by the weak nuclear force). Because physicists have had over 
+150 years of experience working with the electromagnetic force, there is 
+no mystery in creating new electric and magnetic fields, so any new 
+brain-scanning technology will most likely be a novel modification of 
+existing technologies, rather than being something entirely new. As with 
+most technology, the size and cost of these machines will drop, vastly 
+increasing the widespread use of these sophisticated instruments. 
+Already physicists are doing the basic calculations necessary to make an 
+MRI machine fit into a cell phone. At the same time, the fundamental 
+challenge facing these brain scans is resolution, both spatial and 
+temporal. The spatial resolution of MRI scans will increase as the"
+"temporal. The spatial resolution of MRI scans will increase as the 
+magnetic field becomes more uniform and as the electronics become 
+more sensitive. At present, MRI scans can see only dots or voxels within 
+a fraction of a millimeter. But each dot may contain hundreds of 
+thousands of neurons. New scanning technology should reduce this even 
+further. The holy grail of this approach would be to create an MRI-like 
+machine that could identify individual neurons and their connections."
+"The temporal resolution of MRI machines is also limited because they 
+analyze the flow of oxygenated blood in the brain. The machine itself 
+has very good temporal resolution, but tracing the flow of blood slows it 
+down. In the future, other MRI machines will be able to locate different 
+substances that are more directly connected to the firing of neurons, 
+thereby allowing real-time analysis of mental processes. No matter how 
+spectacular the successes of the past fifteen years, then, they were just a 
+taste of the future. 
+
+NEW MODELS OF THE BRAIN 
+
+Historically, with each new scientific discovery, a new model of the 
+brain has emerged. One of the earliest models of the brain was the 
+“homunculus,” a little man who lived inside the brain and made all the 
+decisions. This picture was not very helpful, since it did not explain what 
+was happening in the brain of the homunculus. Perhaps there was a 
+homunculus hiding inside the homunculus."
+"With the arrival of simple mechanical devices, another model of the 
+brain was proposed: that of a machine, such as a clock, with mechanical 
+wheels and gears. This analogy was useful for scientists and inventors 
+like Leonardo da Vinci, who actually designed a mechanical man."
+"During the late 1800s, when steam power was carving out new 
+empires, another analogy emerged, that of a steam engine, with flows of 
+energy competing with one another. This hydraulic model, historians 
+have conjectured, affected Sigmund Freud’s picture of the brain, in 
+which there was a continual struggle between three forces: the ego 
+(representing the self and rational thought), the id (representing 
+repressed desires), and the superego (representing our conscience). In 
+this model, if too much pressure built up because of a conflict among 
+these three, there could be a regression or general breakdown of the 
+entire system. This model was ingenious, but as even Freud himself 
+admitted, it required detailed studies of the brain at the neuronal level, 
+which would take another century."
+"Early in the last century, with the rise of the telephone, another 
+analogy surfaced—that of a giant switchboard. The brain was a mesh of 
+telephone lines connected into a vast network. Consciousness was a long 
+row of telephone operators sitting in front of a large panel of switches, 
+constantly plugging and unplugging wires. Unfortunately, this model 
+said nothing about how these messages were wired together to form the 
+brain. 
+
+With the rise of the transistor, yet another model became fashionable: 
+the computer. The old-fashioned switching stations were replaced by 
+microchips containing hundreds of millions of transistors. Perhaps the 
+“mind” was just a software program running on “wetware” (i.e., brain 
+tissue rather than transistors). This model is an enduring one, even 
+today, but it has limitations. The transistor model cannot explain how 
+the brain performs computations that would require a computer the size 
+of New York City. Plus the brain has no programming, no Windows"
+"operating system or Pentium chip. (Also, a PC with a Pentium chip is 
+extremely fast, but it has a bottleneck. All calculations must pass 
+
+through this single processor. The brain is the opposite. The firing of 
+each neuron is relatively slow, but it more than makes up for this by 
+having 100 billion neurons processing data simultaneously. Therefore a 
+slow parallel processor can trump a very fast single processor.) 
+
+The most recent analogy is that of the Internet, which lashes together 
+billions of computers. Consciousness, in this picture, is an “emergent” 
+phenomenon, miraculously arising out of the collective action of billions 
+of neurons. (The problem with this picture is that it says absolutely 
+nothing about how this miracle occurs. It brushes all the complexity of 
+the brain under the rug of chaos theory.)"
+"No doubt each of these analogies has kernels of truth, but none of 
+them truly captures the complexity of the brain. However, one analogy 
+for the brain that I have found useful (albeit still imperfect) is that of a 
+large corporation. In this analogy, there is a huge bureaucracy and lines 
+of authority, with vast flows of information channeled between different 
+offices. But the important information eventually winds up at the 
+command center with the CEO. There the final decisions are made. 
+
+If this analogy of the brain to a large corporation is valid, then it 
+should be able to explain certain peculiar features of the brain:"
+"• Most information is “subconscious” —that is, the CEO is blissfully 
+unaware of the vast, complex information that is constantly flowing 
+inside the bureaucracy. In fact, only a tiny amount of information 
+finally reaches the desk of the CEO, who can be compared to the 
+prefrontal cortex. The CEO just has to know information important 
+enough to get his attention; otherwise, he would be paralyzed by an 
+avalanche of extraneous information. 
+
+This arrangement is probably a by-product of evolution, since our 
+ancestors would have been overwhelmed with superfluous, 
+subconscious information flooding their brains when facing an 
+emergency. We are all mercifully unaware of the trillions of 
+calculations being processed in our brains. Upon encountering a 
+tiger in the forest, one does not have to be bothered with the status 
+of our stomach, toes, hair, etc. All one has to know is how to run. 
+
+• “Emotions” are rapid decisions made independently at a lower"
+"• “Emotions” are rapid decisions made independently at a lower 
+
+level. Since rational thought takes many seconds, this means that it 
+is often impossible to make a reasoned response to an emergency; 
+hence lower-level brain regions must rapidly assess the situation and 
+make a decision, an emotion, without permission from the top. 
+
+So emotions (fear, anger, horror, etc.) are instantaneous red flags 
+
+made at a lower level, generated by evolution, to warn the 
+command center of possibly dangerous or serious situations. We 
+have little conscious control over emotions. For example, no matter 
+how much we practice giving a speech to a large audience, we still 
+feel nervous. 
+
+Rita Carter, author of Mapping the Mind, writes, “Emotions are not 
+feelings at all but a set of body-rooted survival mechanisms that 
+have evolved to turn us away from danger and propel us forward to 
+things that may be of benefit.” 
+
+• There is a constant clamoring for the attention of the CEO."
+"• There is a constant clamoring for the attention of the CEO. 
+
+There is no single homunculus, CPU, or Pentium chip making 
+decisions; instead, the various subcenters within the command 
+center are in constant competition with one another, vying for the 
+attention of the CEO. So there is no smooth, steady continuity of 
+thought, but the cacophony of different feedback loops competing 
+with one another. The concept of “I,” as a single, unified whole 
+making all decisions continuously, is an illusion created by our own 
+subconscious minds. 
+
+Mentally we feel that our mind is a single entity, continuously and 
+smoothly processing information, totally in charge of our decisions. 
+But the picture emerging from brain scans is quite different from the 
+perception we have of our own mind. 
+
+MIT professor Marvin Minsky, one of the founding fathers of 
+artificial intelligence, told me that the mind is more like a “society 
+of minds,” with different submodules, each trying to compete with 
+the others."
+"When I interviewed Steven Pinker, a psychologist at Harvard 
+University, I asked him how consciousness emerges out of this mess. 
+He said that consciousness was like a storm raging in our brain. He 
+elaborated on this when he wrote that “the intuitive feeling we have 
+that there’s an executive T that sits in a control room of our brain, 
+
+scanning the screens of the senses and pushing the buttons of our 
+muscles, is an illusion. Consciousness turns out to consist of a 
+maelstrom of events distributed across the brain. These events 
+compete for attention, and as one process outshouts the others, the 
+brain rationalizes the outcome after the fact and concocts the 
+impression that a single self was in charge all along.” 
+
+• Final decisions are made by the CEO in the command center."
+"• Final decisions are made by the CEO in the command center. 
+
+Almost all the bureaucracy is devoted to accumulating and 
+assembling information for the CEO, who meets only with the 
+directors of each division. The CEO tries to mediate all the 
+conflicting information pouring into the command center. The buck 
+stops here. The CEO, located in the prefrontal cortex, has to make 
+the final decision. While most decisions are made by instinct in 
+animals, humans make higher-level decisions after sifting through 
+different bodies of information from our senses. 
+
+• Information flows are hierarchical. Because of the vast amount of 
+information that must flow upward toward the CEO’s office, or 
+downward to the support staff, information must be arranged in 
+complex arrays of nested networks, with many branches. Think of a 
+pine tree, with the command center on top and a pyramid of 
+branches flowing downward, branching out into many subcenters."
+"There are, of course, differences between a bureaucracy and the 
+structure of thought. The first rule of any bureaucracy is that “it 
+expands to fill the space allotted to it.” But wasting energy is a 
+luxury the brain cannot afford. The brain consumes only about 
+twenty watts of power (the power of a dim lightbulb), but that is 
+probably the maximum energy it can consume before the body 
+becomes dysfunctional. If it generates more heat, it will cause tissue 
+damage. Therefore the brain is constantly using shortcuts to 
+conserve energy. We will see throughout this book the clever and 
+ingenious devices that evolution has crafted, without our 
+knowledge, to cut corners. 
+
+IS “REALITY” REALLY REAL? 
+
+Everyone knows the expression “seeing is believing.” Yet much of what"
+"IS “REALITY” REALLY REAL? 
+
+Everyone knows the expression “seeing is believing.” Yet much of what 
+
+we see is actually an illusion. For example, when we see a typical 
+landscape, it seems like a smooth, movielike panorama. In reality, there 
+is a gaping hole in our field of vision, corresponding to the location of 
+the optic nerve in the retina. We should see this large ugly black spot 
+wherever we look. But our brains fill in that hole by papering it over, by 
+averaging it out. This means that part of our vision is actually fake, 
+generated by our subconscious minds to deceive us. 
+
+Also, we see only the center of our field of vision, called the fovea, 
+with clarity. The peripheral part is blurry, in order to save energy. But 
+the fovea is very small. To capture as much information as possible with 
+the tiny fovea, the eye darts around constantly. This rapid, jiggling 
+motion of our eyes is called saccades. All this is done subconsciously,"
+"giving us the false impression that our field of vision is clear and 
+focused. 
+
+When I was a child and first saw a diagram showing the 
+electromagnetic spectrum in its true glory, I was shocked. I had been 
+totally unaware that huge parts of the EM spectrum (e.g., infrared light, 
+UV light, X-rays, gamma rays) were totally invisible to us. I began to 
+realize that what I saw with my eyes was only a tiny, crude 
+approximation of reality. (There is an old saying: “If appearance and 
+essence were the same thing, there would be no need for science.”) We 
+have sensors in the retina that can detect only red, green, and blue. This 
+means that we’ve never actually seen yellow, brown, orange, and a host 
+of other colors. These colors do exist, but our brain can approximate 
+each of them only by mixing different amounts of red, green, and blue. 
+(You can see this if you look at an old color-TV screen very carefully. 
+You see only a collection of red, green, and blue dots. Color TV is 
+actually an illusion.)"
+"Our eyes also fool us into thinking we can see depth. The retinas of 
+our eyes are two-dimensional, but because we have two eyes separated 
+by a few inches, the left and right brain merge these two images, giving 
+us the false sense of a third dimension. For more distant objects, we can 
+judge how far an object is by observing how they move when we move 
+our head. This is called parallax. 
+
+(This parallax explains the fact that children sometimes complain that 
+“the moon is following me.” Because the brain has difficulty 
+comprehending the parallax of an object as distant as the moon, it 
+
+appears as if the moon is always a fixed distance “behind” them, but it’s 
+just an illusion caused by the brain taking a shortcut.) 
+
+THE SPLIT-BRAIN PARADOX"
+"THE SPLIT-BRAIN PARADOX 
+
+One way in which this picture, based on the corporate hierarchy of a 
+company, deviates from the actual structure of the brain can be seen in 
+the curious case of split-brain patients. One unusual feature of the brain 
+is that it has two nearly identical halves, or hemispheres, the left and 
+right. Scientists have long wondered why the brain has this unnecessary 
+redundancy, since the brain can operate even if one entire hemisphere is 
+completely removed. No normal corporate hierarchy has this strange 
+feature. Furthermore, if each hemisphere has consciousness, does this 
+mean that we have two separate centers of consciousness inside one 
+skull?"
+"Dr. Roger W. Sperry of the California Institute of Technology won the 
+Nobel Prize in 1981 for showing that the two hemispheres of the brain 
+are not exact carbon copies of each other, but actually perform different 
+duties. This result created a sensation in neurology (and also spawned a 
+cottage industry of dubious self-help books that claim to apply the left- 
+brain, right-brain dichotomy to your life). 
+
+Dr. Sperry was treating epileptics, who sometimes suffer from grand 
+mal seizures often caused by feedback loops between the two 
+hemispheres that go out of control. Like a microphone screeching in our 
+ears because of a feedback loop, these seizures can become life- 
+threatening. Dr. Sperry began by severing the corpus callosum, which 
+connects the two hemispheres of the brain, so that they no longer 
+communicated and shared information between the left and right side of 
+the body. This usually stopped the feedback loop and the seizures."
+"At first, these split-brain patients seemed perfectly normal. They were 
+alert and could carry on a natural conversation as if nothing had 
+happened. But a careful analysis of these individuals showed that 
+something was very different about them. 
+
+Normally the hemispheres complement each other as thoughts move 
+back and forth between the two. The left brain is more analytical and 
+logical. It is where verbal skills are found, while the right brain is more 
+
+holistic and artistic. But the left brain is the dominant one and makes the 
+final decisions. Commands pass from the left brain to the right brain via 
+the corpus callosum. But if that connection is cut, it means that the right 
+brain is now free from the dictatorship of the left brain. Perhaps the 
+right brain can have a will of its own, contradicting the wishes of the 
+dominant left brain."
+"In short, there could be two wills acting within one skull, sometimes 
+struggling for control of the body. This creates the bizarre situation 
+where the left hand (controlled by the right brain) starts to behave 
+independently of your wishes, as if it were an alien appendage. 
+
+There is one documented case in which a man was about to hug his 
+wife with one hand, only to find that the other hand had an entirely 
+different agenda. It delivered a right hook to her face. Another woman 
+reported that she would pick out a dress with one hand, only to see her 
+other hand grab an entirely different outfit. Meanwhile, one man had 
+difficulty sleeping at night thinking that his other rebellious hand might 
+strangle him. 
+
+At times, split-brain people think they are living in a cartoon, where 
+one hand struggles to control the other. Physicians sometimes call this 
+
+the Dr. Strangelove syndrome, because of a scene in the movie in which 
+one hand has to fight against the other hand."
+"Dr. Sperry, after detailed studies of split-brain patients, finally 
+concluded that there could be two distinct minds operating in a single 
+brain. He wrote that each hemisphere is “indeed a conscious system in 
+its own right, perceiving, thinking, remembering, reasoning, willing, and 
+emoting, all at a characteristically human level, and ... both the left and 
+right hemisphere may be conscious simultaneously in different, even in 
+mutually conflicting, mental experiences that run along in parallel.”"
+"When I interviewed Dr. Michael Gazzaniga of the University of 
+California, Santa Barbara, an authority on split-brain patients, I asked 
+him how experiments can be done to test this theory. There are a variety 
+of ways to communicate separately to each hemisphere without the 
+knowledge of the other hemisphere. One can, for example, have the 
+subject wear special glasses on which questions can be shown to each 
+eye separately, so that directing questions to each hemisphere is easy. 
+The hard part is trying to get an answer from each hemisphere. Since the 
+right brain cannot speak (the speech centers are located only in the left 
+
+brain), it is difficult to get answers from the right brain. Dr. Gazzaniga 
+told me that to find out what the right brain was thinking, he created an 
+experiment in which the (mute) right brain could “talk” by using 
+Scrabble letters."
+"He began by asking the patient’s left brain what he would do after 
+graduation. The patient replied that he wanted to become a draftsman. 
+But things got interesting when the (mute) right brain was asked the 
+same question. The right brain spelled out the words: “automobile 
+racer.” Unknown to the dominant left brain, the right brain secretly had 
+a completely different agenda for the future. The right brain literally had 
+a mind of its own. 
+
+Rita Carter writes, “The possible implications of this are mind- 
+boggling. It suggests that we might all be carrying around in our skulls a 
+mute prisoner with a personality, ambition, and self-awareness quite 
+different from the day-to-day entity we believe ourselves to be.”"
+"Perhaps there is truth to the oft-heard statement that “inside him, 
+there is someone yearning to be free.” This means that the two 
+hemispheres may even have different beliefs. For example, the 
+neurologist V. S. Ramanchandran describes one split-brain patient who, 
+when asked if he was a believer or not, said he was an atheist, but his 
+right brain declared he was a believer. Apparently, it is possible to have 
+two opposing religious beliefs residing in the same brain. Ramachandran 
+continues: “If that person dies, what happens? Does one hemisphere go 
+
+to heaven and the other go to hell? I don’t know the answer to that.” 
+
+(It is conceivable, therefore, that a person with a split-brain 
+personality might be both Republican and Democrat at the same time. If 
+you ask him whom he will vote for, he will give you the candidate of the 
+left brain, since the right brain cannot speak. But you can imagine the 
+chaos in the voting booth when he has to pull the lever with one hand.) 
+
+WHO IS IN CHARGE?"
+"WHO IS IN CHARGE? 
+
+One person who has spent considerable time and done much research to 
+understand the problem of the subconscious mind is Dr. David 
+Eagleman, a neuroscientist at the Baylor College of Medicine. When I 
+interviewed him, I asked him, If most of our mental processes are 
+
+subconscious, then why are we ignorant of this important fact? He gave 
+an example of a young king who inherits the throne and takes credit for 
+everything in the kingdom, but hasn’t the slightest clue about the 
+thousands of staff, soldiers, and peasants necessary to maintain the 
+throne."
+"Our choice of politicians, marriage partners, friends, and future 
+occupations are all influenced by things that we are not conscious of. 
+(For example, it is an odd result, he says, that “people named Denise or 
+Dennis are disproportionately likely to become dentists, while people 
+named Laura or Lawrence are more likely to become lawyers, and 
+people with names like George or Georgina to become geologists.”) This 
+also means that what we consider to be “reality” is only an 
+approximation that the brain makes to fill in the gaps. Each of us sees 
+reality in a slightly different way. For example, he pointed out, “at least 
+15 percent of human females possess a genetic mutation that gives them 
+an extra (fourth) type of color photoreceptor—and this allows them to 
+discriminate between colors that look identical to the majority of us with 
+a mere three types of color photoreceptors.”"
+"Clearly, the more we understand the mechanics of thought, the more 
+questions arise. Precisely what happens in the command center of the 
+mind when confronted with a rebellious shadow command center? What 
+do we mean by “consciousness” anyway, if it can be split in half? And 
+what is the relationship between consciousness and “self” and “self- 
+awareness”? 
+
+If we can answer these difficult questions, then perhaps it will pave 
+the way for understanding nonhuman consciousness, the consciousness 
+of robots and aliens from outer space, for example, which may be 
+
+entirely different from ours. 
+
+So let us now propose a clear answer to this deceptively complex 
+question: What is consciousness? 
+
+The mind of man is capable of anything ... because everything 
+is in it, all the past as well as all the future. 
+
+—JOSEPH CONRAD 
+
+Consciousness can reduce even the most fastidious thinker to 
+blabbering incoherence. 
+
+—COLIN MCGINN 
+
+2 CONSCIOUSNESS—A PHYSICIST’S VIEWPOINT"
+"—COLIN MCGINN 
+
+2 CONSCIOUSNESS—A PHYSICIST’S VIEWPOINT 
+
+The idea of consciousness has intrigued philosophers for centuries, but 
+it has resisted a simple definition, even to this day. The philosopher 
+David Chalmers has cataloged more than twenty thousand papers 
+written on the subject; nowhere in science have so many devoted so 
+much to create so little consensus. The seventeenth-century thinker 
+Gottfried Leibniz once wrote, “If you could blow the brain up to the size 
+of a mill and walk about inside, you would not find consciousness.” 
+
+Some philosophers doubt that a theory of consciousness is even 
+possible. They claim that consciousness can never be explained since an 
+object can never understand itself, so we don’t even have the mental 
+firepower to solve this perplexing question. Harvard psychologist Steven 
+Pinker writes, “We cannot see ultraviolet light. We cannot mentally 
+rotate an object in the fourth dimension. And perhaps we cannot solve 
+conundrums like free will and sentience.”"
+"In fact, for most of the twentieth century, one of the dominant theories 
+of psychology, behaviorism, denied the importance of consciousness 
+entirely. Behaviorism is based on the idea that only the objective 
+behavior of animals and people is worthy of study, not the subjective, 
+internal states of the mind. 
+
+Others have given up trying to define consciousness, and try simply to 
+describe it. Psychiatrist Giulio Tononi has said, “Everybody knows what 
+consciousness is: it is what abandons you every night when you fall into 
+dreamless sleep and returns the next morning when you wake up.” 
+
+Although the nature of consciousness has been debated for centuries, 
+there has been little resolution. Given that physicists created many of the 
+inventions that have made the explosive advancements in brain science 
+possible, perhaps it will be useful to follow an example from physics in 
+reexamining this ancient question. 
+
+HOW PHYSICISTS UNDERSTAND THE UNIVERSE"
+"HOW PHYSICISTS UNDERSTAND THE UNIVERSE 
+
+When a physicist tries to understand something, first he collects data and 
+then he proposes a “model,” a simplified version of the object he is 
+studying that captures its essential features. In physics, the model is 
+described by a series of parameters (e.g., temperature, energy, time). 
+Then the physicist uses the model to predict its future evolution by 
+simulating its motions. In fact, some of the world’s largest 
+supercomputers are used to simulate the evolution of models, which can 
+describe protons, nuclear explosions, weather patterns, the big bang, and 
+the center of black holes. Then you create a better model, using more 
+sophisticated parameters, and simulate it in time as well."
+"For example, when Isaac Newton was puzzling over the motion of the 
+moon, he created a simple model that would eventually change the 
+course of human history: he envisioned throwing an apple in the air. The 
+faster you threw the apple, he reasoned, the farther it would travel. If 
+you threw it fast enough, in fact, it would encircle the Earth entirely, 
+and might even return to its original point. Then, Newton claimed, this 
+model represented the path of the moon, so the forces that guided the 
+motion of the apple circling the Earth were identical to the forces 
+guiding the moon."
+"But the model, by itself, was still useless. The key breakthrough came 
+when Newton was able to use his new theory to simulate the future, to 
+calculate the future position of moving objects. This was a difficult 
+problem, requiring him to create an entirely new branch of mathematics, 
+called calculus. Using this new mathematics, Newton was then able to 
+predict the trajectory of not just the moon, but also Halley’s Comet and 
+the planets. Since then, scientists have used Newton’s laws to simulate 
+the future path of moving objects, from cannonballs, machines, 
+automobiles, and rockets to asteroids and meteors, and even stars and 
+galaxies. 
+
+The success or failure of a model depends on how faithfully it 
+reproduces the basic parameters of the original. In this case, the basic 
+parameter was the location of the apple and the moon in space and time. 
+By allowing this parameter to evolve (i.e., letting time move forward), 
+Newton unlocked, for the first time in history, the action of moving"
+"bodies, which is one of the most important discoveries in science. 
+
+Models are useful, until they are replaced by even more accurate 
+models described by better parameters. Einstein replaced Newton’s 
+
+picture of forces acting on apples and moons with a new model based on 
+a new parameter, the curvature of space and time. An apple moved not 
+because the Earth exerted a force on it, but because the fabric of space 
+and time was stretched by the Earth, so the apple was simply moving 
+along the surface of a curved space-time. From this, Einstein could then 
+simulate the future of the entire universe. Now, with computers, we can 
+run simulations of this model into the future and create gorgeous 
+pictures presenting the collisions of black holes. 
+
+Let us now incorporate this basic strategy into a new theory of 
+consciousness. 
+
+DEFINITION OF CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"DEFINITION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+I’ve taken bits and pieces from previous descriptions of consciousness in 
+the fields of neurology and biology in order to define consciousness as 
+follows: 
+
+Consciousness is the process of creating a model of the world 
+using multiple feedback loops in various parameters (e.g., in 
+temperature, space, time, and in relation to others), in order to 
+accomplish a goal (e.g., find mates, food, shelter). 
+
+I call this the “space-time theory of consciousness,” because it 
+emphasizes the idea that animals create a model of the world mainly in 
+relation to space, and to one another, while humans go beyond and 
+create a model of the world in relation to time, both forward and 
+backward."
+"For example, the lowest level of consciousness is Level 0, where an 
+organism is stationary or has limited mobility and creates a model of its 
+place using feedback loops in a few parameters (e.g., temperature). For 
+example, the simplest level of consciousness is a thermostat. It 
+automatically turns on an air conditioner or heater to adjust the 
+temperature in a room, without any help. The key is a feedback loop 
+that turns on a switch if the temperature gets too hot or cold. (For 
+example, metals expand when heated, so a thermostat can turn on a 
+switch if a metal strip expands beyond a certain point.) 
+
+Each feedback loop registers “one unit of consciousness,” so a 
+thermostat would have a single unit of Level 0 consciousness, that is, 
+Level 0:1."
+"In this way, we can rank consciousness numerically, on the basis of 
+the number and complexity of the feedback loops used to create a model 
+of the world. Consciousness is then no longer a vague collection of 
+undefined, circular concepts, but a system of hierarchies that can be 
+ranked numerically. For example, a bacterium or a flower has many 
+more feedback loops, so they would have a higher level of Level 0 
+consciousness. A flower with ten feedback loops (which measure 
+temperature, moisture, sunlight, gravity, etc.), would have a Level 0:10 
+consciousness."
+"Organisms that are mobile and have a central nervous system have 
+Level I consciousness, which includes a new set of parameters to 
+measure their changing location. One example of Level I consciousness 
+would be reptiles. They have so many feedback loops that they 
+developed a central nervous system to handle them. The reptilian brain 
+would have perhaps one hundred or more feedback loops (governing 
+their sense of smell, balance, touch, sound, sight, blood pressure, etc., 
+and each of these contains more feedback loops). For example, eyesight 
+alone involves a large number of feedback loops, since the eye can 
+recognize color, movement, shapes, light intensity, and shadows. 
+Similarly, the reptile’s other senses, such as hearing and taste, require 
+additional feedback loops. The totality of these numerous feedback loops 
+creates a mental picture of where the reptile is located in the world, and 
+where other animals (e.g., prey) are located as well. Level I"
+"where other animals (e.g., prey) are located as well. Level I 
+consciousness, in turn, is governed mainly by the reptilian brain, located 
+in the back and center of the human head."
+"Next we have Level II consciousness, where organisms create a model 
+of their place not only in space but also with respect to others (i.e., they 
+are social animals with emotions). The number of feedback loops for 
+Level II consciousness explodes exponentially, so it is useful to introduce 
+a new numerical ranking for this type of consciousness. Forming allies, 
+detecting enemies, serving the alpha male, etc., are all very complex 
+behaviors requiring a vastly expanded brain, so Level II consciousness 
+coincides with the formation of new structures of the brain in the form 
+of the limbic system. As noted earlier, the limbic system includes the 
+
+hippocampus (for memories), amygdala (for emotions), and the 
+thalamus (for sensory information), all of which provide new parameters 
+for creating models in relation to others. The number and type of 
+feedback loops therefore change."
+"We define the degree of Level II consciousness as the total number of 
+distinct feedback loops required for an animal to interact socially with 
+members of its grouping. Unfortunately, studies of animal consciousness 
+are extremely limited, so little work has been done to catalog all the 
+ways in which animals communicate socially with one another. But to a 
+crude first approximation, we can estimate Level II consciousness by 
+counting the number of fellow animals in its pack or tribe and then 
+listing the total number of ways in which the animal interacts 
+emotionally with each one. This would include recognizing rivals and 
+friends, forming bonds with others, reciprocating favors, building 
+coalitions, understanding your status and the social ranking of others, 
+respecting the status of your superiors, displaying your power over your 
+inferiors, plotting to rise on the social ladder, etc. (We exclude insects 
+from Level II, because although they have social relations with members"
+"from Level II, because although they have social relations with members 
+of their hive or group, they have no emotions as far as we can tell.)"
+"Despite the lack of empirical studies of animal behaviors, we can give 
+a very rough numerical rank to Level II consciousness by listing the total 
+number of distinct emotions and social behaviors that the animal can 
+exhibit. For example, if a wolf pack consists of ten wolves, and each wolf 
+interacts with all the others with fifteen different emotions and gestures, 
+then its level of consciousness, to a first approximation, is given by the 
+product of the two, or 150, so it would have Level 11:150 consciousness. 
+This number takes into account both the number of other animals it has 
+to interact with as well as the number of ways it can communicate with 
+each one. This number only approximates the total number of social 
+interactions that the animal can display, and will undoubtedly change as 
+we learn more about its behavior."
+"(Of course, because evolution is never clean and precise, there are 
+caveats that we have to explain, such as the level of consciousness of 
+social animals that are solitary hunters. We will do so in the notes.) 
+
+LEVEL III CONSCIOUSNESS: SIMULATING THE FUTURE 
+
+With this framework for consciousness, we see that humans are not 
+unique, and that there is a continuum of consciousness. As Charles 
+Darwin once commented, “The difference between man and the higher 
+animals, great as it is, is certainly one of degree and not of kind.” But 
+what separates human consciousness from the consciousness of animals? 
+Humans are alone in the animal kingdom in understanding the concept 
+of tomorrow. Unlike animals, we constantly ask ourselves “What if?” 
+weeks, months, and even years into the future, so I believe that Level III 
+consciousness creates a model of its place in the world and then 
+simulates it into the future, by making rough predictions. We can 
+summarize this as follows:"
+"Human consciousness is a specific form of consciousness that 
+creates a model of the world and then simulates it in time, by 
+evaluating the past to simulate the future. This requires 
+mediating and evaluating many feedback loops in order to 
+make a decision to achieve a goal. 
+
+By the time we reach Level III consciousness, there are so many 
+feedback loops that we need a CEO to sift through them in order to 
+simulate the future and make a final decision. Accordingly, our brains 
+differ from those of other animals, especially in the expanded prefrontal 
+cortex, located just behind the forehead, which allows us to “see” into 
+the future."
+"Dr. Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist, has written, “The greatest 
+achievement of the human brain is its ability to imagine objects and 
+episodes that do not exist in the realm of the real, and it is this ability 
+that allows us to think about the future. As one philosopher noted, the 
+human brain is an ‘anticipation machine,’ and ‘making the future’ is the 
+most important thing it does.” 
+
+Using brain scans, we can even propose a candidate for the precise 
+area of the brain where simulation of the future takes place. Neurologist 
+Michael Gazzaniga notes that “area 10 (the internal granular layer IV), 
+in the lateral prefrontal cortex, is almost twice as large in humans as in 
+apes. Area 10 is involved with memory and planning, cognitive 
+flexibility, abstract thinking, initiating appropriate behavior, and 
+inhibiting inappropriate behavior, learning rules, and picking out"
+"relevant information from what is perceived through the senses.” (For 
+this book, we will refer to this area, in which decision making is 
+concentrated, as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, although there is 
+some overlap with other areas of the brain.) 
+
+Although animals may have a well-defined understanding of their 
+place in space and some have a degree of awareness of others, it is not 
+clear if they systematically plan for the future and have an 
+understanding of “tomorrow.” Most animals, even social animals with 
+well-developed limbic systems, react to situations (e.g., the presence of 
+predators or potential mates) by relying mainly on instinct, rather than 
+systematically planning into the future."
+"For instance, mammals do not plan for the winter by preparing to 
+hibernate, but largely follow instinct as the temperature drops. There is 
+a feedback loop that regulates their hibernation. Their consciousness is 
+dominated by messages coming in from their senses. There is no 
+evidence that they systemically sift through various plans and schemes 
+
+as they prepare to hibernate. Predators, when they use cunning and 
+disguise to stalk an unsuspecting prey, do anticipate future events, but 
+this planning is limited only to instinct and the duration of the hunt. 
+Primates are adept at devising short-term plans (e.g., finding food), but 
+there is no indication that they plan more than a few hours ahead."
+"Humans are different. Although we do rely on instinct and emotions in 
+many situations, we also constantly analyze and evaluate information 
+from many feedback loops. We do this by running simulations sometimes 
+even beyond our own life span and even thousands of years into the 
+future. The point of running simulations is to evaluate various 
+possibilities to make the best decision to fulfill a goal. This occurs in the 
+prefrontal cortex, which allows us to simulate the future and evaluate 
+the possibilities in order to chart the best course of action. 
+
+This ability evolved for several reasons. First, having the ability to 
+peer into the future has enormous evolutionary benefits, such as evading 
+predators and finding food and mates. Second, it allows us to choose 
+among several different outcomes and to select the best one."
+"Third, the number of feedback loops explodes exponentially as we go 
+from Level 0 to Level I to Level II, so we need a “CEO” to evaluate all 
+these conflicting, competing messages. Instinct is no longer enough. 
+There has to be a central body that evaluates each of these feedback 
+
+loops. This distinguishes human consciousness from that of the animals. 
+These feedback loops are evaluated, in turn, by simulating them into the 
+future to obtain the best outcome. If we didn’t have a CEO, chaos would 
+ensue and we would have sensory overload. 
+
+A simple experiment can demonstrate this. David Eagleman describes 
+how you can take a male stickleback fish and have a female fish trespass 
+on its territory. The male gets confused, because it wants to mate with 
+the female, but it also wants to defend its territory. As a result, the male 
+stickleback fish will simultaneously attack the female while initiating 
+courtship behavior. The male is driven into a frenzy, trying to woo and 
+kill the female at the same time."
+"This works for mice as well. Put an electrode in front of a piece of 
+cheese. If the mouse gets too close, the electrode will shock it. One 
+feedback loop tells the mouse to eat the cheese, but another one tells the 
+mouse to stay away and avoid being shocked. By adjusting the location 
+of the electrode, you can get the mouse to oscillate, torn between two 
+conflicting feedback loops. While a human has a CEO in its brain to 
+evaluate the pros and cons of the situation, the mouse, governed by two 
+conflicting feedback loops, goes back and forth. (This is like the proverb 
+about the donkey that starves to death because it is placed between two 
+
+equal bales of hay.)"
+"equal bales of hay.) 
+
+Precisely how does the brain simulate the future? The human brain is 
+flooded by a large amount of sensory and emotional data. But the key is 
+to simulate the future by making causal links between events—that is, if 
+A happens, then B happens. But if B happens, then C and D might result. 
+This sets off a chain reaction of events, eventually creating a tree of 
+possible cascading futures with many branches. The CEO in the 
+prefrontal cortex evaluates the results of these causal trees in order to 
+make the ultimate decision. 
+
+Let’s say you want to rob a bank. How many realistic simulations of 
+this event can you make? To do this, you have to think of the various 
+causal links involving the police, bystanders, alarm systems, relations 
+with fellow criminals, traffic conditions, the DA’s office, etc. For a 
+successful simulation of the robbery, hundreds of causal links may have 
+to be evaluated."
+"It is also possible to measure this level of consciousness numerically. 
+Let’s say that a person is given a series of different situations like the one 
+
+above and is asked to simulate the future of each. The sum total number 
+of causal links that the person can make for all these situations can be 
+tabulated. (One complication is that there are an unlimited number of 
+causal links that a person might make for a variety of conceivable 
+situations. To get around this complication, we divide this number by 
+the average number of causal links obtained from a large control group. 
+Like the IQ exam, one may multiply this number by 100. So a person’s 
+level of consciousness, for example, might be Level 111:100, meaning that 
+the person can simulate future events just like the average person.) 
+
+We summarize these levels of consciousness in the following diagram: 
+
+LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS FOR DIFFERENT SPECIES 
+
+LEVEL 
+
+SPECIES 
+
+PARAMETER 
+
+BRAIN STRUCTURE 
+
+0 
+
+| Plants 
+
+| Temperature, sunshine 
+
+None 
+
+1"
+"SPECIES 
+
+PARAMETER 
+
+BRAIN STRUCTURE 
+
+0 
+
+| Plants 
+
+| Temperature, sunshine 
+
+None 
+
+1 
+
+Reptiles 
+
+j Space 
+
+Brain stem 
+
+II 
+
+| Mammals 
+
+| Social relations 
+
+j Limbic system 
+
+III 
+
+j Humans 
+
+| Time (esp. future) 
+
+j Prefrontal cortex 
+
+Space-time theory of consciousness. We define consciousness as the process of creating a model of the 
+world using 
+multiple feedback loops in various parameters (e.g., in space, time, and in relation to others), in order to
+accomplish a 
+goal. Human consciousness is a particular type that involves mediating between these feedback loops 
+by simulating the 
+
+future and evaluating the past."
+"future and evaluating the past. 
+
+(Notice that these categories correspond to the rough evolutionary 
+levels we find in nature—e.g., reptiles, mammals, and humans. However, 
+there are also gray areas, such as animals that might possess tiny aspects 
+of different levels of consciousness, animals that do some rudimentary 
+planning, or even single cells that communicate with one another. This 
+chart is meant only to give you the larger, global picture of how 
+consciousness is organized across the animal kingdom.) 
+
+WHAT IS HUMOR? WHY DO WE HAVE EMOTIONS? 
+
+All theories have to be falsifiable. The challenge for the space-time 
+theory of consciousness is to explain all aspects of human consciousness"
+"in this framework. It can be falsified if there are patterns of thought that 
+cannot be brought into this theory. A critic might say that surely our 
+sense of humor is so quixotic and ephemeral that it is beyond 
+explanation. We spend a great deal of time laughing with our friends or 
+at comedians, yet it seems that humor has nothing to do with our 
+simulations of the future. But consider this. Much of humor, such as 
+telling a joke, depends on the punch line."
+"When hearing a joke, we can’t help but simulate the future and 
+complete the story ourselves (even if we’re unaware that we’re doing 
+so). We know enough about the physical and social world that we can 
+anticipate the ending, so we burst out with laughter when the punch line 
+gives us a totally unexpected conclusion. The essence of humor is when 
+our simulation of the future is suddenly disrupted in surprising ways. 
+(This was historically important for our evolution since success depends, 
+in part, on our ability to simulate future events. Since life in the jungle is 
+full of unanticipated events, anyone who can foresee unexpected 
+outcomes has a better chance at survival. In this way, having a well- 
+developed sense of humor is actually one indication of our Level III 
+consciousness and intelligence; that is, the ability to simulate the future.)"
+"For example, W. C. Fields was once asked a question about social 
+activities for youth. He was asked, “Do you believe in clubs for young 
+people?” He replied, “Only when kindness fails.” 
+
+The joke has a punch line only because we mentally simulate a future 
+in which children have social clubs, while W. C. Fields simulates a 
+different future involving clubs as a weapon. (Of course, if a joke is 
+deconstructed, it loses its power, since we have already simulated 
+various possible futures in our minds.) 
+
+This also explains what every comedian knows: timing is the key to 
+humor. If the punch line is delivered too quickly, then the brain hasn’t 
+had time to simulate the future, so there is no experience of the 
+unanticipated. If the punch line is delivered too late, the brain has 
+already had time to simulate various possible futures, so again the punch 
+line loses the element of surprise."
+"(Humor has other functions, of course, such as bonding with fellow 
+members of our tribe. In fact, we use our sense of humor as a way to size 
+up the character of others. This, in turn, is essential to determine our 
+status within society. So in addition, laughter helps define our position 
+
+in the social world, i.e., Level II consciousness.) 
+
+WHY DO WE GOSSIP AND PLAY? 
+
+Even seemingly trivial activities, such as engaging in idle gossip or 
+horsing around with our friends, must be explained in this framework. 
+(If a Martian were to visit a supermarket checkout line and view the 
+huge display of gossip magazines, it might conclude that gossip is the 
+main activity of humans. This observation would not be far off.)"
+"Gossiping is essential for survival because the complex mechanics of 
+social interactions are constantly changing, so we have to make sense of 
+this ever-shifting social terrain. This is Level II consciousness at work. 
+But once we hear a piece of gossip, we immediately run simulations to 
+determine how this will affect our own standing in the community, 
+which moves us to Level III consciousness. Thousands of years ago, in 
+fact, gossip was the only way to obtain vital information about the tribe. 
+One’s very life often depended on knowing the latest gossip."
+"Something as superfluous as “play” is also an essential feature of 
+consciousness. If you ask children why they like to play, they will say, 
+“Because it’s fun.” But that invites the next question: What is fun? 
+Actually, when children play, they are often trying to reenact complex 
+human interactions in simplified form. Human society is extremely 
+sophisticated, much too involved for the developing brains of young 
+children, so children run simplified simulations of adult society, playing 
+games such as doctor, cops and robber, and school. Each game is a 
+model that allows children to experiment with a small segment of adult 
+behavior and then run simulations into the future. (Similarly, when 
+adults engage in play, such as a game of poker, the brain constantly 
+creates a model of what cards the various players possess, and then 
+projects that model into the future, using previous data about people’s 
+personality, ability to bluff, etc. The key to games like chess, cards, and"
+"personality, ability to bluff, etc. The key to games like chess, cards, and 
+gambling is the ability to simulate the future. Animals, which live 
+largely in the present, are not as good at games as humans are, 
+especially if they involve planning. Infant mammals do engage in a form 
+of play, but this is more for exercise, testing one another, practicing 
+future battles, and establishing the coming social pecking order rather"
+"than simulating the future.) 
+
+My space-time theory of consciousness might also shed light on 
+
+another controversial topic: intelligence. Although IQ exams claim to 
+measure “intelligence,” IQ exams actually give no definition of 
+intelligence in the first place. In fact, a cynic may claim, with some 
+justification, that IQ is a measure of “how well you do on IQ exams,” 
+which is circular. In addition, IQ exams have been criticized for being 
+too culturally biased. In this new framework, however, intelligence may 
+be viewed as the complexity of our simulations of the future. Hence, a 
+master criminal, who may be a dropout and functionally illiterate and 
+score dismally low on an IQ exam, may also far outstrip the ability of the 
+police. Outwitting the cops may entail simply being able to run more 
+sophisticated simulations of the future. 
+
+LEVEL I: STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"LEVEL I: STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+Humans are probably alone on this planet in being able to operate on all 
+levels of consciousness. Using MRI scans, we can break down the 
+different structures involved in each level of consciousness."
+"For us, Level I stream of consciousness is largely the interplay between 
+the prefrontal cortex and the thalamus. When taking a leisurely stroll in 
+the park, we are aware of the smells of the plants, the sensation of a 
+gentle breeze, the visual stimuli from the sun, and so on. Our senses send 
+signals to the spinal cord, the brain stem, and then to the thalamus, 
+which operates like a relay station, sorting out the stimuli and sending 
+them on to the various cortices of the brain. The images of the park, for 
+example, are sent to the occipital cortex in the back of the brain, while 
+the sense of touch from the wind is sent to the parietal lobe. The signals 
+are processed in appropriate cortices, and then sent to the prefrontal 
+cortex, where we finally become conscious of all these sensations. 
+
+This is illustrated in Figure 7. 
+
+LEVEL II: FINDING OUR PLACE IN SOCIETY"
+"This is illustrated in Figure 7. 
+
+LEVEL II: FINDING OUR PLACE IN SOCIETY 
+
+While Level I consciousness uses sensations to create a model of our 
+physical location in space, Level II consciousness creates a model of our 
+
+place in society. 
+
+Let’s say we are going to an important cocktail party, in which people 
+essential to our job will be present. As we scan the room, trying to 
+identify people from our workplace, there is an intense interplay 
+between the hippocampus (which processes memories), the amygdala 
+(which processes emotions), and the prefrontal cortex (which puts all 
+
+this information together). 
+
+Figure 7. In Level I consciousness, sensory information travels through the brain stem, past the 
+thalamus, onto the various 
+cortices of the brain, and finally to the prefrontal cortex. Thus this stream of Level I consciousness is 
+created by the flow 
+of information from the thalamus to the prefrontal cortex, (illustration credit 2.1)"
+"With each image, the brain automatically attaches an emotion, such as 
+happiness, fear, anger, or jealousy, and processes the emotion in the 
+
+amygdala. 
+
+If you spot your chief rival, whom you suspect of stabbing you in the 
+back, the emotion of fear is processed by the amygdala, which sends an 
+urgent message to the prefrontal cortex, alerting it to possible danger. At 
+the same time, signals are sent to your endocrine system to start 
+pumping adrenaline and other hormones into the blood, thereby 
+increasing your heartbeat and preparing you for a possible fight-or-flight 
+response. 
+
+This is illustrated in Figure 8."
+"This is illustrated in Figure 8. 
+
+But beyond simply recognizing other people, the brain has the 
+uncanny ability to guess what other people are thinking about. This is 
+called the Theory of Mind, a theory first proposed by Dr. David Premack 
+of the University of Pennsylvania, which is the ability to infer the 
+thoughts of others. In any complex society, anyone with the ability to 
+correctly guess the intentions, motives, and plans of other people has a 
+tremendous survival advantage over those who can’t. The Theory of 
+Mind allows you to form alliances with others, isolate your enemies, and 
+solidify your friendships, which vastly increases your power and chances 
+of survival and mating. Some anthropologists even believe that the 
+mastery of the Theory of Mind was essential in the evolution of the 
+brain."
+"Figure 8. Emotions originate and are processed in the limbic system. In Level II consciousness, we are 
+continually 
+bombarded with sensory information, but emotions are rapid-fire responses to emergencies from the 
+limbic system that 
+
+do not need permission from the prefrontal cortex. The hippocampus is also important for processing 
+memories. So Level 
+II consciousness, at its core, involves the reaction of the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex,
+(illustration 
+
+credit 2.2) 
+
+But how is the Theory of Mind accomplished? One clue came in 1996, 
+with the discovery of “mirror neurons” by Drs. Giacomo Rizzolatti, 
+Leonardo Fogassi, and Vittorio Gallese. These neurons fire when you are 
+performing a certain task and also when you see someone else 
+performing that same task. (Mirror neurons also fire for emotions as well 
+as physical acts. If you feel a certain emotion, and think another is 
+feeling that same emotion, then the mirror neurons will fire.)"
+"Mirror neurons are essential for mimicry and also for empathy, giving 
+
+us the ability not only to copy the complex tasks performed by others 
+but also to experience the emotions that person must be feeling. Mirror 
+neurons were thus probably essential for our evolution as human beings, 
+since cooperation is essential for holding the tribe together."
+"Mirror neurons were first found in the premotor areas of monkey 
+brains. But since then, they have been found in humans in the prefrontal 
+cortex. Dr. V. S. Ramachandran believes that mirror neurons were 
+essential in giving us the power of self-awareness and concludes, “I 
+predict that mirror neurons will do for psychology what DNA did for 
+biology: they will provide a unifying framework and help explain a host 
+of mental abilities that have hitherto remained mysterious and 
+inaccessible to experiments.” (We should point out, however, that all 
+scientific results have to be tested and reconfirmed. There is no doubt 
+that certain neurons are performing this crucial behavior involved with 
+empathy, mimicry, etc., but there is some debate about the identity of 
+these mirror neurons. For example, some critics claim that perhaps these 
+behaviors are common to many neurons, and that there is not a single 
+class of neurons dedicated to this behavior.) 
+
+LEVEL III: SIMULATING THE FUTURE"
+"LEVEL III: SIMULATING THE FUTURE 
+
+The highest level of consciousness, which is associated primarily with 
+Homo sapiens, is Level III consciousness, in which we take our model of 
+the world and then run simulations into the future. We do this by 
+analyzing past memories of people and events, and then simulating the 
+
+future by making many causal links to form a “causal” tree. As we look 
+at the various faces at the cocktail party, we begin to ask ourselves 
+simple questions: How can this individual help me? How will the gossip 
+floating in the room play out in the future? Is anyone out to get me? 
+
+Let’s say that you just lost your job and you are desperately looking 
+for a new one. In this case, as you talk to various people at the cocktail 
+party, your mind is feverishly simulating the future with each person 
+you talk to. You ask yourself, How can I impress this person? What 
+topics should I bring out to present my best case? Can he offer me a job?"
+"Figure 9. Simulating the future, the heart of Level III consciousness, is mediated by the dorsolateral 
+prefrontal cortex, the 
+CEO of the brain, with competition between the pleasure center and the orbitofrontal cortex (which acts
+to check our 
+impulses). This roughly resembles the outline given by Freud of the struggle between our conscience 
+and desires. The 
+actual process of simulating the future takes place when the prefrontal cortex accesses the memories of 
+the past in order 
+
+to approximate future events, (illustration credit 2.3)"
+"to approximate future events, (illustration credit 2.3) 
+
+Recent brain scans have shed partial light on how the brain simulates 
+the future. These simulations are done mainly in the dorsolateral 
+prefrontal cortex, the CEO of the brain, using memories of the past. On 
+one hand, simulations of the future may produce outcomes that are 
+desirable and pleasurable, in which case the pleasure centers of the brain 
+light up (in the nucleus accumbens and hypothalamus). On the other 
+hand, these outcomes may also have a downside to them, so the 
+orbitofrontal cortex kicks in to warn us of possible dangers. There is a 
+
+struggle, then, between different parts of the brain concerning the 
+future, which may have desirable and undesirable outcomes. Ultimately 
+it is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that mediates between these and 
+makes the final decisions. (See Figure 9.) (Some neurologists have 
+pointed out that this struggle resembles, in a crude way, the dynamics 
+between Freud’s ego, id, and superego.)"
+"THE MYSTERY OF SELF-AWARENESS 
+
+If the space-time theory of consciousness is correct, then it also gives us 
+a rigorous definition of self-awareness. Instead of vague, circular 
+references, we should be able to give a definition that is testable and 
+useful. We’ll define self-awareness as follows: 
+
+Self-awareness is creating a model of the world and simulating 
+
+the future in which you appear. 
+
+Animals therefore have some self-awareness, since they have to know 
+where they are located if they are going to survive and mate, but it is 
+limited largely by instinct. 
+
+When most animals are placed in front of a mirror, they either ignore 
+it or attack it, not realizing that it is an image of themselves. (This is 
+called the “mirror test,” which goes all the way back to Darwin.) 
+However, animals like elephants, the great apes, bottlenose dolphins, 
+orcas, and European magpies can figure out that the image they see in 
+the mirror represents themselves."
+"Humans, however, take a giant step forward and constantly run future 
+simulations in which we appear as a principal actor. We constantly 
+imagine ourselves faced with different situations—going on a date, 
+applying for a job, changing careers—none of which is determined by 
+instinct. It is extremely difficult to stop your brain from simulating the 
+future, though elaborate methods have been devised (for instance, 
+meditation) to attempt to do so. 
+
+Daydreaming, as an example, consists largely of our acting out 
+different possible futures to attain a goal. Since we pride ourselves in 
+knowing our limitations and strengths, it is not hard to put ourselves 
+
+inside the model and hit the “play” button so we begin to act out 
+hypothetical scenarios, like being an actor in a virtual play. 
+
+WHERE AM “I”?"
+"WHERE AM “I”? 
+
+There is probably a specific part of the brain whose job it is to unify the 
+signals from the two hemispheres to create a smooth, coherent sense of 
+self. Dr. Todd Heatherton, a psychologist at Dartmouth College, believes 
+that this region is located within the prefrontal cortex, in what is called 
+the medial prefrontal cortex. Biologist Dr. Carl Zimmer writes, “The 
+medial prefrontal cortex may play the same role for the self as the 
+hippocampus plays in memory ... [it] could be continually stitching 
+together a sense of who we are.” In other words, this may be the 
+gateway to the concept of “I,” the central region of the brain that fuses, 
+
+integrates, and concocts a unified narrative of who we are. (This does 
+not mean, however, that the medial prefrontal cortext is the homunculus 
+sitting in our brain that controls everything.)"
+"If this theory is true, then the resting brain, when we are idly 
+daydreaming about our friends and ourselves, should be more active 
+than normal, even when other parts of the brain’s sensory regions are 
+quiet. In fact, brain scans bear this out. Dr. Heatherton concludes, “Most 
+of the time we daydream—we think about something that happened to 
+us or what we think about other people. All this involves self-reflection.” 
+
+The space-time theory says that consciousness is cobbled together 
+from many subunits of the brain, each competing with the others to 
+create a model of the world, and yet our consciousness feels smooth and 
+continuous. How can this be, when we all have the feeling that our “self” 
+is uninterrupted and always in charge?"
+"In the previous chapter, we met the plight of split-brain patients, who 
+sometimes struggle with alien hands that literally have a mind of their 
+own. It does appear that there are two centers of consciousness living 
+within the same brain. So how does all this create the sense that we have 
+a unified, cohesive “self’ existing within our brains? 
+
+I asked one person who may have the answer: Dr. Michael Gazzaniga, 
+who has spent several decades studying the strange behavior of split- 
+brain patients. He noticed that the left brain of split-brain patients, when"
+"confronted with the fact that there seem to be two separate centers of 
+consciousness residing in the same skull, would simply make up strange 
+explanations, no matter how silly. He told me that, when presented with 
+an obvious paradox, the left brain will “confabulate” an answer to 
+explain inconvenient facts. Dr. Gazzaniga believes that this gives us the 
+false sense that we are unified and whole. He calls the left brain the 
+“interpreter,” which is constantly thinking up ideas to paper over 
+inconsistencies and gaps in our consciousness."
+"For example, in one experiment, he flashed the word “red” to just the 
+left brain of a patient, and the word “banana” to just the right brain. 
+(Notice that the dominant left brain therefore does not know about the 
+banana.) Then the subject was asked to pick up a pen with his left hand 
+(which is governed by the right brain) and draw a picture. Naturally he 
+drew a picture of a banana. Remember that the right brain could do this, 
+because it had seen the banana, but the left brain had no clue that the 
+banana had been flashed to the right brain. 
+
+Then he was asked why he had drawn the banana. Because only the 
+left brain controls speech, and because the left brain did not know"
+"anything about a banana, the patient should have said, “I don’t know.” 
+Instead he said, “It is easiest to draw with this hand because this hand 
+can pull down easier.” Dr. Gazzaniga noted that the left brain was trying 
+to find some excuse for this inconvenient fact, even though the patient 
+was clueless about why his right hand drew the banana. 
+
+Dr. Gazzaniga concludes, “It is the left hemisphere that engages in the 
+human tendency to find order in chaos, that tries to fit everything into a 
+story and put it into a context. It seems that it is driven to hypothesize 
+about the structure of the world even in the face of evidence that no 
+pattern exists.”"
+"This is where our sense of a unified “self’ comes from. Although 
+consciousness is a patchwork of competing and often contradictory 
+tendencies, the left brain ignores inconsistencies and papers over 
+obvious gaps in order to give us a smooth sense of a single “I.” In other 
+words, the left brain is constantly making excuses, some of them 
+harebrained and preposterous, to make sense of the world. It is 
+constantly asking “Why?” and dreaming up excuses even if the question 
+has no answer. 
+
+(There is probably an evolutionary reason that we evolved our split"
+"(There is probably an evolutionary reason that we evolved our split 
+
+brains. A seasoned CEO will often encourage his aides to take opposing 
+sides of an issue, to encourage thorough and thoughtful debate. 
+Oftentimes, the correct view emerges out of intense interaction with 
+incorrect ideas. Similarly, the two halves of the brain complement each 
+other, offering pessimistic/optimistic or analytical/holistic analysis of 
+the same idea. The two halves of the brain therefore play off each other. 
+Indeed, as we shall see, certain forms of mental illness may arise when 
+this interplay between the two brains goes awry.)"
+"Now that we have a working theory of consciousness, the time has come 
+to utilize it to understand how neuroscience will evolve in the future. 
+There is a vast and remarkable set of experiments now being done in 
+neuroscience that are fundamentally altering the entire scientific 
+landscape. Using the power of electromagnetism, scientists can now 
+probe people’s thoughts, send telepathic messages, telekinetically control 
+objects around us, record memories, and perhaps enhance our 
+intelligence. 
+
+Perhaps the most immediate and practical application of this new 
+technology is something once considered to be hopelessly impossible: 
+telepathy. 
+
+BOOK II MIND OVER MATTER 
+
+The brain, like it or not, is a machine. Scientists have come to 
+that conclusion, not because they are mechanistic killjoys, but 
+because they have amassed evidence that every aspect of 
+consciousness can be tied to the brain. 
+
+—STEVEN PINKER 
+
+3 TELEPATHY A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS"
+"—STEVEN PINKER 
+
+3 TELEPATHY A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS 
+
+Harry Houdini, some historians believe, was the greatest magician 
+who ever lived. His breathtaking escapes from locked, sealed chambers 
+and death-defying stunts left audiences gasping. He could make people 
+disappear and then reemerge in the most unexpected places. And he 
+could read people’s minds. 
+
+Or at least it seemed that way. 
+
+Houdini took pains to explain that everything he did was an illusion, a 
+series of clever sleight-of-hand tricks. Mind reading, he would remind 
+people, was impossible. He was so outraged that unscrupulous magicians 
+would cheat wealthy patrons by performing cheap parlor tricks and 
+seances that he even went around the country exposing fakes by 
+pledging he could duplicate any feat of mind reading performed by these 
+charlatans. He was even on a committee organized by Scientific American 
+that offered a generous reward to anyone who could positively prove 
+they had psychic power. (No one ever picked up the reward.)"
+"Houdini believed that telepathy was impossible. But science is proving 
+Houdini wrong. 
+
+Telepathy is now the subject of intense research at universities around 
+the world, where scientists have already been able to use advanced 
+sensors to read individual words, images, and thoughts in a person’s 
+brain. This could alter the way we communicate with stroke and 
+accident victims who are “locked in” their bodies, unable to articulate 
+their thoughts except through blinks. But that’s just the start. Telepathy 
+might also radically change the way we interact with computers and the 
+outside world. 
+
+Indeed, in a recent “Next 5 in 5 Forecast,” which predicts five 
+revolutionary developments in the next five years, IBM scientists claimed 
+that we will be able to mentally communicate with computers, perhaps 
+
+replacing the mouse and voice commands. This means using the power 
+of the mind to call people on the phone, pay credit card bills, drive cars,"
+"make appointments, create beautiful symphonies and works of art, etc. 
+The possibilities are endless, and it seems that everyone—from computer 
+giants, educators, video game companies, and music studios to the 
+Pentagon—is converging on this technology."
+"True telepathy, found in science-fiction and fantasy novels, is not 
+possible without outside assistance. As we know, the brain is electrical. 
+In general, anytime an electron is accelerated, it gives off 
+electromagnetic radiation. The same holds true for electrons oscillating 
+inside the brain, which broadcasts radio waves. But these signals are too 
+faint to be detected by others, and even if we could perceive these radio 
+waves, it would be difficult to make sense of them. Evolution has not 
+given us the ability to decipher this collection of random radio signals, 
+but computers can. Scientists have been able to get crude 
+approximations of a person’s thoughts using EEG scans. Subjects would 
+put on a helmet with EEG sensors and concentrate on certain pictures— 
+say, the image of a car. The EEG signals were then recorded for each 
+image and eventually a rudimentary dictionary of thought was created, 
+with a one-to-one correspondence between a person’s thoughts and the"
+"with a one-to-one correspondence between a person’s thoughts and the 
+EEG image. Then, when a person was shown a picture of another car, 
+the computer would recognize the EEG pattern as being from a car."
+"The advantage of EEG sensors is that they are noninvasive and quick. 
+You simply put a helmet containing many electrodes onto the surface of 
+the brain and the EEG can rapidly identify signals that change every 
+millisecond. But the problem with EEG sensors, as we have seen, is that 
+electromagnetic waves deteriorate as they pass through the skull, and it 
+is difficult to locate their precise source. This method can tell if you are 
+thinking of a car or a house, but it cannot re-create an image of the car. 
+That is where Dr. Jack Gallant’s work comes in. 
+
+VIDEOS OF THE MIND 
+
+The epicenter for much of this research is the University of California at 
+Berkeley, where I received my own Ph.D. in theoretical physics years 
+ago. I had the pleasure of touring the laboratory of Dr. Gallant, whose 
+group has accomplished a feat once considered to be impossible: 
+videotaping people’s thoughts. “This is a major leap forward 
+
+reconstructing internal imagery. We are opening a window into the"
+"reconstructing internal imagery. We are opening a window into the 
+
+movies in our mind,” says Gallant. 
+
+When I visited his laboratory, the first thing I noticed was the team of 
+young, eager postdoctoral and graduate students huddled in front of 
+their computer screens, looking intently at video images that were 
+reconstructed from someone’s brain scan. Talking to Gallant’s team, you 
+feel as though you are witnessing scientific history in the making."
+"Gallant explained to me that first the subject lies flat on a stretcher, 
+which is slowly inserted headfirst into a huge, state-of-the-art MRI 
+machine, costing upward of $3 million. The subject is then shown 
+several movie clips (such as movie trailers readily available on 
+YouTube). To accumulate enough data, the subject has to sit motionless 
+for hours watching these clips, a truly arduous task. I asked one of the 
+postdocs, Dr. Shinji Nishimoto, how they found volunteers who were 
+willing to lie still for hours on end with only fragments of video footage 
+to occupy the time. He said the people in the room, the grad students 
+and postdocs, volunteered to be guinea pigs for their own research."
+"As the subject watches the movies, the MRI machine creates a 3-D 
+image of the blood flow within the brain. The MRI image looks like a 
+vast collection of thirty thousand dots, or voxels. Each voxel represents a 
+pinpoint of neural energy, and the color of the dot corresponds to the 
+intensity of the signal and blood flow. Red dots represent points of large 
+neural activity, while blue dots represent points of less activity. (The 
+final image looks very much like thousands of Christmas lights in the 
+shape of the brain. Immediately you can see that the brain is 
+concentrating most of its mental energy in the visual cortex, which is 
+located at the back of the brain, while watching these videos.)"
+"Gallant’s MRI machine is so powerful it can identify two to three 
+hundred distinct regions of the brain and, on average, can take snapshots 
+that have one hundred dots per region of the brain. (One goal for future 
+generations of MRI technology is to provide an even sharper resolution 
+by increasing the number of dots per region of the brain.) 
+
+At first, this 3-D collection of colored dots looks like gibberish. But 
+after years of research, Dr. Gallant and his colleagues have developed a 
+mathematical formula that begins to find relationships between certain 
+features of a picture (edges, textures, intensity, etc.) and the MRI voxels. 
+For example, if you look at a boundary, you’ll notice it’s a region"
+"separating lighter and darker areas, and hence the edge generates a 
+certain pattern of voxels. By having subject after subject view such a 
+large library of movie clips, this mathematical formula is refined, 
+allowing the computer to analyze how all sorts of images are converted 
+into MRI voxels. Eventually the scientists were able to ascertain a direct 
+
+correlation between certain MRI patterns of voxels and features within 
+each picture."
+"correlation between certain MRI patterns of voxels and features within 
+each picture. 
+
+At this point, the subject is then shown another movie trailer. The 
+computer analyzes the voxels generated during this viewing and re¬ 
+creates a rough approximation of the original image. (The computer 
+selects images from one hundred movie clips that most closely resemble 
+the one that the subject just saw and then merges images to create a 
+close approximation.) In this way, the computer is able to create a fuzzy 
+video of the visual imagery going through your mind. Dr. Gallant’s 
+mathematical formula is so versatile that it can take a collection of MRI 
+voxels and convert it into a picture, or it can do the reverse, taking a 
+picture and then converting it to MRI voxels."
+"I had a chance to view the video created by Dr. Gallant’s group, and it 
+was very impressive. Watching it was like viewing a movie with faces, 
+animals, street scenes, and buildings through dark glasses. Although you 
+could not see the details within each face or animal, you could clearly 
+identify the kind of object you were seeing."
+"Not only can this program decode what you are looking at, it can also 
+decode imaginary images circulating in your head. Let’s say you are 
+asked to think of the Mona Lisa. We know from MRI scans that even 
+though you’re not viewing the painting with your eyes, the visual cortex 
+of your brain will light up. Dr. Gallant’s program then scans your brain 
+while you are thinking of the Mona Lisa and flips through its data files of 
+pictures, trying to find the closest match. In one experiment I saw, the 
+computer selected a picture of the actress Salma Hayek as the closest 
+approximation to the Mona Lisa. Of course, the average person can easily 
+recognize hundreds of faces, but the fact that the computer analyzed an 
+image within a person’s brain and then picked out this picture from 
+millions of random pictures at its disposal is still impressive."
+"The goal of this whole process is to create an accurate dictionary that 
+allows you to rapidly match an object in the real world with the MRI 
+pattern in your brain. In general, a detailed match is very difficult and 
+
+will take years, but some categories are actually easy to read just by 
+flipping through some photographs. Dr. Stanislas Dehaene of the College 
+de France in Paris was examining MRI scans of the parietal lobe, where 
+numbers are recognized, when one of his postdocs casually mentioned 
+that just by quickly scanning the MRI pattern, he could tell what number 
+the subject was looking at. In fact, certain numbers created distinctive 
+patterns on the MRI scan. He notes, “If you take 200 voxels in this area, 
+and look at which of them are active and which are inactive, you can 
+construct a machine-learning device that decodes which number is being 
+held in memory.”"
+"This leaves open the question of when we might be able to have 
+picture-quality videos of our thoughts. Unfortunately, information is lost 
+when a person is visualizing an image. Brain scans corroborate this. 
+When you compare the MRI scan of the brain as it is looking at a flower 
+to an MRI scan as the brain is thinking about a flower, you immediately 
+see that the second image has far fewer dots than the first. So although 
+this technology will vastly improve in the coming years, it will never be 
+perfect. (I once read a short story in which a man meets a genie who 
+offers to create anything that the person can imagine. The man 
+immediately asks for a luxury car, a jet plane, and a million dollars. At 
+first, the man is ecstatic. But when he looks at these items in detail, he 
+sees that the car and the plane have no engines, and the image on the 
+cash is all blurred. Everything is useless. This is because our memories 
+are only approximations of the real thing.)"
+"But given the rapidity with which scientists are beginning to decode 
+the MRI patterns in the brain, will we soon be able to actually read 
+words and thoughts circulating in the mind? 
+
+READING THE MIND 
+
+In fact, in a building next to Gallant’s laboratory, Dr. Brian Pasley and 
+his colleagues are literally reading thoughts—at least in principle. One of 
+the postdocs there, Dr. Sara Szczepanski, explained to me how they are 
+able to identify words inside the mind. 
+
+The scientists used what is called ECOG (electrocorticogram) 
+technology, which is a vast improvement over the jumble of signals that 
+
+EEG scans produce. ECOG scans are unprecedented in accuracy and 
+resolution, since signals are directly recorded from the brain and do not 
+pass through the skull. The flipside is that one has to remove a portion 
+of the skull to place a mesh, containing sixty-four electrodes in an eight- 
+by-eight grid, directly on top of the exposed brain."
+"Luckily they were able to get permission to conduct experiments with 
+ECOG scans on epileptic patients, who were suffering from debilitating 
+seizures. The ECOG mesh was placed on the patients’ brains while open- 
+brain surgery was being performed by doctors at the nearby University 
+of California at San Francisco. 
+
+As the patients hear various words, signals from their brains pass 
+through the electrodes and are then recorded. Eventually a dictionary is 
+formed, matching the word with the signals emanating from the 
+
+electrodes in the brain. Later, when a word is uttered, one can see the 
+same electrical pattern. This correspondence also means that if one is 
+thinking of a certain word, the computer can pick up the characteristic 
+signals and identify it."
+"With this technology, it might be possible to have a conversation that 
+takes place entirely telepathically. Also, stroke victims who are totally 
+paralyzed may be able to “talk” through a voice synthesizer that 
+recognizes the brain patterns of individual words. 
+
+Not surprisingly, BMI (brain-machine interface) has become a hot 
+field, with groups around the country making significant breakthroughs. 
+Similar results were obtained by scientists at the University of Utah in 
+2011. They placed grids, each containing sixteen electrodes, over the 
+facial motor cortex (which controls movements of the mouth, lips, 
+tongue, and face) and Wernicke’s area, which processes information 
+about language."
+"The person was then asked to say ten common words, such as “yes” 
+and “no,” “hot” and “cold,” “hungry” and “thirsty,” “hello” and “good¬ 
+bye,” and “more” and “less.” Using a computer to record the brain 
+signals when these words were uttered, the scientists were able to create 
+a rough one-to-one correspondence between spoken words and computer 
+signals from the brain. Later, when the patient voiced certain words, 
+they were able to correctly identify each one with an accuracy ranging 
+from 76 percent to 90 percent. The next step is to use grids with 121 
+electrodes to get better resolution. 
+
+In the future, this procedure may prove useful for individuals suffering 
+from strokes or paralyzing illnesses such as Lou Gehrig’s disease, who 
+would be able to speak using the brain-to-computer technique. 
+
+TYPING WITH THE MIND"
+"TYPING WITH THE MIND 
+
+At the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Dr. Jerry Shih has hooked up epileptic 
+patients via ECOG sensors so they can learn how to type with the mind. 
+The calibration of this device is simple. The patient is first shown a 
+series of letters and is told to focus mentally on each symbol. A 
+computer records the signals emanating from the brain as it scans each 
+letter. As with the other experiments, once this one-to-one dictionary is 
+created, it is then a simple matter for the person to merely think of the 
+letter and for the letter to be typed on a screen, using only the power of 
+the mind. 
+
+Dr. Shih, the leader of this project, says that the accuracy of his 
+
+machine is nearly 100 percent. Dr. Shih believes that he can next create 
+a machine to record images, not just words, that patients conceive in 
+their minds. This could have applications for artists and architects, but 
+the big drawback of ECOG technology, as we have mentioned, is that it 
+requires opening up patients’ brains."
+"Meanwhile, EEG typewriters, because they are noninvasive, are 
+entering the marketplace. They are not as accurate or precise as ECOG 
+typewriters, but they have the advantage that they can be sold over the 
+counter. Guger Technologies, based in Austria, recently demonstrated an 
+EEG typewriter at a trade show. According to their officials, it takes only 
+ten minutes or so for people to learn how to use this machine, and they 
+can then type at the rate of five to ten words per minute. 
+
+TELEPATHIC DICTATION AND MUSIC 
+
+The next step might be to transmit entire conversations, which could 
+rapidly speed up telepathic transmission. The problem, however, is that 
+it would require making a one-to-one map between thousands of words 
+and their EEG, MRI, or ECOG signals. But if one can, for example, 
+identify the brain signals of several hundred select words, then one"
+"might be able to rapidly transmit words found in a common 
+conversation. This means that one would think of the words in entire 
+sentences and paragraphs of a conversation and a computer would print 
+them out. 
+
+This could be extremely useful for journalists, writers, novelists, and 
+poets, who could simply think and have a computer take dictation. The 
+computer would also become a mental secretary. You would mentally 
+give instructions to the robo-secretary about a dinner, plane trip, or 
+vacation, and it would fill in all the details about the reservations."
+"Not only dictation but also music may one day be transcribed in this 
+way. Musicians would simply hum a few melodies in their head and a 
+computer would print them out, in musical notation. To do this, you 
+would ask someone to mentally hum a series of notes, which would 
+generate certain electrical signals for each one. A dictionary would again 
+be created in this way, so that when you think of a musical note, the 
+computer would print it out in musical notation. 
+
+In science fiction, telepaths often communicate across language 
+barriers, since thoughts are considered to be universal. However, this 
+might not be true. Emotions and feelings may well be nonverbal and 
+universal, so that one could telepathically send them to anyone, but 
+
+rational thinking is so closely tied to language that it is very unlikely 
+that complex thoughts could be sent across language barriers. Words will 
+still be sent telepathically in their original language. 
+
+TELEPATHY HELMETS"
+"TELEPATHY HELMETS 
+
+In science fiction, we also often encounter telepathy helmets. Put them 
+on, and—presto!—you can read other people’s minds. The U.S. Army, in 
+fact, has expressed interest in this technology. In a firefight, with 
+explosions going off and bullets whizzing overhead, a telepathy helmet 
+could be a lifesaver, since it can be difficult to communicate orders amid 
+the sound and fury of the battlefield. (I can personally testify to this. 
+Years ago, during the Vietnam War, I served in the U.S. Infantry at Fort 
+Benning, outside Atlanta, Georgia. During machine-gun training, the 
+sound of hand grenades and rounds of bullets going off on the battlefield 
+next to my ear was deafening; it was so intense I could not hear anything 
+
+else. Later, there was a loud ringing in my ear that lasted for three full 
+days.) With a telepathy helmet, a soldier could mentally communicate 
+with his platoon amid all the thunder and noise."
+"Recently, the army gave a $6.3 million grant to Dr. Gerwin Schalk at 
+Albany Medical College, but it knows that a fully functional telepathy 
+helmet is still years away. Dr. Schalk experiments with ECOG 
+technology, which, as we have seen, requires placing a mesh of 
+electrodes directly on top of the exposed brain. With this method, his 
+computers have been able to recognize vowels and thirty-six individual 
+words inside the thinking brain. In some of his experiments, he 
+approached 100 percent accuracy. But at present, this is still impractical 
+for the U.S. Army, since it requires removing part of the skull in the 
+clean, sterile environment of a hospital. And even then, recognizing 
+vowels and a handful of words is a far cry from sending urgent messages 
+to headquarters in a firefight. But his ECOG experiments have 
+demonstrated that it is possible to communicate mentally on the 
+battlefield."
+"Another method is being explored by Dr. David Poeppel of New York 
+University. Instead of opening up the skulls of his subjects, he employs 
+MEG technology, using tiny bursts of magnetic energy rather than 
+electrodes to create electrical charges in the brain. Besides being 
+noninvasive, the advantage of MEG technology is that it can precisely 
+measure fleeting neural activity, in contrast to the slower MRI scans. In 
+his experiments, Poeppel has been able to successfully record electrical 
+activity in the auditory cortex when people think silently of a certain 
+word. But the drawback is that this recording still requires the use of 
+
+large, table-size machines to generate a magnetic pulse. 
+
+Obviously, one wants a method that is noninvasive, portable, and 
+accurate. Dr. Poeppel hopes his work with MEG technology will 
+complement the work being done using EEG sensors. But true telepathy 
+helmets are still many years away, because MEG and EEG scans lack 
+accuracy. 
+
+MRI IN A CELL PHONE"
+"MRI IN A CELL PHONE 
+
+At present, we are hindered by the relatively crude nature of the existing 
+
+instruments. But, as time goes by, more and more sophisticated 
+instruments will probe deeper into the mind. The next big breakthrough 
+may be MRI machines that are handheld."
+"The reason why MRI machines have to be so huge right now is that 
+one needs a uniform magnetic field to get good resolution. The larger 
+the magnet, the more uniform one can make the field, and the better 
+accuracy one finds in the final pictures. However, physicists know the 
+exact mathematical properties of magnetic fields (they were worked out 
+by physicist James Clerk Maxwell back in the 1860S). In 1993 in 
+Germany, Dr. Bernhard Bliimich and his colleagues created the world’s 
+smallest MRI machine, which is the size of a briefcase. It uses a weak 
+and distorted magnetic field, but supercomputers can analyze the 
+magnetic field and correct for this so that the device produces realistic 3- 
+D pictures. Since computer power doubles roughly every two years, they 
+are now powerful enough to analyze the magnetic field created by the 
+briefcase-sized device and compensate for its distortion."
+"As a demonstration of their machine, in 2006 Dr. Bliimich and his 
+colleagues were able to take MRI scans of Otzi, the “Iceman,” who was 
+frozen in ice about 5,300 years ago toward the end of the last ice age. 
+Because Otzi was frozen in an awkward position, with his arms spread 
+apart, it was difficult to cram him inside the small cylinder of a 
+conventional MRI machine, but Dr. Bliimich’s portable machine easily 
+took MRI photographs. 
+
+These physicists estimate that, with increasing computer power, an 
+MRI machine of the future might be the size of a cell phone. The raw 
+data from this cell phone would be sent wirelessly to a supercomputer, 
+which would process the data from the weak magnetic field and then 
+create a 3-D image. (The weakness of the magnetic field is compensated 
+for by the increase in computer power.) This then could vastly accelerate 
+research. “Perhaps something like the Star Trek tricorder is not so far off"
+"after all,” Dr. Bliimich has said. (The tricorder is a small, handheld 
+scanning device that gives an instant diagnosis of any illness.) In the 
+future, you may have more computer power in your medicine cabinet 
+than there is in a modern university hospital today. Instead of waiting to 
+get permission from a hospital or university to use an expensive MRI 
+machine, you could gather data in your own living room by simply 
+waving the portable MRI over yourself and then e-mailing the results to 
+
+a lab for analysis."
+"a lab for analysis. 
+
+It could also mean that, at some point in the future, an MRI telepathy 
+helmet might be possible, with vastly better resolution than an EEG 
+scan. Here is how it may work in the coming decades. Inside the helmet, 
+there would be electromagnetic coils to produce a weak magnetic field 
+and radio pulses that probe the brain. The raw MRI signals would then 
+be sent to a pocketsize computer placed in your belt. The information 
+would then be radioed to a server located far from the battlefield. The 
+final processing of the data would be done by a supercomputer in a 
+distant city. Then the message would be radioed back to your troops on 
+the battlefield. The troops would hear the message either through 
+speakers or through electrodes placed in the auditory cortex of their 
+brains. 
+
+DARPA AND HUMAN ENHANCEMENT"
+"DARPA AND HUMAN ENHANCEMENT 
+
+Given the costs of all this research, it is legitimate to ask: Who is paying 
+for it? Private companies have only recently shown interest in this 
+cutting-edge technology, but it’s still a big gamble for many of them to 
+fund research that may never pay off. Instead, one of the main backers is 
+DARPA, the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, 
+which has spearheaded some of the most important technologies of the 
+twentieth century. 
+
+DARPA was originally set up by President Dwight Eisenhower after 
+the Russians sent Sputnik into orbit in 1957 and shocked the world. 
+Realizing that the United States might quickly be outpaced by the 
+Soviets in high technology, Eisenhower hastily established this agency to 
+keep the country competitive with the Russians. Over the years, the 
+numerous projects it started grew so large that they became independent 
+entities by themselves. One of its first spinoffs was NASA."
+"DARPA’s strategic plan reads like something from science fiction: its 
+“only charter is radical innovation.” The only justification for its 
+existence is “to accelerate the future into being.” DARPA scientists are 
+constantly pushing the boundaries of what is physically possible. As 
+
+former DARPA official Michael Goldblatt says, they try not to violate the 
+laws of physics, “or at least not knowingly. Or at least not more than one 
+
+per program.”"
+"per program.” 
+
+But what separates DARPA from science fiction is its track record, 
+which is truly astounding. One of its early projects in the 1960s was 
+Arpanet, which was a war-fighting telecommunications network that 
+would electronically connect scientists and officials during and after 
+World War III. In 1989, the National Science Foundation decided that, in 
+light of the breakup of the Soviet bloc, it was unnecessary to keep it a 
+secret, so it declassified this hush-hush military technology and 
+essentially gave codes and blueprints away for free. Arpanet would 
+eventually become the Internet. 
+
+When the U.S. Air Force needed a way to guide its ballistic missiles in 
+space, DARPA helped create Project 57, a top-secret project that was 
+designed to place H-bombs on hardened Soviet missile silos in a 
+thermonuclear exchange. It would later become the foundation for the 
+Global Positioning System (GPS). Instead of guiding missiles, today it 
+guides lost motorists."
+"DARPA has been a key player in a series of inventions that have 
+altered the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including cell phones, 
+night-vision goggles, telecommunications advances, and weather 
+satellites. I have had a chance to interact with DARPA scientists and 
+officials on several occasions. I once had lunch with one of the agency’s 
+former directors at a reception filled with many scientists and futurists. I 
+asked him a question that had always bothered me: Why do we have to 
+rely on dogs to sniff our luggage for the presence of high explosives? 
+Surely our sensors are sensitive enough to pick up the telltale signature 
+of explosive chemicals. He replied that DARPA had actively looked into 
+this same question but had come up against some severe technical 
+problems. The olfactory sensors of dogs, he said, had evolved over 
+millions of years to be able to detect a handful of molecules, and that 
+kind of sensitivity is extremely difficult to match, even with our most"
+"kind of sensitivity is extremely difficult to match, even with our most 
+finely tuned sensors. It’s likely that we will continue to rely on dogs at 
+airports for the foreseeable future."
+"On another occasion, a group of DARPA physicists and engineers came 
+to a talk I gave about the future of technology. Later I asked them if they 
+had any concerns of their own. One concern, they said, was their public 
+image. Most people have never heard of DARPA, but some link it to 
+dark, nefarious government conspiracies, everything from UFO cover- 
+
+ups, Area 51, and Roswell to weather control, etc. They sighed. If only 
+these rumors were true, they could certainly use help from alien 
+technology to jump-start their research!"
+"With a budget of $3 billion, DARPA has now set its sights on the 
+brain-machine interface. When discussing the potential applications, 
+former DARPA official Michael Goldblatt pushes the boundary of the 
+imagination. He says, “Imagine if soldiers could communicate by 
+thought alone.... Imagine the threat of biological attack being 
+inconsequential. And contemplate, for a moment, a world in which 
+learning is as easy as eating, and the replacement of damaged body parts 
+as convenient as a fast-food drive-through. As impossible as these visions 
+sound or as difficult as you might think the task would be, these visions 
+are the everyday work of the Defense Sciences Office [a branch of 
+DARPA].”"
+"Goldblatt believes that historians will conclude that the long-term 
+legacy of DARPA will be human enhancement, “our future historical 
+strength.” He notes that the famous army slogan “Be All You Can Be” 
+takes on a new meaning when contemplating the implications of human 
+enhancement. Perhaps it is no accident that Michael Goldblatt is pushing 
+human enhancement so vigorously at DARPA. His own daughter suffers 
+from cerebral palsy and has been confined to a wheelchair all her life. 
+Since she requires outside help, her illness has slowed her down, but she 
+has always risen above adversity. She is going to college and dreaming 
+of starting her own company. Goldblatt acknowledges that his daughter 
+is his inspiration. As Washington Post editor Joel Garreau has noted, 
+“What he is doing is spending untold millions of dollars to create what 
+might well be the next step in human evolution. And yet, it has occurred 
+to him that the technology he is helping create might someday allow his"
+"to him that the technology he is helping create might someday allow his 
+daughter not just to walk, but to transcend.”"
+"PRIVACY ISSUES 
+
+When hearing of mind-reading machines for the first time, the average 
+person might be concerned about privacy. The idea that a machine 
+concealed somewhere may be reading our intimate thoughts without our 
+permission is unnerving. Human consciousness, as we have stressed, 
+
+involves constantly running simulations of the future. In order for these 
+simulations to be accurate, we sometimes imagine scenarios that wade 
+into immoral or illegal territory, but whether or not we act on these 
+plans, we prefer to keep them private. 
+
+For scientists, life would be easier if they could simply read people’s 
+
+thoughts from a distance using portable devices (rather than by using 
+clumsy helmets or surgically opening up the skull), but the laws of 
+physics make this exceedingly difficult."
+"When I asked Dr. Nishimoto, who works in Dr. Gallant’s Berkeley lab, 
+about the question of privacy, he smiled and replied that radio signals 
+degrade quite rapidly outside the brain, so these signals would be too 
+diffuse and weak to make any sense to anyone standing more than a few 
+feet away. (In school, we learned about Newton’s laws and that gravity 
+diminishes as the square of the distance, so that if you doubled your 
+distance from a star, the gravity field diminishes by a factor of four. But 
+magnetic fields diminish much faster than the square of the distance. 
+Most signals decrease by the cube or quartic of the distance, so if you 
+double the distance from an MRI machine, the magnetic field goes down 
+by a factor of eight or more.)"
+"Furthermore, there would be interference from the outside world, 
+which would mask the faint signals coming from the brain. This is one 
+reason why scientists require strict laboratory conditions to do their 
+work, and even then they are able to extract only a few letters, words, or 
+images from the thinking brain at any given time. The technology is not 
+adequate to record the avalanche of thoughts that often circulate in our 
+brain as we simultaneously consider several letters, words, phrases, or 
+sensory information, so using these devices for mind reading as seen in 
+the movies is not possible today, and won’t be for decades to come."
+"For the foreseeable future, brain scans will continue to require direct 
+access to the human brain in laboratory conditions. But in the highly 
+unlikely event that someone in the future finds a way to read thoughts 
+from a distance, there are still countermeasures you can take. To keep 
+your most important thoughts private, you might use a shield to block 
+brain waves from entering the wrong hands. This can be done with 
+something called a Faraday cage, invented by the great British physicist 
+Michael Faraday in 1836, although the effect was first observed by 
+Benjamin Franklin. Basically, electricity will rapidly disperse around a"
+"metal cage, such that the electric field inside the cage is zero. To 
+demonstrate this, physicists (like myself) have entered a metallic cage on 
+which huge electrical bolts are fired. Miraculously, we are unscratched. 
+This is why airplanes can be hit by lightning bolts and not suffer 
+damage, and why cable wires are covered with metallic threads. 
+Similarly, a telepathy shield would consist of thin metal foil placed 
+around the brain. 
+
+TELEPATHY VIA NANOPROBES IN THE BRAIN"
+"TELEPATHY VIA NANOPROBES IN THE BRAIN 
+
+There is another way to partially solve the privacy issue, as well as the 
+difficulty of placing ECOG sensors into the brain. In the future, it may be 
+possible to exploit nanotechnology, the ability to manipulate individual 
+atoms, to insert a web of nanoprobes into the brain that can tap into 
+your thoughts. These nanoprobes might be made of carbon nanotubes, 
+which conduct electricity and are as thin as the laws of atomic physics 
+allow. These nanotubes are made of individual carbon atoms arrayed in 
+a tube a few molecules thick. (They are the subject of intense scientific 
+interest, and are expected in the coming decades to revolutionize the 
+way scientists probe the brain.)"
+"The nanoprobes would be placed precisely in those areas of the brain 
+devoted to certain activities. In order to convey speech and language, 
+they would be placed in the left temporal lobes. In order to process 
+visual images, they would be placed in the thalamus and visual cortex. 
+Emotions would be sent via nanoprobes in the amygdala and limbic 
+system. The signals from these nanoprobes would be sent to a small 
+computer, which would process the signals and wirelessly send 
+information to a server and then the Internet. 
+
+Privacy issues would be partially solved, since you would completely 
+control when your thoughts are being sent over cables or the Internet. 
+Radio signals can be detected by any bystander with a receiver, but 
+electrical signals sent along a cable cannot. The problem of opening up 
+the skull to use messy ECOG meshes is also solved, because the 
+nanoprobes can be inserted via microsurgery."
+"Some science-fiction writers have conjectured that when babies are 
+born in the future, these nanoprobes might be painlessly implanted, so 
+
+that telepathy becomes a way of life for them. In Star Trek, for example, 
+implants are routinely placed into the children of the Borg at birth so 
+that they can telepathically communicate with others. These children 
+cannot imagine a world where telepathy does not exist. They take it for 
+granted that telepathy is the norm. 
+
+Because these nanoprobes are tiny, they would be invisible to the 
+outside world, so there would be no social ostracism. Although society 
+might be repulsed at the idea of inserting probes permanently into the 
+brain, these science-fiction writers assume that people will get used to 
+the idea because the nanoprobes would be so useful, just like test-tube 
+babies have been accepted by society today after the initial controversy 
+surrounding them. 
+
+LEGAL ISSUES"
+"LEGAL ISSUES 
+
+For the foreseeable future, the question is not whether someone will be 
+able to read our thoughts secretly from a remote, concealed device, but 
+whether we will willingly allow our thoughts to be recorded. What 
+happens, then, if some unscrupulous person gets unauthorized access to 
+those files? This raises the issue of ethics, since we would not want our 
+thoughts to be read against our will. Dr. Brian Pasley says, “There are 
+ethical concerns, not with the current research, but with the possible 
+extensions of it. There has to be a balance. If we are somehow able to 
+decode someone’s thoughts instantaneously that might have great 
+benefits for the thousands of severely disabled people who are unable to 
+communicate right now. On the other hand, there are great concerns if 
+this were applied to people who didn’t want that.”"
+"Once it becomes possible to read people’s minds and make recordings, 
+a host of other ethical and legal questions will arise. This happens 
+whenever any new technology is introduced. Historically it often takes 
+years before the law is fully able to address their implications. 
+
+For instance, copyright laws may have to be rewritten. What happens 
+if someone steals your invention by reading your thoughts? Can you 
+patent your thoughts? Who actually owns the idea? 
+
+Another problem occurs if the government is involved. As John Perry 
+Barlow, poet and lyricist for the Grateful Dead, once said, “Relying on"
+"the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to 
+install your window blinds.” Would the police be allowed to read your 
+thoughts when you are being interrogated? Already courts have been 
+ruling on cases where an alleged criminal refused to submit his DNA as 
+evidence. In the future, will the government be allowed to read your 
+thoughts without your consent, and if so, will they be admissible in 
+court? How reliable would they be? In the same way that MRI lie 
+detectors measure only increased brain activity, it’s important to note 
+that thinking about a crime and actually committing one are two 
+different things. During cross-examination, a defense lawyer might argue 
+that these thoughts were just random musings and nothing more."
+"Another gray area concerns the rights of people who are paralyzed. If 
+they are drafting a will or legal document, can a brain scan be sufficient 
+to create a legal document? Assume that a totally paralyzed person has a 
+sharp, active mind and wants to sign a contract or manage his funds. Are 
+these documents legal, given that the technology may not be perfect? 
+
+There is no law of physics that can resolve these ethical questions. 
+Ultimately, as this technology matures, these issues will have to be 
+
+settled in court by judges and juries."
+"settled in court by judges and juries. 
+
+Meanwhile, governments and corporations might have to invent new 
+ways to prevent mental espionage. Industrial espionage is already a 
+multimillion-dollar industry, with governments and corporations 
+building expensive “safe rooms” that have been scanned for bugs and 
+listening devices. In the future (assuming that a method can be devised 
+to listen to brain waves from a distance), safe rooms may have to be 
+designed so that brain signals are not accidentally leaked to the outside 
+world. These safe rooms would be surrounded by metallic walls, which 
+would form a Faraday cage shielding the interior of the room from the 
+outside world."
+"Every time a new form of radiation has been exploited, spies have 
+tried to use it for espionage, and brain waves are probably no exception. 
+The most famous case involved a tiny microwave device hidden in the 
+Great Seal of the United States in the U.S. embassy in Moscow. From 
+1945 until 1952, it was transmitting top-secret messages from U.S. 
+diplomats directly to the Soviets. Even during the Berlin Crisis of 1948 
+and the Korean War, the Soviets used this bug to decipher what the 
+United States was planning. It might have continued to leak secrets even"
+"today, changing the course of the Cold War and world history, but it was 
+accidentally discovered when a British engineer heard secret 
+conversations on an open radio band. U.S. engineers were shocked when 
+they picked apart the bug; they failed to detect it for years because it 
+was passive, requiring no energy source. (The Soviets cleverly evaded 
+detection because the bug was energized by microwave beams from a 
+remote source.) It is possible that future espionage devices will be made 
+to intercept brain waves as well. 
+
+Although much of this technology is still primitive, telepathy is slowly 
+becoming a fact of life. In the future, we may interact with the world via 
+the mind. But scientists want to go beyond just reading the mind, which 
+is passive. They want to take an active role—to move objects with the 
+mind. Telekinesis is a power usually ascribed to the gods. It is the divine 
+power to shape reality to your wishes. It is the ultimate expression of our 
+thoughts and desires."
+"We will soon have it. 
+
+It is the business of the future to be dangerous.... The major 
+advances in civilization are processes that all but wreck the 
+societies in which they occur. 
+
+—ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD 
+
+4 TELEKINESIS MIND CONTROLLING MATTER 
+
+Cathy Hutchinson is trapped inside her body. 
+
+She was paralyzed fourteen years ago by a massive stroke. A 
+quadriplegic, she is like thousands of “locked-in” patients who have lost 
+control over most of their muscles and bodily functions. Most of the day, 
+she lies helpless, requiring continual nursing care, yet her mind is clear. 
+She is a prisoner in her own body."
+"But in May 2012, her fortunes changed radically. Scientists at Brown 
+University placed a tiny chip on top of her brain, called Braingate, which 
+is connected by wires to a computer. Signals from her brain are relayed 
+through the computer to a mechanical robotic arm. By simply thinking, 
+she gradually learns to control the motion of the arm so that it can, for 
+instance, grab a bottled drink and bring it to her mouth. For the first 
+time, she is able to have some control of the world around her."
+"Because she is paralyzed and cannot talk, she had to communicate her 
+excitement by making eye movements. A device tracks her eyes and then 
+translates her movements into a typed message. When she was asked 
+how she felt, after years of being imprisoned inside a shell called her 
+body, she replied, “Ecstatic!” Looking forward to the day when her other 
+limbs are connected to her brain via computer, she added, “I would love 
+to have a robotic leg support.” Before her stroke, she loved to cook and 
+tend her garden. “I know that someday this will happen again,” she 
+added. At the rate at which the field of cyber prosthetics is moving, she 
+might have her wish soon."
+"Professor John Donoghue and his colleagues at Brown University and 
+also at the University of Utah have created a tiny sensor that acts like a 
+bridge to the outside world for those who can no longer communicate. 
+When I interviewed him, he told me, “We have taken a tiny sensor, the 
+size of a baby aspirin, or four millimeters, and implanted it onto the 
+surface of the brain. Because of ninety-six little ‘hairs’ or electrodes that 
+pick up brain impulses, it can pick up signals of your intention to move 
+
+your arm. We target the arm because of its importance.” Because the 
+motor cortex has been carefully mapped over the decades, it is possible 
+to place the chip directly on top of the neurons that control specific 
+limbs."
+"The key to Braingate lies in translating neural signals from the chip 
+into meaningful commands that can move objects in the real world, 
+starting with the cursor of a computer screen. Donoghue told me that he 
+does this by asking the patient to imagine moving the cursor of a 
+computer screen in a certain way, e.g., moving it to the right. It takes 
+only a few minutes to record the brain signals corresponding to this task. 
+In this way, the computer recognizes that whenever it detects a brain 
+signal like that, it should move the cursor to the right. 
+
+Then, whenever that person thinks of moving the cursor to the right, 
+the computer actually moves the cursor in that direction. In this way, 
+there is a one-to-one map between certain actions that the patient 
+imagines and the actual action itself. A patient can immediately start to 
+control the movement of the cursor, practically on the first try."
+"Braingate opens the door to a new world of neuroprosthetics, allowing 
+a paralyzed person to move artificial limbs with the mind. In addition, it 
+lets the patient communicate directly with their loved ones. The first 
+version of this chip, tested in 2004, was designed so that paralyzed 
+patients could communicate with a laptop computer. Soon afterward, 
+these patients were surfing the web, reading and writing e-mails, and 
+controlling their wheelchairs. 
+
+More recently, the cosmologist Stephen Hawking had a 
+neuroprosthetic device attached to his glasses. Like an EEG sensor, it can 
+connect his thoughts to a computer so that he can maintain some contact 
+with the outside world. It is rather primitive, but eventually devices 
+similar to it will become much more sophisticated, with more channels 
+and greater sensitivity."
+"All this, Dr. Donoghue told me, could have a profound impact on the 
+lives of these patients: “Another useful thing is that you can connect this 
+computer to any device—a toaster, a coffee maker, an air conditioner, a 
+light switch, a typewriter. It’s really quite easy to do these things these 
+days, and it’s very inexpensive. For a quadriplegic who can’t get around, 
+they will be able to change the TV channel, turn the lights on, and do all 
+those things without anybody coming into the room and doing it for 
+
+them.” Eventually, they will be able to do anything a normal person can 
+do, via computers. 
+
+FIXING SPINAL CORD INJURIES 
+
+A number of other groups are entering the fray. Another breakthrough 
+was made by scientists at Northwestern University who have connected"
+"a monkey’s brain directly to his own arm, bypassing an injured spinal 
+cord. In 1995, there was the sad story of Christopher Reeve, who soared 
+into outer space in the Superman movies but was completely paralyzed 
+due to an injury to his spinal cord. Unfortunately, he was thrown off a 
+horse and landed on his neck, so the spinal cord was damaged just 
+beneath his head. If he had lived longer, he might have seen the work of 
+scientists who want to use computers to replace broken spinal cords. In 
+the United States alone, more than two hundred thousand people have 
+some form of spinal cord injury. In an earlier age, these individuals 
+might have died soon after the accident, but because of advances in 
+acute trauma care, the number of people who survive these sorts of 
+injuries has actually grown in recent years. We are also haunted by the 
+images of thousands of wounded warriors who were victims of roadside 
+bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. And if you include the number of"
+"bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. And if you include the number of 
+patients paralyzed by strokes and other illnesses, like amyotropic lateral 
+sclerosis (ALS), the number of patients swells to two million."
+"The scientists at Northwestern used a one-hundred-electrode chip, 
+which was placed directly on the brain of a monkey. The signals from 
+the brain were carefully recorded as the monkey grasped a ball, lifted it, 
+and released it into a tube. Since each task corresponds to a specific 
+firing of neurons, the scientists could gradually decode these signals. 
+
+When the monkey wanted to move his arm, the signals were processed 
+by a computer using this code, and, instead of sending the messages to a 
+mechanical arm, they sent the signals directly to the nerves of the 
+monkey’s real arm. “We are eavesdropping on the natural electrical 
+signals from the brain that tell the arm and hand how to move, and 
+sending those signals directly to the muscles,” says Dr. Lee Miller. 
+
+By trial and error, the monkey learned to coordinate the muscles in his 
+arm. “There is a process of motor learning that is very similar to the"
+"process you go through when you learn to use a new computer, mouse, 
+or a different tennis racquet,” adds Dr. Miller. 
+
+(It is remarkable that the monkey was able to master so many motions 
+of his arm, given the fact that there are only one hundred electrodes on 
+this brain chip. Dr. Miller points out that millions of neurons are 
+involved in controlling the arm. The reason that one hundred electrodes 
+can give a reasonable approximation to the output of millions of neurons 
+is that the chip connects to the output neurons, after all the complex 
+processing has already been done by the brain. With the sophisticated 
+analysis out of the way, the one hundred electrodes are responsible 
+simply for feeding that information to the arm.) 
+
+This device is one of several being devised at Northwestern that will"
+"This device is one of several being devised at Northwestern that will 
+
+allow patients to bypass their injured spinal cords. Another neural 
+prosthesis uses the motion of the shoulders to control the arm. An 
+upward shrug causes the hand to close. A downward shrug causes the 
+hand to open. The patient also has the ability to curl his fingers around 
+an object like a cup, or manipulate a key that is grasped between the 
+thumb and index finger. 
+
+Dr. Miller concludes, “This connection from brain to muscles might 
+someday be used to help patients paralyzed due to spinal cord injury 
+perform activities of daily living and achieve greater independence.” 
+
+REVOLUTIONIZING PROSTHETICS"
+"REVOLUTIONIZING PROSTHETICS 
+
+Much of the funding driving these remarkable developments comes from 
+a DARPA project called Revolutionizing Prosthetics, a $150 million 
+effort that has been bankrolling these efforts since 2006. One of the 
+driving forces behind Revolutionizing Prosthetics is retired U.S. Army 
+colonel Geoffrey Ling, who is a neurologist with several tours of duty in 
+Iraq and Afghanistan. He was appalled at the human carnage he 
+witnessed on the battlefield caused by roadside bombs. In previous wars, 
+many of these brave service members would have died on the spot. But 
+today, with helicopters and an extensive medical evacuation 
+infrastructure, many of them survive but still suffer from serious bodily 
+injuries. More than 1,300 service members have lost limbs after coming 
+back from the Middle East."
+"Dr. Ling asked himself whether there was a scientific way to replace 
+these lost limbs. Backed by funding from the Pentagon, he asked his staff 
+to come up with concrete solutions within five years. When he made that 
+request, he was met with incredulity. He recalled, “They thought we 
+were crazy. But it’s in insanity that things happen.” 
+
+Spurred into action by Dr. Ling’s boundless enthusiasm, his crew has 
+created miracles in the laboratory. For example, Revolutionary 
+Prosthetics funded scientists at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics 
+Laboratory who have created the most advanced mechanical arm on 
+Earth, which can duplicate nearly all the delicate motions of the fingers, 
+hand, and arm in three dimensions. It is the same size and has the same 
+strength and agility as a real arm. Although it is made of steel, if you 
+covered it up with flesh-colored plastic, it would be nearly 
+indistinguishable from a real arm."
+"This arm was attached to Jan Sherman, a quadriplegic who had 
+suffered from a genetic disease that damaged the connection between 
+her brain and her body, leaving her completely paralyzed from the neck 
+
+down. At the University of Pittsburgh, electrodes were placed directly on 
+top of her brain, which were then connected to a computer and then to a 
+mechanical arm. Five months after surgery to attach the arm, she 
+appeared on 60 Minutes. Before a national audience, she cheerfully used 
+her new arm to wave, greet the host, and shake his hand. She even gave 
+him a fist bump to show how sophisticated the arm was. 
+
+Dr. Ling says, “In my dream, we will be able to take this into all sorts 
+of patients, patients with strokes, cerebral palsy, and the elderly.” 
+
+TELEKINESIS IN YOUR LIFE"
+"TELEKINESIS IN YOUR LIFE 
+
+Not only scientists but also entrepreneurs are looking at brain-machine 
+interface (BMI). They wish to incorporate many of these dazzling 
+inventions as a permanent part of their business plans. BMI has already 
+penetrated the youth market, in the form of video games and toys that 
+use EEG sensors so that you can control objects with the mind in both 
+virtual reality and the real world. In 2009, NeuroSky marketed the first 
+toy, Mindflex, specifically designed to use EEG sensors to move a ball 
+through a maze. Concentrating while wearing the Mindflex EEG device 
+
+increases the speed of a fan within the maze and propels a tiny ball 
+down a pathway."
+"increases the speed of a fan within the maze and propels a tiny ball 
+down a pathway. 
+
+Mind-controlled video games are also blossoming. Seventeen hundred 
+software developers are working with NeuroSky, many of them on the 
+company’s $129 million Mindwave Mobile headset. These video games 
+use a small, portable EEG sensor wrapped around your forehead that 
+allows you to navigate in virtual reality, where the movements of your 
+avatar are controlled mentally. As you maneuver your avatar on the 
+video screen, you can fire weapons, evade enemies, rise to new levels, 
+score points, etc., as in an ordinary video game, except that everything is 
+hands-free. 
+
+“There’s going to be a whole ecosystem of new players, and NeuroSky 
+is very well positioned to be like the Intel of this new industry,” claims 
+Alvaro Fernandez of SharpBrains, a market research firm."
+"Besides firing virtual weapons, the EEG helmet can also detect when 
+your attention begins to flatten out. NeuroSky has been getting inquiries 
+from companies concerned about injuries to workers who lose 
+concentration while operating a dangerous machine or who fall asleep at 
+the wheel. This technology could be a lifesaver, alerting the worker or 
+driver that he is losing his focus. The EEG helmet would set off an alarm 
+when the wearer dozes off. (In Japan, this headset is already creating a 
+
+fad among partygoers. The EEG sensors look like cat ears when you put 
+them on your head. The ears suddenly rise when your attention is 
+focused and then flatten out when it fades. At parties, people can express 
+romantic interest just by thinking, so you know if you are impressing 
+someone.)"
+"But perhaps the most novel applications of this technology are being 
+pursued by Dr. Miguel Nicolelis of Duke University. When I interviewed 
+him, he told me that he thinks he can duplicate many of the devices 
+found only in science fiction. 
+
+SMART HANDS AND MIND MELDS 
+
+Dr. Nicolelis has shown that this brain-machine interface can be done 
+across continents. He places a monkey on a treadmill. A chip is 
+positioned on the monkey’s brain, which is connected to the Internet. On 
+
+the other side of the planet, in Kyoto, Japan, signals from the monkey 
+are used to control a robot that can walk. By walking on the treadmill in 
+North Carolina, the monkey controls a robot in Japan, which executes 
+the same walking motion. Using only his brain sensors and the reward of 
+a food pellet, Dr. Nicolelis has trained these monkeys to control a 
+humanoid robot called CB-1 halfway around the world."
+"He is also tackling one of the main problems with brain-machine 
+interface: the lack of feeling. Today’s prosthetic hands don’t have a sense 
+of touch, and hence they feel foreign; because there’s no feedback, they 
+might accidentally crush someone’s fingers while engaging in a 
+handshake. Picking up an eggshell with a mechanical arm would be 
+nearly impossible. 
+
+Nicolelis hopes to circumvent this problem by having a direct brain-to- 
+brain interface. Messages would be sent from the brain to a mechanical 
+arm that has sensors, which would then send messages directly back to 
+the brain, thereby bypassing the stem altogether. This brain-machine- 
+brain interface (BMBI) could enable a clean, direct feedback mechanism 
+to allow for the sensation of touch."
+"Dr. Nicolelis started by connecting the motor cortex of rhesus monkeys 
+to mechanical arms. These mechanical arms have sensors on them, 
+which then send signals back to the brain by electrodes connected to the 
+somatosensory cortex (which registers the sensation of touch). The 
+monkeys were given a reward after every successful trial; they learned 
+how to use this apparatus within four to nine trials. 
+
+To do this, Dr. Nicolelis had to invent a new code that would 
+represent different surfaces (which were rough or smooth). “After a 
+month of practice,” he told me, “this part of the brain learns this new 
+code, and starts to associate this new artificial code that we created with 
+different textures. So this is the first demonstration that we can create a 
+sensory channel” that can simulate sensations of the skin."
+"I mentioned to him that this idea sounds like the “holodeck” of Star 
+Trek, where you wander in a virtual world but feel sensations when you 
+bump into virtual objects, just as if they were real. This is called “haptic 
+technology,” which uses digital technology to simulate the sense of 
+touch. Nicolelis replied, “Yes, I think this is the first demonstration that 
+something like the holodeck will be possible in the near future.” 
+
+The holodeck of the future might use a combination of two 
+
+technologies. First, people in the holodeck would wear Internet contact 
+lenses, so that they would see an entirely new virtual world everywhere 
+they looked. The scenery in your contact lens would change instantly 
+with the push of a button. And if you touched any object in this world, 
+signals sent into the brain would simulate the sensation of touch, using 
+BMBI technology. In this way, objects in the virtual world you see inside 
+your contact lens would feel solid."
+"Brain-to-brain interface would make possible not only haptic 
+technology, but also an “Internet of the mind,” or brain-net, with direct 
+brain-to-brain contact. In 2013, Dr. Nicolelis was able to accomplish 
+something straight out of Star Trek, a “mind meld” between two brains. 
+He started with two groups of rats, one at Duke University, the other in 
+Natal, Brazil. The first group learned to press a lever when seeing a red 
+light. The second group learned to press a lever when their brains were 
+stimulated by a signal sent via an implant. Their reward for pressing the 
+lever was a sip of water. Then Dr. Nicolelis connected the motor cortices 
+of the brains of both groups via a fine wire through the Internet."
+"When the first group of rats saw the red light, a signal was sent over 
+the Internet to Brazil to the second group, which then pressed the lever. 
+In seven out of ten trials, the second group of rats correctly responded to 
+the signals sent by the first group. This was the first demonstration that 
+signals could be transferred and also interpreted correctly between two 
+brains. It’s still a far cry from the mind meld of science fiction, where 
+two minds merge into one, because this is still primitive and the sample 
+size is small, but it is a proof of principle that a brain-net might be 
+possible. 
+
+In 2013, the next important step was taken when scientists went 
+beyond animal studies and demonstrated the first direct human brain-to- 
+
+brain communication, with one human brain sending a message to 
+another via the Internet."
+"brain communication, with one human brain sending a message to 
+another via the Internet. 
+
+This milestone was achieved at the University of Washington, with 
+one scientist sending a brain signal (move your right arm) to another 
+scientist. The first scientist wore an EEG helmet and played a video 
+game. He fired a cannon by imagining moving his right arm, but was 
+careful not to move it physically. 
+
+The signal from the EEG helmet was sent over the Internet to another 
+scientist, who was wearing a transcranial magnetic helmet carefully 
+
+placed over the part of his brain that controlled his right arm. When the 
+signal reached the second scientist, the helmet would send a magnetic 
+pulse into his brain, which made his right arm move involuntarily, all by 
+itself. Thus, by remote control, one human brain could control the 
+movement of another."
+"This breakthrough opens up a number of possibilities, such as 
+exchanging nonverbal messages via the Internet. You might one day be 
+able to send the experience of dancing the tango, bungee jumping, or 
+skydiving to the people on your e-mail list. Not just physical activity, but 
+emotions and feelings as well might be sent via brain-to-brain 
+communication."
+"Nicolelis envisions a day when people all over the world could 
+participate in social networks not via keyboards, but directly through 
+their minds. Instead of just sending e-mails, people on the brain-net 
+would be able to telepathically exchange thoughts, emotions, and ideas 
+in real time. Today a phone call conveys only the information of the 
+conversation and the tone of voice, nothing more. Video conferencing is 
+a bit better, since you can read the body language of the person on the 
+other end. But a brain-net would be the ultimate in communications, 
+making it possible to share the totality of mental information in a 
+conversation, including emotions, nuances, and reservations. Minds 
+would be able to share their most intimate thoughts and feelings. 
+
+TOTAL IMMERSION ENTERTAINMENT"
+"TOTAL IMMERSION ENTERTAINMENT 
+
+Developing a brain-net may also have an impact on the multibillion- 
+dollar entertainment industry. Back in the 1920s, the technology of tape¬ 
+recording sound as well as light was perfected. This set off a 
+transformation in the entertainment industry as it made the transition 
+from silent movies to the “talkies.” This basic formula of combining 
+sound and sight hasn’t changed much for the past century. But in the 
+
+future, the entertainment industry may make the next transition, 
+recording all five senses, including smell, taste, and touch, as well as the 
+full range of emotions. Telepathic probes would be able to handle the 
+full range of senses and emotions that circulate in the brain, producing a 
+complete immersion of the audience in the story. Watching a romantic"
+"movie or an action thriller, we would be swimming in an ocean of 
+sensations, as if we were really there, experiencing all the rush of 
+feelings and the emotions of the actors. We would smell the perfume of 
+the heroine, feel the terror of the victims in a horror movie, and relish 
+the vanquishing of the bad guys."
+"This immersion would involve a radical shift in how movies are made. 
+First, actors would have to be trained to act out their roles with 
+EEG/MRI sensors and nanoprobes recording their sensations and 
+emotions. (This would place an added burden on the actors, who would 
+have to act out each scene by simulating all five senses. In the same way 
+that some actors could not make the transition from silent movies to the 
+talkies, perhaps a new generation of actors will emerge who can act out 
+scenes with all five senses.) Editing would require not just cutting and 
+splicing film, but also combining tapes of the various sensations within 
+each scene. And finally the audience, as they sit in their seats, would 
+have all these electrical signals fed into their brains. Instead of 3-D 
+glasses, the audience would wear brain sensors of some sort. Movie 
+theaters would also have to be retrofitted to process this data and then 
+send it to the people in the audience. 
+
+CREATING A BRAIN-NET"
+"CREATING A BRAIN-NET 
+
+Creating a brain-net that can transmit such information would have to 
+be done in stages. The first step would be inserting nanoprobes into 
+important parts of the brain, such as the left temporal lobe, which 
+governs speech, and the occipital lobe, which governs vision. Then 
+computers would analyze these signals and decode them. This 
+information in turn could be sent over the Internet by fiber-optic cables. 
+
+More difficult would be to insert these signals back into another 
+person’s brain, where they could be processed by the receiver. So far, 
+progress in this area has focused only on the hippocampus, but in the 
+future it should be possible to insert messages directly into other parts of 
+the brain corresponding to our sense of hearing, light, touch, etc. So 
+there is plenty of work to be done as scientists try to map the cortices of 
+the brain involved in these senses. Once these cortices have been 
+mapped—such as the hippocampus, which we’ll discuss in the next"
+"chapter—it should be possible to insert words, thoughts, memories, and 
+experiences into another brain. 
+
+Dr. Nicolelis writes, “It is not inconceivable that our human progeny 
+may indeed muster the skills, technology, and ethics needed to establish 
+a functional brain-net, a medium through which billions of human 
+beings consensually establish temporary direct contacts with fellow 
+human beings through thought alone. What such a colossus of collective 
+consciousness may look like, feel like, or do, neither I nor anyone in our 
+present time can possibly conceive or utter.” 
+
+THE BRAIN-NET AND CIVILIZATION"
+"A brain-net may even change the course of civilization itself. Each time a 
+new communication system has been introduced, it has irrevocably 
+accelerated changes in society, lifting us from one era to the next. In 
+prehistoric times, for thousands of years our ancestors were nomads 
+wandering in small tribes, communicating with one another through 
+body language and grunts. The coming of language allowed us for the 
+first time to communicate symbols and complex ideas, which facilitated 
+the rise of villages and eventually cities. Within the last few thousand 
+years, written language has enabled us to accumulate knowledge and 
+culture across generations, allowing for the rise of science, the arts, 
+architecture, and huge empires. The coming of the telephone, radio, and 
+TV extended the reach of communication across continents. The Internet 
+now makes possible the rise of a planetary civilization that will link all 
+the continents and peoples of the world. The next giant step might be a"
+"the continents and peoples of the world. The next giant step might be a 
+planetary brain-net, in which the full spectrum of senses, emotions, 
+memories, and thoughts are exchanged on a global scale."
+"‘WE WILL BE PART OF THEIR OPERATING SYSTEM' 
+
+When I interviewed Dr. Nicolelis, he told me that he became interested 
+in science at an early age while growing up in his native Brazil. He 
+remembers watching the Apollo moon shot, which captured the world’s 
+attention. To him, it was an amazing feat. And now, he told me, his own 
+“moon shot” is making it possible to move any object with the mind. 
+
+He became interested in the brain while still in high school, where he 
+came across a 1964 book by Isaac Asimov titled The Human Brain. But he 
+was disappointed by the end of the book. There was no discussion about 
+how all these structures interacted with one another to create the mind 
+
+(because no one knew the answer back then). It was a life-changing 
+moment and he realized that his own destiny might lie in trying to 
+understand the secrets of the brain."
+"About ten years ago, he told me, he began to look seriously into doing 
+research on his childhood dream. He started by taking a mouse and 
+letting it control a mechanical device. “We placed sensors into the mouse 
+which read the electrical signals from the brain. Then we transmitted 
+these signals to a little robotic lever that could bring water from a 
+fountain back to the mouse’s mouth. So the animal had to learn how to 
+mentally move the robotic device to bring the water back. That was the 
+first-ever demonstration that you could connect an animal to a machine 
+so that it could operate a machine without moving its own body,” he 
+explained to me."
+"Today he can analyze not just fifty but one thousand neurons in the 
+brain of a monkey, which can reproduce various movements in different 
+parts of the monkey’s body. Then the monkey can control various 
+devices, such as mechanical arms, or even virtual images in cyberspace. 
+“We even have a monkey avatar that can be controlled by the monkey’s 
+thoughts without the monkey making any movement,” he told me. This 
+is done by having the monkey watch a video in which he sees an avatar 
+that represents his body. Then, by mentally commanding his body to 
+move, the monkey makes the avatar move in the corresponding way. 
+
+Nicolelis envisions a day in the very near future when we will play 
+video games and control computers and appliances with our minds. “We 
+
+will be part of their operating system. We will be immersed in them with 
+mechanisms that are very similar to the experiments that I am 
+describing.” 
+
+EXOSKELETONS"
+"EXOSKELETONS 
+
+The next undertaking for Dr. Nicolelis is the Walk Again Project. Its goal 
+is nothing less than a complete exoskeleton for the body controlled by 
+the mind. At first, an exoskeleton conjures up an image of something 
+from the Iron Man movies. Actually, it is a special suit that encases the 
+entire body so that the arms and legs can move via motors. He calls it a 
+“wearable robot.” (See Figure 10.) 
+
+His goal, he said, is to help the paralyzed “walk by thinking.” He plans 
+to use wireless technology, “so there’s nothing sticking out of the head. 
+... We are going to record twenty to thirty thousand neurons, to 
+command a whole body robotic vest, so he can think and walk again and 
+
+move and grab objects.”"
+"move and grab objects.” 
+
+Nicolelis realizes that a series of hurdles must be overcome before the 
+exoskeleton becomes a reality. First, a new generation of microchips 
+must be created that can be placed in the brain safely and reliably for 
+years at a time. Second, wireless sensors must be created so the 
+exoskeleton can roam freely. The signals from the brain would be 
+received wirelessly by a computer the size of a cell phone that would 
+probably be attached to your belt. Third, new advances must be made in 
+deciphering and interpreting signals from the brain via computers. For 
+the monkeys, a few hundred neurons were necessary to control the 
+mechanical arms. For a human, you need, at minimum, several thousand 
+neurons to control an arm or leg. And fourth, a power supply must be 
+found that is portable and powerful enough to energize the entire 
+exoskeleton. 
+
+Figure 10. This is the exoskeleton that Dr. Nicolelis hopes will be controlled by the mind of a totally 
+paralyzed person."
+"(illustration credit 4.1) 
+
+Nicolelis’s goal is a lofty one: to have a working exoskeleton suit ready 
+for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where a quadriplegic Brazilian will 
+deliver the opening kick. He told me proudly, “This is our Brazilian 
+moon shot.” 
+
+AVATARS AND SURROGATES 
+
+In the movie Surrogates, Bruce Willis plays an FBI agent who is 
+investigating mysterious murders. Scientists have created exoskeletons so 
+perfect that they exceed human capabilities. These mechanical creatures 
+are super strong, with perfect bodies. In fact, they are so perfect that 
+humanity has become dependent on them. People live their entire life in 
+pods, mentally controlling their handsome, beautiful surrogate with"
+"wireless technology. Everywhere you go, you see busy “people” at work, 
+except they are all perfectly shaped surrogates. Their aging masters are 
+conveniently hidden from view. The plot takes a sharp twist, however, 
+when Bruce Willis discovers that the person behind these murders might 
+be linked to the same scientist who invented these surrogates in the first 
+place. That forces him to wonder whether the surrogates are a blessing 
+or a curse."
+"And in the blockbuster movie Avatar, in the year 2154 Earth has 
+depleted most of its minerals, so a mining company has journeyed to a 
+distant moon called Pandora in the Alpha Centauri star system in search 
+of a rare metal, unobtanium. There are native people who inhabit this 
+distant moon, called the Na’vi, who live in harmony with their lush 
+environment. In order to communicate with the native people, specially 
+trained workers are placed in pods, where they learn to mentally control 
+the body of a genetically engineered native. Although the atmosphere is 
+poisonous and the environment differs radically from Earth’s, avatars 
+have no difficulty living in this alien world. This uneasy relationship, 
+however, soon collapses when the mining company finds a rich deposit 
+of unobtainium underneath the Na’vi’s sacred ceremonial tree. Inevitably 
+a conflict arises between the mining company, which wants to destroy 
+the sacred tree and strip-mine the land for its rare metal, and the"
+"the sacred tree and strip-mine the land for its rare metal, and the 
+natives, who worship it. It looks like a lost cause for the natives until one 
+of the specially trained workers switches sides and leads the Na’vi to 
+victory."
+"Avatars and surrogates are the stuff of science fiction today, but one 
+day they may become an essential tool for science. The human body is 
+frail, perhaps too delicate for the rigors of many dangerous missions, 
+including space travel. Although science fiction is filled with the heroic 
+exploits of brave astronauts traveling to the farthest reaches of our 
+galaxy, the reality is much different. Radiation in deep space is so 
+intense that our astronauts will have to be shielded or else face 
+premature aging, radiation sickness, and even cancer. Solar flares shot 
+from the sun can bathe a spacecraft in lethal radiation. A simple 
+transatlantic flight from the United States to Europe exposes you to a 
+millirem of radiation per hour, or roughly the same as a dental X-ray. 
+But in outer space, the radiation could be many times more intense, 
+especially in the presence of cosmic rays and solar bursts. (During"
+"intense solar storms, NASA has actually warned astronauts in the space 
+station to move to sections where there is more shielding against 
+radiation.) 
+
+In addition, there are many other dangers awaiting us in outer space, 
+such as micrometeorites, the effects of prolonged weightlessness, and the 
+problems of adjusting to different gravity fields. After just a few months 
+in weightlessness, the body loses a large fraction of its calcium and 
+minerals, leaving the astronauts incredibly weak, even if they exercise 
+every day. After a year in outer space, Russian astronauts had to crawl 
+out of their space capsules like worms. Furthermore, it is believed that 
+some of the effects of muscle and bone loss are permanent, so that 
+astronauts will feel the consequences of prolonged weightlessness for the 
+rest of their lives."
+"The dangers of micrometeorites and intense radiation fields on the 
+moon are so great that many scientists have proposed using a gigantic 
+underground cave as a permanent lunar space station to protect our 
+astronauts. These caves form naturally as lava tubes near extinct 
+volcanoes. But the safest way of building a moon base is to have our 
+astronauts sit in the comfort of their living rooms. This way they would 
+be shielded from all the hazards found on the moon, yet through 
+surrogates they would be able to perform the same tasks. This could 
+vastly reduce the cost of manned space travel, since providing life 
+support for human astronauts is very expensive. 
+
+Perhaps when the first interplanetary ship reaches a distant planet, 
+and an astronaut’s surrogate sets foot on this alien terrain, he or she 
+might start with “One small step for the mind ...”"
+"One possible problem with this approach is that it takes time for 
+messages to go to the moon and beyond. In a little over a second, a radio 
+message can travel from Earth to the moon, so surrogates on the moon 
+could be easily controlled by astronauts on Earth. More difficult would 
+be communicating with surrogates on Mars, since it can take twenty 
+minutes or more for radio signals to reach the Red Planet. 
+
+But surrogates have practical implications closer to home. In Japan, 
+the Fukushima reactor accident in 2011 caused billions of dollars in 
+damages. Because workers can’t enter areas with lethal levels of 
+radiation for more than a few minutes, the final cleanup may take up to 
+forty years. Unfortunately, robots are not sufficiently advanced to go"
+"into these blistering radiation fields and make needed repairs. In fact, 
+the only robots used at Fukushima are quite primitive, basically simple 
+cameras placed on top of a computer sitting on wheels. A full-blown 
+automaton that can think for itself (or be controlled by a remote 
+operator) and make repairs in high-radiation fields is many decades 
+away."
+"The lack of industrial robots caused an acute problem for the Soviets 
+as well during the 1986 Chernobyl accident in the Ukraine. Workers sent 
+directly to the accident site to put out the flames died horrible deaths 
+due to lethal exposure to radiation. Eventually Mikhail Gorbachev 
+ordered the air force to “sand bag” the reactor, dropping five thousand 
+tons of borated sand and cement by helicopter. Radiation levels were so 
+high that 250,000 workers were recruited to finally contain the accident. 
+Each worker could spend only a few minutes inside the reactor building 
+doing repairs. Many received the maximum lifetime allowed dose of 
+radiation. Each one got a medal. This massive project was the largest 
+civil engineering feat ever undertaken. It could not have been done by 
+today’s robots."
+"The Honda Corporation has, in fact, built a robot that may eventually 
+go into deadly radioactive environments, but it is not ready yet. Honda’s 
+scientists have placed an EEG sensor on the head of a worker, which is 
+connected to a computer that analyzes his brain waves. The computer is 
+then connected to a radio that sends messages to the robot, called 
+ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility). Hence, by altering his 
+own brain waves, a worker can control ASIMO by pure thought. 
+
+Unfortunately, this robot is incapable of making repairs at Fukushima 
+right now, since it can execute only four basic motions (all of which 
+involve moving its head and shoulders) while hundreds of motions are 
+required to make repairs at a shattered nuclear power plant. This system 
+is not developed enough to handle simple tasks such as turning a 
+screwdriver or swinging a hammer."
+"Other groups have also explored the possibility of mentally controlled 
+robots. At the University of Washington, Dr. Rajesh Rao has created a 
+similar robot that is controlled by a person wearing an EEG helmet. This 
+shiny humanoid robot is two feet tall and is called Morpheus (after a 
+character in the movie The Matrix, as well as the Greek god of dreams). 
+A student puts on the EEG helmet and then makes certain gestures, such"
+"as moving a hand, which creates an EEG signal that is recorded by a 
+computer. Eventually the computer has a library of such EEG signals, 
+each one corresponding to a specific motion of a limb. Then the robot is 
+programmed to move its hand whenever that EEG signal is sent to it. In 
+this way, if you think about moving your hand, the robot Morpheus 
+moves its hand as well. When you put on the EEG helmet for the first 
+time, it takes about ten minutes for the computer to calibrate to your 
+brain signals. Eventually you get the hang of making gestures with your 
+mind that control the robot. For example, you can have it walk toward 
+you, pick up a block from a table, walk six feet to another table, and 
+then place the block there."
+"Research is also progressing rapidly in Europe. In 2012, scientists in 
+Switzerland at the Ecole Poly technique Federate de Lausanne unveiled 
+their latest achievement, a robot controlled telepathically by EEG sensors 
+whose controller is located sixty miles away. The robot itself looks like 
+the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner now found in many living rooms. 
+But it is actually a highly sophisticated robot equipped with a camera 
+that can navigate its way through a crowded office. A paralyzed patient 
+can, for example, look at a computer screen, which is connected to a 
+video camera on the robot many miles away, and see through the eyes of 
+the robot. Then, by thinking, the patient is able to control the motion of 
+the robot as it moves past obstacles."
+"In the future, one can imagine the most dangerous jobs being done by 
+robots controlled by humans in this fashion. Dr. Nicolelis says, “We will 
+likely be able to operate remotely controlled envoys and ambassadors, 
+robots and airships of many shapes and sizes, sent on our behalf to 
+explore other planets and stars in distant corners of the universe.” 
+
+For example, in 2010 the world looked on in horror as 5 million 
+barrels of crude oil spilled unabated into the Gulf of Mexico. The 
+Deepwater Horizon spill was one of the largest oil disasters in history, 
+yet engineers were largely helpless for three months. Robotic subs, 
+which are controlled remotely, floundered for weeks trying to cap the 
+well because they lacked the dexterity and versatility necessary for this 
+underwater mission. If surrogate subs, which are much more sensitive in 
+manipulating tools, had been available, they might have capped the well 
+in the first few days of the spill, preventing billions in property damage 
+and lawsuits."
+"Another possibility is that surrogate submarines might one day enter 
+the human body and perform delicate surgery from the inside. This idea 
+was explored in the movie Fantastic Voyage, starring Raquel Welch, in 
+which a submarine was shrunk down to the size of a blood cell and then 
+injected into the bloodstream of someone who had a blood clot in his 
+brain. Shrinking atoms violates the laws of quantum physics, but one 
+day MEMS (micro-electrical-mechanical systems) the size of cells might 
+be able to enter a person’s bloodstream. MEMS are incredibly small 
+machines that can easily fit on a pinpoint. MEMS employ the same 
+etching technology used in Silicon Valley, which can put hundreds of 
+millions of transistors on a wafer the size of your fingernail. An 
+elaborate machine with gears, levers, pulleys, and even motors can be 
+made smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. One day a 
+person may be able to put on a telepathy helmet and then command a"
+"person may be able to put on a telepathy helmet and then command a 
+MEMS submarine using wireless technology to perform surgery inside a 
+patient."
+"So MEMS technology may open up an entirely new field of medicine, 
+based on microscopic machines entering the body. These MEMS 
+submarines might even guide nanoprobes as they enter the brain so that 
+they connect precisely to the neurons that are of interest. In this way, 
+nanoprobes might be able to receive and transmit signals from the 
+handful of neurons that are involved in specific behaviors. The hit-or- 
+miss approach of inserting electrodes into the brain will be eliminated. 
+
+THE FUTURE 
+
+In the short term, all these remarkable advances taking place in 
+
+laboratories around the world may alleviate the suffering of those 
+afflicted by paralysis and other disabilities. Using the power of their 
+minds, they will be able to communicate with loved ones, control their 
+wheelchairs and beds, walk by mentally guiding mechanical limbs, 
+manipulate household appliances, and lead seminormal lives."
+"But in the long term, these advances could have profound economic 
+and practical implications for the world. By mid-century, it could 
+become commonplace to interact with computers directly with the mind. 
+Since the computer business is a multitrillion-dollar industry that can 
+
+create young billionaires and corporations almost overnight, advances in 
+the mind-computer interface will reverberate on Wall Street—and also in 
+your living room. 
+
+All the devices we use to communicate with computers (the mouse, 
+keyboards, etc.) may eventually disappear. In the future, we may simply 
+give mental commands and our wishes will be silently carried out by 
+tiny chips hidden in the environment. While sitting in our offices, taking 
+a stroll in the park, doing window-shopping, or just relaxing, our minds 
+could be interacting with scores of hidden chips, allowing us to mentally 
+balance our finances, arrange for theater tickets, or make a reservation."
+"Artists may also make good use of this technology. If they can 
+visualize their artwork in their minds, then the image can be displayed 
+via EEG sensors on a holographic screen in 3-D. Since the image in the 
+mind is not as precise as the original object, the artist could then make 
+improvements on the 3-D image and dream up the next iteration. After 
+several cycles, the artist could print out the final image on a 3-D printer. 
+
+Similarly, engineers would be able to create scale models of bridges, 
+tunnels, and airports by simply using their imagination. They could also 
+rapidly make changes in their blueprints through thought alone. 
+Machine parts could fly off the computer screen and into a 3-D printer."
+"Some critics, however, have claimed that these telekinetic powers 
+have one great limitation: the lack of energy. In the movies, super beings 
+have the power to move mountains using their thoughts. In the movie X- 
+Men: The Last Stand, the super villain Magneto had the ability to move 
+the Golden Gate Bridge simply by pointing his fingers, but the human 
+body can muster only about one-fifth of a horsepower on average, which 
+is much too little power to perform the feats we see in the comic books. 
+Therefore, all the herculean feats of telekinetic super beings appear to be 
+pure fantasy. 
+
+There is one solution to this energy problem, however. You may be 
+able to connect your thoughts to a power source, which would then"
+"magnify your power millions of times. In this way, you could 
+approximate the power of a god. In one episode of Star Trek, the crew 
+journeys to a distant planet and meets a godlike creature who claims to 
+be Apollo, the Greek god of the sun. He can perform feats of magic that 
+dazzle the crew. He even claims to have visited Earth eons ago, where 
+the earthlings worshipped him. But the crew, not believing in gods, 
+
+suspect a fraud. Later they figure out that this “god” just mentally 
+controls a hidden power source, which then performs all the magic 
+tricks. When this power source is destroyed, he becomes a mere mortal."
+"Similarly, in the future our minds may mentally control a power 
+source that will then give us superpowers. For example, a construction 
+worker might telepathically exploit a power source that energizes heavy 
+machinery. Then a single worker might be able to build complex 
+buildings and houses just by using the power of his mind. All the heavy 
+lifting would be done by the power source, and the construction worker 
+would resemble a conductor, able to orchestrate the motion of colossal 
+cranes and powerful bulldozers through thought alone. 
+
+Science is beginning to catch up to science fiction in yet another way. 
+The Star Wars saga was supposed to take place in a time when 
+civilizations span the entire galaxy. The peace of the galaxy, in turn, is 
+maintained by the Jedi Knights, a highly trained cadre of warriors who 
+use the power of the “Force” to read minds and guide their lightsabers."
+"However, one need not wait until we have colonized the entire galaxy 
+to begin contemplating the Force. As we’ve seen, some aspects of the 
+Force are possible today, such as being able to tap into the thoughts of 
+others using ECOG electrodes or EEG helmets. But the telekinetic powers 
+of the Jedi Knights will also become a possibility as we learn to harness 
+a power source with our minds. The Jedi Knights, for example, can 
+summon a light-saber simply by waving their hands, but we can already 
+accomplish the same feat by exploiting the power of magnetism (much 
+as the magnet in an MRI machine can hurl a hammer across a room). By 
+mentally activating the power source, you can grab lightsabers from 
+across the room with today’s technology. 
+
+THE POWER OF A GOD"
+"THE POWER OF A GOD 
+
+Telekinesis is a power usually reserved for a deity or a superhero. In the 
+universe of superheros appearing in blockbuster Hollywood movies, 
+perhaps the most powerful character is Phoenix, a telekinetic woman 
+who can move any object at will. As a member of the X-Men, she can lift 
+heavy machinery, hold back floods, or raise jet airplanes via the power 
+
+of her mind. (However, when she is finally consumed by the dark side of 
+
+her power, she goes on a cosmic rampage, capable of incinerating entire 
+solar systems and destroying stars. Her power is so great and 
+uncontrollable that it leads to her eventual self-destruction.) 
+
+But how far can science go in harnessing telekinetic powers?"
+"But how far can science go in harnessing telekinetic powers? 
+
+In the future, even with an external power source to magnify our 
+thoughts, it is unlikely that people with telekinetic powers will be able 
+to move basic objects like a pencil or mug of coffee on command. As we 
+mentioned, there are only four known forces that rule the universe, and 
+none of them can move objects unless there is an external power source. 
+(Magnetism comes close, but magnetism can move only magnetic 
+objects. Objects made of plastic, water, or wood can easily pass through 
+magnetic fields.) Simple levitation, a trick found in most magicians’ 
+shows, is beyond our scientific capability. 
+
+So even with an external power supply, is it unlikely that a telekinetic 
+person would be able to move the objects around them at will. However, 
+there is a technology that may come close, and that involves the ability 
+to change one object into another."
+"The technology is called “programmable matter,” and it has become a 
+subject of intense research for the Intel Corporation. The idea behind 
+programmable matter is to create objects made of tiny “catoms,” which 
+are microscopic computer chips. Each catom can be controlled 
+wirelessly; it can be programmed to change the electrical charge on its 
+surface so it can bind with other catoms in different ways. By 
+programming the electric charges one way, the catoms bind together to 
+form, say, a cell phone. Push a button to change their programming, and 
+the catoms rearrange themselves to re-form into another object, like a 
+laptop."
+"I saw a demonstration of this technology at Carnegie Mellon 
+University in Pittsburgh, where scientists have been able to create a chip 
+the size of a pinpoint. To exam these catoms, I had to enter a “clean 
+room” wearing a special white uniform, plastic boots, and a cap to 
+prevent even the smallest dust particle from entering. Then, under a 
+microscope, I could see the intricate circuitry inside each catom, which 
+makes it possible to program it wirelessly to change the electrical charge 
+on its surface. In the same way we can program software today, in the 
+future it may be possible to program hardware. 
+
+The next step is to determine if these catoms can combine to form"
+"The next step is to determine if these catoms can combine to form 
+
+useful objects, and to see if they can be changed or morphed into 
+another object at will. It may take until mid-century before we have 
+working prototypes of programmable matter. Because of the complexity 
+of programming billions of catoms, a special computer would have to be 
+created to orchestrate the charge on each catom. Perhaps by the end of 
+this century, it will be possible to mentally control this computer so that 
+we can change one object into another. We would not have to memorize 
+the charges and configuration within an object. We would just give the 
+mental command to the computer to change one object into another."
+"Eventually we might have catalogs listing all the various objects that 
+are programmable, such as furniture, appliances, and electronics. Then 
+by telepathically communicating with the computer, it should be 
+possible to change one object into another. Redecorating your living 
+room, remodeling your kitchen, and buying Christmas presents could all 
+be done mentally. 
+
+A MORALITY TALE 
+
+Having every wish come true is something that only a divinity can 
+accomplish. However, there is also a downside to this celestial power. 
+All technologies can be used for good or for evil. Ultimately, science is a 
+double-edged sword. One side of the sword can cut against poverty, 
+disease, and ignorance. But the other side can cut against people, in 
+several ways."
+"These technologies could conceivably make wars even more vicious. 
+Perhaps one day, all hand-to-hand combat will be between two 
+surrogates, armed with a battery of high-tech weapons. The actual 
+warriors, sitting safely thousands of miles away, would unleash a 
+barrage of the latest high-tech weaponry with little regard for the 
+collateral damage they are inflicting on civilians. Although wars fought 
+with surrogates may preserve the lives of the soldiers themselves, they 
+might also cause horrendous civilian and property damage. 
+
+The bigger problem is that this power may also be too great for any 
+common mortal to control. In the novel Carrie, Stephen King explored 
+the world of a young girl who was constantly taunted by her peers. She 
+was ostracized by the in-crowd and her life became a never-ending series 
+
+of insults and humiliations. However, her tormentors did not know one 
+thing about her: she was telekinetic. 
+
+After enduring the taunts and having blood splashed all over her dress"
+"After enduring the taunts and having blood splashed all over her dress 
+
+at the prom, she finally cracks. She summons all her telekinetic power to 
+trap her classmates and then annihilate them one by one. In a final 
+gesture, she decides to burn the entire school down. But her telekinetic 
+power was too great to control. She ultimately perishes in the fire that 
+she started. 
+
+Not only can the awesome power of telekinesis backfire, but there is 
+another problem as well. Even if you have taken all the precautions to 
+understand and harness this power, it could still destroy you if, 
+ironically enough, it is too obedient to your thoughts and commands. 
+Then the very thoughts you conceive may spell your doom."
+"The movie Forbidden Planet (1956) is based on a play by William 
+Shakespeare, The Tempest, which begins with a sorcerer and his daughter 
+stranded on a deserted island. But in Forbidden Planet, a professor and his 
+daughter are stranded on a distant planet that was once the home of the 
+Krell, a civilization millions of years more advanced than ours. Their 
+greatest achievement was to create a device that gave them the ultimate 
+power of telekinesis, the power to control matter in all its forms by the 
+mind. Anything they desired suddenly materialized before them. This 
+was the power to reshape reality itself to their whims. 
+
+Yet on the eve of their greatest triumph, as they were turning on this 
+device the Krell disappeared without a trace. What could have possibly 
+destroyed this most advanced civilization?"
+"When a crew of earthmen land on the planet to rescue the man and 
+his daughter, they find that there is a hideous monster haunting the 
+planet, slaughtering crew members at will. Finally, one crew member 
+discovers the secret behind both the Krell and the monster. Before he 
+dies, he gasps, “Monsters from the id.” 
+
+Then the shocking truth suddenly dawns on the professor. The very 
+night that the Krell turned on their telekinesis machine, they fell asleep. 
+All the repressed desires from their ids then suddenly materialized. 
+Buried in the subconscious of these highly developed creatures were the 
+long-suppressed animal urges and desires of their ancient past. Every 
+fantasy, every dream of revenge suddenly came true, so this great 
+civilization destroyed itself overnight. They had conquered many worlds, 
+
+but there was one thing they could not control: their own subconscious 
+minds."
+"but there was one thing they could not control: their own subconscious 
+minds. 
+
+That is a lesson for anyone who desires to unleash the power of the 
+mind. Within the mind, you find the noblest achievements and thoughts 
+of humanity. But you will also find monsters from the id. 
+
+CHANGING WHO WE ARE: OUR MEMORIES AND INTELLIGENCE 
+
+So far, we have discussed the power of science to extend our mental 
+abilities via telepathy and telekinesis. We basically remain the same; 
+these developments do nothing to change the essence of who we are. 
+However, there is an entirely new frontier opening up that alters the 
+very nature of what it means to be human. Using the very latest in 
+genetics, electromagnetics, and drug therapy, it may become possible in 
+the near future to alter our memories and even enhance our intelligence. 
+The idea of downloading a memory, learning complex skills overnight, 
+and becoming super intelligent is slowly leaving the realm of science 
+fiction."
+"Without our memories, we are lost, cast adrift in an aimless sea of 
+pointless stimuli, unable to understand the past or ourselves. So what 
+happens if one day we can input artificial memories into our brains? 
+What happens when we can become a master of any discipline simply by 
+downloading the file into our memory? And what happens if we cannot 
+tell the difference between real and fake memories? Then who are we? 
+
+Scientists are moving past being passive observers of nature to actively 
+shaping and molding nature. This means that we might be able to 
+manipulate memories, thoughts, intelligence, and consciousness. Instead 
+of simply witnessing the intricate mechanics of the mind, in the future it 
+will be possible to orchestrate them. 
+
+So let us now answer this question: Can we download memories? 
+
+If our brains were simple enough to be understood, we 
+wouldn’t be smart enough to understand them. 
+
+—ANONYMOUS 
+
+5 MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS MADE TO ORDER"
+"—ANONYMOUS 
+
+5 MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS MADE TO ORDER 
+
+Neo is The One. Only he can lead a defeated humanity to victory 
+against the Machines. Only Neo can destroy the Matrix, which has 
+implanted false memories into our brains as a means to control us. 
+
+In a now-classic scene from the film The Matrix, the evil Sentinels, 
+who guard the Matrix, have finally cornered Neo. It looks like 
+humanity’s last hope is about to be terminated. But previously Neo had 
+
+had an electrode jacked into the back of his neck that could instantly 
+download martial-arts skills into his brain. In seconds, he becomes a 
+karate master able to take down the Sentinels with breathtaking aerial 
+kicks and well-placed strikes. 
+
+In The Matrix, learning the amazing skills of a black-belt karate master 
+is no harder than slipping an electrode into your brain and pushing the 
+“download” button. Perhaps one day we, too, may be able to download 
+memories, which will vastly increase our abilities."
+"But what happens when the memories downloaded into your brain are 
+false? In the movie Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger has fake 
+memories placed into his brain, so that the distinction between reality 
+and fiction becomes totally blurred. He valiantly fights off the bad guys 
+on Mars until the end of the movie, when he suddenly realizes that he 
+himself is their leader. He is shocked to find that his memories of being a 
+normal, law-abiding citizen are totally manufactured. 
+
+Hollywood is fond of movies that explore the fascinating but fictional 
+world of artificial memories. All this is impossible, of course, with 
+today’s technology, but one can envision a day, a few decades from now, 
+when artificial memories may indeed be inserted into the brain. 
+
+HOW WE REMEMBER 
+
+Like Phineas Gage’s, the strange case of Henry Gustav Molaison, known 
+in the scientific literature as simply HM, created a sensation in the field"
+"of neurology that led to many fundamental breakthroughs in 
+understanding the importance of the hippocampus in formulating 
+memories."
+"At the age of nine, HM suffered head injuries in an accident that 
+caused debilitating convulsions. In 1953, when he was twenty-five years 
+old, he underwent an operation that successfully relieved his symptoms. 
+But another problem surfaced because surgeons mistakenly cut out part 
+of his hippocampus. At first, HM appeared normal, but it soon became 
+apparent that something was terribly wrong; he could not retain new 
+memories. Instead, he constantly lived in the present, greeting the same 
+people several times a day with the same expressions, as if he were 
+seeing them for the first time. Everything that went into his memory 
+lasted only a few minutes before it disappeared. Like Bill Murray in the 
+movie Groundhog Day, HM was doomed to relive the same day, over and 
+over, for the rest of his life. But unlike Bill Murray’s character, he was 
+unable to recall the previous iterations. His long-term memory, however,"
+"was relatively intact and could remember his life before the surgery. But 
+without a functioning hippocampus, HM was unable to record new 
+experiences. For example, he would be horrified when looking in a 
+mirror, since he saw the face of an old man but thought he was still 
+twenty-five. But mercifully, the memory of being horrified would also 
+soon disappear into the fog. In some sense, HM was like an animal with 
+Level II consciousness, unable to recall the immediate past or simulate 
+the future. Without a functioning hippocampus, he regressed from Level 
+III down to Level II consciousness. 
+
+Today, further advances in neuroscience have given us the clearest 
+picture yet of how memories are formed, stored, and then recalled. “It 
+has all come together just in the past few years, due to two technical 
+developments—computers and modern brain scanning,” says Dr. 
+Stephen Kosslyn, a neuroscientist at Harvard."
+"As we know, sensory information (e.g., vision, touch, taste) must first 
+pass through the brain stem and onto the thalamus, which acts like a 
+relay station, directing the signals to the various sensory lobes of the 
+brain, where they are evaluated. The processed information reaches the 
+prefrontal cortex, where it enters our consciousness and forms what we 
+consider our short-term memory, which can range from several seconds 
+to minutes. (See Figure 11.)"
+"To store these memories for a longer duration, the information must 
+then run through the hippocampus, where memories are broken down 
+into different categories. Rather than storing all memories in one area of 
+the brain like a tape recorder or hard drive, the hippocampus redirects 
+the fragments to various cortices. (Storing memories in this way is 
+actually more efficient than storing them sequentially. If human 
+memories were stored sequentially, like on computer tape, a vast 
+amount of memory storage would br required. In fact, in the future, even 
+digital storage systems may adopt this trick from the living brain, rather 
+than storing whole memories sequentially.) For instance, emotional 
+memories are stored in the amygdala, but words are recorded in the 
+temporal lobe. Meanwhile, colors and other visual information are 
+collected in the occipital lobe, and the sense of touch and movement 
+reside in the parietal lobe. So far, scientists have identified more than"
+"reside in the parietal lobe. So far, scientists have identified more than 
+twenty categories of memories that are stored in different parts of the 
+brain, including fruits and vegetables, plants, animals, body parts, 
+colors, numbers, letters, nouns, verbs, proper names, faces, facial 
+expressions, and various emotions and sounds."
+"Figure 11. This shows the path taken to create memories. Impulses from the senses pass through the 
+brain stem, to the 
+
+thalamus, out to the various cortices, and then to the prefrontal cortex. They then pass to the 
+hippocampus to form long¬ 
+term memories, (illustration credit 5.1) 
+
+A single memory—for instance, a walk in the park—involves 
+information that is broken down and stored in various regions of the 
+brain, but reliving just one aspect of the memory (e.g., the smell of 
+freshly cut grass) can suddenly send the brain racing to pull the 
+fragments together to form a cohesive recollection. The ultimate goal of 
+memory research is, then, to figure out how these scattered fragments 
+are somehow reassembled when we recall an experience. This is called 
+the “binding problem,” and a solution could potentially explain many 
+puzzling aspects of memory. For instance, Dr. Antonio Damasio has 
+analyzed stroke patients who are incapable of identifying a single"
+"category, even though they are able to recall everything else. This is 
+because the stroke has affected just one particular area of the brain, 
+where that certain category was stored. 
+
+The binding problem is further complicated because all our memories 
+and experiences are highly personal. Memories might be customized for 
+the individual, so that the categories of memories for one person may 
+not correlate with the categories of memories for another. Wine tasters, 
+for example, may have many categories for labeling subtle variations in 
+taste, while physicists may have other categories for certain equations. 
+Categories, after all, are by-products of experience, and different people 
+may therefore have different categories."
+"One novel solution to the binding problem uses the fact that there are 
+electromagnetic vibrations oscillating across the entire brain at roughly 
+forty cycles per second, which can be picked up by EEG scans. One 
+fragment of memory might vibrate at a very precise frequency and 
+stimulate another fragment of memory stored in a distant part of the 
+brain. Previously it was thought that memories might be stored 
+physically close to one another, but this new theory says that memories 
+are not linked spatially but rather temporally, by vibrating in unison. If 
+this theory holds up, it means that there are electromagnetic vibrations 
+constantly flowing through the entire brain, linking up different regions 
+and thereby re-creating entire memories. Hence the constant flow of 
+information between the hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex, the 
+thalamus, and the different cortices might not be entirely neural after 
+all. Some of this flow may be in the form of resonance across different 
+brain structures."
+"RECORDING A MEMORY 
+
+Sadly, HM died in 2008 at the age of eighty-two, before he could take 
+advantage of some sensational results achieved by science: the ability to 
+create an artificial hippocampus and then insert memories into the brain. 
+This is something straight out of science fiction, but scientists at Wake 
+Forest University and the University of Southern California made history 
+in 2011 when they were able to record a memory made by mice and 
+store it digitally in a computer. This was a proof-of-principle experiment, 
+
+in which they showed that the dream of downloading memories into the 
+brain might one day become reality."
+"At first, the very idea of downloading memories into the brain seems 
+like an impossible dream, because, as we have seen, memories are 
+created by processing a variety of sensory experiences, which are then 
+stored in multiple places in the neocortex and limbic system. But as we 
+know from HM, there is one place through which all memories flow and 
+are converted into long-term memories: the hippocampus. Team leader 
+Dr. Theodore Berger of USC says, “If you can’t do it with the 
+hippocampus, you can’t do it anywhere.”"
+"The scientists at Wake Forest and USC first started with the 
+observation, garnered from brain scans, that there are at least two sets of 
+neurons in a mouse’s hippocampus, called CA1 and CA3, which 
+communicate with each other as a new task is learned. After training 
+mice to press two bars, one after the other, in order to get water, the 
+scientists reviewed the findings and attempted to decode these messages, 
+which proved frustrating at first since the signals between these two sets 
+of neurons didn’t appear to follow a pattern. But by monitoring the 
+signals millions of times, they were eventually able to determine which 
+electrical input created which output. With the use of probes in the 
+mice’s hippocampi, the scientists were able to record the signals between 
+CA1 and CA3 when the mice learned to press the two bars in sequence."
+"Then the scientists injected the mice with a special chemical, making 
+them forget the task. Finally they played back the memory into the same 
+mouse’s brain. Remarkably, the memory of the task returned, and the 
+mice could successfully reproduce the original task. Essentially, they had 
+created an artificial hippocampus with the ability to duplicate digital 
+memory. “Turn the switch on, the animal has the memory; turn it off 
+and they don’t,” says Dr. Berger. “It’s a very important step because it’s 
+the first time we have put all the pieces together.” 
+
+As Joel Davis of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, which 
+sponsored this work, said, “Using implantables to enhance competency is 
+down the road. It’s only a matter of time.”"
+"Not surprisingly, with so much at stake, this area of research is 
+moving very rapidly. In 2013, yet another breakthrough was made, this 
+time at MIT, by scientists who were able to implant not just ordinary 
+memories into a mouse, but false ones as well. This means that, one day, 
+
+memories of events that never took place may be implanted into the 
+brain, which would have a profound impact on fields like education and 
+entertainment. 
+
+The MIT scientists used a technique called optogenetics (which we will 
+discuss more in Chapter 8), which allows you to shine a light on specific 
+neurons to activate them. Using this powerful method, scientists can 
+identify the specific neurons responsible for certain memories."
+"Let’s say that a mouse enters a room and is given a shock. The neurons 
+responsible for the memory of that painful event can actually be isolated 
+and recorded by analyzing the hippocampus. Then the mouse is placed 
+in an entirely different room that is totally harmless. By turning on a 
+light on an optical fiber, one can use optogenetics to activate the 
+memory of the shock, and the mouse exhibits a fear response, although 
+the second room is totally safe. 
+
+In this way, the MIT scientists were able not only to implant ordinary 
+memories, but also memories of events that never took place. One day, 
+this technique may give educators the ability to implant memories of 
+new skills to retrain workers, or give Hollywood an entirely new form of 
+entertainment. 
+
+AN ARTIFICIAL HIPPOCAMPUS"
+"AN ARTIFICIAL HIPPOCAMPUS 
+
+At present, the artificial hippocampus is primitive, able to record only a 
+single memory at a time. But these scientists plan to increase the 
+complexity of their artificial hippocampus so that it can store a variety 
+of memories and record them for different animals, eventually working 
+up to monkeys. They also plan to make this technology wireless by 
+replacing the wires with tiny radios so that memories can be 
+downloaded remotely without the need for clumsy electrodes implanted 
+into the brain. 
+
+Because the hippocampus is involved with memory processing in 
+humans, scientists see a vast potential application in treating strokes, 
+dementia, Alzheimer’s, and a host of other problems that occur when 
+there is damage or deterioration in this region of the brain. 
+
+Many hurdles have to be negotiated, of course. Despite all we have 
+learned about the hippocampus since HM, it still remains something of a"
+"black box whose inner workings are largely unknown. As a result, it is 
+not possible to construct a memory from scratch, but once a task has 
+been performed and the memory processed, it is possible to record it and 
+play it back. 
+
+FUTURE DIRECTIONS 
+
+Working with the hippocampus of primates and even humans will be 
+more difficult, since their hippocampi are much larger and more 
+complex. The first step is to create a detailed neural map of the 
+hippocampus. This means placing electrodes at different parts of the 
+hippocampus to record the signals that are constantly being exchanged 
+between different regions. This will establish the flow of information 
+that constantly moves across the hippocampus. The hippocampus has 
+four basic divisions, CA1 to CA4, and hence scientists will record the 
+signals that are exchanged between them."
+"The second step involves the subject performing certain tasks, after 
+which scientists will record the impulses that flow across the various 
+regions of the hippocampus, thereby recording the memory. For 
+example, the memory of learning a certain task, such as jumping 
+through a hoop, will create electrical activity in the hippocampus that 
+can be recorded and carefully analyzed. Then a dictionary can be 
+created matching the memory with the flow of information across the 
+hippocampus. 
+
+Finally, step three involves making a recording of this memory and 
+feeding the electrical signal into the hippocampus of another subject via 
+electrodes, to see if that memory can been uploaded. In this fashion, the 
+subject may learn to jump through a hoop although it has never done so 
+before. If successful, scientists would gradually create a library 
+containing recordings of certain memories."
+"It may take decades to work all the way up to human memories, but 
+one can envision how it might work. In the future, people may be hired 
+to create certain memories, like a luxury vacation or a fictitious battle. 
+Nanoelectrodes will be placed at various places in their brain to record 
+the memory. These electrodes must be extremely small so that they do 
+not interfere with the formation of the memory. 
+
+The information from these electrodes will then be sent wirelessly to a 
+
+computer and then recorded. Later a subject who wants to experience 
+these memories will have similar electrodes placed in his hippocampus, 
+and the memory will be inserted into the brain."
+"(There are complications to this idea, of course. If we try to insert the 
+memory of physical activity, such as a martial art, we have the problem 
+of “muscle memory.” For example, when walking, we do not consciously 
+think about putting one leg in front of the other. Walking has become 
+second nature to us because we do it so often, and from an early age. 
+This means that the signals controlling our legs no longer originate 
+entirely in the hippocampus, but also in the motor cortex, the 
+cerebellum, and the basal ganglia. In the future, if we wish to insert 
+memories involving sports, scientists may have to decipher the way in 
+which memories are partially stored in other areas of the brain as well.) 
+
+VISION AND HUMAN MEMORIES"
+"VISION AND HUMAN MEMORIES 
+
+The formation of memories is quite complex, but the approach we have 
+been discussing takes a shortcut by eavesdropping on the signals moving 
+through the hippocampus, where the sensory impulses have already 
+been processed. In The Matrix, however, an electrode is placed in the 
+back of the head to upload memories directly into the brain. This 
+assumes that one can decode the raw, unprocessed impulses coming in 
+from the eyes, ears, skin, etc., that are moving up the spinal cord and 
+brain stem and into the thalamus. This is much more elaborate and 
+difficult than analyzing the processed messages circulating in the 
+hippocampus."
+"To give you a sense of the sheer volume of unprocessed information 
+that comes up the spinal cord into the thalamus, let’s consider just one 
+aspect: vision, since many of our memories are encoded this way. There 
+are roughly 130 million cells in the eye’s retina, called cones and rods; 
+they process and record 100 million bits of information from the 
+landscape at any time. 
+
+This vast amount of data is then collected and sent down the optic 
+nerve, which transports 9 million bits of information per second, and on 
+to the thalamus. From there, the information reaches the occipital lobe, 
+
+at the very back of the brain. This visual cortex, in turn, begins the 
+arduous process of analyzing this mountain of data. The visual cortex 
+consists of several patches at the back of the brain, each of which is 
+designed for a specific task. They are labeled VI to V8. 
+
+Remarkably, the area called VI is like a screen; it actually creates a"
+"Remarkably, the area called VI is like a screen; it actually creates a 
+
+pattern on the back of your brain very similar in shape and form to the 
+original image. This image bears a striking resemblance to the original, 
+except that the very center of your eye, the fovea, occupies a much 
+larger area in VI (since the fovea has the highest concentration of 
+neurons). The image cast on VI is therefore not a perfect replica of the 
+landscape but is distorted, with the central region of the image taking up 
+most of the space. 
+
+Besides VI, other areas of the occipital lobe process different aspects 
+of the image, including: 
+
+• Stereo vision. These neurons compare the images coming in from 
+each eye. This is done in area V2. 
+
+• Distance. These neurons calculate the distance to an object, using 
+shadows and other information from both eyes. This is done in area 
+V3. 
+
+• Colors are processed in area V4."
+"• Colors are processed in area V4. 
+
+• Motion. Different circuits can pick out different classes of motion, 
+including straight-line, spiral, and expanding motion. This is done in 
+area V5. 
+
+More than thirty different neural circuits involved with vision have 
+been identified, but there are probably many more. 
+
+From the occipital lobe, the information is sent to the prefrontal 
+cortex, where you finally “see” the image and form your short-term 
+memory. The information is then sent to the hippocampus, which 
+processes it and stores it for up to twenty-four hours. The memory is 
+then chopped up and scattered among the various cortices. 
+
+The point here is that vision, which we think happens effortlessly, 
+requires billions of neurons firing in sequence, transmitting millions of 
+bits of information per second. And remember that we have signals from 
+five sense organs, plus emotions associated with each image. All this"
+"information is processed by the hippocampus to create a simple memory 
+of an image. At present, no machine can match the sophistication of this 
+process, so replicating it presents an enormous challenge for scientists 
+who want to create an artificial hippocampus for the human brain. 
+
+REMEMBERING THE FUTURE 
+
+If encoding the memory of just one of the senses is such a complex 
+process, then how did we evolve the ability to store such vast amounts of 
+information in our long-term memory? Instinct, for the most part, guides 
+the behavior of animals, which do not appear to have much of a long¬ 
+term memory. But as neurobiologist Dr. James McGaugh of the 
+University of California at Irvine says, “The purpose of memory is to 
+predict the future,” which raises an interesting possibility. Perhaps long¬ 
+term memory evolved because it was useful for simulating the future. In 
+other words, the fact that we can remember back into the distant past is 
+due to the demands and advantages of simulating the future."
+"Indeed, brain scans done by scientists at Washington University in St. 
+Louis indicate that areas used to recall memories are the same as those 
+involved in simulating the future. In particular, the link between the 
+dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus lights up when a 
+person is engaged in planning for the future and remembering the past. 
+In some sense, the brain is trying to “recall the future,” drawing upon 
+memories of the past in order to determine how something will evolve 
+into the future. This may also explain the curious fact that people who 
+suffer from amnesia—such as HM—are often unable to visualize what 
+they will be doing in the future or even the very next day."
+"“You might look at it as mental time travel—the ability to take 
+thoughts about ourselves and project them either into the past or into 
+the future,” says Dr. Kathleen McDermott of Washington University. She 
+also notes that their study proves a “tentative answer to a longstanding 
+question regarding the evolutionary usefulness of memory. It may just be 
+that the reason we can recollect the past in vivid detail is that this set of 
+processes is important for being able to envision ourselves in future 
+scenarios. This ability to envision the future has clear and compelling 
+adaptive significance.” For an animal, the past is largely a waste of 
+
+precious resources, since it gives them little evolutionary advantage. But 
+simulating the future, given the lessons of the past, is an essential reason 
+why humans became intelligent. 
+
+AN ARTIFICIAL CORTEX"
+"AN ARTIFICIAL CORTEX 
+
+In 2012 the same scientists from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and 
+the University of Southern California who created an artificial 
+hippocampus in mice announced an even more far-reaching experiment. 
+Instead of recording a memory in the mouse hippocampus, they 
+duplicated the much more sophisticated thinking process of the cortex of 
+a primate."
+"They took five rhesus monkeys and inserted tiny electrodes into two 
+layers of their cortex, called the L2/3 and L5 layers. They then recorded 
+neural signals that went between these two layers as the monkeys 
+learned a task. (This task involved the monkeys seeing a set of pictures, 
+and then being rewarded if they could pick out these same pictures from 
+a much larger set.) With practice, the monkeys could perform the task 
+with 75 percent accuracy. But if the scientists fed the signal back into 
+the cortex as the monkey was performing the test, its performance 
+increased by 10 percent. When certain chemicals were given to the 
+monkey, its performance dropped by 20 percent. But if the recording 
+was fed back into the cortex, its performance exceeded its normal level. 
+Although this was a small sample size and there was only a modest 
+improvement in performance, the study still suggests that the scientists’ 
+recording accurately captured the decision-making process of the cortex."
+"Because this study was done on primates rather than mice and 
+involved the cortex and not the hippocampus, it could have vast 
+implications when human trials begin. Dr. Sam A. Deadwyler of Wake 
+Forest says, “The whole idea is that the device would generate an output 
+pattern that bypasses the damaged area, proving an alternative 
+connection” in the brain. This experiment has a possible application for 
+patients whose neocortex has been damaged. Like a crutch, this device 
+would perform the thinking operation of the damaged area. 
+
+AN ARTIFICIAL CEREBELLUM 
+
+It should also be pointed out that the artificial hippocampus and 
+neocortex are but the first steps. Eventually, other parts of the brain will 
+have artificial counterparts. For example, scientists at Tel Aviv 
+University in Israel have already created an artificial cerebellum for a 
+rat. The cerebellum is an essential part of the reptilian brain that 
+controls our balance and other basic bodily functions."
+"Usually when a puff of air is directed at a rat’s face, it blinks. If a 
+sound is made at the same time, the rat can be conditioned to blink just 
+by hearing the sound. The goal of the Israeli scientists was to create an 
+artificial cerebellum that could duplicate this feat. 
+
+First the scientists recorded the signals entering the brain stem when 
+the puff of air hit the rat’s face and the sound was heard. Then the signal 
+was processed and sent back to the brain stem at another location. As 
+expected, the rats blinked upon receiving the signal. Not only is this the 
+first time that an artificial cerebellum functioned correctly, it is the first 
+time that messages were received from one part of the brain, processed, 
+and then uploaded into a different part of the brain."
+"Commenting on this work, Francesco Sepulveda of the University of 
+Essex says, “This demonstrates how far we have come towards creating 
+circuitry that could one day replace damaged brain areas and even 
+enhance the power of the healthy brain.” 
+
+He also sees great potential for artificial brains in the future, adding, 
+“It will likely take us several decades to get there, but my bet is that 
+specific, well-organized brain parts such as the hippocampus or the 
+visual cortex will have synthetic correlates before the end of the 
+century.” 
+
+Although progress in creating artificial replacements for the brain is 
+moving remarkably fast given the complexity of the process, it is a race 
+against time when one considers the greatest threat facing our public 
+health system, the declining mental abilities of people with Alzheimer’s. 
+
+ALZHEIMER’S—DESTROYER OF MEMORY"
+"ALZHEIMER’S—DESTROYER OF MEMORY 
+
+Alzheimer’s disease, some people claim, might be the disease of the 
+century. There are 5.3 million Americans who currently have 
+Alzheimer’s, and the number is expected to quadruple by 2050. Five 
+
+percent of people from age sixty-five to seventy-four have Alzheimer’s, 
+but more than 50 percent of those over eighty-five have it, even if they 
+have no obvious risk factors. (Back in 1900, life expectancy in the 
+United States was forty-nine, so Alzheimer’s was not a significant 
+problem. But now, people over eighty are one of the fastest-growing 
+demographic groups in the country.)"
+"In the early stages of Alzheimer’s, the hippocampus, the part of the 
+brain through which memories are processed, begins to deteriorate. 
+Indeed, brain scans clearly show that the hippocampus shrinks in 
+Alzheimer’s patients, but the wiring linking the prefrontal cortex to the 
+hippocampus also thins, leaving the brain unable to properly process 
+short-term memories. Long-term memories already stored throughout 
+the cortices of the brain remain relatively intact, at least at first. This 
+creates a situation where you may not remember what you just did a few 
+minutes ago but can clearly recall events that took place decades ago. 
+
+Eventually, the disease progresses to the point where even basic long¬ 
+term memories are destroyed. The person is unable to recognize their 
+children or spouse and to remember who they are, and can even fall into 
+a comalike vegetative state. 
+
+Sadly, the basic mechanisms for Alzheimer’s have only recently begun"
+"Sadly, the basic mechanisms for Alzheimer’s have only recently begun 
+
+to be understood. One major breakthrough came in 2012, when it was 
+revealed that Alzheimer’s begins with the formation of tau amyloid 
+proteins, which in turn accelerates the formation of beta amyloid, a 
+gummy, gluelike substance that clogs up the brain. (Before, it was not 
+clear if Alzheimer’s was caused by these plaques or whether perhaps 
+these plaques were by-products of a more fundamental disorder.)"
+"What makes these amyloid plaques so difficult to target with drugs is 
+that they are most likely made of “prions,” which are misshapen protein 
+molecules. They are not bacteria or viruses, but nevertheless they can 
+reproduce. When viewed atomically, a protein molecule resembles a 
+jungle of ribbons of atoms tied together. This tangle of atoms must fold 
+onto itself correctly for the protein to assume the proper shape and 
+function. But prions are misshapen proteins that have folded incorrectly. 
+Worse, when they bump into healthy proteins, they cause them to fold 
+incorrectly as well. Hence one prion can cause a cascade of misshapen 
+proteins, creating a chain reaction that contaminates billions more. 
+
+At present, there is no known way to stop the inexorable progression"
+"At present, there is no known way to stop the inexorable progression 
+
+of Alzheimer’s. Now that the basic mechanics behind Alzheimer’s are 
+being unraveled, however, one promising method is to create antibodies 
+or a vaccine that might specifically target these misshapen protein 
+molecules. Another way might be to create an artificial hippocampus for 
+these individuals so that their short-term memory can be restored. 
+
+Yet another approach is to see if we can directly increase the brain’s 
+ability to create memories using genetics. Perhaps there are genes that 
+can improve our memory. The future of memory research may lie in the 
+“smart mouse.” 
+
+THE SMART MOUSE"
+"THE SMART MOUSE 
+
+In 1999, Dr. Joseph Tsien and colleagues at Princeton, MIT, and 
+Washington University found that adding a single extra gene 
+dramatically boosted a mouse’s memory and ability. These “smart mice” 
+could navigate mazes faster, remember events better, and outperform 
+other mice in a wide variety of tests. They were dubbed “Doogie mice,” 
+after the precocious character on the TV show Doogie Howser, M.D. 
+
+Dr. Tsien began by analyzing the gene NR2B, which acts like a switch 
+controlling the brain’s ability to associate one event with another. 
+(Scientists know this because when the gene is silenced or rendered 
+inactive, mice lose this ability.) All learning depends on NR2B, because 
+it controls the communication between memory cells of the"
+"hippocampus. First Dr. Tsien created a strain of mice that lacked NR2B, 
+and they showed impaired memory and learning disabilities. Then he 
+created a strain of mice that had more copies of NR2B than normal, and 
+found that the new mice had superior mental capabilities. Placed in a 
+shallow pan of water and forced to swim, normal mice would swim 
+randomly about. They had forgotten from just a few days before that 
+there was a hidden underwater platform. The smart mice, however, went 
+straight to the hidden platform on the first try. 
+
+Since then, researchers have been able to confirm these results in 
+other labs and create even smarter strains of mice. In 2009, Dr. Tsien 
+published a paper announcing yet another strain of smart mice, dubbed 
+“Hobbie-J” (named after a character in Chinese cartoons). Hobbie-J was 
+able to remember novel facts (such as the location of toys) three times"
+"longer than the genetically modified strain of mouse previously thought 
+to be the smartest. “This adds to the notion that NR2B is a universal 
+switch for memory formation,” remarked Dr. Tsien. “It’s like taking 
+Michael Jordon and making him a super Michael Jordan,” said graduate 
+student Deheng Wang. 
+
+There are limits, however, even to this new mice strain. When these 
+mice were given a choice to take a left or right turn to get a chocolate 
+reward, Hobbie-J was able to remember the correct path for much 
+longer than the normal mice, but after five minutes he, too, forgot. “We 
+can never turn it into a mathematician. They are rats, after all,” says Dr. 
+Tsien. 
+
+It should also be pointed out that some of the strains of smart mice 
+were exceptionally timid compared to normal mice. Some suspect that, if 
+your memory becomes too great, you also remember all the failures and 
+hurts as well, perhaps making you hesitant. So there is also a potential 
+downside to remembering too much."
+"Next, scientists hope to generalize their results to dogs, since we share 
+so many genes, and perhaps also to humans. 
+
+SMART FLIES AND DUMB MICE 
+
+The NR2B gene is not the only gene being studied by scientists for its 
+impact on memory. In yet another groundbreaking series of experiments, 
+scientists have been able to breed a strain of fruit flies with 
+“photographic memory,” and also a strain of mice that are amnesiac. 
+These experiments may eventually explain many mysteries of our long¬ 
+term memory, such as why cramming for an exam is not the best way to 
+
+study, and why we remember events if they are emotionally charged. 
+Scientists have found that there are two important genes, the CREB 
+activator (which stimulates the formation of new connections between 
+neurons) and the CREB repressor (which suppresses the formation of 
+new memories)."
+"Dr. Jerry Yin and Timothy Tully of Cold Spring Harbor have been 
+doing interesting experiments with fruit flies. Normally it takes ten trials 
+for them to learn a certain task (e.g., detecting an odor, avoiding a 
+shock). Fruit flies with an extra CREB repressor gene could not form 
+
+lasting memories at all, but the real surprise came when they tested fruit 
+flies with an extra CREB activator gene. They learned the task in just one 
+session. “This implies these flies have a photographic memory,” says Dr. 
+Tully. He said they are just like students “who could read a chapter of a 
+book once, see it in their mind, and tell you that the answer is in 
+paragraph three of page two seventy-four.”"
+"This effect is not just restricted to fruit flies. Dr. Alcino Silva, also at 
+Cold Spring Harbor, has been experimenting with mice. He found that 
+mice with a defect in their CREB activator gene were virtually incapable 
+of forming long-term memories. They were amnesiac mice. But even 
+these forgetful mice could learn a bit if they had short lessons with rest 
+in between. Scientists theorize that we have a fixed amount of CREB 
+activator in the brain that can limit the amount we can learn in any 
+specific time. If we try to cram before a test, it means that we quickly 
+exhaust the amount of CREB activators, and hence we cannot learn any 
+more—at least until we take a break to replenish the CREB activators. 
+
+“We can now give you a biological reason why cramming doesn’t 
+work,” says Dr. Tully. The best way to prepare for a final exam is to 
+mentally review the material periodically during the day, until the 
+material becomes part of your long-term memory."
+"This may also explain why emotionally charged memories are so vivid 
+and can last for decades. The CREB repressor gene is like a filter, 
+cleaning out useless information. But if a memory is associated with a 
+strong emotion, it can either remove the CREB repressor gene or increase 
+levels of the CREB activator gene. 
+
+In the future, we can expect more breakthroughs in understanding the 
+genetic basis of memory. Not just one but a sophisticated combination of 
+genes is probably required to shape the enormous capabilities of the 
+brain. These genes, in turn, have counterparts in the human genome, so 
+it is a distinct possibility that we can also enhance our memory and 
+mental skills genetically."
+"However, don’t think that you will be able to get a brain boost 
+anytime soon. Many hurdles still remain. First, it is not clear if these 
+results apply to humans. Often therapies that show great promise in 
+mice do not translate well to our species. Second, even if these results 
+can be applied to humans, we do not know what their impact will be. 
+For example, these genes may help improve our memory but not affect"
+"our general intelligence. Third, gene therapy (i.e., fixing broken genes) is 
+more difficult than previously thought. Only a small handful of genetic 
+diseases can be cured with this method. Even though scientists use 
+harmless viruses to infect cells with the “good” gene, the body still sends 
+antibodies to attack the intruder, often rendering the therapy useless. It’s 
+possible that the insertion of a gene to enhance memory would face a 
+similar fate. (In addition, the field of gene therapy suffered a major 
+setback a few years ago when a patient died at the University of 
+Pennsylvania during a gene therapy procedure. The work of modifying 
+human genes therefore faces many ethical and even legal questions.)"
+"Human trials, then, will progress much more slowly than animal trials. 
+However, one can foresee the day when this procedure might be 
+perfected and become a reality. Altering our genes in this way would 
+require no more than a simple shot in the arm. A harmless virus would 
+then enter our blood, which would then infect normal cells by injecting 
+its genes. Once the “smart gene” is successfully incorporated into our 
+cells, the gene becomes active and releases proteins that would increase 
+our memory and cognitive skills by affecting the hippocampus and 
+memory formation. 
+
+If the insertion of genes becomes too difficult, another possibility is to 
+insert the proper proteins directly into the body, bypassing the use of 
+gene therapy. Instead of getting a shot, we would swallow a pill. 
+
+A SMART PILL"
+"A SMART PILL 
+
+Ultimately, one goal of this research is to create a “smart pill” that could 
+boost concentration, improve memory, and maybe increase our 
+intelligence. Pharmaceutical companies have experimented with several 
+drugs, such as MEM 1003 and MEM 1414, that do seem to enhance 
+mental function. 
+
+Scientists have found that in animal studies, long-term memories are 
+made possible by the interaction of enzymes and genes. Learning takes 
+place when certain neural pathways are reinforced as specific genes are 
+activated, such as the CREB gene, which in turn emits a corresponding 
+protein. Basically, the more CREB proteins circulating in the brain, the 
+
+faster long-term memories are formed. This has been verified in studies 
+
+on sea mollusks, fruit flies, and mice. The key property of MEM 1414 is 
+that it accelerates the production of the CREB proteins. In lab tests, aged 
+animals given MEM 1414 were able to form long-term memories 
+significantly faster than a control group."
+"Scientists are also beginning to isolate the precise biochemistry 
+required in the formation of long-term memories, at both the genetic and 
+the molecular level. Once the process of memory formation is completely 
+understood, therapies will be devised to accelerate and strengthen this 
+key process. Not only the aged and Alzheimer’s patients but eventually 
+the average person may well benefit from this “brain boost.” 
+
+CAN MEMORIES BE ERASED?"
+"CAN MEMORIES BE ERASED? 
+
+Alzheimer’s may destroy memories indiscriminately, but what about 
+selectively erasing them? Amnesia is one of Hollywood’s favorite plot 
+devices. In The Bourne Identity, Jason Bourne (played by Matt Damon), a 
+skilled CIA agent, is found floating in the water, left for dead. When he 
+is revived, he has severe memory loss. He is being relentlessly chased by 
+assassins who want to kill him, but he does not know who he is, what 
+happened, or why they want him dead. The only clue to his memory is 
+his uncanny ability to instinctively engage in combat like a secret agent."
+"It is well documented that amnesia can occur accidentally through 
+trauma, such as a blow on the head. But can memories be selectively 
+erased? In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Jim 
+Carrey, two people meet accidentally on a train and are immediately 
+attracted to each other. However, they are shocked to find that they 
+were actually lovers years ago but have no memory of it. They learn that 
+they paid a company to wipe memories of each other after a particularly 
+bad fight. Apparently, fate has given them a second chance at love. 
+
+Selective amnesia was taken to an entirely new level in Men in Black, 
+in which Will Smith plays an agent from a shadowy, secret organization 
+that uses the “neuralizer” to selectively erase inconvenient memories of 
+UFOs and alien encounters. There is even a dial to determine how far 
+back the memories should be erased. 
+
+All these make for thrilling plot lines and box-office hits, but are any 
+of them really possible, even in the future?"
+"We know that amnesia is, indeed, possible, and that there are two 
+basic types, depending on whether short- or long-term memory has been 
+affected. “Retrograde amnesia” occurs when there is some trauma or 
+damage to the brain and preexisting memories are lost, usually dating 
+from the event that caused the amnesia. This would be similar to the 
+amnesia faced by Jason Bourne, who lost all memories from before he 
+was left for dead in the water. Here the hippocampus is still intact, so 
+new memories can be formed even though long-term memory has been 
+damaged. “Anterograde amnesia” occurs when short-term memory is 
+damaged, so the person has difficulty forming new memories after the 
+event that caused the amnesia. Usually, amnesia may last for minutes to 
+hours due to damage to the hippocampus. (Anterograde amnesia was 
+featured prominently in the movie Memento, where a man is bent on 
+revenge for the death of his wife. The problem, however, is that his"
+"revenge for the death of his wife. The problem, however, is that his 
+memory lasts only about fifteen minutes, so he has to continually write 
+messages on scraps of papers, photos, and even tattoos in order to 
+remember the clues he has uncovered about the murderer. By painfully 
+reading this trail of messages he has written to himself, he can 
+accumulate crucial evidence that he would have soon forgotten.)"
+"The point here is that memory loss dates back to the time of the 
+trauma or disease, which would make the selective amnesia of 
+Hollywood highly improbable. Movies like Men in Black assume that 
+memories are stored sequentially, as in a hard disk, so you just hit the 
+“erase” button after a designated point in time. However, we know that 
+memories are actually broken up, with separate pieces stored in different 
+places in the brain. 
+
+A FORGETFUL DRUG 
+
+Meanwhile, scientists are studying certain drugs that may erase 
+traumatic memories that continue to haunt and disturb us. In 2009, 
+Dutch scientists, led by Dr. Merel Kindt, announced that they had found 
+new uses for an old drug called propranolol, which could act like a 
+“miracle” drug to ease the pain associated with traumatic memories. The 
+drug did not induce amnesia that begins at a specific point in time, but it 
+did make the pain more manageable—and in just three days, the study 
+
+claimed."
+"claimed. 
+
+The discovery caused a flurry of headlines, in light of the thousands of 
+victims who suffer from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Everyone 
+from war veterans to victims of sexual abuse and horrific accidents could 
+apparently find relief from their symptoms. But it also seemed to fly in 
+the face of brain research, which shows that long-term memories are"
+"encoded not electrically, but at the level of protein molecules. Recent 
+experiments, however, suggest that recalling memories requires both the 
+retrieval and then the reassembly of the memory, so that the protein 
+structure might actually be rearranged in the process. In other words, 
+recalling a memory actually changes it. This may be the reason why the 
+drug works: propranolol is known to interfere with adrenaline 
+absorption, a key in creating the long-lasting, vivid memories that often 
+result from traumatic events. “Propranolol sits on that nerve cell and 
+blocks it. So adrenaline can be present, but it can’t do its job,” says Dr. 
+James McGaugh of the University of California at Irvine. In other words, 
+without adrenaline, the memory fades."
+"Controlled tests done on individuals with traumatic memories showed 
+very promising results. But the drug hit a brick wall when it came to the 
+ethics of erasing memory. Some ethicists did not dispute its 
+effectiveness, but they frowned on the very idea of a forgetfulness drug, 
+since memories are there for a purpose: to teach us the lessons of life. 
+Even unpleasant memories, they said, serve some larger purpose. The 
+drug got a thumbs-down from the President’s Council on Bioethics. Its 
+report concluded that “dulling our memory of terrible things [would] 
+make us too comfortable with the world, unmoved by suffering, 
+wrongdoing, or cruelty.... Can we become numb to life’s sharpest 
+sorrows without also becoming numb to its greatest joys?” 
+
+Dr. David Magus of Stanford University’s Center for Biomedical Ethics 
+says, “Our breakups, our relationships, as painful as they are, we learn 
+from some of those painful experiences. They make us better people.”"
+"Others disagree. Dr. Roger Pitman of Harvard University says that if a 
+doctor encounters an accident victim who is in intense pain, “should we 
+deprive them of morphine because we might be taking away the full 
+emotional experience? Who would ever argue with that? Why should 
+psychiatry be different? I think that somehow behind this argument 
+lurks the notion that mental disorders are not the same as physical 
+
+disorders.” 
+
+How this debate is ultimately resolved could have direct bearing on 
+the next generation of drugs, since propranolol is not the only one 
+involved. 
+
+In 2008, two independent groups, both working with animals, 
+announced other drugs that could actually erase memories, not just 
+manage the pain they cause. Dr. Joe Tsien of the Medical College of 
+Georgia and his colleagues in Shanghai stated that they had actually 
+eliminated a memory in mice using a protein called CaMKII, while 
+scientists at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn found that the"
+"molecule PKMzeta could also erase memories. Dr. Andre Fenson, one of 
+the authors of this second study, said, “If further work confirms this 
+view, we can expect to one day see therapies based on PKMzeta memory 
+erasure.” Not only may the drug erase painful memories, it also “might 
+be useful in treating depression, general anxiety, phobias, post-traumatic 
+stress, and addictions,” he added. 
+
+So far, research has been limited to animals, but human trials will 
+begin soon. If the results transfer from animals to humans, then a 
+forgetful pill may be a real possibility. It will not be the kind of pill seen 
+in Hollywood movies (which conveniently creates amnesia at a precise, 
+opportune time) but could have vast medical applications in the real 
+world for people haunted by traumatic memories. It remains to be seen, 
+though, how selective this memory erasure might be in humans. 
+
+WHAT CAN GO WRONG?"
+"WHAT CAN GO WRONG? 
+
+There may come a day, however, when we can carefully register all the 
+signals passing through the hippocampus, thalamus, and the rest of the 
+limbic system and make a faithful record. Then, by feeding this 
+information into our brains, we might be able to reexperience the 
+totality of what another person went through. Then the question is: 
+What can go wrong? 
+
+In fact, the implications of this idea were explored in a movie, 
+Brainstorm (1983), starring Natalie Wood, which was far ahead of its 
+time. In the movie, scientists create the Hat, a helmet full of electrodes 
+that can faithfully record all the sensations a person is experiencing."
+"Later, a person can have precisely the same sensory experience by 
+playing that tape back into his brain. For fun, one person puts on the Hat 
+when he is making love and tape-records the experience. Then the tape 
+is put into a loop so the experience is greatly magnified. But when 
+another person unknowingly inserts the experience into his brain, he 
+nearly dies because of a sensory overload. Later, one of the scientists 
+experiences a fatal heart attack. But before she dies, she records her final 
+moments on tape. When another person plays the death tape into his 
+brain, he, too, has a sudden heart attack and dies. 
+
+When news of this powerful machine finally leaks out, the military 
+wants to seize control. This sets off a power struggle between the 
+military, which views it as a powerful weapon, and the original 
+scientists, who want to use it to unlock the secrets of the mind. 
+
+Brainstorm prophetically highlighted not only the promise of this"
+"Brainstorm prophetically highlighted not only the promise of this 
+
+technology but also its potential pitfalls. It was meant to be science 
+fiction, but some scientists believe that sometime in the future, these 
+very issues may play out in our headlines and in our courts. 
+
+Earlier, we saw that there have been promising developments in 
+recording a single memory created by a mouse. It may take until mid¬ 
+century before we can reliably record a variety of memories in primates 
+and humans. But creating the Hat, which can record the totality of 
+stimulation entering into the brain, requires tapping into the raw, 
+sensory data surging up the spinal cord and into the thalamus. It may be 
+late in this century before this can be done. 
+
+SOCIAL AND LEGAL ISSUES"
+"SOCIAL AND LEGAL ISSUES 
+
+Some aspects of this dilemma may play out in our lifetimes. On one 
+hand, we may reach a point where we can learn calculus by simply 
+uploading the skill. The educational system would be turned upside 
+down; perhaps it would free teachers to spend more time mentoring 
+students and giving them one-on-one attention in areas of cognition that 
+are less skill-based and cannot be mastered by hitting a button. The rote 
+memorization necessary to become a professional doctor, lawyer, or 
+scientist could also be drastically reduced through this method. 
+
+In principle, it might even give us memories of vacations that never"
+"In principle, it might even give us memories of vacations that never 
+
+happened, prizes that we never won, lovers whom we never loved, or 
+families that we never had. It could make up for deficiencies, creating 
+perfect memories of a life never lived. Parents would love this, since 
+they could teach their children lessons taken from real memories. The 
+demand for such a device could be enormous. Some ethicists fear that 
+these fake memories would be so vivid that we would prefer to relive 
+imaginary lives rather than experiencing our real ones."
+"The unemployed may also benefit from being able to learn new 
+marketable skills by having memories implanted. Historically, millions 
+of workers were left behind every time a new technology was 
+introduced, often without any safety net. That’s why we don’t have 
+many blacksmiths or wagon makers anymore. They turned into 
+autoworkers and other industrial workers. But retraining requires a large 
+amount of time and commitment. If skills can be implanted into the 
+brain, there would be an immediate impact on the world economic 
+system, since we wouldn’t have to waste so much human capital. (To 
+some degree, the value of a certain skill may be devalued if memories 
+can be uploaded into anyone, but this is compensated for by the fact that 
+the number and quality of skilled workers would vastly increase.)"
+"The tourism industry will also experience a tremendous boost. One 
+barrier to foreign travel is the pain of learning new customs and 
+conversing with new phrases. Tourists would be able to share in the 
+experience of living in a foreign land, rather than getting bogged down 
+trying to master the local currency and the details of the transportation 
+system. (Although uploading an entire language, with tens of thousands 
+of words and expressions, would be difficult, it might be possible to 
+upload enough information to carry on a decent conversation.)"
+"Inevitably, these memory tapes will find their way onto social media. 
+In the future, you might be able to record a memory and upload it to the 
+Internet for millions to feel and experience. Previously, we discussed a 
+brain-net through which you can send thoughts. But if memories can be 
+recorded and created, you might also be able to send entire experiences. 
+If you just won a gold medal at the Olympic Games, why not share the 
+agony and the ecstasy of victory by putting your memories on the web? 
+Maybe the experience will go viral and billions can share in your 
+moment’s glory. (Children, who are often at the forefront of video games 
+and social media, may make a habit of recording memorable experiences"
+"and uploading them onto the Internet. Like taking a picture with a cell 
+phone, it would be second nature to them to record entire memories. 
+This would require both the sender and the receiver to have nearly 
+invisible nanowires connecting to their hippocampus. The information 
+would then be sent wirelessly to a server, which would convert the 
+message to a digital signal that can be carried by the Internet. In this 
+way, you could have blogs, message boards, social media, and chat 
+rooms where, instead of uploading pictures and videos, you would 
+upload memories and emotions.) 
+
+A LIBRARY OF SOULS"
+"A LIBRARY OF SOULS 
+
+People may also want to have a geneology of memories. When searching 
+records of our ancestors, we see only a one-dimensional portrait of their 
+lives. Throughout human history, people have lived, loved, and died 
+without leaving a substantial record of their existence. Mostly we just 
+find the birth and death dates of our relatives, with little in between. 
+Today we leave a long trail of electronic documents (credit card receipts, 
+bills, e-mails, bank statements, etc.). By default, the web is becoming a 
+giant repository of all the documents that describe our lives, but this still 
+doesn’t tell anyone much about what we were thinking or feeling. 
+Perhaps in the far future, the web could become a giant library 
+chronicling not just the details of our lives but also our consciousness."
+"In the future, people might routinely record their memories so their 
+descendants can share the same experiences. Visiting the library of 
+memories for your clan, you would be able to see and feel how they 
+lived, and also how you fit into the larger scheme of things. 
+
+This means that anyone could replay our lives, long after we have 
+died, by hitting the “play” button. If this vision is correct, it means that 
+we might be able to “bring back” our ancestors for an afternoon chat, 
+simply by inserting a disk into the library and pushing a button. 
+
+Meanwhile, if you want to share in the experiences of your favorite 
+historical figures, you might be able to have an intimate look into how 
+they felt as they confronted major crises in their lives. If you have a role 
+model and wish to know how they negotiated and survived the great 
+defeats of their life, you could experience their memory tapes and gain"
+"valuable insight. Imagine being able to share the memories of a Nobel 
+Prize-winning scientist. You might get clues about how great discoveries 
+are made. Or you might be able to share the memories of great 
+politicians and statesmen as they made crucial decisions that affected 
+world history. 
+
+Dr. Miguel Nicolelis believes all this will one day become reality. He 
+says, “Each of these perennial records would be revered as a uniquely 
+precious jewel, one among billions of equally exclusive minds that once 
+lived, loved, suffered, and prospered, until they, too, become 
+immortalized, not clad in cold and silent gravestones, but released 
+through vivid thoughts, intensely lived loves, and mutually endured 
+sorrows.” 
+
+THE DARK SIDE OF TECHNOLOGY"
+"THE DARK SIDE OF TECHNOLOGY 
+
+Some scientists have pondered the ethical implications of this 
+technology. Almost every new medical discovery caused ethical concerns 
+when it was introduced. Some of them had to be restricted or banned 
+when proven harmful (like the sleeping drug thalidomide, which caused 
+birth defects). Others have been so successful they changed our 
+conception of who we are, such as test-tube babies. When Louise Brown, 
+the first test-tube baby, was born in 1978, it created such a media storm 
+that even the pope issued a document critical of this technology. But 
+today, perhaps your sibling, child, spouse, or even you may be a product 
+of in vitro fertilization. Like many technologies, eventually the public 
+will simply get used to the idea that memories can be recorded and 
+shared."
+"Other bioethicists have different worries. What happens if memories 
+are given to us without our permission? What happens if these memories 
+are painful or destructive? Or what about Alzheimer’s patients, who are 
+eligible for memory uploads but are too sick to give permission? 
+
+The late Bernard Williams, a philosopher at Oxford University, 
+worried that this device might disturb the natural order of things, which 
+is to forget. “Forgetting is the most beneficial process we possess,” he 
+says. 
+
+If memories can be implanted like uploading computer files, it could"
+"If memories can be implanted like uploading computer files, it could 
+
+also shake the foundation of our legal system. One of the pillars of 
+justice is the eyewitness account, but what would happen if fake 
+memories were implanted? Also, if the memory of a crime can be 
+created, then it might secretly be implanted into the brain of an innocent 
+person. Or, if a criminal needs an alibi, he could secretly implant a 
+memory into another person’s brain, convincing him that they were 
+together when the crime was being committed. Furthermore, not just 
+verbal testimony but also legal documents would be suspect, since when 
+we sign affidavits and legal documents, we depend on our memory to 
+clarify what is true and false."
+"Safeguards would have to be introduced. Laws will have to be passed 
+that clearly define the limits of granting or denying access to memories. 
+Just as there are laws limiting the ability of the police or third parties to 
+enter your home, there would be laws to prevent people from accessing 
+your memories without your permission. There would also have to be a 
+way to mark these memories so that the person realizes that they are 
+fake. Thus, he would still be able to enjoy the memory of a nice 
+vacation, but he would also know that it never happened."
+"Taping, storing, and uploading our memories may allow us to record 
+the past and master new skills. But doing so will not alter our innate 
+ability to digest and process this large body of information. To do that, 
+we need to enhance our intelligence. Progress in this direction is 
+hindered by the fact that there is no universally accepted definition of 
+intelligence. However, there is one example of genius and intelligence 
+that no one can dispute, and that is Albert Einstein. Remarkably, sixty 
+years after his death, his brain is still yielding invaluable clues to the 
+nature of intelligence. 
+
+Some scientists believe that, using a combination of electromagnetics, 
+genetics, and drug therapy, it may be possible to boost our intelligence 
+to the genius level. They cite the fact that random injuries to the brain 
+have been documented that can suddenly change a person of normal 
+ability into a “savant,” one whose spectacular mental and artistic ability"
+"is off the scale. This can be achieved now by random accidents, but what 
+happens when science intervenes and illuminates the secret of this 
+process? 
+
+The brain is wider than the sky 
+For, put them side by side 
+The one the other will contain 
+With ease, and you beside. 
+
+—EMILY DICKINSON 
+
+Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no 
+one else can see. 
+
+—ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER 
+
+6 EINSTEIN’S BRAIN AND ENHANCING OUR 
+INTELLIGENCE 
+
+Albert Einstein’s brain is missing. 
+
+Or, at least it was for fifty years, until the heirs of the doctor who 
+spirited it away shortly after his death in 1955 finally returned it to the 
+National Museum of Health and Medicine in 2010. Analysis of his brain 
+may help clarify these questions: What is genius? How do you measure 
+intelligence and its relationship to success in life? There are also 
+philosophical questions: Is genius a function of our genes, or is it more a 
+question of personal struggle and achievement?"
+"And, finally, Einstein’s brain may help answer the key question: Can 
+we boost our own intelligence? 
+
+The word “Einstein” is no longer a proper noun that refers to a specific 
+person. It now simply means “genius.” The picture that the name 
+conjures up (baggy pants, flaming white hair, disheveled looks) is 
+equally iconic and instantly recognizable. 
+
+The legacy of Einstein has been enormous. When some physicists in 
+2011 raised the possibility that he was wrong, that particles could break 
+the light barrier, it created a firestorm of controversy in the physics 
+world that spilled over into the popular press. The very idea that 
+relativity, which forms the cornerstone of modern physics, could be 
+wrong had physicists around the world shaking their heads. As expected, 
+once the result was recalibrated, Einstein was shown to be right once 
+
+again. It is always dangerous to go up against Einstein."
+"again. It is always dangerous to go up against Einstein. 
+
+One way to gain insight into the question “What is genius?” is to 
+analyze Einstein’s brain. Apparently on the spur of the moment, Dr. 
+Thomas Harvey, the doctor at the Princeton hospital who was 
+performing the autopsy on Einstein, decided to secretly preserve his 
+brain, against the knowledge and wishes of Einstein’s family. 
+
+Perhaps he preserved Einstein’s brain with the vague notion that one 
+day it might unlock the secret of genius. Perhaps he thought, like many 
+
+others, that there was a peculiar part of Einstein’s brain that was the seat 
+of his vast intelligence. Brian Burrell, in his book Postcards from the Brain 
+Museum, speculates that perhaps Dr. Harvey “got caught up in the 
+moment and was transfixed in the presence of greatness. What he 
+quickly discovered was that he had bitten off more than he could chew.”"
+"What happened to Einstein’s brain after that sounds more like a 
+comedy than a science story. Over the years, Dr. Harvey promised to 
+publish his results of analyzing Einstein’s brain. But he was no brain 
+specialist, and kept making excuses. For decades, the brain sat in two 
+large mason jars filled with formaldehyde and placed in a cider box, 
+under a beer cooler. He had a technician slice the brain into 240 pieces, 
+and on rare occasions he would mail a few to scientists who wanted to 
+study them. Once, pieces were mailed to a scientist at Berkeley in a 
+mayonnaise container."
+"Forty years later, Dr. Harvey drove across the country in a Buick 
+Skylark carrying Einstein’s brain in a Tupperware container, hoping to 
+return it to Einstein’s granddaughter Evelyn. She refused to accept it. 
+After Dr. Harvey’s death in 2007, it was left to his heirs to properly 
+donate his collection of slides and portions of Einstein’s brain to science. 
+The history of Einstein’s brain is so unusual that a TV documentary was 
+filmed about it. 
+
+(It should be pointed out that Einstein’s brain was not the only one to 
+be preserved for posterity. The brain of one of the greatest geniuses of 
+mathematics, Carl Friedrich Gauss, often called the Prince of 
+Mathematicians, was also preserved by a doctor a century earlier. Back 
+then, the anatomy of the brain was largely unexplored, and no 
+conclusions could be drawn other than the fact that it had unusually 
+large convolutions or folds.)"
+"One might expect that Einstein’s brain was far beyond an ordinary 
+human’s, that it must have been huge, perhaps with areas that were 
+abnormally large. In fact, the opposite has been found (it is slightly 
+smaller, not larger, than normal). Overall, Einstein’s brain is quite 
+
+ordinary. If a neurologist did not know that this was Einstein’s brain, he 
+probably would not give it a second thought. 
+
+The only differences found in Einstein’s brain were rather minor. A 
+certain part of his brain, called the angular gyri, was larger than normal, 
+with the inferior parietal regions of both hemispheres 15 percent wider"
+"than average. Notably, these parts of the brain are involved in abstract 
+thought, in the manipulation of symbols such as writing and 
+mathematics, and in visual-spatial processing. But his brain was still 
+within the norm, so it is not clear whether the genius of Einstein lay in 
+the organic structure of his brain or in the force of his personality, his 
+outlook, and the times. In a biography that I once wrote of Einstein, 
+titled Einstein’s Cosmos, it was clear to me that certain features of his life 
+were just as important as any anomaly in his brain. Perhaps Einstein 
+himself said it best when he said, “I have no special talents.... I am only 
+passionately curious.” In fact, Einstein would confess that he had to 
+struggle with mathematics in his youth. To one group of schoolchildren, 
+he once confided, “No matter what difficulties you may have with 
+mathematics, mine were greater.” So why was Einstein Einstein?"
+"First, Einstein spent most of his time thinking via “thought 
+experiments.” He was a theoretical physicist, not an experimental one, 
+so he was continually running sophisticated simulations of the future in 
+his head. In other words, his laboratory was his mind."
+"Second, he was known to spend up to ten years or more on a single 
+thought experiment. From the age of sixteen to twenty-six, he focused on 
+the problem of light and whether it was possible to outrace a light beam. 
+This led to the birth of special relativity, which eventually revealed the 
+secret of the stars and gave us the atomic bomb. From the age of twenty- 
+six to thirty-six, he focused on a theory of gravity, which eventually gave 
+us black holes and the big-bang theory of the universe. And then from 
+the age of thirty-six to the end of his life, he tried to find a theory of 
+everything to unify all of physics. Clearly, the ability to spend ten or 
+more years on a single problem showed the tenacity with which he 
+would simulate experiments in his head."
+"Third, his personality was important. He was a bohemian, so it was 
+natural for him to rebel against the establishment in physics. Not every 
+physicist had the nerve or the imagination to challenge the prevailing 
+theory of Isaac Newton, which had held sway for two hundred years 
+before Einstein. 
+
+Fourth, the time was right for the emergence of an Einstein. In 1905, 
+the old physical world of Newton was crumbling in light of experiments 
+that clearly suggested a new physics was about to be born, waiting for a 
+
+genius to show the way. For example, the mysterious substance called 
+
+radium glowed in the dark all by itself indefinitely, as if energy was 
+being created out of thin air, violating the theory of conservation of 
+energy. In other words, Einstein was the right man for the times. If 
+somehow it becomes possible to clone Einstein from the cells in his 
+preserved brain, I suspect that the clone would not be the next Einstein. 
+The historic circumstances must also be right to create a genius."
+"The point here is that genius is perhaps a combination of being born 
+with certain mental abilities and also the determination and drive to 
+achieve great things. The essence of Einstein’s genius was probably his 
+extraordinary ability to simulate the future through thought 
+experiments, creating new physical principles via pictures. As Einstein 
+himself once said, “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but 
+imagination.” And to Einstein, imagination meant shattering the 
+boundaries of the known and entering the domain of the unknown. 
+
+All of us are born with certain abilities that are programmed into our 
+genes and the structure of our brains. That is the luck of the draw. But 
+how we arrange our thoughts and experiences and simulate the future is 
+something that is totally within our control. Charles Darwin himself once 
+wrote, “I have always maintained that, excepting fools, men did not 
+differ much in intellect, only in zeal and hard work.” 
+
+CAN GENIUS BE LEARNED?"
+"CAN GENIUS BE LEARNED? 
+
+This rekindles the question, Are geniuses made or born? How does the 
+nature/nurture debate solve the mystery of intelligence? Can an ordinary 
+person become a genius? 
+
+Since brain cells are notoriously hard to grow, it was once thought 
+that intelligence was fixed by the time we became young adults. But one 
+thing is becoming increasingly clear with new brain research: the brain 
+itself can change when it learns. Although brain cells are not being 
+added in the cortex, the connections between neurons are changing 
+every time a new task is learned. 
+
+For example, scientists in 2011 analyzed the brains of London’s 
+famous taxicab drivers, who have to laboriously memorize twenty-five 
+thousand streets in the dizzying maze that makes up modern London. It 
+takes three to four years to prepare for this arduous test, and only half 
+
+the trainees pass."
+"the trainees pass. 
+
+Scientists at University College London studied the brains of these 
+drivers before they took the test, and then tested them again three to 
+four years afterward. Those trainees who passed the test had a larger 
+volume of gray matter than before, in an area called the posterior and 
+the anterior hippocampus. The hippocampus, as we’ve seen, is where 
+memories are processed. (Curiously, tests also showed that these taxicab 
+drivers scored less than normal on processing visual information, so 
+perhaps there is a trade-off, a price to pay for learning this volume of 
+information.) 
+
+“The human brain remains ‘plastic,’ even in adult life, allowing it to 
+adapt when we learn new tasks,” says Eleanor Maguire of the Wellcome 
+Trust, which funded the study. “This offers encouragement for adults 
+who want to learn new skills later in life.”"
+"Similarly, the brains of mice that have learned many tasks are slightly 
+different from the brains of other mice that have not learned these tasks. 
+It is not so much that the number of neurons has changed, but rather 
+that the nature of the neural connections has been altered by the 
+learning process. In other words, learning actually changes the structure 
+of the brain. 
+
+This raises the old adage “practice makes perfect.” Canadian 
+psychologist Dr. Donald Hebb discovered an important fact about the 
+wiring of the brain: the more we exercise certain skills, the more certain 
+pathways in our brains become reinforced, so the task becomes easier. 
+Unlike a digital computer, which is just as dumb today as it was 
+yesterday, the brain is a learning machine with the ability to rewire its 
+neural pathways every time it learns something. This is a fundamental 
+difference between a digital computer and the brain."
+"This lesson applies not only to London taxicab drivers, but also to 
+accomplished concert musicians as well. According to psychologist Dr. K. 
+Anders Ericsson and colleagues, who studied master violinists at Berlin’s 
+elite Academy of Music, top concert violinists could easily rack up ten 
+thousand hours of grueling practice by the time they were twenty years 
+old, practicing more than thirty hours per week. By contrast, he found 
+that students who were merely exceptional studied only eight thousand 
+hours or fewer, and future music teachers practiced only a total of four 
+thousand hours. Neurologist Daniel Levitin says, “The emerging picture 
+
+from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to 
+achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert— 
+in anything.... In study after study, of composers, basketball players, 
+fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master"
+"criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again.” 
+Malcolm Gladwell, writing in the book Outliers, calls this the “10,000- 
+hour rule.” 
+
+HOW DO YOU MEASURE INTELLIGENCE? 
+
+But how do you measure intelligence? For centuries, any discussion of 
+intelligence relied on hearsay and anecdote. But now MRI studies have 
+shown that the principal activity of the brain while performing these 
+mathematical puzzles involves the pathway connecting the prefrontal 
+cortex (which engages in rational thought) with the parietal lobes 
+(which processes numbers). This correlates with the anatomical studies 
+of Einstein’s brain, which showed that his inferior parietal lobes were 
+larger than normal. So it is conceivable that mathematical ability 
+correlates with increased information flows between the prefrontal 
+cortex and the parietal lobes. But did the brain increase in size in this 
+area because of hard work and study, or was Einstein born that way? 
+The answer is still not clear."
+"The key problem is that there is no uniformly accepted definition of 
+intelligence, let alone a consensus among scientists as to its origin. But 
+the answer may prove critical if we wish to enhance it. 
+
+IQ EXAMS AND DR. TERMAN 
+
+By default, the most widely used measure of intelligence is the IQ exam, 
+pioneered by Dr. Lewis Terman of Stanford University, who in 1916 
+revised an earlier test devised by Alfred Binet for the French 
+government. For the next several decades, it became the gold standard 
+by which to measure intelligence. Terman, in fact, dedicated his life to 
+the proposition that intelligence could be measured and inherited, and 
+was the strongest predictor of success in life. 
+
+Five years later, Terman started a landmark study on schoolchildren,"
+"Five years later, Terman started a landmark study on schoolchildren, 
+
+The Genetic Studies of Genius. It was an ambitious project, whose scope 
+and duration were unprecedented back in the 1920s. It set the tone for 
+research in this field for an entire generation. He methodically 
+chronicled the successes and failures of these individuals throughout 
+their lives, compiling thick files of their achievements. These high-IQ 
+students were dubbed the “Termites.” 
+
+At first, Dr. Terman’s idea seemed to be a resounding success. It"
+"At first, Dr. Terman’s idea seemed to be a resounding success. It 
+
+became the standard by which both children and other tests were 
+measured. During World War I, 1.7 million soldiers were given this test. 
+But over the years, a different profile began to slowly emerge. Decades 
+later, children who scored high on the IQ exam were only moderately 
+more successful than those who did not. Terman could proudly point to 
+some of his students who went on to win awards and secure well-paying 
+jobs. But he became increasingly disturbed by the large number of his 
+brightest students whom society would consider to be failures, taking 
+menial, dead-end jobs, engaging in crime, or leading lives on the 
+margins of society. These results were quite upsetting to Dr. Terman, 
+who had dedicated his life to proving that high IQ meant success in life. 
+
+SUCCESS IN LIFE AND DELAYED GRATIFICATION"
+"SUCCESS IN LIFE AND DELAYED GRATIFICATION 
+
+A different approach was taken in 1972 by Dr. Walter Mischel, also of 
+Stanford, who analyzed yet another characteristic among children: the 
+ability to delay gratification. He pioneered the use of the “marshmallow 
+test,” that is, would children prefer one marshmallow now, or the 
+prospect of two marsh-mallows twenty minutes later? Six hundred 
+children, aged four to six, participated in this experiment. When Mischel 
+revisited the participants in 1988, he found that those who could delay 
+gratification were more competent than those who could not."
+"In 1990, another study showed a direct correlation between those who 
+could delay gratification and SAT scores. And a study done in 2011 
+indicated that this characteristic continued throughout a person’s life. 
+The results of these and other studies were eye-opening. The children 
+who exhibited delayed gratification scored higher on almost every 
+measure of success in life: higher-paying jobs, lower rates of drug 
+addiction, higher test scores, higher educational attainment, better social 
+
+integration, etc."
+"integration, etc. 
+
+But what was most intriguing was that brain scans of these individuals 
+revealed a definite pattern. They showed a distinct difference in the way 
+the prefrontal cortex interacted with the ventral striatum, a region 
+involved in addiction. (This is not surprising, since the ventral striatum 
+contains the nucleus accumbens, known as the “pleasure center.” So 
+there seems to be a struggle here between the pleasure-seeking part of 
+the brain and the rational part to control temptation, as we saw in 
+Chapter 2.) 
+
+This difference was no fluke. The result has been tested by many 
+independent groups over the years, with nearly identical results. Other 
+studies have also verified the difference in the frontal-striatal circuitry of 
+
+the brain, which appears to govern delayed gratification. It seems that 
+the one characteristic most closely correlated with success in life, which 
+has persisted over the decades, is the ability to delay gratification."
+"Although this is a gross simplification, what these brain scans show is 
+that the connection between the prefrontal and parietal lobes seems to 
+be important for mathematical and abstract thought, while the 
+connection between the prefrontal and limbic system (involving the 
+conscious control of our emotions and pleasure center) seems to be 
+essential for success in life. 
+
+Dr. Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin- 
+Madison, concludes, “Your grades in school, your scores on the SAT, 
+mean less for life success than your capacity to co-operate, your ability 
+to regulate your emotions, your capacity to delay your gratification, and 
+your capacity to focus your attention. Those skills are far more 
+important—all the data indicate—for life success than your IQ or your 
+grades.” 
+
+NEW MEASURES OF INTELLIGENCE"
+"NEW MEASURES OF INTELLIGENCE 
+
+Clearly there have to be new ways to measure intelligence and success in 
+life. IQ exams are not useless, but they measure only one limited form of 
+intelligence. Dr. Michael Sweeney, author of Brain: The Complete Mind, 
+notes, “Tests don’t measure motivation, persistence, social skills, and a 
+host of other attributes of a life that’s well lived.”"
+"The problem with many of these standardized tests is that there may 
+also be a subconscious bias due to cultural influences. In addition, these 
+tests are evaluating only one particular form of intelligence, which some 
+psychologists call “convergent” intelligence. Convergent intelligence 
+focuses on one line of thought, ignoring the more complex “divergent” 
+form of intelligence, which involves measuring differing factors. For 
+example, during World War II, the U.S. Army Air Forces asked scientists 
+to devise a psychological exam that would measure a pilot’s intelligence 
+and ability to handle difficult, unexpected situations. One question was: 
+If you are shot down deep in enemy territory and must somehow make it 
+back to friendly lines, what do you do? The results contradicted 
+conventional thinking."
+"Most psychologists expected that the air force study would show that 
+pilots with high IQs would score highly on this test as well. Actually, the 
+reverse was true. The pilots who scored highest were the ones with 
+higher levels of divergent thinking, who could see through many 
+different lines of thought. Pilots who excelled at this, for example, were 
+able to think up a variety of unorthodox and imaginative methods to 
+
+escape after they were captured behind enemy lines."
+"escape after they were captured behind enemy lines. 
+
+The difference between convergent and divergent thinking is also 
+reflected in studies on split-brain patients, which clearly show that each 
+hemisphere of the brain is principally hardwired for one or the other. Dr. 
+Ulrich Kraft of Fulda, Germany, writes, “The left hemisphere is 
+responsible for convergent thinking and the right hemisphere for 
+divergent thinking. The left side examines details and processes them 
+logically and analytically but lacks a sense of overriding, abstract 
+connections. The right side is more imaginative and intuitive and tends 
+to work holistically, integrating pieces of an informational puzzle into a 
+whole.”"
+"In this book, I take the position that human consciousness involves the 
+ability to create a model of the world and then simulate the model into 
+the future, in order to attain a goal. Pilots who demonstrated divergent 
+thinking were able to simulate many possible future events accurately 
+and with more complexity. Similarly, the children who mastered delayed 
+gratification in the famous marshmallow test appear to be the ones who 
+had the most ability to simulate the future, to see the long-term rewards 
+and not just the short-term, get-rich-quick schemes."
+"A more sophisticated intelligence exam that directly quantifies a 
+person’s ability to simulate the future would be difficult but not 
+impossible to create. A person could be asked to create as many realistic 
+scenarios for the future as possible to win a game, with a score assigned 
+depending on the number of simulations the person can imagine and the 
+number of causal links involved with each one. Instead of measuring a 
+person’s ability to simply assimilate information, this new method would 
+measure a person’s ability to manipulate and mold this information to 
+achieve a higher goal. For example, a person might be asked to figure 
+out how to escape from a deserted island full of hungry wild animals and 
+poisonous snakes. He would have to list all the various ways to survive, 
+fend off the dangerous animals, and leave the island, creating an 
+elaborate causal tree of possible outcomes and futures."
+"So we see that there is a common thread running through all this 
+discussion, and that is that intelligence seems to be correlated with the 
+complexity with which we can simulate future events, which correlates 
+with our earlier discussion of consciousness. 
+
+But given the rapid advances taking place in the world’s laboratories 
+concerning electromagnetic fields, genetics, and drug therapies, is it 
+possible not just to measure our intelligence, but to enhance it as well— 
+to become another Einstein? 
+
+BOOSTING OUR INTELLIGENCE 
+
+This possibility was explored in the novel Flowers for Algernon (1958), 
+later made into the Academy Award-winning movie Charly (1968). In it, 
+we follow the sad life of Charly Gordon, who has an IQ of 68 and a 
+menial job in a bakery. He lives a simple life, fails to understand that his 
+fellow workers are constantly making fun of him, and does not even 
+know how to spell his own name."
+"His only friend is Alice, a teacher who takes pity on him and tries to 
+teach him to read. But one day, scientists discover a new procedure that 
+can suddenly make ordinary mice intelligent. Alice hears about this and 
+decides to introduce Charly to these scientists, who agree to perform the 
+procedure on their first human subject. Within weeks, Charly has 
+noticeably changed. His vocabulary increases, he devours books from the 
+
+library, he becomes something of a ladies’ man, and his room explodes 
+with modern art. Soon he begins to read about relativity and the 
+quantum theory, pushing the boundaries of advanced physics. He and 
+Alice even become lovers."
+"But then the doctors notice that the mice have slowly lost their ability 
+and died. Realizing that he, too, might lose everything, Charly furiously 
+tries to use his superior intellect to find a cure, but instead he’s forced to 
+witness his own inexorable decline. His vocabulary shrinks, he forgets 
+mathematics and physics, and he slowly reverts back to his old self. In 
+the final scene, a heartbroken Alice watches as Charly plays with 
+children. 
+
+The novel and movie, although poignant and critically acclaimed, 
+were dismissed as sheer science fiction. The plot was moving and 
+original, but the idea of boosting one’s intelligence was considered 
+preposterous. Brain cells cannot regenerate, scientists said, so this 
+movie’s plot was obviously impossible. 
+
+But not anymore."
+"But not anymore. 
+
+Although it is still impossible to boost your intelligence, rapid 
+advances are being made in electromagnetic sensors, genetics, and stem 
+cells that may one day make this a real possibility. In particular, 
+scientific interest has focused on “autistic savants,” who possess 
+phenomenal, superhuman abilities that stagger the imagination. More 
+important, due to specific injuries to the brain, normal people can 
+rapidly acquire such near-miraculous powers. Some scientists even 
+believe that these uncanny abilities might be induced using 
+electromagnetic fields. 
+
+SAVANTS: SUPER GENIUSES? 
+
+A bullet went crashing through the skull of Mr. Z when he was nine 
+years old. It did not kill him, as his doctors feared, but wreaked 
+extensive damage to the left side of his brain, causing paralysis of the 
+right side of his body and leaving him permanently deaf and mute."
+"However, the bullet also had a bizarre side effect. Mr. Z developed 
+supernormal mechanical abilities and a prodigious memory, typical of 
+“savants.” 
+
+Mr. Z is not alone. In 1979, a ten-year-old boy named Orlando Serrell 
+was knocked unconscious by a baseball that hit the left side of his head. 
+At first, he complained of severe headaches. But after the pain subsided, 
+he was able to do remarkable mathematical calculations and had a near¬ 
+photographic memory of certain events happening in his life. He could 
+calculate dates thousands of years into the future. 
+
+In the entire world of roughly seven billion people, there are only 
+about one hundred documented cases of these astounding savants. (The 
+number is much larger if we include those whose mental skills are still 
+extraordinary but not superhuman. It is believed that about 10 percent 
+of autistic individuals show some savant capabilities.) These 
+extraordinary savants possess abilities far beyond our current scientific 
+understanding."
+"There are several types of savants that have recently elicited the 
+curiosity of scientists. About half of savants have some form of autism 
+(the other half display other forms of mental illness or psychological 
+disorder). They often have profound problems interacting socially, 
+leading to deep isolation. 
+
+Then there is the “acquired savant syndrome,” in which people who 
+appear perfectly normal suffer from some extreme trauma later in life 
+(e.g., hitting their head on the bottom of a swimming pool or being 
+struck by a baseball or a bullet), almost always on the left side of their 
+brain. Some scientists, however, suggest that this distinction is 
+misleading, that perhaps all savant skills are acquired. Since autistic 
+savants begin to show their abilities around age three or four, perhaps 
+their autism (like a blow to their head) is the origin of their abilities."
+"There is scientific disagreement about the origin of these extraordinary 
+abilities. Some believe that these individuals are simply born this way 
+and hence are unique, one-of-a-kind anomalies. Their skills, even if 
+
+awakened by a bullet, are hardwired into their brains from birth. If so, 
+then perhaps this skill can never be learned or transferred. 
+
+Others claim that such hardwiring violates the theory of evolution, 
+which takes place incrementally over long periods of time. If savant 
+geniuses exist, then the rest of us must also possess similar abilities, 
+although they are latent. Does this mean, then, that one day we might be 
+able to turn on these miraculous powers at will? Some believe so, and 
+there are even published papers claiming that some savant skills are"
+"latent in all of us and can be brought to light using the magnetic fields 
+generated by an electromagnetic scanner (TES). Or perhaps there is a 
+genetic basis to this skill, in which case gene therapy might re-create 
+these astonishing abilities. It might also be possible to cultivate stem 
+cells that would allow neurons to grow in the prefrontal cortex and other 
+key centers of the brain. Then we might be able to increase our mental 
+abilities. 
+
+All these avenues are the source of much speculation and research. 
+Not only might they allow doctors to reverse the ravages of diseases like 
+Alzheimer’s, but they could also enable us to enhance our own 
+intelligence. The possibilities are intriguing."
+"The first documented case of a savant was recorded in 1789 by Dr. 
+Benjamin Rush, who studied an individual who seemed to be mentally 
+handicapped. Yet when he was asked how many seconds a man had 
+lived (who was seventy years, seventeen days, and twelve hours old), it 
+took him only ninety seconds to give the correct answer of 
+2,210,500,800. 
+
+Dr. Darold Treffert, a Wisconsin physician, has studied these savants at 
+length. He recites one story of a blind savant who was asked a simple 
+question. If you put one corn kernel in the first square of a chess board, 
+two kernels in the second, four in the next, and keep doubling after that, 
+how many kernels would you have on the sixty-fourth square? It took 
+him just forty-five seconds to correctly reply: 
+18,446,744,073,709,551,616."
+"Perhaps the best-known example of a savant was the late Kim Peek, 
+who was the inspiration for the movie Rain Man, starring Dustin 
+Hoffman and Tom Cruise. Although Kim Peek was severely mentally 
+handicapped (he was incapable of living by himself and could barely tie 
+his shoelaces or button his shirt), he memorized about twelve thousand 
+books and could recite lines from them, word for word, on any particular 
+page. It took him about eight seconds to read a page. (He could 
+memorize a book in about half an hour, but he read them in an unusual 
+way. He could read both pages simultaneously, using each eye to read a 
+
+different page at the same time.) Although incredibly shy, he eventually 
+began to enjoy performing dazzling feats of mathematics before curious 
+onlookers, who would try to challenge him with tricky questions. 
+
+Scientists, of course, have to be careful in distinguishing true savant"
+"skills from simple memorization tricks. Their skills are not just 
+mathematical—they also extend to incredible musical, artistic, and 
+mechanical capabilities. Since autistic savants have great difficulty 
+verbally expressing their mental processes, another avenue is to 
+investigate individuals who have Asperger’s syndrome, which is a milder 
+form of autism. Only in 1994 was Asperger’s syndrome recognized as a 
+distinct psychological condition, so there is very little solid research in 
+this area. Like autistic individuals, people with Asperger’s have a 
+difficult time interacting socially with others. However, with proper 
+training, they can learn enough social skills to hold down a job and 
+articulate their mental processes. And a fraction of them have 
+remarkable savant skills. Some scientists believe that many great 
+scientists had Asperger’s syndrome. This might explain the strange, 
+reclusive nature of physicists like Isaac Newton and Paul Dirac (one of"
+"reclusive nature of physicists like Isaac Newton and Paul Dirac (one of 
+the founders of the quantum theory). Newton, in particular, was 
+pathologically incapable of small talk."
+"I had the pleasure of interviewing one such individual, Daniel 
+Tammet, who has written a best seller, Bom on a Blue Day. Almost alone 
+among these remarkable savants, he is able to articulate his thoughts in 
+books, on the radio, and in TV interviews. For someone who had such 
+difficulty relating to others as a child, he now has a superb grasp of 
+communication skills. 
+
+Daniel has the distinction of setting a world record for memorizing pi, 
+a fundamental number in geometry. He was able to memorize it to 
+22,514 decimal places. I asked him how he prepared for such a 
+herculean feat. Daniel told me that he associates a color or texture with 
+every number. Then I asked him the key question: If every digit has a 
+color or texture, then how does he remember tens of thousands of them? 
+Sadly, at that point he said he doesn’t know. It just comes to him. 
+Numbers have been his life ever since he was a child, and hence they 
+simply appear in his mind. His mind is a constant mixture of numbers 
+and colors."
+"ASPERGER’S AND SILICON VALLEY 
+
+So far, this discussion may seem abstract, without any direct bearing on 
+
+our daily lives. But the impact of people with mild autism and Asperger’s 
+may be more widespread than previously thought, especially in certain 
+high-tech fields. 
+
+In the hit television series The Big Bang Theory, we follow the antics of 
+several young scientists, mainly nerdy physicists, in their awkward quest 
+for female companionship. In every episode, there is a hilarious incident 
+that reveals how clueless and pathetic they are in this endeavor."
+"There is a tacit assumption running through the series that their 
+intellectual brilliance is matched only by their geekiness. And 
+anecdotally, people have noticed that among the high-tech gurus in 
+Silicon Valley, a higher percentage than normal seem to lack some social 
+skills. (There is a saying among women scientists who attend highly 
+specialized engineering universities, where the girl-to-guy ratio is 
+decidedly in their favor: “The odds are good, but the goods are odd.”) 
+
+Scientists set out to investigate this suspicion. The hypothesis is that 
+people with Asperger’s and other mild forms of autism have mental skills 
+ideally suited for certain fields, like the information technology industry. 
+Scientists at University College London examined sixteen people who 
+were diagnosed with a mild form of autism and compared them with 
+sixteen normal individuals. Both groups were shown slides containing 
+random numbers and letters arranged in increasingly complex patterns."
+"Their results showed that people with autism had a superior ability to 
+focus on the task. In fact, as the tasks became harder, the gap between 
+the intellectual skills of both groups began to widen, with the autistic 
+individuals performing significantly better than the control group. (The 
+test, however, also showed that these individuals were more easily 
+distracted by outside noises and blinking lights than the control group.) 
+
+Dr. Nilli Lavie says, “Our study confirms our hypothesis that people 
+with autism have higher perceptual capacity compared to the typical 
+population.... People with autism are able to perceive significantly more 
+information than the typical adult.” 
+
+This certainly does not prove that all people who are intellectually 
+brilliant have some form of Asperger’s. But it does indicate that fields 
+requiring the ability to focus intellectually might have a higher 
+proportion of people with Asperger’s. 
+
+BRAIN SCANS OF SAVANTS"
+"BRAIN SCANS OF SAVANTS 
+
+The subject of savants has always been shrouded in hearsay and amazing 
+anecdotal stories. But recently, the entire field has been turned upside 
+down with the development of MRI and other brain scans. 
+
+Kim Peek’s brain, for example, was unusual. MRI scans show that it 
+lacked the corpus callosum connecting the left and right brain, which is 
+probably why he could read two pages at the same time. His poor motor 
+skills were reflected in a deformed cerebellum, the area that controls 
+balance. Unfortunately, MRI scans could not reveal the exact origin of 
+his extraordinary abilities and photographic memory. But in general, 
+brain scans have shown that many suffering from acquired savant 
+syndrome have experienced damage to their left brain."
+"In particular, interest has focused on the left anterior temporal and 
+orbitofrontal cortices. Some believe that perhaps all savant skills 
+(autistic, acquired, and Asperger’s) arise from damage to this very 
+specific spot in the left temporal lobe. This area can act like a “censor” 
+that periodically flushes out irrelevant memories. But after damage 
+occurs to the left hemisphere, the right hemisphere starts to take over. 
+The right brain is much more precise than the left brain, which often 
+distorts reality and confabulates. In fact, it is believed that the right 
+brain must work extra hard because of damage to the left brain, and 
+hence savant skills develop as a consequence. For example, the right 
+brain is much more artistic than the left brain. Normally, the left brain 
+restricts this talent and holds it in check. But if the left brain is injured in 
+a certain way, it may unleash the artistic abilities latent in the right 
+brain, causing an explosion of artistic talent. So the key to unleashing"
+"brain, causing an explosion of artistic talent. So the key to unleashing 
+savant capabilities might be to dampen the left brain so that it can no 
+longer restrain the natural talents of the right brain. This is sometimes 
+referred to as “left brain injury, right brain compensation.”"
+"In 1998, Dr. Bruce Miller of the University of California at San 
+Francisco performed a series of studies that seem to back this idea up. 
+He and coworkers studied five normal individuals who began to show 
+signs of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). As their dementia started to 
+progress, savant abilities gradually began to emerge. As their dementia 
+got worse, several of these individuals began to exhibit even more 
+extraordinary artistic ability, although none had shown gifts in this area 
+
+before. Moreover, the abilities they exhibited were typical of savant 
+behavior. Their abilities were visual, not auditory, and their artworks, 
+remarkable as they were, were just copies lacking any original, abstract, 
+or symbolic qualities. (One patient actually got better during the study. 
+But her emerging savant skills were also reduced as a consequence. This 
+suggests a close relationship between emerging disorders of the left 
+temporal lobe and emerging savant skills.)"
+"Dr. Miller’s analysis seemed to show that degeneration of the left 
+anterior temporal and orbitofrontal cortices probably decreased 
+inhibition of the visual systems in the right hemisphere, thereby 
+increasing artistic abilities. Again, damaging the left hemisphere in a 
+particular location forced the right hemisphere to take over and develop."
+"In addition to the savants, MRI scans have also been done on people 
+with hyperthymestic syndrome, who also have photographic memories. 
+These people do not suffer from autism and mental disorders, but they 
+share some of their skills. In the entire United States, there are only four 
+documented cases of true photographic memory. One of them is Jill 
+Price, a school administrator in Los Angeles. She can recall precisely 
+what she was doing on any particular day going back decades. But she 
+complains that she finds it difficult to erase certain thoughts. Indeed, her 
+brain seems to be “stuck on autopilot.” She compares her memory to 
+watching the world through a split screen, in which the past and present 
+are constantly competing for her attention."
+"Since 2000, scientists at the University of California at Irvine have 
+scanned her brain, and they’ve found it to be unusual. Several regions 
+were larger than normal, such as the caudate nuclei (which is involved 
+with forming habits) and the temporal lobe (which stores facts and 
+figures). It is theorized that these two areas work in tandem to create her 
+photographic memory. Her brain is therefore different from the brains of 
+savants who suffer an injury or damage to their left temporal lobe. The 
+reason is unknown, but it points to another path by which one may 
+obtain these fantastic mental abilities. 
+
+CAN WE BECOME SAVANTS? 
+
+All this raises the intriguing possibility that one might be able to 
+
+deliberately deactivate parts of the left brain and thereby increase the 
+activity of the right brain, forcing it to acquire savant capabilities."
+"We recall that transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, allows one 
+to effectively silence parts of the brain. If so, then why can’t we silence 
+this part of the left anterior temporal and orbitofrontal cortices using the 
+TMS and turn on a savantlike genius at will? 
+
+This idea has actually been tried. Dr. Allan Snyder of the University of 
+Sydney, Australia, made headlines a few years ago when he claimed 
+that, by applying the TMS to a certain part of the left brain, his subjects 
+could suddenly perform savantlike feats. By directing low-frequency 
+magnetic waves into the left hemisphere, one can in principle turn off"
+"this dominant region of the brain so that the right hemisphere takes 
+over. Dr. Synder and his colleagues did an experiment with eleven male 
+volunteers. They applied the TMS to the subjects’ left frontotemporal 
+region while the subjects were performing tests involving reading and 
+drawing. This did not produce savant skills among the subjects, but two 
+of them had significant improvements in their ability to proofread words 
+and recognize duplicated words. In another experiment, Dr. R. L. Young 
+and his colleagues gave a battery of psychological tests to seventeen 
+individuals. The tests were specifically designed to test for savant skills. 
+(Tests of this sort analyze a person’s ability to memorize facts, 
+manipulate numbers and dates, create artwork, or perform music.) Five 
+of the subjects reported improvement in savantlike skills after treatment 
+with TMS."
+"Dr. Michael Sweeney has observed, “When applied to the prefrontal 
+lobes, TMS has been shown to enhance the speed and agility of cognitive 
+processing. The TMS bursts are like a localized jolt of caffeine, but 
+nobody knows for sure how the magnets actually do their work.” These 
+experiments hint, but by no means prove, that silencing a part of the left 
+frontotemporal region could initiate some enhanced skills. These skills 
+are a far cry from savant abilities, and we should also be careful to point 
+out that other groups have looked into these experiments, and the results 
+have been inconclusive. More experimental work must be done, so it is 
+still too early to render a final judgment one way or the other. 
+
+TMS probes are the easiest and most convenient instrument to use for 
+this purpose, since they can selectively silence various parts of the brain 
+at will without relying on brain damage and traumatic accidents. But it"
+"should also be noted that TMS probes are still crude, silencing millions 
+of neurons at a time. Magnetic fields, unlike electrical probes, are not 
+precise but spread out over several centimeters. We know that the left 
+anterior temporal and orbitofrontal cortices are damaged in savants and 
+likely responsible, at least in some part, for their unique abilities, but 
+perhaps the specific area that must be dampened is an even smaller 
+subregion. So each jolt of TMS might inadvertently deactivate some of 
+the areas that need to remain intact in order to produce savantlike skills."
+"In the future, with TMS probes we might be able to narrow down the 
+region of the brain involved with eliciting savant skills. Once this region 
+is identified, the next step would be to use highly accurate electrical 
+probes, like those used in deep brain stimulation, to dampen these areas 
+even more precisely. Then, with the push of a button, it might be 
+possible to use these probes to silence this tiny portion of the brain in 
+order to bring out savantlike skills. 
+
+FORGETTING TO FORGET AND PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY 
+
+Although savant skills may be initiated by some sort of injury to the left 
+brain (leading to right brain compensation), this still does not explain 
+precisely how the right brain can perform these miraculous feats of 
+memory. By what neural mechanism does photographic memory 
+emerge? The answer to this question may determine whether we can 
+become savants."
+"Until recently, it was thought that photographic memory was due to 
+the special ability of certain brains to remember. If so, then it might be 
+difficult for the average person to learn these memory skills, since only 
+exceptional brains are capable of them. But in 2012, a new study showed 
+that precisely the opposite may be true. 
+
+The key to photographic memory may not be the ability of remarkable 
+brains to learn; on the contrary, it may be their inability to forget. If this 
+is true, then perhaps photographic memory is not such a mysterious 
+thing after all. 
+
+The new study was done by scientists at the Scripps Research Institute 
+in Florida who were working with fruit flies. They found an interesting 
+way in which these fruit flies learn, which may overturn a cherished idea 
+
+of how memories are formed and forgotten. The fruit flies were exposed 
+to different smells and were given positive reinforcement (with food) or 
+negative reinforcement (with electric shocks)."
+"The scientists knew that the neurotransmitter dopamine was important 
+to forming memories. To their surprise, they found that dopamine 
+actively regulates both the formation and the forgetting of new 
+memories. In the process of creating new memories, the dCAl receptor 
+was activated. By contrast, forgetting was initiated by the activation of 
+the DAMB receptor. 
+
+Previously, it was thought that forgetting might be simply the 
+degradation of memories with time, which happens passively by itself. 
+This new study shows that forgetting is an active process, requiring 
+intervention by dopamine. 
+
+To prove their point, they showed that by interfering with the action 
+of the dCAl and DAMB receptors, they could, at will, increase or 
+decrease the ability of fruit flies to remember and forget. A mutation in 
+the dCAl receptor, for example, impaired the ability of the fruit flies to 
+remember. A mutation in the DAMB receptor decreased their ability to 
+forget."
+"The researchers speculate that this effect, in turn, may be partially 
+responsible for savants’ skills. Perhaps there is a deficiency in their 
+ability to forget. One of the graduate students involved in the study, 
+Jacob Berry, says, “Savants have a high capacity for memory. But maybe 
+it isn’t memory that gives them this capacity; maybe they have a bad 
+forgetting mechanism. This might also be the strategy for developing 
+drugs to promote cognition and memory—what about drugs that inhibit 
+forgetting as a cognitive enhancers?” 
+
+Assuming that this result holds up in human experiments as well, it 
+could encourage scientists to develop new drugs and neurotransmitters 
+that are able to dampen the forgetting process. One might thus be able 
+to selectively turn on photographic memories when needed by 
+neutralizing the forgetting process. In this way, we wouldn’t have the 
+continuous overflow of extraneous, useless information, which hinders 
+the thinking of people with savant syndrome."
+"What is also exciting is the possibility that the BRAIN project, which is 
+being championed by the Obama administration, might be able to 
+identify the specific pathways involved with acquired savant syndrome. 
+
+Transcranial magnetic fields are still too crude to pin down the handful 
+of neurons that may be involved. But using nanoprobes and the latest in 
+scanning technologies, the BRAIN project might be able to isolate the 
+precise neural pathways that make possible photographic memory and 
+incredible computational, artistic, and musical skills. Billions of research 
+dollars will be channeled into identifying the specific neural pathways 
+involved with mental disease and other afflictions of the brain, and the 
+secret of savant skills may be revealed in the process. Then it might be 
+possible to take normal individuals and make savants out of them. This 
+has happened many times in the past because of random accidents. In 
+the future, this may become a precise medical process. Time will tell."
+"So far, the methods analyzed here do not alter the nature of the brain 
+or the body. The hope is that through the use of magnetic fields, we will 
+be able to unleash the potential that already exists in our brains but is 
+latent. The philosophy underlying this idea is that we are all savants 
+waiting to happen, and it will just take some slight alteration of our 
+neural circuits to unleash this hidden talent. 
+
+Yet another tactic is to directly alter the brain and the genes, using the 
+latest in brain science and also genetics. One promising method is to use 
+stem cells. 
+
+STEM CELLS FOR THE BRAIN"
+"STEM CELLS FOR THE BRAIN 
+
+It was dogma for many decades that brain cells do not regenerate. It 
+seemed impossible that you could repair old, dying brain cells, or grow 
+new ones to boost your abilities, but all this changed in 1998. That year, 
+it was discovered that adult stem cells could be found in the 
+hippocampus, the olfactory bulb, and the caudate nucleus. In brief, stem 
+cells are the “mother of all cells.” Embryonic stem cells, for instance, can 
+readily develop into any other cell. Although each of our cells contains 
+all the genetic material necessary to construct a human being, only 
+embryonic stem cells have the ability to actually differentiate into any 
+type of cell in the body. 
+
+Adult stem cells have lost that chameleon-like ability, but they can 
+still reproduce and replace old, dying cells. As far as memory 
+enhancement goes, interest has focused on adult stem cells in the"
+"hippocampus. It turns out that thousands of new hippocampus cells are 
+born naturally each day, but most die soon afterward. However, it was 
+shown that rats that learned new skills retained more of their new cells. 
+A combination of exercise and mood-elevating chemicals can also boost 
+the survival rate of new hippocampus cells. It turns out that stress, on 
+the contrary, accelerates the death of new neurons."
+"In 2007, a breakthrough occurred when scientists in Wisconsin and 
+Japan were able to take ordinary human skin cells, reprogram their 
+genes, and turn them into stem cells. The hope is that these stem cells, 
+either found naturally or converted using genetic engineering, can one 
+day be injected into the brains of Alzheimer’s patients to replace dying 
+cells. (These new brain cells, because they do not yet have the proper 
+connections, would not be integrated into the brain’s neural architecture. 
+This means that a person would have to relearn certain skills to 
+incorporate these fresh new neurons.) 
+
+Stem cell research is naturally one of the most active areas in brain 
+research. “Stem cell research and regenerative medicine are in an 
+extremely exciting phase right now. We are gaining knowledge very fast 
+and many companies are being formed and are starting clinical trials in 
+different areas,” says Sweden’s Jonas Frisen of the Karolinska Institute. 
+
+GENETICS OF INTELLIGENCE"
+"GENETICS OF INTELLIGENCE 
+
+In addition to stem cells, another avenue of exploration involves 
+isolating the genes responsible for human intelligence. Biologists note 
+that we are about 98.5 percent genetically identical to a chimpanzee, yet 
+
+we live twice as long and have exploded in intellectual skills in the past 
+six million years. So among a handful of genes there must be the ones 
+responsible for giving us the human brain. Within a few years, scientists 
+will have a complete map of all these genetic differences, and the secret 
+to human longevity and enhanced intelligence may be found within this 
+tiny set. Scientists have focused on a few genes that possibly drove the 
+evolution of the human brain. 
+
+So perhaps the clue to revealing the secret of intelligence lies in our 
+understanding of our apelike ancestors. This raises another question: Can 
+this research make possible the Planet of the Apes ?"
+"In this long-running series of movies, a nuclear war destroys modern 
+civilization. Humanity is reduced to barbarism, but the radiation 
+somehow accelerates the evolution of the other primates, so that they 
+become the dominant species on the planet. They create an advanced 
+civilization, while humans are reduced to scruffy, smelly savages 
+roaming half naked in the forest. At best, humans become zoo animals. 
+The tables have turned on the humans, so the apes gawk at us outside 
+the bars of our cages."
+"In the latest installment, The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, scientists are 
+looking for a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Along the way, they stumble 
+on a virus that has the unintended consequence of increasing a 
+chimpanzee’s intelligence. Unfortunately, one of these enhanced apes is 
+treated cruelly when placed in a shelter for primates. Using his increased 
+intelligence, the ape breaks free, infects the other lab animals with the 
+virus to raise their intelligence, and then frees all of them from their 
+cages. Soon a caravan of shouting, intelligent apes runs amok on the 
+Golden Gate Bridge, completely overwhelming local and state police. 
+After a spectacular, harrowing confrontation with the authorities, the 
+movie ends with the apes peacefully finding refuge in a redwood forest 
+north of the bridge."
+"Is such a scenario realistic? In the short term, no, but it can’t be ruled 
+out in the future, since scientists in the coming years should be able to 
+catalog all the genetic changes that created Homo sapiens. But many 
+more mysteries have to be solved before we have intelligent apes. 
+
+One scientist who has been fascinated not by science fiction, but by 
+the genetics of what makes us “human,” is Dr. Katherine Pollard, an 
+expert in a field called “bioinformatics,” which barely existed a decade 
+ago. In this field of biology, instead of cutting open animals to 
+understand how they are put together, researchers use the vast power of 
+computers to mathematically analyze the genes in animals’ bodies. She 
+has been at the forefront of finding the genes that define the essence of 
+what separates us from the apes. Back in 2003, as a freshly minted Ph.D. 
+
+from the University of California at Berkeley, she got her chance."
+"from the University of California at Berkeley, she got her chance. 
+
+“I jumped at the opportunity to join the international team that was 
+identifying the sequence of DNA bases, or ‘letters,’ in the genome of the 
+common chimpanzee,” she recalled. Her goal was clear. She knew that 
+only fifteen million base pairs, or “letters,” that make up our genome 
+
+(out of three billion base pairs) separate us from the chimps, our closest 
+genetic neighbor. (Each “letter” in our genetic code refers to a nucleic 
+acid, of which there are four, labeled A,T,C, and G. So our genome 
+consists of three billion letters, arranged like ATTCCAGGG....) 
+
+“I was determined to find them,” she wrote."
+"“I was determined to find them,” she wrote. 
+
+Isolating these genes could have enormous implications for our future. 
+Once we know the genes that gave rise to Homo sapiens, it becomes 
+possible to determine how humans evolved. The secret of intelligence 
+might lie in these genes. It might even be possible to accelerate the path 
+taken by evolution and even enhance our intelligence. But even fifteen 
+million base pairs is a huge number to analyze. How can you find a 
+handful of genetic needles out of this genetic haystack?"
+"Dr. Pollard knew that most of our genome is made of “junk DNA” that 
+does not contain any genes and was largely unaffected by evolution. This 
+junk DNA slowly mutates at a known rate (roughly 1 percent of it 
+changes over four million years). Since we differ from the chimps in our 
+DNA by 1.5 percent, this means that we probably separated from the 
+chimpanzees about six million years ago. Hence there is a “molecular 
+clock” in each of our cells. And since evolution accelerates this mutation 
+rate, analyzing where this acceleration took place allows you to tell 
+which genes are driving evolution. 
+
+Dr. Pollard reasoned that if she could write a computer program that 
+could find where most of these accelerated changes are located in our 
+genome, she could isolate precisely the genes that gave birth to Homo 
+sapiens. After months of hard work and debugging, she finally placed her 
+program into the giant computers located at the University of California 
+at Santa Cruz. Anxiously she awaited the results."
+"When the computer printout finally arrived, it showed what she was 
+looking for: there are 201 regions of our genome showing accelerated 
+change. But the first one on her list caught her attention. 
+
+“With my mentor David Haussler leaning over my shoulder, I looked 
+at the top hit, a stretch of 118 bases that together became known as 
+human accelerated region 1 (HAR1),” she recalled. 
+
+She was ecstatic. Bingo! 
+
+“We had hit the jackpot,” she would write. It was a dream come true. 
+
+She was staring at an area of our genome containing only 118 base 
+pairs, with the largest divergence of mutations separating us from the 
+
+apes. Of these base pairs, only eighteen mutations were altered since we 
+became human. Her remarkable discovery showed that a small handful 
+of mutations could be responsible for raising us from the swamp of our 
+genetic past."
+"Next she and her colleagues tried to decipher the precise nature of this 
+mysterious cluster called HAR1. They found that HAR1 was remarkably 
+stable across millions of years of evolution. Primates separated from 
+chickens about three hundred million years ago, yet only two base pairs 
+differ between chimps and chickens. So HAR1 was virtually unchanged 
+for several hundred million years, with only two changes, in the letters G 
+and C. Yet in just six million years, HAR1 mutated eighteen times, 
+representing a huge acceleration in our evolution."
+"But what was more intriguing was the role HAR1 played in controlling 
+the overall layout of the cerebral cortex, which is famous for its wrinkled 
+appearance. A defect in the HAR1 region causes a disorder called 
+“lissencephaly,” or “smooth brain,” causing the cortex to fold 
+incorrectly. (Defects in this region are also linked to schizophrenia.) 
+Besides the large size of our cerebral cortex, one of its main 
+characteristics is that it is highly wrinkled and convoluted, vastly 
+increasing its surface area and hence its computational power. Dr. 
+Pollard’s work showed that changing just eighteen letters in our genome 
+was partially responsible for one of the major, defining genetic changes 
+in human history, vastly increasing our intelligence. (Recall that the 
+brain of Carl Friedrich Gauss, one of the greatest mathematicians in 
+history, was preserved after his death and showed unusual wrinkling.)"
+"Dr. Pollard’s list went even further and identified a few hundred other 
+areas that also showed accelerated change, some of which were already 
+known. FOX2, for example, is crucial for the development of speech, 
+another key characteristic of humans. (Individuals with a defective FOX2 
+gene have difficulty making the facial movements necessary for speech.) 
+Another region called HAR2 gives our fingers the dexterity required to 
+manipulate delicate tools. 
+
+Furthermore, since the genome of the Neanderthal has been 
+sequenced, it is possible to compare our genetic makeup with a species 
+even closer to us than the chimpanzees. (When analyzing the FOX2 gene 
+in Neanderthals, scientists found that we shared the same gene with 
+
+them. This means that there is a possibility that the Neanderthal could 
+
+vocalize and create speech, as we do.)"
+"vocalize and create speech, as we do.) 
+
+Another crucial gene is called ASPM, which is thought to be 
+responsible for the explosive growth of our brain capacity. Some 
+scientists believe that this and other genes may reveal why humans 
+became intelligent but the apes did not. (People with a defective version 
+of the ASPM gene often suffer from microcephaly, a severe form of 
+mental retardation, because they have a tiny skull, about the size of one 
+of our ancestors, Australopithecus.)"
+"Scientists have tracked the number of mutations within the ASPM 
+gene and found that it has mutated about fifteen times in the last five to 
+six million years, since we separated from the chimpanzee. More recent 
+mutations in these genes seem to be correlated with milestones in our 
+evolution. For example, one mutation occurred over one hundred 
+thousand years ago, when modern humans emerged in Africa, 
+indistinguishable in appearance from us. And the last mutation was 
+5,800 years ago, which coincides with the introduction of the written 
+language and agriculture. 
+
+Because these mutations coincide with periods of rapid growth in 
+intellect, it is tantalizing to speculate that ASPM is among the handful of 
+genes responsible for our increased intelligence. If this is true, then 
+perhaps we can determine whether these genes are still active today, and 
+whether they will continue to shape human evolution into the future."
+"All this research raises a question: Can manipulating a handful of 
+genes increase our intelligence? 
+
+Quite possibly. 
+
+Scientists are rapidly determining the precise mechanism by which 
+these genes gave rise to intelligence. In particular, genetic regions and 
+genes like HAR1 and ASPM could help solve a mystery concerning the 
+brain. If there are roughly twenty-three thousand genes in your genome, 
+then how can they possibly control the connections linking one hundred 
+billion neurons, containing a quadrillion total connections (1 with fifteen 
+zeros after it)? It seems mathematically impossible. The human genome 
+is about a trillion times too small to code for all our neural connections. 
+So our very existence seems to be a mathematical impossibility. 
+
+The answer may be that nature takes numerous shortcuts in creating 
+the brain. First, many neurons are connected randomly, so that a 
+detailed blueprint is not necessary, which means that these randomly"
+"connected regions organize themselves after a baby is born and starts to 
+interact with the environment. 
+
+And second, nature also uses modules that repeat themselves over and 
+over again. Once nature discovers something useful, she often repeats it. 
+This may explain why only a handful of genetic changes are responsible 
+for most of our explosive growth in intelligence in the last six million 
+years. 
+
+Size does matter in this case, then. If we tweak the ASPM and a few 
+other genes, the brain might become larger and more complex, thereby 
+making it possible to increase our intelligence. (Increasing our brain size 
+is not sufficient to do this, since how the brain is organized is also 
+crucially important. But increasing the gray matter of our brain is a 
+necessary precondition to increasing our intelligence.) 
+
+APES, GENES, AND GENIUS"
+"APES, GENES, AND GENIUS 
+
+Dr. Pollard’s research focused on areas of our genome that we share with 
+the chimpanzees but that are mutated. It is also possible that there are 
+areas in our genome found only in humans, independent of the apes. 
+One such gene was discovered recently, in November 2012. Scientists, 
+led by a team at the University of Edinburgh, isolated the RIM-941 gene, 
+which is the only gene ever discovered that is found strictly in Homo 
+sapiens and not in other primates. Also, geneticists can show that the 
+gene emerged between one and six million years ago (after the time 
+when humans and chimpanzees split about six million years ago)."
+"Unfortunately, this discovery also set off a huge firestorm in science 
+newsletters and blogs as misleading headlines blared across the Internet. 
+Breathless articles appeared claiming that scientists had found a single 
+gene that could, in principle, make chimpanzees intelligent. The essence 
+of “humanness” had finally been isolated at the genetic level, the 
+headlines shouted. 
+
+Reputable scientists soon stepped in and tried to calm things down. In 
+all likelihood, a series of genes, acting together in complex ways, is 
+responsible for human intelligence. No single gene can make a chimp 
+suddenly have human intelligence, they said. 
+
+Although these headlines were highly exaggerated, they did raise a 
+
+serious question: How realistic is Planet of the Apes ?"
+"There are a series of complications. If the HAR1 and ASPM genes are 
+tweaked so that the size and structure of the chimp brain suddenly 
+expand, then a series of other genes would have to be modified as well. 
+First, you would have to strengthen the chimp’s neck muscles and 
+increase its body size to support the larger head. But a large brain would 
+be useless unless it could control fingers capable of exploiting tools. So 
+the HAR2 gene would also have to be altered to increase their dexterity. 
+But since chimps often walk on their hands, another gene would have to 
+be altered so that the backbone would straighten out and an upright 
+posture would free up the hands. Intelligence is also useless unless 
+chimps can communicate with other members of the species. So the 
+FOX2 gene would also have to be mutated so that humanlike speech 
+would become possible. And lastly, if you want to create a species of 
+intelligent apes, you would have to modify the birth canal, since it is not"
+"intelligent apes, you would have to modify the birth canal, since it is not 
+large enough to accommodate the larger skull. You could either perform 
+caesarians to cut the fetus out or genetically alter the birth canal of the 
+chimps to accommodate the larger brain."
+"After all these necessary genetic adjustments, we are left with a 
+creature that would look very much like us. In other words, it may be 
+anatomically impossible to create intelligent apes, as in the movies, 
+without their also mutating into something closely resembling human 
+beings. 
+
+Clearly, creating intelligent apes is no simple matter, then. The 
+intelligent apes we see in Hollywood movies are actually monkey suits 
+with humans inside, or are computer-generated graphics, so all these 
+issues are conveniently brushed under the rug. But if scientists could 
+seriously use gene therapy to create intelligent apes, then they might 
+closely resemble us, with hands that can use tools, vocal cords that can 
+create speech, backbones that can support an upright posture, and large 
+neck muscles to support large heads, as we have."
+"All this raises ethical issues as well. Although society may allow 
+genetic studies of apes, it may not tolerate the manipulation of 
+intelligent creatures that can feel pain and distress. These creatures, after 
+all, would be intelligent and articulate enough to complain about their 
+situation and their fate, and their views would be heard in society. 
+
+Not surprisingly, this area of bioethics is so new that it is totally 
+
+unexplored. The technology is not yet ready, but in the coming decades, 
+as we identify all the genes and their functions that separate us from the 
+apes, the treatment of these enhanced animals could become a key 
+question."
+"We can see, therefore, that it is only a matter of time before all the 
+tiny genetic differences between us and the chimpanzees are carefully 
+sequenced, analyzed, and interpreted. But this still does not explain a 
+deeper question: What were the evolutionary forces that gave us this 
+genetic heritage after we separated from the apes? Why did genes like 
+ASPM, HAR1, and FOX2 develop in the first place? In other words, 
+genetics gives us the ability to understand how we became intelligent, 
+but it does not explain why this happened. 
+
+If we can understand this issue, it might provide clues as to how we 
+might evolve in the future. This takes us to the heart of the ongoing 
+debate: What is the origin of intelligence? 
+
+THE ORIGIN OF INTELLIGENCE 
+
+Many theories have been proposed as to why humans developed greater 
+intelligence, going all the way back to Charles Darwin."
+"According to one theory, the evolution of the human brain probably 
+took place in stages, with the earliest phase initiated by climate change 
+in Africa. As the weather cooled, the forests began to recede, forcing our 
+ancestors onto the open plains and savannahs, where they were exposed 
+to predators and the elements. To survive in this new, hostile 
+environment, they were forced to hunt and walk upright, which freed up 
+their hands and opposable thumbs to use tools. This in turn put a 
+premium on a larger brain to coordinate tool making. According to this 
+theory, ancient man did not simply make tools—“tools made man.”"
+"Our ancestors did not suddenly pick up tools and become intelligent. It 
+was the other way around. Those humans who picked up tools could 
+survive in the grasslands, while those who did not gradually died off. 
+The humans who then survived and thrived in the grasslands were those 
+who, through mutations, became increasingly adept at tool making, 
+which required an increasingly larger brain. 
+
+Another theory places a premium on our social, collective nature."
+"Another theory places a premium on our social, collective nature. 
+
+Humans can easily coordinate the behavior of over a hundred other 
+individuals involved in hunting, farming, warring, and building, groups 
+that are much larger than those found in other primates, which gave 
+humans an advantage over other animals. It takes a larger brain, 
+according to this theory, to be able to assess and control the behavior of 
+so many individuals. (The flip side of this theory is that it took a larger 
+brain to scheme, plot, deceive, and manipulate other intelligent beings 
+in your tribe. Individuals who could understand the motives of others 
+
+and then exploit them would have an advantage over those who could 
+not. This is the Machiavellian theory of intelligence.)"
+"Another theory maintains that the development of language, which 
+came later, helped accelerate the rise of intelligence. With language 
+comes abstract thought and the ability to plan, organize society, create 
+maps, etc. Humans have an extensive vocabulary unmatched by any 
+other animal, with words numbering in the tens of thousands for an 
+average person. With language, humans could coordinate and focus the 
+activities of scores of individuals, as well as manipulate abstract 
+concepts and ideas. Language meant you could manage teams of people 
+on a hunt, which is a great advantage when pursuing the woolly 
+mammoth. It meant you could tell others where game was plentiful or 
+where danger lurked."
+"Yet another theory is “sexual selection,” the idea that females prefer to 
+mate with intelligent males. In the animal kingdom, such as in a wolf 
+pack, the alpha male holds the pack together by brute force. Any 
+challenger to the alpha male has to be soundly beaten back by tooth and 
+claw. But millions of years ago, as humans became gradually more 
+intelligent, strength alone could not keep the tribe together. Anyone 
+with cunning and intelligence could ambush, lie or cheat, or form 
+factions within the tribe to take down the alpha male. Hence the new 
+generation of alpha males would not necessarily be the strongest. Over 
+time, the leader would become the most intelligent and cunning. This is 
+probably the reason why females choose smart males (not necessarily 
+nerdy smart, but “quarterback smart”). Sexual selection in turn 
+accelerated our evolution to become intelligent. So in this case the 
+engine that drove the expansion of our brain would be females who"
+"engine that drove the expansion of our brain would be females who 
+chose men who could strategize, become leaders of the tribe, and outwit 
+other males, which requires a large brain."
+"These are just a few of the theories about the origin of intelligence, 
+and each has its pros and cons. The common theme seems to be the 
+ability to simulate the future. For example, the purpose of the leader is 
+to choose the correct path for the tribe in the future. This means any 
+leader has to understand the intentions of others in order to plan 
+strategy for the future. Hence simulating the future was perhaps one of 
+the driving forces behind the evolution of our large brain and 
+intelligence. And the person who can best simulate the future is the one 
+who can plot, scheme, read the minds of many of his fellow tribesmen, 
+and win the arms race with his fellow man. 
+
+Similarly, language allows you to simulate the future. Animals possess 
+a rudimentary language, but it is mainly in the present tense. Their 
+language may warn them of an immediate threat, such as a predator 
+hiding among the trees. However, animal language apparently has no"
+"future or past tense. Animals do not conjugate their verbs. So perhaps 
+the ability to express the past and future tense was a key breakthrough 
+in the development of intelligence. 
+
+Dr. Daniel Gilbert, a psychologist at Harvard, writes, “For the first few 
+hundred million years after their initial appearance on our planet, our 
+brains were stuck in the permanent present, and most brains still are 
+today. But not yours and not mine, because two or three million years 
+ago our ancestors began a great escape from the here and now....” 
+
+THE FUTURE OF EVOLUTION 
+
+So far, we have seen that there are intriguing results indicating that one 
+can increase one’s memory and intelligence, largely by making the brain 
+more efficient and maximizing its natural capacity. A variety of methods 
+are being studied, such as certain drugs, genes, or devices (TES, for 
+example) that might increase the capabilities of our neurons."
+"So the concept of altering the brain size and capacity of the apes is a 
+distinct, though difficult, possibility. Gene therapy on this scale is still 
+many decades away. But this raises another difficult question: How far 
+can this go? Can one extend the intelligence of an organism indefinitely? 
+Or is there a limit to brain modification imposed by the laws of physics? 
+
+Surprisingly, the answer is yes. The laws of physics put an upper limit 
+
+to what can be done with genetic modification of the human brain, 
+given certain restraints. To see this limit, it is instructive to first examine 
+whether evolution is still increasing human intelligence, and then what 
+can be done to accelerate this natural process."
+"In popular culture, there is the notion that evolution will give us big 
+brains and small, hairless bodies in the future. Likewise, aliens from 
+space, because they are supposed to possess a superior level of 
+intelligence, are often portrayed in this fashion. Go to any novelty shop 
+and you will see the same extraterrestrial face, with big bug eyes, a huge 
+head, and green skin. 
+
+Actually, there are indications that gross human evolution (i.e., our 
+basic body shape and intelligence) has largely come to a halt. There are 
+several factors supporting this. First of all, since we are bipedal 
+mammals who walk upright, there are limitations to the maximum size 
+of an infant’s skull that can pass through the birth canal. Second, the rise 
+of modern technology has removed many of the harsh evolutionary 
+pressures faced by our ancestors."
+"However, evolution on a genetic and molecular basis continues 
+unabated. Although it’s difficult to see with the naked eye, there is 
+evidence that human biochemistry has changed to adjust to 
+environmental challenges, such as combating malaria in tropical areas. 
+Also, humans recently evolved enzymes to digest lactose sugar as we 
+learned to domesticate cows and drink milk. Mutations have occurred as 
+humans adjusted to a diet created by the agricultural revolution. 
+Moreover, people still choose to mate with others who are healthy and 
+fit, and so evolution continues to eliminate unsuitable genes at this level. 
+None of these mutations, however, has changed our basic body plan or 
+increased our brain size. (Modern technology is also influencing our 
+evolution to some degree. For example, there is no longer any selection 
+pressure on nearsighted people, since anyone today can be outfitted with 
+glasses or contact lenses.) 
+
+PHYSICS OF THE BRAIN"
+"PHYSICS OF THE BRAIN 
+
+So from an evolutionary and biological point of view, evolution is no 
+longer selecting for more intelligent people, at least not as rapidly as it 
+
+did thousands of years ago. 
+
+There are also indications from the laws of physics that we have 
+reached the maximum natural limit of intelligence, so that any 
+enhancement of our intelligence would have to come from external 
+means. Physicists who have studied the neurology of the brain conclude 
+that there are trade-offs preventing us from getting much smarter. Every 
+time we envision a brain that is larger, or denser, or more complex, we 
+bump up against these negative trade-offs."
+"The first principle of physics that we can apply to the brain is the 
+conservation of matter and energy; that is, the law stating that the total 
+amount of matter and energy in a system remains constant. In particular, 
+in order to carry out its incredible feats of mental gymnastics, the brain 
+has to conserve energy, and hence it takes many shortcuts. As we saw in 
+Chapter 1, what we see with our eyes is actually cobbled together using 
+energy-saving tricks. It would take too much time and energy for a 
+thoughtful analysis of every crisis, so the brain saves energy by making 
+snap judgments in the form of emotions. Forgetting is an alternative way 
+of saving energy. The conscious brain has access to only a tiny portion of 
+the memories that have an impact on the brain. 
+
+So the question is: Would increased brain size or density of neurons 
+give us more intelligence?"
+"So the question is: Would increased brain size or density of neurons 
+give us more intelligence? 
+
+Probably not. “Cortical gray matter neurons are working with axons 
+that are pretty close to the physical limit,” says Dr. Simon Laughlin of 
+Cambridge University. There are several ways in which one can increase 
+the intelligence of the brain using the laws of physics, but each has its 
+own problems: 
+
+• One can increase brain size and extend the length of neurons. The 
+problem here is that the brain now consumes more energy. This 
+generates more heat in the process, which is detrimental to our 
+survival. If the brain uses up more energy, it gets hotter, and tissue 
+damage results if the body temperature becomes too high. (The 
+chemical reactions of the human body and our metabolism require 
+temperatures to be in a precise range.) Also, longer neurons means 
+that it takes longer for signals to go across the brain, which slows 
+down the thinking process."
+"• One can pack more neurons into the same space by making them 
+
+thinner. But if neurons become thinner and thinner, the complex 
+chemical/electrical reactions that must take place inside the axons 
+fail, and eventually they begin to misfire more easily. Douglas Fox, 
+writing in Scientific American, says, “You might call it the mother of 
+all limitations: the proteins that neurons use to generate electrical 
+pulses, called ion channels, are inherently unstable.” 
+
+• One can increase the speed of the signal by making the neurons 
+thicker. But this also increases energy consumption and generates 
+more heat. It also increases the size of the brain, which increases the 
+time it takes for the signals to reach their destination. 
+
+• One can add more connections between neurons. But this again 
+increases energy consumption and heat generation, making the 
+brain larger and slower in the process."
+"So each time we tinker with the brain, we are checkmated. The laws 
+of physics seem to indicate that we have maxed out the intelligence that 
+we humans can attain in this way. Unless we can suddenly increase the 
+size of our skulls or the very nature of neurons in our brains, it seems we 
+are at the maximum level of intelligence. If we are to increase our 
+intelligence, it has to be done by making our brains more efficient (via 
+drugs, genes, and possibly TES-type machines). 
+
+PARTING THOUGHTS 
+
+In summary, it may be possible in the coming decades to use a"
+"PARTING THOUGHTS 
+
+In summary, it may be possible in the coming decades to use a 
+
+combination of gene therapy, drugs, and magnetic devices to increase 
+our intelligence. There are several avenues of exploration that are 
+revealing the secrets of intelligence and how it may be modified or 
+enhanced. But what would it do to society, though, if we could enhance 
+our intelligence and get a “brain boost”? Ethicists have seriously 
+contemplated this question, since the basic science is growing so rapidly. 
+The big fear is that society may bifurcate, with only the rich and 
+powerful having access to this technology, which they could use to 
+further solidify their exalted position in society. Meanwhile, the poor 
+won’t have access to additional brain power, making it more difficult to 
+move up in society."
+"This is certainly a valid concern, but it flies in the face of the history 
+of technology. Many of the technologies of the past were indeed initially 
+the province of the rich and powerful, but eventually mass production, 
+competition, better transportation, and improvements in technology 
+drove down the costs, so the average person could afford them. (For 
+example, we take for granted that we eat foods for breakfast that the 
+king of England could not have procured a century ago. Technology has 
+made it possible to purchase delicacies from around the world at any 
+supermarket that would be the envy of the aristocrats of the Victorian 
+era.) So if it becomes possible to increase our intelligence, the price of 
+this technology will gradually fall. Technology is never the monopoly of 
+the privileged rich. Sooner or later ingenuity, hard work, and simple 
+market forces will drive down its cost."
+"There is also the fear that the human race will split into those who 
+want their intelligence to be boosted and those who prefer to remain the 
+same, resulting in the nightmare of having a class of super-intelligent 
+brahmins lord over the masses of the less gifted. 
+
+But again, perhaps the fear of boosting intelligence has been 
+exaggerated. The average person has absolutely no interest in being able 
+to solve the complex tensor equations for a black hole. The average 
+person sees nothing to gain by mastering the mathematics of 
+hyperspatial dimensions or the physics of the quantum theory. On the 
+contrary, the average person may find such activities rather boring and 
+useless. So most of us are not going to become mathematical geniuses if 
+given the opportunity, because it is not in our character, and we see 
+nothing to gain from it."
+"Keep in mind that society already has a class of accomplished 
+mathematicians and physicists, and they are paid significantly less than 
+ordinary businessmen and wield much less power than average 
+politicians. Being super smart does not guarantee financial success in 
+life. In fact, being super smart may actually pigeonhole you in the lower 
+rungs of a society that values athletes, movie stars, comedians, and 
+
+entertainers more. 
+
+No one ever got rich doing relativity. 
+
+Also, a lot depends on precisely which traits are enhanced. There are 
+other forms of intelligence besides using mathematics. (Some argue that 
+intelligence must include artistic genius as well. In this case, one can 
+
+conceivably use this talent to make a comfortable living.)"
+"conceivably use this talent to make a comfortable living.) 
+
+Anxious parents of high school children may want to boost the IQ of 
+their kids as they prepare for standardized exams. But IQ, as we have 
+seen, does not necessarily correspond to success in life. Likewise, people 
+may want to enhance their memory, but, as we have seen with savants, 
+having a photographic memory can be a blessing as well as a curse. And 
+in both cases, enhancement is unlikely to contribute to a society splitting 
+in two. 
+
+Society as a whole, however, may benefit from this technology. 
+Workers with an enhanced intelligence would be better prepared to face 
+an ever-changing job market. Retraining workers for the jobs of the 
+future would be less of a drain on society. Furthermore, the public will 
+be able to make informed decisions about major technological issues of 
+the future (e.g., climate change, nuclear energy, space exploration) 
+because they will grasp these complex issues better."
+"Also, this technology may help even out the playing field. Children 
+today who go to exclusive private schools and have personal tutors are 
+better prepared for the job market because they have more opportunities 
+to master difficult materials. But if everyone has had their intelligence 
+enhanced, the fault lines within society will be evened out. Then how far 
+someone goes in life would be more related to their drive, ambition, 
+imagination, and resourcefulness rather than to being born with a silver 
+spoon in their mouth. 
+
+In addition, raising our intelligence may help speed up technological 
+innovation. Increased intelligence would mean a greater ability to 
+simulate the future, which would be invaluable in making scientific 
+discoveries. Often, science stagnates in certain areas because of a lack of 
+fresh new ideas to stimulate new avenues of research. Having an ability 
+to simulate different possible futures would vastly increase the rate of 
+scientific breakthroughs."
+"These scientific discoveries, in turn, could generate new industries, 
+which could enrich all of society, creating new markets, new jobs, and 
+new opportunities. History is full of technological breakthroughs 
+creating entirely new industries that benefited not just the few, but all of 
+
+society (think of the transistor and the laser, which today form the 
+foundation of the world economy). 
+
+However, in science fiction, there is the recurring theme of the super 
+
+criminal, who uses his superior brain power to embark on a crime spree 
+and thwart the superhero. Every Superman has his Lex Luthor, every 
+Spider-Man has his Green Goblin. Although it is certainly possible that a 
+criminal mind will use a brain booster to create super weapons and plan 
+the crime of the century, realize that members of the police force can 
+also have their intelligence boosted to outwit the evil mastermind. So 
+super criminals are dangerous only if they are the only ones in 
+possession of enhanced intelligence."
+"So far, we have examined the possibility that we can enhance or alter 
+our mental capabilities via telepathy, telekinesis, uploading memories, 
+or brain boosts. Such enhancement basically means modifying and 
+augmenting the mental capabilities of our consciousness. This tacitly 
+assumes that our normal consciousness is the only one, but I’d like to 
+explore whether there are different forms of consciousness. If so, there 
+could be other ways of thinking that lead to totally different outcomes 
+and consequences. Within our own thoughts, there are altered states of 
+consciousness, such as dreams, drug-induced hallucinations, and mental 
+illness. There is also nonhuman consciousness, the consciousness of 
+robots, and even that of aliens from outer space. We have to give up the 
+chauvinistic notion that our human consciousness is the only one. There 
+is more than one way to create a model of our world, and more than one 
+way to simulate its future."
+"Dreams, for example, are one of the most ancient forms of 
+consciousness and were studied by the ancients, yet very little progress 
+has been made in understanding them until recently. Perhaps dreams are 
+not silly, random events spliced together by the sleeping brain but 
+phenomena that may give insight into the meaning of consciousness. 
+Dreams may be a key to understanding altered states of consciousness. 
+
+BOOK III ALTEHED CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their 
+dreams. 
+
+—ELEANOR ROOSEVELT 
+
+7 IN YOUR DREAMS 
+
+Dreams can determine destiny."
+"—ELEANOR ROOSEVELT 
+
+7 IN YOUR DREAMS 
+
+Dreams can determine destiny. 
+
+Perhaps the most famous dream in antiquity took place in the year 
+A.D. 312, when the Roman emperor Constantine engaged in one of the 
+greatest battles of his life. Faced with a rival army twice the size of his 
+own, he realized that he probably would die in battle the next day. But 
+in a dream he had that night, an angel appeared before him bearing the 
+image of a cross, uttering the fateful words “By this symbol, you shall 
+conquer.” Immediately he ordered the shields of his troops adorned with 
+the symbol of the cross."
+"History records that he emerged triumphant the next day, cementing 
+his hold on the Roman Empire. He vowed to repay the blood debt to this 
+relatively obscure religion, Christianity, that had been persecuted for 
+centuries by previous Roman emperors and whose adherents were 
+regularly fed to the lions in the Colosseum. He signed laws that would 
+eventually pave the way for it to become an official religion of one of 
+the greatest empires in the world."
+"For thousands of years, kings and queens, as well as beggars and 
+thieves, have all wondered about dreams. The ancients considered 
+dreams to be omens about the future, so there have been countless 
+attempts throughout history to interpret them. The Bible records in 
+Genesis 41 the rise of Joseph, who was able to correctly interpret the 
+dreams of the Pharaoh of Egypt thousands of years ago. When the 
+Pharaoh dreamed about seven fat cows, followed by seven lean cows, he 
+was so disturbed by the imagery that he asked scribes and mystics 
+throughout the kingdom to find its meaning. All failed to give a 
+convincing explanation, until Joseph finally interpreted the dream to 
+mean that Egypt would have seven years of good harvests, followed by 
+seven years of drought and famine. So, said Joseph, Egypt must begin 
+stockpiling grain and supplies now, in preparation for the coming years 
+of want and desperation. When this came to pass, Joseph was considered 
+
+to be a prophet."
+"to be a prophet. 
+
+Dreams have long been associated with prophesy, but in more recent 
+times they’ve also been known to stimulate scientific discovery. The idea 
+that neurotransmitters could facilitate the movement of information past 
+a synapse, which forms the foundation of neuroscience, came to 
+pharmacologist Otto Loewi in a dream. Similarly, in 1865, August 
+Kekule had a dream about benzene, in which the bonds of carbon atoms 
+formed a chain that eventually wrapped around and finally formed a 
+
+circle, just like a snake biting its tail. This dream would unlock the 
+atomic structure of the benzene molecule. He concluded, “Let us learn to 
+dream!”"
+"Dreams have also been interpreted as a window onto our true 
+thoughts and intentions. The great Renaissance writer and essayist 
+Michel de Montaigne once wrote, “I believe it to be true that dreams are 
+the true interpretations of our inclinations, but there is art required to 
+sort and understand them.” More recently, Sigmund Freud proposed a 
+theory to explain the origin of dreams. In his signature work, The 
+Interpretation of Dreams, he claimed that they were manifestations of our 
+subconscious desires, which were often repressed by the waking mind 
+but which run wild every night. Dreams were not just the random 
+figments of our overheated imaginations but could actually uncover 
+deep secrets and truths about ourselves. “Dreams are the royal road to 
+the unconscious,” he wrote. Since then, people have amassed huge 
+encyclopedias that claim to reveal the hidden meaning behind every 
+disturbing image in terms of Freudian theory."
+"Hollywood takes advantage of our continuing fascination with dreams. 
+A favorite scene in many movies is when the hero experiences a 
+terrifying dream sequence and then suddenly wakes up from the 
+nightmare in a cold sweat. In the blockbuster movie Inception, Leonardo 
+DiCaprio plays a petty thief who steals intimate secrets from the most 
+unlikely of all places, people’s dreams. With a new invention, he is able 
+to enter people’s dreams and deceive them into giving up their financial 
+secrets. Corporations spend millions of dollars protecting industrial 
+secrets and patents. Billionaires jealously guard their wealth using 
+elaborate codes. His job is to steal them. The plot quickly escalates as 
+the characters enter dreams in which a person falls asleep and dreams 
+again. So these criminals descend deeper and deeper into multiple layers 
+
+of the subconscious."
+"of the subconscious. 
+
+But although dreams have always haunted and mystified us, only in 
+the last decade or so have scientists been able to peel away the mysteries 
+of dreams. In fact, scientists can now do something once considered 
+impossible: they are able to take rough photographs and videotapes of 
+dreams with MRI machines. One day, you may be able to view a video of 
+the dream you had the previous night and gain insight into your own 
+subconscious mind. With proper training, you might be able to 
+consciously control the nature of your dreams. And perhaps, like 
+DiCaprio’s character, with advanced technology you might even be able 
+to enter someone else’s dream. 
+
+THE NATURE OF DREAMS"
+"THE NATURE OF DREAMS 
+
+As mysterious as they are, dreams are not a superfluous luxury, the 
+useless ruminations of the idle brain. Dreams, in fact, are essential for 
+survival. Using brain scans, it is possible to show that certain animals 
+exhibit dreamlike brain activity. If deprived of dreams, these animals 
+would often die faster than they would by starvation, because such 
+deprivation severely disrupts their metabolism. Unfortunately, science 
+does not know exactly why this is the case. 
+
+Dreaming is an essential feature of our sleep cycle as well. We spend 
+roughly two hours a night dreaming when we sleep, with each dream 
+lasting five to twenty minutes. In fact, we spend about six years 
+dreaming during an average lifetime."
+"Dreams are also universal across the human race. Looking across 
+different cultures, scientists find common themes in dreams. Fifty 
+thousand dreams were recorded over a forty-year time period by 
+psychology professor Calvin Hall. He followed this up with one thousand 
+dream reports from college students. Not surprisingly, he found that 
+most people dreamed of the same things, such as personal experiences 
+from the previous days or week. (However, animals apparently dream 
+differently than we do. In the dolphin, for example, only one hemisphere 
+at a time sleeps in order to prevent drowning, because they are air- 
+breathing mammals, not fish. So if they dream, it is probably in only one 
+hemisphere at a time.)"
+"The brain, as we have seen, is not a digital computer, but rather a 
+neural network of some sort that constantly rewires itself after learning 
+new tasks. Scientists who work with neural networks noticed something 
+interesting, though. Often these systems would become saturated after 
+learning too much, and instead of processing more information they 
+would enter a “dream” state, whereby random memories would 
+sometimes drift and join together as the neural networks tried to digest 
+all the new material. Dreams, then, might reflect “house cleaning,” in 
+which the brain tries to organize its memories in a more coherent way. 
+(If this is true, then possibly all neural networks, including all organisms 
+that can learn, might enter a dream state in order to sort out their 
+memories. So dreams probably serve a purpose. Some scientists have 
+speculated that this might imply that robots that learn from experience 
+might also eventually dream as well.)"
+"Neurological studies seem to back up this conclusion. Studies have 
+shown that retaining memories can be improved by getting sufficient 
+sleep between the time of activity and a test. Neuroimaging shows that 
+the areas of the brain that are activated during sleep are the same as 
+those involved in learning a new task. Dreaming is perhaps useful in 
+
+consolidating this new information. 
+
+Also, some dreams can incorporate events that happened a few hours 
+earlier, just before sleep. But dreams mostly incorporate memories that 
+are a few days old. For example, experiments have shown that if you put 
+rose-colored glasses on a person, it takes a few days before the dreams 
+become rose-colored as well. 
+
+BRAIN SCANS OF DREAMS"
+"BRAIN SCANS OF DREAMS 
+
+Brain scans are now unveiling some of the mystery of dreams. Normally 
+EEG scans show that the brain is emitting steady electromagnetic waves 
+while we are awake. However, as we gradually fall asleep, our EEG 
+signals begin to change frequency. When we finally dream, waves of 
+electrical energy emanate from the brain stem that surge upward, rising 
+into the cortical areas of the brain, especially the visual cortex. This 
+confirms that visual images are an important component of dreams. 
+Finally, we enter a dream state, and our brain waves are typified by 
+
+rapid eye movements (REM). (Since some mammals also enter REM 
+sleep, we can infer that they might dream as well.)"
+"While the visual areas of the brain are active, other areas involved 
+with smell, taste, and touch are largely shut down. Almost all the images 
+and sensations processed by the body are self-generated, originating 
+from the electromagnetic vibrations from our brain stem, not from 
+external stimuli. The body is largely isolated from the outside world. 
+Also, when we dream, we are more or less paralyzed. (Perhaps this 
+paralysis is to prevent us from physically acting out our dreams, which 
+could be disastrous. About 6 percent of people suffer from “sleep 
+paralysis” disorder, in which they wake up from a dream still paralyzed. 
+Often these individuals wake up frightened and believing that there are 
+creatures pinning down their chest, arms, and legs. There are paintings 
+from the Victorian era of women waking up with a terrifying goblin 
+sitting on their chest glaring down at them. Some psychologists believe 
+that sleep paralysis could explain the origin of the alien abduction 
+syndrome.)"
+"The hippocampus is active when we dream, suggesting that dreams 
+draw upon our storehouse of memories. The amygdala and anterior 
+cingulate are also active, meaning that dreams can be highly emotional, 
+often involving fear. 
+
+But more revealing are the areas of the brain that are shut down, 
+including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (which is the command 
+
+center of the brain), the orbitofrontal cortex (which can act like a censor 
+or fact-checker), and the temporoparietal region (which processes 
+sensory motor signals and spatial awareness)."
+"When the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is shut down, we can’t count 
+on the rational, planning center of the brain. Instead, we drift aimlessly 
+in our dreams, with the visual center giving us images without rational 
+control. The orbitofrontal cortex, or the fact-checker, is also inactive. 
+Hence dreams are allowed to blissfully evolve without any constraints 
+from the laws of physics or common sense. And the temporoparietal 
+lobe, which helps coordinate our sense of where we are located using 
+signals from our eyes and inner ear, is also shut down, which may 
+explain our out-of-body experiences while we dream. 
+
+As we have emphasized, human consciousness mainly represents the 
+brain constantly creating models of the outside world and simulating 
+
+them into the future. If so, then dreams represent an alternate way in 
+which the future is simulated, one in which the laws of nature and social 
+interactions are temporarily suspended. 
+
+HOW DO WE DREAM?"
+"HOW DO WE DREAM? 
+
+But that leaves open this question: What generates our dreams? One of 
+the world’s authorities on dreams is Dr. Allan Hobson, a psychiatrist at 
+Harvard Medical School. He has devoted decades of his life to unveiling 
+the secrets of dreams. He claims that dreams, especially REM sleep, can 
+be studied at the neurological level, and that dreams arise when the 
+brain tries to make sense of the largely random signals emanating from 
+the brain stem. 
+
+When I interviewed him, he told me that after many decades of 
+cataloging dreams, he found five basic characteristics: 
+
+1. Intense emotions—this is due to the activation of the amygdala, 
+causing emotions such as fear. 
+
+2. Illogical content—dreams can rapidly shift from one scene to 
+another, in defiance of logic. 
+
+3. Apparent sensory impressions—dreams give us false sensations that 
+are internally generated. 
+
+4. Uncritical acceptance of dream events—we uncritically accept the 
+illogical nature of the dream."
+"5. Difficulty in being remembered—dreams are soon forgotten, within 
+minutes of waking up. 
+
+Dr. Hobson (with Dr. Robert McCarley) made history by proposing the 
+first serious challenge to Freud’s theory of dreams, called the “activation 
+synthesis theory.” In 1977, they proposed the idea that dreams originate 
+from random neural firings in the brain stem, which travel up to the 
+cortex, which then tries to make sense of these random signals. 
+
+The key to dreams lies in nodes found in the brain stem, the oldest 
+part of the brain, which squirts out special chemicals, called adrenergics, 
+that keep us alert. As we go to sleep, the brain stem activates another 
+
+system, the cholinergic, which emits chemicals that put us in a dream 
+state."
+"system, the cholinergic, which emits chemicals that put us in a dream 
+state. 
+
+As we dream, cholinergic neurons in the brain stem begin to fire, 
+setting off erratic pulses of electrical energy called PGO (pontine- 
+geniculate-occipital) waves. These waves travel up the brain stem into 
+the visual cortex, stimulating it to create dreams. Cells in the visual 
+cortex begin to resonate hundreds of times per second in an irregular 
+fashion, which is perhaps responsible for the sometimes incoherent 
+nature of dreams. 
+
+This system also emits chemicals that decouple parts of the brain 
+involved with reason and logic. The lack of checks coming from the 
+prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices, along with the brain becoming 
+extremely sensitive to stray thoughts, may account for the bizarre, 
+erratic nature of dreams."
+"Studies have shown that it is possible to enter the cholinergic state 
+without sleep. Dr. Edgar Garcia-Rill of the University of Arkansas claims 
+that meditation, worrying, or being placed in an isolation tank can 
+induce this cholinergic state. Pilots and drivers facing the monotony of a 
+blank windshield for many hours may also enter this state. In his 
+research, he has found that schizophrenics have an unusually large 
+number of cholinergic neurons in their brain stem, which may explain 
+some of their hallucinations. 
+
+To make his studies more efficient, Dr. Allan Hobson had his subjects 
+put on a special nightcap that can automatically record data during a 
+dream. One sensor connected to the nightcap registers the movements of 
+a person’s head (because head movements usually occur when dreams 
+end). Another sensor measures movements of the eyelids (because REM 
+sleep causes eyelids to move). When his subjects wake up, they 
+immediately record what they dreamed about, and the information from"
+"the nightcap is fed into a computer. 
+
+In this way, Dr. Hobson has accumulated a vast amount of information 
+about dreams. So what is the meaning of dreams? I asked him. He 
+dismisses what he calls the “mystique of fortune-cookie dream 
+interpretation.” He does not see any hidden message from the cosmos in 
+dreams. 
+
+Instead, he believes that after the PGO waves surge from the brain 
+stem into the cortical areas, the cortex is trying to make sense of these 
+
+erratic signals and winds up creating a narrative out of them: a dream. 
+
+PHOTOGRAPHING A DREAM"
+"erratic signals and winds up creating a narrative out of them: a dream. 
+
+PHOTOGRAPHING A DREAM 
+
+In the past, most scientists avoided the study of dreams, since they are so 
+subjective and have such a long historical association with mystics and 
+psychics. But with MRI scans, dreams are now revealing their secrets. In 
+fact, since the brain centers that control dreaming are nearly identical to 
+the ones that control vision, it is therefore possible to photograph a 
+dream. This pioneering work is being done in Kyoto, Japan, by scientists 
+at the ATR Computational and Neuroscience Laboratories."
+"Subjects are first placed in an MRI machine and shown four hundred 
+black-and-white images, each consisting of a set of dots within a ten-by- 
+ten-pixel framework. One picture is flashed at a time, and the MRI 
+records how the brain responds to each collection of pixels. As with 
+other groups working in this field of BMI, the scientists eventually create 
+an encyclopedia of images, with each image of pixels corresponding to a 
+specific MRI pattern. Here the scientists are able to work backward, to 
+correctly reconstruct self-generated images from MRI brain scans taken 
+while the subject dreams. 
+
+ATR chief scientist Yukiyasu Kamitani says, “This technology can also 
+be applied to senses other than vision. In the future, it may also be 
+possible to read feelings and complicated emotional states.” In fact, any 
+mental state of the brain might be imaged in this way, including dreams, 
+as long as a one-to-one map can be made between a certain mental state 
+and an MRI scan."
+"The Kyoto scientists have concentrated on analyzing still photographs 
+generated by the mind. In Chapter 3, we encountered a similar approach 
+pioneered by Dr. Jack Gallant, in which the voxels from 3-D MRI scans 
+of the brain can be used to reconstruct the actual image seen by the eye 
+with the help of a complex formula. A similar process has allowed Dr. 
+
+Gallant and his team to create a crude video of a dream. When I visited 
+the laboratory in Berkeley, I talked to a postdoctoral staff member, Dr. 
+Shinji Nishimoto, who allowed me to watch the video of one of his 
+dreams, one of the first ever done. I saw a series of faces flickering 
+across the computer screen, meaning that the subject (in this case Dr."
+"Nishimoto himself) was dreaming of people, rather than animals or 
+objects. This was amazing. Unfortunately, the technology is not yet good 
+enough to see the precise facial features of the people appearing in his 
+dream, so the next step is to increase the number of pixels so that more 
+complex images can be identified. Another advance will be to reproduce 
+images in color rather than black and white. 
+
+I then asked Dr. Nishimoto the crucial question: How do you know the 
+video is accurate? How do you know that the machine isn’t just making 
+things up? He was a bit sheepish when he replied that this was a weak 
+point in his research. Normally, you have only a few minutes after 
+waking up to record a dream. After that, most dreams are lost in the fog 
+of our consciousness, so it is not easy to verify the results."
+"Dr. Gallant told me that this research on videotaping dreams was still 
+a work in progress, and that is why it’s not ready for publication. There 
+is still a ways to go before we can watch a videotape of last night’s 
+dream. 
+
+LUCID DREAMS 
+
+Scientists are also investigating a form of dreaming that was once 
+thought to be a myth: lucid dreaming, or dreaming while you are 
+conscious. This sounds like a contradiction in terms, but it has been 
+verified in brain scans. In lucid dreaming, dreamers are aware that they 
+are dreaming and can consciously control the direction of the dream. 
+Although science has only recently begun to experiment with lucid 
+dreaming, there are references to this phenomenon dating back 
+centuries. In Buddhism, for example, there are books that refer to lucid 
+dreamers and how to train yourself to become one. Over the centuries, 
+several people in Europe have written detailed accounts of their lucid 
+dreams."
+"Brain scans of lucid dreamers show that this phenomenon is real; 
+during REM sleep, their dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is usually 
+dormant when a normal person dreams, is active, indicating that the 
+person is partially conscious while dreaming. In fact, the more lucid the 
+dream, the more active the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Since the 
+dorsolateral prefrontal cortex represents the conscious part of the brain, 
+
+the dreamer must be aware while he or she is dreaming."
+"the dreamer must be aware while he or she is dreaming. 
+
+Dr. Hobson told me that anyone can learn to do lucid dreaming by 
+practicing certain techniques. In particular, people who do lucid 
+dreaming should keep a notebook of dreams. Before going to sleep, they 
+should remind themselves that they will “wake up” in the middle of the 
+dream and realize that they are moving in a dream world. It is important 
+to have this frame of mind before hitting the pillow. Since the body is 
+largely paralyzed during REM sleep, it is difficult for the dreaming 
+person to send a signal to the outside world that he has entered a dream, 
+but Dr. Stephen LaBerge at Stanford University has studied lucid 
+dreamers (including himself) who can signal the outside world while 
+dreaming."
+"In 2011, for the first time, scientists used MRI and EEG sensors to 
+measure dream content and even make contact with a dreaming person. 
+At the Max Planck Institute in Munich and Leipzig, scientists enlisted the 
+help of lucid dreamers, who were fitted with EEG sensors on their heads 
+to help the scientists determine the moment they entered REM sleep; 
+they were then placed in an MRI machine. Before falling asleep, the 
+dreamers agreed to initiate a set of eye movements and breathing 
+patterns when dreaming, like a Morse code. They were told that once 
+they started dreaming, they should clench their right fist and then their 
+left one for ten seconds. That was the signal that they were dreaming."
+"The scientists found that, once the subjects entered their dream state, 
+the sensorimotor cortex of the brain (responsible for controlling motor 
+actions like clenching your fists) was activated. The MRI scans could 
+pick up that the fists were being clenched and which fist was being 
+clenched first. Then, using another sensor (a near-infrared spectrometer) 
+they were able to confirm that there was increased brain activity in the 
+region that controls the planning of movements. 
+
+“Our dreams are therefore not a ‘sleep cinema’ in which we merely 
+observe an event passively, but involve activity in the regions of the 
+brain that are relevant to the dream content,” says Michael Czisch, a 
+group leader at the Max Planck Institute. 
+
+ENTERING A DREAM 
+
+If we can communicate with a dreaming person, then is it also possible 
+to alter someone’s dream from the outside? Quite possibly. 
+
+First, as we have seen, scientists have already made the initial steps in"
+"First, as we have seen, scientists have already made the initial steps in 
+
+videotaping a person’s dream, and in the coming years, it should be 
+possible to create much more accurate pictures and videos of dreams. 
+Since scientists have already been able to establish a communication link 
+between the real world and the lucid dreamer in the fantasy world, then, 
+in principle, scientists should be able to deliberately alter the course of a 
+dream. Let’s say that scientists are viewing the video of a dream using an 
+MRI machine as the dream unfolds in real time. As the person wanders 
+around the dreamscape, the scientists can tell where he is going and give 
+directions for him to move in different ways. 
+
+So in the near future, it might be possible to watch a video of a 
+person’s dream and actually influence its general direction. But in the 
+movie Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio goes much further. He is able not 
+only to watch another person’s dream, but also to enter it. Is this 
+possible?"
+"We saw earlier that we are paralyzed when we dream so that we don’t 
+carry out our dream fantasies, which might be disastrous. However, 
+when people are sleepwalking, they often have their eyes open (although 
+their eyes look glazed over). So sleepwalkers live in a hybrid world, part 
+real and part dreamlike. There are many documented instances of people 
+walking around their homes, driving cars, cutting wood, and even 
+committing homicides while in this dream state, where reality and the 
+fantasy world are mixed. Hence it is possible that physical images that 
+the eye actually sees can freely interact with the fictitious images that 
+the brain is concocting during a dream."
+"The way to enter someone’s dream, then, might be to have the subject 
+wear contact lenses that can project images directly onto their retinas. 
+Already, prototypes of Internet contact lenses are being developed at the 
+University of Washington in Seattle. So if the observer wanted to enter 
+the subject’s dream, first he would sit in a studio and have a video 
+camera film him. His image could then be projected onto the contact 
+lenses of the dreamer, creating a composite image (the image of the 
+observer superimposed upon the imaginary image the brain is 
+manufacturing). 
+
+The observer could actually see this dream world as he wanders 
+
+around the dream, since he, too, would be wearing Internet contact 
+lenses. The MRI image of the subject’s dream, after it has been 
+deciphered by computer, would be sent directly into the observer’s 
+contact lenses."
+"Furthermore, you could actually change the direction of the dream 
+you have entered. As you walk around in the empty studio, you would 
+see the dream unfold in your contact lens, so you could start to interact 
+
+with the objects and people appearing in the dream. This would be quite 
+an experience, since the background would change without warning, 
+images would appear and disappear without reason, and the laws of 
+physics would be suspended. Anything goes."
+"Further into the future, it might even be possible to enter another 
+person’s dream by directly connecting two sleeping brains. Each brain 
+would have to be connected to MRI scanners that were connected to a 
+central computer, which would merge the two dreams into a single one. 
+The computer would first decipher each person’s MRI scans into a video 
+image. Then the dream of one person would be sent into the sensory 
+areas of the other person’s brain, so that the other dreamer’s dream 
+would merge with the first dreamer’s dream. However, the technology of 
+videotaping and interpreting dreams would have to become much more 
+advanced before this could become a possibility."
+"But this raises another question: If it’s possible to alter the course of 
+someone’s dream, is it possible to control not only that person’s dream 
+but that person’s mind as well? During the Cold War, this became a 
+serious issue as both the Soviet Union and the United States played a 
+deadly game, trying to use psychological techniques to control other 
+people’s wills. 
+
+Minds are simply what brains do. 
+
+—MARVIN MINSKY 
+
+8 CAN THE MIND BE CONTROLLED?"
+"Minds are simply what brains do. 
+
+—MARVIN MINSKY 
+
+8 CAN THE MIND BE CONTROLLED? 
+
+A raging bull is released into an empty arena in Cordoba, Spain. For 
+generations, this ferocious beast has been carefully bred to maximize its 
+killer instinct. Then a Yale professor calmly enters the same arena. 
+Rather than donning a tweed jacket, he is dressed like a dashing 
+matador, wearing a bright golden jacket and waving a red cape defiantly 
+in front of the bull, egging him on. Instead of running away in terror, the 
+professor looks calm, confident, and even detached. To a bystander, it 
+appears as if the professor has gone mad and wants to commit suicide."
+"Enraged, the bull locks onto the professor. Suddenly the bull charges, 
+aiming his deadly horns at him. The professor does not run away in fear. 
+Instead, he holds a small box in his hand. Then, in front of the cameras, 
+he presses a button on the box, and the bull stops dead in his tracks. The 
+professor is so confident of himself that he has risked his life to prove a 
+point, that he has mastered the art of controlling the mind of a mad bull. 
+
+The Yale professor is Dr. Jose Delgado, who was years ahead of his 
+time. He pioneered a series of remarkable but unsettling animal 
+experiments in the 1960s, in which he put electrodes into their brains 
+with the aim of trying to control their movement. To stop the bull, he 
+inserted electrodes into the striatum of the basal ganglia at the base of 
+the brain, which is involved with motor coordination."
+"He also did a series of other experiments on monkeys to see if he could 
+rearrange their social hierarchy with the push of a button. After 
+implanting electrodes into the caudate nucleus (a region associated with 
+motor control) of the alpha male within the group, Delgado could reduce 
+the aggressive tendencies of the leader on command. Without threats of 
+retaliation, the delta males began to assert themselves, taking over the 
+territory and privileges normally reserved for the alpha male. The alpha 
+male, meanwhile, appeared to have lost interest in defending his 
+territory. 
+
+Then Dr. Delgado pressed another button, and the alpha male 
+
+instantly sprung back to normal, resuming his aggressive behavior and 
+reestablishing his power as the king of the hill. The delta males 
+scrambled in fear. 
+
+Dr. Delgado was the first person in history to show that it was possible 
+to control the minds of animals in this way. The professor became the 
+puppet master, pulling the strings of living puppets."
+"As expected, the scientific community looked at Dr. Delgado’s work 
+with unease. To make matters worse, he wrote a book in 1969 with the 
+provocative title Physical Control of the Mind: Toward a Psychocivilized 
+Society. It raised an unsettling question: If scientists like Dr. Delgado are 
+pulling the strings, then who controls the puppet master?"
+"Dr. Delgado’s work puts into sharp focus the enormous promise and 
+perils of this technology. In the hands of an unscrupulous dictator, this 
+technology might be used to deceive and control his unfortunate 
+subjects. But it can also be used to free millions of people who are 
+trapped in mental illness, hounded by their hallucinations, or crushed by 
+their anxieties. (Years later, Dr. Delgado was asked by a journalist why 
+he initiated these controversial experiments. He said that he wanted to 
+correct the horrendous abuses being suffered by the mentally ill. They 
+often underwent radical lobotomies, in which the prefrontal cortex was 
+scrambled by a knife resembling an ice pick, which was hammered into 
+the brain above the eye socket. The results were often tragic, and some 
+of the horrors were exposed in Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the 
+Cuckoo’s Nest, which was made into a movie with Jack Nicholson. Some"
+"patients became calm and relaxed, but many others became zombies: 
+lethargic, indifferent to pain and feelings, and emotionally vacuous. The 
+practice was so widespread that in 1949, Antonio Moniz won the Nobel 
+Prize for perfecting the lobotomy. Ironically, in 1950, the Soviet Union 
+banned this technology, stating that “it was contrary to the principles of 
+humanity.” Lobotomies, the Soviet Union charged, turned “an insane 
+person into an idiot.” In total, it is estimated that forty thousand 
+lobotomies were performed in the United States alone over two 
+decades.) 
+
+MIND CONTROL AND THE COLD WAR 
+
+Another reason for the chilly reception of Dr. Delgado’s work was the 
+political climate of the time. It was the height of the Cold War, with 
+painful memories of captured U.S. soldiers being paraded in front of 
+cameras during the Korean War. With blank stares, they would admit 
+they were on secret spy missions, confess to horrific war crimes, and 
+denounce U.S. imperialism."
+"To make sense of this, the press used the term “brainwashing,” the 
+idea that the communists had developed secret drugs and techniques to 
+turn U.S. soldiers into pliable zombies. In this charged political climate, 
+Frank Sinatra starred in the 1962 Cold War thriller The Manchurian 
+Candidate, in which he tries to expose a secret communist “sleeper” 
+agent whose mission is to assassinate the president of the United States. 
+But there is a twist. The assassin is actually a trusted U.S. war hero, 
+someone who was captured and then brainwashed by the communists. 
+Coming from a well-connected family, the agent seems above suspicion 
+and is almost impossible to stop. The Manchurian Candidate mirrored the 
+anxieties of many Americans at that time."
+"Many of these fears were also stoked by Aldous Huxley’s prophetic 
+1931 novel Brave New World. In this dystopia, there are large test-tube- 
+baby factories that produce clones. By selectively depriving oxygen from 
+these fetuses, it is possible to produce children of different levels of brain 
+damage. At the top are the alphas, who suffer no brain damage and are 
+bred to rule society. At the bottom are the epsilons, who suffer 
+significant brain damage and are used as disposable, obedient workers. 
+In between are additional levels made up of other workers and the 
+bureaucracy. The elite then control society by flooding it with mind- 
+altering drugs, free love, and constant brainwashing. In this way, peace, 
+tranquility, and harmony are maintained, but the novel asked a 
+disturbing question that resonates even today: How much of our freedom 
+and basic humanity do we want to sacrifice in the name of peace and 
+social order? 
+
+CIA MIND-CONTROL EXPERIMENTS"
+"CIA MIND-CONTROL EXPERIMENTS 
+
+The Cold War hysteria eventually reached the highest levels of the CIA. 
+Convinced that the Soviets were far ahead in the science of brainwashing 
+
+and unorthodox scientific methods, the CIA embarked upon a variety of 
+classified projects, such as MKULTRA, which began in 1953, to explore 
+bizarre, fringe ideas. (In 1973, as the Watergate scandal spread panic 
+throughout the government, CIA director Richard Helms canceled 
+MKULTRA and hurriedly ordered all documents pertaining to the project 
+destroyed. However, a cache of twenty thousand documents somehow 
+survived the purge and were declassified in 1977 under the Freedom of 
+Information Act, revealing the full scope of this massive effort.)"
+"It is now known that, from 1953 to 1973, MULTRA funded 80 
+institutions, including 44 universities and colleges, and scores of 
+hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and prisons, often experimenting 
+on unsuspecting people without their permission, in 150 secret 
+operations. At one point, fully 6 percent of the entire CIA budget went 
+into MKULTRA. 
+
+Some of these mind-control projects included: 
+
+• developing a “truth serum” so prisoners would spill their secrets 
+
+• erasing memories via a U.S. Navy project called “Subproject 54” 
+
+• using hypnosis and a wide variety of drugs, especially LSD, to 
+control behavior 
+
+• investigating the use of mind-control drugs against foreign leaders, 
+e.g., Fidel Castro 
+
+• perfecting a variety of interrogation methods against prisoners 
+
+• developing a knockout drug that was fast working and left no trace 
+
+• altering people’s personality via drugs to make them more pliable"
+"• altering people’s personality via drugs to make them more pliable 
+
+Although some scientists questioned the validity of these studies, 
+others went along willingly. People from a wide range of disciplines 
+were recruited, including psychics, physicists, and computer scientists, to 
+investigate a variety of unorthodox projects: experimenting with mind- 
+altering drugs such as LSD, asking psychics to locate the position of 
+Soviet submarines patrolling the deep oceans, etc. In one sad incident, a 
+
+U.S. Army scientist was secretly given LSD. According to some reports, 
+he became so violently disoriented that he committed suicide by 
+jumping out a window."
+"Most of these experiments were justified on the grounds that the 
+Soviets were already ahead of us in terms of mind control. The U.S. 
+Senate was briefed in another secret report that the Soviets were 
+experimenting with beaming microwave radiation directly into the 
+brains of test subjects. Rather than denouncing the act, the United States 
+saw “great potential for development into a system for disorienting or 
+disrupting the behavior pattern of military or diplomatic personnel.” The 
+U.S. Army even claimed that it might be able to beam entire words and 
+speeches into the minds of the enemy: “One decoy and deception 
+concept ... is to remotely create noise in the heads of personnel by 
+exposing them to low power, pulsed microwaves.... By proper choice of 
+pulse characteristics, intelligible speech may be created.... Thus, it may 
+be possible to ‘talk’ to selected adversaries in a fashion that would be 
+most disturbing to them,” the report said."
+"Unfortunately, none of these experiments was peer-reviewed, so 
+millions of taxpayer dollars were spent on projects like this one, which 
+most likely violated the laws of physics, since the human brain cannot 
+receive microwave radiation and, more important, does not have the 
+ability to decode microwave messages. Dr. Steve Rose, a biologist at the 
+Open University, has called this far-fetched scheme a “neuro-scientific 
+impossibility.” 
+
+But for all the millions of dollars spent on these “black projects,” 
+apparently not a single piece of reliable science emerged. The use of 
+mind-altering drugs did, in fact, create disorientation and even panic 
+among the subjects who were tested, but the Pentagon failed to 
+accomplish the key goal: control of the conscious mind of another 
+person."
+"Also, according to psychologist Robert Jay Lifton, brainwashing by the 
+communists had little long-term effect. Most of the American troops who 
+denounced the United States during the Korean War reverted back to 
+their normal personalities soon after being released. In addition, studies 
+done on people who have been brainwashed by certain cults also show 
+that they revert back to their normal personality after leaving the cult. 
+So it seems that, in the long run, one’s basic personality is not affected 
+by brainwashing. 
+
+Of course, the military was not the first to experiment with mind 
+control. In ancient times, sorcerers and seers would claim that giving 
+
+magic potions to captured soldiers would make them talk or turn against 
+their leaders. One of the earliest of these mind-control methods was 
+hypnotism. 
+
+YOU ARE GETTING SLEEPY...."
+"YOU ARE GETTING SLEEPY.... 
+
+As a child, I remember seeing TV specials devoted to hypnosis. In one 
+show, a person was placed in a hypnotic trance and told that when he 
+woke up, he would be a chicken. The audience gasped as he began to 
+cluck and flap his arms around the stage. As dramatic as this 
+demonstration was, it’s simply an example of “stage hypnosis.” Books 
+written by professional magicians and showmen explain that they use 
+shills planted in the audience, the power of suggestion, and even the 
+willingness of the victim to play along with the ruse. 
+
+I once hosted a BBC/Discovery TV documentary called Time, and the 
+subject of long-lost memories came up. Is it possible to evoke such 
+distant memories through hypnosis? And if it is, can you then impose 
+your will on another? To test some of these ideas, I had myself 
+hypnotized for TV."
+"BBC hired a skilled professional hypnotist to begin the process. I was 
+asked to lie down on a bed in a quiet, darkened room. The hypnotist 
+spoke to me in slow, gentle tones, gradually making me relax. After a 
+while, he asked me to think back into the past, to perhaps a certain place 
+or incident that stood out even after all these years. And then he asked 
+me to reenter that place, reexperiencing its sights, sounds, and smells. 
+Remarkably, I did begin to see places and people’s faces that I had 
+forgotten about decades ago. It was like watching a blurred movie that 
+was slowly coming into focus. But then the recollections stopped. At a 
+certain point, I could not recapture any more memories. There was 
+clearly a limit to what hypnosis could do."
+"EEG and MRI scans show that during hypnosis the subject has minimal 
+sensory stimulation in the sensory cortices from the outside. In this way, 
+hypnosis can allow one to access some memories that are buried, but it 
+certainly cannot change one’s personality, goals, or wishes. A secret 
+1966 Pentagon document corroborates this, explaining that hypnotism 
+cannot be trusted as a military weapon. “It is probably significant that in 
+
+the long history of hypnosis, where the potential application to 
+intelligence has always been known, there are no reliable accounts of its 
+effective use by an intelligence service,” it read."
+"It should also be noted that brain scans show that hypnotism is not a 
+new state of consciousness, like dreaming and REM sleep. If we define 
+human consciousness as the process of continually building models of 
+the outside world and then simulating how they evolve into the future to 
+carry out a goal, we see that hypnosis cannot alter this basic process. 
+Hypnosis can accentuate certain aspects of consciousness and help 
+retrieve certain memories, but it cannot make you squawk like a chicken 
+without your permission. 
+
+MIND-ALTERING DRUGS AND TRUTH SERUMS 
+
+One of the goals of MKULTRA was the creation of a truth serum so that 
+spies and prisoners would reveal their secrets. Although MKULTRA was 
+canceled in 1973, U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals declassified 
+by the Pentagon in 1996 still recommended the use of truth serums 
+(although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that confessions obtained in this 
+way were “unconstitutionally coerced” and hence inadmissible in court)."
+"Anyone who watches Hollywood movies knows that sodium pentathol 
+is the truth serum of choice used by spies (as in the movies True Lies 
+with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Meet the Fockers with Robert De Niro). 
+Sodium pentathol is part of a larger class of barbiturates, sedatives, and 
+hypnotics that can evade the blood-brain barrier, which prevents most 
+harmful chemicals in the bloodstream from entering the brain."
+"Not surprisingly, most mind-altering drugs, such as alcohol, affect us 
+powerfully because they can evade this barrier. Sodium pentathol 
+depresses activity in the prefrontal cortex, so that a person becomes 
+more relaxed, talkative, and uninhibited. However, this does not mean 
+that they tell the truth. On the contrary, people under the influence of 
+sodium pentathol, like those who have imbibed a few too many, are 
+fully capable of lying. The “secrets” that come spilling out of the mouth 
+of someone under this drug may be total fabrications, so even the CIA 
+eventually gave up on drugs like this. 
+
+But this still leaves open the possibility that, one day, a wonder drug"
+"But this still leaves open the possibility that, one day, a wonder drug 
+
+might be found that could alter our basic consciousness. This drug would 
+work by changing the synapses between our nerve fibers by targeting 
+neurotransmitters that operate in this area, such as dopamine, serotonin, 
+or acetylcholine. If we think of the synapses as a series of tollbooths 
+along a superhighway, then certain drugs (such as stimulants like 
+cocaine) can open the tollbooth and let messages pass by unimpeded. 
+The sudden rush that drug addicts feel is caused when these tollbooths 
+are opened all at once, causing an avalanche of signals to flood by. But 
+
+when all the synapses have fired in unison, they cannot fire again until 
+hours later. It’s as if the tolls have closed, and this causes the sudden 
+depression one feels after the rush. The body’s desire to reexperience the 
+sudden rush then causes addiction. 
+
+HOW DRUGS ALTER THE MIND"
+"HOW DRUGS ALTER THE MIND 
+
+Although the biochemical basis for mind-altering drugs was not known 
+when the CIA first conducted its experiments on unsuspecting subjects, 
+since then the molecular basis of drug addiction has been studied in 
+detail. Studies in animals demonstrate how powerful drug addiction is: 
+rats, mice, and primates will, given the chance, take drugs like cocaine, 
+heroin, and amphetamines until they drop from exhaustion or die from 
+it."
+"To see how widespread this problem has become, consider that by 
+2007, thirteen million Americans aged twelve or over (or 5 percent of 
+the entire teen and adult population of the United States) had tried or 
+become addicted to methamphetamines. Drug addiction not only 
+destroys entire lives, it also systematically destroys the brain. MRI scans 
+of the brains of meth addicts show an 11 percent reduction in the size of 
+the limbic system, which processes emotions, and an 8 percent loss of 
+tissue in the hippocampus, which is the gateway for memory. MRI scans 
+show that the damage in some ways is comparable to that found in 
+Alzheimer’s patients. But no matter how much meth destroys the brain, 
+addicts crave it because its high is up to twelve times the rush caused by 
+eating a delicious meal or even having sex. 
+
+Basically, the “high” of drug addiction is due to the drug’s hijacking of 
+the brain’s own pleasure/reward system located in the limbic system."
+"This pleasure/reward circuit is very primitive, dating back millions of 
+years in evolutionary history, but it is still extremely important for 
+human survival because it rewards beneficial behavior and punishes 
+harmful acts. Once this circuit is taken over by drugs, however, the 
+result can be widespread havoc. These drugs first penetrate the blood- 
+brain barrier and then cause the overproduction of neurotransmitters 
+like dopamine, which then floods the nucleus accumbens, a tiny pleasure 
+center located deep in the brain near the amygdala. The dopamine, in 
+turn, is produced by certain brain cells in the ventral tegmental area, 
+called VTA cells. 
+
+All drugs basically work the same way: by crippling the VTA-nucleus 
+accumbens circuit, which controls the flow of dopamine and other 
+neurotransmitters to the pleasure center. Drugs differ only in the way in"
+"which this process takes place. There are at least three main drugs that 
+stimulate the pleasure center of the brain: dopamine, serotonin, and 
+noradrenaline; all of them give feelings of pleasure, euphoria, and false 
+confidence, and also produce a burst of energy. 
+
+Cocaine and other stimulants, for example, work in two ways. First, 
+they directly stimulate the VTA cells to produce more dopamine, hence 
+causing excess dopamine to flood into the nucleus accumbens. Second, 
+they prevent the VTA cells from going back to their “off” position, thus 
+keeping them continually producing dopamine. They also impede the 
+uptake of serotonin and noradrenaline. The simultaneous flooding of 
+neural circuits from all three of these neurotransmitters, then, creates 
+the tremendous high associated with cocaine. 
+
+Heroin and other opiates, by contrast, work by neutralizing the cells in 
+the VTA that can reduce the production of dopamine, thus causing the 
+VTA to overproduce dopamine."
+"Drugs like LSD operate by stimulating the production of serotonin, 
+inducing a feeling of well-being, purpose, and affection. But they also 
+activate areas of the temporal lobe involved in creating hallucinations. 
+(Only fifty micrograms of LSD can cause hallucinations. LSD binds so 
+tightly, in fact, that further increasing the dosage has no effect.) 
+
+Over time, the CIA came to realize that mind-altering drugs were not 
+the magic bullet they were looking for. The hallucinations and 
+addictions that accompany these drugs made them too unstable and 
+unpredictable, and they could cause more trouble than they were worth 
+
+in delicate political situations."
+"(It should be pointed out that just in the last few years, MRI brain 
+scans of drug addicts have indicated a novel way to possibly cure or 
+treat some forms of addiction. By accident, it was noticed that stroke 
+victims who have damage to the insula [located deep in the brain, 
+between the prefrontal cortex and the temporal cortex] have a 
+significantly easier time quitting smoking than the average smoker. This 
+result has also been verified among drug abusers using cocaine, alcohol, 
+opiates, and nicotine. If this result holds up, it might mean that one may 
+be able to dampen the activity of the insula using electrodes or magnetic 
+stimulators and hence treat addiction. “This is the first time we’ve shown 
+anything like this, that damage to a specific brain area could remove the 
+problem of addiction entirely. It’s mind-boggling,” says Dr. Nora 
+Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. At present, no 
+one knows how this works, because the insula is involved in a"
+"one knows how this works, because the insula is involved in a 
+bewildering variety of brain functions, including perception, motor 
+control, and self-awareness. But if this result bears out, it could change"
+"the entire landscape of addiction studies.) 
+
+PROBING THE BRAIN WITH OPTOGENETICS 
+
+These mind-control experiments were done mainly in an era when the 
+brain was largely a mystery, with hit-or-miss methods that often failed. 
+However, because of the explosion in devices that can probe the brain, 
+new opportunities have arisen that will both help us understand the 
+brain as well as possibly teach us how to control it. 
+
+Optogenetics, as we have seen, is one of the fastest-developing fields 
+in science today. The basic goal is to identify precisely which neural 
+pathway corresponds to which mode of behavior. Optogenetics starts 
+with a gene called opsin, which is quite unusual because it is sensitive to 
+light. (It is believed that the appearance of this gene hundreds of 
+millions of years ago was responsible for creating the first eye. In this 
+theory, a simple patch of skin sensitive to light due to opsin evolved into 
+the retina of the eye.)"
+"When the opsin gene is inserted into a neuron and exposed to light, 
+the neuron will fire on command. By flipping a switch, one can instantly 
+
+recognize the neural pathway for certain behaviors because the proteins 
+manufactured by opsin conduct electricity and will fire. 
+
+The hard part, though, is to insert this gene into a single neuron. To 
+do this, one uses a technique borrowed from genetic engineering. The 
+opsin gene is inserted into a harmless virus (which has had its bad genes 
+removed), and, using precision tools, it is then possible to apply this 
+virus to a single neuron. The virus then infects the neuron by inserting 
+its genes into the genes of the neuron. Then, when a light beam is 
+flashed onto neural tissue, the neuron is turned on. In this way, one can 
+establish the precise pathway that certain messages take."
+"Not only does optogenetics identify certain pathways by shining a 
+light beam on them, it also enables scientists to control behavior. 
+Already this method has been a proven success. It was long suspected 
+that a simple neural circuit must be responsible for fruit flies escaping 
+and flying away. Using this method, it was possible to finally identify the 
+precise pathway behind the quick getaway. By simply shining a beam 
+onto these fruit flies, they bolt on demand. 
+
+Scientists are also now able to make worms stop wiggling by flashing 
+light, and in 2011 yet another breakthrough was made. Scientists at 
+Stanford were able to insert the opsin gene into a precise region of the 
+
+amygdala of mice. These mice, which were specially bred to be timid, 
+cowered in their cage. But when a beam of light was flashed into their 
+brains, the mice suddenly lost their timidity and began to explore their 
+cage."
+"The implications are enormous. While fruit flies may have simple 
+reflex mechanisms involving a handful of neurons, mice have complete 
+limbic systems with counterparts in the human brain. Although many 
+experiments that work with mice do not translate to human beings, this 
+still holds out the possibility that scientists may one day find the precise 
+neural pathways for certain mental illnesses, and then be able to treat 
+them without any side effects. As Dr. Edward Boyden of MIT says, “If 
+you want to turn off a brain circuit and the alternative is surgical 
+removal of a brain region, optical fiber implants might seem preferable.” 
+
+One practical application is in treating Parkinson’s disease. As we have 
+seen, it can be treated by deep brain stimulation, but because the 
+positioning of electrodes in the brain lacks precision, there is always the 
+danger of strokes, bleeding, infections, etc. Deep brain stimulation can"
+"also cause side effects such as dizziness and muscle contractions, because 
+the electrodes can accidentally stimulate the wrong neurons. 
+Optogenetics may improve deep brain stimulation by identifying the 
+precise neural pathways that are misfiring, at the level of individual 
+neurons. 
+
+Victims of paralysis might also benefit from this new technology. As 
+we saw in Chapter 4, some paralyzed individuals have been hooked up 
+to a computer in order to control a mechanical arm, but because they 
+have no sense of touch, they often wind up dropping or crushing the 
+object they wish to grab. “By feeding information from sensors on the 
+prosthetic fingertips directly back to the brain using optogenetics, one 
+could in principle provide a high-fidelity sense of touch,” says Dr. 
+Krishna Shenoy of Stanford."
+"Optogenetics will also help clarify which neural pathways are involved 
+with human behavior. In fact, plans have already been drawn up to 
+experiment with this technique on human brains, especially with regard 
+to mental illness. There will be hurdles, of course. First, the technique 
+requires opening up the skull, and if the neurons that one wishes to 
+study are located deep inside the brain, the procedure will be even more 
+invasive. Lastly, one has to insert tiny wires into the brain that can shine 
+a light on this modified neuron so that it triggers the desired behavior. 
+
+Once these neural pathways have been deciphered, you can also 
+stimulate them, making animals perform strange behaviors (for example, 
+mice will run around in circles). Although scientists are just beginning to"
+"trace the neural pathways governing simple animal behaviors, in the 
+future they should have an encyclopedia of such behaviors, including 
+those of humans. In the wrong hands, however, optogenetics could 
+potentially be used to control human behavior. 
+
+In the main, the benefits of optogenetics greatly outweigh its 
+drawbacks. It can literally reveal the pathways of the brain in order to 
+treat mental illness and other diseases. This may then give scientists the 
+tools by which to repair the damage, perhaps curing diseases once 
+thought to be incurable. In the near future, then, the benefits are all 
+positive. But further in the future, once the pathways of human 
+behaviors are also understood, optogenetics could also be used to control 
+or at least modify human behavior as well. 
+
+MIND CONTROL AND THE FUTURE"
+"MIND CONTROL AND THE FUTURE 
+
+In summary, the use of drugs and hypnotism by the CIA was a flop. 
+These techniques were too unstable and unpredictable to be of any use 
+to the military. They can be used to induce hallucinations and 
+dependency, but they have failed to cleanly erase memories, make 
+people more pliant, or force people to perform acts against their will. 
+Governments will keep trying, but the goal is elusive. So far, drugs are 
+simply too blunt an instrument to allow you to control someone’s 
+behavior. 
+
+But this is also a cautionary tale. Carl Sagan mentions one nightmare 
+scenario that might actually work. He envisions a dictator taking 
+children and putting electrodes into their “pain” and “pleasure” centers. 
+These electrodes are then connected wirelessly to computers, so that the 
+dictator can control his subjects with the push of a button."
+"Another nightmare might involve probes placed in the brain that 
+could override our wishes and seize control of our muscles, forcing us to 
+perform tasks we don’t want to do. The work of Dr. Delgado was crude, 
+but it showed that bursts of electricity applied to motor areas of the 
+brain can overrule our conscious thoughts, so that our muscles are no 
+longer under our control. He was able to identify only a few behaviors in 
+animals that could be controlled with electric probes. In the future, it 
+may be possible to find a wide variety of behaviors that can be 
+controlled electronically with a switch."
+"If you are the person being controlled, it would be an unpleasant 
+experience. Although you may think you are master of your own body, 
+your muscles would actually fire without your permission, so you would 
+do things against your will. The electric impulse being fed into your 
+brain could be larger than the impulses you consciously send into your 
+muscles, so that it would appear as if someone had hijacked your body. 
+
+Your own body would become a foreign object. 
+
+In principle, some version of this nightmare might be possible in the 
+future. But there are several factors that may prevent this as well. First, 
+this is still an infant technology and it is not known how it will be 
+applied to human behavior, so there is still plenty of time to monitor its 
+development and perhaps create safeguards to see that it is not misused. 
+Second, a dictator might simply decide that propaganda and coercion,"
+"the usual methods of controlling a population, are cheaper and more 
+effective than putting electrodes into the brains of millions of children, 
+which would be costly and invasive. And third, in democratic societies, a 
+vigorous public debate would probably emerge concerning the promise 
+and limitations of this powerful technology. Laws would have to be 
+passed to prevent the abuse of these methods without impairing their 
+ability to reduce human suffering. Soon science will give us unparalleled 
+insight into the detailed neural pathways of the brain. A fine line has to 
+be drawn between technologies that can benefit society and technologies 
+that can control it. And the key to passing these laws is an educated, 
+informed public."
+"But the real impact of this technology, I believe, will be to liberate the 
+mind, not enslave it. These technologies can give hope to those who are 
+trapped in mental illness. Although there is as yet no permanent cure for 
+mental illness, these new technologies have given us deep insight into 
+how such disorders form and how they progress. One day, through 
+genetics, drugs, and a combination of high-tech methods, we will find a 
+way to manage and eventually cure these ancient diseases. 
+
+One of the recent attempts to exploit this new knowledge of the brain 
+is to understand historical personalities. Perhaps the insights from 
+modern science can help explain the mental states of those in the past. 
+
+And one of the most mystifying figures being analyzed today is Joan 
+of Arc. 
+
+Lovers and madmen have such seething brains.. 
+The lunatic, the lover, and the poet 
+Are of imagination all compact. 
+
+-WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT S DREAM 
+
+9 ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"-WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT S DREAM 
+
+9 ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+She was just an illiterate peasant girl who claimed to hear voices 
+directly from God. But Joan of Arc would rise from obscurity to lead a 
+demoralized army to victories that would change the course of nations, 
+making her one of the most fascinating, compelling, and tragic figures in 
+history."
+"During the chaos of the Hundred Years’ War, when northern France 
+was decimated by English troops and the French monarchy was in 
+retreat, a young girl from Orleans claimed to have divine instructions to 
+lead the French army to victory. With nothing to lose, Charles VII 
+allowed her to command some of his troops. To everyone’s shock and 
+wonder, she scored a series of triumphs over the English. News rapidly 
+spread about this remarkable young girl. With each victory, her 
+reputation began to grow, until she became a folk heroine, rallying the 
+French around her. French troops, once on the verge of total collapse, 
+scored decisive victories that paved the way for the coronation of the 
+new king."
+"However, she was betrayed and captured by the English. They realized 
+what a threat she posed to them, since she was a potent symbol for the 
+French and claimed guidance directly from God Himself, so they 
+subjected her to a show trial. After an elaborate interrogation, she was 
+found guilty of heresy and burned at the stake at the age of nineteen in 
+1431. 
+
+In the centuries that followed, hundreds of attempts have been made 
+to understand this remarkable teenager. Was she a prophet, a saint, or a 
+madwoman? More recently, scientists have tried to use modern 
+psychiatry and neuroscience to explain the lives of historical figures such 
+as Joan of Arc. 
+
+Few question her sincerity about claims of divine inspiration. But 
+many scientists have written that she might have suffered from 
+schizophrenia, since she heard voices. Others have disputed this fact,"
+"since the surviving records of her trial reveal a person of rational 
+thought and speech. The English laid several theological traps for her. 
+They asked, for example, if she was in God’s grace. If she answered yes, 
+then she would be a heretic, since no one can know for certain if they 
+are in God’s grace. If she said no, then she was confessing her guilt, and 
+that she was a fraud. Either way, she would lose. 
+
+In a response that stunned the audience, she answered, “If I am not, 
+may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.” The court 
+notary, in the records, wrote, “Those who were interrogating her were 
+
+stupefied.” 
+
+In fact, the transcripts of her interrogation are so remarkable that 
+George Bernard Shaw put literal translations of the court record in his 
+play Saint Joan."
+"More recently, another theory has emerged about this exceptional 
+woman: perhaps she actually suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy. 
+People who have this condition sometimes experience seizures, but some 
+of them also experience a curious side effect that may shed some light on 
+the structure of human beliefs. These patients suffer from 
+“hyperreligiosity,” and can’t help thinking that there is a spirit or 
+presence behind everything. Random events are never random, but have 
+some deep religious significance. Some psychologists have speculated 
+that a number of history’s prophets suffered from these temporal lobe 
+epileptic lesions, since they were convinced they talked to God. The 
+neuroscientist Dr. David Eagleman says, “Some fraction of history’s 
+prophets, martyrs, and leaders appear to have had temporal lobe 
+epilepsy. Consider Joan of Arc, the sixteen-year-old girl who managed to 
+turn the tide of the Hundred Years’ War because she believed (and"
+"turn the tide of the Hundred Years’ War because she believed (and 
+convinced the French soldiers) that she was hearing voices from Saint 
+Michael the archangel, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Margaret, 
+and Saint Gabriel.”"
+"This curious effect was noticed as far back as 1892, when textbooks on 
+mental illness noted a link between “religious emotionalism” and 
+epilepsy. It was first clinically described in 1975 by neurologist Norman 
+Geschwind of Boston Veterans Administration Hospital. He noticed that 
+epileptics who had electrical misfirings in their left temporal lobes often 
+had religious experiences, and he speculated that the electrical storm in 
+the brain somehow was the cause of these religious obsessions. 
+
+Dr. V. S. Ramachandran estimates that 30 to 40 percent of all the 
+temporal lobe epileptics whom he has seen suffer from hyperreligiosity. 
+He notes, “Sometimes it’s a personal God, sometimes it’s a more diffuse 
+feeling of being one with the cosmos. Everything seems suffused with 
+meaning. The patient will say, ‘Finally, I see what it is all really about, 
+Doctor. I really understand God. I understand my place in the universe— 
+the cosmic scheme.’ ”"
+"He also notes that many of these individuals are extremely adamant 
+and convincing in their beliefs. He says, “I sometimes wonder whether 
+such patients who have temporal lobe epilepsy have access to another 
+dimension of reality, a wormhole of sorts into a parallel universe. But I 
+usually don’t say this to my colleagues, lest they doubt my sanity.” He 
+has experimented on patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, and 
+confirmed that these individuals had a strong emotional reaction to the 
+
+word “God” but not to neutral words. This means that the link between 
+hyperreligiosity and temporal lobe epilepsy is real, not just anecdotal. 
+
+Psychologist Michael Persinger asserts that a certain type of 
+transcranial electrical stimulation (called transcranial magnetic 
+simulation, or TMS) can deliberately induce the effect of these epileptic 
+lesions. If this is so, is it possible that magnetic fields can be used to alter 
+one’s religious beliefs?"
+"In Dr. Persinger’s studies, the subject places a helmet on his head 
+(dubbed the “God helmet”), which contains a device that can send 
+magnetism into particular parts of the brain. Afterward, when the 
+subject is interviewed, he will often claim that he was in the presence of 
+some great spirit. David Biello, writing in Scientific American, says, 
+“During the three-minute bursts of stimulation, the affected subjects 
+translated this perception of the divine into their own cultural and 
+religious language—terming it God, Buddha, a benevolent presence, or 
+the wonder of the universe.” Since this effect is reproducible on demand, 
+it indicates that perhaps the brain is hardwired in some way to respond 
+to religious feelings."
+"Some scientists have gone further and have speculated that there is a 
+“God gene” that predisposes the brain to be religious. Since most 
+societies have created a religion of some sort, it seems plausible that our 
+ability to respond to religious feelings might be genetically programmed 
+into our genome. (Meanwhile, some evolutionary theorists have tried to 
+
+explain these facts by claiming that religion served to increase the 
+chances of survival for early humans. Religion helped bond bickering 
+individuals into a cohesive tribe with a common mythology, which 
+increased the chances that the tribe would stick together and survive.) 
+
+Would an experiment like the one using the “God helmet” shake a 
+person’s religious beliefs? And can an MRI machine record the brain 
+activity of someone who experiences a religious awakening?"
+"To test these ideas, Dr. Mario Beauregard of the University of 
+Montreal recruited a group of fifteen Carmelite nuns who agreed to put 
+their heads into an MRI machine. To qualify for the experiment, all of 
+them must “have had an experience of intense union with God.” 
+
+Originally, Dr. Beauregard had hoped that the nuns would have a 
+mystical communion with God, which could then be recorded by an MRI 
+scan. However, being shoved into an MRI machine, where you are 
+surrounded by tons of magnetic coils of wire and high-tech equipment, is 
+not an ideal setting for a religious epiphany. The best they could do was 
+to evoke memories of previous religious experiences. “God cannot be 
+
+summoned at will,” explained one of the nuns. 
+
+The final result was mixed and inconclusive, but several regions of the 
+brain clearly lit up during this experiment: 
+
+• The caudate nucleus, which is involved with learning and possibly 
+falling in love. (Perhaps the nuns were feeling the unconditional 
+love of God?)"
+"• The insula, which monitors body sensations and social emotions. 
+(Perhaps the nuns were feeling close to the other nuns as they were 
+reaching out to God?) 
+
+• The parietal lobe, which helps process spatial awareness. (Perhaps 
+the nuns felt they were in the physical presence of God?) 
+
+Dr. Beauregard had to admit that so many areas of the brain were 
+activated, with so many different possible interpretations, that he could 
+not say for sure whether hyperreligiosity could be induced. However, it 
+was clear to him that the nuns’ religious feelings were reflected in their 
+brain scans. 
+
+But did this experiment shake the nuns’ belief in God? No. In fact, the 
+
+nuns concluded that God placed this “radio” in the brain so that we 
+could communicate with Him."
+"nuns concluded that God placed this “radio” in the brain so that we 
+could communicate with Him. 
+
+Their conclusion was that God created humans to have this ability, so 
+the brain has a divine antenna given to us by God so that we can feel His 
+presence. David Biello concludes, “Although atheists might argue that 
+finding spirituality in the brain implies that religion is nothing more 
+than divine delusion, the nuns were thrilled by their brain scans for 
+precisely the opposite reason: they seemed to provide confirmation of 
+God’s interactions with them.” Dr. Beauregard concluded, “If you are an 
+atheist and you live a certain kind of experience, you will relate it to the 
+magnificence of the universe. If you are a Christian, you will associate it 
+with God. Who knows. Perhaps they are the same thing.” 
+
+Similarly, Dr. Richard Dawkins, a biologist at Oxford University and 
+an outspoken atheist, was once placed in the God helmet to see if his 
+religious beliefs would change. 
+
+They did not."
+"They did not. 
+
+So in conclusion, although hyperreligiosity may be induced via 
+temporal lobe epilepsy and even magnetic fields, there is no convincing 
+evidence that magnetic fields can alter one’s religious views. 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+But there is another altered state of consciousness that brings great 
+suffering, both to the person experiencing it and to his or her family, and 
+this is mental illness. Can brain scans and high technology reveal the 
+origin of this affliction and perhaps lead to a cure? If so, one of the 
+largest sources of human suffering could be eliminated."
+"For example, throughout history, the treatment of schizophrenia was 
+brutal and crude. People who suffer from this debilitating mental 
+disorder, which afflicts about 1 percent of the population, typically hear 
+imaginary voices and suffer from paranoid delusions and disorganized 
+thinking. Throughout history, they were considered to be “possessed” by 
+the devil and were banished, killed, or locked up. Gothic novels 
+sometimes refer to the strange, demented relative who lives in the 
+darkness of a hidden room or basement. The Bible even mentions an 
+incident when Jesus encountered two demoniacs. The demons begged 
+
+Jesus to drive them into a herd of swine. He said, “Go then.” When the 
+demons entered the swine, the whole herd rushed down the bank and 
+drowned in the sea."
+"Even today, you still see people with classic symptoms of 
+schizophrenia walking around having arguments with themselves. The 
+first indicators usually surface in the late teens (for men) or early 
+twenties (for women). Some schizophrenics have led normal lives and 
+even performed remarkable feats before the voices finally took over. The 
+most famous case is that of the 1994 Nobel Prize winner in economics, 
+John Nash, who was played by Russell Crowe in the movie A Beautiful 
+Mind. In his twenties, Nash did pioneering work in economics, game 
+theory, and pure mathematics at Princeton University. One of his 
+advisers wrote him a letter of recommendation with just one line: “This 
+man is a genius.” Remarkably, he was able to perform at such a high 
+intellectual level even while being hounded by delusions. He was finally 
+hospitalized when he had a breakdown at age thirty-one, and spent 
+many years in institutions or wandering around the world, fearing that 
+communist agents would kill him."
+"At present, there is no precise, universally accepted way to diagnose 
+mental illness. There is hope, however, that one day scientists will use 
+brain scans and other high-tech devices to create accurate diagnostic 
+tools. Progress in treating mental illness, therefore, has been painfully 
+slow. After centuries of suffering, victims of schizophrenia had their first 
+sign of relief when antipsychotic drugs like thorazine were found 
+
+accidentally in the 1950s that could miraculously control or even at 
+times eliminate the voices that haunted the mentally ill."
+"It is believed that these drugs work by regulating the level of certain 
+neurotransmitters, such as dopamine. Specifically, the theory is that 
+these drugs block the functioning of D2 receptors of certain nerve cells, 
+thereby reducing the level of dopamine. (This theory, that hallucinations 
+were in part caused by excess dopamine levels in the limbic system and 
+prefrontal cortex, also explained why people taking amphetamines 
+experienced similar hallucinations.) 
+
+Dopamine, because it is so essential for the synapses of the brain, has 
+been implicated in other disorders as well. One theory holds that 
+Parkinson’s disease is aggravated by a lack of dopamine in the synapses, 
+while Tourette’s syndrome can be triggered by an overabundance of it. 
+
+(People with Tourette’s syndrome have tics and unusual facial 
+movements. A small minority of them uncontrollably speak obscene 
+words and make profane, derogatory remarks.)"
+"More recently, scientists have zeroed in on another possible culprit: 
+abnormal glutamate levels in the brain. One reason for believing these 
+levels are involved is that PCP (angel dust) is known to create 
+hallucinations similar to those of schizophrenics by blocking a glutamate 
+receptor called NMDA. Clozapine, a relatively new drug for 
+schizophrenia that stimulates the production of glutamate, shows great 
+promise. 
+
+However, these antipsychotic drugs are not a cure-all. In about 20 
+percent of cases, such drugs stop all symptoms. About two-thirds find 
+some relief from their symptoms, but the rest are totally unaffected. 
+(According to one theory, antipsychotic drugs mimic a natural chemical 
+that is missing in schizophrenics’ brains, but it is not an exact copy. 
+Hence a patient has to try a variety of these antipsychotic drugs, almost 
+by trial and error. Moreover, they can have unpleasant side effects, so 
+schizophrenics often stop taking them and suffer a relapse.)"
+"Recently, brain scans of schizophrenics taken while they were having 
+auditory hallucinations have helped explain this ancient disorder. For 
+example, when we silently talk to ourselves, certain parts of the brain 
+light up on an MRI scan, especially in the temporal lobe (such as in 
+Wernicke’s area). When a schizophrenic hears voices, the very same 
+areas of the brain light up. The brain works hard to construct a 
+consistent narrative, so schizophrenics try to make sense of these 
+unauthorized voices, believing they originate from strange sources, such 
+as Martians secretly beaming thoughts into their brains. Dr. Michael 
+Sweeney of Ohio State writes, “Neurons wired for the sensation of sound 
+
+fire on their own, like gas-soaked rags igniting spontaneously in a hot, 
+dark garage. In the absence of sights and sounds in the surrounding 
+environment, the schizophrenic’s brain creates a powerful illusion of 
+reality.”"
+"Notably, these voices seem to be coming from a third party, who often 
+gives the subject commands, which are mostly mundane but sometimes 
+violent. Meanwhile, the simulation centers in the prefrontal cortex seem 
+to be on automatic pilot, so in a way it’s as though the consciousness of 
+a schizophrenic is running the same sort of simulations we all do, except 
+
+they’re done without his permission. The person is literally talking to 
+himself without his knowledge. 
+
+HALLUCINATIONS 
+
+The mind constantly generates hallucinations of its own, but for the 
+most part they are easily controlled. We see images that don’t exist or 
+hear spurious sounds, for example, so the anterior cingulate cortex is 
+vital to distinguish the real from the manufactured. This part of the 
+brain helps us distinguish between stimuli that are external and those 
+that are internally generated by the mind itself."
+"However, in schizophrenics, it is believed that this system is damaged, 
+so that the person cannot distinguish real from imaginary voices. (The 
+anterior cingulate cortex is vital because it lies in a strategic place, 
+between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system. The link between 
+these two areas is one of the most important in the brain, since one area 
+governs rational thinking, and the other emotions.) 
+
+Hallucinations, to some extent, can be created on demand. 
+Hallucinations occur naturally if you place someone in a pitch-black 
+room, an isolation chamber, or a creepy environment with strange 
+noises. These are examples of “our eyes playing tricks on us.” Actually, 
+the brain is tricking itself, internally creating false images, trying to 
+make sense of the world and identify threats. This effect is called 
+“pareidolia.” Every time we look at clouds in the sky, we see images of 
+animals, people, or our favorite cartoon characters. We have no choice. 
+It is hardwired into our brains."
+"In a sense, all images we see, both real and virtual, are hallucinations, 
+because the brain is constantly creating false images to “fill in the gaps.” 
+As we’ve seen, even real images are partly manufactured. But in the 
+mentally ill, regions of the brain such as the anterior cingulate cortex are 
+perhaps damaged, so the brain confuses reality and fantasy. 
+
+THE OBSESSIVE MIND 
+
+Another disorder in which drugs may be used to heal the mind is OCD 
+(obsessive-compulsive disorder). As we saw earlier, human 
+
+consciousness involves mediating between a number of feedback 
+mechanisms. Sometimes, however, the feedback mechanisms are stuck in 
+the “on” position."
+"One in forty Americans suffers from OCD. Cases can be mild, so that, 
+for example, people have to constantly go home to check that they 
+locked the door. The detective Adrian Monk on the TV show Monk has a 
+mild case of OCD. But OCD can also be so severe that people 
+compulsively scratch or wash their skin until it is left bleeding and raw. 
+Some people with OCD have been known to repeat obsessive behaviors 
+for hours, making it difficult to keep a job or have a family. 
+
+Normally these types of compulsive behaviors, in moderation, are 
+actually good for us, since they help us keep clean, healthy, and safe. 
+That is why we evolved these behaviors in the first place. But someone 
+with OCD cannot stop this behavior, and it spirals out of control."
+"Brain scans are now revealing how this takes place. They show that at 
+least three areas of the brain that normally help us keep ourselves 
+healthy get stuck in a feedback loop. First, there is the orbitofrontal 
+cortex, which we saw in Chapter 1 can act as a fact-checker, making sure 
+that we have properly locked the doors and washed our hands. It tells 
+us, “Hmm, something is wrong.” Second, the caudate nucleus, located in 
+the basal ganglia, governs learned activities that are automatic. It tells 
+the body to “do something.” And finally, we have the cingulate cortex, 
+which registers conscious emotions, including discomfort. It says, “I still 
+feel awful.”"
+"Psychiatry professor Jeffrey Schwartz of UCLA has tried to put this all 
+together to explain how OCD gets out of hand. Imagine you have the 
+urge to wash your hands. The orbitofrontal cortex recognizes that 
+something is wrong, that your hands are dirty. The caudate nucleus kicks 
+in and causes you to automatically wash your hands. Then the cingulate 
+cortex registers satisfaction that your hands are clean. 
+
+But in someone with OCD, this loop is altered. Even after he notices 
+that his hands are dirty and he washes them, he still has the 
+discomforting feeling that something is wrong, that they are still dirty. 
+So he is stuck in a feedback loop that won’t stop. 
+
+In the 1960s, the drug clomipramine hydrochloride began to give OCD 
+patients some relief. This and other drugs developed since then raise 
+levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the body. They can reduce"
+"symptoms of OCD by as much as 60 percent in clinical trials. Dr. 
+Schwartz says, “The brain’s gonna do what the brain’s gonna do, but you 
+don’t have to let it push you around.” These drugs are certainly not a 
+cure, but they have brought some relief to the sufferers of OCD. 
+
+BIPOLAR DISORDER 
+
+Another common form of mental illness is bipolar disorder, in which a 
+person suffers from extreme bouts of wild, delusional optimism, followed 
+by a crash and then periods of deep depression. Bipolar disorder also 
+seems to run in families and, curiously, strikes frequently in artists; 
+perhaps their great works of art were created during bursts of creativity 
+and optimism. A list of creative people who were afflicted by bipolar 
+disorder reads like a Who’s Who of Hollywood celebrities, musicians, 
+artists, and writers. Although the drug lithium seems to control many of 
+the symptoms of bipolar disorder, the causes are not entirely clear."
+"One theory states that bipolar disorder may be caused by an 
+imbalance between the left and right hemispheres. Dr. Michael Sweeney 
+notes, “Brain scans have led researchers to generally assign negative 
+emotions such as sadness to the right hemisphere and positive emotions 
+such as joy to the left hemisphere. For at least a century, neuroscientists 
+have noticed a link between damage to the brain’s left hemisphere and 
+negative moods, including depression and uncontrollable crying. 
+Damage to the right, however, has been associated with a broad array of 
+positive emotions.”"
+"So the left hemisphere, which is analytical and controls language, 
+tends to become manic if left to itself. The right hemisphere, on the 
+contrary, is holistic and tends to check this mania. Dr. V. S. 
+Ramachandran writes, “If left unchecked, the left hemisphere would 
+likely render a person delusional or manic.... So it seems reasonable to 
+postulate a ‘devil’s advocate’ in the right hemisphere that allows ‘you’ to 
+adopt a detached, objective (allocentric) view of yourself.” 
+
+If human consciousness involves simulating the future, it has to 
+compute the outcomes of future events with certain probabilities. It 
+needs, therefore, a delicate balance between optimism and pessimism to 
+estimate the chances of success or failures for certain courses of action."
+"But in some sense, depression is the price we pay for being able to 
+simulate the future. Our consciousness has the ability to conjure up all 
+sorts of horrific outcomes for the future, and is therefore aware of all the 
+bad things that could happen, even if they are not realistic."
+"It is hard to verify many of these theories, since brain scans of people 
+who are clinically depressed indicate that many brain areas are affected. 
+It is difficult to pinpoint the source of the problem, but among the 
+clinically depressed, activity in the parietal and temporal lobes seems to 
+be suppressed, perhaps indicating that the person is withdrawn from the 
+outside world and living in their own internal world. In particular, the 
+ventromedial cortex seems to play an important role. This area 
+apparently creates the feeling that there is a sense of meaning and 
+wholeness to the world, so that everything seems to have a purpose. 
+Overactivity in this area can cause mania, in which people think they are 
+omnipotent. Underactivity in this area is associated with depression and 
+the feeling that life is pointless. So it is possible that a defect in this area 
+may be responsible for some mood swings. 
+
+A THEORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND MENTAL ILLNESS"
+"A THEORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+So how does the space-time theory of consciousness apply to mental 
+illness? Can it give us a deeper insight into this disorder? As we 
+mentioned before, we define human consciousness as the process of 
+creating a model of our world in space and time (especially the future) 
+by evaluating many feedback loops in various parameters in order to 
+achieve a goal."
+"We have proposed that the key function of human consciousness is to 
+simulate the future, but this is not a trivial task. The brain accomplishes 
+it by having these feedback loops check and balance one another. For 
+example, a skillful CEO at a board meeting tries to draw out the 
+disagreement among staff members and to sharpen competing points of 
+view in order to sift through the various arguments and then make a 
+final decision. In the same way, various regions of the brain make 
+diverging assessments of the future, which are given to the dorsolateral 
+prefrontal cortex, the CEO of the brain. These competing assessments are 
+then evaluated and weighed until a balanced final decision is made. 
+
+We can now apply the space-time theory of consciousness to give us a 
+definition of most forms of mental illness: 
+
+Mental illness is largely caused by the disruption of the 
+delicate checks and balances between competing feedback"
+"loops that simulate the future (usually because one region of 
+the brain is overactive or underactive). 
+
+Because the CEO of the mind (the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) no 
+longer has a balanced assessment of the facts, due to this disruption in 
+feedback loops, it begins to make strange conclusions and act in bizarre 
+ways. The advantage of this theory is that it is testable. One has to 
+perform MRI scans of the brain of someone who is mentally ill as it 
+exhibits dysfunctional behavior, evaluating how its feedback loops are 
+performing, and compare it to the MRI scans of normal people. If this 
+theory is correct, the dysfunctional behavior (for example, hearing 
+voices or becoming obsessed) can be traced back to a malfunctioning of 
+the checks and balances between feedback loops. The theory can be 
+disproven if this dysfunctional behavior is totally independent of the 
+interplay between these regions of the brain."
+"Given this new theory of mental illness, we can now apply it to 
+various forms of mental disorders, summarizing the previous discussion 
+in this new light. 
+
+We saw earlier that the obsessive behavior of people suffering from 
+OCD might arise when the checks and balances between several 
+feedback loops are thrown out of balance: one registering something as 
+amiss, another carrying out corrective action, and another one signaling 
+that the matter has been taken care of. The failure of the checks and 
+balances within this loop can cause the brain to be locked into a vicious 
+cycle, so the mind never believes that the problem has been resolved."
+"The voices heard by schizophrenics might arise when several feedback 
+loops are no longer balancing one another. One feedback loop generates 
+spurious voices in the temporal cortex (i.e., the brain is talking to itself). 
+Auditory and visual hallucinations are often checked by the anterior 
+cingulate cortex, so a normal person can differentiate between real and 
+fictitious voices. But if this region of the brain is not working properly, 
+the brain is flooded with disembodied voices that it believes are real. 
+
+This can cause schizophrenic behavior. 
+
+Similarly, the manic-depressive swings of someone with bipolar 
+disorder might be traced to an imbalance between the left and right 
+hemispheres. The necessary interplay between optimistic and pessimistic 
+assessments is thrown off balance, and the person oscillates wildly 
+between these two diverging moods."
+"Paranoia may also be viewed in this light. It results from an imbalance 
+between the amygdala (which registers fear and exaggerates threats) and 
+the prefrontal cortex, which evaluates these threats and puts them into 
+
+perspective. 
+
+We should also stress that evolution has given us these feedback loops 
+for a reason: to protect us. They keep us clean, healthy, and socially 
+connected. The problem occurs when the dynamic between opposing 
+feedback loops is disrupted. 
+
+This theory can be roughly summarized as follows: 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+Paranoia 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #1 
+
+Perceiving a threat 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Discounting threats 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Amygdala/prefrontal lobe 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+Schizophrenia 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #1 
+
+Creating voices 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Discounting voices 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Left temporal lobe/anterior cingulate cortex 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+Bipolar disorder 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #1 
+
+Optimism 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Pessimism 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Left/right hemisphere"
+"Optimism 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Pessimism 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Left/right hemisphere 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+OCD 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #1 
+
+Anxiety 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Satisfaction 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Orbitofrontal cortex/caudate nucleus/cingulate cortex 
+
+According to the space-time theory of consciousness, many forms of mental illness are typified by the 
+disruption of the 
+checks and balances of opposing feedback loops in the brain that simulate the future. Brain scans are 
+gradually 
+identifying which regions these are. A more complete understanding of mental illness will undoubtedly 
+reveal the 
+involvement of many more regions of the brain. This is only a preliminary sketch. 
+
+DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION 
+
+Although the space-time theory of consciousness may give us insight into 
+the origin of mental illness, it doesn’t tell us how to create new therapies 
+and remedies."
+"How will science deal with mental illness in the future? This is hard to 
+predict, since we now realize that mental illness is not just one category, 
+but an entire range of illnesses that can afflict the mind in a bewildering 
+number of ways. Furthermore, the science behind mental illness is still in 
+
+its infancy, with huge areas totally unexplored and unexplained. 
+
+But a new method is being tried today to treat the unending agony of 
+people suffering from one of the most common yet stubbornly persistent 
+forms of mental disorder, depression, which afflicts twenty million 
+people in the United States. Ten percent of them, in turn, suffer from an 
+incurable form of depression that has resisted all medical advances. One 
+direct way of treating them, which holds much promise, is to place 
+probes deep inside certain regions of the brain."
+"An important clue to this disorder was discovered by Dr. Helen 
+Mayberg and colleagues, then doing research at Washington University 
+Medical School. Using brain scans, they identified an area of the brain, 
+called Brodmann area 25 (also called the subcallosal cingulate region), 
+in the cerebral cortex that is consistently hyperactive in depressed 
+individuals for whom all other forms of treatment have been 
+unsuccessful."
+"These scientists used deep brain stimulation (DBS) in this area, 
+inserting a small probe into the brain and applying an electrical shock, 
+much like a pacemaker. The success of DBS has been astonishing in the 
+treatment of various disorders. In the past decade, DBS has been used on 
+forty thousand patients for motor-related diseases, such as Parkinson’s 
+and epilepsy, which cause uncontrolled movements of the body. 
+Between 60 and 100 percent of patients report significant improvement 
+in controlling their shaking hands. More than 250 hospitals in the United 
+States alone now perform DBS treatments. 
+
+But then Dr. Mayberg had the idea of applying DBS directly to 
+Brodmann area 25 to treat depression as well. Her team took twelve 
+patients who were clinically depressed and had shown no improvement 
+after exhaustive use of drugs, psychotherapy, and electroshock therapy."
+"They found that eight of these chronically depressed individuals 
+immediately showed progress. Their success was so astonishing, in fact, 
+that other groups raced to duplicate these results and apply DBS to other 
+mental disorders. At present, DBS is being applied to thirty-five patients 
+at Emory University, and thirty at other institutions. 
+
+Dr. Mayberg says, “Depression 1.0 was psychotherapy—people 
+arguing about whose fault it was. Depression 2.0 was the idea that it’s a 
+chemical imbalance. This is Depression 3.0. What has captured 
+everyone’s imagination is that, by dissecting a complex behavior 
+
+disorder into its component systems, you have a new way of thinking 
+about it.”"
+"disorder into its component systems, you have a new way of thinking 
+about it.” 
+
+Although the success of DBS in treating depressed individuals is 
+remarkable, much more research needs to be done. First, it is not clear 
+why DBS works. It is thought that DBS destroys or impairs overactive 
+areas of the brain (as in Parkinson’s and Brodmann area 25) and is hence 
+effective only against ailments caused by such overactivity. Second, the 
+precision of this tool needs to be improved. Although this treatment has 
+been used to treat a variety of brain diseases, such as phantom limb pain 
+(when a person feels pain from a limb that has been amputated), 
+Tourette’s syndrome, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, the electrode 
+inserted into the brain is not precise, thus affecting perhaps several 
+million neurons rather than just the handful that are the source of 
+distress."
+"Time will only improve the effectiveness of this therapy. Using MEM 
+technology, one can create microscopic electrodes able to stimulate only 
+a few neurons at a time. Nanotechnology may also make possible neural 
+nanoprobes that are one molecule thick, as in carbon nanotubes. And as 
+MRI sensitivity increases, our capability to guide these electrodes to 
+more specific areas of the brain should grow more precise. 
+
+WAKING UP FROM A COMA 
+
+Deep brain stimulation has branched into several different avenues of 
+research, including a beneficial side effect: increasing the number of 
+memory cells within the hippocampus. Yet another application is to 
+revive some individuals in a coma."
+"Comas represent perhaps one of the most controversial forms of 
+consciousness, and often results in national headlines. The case of Terri 
+Schiavo, for example, riveted the public. Due to a heart attack, she 
+suffered a lack of oxygen, which caused massive brain injury. As a result, 
+Schiavo went into a coma in 1990. Her husband, with the approval of 
+doctors, wanted to allow her the dignity of dying peacefully. But her 
+family said this was cruelly pulling the plug on someone who still had 
+some responses to stimuli and might one day be miraculously revived. 
+They pointed out that there had been sensational cases in the past when 
+
+coma patients suddenly regained consciousness after many years in a 
+vegetative state. 
+
+Brain scans were used to settle the question. In 2003, most 
+neurologists, examining the CAT scans, concluded that the damage to 
+Schiavo’s brain was so extensive that she could never be revived, and 
+that she was in a permanent vegetative state (PVS). After she died in"
+"2005, an autopsy confirmed these results—there was no chance of 
+revival. 
+
+In some other cases involving coma patients, however, brain scans 
+show that the damage is not so severe, so there is a slim chance of 
+recovery. In the summer of 2007, a man in Cleveland woke up and 
+greeted his mother after undergoing deep brain stimulation. The man 
+had suffered extensive brain damage eight years earlier and fell into a 
+deep coma known as a minimally conscious state."
+"Dr. Ali Rezai led the team of surgeons who performed the operation. 
+They inserted a pair of wires into the patient’s brain until they reached 
+the thalamus, which, as we have seen, is the gateway where sensory 
+information is first processed. By sending a low-voltage current through 
+these wires, the doctors were able to stimulate the thalamus, which in 
+turn woke the man up from his deep coma. (Usually, sending electricity 
+into the brain causes that part of the brain to shut down, but under 
+certain circumstances it can act to jolt neurons into action.)"
+"Improvements in DBS technology should increase the number of 
+success stories in different fields. Today a DBS electrode is about 1.5 
+millimeters in diameter, but it touches up to a million neurons when 
+inserted into the brain, which can cause bleeding and damage to blood 
+vessels. One to three percent of DBS patients in fact have bleeding that 
+can progress to a stroke. The electric charge carried by DBS probes is 
+also still very crude, pulsing at a constant rate. Eventually, surgeons will 
+be able to adjust the electrical charge carried by the electrodes so that 
+each probe is made for a specific person and a specific ailment. The next 
+generation of DBS probes is bound to be safer and more precise. 
+
+THE GENETICS OF MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+Another attempt to understand and eventually treat mental illness"
+"Another attempt to understand and eventually treat mental illness 
+
+involves tracing its genetic roots. Many attempts have been made in this 
+area, with disappointing, mixed results. There is considerable evidence 
+that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder run in families, but attempts to 
+find the genes common to all these individuals have not been conclusive. 
+Occasionally scientists have followed the family trees of certain 
+individuals afflicted by mental illness and found a gene that is prevalent. 
+But attempts to generalize this result to other families have often failed. 
+At best, scientists have concluded that environmental factors as well as a 
+combination of several genes are necessary to trigger mental illness. 
+However, it has generally been accepted that each disorder has its own 
+genetic basis."
+"In 2012, however, one of the most comprehensive studies ever done 
+showed that there could in fact be a common genetic factor to mental 
+illness after all. Scientists from the Harvard Medical School and 
+Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed sixty thousand people 
+worldwide and found that there was a genetic link between five major 
+mental illnesses: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, major 
+depression, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). 
+Together they represent a significant fraction of all mentally ill patients."
+"After an exhaustive analysis of the subjects’ DNA, scientists found that 
+four genes increased the risk of mental illness. Two of them involved the 
+regulation of calcium channels in neurons. (Calcium is an essential 
+chemical involved in the processing of neural signals.) Dr. Jordan 
+Smoller of the Harvard Medical School says, “The calcium channels 
+findings suggest that perhaps—and that is a big if—treatments to affect 
+calcium channeling functioning might have effects across a range of 
+disorders.” Already, calcium channel blockers are being used to treat 
+people with bipolar disorder. In the future, these blockers may be used 
+to treat other mental illnesses as well. 
+
+This new result could help explain the curious fact that when mental 
+illness runs in a family, members may manifest different forms of 
+disorders. For example, if one twin has schizophrenia, then the other 
+twin might have a totally different disorder, such as bipolar disorder."
+"The point here is that although each mental illness has its own triggers 
+and genes, there could be a common thread running through them as 
+well. Isolating the common factors among these diseases could give us a 
+clue to which drugs might be most effective against them. 
+
+“What we have identified here is probably just the tip of the iceberg,” 
+says Dr. Smoller. “As these studies grow, we expect to find additional 
+genes that might overlap.” If more genes are found among these five 
+disorders, it could open up an entirely new approach to mental illness. 
+
+If more common genes are found, it could mean that gene therapy 
+might be able to repair the damage caused by defective genes. Or it 
+might give rise to new drugs that could treat the illness at the neural 
+level. 
+
+FUTURE AVENUES 
+
+So at present, there is no cure for patients with mental illness. 
+Historically, doctors were helpless in treating them. But modern"
+"medicine has given us a variety of new possibilities and therapies to 
+tackle this ancient problem. Just a few of them include: 
+
+1. Finding new neurotransmitters and new drugs that regulate the 
+signaling of neurons. 
+
+2. Locating the genes linked to various mental illnesses, and perhaps 
+using gene therapy. 
+
+3. Using deep brain stimulation to dampen or increase neural activity 
+in certain areas. 
+
+4. Using EEG, MRI, MEG, and TES to understand precisely how the 
+brain malfunctions. 
+
+5. And in the chapter on reverse engineering the brain, we will 
+explore yet another promising avenue, imaging the entire brain and 
+all its neural pathways. This may finally unravel the mystery of 
+mental illnesses. 
+
+But to make sense of the wide variety of mental illnesses, some 
+scientists believe that mental illnesses can be grouped into at least two 
+major groups, each one requiring a different approach: 
+
+1. Mental disorders involving injury to the brain"
+"1. Mental disorders involving injury to the brain 
+
+2. Mental disorders triggered by incorrect wiring within the brain 
+
+The first type includes Parkinson’s, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, and a wide 
+variety of disorders caused by strokes and tumors, in which brain tissue 
+is actually injured or malfunctioning. In the case of Parkinson’s and 
+epilepsy, there are neurons in a precise area of the brain that are 
+overactive. In Alzheimer’s, a buildup of amyloid plaque destroys brain 
+tissue, including the hippocampus. In strokes and tumors, certain parts 
+of the brain are silenced, causing numerous behavioral problems. Each 
+of these disorders has to be treated differently, since each injury is 
+different. Parkinson’s and epilepsy may require probes to silence the 
+overactive areas, while damage from Alzheimer’s, strokes, and tumors is 
+often incurable."
+"In the future, there will be advances in methods to deal with these 
+injured parts of the brain besides deep brain stimulation and magnetic 
+fields. One day stem cells may replace brain tissue that has been 
+damaged. Or perhaps artificial replacements can be found to compensate 
+for these injured areas using computers. In this case, the injured tissue is 
+removed or replaced, either organically or electronically. 
+
+The second category involves disorders caused by a miswiring of the 
+brain. Disorders like schizophrenia, OCD, depression, and bipolar 
+disorder might fall into this category. Each region of the brain may be 
+relatively healthy and intact, but one or more of them may be miswired, 
+causing messages to be processed incorrectly. This category is difficult to 
+treat, since the wiring of the brain is not well understood. So far, the 
+main way to deal with these disorders is through drugs that influence 
+neurotransmitters, but there is still a lot of hit or miss involved here."
+"But there is another altered state of consciousness that has given us 
+new insights into the working mind. It has also provided new 
+perspectives on how the brain works and what might happen if there is a 
+disorder. This is the field of AI, artificial intelligence. Although it is still 
+in its infancy, it has opened profound insights into the thinking process 
+and has even deepened our understanding of human consciousness. So 
+the questions are: Can silicon consciousness be achieved? If so, how 
+might it differ from human consciousness? And will it try one day to 
+control us? 
+
+No, I’m not interested in developing a powerful brain. All I’m 
+after is just a mediocre brain, something like the President of 
+the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. 
+
+—ALAN TURING 
+
+10 THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON 
+CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+In February 2011, history was made."
+"10 THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON 
+CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+In February 2011, history was made. 
+
+An IBM computer called Watson did what many critics thought was 
+impossible: it beat two contestants on a TV game show called Jeopardy! 
+Millions of viewers were glued to the screen as Watson methodically 
+annihilated its opponents on national TV, answering questions that 
+stumped the rival contestants, and thereby claiming the $1 million prize 
+money. 
+
+IBM pulled out all the stops in assembling a machine with a truly 
+monumental amount of computational firepower. Watson can process 
+data at the astonishing rate of five hundred gigabytes per second (or the 
+equivalent of a million books per second) with sixteen trillion bytes of 
+RAM memory. It also had access to two hundred million pages of 
+material in its memory, including the entire storehouse of knowledge 
+
+within Wikipedia. Watson could then analyze this mountain of 
+information on live TV."
+"within Wikipedia. Watson could then analyze this mountain of 
+information on live TV. 
+
+Watson is just the latest generation of “expert systems,” software 
+programs that use formal logic to access vast amounts of specialized 
+information. (When you talk on the phone to a machine that gives you a 
+menu of choices, this is a primitive expert system.) Expert systems will 
+continue to evolve, making our lives more convenient and efficient. 
+
+For example, engineers are currently working to create a “robo-doc,” 
+which will appear on your wristwatch or wall screen and give you basic 
+medical advice with 99 percent accuracy almost for free. You’d talk to it 
+about your symptoms, and it would access the databanks of the world’s 
+leading medical centers for the latest scientific information. This will 
+reduce unnecessary visits to the doctor, eliminate costly false alarms, 
+and make it effortless to have regular conversations with a doctor."
+"Eventually we might have robot lawyers that can answer all common 
+legal questions, or a robo-secretary that can plan vacations, trips, and 
+
+dinners. (Of course, for specialized services requiring professional 
+advice, you would still need to see a real doctor, lawyer, etc., but for 
+common, everyday advice, these programs would suffice.) 
+
+In addition, scientists have created “chat-bots” that can mimic 
+ordinary conversations. The average person may know tens of thousands 
+of words. Reading the newspaper may require about two thousand words 
+or more, but a casual conversation usually involves only a few hundred. 
+Robots can be programmed to converse with this limited vocabulary (as 
+long as the conversation is limited to certain well-defined subjects). 
+
+MEDIA HYPE—THE ROBOTS ARE COMING"
+"MEDIA HYPE—THE ROBOTS ARE COMING 
+
+Soon after Watson won that contest, some pundits were wringing their 
+hands, mourning the day when the machines will take over. Ken 
+Jennings, one of the contestants defeated by Watson, remarked to the 
+press, “I for one welcome our new computer overlords.” The pundits 
+asked, If Watson could defeat seasoned game show contestants in a 
+head-to-machine contest, then what chance do the rest of us mortals 
+have to stand up to the machines? Half jokingly, Jennings said, “Brad 
+[the other contestant] and I were the first knowledge-industry workers 
+put out of work by the new generation of ‘thinking’ machines.” 
+
+The commentators, however, forgot to mention that you could not go 
+up to Watson and congratulate it for winning. You could not slap it on"
+"its back, or share a champagne toast with it. It wouldn’t know what any 
+of that meant, and in fact Watson was totally unaware that it had won at 
+all. All the hype aside, the truth is that Watson is a highly sophisticated 
+adding machine, able to add (or search data files) billions of times faster 
+than the human brain, but it is totally lacking in self-awareness or 
+common sense. 
+
+On one hand, progress in artificial intelligence has been astounding, 
+especially in the area of raw computational power. Someone from the 
+year 1900, viewing the calculations performed by computers today, 
+would consider these machines to be miracles. But in another sense, 
+progress has been painstakingly slow in building machines that can think 
+for themselves (i.e., true automatons, without a puppet master, a 
+controller with a joystick, or someone with a remote-control panel). 
+
+Robots are totally unaware that they are robots."
+"Robots are totally unaware that they are robots. 
+
+Given the fact that computer power has been doubling every two years 
+for the past fifty years under Moore’s law, some say it is only a matter of 
+time before machines eventually acquire self-awareness that rivals 
+human intelligence. No one knows when this will happen, but humanity 
+should be prepared for the moment when machine consciousness leaves 
+the laboratory and enters the real world. How we deal with robot 
+consciousness could decide the future of the human race. 
+
+BOOM AND BUST CYCLES IN AI"
+"BOOM AND BUST CYCLES IN AI 
+
+It is difficult to foretell the fate of AI, since it has gone through three 
+cycles of boom and bust. Back in the 1950s, it seemed as if mechanical 
+maids and butlers were just around the corner. Machines were being 
+built that could play checkers and solve algebra problems. Robot arms 
+were developed that could recognize and pick up blocks. At Stanford 
+University, a robot was built called Shakey—basically a computer sitting 
+on top of wheels with a camera—which could wander around a room by 
+itself, avoiding obstacles."
+"Breathless articles were soon published in science magazines heralding 
+the coming of the robot companion. Some predictions were too 
+conservative. In 1949, Popular Mechanics stated that “in the future, 
+computers will weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” But others were wildly 
+optimistic in proclaiming that the day of the robots was near. Shakey 
+would one day become a mechanical maid or butler that would vacuum 
+our carpets and open our doors. Movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey 
+convinced us that robots would soon be piloting our rocket ships to 
+Jupiter and chatting with our astronauts. In 1965, Dr. Herbert Simon, 
+
+one of the founders of AI, said flatly, “Machines will be capable, within 
+20 years, of doing any work a man can do.” Two years later, another 
+founding father of AI, Dr. Marvin Minsky, said that “within a 
+generation ... the problem of creating ‘artificial intelligence’ will 
+substantially be solved.”"
+"But all this unbounded optimism collapsed in the 1970s. Checker¬ 
+playing machines could only play checkers, nothing more. Mechanical 
+arms could pick up blocks, but nothing else. They were like one-trick 
+
+ponies. The most advanced robots took hours just to walk across a room. 
+Shakey, placed in an unfamiliar environment, would easily get lost. And 
+scientists were nowhere near understanding consciousness. In 1974, AI 
+suffered a huge blow when both the U.S. and British governments 
+substantially curtailed funding in the field."
+"But as computer power steadily increased in the 1980s, a new gold 
+rush occurred in AI, fueled mainly by Pentagon planners hoping to put 
+robot soldiers on the battlefield. Funding for AI hit a billion dollars by 
+1985, with hundreds of millions of dollars spent on projects like the 
+Smart Truck, which was supposed to be an intelligent, autonomous truck 
+that could enter enemy lines, do reconnaissance by itself, perform 
+missions (such as rescuing prisoners), and then return to friendly 
+territory. Unfortunately, the only thing that the Smart Truck did was get 
+lost. The visible failures of these costly projects created yet another AI 
+winter in the 1990s. 
+
+Paul Abrahams, commenting about the years he spent at MIT as a 
+graduate student, has said, “It’s as though a group of people had 
+proposed to build a tower to the moon. Each year, they point with pride 
+at how much higher the tower is than it was the previous year. The only 
+trouble is that the moon isn’t getting much closer.”"
+"But now, with the relentless march of computer power, a new AI 
+renaissance has begun, and slow but substantial progress has been made. 
+In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue computer beat world chess champion Garry 
+Kasparov. In 2005, a robot car from Stanford won the DARPA Grand 
+Challenge for a driverless car. Milestones continue to be reached. 
+
+This question remains: Is the third try the charm? 
+
+Scientists now realize that they vastly underestimated the problem, 
+because most human thought is actually subconscious. The conscious 
+part of our thoughts, in fact, represents only the tiniest portion of our 
+computations. 
+
+Dr. Steve Pinker says, “I would pay a lot for a robot that would put 
+
+away the dishes or run simple errands, but I can’t, because all of the 
+little problems that you’d need to solve to build a robot do to that, like 
+recognizing objects, reasoning about the world, and controlling hands 
+and feet, are unsolved engineering problems.”"
+"Although Hollywood movies tell us that terrifying Terminator robots 
+may be just around the corner, the task of creating an artificial mind has 
+
+been much more difficult than previously thought. I once asked Dr. 
+Minsky when machines would equal and perhaps even surpass human 
+intelligence. He said that he was confident this would happen but that 
+he doesn’t make predictions about dates anymore. Given the roller¬ 
+coaster history of AI, perhaps this is the wisest approach, to map out the 
+future of AI without setting a specific timetable. 
+
+PATTERN RECOGNITION AND COMMON SENSE 
+
+There are at least two basic problems confronting AI: pattern recognition 
+and common sense."
+"There are at least two basic problems confronting AI: pattern recognition 
+and common sense. 
+
+Our best robots can barely recognize simple objects like a cup or a 
+ball. The robot’s eye may see details better than a natural eye, but the 
+robot brain cannot recognize what it is seeing. If you place a robot on a 
+strange, busy street, it quickly becomes disoriented and gets lost. Pattern 
+recognition (e.g., identifying objects) has progressed much more slowly 
+than previously estimated because of this problem."
+"When a robot walks into a room, it has to perform trillions of 
+calculations, breaking down the objects it sees into pixels, lines, circles, 
+squares, and triangles, and then trying to make a match with the 
+thousands of images stored in its memory. For instance, robots see a 
+chair as a hodgepodge of lines and dots, but they cannot easily identify 
+the essence of “chairness.” Even if a robot is able to successfully match 
+an object to an image in its database, a slight rotation (like a chair that’s 
+been knocked over on the floor) or change in perspective (viewing the 
+chair from a different angle) will mystify the robot. Our brains, however, 
+automatically take different perspectives and variations into account. 
+Our brains are subconsciously performing trillions of calculations, but 
+the process seems effortless to us."
+"Robots also have a problem with common sense. They do not 
+understand simple facts about the physical and biological world. There 
+isn’t an equation that can confirm something as self-evident (to us 
+humans) as “muggy weather is uncomfortable” or “mothers are older 
+than their daughters.” There has been some progress made in translating 
+
+this sort of information into mathematical logic, but to catalog the 
+common sense of a four-year-old child would require hundreds of 
+
+millions of lines of computer code. As Voltaire once said, “Common 
+sense is not so common.” 
+
+For example, one of our most advanced robots is called ASIMO, built 
+in Japan (where 30 percent of all industrial robots are made) by the 
+Honda Corporation. This marvelous robot, about the size of a young boy, 
+can walk, run, climb stairs, speak different languages, and dance (much 
+better than I do, in fact). I have interacted with ASIMO on TV several 
+times, and was very impressed by its abilities."
+"However, I met privately with the creators of ASIMO and asked them 
+this key question: How smart is ASIMO, if we compare it to an animal? 
+They admitted to me that it has the intelligence of a bug. All the walking 
+and talking is mostly for the press. The problem is that ASIMO is, by and 
+large, a big tape recorder. It has only a modest list of truly autonomous 
+functions, so almost every speech or motion has to be carefully scripted 
+ahead of time. For example, it took about three hours to film a short 
+sequence of me interacting with ASIMO, because the hand gesture and 
+other movement had to be programmed by a team of handlers."
+"If we consider this in relation to our definition of human 
+consciousness, it seems that our current robots are stuck at a very 
+primitive level, simply trying to make sense of the physical and social 
+world by learning basic facts. As a consequence, robots are not even at 
+the stage where they can plot realistic simulations of the future. Asking a 
+robot to craft a plan to rob a bank, for instance, assumes that the robot 
+knows all the fundamentals about banks, such as where the money is 
+stored, what sort of security system is in place, and how the police and 
+bystanders will react to the situation. Some of this can be programmed, 
+but there are hundreds of nuances that the human mind naturally 
+understands but robots do not."
+"Where robots excel is in simulating the future in just one precise field, 
+such as playing chess, modeling the weather, tracing the collision of 
+galaxies, etc. Since the laws of chess and gravity have been well known 
+for centuries, it is only a matter of raw computer power to simulate the 
+future of a chess game or a solar system. 
+
+Attempts to move beyond this level using brute force have also 
+floundered. One ambitious program, called CYC, was designed to solve 
+the commonsense problem. CYC would include millions of lines of 
+computer code containing all the information of common sense and 
+
+knowledge necessary to understand its physical and social environment. 
+Although CYC can process hundreds of thousands of facts and millions of 
+statements, it still cannot reproduce the level of thought of a four-year- 
+old human. Unfortunately, after some optimistic press releases, the effort 
+has stagnated. Many of its programmers left, deadlines have come and 
+gone, and yet the project still continues."
+"IS THE BRAIN A COMPUTER? 
+
+Where did we go wrong? For the past fifty years, scientists working in AI 
+have tried to model the brain by following the analogy with digital 
+computers. But perhaps this was too simplistic. As Joseph Campbell once 
+said, “Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no 
+mercy.” If you remove a single transistor from a Pentium chip, the 
+computer will crash immediately. But the human brain can perform 
+quite well even if half of it is missing."
+"This is because the brain is not a digital computer at all, but a highly 
+sophisticated neural network of some sort. Unlike a digital computer, 
+which has a fixed architecture (input, output, and processor), neural 
+networks are collections of neurons that constantly rewire and reinforce 
+themselves after learning a new task. The brain has no programming, no 
+operating system, no Windows, no central processor. Instead, its neural 
+networks are massively parallel, with one hundred billion neurons firing 
+at the same time in order to accomplish a single goal: to learn."
+"In light of this, AI researchers are beginning to reexamine the “top- 
+down approach” they have followed for the last fifty years (e.g., putting 
+all the rules of common sense on a CD). Now AI researchers are giving 
+the “bottom-up approach” a second look. This approach tries to follow 
+Mother Nature, which has created intelligent beings (us) via evolution, 
+starting with simple animals like worms and fish and then creating more 
+complex ones. Neural networks must learn the hard way, by bumping 
+into things and making mistakes. 
+
+Dr. Rodney Brooks, former director of the famed MIT Artificial 
+Intelligence Laboratory, and cofounder of iRobot, which makes those 
+mechanical vacuum cleaners found in many living rooms, introduced an 
+entirely new approach to AI. Instead of designing big, clumsy robots,"
+"why not build small, compact, insectlike robots that have to learn how 
+to walk, just as in nature?When I interviewed him, he told me that he 
+used to marvel at the mosquito, which had a nearly microscopic brain 
+with very few neurons, yet was able to maneuver in space better than 
+
+any robot airplane. He built a series of remarkably simple robots, 
+affectionately called “insectoids” or “bugbots,” which scurried around 
+the floors of MIT and could run circles around the more traditional 
+robots. The goal was to create robots that follow the trial-and-error 
+method of Mother Nature. In other words, these robots learn by bumping 
+into things. 
+
+(At first, it may seem that this requires a lot of programming. The 
+irony, however, is that neural networks require no programming at all. 
+The only thing that the neural network does is rewire itself, by changing 
+the strength of certain pathways each time it makes a right decision. So 
+programming is nothing; changing the network is everything.)"
+"Science-fiction writers once envisioned that robots on Mars would be 
+sophisticated humanoids, walking and moving just like us, with complex 
+programming that gave them human intelligence. The opposite has 
+happened. Today the grandchildren of this approach—like the Mars 
+Curiosity rover—are now roaming over the surface of Mars. They are not 
+programmed to walk like a human. Instead, they have the intelligence of 
+a bug, but they do quite fine in this terrain. These Mars rovers have 
+relatively little programming; instead, they learn as they bump into 
+obstacles. 
+
+ARE ROBOTS CONSCIOUS?"
+"ARE ROBOTS CONSCIOUS? 
+
+Perhaps the clearest way to see why true robot automatons do not yet 
+exist is to rank their level of consciousness. As we have seen in Chapter 
+2, we can rank consciousness in four levels. Level 0 consciousness 
+describes thermostats and plants; that is, it involves a few feedback loops 
+in a handful of simple parameters such as temperature or sunlight. Level 
+I consciousness describes insects and reptiles, which are mobile and have 
+a central nervous system; it involves creating a model of your world in 
+relationship to a new parameter, space. Then we have Level II 
+consciousness, which creates a model of the world in relationship to 
+
+others of its kind, requiring emotions. Finally we have Level III 
+consciousness, which describes humans, who incorporate time and self- 
+awareness to simulate how things will evolve in the future and 
+determine our own place in these models."
+"We can use this theory to rank the robots of today. The first 
+generation of robots were at Level 0, since they were static, without 
+wheels or treads. Today’s robots are at Level I, since they are mobile, but 
+they are at a very low echelon because they have tremendous difficulty 
+navigating in the real world. Their consciousness can be compared to 
+that of a worm or slow insect. To fully produce Level I consciousness, 
+
+scientists will have to create robots that can realistically duplicate the 
+consciousness of insects and reptiles. Even insects have abilities that 
+current robots do not have, such as rapidly finding hiding places, 
+locating mates in the forest, recognizing and evading predators, or 
+finding food and shelter."
+"As we mentioned earlier, we can numerically rank consciousness by 
+the number of feedback loops at each level. Robots that can see, for 
+example, may have several feedback loops because they have visual 
+sensors that can detect shadows, edges, curves, geometric shapes, etc., in 
+three-dimensional space. Similarly, robots that can hear require sensors 
+that can detect frequency, intensity, stress, pauses, etc. The total number 
+of these feedback loops may total ten or so (while an insect, because it 
+can forage in the wild, find mates, locate shelter, etc., may have fifty or 
+more feedback loops). A typical robot, therefore, may have Level 1:10 
+consciousness."
+"Robots will have to be able to create a model of the world in relation 
+to others if they are to enter Level II consciousness. As we mentioned 
+before, Level II consciousness, to a first approximation, is computed by 
+multiplying the number of members of its group times the number of 
+emotions and gestures that are used to communicate between them. 
+Robots would thus have a consciousness of Level 11:0. But hopefully, the 
+emotional robots being built in labs today may soon raise that number. 
+
+Current robots view humans as simply a collection of pixels moving on 
+their TV sensors, but some AI researchers are beginning to create robots 
+that can recognize emotions in our facial expressions and tone of voice. 
+This is a first step toward robots’ realizing that humans are more than 
+just random pixels, and that they have emotional states."
+"In the next few decades, robots will gradually rise in Level II 
+consciousness, becoming as intelligent as a mouse, rat, rabbit, and then a 
+cat. Perhaps late in this century, they will be as intelligent as a monkey, 
+and will begin to create goals of their own. 
+
+Once robots have a working knowledge of common sense and the 
+Theory of Mind, they will be able to run complex simulations into the 
+future featuring themselves as the principal actors and thus enter Level 
+III consciousness. They will leave the world of the present and enter the 
+world of the future. This is many decades beyond the capability of any 
+robot today. Running simulations of the future means that you have a 
+firm grasp of the laws of nature, causality, and common sense, so that 
+you can anticipate future events. It also means that you understand 
+human intentions and motivations, so you can predict their future 
+behavior as well."
+"The numerical value of Level III consciousness, as we mentioned, is 
+calculated by the total number of causal links one can make in 
+simulating the future in a variety of real-life situations, divided by the 
+average value of a control group. Computers today are able to make 
+limited simulations in a few parameters (e.g., the collision of two 
+galaxies, the flow of air around an airplane, the shaking of buildings in 
+an earthquake), but they are totally unprepared to simulate the future in 
+complex, real-life situations, so their level of consciousness would be 
+something like Level III: 5. 
+
+As we can see, it may take many decades of hard work before we have 
+a robot that can function normally in human society. 
+
+SPEED BUMPS ON THE WAY"
+"SPEED BUMPS ON THE WAY 
+
+So when might robots finally match and exceed humans in intelligence? 
+No one knows, but there have been many predictions. Most of them rely 
+on Moore’s law extending decades into the future. However, Moore’s law 
+is not a law at all, and in fact it ultimately violates a fundamental 
+physical law: the quantum theory. 
+
+As such, Moore’s law cannot last forever. In fact, we can already see it 
+slowing down now. It might flatten out by the end of this or the next 
+decade, and the consequences could be dire, especially for Silicon Valley."
+"The problem is simple. Right now, you can place hundreds of millions 
+of silicon transistors on a chip the size of your fingernail, but there is a 
+limit to how much you can cram onto these chips. Today the smallest 
+layer of silicon in your Pentium chip is about twenty atoms in width, 
+and by 2020 that layer might be five atoms across. But then Heisenberg’s 
+uncertainty principle kicks in, and you wouldn’t be able to determine 
+precisely where the electron is and it could “leak out” of the wire. (See 
+the Appendix, where we discuss the quantum theory and the uncertainty 
+principle in more detail.) The chip would short-circuit. In addition, it 
+would generate enough heat to fry an egg on it. So leakage and heat will 
+eventually doom Moore’s law, and a replacement will soon be necessary."
+"If packing transistors on flat chips is maxing out in computing power, 
+Intel is making a multibillion-dollar bet that chips will rise into the third 
+dimension. Time will tell if this gamble pays off (one major problem 
+with 3-D chips is that the heat generated rises rapidly with the height of 
+the chip). 
+
+Microsoft is looking into other options, such as expanding into 2-D 
+with parallel processing. One possibility is to spread chips horizontally 
+
+in a row. Then you break up a software problem into pieces, sort out 
+each piece on a small chip, and reassemble it at the end. However, it 
+may be a difficult process, and software grows at a much slower pace 
+than the supercharged exponential rate we are accustomed to with 
+Moore’s law."
+"These stopgap measures may add years to Moore’s law. But eventually, 
+all this must pass, too: the quantum theory inevitably takes over. This 
+means that physicists are experimenting with a wide variety of 
+alternatives after the Age of Silicon draws to a close, such as quantum 
+computers, molecular computers, nanocomputers, DNA computers, 
+optical computers, etc. None of these technologies, however, is ready for 
+prime time. 
+
+THE UNCANNY VALLEY 
+
+But assume for the moment that one day we will coexist with incredibly 
+sophisticated robots, perhaps using chips with molecular transistors 
+instead of silicon. How closely do we want our robots to look like us?"
+"Japan is the world’s leader in creating robots that resemble cuddly pets 
+and children, but their designers are careful not to make their robots 
+appear too human, which can be unnerving. This phenomenon was first 
+studied by Dr. Masahiro Mori in Japan in 1970, and is called the 
+“uncanny valley.” It posits that robots look creepy if they look too much 
+like humans. (The effect was actually first mentioned by Darwin in 1839 
+in The Voyage of the Beagle and again by Freud in 1919 in an essay titled 
+“The Uncanny.”) Since then, it has been studied very carefully not just 
+by AI researchers but also by animators, advertisers, and anyone 
+promoting a product involving humanlike figures. For instance, in a 
+review of the movie The Polar Express, a CNN writer noted, “Those 
+human characters in the film come across as downright ... well, creepy. 
+So The Polar Express is at best disconcerting, and at worst, a wee bit 
+horrifying.”"
+"According to Dr. Mori, the more a robot looks like a human, the more 
+we feel empathy toward it, but only up to a point. There is a dip in 
+empathy as the robot approaches actual human appearance—hence the 
+uncanny valley. If the robot looks very similar to us save for a few 
+features that are “uncanny,” it creates a feeling of revulsion and fear. If 
+the robot appears 100 percent human, indistinguishable from you and 
+me, then we’ll register positive emotions again. 
+
+This has practical implications. For example, should robots smile? At 
+first, it seems obvious that robots should smile to greet people and make"
+"them feel comfortable. Smiling is a universal gesture that signals warmth 
+and welcome. But if the robot smile is too realistic, it makes people’s 
+skin crawl. (For example, Halloween masks often feature fiendish- 
+looking ghouls that are grinning.) So robots should smile only if they are 
+childlike (i.e., with big eyes and a round face) or are perfectly human, 
+and nothing in between. (When we force a smile, we activate facial 
+muscles with our prefrontal cortex. But when we smile because we are in 
+a good mood, our nerves are controlled by our limbic system, which 
+activates a slightly different set of muscles. Our brains can tell the subtle 
+difference between the two, which was beneficial for our evolution.) 
+
+This effect can also be studied using brain scans. Let’s say that a 
+subject is placed into an MRI machine and is shown a picture of a robot 
+that looks perfectly human, except that its bodily motions are slightly 
+jerky and mechanical. The brain, whenever it sees anything, tries to"
+"predict that object’s motion into the future. So when looking at a robot 
+that appears to be human, the brain predicts that it will move like a 
+human. But when the robot moves like a machine, there is a mismatch, 
+which makes us uncomfortable. In particular, the parietal lobe lights up 
+(specifically, the part of the lobe where the motor cortex connects with 
+the visual cortex). It is believed that mirror neurons exist in this area of 
+the parietal lobe. This makes sense, because the visual cortex picks up 
+the image of the humanlike robot, and its motions are predicted via the 
+motor cortex and by mirror neurons. Finally, it is likely that the 
+orbitofrontal cortex, located right behind the eyes, puts everything 
+together and says, “Hmmm, something is not quite right.”"
+"Hollywood filmmakers are aware of this effect. When spending 
+millions on making a horror movie, they realize that the scariest scene is 
+not when a gigantic blob or Frankenstein’s monster pounces out of the 
+bushes. The scariest scene is when there is a perversion of the ordinary. 
+Think of the movie The Exorcist What scene made moviegoers vomit as 
+they ran to escape the theater or faint right in their seats? Was it the 
+scene when a demon appears? No. Theaters across the world erupted in 
+shrill screams and loud sobs when Linda Blair turned her head 
+completely around."
+"This effect can also be demonstrated in young monkeys. If you show 
+them pictures of Dracula or Frankenstein, they simply laugh and rip the 
+pictures apart. But what sends these young monkeys screaming in terror 
+is a picture of a decapitated monkey. Once again, it is the perversion of 
+the ordinary that elicits the greatest fear. (In Chapter 2, we mentioned 
+that the space-time theory of consciousness explains the nature of 
+humor, since the brain simulates the future of a joke, and then is 
+surprised to hear the punch line. This also explains the nature of horror. 
+The brain simulates the future of an ordinary, mundane event, but then 
+
+is shocked when things suddenly become horribly perverted.) 
+
+For this reason, robots will continue to look somewhat childlike in 
+appearance, even as they approach human intelligence. Only when 
+robots can act realistically like humans will their designers make them 
+look fully human. 
+
+SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+As we’ve seen, human consciousness is an imperfect patchwork of 
+different abilities developed over millions of years of evolution. Given 
+information about their physical and social world, robots may be able to 
+create simulations similar (or in some respects, even superior) to ours, 
+but silicon consciousness might differ from ours in two key areas: 
+emotions and goals. 
+
+Historically, AI researchers ignored the problem of emotions, 
+considering it a secondary issue. The goal was to create a robot that was 
+logical and rational, not scatterbrained and impulsive. Hence, the 
+science fiction of the 1950s and ’60s stressed robots (and humanoids like 
+Spock on Star Trek ) that had perfect, logical brains."
+"We saw with the uncanny valley that robots will have to look a certain 
+way if they’re to enter our homes, but some people argue that robots 
+must also have emotions so that we can bond with, take care of, and 
+interact productively with them. In other words, robots will need Level II 
+consciousness. To accomplish this, robots will first have to recognize the 
+full spectrum of human emotions. By analyzing subtle facial movements 
+of the eyebrows, eyelids, lips, cheeks, etc., a robot will be able to 
+identify the emotional state of a human, such as its owner. One 
+institution that has excelled in creating robots that recognize and mimic 
+emotion is the MIT Media Laboratory. I have had the pleasure of visiting 
+the laboratory, outside Boston, on several occasions, and it is like 
+visiting a toy factory for grown-ups. Everywhere you look, you see 
+futuristic, high-tech devices designed to make our lives more interesting, 
+enjoyable, and convenient."
+"As I looked around the room, I saw many of the high-tech graphics 
+that eventually found their way into Hollywood movies like Minority 
+Report and AI. As I wandered through this playground of the future, I 
+came across two intriguing robots, Huggable and Nexi. Their creator, Dr. 
+Cynthia Breazeal, explained to me that these robots have specific goals. 
+Huggable is a cute teddy bear-like robot that can bond with children. It 
+can identify the emotions of children; it has video cameras for eyes, a 
+speaker for its mouth, and sensors in its skin (so it can tell when it is 
+being tickled, poked, or hugged). Eventually, a robot like this might 
+become a tutor, babysitter, nurse’s aide, or a playmate. 
+
+Nexi, on the other hand, can bond with adults. It looks a little like the 
+Pillsbury Doughboy. It has a round, puffy, friendly face, with large eyes"
+"that can roll around. It has already been tested in a nursing home, and 
+the elderly patients all loved it. Once the seniors got accustomed to Nexi, 
+they would kiss it, talk to it, and miss it when it had to leave. (See 
+Figure 12.) 
+
+Dr. Breazeal told me she designed Huggable and Nexi because she was 
+not satisfied with earlier robots, which looked like tin cans full of wires, 
+gears, and motors. In order to design a robot that could interact 
+emotionally with people, she needed to figure out how she could get it 
+to perform and bond like us. Plus, she wanted robots that weren’t stuck 
+on a laboratory shelf but could venture out into the real world. The 
+former director of MIT’s Media Lab, Dr. Frank Moss, says, “That is why 
+Breazeal decided in 2004 that it was time to create a new generation of 
+social robots that could live anywhere: homes, schools, hospitals, elder 
+care facilities, and so on.”"
+"At Waseda University in Japan, scientists are working on a robot that 
+has upper-body motions representing emotions (fear, anger, surprise, 
+joy, disgust, sadness) and can hear, smell, see, and touch. It has been 
+programmed to carry out simple goals, such as satisfying its hunger for 
+energy and avoiding dangerous situations. Their goal is to integrate the 
+senses with the emotions, so that the robot acts appropriately in 
+different situations. 
+
+Figure 12. Huggable (top) and Nexi (bottom), two robots built at the MIT Media Laboratory that were 
+explicitly designed 
+
+to interact with humans via emotions, (illustration credit 10.1) 
+
+(illustration credit 10.2) 
+
+Not to be outdone, the European Commission is funding an ongoing 
+project, called Feelix Growing, which seeks to promote artificial 
+intelligence in the UK, France, Switzerland, Greece, and Denmark. 
+
+EMOTIONAL ROBOTS 
+
+Meet Nao."
+"EMOTIONAL ROBOTS 
+
+Meet Nao. 
+
+When he’s happy, he will stretch out his arms to greet you, wanting a 
+big hug. When he’s sad, he turns his head downward and appears 
+forlorn, with his shoulders hunched forward. When he’s scared, he 
+cowers in fear, until someone pats him reassuringly on the head. 
+
+He’s just like a one-year-old boy, except that he’s a robot. Nao is about 
+one and a half feet tall, and looks very much like some of the robots you 
+see in a toy store, like the Tranformers, except he’s one of the most 
+advanced emotional robots on earth. He was built by scientists at the 
+
+UK’s University of Hertfordshire, whose research was funded by the 
+European Union. 
+
+His creators have programmed him to show emotions like happiness, 
+sadness, fear, excitement, and pride. While other robots have 
+rudimentary facial and verbal gestures that communicate their emotions, 
+Nao excels in body language, such as posture and gesture. Nao even 
+dances."
+"Unlike other robots, which specialize in mastering just one area of the 
+emotions, Nao has mastered a wide range of emotional responses. First, 
+Nao locks onto visitors’ faces, identifies them, and remembers his 
+previous interactions with each of them. Second, he begins to follow 
+their movements. For example, he can follow their gaze and tell what 
+they are looking at. Third, he begins to bond with them and learns to 
+respond to their gestures. For example, if you smile at him, or pat him 
+on his head, he knows that this is a positive sign. Because his brain has 
+neural networks, he learns from interactions with humans. Fourth, Nao 
+exhibits emotions in response to his interactions with people. (His 
+emotional responses are all preprogrammed, like a tape recorder, but he 
+decides which emotion to choose to fit the situation.) And lastly, the 
+more Nao interacts with a human, the better he gets at understanding 
+the moods of that person and the stronger the bond becomes."
+"Not only does Nao have a personality, he can actually have several of 
+them. Because he learns from his interactions with humans and each 
+interaction is unique, eventually different personalities begin to emerge. 
+For example, one personality might be quite independent, not requiring 
+much human guidance. Another personality might be timid and fearful, 
+scared of objects in a room, constantly requiring human intervention. 
+
+The project leader for Nao is Dr. Lola Canamero, a computer scientist 
+at the University of Hertfordshire. To start this ambitious project, she 
+analyzed the interactions of chimpanzees. Her goal was to reproduce, as 
+closely as she could, the emotional behavior of a one-year-old 
+
+chimpanzee."
+"chimpanzee. 
+
+She sees immediate applications for these emotional robots. Like Dr. 
+Breazeal, she wants to use these robots to relieve the anxiety of young 
+children who are in hospitals. She says, “We want to explore different 
+roles—the robots will help the children to understand their treatment, 
+explain what they have to do. We want to help the children to control 
+
+their anxiety.” 
+
+Another possibility is that the robots will become companions at 
+nursing homes. Nao could become a valuable addition to the staff of a 
+hospital. At some point, robots like these might become playmates to 
+children and a part of the family."
+"“It’s hard to predict the future, but it won’t be too long before the 
+computer in front of you will be a social robot. You’ll be able to talk to 
+it, flirt with it, or even get angry and yell at it—and it will understand 
+you and your emotions,” says Dr. Terrence Sejnowski of the Salk 
+Institute, near San Diego. This is the easy part. The hard part is to gauge 
+the response of the robot, given this information. If the owner is angry 
+or displeased, the robot has to be able to factor this into its response. 
+
+EMOTIONS: DETERMINING WHAT IS IMPORTANT"
+"EMOTIONS: DETERMINING WHAT IS IMPORTANT 
+
+What’s more, AI researchers have begun to realize that emotions may be 
+a key to consciousness. Neuroscientists like Dr. Antonio Damasio have 
+found that when the link between the prefrontal lobe (which governs 
+rational thought) and the emotional centers (e.g., the limbic system) is 
+damaged, patients cannot make value judgments. They are paralyzed 
+when making the simplest of decisions (what things to buy, when to set 
+an appointment, which color pen to use) because everything has the 
+same value to them. Hence, emotions are not a luxury; they are 
+absolutely essential, and without them a robot will have difficulty 
+determining what is important and what is not. So emotions, instead of 
+being peripheral to the progress of artificial intelligence, are now 
+assuming central importance."
+"If a robot encounters a raging fire, it might rescue the computer files 
+first, not the people, since its programming might say that valuable 
+documents cannot be replaced but workers always can be. It is crucial 
+that robots be programmed to distinguish between what is important 
+and what is not, and emotions are shortcuts the brain uses to rapidly 
+determine this. Robots would thus have to be programmed to have a 
+value system—that human life is more important than material objects, 
+
+that children should be rescued first in an emergency, that objects with a 
+higher price are more valuable than objects with a lower price, etc. Since 
+
+robots do not come equipped with values, a huge list of value judgments 
+must be uploaded into them."
+"The problem with emotions, however, is that they are sometimes 
+irrational, while robots are mathematically precise. So silicon 
+consciousness may differ from human consciousness in key ways. For 
+example, humans have little control over emotions, since they happen so 
+rapidly and because they originate in the limbic system, not the 
+prefrontal cortex of the brain. Furthermore, our emotions are often 
+biased. Numerous tests have shown that we tend to overestimate the 
+abilities of people who are handsome or pretty. Good-looking people 
+tend to rise higher in society and have better jobs, although they may 
+not be as talented as others. As the expression goes, “Beauty has its 
+privileges.”"
+"Similarly, silicon consciousness may not take into account subtle cues 
+that humans use when they meet one another, such as body language. 
+When people enter a room, young people usually defer to older ones and 
+low-ranked staff members show extra courtesy to senior officials. We 
+show our deference in the way we move our bodies, our choice of words, 
+and our gestures. Because body language is older than language itself, it 
+is hardwired into the brain in subtle ways. Robots, if they are to interact 
+socially with people, will have to learn these unconscious cues. 
+
+Our consciousness is influenced by peculiarities in our evolutionary 
+past, which robots will not have, so silicon consciousness may not have 
+the same gaps or quirks as ours. 
+
+A MENU OF EMOTIONS 
+
+Since emotions have to be programmed into robots from the outside, 
+manufacturers may offer a menu of emotions carefully chosen on the 
+basis of whether they are necessary, useful, or will increase bonding 
+with the owner."
+"In all likelihood, robots will be programmed to have only a few 
+human emotions, depending on the situation. Perhaps the emotion most 
+valued by the robot’s owner will be loyalty. One wants a robot that 
+faithfully carries out its commands without complaints, that understands 
+the needs of the master and anticipates them. The last thing an owner 
+
+will want is a robot with an attitude, one that talks back, criticizes 
+people, and whines. Helpful criticisms are important, but they must be 
+made in a constructive, tactful way. Also, if humans give it conflicting 
+commands, the robot should know to ignore all of them except those 
+coming from its owner. 
+
+Empathy will be another emotion that will be valued by the owner. 
+Robots that have empathy will understand the problems of others and 
+will come to their aid. By interpreting facial movements and listening to 
+tone of voice, robots will be able to identify when a person is in distress 
+and will provide assistance when possible."
+"Strangely, fear is another emotion that is desirable. Evolution gave us 
+the feeling of fear for a reason, to avoid certain things that are 
+dangerous to us. Even though robots will be made of steel, they should 
+fear certain things that can damage them, like falling off tall buildings or 
+entering a raging fire. A totally fearless robot is a useless one if it 
+destroys itself. 
+
+But certain emotions may have to be deleted, forbidden, or highly 
+regulated, such as anger. Given that robots could be built to have great 
+physical strength, an angry robot could create tremendous problems in 
+the home and workplace. Anger could get in the way of its duties and 
+cause great damage to property. (The original evolutionary purpose of 
+anger was to show our dissatisfaction. This can be done in a rational, 
+dispassionate way, without getting angry.)"
+"Another emotion that should be deleted is the desire to be in 
+command. A bossy robot will only make trouble and might challenge the 
+judgment and wishes of the owner. (This point will also be important 
+later, when we discuss whether robots will one day take over from 
+humans.) Hence the robot will have to defer to the wishes of the owner, 
+even if this may not be the best path. 
+
+But perhaps the most difficult emotion to convey is humor, which is a 
+glue that can bond total strangers together. A simple joke can defuse a 
+tense situation or inflame it. The basic mechanics of humor are simple: 
+they involve a punch line that is unanticipated. But the subtleties of 
+humor can be enormous. In fact, we often size up other people on the 
+basis of how they react to certain jokes. If humans use humor as a gauge 
+to measure other humans, then one can appreciate the difficulty of 
+creating a robot that can tell if a joke is funny or not. President Ronald"
+"Reagan, for example, was famous for defusing the most difficult 
+questions with a quip. In fact, he accumulated a large card catalog of 
+jokes, barbs, and wisecracks, because he understood the power of 
+
+humor. (Some pundits concluded that he won the presidential debate 
+against Walter Mondale when he was asked if he was too old to be 
+president. Reagan replied that he would not hold the youth of his 
+opponent against him.) Also, laughing inappropriately could have 
+disastrous consequences (and is, in fact, sometimes a sign of mental 
+illness). The robot has to know the difference between laughing with or 
+at someone. (Actors are well aware of the diverse nature of laughter. 
+They are skilled enough to create laughter that can represent horror, 
+cynicism, joy, anger, sadness, etc.) So, at least until the theory of 
+artificial intelligence becomes more developed, robots should stay away 
+from humor and laughter. 
+
+PROGRAMMING EMOTIONS"
+"PROGRAMMING EMOTIONS 
+
+In this discussion we have so far avoided the difficult question of 
+precisely how these emotions would be programmed into a computer. 
+Because of their complexity, emotions will probably have to be 
+programmed in stages. 
+
+First, the easiest part is identifying an emotion by analyzing the 
+gestures in a person’s face, lips, eyebrows, and tone of voice. Today’s 
+facial recognition technology is already capable of creating a dictionary 
+of emotions, so that certain facial expressions mean certain things. This 
+process actually goes back to Charles Darwin, who spent a considerable 
+amount of time cataloging emotions common to animals and humans. 
+
+Second, the robot must respond rapidly to this emotion. This is also 
+easy. If someone is laughing, the robot will grin. If someone is angry, the 
+robot will get out of his way and avoid conflict. The robot would have a 
+large encyclopedia of emotions programmed into it, and hence would 
+know how to make a rapid response to each one."
+"The third stage is perhaps the most complex because it involves trying 
+to determine the underlying motivation behind the original emotion. 
+This is difficult, since a variety of situations can trigger a single emotion. 
+Laughter may mean that someone is happy, heard a joke, or watched 
+
+someone fall. Or it might mean that a person is nervous, anxious, or 
+insulting someone. Likewise, if someone is screaming, there may be an 
+emergency, or perhaps someone is just reacting with joy and surprise. 
+Determining the reason behind an emotion is a skill that even humans 
+have difficulty with. To do this, the robot will have to list the various 
+possible reasons behind an emotion and try to determine the reason that 
+makes the most sense. This means trying to find a reason behind the 
+emotion that fits the data best."
+"And fourth, once the robot has determined the origin of this emotion, 
+it has to make the appropriate response. This is also difficult, since there 
+are often several possible responses, and the wrong one may make the 
+situation worse. The robot already has, within its programming, a list of 
+possible responses to the original emotion. It has to calculate which one 
+will best serve the situation, which means simulating the future. 
+
+WILL ROBOTS LIE? 
+
+Normally, we might think of robots as being coldly analytical and 
+rational, always telling the truth. But once robots become integrated into 
+society, they will probably have to learn to lie or at least tactfully 
+restrain their comments."
+"In our own lives, several times in a typical day we are confronted with 
+situations where we have to tell a white lie. If people ask us how they 
+look, we often dare not tell the truth. White lies, in fact, are like a grease 
+that makes society run smoothly. If we were suddenly forced to tell the 
+whole truth (like Jim Carrey in Liar Liar), we most likely would wind up 
+creating chaos and hurting people. People would be insulted if you told 
+them what they really looked like or how you really felt. Bosses would 
+fire you. Lovers would dump you. Friends would abandon you. Strangers 
+would slap you. Some thoughts are better kept confidential."
+"In the same way, robots may have to learn how to lie or conceal the 
+truth, or else they might wind up offending people and being 
+decommissioned by their owners. At a party, if a robot tells the truth, it 
+could reflect badly on its owner and create an uproar. So if someone asks 
+for its opinion, it will have to learn how to be evasive, diplomatic, and 
+tactful. It must either dodge the question, change the subject, give 
+
+platitudes for answers, reply with a question, or tell white lies (all things 
+that today’s chat-bots are increasingly good at). This means that the 
+robot has already been programmed to have a list of possible evasive 
+responses, and must choose the one that creates the fewest 
+complications."
+"One of the few times that a robot would tell the entire truth would be 
+if asked a direct question by its owner, who understands that the answer 
+might be brutally honest. Perhaps the only other time when the robot 
+will tell the truth is when there is a police investigation and the absolute 
+truth is necessary. Other than that, robots will be able to freely lie or 
+conceal the whole truth to keep the wheels of society functioning. 
+
+In other words, robots have to be socialized, just like teenagers. 
+
+CAN ROBOTS FEEL PAIN? 
+
+Robots, in general, will be assigned to do types of tasks that are dull, 
+dirty, and dangerous. There is no reason why robots can’t do repetitive 
+or dirty jobs indefinitely, since we wouldn’t program them to feel 
+boredom or disgust. The real problem emerges when robots are faced 
+with dangerous jobs. At that point, we might actually want to program 
+them to feel pain."
+"We evolved the sense of pain because it helped us survive in a 
+dangerous environment. There is a genetic defect in which children are 
+born without the ability to feel pain. This is called congenital analgesia. 
+At first glance, this may seem to be a blessing, since these children do 
+not cry when they experience injury, but it is actually more of a curse. 
+Children with this affliction have serious problems, such as biting off 
+parts of their tongue, suffering severe skin burns, and cutting 
+themselves, often leading to amputations of their fingers. Pain alerts us 
+to danger, telling us when to move our hand away from the burning 
+stove or to stop running on a twisted ankle."
+"At some point robots must be programmed to feel pain, or else they 
+will not know when to avoid precarious situations. The first sense of 
+pain they must have is hunger (i.e., a craving for electrical energy). As 
+their batteries run out, they will get more desperate and urgent, 
+realizing that soon their circuits will shut down, leaving all their work in 
+
+disarray. The closer they are to running out of power, the more anxious 
+they will become. 
+
+Also, regardless of how strong they are, robots may accidentally pick 
+up an object that is too heavy, which could cause their limbs to break. 
+Or they may suffer overheating by working with molten metal in a steel 
+factory, or by entering a burning building to help firemen. Sensors for 
+temperature and stress would alert them that their design specifications 
+are being exceeded."
+"But once the sensation of pain is added to their menu of emotions, this 
+immediately raises ethical issues. Many people believe that we should 
+not inflict unnecessary pain on animals, and people may feel the same 
+about robots as well. This opens the door to robots’ rights. Laws may 
+have to be passed to restrict the amount of pain and danger that a robot 
+is allowed to face. People will not care if a robot is performing dull or 
+dirty tasks, but if they feel pain doing a dangerous one, they may begin 
+
+to lobby for laws to protect robots. This may even start a legal conflict, 
+with owners and manufacturers of robots arguing for increasing the level 
+of pain that robots can endure, while ethicists may argue for lowering it."
+"This, in turn, may set off other ethical debates about other robot 
+rights. Can robots own property? What happens if they accidentally hurt 
+someone? Can they be sued or punished? Who is responsible in a 
+lawsuit? Can a robot own another robot? This discussion raises another 
+sticky question: Should robots be given a sense of ethics? 
+
+ETHICAL ROBOTS 
+
+At first, the idea of ethical robots seems like a waste of time and effort. 
+However, this question takes on a sense of urgency when we realize that 
+robots will make life-and-death decisions. Since they will be physically 
+strong and have the capability of saving lives, they will have to make 
+split-second ethical choices about whom to save first."
+"Let’s say there is a catastrophic earthquake and children are trapped in 
+a rapidly crumbling building. How should the robot allocate its energy? 
+Should it try to save the largest number of children? Or the youngest? Or 
+the most vulnerable? If the debris is too heavy, the robot may damage its 
+electronics. So the robot has to decide yet another ethical question: How 
+
+does it weigh the number of children it saves versus the amount of 
+damage that it will sustain to its electronics? 
+
+Without proper programming, the robot may simply halt, waiting for a 
+human to make the final decision, wasting valuable time. So someone 
+will have to program it ahead of time so that the robot automatically 
+makes the “right” decision."
+"These ethical decisions will have to be preprogrammed into the 
+computer from the start, since there is no law of mathematics that can 
+put a value on saving a group of children. Within its programming, there 
+has to be a long list of things, ranked in terms of how important they 
+are. This is tedious business. In fact, it sometimes takes a human a 
+lifetime to learn these ethical lessons, but a robot has to learn them 
+rapidly, before it leaves the factory, if it is to safely enter society. 
+
+Only people can do this, and even then ethical dilemmas sometimes 
+confound us. But this raises questions: Who will make the decisions? 
+Who decides the order in which robots save human lives? 
+
+The question of how decisions will ultimately be made will probably"
+"The question of how decisions will ultimately be made will probably 
+
+be resolved via a combination of the law and the marketplace. Laws will 
+have to be passed so that there is, at minimum, a ranking of importance 
+of whom to save in an emergency. But beyond that, there are thousands 
+of finer ethical questions. These subtler decisions may be decided by the 
+marketplace and common sense. 
+
+If you work for a security firm guarding important people, you will 
+have to tell the robot how to save people in a precise order in different 
+situations, based on considerations such as fulfilling the primary duty 
+but also doing it within budget."
+"What happens if a criminal buys a robot and wants the robot to 
+commit a crime? This raises a question: Should a robot be allowed to 
+defy its owner if it is asked to break the law? We saw from the previous 
+example that robots must be programmed to understand the law and 
+also make ethical decisions. So if it decides that it is being asked to 
+break the law, it must be allowed to disobey its master. 
+
+There is also the ethical dilemma posed by robots reflecting the beliefs 
+of their owners, who may have diverging morals and social norms. The 
+“culture wars” that we see in society today will only be magnified when 
+we have robots that reflect the opinions and beliefs of their owners. In 
+some sense, this conflict is inevitable. Robots are mechanical extensions 
+
+of the dreams and wishes of their creators, and when robots are 
+sophisticated enough to make moral decisions, they will do so."
+"The fault lines of society may be stressed when robots begin to exhibit 
+behaviors that challenge our values and goals. Robots owned by youth 
+leaving a noisy, raucus rock concert may conflict with robots owned by 
+elderly residents of a quiet neighborhood. The first set of robots may be 
+programmed to amplify the sounds of the latest bands, while the second 
+set may be programmed to keep noise levels to an absolute minimum. 
+Robots owned by devout, churchgoing fundamentalists may get into 
+arguments with robots owned by atheists. Robots from different nations 
+and cultures may be designed to reflect the mores of their society, which 
+may clash (even for humans, let alone robots). 
+
+So how does one program robots to eliminate these conflicts?"
+"So how does one program robots to eliminate these conflicts? 
+
+You can’t. Robots will simply reflect the biases and prejudices of their 
+creators. Ultimately, the cultural and ethical differences between these 
+robots will have to be settled in the courts. There is no law of physics or 
+science that determines these moral questions, so eventually laws will 
+have to be written to handle these social conflicts. Robots cannot solve 
+the moral dilemmas created by humans. In fact, robots may amplify 
+them. 
+
+But if robots can make ethical and legal decisions, can they also feel 
+and understand sensations? If they succeed in saving someone, can they 
+experience joy? Or can they even feel things like the color red? Coldly 
+analyzing the ethics of whom to save is one thing, but understanding 
+and feeling is another. So can robots feel? 
+
+CAN ROBOTS UNDERSTAND OR FEEL?"
+"CAN ROBOTS UNDERSTAND OR FEEL? 
+
+Over the centuries, a great many theories have been advanced about 
+whether a machine can think and feel. My own philosophy is called 
+“constructivism”; that is, instead of endlessly debating the question, 
+which is pointless, we should be devoting our energy to creating an 
+automaton to see how far we can get. Otherwise we wind up in endless 
+philosophical debates that are never ultimately resolved. The advantage 
+of science is that, once everything is said and done, one can perform 
+experiments to settle a question decisively."
+"Thus, to settle the question of whether a robot can think, the final 
+resolution may be to build one. Some, however, have argued that 
+machines will never be able to think like a human. Their strongest 
+argument is that, although a robot can manipulate facts faster than a 
+human, it does not “understand” what it is manipulating. Although it 
+can process senses (e.g., color, sound) better than a human, it cannot 
+truly “feel” or “experience” the essence of these senses. 
+
+For example, philosopher David Chalmers has divided the problems of 
+AI into two categories, the Easy Problems and the Hard Problems. To 
+him, the Easy Problems are creating machines that can mimic more and 
+more human abilities, such as playing chess, adding numbers, 
+recognizing certain patterns, etc. The Hard Problems involve creating 
+machines that can understand feelings and subjective sensations, which 
+are called “qualia.”"
+"Just as it is impossible to teach the meaning of the color red to a blind 
+person, a robot will never be able to experience the subjective sensation 
+of the color red, they say. Or a computer might be able to translate 
+Chinese words into English with great fluency, but it will never be able 
+to understand what it is translating. In this picture, robots are like 
+glorified tape recorders or adding machines, able to recite and 
+manipulate information with incredible precision, but without any 
+understanding whatsoever. 
+
+These arguments have to be taken seriously, but there is also another 
+way of looking at the question of qualia and subjective experience. In"
+"the future, a machine most likely will be able to process a sensation, 
+such as the color red, much better than any human. It will be able to 
+describe the physical properties of red and even use it poetically in a 
+sentence better than a human. Does the robot “feel” the color red? The 
+point becomes irrelevant, since the word “feel” is not well defined. At 
+some point, a robot’s description of the color red may exceed a human’s, 
+and the robot may rightly ask: Do humans really understand the color 
+red? Perhaps humans cannot really understand the color red with all the 
+nuances and subtly that a robot can. 
+
+As behaviorist B. F. Skinner once said, “The real problem is not 
+whether machines think, but whether men do.” 
+
+Similarly, it is only a matter of time before a robot will be able to 
+define Chinese words and use them in context much better than any"
+"human. At that point, it becomes irrelevant whether the robot 
+“understands” the Chinese language. For all practical purposes, the 
+computer will know the Chinese language better than any human. In 
+other words, the word “understand” is not well defined. 
+
+One day, as robots surpass our ability to manipulate these words and 
+sensations, it will become irrelevant whether the robot “understands” or 
+“feels” them. The question will cease to have any importance. 
+
+As mathematician John von Neumann said, “In mathematics, you 
+don’t understand things. You just get used to them.” 
+
+So the problem lies not in the hardware but in the nature of human 
+language, in which words that are not well defined mean different things 
+to different people. The great quantum physicist Niels Bohr was once 
+asked how one could understand the deep paradoxes of the quantum 
+theory. The answer, he replied, lies in how you define the word 
+“understand.”"
+"Dr. Daniel Dennett, a philosopher at Tufts University, has written, 
+“There could not be an objective test to distinguish a clever robot from a 
+conscious person. Now you have a choice: you can either cling to the 
+Hard Problem, or you can shake your head in wonder and dismiss it. 
+Just let go.” 
+
+In other words, there is no such thing as the Hard Problem. 
+
+To the constructivist philosophy, the point is not to debate whether a 
+machine can experience the color red, but to construct the machine. In 
+this picture, there is a continuum of levels describing the words 
+“understand” and “feel.” (This means that it might even be possible to"
+"give numerical values to the degree of understanding and feeling.) At 
+one end we have the clumsy robots of today, which can manipulate a 
+few symbols but not much more. At the other end we have humans, who 
+pride themselves on feeling qualia. But as time goes by, robots will 
+eventually be able to describe sensations better than us on any level. 
+Then it will be obvious that robots understand. 
+
+This was the philosophy behind Alan Turing’s famous Turing test. He 
+predicted that one day a machine would be built that could answer any 
+question, so that it would be indistinguishable from a human. He said, 
+“A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a 
+human into believing that it was human.” 
+
+Physicist and Nobel laureate Francis Crick said it best. In the last"
+"Physicist and Nobel laureate Francis Crick said it best. In the last 
+
+century, he noted, biologists had heated debates over the question “What 
+is life?” Now, with our understanding of DNA, scientists realize that the 
+question is not well defined. There are many variations, layers, and 
+complexities to that simple question. The question “What is life?” simply 
+faded away. The same may eventually apply to feeling and 
+understanding. 
+
+SELF-AWARE ROBOTS 
+
+What steps must be taken before computers like Watson have self- 
+awareness? To answer this question, we have to refer back to our 
+definition of self-awareness: the ability to put one’s self inside a model of 
+the environment, and then run simulations of this model into the future 
+to achieve a goal. This first step requires a very high level of common 
+sense in order to anticipate a variety of events. Then the robot has to put 
+itself inside this model, which requires an understanding of the various 
+courses of action it may take."
+"At Meiji University, scientists have taken the first steps to create a 
+robot with self-awareness. This is a tall order, but they think they can do 
+it by creating robots with a Theory of Mind. They started by building 
+two robots. The first was programmed to execute certain motions. The 
+second was programmed to observe the first robot, and then to copy it. 
+They were able to create a second robot that could systematically mimic 
+the behavior of the first just by watching it. This is the first time in 
+history that a robot has been built specifically to have some sense of self- 
+awareness. The second robot has a Theory of Mind; that is, it is capable 
+of watching another robot and then mimicking its motions. 
+
+In 2012, the next step was taken by scientists at Yale University who"
+"In 2012, the next step was taken by scientists at Yale University who 
+
+created a robot that passed the mirror test. When animals are placed in 
+front of a mirror, most of them think the image in the mirror is that of 
+another animal. As we recall, only a few animals have passed the mirror 
+test, realizing that the mirror image was a reflection of themselves. The 
+scientists at Yale created a robot called Nico that resembles a gangly 
+skeleton made of twisted wires, with mechanical arms and two bulging 
+eyes sitting on top. When placed in front of a mirror, Nico not only 
+recognized itself but could also deduce the location of objects in a room 
+
+by looking at their images in the mirror. This is similar to what we do 
+when we look into a rearview mirror and infer the location of objects 
+behind us."
+"Nico’s programmer, Justin Hart, says, “To our knowledge, this is the 
+first robotic system to attempt to use a mirror in this way, representing a 
+significant step towards a cohesive architecture that allows robots to 
+learn about their bodies and appearance through self-observation, and 
+an important capability required in order to pass the mirror test.” 
+
+Because the robots at Meiji University and Yale University represent 
+the state of the art in terms of building robots with self-awareness, it is 
+easy to see that scientists have a long ways to go before they can create 
+robots with humanlike self-awareness. 
+
+Their work is just the first step, because our definition of self- 
+awareness demands that the robot use this information to create 
+simulations of the future. This is far beyond the capability of Nico or any 
+other robot."
+"This raises the important question: How can a computer gain full self- 
+awareness? In science fiction, we often encounter a situation where the 
+Internet suddenly becomes self-aware, as in the movie The Terminator. 
+Since the Internet is connected to the entire infrastructure of modern 
+society (e.g., our sewer system, our electricity, our telecommunications, 
+our weapons), it would be easy for a self-aware Internet to seize control 
+of society. We would be left helpless in this situation. Scientists have 
+written that this may happen as an example of an “emergent 
+phenomenon” (i.e., when you amass a sufficiently large number of 
+computers together, there can be a sudden phase transition to a higher 
+stage, without any input from the outside). 
+
+However, this says everything and it says nothing, because it leaves 
+out all the important steps in between. It’s like saying that a highway 
+can suddenly become self-aware if there are enough roads."
+"But in this book we have given a definition of consciousness and self- 
+awareness, so it should be possible to list the steps by which the Internet 
+
+can become self-aware. 
+
+First, an intelligent Internet would have to continually make models of 
+its place in the world. In principle, this information can be programmed 
+into the Internet from the outside. This would involve describing the 
+outside world (i.e., Earth, its cities, and its computers), all of which can 
+
+be found on the Internet itself. 
+
+Second, it would have to place itself in the model. This information is 
+also easily obtained. It would involve giving all the specifications of the 
+Internet (the number of computers, nodes, transmission lines, etc.) and 
+its relationship to the outside world."
+"But step three is by far the most difficult. It means continually running 
+simulations of this model into the future, consistent with a goal. This is 
+where we hit a brick wall. The Internet is not capable of running 
+simulations into the future, and it has no goals. Even in the scientific 
+world, simulations into the future are usually done in just a few 
+parameters (e.g., simulating the collision of two black holes). Running a 
+simulation of the model of the world containing the Internet is far 
+beyond the programming available today. It would have to incorporate 
+all the laws of common sense, all the laws of physics, chemistry, and 
+biology, as well as facts about human behavior and human society. 
+
+In addition, this intelligent Internet would have to have a goal. Today 
+it is just a passive highway, without any direction or purpose. Of course, 
+one can in principle impose a goal on the Internet. But let us consider 
+the following problem: Can you create an Internet whose goal is self- 
+preservation?"
+"This would be the simplest possible goal, but no one knows how to 
+program even this simple task. Such a program, for example, would have 
+to stop any attempt to shut down the Internet by pulling the plug. At 
+present, the Internet is totally incapable of recognizing a threat to its 
+existence, let alone plotting ways to prevent it. (For example, an Internet 
+capable of detecting threats to its existence would have to be able to 
+identify attempts to shut down its power, cut lines of communication, 
+destroy its servers, disable its fiber-optic and satellite connections, etc. 
+Furthermore, an Internet capable of defending itself against these attacks 
+would have to have countermeasures for each scenario and then run 
+these attempts into the future. No computer on Earth is capable of doing 
+even a fraction of such things.) 
+
+In other words, one day it may be possible to create self-aware robots, 
+even a self-aware Internet, but that day is far into the future, perhaps at 
+the end of this century."
+"But assume for the moment that the day has arrived, that self-aware 
+robots walk among us. If a self-aware robot has goals that are 
+
+compatible with our own, then this type of artificial intelligence will not 
+pose a problem. But what happens if the goals are different? The fear is 
+that humans may be outwitted by self-aware robots and then may be 
+enslaved. Because of their superior ability to simulate the future, the 
+robots could plot the outcomes of many scenarios to find the best way to 
+overthrow humanity. 
+
+One way this possibility may be controlled is to make sure that the 
+goals of these robots are benevolent. As we have seen, simulating the 
+future is not enough. These simulations must serve some final goal. If a 
+robot’s goal is merely to preserve itself, then it would react defensively 
+to any attempt to pull the plug, which could spell trouble for mankind. 
+
+WILL ROBOTS TAKE OVER?"
+"WILL ROBOTS TAKE OVER? 
+
+In almost all science-fiction tales, the robots become dangerous because 
+of their desire to take over. The word “robot,” in fact, comes from the 
+Czech word for “worker,” first seen in the 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum’s 
+Universal Robots) by Karel Capek, in which scientists create a new race of 
+mechanical beings that look identical to humans. Soon there are 
+thousands of these robots performing menial and dangerous tasks. 
+However, humans mistreat them badly, and one day they rebel and 
+destroy the human race. Although these robots have taken over Earth, 
+they have one defect: they cannot reproduce. But at the end of the play, 
+two robots fall in love. So perhaps a new branch of “humanity” emerges 
+once again."
+"A more realistic scenario comes from the movie The Terminator, in 
+which the military has created a supercomputer network called Skynet 
+that controls the entire U.S. nuclear stockpile. One day, it wakes up and 
+becomes sentient. The military tries to shut down Skynet but then 
+realizes there is a flaw in its programming: it is designed to protect itself, 
+and the only way to do so is by eliminating the problem—humanity. It 
+starts a nuclear war, which reduces humanity to a ragtag bunch of 
+misfits and rebels fighting the juggernaut of the machines. 
+
+It is certainly possible that robots could become a threat. The current 
+Predator drone can target its victims with deadly accuracy, but it is 
+controlled by someone with a joystick thousands of miles away."
+"According to the New York Times, the orders to fire come directly from 
+the president of the United States. But in the future, a Predator might 
+have face recognition technology and permission to fire if it is 99 
+percent confident of the identity of its target. Without human 
+intervention, it could automatically use this technology to fire at anyone 
+who fits the profile. 
+
+Now assume that such a drone suffers a breakdown, such that its facial 
+recognition software malfunctions. Then it becomes a rogue robot, with 
+permission to kill anyone in sight. Worse, imagine a fleet of such robots 
+controlled by a central command. If a single transistor were to blow out 
+in this central computer and malfunction, then the entire fleet might go 
+on a killing spree."
+"A more subtle problem is when robots perform perfectly well, without 
+any malfunctions, yet there is a tiny but fatal flaw in their programming 
+and goals. For a robot, self-preservation is one important goal. But so is 
+being helpful to humans. The real problem arises when these goals 
+contradict each other. 
+
+In the movie 1 , Robot, the computer system decides that humans are 
+self-destructive, with their never-ending wars and atrocities, and that the 
+only way to protect the human race is to take over and create a 
+benevolent dictatorship of the machine. The contradiction here is not 
+between two goals, but within a single goal that is not realistic. These 
+murderous robots do not malfunction—they logically conclude that the 
+only way to preserve humanity is to take control of society."
+"One solution to this problem is to create a hierarchy of goals. For 
+example, the desire to help humans must outrank self-preservation. This 
+theme was explored in the movie 2001 . The computer system HAL 9000 
+was a sentient computer capable of conversing easily with humans. But 
+the orders given to HAL 9000 were self-contradictory and could not be 
+logically carried out. By attempting to execute an impossible goal, it fell 
+off the mesa; it went crazy, and the only solution to obeying 
+contradictory commands from imperfect humans was to eliminate the 
+humans. 
+
+The best solution might be to create a new law of robotics, which 
+would state that robots cannot do harm to the human race, even if there 
+are contradictions within their previous directives. They must be 
+programmed to ignore lower-level contradictions within their orders and"
+"always preserve the supreme law. But this might still be an imperfect 
+system at best. (For example, if the robots’ central goal is to protect 
+humanity to the exclusion of all other goals, then it all depends on how 
+
+the robots define the word “protect.” Their mechanical definition of this 
+word may differ from ours.) 
+
+Instead of reacting with terror, some scientists, such as Dr. Douglas 
+Hofstadter, a cognitive scientist at Indiana University, do not fear this 
+possibility. When I interviewed him, he told me that robots are our 
+children, so why shouldn’t we love them like our own? His attitude, he 
+told me, is that we love our children, even though we know that they 
+will take over."
+"When I interviewed Dr. Hans Moravec, former director of the AI 
+Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University, he agreed with Dr. Hofstadter. 
+In his book Robot, he writes, “Unleashed from the plodding pace of 
+biological evolution, the children of our minds will be free to grow to 
+confront immense and fundamental challenges in the larger universe. 
+... We humans will benefit for a time from their labors, but ... like 
+natural children, they will seek their own fortunes, while we, their aged 
+parents, silently fade away.” 
+
+Others, on the contrary, think that this is a horrible solution. Perhaps 
+the problem can be solved if we make changes in our goals and priorities 
+now, before it is too late. Since these robots are our children, we should 
+“teach” them to be benevolent. 
+
+FRIENDLY AI"
+"FRIENDLY AI 
+
+Robots are mechanical creatures that we make in the laboratory, so 
+whether we have killer robots or friendly robots depends on the 
+direction of AI research. Much of the funding comes from the military, 
+which is specifically mandated to win wars, so killer robots are a definite 
+possibility. 
+
+However, since 30 percent of all commercial robots are manufactured 
+in Japan, there is another possibility: robots will be designed to become 
+helpful playmates and workers from the very beginning. This goal is 
+feasible if the consumer sector dominates robotics research. The 
+philosophy of “friendly AI” is that inventors should create robots that, 
+
+from the very first steps, are programmed to be beneficial to humans."
+"from the very first steps, are programmed to be beneficial to humans. 
+
+Culturally, the Japanese approach to robots is different from the 
+West’s. While kids in the West might feel terror watching rampaging 
+Terminatortype robots, kids in Japan are steeped in the Shinto religion, 
+which believes spirits live in all things, even mechanical robots. Instead 
+of being uncomfortable at the sight of robots, Japanese children squeal"
+"with delight upon encountering them. It’s no wonder, therefore, that 
+these robots in Japan are proliferating in the marketplace and in homes. 
+They greet you at department stores and educate you on TV. There is 
+even a serious play in Japan featuring a robot. (Japan has another 
+reason for embracing robots. These are the future robot nurses for an 
+aging country. Twenty-one percent of the population is over sixty-five, 
+and Japan is aging faster than any other nation. In some sense, Japan is 
+a train wreck in slow motion. Three demographic factors are at work. 
+First, Japanese women have the longest life expectancy of any ethnic 
+group in the world. Second, Japan has one of the world’s lowest 
+birthrates. Third, it has a strict immigration policy, with over 99 percent 
+of the population being pure Japanese. Without young immigrants to 
+take care of the elderly, Japan may rely on robot nurses. This problem is 
+not restricted to Japan; Europe is next. Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and"
+"not restricted to Japan; Europe is next. Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and 
+other European nations face similar demographic pressures. The 
+populations of Japan and Europe could experience severe shrinkage by 
+mid-century. The United States is not far behind. The birthrate of native- 
+born U.S. citizens has also fallen dramatically in the last few decades, 
+but immigration will keep the United States expanding into this century. 
+In other words, it could be a trilliondollar gamble to see if robots can 
+save us from these three demographic nightmares.)"
+"Japan leads the world in creating robots that can enter our personal 
+lives. The Japanese have built robots that can cook (one can make a 
+bowl of noodles in a minute and forty seconds). When you go to a 
+restaurant, you can place your order on a tablet computer and the robot 
+cook springs into action. It consists of two large, mechanical arms, which 
+grab the bowls, spoons, and knives and prepare the food for you. Some 
+robotic cooks even resemble human ones. 
+
+There are also musical robots for entertainment. One such robot 
+actually has accordion-like “lungs” by which it can generate music by 
+pumping air through an instrument. There are also robot maids. If you"
+"carefully prepare your laundry, it can fold it in front of you. There is 
+even a robot that can talk because it has artificial lungs, lips, tongue, 
+and nasal cavity. The Sony Corporation, for example, built the AIBO 
+robot, which resembles a dog and can register a number of emotions if 
+you pet it. Some futurists predict that the robotics industry may one day 
+become as large as the automobile industry is today. 
+
+The point here is that robots are not necessarily programmed to 
+destroy and dominate. The future of AI is up to us. 
+
+But some critics of friendly AI claim that robots may take over not 
+because they are aggressive, but because we are sloppy in creating them. 
+In other words, if the robots take over, it will be because we 
+
+programmed them to have conflicting goals. 
+
+“I AM A MACHINE”"
+"programmed them to have conflicting goals. 
+
+“I AM A MACHINE” 
+
+When I interviewed Dr. Rodney Brooks, former director of the MIT 
+Artificial Intelligence Lab and cofounder of iRobot, I asked him if he 
+thought machines would one day take over. He told me that we just 
+have to accept that we are machines ourselves. This means that one day, 
+we will be able to build machines that are just as alive as we are. But, he 
+cautioned, we will have to give up the concept of our “specialness.” 
+
+This evolution in human perspective started with Nicolaus Copernicus 
+when he realized that the Earth was not the center of the universe, but 
+rather goes around the sun. It continued with Darwin, who showed that 
+we were similar to the animals in our evolution. And it will continue 
+into the future, he told me, when we realize that we are machines, 
+except that we are made of wetware and not hardware."
+"It’s going to represent a major change in our world outlook to accept 
+that we, too, are machines, he believes. He writes, “We don’t like to give 
+up our specialness, so you know, having the idea that robots could really 
+have emotions, or that robots could be living creatures—I think is going 
+to be hard for us to accept. But we’re going to come to accept it over the 
+next fifty years.” 
+
+But on the question of whether the robots will eventually take over, he 
+says that this will probably not happen, for a variety of reasons. First, no 
+one is going to accidentally build a robot that wants to rule the world. 
+
+He says that creating a robot that can suddenly take over is like someone 
+accidentally building a 747 jetliner. Plus, there will be plenty of time to 
+stop this from happening. Before someone builds a “super-bad robot,” 
+someone has to build a “mildly bad robot,” and before that a “not-so-bad 
+robot.”"
+"His philosophy is summed up when he says, “The robots are coming, 
+but we don’t have too much to worry about. It’s going to be a lot of fun.” 
+To him, the robot revolution is a certainty, and he foresees the day when 
+robots will surpass human intelligence. The only question is when. But 
+there is nothing to fear, since we will have created them. We have the 
+choice to create them to help, and not hinder, us. 
+
+MERGE WITH THEM? 
+
+If you ask Dr. Brooks how we can coexist with these super-smart robots, 
+his reply is straightforward: we will merge with them. With advances in 
+robotics and neuroprosthetics, it becomes possible to incorporate AI into 
+our own bodies. 
+
+Dr. Brooks notes that the process, in some sense, has already begun. 
+Today, about twenty thousand people have had cochlear implants, 
+which have given them the gift of hearing. Sounds are picked up by a 
+tiny receiver, which converts sound waves to electrical signals, which 
+are then sent directly to the auditory nerves of the ear."
+"Similarly, at the University of Southern California and elsewhere, it is 
+possible to take a patient who is blind and implant an artificial retina. 
+One method places a mini video camera in eyeglasses, which converts an 
+image into digital signals. These are sent wirelessly to a chip placed in 
+the person’s retina. The chip activates the retina’s nerves, which then 
+send messages down the optic nerve to the occipital lobe of the brain. In 
+this way, a person who is totally blind can see a rough image of familiar 
+objects. Another design has a light-sensitive chip placed on the retina 
+itself, which then sends signals directly to the optic nerve. This design 
+does not need an external camera. 
+
+This also means that we can go even further and enhance ordinary 
+senses and abilities. With cochlear implants, it will be possible to hear 
+high frequencies that we have never heard before. Already with infrared"
+"glasses, one can see the specific type of light that emanates from hot 
+objects in the dark and that is normally invisible to the human eye. With 
+artificial retinas, it may be possible to enhance our ability to see 
+ultraviolet or infrared light. (Bees, for example, can see UV light because 
+they have to lock onto the sun in order to navigate to a flower bed.) 
+
+Some scientists even dream of the day when exoskeletons will have 
+superpowers like those found in comic books, with super strength, super 
+senses, and super abilities. We’d become a cyborg like Iron Man, a 
+normal human with superhuman abilities and powers. This means that 
+we might not have to worry about super-intelligent robots taking over. 
+We’d simply merge with them."
+"This, of course, is for the distant future. But some scientists, frustrated 
+that robots are not leaving the factory and entering our lives, point out 
+that Mother Nature has already created the human mind, so why not 
+copy it? Their strategy is to take the brain apart, neuron by neuron, and 
+then reassemble it. 
+
+But reverse engineering entails more than just creating a vast 
+
+blueprint to create a living brain. If the brain can be duplicated down to 
+the last neuron, perhaps we can upload our consciousness into a 
+computer. We’d have the ability to leave our mortal bodies behind. This 
+is beyond mind over matter. This is mind without matter. 
+
+I’m as fond of my body as anyone, but if I can be 200 with a 
+body of silicon, I’ll take it. 
+
+—DANIEL HILL, COFOUNDER OF THINKING MACHINES CORP. 
+
+11 REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN"
+"—DANIEL HILL, COFOUNDER OF THINKING MACHINES CORP. 
+
+11 REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN 
+
+In January 2013, two bombshells were dropped that could alter the 
+medical and scientific landscape forever. Overnight, reverse engineering 
+the brain, once considered to be too complex to solve, suddenly became 
+a focal point of scientific rivalry and pride between the greatest 
+economic powers on Earth."
+"First, in his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama 
+stunned the scientific community by announcing that federal research 
+funds, perhaps to the tune of $3 billion, might be allocated to the Brain 
+Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (or BRAIN) 
+Initiative. Like the Human Genome Project, which opened the floodgates 
+for genetic research, BRAIN will pry open the secrets of the brain at the 
+neural level by mapping its electrical pathways. Once the brain is 
+mapped, a host of intractable diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, 
+schizophrenia, dementia, and bipolar disorder might be understood and 
+possibly cured. To jump-start BRAIN, $100 million might be allocated in 
+2014 toward the project."
+"Almost simultaneously, the European Commission announced that the 
+Human Brain Project would be awarded 1.19 billion euros (about $1.6 
+billion) to create a computer simulation of the human brain. Using the 
+power of the biggest supercomputers on the planet, the Human Brain 
+Project will create a copy of the human brain made of transistors and 
+steel. 
+
+Proponents of both projects stressed the enormous benefits of these 
+endeavors. President Obama was quick to point out that not only would 
+BRAIN alleviate the suffering of millions of people, it will also generate 
+new revenue streams. For every dollar spent on the Human Genome 
+Project, he claimed, about $140 of economic activity was generated. 
+Entire industries, in fact, sprouted with the completion of the Human 
+Genome Project. For the taxpayer, BRAIN, like the Human Genome 
+
+Project, will be a win-win situation."
+"Project, will be a win-win situation. 
+
+Although Obama’s speech did not give details, scientists quickly filled 
+in many of the gaps. Neurologists pointed out that, on one hand, it is 
+now possible to use delicate instruments to monitor the electrical 
+activity of single neurons. On the other hand, using MRI machines, it is 
+possible to monitor the global behavior of the entire brain. What is 
+missing, they pointed out, is the middle ground, where most of the 
+interesting brain activity takes place. It is in this middle ground, 
+involving the pathways of thousands to millions of neurons, that there 
+are huge gaps in our understanding of mental disease and behavior."
+"To tackle this enormous problem, scientists laid out a tentative fifteen- 
+year program. In the first five years, neurologists hope to monitor the 
+electrical activity of tens of thousands of neurons. The short-term goals 
+might include reconstructing the electrical activity of important parts of 
+animal brains, such as the medulla of the Drosophila fruit fly or the 
+ganglion cells in a mouse retina (which has fifty thousand neurons). 
+
+Within ten years, that number should increase to hundreds of 
+thousands of neurons. This could include imaging the entire Drosophila 
+brain (135,000 neurons) or even the cortex of the Etruscan shrew, the 
+smallest known mammal, with a million neurons. 
+
+Finally, within fifteen years, it should be possible to monitor millions 
+of neurons, comparable to the zebrafish brain or the entire neocortex of 
+a mouse. This could pave the way toward imaging parts of the brains of 
+primates."
+"Meanwhile, in Europe, the Human Brain Project would tackle the 
+problem from a different point of view. Over a ten-year period, it will 
+use supercomputers to simulate the basic functioning of the brains of 
+different animals, starting with mice and working up to humans. Instead 
+of dealing with individual neurons, the Human Brain Project will use 
+transistors to mimic their behavior, so that there will be computer 
+modules that can act like the neocortex, the thalamus, and other parts of 
+the brain. 
+
+In the end, the rivalry between these two gigantic projects could 
+create a windfall by generating new discoveries for treating incurable 
+diseases and spawning new industries. But there is also another, unstated 
+goal. If one can eventually simulate a human brain, does it mean that 
+the brain can become immortal? Does it mean that consciousness can 
+now exist outside the body? Some of the thorniest theological and 
+
+metaphysical questions are raised by these ambitious projects. 
+
+BUILDING A BRAIN"
+"metaphysical questions are raised by these ambitious projects. 
+
+BUILDING A BRAIN 
+
+Like many other children, I used to love taking apart clocks, 
+disassembling them, screw for screw, and then trying to see how the 
+whole thing fit together. I would trace each part mentally, seeing how 
+one gear connected to the next one, until the whole thing fit together. I 
+realized the mainspring turned the main gear, which then fed a sequence 
+of smaller gears, which eventually turned the hands of the clock. 
+
+Today, on a much larger scale, computer scientists and neurologists 
+are trying to take apart an infinitely more complex object, the most 
+sophisticated object we know about in the universe: the human brain. 
+Moreover, they wish to reassemble it, neuron by neuron."
+"Because of rapid advances in automation, robotics, nanotechnology, 
+and neuroscience, reverse engineering the human brain is no longer idle 
+speculation for polite after-dinner banter. In the United States and 
+Europe, billions of dollars will soon be flowing into projects once 
+considered preposterous. Today a small band of visionary scientists are 
+dedicating their professional lives to a project that they may not live to 
+see completed. Tomorrow their ranks could swell into an entire army, 
+generously funded by the United States and the nations of Europe. 
+
+If successful, these scientists could alter the course of human history. 
+Not only might they find new cures and therapies for mental illnesses, 
+they might also unlock the secret of consciousness and perhaps upload it 
+into a computer."
+"It is a daunting task. The human brain consists of over one hundred 
+billion neurons, approximately as many stars as there are in the Milky 
+Way galaxy. Each neuron, in turn, is connected to perhaps ten thousand 
+other neurons, so altogether there are a total of ten million billion 
+possible connections (and that does not begin to compute the number of 
+pathways there are among this thicket of neurons). The number of 
+“thoughts” that a human brain can conceive of is therefore truly 
+astronomical and beyond human ken. 
+
+Yet that has not stopped a small bunch of fiercely dedicated scientists 
+from attempting to reconstruct the brain from scratch. There is an old 
+
+Chinese proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first 
+step.” That first step was actually taken when scientists decoded, neuron 
+for neuron, the nervous system of a nematode worm. This tiny creature,"
+"called C. elegans, has 302 neurons and 7,000 synapses, all of which have 
+been precisely recorded. A complete blueprint of its nervous system can 
+be found on the Internet. (Even today, it is the only living organism to 
+have its entire neural structure decoded in this way.) 
+
+At first, it was thought that the complete reverse engineering of this 
+simple organism would open the door to the human brain. Ironically, the 
+opposite has happened. Although the nematode’s neurons were finite in 
+number, the network is still so complex and sophisticated that it has 
+taken years to understand even simple facts about worm behavior, such 
+as which pathways are responsible for which behaviors. If even the 
+lowly nematode worm could elude our scientific understanding, 
+scientists were forced to appreciate how complex a human brain must 
+be. 
+
+THREE APPROACHES TO THE BRAIN"
+"THREE APPROACHES TO THE BRAIN 
+
+Because the brain is so complex, there are at least three distinct ways in 
+which it can be taken apart, neuron by neuron. The first is to simulate 
+the brain electronically with supercomputers, which is the approach 
+being taken by the Europeans. The second is to map out the neural 
+pathways of living brains, as in BRAIN. (This task, in turn, can be further 
+subdivided, depending on how these neurons are analyzed—either 
+anatomically, neuron by neuron, or by function and activity.) And third, 
+one can decipher the genes that control the development of the brain, 
+which is an approach pioneered by billionaire Paul Allen of Microsoft."
+"The first approach, simulating the brain using transistors and 
+computers, is forging ahead by reverse engineering the brains of animals 
+in a certain sequence: first a mouse, then a rat, rabbit, and a cat. The 
+Europeans are following the rough trail of evolution, starting with 
+simple brains and working upward. To a computer scientist, the solution 
+is raw computing power—the more, the better. And this means using 
+some of the largest computers on Earth to decipher the brains of mice 
+and men."
+"Their first target is the brain of a mouse, which is one-thousandth the 
+size of a human brain, containing about one hundred million neurons. 
+The thinking process behind a mouse brain is being analyzed by the IBM 
+Blue Gene computer, located at the Lawrence Livermore National 
+Laboratory in California, where some of the biggest computers in the 
+world are located; they’re used to design hydrogen warheads for the 
+Pentagon. This colossal collection of transistors, chips, and wires 
+contains 147,456 processors with a staggering 150,000 gigabytes of 
+memory. (A typical PC may have one processor and a few gigabytes of 
+
+memory.) 
+
+Progress has been slow but steady. Instead of modeling the entire 
+brain, scientists try to duplicate just the connections between the cortex 
+and the thalamus, where much of brain activity is concentrated. (This 
+means that the sensory connections to the outside world are missing in 
+this simulation.)"
+"In 2006, Dr. Dharmendra Modha of IBM partially simulated the mouse 
+brain in this way with 512 processors. In 2007, his group simulated the 
+rat brain with 2,048 processors. In 2009, the cat brain, with 1.6 billion 
+neurons and nine trillion connections, was simulated with 24,576 
+processors. 
+
+Today, using the full power of the Blue Gene computer, IBM scientists 
+have simulated 4.5 percent of the human brain’s neurons and synapses. 
+To begin a partial simulation of the human brain, one would need 
+880,000 processors, which might be possible around 2020. 
+
+I had a chance to film the Blue Gene computer. To get to the 
+laboratory, I had to go through layers and layers of security, since it is 
+the nation’s premier weapons laboratory, but once you have cleared all 
+the checkpoints, you enter a huge, air-conditioned room housing Blue 
+Gene."
+"The computer is truly a magnificent piece of hardware. It consists of 
+racks and racks of large black cabinets full of switches and blinking 
+lights, each about eight feet tall and roughly fifteen feet long. As I 
+walked among the cabinets that make up Blue Gene, I wondered what 
+kinds of operations it was performing. Most likely, it was modeling the 
+interior of a proton, calculating the decay of plutonium triggers, 
+simulating the collision of two black holes, and thinking of a mouse, all 
+at once. 
+
+Then I was told that even this supercomputer is giving way to the next 
+generation, the Blue Gene/Q Sequoia, which will take computing to a 
+new level. In June 2012, it set the world’s record for the fastest 
+supercomputer. At peak speed, it can perform operations at 20.1 PFLOPS 
+(or 20.1 trillion floating point operations per second). It covers an area 
+of three thousand square feet, and gobbles up electrical energy at the 
+rate of 7.9 megawatts, enough power to light up a small city."
+"But with all this massive computational firepower concentrated in one 
+computer, is it enough to rival the human brain? 
+
+Unfortunately, no. 
+
+These computer simulations try only to duplicate the interactions 
+between the cortex and the thalamus. Huge chunks of the brain are 
+therefore missing. Dr. Modha understands the enormity of his project. 
+His ambitious research has allowed him to estimate what it would take 
+to create a working model of the entire human brain, and not just a 
+portion or a pale version of it, complete with all parts of the neocortex 
+and connections to the senses. He envisions using not just a single Blue 
+Gene computer but thousands of them, which would fill up not just a 
+room but an entire city block. The energy consumption would be so 
+great that you would need a thousand-megawatt nuclear power plant to 
+generate all the electricity. And then, to cool off this monstrous 
+computer so it wouldn’t melt, you would need to divert a river and send 
+it through the computer circuits."
+"It is remarkable that a gigantic, city-size computer is required to 
+simulate a piece of human tissue that weighs three pounds, fits inside 
+your skull, raises your body temperature by only a few degrees, uses 
+twenty watts of power, and needs only a few hamburgers to keep it 
+going. 
+
+BUILDING A BRAIN 
+
+But perhaps the most ambitious scientist who has joined this campaign is 
+Dr. Henry Markram of the Ecole Polytechnique Federate de Lausanne, in 
+Switzerland. He is the driving force behind the Human Brain Project, 
+which has received over a billion dollars of funding from the European 
+Commission. He has spent the last seventeen years of his life trying to 
+
+decode the brain’s neural wiring. He, too, is using the Blue Gene 
+computer to reverse engineer the brain. At present, his Human Brain 
+Project is running up a bill of $140 million from the European Union, 
+and that represents only a fraction of the computer firepower he will 
+need in the coming decade."
+"Dr. Markram believes that this is no longer a science project but an 
+engineering endeavor, requiring vast sums of money. He says, “To build 
+this—the supercomputers, the software, the research—we need around 
+one billion dollars. This is not expensive when one considers that the 
+global burden of brain disease will exceed twenty percent of the world 
+gross domestic project very soon.” To him, a billion dollars is nothing, 
+just a pittance compared to the hundreds of billions in bills stemming 
+from Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other related diseases when the baby 
+boomers retire. 
+
+So to Dr. Markram, the solution is one of scale. Throw enough money 
+
+at the project, and the human brain will emerge. Now that he has won 
+the coveted billion-dollar prize from the European Commission, his 
+dream may become a reality."
+"He has a ready answer when asked what the average taxpayer will get 
+from this billion-dollar investment. There are three reasons, he says, for 
+embarking on this lonely but expensive quest. First, “It’s essential for us 
+to understand the human brain if we want to get along in society, and I 
+think that it is a key step in evolution. The second reason is, we cannot 
+keep doing animal experimentation forever.... It’s like a Noah’s Ark. It’s 
+like an archive. And the third reason is that there are two billion people 
+on this planet that are affected by mental disorder....” 
+
+To him, it is a scandal that so little is known about mental diseases, 
+which cause so much suffering to millions of people. He says, “There’s 
+not a single neurological disease today in which anybody knows what is 
+malfunctioning in this circuit—which pathway, which synapse, which 
+neuron, which receptor. This is shocking.”"
+"At first, it may sound impossible to complete this project, with so 
+many neurons and so many connections. It seems like a fool’s errand. 
+But these scientists think they have an ace in the hole. 
+
+The human genome consists of roughly twenty-three thousand genes, 
+yet it can somehow create the brain, which consists of one hundred 
+billion neurons. It seems to be a mathematical impossibility to create the 
+
+human brain from our genes, yet it happens every time an embryo is 
+conceived. How can so much information be crammed into something so 
+small? 
+
+The answer, Dr. Markram believes, is that nature uses shortcuts. The 
+key to his approach is that certain modules of neurons are repeated over 
+and over again once Mother Nature finds a good template. If you look at 
+microscopic slices of the brain, at first you see nothing but a random 
+tangle of neurons. But upon closer examination, patterns of modules that 
+are repeated over and over appear."
+"(Modules, in fact, are one reason why it is possible to assemble large 
+skyscrapers so rapidly. Once a single module is designed, it is possible to 
+repeat it endlessly on the assembly line. Then you can rapidly stack 
+them on top of one another to create the skyscraper. Once the 
+paperwork is all signed, an apartment building can be assembled using 
+modules in a few months.) 
+
+The key to Dr. Markram’s Blue Brain project is the “neocortical 
+column,” a module that is repeated over and over in the brain. In 
+
+humans, each column is about two millimeters tall, with a diameter of 
+half a millimeter, and contains sixty thousand neurons. (As a point of 
+comparison, rat neural modules contain only ten thousand neurons 
+each.) It took ten years, from 1995 to 2005, for Dr. Markram to map the 
+neurons in such a column and to figure out how it worked. Once that 
+was deciphered, he then went to IBM to create massive iterations of 
+these columns."
+"He is the eternal optimist. In 2009, at a TED conference, he claimed he 
+could finish the project in ten years. (Most likely, this will be for a 
+stripped-down version of the human brain without any attachment to 
+the other lobes or to the senses.) But he has claimed, “If we build it 
+correctly, it should speak and have an intelligence and behave very 
+much as a human does.” 
+
+Dr. Markram is a skilled defender of his work. He has an answer for 
+everything. When critics say that he is treading on forbidden territory, 
+he counters, “As scientists, we need to be not afraid of the truth. We 
+need to understand our brain. It’s natural that people would think that 
+the brain is sacred, that we shouldn’t tamper with it because it may be 
+where the secrets of the soul are. But I think, quite honestly, that if the 
+planet understood how the brain functions, we would resolve conflicts"
+"everywhere. Because people would understand how trivial and how 
+deterministic and how controlled conflicts and reactions and 
+misunderstandings are.” 
+
+When faced with the final criticism that he is “playing God,” he says, 
+“I think we’re far from playing God. God created the whole universe. 
+We’re just trying to build a little model.” 
+
+IS IT REALLY A BRAIN? 
+
+Although these scientists claim that their computer simulation of the 
+brain will begin to reach the capability of the human brain by around 
+2020, the main question is, How realistic is this simulation? Can the cat 
+simulation, for example, catch a mouse? Or play with a ball of yarn?"
+"The answer is no. These computer simulations try to match the sheer 
+power of the neurons firing in the cat brain, but they cannot duplicate 
+the way in which the regions of the brain are hooked together. The IBM 
+simulation is only for the thalamocortical system (i.e., the channel that 
+connects the thalamus to the cortex). The system does not have a 
+physical body, and hence all the complex interactions between the brain 
+and the environment are missing. The brain has no parietal lobe, so it 
+
+has no sensory or motor connections with the outside world. And even 
+within the thalamocortical system, the basic wiring does not respect the 
+thinking process of a cat. There are no feedback loops and memory 
+circuits for stalking prey or finding a mate. The computerized cat brain 
+is a blank slate, devoid of any memories or instinctual drives. In other 
+words, it cannot catch a mouse."
+"So even if it is possible to simulate a human brain by around 2020, 
+you will not be able to have a simple conversation with it. Without a 
+parietal lobe, it would be like a blank slate without sensations, devoid of 
+any knowledge of itself, people, and the world around it. Without a 
+temporal lobe, it would not be able to talk. Without a limbic system, it 
+would not have any emotions. In fact, it would have less brain power 
+than a newborn infant. 
+
+The challenge of hooking up the brain to the world of sensations, 
+emotions, language, and culture is just beginning. 
+
+THE SLICE-AND-DICE APPROACH 
+
+The next approach, favored by the Obama administration, is to map the 
+neurons of the brain directly. Instead of using transistors, this approach 
+analyzes the actual neural pathways of the brain. There are several 
+components to it."
+"One way to proceed is to physically identify each and every neuron 
+and synapse of the brain. (The neurons are usually destroyed by this 
+process.) This is called the anatomical approach. Another path is to 
+decipher the ways in which electrical signals flow across neurons when 
+the brain is performing certain functions. (The latter approach, which 
+stresses identifying the pathways of the living brain, is the one that 
+seems to be favored by the Obama administration.)"
+"The anatomical approach is to take apart the cells of an animal brain, 
+neuron by neuron, using the “slice-and-dice” method. In this way, the 
+full complexity of the environment, the body, and memories are already 
+encoded in the model. Instead of approximating a human brain by 
+assembling a huge number of transistors, these scientists want to identify 
+each neuron of the brain. After that, perhaps each neuron can be 
+simulated by a collection of transistors so that you’d have an exact 
+replica of the human brain, complete with memory, personality, and 
+connection to the senses. Once someone’s brain is fully reversed 
+engineered in this way, you should be able to have an informative 
+conversation with that person, complete with memories and a 
+personality."
+"No new physics is required to finish the project. Using a device similar 
+to a meat sheer in a delicatessen, Dr. Gerry Rubin of the Howard Hughes 
+Medical Institute has been slicing the brain of a fruit fly. This is not an 
+easy task, since the fruit fly brain is only three hundred micrometers 
+across, a tiny speck compared to the human brain. The fruit fly brain 
+contains about 150,000 neurons. Each slice, which is only fifty-billionths 
+of a meter across, is meticulously photographed with an electron 
+microscope, and the images are fed into a computer. Then a computer 
+program tries to reconstruct the wiring, neuron by neuron. At the 
+present rate, Dr. Rubin will be able to identify every neuron in the fruit 
+fly brain in twenty years. 
+
+The snail-like pace is due, in part, to current photographic technology,"
+"The snail-like pace is due, in part, to current photographic technology, 
+
+since a standard scanning microscope operates at about ten million 
+pixels per second. (That is about a third of the resolution achieved by a 
+standard TV screen per second.) The goal is to have an imaging machine 
+that can process ten billion pixels per second, which would be a world 
+record. 
+
+The problem of how to store the data pouring in from the microscope 
+is also staggering. Once his project gets up to speed, Rubin expects to 
+scan about a million gigabytes of data per day for just a single fruit fly, 
+so he envisions filling up huge warehouses full of hard drives. On top of 
+that, since every fruit fly brain is slightly different, he has to scan 
+hundreds of fruit fly brains in order to get an accurate approximation of 
+one."
+"Based on working with the fruit fly brain, how long will it take to 
+eventually slice up the human brain? “In a hundred years, I’d like to 
+know how human consciousness works. The ten- or twenty-year goal is 
+to understand the fruit fly brain,” he says. 
+
+This method can be speeded up with several technical advances. One 
+possibility is to use an automated device, so that the tedious process of 
+slicing the brain and analyzing each slide is done by machine. This could 
+rapidly reduce the time for the project. Automation, for example, vastly 
+reduced the cost of the Human Genome Project (although it was 
+budgeted at $3 billion, it was accomplished ahead of time and under 
+budget, which is unheard of in Washington). Another method is to use a 
+large variety of dyes that will tag different neurons and pathways, 
+making them easier to see. An alternative approach would be to create 
+an automated super microscope that can scan neurons one by one with 
+unparalleled detail."
+"Given that a complete mapping of the brain and all its senses will take 
+up to a hundred years, these scientists feel somewhat like the medieval 
+
+architects who designed the cathedrals of Europe, knowing that their 
+grandchildren would finally complete the project. 
+
+In addition to constructing an anatomical map of the brain, neuron by 
+neuron, there is a parallel effort called the “Human Connectome 
+Project,” which uses brain scans to reconstruct the pathways connecting 
+various regions of the brain. 
+
+THE HUMAN CONNECTOME PROJECT"
+"THE HUMAN CONNECTOME PROJECT 
+
+In 2010, the National Institutes of Health announced that it was 
+allocating $30 million, spread out over five years, to a consortium of 
+universities (including Washington University in St. Louis and the 
+University of Minnesota), and a $8.5 million grant over three years to a 
+consortium led by Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, 
+and UCLA. With this level of short-term funding, of course, researchers 
+cannot fully sequence the entire brain, but the funding was meant to 
+jump-start the effort."
+"Most likely, this effort will be folded into the BRAIN project, which 
+will vastly accelerate this work. The goal is to produce a neuronal map 
+of the human brain’s pathways that will elucidate brain disorders such as 
+autism and schizophrenia. One of the leaders of the Connectome Project, 
+Dr. Sebastian Seung, says, “Researchers have conjectured that the 
+neurons themselves are healthy, but maybe they are just wired together 
+in an abnormal way. But we’ve never had the technology to test that 
+hypothesis until now.” If these diseases are actually caused by the 
+miswiring of the brain, then the Human Connectome Project may give us 
+an invaluable clue as to how to treat these conditions."
+"When considering the ultimate goal of imaging the entire human 
+brain, sometimes Dr. Seung despairs of ever finishing this project. He 
+says, “In the seventeenth century, the mathematician and philosopher 
+Blaise Pascal wrote of his dread of the infinite, his feeling of 
+insignificance at contemplating the vast reaches of outer space. And as a 
+scientist, I’m not supposed to talk about my feelings.... I feel curiosity, 
+and I feel wonder, but at times I have also felt despair.” But he and 
+others like him persist, even if their project will take multiple 
+generations to finish. They have reason to hope, since one day 
+automated microscopes will tirelessly take the photographs and 
+artificially intelligent machines will analyze them twenty-four hours a 
+day. But right now, just imaging the human brain with ordinary electron 
+microscopes would consume about one zettabyte of data, which is 
+equivalent to all the data compiled in the world today on the web."
+"Dr. Seung even invites the public to participate in this great project by 
+
+visiting a website called EyeWire. There, the average “citizen scientist” 
+can view a mass of neural pathways and is asked to color them in 
+
+(staying within their boundaries). It’s like a virtual coloring book, except 
+images are of the actual neurons in the retina of an eye, taken by an 
+electron microscope. 
+
+THE ALLEN BRAIN ATLAS 
+
+Finally, there is a third way to map the brain. Instead of analyzing the 
+brain by using computer simulations or by identifying all the neural 
+pathways, yet another approach was taken with a generous grant of 
+$100 million from Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen. The goal was to 
+construct a map or atlas of the mouse brain, with the emphasis on 
+identifying the genes responsible for creating the brain."
+"It is hoped that this understanding of how genes are expressed in the 
+brain will help in understanding autism, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and 
+other disabilities. Since a large number of mouse genes are found in 
+humans, it’s possible that findings here will give us insight into the 
+human brain. 
+
+With this sudden infusion of funds, the project was completed in 2006, 
+and its results are freely available on the web. A follow-up project, the 
+Allen Human Brain Atlas, was announced soon afterward, with the hope 
+of creating an anatomically and genetically complete 3-D map of the 
+human brain. In 2011, the Allen Institute announced that it had mapped 
+the biochemistry of two human brains, finding one thousand anatomical 
+sites with one hundred million data points detailing how genes are 
+expressed in the underlying biochemistry. The study confirmed that 82 
+percent of our genes are expressed in the brain."
+"“Until now, a definitive map of the human brain, at this level of detail, 
+simply hasn’t existed,” says Dr. Allen Jones of the Allen Institute. “The 
+Allen Human Brain Atlas provides never-before-seen views into our most 
+complex and most important organ,” he adds. 
+
+OBJECTIONS TO REVERSE ENGINEERING 
+
+Scientists who have dedicated their lives to reverse engineering the brain 
+realize that decades of hard work lie ahead of them. But they are also 
+convinced of the practical implications of their work. They feel that even 
+
+partial results will help decode the mystery of mental diseases that have 
+afflicted humans throughout our history."
+"The cynics, however, may claim that, after this arduous task is 
+finished, we will have a mountain of data with no understanding of how 
+it all fits together. For example, imagine a Neanderthal who one day 
+comes across the complete blueprint for an IBM Blue Gene computer. All 
+the details are there in the blueprint, down to the very last transistor. 
+The blueprint is huge, taking up thousands of square feet of paper. The 
+Neanderthal may be dimly aware that this blueprint is the secret of a 
+super-powerful machine, but the sheer mass of technical data means 
+nothing to him. 
+
+Similarly, the fear is that, after spending billions deciphering the 
+location of every neuron of the brain, we won’t be able to understand 
+what it all means. It may take many more decades of hard work to see 
+how the whole thing functions."
+"For example, the Human Genome Project was a smashing success in 
+sequencing all the genes that make up the human genome, but it was a 
+huge disappointment for those who expected immediate cures for 
+genetic diseases. The Human Genome Project was like a gigantic 
+dictionary, with twenty-three thousand entries but no definitions. Page 
+after page of this dictionary is blank, yet the spelling of each gene is 
+perfect. The project was a breakthrough, but at the same time it’s just 
+the first step in a long journey to figure out what these genes do and 
+how they interact. 
+
+Similarly, just having a complete map of every single neural 
+connection in the brain does not guarantee that we will know what these 
+neurons are doing and how they react. Reverse engineering is the easy 
+part; after that, the hard part begins—making sense of all this data. 
+
+THE FUTURE"
+"THE FUTURE 
+
+But assume for now that the moment has finally arrived. With much 
+fanfare, scientists solemnly announce that they have successfully reverse 
+engineered the entire human brain. 
+
+Then what? 
+
+One immediate application is to find the origins of certain mental 
+
+diseases. It’s thought that many mental diseases are not caused by the 
+massive destruction of neurons, but by a simple misconnection. Think of 
+genetic diseases that are caused by a single mutation, like Huntington’s 
+disease, Tay-Sachs, or cystic fibrosis. Out of three billion base pairs, a 
+single misspelling (or repetition) can cause uncontrollable flailing of 
+your limbs and convulsions, as in Huntington’s disease. Even if the 
+genome is 99.9999999 percent accurate, a tiny flaw might invalidate the 
+entire sequence. That is why gene therapy has targeted these single 
+mutations as possible genetic diseases that can be fixed."
+"Likewise, once the brain is reverse engineered, it might be possible to 
+run simulations of the brain, deliberately disrupting a few connections to 
+see if you can induce certain illnesses. Only a handful of neurons may be 
+responsible for major disruptions of our cognition. Locating this tiny 
+collection of misfiring neurons may be one of the jobs of the reverse- 
+engineered brain."
+"One example might be Capgras delusion, in which you see someone 
+you recognize as your mother, but you believe that person to be an 
+impostor. According to Dr. V. S. Ramachandran, this rare disease might 
+be due to a misconnection between two parts of the brain. The fusiform 
+gyrus in the temporal lobe is responsible for recognizing the face of your 
+mother, but the amygdala is responsible for your emotional response in 
+seeing your mother. When the connection between these two centers is 
+disrupted, an individual can recognize his mother’s face perfectly well, 
+but, since there is no emotional response, he is also convinced that she is 
+an impostor."
+"Another use for the reverse-engineered brain is to pinpoint precisely 
+which cluster of neurons is misfiring. Deep brain stimulation, as we’ve 
+seen, involves using tiny probes to dampen the activity of a tiny portion 
+of the brain, such as Broadmann’s area 25, in the case of certain severe 
+forms of depression. Using the reverse-engineered map, it might be 
+possible to find precisely where the neurons are misfiring, which may 
+involve only a handful of neurons. 
+
+A reversed-engineered brain would also be of great help to AI. Vision 
+and face recognition are done effortlessly by the brain, but they still 
+elude our most advanced computers. For example, computers can 
+recognize with 95 percent or greater accuracy human faces that look 
+straight ahead and are part of a small data bank, but if you show the"
+"computer the same face from different angles or a face that’s not in the 
+database, the computer will most likely fail. Within .1 seconds, we can 
+recognize familiar faces from different angles; it’s so easy for our brains 
+that we are not even aware we are doing it. Reverse engineering the 
+brain may reveal the mystery of how this is done. 
+
+More complicated would be diseases that involve multiple failures of 
+the brain, such as schizophrenia. This disorder involves several genes, 
+plus interactions with the environment, which in turn cause unusual 
+activity in several areas of the brain. But even there, a reverse- 
+engineered brain would be able to tell precisely how certain symptoms 
+(such as hallucinations) are formed, and this might pave the way for a 
+possible cure."
+"A reverse-engineered brain would also solve such basic but unresolved 
+questions as how long-term memories are stored. It is known that certain 
+parts of the brain, such as the hippocampus and amygdala, store 
+memories, but how the memory is dispersed through various cortices 
+and then reassembled to create a memory is still unclear. 
+
+Once the reverse-engineered brain is fully functional, then it will be 
+time to turn on all its circuits to see if it can respond like a human (i.e., 
+to see if it can pass the Turing test). Since long-term memory is already 
+encoded in the neurons of the reverse-engineered brain, it should be 
+obvious very quickly whether the brain can respond in a way 
+indistinguishable from a human. 
+
+Finally, there is one impact of reverse engineering the brain that is 
+rarely discussed but is on many people’s minds: immortality. If 
+consciousness can be transferred into a computer, does that mean we 
+don’t have to die?"
+"Speculation is never a waste of time. It clears away the 
+deadwood in the thickets of deduction. 
+
+—ELIZABETH PETERS 
+
+We are a scientific civilization.... That means a civilization in 
+which knowledge and its integrity are crucial. Science is only a 
+Latin word for knowledge.... Knowledge is our destiny. 
+
+—JACOB BRONOWSKI 
+
+12 THE FUTURE MIND BEYOND MATTER 
+
+Can consciousness exist by itself, free from the constraints of the 
+physical body? Can we leave our mortal body and, like spirits, wander 
+around this playground called the universe? This was explored on Star"
+"Trek, when Captain Kirk of the starship Enterprise encounters a 
+superhuman race, almost a million years more advanced than the 
+Federation of Planets. They are so advanced that they have long since 
+abandoned their frail, mortal bodies, and now inhabit pulsating globes of 
+pure energy. It has been millennia since they could feel intoxicating 
+sensations, such as breathing fresh air, touching another’s hand, or 
+feeling physical love. Their leader, Sargon, welcomes the Enterprise to 
+their planet. Captain Kirk accepts the invitation, acutely aware that this 
+civilization could instantly vaporize the Enterprise if it wanted to. 
+
+But unknown to the crew, these super beings have a fatal weakness. 
+For all their advanced technology, they have been severed for hundreds 
+of thousands of years from their physical bodies. As such, they yearn to 
+feel the rush of physical sensations and long to become human again."
+"One of these super beings, in fact, is evil and determined to gain 
+possession of the physical bodies of the crew. He wants to live like a 
+human, even if it means destroying the mind of the body’s owner. Soon a 
+battle breaks out on the deck of the Enterprise, as the evil entity seizes 
+control of Spock’s body and the crew fights back. 
+
+Scientists have asked themselves, Is there a law of physics preventing 
+the mind from existing without the body? In particular, if the conscious 
+human mind is a device that constantly creates models of the world and 
+simulates them into the future, is it possible to create a machine that can 
+simulate this entire process? 
+
+Previously, we mentioned the possibility of having our bodies placed 
+in pods, as in the movie Surrogates, while we mentally control a robot. 
+The problem here is that our natural body will still gradually wither 
+away, even if our robot surrogate keeps on going. Serious scientists are"
+"contemplating whether we can actually transfer our minds into a robot 
+so we can become truly immortal. And who wouldn’t want a chance at 
+eternal life? As Woody Allen once said, “I don’t want to live forever 
+through my works. I want to live forever by not dying.” 
+
+Actually, millions of people already claim that it is possible for the 
+mind to leave the body. In fact, many insist that they have done it 
+themselves. 
+
+OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCES 
+
+The idea of minds without bodies is perhaps the oldest of our 
+superstitions, embedded deep within our myths, folklore, dreams, and 
+
+perhaps even our genes. Every society, it seems, has some tale of ghosts 
+and demons who can enter and leave the body at will."
+"Sadly, many innocents were persecuted to exorcize the demons that 
+were supposedly possessing their bodies. They probably suffered from 
+mental illness, such as schizophrenia, in which victims are often haunted 
+by voices generated by their own minds. Historians believe that one of 
+the Salem witches who was hung in 1692 for being possessed probably 
+had a rare genetic condition, called Huntington’s disease, that causes 
+uncontrolled flailing of the limbs. 
+
+Today some people claim that they have entered a trancelike state in 
+which their consciousness has left their body and is free to roam 
+throughout space, even able to look back at their mortal body. In a poll 
+of thirteen thousand Europeans, 5.8 percent claimed they had had an 
+out-of-body experience. Interviews with people in the United States 
+show similar numbers."
+"Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, always curious about new 
+phenomena, once placed himself in a sensory deprivation tank and tried 
+to leave his physical body. He was successful. He would later write that 
+he felt that he had left his body, drifted into space, and saw his 
+motionless body when he looked back. However, Feynman later 
+concluded that this was probably just his imagination, caused by sensory 
+deprivation. 
+
+Neurologists who have studied this phenomenon have a more prosaic 
+explanation. Dr. Olaf Blanke and his colleagues in Switzerland may have"
+"located the precise place in the brain that generates out-of-body 
+experiences. One of his patients was a forty-three-year-old woman who 
+suffered from debilitating seizures that came from her right temporal 
+lobe. A grid of about one hundred electrodes was placed over her brain 
+in order to locate the region responsible for her seizures. When the 
+electrodes stimulated the area between the parietal and temporal lobes, 
+she immediately had the sensation of leaving her body. “I see myself 
+lying in bed, from above, but I only see my legs and lower trunk!” she 
+exclaimed. She felt she was floating six feet above her body."
+"When the electrodes were turned off, however, the out-of-body 
+sensation disappeared immediately. In fact, Dr. Blanke found that he 
+could turn the out-of-body sensation on and off, like a light switch, by 
+repeatedly stimulating this area of the brain. As we saw in Chapter 9, 
+temporal lobe epileptic lesions can induce the feeling that there are evil 
+spirits behind every misfortune, so the concept of spirits leaving the 
+body is perhaps part of our neural makeup. (This may also explain the 
+presence of supernatural beings. When Dr. Blanke analyzed a twenty- 
+
+two-year-old woman who was suffering from intractable seizures, he 
+found that, by stimulating the temporoparietal area of the brain, he 
+could induce the sensation that there was a shadowy presence behind 
+her. She could describe this person, who even grabbed her arms, in 
+detail. His position would change with each appearance, but he would 
+always appear behind her.)"
+"Human consciousness, I believe, is the process of continually forming 
+a model of the world, in order to simulate the future and carry out a 
+goal. In particular, the brain is receiving sensations from the eyes and 
+inner ear to create a model of where we are in space. However, when 
+the signals from our eyes and ears are in contradiction, we become 
+confused about our location. We often get nauseous and throw up. For 
+example, many people develop sea sickness when they are on a rocking 
+boat because their eyes, looking at the cabin walls, tell them that they 
+are stationary, but their inner ear tells them that they are swaying. The 
+mismatch between these signals causes them to become nauseous. The 
+remedy is to look out at the horizon so that the visual image matches the 
+signals from the inner ear. (This same sense of nausea can be induced 
+even if you are stationary. If you look at a spinning garbage can with 
+bright vertical stripes painted on it, the stripes seem to move"
+"horizontally across your eyes, giving you the sensation that you are 
+moving. But your inner ear says you are stationary. The resulting 
+mismatch causes you to throw up after a few minutes, even if you are 
+sitting in a chair.) 
+
+The messages from the eyes and inner ear can also be disrupted 
+electrically, at the boundary of the temporal and parietal lobes, and this 
+is the origin of out-of-body experiences. When this sensitive area is 
+touched, the brain gets confused about where it is located in space. 
+(Notably, temporary loss of blood or oxygen or excess carbon dioxide in 
+the blood can also cause a disruption in the temporoparietal region and 
+induce out-of-body experiences, which may explain the prevalence of 
+these sensations during accidents, emergencies, heart attacks, etc.) 
+
+NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES"
+"NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES 
+
+But perhaps the most dramatic category of out-of-body experiences are 
+the near-death stories of individuals who have been declared dead but 
+then mysteriously regained consciousness. In fact, 6 to 12 percent of 
+survivors of cardiac arrest report having near-death experiences. It’s as 
+though they have cheated death itself. When interviewed, they have 
+dramatic tales of the same experience: they left their body and drifted 
+toward a bright light at the end of a long tunnel."
+"The media have seized upon this, with numerous best sellers and TV 
+documentaries devoted to these theatrical stories. Many bizarre theories 
+have been proposed to explain near-death experiences. In a poll of two 
+thousand people, fully 42 percent believed that near-death experiences 
+were proof of contact with the spiritual world that lies beyond death. 
+(Some believe that the body releases endorphins—natural narcotics— 
+before death. This may explain the euphoria that people feel, but not the 
+tunnel and the bright lights.) Carl Sagan even speculated that near-death 
+experiences were a reliving of the trauma of birth. The fact that these 
+individuals recount very similar experiences doesn’t necessarily 
+corroborate their glimpses into the afterlife; in fact, it seems to indicate 
+that there is some deep neurological event happening. 
+
+Neurologists have looked into this phenomenon seriously and suspect 
+that the key may be the decrease of blood flow to the brain that often"
+"accompanies near-death cases, and which also occurs in fainting. Dr. 
+Thomas Lempert, a neurologist at the Castle Park Clinic in Berlin, 
+conducted a series of experiments on forty-two healthy individuals, 
+causing them to faint under controlled laboratory conditions. Sixty 
+percent of them had visual hallucinations (e.g., bright lights and colored 
+patches). Forty-seven percent of them felt that they were entering 
+another world. Twenty percent claimed to have encountered a 
+supernatural being. Seventeen percent saw a bright light. Eight percent 
+saw a tunnel. So fainting can mimic all the sensations people have in 
+near-death experiences. But precisely how does this happen?"
+"The mystery of how fainting can simulate near-death experiences may 
+be solved by analyzing the experiences of military pilots. The U.S. Air 
+Force, for example, contacted neurophysiologist Dr. Edward Lambert to 
+analyze military pilots who blacked out when experiencing high g forces 
+(i.e., when executing a tight turn in a jet or pulling out of a dive). Dr. 
+Lampert placed pilots in an ultracentrifuge at the Mayo Clinic in 
+Rochester, Minnesota, which spun them around in a circle until they 
+experienced high g forces. As blood drained from their brain, they would 
+become unconscious after fifteen seconds of experiencing several g’s of 
+acceleration."
+"He found that after only five seconds, the blood flow to the pilots’ eyes 
+diminished, so that their peripheral vision dimmed, creating the image 
+of a long tunnel. This could explain the tunnel that is often seen by 
+people having a near-death experience. If the periphery of your vision 
+blacks out, all you see is the narrow tunnel in front of you. But because 
+Dr. Lampert could carefully adjust the velocity of the centrifuge by 
+turning a dial, he found he could keep the pilots in this state indefinitely, 
+allowing him to prove that this tunnel vision is caused by loss of blood 
+flow to the periphery of the eye. 
+
+CAN CONSCIOUSNESS LEAVE YOUR BODY? 
+
+Some scientists who have investigated near-death and out-of-body 
+experiences are convinced that they are by-products of the brain itself 
+when it is placed under stressful conditions and its wiring gets confused. 
+However, there are other scientists who believe that one day, when our"
+"technology is sufficiently advanced decades from now, one’s 
+consciousness may truly be able to leave the body. Several controversial 
+methods have been suggested."
+"One method has been pioneered by futurist and inventor Dr. Ray 
+Kurzweil, who believes that consciousness may one day be uploaded into 
+a supercomputer. We once spoke at a conference together, and he told 
+me his fascination with computers and artificial intelligence began when 
+he was five years old and his parents bought him all sorts of mechanical 
+devices and toys. He loved to tinker with these devices, and even as a 
+child he knew he was destined to become an inventor. At MIT, he 
+received his doctorate under Dr. Marvin Minsky, one of the founders of 
+AI. Afterward, he cut his teeth applying pattern-recognition technology 
+to musical instruments and text-to-sound machines. He was able to 
+translate AI research in these areas into a string of companies. (He sold 
+his first company when he was only twenty.) His optical reader, which 
+could recognize text and convert it into sound, was heralded as an aid 
+for the blind, and was even mentioned by Walter Cronkite on the 
+evening news."
+"In order to be a successful inventor, he said to me, you always have to 
+be ahead of the curve, to anticipate change, not react to it. Indeed, Dr. 
+Kurzweil loves to make predictions, and many of them have mirrored 
+the remarkable exponential growth of digital technology. He made the 
+following predictions: 
+
+• By 2019, a $1,000 PC will have the computing power of the human 
+brain—twenty million billion calculations per second. (This number 
+is obtained by taking the one hundred billion neurons of the brain, 
+multiplying one thousand connections per neuron, and two hundred 
+calculations per second per connection.) 
+
+• By 2029, a $1,000 PC will be a thousand times more powerful than 
+the human brain; the human brain itself will be successfully 
+reversed engineered. 
+
+• By 2055, $1,000 of computing power will equal the processing 
+
+power of all the humans on the planet. (He adds modestly, “I may 
+be off by a year or two.”)"
+"power of all the humans on the planet. (He adds modestly, “I may 
+be off by a year or two.”) 
+
+In particular, the year 2045 looms as an important one for Dr. 
+Kurzweil, since that is when he believes the “singularity” will take hold. 
+By then, he claims, machines will have surpassed humans in intelligence 
+and in fact will have created next-generation robots even smarter than 
+themselves. Since this process can continue indefinitely, it means, 
+according to Dr. Kurzweil, a never-ending acceleration of the power of 
+machines. In this scenario, we should either merge with our creations or 
+step out of their way. (Although these dates are in the far future, he told 
+me that he wants to live long enough to see the day when humans 
+finally become immortal; that is, he wants to live long enough to live 
+forever.)"
+"As we know from Moore’s law, at a certain point computer power can 
+no longer advance by creating smaller and smaller transistors. In 
+Kurzweil’s opinion, the only way to expand computing power further 
+would be to increase overall size, which would leave robots scavenging 
+for more computer power by devouring the minerals of the Earth. Once 
+the planet has become a gigantic computer, robots may be forced to go 
+into outer space, searching for more sources of computer power. 
+Eventually, they may consume the power of entire stars. 
+
+I once asked him if this cosmic growth of computers could alter the 
+cosmos itself. Yes, he replied. He told me that he sometimes looks at the 
+night sky, wondering if on some distant planet intelligent beings have 
+already attained the singularity. If so, then perhaps they should leave 
+some mark on the stars themselves that might be visible to the naked 
+eye."
+"One limitation he told me, is the speed of light. Unless these machines 
+can break the light barrier, this exponential rise in power may hit a 
+ceiling. When that happens, says Kurzweil, perhaps they will alter the 
+laws of physics themselves. 
+
+Anyone who makes predictions with such precision and scope 
+naturally invites criticism like a lightning rod, but it doesn’t seem to faze 
+him. People can quibble about this or that prediction, since Kurzweil has 
+missed some of his deadlines, but he is mainly concerned about the 
+thrust of his ideas, which predict the exponential growth of technology. 
+To be fair, most people working in the field of AI whom I have 
+interviewed agree that some form of a singularity will happen, but they 
+disagree sharply on when it might occur and how it will unfold. For"
+"example, Bill Gates, cofounder of Microsoft, believes that no one alive 
+today will live to see the day when computers are smart enough to pass 
+for a human. Kevin Kelly, an editor for Wired magazine, has said, 
+“People who predict a very utopian future always predict that it is going 
+to happen before they die.” 
+
+Indeed, one of Kurzweil’s many goals is to bring his father back to life. 
+Or rather, he wants to create a realistic simulation. There are several 
+possibilities, but all are still highly speculative. 
+
+Kurzweil proposes that perhaps DNA can be extracted from his father 
+(from his grave site, relatives, or organic materials he left behind). 
+Contained within roughly twenty-three thousand genes would be a 
+complete blueprint to re-create the body of that individual. Then a clone 
+could be grown from the DNA."
+"This is certainly a possibility. I once asked Dr. Robert Lanza of the 
+company Advanced Cell Technology how he was able to bring a long- 
+dead creature “back to life,” making history in the process. He told me 
+that the San Diego Zoo asked him to create a clone of a banteng, an 
+oxlike creature that had died out about twenty-five years earlier. The 
+hard part was extracting a usable cell for the purpose of cloning. 
+However, he was successful, and then he FedExed the cell to a farm, 
+where it was implanted into a female cow, which then gave birth to this 
+animal. Although no primate has ever been cloned, let alone a human, 
+Lanza feels it’s a technical problem, and that it’s only a matter of time 
+before someone clones a human."
+"This would be the easy part, though. The clone would be genetically 
+equivalent to the original, but without its memories. Artificial memories 
+might be uploaded to the brain using the pioneering methods described 
+in Chapter 5, such as inserting probes into the hippocampus or creating 
+an artificial hippocampus, but Kurzweil’s father has long passed, so it’s 
+impossible to make the recording in the first place. The best one can do 
+is to assemble piecemeal all historical data about that person, such as by 
+interviewing others who possess relevant memories, or accessing their 
+credit card transactions, etc., and then inputting them into the program. 
+
+A more practical way of inserting a person’s personality and memory 
+would be to create a large data file containing all known information 
+about a person’s habits and life. For example, today it is possible to store 
+all your e-mail, credit card transactions, records, schedules, electronic"
+"diaries, and life history onto a single file, which can create a remarkably 
+accurate picture of who you are. This file would represent your entire 
+“digital signature,” representing everything that is known about you. It 
+would be remarkably accurate and intimate, detailing what wines you 
+like, how you spend vacations, what kind of soap you use, your favorite 
+
+singer, and so on."
+"Also, with a questionnaire, it would be possible to create a rough 
+approximation of Kurzweil’s father’s personality. His friends, relatives, 
+and associates would fill out a questionnaire containing scores of 
+questions about his personality, such as whether he was shy, curious, 
+honest, hardworking, etc. Then they would assign a number to each trait 
+(e.g., a “10” would mean that you are very honest). This would create a 
+string of hundreds of numbers, each one ranking a specific personality 
+trait. Once this vast set of numbers was compiled, a computer program 
+would take these data and approximate how he would behave in 
+hypothetical situations. Let’s say that you are giving a speech and are 
+confronted with an especially obnoxious heckler. The computer program 
+would then scan the numbers and then predict one of several possible 
+outcomes (e.g., ignore the heckler, heckle back, or get into a brawl with 
+the heckler). In other words, his basic personality would be reduced to a"
+"the heckler). In other words, his basic personality would be reduced to a 
+long string of numbers, each from 1 to 10, which can be used by a 
+computer to predict how he would react to new situations."
+"The result would be a vast computer program that would respond to 
+new situations roughly the way the original person would have, using 
+the same verbal expressions and having the same quirks, all tempered 
+with the memories of that person. 
+
+Another possibility would be to forgo the whole cloning process and 
+simply create a robot resembling the original person. It would then be 
+straightforward to insert this program into a mechanical device that 
+looks like you, talks with the same accent and mannerisms, and moves 
+its arms and limbs the same way that you do. Adding your favorite 
+expressions (e.g., “you know ...”) would also be easy. 
+
+Of course, today it would be easy to detect that this robot is a fake. 
+However, in the coming decades, it may be possible to get closer and 
+closer to the original, so it might be good enough to fool some people. 
+
+But this raises a philosophical question. Is this “person” really the 
+same as the original? The original is still dead, so the clone or robot is,"
+"strictly speaking, still an impostor. A tape recorder, for example, might 
+reproduce a conversation we have with perfect fidelity, but that tape 
+recorder is certainly not the original. Can a clone or robot that behaves 
+just like the original be a valid substitute? 
+
+IMMORTALITY 
+
+These methods have been criticized because this process does not 
+realistically input your true personality and memories. A more faithful 
+way of putting a mind into a machine is via the Connectome Project, 
+which we discussed in the last chapter and which seeks to duplicate, 
+neuron for neuron, all the cellular pathways of your brain. All your 
+memories and personality quirks are already embedded in the 
+connectome."
+"The Connectome Project’s Dr. Sebastian Seung notes that some people 
+pay $100,000 or more to have their brains frozen in liquid nitrogen. 
+Certain animals, like fish and frogs, can be frozen solid in a block of ice 
+in winter yet be perfectly healthy after thawing out in spring. This is 
+because they use glucose as an antifreeze to alter the freezing point of 
+water in their blood. Thus their blood remains liquid, even though they 
+are encased in solid ice. This high concentration of glucose in the human 
+body, however, would probably be fatal, so freezing the human brain in 
+liquid nitrogen is a dubious pursuit because expanding ice crystals would 
+rupture the cell wall from the inside (and also, as brain cells die, calcium 
+ions rush in, causing the brain cells to expand until they finally rupture). 
+In either case, brain cells would most likely not survive the freezing 
+process."
+"Rather than freezing the body and having the cells rupture, a more 
+reliable process to attain immortality might be to have your connectome 
+completed. In this scenario, your doctor would have all your neural 
+connections on a hard drive. Basically, your soul would now be on a 
+disk, reduced to information. Then at a future point, someone would be 
+able to resurrect your connectome and, in principle, use either a clone or 
+a tangle of transistors to bring you back to life. 
+
+The Connectome Project, as we mentioned, is still far from being able 
+to record a human’s neural connections. But as Dr. Seung says, “Should 
+
+we ridicule the modern seekers of immortality, calling them fools? Or 
+will they someday chuckle over our graves?” 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS AND IMMORTALITY"
+"MENTAL ILLNESS AND IMMORTALITY 
+
+Immortality may have its drawbacks, however. The electronic brains 
+being built so far contain only the connections between the cortex and 
+the thalamus. The reverse-engineered brain, lacking a body, might begin 
+to suffer from sensory isolation and even manifest signs of mental illness, 
+as prisoners do when they are placed into solitary confinement. Perhaps 
+the price of creating an immortal, reverse-engineered brain is madness."
+"Subjects who are placed in isolation chambers, where they are 
+deprived of any contact with the outside world, eventually hallucinate. 
+In 2008, BBC-TV aired a science program titled Total Isolation, in which 
+they followed six volunteers as they were placed inside a nuclear bunker, 
+alone and in complete darkness. After just two days, three of the 
+volunteers began to see and hear things—snakes, cars, zebras, and 
+oysters. After they were released, doctors found that all of them suffered 
+from mental deterioration. One subject’s memory suffered a 36 percent 
+drop. One can imagine that, after a few weeks or months of this, most of 
+them might go insane."
+"To maintain the sanity of a reverse-engineered brain, it might be 
+essential to connect it to sensors that receive signals from the 
+environment so it would be able to see and feel sensations from the 
+outside world. But then another problem arises: it might feel that it is a 
+grotesque freak, an unwieldy scientific guinea pig living at the mercy of 
+a science experiment. Because this brain has the same memory and 
+personality as the original human, it would crave human contact. And 
+yet, lurking inside the memory of some supercomputer, with a macabre 
+jungle of electrodes dangling outside, the reverse-engineered brain 
+would be repulsive to any human. Bonding with it would be impossible. 
+Its friends would turn away. 
+
+THE CAVEMAN PRINCIPLE 
+
+At this point, what I call the Caveman Principle starts to kick in. Why do 
+
+so many reasonable predictions fail? And why would someone not want 
+to live forever inside a computer?"
+"The Caveman Principle is this: given a choice between high-tech or 
+high-touch, we opt for high-touch every time. For example, if we are 
+given a choice between tickets to see our favorite musician live or a CD 
+of the same musician in concert, which would we choose? Or if we are 
+given a choice between tickets to visit the Taj Mahal or just seeing a 
+beautiful picture of it, which would we prefer? More than likely the live 
+concert and the airplane tickets. 
+
+This is because we have inherited the consciousness of our apelike 
+ancestors. Some of our basic personality has probably not changed much 
+in the last one hundred thousand years, since the first modern humans 
+emerged in Africa. A large portion of our consciousness is devoted to 
+looking good and trying to impress members of the opposite sex and our 
+peers. This is hardwired into our brains. 
+
+More likely, given our basic, apelike consciousness, we will merge 
+with computers only if this enhances but does not totally replace our 
+present-day body."
+"The Caveman Principle probably explains why some reasonable 
+predictions about the future never materialized, such as “the paperless 
+office.” Computers were supposed to banish paper from the office; 
+ironically, computers have actually created even more paper. This is 
+because we are descended from hunters who need “proof of the kill” 
+(i.e., we trust concrete evidence, not ephemeral electrons dancing on a 
+computer screen that vanish when you turn it off). Likewise, the 
+“peopleless city,” where people would use virtual reality to go to 
+meetings instead of commuting, never materialized. Commuting to cities 
+is worse than ever. Why? Because we are social animals who like to 
+bond with others. Videoconferencing, although useful, cannot pick up 
+the full spectrum of subtle information offered via body language. A 
+boss, for example, may want to ferret out problems in his staff and 
+therefore wants to see them squirm and sweat under interrogation. You 
+can do this only in person. 
+
+CAVEMEN AND NEUROSCIENCE"
+"CAVEMEN AND NEUROSCIENCE 
+
+When I was a child, I read Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy and was 
+deeply influenced by it. First, it forced me to ask a simple question: 
+What will technology look like fifty thousand years in the future, when 
+we have a galactic empire? I also couldn’t help wondering throughout 
+the novel, Why do humans look and act the same as they do now? I 
+thought that surely thousands of years into the future humans should 
+have cyborg bodies with superhuman abilities. They should have given 
+up their puny human forms millennia ago."
+"I came up with two answers. First, Asimov wanted to appeal to a 
+young audience willing to buy his book, so he had to create characters 
+that those people could identify with, including all their faults. Second, 
+perhaps people in the future will have the option to have superpowered 
+bodies but prefer to look normal most of the time. This would be 
+because their minds have not changed since humans first emerged from 
+the forest, and so acceptance from their peers and the opposite sex still 
+determines what they look like and what they want out of life. 
+
+So now let us apply the Caveman Principle to the neuroscience of the 
+future. At the minimum, it means that any modification of the basic 
+human form would have to be nearly invisible on the outside. We don’t 
+want to resemble a refugee from a science-fiction movie, with electrodes 
+dangling from our head. Brain implants that might insert memories or 
+increase our intelligence will be adopted only if nanotechnology can"
+"make microscopic sensors and probes that are invisible to the naked eye. 
+In the future, it might be possible to make nanofibers, perhaps made of 
+carbon nanotubes one molecule thick, so thin that they would be able to 
+make contact with neurons with surgical precision and yet leave our 
+appearance unaltered, with our mental capabilities enhanced. 
+
+Meanwhile, if we need to be connected to a supercomputer to upload 
+information, we won’t want to be tied to a cable jacked into our spinal 
+cord, as in The Matrix. The connection will have to be wireless so we can 
+access vast amounts of computer power simply by mentally locating the 
+nearest server. 
+
+Today we have cochlear implants and artificial retinas that can give 
+the gift of sound and sight to patients, but in the future our senses will 
+be enhanced using nanotechnology while we preserve our basic human 
+form. For instance, we might have the option of enhancing our muscles, 
+via genetic modification or exoskeletons. There could be a human body"
+"shop from which we could order new spare parts as the old ones wear 
+out, but these and other physical enhancements of the body would have 
+to avoid abandoning the human form. 
+
+Another way to use this technology in accordance with the Caveman 
+Principle is to use it as an option, rather than a permanent way of life. 
+One might want the option of plugging into this technology and then 
+unplugging soon afterward. Scientists may want to boost their 
+intelligence to solve a particularly tricky problem. But afterward, they 
+will be able to take off their helmets or implants and go about their 
+business. In this way, we are not caught looking like a space cadet to our 
+friends. The point is that no one would force you to do any of this. We 
+would want the option of enjoying the benefits of this technology 
+without the downside of looking silly."
+"So in the centuries to come, it is likely our bodies will look very 
+similar to the ones we possess today, except that they will be perfect and 
+have enhanced powers. It is a relic of our apelike past that our 
+consciousness is dominated by ancient desires and wishes. 
+
+But what about immortality? As we have seen, a reverse-engineered 
+brain, with all the personality quirks of the original person, would 
+eventually go mad if placed inside a computer. Furthermore, connecting 
+this brain to external sensors so it could feel sensations from its 
+environment would create a grotesque monstrosity. One partial solution 
+to this problem is to connect the reverse-engineered brain to an 
+exoskeleton. If the exoskeleton acts like a surrogate, then the reverse- 
+engineered brain would be able to enjoy sensations such as touch and 
+sight without looking grotesque. Eventually the exoskeleton would go"
+"wireless, so that it would act like a human but be controlled by a 
+reverse-engineered brain “living” inside a computer. 
+
+This surrogate would have the best of both worlds. Being an 
+exoskeleton, it would be perfect. It would possess superpowers. Since it 
+would be wirelessly connected to a reverse-engineered brain inside a 
+large computer, it would also be immortal. And lastly, since it would 
+sense the environment and look appealingly like a real human, it would 
+not have as many problems interacting with humans, many of whom 
+will also have probably opted for this procedure. So the actual 
+connectome would reside in a stationary supercomputer, although its 
+consciousness would manifest itself in a perfect, mobile surrogate body. 
+
+All this would require a level of technology far beyond anything that 
+is attainable today. However, given the rapid pace of scientific progress, 
+this could become a reality by the end of the century. 
+
+GRADUAL TRANSFERENCE"
+"GRADUAL TRANSFERENCE 
+
+Right now the process of reverse engineering involves transferring the 
+information within the brain, neuron for neuron. The brain has to be cut 
+up into thin slices, since MRI scans are not yet refined enough to identify 
+the precise neural architecture of the living brain. So until that can be 
+done, the obvious disadvantage of this approach is that you have to die 
+before you can be reversed engineered. Since the brain degenerates 
+rapidly after death, its preservation would have to take place 
+immediately, which is very difficult to accomplish."
+"But there may be one way to attain immortality without having to die 
+first. This idea was pioneered by Dr. Hans Moravec, former director of 
+the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University. 
+When I interviewed him, he told me that he envisions a time in the 
+distant future when we will be able to reverse engineer the brain for a 
+specific purpose: to transfer the mind into an immortal robotic body 
+even while a person is still conscious. If we can reverse engineer every 
+neuron of the brain, why not create a copy made of transistors, 
+duplicating precisely the thought processes of the mind? In this way, you 
+do not have to die in order to live forever. You can be conscious 
+throughout the entire process."
+"He told me that this process would have to be done in steps. First, you 
+lie on a stretcher, next to a robot lacking a brain. Next, a robotic surgeon 
+extracts a few neurons from your brain, and then duplicates these 
+neurons with some transistors located in the robot. Wires connect your 
+brain to the transistors in the robot’s empty head. The neurons are then 
+
+thrown away and replaced by the transistor circuit. Since your brain 
+remains connected to these transistors via wires, it functions normally 
+and you are fully conscious during this process. Then the super surgeon 
+removes more and more neurons from your brain, each time duplicating 
+these neurons with transistors in the robot. Midway through the 
+operation, half of your brain is empty; the other half is connected by 
+
+wires to a large collection of transistors inside the robot’s head. 
+Eventually all the neurons in your brain have been removed, leaving a 
+robot brain that is an exact duplicate of your original brain, neuron for 
+neuron."
+"At the end of this process, however, you rise from the stretcher and 
+find that your body is perfectly formed. You are handsome and beautiful 
+beyond your dreams, with superhuman powers and abilities. As a perk, 
+you are also immortal. You gaze back at your original mortal body, 
+which is just an aging shell without a mind. 
+
+This technology, of course, is far ahead of our time. We cannot reverse 
+engineer the human brain, let alone make a carbon copy made of 
+transistors. (One of the main criticisms of this approach is that a 
+transistorized brain may not fit inside the skull. In fact, given the size of 
+electronic components, the transistorized brain may be the size of a huge 
+supercomputer. In this sense, this proposal begins to resemble the 
+previous one, in which the reverse-engineered brain is stored in a huge 
+supercomputer, which in turn controls a surrogate. But the great 
+advantage of this approach is that you don’t have to die; you’d be fully 
+conscious during the process.)"
+"One’s head spins contemplating these possibilities. All of them seem to 
+be consistent with the laws of physics, but the technological barriers to 
+achieving them are truly formidable. All these proposals for uploading 
+consciousness into a computer require a technology that is far into the 
+future. 
+
+But there is one last proposal for attaining immortality that does not 
+require reverse engineering the brain at all. It requires simply a 
+microscopic “nanobot” that can manipulate individual atoms. So why 
+not live forever in your own natural body, but with a periodic “tune-up” 
+that makes it immortal? 
+
+WHAT IS AGING? 
+
+This new approach incorporates the latest research into the aging 
+process. Traditionally there has been no consensus among biologists 
+
+about the source of the aging process. But within the last decade, a new 
+theory has gained gradual acceptance and has unified many strands of"
+"research into aging. Basically, aging is the buildup of errors, at the 
+genetic and cellular level. As cells get older, errors begin to build up in 
+their DNA and cellular debris also starts to accumulate, which makes 
+cells sluggish. As cells begin to slowly malfunction, skin begins to sag, 
+bones become frail, hair falls out, and our immune system deteriorates. 
+Eventually, we die. 
+
+But cells also have error-correcting mechanisms. Over time, however, 
+even these error-correcting mechanisms begin to fail, and aging 
+accelerates. The goal, therefore, is to strengthen the natural cell-repair 
+mechanisms, which can be done via gene therapy and the creation of 
+new enzymes. But there is also another way: using “nanobot” 
+assemblers."
+"One of the linchpins of this futuristic technology is something called 
+the “nanobot,” or an atomic machine, which patrols the bloodstream, 
+zapping cancer cells, repairing the damage from the aging process, and 
+keeping us forever young and healthy. Nature has already created some 
+nanobots, in the form of immune cells that patrol the body in the blood. 
+But these immune cells attack viruses and foreign bodies, not the aging 
+process. 
+
+Immortality is within reach if these nanobots can reverse the ravages 
+of the aging process at the molecular and cellular level. In this vision, 
+nanobots are like immune cells, tiny police patrolling your bloodstream. 
+They attack any cancer cells, neutralize viruses, and clean out the debris 
+and mutations. Then the possibility of immortality would be within 
+reach using our own bodies, not some robot or clone. 
+
+NANOBOTS—REAL OR FANTASY?"
+"NANOBOTS—REAL OR FANTASY? 
+
+My own personal philosophy is that if something is consistent with the 
+laws of physics, then it becomes an engineering and economics problem 
+to build it. The engineering and economic hurdles may be formidable, of 
+course, making it impractical for the present, but nonetheless it is still 
+possible. 
+
+On the surface, the nanobot is simple: an atomic machine with arms 
+and clippers that grabs molecules, cuts them at specific points, and then 
+splices them back together. By cutting and pasting various atoms, the"
+"nanobot can create almost any known molecule, like a magician pulling 
+something out of a hat. It can also self-reproduce, so it is necessary to 
+build only one nanobot. This nanobot will then take raw materials, 
+digest them, and create millions of other nanobots. This could trigger a 
+second Industrial Revolution, as the cost of building materials plummets. 
+One day, perhaps every home will have its own personal molecular 
+assembler, so you can have anything you want just by asking for it."
+"But the key question is: Are nanobots consistent with the laws of 
+physics? Back in 2001, two visionaries practically came to blows over 
+this crucial question. At stake was nothing less than a vision of the entire 
+future of technology. On one side was the late Richard Smalley, a Nobel 
+laureate in chemistry and skeptical of nanobots. On the other side was 
+Eric Drexler, one of the founding fathers of nanotechnology. Their 
+titanic, tit-for-tat battle played out in the pages of several scientific 
+magazines from 2001 to 2003."
+"Smalley said that, at the atomic scale, new quantum forces emerge 
+that make nanobots impossible. The error made by Drexler and others, 
+he claimed, is that the nanobot, with its clippers and arms, cannot 
+function at the atomic scale. There are novel forces (e.g., the Casimir 
+force) that cause atoms to repel or attract one another. He called this the 
+“sticky, fat fingers” problem, because the fingers of the nanobot are not 
+like delicate, precise pliers and wrenches. Quantum forces get in the 
+way, so it’s like trying to weld metals together while wearing gloves that 
+are many inches thick. Furthermore, every time you try to weld two 
+pieces of metal together, these pieces are either repelled or stick to you, 
+so you can never grab one properly."
+"Drexler then fired back, stating that nanobots are not science fiction— 
+they actually exist. Think of the ribosomes in our own body. They are 
+essential in creating and molding DNA molecules. They can cut and 
+splice DNA molecules at specific points, which makes possible the 
+creation of new DNA strands. 
+
+But Smalley wasn’t satisfied, stating that ribosomes are not all-purpose 
+machines that can cut and paste anything you want; they work 
+specifically on DNA molecules. Moreover, ribosomes are organic 
+chemicals that need enzymes to speed up the reaction, which occurs 
+only in a watery environment. Transistors are made of silicon, not water, 
+so these enzymes would never work, he concluded. Drexel, in turn, 
+
+mentioned that catalysts can work even without water. This heated 
+exchange went back and forth through several rounds. In the end, like 
+two evenly matched prizefighters, both sides seemed exhausted. Drexler 
+had to admit that the analogy to workers with cutters and blowtorches"
+"was too simplistic, that quantum forces do get in the way sometimes. But 
+Smalley had to concede that he was unable to score a knockout blow. 
+Nature had at least one way of evading the “sticky, fat fingers” problem, 
+with ribosomes, and perhaps there might be other subtle, unforeseen 
+ways as well. 
+
+Regardless of the details of this debate, Ray Kurzweil is convinced that 
+these nanobots, whether or not they have fat, sticky fingers, will one day 
+shape not just molecules, but society itself. He summarized his vision 
+when he said, “I’m not planning to die.... I see it, ultimately, as an 
+awakening of the whole universe. I think the whole universe right now is 
+basically made up of dumb matter and energy and I think it will wake 
+up. But if it becomes transformed into this sublimely intelligent matter 
+and energy, I hope to be part of that.”"
+"As fantastic as these speculations are, they are only a preface to the 
+next leap in speculation. Perhaps one day the mind will not only be free 
+of its material body, it will also be able to explore the universe as a 
+being of pure energy. The idea that consciousness will one day be free to 
+roam among the stars is the ultimate dream. As incredible as it may 
+sound, this is well within the laws of physics. 
+
+13 THE MIND AS PURE ENERGY 
+
+The idea that one day consciousness may spread throughout the 
+universe has been considered seriously by physicists. Sir Martin Rees, the 
+Royal Astronomer of Great Britain, has written, “Wormholes, extra 
+dimensions, and quantum computers open up speculative scenarios that 
+could transform our entire universe eventually into a ‘living cosmos’!”"
+"But will the mind one day be freed of its material body to explore the 
+entire universe? This was the theme explored in Isaac Asimov’s classic 
+science-fiction tale “The Last Question.” (He would fondly recall that this 
+was his favorite science-fiction short story of all the ones he had 
+written.) In it, billions of years into the future, humans will have placed 
+their physical bodies in pods on an obscure planet, freeing their minds to 
+control pure energy throughout the galaxy. Instead of surrogates made 
+of steel and silicon, these surrogates are pure energy beings that can 
+effortlessly roam the distant reaches of space, past exploding stars, 
+colliding galaxies, and other wonders of the universe. But no matter how 
+powerful humanity has become, it is helpless as it witnesses the ultimate 
+death of the universe itself in the Big Freeze. In desperation, humanity 
+constructs a supercomputer to answer the final question: Can the death"
+"constructs a supercomputer to answer the final question: Can the death 
+of the universe be reversed? The computer is so large and complex that 
+it has to be placed in hyperspace. But the computer simply responds that 
+there is insufficient information to give an answer."
+"Eons later, as the stars begin to turn dark, all life in the universe is 
+about to die. But then the supercomputer finally discovers a way to 
+reverse the death of the universe. It collects dead stars from across the 
+universe, combines them into one gigantic cosmic ball, and ignites it. As 
+the ball explodes, the supercomputer announces, “Let there be light!” 
+
+And there was light. 
+
+So humanity, once freed of the physical body, is capable of playing 
+God and creating a new universe. 
+
+At first, Asimov���s fantastic tale of beings made of pure energy roaming 
+
+across the universe sounds impossible. We are accustomed to thinking of 
+beings made of flesh and blood, which are at the mercy of the laws of 
+physics and biology, living and breathing on Earth, and bound by the 
+gravity of our planet. The concept of conscious entities of energy, 
+soaring across the galaxy, unimpeded by the limitations of material 
+bodies, is a strange one."
+"Yet this dream of exploring the universe as beings of pure energy is 
+well within the laws of physics. Think of the most familiar form of pure 
+energy, a laser beam, which is capable of containing vast amounts of 
+information. Today trillions of signals in the form of phone calls, data 
+packages, videos, and e-mail messages are transmitted routinely by fiber¬ 
+optic cables carrying laser beams. One day, perhaps sometime in the 
+next century, we will be able to transmit the consciousness of our brains 
+throughout the solar system by placing our entire connectomes onto 
+powerful laser beams. A century beyond that, we may be able to send 
+our connectome to the stars, riding on a light beam."
+"(This is possible because the wavelength of a laser beam is 
+microscopic, i.e., measured in millionths of a meter. That means you can 
+compress vast amounts of information on its wave pattern. Think of 
+Morse code. The dots and dashes of Morse code can easily be 
+superimposed on the wave pattern of a laser beam. Even more 
+information can be transferred onto a beam of X-rays, which has a 
+wavelength even smaller than an atom.) 
+
+One way to explore the galaxy, unbound by the messy restrictions of 
+ordinary matter, is to place our connectomes onto laser beams directed 
+at the moon, the planets, and even the stars. Given the crash program to 
+find the pathways of the brain, the complete connectome of the human 
+brain will be available late in this century, and a form of the connectome 
+capable of being placed on a laser beam might be available in the next 
+century."
+"The laser beam would contain all the information necessary to 
+reassemble a conscious being. Although it may take years or even 
+centuries for the laser beam to reach its destination, from the point of 
+view of the person riding on the laser beam, the trip would be 
+instantaneous. Our consciousness is essentially frozen on the laser beam 
+as it soars through empty space, so the trip to the other side of the 
+galaxy appears to take place in the blink of an eye."
+"In this way, we avoid all the unpleasant features of interplanetary and 
+interstellar travel. First, there is no need to build colossal booster 
+rockets. Instead, you simply press the “on” button of a laser. Second, 
+there are no powerful g forces crushing your body as you accelerate into 
+space. Instead, you are boosted instantly to the speed of light, since you 
+are immaterial. Third, you don’t have to suffer the hazards of outer 
+space, such as meteor impacts and deadly cosmic rays, since asteroids 
+and radiation pass right through you harmlessly. Fourth, you don’t have 
+to freeze your body or endure years of boredom as you lumber tediously 
+inside a conventional rocket. Instead, you zip across space at the fastest 
+velocity in the universe, frozen in time."
+"Once we reach our destination, there would have to be a receiving 
+station to transfer the data of the laser beam onto a mainframe 
+computer, which then brings the conscious being back to life. The code 
+that was imprinted onto the laser beam now takes control of the 
+computer and redirects its programming. The connectome directs the 
+mainframe computer to begin simulating the future to attain its goals 
+(i.e., it becomes conscious). 
+
+This conscious being inside the mainframe then sends signals 
+wirelessly to a robotic surrogate body, which has been waiting for us at 
+the destination. In this way, we suddenly “wake up” on a distant planet 
+or star, as if the trip took place in the blink of an eye, inside the robotic 
+body of our surrogate. All the complex computations take place in a 
+large mainframe computer, which directs the movements of a surrogate 
+to carry on with our business on a distant star. We are oblivious to the 
+hazards of space travel, as if nothing had happened."
+"Now imagine a vast network of these stations spread out over the solar 
+system and even the galaxy. From our point of view, hopping from star 
+to star would be almost effortless, traveling at the speed of light in 
+journeys that are instantaneous. At each station, there is a robotic 
+surrogate waiting for us to enter its body, just like an empty hotel room 
+waiting for us to check in. We arrive at our destination refreshed and 
+equipped with a superhuman body. 
+
+The type of surrogate robotic body that awaits us at the end of this 
+
+journey would depend on the mission. If the job is to explore a new 
+world, then the surrogate body would have to work in harsh conditions. 
+It would have to adjust to a different gravitational field, a poisonous 
+
+atmosphere, freezing-cold or blistering-hot temperatures, different day- 
+night cycles, and a constant rain of deadly radiation. To survive under 
+these harsh conditions, the surrogate body would have to have super 
+strength and super senses."
+"If the surrogate body is purely for relaxation, then it would be 
+designed for leisurely activities. It would maximize the pleasure of 
+soaring through space on skis, surfboards, kites, gliders, or planes, or of 
+sending a ball through space propelled by the swing of a bat, club, or 
+racket. 
+
+Or if the job is to mingle with and study the local natives, then the 
+surrogate would approximate the bodily characteristics of the indigenous 
+population (as in the movie Avatar )."
+"Admittedly, in order to create this network of laser stations in the first 
+place, it might be necessary first to travel to the planets and stars in the 
+old-fashioned way, in more conventional rocket ships. Then one could 
+build the first set of these laser stations. (Perhaps the fastest, cheapest, 
+and most efficient way of creating this interstellar network would be to 
+send self-replicating robotic probes throughout the galaxy. Because they 
+can make copies of themselves, starting with one such probe, after many 
+generations there would be billions of such probes streaming out in all 
+directions, each one creating a laser station wherever it lands. We will 
+discuss this further in the next chapter.) 
+
+But once the network is fully established, one can conceive of a 
+continual stream of conscious beings roaming the galaxy, so that at any 
+time crowds of people are leaving and arriving from distant parts of the 
+galaxy. Any laser station in the network might look like Grand Central 
+Station."
+"As futuristic as this may sound, the basic physics for this concept are 
+already well established. This includes placing vast amounts of data onto 
+laser beams, sending this information across thousands of miles, and 
+then decoding the information at the other end. The major problems 
+facing this idea are therefore not in the physics, but in the engineering. 
+Because of this, it may take us until the next century to send our entire 
+connectome on laser beams powerful enough to reach the planets. It 
+might take us still another century to beam our minds to the stars. 
+
+To see if this is feasible, it is instructive to do a few simple, back-of- 
+the-envelope calculations. The first problem is that the photons inside a"
+"pencil-thin laser beam, although they appear to be in perfectly parallel 
+formation, actually diverge slightly in space. (When I was a child, I used 
+to shine a flashlight at the moon and wonder if the light ever reached it. 
+The answer is yes. The atmosphere absorbs over 90 percent of the 
+original beam, leaving some remaining to reach the moon. But the real 
+problem is that the image the flashlight finally casts on the moon is 
+miles across. This is because of the uncertainty principle; even laser 
+beams must diverge slowly. Since you cannot know the precise location 
+of the laser beam, it must, by the laws of quantum physics, slowly spread 
+out over time.)"
+"But beaming our connectomes to the moon does not give us much 
+advantage, since it’s easier simply to remain on Earth and control the 
+lunar surrogate directly by radio. The delay is only about a second when 
+issuing commands to the surrogate. The real advantage comes when 
+controlling surrogates on the planets, since a radio message may take 
+hours to reach a surrogate there. The process of issuing a series of radio 
+commands to a surrogate, waiting for a response, and issuing another 
+command would be painfully slow, taking days on end. 
+
+If you want to send a laser beam to the planets, you first have to 
+establish a battery of lasers on the moon, well above the atmosphere, so 
+there is no air to absorb the signal. Shot from the moon, a laser beam to 
+the planets could arrive in a matter of minutes to a few hours. Once the 
+laser beam has sent the connectome to the planets, then it’s possible to 
+directly control the surrogate without any delay factors at all."
+"So establishing a network of these laser stations throughout the solar 
+system could be accomplished by the next century. But the problems are 
+magnified when we try sending the beam to the stars. This means that 
+we must have relay stations placed on asteroids and space stations along 
+the way, in order to amplify the signal, reduce errors, and send the 
+message to the next relay station. This could potentially be done by 
+using the comets that lie between our sun and the nearby stars. For 
+example, extending about a light-year from the sun (or one-quarter of 
+the distance to the nearest star) is the Oort cloud of comets. It is a 
+spherical shell of billions of comets, many of which lie motionless in 
+empty space. There is probably a similar Oort cloud of comets 
+surrounding the Centauri star system, which is our nearest stellar 
+neighbor. Assuming that this Oort cloud also extends a light-year from"
+"those stars, then fully half the distance from our solar system to the next 
+contains stationary comets on which we can build laser relay stations. 
+
+Another problem is the sheer amount of data that must be sent by 
+laser beam. The total information contained in one’s connectome, 
+according to Dr. Sebastian Seung, is roughly one zettabyte (that is, a 1 
+with twenty-one zeros after it). This is roughly equivalent to the total 
+information contained in the World Wide Web today. Now consider 
+shooting a battery of laser beams into space carrying this vast mountain 
+of information. Optical fibers can carry terabytes of data per second (a 1 
+with twelve zeros after it). Within the next century, advances in 
+information storage, data compression, and bundling of laser beams may 
+increase this efficiency by a factor of a million. This means that it would 
+take a few hours or so to send the beam into space carrying all the 
+information contained within the brain."
+"So the problem is not the sheer amount of data sent on laser beams. In 
+principle, laser beams can carry an unlimited amount of data. The real 
+bottlenecks are the receiving stations at either end, which must have 
+switches that rapidly manipulate this amount of data at blinding speed. 
+Silicon transistors may not be fast enough to handle this volume of data. 
+Instead, we might have to use quantum computers, which compute not 
+on silicon transistors but on individual atoms. At present, quantum 
+computers are at a primitive level, but by the next century they might be 
+powerful enough to handle zettabytes of information. 
+
+FLOATING BEINGS OF ENERGY"
+"FLOATING BEINGS OF ENERGY 
+
+Another advantage of using quantum computers to process this 
+mountain of data is the chance to create beings of energy that can hover 
+and float in the air, which appear frequently in science fiction and 
+fantasy. These beings would represent consciousness in its purest form. 
+At first, however, they may seem to violate the laws of physics, since 
+light always travels at the speed of light. 
+
+But in the last decade, headlines were made by physicists at Harvard 
+University who announced that they were able to stop a beam of light 
+dead in its tracks. These physicists apparently accomplished the 
+impossible, slowing down a light beam to a leisurely pace until it could"
+"be placed in a bottle. Capturing a light beam in a bottle is not so 
+fantastic if you look carefully at a glass of water. As a light beam enters 
+the water, it slows down, bending as it enters the water at an angle. 
+Similarly, light bends as it enters glass, making telescopes and 
+microscopes possible. The reason for all this comes from the quantum 
+theory. 
+
+Think of the old Pony Express, which delivered the mail in the"
+"Think of the old Pony Express, which delivered the mail in the 
+
+nineteenth century in the American West. Each pony could sprint 
+between relay stations at great speed. But the bottleneck was the delay 
+factor at each relay station, where the mail, rider, and pony had to be 
+exchanged. This slowed down the average velocity of the mail 
+considerably. In the same way, in the vacuum between atoms, light still 
+travels at c, the speed of light, which is roughly 186,282 miles per second. 
+However, when it hits atoms, light is delayed; it is briefly absorbed and 
+then reemitted by atoms, sending it on its way a fraction of a second 
+later. This slight delay is responsible for light beams, on average, 
+apparently slowing down in glass or water."
+"The Harvard scientists exploited this phenomenon, taking a container 
+of gas and carefully cooling it down to near absolute zero. At these 
+freezing temperatures, the gas atoms absorbed a light beam for longer 
+and longer time periods before reemitting it. Thus, by increasing this 
+delay factor, they could slow down the light beam until it came to rest. 
+The light beam still traveled at the speed of light between the gas atoms, 
+but it spent an increasing amount of time being absorbed by them. 
+
+This raises the possibility that a conscious being, instead of assuming 
+control of a surrogate, may prefer to remain in the form of pure energy 
+and roam, almost ghostlike, as pure energy."
+"So in the future, as laser beams are sent to the stars containing our 
+connectomes, the beam may be transferred into a cloud of gas molecules 
+and then contained in a bottle. This “bottle of light” is very similar to a 
+quantum computer. Both of them have a collection of atoms vibrating in 
+unison, in which the atoms are in phase with one another. And both of 
+them can do complex computations that are far beyond an ordinary 
+computer’s capability. So if the problems of quantum computers can be 
+solved, it may also give us the ability to manipulate these “bottles of 
+light.” 
+
+FASTER THAN LIGHT? 
+
+We see, then, that all these problems are ones of engineering. There is no 
+law of physics preventing traveling on an energy beam in the next 
+century or beyond. So this is perhaps the most convenient way of 
+visiting the planets and stars. Instead of riding on a light beam, as the 
+poets dreamed, we become the light beam."
+"To truly realize the vision expressed in Asimov’s science-fiction tale, 
+we need to ask if faster-than-light intergalactic travel is truly possible. In 
+his short story, beings of immense power move freely between galaxies 
+separated by millions of light-years. 
+
+Is this possible? To answer this question, we have to push the very 
+boundaries of modern quantum physics. Ultimately, things called 
+“wormholes” may provide a shortcut through the vastness of space and 
+time. And beings made of pure energy rather than matter would have a 
+decisive advantage in passing through them."
+"Einstein, in some sense, is like the cop on the block, stating that you 
+cannot go faster than light, the ultimate velocity in the universe. 
+Traveling across the Milky Way galaxy, for example, would take one 
+hundred thousand years, even sailing on a laser beam. Although only an 
+instant of time has passed for the traveler, the time on the home planet 
+has progressed one hundred thousand years. And passing between 
+galaxies involves millions to billions of light-years. 
+
+But Einstein himself left a loophole in his work. In his general theory 
+of relativity of 1915, he showed that gravity arose from the warping of 
+space-time. Gravity is not the “pull” of a mysterious invisible force, as 
+Newton once thought, but actually a “push” caused by space itself 
+bending around an object. Not only did this brilliantly explain the 
+bending of starlight passing near stars and the expansion of the universe, 
+it left open the possibility of the fabric of space-time stretching until it 
+ripped."
+"In 1935, Einstein and his student Nathan Rosen introduced the 
+possibility that two black-hole solutions could be joined back to back, 
+like Siamese twins, so if you fell into one black hole, you could, in 
+principle, pass out of the other one. (Imagine joining two funnels at their 
+ends. Water that drains through one funnel emerges from the other.) 
+This “wormhole,” also called the Einstein-Rosen Bridge, introduced the 
+
+possibility of portals or gateways between universes. Einstein himself 
+dismissed the possibility that you could pass through a black hole, since 
+you would be crushed in the process, but several subsequent 
+developments have raised the possibility of faster-than-light travel 
+through a wormhole."
+"First, in 1963, mathematician Roy Kerr discovered that a spinning 
+black hole does not collapse into a single dot, as previously thought, but 
+into a rotating ring, spinning so fast that centrifugal forces prevent it 
+from collapsing. If you fell through the ring, then you could pass into 
+another universe. The gravitational forces would be large, but not 
+infinite. This would be like Alice’s Looking Glass, where you could pass 
+your hand through the mirror and enter a parallel universe. The rim of 
+the Looking Glass would be the ring forming the black hole itself. Since 
+Kerr’s discovery, scores of other solutions of Einstein’s equations have 
+shown that you can, in principle, pass between universes without being 
+immediately crushed. Since every black hole seen so far in space is 
+
+spinning rapidly (some of them clocked at one million miles per hour), 
+this means that these cosmic gateways could be commonplace."
+"In 1988, physicist Dr. Kip Thorne of Cal Tech and his colleagues 
+showed that, with enough “negative energy,” it might be possible to 
+stabilize a black hole so that a wormhole becomes “transversable” (i.e., 
+you can freely pass through it both ways without being crushed). 
+Negative energy is perhaps the most exotic substance in the universe, 
+but it actually exists and can be created (in microscopic quantities) in 
+the laboratory. 
+
+So here is the new paradigm. First, an advanced civilization would 
+concentrate enough positive energy at a single point, comparable to a 
+black hole, to open up a hole through space connecting two distant 
+points. Second, it would amass enough negative energy to keep the 
+gateway open, so that it is stable and does not close the instant you enter 
+it."
+"We can now put this idea into proper perspective. Mapping the entire 
+human connectome should be possible late in this century. An 
+interplanetary laser network could be established early in the next 
+century, so that consciousness can be beamed across the solar system. No 
+new law of physics would be required. A laser network that can go 
+between the stars may have to wait until the century after that. But a 
+
+civilization that can play with wormholes will have to be thousands of 
+years ahead of us in technology, stretching the boundaries of known 
+physics."
+"All this, then, has direct implications for whether consciousness can 
+pass between universes. If matter comes close to a black hole, the gravity 
+becomes so intense that your body becomes “spaghettified.” The gravity 
+pulling on your leg is greater than the gravity pulling on your head, so 
+your body is stretched by tidal forces. In fact, as you approach the black 
+hole, even the atoms of your body are stretched until the electrons are 
+ripped from the nuclei, causing your atoms to disintegrate."
+"(To see the power of tidal forces, just look at the tides of Earth and the 
+rings of Saturn. The gravity of the moon and sun exert a pull on Earth, 
+causing the oceans to rise several feet during high tide. And if a moon 
+comes too close to a giant planet like Saturn, the tidal forces will stretch 
+the moon and eventually tear it apart. The distance at which moons get 
+ripped apart by tidal forces is called the Roche limit. The rings of Saturn 
+lie exactly at the Roche limit, so they might have been caused by a moon 
+that wandered too close to the mother planet.) 
+
+Even if we enter a spinning black hole and use negative energy to 
+
+stabilize it, then, the gravity fields still might be so powerful that we’d 
+be spaghettified."
+"stabilize it, then, the gravity fields still might be so powerful that we’d 
+be spaghettified. 
+
+But here is where laser beams have an important advantage over 
+matter when passing through a wormhole. Laser light is immaterial, so it 
+cannot be stretched by tidal forces as it passes near a black hole. Instead, 
+light becomes “blue-shifted” (i.e., it gains energy and its frequency 
+increases). Even though the laser beam is distorted, the information 
+stored on it is untouched. For example, a message in Morse code carried 
+by a laser beam becomes compressed, but the information content 
+remains unchanged. Digital information is untouched by tidal forces. So 
+gravitational forces, which can be fatal to beings made of matter, may be 
+harmless to beings traveling on light beams. 
+
+In this way, consciousness carried by a laser beam, because it is 
+immaterial, has a decisive advantage over matter in passing through a 
+wormhole."
+"Laser beams have another advantage over matter when passing 
+through a wormhole. Some physicists have calculated that a microscopic 
+wormhole, perhaps the size of an atom, might be easier to create. Matter 
+
+would not be able to pass through such a tiny wormhole. But X-ray 
+lasers, with a wavelength smaller than an atom, might possibly be able 
+to pass through without difficulty."
+"Although Asimov’s brilliant short story was clearly a work of fantasy, 
+ironically a vast interstellar network of laser stations might already exist 
+within the galaxy, yet we are so primitive that we are totally unaware of 
+it. To a civilization thousands of years ahead of us, the technology to 
+digitalize their connectomes and send them to the stars would be child’s 
+play. In that case, it is conceivable that intelligent beings are already 
+zapping their consciousness across a vast network of laser beams in the 
+galaxy. Nothing we observe with our most advanced telescopes and 
+satellites prepares us to detect such an intergalactic network. 
+
+Carl Sagan once lamented the possibility that we might live in a world 
+surrounded by alien civilizations and not have the technology to realize 
+it. 
+
+Then the next question is: What lurks in the alien mind?"
+"Then the next question is: What lurks in the alien mind? 
+
+If we were to encounter such an advanced civilization, what kind of 
+consciousness might it have? One day, the destiny of the human race 
+may rest on answering this question. 
+
+Sometimes I think that the surest sign that intelligent life exists 
+elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact 
+us. 
+
+—BILL WATTERSON 
+
+Either intelligent life exists in outer space or it doesn’t. Either 
+thought is frightening. 
+
+—ARTHUR C. CLARKE 
+
+14 THE ALIEN MIND"
+"—ARTHUR C. CLARKE 
+
+14 THE ALIEN MIND 
+
+In War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, aliens from Mars attack Earth 
+because their home planet is dying. Armed with death rays and giant 
+walking machines, they quickly incinerate many cities and are on the 
+verge of seizing control of Earth’s major capitals. Just as the Martians 
+are crushing all signs of resistance and our civilization is about to be 
+reduced to rubble, they are mysteriously stopped cold in their tracks. 
+With all their advanced science and weaponry, they failed to factor in an 
+onslaught from the lowliest of creatures: our germs."
+"That single novel created an entire genre, launching a thousand 
+movies like Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and Independence Day. Most 
+scientists cringe, however, when they see how the aliens are described. 
+In the movies, aliens are often depicted as creatures with some sense of 
+human values and emotions. Even with glowing green skin and huge 
+heads, they still look like us to a certain degree. They also tend to speak 
+perfect English. 
+
+But, as many scientists have pointed out, we may have much more in 
+common with a lobster or a sea slug than we do with an alien from 
+space."
+"As with silicon consciousness, alien consciousness will most likely 
+have the general features described in our space-time theory; that is, the 
+ability to make a model of the world and then calculate how it will 
+evolve in time to achieve a goal. But while robots can be programmed so 
+that they emotionally bond with humans and have goals compatible 
+with ours, alien consciousness may have neither. It’s likely to have its 
+own set of values and goals, independent of humanity. One can only 
+speculate what these might be. 
+
+Physicist Dr. Freeman Dyson of the Institute for Advanced Study at 
+
+Princeton was a consultant to the movie 2001 . When he finally saw the 
+movie, he was delighted, not because of its dazzling special effects, but 
+because it was the first Hollywood movie ever to present an alien"
+"consciousness, with desires, goals, and intentions totally foreign to ours. 
+For the first time, the aliens were not simply human actors flailing 
+about, trying to act menacing in cheesy monster costumes. Instead, alien 
+consciousness was presented as something totally orthogonal to human 
+experience, something entirely outside our ken. 
+
+In 2011, Stephen Hawking raised another question. The noted 
+cosmologist made headlines when he said that we must be prepared for 
+a possible alien attack. He said that if we ever encounter an alien 
+civilization, it will be more advanced than ours and hence will pose a 
+mortal threat to our very existence."
+"We have only to see what happened to the Aztecs when they 
+encountered the bloodthirsty Hernan Cortes and his conquistadors to 
+imagine what might happen with such a fateful encounter. Armed with 
+technology that the Bronze Age Aztecs had never seen before, such as 
+iron swords, gunpowder, and the horse, this small band of cutthroats 
+was able to crush the ancient Aztec civilization in a matter of months in 
+1521. 
+
+All this raises these questions: What will alien consciousness be like? 
+How will their thinking process and goals differ from ours? What do 
+they want? 
+
+FIRST CONTACT IN THIS CENTURY 
+
+This is not an academic question. Given the remarkable advances in 
+astrophysics, we may actually make contact with an alien intelligence in 
+the coming decades. How we respond to them could determine one of 
+the most pivotal events in human history. 
+
+Several advances are making this day possible."
+"Several advances are making this day possible. 
+
+First, in 2011 the Kepler satellite, for the first time in history, gave 
+scientists a “census” of the Milky Way galaxy. After analyzing light from 
+thousands of stars, the Kepler satellite found that one in two hundred 
+might harbor an earthlike planet in the habitable zone. For the first time, 
+we can therefore calculate how many stars within the Milky Way galaxy 
+might be earthlike: about a billion. As we look at the distant stars, we 
+have genuine reason to wonder if anyone is looking back at us. 
+
+So far, more than one thousand exoplanets have been analyzed in"
+"So far, more than one thousand exoplanets have been analyzed in 
+
+detail by earthbound telescopes. (Astronomers find them at the rate of 
+about two exoplanets per week.) Unfortunately, nearly all of them are 
+Jupiter-size planets, probably devoid of any earthlike creatures, but 
+there are a handful of “super earths,” rocky planets that are a few times 
+larger than Earth. Already, the Kepler satellite has identified about 2,500 
+candidate exoplanets in space, a handful of which look very much like 
+Earth. These planets are at just the right distance from their mother stars 
+so that liquid oceans can exist. And liquid water is the “universal 
+solvent” that dissolves most organic chemicals like DNA and proteins."
+"In 2013, NASA scientists announced their most spectacular discovery 
+using the Kepler satellite: two exoplanets that are near twins of Earth. 
+They are located 1,200 light-years away in the constellation Lyra. They 
+are only 60 percent and 40 percent larger than Earth. More important, 
+both lie within the habitable zone of their mother star, so there is a 
+possibility that they have liquid oceans. Of all the planets analyzed so 
+far, they are the closest to being mirror images of Earth. 
+
+Furthermore, the Hubble Space Telescope has given us an estimate of 
+the total number of galaxies in the visible universe: one hundred billion. 
+Therefore, we can calculate the number of earthlike planets in the visible 
+universe: one billion times one hundred billion, or one hundred 
+quintillion earthlike planets."
+"This is a truly astronomical number, so the odds of life existing in the 
+universe are astronomically large, especially when you consider that the 
+universe is 13.8 billion years old, and there has been plenty of time for 
+intelligent empires to rise—and perhaps fall. In fact, it would be more 
+miraculous if another advanced civilization did not exist. 
+
+SETI AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS 
+
+Second, radio telescope technology is becoming more sophisticated. So 
+far, only about one thousand stars have been closely analyzed for signs 
+of intelligent life, but in the coming decade this number could rise by a 
+factor of one million. 
+
+Using radio telescopes to hunt for alien civilizations dates back to 
+1960, when astronomer Frank Drake initiated Project Ozma (after the 
+Queen of Oz), using the twenty-five-meter radio telescope in Green"
+"Bank, West Virginia. This marked the birth of the SETI project (the 
+Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). Unfortunately, no signals from 
+aliens were picked up, but in 1971 NASA proposed Project Cyclops, 
+which was supposed to have 1,500 radio telescopes at a cost of $10 
+billion. 
+
+Not surprisingly, it never went anywhere. Congress was not amused. 
+
+Funding did become available for a much more modest proposal: to 
+send a carefully coded message in 1971 to aliens in outer space. A coded 
+message containing 1,679 bits of information was transmitted via the 
+giant Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico toward the Globular Cluster 
+Ml 3, about 25,100 light-years away. It was the world’s first cosmic 
+greeting card, containing relevant information about the human race. 
+But no reply message was received. Perhaps the aliens were not 
+impressed with us, or possibly the speed of light got in the way. Given 
+the large distances involved, the earliest date for a reply message would 
+be 52,174 years from now."
+"Since then, some scientists have expressed misgivings about 
+advertising our existence to aliens in space, at least until we know their 
+intentions toward us. They disagree with the proponents of the METI 
+Project (Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) who actively 
+promote sending signals to alien civilizations in space. The reasoning 
+behind the METI Project is that Earth already sends vast amounts of 
+radio and TV signals into outer space, so a few more messages from the 
+METI Project will not make much difference. But the critics of METI 
+believe that we should not needlessly increase our chances of being 
+discovered by potentially hostile aliens."
+"In 1995, astronomers turned to private sources to start the SETI 
+Institute in Mountain View, California, to centralize research and initiate 
+Project Phoenix, which is trying to study one thousand nearby sunlike 
+stars in the l,200-to-3,000-megahertz radio range. The equipment is so 
+sensitive that it can pick up the emissions from an airport radar system 
+two hundred light-years away. Since its founding, the SETI Institute has 
+scanned more than one thousand stars at a cost of $5 million per year, 
+but still no luck. 
+
+A more novel approach is the SETI@home project, initiated by 
+astronomers at the University of California at Berkeley in 1999, which 
+uses an informal army of millions of amateur PC owners. Anyone can 
+
+join in this historic hunt. While you are sleeping at night, your screen 
+saver crunches some of the data pouring in from the Arecibo radio 
+telescope in Puerto Rico. So far, it has signed up 5.2 million users in 234 
+countries; perhaps these amateurs dream that they will be the first in"
+"human history to make contact with alien life. Like Columbus’s, their 
+names may go down in history. The SETI @home project has grown so 
+rapidly that it is, in fact, the largest computer project of this type ever 
+undertaken. 
+
+When I interviewed Dr. Dan Wertheimer, director of SETI@home, I 
+asked him how they can distinguish false messages from real ones. He 
+said something that surprised me. He told me that they sometimes 
+deliberately “seed” the data from radio telescopes with fake signals from 
+an imaginary intelligent civilization. If no one picks up these fake 
+messages, then they know that there is something wrong with their 
+software. The lesson here is that if your PC screen saver announces that 
+it has deciphered a message from an alien civilization, please do not 
+immediately call the police or the president of the United States. It might 
+be a fake message. 
+
+ALIEN HUNTERS"
+"ALIEN HUNTERS 
+
+One colleague of mine who has dedicated his life to finding intelligent 
+life in outer space is Dr. Seth Shostak, director of the SETI Institute. With 
+his Ph.D. in physics from the California Institute of Technology, I might 
+have expected him to become a distinguished physics professor lecturing 
+to eager Ph.D. students, but instead he spends his time in an entirely 
+different fashion: asking for donations to the SETI Institute from wealthy 
+individuals, poring over possible signals from outer space, and doing a 
+radio show. I once asked him about the “giggle factor”—do fellow 
+scientists giggle when he tells them that he listens to aliens from outer 
+space? Not anymore, he claims. With all the new discoveries in 
+astronomy, the tide has turned."
+"In fact, he even sticks his neck out and says flatly that we will make 
+contact with an alien civilization in the very near future. He has gone on 
+record as proclaiming that the 350-antenna Allen Telescope Array now 
+being built “will trip across a signal by the year 2025.” 
+
+Isn’t that a bit risky, I asked him? What makes him so sure? One factor 
+working in his favor has been the explosion in the number of radio 
+telescopes in the last few years. Although the U.S. government does not 
+fund his project, the SETI Institute recently hit pay dirt when it 
+convinced Paul Allen (the Microsoft billionaire) to donate over $30 
+million in funds to start the Allen Telescope Array at Hat Creek, 
+California, 290 miles north of San Francisco. It currently scans the 
+heavens with 42 radio telescopes, and eventually will reach up to 350. 
+(One problem, however, is the chronic lack of funding for these scientific 
+experiments. To make up for budget cuts, the Hat Creek facility is kept"
+"alive through partial funding from the military.) 
+
+One thing, he confessed to me, makes him squirm a bit, and that is 
+when people confuse the SETI Project with UFO hunters. The former, he 
+claims, is based on solid physics and astronomy, using the latest in 
+technology. The latter, however, base their theories on anecdotal 
+hearsay evidence that may or may not be based on truth. The problem is 
+that the mass of UFO sightings he gets in the mail are not reproducible 
+or testable. He urges anyone who claims to have been abducted by aliens 
+in a flying saucer to steal something—an alien pen or paperweight, for 
+example—to prove your case. Never leave a UFO empty-handed, he told 
+me."
+"He also concludes that there is no firm evidence that aliens have 
+visited our planet. I then asked him whether he thought the U.S. 
+government was deliberately covering up evidence of an alien 
+encounter, as many conspiracy theorists believe. He replied, “Would 
+they really be so efficient at covering up a big thing like this? 
+Remember, this is the same government that runs the post office.” 
+
+DRAKE’S EQUATION 
+
+When I asked Dr. Wertheimer why he is so sure that there is alien life in 
+outer space, he replied that the numbers are in his favor. Back in 1961, 
+astronomer Frank Drake tried to estimate the number of such intelligent 
+civilizations by making plausible assumptions. If we start with the 
+number one hundred billion, the number of stars in the Milky Way 
+galaxy, then we can estimate the fraction of them that are similar to our"
+"sun. We can reduce that number further by estimating the fraction of 
+them that have planets, the fraction of them that have earthlike planets, 
+etc. After making a number of reasonable assumptions, we come up with 
+an estimate of ten thousand advanced civilizations in our own Milky 
+Way galaxy. (Carl Sagan, with a different set of estimates, came up with 
+the number one million.)"
+"Since then, scientists have been able to make much better estimates of 
+the number of advanced civilizations in our galaxy. For example, we 
+know there are more planets orbiting stars than Drake originally 
+expected, and more earthlike planets as well. But we still face a problem. 
+Even if we know how many earthlike twins there are in space, we still 
+don’t know how many of them support intelligent life. Even on Earth, it 
+took 4.5 billion years before intelligent beings (us) finally arose from the 
+swamp. For about 3.5 billion years, life-forms have existed on Earth, but 
+only in the last one hundred thousand years or so have intelligent beings 
+
+like us emerged. So even on an earthlike planet like Earth itself, the rise 
+of truly intelligent life has been very difficult. 
+
+WHY DON’T THEY VISIT US?"
+"WHY DON’T THEY VISIT US? 
+
+But then I asked Dr. Seth Shostak of SETI this killer question: If there are 
+so many stars in the galaxy, and so many alien civilizations, then why 
+don’t they visit us? This is the Fermi paradox, named for Enrico Fermi, 
+the Nobel laureate who helped build the atomic bomb and unlocked the 
+secrets of the nucleus of the atom. 
+
+Many theories have been proposed. For one, the distance between 
+stars might be too great. It would take about seventy thousand years for 
+our most powerful chemical rockets to reach the stars nearest to Earth. 
+Perhaps a civilization thousands to millions of years more advanced than 
+ours may solve this problem, but there’s another possibility. Maybe they 
+annihilated themselves in a nuclear war. As John F. Kennedy once said, 
+“I am sorry to say there is too much point to the wisecrack that life is 
+extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced 
+than ours.”"
+"But perhaps the most logical reason is this: Imagine walking down a 
+country road and encountering an ant hill. Do we go down to the ants 
+
+and say, “I bring you trinkets. I bring you beads. I give you nuclear 
+energy. I will create an ant paradise for you. Take me to your leader”? 
+
+Probably not. 
+
+Now imagine that workers are building an eight-lane superhighway 
+next to the anthill. Would the ants know what frequency the workers are 
+talking on? Would they even know what an eight-lane superhighway 
+was? In the same fashion, any intelligent civilization that can reach 
+Earth from the stars would be thousands of years to millions of years 
+ahead of us, and we may have nothing to offer them. In other words, we 
+are arrogant to believe that aliens will travel trillions upon trillions of 
+miles just to see us. 
+
+More than likely, we are not on their radar screen. Ironically, the 
+galaxy could be teaming with intelligent life-forms and we are so 
+primitive that we are oblivious of them. 
+
+FIRST CONTACT"
+"FIRST CONTACT 
+
+But assume for the moment that the time will come, perhaps sooner 
+rather than later, when we make contact with an alien civilization. This 
+moment could be a turning point in the history of humanity. So the next 
+questions are: What do they want, and what will their consciousness be 
+like? 
+
+In the movies and in science-fiction novels, the aliens often want to 
+eat us, conquer us, mate with us, enslave us, or strip our planet of 
+valuable resources. But all this is highly improbable. 
+
+Our first contact with an alien civilization will probably not begin 
+with a flying saucer landing on the White House lawn. More likely, it 
+will happen when some teenager, running a screen saver from the 
+SETI@home project, announces that his or her PC has decoded signals 
+from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. Or perhaps when the 
+SETI project at Hat Creek detects a message that indicates intelligence."
+"Our first encounter will therefore be a one-way event. We will be able 
+to eavesdrop on intelligent messages, but a return message may take 
+decades or centuries to reach them. 
+
+The conversations that we hear on the radio may give us valuable 
+insight into this alien civilization. But most of the message will likely be 
+
+gossip, entertainment, music, etc., with little scientific content. 
+
+Then I asked Dr. Shostak the next key question: Will you keep it a 
+secret once First Contact is made? After all, won’t it cause mass panic, 
+religious hysteria, chaos, and spontaneous evacuations? I was a bit 
+surprised when he said no. They would give all the data to the 
+governments of the world and to the people. 
+
+The next questions are: What will they be like? How do they think? 
+
+To understand alien consciousness, perhaps it is instructive to analyze 
+another consciousness that is quite alien to us, the consciousness of 
+animals. We live with them, yet we are totally ignorant of what goes on 
+in their minds."
+"Understanding animal consciousness, in turn, may help us understand 
+alien consciousness. 
+
+ANIMAL CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+Do animals think? And if so, what do they think about? This question 
+has perplexed the greatest minds in history for thousands of years. The 
+Greek writers and historians Plutarch and Pliny both wrote about a 
+famous question that remains unsolved even today. Over the centuries, 
+many solutions have been given by the giants of philosophy. 
+
+A dog is traveling down a road, looking for its master, when it 
+encounters a fork that branches in three directions. The dog first takes 
+the left path, sniffs around, and then returns, knowing that his master 
+has not taken that road. Then it takes the right path, sniffs, and realizes 
+that his master has not taken this road either. But this time, the dog 
+triumphantly takes the middle road, without sniffing."
+"What was going on in the dog’s mind? Some of the greatest 
+philosophers have tackled this question, to no avail. The French 
+philosopher and essayist Michel de Montaigne wrote that the dog 
+obviously concluded that the only possible solution was to take the 
+middle road, a conclusion showing that dogs are capable of abstract 
+thought. 
+
+But St. Thomas Aquinas, arguing in the thirteenth century, said the 
+opposite—that the appearance of abstract thought is not the same thing 
+as genuine thinking. We can be fooled by superficial appearances of 
+
+intelligence, he claimed. 
+
+Centuries later, there was also a famous exchange between John Locke 
+and George Berkeley about animal consciousness. “Beasts abstract not,” 
+proclaimed Locke flatly. To which Bishop Berkeley responded, “If the 
+fact that brutes abstract not be made the distinguishing property of that 
+sort of animal, I fear a great many of those that pass for man must be 
+reckoned into their number.”"
+"Philosophers down the ages have tried to analyze this question in the 
+same manner: by imposing human consciousness on the dog. This is the 
+mistake of anthropomorphism, or assuming that animals think and 
+behave like us. But perhaps the real solution might be to look at this 
+question from the dog’s point of view, which could be quite alien. 
+
+In Chapter 2, I gave a definition of consciousness in which animals 
+were part of a continuum of consciousness. Animals can differ from us in 
+the parameters they use to create a model of the world. Dr. David 
+Eagleman says that psychologists call this “umwelt,” or the reality 
+perceived by other animals. He notes, “In the blind and deaf world of the 
+tick, the important signals are temperature and the odor of butyric acid. 
+For the black ghost knifefish, it’s electrical fields. For the echo locating 
+bat, air-compressed waves. Each organism inhabits its own umwelt, 
+
+which it presumably assumes to be the entire objective reality ‘out 
+there.’ ”"
+"which it presumably assumes to be the entire objective reality ‘out 
+there.’ ” 
+
+Consider the brain of a dog, which is constantly living in a swirl of 
+odors, by which it hunts for food or locates a mate. From these smells, 
+the dog then constructs a mental map of what exists in its surroundings. 
+This map of smells is totally different from the one we get from our eyes 
+and conveys an entirely different set of information. (Recall from 
+Chapter 1 that Dr. Penfield constructed a map of the cerebral cortex, 
+showing the distorted self-image of the body. Now imagine a Penfield 
+diagram of a dog’s brain. Most of it would be devoted to its nose, not its 
+fingers. Animals would have a totally different Penfield diagram. Aliens 
+in space would likely have an even stranger Penfield diagram.)"
+"Unfortunately, we tend to assign human consciousness to animals, 
+even though animals may have a totally different world outlook. For 
+example, when a dog faithfully follows its master’s orders, we 
+subconsciously assume that the dog is man’s best friend because he likes 
+us and respects us. But since the dog is descended from Cards lupus (the 
+
+gray wolf), which hunts in packs with a rigid pecking order, more than 
+likely the dog sees you as some sort of alpha male, or the leader of the 
+pack. You are, in some sense, the Top Dog. (This is probably one reason 
+why puppies are much easier to train than older dogs; it is likely easier 
+to imprint one’s presence on a puppy’s brain, while more mature dogs 
+realize that humans are not part of their pack.)"
+"Also, when a cat enters a new room and urinates all over the carpet, 
+we assume that the cat is angry or nervous, and we try to find out the 
+reason why the cat is upset. But perhaps the cat is simply marking its 
+territory with the smell of its urine to ward off other cats. So the cat is 
+not upset at all; it’s simply warning other cats to stay out of the house, 
+because the house belongs to it. 
+
+And if the cat purrs and rubs itself against your legs, we assume that it 
+is grateful to you for taking care of it, that this is a sign of warmth and 
+affection. More than likely, the cat is rubbing its hormone onto you to 
+claim ownership of its possession (i.e., you), to ward off other cats. In 
+the cat’s viewpoint, you are a servant of some sort, trained to give it 
+food several times a day, and rubbing its scent on you warns other cats 
+to stay away from this servant."
+"As the sixteenth-century philosopher Michel de Montaigne once wrote, 
+“When I play with my cat, how do I know that she is not playing with 
+me rather than I with her?” 
+
+And if the cat then stalks off to be alone, it is not necessarily a sign of 
+anger or aloofness. The cat is descended from the wildcat, which is a 
+
+solitary hunter, unlike the dog. There is no alpha male to slobber over, 
+as in the case of the dog. The proliferation of various “animal whisperer” 
+programs on TV is probably a sign of the problems we encounter when 
+we force human consciousness and intentions onto animals."
+"A bat would also have a much different consciousness, which would 
+be dominated by sounds. Almost blind, the bat requires constant 
+feedback from tiny squeaks it makes, which allow it to locate insects, 
+obstacles, and other bats via sonar. The Penfield map of its brain would 
+be quite alien to us, with a huge portion devoted to its ears. Similarly, 
+dolphins have a different consciousness than humans, which is also 
+based on sonar. Because dolphins have a smaller frontal cortex, it was 
+once thought that they were not so intelligent, but the dolphin 
+compensates for this by having a larger brain mass. If you unfold the 
+
+neocortex of the dolphin brain, it would cover six magazine pages, while 
+if you unfold the neocortex of a human, it would measure only four 
+magazine pages. Dolphins also have very well-developed parietal and 
+temporal cortices to analyze sonar signals in the water and are one of 
+the few animals that can recognize themselves in a mirror, probably 
+because of this fact."
+"In addition, the dolphin brain is actually structured differently from 
+humans’ because dolphin and human lineages diverged about ninety-five 
+million years ago. Dolphins have no need for a nose, so their olfactory 
+bulb disappears soon after birth. But thirty million years ago, their 
+auditory cortex exploded in size because dolphins learned to use 
+echolocation, or sonar, to find food. Like bats’, their world must be one 
+of whirling echoes and vibrations. Compared to humans, dolphins have 
+an extra lobe in their limbic system, called the “paralimbic” region, 
+which probably helps them forge strong social relations."
+"Meanwhile, dolphins also have a language that is intelligent. I once 
+swam in a pool of dolphins for a TV special for the Science Channel. I 
+put sonar sensors in the pool that could pick up the clicks and whistles 
+used by dolphins to talk to one another. These signals were recorded and 
+then analyzed by computer. There is a simple way to discern if there is 
+an intelligence lurking among this random set of squeals and chirps. In 
+the English language, for example, the letter e is the most commonly 
+used letter of the alphabet. In fact, we can create a list of all the letters 
+of the alphabet and how frequently they occur. No matter what book in 
+English we analyze by computer, it will roughly obey the same list of 
+commonly found letters of the alphabet. 
+
+Similarly, this computer program can be used to analyze the dolphins’ 
+language. Sure enough, we find a similar pattern indicating intelligence. 
+However, as we go to other mammals, the pattern begins to break down,"
+"and it finally collapses completely as we approach lower animals with 
+small brain sizes. Then the signals become nearly random. 
+
+INTELLIGENT BEES? 
+
+To get a sense of what alien consciousness might be like, consider the 
+strategies adopted by nature to reproduce life on Earth. There are two 
+
+basic reproductive strategies nature has taken, with profound 
+implications for evolution and consciousness. 
+
+The first, the strategy used by mammals, is to produce a small number 
+of young offspring and then carefully nurse each one to maturity. This is 
+a risky strategy, because only a few progeny are produced in each 
+generation, so it assumes that nurturing will even out the odds. This 
+means that every life is cherished and carefully nurtured for a length of 
+time."
+"But there is another, much older strategy that is used by much of the 
+plant and animal kingdom, including insects, reptiles, and most other 
+life-forms on Earth. This involves creating a large number of eggs or 
+seeds and then letting them fend for themselves. Without nurturing, 
+most of the offspring never survive, so only a few hardy individuals will 
+make it into the next generation. This means that the energy invested in 
+each generation by the parents is nil, and reproduction relies on the law 
+of averages to propagate the species."
+"These two strategies produce startlingly different attitudes toward life 
+and intelligence. The first strategy treasures each and every individual. 
+Love, nurturing, affection, and attachment are at a premium in this 
+group. This reproductive strategy can work only if the parents invest a 
+considerable amount of precious energy to preserve their young. The 
+second strategy, however, does not treasure the individual at all, but 
+rather emphasizes the survival of the species or group as a whole. To 
+them, individuality means nothing."
+"Furthermore, reproductive strategy has profound implications for the 
+evolution of intelligence. When two ants meet each other, for example, 
+they exchange a limited amount of information using chemical scents 
+and gestures. Although the information shared by two ants is minimal, 
+with this information they are capable of creating elaborate tunnels and 
+chambers necessary to build an anthill. Similarly, although honeybees 
+communicate with one another by performing a dance, they can 
+collectively create complex honeycombs and locate distant flower beds. 
+So their intelligence arises not so much from the individual, but from the 
+
+holistic interaction of the entire colony and from their genes. 
+
+So consider an intelligent extraterrestrial civilization based on the 
+second strategy, such as an intelligent race of honeybees. In this society, 
+the worker bees that fly out each day in search of pollen are expendable."
+"Worker bees do not reproduce at all, but instead live for one purpose, to 
+serve the hive and the queen, for which they willingly sacrifice 
+themselves. The bonds that link mammals together mean nothing to 
+them. 
+
+Hypothetically, this might affect the development of their space 
+program. Since we treasure the life of every astronaut, considerable 
+resources are devoted to bringing them back alive. Much of the cost of 
+space travel goes into life support so the astronauts can make the return 
+voyage home and reenter the atmosphere. But for a civilization of 
+intelligent honeybees, each worker’s life may not be worth that much, so 
+their space program would cost considerably less. Their workers would 
+not have to come back. Every voyage might be a one-way trip, and that 
+would represent significant savings."
+"Now imagine if we were to encounter an alien from space that was 
+actually similar to a honeybee worker. Normally, if we encounter a 
+honeybee in the forest, chances are it will completely ignore us, unless 
+we threaten it or the hive. It’s as if we did not exist. Similarly, this 
+worker would most likely not have the slightest interest in making 
+contact with us or sharing its knowledge. It would go on with its primary 
+mission and ignore us. Moreover, the values that we cherish would mean 
+little to it. 
+
+Back in the 1970s, there were two medallions put aboard the Pioneer 
+10 and 11 probes, containing crucial information about our world and 
+society. The medallions exalted the diversity and richness of life on 
+Earth. Scientists back then assumed that alien civilizations in space 
+would be like us, curious and interested in making contact. But if such 
+an alien worker bee were to find our medallion, chances are that it 
+would mean nothing to it."
+"Furthermore, each worker need not be very intelligent. They need to 
+be only intelligent enough to serve the interest of the hive. So if we were 
+to send a message to a planet of intelligent bees, chances are that they 
+would show little interest in sending a message back. 
+
+Even if contact could be made with such a civilization, it might be 
+difficult communicating with them. For example, when we communicate 
+with one another, we break ideas down into sentences, with a subject- 
+verb structure, in order to build a narrative, often a personal story. Most 
+
+of our sentences have the following structure: “I did this” or “They did 
+
+that.” In fact, most of our literature and conversations use storytelling, 
+often involving experiences and adventures that we or our role models 
+have had. This presupposes that our personal experiences are the 
+dominant way to convey information."
+"However, a civilization based on intelligent honeybees may not have 
+the least interest in personal narratives and storytelling. Being highly 
+collective, their messages may not be personal, but matter-of-fact, 
+containing vital information necessary for the hive rather than personal 
+trivia and gossip that might advance an individual’s social position. In 
+fact, they might find our storytelling language to be a bit repulsive, since 
+it puts the role of the individual before the needs of the collective. 
+
+Also, worker bees would have a totally different sense of time. Since 
+worker bees are expendable, they might not have a long life span. They 
+might only take on projects that are short and well defined."
+"However, humans live much longer, but we also have a tacit sense of 
+time; we take on projects and occupations that we can reasonably see to 
+the end within our lifetimes. We subconsciously pace our projects, our 
+relations with others, and our goals to accommodate a finite life span. In 
+other words, we live our lives in distinct phases: being single, married, 
+raising children, and eventually retiring. Often without being conscious 
+of it, we assume that we will live and eventually die within a finite time 
+frame."
+"But imagine beings that can live for thousands of years, or are perhaps 
+immortal. Their priorities, their goals, and their ambitions would be 
+completely different. They could take on projects that would normally 
+require scores of human lifetimes. Interstellar travel is often dismissed as 
+pure science fiction because, as we have seen, the time it takes for a 
+conventional rocket to reach nearby stars is roughly seventy thousand 
+years. For us, this is prohibitively long. But for an alien life-form, that 
+time may be totally irrelevant. For example, they might be able to 
+hibernate, slow down their metabolism, or simply live for an indefinite 
+amount of time. 
+
+WHAT DO THEY LOOK LIKE? 
+
+Our first translations of these alien messages will probably give us some"
+"Our first translations of these alien messages will probably give us some 
+
+insight into the aliens’ culture and way of life. For example, it is likely 
+that the aliens will have evolved from predators and hence still share 
+some of their characteristics. (In general, predators on Earth are smarter 
+than prey. Hunters like tigers, lions, cats, and dogs use their cunning to 
+stalk, ambush, and hide, all of which require intelligence. All these 
+predators have eyes on the front of the face, for stereo vision as they 
+focus their attention. Prey, which have eyes to the sides of the face to 
+spot a predator, have only to run. That is why we say “sly as a fox” and 
+“dumb bunny.”) The alien life-forms may have outgrown many of the 
+predator instincts of their distant ancestors, but it is likely that they will 
+still have some of a predator’s consciousness (i.e., territoriality, 
+expansion, and violence when necessary)."
+"If we examine the human race, we see that there were at least three 
+basic ingredients that set the stage for our becoming intelligent: 
+
+1 . the opposable thumb, which gives us the ability to manipulate and 
+
+reshape our environment via tools 
+
+2. stereo eyes or the 3-D eyes of a hunter 
+
+3. language, which allows us to accumulate knowledge, culture, and 
+
+wisdom across generations 
+
+When we compare these three ingredients with the traits found in the 
+animal kingdom, we see that very few animals meet these criteria for 
+intelligence. Cats and dogs, for example, do not have grasping ability or 
+a complex language. Octopi have sophisticated tentacles, but they don’t 
+see well and don’t have a complex language."
+"There may be variations of these three criteria. Instead of an 
+opposable thumb, an alien might have claws or tentacles. (The only 
+prerequisite is that they should be able to manipulate their environment 
+with tools created by these appendages.) Instead of having two eyes, 
+they may have many more, like insects. Or they may have sensors that 
+detect sound or UV light rather than visible light. More than likely, they 
+will have the stereo eyes of a hunter, because predators generally have a 
+higher level of intelligence than prey. Also, instead of a language based 
+on sounds, they may communicate via different forms of vibrations. (The 
+only requirement is that they exchange information among themselves to 
+
+create a culture spanning many generations.) 
+
+But beyond these three criteria, anything goes."
+"Next, the aliens may have a consciousness colored by their 
+environment. Astronomers now realize that the most plentiful habitat for 
+life in the universe may not be earthlike planets, where they can bask in 
+the warm sunlight of the mother star, but on icy-cold satellites orbiting 
+Jupiter-size planets billions of miles from the star. It is widely believed 
+that Europa, an ice-covered moon of Jupiter, has a liquid ocean beneath 
+the icy surface, heated by tidal forces. Because Europa tumbles as it 
+orbits Jupiter, it is squeezed in different directions by the huge 
+gravitational pull of Jupiter, which causes friction deep inside the moon. 
+This generates heat, forming volcanoes and ocean vents that melt the ice 
+and create liquid oceans. It is estimated that the oceans of Europa are 
+quite deep, and that their volume may be many times the volume of the 
+oceans of Earth. Since 50 percent of all stars in the heavens may have 
+Jupiter-size planets (a hundred times more plentiful than earthlike"
+"Jupiter-size planets (a hundred times more plentiful than earthlike 
+planets), the most plentiful form of life may be on the icy moons of gas 
+giants like Jupiter."
+"Therefore, when we encounter our first alien civilization in space, 
+more than likely it will have an aquatic origin. (Also, it is likely that 
+they will have migrated from the ocean and learned to live on the icy 
+surface of their moon away from the water, for several reasons. First, 
+any species that lives perpetually under the ice will have a quite limited 
+view of the universe. They will never develop astronomy or a space 
+program if they think that the universe is just the ocean underneath the 
+ice cover. Second, because water short-circuits electrical components, 
+they will never develop radio or TV if they stay underwater. If this 
+civilization is to advance, it must master electronics, which cannot exist 
+in the oceans. So, most likely, these aliens will have learned to leave the 
+oceans and survive on the land, as we did.)"
+"But what happens if this life-form evolves to create a space-faring 
+civilization, capable of reaching Earth? Will they still be biological 
+organisms like us, or will they be post-biological? 
+
+THE POST-BIOLOGICAL ERA 
+
+One person who has spent considerable time thinking about these 
+questions is my colleague Dr. Paul Davies of Arizona State University, 
+near Phoenix. When I interviewed him, he told me that we have to 
+expand our own horizon to contemplate what a civilization that is 
+thousands or more years ahead of us may look like. 
+
+Given the dangers of space travel, he believes that such beings will 
+have abandoned their biological form, much like the bodiless minds we 
+considered in the previous chapter. He writes, “My conclusion is a 
+startling one. I think it very likely—in fact inevitable—that biological"
+"intelligence is only a transitory phenomenon, a fleeting phase in the 
+evolution of intelligence in the universe. If we ever encounter 
+extraterrestrial intelligence, I believe it is overwhelmingly likely to be 
+post-biological in nature, a conclusion that has obvious and far-reaching 
+ramifications for SETI.” 
+
+In fact, if the aliens are thousands of years ahead of us, chances are 
+that they have abandoned their biological bodies eons ago to create the 
+most efficient computational body: a planet whose entire surface is 
+completely covered with computers. Dr. Davies says, “It isn’t hard to 
+envision the entire surface of a planet being covered with a single 
+integrated processing system.... Ray Bradbury has coined the term 
+‘Matrioshka brains’ for these awesome entities.”"
+"So to Dr. Davies, alien consciousness may lose the concept of “self” 
+and be absorbed into the collective World Wide Web of Minds, which 
+blankets the entire surface of the planet. Dr. Davies adds, “A powerful 
+computer network with no sense of self would have an enormous 
+advantage over human intelligence because it could redesign ‘itself,’ 
+fearlessly make changes, merge with whole systems, and grow. ‘Feeling 
+personal’ about it would be a distinct impediment to progress.” 
+
+So in the name of efficiency and increased computational ability, he 
+envisions members of this advanced civilization giving up their identity 
+and being absorbed into a collective consciousness. 
+
+Dr. Davies acknowledges that critics of his idea may find this concept 
+rather repulsive. It appears as if this alien species is sacrificing 
+individuality and creativity to the greater good of the collective or the 
+hive. This is not inevitable, he cautions, but it is the most efficient 
+option for civilization."
+"Dr. Davies also has a conjecture that he admits is rather depressing. 
+
+When I asked him why these civilizations don’t visit us, he gave me a 
+strange answer. He said that any civilization that advanced would also 
+have developed virtual realities far more interesting and challenging 
+than reality. The virtual reality of today would be a children’s toy 
+compared to the virtual reality of a civilization thousands of years more 
+advanced than us. 
+
+This means that perhaps their finest minds might have decided to play 
+out imaginary lives in different virtual worlds. It’s a discouraging 
+thought, he admitted, but certainly a possibility. In fact, it might even be 
+a warning for us as we perfect virtual reality. 
+
+WHAT DO THEY WANT?"
+"WHAT DO THEY WANT? 
+
+In the movie The Matrix, the machines take over and put humans into 
+pods, where they exploit us as batteries to energize themselves. That is 
+why they keep us alive. But since a single electrical plant produces more 
+power than the bodies of millions of humans, any alien looking for an 
+energy source would quickly see there is no need for human batteries. 
+(This seems to be lost on the machine overlords in the Matrix, but 
+hopefully aliens would see reason.)"
+"Another possibility is that they might want to eat us. This was 
+explored in an episode of The Twilight Zone, in which aliens land on 
+Earth and promise us the benefits of their advanced technology. They 
+even ask for volunteers to visit their beautiful home planet. The aliens 
+accidentally leave behind a book, called To Serve Man, which scientists 
+anxiously try to decipher in order to discover what wonders the aliens 
+will share with us. Instead, the scientists find out that the book is 
+actually a cookbook. (But since we will be made of entirely different 
+DNA and proteins from theirs, we could be difficult for their digestive 
+tracts to process.)"
+"Another possibility is that the aliens will want to strip Earth of 
+resources and valuable minerals. There may be some truth to this 
+argument, but if the aliens are advanced enough to travel effortlessly 
+from the stars, then there are plenty of uninhabited planets to plunder 
+for resources, without having to worry about restive natives. From their 
+point of view, it would be a waste of time to try to colonize an inhabited 
+
+planet when there are easy alternatives."
+"planet when there are easy alternatives. 
+
+So if the aliens do not want to enslave us or plunder our resources, 
+then what danger do they pose? Think of deer in a forest. Whom should 
+they fear the most—the ferocious hunter armed with a shotgun, or the 
+mild-mannered developer armed with a blueprint? Although the hunter 
+may scare the deer, only a few deer are threatened by him. More 
+dangerous to the deer is the developer, because the deer are not even on 
+his radar screen. The developer may not even think about the deer at all, 
+concentrating instead on developing the forest into usable property. In 
+view of this, what would an invasion actually look like?"
+"In Hollywood movies, there is one glaring flaw: the aliens are only a 
+century or so ahead of us, so we can usually devise a secret weapon or 
+exploit a simple weakness in their armor to fight them off, as in Earth vs. 
+the Flying Saucers. But as SETI director Dr. Seth Shostak once told me, a 
+battle with an advanced alien civilization will be like a battle between 
+Bambi and Godzilla. 
+
+In reality, the aliens might be millennia to millions of years ahead of 
+us in their weaponry. So, for the most part, there will be little we can do 
+to defend ourselves. But perhaps we can learn from the barbarians who 
+defeated the greatest military empire of its time, the Roman Empire. 
+
+The Romans were masters of engineering, able to create weapons that 
+could flatten barbarian villages and roads to supply distant military 
+outposts of a vast empire. The barbarians, who were barely emerging 
+from a nomadic existence, had little chance when encountering the 
+juggernaut of the Roman Imperial Army."
+"But history records that as the empire expanded, it was spread too 
+thin, with too many battles to fight, too many treaties bogging it down, 
+and not enough of an economy to support all this, especially with a 
+gradual decline in population. Moreover, the empire, always short on 
+recruits, had to enlist young barbarian soldiers and promote them to 
+leadership positions. Inevitably, the superior technology of the empire 
+began to filter down to the barbarians as well. In time, the barbarians 
+began to master the very military technologies that at first had 
+conquered them. 
+
+Toward the end, the empire, weakened by internal palace intrigues, 
+severe crop shortages, civil wars, and an overstretched army, faced 
+barbarians who were able to fight the Roman Imperial Army to a 
+
+standstill. The sacking of Rome in A.D. 410 and 455 paved the way for 
+the empire’s ultimate fall in A.D. 476."
+"In the same way, it is likely that earthlings will initially offer no real 
+threat to an alien invasion, but over time earthlings could learn the weak 
+points of the alien army, its power supplies, its command centers, and 
+most of all its weaponry. In order to control the human population, the 
+aliens will have to recruit collaborators and promote them. This will 
+result in a diffusion of their technology to the humans. 
+
+Then a ragtag army of earthlings might be able to mount a 
+counterattack. In Eastern military strategy, like the classic teachings of 
+Sun Tzu in The Art of War, there is a way to defeat even a superior army. 
+You first allow it to enter your territory. Once it has entered unfamiliar 
+land and its ranks are diffused, you can counterattack where they are 
+weakest."
+"Another technique is to use the enemy’s strength against it. In judo, 
+the principal strategy is to turn the momentum of the attacker to your 
+advantage. You let the enemy attack, and then trip them or throw them 
+off guard, exploiting the enemy’s own mass and energy. The bigger they 
+
+are, the harder they fall. In the same way, perhaps the only way to fight 
+a superior alien army is to allow it to invade your territory, learn its 
+weaponry and military secrets, and turn those very weapons and secrets 
+against it. 
+
+So a superior alien army cannot be defeated head-on. But it will 
+withdraw if it cannot win and the cost of a stalemate is too high. Success 
+means depriving the enemy of a victory."
+"But more than likely, I believe the aliens will be benevolent and, for 
+the most part, ignore us. We simply have nothing to offer them. If they 
+visit us, then it will be mainly out of curiosity or for reconnaissance. 
+(Since curiosity was an essential feature in our becoming intelligent, it is 
+likely that any alien species will be curious, and hence want to analyze 
+us, but not necessarily to make contact.) 
+
+MEETING AN ALIEN ASTRONAUT 
+
+Unlike in the movies, we will probably not meet the flesh-and-blood 
+alien creatures themselves. It would simply be too dangerous and 
+
+unnecessary. In the same way that we sent the Mars Rover to explore, 
+aliens will more than likely send organic/mechanical surrogates or 
+avatars instead, which can better handle the stresses of interstellar 
+travel. In this way, the “aliens” we meet on the White House lawn may 
+look nothing like their masters back on the home planet. Instead, the 
+masters will project their consciousness into space through proxies."
+"More than likely, though, they will send a robotic probe to our moon, 
+which is geologically stable, with no erosion. These probes are self- 
+replicating; that is, they will create a factory and manufacture, say, a 
+thousand copies of themselves. (These are called von Neumann probes, 
+after mathematician John von Neumann, who laid the foundation for 
+digital computers. Von Neumann was the first mathematician to 
+seriously consider the problem of machines that could reproduce 
+themselves.) These second-generation probes are then launched to other 
+star systems, where each one in turn creates a thousand more third- 
+generation probes, making a total of a million. Then these probes fan out 
+and create more factories, making a billion probes. Starting with just one 
+probe, we have one thousand, then a million, then a billion. Within five 
+generations, we have a quadrillion probes. Soon we have a gigantic 
+sphere, expanding at near light speed, containing trillions upon trillions"
+"sphere, expanding at near light speed, containing trillions upon trillions 
+of probes, colonizing the entire galaxy within a few hundred thousand 
+years."
+"Dr. Davies takes this idea of self-replicating von Neumann probes so 
+seriously that he has actually applied for funding to search the surface of 
+the moon for evidence of a previous alien visitation. He wishes to scan 
+the moon for radio emissions or radiation anomalies that would indicate 
+evidence of an alien visitation, perhaps millions of years ago. He wrote a 
+paper with Dr. Robert Wagner in the scientific journal Acta Astronautica 
+calling for a close examination of the photos from the Lunar 
+Reconnaissance Orbiter down to a resolution of about 1.5 feet."
+"They wrote, “Although there is only a tiny probability that alien 
+technology would have left traces on the moon in the form of an artifact 
+or surface modification of lunar features, this location has the virtue of 
+being close,” and also traces of an alien technology would remain 
+preserved over long periods of time. Since there is no erosion on the 
+moon, treadmarks left by aliens would still be visible (in the same way 
+that footprints left by our astronauts in the 1970s could, in principle, last 
+
+for billions of years). 
+
+One problem is that the von Neumann probe might be very small. 
+Nanoprobes use molecular machines and MEMs, and hence it might be 
+only as big as a bread box, he said to me, or even smaller. (In fact, if 
+such a probe landed on Earth in someone’s backyard, the owner might 
+not even notice.)"
+"This method, however, represents the most efficient way of colonizing 
+the galaxy, using the exponential growth of self-replicating von 
+Neumann probes. (This is also the way in which a virus infects our body. 
+Starting with a handful of viruses, they land on our cells, hijack the 
+reproductive machinery, and convert our cells into factories to create 
+more viruses. Within two weeks, a single virus can infect trillions of 
+cells, and we eventually sneeze.)"
+"If this scenario is correct, it means that our own moon is the most 
+likely place for an alien visitation. This is also the basis of the movie 
+2001: A Space Odyssey, which even today represents the most plausible 
+encounter with an extraterrestrial civilization. In the movie, a probe was 
+placed on our moon millions of years ago, mainly to observe the 
+evolution of life on Earth. At times, it interferes in our evolution and 
+gives us an added boost. This information is then sent to Jupiter, which 
+is a relay station, before heading to the home planet of this ancient alien 
+civilization. 
+
+From the point of view of this advanced civilization, which can 
+simultaneously scan billions of star systems, we can see that they have a 
+considerable choice in what planetary systems to colonize. Given the 
+sheer enormity of the galaxy, they can collect data and then best choose 
+
+which planets or moons would yield the best resources. From their 
+perspective, they might not find Earth very appealing."
+"The empires of the future will be empires of the mind. 
+
+—WINSTON CHURCHILL 
+
+If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom 
+prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner. 
+
+—GENERAL OMAR BRADLEY 
+
+15 CONCLUDING REMARKS 
+
+In 2000, a raging controversy erupted in the scientific community. 
+One of the founders of Sun Computers, Bill Joy, wrote an inflammatory 
+article denouncing the mortal threat we face from advanced technology. 
+In an article in Wired magazine with the provocative title “The Future 
+Does Not Need Us,” he wrote, “Our most powerful 21st century 
+technologies—robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech—are 
+threatening to make humans an endangered species.” That incendiary 
+article questioned the very morality of hundreds of dedicated scientists 
+toiling in their labs on the cutting edge of science. He challenged the 
+very core of their research, stating that the benefits of these technologies 
+were vastly overshadowed by the enormous threats they posed to 
+humanity."
+"He described a macabre dystopia in which all our technologies 
+conspire to destroy civilization. Three of our key creations will 
+eventually turn on us, he warned: 
+
+• One day, bioengineered germs may escape from the laboratory and 
+wreak havoc on the world. Since you cannot recapture these life- 
+forms, they might proliferate wildly and unleash a fatal plague on 
+the planet worse than those of the Middle Ages. Biotechnology may 
+even alter human evolution, creating “several separate and unequal 
+species ... that would threaten the notion of equality that is the very 
+cornerstone of our democracy.” 
+
+• One day, nanobots may go berserk and spew out unlimited 
+quantities of “gray goo,” which will blanket Earth, smothering all 
+life. Since these nanobots “digest” ordinary matter and create new 
+forms of matter, malfunctioning nanobots could run amok and"
+"digest much of Earth. “Gray goo would surely be a depressing 
+ending to our human adventure on Earth, far worse than mere fire 
+or ice, and one that could stem from a simple laboratory accident. 
+
+Oops,” he wrote. 
+
+• One day, the robots will take over and replace humanity. They will 
+become so intelligent that they will simply push humanity aside. We 
+will be left as an evolutionary footnote. “The robots would in no 
+sense be our children.... On this path our humanity may well be 
+lost,” he wrote."
+"Joy claimed that the dangers unleashed by these three technologies 
+dwarfed the dangers posed by the atomic bomb in the 1940s. Back then, 
+Einstein warned of the power of nuclear technology to destroy 
+civilization: “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has 
+exceeded our humanity.” But the atomic bomb was built by a huge 
+government program that could be tightly regulated, while these 
+technologies are being developed by private companies that are lightly 
+regulated, if at all, Joy pointed out. 
+
+Sure, he conceded, these technologies may alleviate some suffering in 
+the short term. But in the long term, the benefits are overwhelmed by 
+the fact that they may unleash a scientific Armageddon that may doom 
+the human race."
+"Joy even accused scientists of being selfish and naive as they try to 
+create a better society. He wrote, “A traditional utopia is a good society 
+and a good life. A good life involves other people. This techno utopia is 
+all about ‘I don’t get diseases; I don’t die; I get to have better eyesight 
+and be smarter’ and all this. If you described this to Socrates or Plato, 
+they would laugh at you.” 
+
+He concluded by stating, “I think it is no exaggeration to say we are 
+on the cusp of the further perfection of extreme evil, an evil whose 
+possibility spreads well beyond that which weapons of mass destruction 
+bequeathed to the nation-states....” 
+
+The conclusion to all this? “Something like extinction,” he warned. 
+
+As expected, the article sparked a firestorm of controversy."
+"As expected, the article sparked a firestorm of controversy. 
+
+That article was written over a decade ago. In terms of high 
+technology, that is a lifetime. It is now possible to view certain of its 
+predictions with some hindsight. Looking back at the article and putting 
+his warnings into perspective, we can easily see that Bill Joy exaggerated 
+many of the threats coming from these technologies, but he also spurred 
+
+scientists to face up to the ethical, moral, and societal consequences of 
+
+their work, which is always a good thing. 
+
+And his article opened up a discussion about who we are. In 
+unraveling the molecular, genetic, and neural secrets of the brain, 
+haven’t we in some sense dehumanized humanity, reducing it to a 
+bucket of atoms and neurons? If we completely map every neuron of the 
+brain and trace every neural pathway, doesn’t that remove the mystery 
+and magic of who we are? 
+
+A RESPONSE TO BILL JOY"
+"A RESPONSE TO BILL JOY 
+
+In retrospect, the threats from robotics and nanotechnology are more 
+distant than Bill Joy thought, and I would argue that with enough 
+warning, we can take a variety of countermeasures, such as banning 
+certain avenues of research if they lead to uncontrollable robots, placing 
+chips in them to shut them off if they become dangerous, and creating 
+fail-safe devices to immobilize all of them in an emergency. 
+
+More immediate is the threat from biotechnology, where there is the 
+realistic danger of biogerms that might escape the laboratory. In fact, 
+Ray Kurzweil and Bill Joy jointly wrote an article criticizing the 
+publication of the complete genome of the 1918 Spanish flu virus, one of 
+the most lethal germs in modern history, which killed more people than 
+World War I. Scientists were able to reassemble the long-dead virus by 
+examining the corpses and blood of its victims and sequencing its genes, 
+and then they published it on the web."
+"Safeguards already exist against the release of such a dangerous virus, 
+but steps must be taken to further strengthen them and add new layers 
+of security. In particular, if a new virus suddenly erupts in some distant 
+place on Earth, scientists must strengthen rapid-response teams that can 
+isolate the virus in the wild, sequence its genes, and then quickly 
+prepare a vaccine to prevent its spread. 
+
+IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF THE MIND 
+
+This debate also has a direct impact on the future of the mind. At 
+present, neuroscience is still rather primitive. Scientists can read and 
+videotape simple thoughts from the living brain, record a few memories, 
+
+connect the brain to mechanical arms, enable locked-in patients to 
+control machines around them, silence specific regions of the brain via 
+magnetism, and identify the regions of the brain that malfunction in 
+mental illness."
+"In the coming decades, however, the power of neuroscience may 
+become explosive. Current research is on the threshold of new scientific 
+discoveries that will likely leave us breathless. One day, we might 
+routinely control objects around us with the power of the mind, 
+download memories, cure mental illness, enhance our intelligence, 
+understand the brain neuron by neuron, create backup copies of the 
+brain, and communicate with one another telepathically. The world of 
+the future will be the world of the mind."
+"Bill Joy did not dispute the potential of this technology to relieve 
+human suffering and pain. But what made him look on it with horror 
+was the prospect of enhanced individuals who might cause the human 
+species to split apart. In the article, he painted a dismal dystopia in 
+which only a tiny elite have their intelligence and mental processes 
+enhanced, while the masses of people live in ignorance and poverty. He 
+worried that the human race would fission in two, or perhaps cease to be 
+human at all. 
+
+But as we have pointed out, almost all technologies when they are first 
+introduced are expensive and hence exclusively for the well-off. Because 
+of mass production, the falling cost of computers, competition, and 
+cheaper shipping, technologies inevitably filter down to the poor as well. 
+This was also the trajectory taken by phonographs, radio, TV, PCs, 
+laptops, and cell phones."
+"Far from creating a world of haves and have-nots, science has been the 
+engine of prosperity. Of all the tools that humanity has harnessed since 
+the dawn of time, by far the most powerful and productive has been 
+science. The incredible wealth we see all around us is directly due to 
+science. To appreciate how technology reduces, rather than accentuates, 
+societal fault lines, consider the lives of our ancestors around 1900. Life 
+expectancy in the United States back then was forty-nine years. Many 
+children died in infancy. Communicating with a neighbor involved 
+yelling out the window. The mail was delivered by horse, if it came at 
+all. Medicine was largely snake oil. The only treatments that actually 
+worked were amputations (without anesthetics) and morphine to deaden 
+
+the pain. Food rotted within days. Plumbing was nonexistent. Disease 
+was a constant threat. And the economy could support only a handful of 
+the rich and a tiny middle class."
+"Technology has changed everything. We no longer have to hunt for 
+our food; we simply go to the supermarket. We no longer have to carry 
+back-breaking supplies but instead simply get into our cars. (In fact, the 
+main threat we face from technology, one that has killed millions of 
+people, is not murderous robots or mad nanobots run amok—it’s our 
+indulgent lifestyle, which has created near-epidemic levels of diabetes, 
+obesity, heart disease, cancer, etc. And this problem is self-inflicted.) 
+
+We also see this on the global level. In the last few decades the world 
+has witnessed hundreds of millions of people being lifted out of grinding 
+poverty for the first time in history. If we view the bigger picture, we see 
+that a significant fraction of the human race has left the punishing 
+lifestyle of sustenance farming and entered the ranks of the middle class."
+"It took several hundred years for Western nations to industrialize, yet 
+China and India are doing it within a few decades, all due to the spread 
+of high technology. With wireless technology and the Internet, these 
+nations can leapfrog past other, more developed nations that have 
+laboriously wired their cities. While the West struggles with an aging, 
+decaying urban infrastructure, developing nations are building entire 
+cities with sparkling, state-of-the-art technology."
+"(When I was a graduate student getting my Ph.D., my counterparts in 
+China and India would have to wait several months to a year for 
+scientific journals to come in the mail. Plus, they had almost no direct 
+contact with scientists and engineers in the West, because few if any 
+could afford to travel here. This vastly impeded the flow of technology, 
+which moved at a glacial pace for these nations. Today, however, 
+scientists can read one another’s papers as soon as they are posted on the 
+Internet, and can electronically collaborate with other scientists around 
+the world. This has vastly accelerated the flow of information. And with 
+this technology comes progress and prosperity.)"
+"Furthermore, it’s not clear that having some form of enhanced 
+intelligence will cause a catastrophic splitting of the human race, even if 
+many people are unable to afford this procedure. For the most part, 
+being able to solve complex mathematical equations or have perfect 
+recall does not guarantee a higher income, respect from your peers, or 
+
+more popularity with the opposite sex, which are the incentives that 
+motivate most people. The Caveman Principle trumps having a brain 
+boost. 
+
+As Dr. Michael Gazzaniga notes, “The idea that we are messin’ with 
+our innards is disturbing to many. And just what would we do with 
+expanded intelligence? Are we going to use it for solving problems, or 
+will it just allow us to have longer Christmas card lists ...?”"
+"But as we discussed in Chapter 5, unemployed workers may benefit 
+from this technology, drastically reducing the time required to master 
+new technologies and skills. This might not only reduce the problems 
+associated with unemployment, it could also have an impact on the 
+world economy, making it more efficient and responsive to change. 
+
+WISDOM AND DEMOCRATIC DEBATE 
+
+In responding to Joy’s article, some critics pointed out that the debate is 
+not about a struggle between scientists and nature, as portrayed in the 
+article. The debate is actually between three parties: scientists, nature, 
+and society."
+"Computer scientists Drs. John Brown and Paul Duguid responded to 
+the article by stating, “Technologies—such as gunpowder, the printing 
+press, the railroad, the telegraph, and the Internet—can change society 
+in profound ways. But on the other hand, social systems—in the form of 
+governments, the courts, formal and informal organizations, social 
+movements, professional networks, local communities, market 
+institutions, and so forth—shape, moderate, and redirect the raw power 
+of technologies.” 
+
+The point is to analyze them in terms of society, and ultimately it is up 
+to us to adopt a new vision of the future that incorporates all the best 
+ideas. 
+
+To me, the ultimate source of wisdom in this respect comes from 
+vigorous democratic debate. In the coming decades, the public will be 
+asked to vote on a number of crucial scientific issues. Technology cannot 
+be debated in a vacuum. 
+
+PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS"
+"PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS 
+
+Lastly, some critics have claimed that the march of science has gone too 
+far in unveiling the secrets of the mind, an unveiling that has become 
+dehumanizing and degrading. Why bother to rejoice at discovering 
+something new, learning a new skill, or enjoying a leisurely vacation 
+when it can all be reduced to a few neurotransmitters activating a few 
+neural circuits? 
+
+In other words, just as astronomy has reduced us to insignificant 
+pieces of cosmic dust floating in an uncaring universe, neuroscience has 
+reduced us to electrical signals circulating within neural circuits. But is 
+this really true?"
+"We began our discussion by highlighting the two greatest mysteries in 
+all of science: the mind and the universe. Not only do they have a 
+common history and narrative, they also share a similar philosophy and 
+perhaps even destiny. Science, with all its power to peer into the heart of 
+black holes and land on distant planets, has given birth to two 
+overarching philosophies about the mind and the universe: the 
+Copernican Principle and the Anthropic Principle. Both are consistent 
+with everything known about science, but they are diametrical 
+opposites. 
+
+The first great philosophy, the Copernican Principle, was born with 
+the discovery of the telescope more than four hundred years ago. It 
+states that there is no privileged position for humanity. Such a 
+deceptively simple idea has overthrown thousands of years of cherished 
+myths and entrenched philosophies."
+"Ever since the biblical tale of Adam and Eve being exiled from the 
+Garden of Eden for biting into the Apple of Knowledge, there has been a 
+series of humiliating dethronements. First, the telescope of Galileo 
+clearly showed that Earth was not the center of the solar system—the 
+sun was. This picture was then overthrown when it was realized that the 
+solar system was just a speck in the Milky Way galaxy circulating about 
+thirty thousand light-years from the center. Then in the 1920s, Edwin 
+Hubble discovered there was a multitude of galaxies. The universe 
+suddenly got billions of times bigger. Now the Hubble Space Telescope 
+can reveal the presence of up to one hundred billion galaxies in the 
+visible universe. Our own Milky Way galaxy has been reduced to a 
+pinpoint in a much larger cosmic arena. 
+
+More recent cosmological theories further downgrade the position of"
+"More recent cosmological theories further downgrade the position of 
+
+humanity in the universe. The inflationary universe theory states that 
+our visible universe, with its one hundred billion galaxies, is just a 
+pinprick on a much larger, inflated universe that is so big that most light 
+has not had time to reach us yet from distant regions. There are vast 
+reaches of space that we cannot see with our telescopes and will never 
+be able to visit because we cannot go faster than light. And if string 
+theory (my specialty) is correct, it means that even the entire universe 
+coexists with other universes in eleven-dimensional hyperspace. So even 
+three-dimensional space is not the final word. The true arena for 
+physical phenomena is the multiverse of universes, full of floating 
+bubble universes. 
+
+The science-fiction writer Douglas Adams tried to summarize the sense 
+of being constantly overthrown by inventing the Total Perspective 
+Vortex in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It was designed to drive"
+"any sane person insane. When you enter the chamber, all you see is a 
+gigantic map of the entire universe. And on the map there is a tiny, 
+almost invisible arrow that says, “You are here.” 
+
+So on one hand, the Copernican Principle indicates that we are just 
+insignificant cosmic debris drifting aimlessly among the stars. But on the 
+other hand, all the latest cosmological data are consistent with yet 
+another theory, which gives us the opposite philosophy: the Anthropic 
+Principle. 
+
+This theory states that the universe is compatible with life. Again, this 
+deceptively simple statement has profound implications. On one hand, it 
+is impossible to dispute that life exists in the universe. But it’s clear that 
+the forces of the universe must be calibrated to a remarkable degree to 
+make life possible. As physicist Freeman Dyson once said, “The universe 
+seemed to know that we were coming.”"
+"For example, if the nuclear force were just a bit stronger, the sun 
+would have burned out billions of years ago, too soon to allow DNA to 
+get off the ground. If the nuclear force were a bit weaker, then the sun 
+would never have ignited to begin with, and we still would not be here. 
+
+Likewise, if gravity were stronger, the universe would have collapsed 
+into a Big Crunch billions of years ago, and we would all be roasted to 
+death. If it were a bit weaker, then the universe would have expanded so 
+fast it would have reached the Big Freeze, so we would all have frozen to 
+death. 
+
+This fine-tuning extends to every atom of the body. Physics says that 
+we are made of star dust, that the atoms we see all around us were 
+forged in the heat of a star. We are literally children of the stars."
+"But the nuclear reactions that burned hydrogen to create the higher 
+elements of our body are very complex and could have been derailed at 
+any number of points. Then it would have been impossible to create the 
+higher elements of our bodies, and the atoms of DNA and life would not 
+exist. 
+
+In other words, life is precious and a miracle. 
+
+There are so many parameters that have to be fine-tuned that some 
+claim this is not a coincidence. The weak form of the Anthropic Principle 
+implies that the existence of life forces the physical parameters of the 
+universe to be defined in a very precise way. The strong form of the 
+Anthropic Principle goes even further, stating that God or some designer 
+had to create a universe “just right” to make life possible. 
+
+PHILOSOPHY AND NEUROSCIENCE"
+"PHILOSOPHY AND NEUROSCIENCE 
+
+The debate between the Copernican Principle and the Anthropic 
+Principle also resonates in neuroscience. For example, some claim that 
+humans can be reduced to atoms, molecules, and neurons, and hence 
+there is no distinguished place for humanity in the universe. 
+
+Dr. David Eagleman writes, “The you that all your friends know and 
+love cannot exist unless the transistors and screws of our brain are in 
+place. If you don’t believe this, step into any neurology ward in any 
+hospital. Damage to even small parts of the brain can lead to the loss of 
+shockingly specific abilities; the ability to name animals, or to hear 
+music, or to manage risky behavior, or to distinguish colors, or to 
+arbitrate simple decisions.” 
+
+It seems that the brain cannot function without all its “transistors and 
+screws.” He concludes, “Our reality depends on what our biology is up 
+to.”"
+"So on one hand, our place in the universe seems to be diminished if 
+we can be reduced, like robots, to (biological) nuts and bolts. We are just 
+wetware, running software called the mind, nothing more or less. Our 
+thoughts, desires, hopes, and aspirations can be reduced to electrical 
+
+impulses circulating in some region of the prefrontal cortex. That is the 
+Copernican Principle applied to the mind. 
+
+But the Anthropic Principle can also be applied to the mind, and we 
+then reach the opposite conclusion. It simply says that conditions of the 
+universe make consciousness possible, even though it is extraordinarily 
+difficult to create the mind out of random events. The great Victorian 
+biologist Thomas Huxley said, “How it is that anything so remarkable as 
+a state of consciousness comes about as a result of irritating nervous 
+tissue, is just as unaccountable as the appearance of the Djinn, when 
+Aladdin rubbed his lamp.”"
+"Furthermore, most astronomers believe that although one day we may 
+find life on other planets, it will most likely be microbial life, which 
+ruled our oceans for billions of years. Instead of seeing great cities and 
+empires, we might only find oceans of drifting microorganisms. 
+
+When I interviewed the late Harvard biologist Stephen Jay Gould 
+about this, he explained to me his thinking as follows. If we were to 
+somehow create a twin of Earth as it was 4.5 billion years ago, would it 
+turn out the same way 4.5 billion years later? Most likely not. There is a 
+
+large probability that DNA and life would never have gotten off the 
+ground, and an even larger probability that intelligent life with 
+consciousness would never have risen from the swamp."
+"Gould wrote, “Homo sapiens is one small twig [on the tree of life]. 
+... Yet our twig, for better or worse, has developed the most 
+extraordinary new quality in all the history of multicellular life since the 
+Cambrian explosion (500 million years ago). We have invented 
+consciousness with all its sequelae from Hamlet to Hiroshima.”"
+"In fact, in the history of Earth, there are many times when intelligent 
+life was almost extinguished. In addition to the mass extinctions that 
+wiped out the dinosaurs and most life on Earth, humans have faced 
+additional near extinctions. For example, humans are all genetically 
+related to one another to a considerable degree, much closer than two 
+typical animals of the same species. Although humans may look diverse 
+from the outside, our genes and internal chemistry tell a different story. 
+In fact, any two humans are so closely related genetically that we can 
+actually do the math and calculate when a “genetic Eve” or “genetic 
+Adam” gave birth to the entire human race. Moreover, we can calculate 
+how many of us there were in the past."
+"The numbers are remarkable. Genetics shows that there were only a 
+few hundred to a few thousand humans alive about seventy to one 
+hundred thousand years ago and that they gave birth to the entire 
+human race. (One theory holds that the titanic explosion of the Toba 
+volcano in Indonesia about seventy thousand years ago caused 
+temperatures to drop so dramatically that most of the human race 
+perished, leaving only a handful to populate Earth.) From that small 
+band of humans came the adventurers and explorers who would 
+eventually colonize the entire planet. 
+
+Repeatedly in the history of Earth, intelligent life might have come to 
+a dead end. It is a miracle we survived. We can also conclude that 
+although life may exist on other planets, conscious life may exist on only 
+a tiny fraction of them. So we should treasure the consciousness that is 
+found on Earth. It is the highest form of complexity known in the 
+universe, and probably also the rarest."
+"Sometimes, when contemplating the future destiny of the human race, 
+I have to come to grips with the distinct possibility of its self-destruction. 
+Although volcanic eruptions and earthquakes could spell doom for the 
+human race, our worst fears may be realized through man-made 
+disasters, such as nuclear wars or bioengineered germs. If so, then 
+perhaps the only conscious life-form in this sector of the Milky Way 
+galaxy might be extinguished. This, I feel, would be a tragedy not just 
+for us, but for the universe as well. We take for granted that we are 
+
+conscious, but we don’t understand the long, tortuous sequence of 
+biological events that have transpired to make this possible. Psychologist 
+Steven Pinker writes, “I would argue that nothing gives life more 
+purpose than the realization that every moment of consciousness is a 
+precious and fragile gift.” 
+
+THE MIRACLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"THE MIRACLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+Lastly, there is the criticism of science that says to understand something 
+is to remove its mystery and magic. Science, by lifting the veil 
+concealing the secrets of the mind, is also making it more ordinary and 
+mundane. However, the more I learn about the sheer complexity of the 
+brain, the more amazed I am that something that sits on our shoulders is 
+
+the most sophisticated object we know about in the universe. As Dr. 
+David Eagleman says, “What a perplexing masterpiece the brain is, and 
+how lucky we are to be in a generation that has the technology and the 
+will to turn our attention to it. It is the most wondrous thing we have 
+discovered in the universe, and it is us.” Instead of diminishing the sense 
+of wonder, learning about the brain only increases it. 
+
+More than two thousand years ago, Socrates said, “To know thyself is 
+the beginning of wisdom.” We are on a long journey to complete his 
+wishes. 
+
+APPENDIX 
+
+QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS?"
+"APPENDIX 
+
+QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS? 
+
+In spite of all the miraculous advances in brain scans and high 
+technology, some people claim that we will never understand the secret 
+of consciousness, since consciousness is beyond our puny technology. In 
+fact, in their view consciousness is more fundamental than atoms, 
+molecules, and neurons and determines the nature of reality itself. To 
+them, consciousness is the fundamental entity out of which the material 
+world is created. And to prove their point, they refer to one of the 
+greatest paradoxes in all of science, which challenges our very definition 
+of reality: the Schrodinger’s Cat paradox. Even today, there is no 
+universal consensus on the question, with Nobel laureates taking 
+divergent stances. What is at stake is nothing less than the nature of 
+reality and thought."
+"The Schrodinger’s Cat paradox cuts to the very foundation of quantum 
+mechanics, a field that makes lasers, MRI scans, radio and TV, modern 
+electronics, the GPS, and telecommunications possible, upon which the 
+world economy depends. Many of quantum theory’s predictions have 
+been tested to an accuracy of one part in one hundred billion. 
+
+I have spent my entire professional career working on the quantum 
+theory. Yet I realize that it has feet of clay. It’s an unsettling feeling 
+knowing my life’s work is based on a theory whose very foundation is 
+based on a paradox."
+"This debate was sparked by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger, who 
+was one of the founding fathers of the quantum theory. He was trying to 
+explain the strange behavior of electrons, which seemed to exhibit both 
+wave and particle properties. How can an electron, a point particle, have 
+two divergent behaviors? Sometimes electrons acted like a particle, 
+creating well-defined tracks in a cloud chamber. Other times, electrons 
+acted like a wave, passing through tiny holes and creating wavelike 
+interference patterns, like those on the surface of a pond. 
+
+In 1925, Schrodinger put forward his celebrated wave equation, which"
+"In 1925, Schrodinger put forward his celebrated wave equation, which 
+
+bears his name and is one of the most important equations ever written. 
+It was an instant sensation, and won him the Nobel Prize in 1933. The 
+Schrodinger equation accurately described the wavelike behavior of 
+electrons and, when applied to the hydrogen atom, explained its strange 
+properties. Miraculously, it could also be applied to any atom and 
+explain most of the features of the periodic table of elements. It seemed 
+as if all chemistry (and hence all biology) were nothing but solutions of 
+this wave equation. Some physicists even claimed that the entire 
+universe, including all the stars, planets, and even us, was nothing but a 
+solution of this equation. 
+
+But then physicists began to ask a problematic question that resonates 
+even today: If the electron is described by a wave equation, then what is 
+waving?"
+"In 1927, Werner Heisenberg proposed a new principle that split the 
+physics community down the middle. Heisenberg’s celebrated 
+uncertainty principle states that you cannot know both the location and 
+the momentum of an electron with certainty. This uncertainty was not a 
+function of how crude your instruments were but was inherent in 
+physics itself. Even God or some celestial being could not know the 
+precise location and momentum of an electron. 
+
+So the wave function of Schrodinger actually described the probability 
+of finding the electron. Scientists had spent thousands of years painfully 
+
+trying to eliminate chance and probabilities in their work, and now 
+Heisenberg was allowing it in through the back door. 
+
+The new philosophy can be summed up as follows: the electron is a 
+point particle, but the probability of finding it is given by a wave. And 
+this wave obeys Schrodinger’s equation and gives rise to the uncertainty 
+principle."
+"The physics community cracked in half. On one side, we had 
+physicists like Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and most atomic 
+physicists eagerly adopting this new formulation. Almost daily, they 
+were announcing new breakthroughs in understanding the properties of 
+matter. Nobel Prizes were being handed out to quantum physicists like 
+Oscars. Quantum mechanics was becoming a cookbook. You did not 
+need to be a master physicist to make stellar contributions—you just 
+followed the recipes given by quantum mechanics and you would make 
+stunning breakthroughs. 
+
+On the other side, we had aging Nobel laureates like Albert Einstein, 
+Erwin Schrodinger, and Louis de Broglie who were raising philosophical 
+objections. Schrodinger, whose work helped start this whole process, 
+grumbled that if he had known that his equation would introduce 
+probability into physics, he would never have created it in the first 
+place."
+"Physicists embarked on an eighty-year debate that continues even 
+today. On one hand, Einstein would proclaim that “God does not play 
+dice with the world.” Niels Bohr, on the other hand, reportedly replied, 
+“Stop telling God what to do.” 
+
+In 1935, to demolish the quantum physicists once and for all, 
+Schrodinger proposed his celebrated cat problem. Place a cat in a sealed 
+box, with a container of poison gas. In the box, there is a lump of 
+uranium. The uranium atom is unstable and emits particles that can be 
+detected by a Geiger counter. The counter triggers a hammer, which falls 
+and breaks the glass, releasing the gas, which can kill the cat."
+"How do you describe the cat? A quantum physicist would say that the 
+uranium atom is described by a wave, which can either decay or not 
+decay. Therefore you have to add the two waves together. If the uranium 
+fires, then the cat dies, so that is described by one wave. If the uranium 
+does not fire, then the cat lives, and that is also described by a wave. To 
+describe the cat, you therefore have to add the wave of a dead cat to the 
+wave of a live cat. 
+
+This means that the cat is neither dead nor alive! The cat is in a 
+netherworld, between life and death, the sum of the wave describing a 
+
+dead cat with the wave of a live cat. 
+
+This is the crux of the problem, which has reverberated in the halls of 
+physics for almost a century. So how do you resolve this paradox? There 
+are at least three ways (and hundreds of variations on these three)."
+"The first is the original Copenhagen interpretation proposed by Bohr 
+and Heisenberg, the one that is quoted in textbooks around the world. (It 
+is the one that I start with when I teach quantum mechanics.) It says that 
+to determine the state of the cat, you must open the box and make a 
+measurement. The cat’s wave (which was the sum of a dead cat and a 
+live cat) now “collapses” into a single wave, so the cat is now known to 
+be alive (or dead). Thus, observation determines the existence and state 
+of the cat. The measurement process is thus responsible for two waves 
+
+magically dissolving into a single wave."
+"magically dissolving into a single wave. 
+
+Einstein hated this. For centuries, scientists have battled something 
+called “solipsism” or “subjective idealism,” which claims that objects 
+cannot exist unless there is someone there to observe them. Only the 
+mind is real—the material world exists only as ideas in the mind. Thus, 
+say the solipsists (such as Bishop George Berkeley), if a tree falls in the 
+forest but no one is there to observe it, perhaps the tree never fell. 
+Einstein, who thought all this was pure nonsense, promoted an opposing 
+theory called “objective reality,” which says simply that the universe 
+exists in a unique, definite state independent of any human observation. 
+It is the commonsense view of most people."
+"Objective reality goes back to Isaac Newton. In this scenario, the atom 
+and subatomic particles are like tiny steel balls, which exist at definite 
+points in space and time. There is no ambiguity or chance in locating the 
+position of these balls, whose motions can be determined by using the 
+laws of motion. Objective reality was spectacularly successful in 
+describing the motions of planets, stars, and galaxies. Using relativity, 
+this idea can also describe black holes and the expanding universe. But 
+there is one place where it fails miserably, and that is inside the atom. 
+
+Classical physicists like Newton and Einstein thought that objective 
+reality finally banished solipsism from physics. Walter Lippmann, the 
+columnist, summed it up when he wrote, “The radical novelty of modern 
+science lies precisely in the rejection of the belief ... that the forces 
+which move the stars and atoms are contingent upon the preferences of 
+the human heart.”"
+"But quantum mechanics allowed a new form of solipsism back into 
+physics. In this picture, before it is observed, a tree can exist in any 
+possible state (e.g., sapling, burned, sawdust, toothpicks, decayed). But 
+
+when you look at it, the wave suddenly collapses and it looks like a tree. 
+The original solipsists talked about trees that either fell or didn’t. The 
+new quantum solipsists were introducing all possible states of a tree. 
+
+This was too much for Einstein. He would ask guests at his house, 
+“Does the moon exist because a mouse looks at it?” To a quantum 
+physicist, in some sense the answer might be yes. 
+
+Einstein and his colleagues would challenge Bohr by asking: How can 
+the quantum microworld (with cats being dead and alive 
+simultaneously) coexist with the commonsense world we see around us?"
+"The answer was that there is a “wall” that separates our world from the 
+atomic world. On one side of the wall, common sense rules. On the other 
+side of the wall, the quantum theory rules. You can move the wall if you 
+want and the results are still the same. 
+
+This interpretation, no matter how strange, has been taught for eighty 
+years by quantum physicists. More recently, there have been some 
+doubts cast on the Copenhagen interpretation. Today we have 
+nanotechnology, with which we can manipulate individual atoms at will. 
+On a scanning tunneling microscope screen, atoms appear to be fuzzy 
+tennis balls. (For BBC-TV, I had a chance to fly out to IBM’s Almaden 
+Lab in San Jose, California, and actually push individual atoms around 
+with a tiny probe. It is now possible to play with atoms, which were 
+once thought to be so small they could never be seen.)"
+"As we’ve discussed, the Age of Silicon is slowly coming to an end, and 
+some believe that molecular transistors will replace silicon transistors. If 
+so, then the paradoxes of the quantum theory may lie at the very heart 
+of every computer of the future. The world economy may eventually rest 
+on these paradoxes. 
+
+COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS AND MULTIPLE UNIVERSES 
+
+There are two alternate interpretations of the cat paradox, which take us 
+to the strangest realms in all science: the realm of God and multiple 
+universes. 
+
+In 1967, the second resolution to the cat problem was formulated by 
+Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner, whose work was pivotal in laying the 
+foundation of quantum mechanics and also building the atomic bomb. 
+He said that only a conscious person can make an observation that 
+collapses the wave function. But who is to say that this person exists? 
+You cannot separate the observer from the observed, so maybe this"
+"person is also dead and alive. In other words, there has to be a new 
+wave function that includes both the cat and the observer. To make sure 
+that the observer is alive, you need a second observer to watch the first 
+observer. This second observer is called “Wigner’s friend,” and is 
+necessary to watch the first observer so that all waves collapse. But how 
+do we know that the second observer is alive? The second observer has 
+
+to be included in a still-larger wave function to make sure he is alive, 
+but this can be continued indefinitely. Since you need an infinite number 
+of “friends” to collapse the previous wave function to make sure they are 
+alive, you need some form of “cosmic consciousness,” or God. 
+
+Wigner concluded: “It was not possible to formulate the laws (of 
+quantum theory) in a fully consistent way without reference to 
+consciousness.” Toward the end of his life, he even became interested in 
+the Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism."
+"In this approach, God or some eternal consciousness watches over all 
+of us, collapsing our wave functions so that we can say we are alive. This 
+interpretation yields the same physical results as the Copenhagen 
+interpretation, so this theory cannot be disproven. But the implication is 
+that consciousness is the fundamental entity in the universe, more 
+fundamental than atoms. The material world may come and go, but 
+consciousness remains as the defining element, which means that 
+consciousness, in some sense, creates reality. The very existence of the 
+atoms we see around us is based on our ability to see and touch them."
+"(At this point, it’s important to note that some people think that 
+because consciousness determines existence, then consciousness can 
+therefore control existence, perhaps by meditation. They think that we 
+can create reality according to our wishes. This thinking, as attractive as 
+it might sound, goes against quantum mechanics. In quantum physics, 
+consciousness makes observations and therefore determines the state of 
+reality, but consciousness cannot choose ahead of time which state of 
+reality actually exists. Quantum mechanics allows you only to determine 
+the chance of finding one state, but we cannot bend reality to our 
+wishes. For example, in gambling, it is possible to mathematically 
+calculate the chances of getting a royal flush. However, this does not 
+mean that you can somehow control the cards to get the royal flush. You 
+cannot pick and choose universes, just as we have no control over 
+whether the cat is dead or alive.) 
+
+MULTIPLE UNIVERSES"
+"MULTIPLE UNIVERSES 
+
+The third way to resolve the paradox is the Everett, or many-worlds, 
+
+interpretation, which was proposed in 1957 by Hugh Everett. It is the 
+
+strangest theory of all. It says that the universe is constantly splitting 
+apart into a multiverse of universes. In one universe, we have a dead cat. 
+In another universe, we have a live cat. This approach can be 
+summarized as follows: wave functions never collapse, they just split. 
+The Everett many-worlds theory differs from the Copenhagen 
+interpretation only in that it drops the final assumption: the collapse of 
+the wave function. In some sense, it is the simplest formulation of 
+quantum mechanics, but also the most disturbing. 
+
+There are profound consequences to this third approach. It means that 
+all possible universes might exist, even ones that are bizarre and 
+seemingly impossible. (However, the more bizarre the universe, the 
+more unlikely it is.)"
+"This means people who have died in our universe are still alive in 
+another universe. And these dead people insist that their universe is the 
+correct one, and that our universe (in which they are dead) is fake. But if 
+these “ghosts” of dead people are still alive somewhere, then why can’t 
+we meet them? Why can’t we touch these parallel worlds? (As strange as 
+it may seem, in this picture Elvis is still alive in one of these universes.)"
+"What’s more, some of these universes may be dead, without any life, 
+but others may look exactly like ours, except for one key difference. For 
+example, the collision of a single cosmic ray is a tiny quantum event. But 
+what happens if this cosmic ray goes through Adolf Hitler’s mother, and 
+the infant Hitler dies in a miscarriage? Then a tiny quantum event, the 
+collision of a single cosmic ray, causes the universe to split in half. In 
+one universe, World War II never happened, and sixty million people did 
+not have to die. In the other universe, we’ve had the ravages of World 
+War II. These two universes grow to be quite far apart, yet they are 
+initially separated by one tiny quantum event."
+"This phenomenon was explored by science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick 
+in his novel The Man in the High Tower, where a parallel universe opens 
+up because of a single event: a bullet is fired at Franklin Roosevelt, who 
+is killed by an assassin. This pivotal event means that the United States 
+is not prepared for World War II, and the Nazis and Japanese are 
+victorious and eventually partition the United States in half. 
+
+But whether the bullet fires or misfires depends, in turn, on whether a 
+microscopic spark is set off in the gunpowder, which itself depends on 
+complex molecular reactions involving the motions of electrons. So 
+
+perhaps quantum fluctuations in the gunpowder may determine whether 
+the gun fires or misfires, which in turn determines whether the Allies or 
+the Nazis emerge victorious during World War II."
+"So there is no “wall” separating the quantum world and the 
+macroworld. The bizarre features of the quantum theory can creep into 
+our “commonsense” world. These wave functions never collapse—they 
+keep splitting endlessly into parallel realities. The creation of alternative 
+universes never stops. The paradoxes of the microworld (i.e., being dead 
+and alive simultaneously, being in two places at the same time, 
+disappearing and reappearing somewhere else) now enter into our world 
+as well. 
+
+But if the wave function is continually splitting apart, creating entirely 
+new universes in the process, then why can’t we visit them?"
+"Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg compares this to listening to the radio 
+in your living room. There are hundreds of radio waves simultaneously 
+filling up your room from all over the world, but your radio dial is tuned 
+to only one frequency. In other words, your radio has “decohered” from 
+all the other stations. (Coherence is when all waves vibrate in perfect 
+unison, as in a laser beam. Decoherence is when these waves begin to 
+fall out of phase, so they no longer vibrate in unison.) These other 
+frequencies all exist, but your radio cannot pick them up because they 
+are not vibrating at the same frequency that we are anymore. They have 
+decoupled; that is, they have decohered from us."
+"In the same way, the wave function of the dead and alive cat have 
+decohered as time goes on. The implications are rather staggering. In 
+your living room, you coexist with the waves of dinosaurs, pirates, aliens 
+from space, and monsters. Yet you are blissfully unaware that you are 
+sharing the same space as these strange denizens of quantum space, 
+because your atoms are no longer vibrating in unison with them. These 
+parallel universes do not exist in some distant never-never land. They 
+exist in your living room. 
+
+Entering one of these parallel worlds is called “quantum jumping” or 
+“sliding” and is a favorite gimmick of science fiction. To enter a parallel 
+universe, we need to take a quantum jump into it. (There was even a TV 
+series called Sliders where people slide back and forth between parallel 
+universes. The series began when a young boy read a book. That book is 
+actually my book Hyperspace, but I take no responsibility for the physics 
+
+behind that series.)"
+"behind that series.) 
+
+Actually, it’s not so simple to jump between universes. One problem 
+we sometimes give our Ph.D. students is to calculate the probability that 
+
+you will jump through a brick wall and wind up on the other side. The 
+result is sobering. You would have to wait longer than the lifetime of the 
+universe to experience jumping or sliding through a brick wall. 
+
+LOOKING IN THE MIRROR"
+"LOOKING IN THE MIRROR 
+
+When I look at myself in a mirror, I don’t really see myself as I truly am. 
+First, I see myself about a billionth of a second ago, since that is the time 
+that it takes a light beam to leave my face, hit a mirror, and enter my 
+eyes. Second, the image I see is really an average over billions and 
+billions of wave functions. This average certainly does resemble my 
+image, but it is not exact. Surrounding me are multiple images of myself 
+oozing in all directions. I am continually surrounded by alternate 
+universes, forever branching into different worlds, but the probability of 
+sliding between them is so tiny that Newtonian mechanics seems to be 
+correct."
+"At this point, some people ask this question: Why don’t scientists 
+simply do an experiment to determine which interpretation is valid? If 
+we run an experiment with an electron, all three interpretations will 
+yield the same result. All three are therefore serious, viable 
+interpretations of quantum mechanics, with the same underlying 
+quantum theory. What is different is how we explain the results. 
+
+Hundreds of years in the future, physicists and philosophers may still 
+be debating this question, with no resolution, because all three 
+interpretations yield the same physical results. But perhaps there is one 
+way in which this philosophical debate touches on the brain, and that is 
+the question of free will, which in turn affects the moral foundation of 
+human society. 
+
+FREE W ILT. 
+
+Our entire civilization is based on the concept of free will, which 
+impacts on the notions of reward, punishment, and personal"
+"responsibility. But does free will really exist? Or is it a clever way of 
+keeping society together although it violates scientific principles? The 
+controversy goes to the very heart of quantum mechanics itself. 
+
+It is safe to say that more and more neuroscientists are gradually 
+coming to the conclusion that free will does not exist, at least not in the 
+usual sense. If certain bizarre behaviors can be linked to precise defects 
+
+in the brain, then a person is not scientifically responsible for the crimes 
+he might commit. He might be too dangerous to be left walking the 
+streets and must be locked up in an institution of some sort, but 
+punishing someone for having a stroke or tumor in the brain is 
+misguided, they say. What that person needs is medical and 
+psychological help. Perhaps the brain damage can be treated (e.g., by 
+removing a tumor), and the person can become a productive member of 
+society."
+"For example, when I interviewed Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen, a 
+psychologist at Cambridge University, he told me that many (but not all) 
+pathological killers have a brain anomaly. Their brain scans show that 
+they lack empathy when seeing someone else in pain, and in fact they 
+might even take pleasure in watching this suffering (in these individuals, 
+the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens, the pleasure center, light up 
+when they view videos of people experiencing pain). 
+
+The conclusion some might draw from this is that these people are not 
+truly responsible for their heinous acts, although they should still be 
+removed from society. They need help, not punishment, because of a 
+problem with their brain. In a sense, they may not be acting with free 
+will when they commit their crimes."
+"An experiment done by Dr. Benjamin Libet in 1985 casts doubt on the 
+very existence of free will. Let’s say that you are asking subjects to watch 
+a clock and then to note precisely when they decide to move a finger. 
+Using EEG scans, one can detect exactly when the brain makes this 
+decision. When you compare the two times, you will find a mismatch. 
+The EEG scans show that the brain has actually made the decision about 
+three hundred milliseconds before the person becomes aware of it. 
+
+This means that, in some sense, free will is a fake. Decisions are made 
+ahead of time by the brain, without the input of consciousness, and then 
+later the brain tries to cover this up (as it’s wont to do) by claiming that 
+the decision was conscious. Dr. Michael Sweeney concludes, “Libet’s 
+
+findings suggested that the brain knows what a person will decide before 
+the person does.... The world must reassess not only the idea of 
+movements divided between voluntary and involuntary, but also the 
+very idea of free will.”"
+"All this seems to indicate that free will, the cornerstone of society, is a 
+fiction, an illusion created by our left brain. So are we masters of our 
+fate, or just pawns in a swindle perpetuated by the brain? 
+
+There are several ways to approach this sticky question. Free will goes 
+against a philosophy called determinism, which simply says that all 
+
+future events are determined by physical laws. According to Newton 
+himself, the universe was some sort of clock, ticking away since the 
+beginning of time, obeying the laws of motion. Hence all events are 
+predictable. 
+
+The question is: Are we part of this clock? Are all our actions also 
+determined? These questions have philosophical and theological 
+implications. For example, most religions adhere to some form of 
+determinism and predestination. Since God is omnipotent, omniscient, 
+and omnipresent, He knows the future, and hence the future is 
+determined ahead of time. He knows even before you are born whether 
+you will go to Heaven or Hell."
+"The Catholic Church split in half on this precise question during the 
+Protestant revolution. According to Catholic doctrine at that time, one 
+could change one’s ultimate fate with an indulgence, usually by making 
+generous financial donations to the Church. In other words, determinism 
+could be altered by the size of your wallet. Martin Luther specifically 
+singled out the corruption of the Church over indulgences when he 
+tacked his 95 Theses on the door of a church in 1517, triggering the 
+Protestant Reformation. This was one of the key reasons why the Church 
+split down the middle, causing casualties in the millions and laying 
+waste to entire regions of Europe."
+"But after 1925, uncertainty was introduced into physics via quantum 
+mechanics. Suddenly everything became uncertain; all you could 
+calculate was probabilities. In this sense, perhaps free will does exist, 
+and it’s a manifestation of quantum mechanics. So some claim that the 
+quantum theory reestablishes the concept of free will. The determinists 
+have fought back, however, claiming that quantum effects are extremely 
+small (at the level of atoms), too small to account for the free will of 
+
+large human beings. 
+
+The situation today is actually rather muddled. Perhaps the question 
+“Does free will exist?” is like the question “What is life?” The discovery 
+of DNA has rendered that question about life obsolete. We now realize 
+that the question has many layers and complexities. Perhaps the same 
+applies to free will, and there are many types."
+"If so, the very definition of “free will” becomes ambiguous. For 
+example, one way to define free will is to ask whether behavior can be 
+predicted. If free will exists, then behavior cannot be determined ahead 
+of time. Let’s say you watch a movie, for example. The plot is completely 
+determined, with no free will whatsoever. So the movie is completely 
+predictable. But our world cannot be like a movie, for two reasons. The 
+first is the quantum theory, as we have seen. The movie represents only 
+
+one possible timeline. The second reason is chaos theory. Although 
+classical physics says that all of the motions of atoms are completely 
+determined and predictable, in practice it is impossible to predict their 
+motions because there are so many atoms involved. The slightest 
+disturbance of a single atom can have a ripple effect, which can cascade 
+down to create enormous disturbances."
+"Think of the weather. In principle, if you knew the behavior of every 
+atom in the air, you could predict the weather a century from now if you 
+had a big enough computer. But in practice, this is impossible. After just 
+a few hours, the weather becomes so turbulent and complex that any 
+computer simulation is rendered useless. 
+
+This creates what is called the “butterfly effect,” which means that 
+even the beat of butterfly wings can cause tiny ripples in the 
+atmosphere, which grow and in turn can escalate into a thunderstorm. 
+So if even the flapping of butterfly wings can create thunderstorms, the 
+hope of accurately predicting the weather is far-fetched. 
+
+Let’s go back to the thought experiment described to me by Stephen 
+Jay Gould. He asked me to imagine Earth 4.5 billion years ago, when it 
+was born. Now imagine you could somehow create an identical copy of 
+Earth, and let it evolve. Would we still be here on this different Earth 4.5 
+billion years later?"
+"One could easily imagine, due to quantum effects or the chaotic nature 
+of the weather and oceans, that humanity would never evolve into 
+precisely the same creatures on this version of Earth. So ultimately, it 
+
+seems a combination of uncertainty and chaos makes a perfectly 
+deterministic world impossible. 
+
+THE QUANTUM BRAIN 
+
+This debate also affects the reverse engineering of the brain. If you can 
+successfully reverse engineer a brain made of transistors, this success 
+implies that the brain is deterministic and predictable. Ask it any 
+question and it repeats the exact same answer. Computers are 
+deterministic in this way, since they always give the same answer for 
+any question. 
+
+So it seems we have a problem. On one hand, quantum mechanics and 
+chaos theory claim that the universe is not predictable, and therefore, 
+free will seems to exist. But a reverse-engineered brain, made of 
+transistors, would by definition be predictable. Since the reverse-"
+"engineered brain is theoretically identical to a living brain, then the 
+human brain is also deterministic and there is no free will. Clearly, this 
+contradicts the first statement."
+"A minority of scientists claim that you cannot authentically reverse 
+engineer the brain, or ever create a true thinking machine, because of 
+the quantum theory. The brain, they argue, is a quantum device, not just 
+a collection of transistors. Hence this project is doomed to fail. In this 
+camp is Oxford physicist Dr. Roger Penrose, an authority on Einstein’s 
+theory of relativity, who claims that it is quantum processes that may 
+account for the consciousness of the human brain. Penrose starts by 
+saying that mathematician Kurt Godel has proven that arithmetic is 
+incomplete; that is, that there are true statements in arithmetic that 
+cannot be proven using the axioms of arithmetic. Similarly, not only is 
+mathematics incomplete, but so is physics. He concludes by stating that 
+the brain is basically a quantum mechanical device and there are 
+problems that no machine can solve because of Godel’s incompleteness 
+theorem. Humans, however, can make sense of these conundrums using 
+intuition."
+"Similarly, the reverse-engineered brain, no matter how complex, is 
+still a collection of transistors and wires. In such a deterministic system, 
+you can accurately predict its future behavior because the laws of 
+
+motion are well known. In a quantum system, however, the system is 
+inherently unpredictable. All you can calculate are the chances that 
+something will occur, because of the uncertainty principle. 
+
+If it turns out that the reverse-engineered brain cannot reproduce 
+human behavior, then scientists may be forced to admit that there are 
+unpredictable forces at work (i.e., quantum effects inside the brain). Dr. 
+Penrose argues that inside the neuron there are tiny structures, called 
+microtubules, where quantum processes dominate."
+"At present, there is no consensus on this problem. Judging from the 
+reaction to Penrose’s idea when it was first proposed, it would be safe to 
+say that most of the scientific community is skeptical of his approach. 
+Science, however, is never conducted as a popularity contest, but instead 
+advances through testable, reproducible, and falsifiable theories. 
+
+For my own part, I believe transistors cannot truly model all the 
+behaviors of neurons, which carry out both analog and digital 
+calculations. We know that neurons are messy. They can leak, misfire, 
+age, die, and are sensitive to the environment. To me, this suggests that 
+a collection of transistors can only approximately model the behavior of 
+neurons. For example, we saw earlier, in discussing the physics of the 
+brain, that if the axon of the neuron becomes thinner, then it begins to"
+"leak and also does not carry out chemical reactions that well. Some of 
+this leakage and these misfires will be due to quantum effects. As you try 
+to imagine neurons that are thinner, denser, and faster, quantum effects 
+become more obvious. This means that even for normal neurons there 
+are problems of leakage and instabilities, and these problems exist both 
+classically and quantum mechanically. 
+
+In conclusion, a reverse-engineered robot will give a good but not 
+perfect approximation of the human brain. Unlike Penrose, I think it is 
+possible to create a deterministic robot out of transistors that gives the 
+appearance of consciousness, but without any free will. It will pass the 
+Turing test. But I think there will be differences between such a robot 
+and humans due to these tiny quantum effects."
+"Ultimately, I think free will probably does exist, but it is not the free 
+will envisioned by rugged individualists who claim they are complete 
+masters of their fate. The brain is influenced by thousands of 
+unconscious factors that predispose us to make certain choices ahead of 
+time, even if we think we made them ourselves. This does not 
+
+necessarily mean that we are actors in a film that can be rewound 
+anytime. The end of the movie hasn’t been written yet, so strict 
+determinism is destroyed by a subtle combination of quantum effects 
+and chaos theory. In the end, we are still masters of our destiny. 
+
+NOTES 
+
+INTRODUCTION"
+"NOTES 
+
+INTRODUCTION 
+
+1 You may have to travel: To see this, define “complex” in terms of the 
+total amount of information that can be stored. The closest rival to the 
+brain might be the information contained within our DNA. There are 
+three billion base pairs in our DNA, each one containing one of four 
+nucleic acids, labeled A,T,C,G. Therefore the total amount of 
+information we can store in our DNA is four raised to the three- 
+billionth power. But the brain can store much more information 
+among its one hundred billion neurons, which can either fire or not 
+fire. Hence, there are two raised to the one-hundred-billionth power 
+possible initial states of the human brain. But while DNA is static, the 
+states of the brain change every few milliseconds. A simple thought 
+may contain one hundred generations of neural firings. Hence, there 
+are two raised to one hundred billion, all raised to the hundredth 
+power, possible thoughts contained in one hundred generations. But"
+"our brains are continually firing, day and night, ceaselessly 
+computing. Therefore the total number of thoughts possible within N 
+generations is two raised to the one-hundred-billionth power, all 
+raised to the Nth power, which is truly astronomical. Therefore the 
+amount of information that we can store in our brains far exceeds the 
+information stored within our DNA by a wide margin. In fact, it is the 
+largest amount of information that we can store in our solar system, 
+and even possibly in our sector of the Milky Way galaxy. 
+
+2 “The most valuable insights”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 89. 
+
+3 “All of these questions that philosophers”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 
+137. 
+
+CHAPTER 1: UNLOCKING THE MIND 
+
+1 He was semiconscious for weeks: See Sweeney, pp. 207-8. 
+
+2 Dr. John Harlow, the doctor who treated: Carter, p. 24. 
+
+3 In the year A.D. 43, records show: Horstman, p. 87. 
+
+4 “It was like ... standing in the doorway”: Carter, p. 28. 
+
+5 The Transparent Brain: New York Times, April 10, 2013, p. 1."
+"5 The Transparent Brain: New York Times, April 10, 2013, p. 1. 
+
+6 “Emotions are not feelings at all”: Carter, p. 83. 
+
+7 the mind is more like a “society of minds”: Interview with Dr. 
+Minsky for the BBC-TV series Visions of the Future, February 2007. 
+Also, interview for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast, 
+November 2009. 
+
+8 consciousness was like a storm raging: Interview with Dr. Pinker in 
+September 2003 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+9 “the intuitive feeling we have”: Pinker, “The Riddle of Knowing 
+You’re Here,” in Your Brain: A User’s Guide (New York: Time Inc. 
+Specials, 2011). 
+
+10 Consciousness turns out to consist of: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 111. 
+
+11 “indeed a conscious system in its own right”: Carter, p. 52. 
+
+12 I asked him how experiments: Interview with Dr. Michael 
+Gazzaniga in September 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio 
+broadcast. 
+
+13 “The possible implications of this”: Carter, p. 53. 
+
+14 “If that person dies, what happens?”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 119."
+"14 “If that person dies, what happens?”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 119. 
+
+15 a young king who inherits: Interview with Dr. David Eagleman in 
+May 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+16 “people named Denise or Dennis”: Eagleman, p. 63. 
+
+17 “at least 15 % of human females”: Eagleman, p. 43. 
+
+CHAPTER 2: CONSCIOUSNESS—A PHYSICIST’S VIEWPOINT 
+
+1 “We cannot see ultraviolet light”: Pinker, How the Mind Works, pp. 
+561-65. 
+
+2 “Everybody knows what consciousness is”: Biological Bulletin 215, 
+no. 3 (December 2008): 216."
+"2 “Everybody knows what consciousness is”: Biological Bulletin 215, 
+no. 3 (December 2008): 216. 
+
+3 We will do so in the notes: Level II consciousness can be counted by 
+listing the total number of distinct feedback loops when an animal 
+interacts with members of its species. As a rough guess, Level II 
+consciousness can be approximated by multiplying the number of 
+others in an animal’s pack or tribe, multiplied by the total number of 
+distinct emotions or gestures it uses to communicate with others. 
+There are caveats to this ranking, however, since this is just a first 
+guess. 
+
+For example, animals like the wildcat are social, but they are also 
+solitary hunters, so it appears as if the number of animals in its pack is 
+one. But that is true only when it is hunting. When it is time to 
+reproduce, wildcats engage in complex mating rituals, so its Level II 
+consciousness must take this into account."
+"Furthermore, when female wildcats give birth to litters of kittens, 
+which have to be nursed and fed, the number of social interactions 
+increases as a consequence. So even for solitary hunters, the number 
+of members of its species that it interacts with is not one, and the total 
+number of distinct feedback loops can be quite large. 
+
+Also, if the number of wolves in the pack decreases, then it appears 
+as if its Level II number decreases correspondingly. To account for 
+this, we have to introduce the concept of an average Level II number 
+that is common for the entire species, as well as a specific Level II 
+consciousness for an individual animal. 
+
+The average Level II number for a given species does not change if 
+the pack gets smaller, because it is common for the entire species, but 
+the individual Level II number (because it measures individual mental 
+activity and consciousness) does change."
+"When applied to humans, the average Level II number must take 
+into account the Dunbar number, which is 150, and represents roughly 
+
+the number of people in our social grouping that we can keep track of. 
+So the Level II number for humans as a species would be the total 
+number of distinct emotions and gestures we use to communicate, 
+multiplied by the Dunbar number of 150. (Individuals can have 
+different levels of Level II consciousness, since their circle of friends 
+and the ways they interact with them can vary considerably.) 
+
+We should also note that certain Level I organisms (like insects and 
+reptiles) can exhibit social behaviors. Ants, when they bump into one 
+another, exchange information via chemical scents, and bees dance to 
+communicate the location of flower beds. Reptiles even have a 
+primitive limbic system. But in the main, they do not exhibit 
+emotions. 
+
+4 “The difference between man”: Gazzaniga, p. 27. 
+
+5 “The greatest achievement of the human brain”: Gilbert, p. 5."
+"5 “The greatest achievement of the human brain”: Gilbert, p. 5. 
+
+6 “area 10 (the internal granular layer IV)”: Gazzaniga, p. 20. 
+
+7 The male gets confused, because it wants: Eagleman, p. 144. 
+
+8 “I predict that mirror neurons”: Brockman, p. xiii. 
+
+9 Biologist Carl Zimmer writes: Bloom, p. 51. 
+
+10 “Most of the time we daydream”: Bloom, p. 51. 
+
+Ill asked one person who may: Interview with Dr. Michael Gazzaniga 
+in September 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+12 “It is the left hemisphere”: Gazzaniga, p. 85. 
+
+CHAPTER 3: TELEPATHY—A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS 
+
+1 Indeed, in a recent “Next 5 in 5”: http://www.ibm.com/5in5. 
+
+2 I had the pleasure of touring: Interview with Dr. Gallant on July 11, 
+
+2012, at the University of California, Berkeley. Also, interview with 
+Dr. Gallant on Science Fantastic for national radio, July 2012. 
+
+3 “This is a major leap forward”: Berkeleyan Newsletter, September 
+22, 2011, http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/09/22/brain-movies."
+"4 “If you take 200 voxels”: Brockman, p. 236. 
+
+5 Dr. Brian Pasley and his colleagues: Visit to Dr. Pasley’s laboratory 
+on July 11, 2012, at the University of California, Berkeley. 
+
+6 Similar results were obtained: The Brain Institute, University of 
+Utah, Salt Lake City, http://brain.utah.edu. 
+
+7 This could have applications for artists: http://io9/543338/a- 
+device-that-lets-io9.com/543338/a-device-that-lets-ou-type-with-your- 
+mind. 
+
+8 According to their officials: http://news.discovery.com/tech/type- 
+with-your-mind-110309.html. 
+
+9 being explored by Dr. David Poeppel: Discover Magazine Presents the 
+Brain, Spring 2012, p. 43. 
+
+10 In 1993 in Germany: Scientific American, November 2008, p. 68. 
+
+11 The only justification for its existence: Garreau, pp. 23-24. 
+
+12 I once had lunch with: Symposium on the future of science 
+sponsored by the Science Fiction Channel at the Chabot Pace and 
+Science Center, Oakland, California, in May 2004."
+"13 On another occasion: Conference in Anaheim, California, April 
+2009. 
+
+14 He says, “Imagine if soldiers”: Garreau, p. 22. 
+
+15 “What he is doing is spending”: Ibid., p. 19. 
+
+16 When I asked Dr. Nishimoto: Visit to Dr. Gallant’s laboratory at the 
+University of California, Berkeley, on July 11, 2012. 
+
+17 “There are ethical concerns”: http://www.nbcnews.com/ 
+id/47447302/ns/health-health_care/t/paralyzed-woman-gets-robotic- 
+arm.html. 
+
+CHAPTER 4: TELEKINESIS: MIND CONTROLLING MATTER 
+
+1 “I would love to have”: New York Times, May 17, 2012, p. A17 and 
+http://www.msnbc.mns.eom/id/47447302/ns/health-health_care/t/ 
+parallyzed-woman-gets-robotic-arm.html. 
+
+2 “We have taken a tiny sensor”: Interview with Dr. John Donoghue in 
+November 2009 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+3 In the United States alone, more than two hundred thousand: 
+
+Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Washington, D.C. http:// 
+www. ede. go v/traumatiebraininj ury/scifacts. html ."
+"4 When the monkey wanted to move: 
+
+http://physio.northwestern.edu/faculty/miller.htm; http://www. 
+
+northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2012/04/miller-paralyzed- 
+
+technology.html. 
+
+5 “We are eavesdropping on the natural”: http://www.northwestern. 
+edu/newscenter/stories/2012/04/miller-paralyzed-technology.html. 
+
+6 More than 1,300 service members: http://www.darpa.mil/Our_ 
+Work/DSO/Programs/Revolutionizing_Prosthetics.aspx. CBS 60 
+Minutes, broadcast on December 30, 2012. 
+
+7 “They thought we were crazy”: Ibid. 
+
+8 she appeared on 60 Minutes: Ibid. 
+
+9 “There’s going to be a whole ecosystem”: Wall Street Journal, May 
+29, 2012. 
+
+10 But perhaps the most novel applications: Interview with Dr. 
+Nicolelis in April 2011 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast."
+"11 Smart Hands and Mind Melds: New York Times, March 13, 2013, 
+http://nytimes.com/2013/03/01/science/new-research-suggests-two- 
+rat-brains-can-be-linked. See also Huffington Post, February 28, 2013, 
+http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/28/mind-melds-brain- 
+communication_n_2781609.html. 
+
+12 In 2013, the next important step: USA Today, August 8, 2013, p. 
+ID. 
+
+13 About ten years ago: Interview with Dr. Nicolelis in April 2011. 
+
+14 “so there’s nothing sticking out”: For a full discussion of the 
+exoskeleton, see Nicolelis, pp. 303-7. 
+
+15 The Honda Corporation has: http://www.asimo.honda.com. Also, 
+interview with the creators of ASIMO in April 2007 for the BBC-TV 
+series Visions of the Future. 
+
+16 Eventually, you get the hang: http://discovermagazine.com/2007/ 
+may/re vie w-test- driving- the -future . 
+
+17 Then, by thinking, the patient: Discover, December 9, 2011, http:// 
+discovermagazine.com/2011/dec/09-mind-over-motor-controlling- 
+robots-with-your-thoughts."
+"18 “We will likely be able to operate”: Nicolelis, p. 315. 
+
+19 I saw a demonstration of this: Interview with the scientists at 
+Carnegie Mellon in August 2010 for the Discovery/Science Channel TV 
+series Sci Fi Science. 
+
+CHAPTER 5: MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS MADE TO ORDER 
+
+1 “It has all come together”: Wade, p. 89. 
+
+2 So far, scientists have identified: Ibid., p. 91. 
+
+3 For instance, Dr. Antonio Damasio: Damasio, pp. 130-53. 
+
+4 One fragment of memory might: Wade, p. 232. 
+
+5 “If you can’t do it”: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3488. 
+
+6 “Turn the switch on”: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011- 
+06/uosc-rmr06211 .php. 
+
+7 “Using implantables to enhance competency”: http://hplus 
+magazine.com/2009/03/18/artificial-hipppocampus. 
+
+8 Not surprisingly, with so much at stake: http://articles. 
+washingtonpost.com/2013-07-12/national/40863765_l_brain-cells- 
+mice-new-memories."
+"9 If encoding the memory: This brings up the question of whether 
+carrier pigeons, migratory birds, whales, etc., have a long-term 
+memory, given that they can migrate over hundreds to thousands of 
+
+miles in search of feeding and breeding grounds. Science knows little 
+about this question. But it is believed that their long-term memory is 
+based on locating certain landmarks along the way, rather than 
+recalling elaborate memories of past events. In other words, they do 
+not use memory of past events to help them simulate the future. Their 
+long-term memory consists of just a series of markers. Apparently, 
+only in humans are long-term memories used to help simulate the 
+future. 
+
+10 “The purpose of memory is”: Michael Lemonick, “Your Brain: A 
+User’s Guide,” Time, December 2011, p. 78. 
+
+11 “You might look at it”: http://sciencedaily.com/videos/2007/0210- 
+brain_scans_of_the_future.htm. 
+
+12 their study proves a “tentative answer”: http://www.sciencedaily. 
+com/videos/2007/0710."
+"12 their study proves a “tentative answer”: http://www.sciencedaily. 
+com/videos/2007/0710. 
+
+13 “The whole idea is that the device”: New York Times, September 
+
+12, 2012, p. A18. 
+
+14 “It will likely take us”: http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences- 
+features/58736-artificial-cerebellum-restores-rats. 
+
+15 There are 5.3 million Americans: Alzheimer’s Foundation of 
+America, http://www.alzfdn.org. 
+
+16 “This adds to the notion”: ScienceDaily.com, October 2009, http:// 
+www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091019122647.htm. 
+
+17 “We can never turn it into”: Ibid. 
+
+18 “This implies these flies have”: Wade, p. 113. 
+
+19 This effect is not just restricted: Ibid. 
+
+20 “We can now give you”: Ibid., p. 114. 
+
+21 Basically, the more CREB proteins: Bloom, p. 244. 
+
+22 “Propranolol sits on that nerve cell”: SATI e-News, June 28, 2007, 
+http://www.mysati.com/enews/June2007/ptsd.htm. 
+
+23 Its report concluded: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 104. 
+
+24 “Our breakups, our relationships”: Ibid."
+"23 Its report concluded: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 104. 
+
+24 “Our breakups, our relationships”: Ibid. 
+
+25 “should we deprive them of morphine”: Ibid., p. 105. 
+
+26 “If further work confirms this view”: Ibid., p. 106. 
+
+27 “Each of these perennial records”: Nicolelis, p. 318. 
+
+28 “Forgetting is the most beneficial process”: New Scientist, March 
+12, 2003, http://www.newscientists.com/article/dn3488. 
+
+CHAPTER 6: EINSTEIN’S BRAIN AND ENHANCING INTELLIGENCE 
+
+1 “got caught up in the moment”: 
+
+http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/einsteins-brain- 
+
+arrives-in-london-after-odd-journey. 
+
+2 “I have always maintained that”: Gould, p. 109. 
+
+3 “The human brain remains ‘plastic’ ”: www.sciencedaily.com/ 
+releases/2011/12/111208257120.htm. 
+
+4 “The emerging picture from such studies”: Gladwell, p. 40. 
+
+5 Five years later, Terman started: See C. K. Holahan and R.R. Sears, 
+The Gifted Group in Later Maturity (Stanford, CA: Stanford University 
+Press, 1995)."
+"6 “Your grades in school”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 48. 
+
+7 “Tests don’t measure motivation”: Sweeney, p. 26. 
+
+8 The pilots who scored highest: Bloom, p. 12. 
+
+9 “The left hemisphere is responsible”: Ibid., p. 15. 
+
+10 Dr. Darold Treffert, a Wisconsin physician: http://www.darold 
+treffert.com. 
+
+11 It took him just forty-five seconds: Tammet, p. 4. 
+
+12 I had the pleasure of interviewing: Interview with Mr. Daniel 
+Tammet in October 2007 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+13 “Our study confirms”: Science Daily, March 2012, http://www. 
+sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120322100313.htm. 
+
+14 Kim Peek’s brain: AP wire story, November 8, 2004, http://www. 
+Space.com. 
+
+15 In 1998 , Dr. Bruce Miller: Neurology 51 (October 1998): pp. 978- 
+82. See also http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant_ 
+syndrome/savant-articles/acquired_savant. 
+
+16 In addition to the savants: Sweeney, p. 252."
+"16 In addition to the savants: Sweeney, p. 252. 
+
+17 This idea has actually been tried: Center of the Mind, Sydney, 
+Australia, http://www.centerofthemind.com. 
+
+18 In another experiment, Dr. R. L. Young: R. L. Young, M. C. 
+Ridding, and T. L. Morrell, “Switching Skills on by Turning Off Part of 
+the Brain,” Neurocase 10 (2004): 215, 222. 
+
+19 “When applied to the prefrontal lobes”: Sweeney, p. 311. 
+
+20 Until recently, it was thought: Science Daily, May 2012, http:// 
+www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120509180113.htm. 
+
+21 “Savants have a high capacity”: Ibid. 
+
+22 In 2007 , a breakthrough occurred: Sweeney, p. 294. 
+
+23 “Stem cell research and regenerative medicine”: Sweeney, p. 295. 
+
+24 Scientists have focused on a few genes: Katherine S. Pollard, 
+“What Makes Us Different,” Scientific American Special Collectors Edition 
+(Winter 2013): 31-35. 
+
+25 “I jumped at the opportunity”: Ibid. 
+
+26 “With my mentor David Haussler”: Ibid."
+"25 “I jumped at the opportunity”: Ibid. 
+
+26 “With my mentor David Haussler”: Ibid. 
+
+27 One such gene was discovered: TG Daily, November 15, 2012. 
+http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences-features/67503-new-found- 
+gene-separates-man-from-apes. 
+
+28 Many theories have been proposed: See, for example, Gazzaniga, 
+Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique. 
+
+29 “For the first few hundred million years”: Gilbert, p. 15. 
+
+30 “Cortical gray matter neurons are working”: Douglas Fox, “The 
+Limits of Intelligence,” Scientific American, July 2011, p. 43. 
+
+31 “You might call it the mother”: Ibid., p. 42. 
+
+CHAPTER 7: IN YOUR DREAMS 
+
+1 He followed this up with one thousand: C. Hall and R. Van de 
+
+Castle, The Content Analysis of Dreams (New York: Appleton-Century- 
+Crofts, 1966). 
+
+2 When I interviewed him, he told me: Interview with Dr. Allan 
+Hobson in July 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+3 Studies have shown that it is possible: Wade, p. 229."
+"3 Studies have shown that it is possible: Wade, p. 229. 
+
+4 ATR chief scientist Yukiyasu Kamitani: New Scientist, December 12, 
+
+2008, http://www.newscientist.com/article/dnl 6267-mindreading- 
+
+software-could-record-your-dreams.html#.UvE9P0Qi07s. 
+
+5 When I visited the laboratory: Visit to Dr. Gallant’s laboratory on 
+July 11, 2012. 
+
+6 “Our dreams are therefore not”: Science Daily, October 28, 2011, 
+http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111028113626.htm. 
+
+7 Already, prototypes of Internet contact lenses: See the work of Dr. 
+Babak Parviz, http://www.wearable-technologies.com/262. 
+
+CHAPTER 8: CAN THE MIND BE CONTROLLED? 
+
+1 A raging bull is released: Miguel Nicolelis, Beyond Boundaries (New 
+York: Henry Holt, 2011), pp. 228-32. 
+
+2 The cold war hysteria eventually reached: “Project MKUltra, the"
+"2 The cold war hysteria eventually reached: “Project MKUltra, the 
+
+CIA’s Program of Research into Behavioral Modification. Joint 
+Hearings Before the Select Committee on Human Resources, U.S. 
+Senate, 95th Congress, First Session,” Government Printing Office, 
+August 8, 1977, Washington, D.C., http://www.nytimes.com/ 
+
+packages/pdf/national/13inmate_ProjectMKULTRA.pdf; “CIA Says It 
+Found More Secret Papers on Behavior Control,” New York Times, 
+September 3, 1977; “Government Mind Control Records of MKUltra 
+and Bluebird/Artichoke,” http://wanttoknow.info/mindcontrol.shtml; 
+“The Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with"
+"Respect to Intelligence Activities, Foreign and Military Intelligence.” 
+The Church Committee Report No. 94-755, 94th Congress, 2nd 
+Session, p. 392, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1976; 
+“Project MKUltra, the CIA’s Program of Research in Behavior 
+Modification,” http://scribd.com/doc/75512716/Project-MKUltra- 
+The-CIA-s-Program-of-Research-in-Behavior-Modification. 
+
+3 “great potential for development”: Rose, p. 292. 
+
+4 “neuro-scientific impossibility”: Ibid., p. 293. 
+
+5 “It is probably significant that”: “Hypnosis in Intelligence,” Black 
+Vault Freedom of Information Act Archive, 2008, http://documents. 
+theblackvault.com/documents/mindcontrol/hypnosisinintelligence. 
+pdf. 
+
+6 To see how widespread this problem: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 57. 
+
+7 Drugs like LSD: Sweeney, p. 200. 
+
+8 “This is the first time we’ve shown”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 58. 
+
+9 “If you want to turn off”: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/ 
+science/17optics.html."
+"9 “If you want to turn off”: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/ 
+science/17optics.html. 
+
+10 “By feeding information from sensors”: New York Times, March 17, 
+2011, http://nytimes.com/2011/05/17/science/17optics.html. 
+
+CHAPTER 9: ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+1 “Some fraction of history’s prophets”: Eagleman, p. 207. 
+
+2 “Sometimes it’s a personal God”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 122. 
+
+3 “ ‘Finally, I see what it is’ ”: Ramachandran, p. 280. 
+
+4 “During the three minute bursts”: David Biello, Scientific American, 
+p. 41, www.sciammind.com. 
+
+5 To test these ideas: Ibid., p. 42. 
+
+6 “Although atheists might argue”: Ibid., p. 45. 
+
+7 “If you are an atheist”: Ibid., p. 44. 
+
+8 One theory holds that Parkinson’s: Sweeney, p. 166. 
+
+9 “Neurons wired for the sensation”: Ibid., p. 90. 
+
+10 “The brain’s gonna do what”: Ibid., p. 165. 
+
+11 “Brain scans have led researchers”: Ibid., p. 208. 
+
+12 “If left unchecked, the left hemisphere”: Ramachandran, p. 267. 
+
+13 Underactivity in this area: Carter, pp. 100-103."
+"13 Underactivity in this area: Carter, pp. 100-103. 
+
+14 Ten percent of them, in turn: Baker, pp. 46-53. 
+
+15 “Depression 1.0 was psychotherapy”: Ibid., p. 3. 
+
+16 One to three percent of DBS patients: Carter, p. 98. 
+
+17 “The calcium channels findings suggest”: New York Times, 
+
+February 26, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/ 
+
+health/study-finds-genetic-risk-factors-shared-by-5-psychiatric- 
+disorders.html. 
+
+18 “What we have identified here”: Ibid. 
+
+CHAPTER 10: THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+1 “Machines will be capable”: Crevier, p. 109. 
+
+2 “within a generation ... the problem”: Ibid. 
+
+3 “It’s as though a group of people”: Kaku, p. 79. 
+
+4 “I would pay a lot for a robot”: Brockman, p. 2. 
+
+5 However, I met privately with: Interview with the creators of ASIMO 
+during a visit to Honda’s laboratory in Nagoya, Japan, in April 2007 
+for the BBC-TV series Visions of the Future."
+"6 he used to marvel at the mosquito: Interview with Dr. Rodney 
+Brooks in April 2002 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+7 I have had the pleasure of visiting: Visit to MIT Media Laboratory 
+for the Discovery/Science Channel TV series Sci Fi Science, April 13, 
+2010 . 
+
+8 “That is why Breazeal decided”: Moss, p. 168. 
+
+9 At Waseda University: Gazzaniga, p. 352. 
+
+10 Their goal is to integrate: Ibid., p. 252. 
+
+11 Meet Nao: Guardian, August 9, 2010, http://www.theguardian.com/ 
+technology/2010/aug/09/nao-robot-develop-display-emotions. 
+
+12 “It’s hard to predict the future”: http://cosmomagazine.com/news/ 
+4177/reverse-engineering-brain. 
+
+13 Neuroscientists like Dr. Antonio Damasio: Damasio, pp. 108-29. 
+
+14 “In mathematics, you don’t understand”: Kurzweil, p. 248. 
+
+15 “There could not be an objective test”: Pinker, “The Riddle of 
+Knowing You’re Here,” Your Brain: A User’s Guide, Winter, 2011, p. 19. 
+
+16 At Meiji University: Gazzaniga, p. 352."
+"16 At Meiji University: Gazzaniga, p. 352. 
+
+17 “To our knowledge, this is the first”: Kurzweil.net, August 24, 
+
+2012, http://www.kurzweilai.net/robot-learns-self-awareness. See also 
+Yale Daily News, September 25, 2012, 
+
+http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2012/09/25/first-self-aware-robot- 
+created. 
+
+18 When I interviewed Dr. Hans Moravec: Interview with Dr. Hans 
+Moravec in November 1998 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+19 “Unleashed from the plodding pace”: Sweeney, p. 316. 
+
+20 When I interviewed Dr. Rodney Brooks: Interview with Dr. Brooks 
+in April 2002 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+21 “We don’t like to give up”: TEDTalks, http://www.ted.com/talks/ 
+lang/en/rodney_brooks_on_robots.html. 
+
+22 Similarly, at the University of Southern California: http://phys. 
+org/news205059692.html. 
+
+CHAPTER 11: REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN 
+
+1 Almost simultaneously, the European Commission: http://actu. 
+epfl.ch/news/the-human-brain-project-wins-top-european-science."
+"2 “It’s essential for us to understand”: 
+
+http://blog.ted.eom/2009/l 0/15/supercomputing. 
+
+3 “There’s not a single neurological disease”: Kushner, p. 19. 
+
+4 “I think we’re far from playing God”: Ibid., p. 2. 
+
+5 “In a hundred years, I’d like”: Sally Adee, “Reverse Engineering the 
+Brain,” IEEE Spectrum, http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/ethics/ 
+reverse-engineering-the-brain. 
+
+6 “Researchers have conjectured”: 
+
+http://www.cnn.corn/2012/03/01/tech/innovation/brain-map- 
+
+connectome. 
+
+“In the seventeenth century”: 
+
+http: //www. ted. com/talks/lang/en/sebastian_seung .html . 
+
+8 “The Allen Human Brain Atlas provides”: http://ts-si.org/ 
+neuroscience/29735-allen-human-brain-atlas-updates-with- 
+comprehensive). 
+
+9 According to Dr. V. S. Ramachandran: TED Talks, January 2010, 
+http://www.ted.com. 
+
+CHAPTER 12: THE FUTURE: MIND BEYOND MATTER 
+
+1 5.8 percent claimed they had an out-of-body: Nelson, p. 137. 
+
+2 “I see myself lying in bed”: Ibid., p. 140."
+"2 “I see myself lying in bed”: Ibid., p. 140. 
+
+3 Notably, temporary loss of blood: National Geographic News, April 8, 
+2010, http://news.nationalgeographic.eom/news/2010/04/100408- 
+near-death-experiences-blood-carbon-dioxide; Nelson, p. 126 
+
+4 Dr. Thomas Lempert, neurologist: Nelson, p. 126. 
+
+5 The U.S. Air Force, for example: Ibid., p. 128. 
+
+6 We once spoke at a conference: Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 
+November 2012. Interviewed in February 2003 for Exploration 
+national radio broadcast. Interviewed in October 2012 for Science 
+
+Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+7 By 2055, $1,000 of computing power: Bloom, p. 191. 
+
+8 For example, Bill Gates, cofounder: Sweeney, p. 298. 
+
+9 “People who predict a very utopian future”: Carter, p. 298. 
+
+10 He told me that the San Diego Zoo: Interview with Dr. Robert 
+Lanza in September 2009 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+11 “Should we ridicule the modern seekers”: Sebastian Seung, 
+TEDTalks, http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/sebastian_seung.html ."
+"12 In 2008, BBC-TV aired: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/ 
+programmes/horizon/broadband/tx/isolation/timeline. 
+
+13 we will be able to reverse engineer: Interview with Dr. Moravec in 
+November 1998 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+14 On the other side was Eric Drexler: See a series of letter in 
+Chemical and Engineering News from 2003 to 2004. 
+
+15 “I’m not planning to die”: Garreau, p. 128. 
+
+CHAPTER 13: THE MIND AS PURE ENERGY 
+
+1 “Wormholes, extra dimensions”: Sir Martin Rees, Our Final Hour 
+(New York: Perseus Books, 2003), p. 182. 
+
+CHAPTER 14: THE ALIEN MIND 
+
+1 So far, more than one thousand: Kepler Web Page, http://kepler. 
+nasa.gov. 
+
+2 In 2013, NASA scientists announced: Ibid. 
+
+3 how they can distinguish false messages: Interview with Dr. 
+Wertheimer in June 1999 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+4 I once asked him about the giggle factor: Interview with Dr. Seth 
+Shostak in May 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+5 He has gone on record: Ibid."
+"5 He has gone on record: Ibid. 
+
+6 “Remember, this is the same government”: Davies, p. 22. 
+
+7 The Greek writers: Sagan, p. 221. 
+
+8 But St. Thomas Aquinas: Ibid. 
+
+9 We can be fooled: Ibid. 
+
+10 “If the fact that brutes abstract”: Ibid., p. 113. 
+
+11 “In the blind and deaf world”: Eagleman, p. 77. 
+
+12 we have to expand our own horizon: Interview with Dr. Paul 
+Davies in April 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+13 “My conclusion is a startling one”: Davies, p. 159. 
+
+14 “Although there is only a tiny probability”: Discovery News, 
+December 27, 2011, http://news.discovery.com/space/seti-to-scour- 
+the-moon-for-alien-tech-111227.htm. 
+
+CHAPTER 15: CONCLUDING REMARKS 
+
+1 In an article in Wired: Wired, April 2000, http://www.wired.com/ 
+wired/archive/8.04/joy.html. 
+
+2 “several separate and unequal species”: Garreau, p. 139. 
+
+3 “This techno utopia is all about”: Ibid., p. 180. 
+
+4 “The idea that we are messin’ ”: Ibid., p. 353. 
+
+5 “Technologies—such as gunpowder”: Ibid., p. 182."
+"5 “Technologies—such as gunpowder”: Ibid., p. 182. 
+
+6 “The you that all your friends know”: Eagleman, p. 205. 
+
+7 “Our reality depends on what”: Ibid., p. 208. 
+
+8 “How it is that anything so remarkable”: Pinker, p. 132. 
+
+9 somehow create a twin of the Earth: Interview with Dr. Stephen Jay 
+Gould in November 1996 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+10 “ Homo sapiens is one small twig”: Pinker, p. 133. 
+
+11 “nothing gives life more purpose”: Pinker, “The Riddle of Knowing 
+You’re Here,” Time: Your Brain: A User’s Guide (Winter 2011), p. 19. 
+
+12 “What a perplexing masterpiece”: Eagleman, p. 224. 
+
+APPENDIX: QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS? 
+
+1 many (but not all) pathological killers: Interview with Dr. Simon 
+Baron-Cohen in July 2005 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+2 Dr. Michael Sweeney concludes, “Libet’s findings”: Sweeney, p. 
+150. 
+
+SUGGESTED READING 
+
+Baker, Sherry. “Helen Mayberg.” Discover Magazine Presents the Brain. 
+Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing Co., Fall 2012."
+"Bloom, Floyd. Best of the Brain from Scientific American: Mind, Matter, and 
+Tomorrow’s Brain. New York: Dana Press, 2007. 
+
+Boleyn-Fitzgerald, Miriam. Pictures of the Mind: What the New 
+Neuroscience Tells Us About Who We Are. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: 
+Pearson Education, 2010. 
+
+Brockman, John, ed. The Mind: Leading Scientists Explore the Brain, 
+Memory, Personality, and Happiness. New York: Harper Perennial, 2011. 
+
+Calvin, William H. A Brief History of the Mind. New York: Oxford 
+University Press, 2004. 
+
+Carter, Rita. Mapping the Mind. Berkeley: University of California Press, 
+2010 . 
+
+Crevier, Daniel. AT. The Tumultuous History of the Search for Artificial 
+Intelligence. New York: Basic Books, 1993. 
+
+Crick, Francis. The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Science Search for the Soul. 
+New York: Touchstone, 1994. 
+
+Damasio, Antonio. Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain. 
+New York: Pantheon Books, 2010."
+"Davies, Paul. The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence. 
+New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010. 
+
+Dennet, Daniel C. Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. 
+New York: Viking, 2006. 
+
+-. Conscious Explained. New York: Back Bay Books, 1991. 
+
+DeSalle, Rob, and Ian Tattersall. The Brain: Big Bangs, Behaviors, and 
+Beliefs. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012. 
+
+Eagleman, David. Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain. New York: 
+
+Pantheon Books, 2011. 
+
+Fox, Douglas. “The Limits of Intelligence,” Scientific American, July 2011. 
+
+Garreau, Joel. Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our 
+Minds , Our Bodies—and What It Means to Be Human. New York: 
+Random House, 2005. 
+
+Gazzaniga, Michael S. Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique. 
+New York: HarperCollins, 2008. 
+
+Gilbert, Daniel. Stumbling on Happiness. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 
+
+2006. 
+
+Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Back Bay 
+Books, 2008."
+"2006. 
+
+Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Back Bay 
+Books, 2008. 
+
+Gould, Stephen Jay. The Mismeasure of Man. New York: W. W. Norton, 
+1996. 
+
+Horstman, Judith. The Scientific American Brave New Brain. San 
+Francisco: John Wiley and Sons, 2010. 
+
+Kaku, Michio. Physics of the Future. New York: Doubleday, 2009. 
+
+Kurzweil, Ray. How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought 
+Revealed. New York: Viking Books, 2012. 
+
+Kushner, David. “The Man Who Builds Brains.” Discover Magazine 
+Presents the Brain. Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing Co., Fall 2001. 
+
+Moravec, Hans. Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human 
+Intelligence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988. 
+
+Moss, Frank. The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices: How the Digital 
+Magicians of the MIT Media Lab Are Creating the Innovative Technologies 
+That Will Transform Our Lives. New York: Crown Business, 2011. 
+
+Nelson, Kevin. The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain. New York: Dutton, 
+2011."
+"Nelson, Kevin. The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain. New York: Dutton, 
+2011. 
+
+Nicolelis, Miguel. Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting 
+Brains with Machines—and How It Will Change Our Lives. New York: 
+Henry Holt and Co., 2011. 
+
+Pinker, Steven. How the Mind Works. New York: W. W. Norton, 2009. 
+
+-. The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human 
+
+Nature. New York: Viking, 2007. 
+
+-. “The Riddle of Knowing You’re Here.” In Your Brain: A 
+
+User’s Guide. New York: Time Inc. Specials, 2011. 
+
+Piore, Adam. “The Thought Helmet: The U.S. Army Wants to Train 
+Soldiers to Communicate Just by Thinking.” The Brain, Discover 
+Magazine Special, Spring 2012. 
+
+Purves, Dale, et al., eds. Neuroscience. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer 
+Associates, 2001. 
+
+Ramachandran, V. S. The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Quest for What 
+Makes Us Human. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011."
+"Rose, Steven. The Future of the Brain: The Promise and Perils of Tomorrow’s 
+Neuroscience. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2005. 
+
+Sagan, Carl. The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human 
+Intelligence. New York: Ballantine Books, 1977. 
+
+Sweeney, Michael S. Brain: The Complete Mind: How It Develops, How It 
+Works, and How to Keep It Sharp. Washington, D.C.: National 
+Geographic, 2009. 
+
+Tammet, Daniel. Bom on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an 
+Autistic Savant. New York: Free Press, 2006. 
+
+Wade, Nicholas, ed. The Science Times Book of the Brain. New York: New 
+York Times Books, 1998. 
+
+ILLUSTRATION CREDITS 
+
+1.1 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+1.2 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+1.3 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+1.4 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+1.5 AP Photo / David Duprey 
+
+1.5a Tom Barrick, Chris Clark / Science Source 
+
+1.6 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+2.1 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+2.2 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+2.3 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+4.1 The Laboratory of Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, Duke University 
+
+5.1 Jeffrey L. Ward"
+"4.1 The Laboratory of Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, Duke University 
+
+5.1 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+10.1 MIT Media Lab, Personal Robots Group 
+
+10.2 MIT Media Lab, Personal Robots Group, Mikey Siegel 
+
+A Note About the Author 
+
+MICHIO KAKU is a professor of theoretical physics at the City College 
+and City University of New York; cofounder of string field theory; the 
+author of several widely acclaimed science books, including Hyperspace, 
+Beyond Einstein, Physics of the Impossible, and Physics of the Future; and 
+host of numerous TV specials and a national science radio show. 
+
+Other titles by Michio Kaku available in eBook format 
+Parallel Worlds • 9780385514163 
+Physics of the Future • 9780385530811 
+Physics of the Impossible • 9780385525442 
+
+Visions • 9780307794772 
+
+Visit mkaku.org 
+
+For more information on Doubleday books 
+
+Visit: www.doubleday.com 
+Like: facebook.com/DoubledayBooks 
+Follow: @doubledaypub 
+
+ALSO BY THE AUTHOR 
+
+Physics of the Future 
+Physics of the Impossible 
+Parallel Worlds 
+Hyperspace 
+Visions"
+"Physics of the Future 
+Physics of the Impossible 
+Parallel Worlds 
+Hyperspace 
+Visions 
+
+Einstein’s Cosmos 
+Beyond Einstein"
+"DR. MICHIO KAMI 
+
+PROFESSOR OF THEORETICAL PHYSICS 
+CITY UNIVERSITY OI : NEW YORK 
+
+THE SCIENTIFIC QUEST TO UNDERSTAND 
+ENHANCE, AND EMPOWER THE MIND 
+
+DOUBLEPAY 
+
+NEW YORK LONDON TORONTO 
+
+SYDNEY AUCKLAND 
+
+Copyright © 2014 by Michio Kaku 
+
+All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Random House, 
+LLC, New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, Penguin Random 
+House companies. 
+
+www.doubleday.com 
+
+doubleday and the portrayal of an anchor with a dolphin are registered trademarks of Random 
+House, LLC. 
+
+Illustrations by Jeffrey L. Ward 
+Jacket design by Michael J. Windsor 
+
+Jacket illustration © CLIP AREA/Custom media/Shutterstock 
+LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA 
+Kaku, Michio. 
+
+The future of the mind : the scientific quest to understand, enhance, and empower the mind / 
+Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of Theoretical Physics, City University of New York. — First edition, 
+pages cm 
+
+Includes bibliographical references."
+"Includes bibliographical references. 
+
+1. Neuropsychology. 2. Mind and body—Research. 
+
+3. Brain—Mathematical models. 4. Cognitive neuroscience. 
+
+5. Brain-computer interfaces. I. Title. 
+qp360.k 325 2014 
+612.8—dc23 
+
+2013017338 
+
+ISBN 978-0-385-53082-8 (hardcover) ISBN 978-0-385-53083-5 (eBook) 
+
+v3.1 
+
+This book is dedicated to my loving wife, Shizue, 
+
+and my daughters, Michelle and Alyson 
+
+CONTENTS 
+
+Cover 
+
+Title Page 
+
+Copyright 
+
+Dedication 
+
+ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
+
+INTRODUCTION 
+
+BOOK I: THE MIND AND CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+1 UNLOCKING THE MIND 
+
+2 CONSCIOUSNESS—A PHYSICIST’S VIEWPOINT 
+
+BOOK II: MIND OVER MATTER 
+
+3 TELEPATHY: A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS 
+
+4 TELEKINESIS: MIND CONTROLLING MATTER 
+
+5 MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS MADE TO ORDER 
+
+6 EINSTEIN’S BRAIN AND ENHANCING OUR INTELLIGENCE 
+
+BOOK III: ALTERED CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+7 IN YOUR DREAMS 
+
+8 CAN THE MIND BE CONTROLLED? 
+
+9 ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+10 THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+11 REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN"
+"10 THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+11 REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN 
+
+12 THE FUTURE: MIND BEYOND MATTER 
+
+13 THE MIND AS PURE ENERGY 
+
+14 THE ALIEN MIND 
+
+15 CONCLUDING REMARKS 
+
+APPENDIX: QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS? 
+
+NOTES 
+
+SUGGESTED READING 
+ILLUSTRATION CREDITS 
+A Note About the Author 
+
+Other Books by This Author 
+
+ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
+
+It has been my great pleasure to have interviewed and interacted with 
+the following prominent scientists, all of them leaders in their fields. I 
+would like to thank them for graciously giving up their time for 
+interviews and discussions about the future of science. They have given 
+me guidance and inspiration, as well as a firm foundation in their 
+respective fields. 
+
+I would like to thank these pioneers and trailblazers, especially those 
+who have agreed to appear on my TV specials for the BBC, Discovery, 
+and Science TV channels, and also on my national radio shows, Science 
+Fantastic and Explorations."
+"Peter Doherty, Nobel laureate, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital 
+
+Gerald Edelman, Nobel laureate, Scripps Research Institute 
+
+Leon Lederman, Nobel laureate, Illinois Institute of Technology 
+
+Murray Gell-Mann, Nobel laureate, Santa Fe Institute and Cal Tech 
+
+the late Henry Kendall, Nobel laureate, MIT 
+
+Walter Gilbert, Nobel laureate, Harvard University 
+
+David Gross, Nobel laureate, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics 
+
+Joseph Rotblat, Nobel laureate, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital 
+
+Yoichiro Nambu, Nobel laureate, University of Chicago 
+
+Steven Weinberg, Nobel laureate, University of Texas at Austin 
+
+Frank Wilczek, Nobel laureate, MIT 
+
+Amir Aczel, author of Uranium Wars 
+
+Buzz Aldrin, NASA astronaut, second man to walk on the moon 
+Geoff Andersen, U.S. Air Force Academy, author of The Telescope 
+
+Jay Barbree, author of Moon Shot 
+
+John Barrow, physicist, Cambridge University, author of Impossibility 
+
+Marcia Bartusiak, author of Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony"
+"Marcia Bartusiak, author of Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony 
+
+Jim Bell, Cornell University astronomer 
+
+Jeffrey Bennet, author of Beyond UFOs 
+
+Bob Berman, astronomer, author The Secrets of the Night Sky 
+
+Leslie Biesecker, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Piers Bizony, author of How to Build Your Own Starship 
+
+Michael Blaese, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Alex Boese, founder of Museum of Hoaxes 
+
+Nick Bostrom, transhumanist, Oxford University 
+
+Lt. Col. Robert Bowman, Institute for Space and Security Studies 
+
+Cynthia Breazeal, artificial intelligence, MIT Media Lab 
+
+Lawrence Brody, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Rodney Brooks, director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory 
+Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute 
+Michael Brown, astronomer, Cal Tech 
+James Canton, author of The Extreme Future 
+
+Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of 
+Pennsylvania"
+"Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of 
+Pennsylvania 
+
+Fritjof Capra, author of The Science of Leonardo 
+Sean Carroll, cosmologist, Cal Tech 
+Andrew Chaikin, author of A Man on the Moon 
+Leroy Chiao, NASA astronaut 
+
+Eric Chivian, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear 
+War 
+
+Deepak Chopra, author of Super Brain 
+
+George Church, director of Harvard’s Center for Computational 
+Genetics 
+
+Thomas Cochran, physicist, Natural Resources Defense Council 
+
+Christopher Cokinos, astronomer, author of Fallen Sky 
+
+Francis Collins, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Vicki Colvin, nanotechnologist, University of Texas 
+
+Neal Comins, author of Hazards of Space Travel 
+
+Steve Cook, NASA spokesperson 
+
+Christine Cosgrove, author of Normal at Any Cost 
+
+Steve Cousins, CEO of Willow Garage Personal Robots Program 
+
+Phillip Coyle, former assistant secretary of defense for the U.S. Defense 
+Department 
+
+Daniel Crevier, AI, CEO of Coreco"
+"Daniel Crevier, AI, CEO of Coreco 
+
+Ken Croswell, astronomer, author of Magnificent Universe 
+
+Steven Cummer, computer science, Duke University 
+
+Mark Cutkowsky, mechanical engineering, Stanford University 
+
+Paul Davies, physicist, author of Superforce 
+
+Daniel Dennet, philosopher, Tufts University 
+
+the late Michael Dertouzos, computer science, MIT 
+
+Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize winner, UCLA 
+
+Marriot DiChristina, Scientific American 
+
+Peter Dilworth, MIT AI Lab 
+
+John Donoghue, creator of Braingate, Brown University 
+Ann Druyan, widow of Carl Sagan, Cosmos Studios 
+Freeman Dyson, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University 
+David Eagleman, neuroscientist, Baylor College of Medicine 
+John Ellis, CERN physicist 
+
+Paul Erlich, environmentalist, Stanford University 
+Daniel Fairbanks, author of Relics of Eden 
+
+Timothy Ferris, University of California, author of Coming of Age in the 
+Milky Way Galaxy 
+
+Maria Finitzo, stem cell expert, Peabody Award winner 
+
+Robert Finkelstein, AI expert"
+"Maria Finitzo, stem cell expert, Peabody Award winner 
+
+Robert Finkelstein, AI expert 
+
+Christopher Flavin, World Watch Institute 
+
+Louis Friedman, cofounder of the Planetary Society 
+
+Jack Gallant, neuroscientist, University of California at Berkeley 
+
+James Garwin, NASA chief scientist 
+
+Evelyn Gates, author of Einstein’s Telescope 
+
+Michael Gazzaniga, neurologist, University of California at Santa 
+Barbara 
+
+Jack Geiger, cofounder, Physicians for Social Responsibility 
+
+David Gelertner, computer scientist, Yale University, University of 
+California 
+
+Neal Gershenfeld, MIT Media Lab 
+
+Daniel Gilbert, psychologist, Harvard University 
+
+Paul Gilster, author of Centauri Dreams 
+
+Rebecca Goldberg, Environmental Defense Fund 
+
+Don Goldsmith, astronomer, author of Runaway Universe 
+
+David Goodstein, assistant provost of Cal Tech 
+
+J. Richard Gott III, Princeton University, author of Time Travel in 
+Einstein’s Universe 
+
+Late Stephen Jay Gould, biologist, Harvard University"
+"Late Stephen Jay Gould, biologist, Harvard University 
+
+Ambassador Thomas Graham, spy satellites and intelligence gathering 
+
+John Grant, author of Corrupted Science 
+
+Eric Green, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Ronald Green, author of Babies by Design 
+
+Brian Greene, Columbia University, author of The Elegant Universe 
+Alan Guth, physicist, MIT, author of The Inflationary Universe 
+
+William Hanson, author of The Edge of Medicine 
+
+Leonard Hayflick, University of California at San Francisco Medical 
+School 
+
+Donald Hillebrand, Argonne National Labs, future of the car 
+Frank N. von Hippel, physicist, Princeton University 
+
+Allan Hobson, psychiatrist, Harvard University 
+Jeffrey Hoffman, NASA astronaut, MIT 
+
+Douglas Hofstadter, Pulitzer Prize winner, Indiana University, author 
+of Godel, Escher, Bach 
+
+John Horgan, Stevens Institute of Technology, author of The End of 
+Science 
+
+Jamie Hyneman, host of MythBusters 
+
+Chris Impey, astronomer, author of The Living Cosmos 
+
+Robert Irie, AI Lab, MIT"
+"Chris Impey, astronomer, author of The Living Cosmos 
+
+Robert Irie, AI Lab, MIT 
+
+P. J. Jacobowitz, PC magazine 
+
+Jay Jaroslav, MIT AI Lab 
+
+Donald Johanson, anthropologist, discoverer of Lucy 
+George Johnson, New York Times science journalist 
+Tom Jones, NASA astronaut 
+Steve Kates, astronomer 
+
+Jack Kessler, stem cell expert, Peabody Award winner 
+Robert Kirshner, astronomer, Harvard University 
+Kris Koenig, astronomer 
+
+Lawrence Krauss, Arizona State University, author of Physics of Star 
+Trek 
+
+Lawrence Kuhn, filmmaker and philosopher, Closer to Truth 
+
+Ray Kurzweil, inventor, author of The Age of Spiritual Machines 
+
+Robert Lanza, biotechnology, Advanced Cell Technologies 
+
+Roger Launius, author of Robots in Space 
+
+Stan Lee, creator of Marvel Comics and Spider-Man 
+
+Michael Lemonick, senior science editor of Time 
+
+Arthur Lerner-Lam, geologist, volcanist 
+
+Simon LeVay, author of When Science Goes Wrong 
+
+John Lewis, astronomer, University of Arizona 
+
+Alan Lightman, MIT, author of Einstein’s Dreams"
+"John Lewis, astronomer, University of Arizona 
+
+Alan Lightman, MIT, author of Einstein’s Dreams 
+
+George Linehan, author of Space One 
+
+Seth Lloyd, MIT, author of Programming the Universe 
+
+Werner R. Loewenstein, former director of Cell Physics Laboratory, 
+Columbia University 
+
+Joseph Lykken, physicist, Fermi National Laboratory 
+
+Pattie Maes, MIT Media Lab 
+
+Robert Mann, author of Forensic Detective 
+
+Michael Paul Mason, author of Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injury and 
+Its Aftermath 
+
+Patrick McCray, author of Keep Watching the Skies 
+
+Glenn McGee, author of The Perfect Baby 
+
+James McLurkin, MIT, AI Lab 
+
+Paul McMillan, director of Space Watch 
+
+Fulvia Melia, astronomer, University of Arizona 
+
+William Meller, author of Evolution Rx 
+
+Paul Meltzer, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Marvin Minsky, MIT, author of The Society of Minds 
+
+Hans Moravec, author of Robot 
+
+Late Phillip Morrison, physicist, MIT"
+"Hans Moravec, author of Robot 
+
+Late Phillip Morrison, physicist, MIT 
+
+Richard Muller, astrophysicist, University of California at Berkeley 
+David Nahamoo, IBM Human Language Technology 
+Christina Neal, volcanist 
+
+Miguel Nicolelis, neuroscientist, Duke University 
+
+Shinji Nishimoto, neurologist, University of California at Berkeley 
+
+Michael Novacek, American Museum of Natural History 
+
+Michael Oppenheimer, environmentalist, Princeton University 
+
+Dean Ornish, cancer and heart disease specialist 
+
+Peter Palese, virologist, Mount Sinai School of Medicine 
+
+Charles Pellerin, NASA official 
+
+Sidney Perkowitz, author of Hollywood Science 
+
+John Pike, GlobalSecurity.org 
+
+Jena Pincott, author of Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes? 
+
+Steven Pinker, psychologist, Harvard University 
+Thomas Poggio, MIT, artificial intelligence 
+Correy Powell, editor of Discover magazine 
+John Powell, founder of JP Aerospace"
+"Richard Preston, author of Hot Zone and Demon in the Freezer 
+Raman Prinja, astronomer, University College London 
+
+David Quammen, evolutionary biologist, author of The Reluctant Mr. 
+Darwin 
+
+Katherine Ramsland, forensic scientist 
+
+Lisa Randall, Harvard University, author of Warped Passages 
+
+Sir Martin Rees, Royal Astronomer of Great Britain, Cambridge 
+University, author of Before the Beginning 
+
+Jeremy Rifkin, Foundation for Economic Trends 
+David Riquier, MIT Media Lab 
+Jane Rissler, Union of Concerned Scientists 
+Steven Rosenberg, National Institutes of Health 
+
+Oliver Sacks, neurologist, Columbia University 
+Paul Saffo, futurist, Institute of the Future 
+Late Carl Sagan, Cornell University, author of Cosmos 
+Nick Sagan, coauthor of You Call This the Future? 
+
+Michael H. Salamon, NASA’s Beyond Einstein program 
+Adam Savage, host of MythBusters 
+
+Peter Schwartz, futurist, founder of Global Business Network 
+
+Michael Shermer, founder of Skeptic Society and Skeptic magazine"
+"Michael Shermer, founder of Skeptic Society and Skeptic magazine 
+
+Donna Shirley, NASA Mars program 
+
+Seth Shostak, SETI Institute 
+
+Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish 
+
+Paul Shurch, SETI League 
+
+Peter Singer, author of Wired for War 
+
+Simon Singh, author of The Big Bang 
+
+Gary Small, author of iBrain 
+
+Paul Spudis, author of Odyssey Moon Limited 
+
+Stephen Squyres, astronomer, Cornell University 
+
+Paul Steinhardt, Princeton University, author of Endless Universe 
+
+Jack Stern, stem cell surgeon 
+
+Gregory Stock, UCLA, author of Redesigning Humans 
+Richard Stone, author of NEOs and Tunguska 
+Brian Sullivan, Hayden Planetarium 
+Leonard Susskind, physicist, Stanford University 
+Daniel Tammet, author of Bom on a Blue Day 
+Geoffrey Taylor, physicist, University of Melbourne 
+Late Ted Taylor, designer of U.S. nuclear warheads 
+Max Tegmark, cosmologist, MIT 
+Alvin Toffler, author of The Third Wave 
+Patrick Tucker, World Future Society"
+"Chris Turney, University of Wollongong, author of Ice, Mud and Blood 
+Neil de Grasse Tyson, director of Hayden Planetarium 
+Sesh Velamoor, Foundation for the Future 
+
+Robert Wallace, author of Spycraft 
+
+Kevin Warwick, human cyborgs, University of Reading, UK 
+Fred Watson, astronomer, author of Stargazer 
+Late Mark Weiser, Xerox PARC 
+Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us 
+
+Daniel Wertheimer, SETI at Home, University of California at Berkeley 
+Mike Wessler, MIT AI Lab 
+
+Roger Wiens, astronomer, Los Alamos National Laboratory 
+Author Wiggins, author of The Joy of Physics 
+
+Anthony Wynshaw-Boris, National Institutes of Health 
+Carl Zimmer, biologist, author of Evolution 
+Robert Zimmerman, author of Leaving Earth 
+Robert Zubrin, founder of Mars Society"
+"I would also like to thank my agent, Stuart Krichevsky, who has been 
+at my side all these years and has given me helpful advice about my 
+books. I have always benefited from his sound judgment. In addition, I 
+would like to thank my editors, Edward Kastenmeier and Melissa 
+Danaczko, who have guided my book and provided invaluable editorial 
+advice. And I would like to thank Dr. Michelle Kaku, my daughter and a 
+neurology resident at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, for stimulating, 
+thoughtful, and fruitful discussions about the future of neurology. Her 
+careful and thorough reading of the manuscript has greatly enhanced the 
+presentation and content of this book. 
+
+INTRODUCTION"
+"INTRODUCTION 
+
+The two greatest mysteries in all of nature are the mind and the 
+universe. With our vast technology, we have been able to photograph 
+galaxies billions of light-years away, manipulate the genes that control 
+life, and probe the inner sanctum of the atom, but the mind and the 
+universe still elude and tantalize us. They are the most mysterious and 
+fascinating frontiers known to science. 
+
+If you want to appreciate the majesty of the universe, just turn your 
+gaze to the heavens at night, ablaze with billions of stars. Ever since our 
+ancestors first gasped at the splendor of the starry sky, we have puzzled 
+over these eternal questions: Where did it all come from? What does it 
+all mean?"
+"To witness the mystery of our mind, all we have to do is stare at 
+ourselves in the mirror and wonder, What lurks behind our eyes? This 
+raises haunting questions like: Do we have a soul? What happens to us 
+after we die? Who am “I” anyway? And most important, this brings us to 
+the ultimate question: Where do we fit into this great cosmic scheme? As 
+the great Victorian biologist Thomas Huxley once said, “The question of 
+all questions for humanity, the problem which lies behind all others and 
+is more interesting than any of them, is that of the determination of 
+man’s place in Nature and his relation to the Cosmos.”"
+"There are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, roughly the same 
+as the number of neurons in our brain. You may have to travel twenty- 
+four trillion miles, to the first star outside our solar system, to find an 
+object as complex as what is sitting on your shoulders. The mind and the 
+universe pose the greatest scientific challenge of all, but they also share 
+a curious relationship. On one hand they are polar opposites. One is 
+concerned with the vastness of outer space, where we encounter strange 
+denizens like black holes, exploding stars, and colliding galaxies. The 
+other is concerned with inner space, where we find our most intimate 
+and private hopes and desires. The mind is no farther than our next 
+
+thought, yet we are often clueless when asked to articulate and explain 
+it."
+"thought, yet we are often clueless when asked to articulate and explain 
+it. 
+
+But although they may be opposites in this respect, they also have a 
+common history and narrative. Both were shrouded in superstition and 
+magic since time immemorial. Astrologers and phrenologists claimed to 
+find the meaning of the universe in every constellation of the zodiac and 
+in every bump on your head. Meanwhile, mind readers and seers have 
+been alternately celebrated and vilified over the years."
+"The universe and the mind continue to intersect in a variety of ways, 
+thanks in no small part to some of the eye-opening ideas we often 
+encounter in science fiction. Reading these books as a child, I would 
+daydream about being a member of the Sian, a race of telepaths created 
+by A. E. van Vogt. I marveled at how a mutant called the Mule could 
+unleash his vast telepathic powers and nearly seize control of the 
+Galactic Empire in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. And in the movie 
+Forbidden Planet, I wondered how an advanced civilization millions of 
+years beyond ours could channel its enormous telekinetic powers to 
+reshape reality to its whims and wishes."
+"Then when I was about ten, “The Amazing Dunninger” appeared on 
+TV. He would dazzle his audience with his spectacular magic tricks. His 
+motto was “For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those 
+who do not believe, no explanation will suffice.” One day, he declared 
+that he would send his thoughts to millions of people throughout the 
+
+country. He closed his eyes and began to concentrate, stating that he was 
+beaming the name of a president of the United States. He asked people 
+to write down the name that popped into their heads on a postcard and 
+mail it in. The next week, he announced triumphantly that thousands of 
+postcards had come pouring in with the name “Roosevelt,” the very 
+same name he was “beaming” across the United States."
+"I wasn’t impressed. Back then, the legacy of Roosevelt was strong 
+among those who had lived through the Depression and World War II, so 
+this came as no surprise. (I thought to myself that it would have been 
+truly amazing if he had been thinking of President Millard Fillmore.) 
+
+Still, it stoked my imagination, and I couldn’t resist experimenting 
+with telepathy on my own, trying to read other people’s minds by 
+concentrating as hard as I could. Closing my eyes and focusing intently, I 
+would attempt to “listen” to other people’s thoughts and telekinetically 
+
+move objects around my room. 
+
+I failed."
+"move objects around my room. 
+
+I failed. 
+
+Maybe somewhere telepaths walked the Earth, but I wasn’t one of 
+them. In the process, I began to realize that the wondrous exploits of 
+telepaths were probably impossible—at least without outside assistance. 
+But in the years that followed, I also slowly learned another lesson: to 
+fathom the greatest secrets in the universe, one did not need telepathic 
+or superhuman abilities. One just had to have an open, determined, and 
+curious mind. In particular, in order to understand whether the fantastic 
+devices of science fiction are possible, you have to immerse yourself in 
+advanced physics. To understand the precise point when the possible 
+becomes the impossible, you have to appreciate and understand the laws 
+of physics."
+"These two passions have fired up my imagination all these years: to 
+understand the fundamental laws of physics, and to see how science will 
+shape the future of our lives. To illustrate this and to share my 
+excitement in probing the ultimate laws of physics, I have written the 
+books Hyperspace , Beyond Einstein, and Parallel Worlds. And to express 
+my fascination with the future, I have written Visions, Physics of the 
+Impossible, and Physics of the Future. Over the course of writing and 
+researching these books, I was continually reminded that the human 
+mind is still one of the greatest and most mysterious forces in the world. 
+
+Indeed, we’ve been at a loss to understand what it is or how it works 
+for most of history. The ancient Egyptians, for all their glorious 
+accomplishments in the arts and sciences, believed the brain to be a 
+useless organ and threw it away when embalming their pharaohs."
+"Aristotle was convinced that the soul resided in the heart, not the brain, 
+whose only function was to cool down the cardiovascular system. 
+Others, like Descartes, thought that the soul entered the body through 
+the tiny pineal gland of the brain. But in the absence of any solid 
+evidence, none of these theories could be proven. 
+
+This “dark age” persisted for thousands of years, and with good 
+reason. The brain weighs only three pounds, yet it is the most complex 
+object in the solar system. Although it occupies only 2 percent of the 
+body’s weight, the brain has a ravenous appetite, consuming fully 20 
+percent of our total energy (in newborns, the brain consumes an 
+astonishing 65 percent of the baby’s energy), while fully 80 percent of 
+
+our genes are coded for the brain. There are an estimated 100 billion 
+neurons residing inside the skull with an exponential amount of neural 
+connections and pathways."
+"Back in 1977, when the astronomer Carl Sagan wrote his Pulitzer 
+Prize-winning book, The Dragons of Eden, he broadly summarized what 
+was known about the brain up to that time. His book was beautifully 
+written and tried to represent the state of the art in neuroscience, which 
+at that time relied heavily on three main sources. The first was 
+comparing our brains with those of other species. This was tedious and 
+difficult because it involved dissecting the brains of thousands of 
+animals. The second method was equally indirect: analyzing victims of 
+strokes and disease, who often exhibit bizarre behavior because of their 
+illness. Only an autopsy performed after their death could reveal which 
+part of the brain was malfunctioning. Third, scientists could use 
+electrodes to probe the brain and slowly and painfully piece together 
+which part of the brain influenced which behavior."
+"But the basic tools of neuroscience did not provide a systematic way of 
+analyzing the brain. You could not simply requisition a stroke victim 
+with damage in the specific area you wanted to study. Since the brain is 
+a living, dynamic system, autopsies often did not uncover the most 
+interesting features, such as how the parts of the brain interact, let alone 
+how they produced such diverse thoughts as love, hate, jealousy, and 
+curiosity. 
+
+TWIN REVOLUTIONS 
+
+Four hundred years ago, the telescope was invented, and almost 
+overnight, this new, miraculous instrument peered into the heart of the 
+celestial bodies. It was one of the most revolutionary (and seditious) 
+instruments of all time. All of a sudden, with your own two eyes, you"
+"could see the myths and dogma of the past evaporate like the morning 
+mist. Instead of being perfect examples of divine wisdom, the moon had 
+jagged craters, the sun had black spots, Jupiter had moons, Venus had 
+phases, and Saturn had rings. More was learned about the universe in 
+the fifteen years after the invention of the telescope than in all human 
+history put together. 
+
+Like the invention of the telescope, the introduction of MRI machines 
+and a variety of advanced brain scans in the mid-1990s and 2000s has 
+transformed neuroscience. We have learned more about the brain in the 
+last fifteen years than in all prior human history, and the mind, once 
+considered out of reach, is finally assuming center stage."
+"Nobel laureate Eric R. Kandel of the Max Planck Institute in Tubingen, 
+Germany, writes, “The most valuable insights into the human mind to 
+emerge during this period did not come from the disciplines traditionally 
+concerned with the mind—philosophy, psychology, or psycho-analysis. 
+Instead they came from a merger of these disciplines with the biology of 
+the brain....” 
+
+Physicists have played a pivotal role in this endeavor, providing a 
+flood of new tools with acronyms like MRI, EEG, PET, CAT, TCM, TES, 
+and DBS that have dramatically changed the study of the brain. 
+Suddenly with these machines we could see thoughts moving within the 
+living, thinking brain. As neurologist V. S. Ramachandran of the 
+University of California, San Diego, says, “All of these questions that 
+philosophers have been studying for millennia, we scientists can begin to 
+explore by doing brain imaging and by studying patients and asking the 
+right questions.”"
+"Looking back, some of my initial forays into the world of physics 
+intersected with the very technologies that are now opening up the mind 
+for science. In high school, for instance, I became aware of a new form 
+of matter, called antimatter, and decided to conduct a science project on 
+the topic. As it is one of the most exotic substances on Earth, I had to 
+appeal to the old Atomic Energy Commission just to obtain a tiny 
+quantity of sodium-22, a substance that naturally emits a positive 
+electron (anti-electron, or positron). With my small sample in hand, I 
+was able to build a cloud chamber and powerful magnetic field that 
+allowed me to photograph the trails of vapor left by antimatter particles. 
+I didn’t know it at the time, but sodium-22 would soon become 
+instrumental in a new technology, called PET (positron emission 
+tomography), which has since given us startling new insights into the 
+thinking brain."
+"Yet another technology I experimented with in high school was 
+magnetic resonance. I attended a lecture by Felix Bloch of Stanford 
+
+University, who shared the 1952 Nobel Prize for Physics with Edward 
+
+Purcell for the discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance. Dr. Bloch 
+explained to us high school kids that if you had a powerful magnetic 
+field, the atoms would align vertically in that field like compass needles. 
+Then if you applied a radio pulse to these atoms at a precise resonant 
+frequency, you could make them flip over. When they eventually flipped 
+back, they would emit another pulse, like an echo, which would allow 
+you to determine the identity of these atoms. (Later, I used the principle 
+of magnetic resonance to build a 2.3-million-electron-volt particle 
+accelerator in my mom’s garage.)"
+"Just a couple of years later, as a freshman at Harvard University, it 
+was an honor to have Dr. Purcell teach me electrodynamics. Around that 
+same time, I also had a summer job and got a chance to work with Dr. 
+Richard Ernst, who was trying to generalize the work of Bloch and 
+Purcell on magnetic resonance. He succeeded spectacularly and would 
+eventually win the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1991 for laying the 
+foundation for the modern MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machine. 
+The MRI machine, in turn, has given us detailed photographs of the 
+living brain in even finer detail than PET scans. 
+
+EMPOWERING THE MIND"
+"EMPOWERING THE MIND 
+
+Eventually I became a professor of theoretical physics, but my 
+fascination with the mind remained. It is thrilling to see that, just within 
+the last decade, advances in physics have made possible some of the 
+feats of mentalism that excited me when I was a child. Using MRI scans, 
+scientists can now read thoughts circulating in our brains. Scientists can 
+also insert a chip into the brain of a patient who is totally paralyzed and 
+connect it to a computer, so that through thought alone that patient can 
+surf the web, read and write e-mails, play video games, control their 
+wheelchair, operate household appliances, and manipulate mechanical 
+arms. In fact, such patients can do anything a normal person can do via 
+a computer."
+"Scientists are now going even further, by connecting the brain directly 
+to an exoskeleton that these patients can wear around their paralyzed 
+limbs. Quadriplegics may one day lead near-normal lives. Such 
+exoskeletons may also give us superpowers enabling us to handle deadly 
+
+emergencies. One day, our astronauts may even explore the planets by 
+mentally controlling mechanical surrogates from the comfort of their 
+
+living rooms."
+"living rooms. 
+
+As in the movie The Matrix, we might one day be able to download 
+memories and skills using computers. In animal studies, scientists have 
+already been able to insert memories into the brain. Perhaps it’s only a 
+matter of time before we, too, can insert artificial memories into our 
+brains to learn new subjects, vacation in new places, and master new 
+hobbies. And if technical skills can be downloaded into the minds of 
+workers and scientists, this may even affect the world economy. We 
+might even be able to share these memories as well. One day, scientists 
+might construct an “Internet of the mind,” or a brain-net, where 
+thoughts and emotions are sent electronically around the world. Even 
+dreams will be videotaped and then “brain-mailed” across the Internet."
+"Technology may also give us the power to enhance our intelligence. 
+Progress has been made in understanding the extraordinary powers of 
+“savants” whose mental, artistic, and mathematical abilities are truly 
+astonishing. Furthermore, the genes that separate us from the apes are 
+now being sequenced, giving us an unparalleled glimpse into the 
+evolutionary origins of the brain. Genes have already been isolated in 
+animals that can increase their memory and mental performance."
+"The excitement and promise generated by these eye-opening advances 
+are so enormous that they have also caught the attention of the 
+politicians. In fact, brain science has suddenly become the source of a 
+transatlantic rivalry between the greatest economic powers on the 
+planet. In January 2013, both President Barack Obama and the European 
+Union announced what could eventually become multibillion-dollar 
+funding for two independent projects that would reverse engineer the 
+brain. Deciphering the intricate neural circuitry of the brain, once 
+considered hopelessly beyond the scope of modern science, is now the 
+focus of two crash projects that, like the Human Genome Project, will 
+change the scientific and medical landscape. Not only will this give us 
+unparalleled insight into the mind, it will also generate new industries, 
+spur economic activity, and open up new vistas for neuroscience."
+"Once the neural pathways of the brain are finally decoded, one can 
+envision understanding the precise origins of mental illness, perhaps 
+leading to a cure for this ancient affliction. This decoding also makes it 
+
+possible to create a copy of the brain, which raises philosophical and 
+ethical questions. Who are we, if our consciousness can be uploaded into 
+a computer? We can also toy with the concept of immortality. Our 
+bodies may eventually decay and die, but can our consciousness live 
+forever? 
+
+And beyond that, perhaps one day in the distant future the mind will 
+
+be freed of its bodily constraints and roam among the stars, as several 
+scientists have speculated. Centuries from now, one can imagine placing 
+our entire neural blueprint on laser beams, which will then be sent into 
+deep space, perhaps the most convenient way for our consciousness to 
+explore the stars."
+"A brilliant new scientific landscape that will reshape human destiny is 
+now truly opening up. We are now entering a new golden age of 
+neuroscience. 
+
+In making these predictions, I have had the invaluable assistance of 
+scientists who graciously allowed me to interview them, broadcast their 
+ideas on national radio, and even take a TV crew into their laboratories. 
+These are the scientists who are laying the foundation for the future of 
+the mind. For their ideas to be incorporated into this book, I made only 
+two requirements: (1) their predictions must rigorously obey the laws of 
+physics; and (2) prototypes must exist to show proof-of-principle for 
+these far-reaching ideas. 
+
+TOUCHED BY MENTAL ILLN ESS"
+"TOUCHED BY MENTAL ILLN ESS 
+
+I once wrote a biography of Albert Einstein, called Einstein’s Cosmos, and 
+had to delve into the minute details of his private life. I had known that 
+Einstein’s youngest son was afflicted with schizophrenia, but did not 
+realize the enormous emotional toll that it had taken on the great 
+scientist’s life. Einstein was also touched by mental illness in another 
+way; one of his closest colleagues was the physicist Paul Ehrenfest, who 
+helped Einstein create the theory of general relativity. After suffering 
+bouts of depression, Ehrenfest tragically killed his own son, who had 
+Down’s syndrome, and then committed suicide. Over the years, I have 
+found that many of my colleagues and friends have struggled to manage 
+mental illness in their families."
+"Mental illness has also deeply touched my own life. Several years ago, 
+my mother died after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. It was 
+heartbreaking to see her gradually lose her memories of her loved ones, 
+to gaze into her eyes and realize that she did not know who I was. I 
+could see the glimmer of humanity slowly being extinguished. She had 
+spent a lifetime struggling to raise a family, and instead of enjoying her 
+golden years, she was robbed of all the memories she held dear. 
+
+As the baby boomers age, the sad experience that I and many others 
+have had will be repeated across the world. My wish is that rapid 
+advances in neuroscience will one day alleviate the suffering felt by 
+those afflicted with mental illness and dementia. 
+
+WHAT IS DRIVING THIS REVOLUTION?"
+"WHAT IS DRIVING THIS REVOLUTION? 
+
+The data pouring in from brain scans are now being decoded, and the 
+progress is stunning. Several times a year, headlines herald a fresh 
+breakthrough. It took 350 years, since the invention of the telescope, to 
+enter the space age, but it has taken only fifteen years since the 
+introduction of the MRI and advanced brain scans to actively connect 
+the brain to the outside world. Why so quickly , and how much is there to 
+come?"
+"Part of this rapid progress has occurred because physicists today have 
+a good understanding of electromagnetism, which governs the electrical 
+signals racing through our neurons. The mathematical equations of 
+James Clerk Maxwell, which are used to calculate the physics of 
+antennas, radar, radio receivers, and microwave towers, form the very 
+cornerstone of MRI technology. It took centuries to finally solve the 
+secret of electromagnetism, but neuroscience can enjoy the fruits of this 
+grand endeavor. In Book I, I will survey the history of the brain and 
+explain how a galaxy of new instruments has left the physics labs and 
+given us glorious color pictures of the mechanics of thought. Because 
+consciousness plays so central a role in any discussion of the mind, I also 
+give a physicist’s perspective, offering a definition of consciousness that 
+includes the animal kingdom as well. In fact, I provide a ranking of 
+consciousness, showing how it is possible to assign a number to various"
+"consciousness, showing how it is possible to assign a number to various 
+types of consciousness."
+"But to fully answer the question of how this technology will advance, 
+we also have to look at Moore’s law, which states that computer power 
+doubles every two years. I often surprise people with the simple fact that 
+your cell phone today has more computer power than all of NASA when 
+it put two men on the moon in 1969. Computers are now powerful 
+enough to record the electrical signals emanating from the brain and 
+partially decode them into a familiar digital language. This makes it 
+possible for the brain to directly interface with computers to control any 
+object around it. The fast-growing field is called BMI (brain-machine 
+interface), and the key technology is the computer. In Book II, I’ll 
+explore this new technology, which has made recording memories, mind 
+reading, videotaping our dreams, and telekinesis possible."
+"In Book III, I’ll investigate alternate forms of consciousness, from 
+dreams, drugs, and mental illness to robots and even aliens from outer 
+space. Here we’ll also learn about the potential to control and 
+manipulate the brain to manage diseases such as depression, Parkinson’s, 
+Alzheimer’s, and many more. I will also elaborate on the Brain Research 
+Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (or BRAIN) project 
+
+announced by President Obama, and the Human Brain Project of the 
+European Union, which will potentially allocate billions of dollars to 
+decode the pathways of the brain, all the way down to the neural level. 
+These two crash programs will undoubtedly open up entirely new 
+research areas, giving us new ways to treat mental illness and also 
+revealing the deepest secrets of consciousness."
+"After we have given a definition of consciousness, we can use it to 
+explore nonhuman consciousness as well (i.e., the consciousness of 
+robots). How advanced can robots become? Can they have emotions? 
+Will they pose a threat? And we can also explore the consciousness of 
+aliens, who may have goals totally different from ours. 
+
+In the Appendix, I will discuss perhaps the strangest idea in all of 
+science, the concept from quantum physics that consciousness may be 
+the fundamental basis for reality. 
+
+There is no shortage of proposals for this exploding field. Only time 
+will tell which ones are mere pipe dreams created by the overheated 
+imagination of science-fiction writers and which ones represent solid 
+avenues for future scientific research. Progress in neuroscience has been 
+astronomical, and in many ways the key has been modern physics, 
+
+which uses the full power of the electromagnetic and nuclear forces to 
+probe the great secrets hidden within our minds."
+"I should stress that I am not a neuroscientist. I am a theoretical 
+physicist with an enduring interest in the mind. I hope that the vantage 
+point of a physicist can help further enrich our knowledge and give a 
+fresh new understanding of the most familiar and alien object in the 
+universe: our mind. 
+
+But given the dizzying pace with which radically new perspectives are 
+being developed, it is important that we have a firm grasp on how the 
+brain is put together. 
+
+So let us first discuss the origins of modern neuroscience, which some 
+historians believe began when an iron spike sailed through the brain of a 
+certain Phineas Gage. This seminal event set off a chain reaction that 
+helped open the brain to serious scientific investigation. Although it was 
+an unfortunate event for Mr. Gage, it paved the way for modern science. 
+
+BOOK I THE MIND AND CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+My fundamental premise about the brain is that its workings—"
+"BOOK I THE MIND AND CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+My fundamental premise about the brain is that its workings— 
+
+what we sometimes call “mind”—are a consequence of its 
+anatomy and physiology, and nothing more. 
+
+—CARL SAGAN 
+
+1 UNLOCKING THE MIND 
+
+In 1848, Phineas Gage was working as a railroad foreman in Vermont, 
+when dynamite accidentally went off, propelling a three-foot, seven-inch 
+spike straight into his face, through the front part of his brain, and out 
+the top of his skull, eventually landing eighty feet away. His fellow 
+workers, shocked to see part of their foreman’s brain blown off, 
+immediately called for a doctor. To the workers’ (and even the doctor’s) 
+amazement, Mr. Gage did not die on-site."
+"He was semiconscious for weeks, but eventually made what seemed 
+like a full recovery. (A rare photograph of Gage surfaced in 2009, 
+showing a handsome, confident man, with an injury to his head and left 
+eye, holding the iron rod.) But after this incident, his coworkers began to 
+notice a sharp change in his personality. A normally cheerful, helpful 
+foreman, Gage became abusive, hostile, and selfish. Ladies were warned 
+to stay clear of him. Dr. John Harlow, the doctor who treated him, 
+observed that Gage was “capricious and vacillating, devising many plans 
+of future operations, which are no sooner arranged than they are 
+abandoned in turn for others appearing more feasible. A child in his 
+intellectual capacity and manifestations, yet with the animal passions of 
+a strong man.” Dr. Harlow noted that he was “radically changed” and 
+that his fellow workers said that “he was no longer Gage.” After Gage’s 
+death in 1860, Dr. Harlow preserved both his skull and the rod that had"
+"death in 1860, Dr. Harlow preserved both his skull and the rod that had 
+smashed into it. Detailed X-ray scans of the skull have since confirmed 
+that the iron rod caused massive destruction in the area of the brain 
+behind the forehead known as the frontal lobe, in both the left and right 
+cerebral hemispheres."
+"This incredible accident would not only change the life of Phineas 
+Gage, it would alter the course of science as well. Previously, the 
+dominant thinking was that the brain and the soul were two separate 
+entities, a philosophy called dualism. But it became increasingly clear 
+that damage to the frontal lobe of his brain had caused abrupt changes 
+
+in Gage’s personality. This, in turn, created a paradigm shift in scientific 
+thinking: perhaps specific areas of the brain could be traced to certain 
+behaviors. 
+
+broca’s brain"
+"broca’s brain 
+
+In 1861, just a year after Gage’s death, this view was further cemented 
+through the work of Pierre Paul Broca, a physician in Paris who 
+documented a patient who appeared normal except that he had a severe 
+speech deficit. The patient could understand and comprehend speech 
+perfectly, but he could utter only one sound, the word “tan.” After the 
+patient died, Dr. Broca confirmed during the autopsy that the patient 
+suffered from a lesion in his left temporal lobe, a region of the brain near 
+his left ear. Dr. Broca would later confirm twelve similar cases of 
+patients with damage to this specific area of the brain. Today patients 
+who have damage to the temporal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, 
+are said to suffer from Broca’s aphasia. (In general, patients with this 
+disorder can understand speech but cannot say anything, or else they 
+drop many words when speaking.)"
+"Soon afterward, in 1874, German physician Carl Wernicke described 
+patients who suffered from the opposite problem. They could articulate 
+clearly, but they could not understand written or spoken speech. Often 
+these patients could speak fluently with correct grammar and syntax, but 
+with nonsensical words and meaningless jargon. Sadly, these patients 
+often didn’t know they were spouting gibberish. Wernicke confirmed 
+after performing autopsies that these patients had suffered damage to a 
+slightly different area of the left temporal lobe. 
+
+The works of Broca and Wernicke were landmark studies in 
+neuroscience, establishing a clear link between behavioral problems, 
+such as speech and language impairment, and damage to specific regions 
+of the brain."
+"Another breakthrough took place amid the chaos of war. Throughout 
+history, there were many religious taboos prohibiting the dissection of 
+the human body, which severely restricted progress in medicine. In 
+warfare, however, with tens of thousands of bleeding soldiers dying on 
+the battlefield, it became an urgent mission for doctors to develop any 
+
+medical treatment that worked. During the Prusso-Danish War in 1864, 
+German doctor Gustav Fritsch treated many soldiers with gaping wounds 
+to the brain and happened to notice that when he touched one 
+hemisphere of the brain, the opposite side of the body often twitched. 
+Later Fritsch systematically showed that, when he electrically stimulated 
+the brain, the left hemisphere controlled the right side of the body, and 
+vice versa. This was a stunning discovery, demonstrating that the brain 
+was basically electrical in nature and that a particular region of the 
+brain controlled a part on the other side of the body. (Curiously, the use"
+"of electrical probes on the brain was first recorded a couple of thousand 
+years earlier by the Romans. In the year A.D. 43, records show that the 
+court doctor to the emperor Claudius used electrically charged torpedo 
+fish, which were applied to the head of a patient suffering from severe 
+headaches.) 
+
+The realization that there were electrical pathways connecting the 
+brain to the body wasn’t systematically analyzed until the 1930s, when 
+Dr. Wilder Penfield began working with epilepsy patients, who often 
+suffered from debilitating convulsions and seizures that were potentially 
+life-threatening. For them, the last option was to have brain surgery, 
+which involved removing parts of the skull and exposing the brain. 
+(Since the brain has no pain sensors, a person can be conscious during 
+this entire procedure, so Dr. Penfield used only a local anesthetic during 
+the operation.)"
+"Dr. Penfield noticed that when he stimulated certain parts of the 
+cortex with an electrode, different parts of the body would respond. He 
+suddenly realized that he could draw a rough one-to-one correspondence 
+between specific regions of the cortex and the human body. His 
+drawings were so accurate that they are still used today in almost 
+unaltered form. They had an immediate impact on both the scientific 
+community and the general public. In one diagram, you could see which 
+region of the brain roughly controlled which function, and how 
+important each function was. For example, because our hands and 
+mouth are so vital for survival, a considerable amount of brain power is 
+devoted to controlling them, while the sensors in our back hardly 
+register at all. 
+
+Furthermore, Penfield found that by stimulating parts of the temporal 
+lobe, his patients suddenly relived long-forgotten memories in a crystal-"
+"clear fashion. He was shocked when a patient, in the middle of brain 
+surgery, suddenly blurted out, “It was like ... standing in the doorway at 
+[my] high school.... I heard my mother talking on the phone, telling my 
+aunt to come over that night.” Penfield realized that he was tapping into 
+memories buried deep inside the brain. When he published his results in 
+1951, they created another transformation in our understanding of the 
+brain. 
+
+Figure 1. This is the map of the motor cortex that was created by Dr. Wilder Penfield, showing which 
+region of the brain 
+
+controls which part of the body, (illustration credit 1.1) 
+
+A MAP OF THE BRAIN 
+
+By the 1950s and ’60s, it was possible to create a crude map of the brain, 
+locating different regions and even identifying the functions of a few of 
+them."
+"In Figure 2, we see the neocortex, which is the outer layer of the 
+brain, divided into four lobes. It is highly developed in humans. All the 
+lobes of the brain are devoted to processing signals from our senses, 
+except for one: the frontal lobe, located behind the forehead. The 
+prefrontal cortex, the foremost part of the frontal lobe, is where most 
+rational thought is processed. The information you are reading right now 
+is being processed in your prefrontal cortex. Damage to this area can 
+impair your ability to plan or contemplate the future, as in the case of 
+Phineas Gage. This is the region where information from our senses is 
+evaluated and a future course of action is carried out. 
+
+FRONTAL 
+LOBE 
+
+PARIETAL 
+LOBE 
+
+OCCIPITAL 
+
+LOBE 
+
+TEMPORAL 
+
+LOBE 
+
+Figure 2. The four lobes of the neocortex of the brain are responsible for different, though related, 
+functions, (illustration 
+
+credit 1.2)"
+"credit 1.2) 
+
+The parietal lobe is located at the top of our brains. The right 
+hemisphere controls sensory attention and body image; the left 
+hemisphere controls skilled movements and some aspects of language. 
+Damage to this area can cause many problems, such as difficulty in 
+locating parts of your own body. 
+
+The occipital lobe is located at the very back of the brain and 
+processes visual information from the eyes. Damage to this area can 
+cause blindness and visual impairment. 
+
+The temporal lobe controls language (on the left side only), as well as 
+the visual recognition of faces and certain emotional feelings. Damage to 
+this lobe can leave us speechless or without the ability to recognize 
+familiar faces. 
+
+THE EVOLVING BRAIN"
+"THE EVOLVING BRAIN 
+
+When you look at other organs of the body, such as our muscles, bones, 
+and lungs, there seems to be an obvious rhyme and reason to them that 
+we can immediately see. But the structure of the brain might seem 
+slapped together in a rather chaotic fashion. In fact, trying to map the 
+brain has often been called “cartography for fools.”"
+"To make sense of the seemingly random structure of the brain, in 1967 
+Dr. Paul MacLean of the National Institute of Mental Health applied 
+Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to the brain. He divided the brain 
+into three parts. (Since then, studies have shown that there are 
+refinements to this model, but we will use it as a rough organizing 
+principle to explain the overall structure of the brain.) First, he noticed 
+that the back and center part of our brains, containing the brain stem, 
+cerebellum, and basal ganglia, are almost identical to the brains of 
+reptiles. Known as the “reptilian brain,” these are the oldest structures of 
+the brain, governing basic animal functions such as balance, breathing, 
+digestion, heartbeat, and blood pressure. They also control behaviors 
+such as fighting, hunting, mating, and territoriality, which are necessary 
+for survival and reproduction. The reptilian brain can be traced back 
+about 500 million years. (See Figure 3.)"
+"But as we evolved from reptiles to mammals, the brain also became 
+more complex, evolving outward and creating entirely new structures. 
+
+Here we encounter the “mammalian brain,” or the limbic system, which 
+is located near the center of the brain, surrounding parts of the reptilian 
+brain. The limbic system is prominent among animals living in social 
+groups, such as the apes. It also contains structures that are involved in 
+emotions. Since the dynamics of social groups can be quite complex, the 
+limbic system is essential in sorting out potential enemies, allies, and 
+rivals. 
+
+HUMAN 
+
+BRAIN 
+
+Hypothalamus 
+
+MAMMALIAN 
+L BRAIN . 
+
+REPTILIAN 
+
+BRAIN 
+
+Corpus callosum 
+
+Cingulate gyrus 
+
+Frontal lobe 
+
+Hippocampus 
+
+Forn 
+
+Cerebellum 
+
+Brain stem 
+
+Pituitary 
+
+gland"
+"Frontal lobe 
+
+Hippocampus 
+
+Forn 
+
+Cerebellum 
+
+Brain stem 
+
+Pituitary 
+
+gland 
+
+Figure 3. The evolutionary history of the brain, with the reptilian brain, the limbic system (the 
+mammalian brain), and the 
+neocortex (the human brain). Roughly speaking, one can argue that the path of our brain’s evolution 
+passed from the 
+reptilian brain to the mammalian brain to the human brain, (illustration credit 1.3) 
+
+The different parts of the limbic system that control behaviors crucial 
+for social animals are: 
+
+• The hippocampus. This is the gateway to memory, where short-term 
+memories are processed into long-term memories. Its name means 
+“seahorse,” which describes its strange shape. Damage here will 
+destroy the ability to make new long-term memories. You are left a 
+prisoner of the present. 
+
+• The amygdala. This is the seat of emotions, especially fear, where 
+emotions are first registered and generated. Its name means 
+“almond.”"
+"• The thalamus. This is like a relay station, gathering sensory signals 
+from the brain stem and then sending them out to the various 
+cortices. Its name means “inner chamber.” 
+
+• The hypothalamus. This regulates body temperature, our circadian 
+rhythm, hunger, thirst, and aspects of reproduction and pleasure. It 
+lies below the thalamus—hence its name. 
+
+Finally, we have the third and most recent region of the mammalian 
+brain, the cerebral cortex, which is the outer layer of the brain. The 
+latest evolutionary structure within the cerebral cortex is the neocortex 
+(meaning “new bark”), which governs higher cognitive behavior. It is 
+most highly developed in humans: it makes up 80 percent of our brain’s 
+mass, yet is only as thick as a napkin. In rats the neocortex is smooth, 
+but it is highly convoluted in humans, which allows a large amount of 
+surface area to be crammed into the human skull."
+"In some sense, the human brain is like a museum containing remnants 
+of all the previous stages in our evolution over millions of years, 
+exploding outward and forward in size and function. (This is also 
+roughly the path taken when an infant is born. The infant brain expands 
+outward and toward the front, perhaps mimicking the stages of our 
+evolution.) 
+
+Although the neocortex seems unassuming, looks are deceiving. Under 
+a microscope you can appreciate the intricate architecture of the brain. 
+The gray matter of the brain consists of billions of tiny brain cells called 
+neurons. Like a gigantic telephone network, they receive messages from 
+other neurons via dendrites, which are like tendrils sprouting from one 
+end of the neuron. At the other end of the neuron, there is a long fiber 
+called the axon. Eventually the axon connects to as many as ten"
+"thousand other neurons via their dendrites. At the juncture between the 
+two, there is a tiny gap called the synapse. These synapses act like gates, 
+regulating the flow of information within the brain. Special chemicals 
+called neurotransmitters can enter the synapse and alter the flow of 
+signals. Because neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and 
+noradrenaline help control the stream of information moving across the 
+myriad pathways of the brain, they exert a powerful effect on our 
+moods, emotions, thoughts, and state of mind. (See Figure 4.) 
+
+This description of the brain roughly represented the state of 
+knowledge through the 1980s. In the 1990s, however, with the 
+introduction of new technologies from the field of physics, the 
+mechanics of thought began to be revealed in exquisite detail, 
+unleashing the current explosion of scientific discovery. One of the 
+workhorses of this revolution has been the MRI machine."
+"Figure 4. Diagram of a neuron. Electrical signals travel along the axon of the neuron until they hit the 
+synapse. 
+Neurotransmitters can regulate the flow of electrical signals past the synapse, (illustration credit 1.4) 
+
+THE MRI: WINDOW INTO THE BRAIN 
+
+To understand the reason why this radical new technology has helped 
+decode the thinking brain, we have to turn our attention to some basic 
+principles of physics. 
+
+Radio waves, a type of electromagnetic radiation, can pass right 
+
+through tissue without doing damage. MRI machines take advantage of 
+this fact, allowing electromagnetic waves to freely penetrate the skull. In 
+the process, this technology has given us glorious photographs of 
+something once thought to be impossible to capture: the inner workings 
+
+of the brain as it experiences sensations and emotions. Watching the 
+dance of lights flickering in a MRI machine, one can trace out the 
+thoughts moving within the brain. It’s like being able to see the inside of 
+a clock as it ticks."
+"The first thing you notice about an MRI machine is the huge, 
+cylindrical magnetic coils, which can produce a magnetic field twenty to 
+sixty thousand times greater than the strength of Earth’s. The giant 
+magnet is one of the principal reasons why an MRI machine can weigh a 
+ton, fill up an entire room, and cost several million dollars. (MRI 
+machines are safer than X-ray machines because they don’t create 
+harmful ions. CT scans, which can also create 3-D pictures, flood the 
+body with many times the dosage from an ordinary X-ray, and hence 
+have to be carefully regulated. By contrast, MRI machines are safe when 
+used properly. One problem, however, is the carelessness of workers. 
+The magnetic field is powerful enough to send tools hurling through the 
+air at high velocity when turned on at the wrong time. People have been 
+injured and even killed in this way.)"
+"MRI machines work as follows: Patients lie flat and are inserted into a 
+cylinder containing two large coils, which create the magnetic field. 
+When the magnetic field is turned on, the nuclei of the atoms inside your 
+body act very much like a compass needle: they align horizontally along 
+the direction of the field. Then a small pulse of radio energy is 
+generated, which causes some of the nuclei in our body to flip upside 
+down. When the nuclei later revert back to their normal position, they 
+emit a secondary pulse of radio energy, which is then analyzed by the 
+MRI machine. By analyzing these tiny “echoes,” one can then reconstruct 
+the location and nature of these atoms. Like a bat, which uses echoes to 
+determine the position of objects in its path, the echoes created by the 
+MRI machine allow scientists to re-create a remarkable image of the 
+inside of the brain. Computers then reconstruct the position of the 
+atoms, giving us beautiful diagrams in three dimensions."
+"When MRIs were originally introduced, they were able to show the 
+static structure of the brain and its various regions. However, in the mid- 
+1990s, a new type of MRI was invented, called “functional” MRI, or 
+fMRI, which detected the presence of oxygen in the blood in the brain. 
+(For different types of MRI machines, scientists sometimes put a 
+lowercase letter in front of “MRI,” but we will use the abbreviation MRI 
+
+to denote all the various types of MRI machines.) MRI scans cannot 
+directly detect the flow of electricity in the neurons, but since oxygen is 
+necessary to provide the energy for the neurons, oxygenated blood can 
+indirectly trace the flow of electrical energy in the neurons and show 
+how various regions of the brain interact with one another."
+"Already these MRI scans have definitively disproven the idea that 
+thinking is concentrated in a single center. Instead, one can see electrical 
+energy circulating across different parts of the brain as it thinks. By 
+tracing the path taken by our thoughts, MRI scans have shed new light 
+into the nature of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, schizophrenia, and a host of 
+other mental diseases. 
+
+The great advantage of MRI machines is their exquisite ability to 
+locate minute parts of the brain, down to a fraction of a millimeter in 
+size. An MRI scan will create not just dots on a two-dimensional screen, 
+called pixels, but dots in three-dimensional space, called “voxels,” 
+yielding a bright collection of tens of thousands of colored dots in 3-D, in 
+the shape of a brain."
+"Since different chemical elements respond to different frequencies of 
+radio, you can change the frequency of the radio pulse and therefore 
+identify different elements of the body. As noted, fMRI machines zero in 
+on the oxygen atom contained within blood in order to measure blood 
+flow, but MRI machines can also be tuned to identify other atoms. In just 
+the last decade, a new form of MRI was introduced called “diffusion 
+tensor imaging” MRI, which detects the flow of water in the brain. Since 
+water follows the neural pathways of the brain, DTI yields beautiful 
+pictures that resemble networks of vines growing in a garden. Scientists 
+can now instantly determine how certain parts of the brain are hooked 
+up with other parts."
+"There are a couple of drawbacks to MRI technology, however. 
+Although they are unparalleled in spatial resolution, locating voxels 
+down to the size of a pinpoint in three dimensions, MRIs are not that 
+good in temporal resolution. It takes almost a full second to follow the 
+path of blood in the brain, which may not sound like a lot, but 
+remember that electrical signals travel almost instantly throughout the 
+brain, and hence MRI scans can miss some of the intricate details of 
+thought patterns. 
+
+Another snag is the cost, which runs in the millions of dollars, so 
+
+doctors often have to share the machines. But like most technology, 
+developments should bring down the cost over time."
+"In the meantime, exorbitant costs haven’t stalled the hunt for 
+commercial applications. One idea is to use MRI scans as lie detectors, 
+which, according to some studies, can identify lies with 95 percent 
+accuracy or higher. The level of accuracy is still controversial, but the 
+basic idea is that when a person tells a lie, he simultaneously has to 
+know the truth, concoct the lie, and rapidly analyze the consistency of 
+this lie with previously known facts. Today some companies are claiming 
+that MRI technology shows that the prefrontal and parietal lobes light up 
+when someone tells a lie. More specifically, the “orbitofrontal cortex” 
+(which can serve, among other functions, as the brain’s “fact-checker” to 
+warn us when something is wrong) becomes active. This area is located 
+right behind the orbits of our eyes, and hence the name. The theory goes 
+that the orbitofrontal cortex understands the difference between the 
+truth and a lie and kicks into overdrive as a result. (Other areas of the"
+"truth and a lie and kicks into overdrive as a result. (Other areas of the 
+brain also light up when someone tells a lie, such as the superiormedial 
+and inferolateral prefrontal cortices, which are involved in cognition.)"
+"Already there are several commercial firms offering MRI machines as 
+lie detectors, and cases involving these machines are entering the court 
+system. But it’s important to note that these MRI scans indicate increased 
+brain activity only in certain areas. While DNA results can sometimes 
+have an accuracy of one part in 10 billion or better, MRI scans cannot, 
+because it takes many areas of the brain to concoct a lie, and these same 
+areas of the brain are responsible for processing other kinds of thoughts 
+as well. 
+
+EEG SCANS 
+
+Another useful tool to probe deep inside the brain is the EEG, the 
+electroencephalogram. The EEG was introduced all the way back in 
+1924, but only recently has it been possible to employ computers to 
+make sense out of all the data pouring in from each electrode. 
+
+To use the EEG machine, the patient usually puts on a futuristic- 
+looking helmet with scores of electrodes on the surface. (More advanced 
+versions place a hairnet over the head containing a series of tiny"
+"electrodes.) These electrodes detect the tiny electrical signals that are 
+circulating in the brain. 
+
+(illustration credit 1.5) 
+
+Figure 5. At the top, we see an image taken by a functional MRI machine, showing regions of high 
+mental activity. In the 
+
+bottom image, we see the flowerlike pattern created by a diffusion MRI machine, which can follow the 
+neural pathways 
+
+and connections of the brain, (illustration credit 1.5a)"
+"An EEG scan differs from an MRI scan in several crucial ways. The 
+MRI scan, as we have seen, shoots radio pulses into the brain and then 
+analyzes the “echoes” that come back. This means you can vary the 
+radio pulse to select different atoms for analysis, making it quite 
+versatile. The EEG machine, however, is strictly passive; that is, it 
+analyzes the tiny electromagnetic signals the brain naturally emits. The 
+EEG excels at recording the broad electromagnetic signals that surge 
+across the entire brain, which allows scientists to measure the overall 
+activity of the brain as it sleeps, concentrates, relaxes, dreams, etc. 
+Different states of consciousness vibrate at different frequencies. For 
+example, deep sleep corresponds to delta waves, which vibrate at .1 to 4 
+cycles per second. Active mental states, such as problem solving, 
+correspond to beta waves, vibrating from 12 to 30 cycles per second. 
+These vibrations allow various parts of the brain to share information"
+"These vibrations allow various parts of the brain to share information 
+and communicate with one another, even if they are located on opposite 
+sides of the brain. And while MRI scans measuring blood flow can be 
+taken only several times a second, EEG scans measure electrical activity 
+instantly."
+"The greatest advantage of the EEG scan, though, is its convenience 
+and cost. Even high school students have done experiments in their 
+living rooms with EEG sensors placed over their heads. 
+
+However, the main drawback to the EEG, which has held up its 
+development for decades, is its very poor spatial resolution. The EEG 
+picks up electrical signals that have already been diffused after passing 
+through the skull, making it difficult to detect abnormal activity when it 
+originates deep in the brain. Looking at the output of the muddled EEG 
+signals, it is almost impossible to say for sure which part of the brain 
+created it. Furthermore, slight motions, like moving a finger, can distort 
+the signal, sometimes rendering it useless. 
+
+PET SCANS 
+
+Yet another useful tool from the world of physics is the positron 
+emission topography (PET) scan, which calculates the flow of energy in"
+"the brain by locating the presence of glucose, the sugar molecule that 
+fuels cells. Like the cloud chamber I made as a high school student, PET 
+scans make use of the subatomic particles emitted from sodium-22 
+within the glucose. To start the PET scan, a special solution containing 
+slightly radioactive sugar is injected into the patient. The sodium atoms 
+inside the sugar molecules have been replaced by radioactive sodium-22 
+atoms. Every time a sodium atom decays, it emits a positive electron, or 
+positron, which is easily detected by sensors. By following the path of 
+the radioactive sodium atoms in sugar, one can then trace out the energy 
+flow within the living brain. 
+
+The PET scan shares many of the same advantages of MRI scans but 
+does not have the fine spatial resolution of an MRI photo. However, 
+instead of measuring blood flow, which is only an indirect indicator of 
+energy consumption in the body, PET scans measure energy 
+consumption, so it is more closely related to neural activity."
+"There is another drawback to PET scans, however. Unlike MRI and 
+EEG scans, PET scans are slightly radioactive, so patients cannot 
+continually take them. In general, a person is not allowed to have a PET 
+scan more than once a year because of the risk from radiation. 
+
+MAGNETISM IN THE BRAIN 
+
+Within the last decade, many new high-tech devices have entered the 
+tool kit of neuroscientists, including the transcranial electromagnetic 
+scanner (TES), magnetoencephalography (MEG), near-infrared 
+spectroscopy (NIRS), and optogenetics, among others."
+"In particular, magnetism has been used to systematically shut down 
+specific parts of the brain without cutting it open. The basic physics 
+behind these new tools is that a rapidly changing electric field can create 
+a magnetic field, and vice versa. MEGs passively measure the magnetic 
+fields produced by the changing electric fields of the brain. These 
+magnetic fields are weak and extremely tiny, only a billionth of Earth’s 
+magnetic field. Like the EEG, the MEG is extremely good at time 
+resolution, down to a thousandth of a second. Its spatial resolution, 
+however, is only a cubic centimeter. 
+
+Unlike the passive measurement of the MEG, the TES generates a large 
+
+pulse of electricity, which in turn creates a burst of magnetic energy. 
+The TES is placed next to the brain, so the magnetic pulse penetrates the 
+skull and creates yet another electric pulse inside the brain. This 
+secondary electrical pulse, in turn, is sufficient to turn off or dampen the 
+activity of selected areas of the brain."
+"Historically, scientists had to rely on strokes or tumors to silence 
+certain parts of the brain and hence determine what they do. But with 
+the TES, one can harmlessly turn off or dampen parts of the brain at will. 
+By shooting magnetic energy at a particular spot in the brain, one can 
+determine its function by simply watching how a person’s behavior has 
+changed. (For example, by shooting magnetic pulses into the left 
+temporal lobe, one can see that this adversely affects our ability to talk.)"
+"One potential drawback of the TES is that these magnetic fields do not 
+penetrate very far into the interior of the brain (because magnetic fields 
+decrease much faster than the usual inverse square law for electricity). 
+TES is quite useful in turning off parts of the brain near the skull, but the 
+magnetic field cannot reach important centers located deep in the brain, 
+such as the limbic system. But future generations of TES devices may 
+overcome this technical problem by increasing the intensity and 
+precision of the magnetic field. 
+
+Wire coil 
+
+Pulsed magnetic field 
+
+Stimulated 
+brain region 
+
+Positioning 
+
+frame 
+
+Figure 6. We see the transcranial electromagnetic scanner and the magnetoencephalograph, which uses 
+magnetism rather 
+than radio waves to penetrate the skull and determine the nature of thoughts within the brain. 
+Magnetism can 
+temporarily silence parts of the brain, allowing scientists to safely determine how these regions perform
+without relying"
+"on stroke victims, (illustration credit 1.6) 
+
+DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION 
+
+Yet another tool that has proven vital to neurologists is deep brain 
+stimulation (DBS). The probes originally used by Dr. Penfield were 
+relatively crude. Today these electrodes can be hairlike and reach 
+specific areas of the brain deep within its interior. Not only has DBS 
+allowed scientists to locate the function of various parts of the brain, it 
+can also be used to treat mental disorders. DBS has already proven its 
+
+worth with Parkinson’s disease, in which certain regions of the brain are 
+overactive and often create uncontrollable shaking of the hands. 
+
+More recently, these electrodes have targeted a new area of the brain 
+(called Brodmann’s area number 25) that is often overactive in 
+depressed patients who do not respond to psychotherapy or drugs. Deep 
+brain stimulation has given almost miraculous relief after decades of 
+torment and agony for these long-suffering patients."
+"Every year, new uses for deep brain stimulation are being found. In 
+fact, nearly all the major disorders of the brain are being reexamined in 
+light of this and other new brain-scanning technologies. This promises to 
+be an exciting new area for diagnosing and even treating illnesses. 
+
+OPTOGENETICS—LIGHTING UP THE BRAIN 
+
+But perhaps the newest and most exciting instrument in the neurologist’s 
+tool kit is optogenetics, which was once considered science fiction. Like 
+a magic wand, it allows you to activate certain pathways controlling 
+behavior by shining a light beam on the brain. 
+
+Incredibly, a light-sensitive gene that causes a cell to fire can be 
+inserted, with surgical precision, directly into a neuron. Then, by turning 
+on a light beam, the neuron is activated. More importantly, this allows 
+scientists to excite these pathways, so that you can turn on and off 
+certain behaviors by flicking a switch."
+"Although this technology is only a decade old, optogenetics has 
+already proven successful in controlling certain animal behaviors. By 
+
+turning on a light switch, it is possible to make fruit flies suddenly fly 
+off, worms stop wiggling, and mice run around madly in circles. Monkey 
+trials are now beginning, and even human trials are in discussion. There 
+is great hope that this technology will have a direct application in 
+treating disorders like Parkinson’s and depression. 
+
+THE TRANSPARENT BRAIN 
+
+Like optogenetics, another spectacular new development is making the 
+brain fully transparent so that its neural pathways are exposed to the 
+naked eye. In 2013, scientists at Stanford University announced that 
+
+they had successfully made the entire brain of a mouse transparent, as 
+well as parts of a human brain. The announcement was so stunning that 
+it made the front page of the New York Times, with the headline “Brain 
+as Clear as Jell-0 for Scientists to Explore.”"
+"At the cellular level, cells seen individually are transparent, with all 
+their microscopic components fully exposed. However, once billions of 
+cells come together to form organs like the brain, the addition of lipids 
+(fats, oils, waxes, and chemicals not soluble in water) helps make the 
+organ opaque. The key to the new technique is to remove the lipids 
+while keeping the neurons intact. The scientists at Stanford did this by 
+placing the brain in hydrogel (a gel-like substance mainly made of 
+water), which binds to all the brain’s molecules except the lipids. By 
+placing the brain in a soapy solution with an electric field, the solution 
+can be flushed out of the brain, carrying along the lipids, leaving the 
+brain transparent. The addition of dyes can then make the neural 
+pathways visible. This will help to identify and map the many neural 
+pathways of the brain."
+"Making tissue transparent is not new, but getting precisely the right 
+conditions necessary to make the entire brain transparent took a lot of 
+ingenuity. “I burned and melted more than a hundred brains,” confessed 
+Dr. Kwanghun Chung, one of the lead scientists in the study. The new 
+technique, called Clarity, can also be applied to other organs (and even 
+organs preserved years ago in chemicals like formalin). He has already 
+created transparent livers, lungs, and hearts. This new technique has 
+startling applications across all of medicine. In particular, it will 
+accelerate locating the neural pathways of the brain, which is the focus 
+of intense research and funding. 
+
+FOUR FUNDAMENTAL FORCES"
+"FOUR FUNDAMENTAL FORCES 
+
+The success of this first generation of brain scans has been nothing less 
+than spectacular. Before their introduction, only about thirty or so 
+regions of the brain were known with any certainty. Now the MRI 
+machine alone can identify two to three hundred regions of the brain, 
+opening up entirely new frontiers for brain science. With so many new 
+scanning technologies being introduced from physics just within the last 
+
+fifteen years, one might wonder: Are there more? The answer is yes, but 
+they will be variations and refinements of the previous ones, not 
+radically new technologies. This is because there are only four 
+fundamental forces—gravitational, electromagnetic, weak nuclear, and 
+strong nuclear—that rule the universe. (Physicists have tried to find 
+evidence for a fifth force, but so far all such attempts have failed.)"
+"The electromagnetic force, which lights up our cities and represents 
+the energy of electricity and magnetism, is the source of almost all the 
+new scanning technologies (with the exception of the PET scan, which is 
+governed by the weak nuclear force). Because physicists have had over 
+150 years of experience working with the electromagnetic force, there is 
+no mystery in creating new electric and magnetic fields, so any new 
+brain-scanning technology will most likely be a novel modification of 
+existing technologies, rather than being something entirely new. As with 
+most technology, the size and cost of these machines will drop, vastly 
+increasing the widespread use of these sophisticated instruments. 
+Already physicists are doing the basic calculations necessary to make an 
+MRI machine fit into a cell phone. At the same time, the fundamental 
+challenge facing these brain scans is resolution, both spatial and 
+temporal. The spatial resolution of MRI scans will increase as the"
+"temporal. The spatial resolution of MRI scans will increase as the 
+magnetic field becomes more uniform and as the electronics become 
+more sensitive. At present, MRI scans can see only dots or voxels within 
+a fraction of a millimeter. But each dot may contain hundreds of 
+thousands of neurons. New scanning technology should reduce this even 
+further. The holy grail of this approach would be to create an MRI-like 
+machine that could identify individual neurons and their connections."
+"The temporal resolution of MRI machines is also limited because they 
+analyze the flow of oxygenated blood in the brain. The machine itself 
+has very good temporal resolution, but tracing the flow of blood slows it 
+down. In the future, other MRI machines will be able to locate different 
+substances that are more directly connected to the firing of neurons, 
+thereby allowing real-time analysis of mental processes. No matter how 
+spectacular the successes of the past fifteen years, then, they were just a 
+taste of the future. 
+
+NEW MODELS OF THE BRAIN 
+
+Historically, with each new scientific discovery, a new model of the 
+brain has emerged. One of the earliest models of the brain was the 
+“homunculus,” a little man who lived inside the brain and made all the 
+decisions. This picture was not very helpful, since it did not explain what 
+was happening in the brain of the homunculus. Perhaps there was a 
+homunculus hiding inside the homunculus."
+"With the arrival of simple mechanical devices, another model of the 
+brain was proposed: that of a machine, such as a clock, with mechanical 
+wheels and gears. This analogy was useful for scientists and inventors 
+like Leonardo da Vinci, who actually designed a mechanical man."
+"During the late 1800s, when steam power was carving out new 
+empires, another analogy emerged, that of a steam engine, with flows of 
+energy competing with one another. This hydraulic model, historians 
+have conjectured, affected Sigmund Freud’s picture of the brain, in 
+which there was a continual struggle between three forces: the ego 
+(representing the self and rational thought), the id (representing 
+repressed desires), and the superego (representing our conscience). In 
+this model, if too much pressure built up because of a conflict among 
+these three, there could be a regression or general breakdown of the 
+entire system. This model was ingenious, but as even Freud himself 
+admitted, it required detailed studies of the brain at the neuronal level, 
+which would take another century."
+"Early in the last century, with the rise of the telephone, another 
+analogy surfaced—that of a giant switchboard. The brain was a mesh of 
+telephone lines connected into a vast network. Consciousness was a long 
+row of telephone operators sitting in front of a large panel of switches, 
+constantly plugging and unplugging wires. Unfortunately, this model 
+said nothing about how these messages were wired together to form the 
+brain. 
+
+With the rise of the transistor, yet another model became fashionable: 
+the computer. The old-fashioned switching stations were replaced by 
+microchips containing hundreds of millions of transistors. Perhaps the 
+“mind” was just a software program running on “wetware” (i.e., brain 
+tissue rather than transistors). This model is an enduring one, even 
+today, but it has limitations. The transistor model cannot explain how 
+the brain performs computations that would require a computer the size 
+of New York City. Plus the brain has no programming, no Windows"
+"operating system or Pentium chip. (Also, a PC with a Pentium chip is 
+extremely fast, but it has a bottleneck. All calculations must pass 
+
+through this single processor. The brain is the opposite. The firing of 
+each neuron is relatively slow, but it more than makes up for this by 
+having 100 billion neurons processing data simultaneously. Therefore a 
+slow parallel processor can trump a very fast single processor.) 
+
+The most recent analogy is that of the Internet, which lashes together 
+billions of computers. Consciousness, in this picture, is an “emergent” 
+phenomenon, miraculously arising out of the collective action of billions 
+of neurons. (The problem with this picture is that it says absolutely 
+nothing about how this miracle occurs. It brushes all the complexity of 
+the brain under the rug of chaos theory.)"
+"No doubt each of these analogies has kernels of truth, but none of 
+them truly captures the complexity of the brain. However, one analogy 
+for the brain that I have found useful (albeit still imperfect) is that of a 
+large corporation. In this analogy, there is a huge bureaucracy and lines 
+of authority, with vast flows of information channeled between different 
+offices. But the important information eventually winds up at the 
+command center with the CEO. There the final decisions are made. 
+
+If this analogy of the brain to a large corporation is valid, then it 
+should be able to explain certain peculiar features of the brain:"
+"• Most information is “subconscious” —that is, the CEO is blissfully 
+unaware of the vast, complex information that is constantly flowing 
+inside the bureaucracy. In fact, only a tiny amount of information 
+finally reaches the desk of the CEO, who can be compared to the 
+prefrontal cortex. The CEO just has to know information important 
+enough to get his attention; otherwise, he would be paralyzed by an 
+avalanche of extraneous information. 
+
+This arrangement is probably a by-product of evolution, since our 
+ancestors would have been overwhelmed with superfluous, 
+subconscious information flooding their brains when facing an 
+emergency. We are all mercifully unaware of the trillions of 
+calculations being processed in our brains. Upon encountering a 
+tiger in the forest, one does not have to be bothered with the status 
+of our stomach, toes, hair, etc. All one has to know is how to run. 
+
+• “Emotions” are rapid decisions made independently at a lower"
+"• “Emotions” are rapid decisions made independently at a lower 
+
+level. Since rational thought takes many seconds, this means that it 
+is often impossible to make a reasoned response to an emergency; 
+hence lower-level brain regions must rapidly assess the situation and 
+make a decision, an emotion, without permission from the top. 
+
+So emotions (fear, anger, horror, etc.) are instantaneous red flags 
+
+made at a lower level, generated by evolution, to warn the 
+command center of possibly dangerous or serious situations. We 
+have little conscious control over emotions. For example, no matter 
+how much we practice giving a speech to a large audience, we still 
+feel nervous. 
+
+Rita Carter, author of Mapping the Mind, writes, “Emotions are not 
+feelings at all but a set of body-rooted survival mechanisms that 
+have evolved to turn us away from danger and propel us forward to 
+things that may be of benefit.” 
+
+• There is a constant clamoring for the attention of the CEO."
+"• There is a constant clamoring for the attention of the CEO. 
+
+There is no single homunculus, CPU, or Pentium chip making 
+decisions; instead, the various subcenters within the command 
+center are in constant competition with one another, vying for the 
+attention of the CEO. So there is no smooth, steady continuity of 
+thought, but the cacophony of different feedback loops competing 
+with one another. The concept of “I,” as a single, unified whole 
+making all decisions continuously, is an illusion created by our own 
+subconscious minds. 
+
+Mentally we feel that our mind is a single entity, continuously and 
+smoothly processing information, totally in charge of our decisions. 
+But the picture emerging from brain scans is quite different from the 
+perception we have of our own mind. 
+
+MIT professor Marvin Minsky, one of the founding fathers of 
+artificial intelligence, told me that the mind is more like a “society 
+of minds,” with different submodules, each trying to compete with 
+the others."
+"When I interviewed Steven Pinker, a psychologist at Harvard 
+University, I asked him how consciousness emerges out of this mess. 
+He said that consciousness was like a storm raging in our brain. He 
+elaborated on this when he wrote that “the intuitive feeling we have 
+that there’s an executive T that sits in a control room of our brain, 
+
+scanning the screens of the senses and pushing the buttons of our 
+muscles, is an illusion. Consciousness turns out to consist of a 
+maelstrom of events distributed across the brain. These events 
+compete for attention, and as one process outshouts the others, the 
+brain rationalizes the outcome after the fact and concocts the 
+impression that a single self was in charge all along.” 
+
+• Final decisions are made by the CEO in the command center."
+"• Final decisions are made by the CEO in the command center. 
+
+Almost all the bureaucracy is devoted to accumulating and 
+assembling information for the CEO, who meets only with the 
+directors of each division. The CEO tries to mediate all the 
+conflicting information pouring into the command center. The buck 
+stops here. The CEO, located in the prefrontal cortex, has to make 
+the final decision. While most decisions are made by instinct in 
+animals, humans make higher-level decisions after sifting through 
+different bodies of information from our senses. 
+
+• Information flows are hierarchical. Because of the vast amount of 
+information that must flow upward toward the CEO’s office, or 
+downward to the support staff, information must be arranged in 
+complex arrays of nested networks, with many branches. Think of a 
+pine tree, with the command center on top and a pyramid of 
+branches flowing downward, branching out into many subcenters."
+"There are, of course, differences between a bureaucracy and the 
+structure of thought. The first rule of any bureaucracy is that “it 
+expands to fill the space allotted to it.” But wasting energy is a 
+luxury the brain cannot afford. The brain consumes only about 
+twenty watts of power (the power of a dim lightbulb), but that is 
+probably the maximum energy it can consume before the body 
+becomes dysfunctional. If it generates more heat, it will cause tissue 
+damage. Therefore the brain is constantly using shortcuts to 
+conserve energy. We will see throughout this book the clever and 
+ingenious devices that evolution has crafted, without our 
+knowledge, to cut corners. 
+
+IS “REALITY” REALLY REAL? 
+
+Everyone knows the expression “seeing is believing.” Yet much of what"
+"IS “REALITY” REALLY REAL? 
+
+Everyone knows the expression “seeing is believing.” Yet much of what 
+
+we see is actually an illusion. For example, when we see a typical 
+landscape, it seems like a smooth, movielike panorama. In reality, there 
+is a gaping hole in our field of vision, corresponding to the location of 
+the optic nerve in the retina. We should see this large ugly black spot 
+wherever we look. But our brains fill in that hole by papering it over, by 
+averaging it out. This means that part of our vision is actually fake, 
+generated by our subconscious minds to deceive us. 
+
+Also, we see only the center of our field of vision, called the fovea, 
+with clarity. The peripheral part is blurry, in order to save energy. But 
+the fovea is very small. To capture as much information as possible with 
+the tiny fovea, the eye darts around constantly. This rapid, jiggling 
+motion of our eyes is called saccades. All this is done subconsciously,"
+"giving us the false impression that our field of vision is clear and 
+focused. 
+
+When I was a child and first saw a diagram showing the 
+electromagnetic spectrum in its true glory, I was shocked. I had been 
+totally unaware that huge parts of the EM spectrum (e.g., infrared light, 
+UV light, X-rays, gamma rays) were totally invisible to us. I began to 
+realize that what I saw with my eyes was only a tiny, crude 
+approximation of reality. (There is an old saying: “If appearance and 
+essence were the same thing, there would be no need for science.”) We 
+have sensors in the retina that can detect only red, green, and blue. This 
+means that we’ve never actually seen yellow, brown, orange, and a host 
+of other colors. These colors do exist, but our brain can approximate 
+each of them only by mixing different amounts of red, green, and blue. 
+(You can see this if you look at an old color-TV screen very carefully. 
+You see only a collection of red, green, and blue dots. Color TV is 
+actually an illusion.)"
+"Our eyes also fool us into thinking we can see depth. The retinas of 
+our eyes are two-dimensional, but because we have two eyes separated 
+by a few inches, the left and right brain merge these two images, giving 
+us the false sense of a third dimension. For more distant objects, we can 
+judge how far an object is by observing how they move when we move 
+our head. This is called parallax. 
+
+(This parallax explains the fact that children sometimes complain that 
+“the moon is following me.” Because the brain has difficulty 
+comprehending the parallax of an object as distant as the moon, it 
+
+appears as if the moon is always a fixed distance “behind” them, but it’s 
+just an illusion caused by the brain taking a shortcut.) 
+
+THE SPLIT-BRAIN PARADOX"
+"THE SPLIT-BRAIN PARADOX 
+
+One way in which this picture, based on the corporate hierarchy of a 
+company, deviates from the actual structure of the brain can be seen in 
+the curious case of split-brain patients. One unusual feature of the brain 
+is that it has two nearly identical halves, or hemispheres, the left and 
+right. Scientists have long wondered why the brain has this unnecessary 
+redundancy, since the brain can operate even if one entire hemisphere is 
+completely removed. No normal corporate hierarchy has this strange 
+feature. Furthermore, if each hemisphere has consciousness, does this 
+mean that we have two separate centers of consciousness inside one 
+skull?"
+"Dr. Roger W. Sperry of the California Institute of Technology won the 
+Nobel Prize in 1981 for showing that the two hemispheres of the brain 
+are not exact carbon copies of each other, but actually perform different 
+duties. This result created a sensation in neurology (and also spawned a 
+cottage industry of dubious self-help books that claim to apply the left- 
+brain, right-brain dichotomy to your life). 
+
+Dr. Sperry was treating epileptics, who sometimes suffer from grand 
+mal seizures often caused by feedback loops between the two 
+hemispheres that go out of control. Like a microphone screeching in our 
+ears because of a feedback loop, these seizures can become life- 
+threatening. Dr. Sperry began by severing the corpus callosum, which 
+connects the two hemispheres of the brain, so that they no longer 
+communicated and shared information between the left and right side of 
+the body. This usually stopped the feedback loop and the seizures."
+"At first, these split-brain patients seemed perfectly normal. They were 
+alert and could carry on a natural conversation as if nothing had 
+happened. But a careful analysis of these individuals showed that 
+something was very different about them. 
+
+Normally the hemispheres complement each other as thoughts move 
+back and forth between the two. The left brain is more analytical and 
+logical. It is where verbal skills are found, while the right brain is more 
+
+holistic and artistic. But the left brain is the dominant one and makes the 
+final decisions. Commands pass from the left brain to the right brain via 
+the corpus callosum. But if that connection is cut, it means that the right 
+brain is now free from the dictatorship of the left brain. Perhaps the 
+right brain can have a will of its own, contradicting the wishes of the 
+dominant left brain."
+"In short, there could be two wills acting within one skull, sometimes 
+struggling for control of the body. This creates the bizarre situation 
+where the left hand (controlled by the right brain) starts to behave 
+independently of your wishes, as if it were an alien appendage. 
+
+There is one documented case in which a man was about to hug his 
+wife with one hand, only to find that the other hand had an entirely 
+different agenda. It delivered a right hook to her face. Another woman 
+reported that she would pick out a dress with one hand, only to see her 
+other hand grab an entirely different outfit. Meanwhile, one man had 
+difficulty sleeping at night thinking that his other rebellious hand might 
+strangle him. 
+
+At times, split-brain people think they are living in a cartoon, where 
+one hand struggles to control the other. Physicians sometimes call this 
+
+the Dr. Strangelove syndrome, because of a scene in the movie in which 
+one hand has to fight against the other hand."
+"Dr. Sperry, after detailed studies of split-brain patients, finally 
+concluded that there could be two distinct minds operating in a single 
+brain. He wrote that each hemisphere is “indeed a conscious system in 
+its own right, perceiving, thinking, remembering, reasoning, willing, and 
+emoting, all at a characteristically human level, and ... both the left and 
+right hemisphere may be conscious simultaneously in different, even in 
+mutually conflicting, mental experiences that run along in parallel.”"
+"When I interviewed Dr. Michael Gazzaniga of the University of 
+California, Santa Barbara, an authority on split-brain patients, I asked 
+him how experiments can be done to test this theory. There are a variety 
+of ways to communicate separately to each hemisphere without the 
+knowledge of the other hemisphere. One can, for example, have the 
+subject wear special glasses on which questions can be shown to each 
+eye separately, so that directing questions to each hemisphere is easy. 
+The hard part is trying to get an answer from each hemisphere. Since the 
+right brain cannot speak (the speech centers are located only in the left 
+
+brain), it is difficult to get answers from the right brain. Dr. Gazzaniga 
+told me that to find out what the right brain was thinking, he created an 
+experiment in which the (mute) right brain could “talk” by using 
+Scrabble letters."
+"He began by asking the patient’s left brain what he would do after 
+graduation. The patient replied that he wanted to become a draftsman. 
+But things got interesting when the (mute) right brain was asked the 
+same question. The right brain spelled out the words: “automobile 
+racer.” Unknown to the dominant left brain, the right brain secretly had 
+a completely different agenda for the future. The right brain literally had 
+a mind of its own. 
+
+Rita Carter writes, “The possible implications of this are mind- 
+boggling. It suggests that we might all be carrying around in our skulls a 
+mute prisoner with a personality, ambition, and self-awareness quite 
+different from the day-to-day entity we believe ourselves to be.”"
+"Perhaps there is truth to the oft-heard statement that “inside him, 
+there is someone yearning to be free.” This means that the two 
+hemispheres may even have different beliefs. For example, the 
+neurologist V. S. Ramanchandran describes one split-brain patient who, 
+when asked if he was a believer or not, said he was an atheist, but his 
+right brain declared he was a believer. Apparently, it is possible to have 
+two opposing religious beliefs residing in the same brain. Ramachandran 
+continues: “If that person dies, what happens? Does one hemisphere go 
+
+to heaven and the other go to hell? I don’t know the answer to that.” 
+
+(It is conceivable, therefore, that a person with a split-brain 
+personality might be both Republican and Democrat at the same time. If 
+you ask him whom he will vote for, he will give you the candidate of the 
+left brain, since the right brain cannot speak. But you can imagine the 
+chaos in the voting booth when he has to pull the lever with one hand.) 
+
+WHO IS IN CHARGE?"
+"WHO IS IN CHARGE? 
+
+One person who has spent considerable time and done much research to 
+understand the problem of the subconscious mind is Dr. David 
+Eagleman, a neuroscientist at the Baylor College of Medicine. When I 
+interviewed him, I asked him, If most of our mental processes are 
+
+subconscious, then why are we ignorant of this important fact? He gave 
+an example of a young king who inherits the throne and takes credit for 
+everything in the kingdom, but hasn’t the slightest clue about the 
+thousands of staff, soldiers, and peasants necessary to maintain the 
+throne."
+"Our choice of politicians, marriage partners, friends, and future 
+occupations are all influenced by things that we are not conscious of. 
+(For example, it is an odd result, he says, that “people named Denise or 
+Dennis are disproportionately likely to become dentists, while people 
+named Laura or Lawrence are more likely to become lawyers, and 
+people with names like George or Georgina to become geologists.”) This 
+also means that what we consider to be “reality” is only an 
+approximation that the brain makes to fill in the gaps. Each of us sees 
+reality in a slightly different way. For example, he pointed out, “at least 
+15 percent of human females possess a genetic mutation that gives them 
+an extra (fourth) type of color photoreceptor—and this allows them to 
+discriminate between colors that look identical to the majority of us with 
+a mere three types of color photoreceptors.”"
+"Clearly, the more we understand the mechanics of thought, the more 
+questions arise. Precisely what happens in the command center of the 
+mind when confronted with a rebellious shadow command center? What 
+do we mean by “consciousness” anyway, if it can be split in half? And 
+what is the relationship between consciousness and “self” and “self- 
+awareness”? 
+
+If we can answer these difficult questions, then perhaps it will pave 
+the way for understanding nonhuman consciousness, the consciousness 
+of robots and aliens from outer space, for example, which may be 
+
+entirely different from ours. 
+
+So let us now propose a clear answer to this deceptively complex 
+question: What is consciousness? 
+
+The mind of man is capable of anything ... because everything 
+is in it, all the past as well as all the future. 
+
+—JOSEPH CONRAD 
+
+Consciousness can reduce even the most fastidious thinker to 
+blabbering incoherence. 
+
+—COLIN MCGINN 
+
+2 CONSCIOUSNESS—A PHYSICIST’S VIEWPOINT"
+"—COLIN MCGINN 
+
+2 CONSCIOUSNESS—A PHYSICIST’S VIEWPOINT 
+
+The idea of consciousness has intrigued philosophers for centuries, but 
+it has resisted a simple definition, even to this day. The philosopher 
+David Chalmers has cataloged more than twenty thousand papers 
+written on the subject; nowhere in science have so many devoted so 
+much to create so little consensus. The seventeenth-century thinker 
+Gottfried Leibniz once wrote, “If you could blow the brain up to the size 
+of a mill and walk about inside, you would not find consciousness.” 
+
+Some philosophers doubt that a theory of consciousness is even 
+possible. They claim that consciousness can never be explained since an 
+object can never understand itself, so we don’t even have the mental 
+firepower to solve this perplexing question. Harvard psychologist Steven 
+Pinker writes, “We cannot see ultraviolet light. We cannot mentally 
+rotate an object in the fourth dimension. And perhaps we cannot solve 
+conundrums like free will and sentience.”"
+"In fact, for most of the twentieth century, one of the dominant theories 
+of psychology, behaviorism, denied the importance of consciousness 
+entirely. Behaviorism is based on the idea that only the objective 
+behavior of animals and people is worthy of study, not the subjective, 
+internal states of the mind. 
+
+Others have given up trying to define consciousness, and try simply to 
+describe it. Psychiatrist Giulio Tononi has said, “Everybody knows what 
+consciousness is: it is what abandons you every night when you fall into 
+dreamless sleep and returns the next morning when you wake up.” 
+
+Although the nature of consciousness has been debated for centuries, 
+there has been little resolution. Given that physicists created many of the 
+inventions that have made the explosive advancements in brain science 
+possible, perhaps it will be useful to follow an example from physics in 
+reexamining this ancient question. 
+
+HOW PHYSICISTS UNDERSTAND THE UNIVERSE"
+"HOW PHYSICISTS UNDERSTAND THE UNIVERSE 
+
+When a physicist tries to understand something, first he collects data and 
+then he proposes a “model,” a simplified version of the object he is 
+studying that captures its essential features. In physics, the model is 
+described by a series of parameters (e.g., temperature, energy, time). 
+Then the physicist uses the model to predict its future evolution by 
+simulating its motions. In fact, some of the world’s largest 
+supercomputers are used to simulate the evolution of models, which can 
+describe protons, nuclear explosions, weather patterns, the big bang, and 
+the center of black holes. Then you create a better model, using more 
+sophisticated parameters, and simulate it in time as well."
+"For example, when Isaac Newton was puzzling over the motion of the 
+moon, he created a simple model that would eventually change the 
+course of human history: he envisioned throwing an apple in the air. The 
+faster you threw the apple, he reasoned, the farther it would travel. If 
+you threw it fast enough, in fact, it would encircle the Earth entirely, 
+and might even return to its original point. Then, Newton claimed, this 
+model represented the path of the moon, so the forces that guided the 
+motion of the apple circling the Earth were identical to the forces 
+guiding the moon."
+"But the model, by itself, was still useless. The key breakthrough came 
+when Newton was able to use his new theory to simulate the future, to 
+calculate the future position of moving objects. This was a difficult 
+problem, requiring him to create an entirely new branch of mathematics, 
+called calculus. Using this new mathematics, Newton was then able to 
+predict the trajectory of not just the moon, but also Halley’s Comet and 
+the planets. Since then, scientists have used Newton’s laws to simulate 
+the future path of moving objects, from cannonballs, machines, 
+automobiles, and rockets to asteroids and meteors, and even stars and 
+galaxies. 
+
+The success or failure of a model depends on how faithfully it 
+reproduces the basic parameters of the original. In this case, the basic 
+parameter was the location of the apple and the moon in space and time. 
+By allowing this parameter to evolve (i.e., letting time move forward), 
+Newton unlocked, for the first time in history, the action of moving"
+"bodies, which is one of the most important discoveries in science. 
+
+Models are useful, until they are replaced by even more accurate 
+models described by better parameters. Einstein replaced Newton’s 
+
+picture of forces acting on apples and moons with a new model based on 
+a new parameter, the curvature of space and time. An apple moved not 
+because the Earth exerted a force on it, but because the fabric of space 
+and time was stretched by the Earth, so the apple was simply moving 
+along the surface of a curved space-time. From this, Einstein could then 
+simulate the future of the entire universe. Now, with computers, we can 
+run simulations of this model into the future and create gorgeous 
+pictures presenting the collisions of black holes. 
+
+Let us now incorporate this basic strategy into a new theory of 
+consciousness. 
+
+DEFINITION OF CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"DEFINITION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+I’ve taken bits and pieces from previous descriptions of consciousness in 
+the fields of neurology and biology in order to define consciousness as 
+follows: 
+
+Consciousness is the process of creating a model of the world 
+using multiple feedback loops in various parameters (e.g., in 
+temperature, space, time, and in relation to others), in order to 
+accomplish a goal (e.g., find mates, food, shelter). 
+
+I call this the “space-time theory of consciousness,” because it 
+emphasizes the idea that animals create a model of the world mainly in 
+relation to space, and to one another, while humans go beyond and 
+create a model of the world in relation to time, both forward and 
+backward."
+"For example, the lowest level of consciousness is Level 0, where an 
+organism is stationary or has limited mobility and creates a model of its 
+place using feedback loops in a few parameters (e.g., temperature). For 
+example, the simplest level of consciousness is a thermostat. It 
+automatically turns on an air conditioner or heater to adjust the 
+temperature in a room, without any help. The key is a feedback loop 
+that turns on a switch if the temperature gets too hot or cold. (For 
+example, metals expand when heated, so a thermostat can turn on a 
+switch if a metal strip expands beyond a certain point.) 
+
+Each feedback loop registers “one unit of consciousness,” so a 
+thermostat would have a single unit of Level 0 consciousness, that is, 
+Level 0:1."
+"In this way, we can rank consciousness numerically, on the basis of 
+the number and complexity of the feedback loops used to create a model 
+of the world. Consciousness is then no longer a vague collection of 
+undefined, circular concepts, but a system of hierarchies that can be 
+ranked numerically. For example, a bacterium or a flower has many 
+more feedback loops, so they would have a higher level of Level 0 
+consciousness. A flower with ten feedback loops (which measure 
+temperature, moisture, sunlight, gravity, etc.), would have a Level 0:10 
+consciousness."
+"Organisms that are mobile and have a central nervous system have 
+Level I consciousness, which includes a new set of parameters to 
+measure their changing location. One example of Level I consciousness 
+would be reptiles. They have so many feedback loops that they 
+developed a central nervous system to handle them. The reptilian brain 
+would have perhaps one hundred or more feedback loops (governing 
+their sense of smell, balance, touch, sound, sight, blood pressure, etc., 
+and each of these contains more feedback loops). For example, eyesight 
+alone involves a large number of feedback loops, since the eye can 
+recognize color, movement, shapes, light intensity, and shadows. 
+Similarly, the reptile’s other senses, such as hearing and taste, require 
+additional feedback loops. The totality of these numerous feedback loops 
+creates a mental picture of where the reptile is located in the world, and 
+where other animals (e.g., prey) are located as well. Level I"
+"where other animals (e.g., prey) are located as well. Level I 
+consciousness, in turn, is governed mainly by the reptilian brain, located 
+in the back and center of the human head."
+"Next we have Level II consciousness, where organisms create a model 
+of their place not only in space but also with respect to others (i.e., they 
+are social animals with emotions). The number of feedback loops for 
+Level II consciousness explodes exponentially, so it is useful to introduce 
+a new numerical ranking for this type of consciousness. Forming allies, 
+detecting enemies, serving the alpha male, etc., are all very complex 
+behaviors requiring a vastly expanded brain, so Level II consciousness 
+coincides with the formation of new structures of the brain in the form 
+of the limbic system. As noted earlier, the limbic system includes the 
+
+hippocampus (for memories), amygdala (for emotions), and the 
+thalamus (for sensory information), all of which provide new parameters 
+for creating models in relation to others. The number and type of 
+feedback loops therefore change."
+"We define the degree of Level II consciousness as the total number of 
+distinct feedback loops required for an animal to interact socially with 
+members of its grouping. Unfortunately, studies of animal consciousness 
+are extremely limited, so little work has been done to catalog all the 
+ways in which animals communicate socially with one another. But to a 
+crude first approximation, we can estimate Level II consciousness by 
+counting the number of fellow animals in its pack or tribe and then 
+listing the total number of ways in which the animal interacts 
+emotionally with each one. This would include recognizing rivals and 
+friends, forming bonds with others, reciprocating favors, building 
+coalitions, understanding your status and the social ranking of others, 
+respecting the status of your superiors, displaying your power over your 
+inferiors, plotting to rise on the social ladder, etc. (We exclude insects 
+from Level II, because although they have social relations with members"
+"from Level II, because although they have social relations with members 
+of their hive or group, they have no emotions as far as we can tell.)"
+"Despite the lack of empirical studies of animal behaviors, we can give 
+a very rough numerical rank to Level II consciousness by listing the total 
+number of distinct emotions and social behaviors that the animal can 
+exhibit. For example, if a wolf pack consists of ten wolves, and each wolf 
+interacts with all the others with fifteen different emotions and gestures, 
+then its level of consciousness, to a first approximation, is given by the 
+product of the two, or 150, so it would have Level 11:150 consciousness. 
+This number takes into account both the number of other animals it has 
+to interact with as well as the number of ways it can communicate with 
+each one. This number only approximates the total number of social 
+interactions that the animal can display, and will undoubtedly change as 
+we learn more about its behavior."
+"(Of course, because evolution is never clean and precise, there are 
+caveats that we have to explain, such as the level of consciousness of 
+social animals that are solitary hunters. We will do so in the notes.) 
+
+LEVEL III CONSCIOUSNESS: SIMULATING THE FUTURE 
+
+With this framework for consciousness, we see that humans are not 
+unique, and that there is a continuum of consciousness. As Charles 
+Darwin once commented, “The difference between man and the higher 
+animals, great as it is, is certainly one of degree and not of kind.” But 
+what separates human consciousness from the consciousness of animals? 
+Humans are alone in the animal kingdom in understanding the concept 
+of tomorrow. Unlike animals, we constantly ask ourselves “What if?” 
+weeks, months, and even years into the future, so I believe that Level III 
+consciousness creates a model of its place in the world and then 
+simulates it into the future, by making rough predictions. We can 
+summarize this as follows:"
+"Human consciousness is a specific form of consciousness that 
+creates a model of the world and then simulates it in time, by 
+evaluating the past to simulate the future. This requires 
+mediating and evaluating many feedback loops in order to 
+make a decision to achieve a goal. 
+
+By the time we reach Level III consciousness, there are so many 
+feedback loops that we need a CEO to sift through them in order to 
+simulate the future and make a final decision. Accordingly, our brains 
+differ from those of other animals, especially in the expanded prefrontal 
+cortex, located just behind the forehead, which allows us to “see” into 
+the future."
+"Dr. Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist, has written, “The greatest 
+achievement of the human brain is its ability to imagine objects and 
+episodes that do not exist in the realm of the real, and it is this ability 
+that allows us to think about the future. As one philosopher noted, the 
+human brain is an ‘anticipation machine,’ and ‘making the future’ is the 
+most important thing it does.” 
+
+Using brain scans, we can even propose a candidate for the precise 
+area of the brain where simulation of the future takes place. Neurologist 
+Michael Gazzaniga notes that “area 10 (the internal granular layer IV), 
+in the lateral prefrontal cortex, is almost twice as large in humans as in 
+apes. Area 10 is involved with memory and planning, cognitive 
+flexibility, abstract thinking, initiating appropriate behavior, and 
+inhibiting inappropriate behavior, learning rules, and picking out"
+"relevant information from what is perceived through the senses.” (For 
+this book, we will refer to this area, in which decision making is 
+concentrated, as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, although there is 
+some overlap with other areas of the brain.) 
+
+Although animals may have a well-defined understanding of their 
+place in space and some have a degree of awareness of others, it is not 
+clear if they systematically plan for the future and have an 
+understanding of “tomorrow.” Most animals, even social animals with 
+well-developed limbic systems, react to situations (e.g., the presence of 
+predators or potential mates) by relying mainly on instinct, rather than 
+systematically planning into the future."
+"For instance, mammals do not plan for the winter by preparing to 
+hibernate, but largely follow instinct as the temperature drops. There is 
+a feedback loop that regulates their hibernation. Their consciousness is 
+dominated by messages coming in from their senses. There is no 
+evidence that they systemically sift through various plans and schemes 
+
+as they prepare to hibernate. Predators, when they use cunning and 
+disguise to stalk an unsuspecting prey, do anticipate future events, but 
+this planning is limited only to instinct and the duration of the hunt. 
+Primates are adept at devising short-term plans (e.g., finding food), but 
+there is no indication that they plan more than a few hours ahead."
+"Humans are different. Although we do rely on instinct and emotions in 
+many situations, we also constantly analyze and evaluate information 
+from many feedback loops. We do this by running simulations sometimes 
+even beyond our own life span and even thousands of years into the 
+future. The point of running simulations is to evaluate various 
+possibilities to make the best decision to fulfill a goal. This occurs in the 
+prefrontal cortex, which allows us to simulate the future and evaluate 
+the possibilities in order to chart the best course of action. 
+
+This ability evolved for several reasons. First, having the ability to 
+peer into the future has enormous evolutionary benefits, such as evading 
+predators and finding food and mates. Second, it allows us to choose 
+among several different outcomes and to select the best one."
+"Third, the number of feedback loops explodes exponentially as we go 
+from Level 0 to Level I to Level II, so we need a “CEO” to evaluate all 
+these conflicting, competing messages. Instinct is no longer enough. 
+There has to be a central body that evaluates each of these feedback 
+
+loops. This distinguishes human consciousness from that of the animals. 
+These feedback loops are evaluated, in turn, by simulating them into the 
+future to obtain the best outcome. If we didn’t have a CEO, chaos would 
+ensue and we would have sensory overload. 
+
+A simple experiment can demonstrate this. David Eagleman describes 
+how you can take a male stickleback fish and have a female fish trespass 
+on its territory. The male gets confused, because it wants to mate with 
+the female, but it also wants to defend its territory. As a result, the male 
+stickleback fish will simultaneously attack the female while initiating 
+courtship behavior. The male is driven into a frenzy, trying to woo and 
+kill the female at the same time."
+"This works for mice as well. Put an electrode in front of a piece of 
+cheese. If the mouse gets too close, the electrode will shock it. One 
+feedback loop tells the mouse to eat the cheese, but another one tells the 
+mouse to stay away and avoid being shocked. By adjusting the location 
+of the electrode, you can get the mouse to oscillate, torn between two 
+conflicting feedback loops. While a human has a CEO in its brain to 
+evaluate the pros and cons of the situation, the mouse, governed by two 
+conflicting feedback loops, goes back and forth. (This is like the proverb 
+about the donkey that starves to death because it is placed between two 
+
+equal bales of hay.)"
+"equal bales of hay.) 
+
+Precisely how does the brain simulate the future? The human brain is 
+flooded by a large amount of sensory and emotional data. But the key is 
+to simulate the future by making causal links between events—that is, if 
+A happens, then B happens. But if B happens, then C and D might result. 
+This sets off a chain reaction of events, eventually creating a tree of 
+possible cascading futures with many branches. The CEO in the 
+prefrontal cortex evaluates the results of these causal trees in order to 
+make the ultimate decision. 
+
+Let’s say you want to rob a bank. How many realistic simulations of 
+this event can you make? To do this, you have to think of the various 
+causal links involving the police, bystanders, alarm systems, relations 
+with fellow criminals, traffic conditions, the DA’s office, etc. For a 
+successful simulation of the robbery, hundreds of causal links may have 
+to be evaluated."
+"It is also possible to measure this level of consciousness numerically. 
+Let’s say that a person is given a series of different situations like the one 
+
+above and is asked to simulate the future of each. The sum total number 
+of causal links that the person can make for all these situations can be 
+tabulated. (One complication is that there are an unlimited number of 
+causal links that a person might make for a variety of conceivable 
+situations. To get around this complication, we divide this number by 
+the average number of causal links obtained from a large control group. 
+Like the IQ exam, one may multiply this number by 100. So a person’s 
+level of consciousness, for example, might be Level 111:100, meaning that 
+the person can simulate future events just like the average person.) 
+
+We summarize these levels of consciousness in the following diagram: 
+
+LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS FOR DIFFERENT SPECIES 
+
+LEVEL 
+
+SPECIES 
+
+PARAMETER 
+
+BRAIN STRUCTURE 
+
+0 
+
+| Plants 
+
+| Temperature, sunshine 
+
+None 
+
+1"
+"SPECIES 
+
+PARAMETER 
+
+BRAIN STRUCTURE 
+
+0 
+
+| Plants 
+
+| Temperature, sunshine 
+
+None 
+
+1 
+
+Reptiles 
+
+j Space 
+
+Brain stem 
+
+II 
+
+| Mammals 
+
+| Social relations 
+
+j Limbic system 
+
+III 
+
+j Humans 
+
+| Time (esp. future) 
+
+j Prefrontal cortex 
+
+Space-time theory of consciousness. We define consciousness as the process of creating a model of the 
+world using 
+multiple feedback loops in various parameters (e.g., in space, time, and in relation to others), in order to
+accomplish a 
+goal. Human consciousness is a particular type that involves mediating between these feedback loops 
+by simulating the 
+
+future and evaluating the past."
+"future and evaluating the past. 
+
+(Notice that these categories correspond to the rough evolutionary 
+levels we find in nature—e.g., reptiles, mammals, and humans. However, 
+there are also gray areas, such as animals that might possess tiny aspects 
+of different levels of consciousness, animals that do some rudimentary 
+planning, or even single cells that communicate with one another. This 
+chart is meant only to give you the larger, global picture of how 
+consciousness is organized across the animal kingdom.) 
+
+WHAT IS HUMOR? WHY DO WE HAVE EMOTIONS? 
+
+All theories have to be falsifiable. The challenge for the space-time 
+theory of consciousness is to explain all aspects of human consciousness"
+"in this framework. It can be falsified if there are patterns of thought that 
+cannot be brought into this theory. A critic might say that surely our 
+sense of humor is so quixotic and ephemeral that it is beyond 
+explanation. We spend a great deal of time laughing with our friends or 
+at comedians, yet it seems that humor has nothing to do with our 
+simulations of the future. But consider this. Much of humor, such as 
+telling a joke, depends on the punch line."
+"When hearing a joke, we can’t help but simulate the future and 
+complete the story ourselves (even if we’re unaware that we’re doing 
+so). We know enough about the physical and social world that we can 
+anticipate the ending, so we burst out with laughter when the punch line 
+gives us a totally unexpected conclusion. The essence of humor is when 
+our simulation of the future is suddenly disrupted in surprising ways. 
+(This was historically important for our evolution since success depends, 
+in part, on our ability to simulate future events. Since life in the jungle is 
+full of unanticipated events, anyone who can foresee unexpected 
+outcomes has a better chance at survival. In this way, having a well- 
+developed sense of humor is actually one indication of our Level III 
+consciousness and intelligence; that is, the ability to simulate the future.)"
+"For example, W. C. Fields was once asked a question about social 
+activities for youth. He was asked, “Do you believe in clubs for young 
+people?” He replied, “Only when kindness fails.” 
+
+The joke has a punch line only because we mentally simulate a future 
+in which children have social clubs, while W. C. Fields simulates a 
+different future involving clubs as a weapon. (Of course, if a joke is 
+deconstructed, it loses its power, since we have already simulated 
+various possible futures in our minds.) 
+
+This also explains what every comedian knows: timing is the key to 
+humor. If the punch line is delivered too quickly, then the brain hasn’t 
+had time to simulate the future, so there is no experience of the 
+unanticipated. If the punch line is delivered too late, the brain has 
+already had time to simulate various possible futures, so again the punch 
+line loses the element of surprise."
+"(Humor has other functions, of course, such as bonding with fellow 
+members of our tribe. In fact, we use our sense of humor as a way to size 
+up the character of others. This, in turn, is essential to determine our 
+status within society. So in addition, laughter helps define our position 
+
+in the social world, i.e., Level II consciousness.) 
+
+WHY DO WE GOSSIP AND PLAY? 
+
+Even seemingly trivial activities, such as engaging in idle gossip or 
+horsing around with our friends, must be explained in this framework. 
+(If a Martian were to visit a supermarket checkout line and view the 
+huge display of gossip magazines, it might conclude that gossip is the 
+main activity of humans. This observation would not be far off.)"
+"Gossiping is essential for survival because the complex mechanics of 
+social interactions are constantly changing, so we have to make sense of 
+this ever-shifting social terrain. This is Level II consciousness at work. 
+But once we hear a piece of gossip, we immediately run simulations to 
+determine how this will affect our own standing in the community, 
+which moves us to Level III consciousness. Thousands of years ago, in 
+fact, gossip was the only way to obtain vital information about the tribe. 
+One’s very life often depended on knowing the latest gossip."
+"Something as superfluous as “play” is also an essential feature of 
+consciousness. If you ask children why they like to play, they will say, 
+“Because it’s fun.” But that invites the next question: What is fun? 
+Actually, when children play, they are often trying to reenact complex 
+human interactions in simplified form. Human society is extremely 
+sophisticated, much too involved for the developing brains of young 
+children, so children run simplified simulations of adult society, playing 
+games such as doctor, cops and robber, and school. Each game is a 
+model that allows children to experiment with a small segment of adult 
+behavior and then run simulations into the future. (Similarly, when 
+adults engage in play, such as a game of poker, the brain constantly 
+creates a model of what cards the various players possess, and then 
+projects that model into the future, using previous data about people’s 
+personality, ability to bluff, etc. The key to games like chess, cards, and"
+"personality, ability to bluff, etc. The key to games like chess, cards, and 
+gambling is the ability to simulate the future. Animals, which live 
+largely in the present, are not as good at games as humans are, 
+especially if they involve planning. Infant mammals do engage in a form 
+of play, but this is more for exercise, testing one another, practicing 
+future battles, and establishing the coming social pecking order rather"
+"than simulating the future.) 
+
+My space-time theory of consciousness might also shed light on 
+
+another controversial topic: intelligence. Although IQ exams claim to 
+measure “intelligence,” IQ exams actually give no definition of 
+intelligence in the first place. In fact, a cynic may claim, with some 
+justification, that IQ is a measure of “how well you do on IQ exams,” 
+which is circular. In addition, IQ exams have been criticized for being 
+too culturally biased. In this new framework, however, intelligence may 
+be viewed as the complexity of our simulations of the future. Hence, a 
+master criminal, who may be a dropout and functionally illiterate and 
+score dismally low on an IQ exam, may also far outstrip the ability of the 
+police. Outwitting the cops may entail simply being able to run more 
+sophisticated simulations of the future. 
+
+LEVEL I: STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"LEVEL I: STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+Humans are probably alone on this planet in being able to operate on all 
+levels of consciousness. Using MRI scans, we can break down the 
+different structures involved in each level of consciousness."
+"For us, Level I stream of consciousness is largely the interplay between 
+the prefrontal cortex and the thalamus. When taking a leisurely stroll in 
+the park, we are aware of the smells of the plants, the sensation of a 
+gentle breeze, the visual stimuli from the sun, and so on. Our senses send 
+signals to the spinal cord, the brain stem, and then to the thalamus, 
+which operates like a relay station, sorting out the stimuli and sending 
+them on to the various cortices of the brain. The images of the park, for 
+example, are sent to the occipital cortex in the back of the brain, while 
+the sense of touch from the wind is sent to the parietal lobe. The signals 
+are processed in appropriate cortices, and then sent to the prefrontal 
+cortex, where we finally become conscious of all these sensations. 
+
+This is illustrated in Figure 7. 
+
+LEVEL II: FINDING OUR PLACE IN SOCIETY"
+"This is illustrated in Figure 7. 
+
+LEVEL II: FINDING OUR PLACE IN SOCIETY 
+
+While Level I consciousness uses sensations to create a model of our 
+physical location in space, Level II consciousness creates a model of our 
+
+place in society. 
+
+Let’s say we are going to an important cocktail party, in which people 
+essential to our job will be present. As we scan the room, trying to 
+identify people from our workplace, there is an intense interplay 
+between the hippocampus (which processes memories), the amygdala 
+(which processes emotions), and the prefrontal cortex (which puts all 
+
+this information together). 
+
+Figure 7. In Level I consciousness, sensory information travels through the brain stem, past the 
+thalamus, onto the various 
+cortices of the brain, and finally to the prefrontal cortex. Thus this stream of Level I consciousness is 
+created by the flow 
+of information from the thalamus to the prefrontal cortex, (illustration credit 2.1)"
+"With each image, the brain automatically attaches an emotion, such as 
+happiness, fear, anger, or jealousy, and processes the emotion in the 
+
+amygdala. 
+
+If you spot your chief rival, whom you suspect of stabbing you in the 
+back, the emotion of fear is processed by the amygdala, which sends an 
+urgent message to the prefrontal cortex, alerting it to possible danger. At 
+the same time, signals are sent to your endocrine system to start 
+pumping adrenaline and other hormones into the blood, thereby 
+increasing your heartbeat and preparing you for a possible fight-or-flight 
+response. 
+
+This is illustrated in Figure 8."
+"This is illustrated in Figure 8. 
+
+But beyond simply recognizing other people, the brain has the 
+uncanny ability to guess what other people are thinking about. This is 
+called the Theory of Mind, a theory first proposed by Dr. David Premack 
+of the University of Pennsylvania, which is the ability to infer the 
+thoughts of others. In any complex society, anyone with the ability to 
+correctly guess the intentions, motives, and plans of other people has a 
+tremendous survival advantage over those who can’t. The Theory of 
+Mind allows you to form alliances with others, isolate your enemies, and 
+solidify your friendships, which vastly increases your power and chances 
+of survival and mating. Some anthropologists even believe that the 
+mastery of the Theory of Mind was essential in the evolution of the 
+brain."
+"Figure 8. Emotions originate and are processed in the limbic system. In Level II consciousness, we are 
+continually 
+bombarded with sensory information, but emotions are rapid-fire responses to emergencies from the 
+limbic system that 
+
+do not need permission from the prefrontal cortex. The hippocampus is also important for processing 
+memories. So Level 
+II consciousness, at its core, involves the reaction of the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex,
+(illustration 
+
+credit 2.2) 
+
+But how is the Theory of Mind accomplished? One clue came in 1996, 
+with the discovery of “mirror neurons” by Drs. Giacomo Rizzolatti, 
+Leonardo Fogassi, and Vittorio Gallese. These neurons fire when you are 
+performing a certain task and also when you see someone else 
+performing that same task. (Mirror neurons also fire for emotions as well 
+as physical acts. If you feel a certain emotion, and think another is 
+feeling that same emotion, then the mirror neurons will fire.)"
+"Mirror neurons are essential for mimicry and also for empathy, giving 
+
+us the ability not only to copy the complex tasks performed by others 
+but also to experience the emotions that person must be feeling. Mirror 
+neurons were thus probably essential for our evolution as human beings, 
+since cooperation is essential for holding the tribe together."
+"Mirror neurons were first found in the premotor areas of monkey 
+brains. But since then, they have been found in humans in the prefrontal 
+cortex. Dr. V. S. Ramachandran believes that mirror neurons were 
+essential in giving us the power of self-awareness and concludes, “I 
+predict that mirror neurons will do for psychology what DNA did for 
+biology: they will provide a unifying framework and help explain a host 
+of mental abilities that have hitherto remained mysterious and 
+inaccessible to experiments.” (We should point out, however, that all 
+scientific results have to be tested and reconfirmed. There is no doubt 
+that certain neurons are performing this crucial behavior involved with 
+empathy, mimicry, etc., but there is some debate about the identity of 
+these mirror neurons. For example, some critics claim that perhaps these 
+behaviors are common to many neurons, and that there is not a single 
+class of neurons dedicated to this behavior.) 
+
+LEVEL III: SIMULATING THE FUTURE"
+"LEVEL III: SIMULATING THE FUTURE 
+
+The highest level of consciousness, which is associated primarily with 
+Homo sapiens, is Level III consciousness, in which we take our model of 
+the world and then run simulations into the future. We do this by 
+analyzing past memories of people and events, and then simulating the 
+
+future by making many causal links to form a “causal” tree. As we look 
+at the various faces at the cocktail party, we begin to ask ourselves 
+simple questions: How can this individual help me? How will the gossip 
+floating in the room play out in the future? Is anyone out to get me? 
+
+Let’s say that you just lost your job and you are desperately looking 
+for a new one. In this case, as you talk to various people at the cocktail 
+party, your mind is feverishly simulating the future with each person 
+you talk to. You ask yourself, How can I impress this person? What 
+topics should I bring out to present my best case? Can he offer me a job?"
+"Figure 9. Simulating the future, the heart of Level III consciousness, is mediated by the dorsolateral 
+prefrontal cortex, the 
+CEO of the brain, with competition between the pleasure center and the orbitofrontal cortex (which acts
+to check our 
+impulses). This roughly resembles the outline given by Freud of the struggle between our conscience 
+and desires. The 
+actual process of simulating the future takes place when the prefrontal cortex accesses the memories of 
+the past in order 
+
+to approximate future events, (illustration credit 2.3)"
+"to approximate future events, (illustration credit 2.3) 
+
+Recent brain scans have shed partial light on how the brain simulates 
+the future. These simulations are done mainly in the dorsolateral 
+prefrontal cortex, the CEO of the brain, using memories of the past. On 
+one hand, simulations of the future may produce outcomes that are 
+desirable and pleasurable, in which case the pleasure centers of the brain 
+light up (in the nucleus accumbens and hypothalamus). On the other 
+hand, these outcomes may also have a downside to them, so the 
+orbitofrontal cortex kicks in to warn us of possible dangers. There is a 
+
+struggle, then, between different parts of the brain concerning the 
+future, which may have desirable and undesirable outcomes. Ultimately 
+it is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex that mediates between these and 
+makes the final decisions. (See Figure 9.) (Some neurologists have 
+pointed out that this struggle resembles, in a crude way, the dynamics 
+between Freud’s ego, id, and superego.)"
+"THE MYSTERY OF SELF-AWARENESS 
+
+If the space-time theory of consciousness is correct, then it also gives us 
+a rigorous definition of self-awareness. Instead of vague, circular 
+references, we should be able to give a definition that is testable and 
+useful. We’ll define self-awareness as follows: 
+
+Self-awareness is creating a model of the world and simulating 
+
+the future in which you appear. 
+
+Animals therefore have some self-awareness, since they have to know 
+where they are located if they are going to survive and mate, but it is 
+limited largely by instinct. 
+
+When most animals are placed in front of a mirror, they either ignore 
+it or attack it, not realizing that it is an image of themselves. (This is 
+called the “mirror test,” which goes all the way back to Darwin.) 
+However, animals like elephants, the great apes, bottlenose dolphins, 
+orcas, and European magpies can figure out that the image they see in 
+the mirror represents themselves."
+"Humans, however, take a giant step forward and constantly run future 
+simulations in which we appear as a principal actor. We constantly 
+imagine ourselves faced with different situations—going on a date, 
+applying for a job, changing careers—none of which is determined by 
+instinct. It is extremely difficult to stop your brain from simulating the 
+future, though elaborate methods have been devised (for instance, 
+meditation) to attempt to do so. 
+
+Daydreaming, as an example, consists largely of our acting out 
+different possible futures to attain a goal. Since we pride ourselves in 
+knowing our limitations and strengths, it is not hard to put ourselves 
+
+inside the model and hit the “play” button so we begin to act out 
+hypothetical scenarios, like being an actor in a virtual play. 
+
+WHERE AM “I”?"
+"WHERE AM “I”? 
+
+There is probably a specific part of the brain whose job it is to unify the 
+signals from the two hemispheres to create a smooth, coherent sense of 
+self. Dr. Todd Heatherton, a psychologist at Dartmouth College, believes 
+that this region is located within the prefrontal cortex, in what is called 
+the medial prefrontal cortex. Biologist Dr. Carl Zimmer writes, “The 
+medial prefrontal cortex may play the same role for the self as the 
+hippocampus plays in memory ... [it] could be continually stitching 
+together a sense of who we are.” In other words, this may be the 
+gateway to the concept of “I,” the central region of the brain that fuses, 
+
+integrates, and concocts a unified narrative of who we are. (This does 
+not mean, however, that the medial prefrontal cortext is the homunculus 
+sitting in our brain that controls everything.)"
+"If this theory is true, then the resting brain, when we are idly 
+daydreaming about our friends and ourselves, should be more active 
+than normal, even when other parts of the brain’s sensory regions are 
+quiet. In fact, brain scans bear this out. Dr. Heatherton concludes, “Most 
+of the time we daydream—we think about something that happened to 
+us or what we think about other people. All this involves self-reflection.” 
+
+The space-time theory says that consciousness is cobbled together 
+from many subunits of the brain, each competing with the others to 
+create a model of the world, and yet our consciousness feels smooth and 
+continuous. How can this be, when we all have the feeling that our “self” 
+is uninterrupted and always in charge?"
+"In the previous chapter, we met the plight of split-brain patients, who 
+sometimes struggle with alien hands that literally have a mind of their 
+own. It does appear that there are two centers of consciousness living 
+within the same brain. So how does all this create the sense that we have 
+a unified, cohesive “self’ existing within our brains? 
+
+I asked one person who may have the answer: Dr. Michael Gazzaniga, 
+who has spent several decades studying the strange behavior of split- 
+brain patients. He noticed that the left brain of split-brain patients, when"
+"confronted with the fact that there seem to be two separate centers of 
+consciousness residing in the same skull, would simply make up strange 
+explanations, no matter how silly. He told me that, when presented with 
+an obvious paradox, the left brain will “confabulate” an answer to 
+explain inconvenient facts. Dr. Gazzaniga believes that this gives us the 
+false sense that we are unified and whole. He calls the left brain the 
+“interpreter,” which is constantly thinking up ideas to paper over 
+inconsistencies and gaps in our consciousness."
+"For example, in one experiment, he flashed the word “red” to just the 
+left brain of a patient, and the word “banana” to just the right brain. 
+(Notice that the dominant left brain therefore does not know about the 
+banana.) Then the subject was asked to pick up a pen with his left hand 
+(which is governed by the right brain) and draw a picture. Naturally he 
+drew a picture of a banana. Remember that the right brain could do this, 
+because it had seen the banana, but the left brain had no clue that the 
+banana had been flashed to the right brain. 
+
+Then he was asked why he had drawn the banana. Because only the 
+left brain controls speech, and because the left brain did not know"
+"anything about a banana, the patient should have said, “I don’t know.” 
+Instead he said, “It is easiest to draw with this hand because this hand 
+can pull down easier.” Dr. Gazzaniga noted that the left brain was trying 
+to find some excuse for this inconvenient fact, even though the patient 
+was clueless about why his right hand drew the banana. 
+
+Dr. Gazzaniga concludes, “It is the left hemisphere that engages in the 
+human tendency to find order in chaos, that tries to fit everything into a 
+story and put it into a context. It seems that it is driven to hypothesize 
+about the structure of the world even in the face of evidence that no 
+pattern exists.”"
+"This is where our sense of a unified “self’ comes from. Although 
+consciousness is a patchwork of competing and often contradictory 
+tendencies, the left brain ignores inconsistencies and papers over 
+obvious gaps in order to give us a smooth sense of a single “I.” In other 
+words, the left brain is constantly making excuses, some of them 
+harebrained and preposterous, to make sense of the world. It is 
+constantly asking “Why?” and dreaming up excuses even if the question 
+has no answer. 
+
+(There is probably an evolutionary reason that we evolved our split"
+"(There is probably an evolutionary reason that we evolved our split 
+
+brains. A seasoned CEO will often encourage his aides to take opposing 
+sides of an issue, to encourage thorough and thoughtful debate. 
+Oftentimes, the correct view emerges out of intense interaction with 
+incorrect ideas. Similarly, the two halves of the brain complement each 
+other, offering pessimistic/optimistic or analytical/holistic analysis of 
+the same idea. The two halves of the brain therefore play off each other. 
+Indeed, as we shall see, certain forms of mental illness may arise when 
+this interplay between the two brains goes awry.)"
+"Now that we have a working theory of consciousness, the time has come 
+to utilize it to understand how neuroscience will evolve in the future. 
+There is a vast and remarkable set of experiments now being done in 
+neuroscience that are fundamentally altering the entire scientific 
+landscape. Using the power of electromagnetism, scientists can now 
+probe people’s thoughts, send telepathic messages, telekinetically control 
+objects around us, record memories, and perhaps enhance our 
+intelligence. 
+
+Perhaps the most immediate and practical application of this new 
+technology is something once considered to be hopelessly impossible: 
+telepathy. 
+
+BOOK II MIND OVER MATTER 
+
+The brain, like it or not, is a machine. Scientists have come to 
+that conclusion, not because they are mechanistic killjoys, but 
+because they have amassed evidence that every aspect of 
+consciousness can be tied to the brain. 
+
+—STEVEN PINKER 
+
+3 TELEPATHY A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS"
+"—STEVEN PINKER 
+
+3 TELEPATHY A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS 
+
+Harry Houdini, some historians believe, was the greatest magician 
+who ever lived. His breathtaking escapes from locked, sealed chambers 
+and death-defying stunts left audiences gasping. He could make people 
+disappear and then reemerge in the most unexpected places. And he 
+could read people’s minds. 
+
+Or at least it seemed that way. 
+
+Houdini took pains to explain that everything he did was an illusion, a 
+series of clever sleight-of-hand tricks. Mind reading, he would remind 
+people, was impossible. He was so outraged that unscrupulous magicians 
+would cheat wealthy patrons by performing cheap parlor tricks and 
+seances that he even went around the country exposing fakes by 
+pledging he could duplicate any feat of mind reading performed by these 
+charlatans. He was even on a committee organized by Scientific American 
+that offered a generous reward to anyone who could positively prove 
+they had psychic power. (No one ever picked up the reward.)"
+"Houdini believed that telepathy was impossible. But science is proving 
+Houdini wrong. 
+
+Telepathy is now the subject of intense research at universities around 
+the world, where scientists have already been able to use advanced 
+sensors to read individual words, images, and thoughts in a person’s 
+brain. This could alter the way we communicate with stroke and 
+accident victims who are “locked in” their bodies, unable to articulate 
+their thoughts except through blinks. But that’s just the start. Telepathy 
+might also radically change the way we interact with computers and the 
+outside world. 
+
+Indeed, in a recent “Next 5 in 5 Forecast,” which predicts five 
+revolutionary developments in the next five years, IBM scientists claimed 
+that we will be able to mentally communicate with computers, perhaps 
+
+replacing the mouse and voice commands. This means using the power 
+of the mind to call people on the phone, pay credit card bills, drive cars,"
+"make appointments, create beautiful symphonies and works of art, etc. 
+The possibilities are endless, and it seems that everyone—from computer 
+giants, educators, video game companies, and music studios to the 
+Pentagon—is converging on this technology."
+"True telepathy, found in science-fiction and fantasy novels, is not 
+possible without outside assistance. As we know, the brain is electrical. 
+In general, anytime an electron is accelerated, it gives off 
+electromagnetic radiation. The same holds true for electrons oscillating 
+inside the brain, which broadcasts radio waves. But these signals are too 
+faint to be detected by others, and even if we could perceive these radio 
+waves, it would be difficult to make sense of them. Evolution has not 
+given us the ability to decipher this collection of random radio signals, 
+but computers can. Scientists have been able to get crude 
+approximations of a person’s thoughts using EEG scans. Subjects would 
+put on a helmet with EEG sensors and concentrate on certain pictures— 
+say, the image of a car. The EEG signals were then recorded for each 
+image and eventually a rudimentary dictionary of thought was created, 
+with a one-to-one correspondence between a person’s thoughts and the"
+"with a one-to-one correspondence between a person’s thoughts and the 
+EEG image. Then, when a person was shown a picture of another car, 
+the computer would recognize the EEG pattern as being from a car."
+"The advantage of EEG sensors is that they are noninvasive and quick. 
+You simply put a helmet containing many electrodes onto the surface of 
+the brain and the EEG can rapidly identify signals that change every 
+millisecond. But the problem with EEG sensors, as we have seen, is that 
+electromagnetic waves deteriorate as they pass through the skull, and it 
+is difficult to locate their precise source. This method can tell if you are 
+thinking of a car or a house, but it cannot re-create an image of the car. 
+That is where Dr. Jack Gallant’s work comes in. 
+
+VIDEOS OF THE MIND 
+
+The epicenter for much of this research is the University of California at 
+Berkeley, where I received my own Ph.D. in theoretical physics years 
+ago. I had the pleasure of touring the laboratory of Dr. Gallant, whose 
+group has accomplished a feat once considered to be impossible: 
+videotaping people’s thoughts. “This is a major leap forward 
+
+reconstructing internal imagery. We are opening a window into the"
+"reconstructing internal imagery. We are opening a window into the 
+
+movies in our mind,” says Gallant. 
+
+When I visited his laboratory, the first thing I noticed was the team of 
+young, eager postdoctoral and graduate students huddled in front of 
+their computer screens, looking intently at video images that were 
+reconstructed from someone’s brain scan. Talking to Gallant’s team, you 
+feel as though you are witnessing scientific history in the making."
+"Gallant explained to me that first the subject lies flat on a stretcher, 
+which is slowly inserted headfirst into a huge, state-of-the-art MRI 
+machine, costing upward of $3 million. The subject is then shown 
+several movie clips (such as movie trailers readily available on 
+YouTube). To accumulate enough data, the subject has to sit motionless 
+for hours watching these clips, a truly arduous task. I asked one of the 
+postdocs, Dr. Shinji Nishimoto, how they found volunteers who were 
+willing to lie still for hours on end with only fragments of video footage 
+to occupy the time. He said the people in the room, the grad students 
+and postdocs, volunteered to be guinea pigs for their own research."
+"As the subject watches the movies, the MRI machine creates a 3-D 
+image of the blood flow within the brain. The MRI image looks like a 
+vast collection of thirty thousand dots, or voxels. Each voxel represents a 
+pinpoint of neural energy, and the color of the dot corresponds to the 
+intensity of the signal and blood flow. Red dots represent points of large 
+neural activity, while blue dots represent points of less activity. (The 
+final image looks very much like thousands of Christmas lights in the 
+shape of the brain. Immediately you can see that the brain is 
+concentrating most of its mental energy in the visual cortex, which is 
+located at the back of the brain, while watching these videos.)"
+"Gallant’s MRI machine is so powerful it can identify two to three 
+hundred distinct regions of the brain and, on average, can take snapshots 
+that have one hundred dots per region of the brain. (One goal for future 
+generations of MRI technology is to provide an even sharper resolution 
+by increasing the number of dots per region of the brain.) 
+
+At first, this 3-D collection of colored dots looks like gibberish. But 
+after years of research, Dr. Gallant and his colleagues have developed a 
+mathematical formula that begins to find relationships between certain 
+features of a picture (edges, textures, intensity, etc.) and the MRI voxels. 
+For example, if you look at a boundary, you’ll notice it’s a region"
+"separating lighter and darker areas, and hence the edge generates a 
+certain pattern of voxels. By having subject after subject view such a 
+large library of movie clips, this mathematical formula is refined, 
+allowing the computer to analyze how all sorts of images are converted 
+into MRI voxels. Eventually the scientists were able to ascertain a direct 
+
+correlation between certain MRI patterns of voxels and features within 
+each picture."
+"correlation between certain MRI patterns of voxels and features within 
+each picture. 
+
+At this point, the subject is then shown another movie trailer. The 
+computer analyzes the voxels generated during this viewing and re¬ 
+creates a rough approximation of the original image. (The computer 
+selects images from one hundred movie clips that most closely resemble 
+the one that the subject just saw and then merges images to create a 
+close approximation.) In this way, the computer is able to create a fuzzy 
+video of the visual imagery going through your mind. Dr. Gallant’s 
+mathematical formula is so versatile that it can take a collection of MRI 
+voxels and convert it into a picture, or it can do the reverse, taking a 
+picture and then converting it to MRI voxels."
+"I had a chance to view the video created by Dr. Gallant’s group, and it 
+was very impressive. Watching it was like viewing a movie with faces, 
+animals, street scenes, and buildings through dark glasses. Although you 
+could not see the details within each face or animal, you could clearly 
+identify the kind of object you were seeing."
+"Not only can this program decode what you are looking at, it can also 
+decode imaginary images circulating in your head. Let’s say you are 
+asked to think of the Mona Lisa. We know from MRI scans that even 
+though you’re not viewing the painting with your eyes, the visual cortex 
+of your brain will light up. Dr. Gallant’s program then scans your brain 
+while you are thinking of the Mona Lisa and flips through its data files of 
+pictures, trying to find the closest match. In one experiment I saw, the 
+computer selected a picture of the actress Salma Hayek as the closest 
+approximation to the Mona Lisa. Of course, the average person can easily 
+recognize hundreds of faces, but the fact that the computer analyzed an 
+image within a person’s brain and then picked out this picture from 
+millions of random pictures at its disposal is still impressive."
+"The goal of this whole process is to create an accurate dictionary that 
+allows you to rapidly match an object in the real world with the MRI 
+pattern in your brain. In general, a detailed match is very difficult and 
+
+will take years, but some categories are actually easy to read just by 
+flipping through some photographs. Dr. Stanislas Dehaene of the College 
+de France in Paris was examining MRI scans of the parietal lobe, where 
+numbers are recognized, when one of his postdocs casually mentioned 
+that just by quickly scanning the MRI pattern, he could tell what number 
+the subject was looking at. In fact, certain numbers created distinctive 
+patterns on the MRI scan. He notes, “If you take 200 voxels in this area, 
+and look at which of them are active and which are inactive, you can 
+construct a machine-learning device that decodes which number is being 
+held in memory.”"
+"This leaves open the question of when we might be able to have 
+picture-quality videos of our thoughts. Unfortunately, information is lost 
+when a person is visualizing an image. Brain scans corroborate this. 
+When you compare the MRI scan of the brain as it is looking at a flower 
+to an MRI scan as the brain is thinking about a flower, you immediately 
+see that the second image has far fewer dots than the first. So although 
+this technology will vastly improve in the coming years, it will never be 
+perfect. (I once read a short story in which a man meets a genie who 
+offers to create anything that the person can imagine. The man 
+immediately asks for a luxury car, a jet plane, and a million dollars. At 
+first, the man is ecstatic. But when he looks at these items in detail, he 
+sees that the car and the plane have no engines, and the image on the 
+cash is all blurred. Everything is useless. This is because our memories 
+are only approximations of the real thing.)"
+"But given the rapidity with which scientists are beginning to decode 
+the MRI patterns in the brain, will we soon be able to actually read 
+words and thoughts circulating in the mind? 
+
+READING THE MIND 
+
+In fact, in a building next to Gallant’s laboratory, Dr. Brian Pasley and 
+his colleagues are literally reading thoughts—at least in principle. One of 
+the postdocs there, Dr. Sara Szczepanski, explained to me how they are 
+able to identify words inside the mind. 
+
+The scientists used what is called ECOG (electrocorticogram) 
+technology, which is a vast improvement over the jumble of signals that 
+
+EEG scans produce. ECOG scans are unprecedented in accuracy and 
+resolution, since signals are directly recorded from the brain and do not 
+pass through the skull. The flipside is that one has to remove a portion 
+of the skull to place a mesh, containing sixty-four electrodes in an eight- 
+by-eight grid, directly on top of the exposed brain."
+"Luckily they were able to get permission to conduct experiments with 
+ECOG scans on epileptic patients, who were suffering from debilitating 
+seizures. The ECOG mesh was placed on the patients’ brains while open- 
+brain surgery was being performed by doctors at the nearby University 
+of California at San Francisco. 
+
+As the patients hear various words, signals from their brains pass 
+through the electrodes and are then recorded. Eventually a dictionary is 
+formed, matching the word with the signals emanating from the 
+
+electrodes in the brain. Later, when a word is uttered, one can see the 
+same electrical pattern. This correspondence also means that if one is 
+thinking of a certain word, the computer can pick up the characteristic 
+signals and identify it."
+"With this technology, it might be possible to have a conversation that 
+takes place entirely telepathically. Also, stroke victims who are totally 
+paralyzed may be able to “talk” through a voice synthesizer that 
+recognizes the brain patterns of individual words. 
+
+Not surprisingly, BMI (brain-machine interface) has become a hot 
+field, with groups around the country making significant breakthroughs. 
+Similar results were obtained by scientists at the University of Utah in 
+2011. They placed grids, each containing sixteen electrodes, over the 
+facial motor cortex (which controls movements of the mouth, lips, 
+tongue, and face) and Wernicke’s area, which processes information 
+about language."
+"The person was then asked to say ten common words, such as “yes” 
+and “no,” “hot” and “cold,” “hungry” and “thirsty,” “hello” and “good¬ 
+bye,” and “more” and “less.” Using a computer to record the brain 
+signals when these words were uttered, the scientists were able to create 
+a rough one-to-one correspondence between spoken words and computer 
+signals from the brain. Later, when the patient voiced certain words, 
+they were able to correctly identify each one with an accuracy ranging 
+from 76 percent to 90 percent. The next step is to use grids with 121 
+electrodes to get better resolution. 
+
+In the future, this procedure may prove useful for individuals suffering 
+from strokes or paralyzing illnesses such as Lou Gehrig’s disease, who 
+would be able to speak using the brain-to-computer technique. 
+
+TYPING WITH THE MIND"
+"TYPING WITH THE MIND 
+
+At the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Dr. Jerry Shih has hooked up epileptic 
+patients via ECOG sensors so they can learn how to type with the mind. 
+The calibration of this device is simple. The patient is first shown a 
+series of letters and is told to focus mentally on each symbol. A 
+computer records the signals emanating from the brain as it scans each 
+letter. As with the other experiments, once this one-to-one dictionary is 
+created, it is then a simple matter for the person to merely think of the 
+letter and for the letter to be typed on a screen, using only the power of 
+the mind. 
+
+Dr. Shih, the leader of this project, says that the accuracy of his 
+
+machine is nearly 100 percent. Dr. Shih believes that he can next create 
+a machine to record images, not just words, that patients conceive in 
+their minds. This could have applications for artists and architects, but 
+the big drawback of ECOG technology, as we have mentioned, is that it 
+requires opening up patients’ brains."
+"Meanwhile, EEG typewriters, because they are noninvasive, are 
+entering the marketplace. They are not as accurate or precise as ECOG 
+typewriters, but they have the advantage that they can be sold over the 
+counter. Guger Technologies, based in Austria, recently demonstrated an 
+EEG typewriter at a trade show. According to their officials, it takes only 
+ten minutes or so for people to learn how to use this machine, and they 
+can then type at the rate of five to ten words per minute. 
+
+TELEPATHIC DICTATION AND MUSIC 
+
+The next step might be to transmit entire conversations, which could 
+rapidly speed up telepathic transmission. The problem, however, is that 
+it would require making a one-to-one map between thousands of words 
+and their EEG, MRI, or ECOG signals. But if one can, for example, 
+identify the brain signals of several hundred select words, then one"
+"might be able to rapidly transmit words found in a common 
+conversation. This means that one would think of the words in entire 
+sentences and paragraphs of a conversation and a computer would print 
+them out. 
+
+This could be extremely useful for journalists, writers, novelists, and 
+poets, who could simply think and have a computer take dictation. The 
+computer would also become a mental secretary. You would mentally 
+give instructions to the robo-secretary about a dinner, plane trip, or 
+vacation, and it would fill in all the details about the reservations."
+"Not only dictation but also music may one day be transcribed in this 
+way. Musicians would simply hum a few melodies in their head and a 
+computer would print them out, in musical notation. To do this, you 
+would ask someone to mentally hum a series of notes, which would 
+generate certain electrical signals for each one. A dictionary would again 
+be created in this way, so that when you think of a musical note, the 
+computer would print it out in musical notation. 
+
+In science fiction, telepaths often communicate across language 
+barriers, since thoughts are considered to be universal. However, this 
+might not be true. Emotions and feelings may well be nonverbal and 
+universal, so that one could telepathically send them to anyone, but 
+
+rational thinking is so closely tied to language that it is very unlikely 
+that complex thoughts could be sent across language barriers. Words will 
+still be sent telepathically in their original language. 
+
+TELEPATHY HELMETS"
+"TELEPATHY HELMETS 
+
+In science fiction, we also often encounter telepathy helmets. Put them 
+on, and—presto!—you can read other people’s minds. The U.S. Army, in 
+fact, has expressed interest in this technology. In a firefight, with 
+explosions going off and bullets whizzing overhead, a telepathy helmet 
+could be a lifesaver, since it can be difficult to communicate orders amid 
+the sound and fury of the battlefield. (I can personally testify to this. 
+Years ago, during the Vietnam War, I served in the U.S. Infantry at Fort 
+Benning, outside Atlanta, Georgia. During machine-gun training, the 
+sound of hand grenades and rounds of bullets going off on the battlefield 
+next to my ear was deafening; it was so intense I could not hear anything 
+
+else. Later, there was a loud ringing in my ear that lasted for three full 
+days.) With a telepathy helmet, a soldier could mentally communicate 
+with his platoon amid all the thunder and noise."
+"Recently, the army gave a $6.3 million grant to Dr. Gerwin Schalk at 
+Albany Medical College, but it knows that a fully functional telepathy 
+helmet is still years away. Dr. Schalk experiments with ECOG 
+technology, which, as we have seen, requires placing a mesh of 
+electrodes directly on top of the exposed brain. With this method, his 
+computers have been able to recognize vowels and thirty-six individual 
+words inside the thinking brain. In some of his experiments, he 
+approached 100 percent accuracy. But at present, this is still impractical 
+for the U.S. Army, since it requires removing part of the skull in the 
+clean, sterile environment of a hospital. And even then, recognizing 
+vowels and a handful of words is a far cry from sending urgent messages 
+to headquarters in a firefight. But his ECOG experiments have 
+demonstrated that it is possible to communicate mentally on the 
+battlefield."
+"Another method is being explored by Dr. David Poeppel of New York 
+University. Instead of opening up the skulls of his subjects, he employs 
+MEG technology, using tiny bursts of magnetic energy rather than 
+electrodes to create electrical charges in the brain. Besides being 
+noninvasive, the advantage of MEG technology is that it can precisely 
+measure fleeting neural activity, in contrast to the slower MRI scans. In 
+his experiments, Poeppel has been able to successfully record electrical 
+activity in the auditory cortex when people think silently of a certain 
+word. But the drawback is that this recording still requires the use of 
+
+large, table-size machines to generate a magnetic pulse. 
+
+Obviously, one wants a method that is noninvasive, portable, and 
+accurate. Dr. Poeppel hopes his work with MEG technology will 
+complement the work being done using EEG sensors. But true telepathy 
+helmets are still many years away, because MEG and EEG scans lack 
+accuracy. 
+
+MRI IN A CELL PHONE"
+"MRI IN A CELL PHONE 
+
+At present, we are hindered by the relatively crude nature of the existing 
+
+instruments. But, as time goes by, more and more sophisticated 
+instruments will probe deeper into the mind. The next big breakthrough 
+may be MRI machines that are handheld."
+"The reason why MRI machines have to be so huge right now is that 
+one needs a uniform magnetic field to get good resolution. The larger 
+the magnet, the more uniform one can make the field, and the better 
+accuracy one finds in the final pictures. However, physicists know the 
+exact mathematical properties of magnetic fields (they were worked out 
+by physicist James Clerk Maxwell back in the 1860S). In 1993 in 
+Germany, Dr. Bernhard Bliimich and his colleagues created the world’s 
+smallest MRI machine, which is the size of a briefcase. It uses a weak 
+and distorted magnetic field, but supercomputers can analyze the 
+magnetic field and correct for this so that the device produces realistic 3- 
+D pictures. Since computer power doubles roughly every two years, they 
+are now powerful enough to analyze the magnetic field created by the 
+briefcase-sized device and compensate for its distortion."
+"As a demonstration of their machine, in 2006 Dr. Bliimich and his 
+colleagues were able to take MRI scans of Otzi, the “Iceman,” who was 
+frozen in ice about 5,300 years ago toward the end of the last ice age. 
+Because Otzi was frozen in an awkward position, with his arms spread 
+apart, it was difficult to cram him inside the small cylinder of a 
+conventional MRI machine, but Dr. Bliimich’s portable machine easily 
+took MRI photographs. 
+
+These physicists estimate that, with increasing computer power, an 
+MRI machine of the future might be the size of a cell phone. The raw 
+data from this cell phone would be sent wirelessly to a supercomputer, 
+which would process the data from the weak magnetic field and then 
+create a 3-D image. (The weakness of the magnetic field is compensated 
+for by the increase in computer power.) This then could vastly accelerate 
+research. “Perhaps something like the Star Trek tricorder is not so far off"
+"after all,” Dr. Bliimich has said. (The tricorder is a small, handheld 
+scanning device that gives an instant diagnosis of any illness.) In the 
+future, you may have more computer power in your medicine cabinet 
+than there is in a modern university hospital today. Instead of waiting to 
+get permission from a hospital or university to use an expensive MRI 
+machine, you could gather data in your own living room by simply 
+waving the portable MRI over yourself and then e-mailing the results to 
+
+a lab for analysis."
+"a lab for analysis. 
+
+It could also mean that, at some point in the future, an MRI telepathy 
+helmet might be possible, with vastly better resolution than an EEG 
+scan. Here is how it may work in the coming decades. Inside the helmet, 
+there would be electromagnetic coils to produce a weak magnetic field 
+and radio pulses that probe the brain. The raw MRI signals would then 
+be sent to a pocketsize computer placed in your belt. The information 
+would then be radioed to a server located far from the battlefield. The 
+final processing of the data would be done by a supercomputer in a 
+distant city. Then the message would be radioed back to your troops on 
+the battlefield. The troops would hear the message either through 
+speakers or through electrodes placed in the auditory cortex of their 
+brains. 
+
+DARPA AND HUMAN ENHANCEMENT"
+"DARPA AND HUMAN ENHANCEMENT 
+
+Given the costs of all this research, it is legitimate to ask: Who is paying 
+for it? Private companies have only recently shown interest in this 
+cutting-edge technology, but it’s still a big gamble for many of them to 
+fund research that may never pay off. Instead, one of the main backers is 
+DARPA, the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, 
+which has spearheaded some of the most important technologies of the 
+twentieth century. 
+
+DARPA was originally set up by President Dwight Eisenhower after 
+the Russians sent Sputnik into orbit in 1957 and shocked the world. 
+Realizing that the United States might quickly be outpaced by the 
+Soviets in high technology, Eisenhower hastily established this agency to 
+keep the country competitive with the Russians. Over the years, the 
+numerous projects it started grew so large that they became independent 
+entities by themselves. One of its first spinoffs was NASA."
+"DARPA’s strategic plan reads like something from science fiction: its 
+“only charter is radical innovation.” The only justification for its 
+existence is “to accelerate the future into being.” DARPA scientists are 
+constantly pushing the boundaries of what is physically possible. As 
+
+former DARPA official Michael Goldblatt says, they try not to violate the 
+laws of physics, “or at least not knowingly. Or at least not more than one 
+
+per program.”"
+"per program.” 
+
+But what separates DARPA from science fiction is its track record, 
+which is truly astounding. One of its early projects in the 1960s was 
+Arpanet, which was a war-fighting telecommunications network that 
+would electronically connect scientists and officials during and after 
+World War III. In 1989, the National Science Foundation decided that, in 
+light of the breakup of the Soviet bloc, it was unnecessary to keep it a 
+secret, so it declassified this hush-hush military technology and 
+essentially gave codes and blueprints away for free. Arpanet would 
+eventually become the Internet. 
+
+When the U.S. Air Force needed a way to guide its ballistic missiles in 
+space, DARPA helped create Project 57, a top-secret project that was 
+designed to place H-bombs on hardened Soviet missile silos in a 
+thermonuclear exchange. It would later become the foundation for the 
+Global Positioning System (GPS). Instead of guiding missiles, today it 
+guides lost motorists."
+"DARPA has been a key player in a series of inventions that have 
+altered the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including cell phones, 
+night-vision goggles, telecommunications advances, and weather 
+satellites. I have had a chance to interact with DARPA scientists and 
+officials on several occasions. I once had lunch with one of the agency’s 
+former directors at a reception filled with many scientists and futurists. I 
+asked him a question that had always bothered me: Why do we have to 
+rely on dogs to sniff our luggage for the presence of high explosives? 
+Surely our sensors are sensitive enough to pick up the telltale signature 
+of explosive chemicals. He replied that DARPA had actively looked into 
+this same question but had come up against some severe technical 
+problems. The olfactory sensors of dogs, he said, had evolved over 
+millions of years to be able to detect a handful of molecules, and that 
+kind of sensitivity is extremely difficult to match, even with our most"
+"kind of sensitivity is extremely difficult to match, even with our most 
+finely tuned sensors. It’s likely that we will continue to rely on dogs at 
+airports for the foreseeable future."
+"On another occasion, a group of DARPA physicists and engineers came 
+to a talk I gave about the future of technology. Later I asked them if they 
+had any concerns of their own. One concern, they said, was their public 
+image. Most people have never heard of DARPA, but some link it to 
+dark, nefarious government conspiracies, everything from UFO cover- 
+
+ups, Area 51, and Roswell to weather control, etc. They sighed. If only 
+these rumors were true, they could certainly use help from alien 
+technology to jump-start their research!"
+"With a budget of $3 billion, DARPA has now set its sights on the 
+brain-machine interface. When discussing the potential applications, 
+former DARPA official Michael Goldblatt pushes the boundary of the 
+imagination. He says, “Imagine if soldiers could communicate by 
+thought alone.... Imagine the threat of biological attack being 
+inconsequential. And contemplate, for a moment, a world in which 
+learning is as easy as eating, and the replacement of damaged body parts 
+as convenient as a fast-food drive-through. As impossible as these visions 
+sound or as difficult as you might think the task would be, these visions 
+are the everyday work of the Defense Sciences Office [a branch of 
+DARPA].”"
+"Goldblatt believes that historians will conclude that the long-term 
+legacy of DARPA will be human enhancement, “our future historical 
+strength.” He notes that the famous army slogan “Be All You Can Be” 
+takes on a new meaning when contemplating the implications of human 
+enhancement. Perhaps it is no accident that Michael Goldblatt is pushing 
+human enhancement so vigorously at DARPA. His own daughter suffers 
+from cerebral palsy and has been confined to a wheelchair all her life. 
+Since she requires outside help, her illness has slowed her down, but she 
+has always risen above adversity. She is going to college and dreaming 
+of starting her own company. Goldblatt acknowledges that his daughter 
+is his inspiration. As Washington Post editor Joel Garreau has noted, 
+“What he is doing is spending untold millions of dollars to create what 
+might well be the next step in human evolution. And yet, it has occurred 
+to him that the technology he is helping create might someday allow his"
+"to him that the technology he is helping create might someday allow his 
+daughter not just to walk, but to transcend.”"
+"PRIVACY ISSUES 
+
+When hearing of mind-reading machines for the first time, the average 
+person might be concerned about privacy. The idea that a machine 
+concealed somewhere may be reading our intimate thoughts without our 
+permission is unnerving. Human consciousness, as we have stressed, 
+
+involves constantly running simulations of the future. In order for these 
+simulations to be accurate, we sometimes imagine scenarios that wade 
+into immoral or illegal territory, but whether or not we act on these 
+plans, we prefer to keep them private. 
+
+For scientists, life would be easier if they could simply read people’s 
+
+thoughts from a distance using portable devices (rather than by using 
+clumsy helmets or surgically opening up the skull), but the laws of 
+physics make this exceedingly difficult."
+"When I asked Dr. Nishimoto, who works in Dr. Gallant’s Berkeley lab, 
+about the question of privacy, he smiled and replied that radio signals 
+degrade quite rapidly outside the brain, so these signals would be too 
+diffuse and weak to make any sense to anyone standing more than a few 
+feet away. (In school, we learned about Newton’s laws and that gravity 
+diminishes as the square of the distance, so that if you doubled your 
+distance from a star, the gravity field diminishes by a factor of four. But 
+magnetic fields diminish much faster than the square of the distance. 
+Most signals decrease by the cube or quartic of the distance, so if you 
+double the distance from an MRI machine, the magnetic field goes down 
+by a factor of eight or more.)"
+"Furthermore, there would be interference from the outside world, 
+which would mask the faint signals coming from the brain. This is one 
+reason why scientists require strict laboratory conditions to do their 
+work, and even then they are able to extract only a few letters, words, or 
+images from the thinking brain at any given time. The technology is not 
+adequate to record the avalanche of thoughts that often circulate in our 
+brain as we simultaneously consider several letters, words, phrases, or 
+sensory information, so using these devices for mind reading as seen in 
+the movies is not possible today, and won’t be for decades to come."
+"For the foreseeable future, brain scans will continue to require direct 
+access to the human brain in laboratory conditions. But in the highly 
+unlikely event that someone in the future finds a way to read thoughts 
+from a distance, there are still countermeasures you can take. To keep 
+your most important thoughts private, you might use a shield to block 
+brain waves from entering the wrong hands. This can be done with 
+something called a Faraday cage, invented by the great British physicist 
+Michael Faraday in 1836, although the effect was first observed by 
+Benjamin Franklin. Basically, electricity will rapidly disperse around a"
+"metal cage, such that the electric field inside the cage is zero. To 
+demonstrate this, physicists (like myself) have entered a metallic cage on 
+which huge electrical bolts are fired. Miraculously, we are unscratched. 
+This is why airplanes can be hit by lightning bolts and not suffer 
+damage, and why cable wires are covered with metallic threads. 
+Similarly, a telepathy shield would consist of thin metal foil placed 
+around the brain. 
+
+TELEPATHY VIA NANOPROBES IN THE BRAIN"
+"TELEPATHY VIA NANOPROBES IN THE BRAIN 
+
+There is another way to partially solve the privacy issue, as well as the 
+difficulty of placing ECOG sensors into the brain. In the future, it may be 
+possible to exploit nanotechnology, the ability to manipulate individual 
+atoms, to insert a web of nanoprobes into the brain that can tap into 
+your thoughts. These nanoprobes might be made of carbon nanotubes, 
+which conduct electricity and are as thin as the laws of atomic physics 
+allow. These nanotubes are made of individual carbon atoms arrayed in 
+a tube a few molecules thick. (They are the subject of intense scientific 
+interest, and are expected in the coming decades to revolutionize the 
+way scientists probe the brain.)"
+"The nanoprobes would be placed precisely in those areas of the brain 
+devoted to certain activities. In order to convey speech and language, 
+they would be placed in the left temporal lobes. In order to process 
+visual images, they would be placed in the thalamus and visual cortex. 
+Emotions would be sent via nanoprobes in the amygdala and limbic 
+system. The signals from these nanoprobes would be sent to a small 
+computer, which would process the signals and wirelessly send 
+information to a server and then the Internet. 
+
+Privacy issues would be partially solved, since you would completely 
+control when your thoughts are being sent over cables or the Internet. 
+Radio signals can be detected by any bystander with a receiver, but 
+electrical signals sent along a cable cannot. The problem of opening up 
+the skull to use messy ECOG meshes is also solved, because the 
+nanoprobes can be inserted via microsurgery."
+"Some science-fiction writers have conjectured that when babies are 
+born in the future, these nanoprobes might be painlessly implanted, so 
+
+that telepathy becomes a way of life for them. In Star Trek, for example, 
+implants are routinely placed into the children of the Borg at birth so 
+that they can telepathically communicate with others. These children 
+cannot imagine a world where telepathy does not exist. They take it for 
+granted that telepathy is the norm. 
+
+Because these nanoprobes are tiny, they would be invisible to the 
+outside world, so there would be no social ostracism. Although society 
+might be repulsed at the idea of inserting probes permanently into the 
+brain, these science-fiction writers assume that people will get used to 
+the idea because the nanoprobes would be so useful, just like test-tube 
+babies have been accepted by society today after the initial controversy 
+surrounding them. 
+
+LEGAL ISSUES"
+"LEGAL ISSUES 
+
+For the foreseeable future, the question is not whether someone will be 
+able to read our thoughts secretly from a remote, concealed device, but 
+whether we will willingly allow our thoughts to be recorded. What 
+happens, then, if some unscrupulous person gets unauthorized access to 
+those files? This raises the issue of ethics, since we would not want our 
+thoughts to be read against our will. Dr. Brian Pasley says, “There are 
+ethical concerns, not with the current research, but with the possible 
+extensions of it. There has to be a balance. If we are somehow able to 
+decode someone’s thoughts instantaneously that might have great 
+benefits for the thousands of severely disabled people who are unable to 
+communicate right now. On the other hand, there are great concerns if 
+this were applied to people who didn’t want that.”"
+"Once it becomes possible to read people’s minds and make recordings, 
+a host of other ethical and legal questions will arise. This happens 
+whenever any new technology is introduced. Historically it often takes 
+years before the law is fully able to address their implications. 
+
+For instance, copyright laws may have to be rewritten. What happens 
+if someone steals your invention by reading your thoughts? Can you 
+patent your thoughts? Who actually owns the idea? 
+
+Another problem occurs if the government is involved. As John Perry 
+Barlow, poet and lyricist for the Grateful Dead, once said, “Relying on"
+"the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to 
+install your window blinds.” Would the police be allowed to read your 
+thoughts when you are being interrogated? Already courts have been 
+ruling on cases where an alleged criminal refused to submit his DNA as 
+evidence. In the future, will the government be allowed to read your 
+thoughts without your consent, and if so, will they be admissible in 
+court? How reliable would they be? In the same way that MRI lie 
+detectors measure only increased brain activity, it’s important to note 
+that thinking about a crime and actually committing one are two 
+different things. During cross-examination, a defense lawyer might argue 
+that these thoughts were just random musings and nothing more."
+"Another gray area concerns the rights of people who are paralyzed. If 
+they are drafting a will or legal document, can a brain scan be sufficient 
+to create a legal document? Assume that a totally paralyzed person has a 
+sharp, active mind and wants to sign a contract or manage his funds. Are 
+these documents legal, given that the technology may not be perfect? 
+
+There is no law of physics that can resolve these ethical questions. 
+Ultimately, as this technology matures, these issues will have to be 
+
+settled in court by judges and juries."
+"settled in court by judges and juries. 
+
+Meanwhile, governments and corporations might have to invent new 
+ways to prevent mental espionage. Industrial espionage is already a 
+multimillion-dollar industry, with governments and corporations 
+building expensive “safe rooms” that have been scanned for bugs and 
+listening devices. In the future (assuming that a method can be devised 
+to listen to brain waves from a distance), safe rooms may have to be 
+designed so that brain signals are not accidentally leaked to the outside 
+world. These safe rooms would be surrounded by metallic walls, which 
+would form a Faraday cage shielding the interior of the room from the 
+outside world."
+"Every time a new form of radiation has been exploited, spies have 
+tried to use it for espionage, and brain waves are probably no exception. 
+The most famous case involved a tiny microwave device hidden in the 
+Great Seal of the United States in the U.S. embassy in Moscow. From 
+1945 until 1952, it was transmitting top-secret messages from U.S. 
+diplomats directly to the Soviets. Even during the Berlin Crisis of 1948 
+and the Korean War, the Soviets used this bug to decipher what the 
+United States was planning. It might have continued to leak secrets even"
+"today, changing the course of the Cold War and world history, but it was 
+accidentally discovered when a British engineer heard secret 
+conversations on an open radio band. U.S. engineers were shocked when 
+they picked apart the bug; they failed to detect it for years because it 
+was passive, requiring no energy source. (The Soviets cleverly evaded 
+detection because the bug was energized by microwave beams from a 
+remote source.) It is possible that future espionage devices will be made 
+to intercept brain waves as well. 
+
+Although much of this technology is still primitive, telepathy is slowly 
+becoming a fact of life. In the future, we may interact with the world via 
+the mind. But scientists want to go beyond just reading the mind, which 
+is passive. They want to take an active role—to move objects with the 
+mind. Telekinesis is a power usually ascribed to the gods. It is the divine 
+power to shape reality to your wishes. It is the ultimate expression of our 
+thoughts and desires."
+"We will soon have it. 
+
+It is the business of the future to be dangerous.... The major 
+advances in civilization are processes that all but wreck the 
+societies in which they occur. 
+
+—ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD 
+
+4 TELEKINESIS MIND CONTROLLING MATTER 
+
+Cathy Hutchinson is trapped inside her body. 
+
+She was paralyzed fourteen years ago by a massive stroke. A 
+quadriplegic, she is like thousands of “locked-in” patients who have lost 
+control over most of their muscles and bodily functions. Most of the day, 
+she lies helpless, requiring continual nursing care, yet her mind is clear. 
+She is a prisoner in her own body."
+"But in May 2012, her fortunes changed radically. Scientists at Brown 
+University placed a tiny chip on top of her brain, called Braingate, which 
+is connected by wires to a computer. Signals from her brain are relayed 
+through the computer to a mechanical robotic arm. By simply thinking, 
+she gradually learns to control the motion of the arm so that it can, for 
+instance, grab a bottled drink and bring it to her mouth. For the first 
+time, she is able to have some control of the world around her."
+"Because she is paralyzed and cannot talk, she had to communicate her 
+excitement by making eye movements. A device tracks her eyes and then 
+translates her movements into a typed message. When she was asked 
+how she felt, after years of being imprisoned inside a shell called her 
+body, she replied, “Ecstatic!” Looking forward to the day when her other 
+limbs are connected to her brain via computer, she added, “I would love 
+to have a robotic leg support.” Before her stroke, she loved to cook and 
+tend her garden. “I know that someday this will happen again,” she 
+added. At the rate at which the field of cyber prosthetics is moving, she 
+might have her wish soon."
+"Professor John Donoghue and his colleagues at Brown University and 
+also at the University of Utah have created a tiny sensor that acts like a 
+bridge to the outside world for those who can no longer communicate. 
+When I interviewed him, he told me, “We have taken a tiny sensor, the 
+size of a baby aspirin, or four millimeters, and implanted it onto the 
+surface of the brain. Because of ninety-six little ‘hairs’ or electrodes that 
+pick up brain impulses, it can pick up signals of your intention to move 
+
+your arm. We target the arm because of its importance.” Because the 
+motor cortex has been carefully mapped over the decades, it is possible 
+to place the chip directly on top of the neurons that control specific 
+limbs."
+"The key to Braingate lies in translating neural signals from the chip 
+into meaningful commands that can move objects in the real world, 
+starting with the cursor of a computer screen. Donoghue told me that he 
+does this by asking the patient to imagine moving the cursor of a 
+computer screen in a certain way, e.g., moving it to the right. It takes 
+only a few minutes to record the brain signals corresponding to this task. 
+In this way, the computer recognizes that whenever it detects a brain 
+signal like that, it should move the cursor to the right. 
+
+Then, whenever that person thinks of moving the cursor to the right, 
+the computer actually moves the cursor in that direction. In this way, 
+there is a one-to-one map between certain actions that the patient 
+imagines and the actual action itself. A patient can immediately start to 
+control the movement of the cursor, practically on the first try."
+"Braingate opens the door to a new world of neuroprosthetics, allowing 
+a paralyzed person to move artificial limbs with the mind. In addition, it 
+lets the patient communicate directly with their loved ones. The first 
+version of this chip, tested in 2004, was designed so that paralyzed 
+patients could communicate with a laptop computer. Soon afterward, 
+these patients were surfing the web, reading and writing e-mails, and 
+controlling their wheelchairs. 
+
+More recently, the cosmologist Stephen Hawking had a 
+neuroprosthetic device attached to his glasses. Like an EEG sensor, it can 
+connect his thoughts to a computer so that he can maintain some contact 
+with the outside world. It is rather primitive, but eventually devices 
+similar to it will become much more sophisticated, with more channels 
+and greater sensitivity."
+"All this, Dr. Donoghue told me, could have a profound impact on the 
+lives of these patients: “Another useful thing is that you can connect this 
+computer to any device—a toaster, a coffee maker, an air conditioner, a 
+light switch, a typewriter. It’s really quite easy to do these things these 
+days, and it’s very inexpensive. For a quadriplegic who can’t get around, 
+they will be able to change the TV channel, turn the lights on, and do all 
+those things without anybody coming into the room and doing it for 
+
+them.” Eventually, they will be able to do anything a normal person can 
+do, via computers. 
+
+FIXING SPINAL CORD INJURIES 
+
+A number of other groups are entering the fray. Another breakthrough 
+was made by scientists at Northwestern University who have connected"
+"a monkey’s brain directly to his own arm, bypassing an injured spinal 
+cord. In 1995, there was the sad story of Christopher Reeve, who soared 
+into outer space in the Superman movies but was completely paralyzed 
+due to an injury to his spinal cord. Unfortunately, he was thrown off a 
+horse and landed on his neck, so the spinal cord was damaged just 
+beneath his head. If he had lived longer, he might have seen the work of 
+scientists who want to use computers to replace broken spinal cords. In 
+the United States alone, more than two hundred thousand people have 
+some form of spinal cord injury. In an earlier age, these individuals 
+might have died soon after the accident, but because of advances in 
+acute trauma care, the number of people who survive these sorts of 
+injuries has actually grown in recent years. We are also haunted by the 
+images of thousands of wounded warriors who were victims of roadside 
+bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. And if you include the number of"
+"bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. And if you include the number of 
+patients paralyzed by strokes and other illnesses, like amyotropic lateral 
+sclerosis (ALS), the number of patients swells to two million."
+"The scientists at Northwestern used a one-hundred-electrode chip, 
+which was placed directly on the brain of a monkey. The signals from 
+the brain were carefully recorded as the monkey grasped a ball, lifted it, 
+and released it into a tube. Since each task corresponds to a specific 
+firing of neurons, the scientists could gradually decode these signals. 
+
+When the monkey wanted to move his arm, the signals were processed 
+by a computer using this code, and, instead of sending the messages to a 
+mechanical arm, they sent the signals directly to the nerves of the 
+monkey’s real arm. “We are eavesdropping on the natural electrical 
+signals from the brain that tell the arm and hand how to move, and 
+sending those signals directly to the muscles,” says Dr. Lee Miller. 
+
+By trial and error, the monkey learned to coordinate the muscles in his 
+arm. “There is a process of motor learning that is very similar to the"
+"process you go through when you learn to use a new computer, mouse, 
+or a different tennis racquet,” adds Dr. Miller. 
+
+(It is remarkable that the monkey was able to master so many motions 
+of his arm, given the fact that there are only one hundred electrodes on 
+this brain chip. Dr. Miller points out that millions of neurons are 
+involved in controlling the arm. The reason that one hundred electrodes 
+can give a reasonable approximation to the output of millions of neurons 
+is that the chip connects to the output neurons, after all the complex 
+processing has already been done by the brain. With the sophisticated 
+analysis out of the way, the one hundred electrodes are responsible 
+simply for feeding that information to the arm.) 
+
+This device is one of several being devised at Northwestern that will"
+"This device is one of several being devised at Northwestern that will 
+
+allow patients to bypass their injured spinal cords. Another neural 
+prosthesis uses the motion of the shoulders to control the arm. An 
+upward shrug causes the hand to close. A downward shrug causes the 
+hand to open. The patient also has the ability to curl his fingers around 
+an object like a cup, or manipulate a key that is grasped between the 
+thumb and index finger. 
+
+Dr. Miller concludes, “This connection from brain to muscles might 
+someday be used to help patients paralyzed due to spinal cord injury 
+perform activities of daily living and achieve greater independence.” 
+
+REVOLUTIONIZING PROSTHETICS"
+"REVOLUTIONIZING PROSTHETICS 
+
+Much of the funding driving these remarkable developments comes from 
+a DARPA project called Revolutionizing Prosthetics, a $150 million 
+effort that has been bankrolling these efforts since 2006. One of the 
+driving forces behind Revolutionizing Prosthetics is retired U.S. Army 
+colonel Geoffrey Ling, who is a neurologist with several tours of duty in 
+Iraq and Afghanistan. He was appalled at the human carnage he 
+witnessed on the battlefield caused by roadside bombs. In previous wars, 
+many of these brave service members would have died on the spot. But 
+today, with helicopters and an extensive medical evacuation 
+infrastructure, many of them survive but still suffer from serious bodily 
+injuries. More than 1,300 service members have lost limbs after coming 
+back from the Middle East."
+"Dr. Ling asked himself whether there was a scientific way to replace 
+these lost limbs. Backed by funding from the Pentagon, he asked his staff 
+to come up with concrete solutions within five years. When he made that 
+request, he was met with incredulity. He recalled, “They thought we 
+were crazy. But it’s in insanity that things happen.” 
+
+Spurred into action by Dr. Ling’s boundless enthusiasm, his crew has 
+created miracles in the laboratory. For example, Revolutionary 
+Prosthetics funded scientists at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics 
+Laboratory who have created the most advanced mechanical arm on 
+Earth, which can duplicate nearly all the delicate motions of the fingers, 
+hand, and arm in three dimensions. It is the same size and has the same 
+strength and agility as a real arm. Although it is made of steel, if you 
+covered it up with flesh-colored plastic, it would be nearly 
+indistinguishable from a real arm."
+"This arm was attached to Jan Sherman, a quadriplegic who had 
+suffered from a genetic disease that damaged the connection between 
+her brain and her body, leaving her completely paralyzed from the neck 
+
+down. At the University of Pittsburgh, electrodes were placed directly on 
+top of her brain, which were then connected to a computer and then to a 
+mechanical arm. Five months after surgery to attach the arm, she 
+appeared on 60 Minutes. Before a national audience, she cheerfully used 
+her new arm to wave, greet the host, and shake his hand. She even gave 
+him a fist bump to show how sophisticated the arm was. 
+
+Dr. Ling says, “In my dream, we will be able to take this into all sorts 
+of patients, patients with strokes, cerebral palsy, and the elderly.” 
+
+TELEKINESIS IN YOUR LIFE"
+"TELEKINESIS IN YOUR LIFE 
+
+Not only scientists but also entrepreneurs are looking at brain-machine 
+interface (BMI). They wish to incorporate many of these dazzling 
+inventions as a permanent part of their business plans. BMI has already 
+penetrated the youth market, in the form of video games and toys that 
+use EEG sensors so that you can control objects with the mind in both 
+virtual reality and the real world. In 2009, NeuroSky marketed the first 
+toy, Mindflex, specifically designed to use EEG sensors to move a ball 
+through a maze. Concentrating while wearing the Mindflex EEG device 
+
+increases the speed of a fan within the maze and propels a tiny ball 
+down a pathway."
+"increases the speed of a fan within the maze and propels a tiny ball 
+down a pathway. 
+
+Mind-controlled video games are also blossoming. Seventeen hundred 
+software developers are working with NeuroSky, many of them on the 
+company’s $129 million Mindwave Mobile headset. These video games 
+use a small, portable EEG sensor wrapped around your forehead that 
+allows you to navigate in virtual reality, where the movements of your 
+avatar are controlled mentally. As you maneuver your avatar on the 
+video screen, you can fire weapons, evade enemies, rise to new levels, 
+score points, etc., as in an ordinary video game, except that everything is 
+hands-free. 
+
+“There’s going to be a whole ecosystem of new players, and NeuroSky 
+is very well positioned to be like the Intel of this new industry,” claims 
+Alvaro Fernandez of SharpBrains, a market research firm."
+"Besides firing virtual weapons, the EEG helmet can also detect when 
+your attention begins to flatten out. NeuroSky has been getting inquiries 
+from companies concerned about injuries to workers who lose 
+concentration while operating a dangerous machine or who fall asleep at 
+the wheel. This technology could be a lifesaver, alerting the worker or 
+driver that he is losing his focus. The EEG helmet would set off an alarm 
+when the wearer dozes off. (In Japan, this headset is already creating a 
+
+fad among partygoers. The EEG sensors look like cat ears when you put 
+them on your head. The ears suddenly rise when your attention is 
+focused and then flatten out when it fades. At parties, people can express 
+romantic interest just by thinking, so you know if you are impressing 
+someone.)"
+"But perhaps the most novel applications of this technology are being 
+pursued by Dr. Miguel Nicolelis of Duke University. When I interviewed 
+him, he told me that he thinks he can duplicate many of the devices 
+found only in science fiction. 
+
+SMART HANDS AND MIND MELDS 
+
+Dr. Nicolelis has shown that this brain-machine interface can be done 
+across continents. He places a monkey on a treadmill. A chip is 
+positioned on the monkey’s brain, which is connected to the Internet. On 
+
+the other side of the planet, in Kyoto, Japan, signals from the monkey 
+are used to control a robot that can walk. By walking on the treadmill in 
+North Carolina, the monkey controls a robot in Japan, which executes 
+the same walking motion. Using only his brain sensors and the reward of 
+a food pellet, Dr. Nicolelis has trained these monkeys to control a 
+humanoid robot called CB-1 halfway around the world."
+"He is also tackling one of the main problems with brain-machine 
+interface: the lack of feeling. Today’s prosthetic hands don’t have a sense 
+of touch, and hence they feel foreign; because there’s no feedback, they 
+might accidentally crush someone’s fingers while engaging in a 
+handshake. Picking up an eggshell with a mechanical arm would be 
+nearly impossible. 
+
+Nicolelis hopes to circumvent this problem by having a direct brain-to- 
+brain interface. Messages would be sent from the brain to a mechanical 
+arm that has sensors, which would then send messages directly back to 
+the brain, thereby bypassing the stem altogether. This brain-machine- 
+brain interface (BMBI) could enable a clean, direct feedback mechanism 
+to allow for the sensation of touch."
+"Dr. Nicolelis started by connecting the motor cortex of rhesus monkeys 
+to mechanical arms. These mechanical arms have sensors on them, 
+which then send signals back to the brain by electrodes connected to the 
+somatosensory cortex (which registers the sensation of touch). The 
+monkeys were given a reward after every successful trial; they learned 
+how to use this apparatus within four to nine trials. 
+
+To do this, Dr. Nicolelis had to invent a new code that would 
+represent different surfaces (which were rough or smooth). “After a 
+month of practice,” he told me, “this part of the brain learns this new 
+code, and starts to associate this new artificial code that we created with 
+different textures. So this is the first demonstration that we can create a 
+sensory channel” that can simulate sensations of the skin."
+"I mentioned to him that this idea sounds like the “holodeck” of Star 
+Trek, where you wander in a virtual world but feel sensations when you 
+bump into virtual objects, just as if they were real. This is called “haptic 
+technology,” which uses digital technology to simulate the sense of 
+touch. Nicolelis replied, “Yes, I think this is the first demonstration that 
+something like the holodeck will be possible in the near future.” 
+
+The holodeck of the future might use a combination of two 
+
+technologies. First, people in the holodeck would wear Internet contact 
+lenses, so that they would see an entirely new virtual world everywhere 
+they looked. The scenery in your contact lens would change instantly 
+with the push of a button. And if you touched any object in this world, 
+signals sent into the brain would simulate the sensation of touch, using 
+BMBI technology. In this way, objects in the virtual world you see inside 
+your contact lens would feel solid."
+"Brain-to-brain interface would make possible not only haptic 
+technology, but also an “Internet of the mind,” or brain-net, with direct 
+brain-to-brain contact. In 2013, Dr. Nicolelis was able to accomplish 
+something straight out of Star Trek, a “mind meld” between two brains. 
+He started with two groups of rats, one at Duke University, the other in 
+Natal, Brazil. The first group learned to press a lever when seeing a red 
+light. The second group learned to press a lever when their brains were 
+stimulated by a signal sent via an implant. Their reward for pressing the 
+lever was a sip of water. Then Dr. Nicolelis connected the motor cortices 
+of the brains of both groups via a fine wire through the Internet."
+"When the first group of rats saw the red light, a signal was sent over 
+the Internet to Brazil to the second group, which then pressed the lever. 
+In seven out of ten trials, the second group of rats correctly responded to 
+the signals sent by the first group. This was the first demonstration that 
+signals could be transferred and also interpreted correctly between two 
+brains. It’s still a far cry from the mind meld of science fiction, where 
+two minds merge into one, because this is still primitive and the sample 
+size is small, but it is a proof of principle that a brain-net might be 
+possible. 
+
+In 2013, the next important step was taken when scientists went 
+beyond animal studies and demonstrated the first direct human brain-to- 
+
+brain communication, with one human brain sending a message to 
+another via the Internet."
+"brain communication, with one human brain sending a message to 
+another via the Internet. 
+
+This milestone was achieved at the University of Washington, with 
+one scientist sending a brain signal (move your right arm) to another 
+scientist. The first scientist wore an EEG helmet and played a video 
+game. He fired a cannon by imagining moving his right arm, but was 
+careful not to move it physically. 
+
+The signal from the EEG helmet was sent over the Internet to another 
+scientist, who was wearing a transcranial magnetic helmet carefully 
+
+placed over the part of his brain that controlled his right arm. When the 
+signal reached the second scientist, the helmet would send a magnetic 
+pulse into his brain, which made his right arm move involuntarily, all by 
+itself. Thus, by remote control, one human brain could control the 
+movement of another."
+"This breakthrough opens up a number of possibilities, such as 
+exchanging nonverbal messages via the Internet. You might one day be 
+able to send the experience of dancing the tango, bungee jumping, or 
+skydiving to the people on your e-mail list. Not just physical activity, but 
+emotions and feelings as well might be sent via brain-to-brain 
+communication."
+"Nicolelis envisions a day when people all over the world could 
+participate in social networks not via keyboards, but directly through 
+their minds. Instead of just sending e-mails, people on the brain-net 
+would be able to telepathically exchange thoughts, emotions, and ideas 
+in real time. Today a phone call conveys only the information of the 
+conversation and the tone of voice, nothing more. Video conferencing is 
+a bit better, since you can read the body language of the person on the 
+other end. But a brain-net would be the ultimate in communications, 
+making it possible to share the totality of mental information in a 
+conversation, including emotions, nuances, and reservations. Minds 
+would be able to share their most intimate thoughts and feelings. 
+
+TOTAL IMMERSION ENTERTAINMENT"
+"TOTAL IMMERSION ENTERTAINMENT 
+
+Developing a brain-net may also have an impact on the multibillion- 
+dollar entertainment industry. Back in the 1920s, the technology of tape¬ 
+recording sound as well as light was perfected. This set off a 
+transformation in the entertainment industry as it made the transition 
+from silent movies to the “talkies.” This basic formula of combining 
+sound and sight hasn’t changed much for the past century. But in the 
+
+future, the entertainment industry may make the next transition, 
+recording all five senses, including smell, taste, and touch, as well as the 
+full range of emotions. Telepathic probes would be able to handle the 
+full range of senses and emotions that circulate in the brain, producing a 
+complete immersion of the audience in the story. Watching a romantic"
+"movie or an action thriller, we would be swimming in an ocean of 
+sensations, as if we were really there, experiencing all the rush of 
+feelings and the emotions of the actors. We would smell the perfume of 
+the heroine, feel the terror of the victims in a horror movie, and relish 
+the vanquishing of the bad guys."
+"This immersion would involve a radical shift in how movies are made. 
+First, actors would have to be trained to act out their roles with 
+EEG/MRI sensors and nanoprobes recording their sensations and 
+emotions. (This would place an added burden on the actors, who would 
+have to act out each scene by simulating all five senses. In the same way 
+that some actors could not make the transition from silent movies to the 
+talkies, perhaps a new generation of actors will emerge who can act out 
+scenes with all five senses.) Editing would require not just cutting and 
+splicing film, but also combining tapes of the various sensations within 
+each scene. And finally the audience, as they sit in their seats, would 
+have all these electrical signals fed into their brains. Instead of 3-D 
+glasses, the audience would wear brain sensors of some sort. Movie 
+theaters would also have to be retrofitted to process this data and then 
+send it to the people in the audience. 
+
+CREATING A BRAIN-NET"
+"CREATING A BRAIN-NET 
+
+Creating a brain-net that can transmit such information would have to 
+be done in stages. The first step would be inserting nanoprobes into 
+important parts of the brain, such as the left temporal lobe, which 
+governs speech, and the occipital lobe, which governs vision. Then 
+computers would analyze these signals and decode them. This 
+information in turn could be sent over the Internet by fiber-optic cables. 
+
+More difficult would be to insert these signals back into another 
+person’s brain, where they could be processed by the receiver. So far, 
+progress in this area has focused only on the hippocampus, but in the 
+future it should be possible to insert messages directly into other parts of 
+the brain corresponding to our sense of hearing, light, touch, etc. So 
+there is plenty of work to be done as scientists try to map the cortices of 
+the brain involved in these senses. Once these cortices have been 
+mapped—such as the hippocampus, which we’ll discuss in the next"
+"chapter—it should be possible to insert words, thoughts, memories, and 
+experiences into another brain. 
+
+Dr. Nicolelis writes, “It is not inconceivable that our human progeny 
+may indeed muster the skills, technology, and ethics needed to establish 
+a functional brain-net, a medium through which billions of human 
+beings consensually establish temporary direct contacts with fellow 
+human beings through thought alone. What such a colossus of collective 
+consciousness may look like, feel like, or do, neither I nor anyone in our 
+present time can possibly conceive or utter.” 
+
+THE BRAIN-NET AND CIVILIZATION"
+"A brain-net may even change the course of civilization itself. Each time a 
+new communication system has been introduced, it has irrevocably 
+accelerated changes in society, lifting us from one era to the next. In 
+prehistoric times, for thousands of years our ancestors were nomads 
+wandering in small tribes, communicating with one another through 
+body language and grunts. The coming of language allowed us for the 
+first time to communicate symbols and complex ideas, which facilitated 
+the rise of villages and eventually cities. Within the last few thousand 
+years, written language has enabled us to accumulate knowledge and 
+culture across generations, allowing for the rise of science, the arts, 
+architecture, and huge empires. The coming of the telephone, radio, and 
+TV extended the reach of communication across continents. The Internet 
+now makes possible the rise of a planetary civilization that will link all 
+the continents and peoples of the world. The next giant step might be a"
+"the continents and peoples of the world. The next giant step might be a 
+planetary brain-net, in which the full spectrum of senses, emotions, 
+memories, and thoughts are exchanged on a global scale."
+"‘WE WILL BE PART OF THEIR OPERATING SYSTEM' 
+
+When I interviewed Dr. Nicolelis, he told me that he became interested 
+in science at an early age while growing up in his native Brazil. He 
+remembers watching the Apollo moon shot, which captured the world’s 
+attention. To him, it was an amazing feat. And now, he told me, his own 
+“moon shot” is making it possible to move any object with the mind. 
+
+He became interested in the brain while still in high school, where he 
+came across a 1964 book by Isaac Asimov titled The Human Brain. But he 
+was disappointed by the end of the book. There was no discussion about 
+how all these structures interacted with one another to create the mind 
+
+(because no one knew the answer back then). It was a life-changing 
+moment and he realized that his own destiny might lie in trying to 
+understand the secrets of the brain."
+"About ten years ago, he told me, he began to look seriously into doing 
+research on his childhood dream. He started by taking a mouse and 
+letting it control a mechanical device. “We placed sensors into the mouse 
+which read the electrical signals from the brain. Then we transmitted 
+these signals to a little robotic lever that could bring water from a 
+fountain back to the mouse’s mouth. So the animal had to learn how to 
+mentally move the robotic device to bring the water back. That was the 
+first-ever demonstration that you could connect an animal to a machine 
+so that it could operate a machine without moving its own body,” he 
+explained to me."
+"Today he can analyze not just fifty but one thousand neurons in the 
+brain of a monkey, which can reproduce various movements in different 
+parts of the monkey’s body. Then the monkey can control various 
+devices, such as mechanical arms, or even virtual images in cyberspace. 
+“We even have a monkey avatar that can be controlled by the monkey’s 
+thoughts without the monkey making any movement,” he told me. This 
+is done by having the monkey watch a video in which he sees an avatar 
+that represents his body. Then, by mentally commanding his body to 
+move, the monkey makes the avatar move in the corresponding way. 
+
+Nicolelis envisions a day in the very near future when we will play 
+video games and control computers and appliances with our minds. “We 
+
+will be part of their operating system. We will be immersed in them with 
+mechanisms that are very similar to the experiments that I am 
+describing.” 
+
+EXOSKELETONS"
+"EXOSKELETONS 
+
+The next undertaking for Dr. Nicolelis is the Walk Again Project. Its goal 
+is nothing less than a complete exoskeleton for the body controlled by 
+the mind. At first, an exoskeleton conjures up an image of something 
+from the Iron Man movies. Actually, it is a special suit that encases the 
+entire body so that the arms and legs can move via motors. He calls it a 
+“wearable robot.” (See Figure 10.) 
+
+His goal, he said, is to help the paralyzed “walk by thinking.” He plans 
+to use wireless technology, “so there’s nothing sticking out of the head. 
+... We are going to record twenty to thirty thousand neurons, to 
+command a whole body robotic vest, so he can think and walk again and 
+
+move and grab objects.”"
+"move and grab objects.” 
+
+Nicolelis realizes that a series of hurdles must be overcome before the 
+exoskeleton becomes a reality. First, a new generation of microchips 
+must be created that can be placed in the brain safely and reliably for 
+years at a time. Second, wireless sensors must be created so the 
+exoskeleton can roam freely. The signals from the brain would be 
+received wirelessly by a computer the size of a cell phone that would 
+probably be attached to your belt. Third, new advances must be made in 
+deciphering and interpreting signals from the brain via computers. For 
+the monkeys, a few hundred neurons were necessary to control the 
+mechanical arms. For a human, you need, at minimum, several thousand 
+neurons to control an arm or leg. And fourth, a power supply must be 
+found that is portable and powerful enough to energize the entire 
+exoskeleton. 
+
+Figure 10. This is the exoskeleton that Dr. Nicolelis hopes will be controlled by the mind of a totally 
+paralyzed person."
+"(illustration credit 4.1) 
+
+Nicolelis’s goal is a lofty one: to have a working exoskeleton suit ready 
+for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where a quadriplegic Brazilian will 
+deliver the opening kick. He told me proudly, “This is our Brazilian 
+moon shot.” 
+
+AVATARS AND SURROGATES 
+
+In the movie Surrogates, Bruce Willis plays an FBI agent who is 
+investigating mysterious murders. Scientists have created exoskeletons so 
+perfect that they exceed human capabilities. These mechanical creatures 
+are super strong, with perfect bodies. In fact, they are so perfect that 
+humanity has become dependent on them. People live their entire life in 
+pods, mentally controlling their handsome, beautiful surrogate with"
+"wireless technology. Everywhere you go, you see busy “people” at work, 
+except they are all perfectly shaped surrogates. Their aging masters are 
+conveniently hidden from view. The plot takes a sharp twist, however, 
+when Bruce Willis discovers that the person behind these murders might 
+be linked to the same scientist who invented these surrogates in the first 
+place. That forces him to wonder whether the surrogates are a blessing 
+or a curse."
+"And in the blockbuster movie Avatar, in the year 2154 Earth has 
+depleted most of its minerals, so a mining company has journeyed to a 
+distant moon called Pandora in the Alpha Centauri star system in search 
+of a rare metal, unobtanium. There are native people who inhabit this 
+distant moon, called the Na’vi, who live in harmony with their lush 
+environment. In order to communicate with the native people, specially 
+trained workers are placed in pods, where they learn to mentally control 
+the body of a genetically engineered native. Although the atmosphere is 
+poisonous and the environment differs radically from Earth’s, avatars 
+have no difficulty living in this alien world. This uneasy relationship, 
+however, soon collapses when the mining company finds a rich deposit 
+of unobtainium underneath the Na’vi’s sacred ceremonial tree. Inevitably 
+a conflict arises between the mining company, which wants to destroy 
+the sacred tree and strip-mine the land for its rare metal, and the"
+"the sacred tree and strip-mine the land for its rare metal, and the 
+natives, who worship it. It looks like a lost cause for the natives until one 
+of the specially trained workers switches sides and leads the Na’vi to 
+victory."
+"Avatars and surrogates are the stuff of science fiction today, but one 
+day they may become an essential tool for science. The human body is 
+frail, perhaps too delicate for the rigors of many dangerous missions, 
+including space travel. Although science fiction is filled with the heroic 
+exploits of brave astronauts traveling to the farthest reaches of our 
+galaxy, the reality is much different. Radiation in deep space is so 
+intense that our astronauts will have to be shielded or else face 
+premature aging, radiation sickness, and even cancer. Solar flares shot 
+from the sun can bathe a spacecraft in lethal radiation. A simple 
+transatlantic flight from the United States to Europe exposes you to a 
+millirem of radiation per hour, or roughly the same as a dental X-ray. 
+But in outer space, the radiation could be many times more intense, 
+especially in the presence of cosmic rays and solar bursts. (During"
+"intense solar storms, NASA has actually warned astronauts in the space 
+station to move to sections where there is more shielding against 
+radiation.) 
+
+In addition, there are many other dangers awaiting us in outer space, 
+such as micrometeorites, the effects of prolonged weightlessness, and the 
+problems of adjusting to different gravity fields. After just a few months 
+in weightlessness, the body loses a large fraction of its calcium and 
+minerals, leaving the astronauts incredibly weak, even if they exercise 
+every day. After a year in outer space, Russian astronauts had to crawl 
+out of their space capsules like worms. Furthermore, it is believed that 
+some of the effects of muscle and bone loss are permanent, so that 
+astronauts will feel the consequences of prolonged weightlessness for the 
+rest of their lives."
+"The dangers of micrometeorites and intense radiation fields on the 
+moon are so great that many scientists have proposed using a gigantic 
+underground cave as a permanent lunar space station to protect our 
+astronauts. These caves form naturally as lava tubes near extinct 
+volcanoes. But the safest way of building a moon base is to have our 
+astronauts sit in the comfort of their living rooms. This way they would 
+be shielded from all the hazards found on the moon, yet through 
+surrogates they would be able to perform the same tasks. This could 
+vastly reduce the cost of manned space travel, since providing life 
+support for human astronauts is very expensive. 
+
+Perhaps when the first interplanetary ship reaches a distant planet, 
+and an astronaut’s surrogate sets foot on this alien terrain, he or she 
+might start with “One small step for the mind ...”"
+"One possible problem with this approach is that it takes time for 
+messages to go to the moon and beyond. In a little over a second, a radio 
+message can travel from Earth to the moon, so surrogates on the moon 
+could be easily controlled by astronauts on Earth. More difficult would 
+be communicating with surrogates on Mars, since it can take twenty 
+minutes or more for radio signals to reach the Red Planet. 
+
+But surrogates have practical implications closer to home. In Japan, 
+the Fukushima reactor accident in 2011 caused billions of dollars in 
+damages. Because workers can’t enter areas with lethal levels of 
+radiation for more than a few minutes, the final cleanup may take up to 
+forty years. Unfortunately, robots are not sufficiently advanced to go"
+"into these blistering radiation fields and make needed repairs. In fact, 
+the only robots used at Fukushima are quite primitive, basically simple 
+cameras placed on top of a computer sitting on wheels. A full-blown 
+automaton that can think for itself (or be controlled by a remote 
+operator) and make repairs in high-radiation fields is many decades 
+away."
+"The lack of industrial robots caused an acute problem for the Soviets 
+as well during the 1986 Chernobyl accident in the Ukraine. Workers sent 
+directly to the accident site to put out the flames died horrible deaths 
+due to lethal exposure to radiation. Eventually Mikhail Gorbachev 
+ordered the air force to “sand bag” the reactor, dropping five thousand 
+tons of borated sand and cement by helicopter. Radiation levels were so 
+high that 250,000 workers were recruited to finally contain the accident. 
+Each worker could spend only a few minutes inside the reactor building 
+doing repairs. Many received the maximum lifetime allowed dose of 
+radiation. Each one got a medal. This massive project was the largest 
+civil engineering feat ever undertaken. It could not have been done by 
+today’s robots."
+"The Honda Corporation has, in fact, built a robot that may eventually 
+go into deadly radioactive environments, but it is not ready yet. Honda’s 
+scientists have placed an EEG sensor on the head of a worker, which is 
+connected to a computer that analyzes his brain waves. The computer is 
+then connected to a radio that sends messages to the robot, called 
+ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility). Hence, by altering his 
+own brain waves, a worker can control ASIMO by pure thought. 
+
+Unfortunately, this robot is incapable of making repairs at Fukushima 
+right now, since it can execute only four basic motions (all of which 
+involve moving its head and shoulders) while hundreds of motions are 
+required to make repairs at a shattered nuclear power plant. This system 
+is not developed enough to handle simple tasks such as turning a 
+screwdriver or swinging a hammer."
+"Other groups have also explored the possibility of mentally controlled 
+robots. At the University of Washington, Dr. Rajesh Rao has created a 
+similar robot that is controlled by a person wearing an EEG helmet. This 
+shiny humanoid robot is two feet tall and is called Morpheus (after a 
+character in the movie The Matrix, as well as the Greek god of dreams). 
+A student puts on the EEG helmet and then makes certain gestures, such"
+"as moving a hand, which creates an EEG signal that is recorded by a 
+computer. Eventually the computer has a library of such EEG signals, 
+each one corresponding to a specific motion of a limb. Then the robot is 
+programmed to move its hand whenever that EEG signal is sent to it. In 
+this way, if you think about moving your hand, the robot Morpheus 
+moves its hand as well. When you put on the EEG helmet for the first 
+time, it takes about ten minutes for the computer to calibrate to your 
+brain signals. Eventually you get the hang of making gestures with your 
+mind that control the robot. For example, you can have it walk toward 
+you, pick up a block from a table, walk six feet to another table, and 
+then place the block there."
+"Research is also progressing rapidly in Europe. In 2012, scientists in 
+Switzerland at the Ecole Poly technique Federate de Lausanne unveiled 
+their latest achievement, a robot controlled telepathically by EEG sensors 
+whose controller is located sixty miles away. The robot itself looks like 
+the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner now found in many living rooms. 
+But it is actually a highly sophisticated robot equipped with a camera 
+that can navigate its way through a crowded office. A paralyzed patient 
+can, for example, look at a computer screen, which is connected to a 
+video camera on the robot many miles away, and see through the eyes of 
+the robot. Then, by thinking, the patient is able to control the motion of 
+the robot as it moves past obstacles."
+"In the future, one can imagine the most dangerous jobs being done by 
+robots controlled by humans in this fashion. Dr. Nicolelis says, “We will 
+likely be able to operate remotely controlled envoys and ambassadors, 
+robots and airships of many shapes and sizes, sent on our behalf to 
+explore other planets and stars in distant corners of the universe.” 
+
+For example, in 2010 the world looked on in horror as 5 million 
+barrels of crude oil spilled unabated into the Gulf of Mexico. The 
+Deepwater Horizon spill was one of the largest oil disasters in history, 
+yet engineers were largely helpless for three months. Robotic subs, 
+which are controlled remotely, floundered for weeks trying to cap the 
+well because they lacked the dexterity and versatility necessary for this 
+underwater mission. If surrogate subs, which are much more sensitive in 
+manipulating tools, had been available, they might have capped the well 
+in the first few days of the spill, preventing billions in property damage 
+and lawsuits."
+"Another possibility is that surrogate submarines might one day enter 
+the human body and perform delicate surgery from the inside. This idea 
+was explored in the movie Fantastic Voyage, starring Raquel Welch, in 
+which a submarine was shrunk down to the size of a blood cell and then 
+injected into the bloodstream of someone who had a blood clot in his 
+brain. Shrinking atoms violates the laws of quantum physics, but one 
+day MEMS (micro-electrical-mechanical systems) the size of cells might 
+be able to enter a person’s bloodstream. MEMS are incredibly small 
+machines that can easily fit on a pinpoint. MEMS employ the same 
+etching technology used in Silicon Valley, which can put hundreds of 
+millions of transistors on a wafer the size of your fingernail. An 
+elaborate machine with gears, levers, pulleys, and even motors can be 
+made smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. One day a 
+person may be able to put on a telepathy helmet and then command a"
+"person may be able to put on a telepathy helmet and then command a 
+MEMS submarine using wireless technology to perform surgery inside a 
+patient."
+"So MEMS technology may open up an entirely new field of medicine, 
+based on microscopic machines entering the body. These MEMS 
+submarines might even guide nanoprobes as they enter the brain so that 
+they connect precisely to the neurons that are of interest. In this way, 
+nanoprobes might be able to receive and transmit signals from the 
+handful of neurons that are involved in specific behaviors. The hit-or- 
+miss approach of inserting electrodes into the brain will be eliminated. 
+
+THE FUTURE 
+
+In the short term, all these remarkable advances taking place in 
+
+laboratories around the world may alleviate the suffering of those 
+afflicted by paralysis and other disabilities. Using the power of their 
+minds, they will be able to communicate with loved ones, control their 
+wheelchairs and beds, walk by mentally guiding mechanical limbs, 
+manipulate household appliances, and lead seminormal lives."
+"But in the long term, these advances could have profound economic 
+and practical implications for the world. By mid-century, it could 
+become commonplace to interact with computers directly with the mind. 
+Since the computer business is a multitrillion-dollar industry that can 
+
+create young billionaires and corporations almost overnight, advances in 
+the mind-computer interface will reverberate on Wall Street—and also in 
+your living room. 
+
+All the devices we use to communicate with computers (the mouse, 
+keyboards, etc.) may eventually disappear. In the future, we may simply 
+give mental commands and our wishes will be silently carried out by 
+tiny chips hidden in the environment. While sitting in our offices, taking 
+a stroll in the park, doing window-shopping, or just relaxing, our minds 
+could be interacting with scores of hidden chips, allowing us to mentally 
+balance our finances, arrange for theater tickets, or make a reservation."
+"Artists may also make good use of this technology. If they can 
+visualize their artwork in their minds, then the image can be displayed 
+via EEG sensors on a holographic screen in 3-D. Since the image in the 
+mind is not as precise as the original object, the artist could then make 
+improvements on the 3-D image and dream up the next iteration. After 
+several cycles, the artist could print out the final image on a 3-D printer. 
+
+Similarly, engineers would be able to create scale models of bridges, 
+tunnels, and airports by simply using their imagination. They could also 
+rapidly make changes in their blueprints through thought alone. 
+Machine parts could fly off the computer screen and into a 3-D printer."
+"Some critics, however, have claimed that these telekinetic powers 
+have one great limitation: the lack of energy. In the movies, super beings 
+have the power to move mountains using their thoughts. In the movie X- 
+Men: The Last Stand, the super villain Magneto had the ability to move 
+the Golden Gate Bridge simply by pointing his fingers, but the human 
+body can muster only about one-fifth of a horsepower on average, which 
+is much too little power to perform the feats we see in the comic books. 
+Therefore, all the herculean feats of telekinetic super beings appear to be 
+pure fantasy. 
+
+There is one solution to this energy problem, however. You may be 
+able to connect your thoughts to a power source, which would then"
+"magnify your power millions of times. In this way, you could 
+approximate the power of a god. In one episode of Star Trek, the crew 
+journeys to a distant planet and meets a godlike creature who claims to 
+be Apollo, the Greek god of the sun. He can perform feats of magic that 
+dazzle the crew. He even claims to have visited Earth eons ago, where 
+the earthlings worshipped him. But the crew, not believing in gods, 
+
+suspect a fraud. Later they figure out that this “god” just mentally 
+controls a hidden power source, which then performs all the magic 
+tricks. When this power source is destroyed, he becomes a mere mortal."
+"Similarly, in the future our minds may mentally control a power 
+source that will then give us superpowers. For example, a construction 
+worker might telepathically exploit a power source that energizes heavy 
+machinery. Then a single worker might be able to build complex 
+buildings and houses just by using the power of his mind. All the heavy 
+lifting would be done by the power source, and the construction worker 
+would resemble a conductor, able to orchestrate the motion of colossal 
+cranes and powerful bulldozers through thought alone. 
+
+Science is beginning to catch up to science fiction in yet another way. 
+The Star Wars saga was supposed to take place in a time when 
+civilizations span the entire galaxy. The peace of the galaxy, in turn, is 
+maintained by the Jedi Knights, a highly trained cadre of warriors who 
+use the power of the “Force” to read minds and guide their lightsabers."
+"However, one need not wait until we have colonized the entire galaxy 
+to begin contemplating the Force. As we’ve seen, some aspects of the 
+Force are possible today, such as being able to tap into the thoughts of 
+others using ECOG electrodes or EEG helmets. But the telekinetic powers 
+of the Jedi Knights will also become a possibility as we learn to harness 
+a power source with our minds. The Jedi Knights, for example, can 
+summon a light-saber simply by waving their hands, but we can already 
+accomplish the same feat by exploiting the power of magnetism (much 
+as the magnet in an MRI machine can hurl a hammer across a room). By 
+mentally activating the power source, you can grab lightsabers from 
+across the room with today’s technology. 
+
+THE POWER OF A GOD"
+"THE POWER OF A GOD 
+
+Telekinesis is a power usually reserved for a deity or a superhero. In the 
+universe of superheros appearing in blockbuster Hollywood movies, 
+perhaps the most powerful character is Phoenix, a telekinetic woman 
+who can move any object at will. As a member of the X-Men, she can lift 
+heavy machinery, hold back floods, or raise jet airplanes via the power 
+
+of her mind. (However, when she is finally consumed by the dark side of 
+
+her power, she goes on a cosmic rampage, capable of incinerating entire 
+solar systems and destroying stars. Her power is so great and 
+uncontrollable that it leads to her eventual self-destruction.) 
+
+But how far can science go in harnessing telekinetic powers?"
+"But how far can science go in harnessing telekinetic powers? 
+
+In the future, even with an external power source to magnify our 
+thoughts, it is unlikely that people with telekinetic powers will be able 
+to move basic objects like a pencil or mug of coffee on command. As we 
+mentioned, there are only four known forces that rule the universe, and 
+none of them can move objects unless there is an external power source. 
+(Magnetism comes close, but magnetism can move only magnetic 
+objects. Objects made of plastic, water, or wood can easily pass through 
+magnetic fields.) Simple levitation, a trick found in most magicians’ 
+shows, is beyond our scientific capability. 
+
+So even with an external power supply, is it unlikely that a telekinetic 
+person would be able to move the objects around them at will. However, 
+there is a technology that may come close, and that involves the ability 
+to change one object into another."
+"The technology is called “programmable matter,” and it has become a 
+subject of intense research for the Intel Corporation. The idea behind 
+programmable matter is to create objects made of tiny “catoms,” which 
+are microscopic computer chips. Each catom can be controlled 
+wirelessly; it can be programmed to change the electrical charge on its 
+surface so it can bind with other catoms in different ways. By 
+programming the electric charges one way, the catoms bind together to 
+form, say, a cell phone. Push a button to change their programming, and 
+the catoms rearrange themselves to re-form into another object, like a 
+laptop."
+"I saw a demonstration of this technology at Carnegie Mellon 
+University in Pittsburgh, where scientists have been able to create a chip 
+the size of a pinpoint. To exam these catoms, I had to enter a “clean 
+room” wearing a special white uniform, plastic boots, and a cap to 
+prevent even the smallest dust particle from entering. Then, under a 
+microscope, I could see the intricate circuitry inside each catom, which 
+makes it possible to program it wirelessly to change the electrical charge 
+on its surface. In the same way we can program software today, in the 
+future it may be possible to program hardware. 
+
+The next step is to determine if these catoms can combine to form"
+"The next step is to determine if these catoms can combine to form 
+
+useful objects, and to see if they can be changed or morphed into 
+another object at will. It may take until mid-century before we have 
+working prototypes of programmable matter. Because of the complexity 
+of programming billions of catoms, a special computer would have to be 
+created to orchestrate the charge on each catom. Perhaps by the end of 
+this century, it will be possible to mentally control this computer so that 
+we can change one object into another. We would not have to memorize 
+the charges and configuration within an object. We would just give the 
+mental command to the computer to change one object into another."
+"Eventually we might have catalogs listing all the various objects that 
+are programmable, such as furniture, appliances, and electronics. Then 
+by telepathically communicating with the computer, it should be 
+possible to change one object into another. Redecorating your living 
+room, remodeling your kitchen, and buying Christmas presents could all 
+be done mentally. 
+
+A MORALITY TALE 
+
+Having every wish come true is something that only a divinity can 
+accomplish. However, there is also a downside to this celestial power. 
+All technologies can be used for good or for evil. Ultimately, science is a 
+double-edged sword. One side of the sword can cut against poverty, 
+disease, and ignorance. But the other side can cut against people, in 
+several ways."
+"These technologies could conceivably make wars even more vicious. 
+Perhaps one day, all hand-to-hand combat will be between two 
+surrogates, armed with a battery of high-tech weapons. The actual 
+warriors, sitting safely thousands of miles away, would unleash a 
+barrage of the latest high-tech weaponry with little regard for the 
+collateral damage they are inflicting on civilians. Although wars fought 
+with surrogates may preserve the lives of the soldiers themselves, they 
+might also cause horrendous civilian and property damage. 
+
+The bigger problem is that this power may also be too great for any 
+common mortal to control. In the novel Carrie, Stephen King explored 
+the world of a young girl who was constantly taunted by her peers. She 
+was ostracized by the in-crowd and her life became a never-ending series 
+
+of insults and humiliations. However, her tormentors did not know one 
+thing about her: she was telekinetic. 
+
+After enduring the taunts and having blood splashed all over her dress"
+"After enduring the taunts and having blood splashed all over her dress 
+
+at the prom, she finally cracks. She summons all her telekinetic power to 
+trap her classmates and then annihilate them one by one. In a final 
+gesture, she decides to burn the entire school down. But her telekinetic 
+power was too great to control. She ultimately perishes in the fire that 
+she started. 
+
+Not only can the awesome power of telekinesis backfire, but there is 
+another problem as well. Even if you have taken all the precautions to 
+understand and harness this power, it could still destroy you if, 
+ironically enough, it is too obedient to your thoughts and commands. 
+Then the very thoughts you conceive may spell your doom."
+"The movie Forbidden Planet (1956) is based on a play by William 
+Shakespeare, The Tempest, which begins with a sorcerer and his daughter 
+stranded on a deserted island. But in Forbidden Planet, a professor and his 
+daughter are stranded on a distant planet that was once the home of the 
+Krell, a civilization millions of years more advanced than ours. Their 
+greatest achievement was to create a device that gave them the ultimate 
+power of telekinesis, the power to control matter in all its forms by the 
+mind. Anything they desired suddenly materialized before them. This 
+was the power to reshape reality itself to their whims. 
+
+Yet on the eve of their greatest triumph, as they were turning on this 
+device the Krell disappeared without a trace. What could have possibly 
+destroyed this most advanced civilization?"
+"When a crew of earthmen land on the planet to rescue the man and 
+his daughter, they find that there is a hideous monster haunting the 
+planet, slaughtering crew members at will. Finally, one crew member 
+discovers the secret behind both the Krell and the monster. Before he 
+dies, he gasps, “Monsters from the id.” 
+
+Then the shocking truth suddenly dawns on the professor. The very 
+night that the Krell turned on their telekinesis machine, they fell asleep. 
+All the repressed desires from their ids then suddenly materialized. 
+Buried in the subconscious of these highly developed creatures were the 
+long-suppressed animal urges and desires of their ancient past. Every 
+fantasy, every dream of revenge suddenly came true, so this great 
+civilization destroyed itself overnight. They had conquered many worlds, 
+
+but there was one thing they could not control: their own subconscious 
+minds."
+"but there was one thing they could not control: their own subconscious 
+minds. 
+
+That is a lesson for anyone who desires to unleash the power of the 
+mind. Within the mind, you find the noblest achievements and thoughts 
+of humanity. But you will also find monsters from the id. 
+
+CHANGING WHO WE ARE: OUR MEMORIES AND INTELLIGENCE 
+
+So far, we have discussed the power of science to extend our mental 
+abilities via telepathy and telekinesis. We basically remain the same; 
+these developments do nothing to change the essence of who we are. 
+However, there is an entirely new frontier opening up that alters the 
+very nature of what it means to be human. Using the very latest in 
+genetics, electromagnetics, and drug therapy, it may become possible in 
+the near future to alter our memories and even enhance our intelligence. 
+The idea of downloading a memory, learning complex skills overnight, 
+and becoming super intelligent is slowly leaving the realm of science 
+fiction."
+"Without our memories, we are lost, cast adrift in an aimless sea of 
+pointless stimuli, unable to understand the past or ourselves. So what 
+happens if one day we can input artificial memories into our brains? 
+What happens when we can become a master of any discipline simply by 
+downloading the file into our memory? And what happens if we cannot 
+tell the difference between real and fake memories? Then who are we? 
+
+Scientists are moving past being passive observers of nature to actively 
+shaping and molding nature. This means that we might be able to 
+manipulate memories, thoughts, intelligence, and consciousness. Instead 
+of simply witnessing the intricate mechanics of the mind, in the future it 
+will be possible to orchestrate them. 
+
+So let us now answer this question: Can we download memories? 
+
+If our brains were simple enough to be understood, we 
+wouldn’t be smart enough to understand them. 
+
+—ANONYMOUS 
+
+5 MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS MADE TO ORDER"
+"—ANONYMOUS 
+
+5 MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS MADE TO ORDER 
+
+Neo is The One. Only he can lead a defeated humanity to victory 
+against the Machines. Only Neo can destroy the Matrix, which has 
+implanted false memories into our brains as a means to control us. 
+
+In a now-classic scene from the film The Matrix, the evil Sentinels, 
+who guard the Matrix, have finally cornered Neo. It looks like 
+humanity’s last hope is about to be terminated. But previously Neo had 
+
+had an electrode jacked into the back of his neck that could instantly 
+download martial-arts skills into his brain. In seconds, he becomes a 
+karate master able to take down the Sentinels with breathtaking aerial 
+kicks and well-placed strikes. 
+
+In The Matrix, learning the amazing skills of a black-belt karate master 
+is no harder than slipping an electrode into your brain and pushing the 
+“download” button. Perhaps one day we, too, may be able to download 
+memories, which will vastly increase our abilities."
+"But what happens when the memories downloaded into your brain are 
+false? In the movie Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger has fake 
+memories placed into his brain, so that the distinction between reality 
+and fiction becomes totally blurred. He valiantly fights off the bad guys 
+on Mars until the end of the movie, when he suddenly realizes that he 
+himself is their leader. He is shocked to find that his memories of being a 
+normal, law-abiding citizen are totally manufactured. 
+
+Hollywood is fond of movies that explore the fascinating but fictional 
+world of artificial memories. All this is impossible, of course, with 
+today’s technology, but one can envision a day, a few decades from now, 
+when artificial memories may indeed be inserted into the brain. 
+
+HOW WE REMEMBER 
+
+Like Phineas Gage’s, the strange case of Henry Gustav Molaison, known 
+in the scientific literature as simply HM, created a sensation in the field"
+"of neurology that led to many fundamental breakthroughs in 
+understanding the importance of the hippocampus in formulating 
+memories."
+"At the age of nine, HM suffered head injuries in an accident that 
+caused debilitating convulsions. In 1953, when he was twenty-five years 
+old, he underwent an operation that successfully relieved his symptoms. 
+But another problem surfaced because surgeons mistakenly cut out part 
+of his hippocampus. At first, HM appeared normal, but it soon became 
+apparent that something was terribly wrong; he could not retain new 
+memories. Instead, he constantly lived in the present, greeting the same 
+people several times a day with the same expressions, as if he were 
+seeing them for the first time. Everything that went into his memory 
+lasted only a few minutes before it disappeared. Like Bill Murray in the 
+movie Groundhog Day, HM was doomed to relive the same day, over and 
+over, for the rest of his life. But unlike Bill Murray’s character, he was 
+unable to recall the previous iterations. His long-term memory, however,"
+"was relatively intact and could remember his life before the surgery. But 
+without a functioning hippocampus, HM was unable to record new 
+experiences. For example, he would be horrified when looking in a 
+mirror, since he saw the face of an old man but thought he was still 
+twenty-five. But mercifully, the memory of being horrified would also 
+soon disappear into the fog. In some sense, HM was like an animal with 
+Level II consciousness, unable to recall the immediate past or simulate 
+the future. Without a functioning hippocampus, he regressed from Level 
+III down to Level II consciousness. 
+
+Today, further advances in neuroscience have given us the clearest 
+picture yet of how memories are formed, stored, and then recalled. “It 
+has all come together just in the past few years, due to two technical 
+developments—computers and modern brain scanning,” says Dr. 
+Stephen Kosslyn, a neuroscientist at Harvard."
+"As we know, sensory information (e.g., vision, touch, taste) must first 
+pass through the brain stem and onto the thalamus, which acts like a 
+relay station, directing the signals to the various sensory lobes of the 
+brain, where they are evaluated. The processed information reaches the 
+prefrontal cortex, where it enters our consciousness and forms what we 
+consider our short-term memory, which can range from several seconds 
+to minutes. (See Figure 11.)"
+"To store these memories for a longer duration, the information must 
+then run through the hippocampus, where memories are broken down 
+into different categories. Rather than storing all memories in one area of 
+the brain like a tape recorder or hard drive, the hippocampus redirects 
+the fragments to various cortices. (Storing memories in this way is 
+actually more efficient than storing them sequentially. If human 
+memories were stored sequentially, like on computer tape, a vast 
+amount of memory storage would br required. In fact, in the future, even 
+digital storage systems may adopt this trick from the living brain, rather 
+than storing whole memories sequentially.) For instance, emotional 
+memories are stored in the amygdala, but words are recorded in the 
+temporal lobe. Meanwhile, colors and other visual information are 
+collected in the occipital lobe, and the sense of touch and movement 
+reside in the parietal lobe. So far, scientists have identified more than"
+"reside in the parietal lobe. So far, scientists have identified more than 
+twenty categories of memories that are stored in different parts of the 
+brain, including fruits and vegetables, plants, animals, body parts, 
+colors, numbers, letters, nouns, verbs, proper names, faces, facial 
+expressions, and various emotions and sounds."
+"Figure 11. This shows the path taken to create memories. Impulses from the senses pass through the 
+brain stem, to the 
+
+thalamus, out to the various cortices, and then to the prefrontal cortex. They then pass to the 
+hippocampus to form long¬ 
+term memories, (illustration credit 5.1) 
+
+A single memory—for instance, a walk in the park—involves 
+information that is broken down and stored in various regions of the 
+brain, but reliving just one aspect of the memory (e.g., the smell of 
+freshly cut grass) can suddenly send the brain racing to pull the 
+fragments together to form a cohesive recollection. The ultimate goal of 
+memory research is, then, to figure out how these scattered fragments 
+are somehow reassembled when we recall an experience. This is called 
+the “binding problem,” and a solution could potentially explain many 
+puzzling aspects of memory. For instance, Dr. Antonio Damasio has 
+analyzed stroke patients who are incapable of identifying a single"
+"category, even though they are able to recall everything else. This is 
+because the stroke has affected just one particular area of the brain, 
+where that certain category was stored. 
+
+The binding problem is further complicated because all our memories 
+and experiences are highly personal. Memories might be customized for 
+the individual, so that the categories of memories for one person may 
+not correlate with the categories of memories for another. Wine tasters, 
+for example, may have many categories for labeling subtle variations in 
+taste, while physicists may have other categories for certain equations. 
+Categories, after all, are by-products of experience, and different people 
+may therefore have different categories."
+"One novel solution to the binding problem uses the fact that there are 
+electromagnetic vibrations oscillating across the entire brain at roughly 
+forty cycles per second, which can be picked up by EEG scans. One 
+fragment of memory might vibrate at a very precise frequency and 
+stimulate another fragment of memory stored in a distant part of the 
+brain. Previously it was thought that memories might be stored 
+physically close to one another, but this new theory says that memories 
+are not linked spatially but rather temporally, by vibrating in unison. If 
+this theory holds up, it means that there are electromagnetic vibrations 
+constantly flowing through the entire brain, linking up different regions 
+and thereby re-creating entire memories. Hence the constant flow of 
+information between the hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex, the 
+thalamus, and the different cortices might not be entirely neural after 
+all. Some of this flow may be in the form of resonance across different 
+brain structures."
+"RECORDING A MEMORY 
+
+Sadly, HM died in 2008 at the age of eighty-two, before he could take 
+advantage of some sensational results achieved by science: the ability to 
+create an artificial hippocampus and then insert memories into the brain. 
+This is something straight out of science fiction, but scientists at Wake 
+Forest University and the University of Southern California made history 
+in 2011 when they were able to record a memory made by mice and 
+store it digitally in a computer. This was a proof-of-principle experiment, 
+
+in which they showed that the dream of downloading memories into the 
+brain might one day become reality."
+"At first, the very idea of downloading memories into the brain seems 
+like an impossible dream, because, as we have seen, memories are 
+created by processing a variety of sensory experiences, which are then 
+stored in multiple places in the neocortex and limbic system. But as we 
+know from HM, there is one place through which all memories flow and 
+are converted into long-term memories: the hippocampus. Team leader 
+Dr. Theodore Berger of USC says, “If you can’t do it with the 
+hippocampus, you can’t do it anywhere.”"
+"The scientists at Wake Forest and USC first started with the 
+observation, garnered from brain scans, that there are at least two sets of 
+neurons in a mouse’s hippocampus, called CA1 and CA3, which 
+communicate with each other as a new task is learned. After training 
+mice to press two bars, one after the other, in order to get water, the 
+scientists reviewed the findings and attempted to decode these messages, 
+which proved frustrating at first since the signals between these two sets 
+of neurons didn’t appear to follow a pattern. But by monitoring the 
+signals millions of times, they were eventually able to determine which 
+electrical input created which output. With the use of probes in the 
+mice’s hippocampi, the scientists were able to record the signals between 
+CA1 and CA3 when the mice learned to press the two bars in sequence."
+"Then the scientists injected the mice with a special chemical, making 
+them forget the task. Finally they played back the memory into the same 
+mouse’s brain. Remarkably, the memory of the task returned, and the 
+mice could successfully reproduce the original task. Essentially, they had 
+created an artificial hippocampus with the ability to duplicate digital 
+memory. “Turn the switch on, the animal has the memory; turn it off 
+and they don’t,” says Dr. Berger. “It’s a very important step because it’s 
+the first time we have put all the pieces together.” 
+
+As Joel Davis of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, which 
+sponsored this work, said, “Using implantables to enhance competency is 
+down the road. It’s only a matter of time.”"
+"Not surprisingly, with so much at stake, this area of research is 
+moving very rapidly. In 2013, yet another breakthrough was made, this 
+time at MIT, by scientists who were able to implant not just ordinary 
+memories into a mouse, but false ones as well. This means that, one day, 
+
+memories of events that never took place may be implanted into the 
+brain, which would have a profound impact on fields like education and 
+entertainment. 
+
+The MIT scientists used a technique called optogenetics (which we will 
+discuss more in Chapter 8), which allows you to shine a light on specific 
+neurons to activate them. Using this powerful method, scientists can 
+identify the specific neurons responsible for certain memories."
+"Let’s say that a mouse enters a room and is given a shock. The neurons 
+responsible for the memory of that painful event can actually be isolated 
+and recorded by analyzing the hippocampus. Then the mouse is placed 
+in an entirely different room that is totally harmless. By turning on a 
+light on an optical fiber, one can use optogenetics to activate the 
+memory of the shock, and the mouse exhibits a fear response, although 
+the second room is totally safe. 
+
+In this way, the MIT scientists were able not only to implant ordinary 
+memories, but also memories of events that never took place. One day, 
+this technique may give educators the ability to implant memories of 
+new skills to retrain workers, or give Hollywood an entirely new form of 
+entertainment. 
+
+AN ARTIFICIAL HIPPOCAMPUS"
+"AN ARTIFICIAL HIPPOCAMPUS 
+
+At present, the artificial hippocampus is primitive, able to record only a 
+single memory at a time. But these scientists plan to increase the 
+complexity of their artificial hippocampus so that it can store a variety 
+of memories and record them for different animals, eventually working 
+up to monkeys. They also plan to make this technology wireless by 
+replacing the wires with tiny radios so that memories can be 
+downloaded remotely without the need for clumsy electrodes implanted 
+into the brain. 
+
+Because the hippocampus is involved with memory processing in 
+humans, scientists see a vast potential application in treating strokes, 
+dementia, Alzheimer’s, and a host of other problems that occur when 
+there is damage or deterioration in this region of the brain. 
+
+Many hurdles have to be negotiated, of course. Despite all we have 
+learned about the hippocampus since HM, it still remains something of a"
+"black box whose inner workings are largely unknown. As a result, it is 
+not possible to construct a memory from scratch, but once a task has 
+been performed and the memory processed, it is possible to record it and 
+play it back. 
+
+FUTURE DIRECTIONS 
+
+Working with the hippocampus of primates and even humans will be 
+more difficult, since their hippocampi are much larger and more 
+complex. The first step is to create a detailed neural map of the 
+hippocampus. This means placing electrodes at different parts of the 
+hippocampus to record the signals that are constantly being exchanged 
+between different regions. This will establish the flow of information 
+that constantly moves across the hippocampus. The hippocampus has 
+four basic divisions, CA1 to CA4, and hence scientists will record the 
+signals that are exchanged between them."
+"The second step involves the subject performing certain tasks, after 
+which scientists will record the impulses that flow across the various 
+regions of the hippocampus, thereby recording the memory. For 
+example, the memory of learning a certain task, such as jumping 
+through a hoop, will create electrical activity in the hippocampus that 
+can be recorded and carefully analyzed. Then a dictionary can be 
+created matching the memory with the flow of information across the 
+hippocampus. 
+
+Finally, step three involves making a recording of this memory and 
+feeding the electrical signal into the hippocampus of another subject via 
+electrodes, to see if that memory can been uploaded. In this fashion, the 
+subject may learn to jump through a hoop although it has never done so 
+before. If successful, scientists would gradually create a library 
+containing recordings of certain memories."
+"It may take decades to work all the way up to human memories, but 
+one can envision how it might work. In the future, people may be hired 
+to create certain memories, like a luxury vacation or a fictitious battle. 
+Nanoelectrodes will be placed at various places in their brain to record 
+the memory. These electrodes must be extremely small so that they do 
+not interfere with the formation of the memory. 
+
+The information from these electrodes will then be sent wirelessly to a 
+
+computer and then recorded. Later a subject who wants to experience 
+these memories will have similar electrodes placed in his hippocampus, 
+and the memory will be inserted into the brain."
+"(There are complications to this idea, of course. If we try to insert the 
+memory of physical activity, such as a martial art, we have the problem 
+of “muscle memory.” For example, when walking, we do not consciously 
+think about putting one leg in front of the other. Walking has become 
+second nature to us because we do it so often, and from an early age. 
+This means that the signals controlling our legs no longer originate 
+entirely in the hippocampus, but also in the motor cortex, the 
+cerebellum, and the basal ganglia. In the future, if we wish to insert 
+memories involving sports, scientists may have to decipher the way in 
+which memories are partially stored in other areas of the brain as well.) 
+
+VISION AND HUMAN MEMORIES"
+"VISION AND HUMAN MEMORIES 
+
+The formation of memories is quite complex, but the approach we have 
+been discussing takes a shortcut by eavesdropping on the signals moving 
+through the hippocampus, where the sensory impulses have already 
+been processed. In The Matrix, however, an electrode is placed in the 
+back of the head to upload memories directly into the brain. This 
+assumes that one can decode the raw, unprocessed impulses coming in 
+from the eyes, ears, skin, etc., that are moving up the spinal cord and 
+brain stem and into the thalamus. This is much more elaborate and 
+difficult than analyzing the processed messages circulating in the 
+hippocampus."
+"To give you a sense of the sheer volume of unprocessed information 
+that comes up the spinal cord into the thalamus, let’s consider just one 
+aspect: vision, since many of our memories are encoded this way. There 
+are roughly 130 million cells in the eye’s retina, called cones and rods; 
+they process and record 100 million bits of information from the 
+landscape at any time. 
+
+This vast amount of data is then collected and sent down the optic 
+nerve, which transports 9 million bits of information per second, and on 
+to the thalamus. From there, the information reaches the occipital lobe, 
+
+at the very back of the brain. This visual cortex, in turn, begins the 
+arduous process of analyzing this mountain of data. The visual cortex 
+consists of several patches at the back of the brain, each of which is 
+designed for a specific task. They are labeled VI to V8. 
+
+Remarkably, the area called VI is like a screen; it actually creates a"
+"Remarkably, the area called VI is like a screen; it actually creates a 
+
+pattern on the back of your brain very similar in shape and form to the 
+original image. This image bears a striking resemblance to the original, 
+except that the very center of your eye, the fovea, occupies a much 
+larger area in VI (since the fovea has the highest concentration of 
+neurons). The image cast on VI is therefore not a perfect replica of the 
+landscape but is distorted, with the central region of the image taking up 
+most of the space. 
+
+Besides VI, other areas of the occipital lobe process different aspects 
+of the image, including: 
+
+• Stereo vision. These neurons compare the images coming in from 
+each eye. This is done in area V2. 
+
+• Distance. These neurons calculate the distance to an object, using 
+shadows and other information from both eyes. This is done in area 
+V3. 
+
+• Colors are processed in area V4."
+"• Colors are processed in area V4. 
+
+• Motion. Different circuits can pick out different classes of motion, 
+including straight-line, spiral, and expanding motion. This is done in 
+area V5. 
+
+More than thirty different neural circuits involved with vision have 
+been identified, but there are probably many more. 
+
+From the occipital lobe, the information is sent to the prefrontal 
+cortex, where you finally “see” the image and form your short-term 
+memory. The information is then sent to the hippocampus, which 
+processes it and stores it for up to twenty-four hours. The memory is 
+then chopped up and scattered among the various cortices. 
+
+The point here is that vision, which we think happens effortlessly, 
+requires billions of neurons firing in sequence, transmitting millions of 
+bits of information per second. And remember that we have signals from 
+five sense organs, plus emotions associated with each image. All this"
+"information is processed by the hippocampus to create a simple memory 
+of an image. At present, no machine can match the sophistication of this 
+process, so replicating it presents an enormous challenge for scientists 
+who want to create an artificial hippocampus for the human brain. 
+
+REMEMBERING THE FUTURE 
+
+If encoding the memory of just one of the senses is such a complex 
+process, then how did we evolve the ability to store such vast amounts of 
+information in our long-term memory? Instinct, for the most part, guides 
+the behavior of animals, which do not appear to have much of a long¬ 
+term memory. But as neurobiologist Dr. James McGaugh of the 
+University of California at Irvine says, “The purpose of memory is to 
+predict the future,” which raises an interesting possibility. Perhaps long¬ 
+term memory evolved because it was useful for simulating the future. In 
+other words, the fact that we can remember back into the distant past is 
+due to the demands and advantages of simulating the future."
+"Indeed, brain scans done by scientists at Washington University in St. 
+Louis indicate that areas used to recall memories are the same as those 
+involved in simulating the future. In particular, the link between the 
+dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus lights up when a 
+person is engaged in planning for the future and remembering the past. 
+In some sense, the brain is trying to “recall the future,” drawing upon 
+memories of the past in order to determine how something will evolve 
+into the future. This may also explain the curious fact that people who 
+suffer from amnesia—such as HM—are often unable to visualize what 
+they will be doing in the future or even the very next day."
+"“You might look at it as mental time travel—the ability to take 
+thoughts about ourselves and project them either into the past or into 
+the future,” says Dr. Kathleen McDermott of Washington University. She 
+also notes that their study proves a “tentative answer to a longstanding 
+question regarding the evolutionary usefulness of memory. It may just be 
+that the reason we can recollect the past in vivid detail is that this set of 
+processes is important for being able to envision ourselves in future 
+scenarios. This ability to envision the future has clear and compelling 
+adaptive significance.” For an animal, the past is largely a waste of 
+
+precious resources, since it gives them little evolutionary advantage. But 
+simulating the future, given the lessons of the past, is an essential reason 
+why humans became intelligent. 
+
+AN ARTIFICIAL CORTEX"
+"AN ARTIFICIAL CORTEX 
+
+In 2012 the same scientists from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and 
+the University of Southern California who created an artificial 
+hippocampus in mice announced an even more far-reaching experiment. 
+Instead of recording a memory in the mouse hippocampus, they 
+duplicated the much more sophisticated thinking process of the cortex of 
+a primate."
+"They took five rhesus monkeys and inserted tiny electrodes into two 
+layers of their cortex, called the L2/3 and L5 layers. They then recorded 
+neural signals that went between these two layers as the monkeys 
+learned a task. (This task involved the monkeys seeing a set of pictures, 
+and then being rewarded if they could pick out these same pictures from 
+a much larger set.) With practice, the monkeys could perform the task 
+with 75 percent accuracy. But if the scientists fed the signal back into 
+the cortex as the monkey was performing the test, its performance 
+increased by 10 percent. When certain chemicals were given to the 
+monkey, its performance dropped by 20 percent. But if the recording 
+was fed back into the cortex, its performance exceeded its normal level. 
+Although this was a small sample size and there was only a modest 
+improvement in performance, the study still suggests that the scientists’ 
+recording accurately captured the decision-making process of the cortex."
+"Because this study was done on primates rather than mice and 
+involved the cortex and not the hippocampus, it could have vast 
+implications when human trials begin. Dr. Sam A. Deadwyler of Wake 
+Forest says, “The whole idea is that the device would generate an output 
+pattern that bypasses the damaged area, proving an alternative 
+connection” in the brain. This experiment has a possible application for 
+patients whose neocortex has been damaged. Like a crutch, this device 
+would perform the thinking operation of the damaged area. 
+
+AN ARTIFICIAL CEREBELLUM 
+
+It should also be pointed out that the artificial hippocampus and 
+neocortex are but the first steps. Eventually, other parts of the brain will 
+have artificial counterparts. For example, scientists at Tel Aviv 
+University in Israel have already created an artificial cerebellum for a 
+rat. The cerebellum is an essential part of the reptilian brain that 
+controls our balance and other basic bodily functions."
+"Usually when a puff of air is directed at a rat’s face, it blinks. If a 
+sound is made at the same time, the rat can be conditioned to blink just 
+by hearing the sound. The goal of the Israeli scientists was to create an 
+artificial cerebellum that could duplicate this feat. 
+
+First the scientists recorded the signals entering the brain stem when 
+the puff of air hit the rat’s face and the sound was heard. Then the signal 
+was processed and sent back to the brain stem at another location. As 
+expected, the rats blinked upon receiving the signal. Not only is this the 
+first time that an artificial cerebellum functioned correctly, it is the first 
+time that messages were received from one part of the brain, processed, 
+and then uploaded into a different part of the brain."
+"Commenting on this work, Francesco Sepulveda of the University of 
+Essex says, “This demonstrates how far we have come towards creating 
+circuitry that could one day replace damaged brain areas and even 
+enhance the power of the healthy brain.” 
+
+He also sees great potential for artificial brains in the future, adding, 
+“It will likely take us several decades to get there, but my bet is that 
+specific, well-organized brain parts such as the hippocampus or the 
+visual cortex will have synthetic correlates before the end of the 
+century.” 
+
+Although progress in creating artificial replacements for the brain is 
+moving remarkably fast given the complexity of the process, it is a race 
+against time when one considers the greatest threat facing our public 
+health system, the declining mental abilities of people with Alzheimer’s. 
+
+ALZHEIMER’S—DESTROYER OF MEMORY"
+"ALZHEIMER’S—DESTROYER OF MEMORY 
+
+Alzheimer’s disease, some people claim, might be the disease of the 
+century. There are 5.3 million Americans who currently have 
+Alzheimer’s, and the number is expected to quadruple by 2050. Five 
+
+percent of people from age sixty-five to seventy-four have Alzheimer’s, 
+but more than 50 percent of those over eighty-five have it, even if they 
+have no obvious risk factors. (Back in 1900, life expectancy in the 
+United States was forty-nine, so Alzheimer’s was not a significant 
+problem. But now, people over eighty are one of the fastest-growing 
+demographic groups in the country.)"
+"In the early stages of Alzheimer’s, the hippocampus, the part of the 
+brain through which memories are processed, begins to deteriorate. 
+Indeed, brain scans clearly show that the hippocampus shrinks in 
+Alzheimer’s patients, but the wiring linking the prefrontal cortex to the 
+hippocampus also thins, leaving the brain unable to properly process 
+short-term memories. Long-term memories already stored throughout 
+the cortices of the brain remain relatively intact, at least at first. This 
+creates a situation where you may not remember what you just did a few 
+minutes ago but can clearly recall events that took place decades ago. 
+
+Eventually, the disease progresses to the point where even basic long¬ 
+term memories are destroyed. The person is unable to recognize their 
+children or spouse and to remember who they are, and can even fall into 
+a comalike vegetative state. 
+
+Sadly, the basic mechanisms for Alzheimer’s have only recently begun"
+"Sadly, the basic mechanisms for Alzheimer’s have only recently begun 
+
+to be understood. One major breakthrough came in 2012, when it was 
+revealed that Alzheimer’s begins with the formation of tau amyloid 
+proteins, which in turn accelerates the formation of beta amyloid, a 
+gummy, gluelike substance that clogs up the brain. (Before, it was not 
+clear if Alzheimer’s was caused by these plaques or whether perhaps 
+these plaques were by-products of a more fundamental disorder.)"
+"What makes these amyloid plaques so difficult to target with drugs is 
+that they are most likely made of “prions,” which are misshapen protein 
+molecules. They are not bacteria or viruses, but nevertheless they can 
+reproduce. When viewed atomically, a protein molecule resembles a 
+jungle of ribbons of atoms tied together. This tangle of atoms must fold 
+onto itself correctly for the protein to assume the proper shape and 
+function. But prions are misshapen proteins that have folded incorrectly. 
+Worse, when they bump into healthy proteins, they cause them to fold 
+incorrectly as well. Hence one prion can cause a cascade of misshapen 
+proteins, creating a chain reaction that contaminates billions more. 
+
+At present, there is no known way to stop the inexorable progression"
+"At present, there is no known way to stop the inexorable progression 
+
+of Alzheimer’s. Now that the basic mechanics behind Alzheimer’s are 
+being unraveled, however, one promising method is to create antibodies 
+or a vaccine that might specifically target these misshapen protein 
+molecules. Another way might be to create an artificial hippocampus for 
+these individuals so that their short-term memory can be restored. 
+
+Yet another approach is to see if we can directly increase the brain’s 
+ability to create memories using genetics. Perhaps there are genes that 
+can improve our memory. The future of memory research may lie in the 
+“smart mouse.” 
+
+THE SMART MOUSE"
+"THE SMART MOUSE 
+
+In 1999, Dr. Joseph Tsien and colleagues at Princeton, MIT, and 
+Washington University found that adding a single extra gene 
+dramatically boosted a mouse’s memory and ability. These “smart mice” 
+could navigate mazes faster, remember events better, and outperform 
+other mice in a wide variety of tests. They were dubbed “Doogie mice,” 
+after the precocious character on the TV show Doogie Howser, M.D. 
+
+Dr. Tsien began by analyzing the gene NR2B, which acts like a switch 
+controlling the brain’s ability to associate one event with another. 
+(Scientists know this because when the gene is silenced or rendered 
+inactive, mice lose this ability.) All learning depends on NR2B, because 
+it controls the communication between memory cells of the"
+"hippocampus. First Dr. Tsien created a strain of mice that lacked NR2B, 
+and they showed impaired memory and learning disabilities. Then he 
+created a strain of mice that had more copies of NR2B than normal, and 
+found that the new mice had superior mental capabilities. Placed in a 
+shallow pan of water and forced to swim, normal mice would swim 
+randomly about. They had forgotten from just a few days before that 
+there was a hidden underwater platform. The smart mice, however, went 
+straight to the hidden platform on the first try. 
+
+Since then, researchers have been able to confirm these results in 
+other labs and create even smarter strains of mice. In 2009, Dr. Tsien 
+published a paper announcing yet another strain of smart mice, dubbed 
+“Hobbie-J” (named after a character in Chinese cartoons). Hobbie-J was 
+able to remember novel facts (such as the location of toys) three times"
+"longer than the genetically modified strain of mouse previously thought 
+to be the smartest. “This adds to the notion that NR2B is a universal 
+switch for memory formation,” remarked Dr. Tsien. “It’s like taking 
+Michael Jordon and making him a super Michael Jordan,” said graduate 
+student Deheng Wang. 
+
+There are limits, however, even to this new mice strain. When these 
+mice were given a choice to take a left or right turn to get a chocolate 
+reward, Hobbie-J was able to remember the correct path for much 
+longer than the normal mice, but after five minutes he, too, forgot. “We 
+can never turn it into a mathematician. They are rats, after all,” says Dr. 
+Tsien. 
+
+It should also be pointed out that some of the strains of smart mice 
+were exceptionally timid compared to normal mice. Some suspect that, if 
+your memory becomes too great, you also remember all the failures and 
+hurts as well, perhaps making you hesitant. So there is also a potential 
+downside to remembering too much."
+"Next, scientists hope to generalize their results to dogs, since we share 
+so many genes, and perhaps also to humans. 
+
+SMART FLIES AND DUMB MICE 
+
+The NR2B gene is not the only gene being studied by scientists for its 
+impact on memory. In yet another groundbreaking series of experiments, 
+scientists have been able to breed a strain of fruit flies with 
+“photographic memory,” and also a strain of mice that are amnesiac. 
+These experiments may eventually explain many mysteries of our long¬ 
+term memory, such as why cramming for an exam is not the best way to 
+
+study, and why we remember events if they are emotionally charged. 
+Scientists have found that there are two important genes, the CREB 
+activator (which stimulates the formation of new connections between 
+neurons) and the CREB repressor (which suppresses the formation of 
+new memories)."
+"Dr. Jerry Yin and Timothy Tully of Cold Spring Harbor have been 
+doing interesting experiments with fruit flies. Normally it takes ten trials 
+for them to learn a certain task (e.g., detecting an odor, avoiding a 
+shock). Fruit flies with an extra CREB repressor gene could not form 
+
+lasting memories at all, but the real surprise came when they tested fruit 
+flies with an extra CREB activator gene. They learned the task in just one 
+session. “This implies these flies have a photographic memory,” says Dr. 
+Tully. He said they are just like students “who could read a chapter of a 
+book once, see it in their mind, and tell you that the answer is in 
+paragraph three of page two seventy-four.”"
+"This effect is not just restricted to fruit flies. Dr. Alcino Silva, also at 
+Cold Spring Harbor, has been experimenting with mice. He found that 
+mice with a defect in their CREB activator gene were virtually incapable 
+of forming long-term memories. They were amnesiac mice. But even 
+these forgetful mice could learn a bit if they had short lessons with rest 
+in between. Scientists theorize that we have a fixed amount of CREB 
+activator in the brain that can limit the amount we can learn in any 
+specific time. If we try to cram before a test, it means that we quickly 
+exhaust the amount of CREB activators, and hence we cannot learn any 
+more—at least until we take a break to replenish the CREB activators. 
+
+“We can now give you a biological reason why cramming doesn’t 
+work,” says Dr. Tully. The best way to prepare for a final exam is to 
+mentally review the material periodically during the day, until the 
+material becomes part of your long-term memory."
+"This may also explain why emotionally charged memories are so vivid 
+and can last for decades. The CREB repressor gene is like a filter, 
+cleaning out useless information. But if a memory is associated with a 
+strong emotion, it can either remove the CREB repressor gene or increase 
+levels of the CREB activator gene. 
+
+In the future, we can expect more breakthroughs in understanding the 
+genetic basis of memory. Not just one but a sophisticated combination of 
+genes is probably required to shape the enormous capabilities of the 
+brain. These genes, in turn, have counterparts in the human genome, so 
+it is a distinct possibility that we can also enhance our memory and 
+mental skills genetically."
+"However, don’t think that you will be able to get a brain boost 
+anytime soon. Many hurdles still remain. First, it is not clear if these 
+results apply to humans. Often therapies that show great promise in 
+mice do not translate well to our species. Second, even if these results 
+can be applied to humans, we do not know what their impact will be. 
+For example, these genes may help improve our memory but not affect"
+"our general intelligence. Third, gene therapy (i.e., fixing broken genes) is 
+more difficult than previously thought. Only a small handful of genetic 
+diseases can be cured with this method. Even though scientists use 
+harmless viruses to infect cells with the “good” gene, the body still sends 
+antibodies to attack the intruder, often rendering the therapy useless. It’s 
+possible that the insertion of a gene to enhance memory would face a 
+similar fate. (In addition, the field of gene therapy suffered a major 
+setback a few years ago when a patient died at the University of 
+Pennsylvania during a gene therapy procedure. The work of modifying 
+human genes therefore faces many ethical and even legal questions.)"
+"Human trials, then, will progress much more slowly than animal trials. 
+However, one can foresee the day when this procedure might be 
+perfected and become a reality. Altering our genes in this way would 
+require no more than a simple shot in the arm. A harmless virus would 
+then enter our blood, which would then infect normal cells by injecting 
+its genes. Once the “smart gene” is successfully incorporated into our 
+cells, the gene becomes active and releases proteins that would increase 
+our memory and cognitive skills by affecting the hippocampus and 
+memory formation. 
+
+If the insertion of genes becomes too difficult, another possibility is to 
+insert the proper proteins directly into the body, bypassing the use of 
+gene therapy. Instead of getting a shot, we would swallow a pill. 
+
+A SMART PILL"
+"A SMART PILL 
+
+Ultimately, one goal of this research is to create a “smart pill” that could 
+boost concentration, improve memory, and maybe increase our 
+intelligence. Pharmaceutical companies have experimented with several 
+drugs, such as MEM 1003 and MEM 1414, that do seem to enhance 
+mental function. 
+
+Scientists have found that in animal studies, long-term memories are 
+made possible by the interaction of enzymes and genes. Learning takes 
+place when certain neural pathways are reinforced as specific genes are 
+activated, such as the CREB gene, which in turn emits a corresponding 
+protein. Basically, the more CREB proteins circulating in the brain, the 
+
+faster long-term memories are formed. This has been verified in studies 
+
+on sea mollusks, fruit flies, and mice. The key property of MEM 1414 is 
+that it accelerates the production of the CREB proteins. In lab tests, aged 
+animals given MEM 1414 were able to form long-term memories 
+significantly faster than a control group."
+"Scientists are also beginning to isolate the precise biochemistry 
+required in the formation of long-term memories, at both the genetic and 
+the molecular level. Once the process of memory formation is completely 
+understood, therapies will be devised to accelerate and strengthen this 
+key process. Not only the aged and Alzheimer’s patients but eventually 
+the average person may well benefit from this “brain boost.” 
+
+CAN MEMORIES BE ERASED?"
+"CAN MEMORIES BE ERASED? 
+
+Alzheimer’s may destroy memories indiscriminately, but what about 
+selectively erasing them? Amnesia is one of Hollywood’s favorite plot 
+devices. In The Bourne Identity, Jason Bourne (played by Matt Damon), a 
+skilled CIA agent, is found floating in the water, left for dead. When he 
+is revived, he has severe memory loss. He is being relentlessly chased by 
+assassins who want to kill him, but he does not know who he is, what 
+happened, or why they want him dead. The only clue to his memory is 
+his uncanny ability to instinctively engage in combat like a secret agent."
+"It is well documented that amnesia can occur accidentally through 
+trauma, such as a blow on the head. But can memories be selectively 
+erased? In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Jim 
+Carrey, two people meet accidentally on a train and are immediately 
+attracted to each other. However, they are shocked to find that they 
+were actually lovers years ago but have no memory of it. They learn that 
+they paid a company to wipe memories of each other after a particularly 
+bad fight. Apparently, fate has given them a second chance at love. 
+
+Selective amnesia was taken to an entirely new level in Men in Black, 
+in which Will Smith plays an agent from a shadowy, secret organization 
+that uses the “neuralizer” to selectively erase inconvenient memories of 
+UFOs and alien encounters. There is even a dial to determine how far 
+back the memories should be erased. 
+
+All these make for thrilling plot lines and box-office hits, but are any 
+of them really possible, even in the future?"
+"We know that amnesia is, indeed, possible, and that there are two 
+basic types, depending on whether short- or long-term memory has been 
+affected. “Retrograde amnesia” occurs when there is some trauma or 
+damage to the brain and preexisting memories are lost, usually dating 
+from the event that caused the amnesia. This would be similar to the 
+amnesia faced by Jason Bourne, who lost all memories from before he 
+was left for dead in the water. Here the hippocampus is still intact, so 
+new memories can be formed even though long-term memory has been 
+damaged. “Anterograde amnesia” occurs when short-term memory is 
+damaged, so the person has difficulty forming new memories after the 
+event that caused the amnesia. Usually, amnesia may last for minutes to 
+hours due to damage to the hippocampus. (Anterograde amnesia was 
+featured prominently in the movie Memento, where a man is bent on 
+revenge for the death of his wife. The problem, however, is that his"
+"revenge for the death of his wife. The problem, however, is that his 
+memory lasts only about fifteen minutes, so he has to continually write 
+messages on scraps of papers, photos, and even tattoos in order to 
+remember the clues he has uncovered about the murderer. By painfully 
+reading this trail of messages he has written to himself, he can 
+accumulate crucial evidence that he would have soon forgotten.)"
+"The point here is that memory loss dates back to the time of the 
+trauma or disease, which would make the selective amnesia of 
+Hollywood highly improbable. Movies like Men in Black assume that 
+memories are stored sequentially, as in a hard disk, so you just hit the 
+“erase” button after a designated point in time. However, we know that 
+memories are actually broken up, with separate pieces stored in different 
+places in the brain. 
+
+A FORGETFUL DRUG 
+
+Meanwhile, scientists are studying certain drugs that may erase 
+traumatic memories that continue to haunt and disturb us. In 2009, 
+Dutch scientists, led by Dr. Merel Kindt, announced that they had found 
+new uses for an old drug called propranolol, which could act like a 
+“miracle” drug to ease the pain associated with traumatic memories. The 
+drug did not induce amnesia that begins at a specific point in time, but it 
+did make the pain more manageable—and in just three days, the study 
+
+claimed."
+"claimed. 
+
+The discovery caused a flurry of headlines, in light of the thousands of 
+victims who suffer from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Everyone 
+from war veterans to victims of sexual abuse and horrific accidents could 
+apparently find relief from their symptoms. But it also seemed to fly in 
+the face of brain research, which shows that long-term memories are"
+"encoded not electrically, but at the level of protein molecules. Recent 
+experiments, however, suggest that recalling memories requires both the 
+retrieval and then the reassembly of the memory, so that the protein 
+structure might actually be rearranged in the process. In other words, 
+recalling a memory actually changes it. This may be the reason why the 
+drug works: propranolol is known to interfere with adrenaline 
+absorption, a key in creating the long-lasting, vivid memories that often 
+result from traumatic events. “Propranolol sits on that nerve cell and 
+blocks it. So adrenaline can be present, but it can’t do its job,” says Dr. 
+James McGaugh of the University of California at Irvine. In other words, 
+without adrenaline, the memory fades."
+"Controlled tests done on individuals with traumatic memories showed 
+very promising results. But the drug hit a brick wall when it came to the 
+ethics of erasing memory. Some ethicists did not dispute its 
+effectiveness, but they frowned on the very idea of a forgetfulness drug, 
+since memories are there for a purpose: to teach us the lessons of life. 
+Even unpleasant memories, they said, serve some larger purpose. The 
+drug got a thumbs-down from the President’s Council on Bioethics. Its 
+report concluded that “dulling our memory of terrible things [would] 
+make us too comfortable with the world, unmoved by suffering, 
+wrongdoing, or cruelty.... Can we become numb to life’s sharpest 
+sorrows without also becoming numb to its greatest joys?” 
+
+Dr. David Magus of Stanford University’s Center for Biomedical Ethics 
+says, “Our breakups, our relationships, as painful as they are, we learn 
+from some of those painful experiences. They make us better people.”"
+"Others disagree. Dr. Roger Pitman of Harvard University says that if a 
+doctor encounters an accident victim who is in intense pain, “should we 
+deprive them of morphine because we might be taking away the full 
+emotional experience? Who would ever argue with that? Why should 
+psychiatry be different? I think that somehow behind this argument 
+lurks the notion that mental disorders are not the same as physical 
+
+disorders.” 
+
+How this debate is ultimately resolved could have direct bearing on 
+the next generation of drugs, since propranolol is not the only one 
+involved. 
+
+In 2008, two independent groups, both working with animals, 
+announced other drugs that could actually erase memories, not just 
+manage the pain they cause. Dr. Joe Tsien of the Medical College of 
+Georgia and his colleagues in Shanghai stated that they had actually 
+eliminated a memory in mice using a protein called CaMKII, while 
+scientists at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn found that the"
+"molecule PKMzeta could also erase memories. Dr. Andre Fenson, one of 
+the authors of this second study, said, “If further work confirms this 
+view, we can expect to one day see therapies based on PKMzeta memory 
+erasure.” Not only may the drug erase painful memories, it also “might 
+be useful in treating depression, general anxiety, phobias, post-traumatic 
+stress, and addictions,” he added. 
+
+So far, research has been limited to animals, but human trials will 
+begin soon. If the results transfer from animals to humans, then a 
+forgetful pill may be a real possibility. It will not be the kind of pill seen 
+in Hollywood movies (which conveniently creates amnesia at a precise, 
+opportune time) but could have vast medical applications in the real 
+world for people haunted by traumatic memories. It remains to be seen, 
+though, how selective this memory erasure might be in humans. 
+
+WHAT CAN GO WRONG?"
+"WHAT CAN GO WRONG? 
+
+There may come a day, however, when we can carefully register all the 
+signals passing through the hippocampus, thalamus, and the rest of the 
+limbic system and make a faithful record. Then, by feeding this 
+information into our brains, we might be able to reexperience the 
+totality of what another person went through. Then the question is: 
+What can go wrong? 
+
+In fact, the implications of this idea were explored in a movie, 
+Brainstorm (1983), starring Natalie Wood, which was far ahead of its 
+time. In the movie, scientists create the Hat, a helmet full of electrodes 
+that can faithfully record all the sensations a person is experiencing."
+"Later, a person can have precisely the same sensory experience by 
+playing that tape back into his brain. For fun, one person puts on the Hat 
+when he is making love and tape-records the experience. Then the tape 
+is put into a loop so the experience is greatly magnified. But when 
+another person unknowingly inserts the experience into his brain, he 
+nearly dies because of a sensory overload. Later, one of the scientists 
+experiences a fatal heart attack. But before she dies, she records her final 
+moments on tape. When another person plays the death tape into his 
+brain, he, too, has a sudden heart attack and dies. 
+
+When news of this powerful machine finally leaks out, the military 
+wants to seize control. This sets off a power struggle between the 
+military, which views it as a powerful weapon, and the original 
+scientists, who want to use it to unlock the secrets of the mind. 
+
+Brainstorm prophetically highlighted not only the promise of this"
+"Brainstorm prophetically highlighted not only the promise of this 
+
+technology but also its potential pitfalls. It was meant to be science 
+fiction, but some scientists believe that sometime in the future, these 
+very issues may play out in our headlines and in our courts. 
+
+Earlier, we saw that there have been promising developments in 
+recording a single memory created by a mouse. It may take until mid¬ 
+century before we can reliably record a variety of memories in primates 
+and humans. But creating the Hat, which can record the totality of 
+stimulation entering into the brain, requires tapping into the raw, 
+sensory data surging up the spinal cord and into the thalamus. It may be 
+late in this century before this can be done. 
+
+SOCIAL AND LEGAL ISSUES"
+"SOCIAL AND LEGAL ISSUES 
+
+Some aspects of this dilemma may play out in our lifetimes. On one 
+hand, we may reach a point where we can learn calculus by simply 
+uploading the skill. The educational system would be turned upside 
+down; perhaps it would free teachers to spend more time mentoring 
+students and giving them one-on-one attention in areas of cognition that 
+are less skill-based and cannot be mastered by hitting a button. The rote 
+memorization necessary to become a professional doctor, lawyer, or 
+scientist could also be drastically reduced through this method. 
+
+In principle, it might even give us memories of vacations that never"
+"In principle, it might even give us memories of vacations that never 
+
+happened, prizes that we never won, lovers whom we never loved, or 
+families that we never had. It could make up for deficiencies, creating 
+perfect memories of a life never lived. Parents would love this, since 
+they could teach their children lessons taken from real memories. The 
+demand for such a device could be enormous. Some ethicists fear that 
+these fake memories would be so vivid that we would prefer to relive 
+imaginary lives rather than experiencing our real ones."
+"The unemployed may also benefit from being able to learn new 
+marketable skills by having memories implanted. Historically, millions 
+of workers were left behind every time a new technology was 
+introduced, often without any safety net. That’s why we don’t have 
+many blacksmiths or wagon makers anymore. They turned into 
+autoworkers and other industrial workers. But retraining requires a large 
+amount of time and commitment. If skills can be implanted into the 
+brain, there would be an immediate impact on the world economic 
+system, since we wouldn’t have to waste so much human capital. (To 
+some degree, the value of a certain skill may be devalued if memories 
+can be uploaded into anyone, but this is compensated for by the fact that 
+the number and quality of skilled workers would vastly increase.)"
+"The tourism industry will also experience a tremendous boost. One 
+barrier to foreign travel is the pain of learning new customs and 
+conversing with new phrases. Tourists would be able to share in the 
+experience of living in a foreign land, rather than getting bogged down 
+trying to master the local currency and the details of the transportation 
+system. (Although uploading an entire language, with tens of thousands 
+of words and expressions, would be difficult, it might be possible to 
+upload enough information to carry on a decent conversation.)"
+"Inevitably, these memory tapes will find their way onto social media. 
+In the future, you might be able to record a memory and upload it to the 
+Internet for millions to feel and experience. Previously, we discussed a 
+brain-net through which you can send thoughts. But if memories can be 
+recorded and created, you might also be able to send entire experiences. 
+If you just won a gold medal at the Olympic Games, why not share the 
+agony and the ecstasy of victory by putting your memories on the web? 
+Maybe the experience will go viral and billions can share in your 
+moment’s glory. (Children, who are often at the forefront of video games 
+and social media, may make a habit of recording memorable experiences"
+"and uploading them onto the Internet. Like taking a picture with a cell 
+phone, it would be second nature to them to record entire memories. 
+This would require both the sender and the receiver to have nearly 
+invisible nanowires connecting to their hippocampus. The information 
+would then be sent wirelessly to a server, which would convert the 
+message to a digital signal that can be carried by the Internet. In this 
+way, you could have blogs, message boards, social media, and chat 
+rooms where, instead of uploading pictures and videos, you would 
+upload memories and emotions.) 
+
+A LIBRARY OF SOULS"
+"A LIBRARY OF SOULS 
+
+People may also want to have a geneology of memories. When searching 
+records of our ancestors, we see only a one-dimensional portrait of their 
+lives. Throughout human history, people have lived, loved, and died 
+without leaving a substantial record of their existence. Mostly we just 
+find the birth and death dates of our relatives, with little in between. 
+Today we leave a long trail of electronic documents (credit card receipts, 
+bills, e-mails, bank statements, etc.). By default, the web is becoming a 
+giant repository of all the documents that describe our lives, but this still 
+doesn’t tell anyone much about what we were thinking or feeling. 
+Perhaps in the far future, the web could become a giant library 
+chronicling not just the details of our lives but also our consciousness."
+"In the future, people might routinely record their memories so their 
+descendants can share the same experiences. Visiting the library of 
+memories for your clan, you would be able to see and feel how they 
+lived, and also how you fit into the larger scheme of things. 
+
+This means that anyone could replay our lives, long after we have 
+died, by hitting the “play” button. If this vision is correct, it means that 
+we might be able to “bring back” our ancestors for an afternoon chat, 
+simply by inserting a disk into the library and pushing a button. 
+
+Meanwhile, if you want to share in the experiences of your favorite 
+historical figures, you might be able to have an intimate look into how 
+they felt as they confronted major crises in their lives. If you have a role 
+model and wish to know how they negotiated and survived the great 
+defeats of their life, you could experience their memory tapes and gain"
+"valuable insight. Imagine being able to share the memories of a Nobel 
+Prize-winning scientist. You might get clues about how great discoveries 
+are made. Or you might be able to share the memories of great 
+politicians and statesmen as they made crucial decisions that affected 
+world history. 
+
+Dr. Miguel Nicolelis believes all this will one day become reality. He 
+says, “Each of these perennial records would be revered as a uniquely 
+precious jewel, one among billions of equally exclusive minds that once 
+lived, loved, suffered, and prospered, until they, too, become 
+immortalized, not clad in cold and silent gravestones, but released 
+through vivid thoughts, intensely lived loves, and mutually endured 
+sorrows.” 
+
+THE DARK SIDE OF TECHNOLOGY"
+"THE DARK SIDE OF TECHNOLOGY 
+
+Some scientists have pondered the ethical implications of this 
+technology. Almost every new medical discovery caused ethical concerns 
+when it was introduced. Some of them had to be restricted or banned 
+when proven harmful (like the sleeping drug thalidomide, which caused 
+birth defects). Others have been so successful they changed our 
+conception of who we are, such as test-tube babies. When Louise Brown, 
+the first test-tube baby, was born in 1978, it created such a media storm 
+that even the pope issued a document critical of this technology. But 
+today, perhaps your sibling, child, spouse, or even you may be a product 
+of in vitro fertilization. Like many technologies, eventually the public 
+will simply get used to the idea that memories can be recorded and 
+shared."
+"Other bioethicists have different worries. What happens if memories 
+are given to us without our permission? What happens if these memories 
+are painful or destructive? Or what about Alzheimer’s patients, who are 
+eligible for memory uploads but are too sick to give permission? 
+
+The late Bernard Williams, a philosopher at Oxford University, 
+worried that this device might disturb the natural order of things, which 
+is to forget. “Forgetting is the most beneficial process we possess,” he 
+says. 
+
+If memories can be implanted like uploading computer files, it could"
+"If memories can be implanted like uploading computer files, it could 
+
+also shake the foundation of our legal system. One of the pillars of 
+justice is the eyewitness account, but what would happen if fake 
+memories were implanted? Also, if the memory of a crime can be 
+created, then it might secretly be implanted into the brain of an innocent 
+person. Or, if a criminal needs an alibi, he could secretly implant a 
+memory into another person’s brain, convincing him that they were 
+together when the crime was being committed. Furthermore, not just 
+verbal testimony but also legal documents would be suspect, since when 
+we sign affidavits and legal documents, we depend on our memory to 
+clarify what is true and false."
+"Safeguards would have to be introduced. Laws will have to be passed 
+that clearly define the limits of granting or denying access to memories. 
+Just as there are laws limiting the ability of the police or third parties to 
+enter your home, there would be laws to prevent people from accessing 
+your memories without your permission. There would also have to be a 
+way to mark these memories so that the person realizes that they are 
+fake. Thus, he would still be able to enjoy the memory of a nice 
+vacation, but he would also know that it never happened."
+"Taping, storing, and uploading our memories may allow us to record 
+the past and master new skills. But doing so will not alter our innate 
+ability to digest and process this large body of information. To do that, 
+we need to enhance our intelligence. Progress in this direction is 
+hindered by the fact that there is no universally accepted definition of 
+intelligence. However, there is one example of genius and intelligence 
+that no one can dispute, and that is Albert Einstein. Remarkably, sixty 
+years after his death, his brain is still yielding invaluable clues to the 
+nature of intelligence. 
+
+Some scientists believe that, using a combination of electromagnetics, 
+genetics, and drug therapy, it may be possible to boost our intelligence 
+to the genius level. They cite the fact that random injuries to the brain 
+have been documented that can suddenly change a person of normal 
+ability into a “savant,” one whose spectacular mental and artistic ability"
+"is off the scale. This can be achieved now by random accidents, but what 
+happens when science intervenes and illuminates the secret of this 
+process? 
+
+The brain is wider than the sky 
+For, put them side by side 
+The one the other will contain 
+With ease, and you beside. 
+
+—EMILY DICKINSON 
+
+Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no 
+one else can see. 
+
+—ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER 
+
+6 EINSTEIN’S BRAIN AND ENHANCING OUR 
+INTELLIGENCE 
+
+Albert Einstein’s brain is missing. 
+
+Or, at least it was for fifty years, until the heirs of the doctor who 
+spirited it away shortly after his death in 1955 finally returned it to the 
+National Museum of Health and Medicine in 2010. Analysis of his brain 
+may help clarify these questions: What is genius? How do you measure 
+intelligence and its relationship to success in life? There are also 
+philosophical questions: Is genius a function of our genes, or is it more a 
+question of personal struggle and achievement?"
+"And, finally, Einstein’s brain may help answer the key question: Can 
+we boost our own intelligence? 
+
+The word “Einstein” is no longer a proper noun that refers to a specific 
+person. It now simply means “genius.” The picture that the name 
+conjures up (baggy pants, flaming white hair, disheveled looks) is 
+equally iconic and instantly recognizable. 
+
+The legacy of Einstein has been enormous. When some physicists in 
+2011 raised the possibility that he was wrong, that particles could break 
+the light barrier, it created a firestorm of controversy in the physics 
+world that spilled over into the popular press. The very idea that 
+relativity, which forms the cornerstone of modern physics, could be 
+wrong had physicists around the world shaking their heads. As expected, 
+once the result was recalibrated, Einstein was shown to be right once 
+
+again. It is always dangerous to go up against Einstein."
+"again. It is always dangerous to go up against Einstein. 
+
+One way to gain insight into the question “What is genius?” is to 
+analyze Einstein’s brain. Apparently on the spur of the moment, Dr. 
+Thomas Harvey, the doctor at the Princeton hospital who was 
+performing the autopsy on Einstein, decided to secretly preserve his 
+brain, against the knowledge and wishes of Einstein’s family. 
+
+Perhaps he preserved Einstein’s brain with the vague notion that one 
+day it might unlock the secret of genius. Perhaps he thought, like many 
+
+others, that there was a peculiar part of Einstein’s brain that was the seat 
+of his vast intelligence. Brian Burrell, in his book Postcards from the Brain 
+Museum, speculates that perhaps Dr. Harvey “got caught up in the 
+moment and was transfixed in the presence of greatness. What he 
+quickly discovered was that he had bitten off more than he could chew.”"
+"What happened to Einstein’s brain after that sounds more like a 
+comedy than a science story. Over the years, Dr. Harvey promised to 
+publish his results of analyzing Einstein’s brain. But he was no brain 
+specialist, and kept making excuses. For decades, the brain sat in two 
+large mason jars filled with formaldehyde and placed in a cider box, 
+under a beer cooler. He had a technician slice the brain into 240 pieces, 
+and on rare occasions he would mail a few to scientists who wanted to 
+study them. Once, pieces were mailed to a scientist at Berkeley in a 
+mayonnaise container."
+"Forty years later, Dr. Harvey drove across the country in a Buick 
+Skylark carrying Einstein’s brain in a Tupperware container, hoping to 
+return it to Einstein’s granddaughter Evelyn. She refused to accept it. 
+After Dr. Harvey’s death in 2007, it was left to his heirs to properly 
+donate his collection of slides and portions of Einstein’s brain to science. 
+The history of Einstein’s brain is so unusual that a TV documentary was 
+filmed about it. 
+
+(It should be pointed out that Einstein’s brain was not the only one to 
+be preserved for posterity. The brain of one of the greatest geniuses of 
+mathematics, Carl Friedrich Gauss, often called the Prince of 
+Mathematicians, was also preserved by a doctor a century earlier. Back 
+then, the anatomy of the brain was largely unexplored, and no 
+conclusions could be drawn other than the fact that it had unusually 
+large convolutions or folds.)"
+"One might expect that Einstein’s brain was far beyond an ordinary 
+human’s, that it must have been huge, perhaps with areas that were 
+abnormally large. In fact, the opposite has been found (it is slightly 
+smaller, not larger, than normal). Overall, Einstein’s brain is quite 
+
+ordinary. If a neurologist did not know that this was Einstein’s brain, he 
+probably would not give it a second thought. 
+
+The only differences found in Einstein’s brain were rather minor. A 
+certain part of his brain, called the angular gyri, was larger than normal, 
+with the inferior parietal regions of both hemispheres 15 percent wider"
+"than average. Notably, these parts of the brain are involved in abstract 
+thought, in the manipulation of symbols such as writing and 
+mathematics, and in visual-spatial processing. But his brain was still 
+within the norm, so it is not clear whether the genius of Einstein lay in 
+the organic structure of his brain or in the force of his personality, his 
+outlook, and the times. In a biography that I once wrote of Einstein, 
+titled Einstein’s Cosmos, it was clear to me that certain features of his life 
+were just as important as any anomaly in his brain. Perhaps Einstein 
+himself said it best when he said, “I have no special talents.... I am only 
+passionately curious.” In fact, Einstein would confess that he had to 
+struggle with mathematics in his youth. To one group of schoolchildren, 
+he once confided, “No matter what difficulties you may have with 
+mathematics, mine were greater.” So why was Einstein Einstein?"
+"First, Einstein spent most of his time thinking via “thought 
+experiments.” He was a theoretical physicist, not an experimental one, 
+so he was continually running sophisticated simulations of the future in 
+his head. In other words, his laboratory was his mind."
+"Second, he was known to spend up to ten years or more on a single 
+thought experiment. From the age of sixteen to twenty-six, he focused on 
+the problem of light and whether it was possible to outrace a light beam. 
+This led to the birth of special relativity, which eventually revealed the 
+secret of the stars and gave us the atomic bomb. From the age of twenty- 
+six to thirty-six, he focused on a theory of gravity, which eventually gave 
+us black holes and the big-bang theory of the universe. And then from 
+the age of thirty-six to the end of his life, he tried to find a theory of 
+everything to unify all of physics. Clearly, the ability to spend ten or 
+more years on a single problem showed the tenacity with which he 
+would simulate experiments in his head."
+"Third, his personality was important. He was a bohemian, so it was 
+natural for him to rebel against the establishment in physics. Not every 
+physicist had the nerve or the imagination to challenge the prevailing 
+theory of Isaac Newton, which had held sway for two hundred years 
+before Einstein. 
+
+Fourth, the time was right for the emergence of an Einstein. In 1905, 
+the old physical world of Newton was crumbling in light of experiments 
+that clearly suggested a new physics was about to be born, waiting for a 
+
+genius to show the way. For example, the mysterious substance called 
+
+radium glowed in the dark all by itself indefinitely, as if energy was 
+being created out of thin air, violating the theory of conservation of 
+energy. In other words, Einstein was the right man for the times. If 
+somehow it becomes possible to clone Einstein from the cells in his 
+preserved brain, I suspect that the clone would not be the next Einstein. 
+The historic circumstances must also be right to create a genius."
+"The point here is that genius is perhaps a combination of being born 
+with certain mental abilities and also the determination and drive to 
+achieve great things. The essence of Einstein’s genius was probably his 
+extraordinary ability to simulate the future through thought 
+experiments, creating new physical principles via pictures. As Einstein 
+himself once said, “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but 
+imagination.” And to Einstein, imagination meant shattering the 
+boundaries of the known and entering the domain of the unknown. 
+
+All of us are born with certain abilities that are programmed into our 
+genes and the structure of our brains. That is the luck of the draw. But 
+how we arrange our thoughts and experiences and simulate the future is 
+something that is totally within our control. Charles Darwin himself once 
+wrote, “I have always maintained that, excepting fools, men did not 
+differ much in intellect, only in zeal and hard work.” 
+
+CAN GENIUS BE LEARNED?"
+"CAN GENIUS BE LEARNED? 
+
+This rekindles the question, Are geniuses made or born? How does the 
+nature/nurture debate solve the mystery of intelligence? Can an ordinary 
+person become a genius? 
+
+Since brain cells are notoriously hard to grow, it was once thought 
+that intelligence was fixed by the time we became young adults. But one 
+thing is becoming increasingly clear with new brain research: the brain 
+itself can change when it learns. Although brain cells are not being 
+added in the cortex, the connections between neurons are changing 
+every time a new task is learned. 
+
+For example, scientists in 2011 analyzed the brains of London’s 
+famous taxicab drivers, who have to laboriously memorize twenty-five 
+thousand streets in the dizzying maze that makes up modern London. It 
+takes three to four years to prepare for this arduous test, and only half 
+
+the trainees pass."
+"the trainees pass. 
+
+Scientists at University College London studied the brains of these 
+drivers before they took the test, and then tested them again three to 
+four years afterward. Those trainees who passed the test had a larger 
+volume of gray matter than before, in an area called the posterior and 
+the anterior hippocampus. The hippocampus, as we’ve seen, is where 
+memories are processed. (Curiously, tests also showed that these taxicab 
+drivers scored less than normal on processing visual information, so 
+perhaps there is a trade-off, a price to pay for learning this volume of 
+information.) 
+
+“The human brain remains ‘plastic,’ even in adult life, allowing it to 
+adapt when we learn new tasks,” says Eleanor Maguire of the Wellcome 
+Trust, which funded the study. “This offers encouragement for adults 
+who want to learn new skills later in life.”"
+"Similarly, the brains of mice that have learned many tasks are slightly 
+different from the brains of other mice that have not learned these tasks. 
+It is not so much that the number of neurons has changed, but rather 
+that the nature of the neural connections has been altered by the 
+learning process. In other words, learning actually changes the structure 
+of the brain. 
+
+This raises the old adage “practice makes perfect.” Canadian 
+psychologist Dr. Donald Hebb discovered an important fact about the 
+wiring of the brain: the more we exercise certain skills, the more certain 
+pathways in our brains become reinforced, so the task becomes easier. 
+Unlike a digital computer, which is just as dumb today as it was 
+yesterday, the brain is a learning machine with the ability to rewire its 
+neural pathways every time it learns something. This is a fundamental 
+difference between a digital computer and the brain."
+"This lesson applies not only to London taxicab drivers, but also to 
+accomplished concert musicians as well. According to psychologist Dr. K. 
+Anders Ericsson and colleagues, who studied master violinists at Berlin’s 
+elite Academy of Music, top concert violinists could easily rack up ten 
+thousand hours of grueling practice by the time they were twenty years 
+old, practicing more than thirty hours per week. By contrast, he found 
+that students who were merely exceptional studied only eight thousand 
+hours or fewer, and future music teachers practiced only a total of four 
+thousand hours. Neurologist Daniel Levitin says, “The emerging picture 
+
+from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to 
+achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert— 
+in anything.... In study after study, of composers, basketball players, 
+fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master"
+"criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again.” 
+Malcolm Gladwell, writing in the book Outliers, calls this the “10,000- 
+hour rule.” 
+
+HOW DO YOU MEASURE INTELLIGENCE? 
+
+But how do you measure intelligence? For centuries, any discussion of 
+intelligence relied on hearsay and anecdote. But now MRI studies have 
+shown that the principal activity of the brain while performing these 
+mathematical puzzles involves the pathway connecting the prefrontal 
+cortex (which engages in rational thought) with the parietal lobes 
+(which processes numbers). This correlates with the anatomical studies 
+of Einstein’s brain, which showed that his inferior parietal lobes were 
+larger than normal. So it is conceivable that mathematical ability 
+correlates with increased information flows between the prefrontal 
+cortex and the parietal lobes. But did the brain increase in size in this 
+area because of hard work and study, or was Einstein born that way? 
+The answer is still not clear."
+"The key problem is that there is no uniformly accepted definition of 
+intelligence, let alone a consensus among scientists as to its origin. But 
+the answer may prove critical if we wish to enhance it. 
+
+IQ EXAMS AND DR. TERMAN 
+
+By default, the most widely used measure of intelligence is the IQ exam, 
+pioneered by Dr. Lewis Terman of Stanford University, who in 1916 
+revised an earlier test devised by Alfred Binet for the French 
+government. For the next several decades, it became the gold standard 
+by which to measure intelligence. Terman, in fact, dedicated his life to 
+the proposition that intelligence could be measured and inherited, and 
+was the strongest predictor of success in life. 
+
+Five years later, Terman started a landmark study on schoolchildren,"
+"Five years later, Terman started a landmark study on schoolchildren, 
+
+The Genetic Studies of Genius. It was an ambitious project, whose scope 
+and duration were unprecedented back in the 1920s. It set the tone for 
+research in this field for an entire generation. He methodically 
+chronicled the successes and failures of these individuals throughout 
+their lives, compiling thick files of their achievements. These high-IQ 
+students were dubbed the “Termites.” 
+
+At first, Dr. Terman’s idea seemed to be a resounding success. It"
+"At first, Dr. Terman’s idea seemed to be a resounding success. It 
+
+became the standard by which both children and other tests were 
+measured. During World War I, 1.7 million soldiers were given this test. 
+But over the years, a different profile began to slowly emerge. Decades 
+later, children who scored high on the IQ exam were only moderately 
+more successful than those who did not. Terman could proudly point to 
+some of his students who went on to win awards and secure well-paying 
+jobs. But he became increasingly disturbed by the large number of his 
+brightest students whom society would consider to be failures, taking 
+menial, dead-end jobs, engaging in crime, or leading lives on the 
+margins of society. These results were quite upsetting to Dr. Terman, 
+who had dedicated his life to proving that high IQ meant success in life. 
+
+SUCCESS IN LIFE AND DELAYED GRATIFICATION"
+"SUCCESS IN LIFE AND DELAYED GRATIFICATION 
+
+A different approach was taken in 1972 by Dr. Walter Mischel, also of 
+Stanford, who analyzed yet another characteristic among children: the 
+ability to delay gratification. He pioneered the use of the “marshmallow 
+test,” that is, would children prefer one marshmallow now, or the 
+prospect of two marsh-mallows twenty minutes later? Six hundred 
+children, aged four to six, participated in this experiment. When Mischel 
+revisited the participants in 1988, he found that those who could delay 
+gratification were more competent than those who could not."
+"In 1990, another study showed a direct correlation between those who 
+could delay gratification and SAT scores. And a study done in 2011 
+indicated that this characteristic continued throughout a person’s life. 
+The results of these and other studies were eye-opening. The children 
+who exhibited delayed gratification scored higher on almost every 
+measure of success in life: higher-paying jobs, lower rates of drug 
+addiction, higher test scores, higher educational attainment, better social 
+
+integration, etc."
+"integration, etc. 
+
+But what was most intriguing was that brain scans of these individuals 
+revealed a definite pattern. They showed a distinct difference in the way 
+the prefrontal cortex interacted with the ventral striatum, a region 
+involved in addiction. (This is not surprising, since the ventral striatum 
+contains the nucleus accumbens, known as the “pleasure center.” So 
+there seems to be a struggle here between the pleasure-seeking part of 
+the brain and the rational part to control temptation, as we saw in 
+Chapter 2.) 
+
+This difference was no fluke. The result has been tested by many 
+independent groups over the years, with nearly identical results. Other 
+studies have also verified the difference in the frontal-striatal circuitry of 
+
+the brain, which appears to govern delayed gratification. It seems that 
+the one characteristic most closely correlated with success in life, which 
+has persisted over the decades, is the ability to delay gratification."
+"Although this is a gross simplification, what these brain scans show is 
+that the connection between the prefrontal and parietal lobes seems to 
+be important for mathematical and abstract thought, while the 
+connection between the prefrontal and limbic system (involving the 
+conscious control of our emotions and pleasure center) seems to be 
+essential for success in life. 
+
+Dr. Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin- 
+Madison, concludes, “Your grades in school, your scores on the SAT, 
+mean less for life success than your capacity to co-operate, your ability 
+to regulate your emotions, your capacity to delay your gratification, and 
+your capacity to focus your attention. Those skills are far more 
+important—all the data indicate—for life success than your IQ or your 
+grades.” 
+
+NEW MEASURES OF INTELLIGENCE"
+"NEW MEASURES OF INTELLIGENCE 
+
+Clearly there have to be new ways to measure intelligence and success in 
+life. IQ exams are not useless, but they measure only one limited form of 
+intelligence. Dr. Michael Sweeney, author of Brain: The Complete Mind, 
+notes, “Tests don’t measure motivation, persistence, social skills, and a 
+host of other attributes of a life that’s well lived.”"
+"The problem with many of these standardized tests is that there may 
+also be a subconscious bias due to cultural influences. In addition, these 
+tests are evaluating only one particular form of intelligence, which some 
+psychologists call “convergent” intelligence. Convergent intelligence 
+focuses on one line of thought, ignoring the more complex “divergent” 
+form of intelligence, which involves measuring differing factors. For 
+example, during World War II, the U.S. Army Air Forces asked scientists 
+to devise a psychological exam that would measure a pilot’s intelligence 
+and ability to handle difficult, unexpected situations. One question was: 
+If you are shot down deep in enemy territory and must somehow make it 
+back to friendly lines, what do you do? The results contradicted 
+conventional thinking."
+"Most psychologists expected that the air force study would show that 
+pilots with high IQs would score highly on this test as well. Actually, the 
+reverse was true. The pilots who scored highest were the ones with 
+higher levels of divergent thinking, who could see through many 
+different lines of thought. Pilots who excelled at this, for example, were 
+able to think up a variety of unorthodox and imaginative methods to 
+
+escape after they were captured behind enemy lines."
+"escape after they were captured behind enemy lines. 
+
+The difference between convergent and divergent thinking is also 
+reflected in studies on split-brain patients, which clearly show that each 
+hemisphere of the brain is principally hardwired for one or the other. Dr. 
+Ulrich Kraft of Fulda, Germany, writes, “The left hemisphere is 
+responsible for convergent thinking and the right hemisphere for 
+divergent thinking. The left side examines details and processes them 
+logically and analytically but lacks a sense of overriding, abstract 
+connections. The right side is more imaginative and intuitive and tends 
+to work holistically, integrating pieces of an informational puzzle into a 
+whole.”"
+"In this book, I take the position that human consciousness involves the 
+ability to create a model of the world and then simulate the model into 
+the future, in order to attain a goal. Pilots who demonstrated divergent 
+thinking were able to simulate many possible future events accurately 
+and with more complexity. Similarly, the children who mastered delayed 
+gratification in the famous marshmallow test appear to be the ones who 
+had the most ability to simulate the future, to see the long-term rewards 
+and not just the short-term, get-rich-quick schemes."
+"A more sophisticated intelligence exam that directly quantifies a 
+person’s ability to simulate the future would be difficult but not 
+impossible to create. A person could be asked to create as many realistic 
+scenarios for the future as possible to win a game, with a score assigned 
+depending on the number of simulations the person can imagine and the 
+number of causal links involved with each one. Instead of measuring a 
+person’s ability to simply assimilate information, this new method would 
+measure a person’s ability to manipulate and mold this information to 
+achieve a higher goal. For example, a person might be asked to figure 
+out how to escape from a deserted island full of hungry wild animals and 
+poisonous snakes. He would have to list all the various ways to survive, 
+fend off the dangerous animals, and leave the island, creating an 
+elaborate causal tree of possible outcomes and futures."
+"So we see that there is a common thread running through all this 
+discussion, and that is that intelligence seems to be correlated with the 
+complexity with which we can simulate future events, which correlates 
+with our earlier discussion of consciousness. 
+
+But given the rapid advances taking place in the world’s laboratories 
+concerning electromagnetic fields, genetics, and drug therapies, is it 
+possible not just to measure our intelligence, but to enhance it as well— 
+to become another Einstein? 
+
+BOOSTING OUR INTELLIGENCE 
+
+This possibility was explored in the novel Flowers for Algernon (1958), 
+later made into the Academy Award-winning movie Charly (1968). In it, 
+we follow the sad life of Charly Gordon, who has an IQ of 68 and a 
+menial job in a bakery. He lives a simple life, fails to understand that his 
+fellow workers are constantly making fun of him, and does not even 
+know how to spell his own name."
+"His only friend is Alice, a teacher who takes pity on him and tries to 
+teach him to read. But one day, scientists discover a new procedure that 
+can suddenly make ordinary mice intelligent. Alice hears about this and 
+decides to introduce Charly to these scientists, who agree to perform the 
+procedure on their first human subject. Within weeks, Charly has 
+noticeably changed. His vocabulary increases, he devours books from the 
+
+library, he becomes something of a ladies’ man, and his room explodes 
+with modern art. Soon he begins to read about relativity and the 
+quantum theory, pushing the boundaries of advanced physics. He and 
+Alice even become lovers."
+"But then the doctors notice that the mice have slowly lost their ability 
+and died. Realizing that he, too, might lose everything, Charly furiously 
+tries to use his superior intellect to find a cure, but instead he’s forced to 
+witness his own inexorable decline. His vocabulary shrinks, he forgets 
+mathematics and physics, and he slowly reverts back to his old self. In 
+the final scene, a heartbroken Alice watches as Charly plays with 
+children. 
+
+The novel and movie, although poignant and critically acclaimed, 
+were dismissed as sheer science fiction. The plot was moving and 
+original, but the idea of boosting one’s intelligence was considered 
+preposterous. Brain cells cannot regenerate, scientists said, so this 
+movie’s plot was obviously impossible. 
+
+But not anymore."
+"But not anymore. 
+
+Although it is still impossible to boost your intelligence, rapid 
+advances are being made in electromagnetic sensors, genetics, and stem 
+cells that may one day make this a real possibility. In particular, 
+scientific interest has focused on “autistic savants,” who possess 
+phenomenal, superhuman abilities that stagger the imagination. More 
+important, due to specific injuries to the brain, normal people can 
+rapidly acquire such near-miraculous powers. Some scientists even 
+believe that these uncanny abilities might be induced using 
+electromagnetic fields. 
+
+SAVANTS: SUPER GENIUSES? 
+
+A bullet went crashing through the skull of Mr. Z when he was nine 
+years old. It did not kill him, as his doctors feared, but wreaked 
+extensive damage to the left side of his brain, causing paralysis of the 
+right side of his body and leaving him permanently deaf and mute."
+"However, the bullet also had a bizarre side effect. Mr. Z developed 
+supernormal mechanical abilities and a prodigious memory, typical of 
+“savants.” 
+
+Mr. Z is not alone. In 1979, a ten-year-old boy named Orlando Serrell 
+was knocked unconscious by a baseball that hit the left side of his head. 
+At first, he complained of severe headaches. But after the pain subsided, 
+he was able to do remarkable mathematical calculations and had a near¬ 
+photographic memory of certain events happening in his life. He could 
+calculate dates thousands of years into the future. 
+
+In the entire world of roughly seven billion people, there are only 
+about one hundred documented cases of these astounding savants. (The 
+number is much larger if we include those whose mental skills are still 
+extraordinary but not superhuman. It is believed that about 10 percent 
+of autistic individuals show some savant capabilities.) These 
+extraordinary savants possess abilities far beyond our current scientific 
+understanding."
+"There are several types of savants that have recently elicited the 
+curiosity of scientists. About half of savants have some form of autism 
+(the other half display other forms of mental illness or psychological 
+disorder). They often have profound problems interacting socially, 
+leading to deep isolation. 
+
+Then there is the “acquired savant syndrome,” in which people who 
+appear perfectly normal suffer from some extreme trauma later in life 
+(e.g., hitting their head on the bottom of a swimming pool or being 
+struck by a baseball or a bullet), almost always on the left side of their 
+brain. Some scientists, however, suggest that this distinction is 
+misleading, that perhaps all savant skills are acquired. Since autistic 
+savants begin to show their abilities around age three or four, perhaps 
+their autism (like a blow to their head) is the origin of their abilities."
+"There is scientific disagreement about the origin of these extraordinary 
+abilities. Some believe that these individuals are simply born this way 
+and hence are unique, one-of-a-kind anomalies. Their skills, even if 
+
+awakened by a bullet, are hardwired into their brains from birth. If so, 
+then perhaps this skill can never be learned or transferred. 
+
+Others claim that such hardwiring violates the theory of evolution, 
+which takes place incrementally over long periods of time. If savant 
+geniuses exist, then the rest of us must also possess similar abilities, 
+although they are latent. Does this mean, then, that one day we might be 
+able to turn on these miraculous powers at will? Some believe so, and 
+there are even published papers claiming that some savant skills are"
+"latent in all of us and can be brought to light using the magnetic fields 
+generated by an electromagnetic scanner (TES). Or perhaps there is a 
+genetic basis to this skill, in which case gene therapy might re-create 
+these astonishing abilities. It might also be possible to cultivate stem 
+cells that would allow neurons to grow in the prefrontal cortex and other 
+key centers of the brain. Then we might be able to increase our mental 
+abilities. 
+
+All these avenues are the source of much speculation and research. 
+Not only might they allow doctors to reverse the ravages of diseases like 
+Alzheimer’s, but they could also enable us to enhance our own 
+intelligence. The possibilities are intriguing."
+"The first documented case of a savant was recorded in 1789 by Dr. 
+Benjamin Rush, who studied an individual who seemed to be mentally 
+handicapped. Yet when he was asked how many seconds a man had 
+lived (who was seventy years, seventeen days, and twelve hours old), it 
+took him only ninety seconds to give the correct answer of 
+2,210,500,800. 
+
+Dr. Darold Treffert, a Wisconsin physician, has studied these savants at 
+length. He recites one story of a blind savant who was asked a simple 
+question. If you put one corn kernel in the first square of a chess board, 
+two kernels in the second, four in the next, and keep doubling after that, 
+how many kernels would you have on the sixty-fourth square? It took 
+him just forty-five seconds to correctly reply: 
+18,446,744,073,709,551,616."
+"Perhaps the best-known example of a savant was the late Kim Peek, 
+who was the inspiration for the movie Rain Man, starring Dustin 
+Hoffman and Tom Cruise. Although Kim Peek was severely mentally 
+handicapped (he was incapable of living by himself and could barely tie 
+his shoelaces or button his shirt), he memorized about twelve thousand 
+books and could recite lines from them, word for word, on any particular 
+page. It took him about eight seconds to read a page. (He could 
+memorize a book in about half an hour, but he read them in an unusual 
+way. He could read both pages simultaneously, using each eye to read a 
+
+different page at the same time.) Although incredibly shy, he eventually 
+began to enjoy performing dazzling feats of mathematics before curious 
+onlookers, who would try to challenge him with tricky questions. 
+
+Scientists, of course, have to be careful in distinguishing true savant"
+"skills from simple memorization tricks. Their skills are not just 
+mathematical—they also extend to incredible musical, artistic, and 
+mechanical capabilities. Since autistic savants have great difficulty 
+verbally expressing their mental processes, another avenue is to 
+investigate individuals who have Asperger’s syndrome, which is a milder 
+form of autism. Only in 1994 was Asperger’s syndrome recognized as a 
+distinct psychological condition, so there is very little solid research in 
+this area. Like autistic individuals, people with Asperger’s have a 
+difficult time interacting socially with others. However, with proper 
+training, they can learn enough social skills to hold down a job and 
+articulate their mental processes. And a fraction of them have 
+remarkable savant skills. Some scientists believe that many great 
+scientists had Asperger’s syndrome. This might explain the strange, 
+reclusive nature of physicists like Isaac Newton and Paul Dirac (one of"
+"reclusive nature of physicists like Isaac Newton and Paul Dirac (one of 
+the founders of the quantum theory). Newton, in particular, was 
+pathologically incapable of small talk."
+"I had the pleasure of interviewing one such individual, Daniel 
+Tammet, who has written a best seller, Bom on a Blue Day. Almost alone 
+among these remarkable savants, he is able to articulate his thoughts in 
+books, on the radio, and in TV interviews. For someone who had such 
+difficulty relating to others as a child, he now has a superb grasp of 
+communication skills. 
+
+Daniel has the distinction of setting a world record for memorizing pi, 
+a fundamental number in geometry. He was able to memorize it to 
+22,514 decimal places. I asked him how he prepared for such a 
+herculean feat. Daniel told me that he associates a color or texture with 
+every number. Then I asked him the key question: If every digit has a 
+color or texture, then how does he remember tens of thousands of them? 
+Sadly, at that point he said he doesn’t know. It just comes to him. 
+Numbers have been his life ever since he was a child, and hence they 
+simply appear in his mind. His mind is a constant mixture of numbers 
+and colors."
+"ASPERGER’S AND SILICON VALLEY 
+
+So far, this discussion may seem abstract, without any direct bearing on 
+
+our daily lives. But the impact of people with mild autism and Asperger’s 
+may be more widespread than previously thought, especially in certain 
+high-tech fields. 
+
+In the hit television series The Big Bang Theory, we follow the antics of 
+several young scientists, mainly nerdy physicists, in their awkward quest 
+for female companionship. In every episode, there is a hilarious incident 
+that reveals how clueless and pathetic they are in this endeavor."
+"There is a tacit assumption running through the series that their 
+intellectual brilliance is matched only by their geekiness. And 
+anecdotally, people have noticed that among the high-tech gurus in 
+Silicon Valley, a higher percentage than normal seem to lack some social 
+skills. (There is a saying among women scientists who attend highly 
+specialized engineering universities, where the girl-to-guy ratio is 
+decidedly in their favor: “The odds are good, but the goods are odd.”) 
+
+Scientists set out to investigate this suspicion. The hypothesis is that 
+people with Asperger’s and other mild forms of autism have mental skills 
+ideally suited for certain fields, like the information technology industry. 
+Scientists at University College London examined sixteen people who 
+were diagnosed with a mild form of autism and compared them with 
+sixteen normal individuals. Both groups were shown slides containing 
+random numbers and letters arranged in increasingly complex patterns."
+"Their results showed that people with autism had a superior ability to 
+focus on the task. In fact, as the tasks became harder, the gap between 
+the intellectual skills of both groups began to widen, with the autistic 
+individuals performing significantly better than the control group. (The 
+test, however, also showed that these individuals were more easily 
+distracted by outside noises and blinking lights than the control group.) 
+
+Dr. Nilli Lavie says, “Our study confirms our hypothesis that people 
+with autism have higher perceptual capacity compared to the typical 
+population.... People with autism are able to perceive significantly more 
+information than the typical adult.” 
+
+This certainly does not prove that all people who are intellectually 
+brilliant have some form of Asperger’s. But it does indicate that fields 
+requiring the ability to focus intellectually might have a higher 
+proportion of people with Asperger’s. 
+
+BRAIN SCANS OF SAVANTS"
+"BRAIN SCANS OF SAVANTS 
+
+The subject of savants has always been shrouded in hearsay and amazing 
+anecdotal stories. But recently, the entire field has been turned upside 
+down with the development of MRI and other brain scans. 
+
+Kim Peek’s brain, for example, was unusual. MRI scans show that it 
+lacked the corpus callosum connecting the left and right brain, which is 
+probably why he could read two pages at the same time. His poor motor 
+skills were reflected in a deformed cerebellum, the area that controls 
+balance. Unfortunately, MRI scans could not reveal the exact origin of 
+his extraordinary abilities and photographic memory. But in general, 
+brain scans have shown that many suffering from acquired savant 
+syndrome have experienced damage to their left brain."
+"In particular, interest has focused on the left anterior temporal and 
+orbitofrontal cortices. Some believe that perhaps all savant skills 
+(autistic, acquired, and Asperger’s) arise from damage to this very 
+specific spot in the left temporal lobe. This area can act like a “censor” 
+that periodically flushes out irrelevant memories. But after damage 
+occurs to the left hemisphere, the right hemisphere starts to take over. 
+The right brain is much more precise than the left brain, which often 
+distorts reality and confabulates. In fact, it is believed that the right 
+brain must work extra hard because of damage to the left brain, and 
+hence savant skills develop as a consequence. For example, the right 
+brain is much more artistic than the left brain. Normally, the left brain 
+restricts this talent and holds it in check. But if the left brain is injured in 
+a certain way, it may unleash the artistic abilities latent in the right 
+brain, causing an explosion of artistic talent. So the key to unleashing"
+"brain, causing an explosion of artistic talent. So the key to unleashing 
+savant capabilities might be to dampen the left brain so that it can no 
+longer restrain the natural talents of the right brain. This is sometimes 
+referred to as “left brain injury, right brain compensation.”"
+"In 1998, Dr. Bruce Miller of the University of California at San 
+Francisco performed a series of studies that seem to back this idea up. 
+He and coworkers studied five normal individuals who began to show 
+signs of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). As their dementia started to 
+progress, savant abilities gradually began to emerge. As their dementia 
+got worse, several of these individuals began to exhibit even more 
+extraordinary artistic ability, although none had shown gifts in this area 
+
+before. Moreover, the abilities they exhibited were typical of savant 
+behavior. Their abilities were visual, not auditory, and their artworks, 
+remarkable as they were, were just copies lacking any original, abstract, 
+or symbolic qualities. (One patient actually got better during the study. 
+But her emerging savant skills were also reduced as a consequence. This 
+suggests a close relationship between emerging disorders of the left 
+temporal lobe and emerging savant skills.)"
+"Dr. Miller’s analysis seemed to show that degeneration of the left 
+anterior temporal and orbitofrontal cortices probably decreased 
+inhibition of the visual systems in the right hemisphere, thereby 
+increasing artistic abilities. Again, damaging the left hemisphere in a 
+particular location forced the right hemisphere to take over and develop."
+"In addition to the savants, MRI scans have also been done on people 
+with hyperthymestic syndrome, who also have photographic memories. 
+These people do not suffer from autism and mental disorders, but they 
+share some of their skills. In the entire United States, there are only four 
+documented cases of true photographic memory. One of them is Jill 
+Price, a school administrator in Los Angeles. She can recall precisely 
+what she was doing on any particular day going back decades. But she 
+complains that she finds it difficult to erase certain thoughts. Indeed, her 
+brain seems to be “stuck on autopilot.” She compares her memory to 
+watching the world through a split screen, in which the past and present 
+are constantly competing for her attention."
+"Since 2000, scientists at the University of California at Irvine have 
+scanned her brain, and they’ve found it to be unusual. Several regions 
+were larger than normal, such as the caudate nuclei (which is involved 
+with forming habits) and the temporal lobe (which stores facts and 
+figures). It is theorized that these two areas work in tandem to create her 
+photographic memory. Her brain is therefore different from the brains of 
+savants who suffer an injury or damage to their left temporal lobe. The 
+reason is unknown, but it points to another path by which one may 
+obtain these fantastic mental abilities. 
+
+CAN WE BECOME SAVANTS? 
+
+All this raises the intriguing possibility that one might be able to 
+
+deliberately deactivate parts of the left brain and thereby increase the 
+activity of the right brain, forcing it to acquire savant capabilities."
+"We recall that transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, allows one 
+to effectively silence parts of the brain. If so, then why can’t we silence 
+this part of the left anterior temporal and orbitofrontal cortices using the 
+TMS and turn on a savantlike genius at will? 
+
+This idea has actually been tried. Dr. Allan Snyder of the University of 
+Sydney, Australia, made headlines a few years ago when he claimed 
+that, by applying the TMS to a certain part of the left brain, his subjects 
+could suddenly perform savantlike feats. By directing low-frequency 
+magnetic waves into the left hemisphere, one can in principle turn off"
+"this dominant region of the brain so that the right hemisphere takes 
+over. Dr. Synder and his colleagues did an experiment with eleven male 
+volunteers. They applied the TMS to the subjects’ left frontotemporal 
+region while the subjects were performing tests involving reading and 
+drawing. This did not produce savant skills among the subjects, but two 
+of them had significant improvements in their ability to proofread words 
+and recognize duplicated words. In another experiment, Dr. R. L. Young 
+and his colleagues gave a battery of psychological tests to seventeen 
+individuals. The tests were specifically designed to test for savant skills. 
+(Tests of this sort analyze a person’s ability to memorize facts, 
+manipulate numbers and dates, create artwork, or perform music.) Five 
+of the subjects reported improvement in savantlike skills after treatment 
+with TMS."
+"Dr. Michael Sweeney has observed, “When applied to the prefrontal 
+lobes, TMS has been shown to enhance the speed and agility of cognitive 
+processing. The TMS bursts are like a localized jolt of caffeine, but 
+nobody knows for sure how the magnets actually do their work.” These 
+experiments hint, but by no means prove, that silencing a part of the left 
+frontotemporal region could initiate some enhanced skills. These skills 
+are a far cry from savant abilities, and we should also be careful to point 
+out that other groups have looked into these experiments, and the results 
+have been inconclusive. More experimental work must be done, so it is 
+still too early to render a final judgment one way or the other. 
+
+TMS probes are the easiest and most convenient instrument to use for 
+this purpose, since they can selectively silence various parts of the brain 
+at will without relying on brain damage and traumatic accidents. But it"
+"should also be noted that TMS probes are still crude, silencing millions 
+of neurons at a time. Magnetic fields, unlike electrical probes, are not 
+precise but spread out over several centimeters. We know that the left 
+anterior temporal and orbitofrontal cortices are damaged in savants and 
+likely responsible, at least in some part, for their unique abilities, but 
+perhaps the specific area that must be dampened is an even smaller 
+subregion. So each jolt of TMS might inadvertently deactivate some of 
+the areas that need to remain intact in order to produce savantlike skills."
+"In the future, with TMS probes we might be able to narrow down the 
+region of the brain involved with eliciting savant skills. Once this region 
+is identified, the next step would be to use highly accurate electrical 
+probes, like those used in deep brain stimulation, to dampen these areas 
+even more precisely. Then, with the push of a button, it might be 
+possible to use these probes to silence this tiny portion of the brain in 
+order to bring out savantlike skills. 
+
+FORGETTING TO FORGET AND PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY 
+
+Although savant skills may be initiated by some sort of injury to the left 
+brain (leading to right brain compensation), this still does not explain 
+precisely how the right brain can perform these miraculous feats of 
+memory. By what neural mechanism does photographic memory 
+emerge? The answer to this question may determine whether we can 
+become savants."
+"Until recently, it was thought that photographic memory was due to 
+the special ability of certain brains to remember. If so, then it might be 
+difficult for the average person to learn these memory skills, since only 
+exceptional brains are capable of them. But in 2012, a new study showed 
+that precisely the opposite may be true. 
+
+The key to photographic memory may not be the ability of remarkable 
+brains to learn; on the contrary, it may be their inability to forget. If this 
+is true, then perhaps photographic memory is not such a mysterious 
+thing after all. 
+
+The new study was done by scientists at the Scripps Research Institute 
+in Florida who were working with fruit flies. They found an interesting 
+way in which these fruit flies learn, which may overturn a cherished idea 
+
+of how memories are formed and forgotten. The fruit flies were exposed 
+to different smells and were given positive reinforcement (with food) or 
+negative reinforcement (with electric shocks)."
+"The scientists knew that the neurotransmitter dopamine was important 
+to forming memories. To their surprise, they found that dopamine 
+actively regulates both the formation and the forgetting of new 
+memories. In the process of creating new memories, the dCAl receptor 
+was activated. By contrast, forgetting was initiated by the activation of 
+the DAMB receptor. 
+
+Previously, it was thought that forgetting might be simply the 
+degradation of memories with time, which happens passively by itself. 
+This new study shows that forgetting is an active process, requiring 
+intervention by dopamine. 
+
+To prove their point, they showed that by interfering with the action 
+of the dCAl and DAMB receptors, they could, at will, increase or 
+decrease the ability of fruit flies to remember and forget. A mutation in 
+the dCAl receptor, for example, impaired the ability of the fruit flies to 
+remember. A mutation in the DAMB receptor decreased their ability to 
+forget."
+"The researchers speculate that this effect, in turn, may be partially 
+responsible for savants’ skills. Perhaps there is a deficiency in their 
+ability to forget. One of the graduate students involved in the study, 
+Jacob Berry, says, “Savants have a high capacity for memory. But maybe 
+it isn’t memory that gives them this capacity; maybe they have a bad 
+forgetting mechanism. This might also be the strategy for developing 
+drugs to promote cognition and memory—what about drugs that inhibit 
+forgetting as a cognitive enhancers?” 
+
+Assuming that this result holds up in human experiments as well, it 
+could encourage scientists to develop new drugs and neurotransmitters 
+that are able to dampen the forgetting process. One might thus be able 
+to selectively turn on photographic memories when needed by 
+neutralizing the forgetting process. In this way, we wouldn’t have the 
+continuous overflow of extraneous, useless information, which hinders 
+the thinking of people with savant syndrome."
+"What is also exciting is the possibility that the BRAIN project, which is 
+being championed by the Obama administration, might be able to 
+identify the specific pathways involved with acquired savant syndrome. 
+
+Transcranial magnetic fields are still too crude to pin down the handful 
+of neurons that may be involved. But using nanoprobes and the latest in 
+scanning technologies, the BRAIN project might be able to isolate the 
+precise neural pathways that make possible photographic memory and 
+incredible computational, artistic, and musical skills. Billions of research 
+dollars will be channeled into identifying the specific neural pathways 
+involved with mental disease and other afflictions of the brain, and the 
+secret of savant skills may be revealed in the process. Then it might be 
+possible to take normal individuals and make savants out of them. This 
+has happened many times in the past because of random accidents. In 
+the future, this may become a precise medical process. Time will tell."
+"So far, the methods analyzed here do not alter the nature of the brain 
+or the body. The hope is that through the use of magnetic fields, we will 
+be able to unleash the potential that already exists in our brains but is 
+latent. The philosophy underlying this idea is that we are all savants 
+waiting to happen, and it will just take some slight alteration of our 
+neural circuits to unleash this hidden talent. 
+
+Yet another tactic is to directly alter the brain and the genes, using the 
+latest in brain science and also genetics. One promising method is to use 
+stem cells. 
+
+STEM CELLS FOR THE BRAIN"
+"STEM CELLS FOR THE BRAIN 
+
+It was dogma for many decades that brain cells do not regenerate. It 
+seemed impossible that you could repair old, dying brain cells, or grow 
+new ones to boost your abilities, but all this changed in 1998. That year, 
+it was discovered that adult stem cells could be found in the 
+hippocampus, the olfactory bulb, and the caudate nucleus. In brief, stem 
+cells are the “mother of all cells.” Embryonic stem cells, for instance, can 
+readily develop into any other cell. Although each of our cells contains 
+all the genetic material necessary to construct a human being, only 
+embryonic stem cells have the ability to actually differentiate into any 
+type of cell in the body. 
+
+Adult stem cells have lost that chameleon-like ability, but they can 
+still reproduce and replace old, dying cells. As far as memory 
+enhancement goes, interest has focused on adult stem cells in the"
+"hippocampus. It turns out that thousands of new hippocampus cells are 
+born naturally each day, but most die soon afterward. However, it was 
+shown that rats that learned new skills retained more of their new cells. 
+A combination of exercise and mood-elevating chemicals can also boost 
+the survival rate of new hippocampus cells. It turns out that stress, on 
+the contrary, accelerates the death of new neurons."
+"In 2007, a breakthrough occurred when scientists in Wisconsin and 
+Japan were able to take ordinary human skin cells, reprogram their 
+genes, and turn them into stem cells. The hope is that these stem cells, 
+either found naturally or converted using genetic engineering, can one 
+day be injected into the brains of Alzheimer’s patients to replace dying 
+cells. (These new brain cells, because they do not yet have the proper 
+connections, would not be integrated into the brain’s neural architecture. 
+This means that a person would have to relearn certain skills to 
+incorporate these fresh new neurons.) 
+
+Stem cell research is naturally one of the most active areas in brain 
+research. “Stem cell research and regenerative medicine are in an 
+extremely exciting phase right now. We are gaining knowledge very fast 
+and many companies are being formed and are starting clinical trials in 
+different areas,” says Sweden’s Jonas Frisen of the Karolinska Institute. 
+
+GENETICS OF INTELLIGENCE"
+"GENETICS OF INTELLIGENCE 
+
+In addition to stem cells, another avenue of exploration involves 
+isolating the genes responsible for human intelligence. Biologists note 
+that we are about 98.5 percent genetically identical to a chimpanzee, yet 
+
+we live twice as long and have exploded in intellectual skills in the past 
+six million years. So among a handful of genes there must be the ones 
+responsible for giving us the human brain. Within a few years, scientists 
+will have a complete map of all these genetic differences, and the secret 
+to human longevity and enhanced intelligence may be found within this 
+tiny set. Scientists have focused on a few genes that possibly drove the 
+evolution of the human brain. 
+
+So perhaps the clue to revealing the secret of intelligence lies in our 
+understanding of our apelike ancestors. This raises another question: Can 
+this research make possible the Planet of the Apes ?"
+"In this long-running series of movies, a nuclear war destroys modern 
+civilization. Humanity is reduced to barbarism, but the radiation 
+somehow accelerates the evolution of the other primates, so that they 
+become the dominant species on the planet. They create an advanced 
+civilization, while humans are reduced to scruffy, smelly savages 
+roaming half naked in the forest. At best, humans become zoo animals. 
+The tables have turned on the humans, so the apes gawk at us outside 
+the bars of our cages."
+"In the latest installment, The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, scientists are 
+looking for a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Along the way, they stumble 
+on a virus that has the unintended consequence of increasing a 
+chimpanzee’s intelligence. Unfortunately, one of these enhanced apes is 
+treated cruelly when placed in a shelter for primates. Using his increased 
+intelligence, the ape breaks free, infects the other lab animals with the 
+virus to raise their intelligence, and then frees all of them from their 
+cages. Soon a caravan of shouting, intelligent apes runs amok on the 
+Golden Gate Bridge, completely overwhelming local and state police. 
+After a spectacular, harrowing confrontation with the authorities, the 
+movie ends with the apes peacefully finding refuge in a redwood forest 
+north of the bridge."
+"Is such a scenario realistic? In the short term, no, but it can’t be ruled 
+out in the future, since scientists in the coming years should be able to 
+catalog all the genetic changes that created Homo sapiens. But many 
+more mysteries have to be solved before we have intelligent apes. 
+
+One scientist who has been fascinated not by science fiction, but by 
+the genetics of what makes us “human,” is Dr. Katherine Pollard, an 
+expert in a field called “bioinformatics,” which barely existed a decade 
+ago. In this field of biology, instead of cutting open animals to 
+understand how they are put together, researchers use the vast power of 
+computers to mathematically analyze the genes in animals’ bodies. She 
+has been at the forefront of finding the genes that define the essence of 
+what separates us from the apes. Back in 2003, as a freshly minted Ph.D. 
+
+from the University of California at Berkeley, she got her chance."
+"from the University of California at Berkeley, she got her chance. 
+
+“I jumped at the opportunity to join the international team that was 
+identifying the sequence of DNA bases, or ‘letters,’ in the genome of the 
+common chimpanzee,” she recalled. Her goal was clear. She knew that 
+only fifteen million base pairs, or “letters,” that make up our genome 
+
+(out of three billion base pairs) separate us from the chimps, our closest 
+genetic neighbor. (Each “letter” in our genetic code refers to a nucleic 
+acid, of which there are four, labeled A,T,C, and G. So our genome 
+consists of three billion letters, arranged like ATTCCAGGG....) 
+
+“I was determined to find them,” she wrote."
+"“I was determined to find them,” she wrote. 
+
+Isolating these genes could have enormous implications for our future. 
+Once we know the genes that gave rise to Homo sapiens, it becomes 
+possible to determine how humans evolved. The secret of intelligence 
+might lie in these genes. It might even be possible to accelerate the path 
+taken by evolution and even enhance our intelligence. But even fifteen 
+million base pairs is a huge number to analyze. How can you find a 
+handful of genetic needles out of this genetic haystack?"
+"Dr. Pollard knew that most of our genome is made of “junk DNA” that 
+does not contain any genes and was largely unaffected by evolution. This 
+junk DNA slowly mutates at a known rate (roughly 1 percent of it 
+changes over four million years). Since we differ from the chimps in our 
+DNA by 1.5 percent, this means that we probably separated from the 
+chimpanzees about six million years ago. Hence there is a “molecular 
+clock” in each of our cells. And since evolution accelerates this mutation 
+rate, analyzing where this acceleration took place allows you to tell 
+which genes are driving evolution. 
+
+Dr. Pollard reasoned that if she could write a computer program that 
+could find where most of these accelerated changes are located in our 
+genome, she could isolate precisely the genes that gave birth to Homo 
+sapiens. After months of hard work and debugging, she finally placed her 
+program into the giant computers located at the University of California 
+at Santa Cruz. Anxiously she awaited the results."
+"When the computer printout finally arrived, it showed what she was 
+looking for: there are 201 regions of our genome showing accelerated 
+change. But the first one on her list caught her attention. 
+
+“With my mentor David Haussler leaning over my shoulder, I looked 
+at the top hit, a stretch of 118 bases that together became known as 
+human accelerated region 1 (HAR1),” she recalled. 
+
+She was ecstatic. Bingo! 
+
+“We had hit the jackpot,” she would write. It was a dream come true. 
+
+She was staring at an area of our genome containing only 118 base 
+pairs, with the largest divergence of mutations separating us from the 
+
+apes. Of these base pairs, only eighteen mutations were altered since we 
+became human. Her remarkable discovery showed that a small handful 
+of mutations could be responsible for raising us from the swamp of our 
+genetic past."
+"Next she and her colleagues tried to decipher the precise nature of this 
+mysterious cluster called HAR1. They found that HAR1 was remarkably 
+stable across millions of years of evolution. Primates separated from 
+chickens about three hundred million years ago, yet only two base pairs 
+differ between chimps and chickens. So HAR1 was virtually unchanged 
+for several hundred million years, with only two changes, in the letters G 
+and C. Yet in just six million years, HAR1 mutated eighteen times, 
+representing a huge acceleration in our evolution."
+"But what was more intriguing was the role HAR1 played in controlling 
+the overall layout of the cerebral cortex, which is famous for its wrinkled 
+appearance. A defect in the HAR1 region causes a disorder called 
+“lissencephaly,” or “smooth brain,” causing the cortex to fold 
+incorrectly. (Defects in this region are also linked to schizophrenia.) 
+Besides the large size of our cerebral cortex, one of its main 
+characteristics is that it is highly wrinkled and convoluted, vastly 
+increasing its surface area and hence its computational power. Dr. 
+Pollard’s work showed that changing just eighteen letters in our genome 
+was partially responsible for one of the major, defining genetic changes 
+in human history, vastly increasing our intelligence. (Recall that the 
+brain of Carl Friedrich Gauss, one of the greatest mathematicians in 
+history, was preserved after his death and showed unusual wrinkling.)"
+"Dr. Pollard’s list went even further and identified a few hundred other 
+areas that also showed accelerated change, some of which were already 
+known. FOX2, for example, is crucial for the development of speech, 
+another key characteristic of humans. (Individuals with a defective FOX2 
+gene have difficulty making the facial movements necessary for speech.) 
+Another region called HAR2 gives our fingers the dexterity required to 
+manipulate delicate tools. 
+
+Furthermore, since the genome of the Neanderthal has been 
+sequenced, it is possible to compare our genetic makeup with a species 
+even closer to us than the chimpanzees. (When analyzing the FOX2 gene 
+in Neanderthals, scientists found that we shared the same gene with 
+
+them. This means that there is a possibility that the Neanderthal could 
+
+vocalize and create speech, as we do.)"
+"vocalize and create speech, as we do.) 
+
+Another crucial gene is called ASPM, which is thought to be 
+responsible for the explosive growth of our brain capacity. Some 
+scientists believe that this and other genes may reveal why humans 
+became intelligent but the apes did not. (People with a defective version 
+of the ASPM gene often suffer from microcephaly, a severe form of 
+mental retardation, because they have a tiny skull, about the size of one 
+of our ancestors, Australopithecus.)"
+"Scientists have tracked the number of mutations within the ASPM 
+gene and found that it has mutated about fifteen times in the last five to 
+six million years, since we separated from the chimpanzee. More recent 
+mutations in these genes seem to be correlated with milestones in our 
+evolution. For example, one mutation occurred over one hundred 
+thousand years ago, when modern humans emerged in Africa, 
+indistinguishable in appearance from us. And the last mutation was 
+5,800 years ago, which coincides with the introduction of the written 
+language and agriculture. 
+
+Because these mutations coincide with periods of rapid growth in 
+intellect, it is tantalizing to speculate that ASPM is among the handful of 
+genes responsible for our increased intelligence. If this is true, then 
+perhaps we can determine whether these genes are still active today, and 
+whether they will continue to shape human evolution into the future."
+"All this research raises a question: Can manipulating a handful of 
+genes increase our intelligence? 
+
+Quite possibly. 
+
+Scientists are rapidly determining the precise mechanism by which 
+these genes gave rise to intelligence. In particular, genetic regions and 
+genes like HAR1 and ASPM could help solve a mystery concerning the 
+brain. If there are roughly twenty-three thousand genes in your genome, 
+then how can they possibly control the connections linking one hundred 
+billion neurons, containing a quadrillion total connections (1 with fifteen 
+zeros after it)? It seems mathematically impossible. The human genome 
+is about a trillion times too small to code for all our neural connections. 
+So our very existence seems to be a mathematical impossibility. 
+
+The answer may be that nature takes numerous shortcuts in creating 
+the brain. First, many neurons are connected randomly, so that a 
+detailed blueprint is not necessary, which means that these randomly"
+"connected regions organize themselves after a baby is born and starts to 
+interact with the environment. 
+
+And second, nature also uses modules that repeat themselves over and 
+over again. Once nature discovers something useful, she often repeats it. 
+This may explain why only a handful of genetic changes are responsible 
+for most of our explosive growth in intelligence in the last six million 
+years. 
+
+Size does matter in this case, then. If we tweak the ASPM and a few 
+other genes, the brain might become larger and more complex, thereby 
+making it possible to increase our intelligence. (Increasing our brain size 
+is not sufficient to do this, since how the brain is organized is also 
+crucially important. But increasing the gray matter of our brain is a 
+necessary precondition to increasing our intelligence.) 
+
+APES, GENES, AND GENIUS"
+"APES, GENES, AND GENIUS 
+
+Dr. Pollard’s research focused on areas of our genome that we share with 
+the chimpanzees but that are mutated. It is also possible that there are 
+areas in our genome found only in humans, independent of the apes. 
+One such gene was discovered recently, in November 2012. Scientists, 
+led by a team at the University of Edinburgh, isolated the RIM-941 gene, 
+which is the only gene ever discovered that is found strictly in Homo 
+sapiens and not in other primates. Also, geneticists can show that the 
+gene emerged between one and six million years ago (after the time 
+when humans and chimpanzees split about six million years ago)."
+"Unfortunately, this discovery also set off a huge firestorm in science 
+newsletters and blogs as misleading headlines blared across the Internet. 
+Breathless articles appeared claiming that scientists had found a single 
+gene that could, in principle, make chimpanzees intelligent. The essence 
+of “humanness” had finally been isolated at the genetic level, the 
+headlines shouted. 
+
+Reputable scientists soon stepped in and tried to calm things down. In 
+all likelihood, a series of genes, acting together in complex ways, is 
+responsible for human intelligence. No single gene can make a chimp 
+suddenly have human intelligence, they said. 
+
+Although these headlines were highly exaggerated, they did raise a 
+
+serious question: How realistic is Planet of the Apes ?"
+"There are a series of complications. If the HAR1 and ASPM genes are 
+tweaked so that the size and structure of the chimp brain suddenly 
+expand, then a series of other genes would have to be modified as well. 
+First, you would have to strengthen the chimp’s neck muscles and 
+increase its body size to support the larger head. But a large brain would 
+be useless unless it could control fingers capable of exploiting tools. So 
+the HAR2 gene would also have to be altered to increase their dexterity. 
+But since chimps often walk on their hands, another gene would have to 
+be altered so that the backbone would straighten out and an upright 
+posture would free up the hands. Intelligence is also useless unless 
+chimps can communicate with other members of the species. So the 
+FOX2 gene would also have to be mutated so that humanlike speech 
+would become possible. And lastly, if you want to create a species of 
+intelligent apes, you would have to modify the birth canal, since it is not"
+"intelligent apes, you would have to modify the birth canal, since it is not 
+large enough to accommodate the larger skull. You could either perform 
+caesarians to cut the fetus out or genetically alter the birth canal of the 
+chimps to accommodate the larger brain."
+"After all these necessary genetic adjustments, we are left with a 
+creature that would look very much like us. In other words, it may be 
+anatomically impossible to create intelligent apes, as in the movies, 
+without their also mutating into something closely resembling human 
+beings. 
+
+Clearly, creating intelligent apes is no simple matter, then. The 
+intelligent apes we see in Hollywood movies are actually monkey suits 
+with humans inside, or are computer-generated graphics, so all these 
+issues are conveniently brushed under the rug. But if scientists could 
+seriously use gene therapy to create intelligent apes, then they might 
+closely resemble us, with hands that can use tools, vocal cords that can 
+create speech, backbones that can support an upright posture, and large 
+neck muscles to support large heads, as we have."
+"All this raises ethical issues as well. Although society may allow 
+genetic studies of apes, it may not tolerate the manipulation of 
+intelligent creatures that can feel pain and distress. These creatures, after 
+all, would be intelligent and articulate enough to complain about their 
+situation and their fate, and their views would be heard in society. 
+
+Not surprisingly, this area of bioethics is so new that it is totally 
+
+unexplored. The technology is not yet ready, but in the coming decades, 
+as we identify all the genes and their functions that separate us from the 
+apes, the treatment of these enhanced animals could become a key 
+question."
+"We can see, therefore, that it is only a matter of time before all the 
+tiny genetic differences between us and the chimpanzees are carefully 
+sequenced, analyzed, and interpreted. But this still does not explain a 
+deeper question: What were the evolutionary forces that gave us this 
+genetic heritage after we separated from the apes? Why did genes like 
+ASPM, HAR1, and FOX2 develop in the first place? In other words, 
+genetics gives us the ability to understand how we became intelligent, 
+but it does not explain why this happened. 
+
+If we can understand this issue, it might provide clues as to how we 
+might evolve in the future. This takes us to the heart of the ongoing 
+debate: What is the origin of intelligence? 
+
+THE ORIGIN OF INTELLIGENCE 
+
+Many theories have been proposed as to why humans developed greater 
+intelligence, going all the way back to Charles Darwin."
+"According to one theory, the evolution of the human brain probably 
+took place in stages, with the earliest phase initiated by climate change 
+in Africa. As the weather cooled, the forests began to recede, forcing our 
+ancestors onto the open plains and savannahs, where they were exposed 
+to predators and the elements. To survive in this new, hostile 
+environment, they were forced to hunt and walk upright, which freed up 
+their hands and opposable thumbs to use tools. This in turn put a 
+premium on a larger brain to coordinate tool making. According to this 
+theory, ancient man did not simply make tools—“tools made man.”"
+"Our ancestors did not suddenly pick up tools and become intelligent. It 
+was the other way around. Those humans who picked up tools could 
+survive in the grasslands, while those who did not gradually died off. 
+The humans who then survived and thrived in the grasslands were those 
+who, through mutations, became increasingly adept at tool making, 
+which required an increasingly larger brain. 
+
+Another theory places a premium on our social, collective nature."
+"Another theory places a premium on our social, collective nature. 
+
+Humans can easily coordinate the behavior of over a hundred other 
+individuals involved in hunting, farming, warring, and building, groups 
+that are much larger than those found in other primates, which gave 
+humans an advantage over other animals. It takes a larger brain, 
+according to this theory, to be able to assess and control the behavior of 
+so many individuals. (The flip side of this theory is that it took a larger 
+brain to scheme, plot, deceive, and manipulate other intelligent beings 
+in your tribe. Individuals who could understand the motives of others 
+
+and then exploit them would have an advantage over those who could 
+not. This is the Machiavellian theory of intelligence.)"
+"Another theory maintains that the development of language, which 
+came later, helped accelerate the rise of intelligence. With language 
+comes abstract thought and the ability to plan, organize society, create 
+maps, etc. Humans have an extensive vocabulary unmatched by any 
+other animal, with words numbering in the tens of thousands for an 
+average person. With language, humans could coordinate and focus the 
+activities of scores of individuals, as well as manipulate abstract 
+concepts and ideas. Language meant you could manage teams of people 
+on a hunt, which is a great advantage when pursuing the woolly 
+mammoth. It meant you could tell others where game was plentiful or 
+where danger lurked."
+"Yet another theory is “sexual selection,” the idea that females prefer to 
+mate with intelligent males. In the animal kingdom, such as in a wolf 
+pack, the alpha male holds the pack together by brute force. Any 
+challenger to the alpha male has to be soundly beaten back by tooth and 
+claw. But millions of years ago, as humans became gradually more 
+intelligent, strength alone could not keep the tribe together. Anyone 
+with cunning and intelligence could ambush, lie or cheat, or form 
+factions within the tribe to take down the alpha male. Hence the new 
+generation of alpha males would not necessarily be the strongest. Over 
+time, the leader would become the most intelligent and cunning. This is 
+probably the reason why females choose smart males (not necessarily 
+nerdy smart, but “quarterback smart”). Sexual selection in turn 
+accelerated our evolution to become intelligent. So in this case the 
+engine that drove the expansion of our brain would be females who"
+"engine that drove the expansion of our brain would be females who 
+chose men who could strategize, become leaders of the tribe, and outwit 
+other males, which requires a large brain."
+"These are just a few of the theories about the origin of intelligence, 
+and each has its pros and cons. The common theme seems to be the 
+ability to simulate the future. For example, the purpose of the leader is 
+to choose the correct path for the tribe in the future. This means any 
+leader has to understand the intentions of others in order to plan 
+strategy for the future. Hence simulating the future was perhaps one of 
+the driving forces behind the evolution of our large brain and 
+intelligence. And the person who can best simulate the future is the one 
+who can plot, scheme, read the minds of many of his fellow tribesmen, 
+and win the arms race with his fellow man. 
+
+Similarly, language allows you to simulate the future. Animals possess 
+a rudimentary language, but it is mainly in the present tense. Their 
+language may warn them of an immediate threat, such as a predator 
+hiding among the trees. However, animal language apparently has no"
+"future or past tense. Animals do not conjugate their verbs. So perhaps 
+the ability to express the past and future tense was a key breakthrough 
+in the development of intelligence. 
+
+Dr. Daniel Gilbert, a psychologist at Harvard, writes, “For the first few 
+hundred million years after their initial appearance on our planet, our 
+brains were stuck in the permanent present, and most brains still are 
+today. But not yours and not mine, because two or three million years 
+ago our ancestors began a great escape from the here and now....” 
+
+THE FUTURE OF EVOLUTION 
+
+So far, we have seen that there are intriguing results indicating that one 
+can increase one’s memory and intelligence, largely by making the brain 
+more efficient and maximizing its natural capacity. A variety of methods 
+are being studied, such as certain drugs, genes, or devices (TES, for 
+example) that might increase the capabilities of our neurons."
+"So the concept of altering the brain size and capacity of the apes is a 
+distinct, though difficult, possibility. Gene therapy on this scale is still 
+many decades away. But this raises another difficult question: How far 
+can this go? Can one extend the intelligence of an organism indefinitely? 
+Or is there a limit to brain modification imposed by the laws of physics? 
+
+Surprisingly, the answer is yes. The laws of physics put an upper limit 
+
+to what can be done with genetic modification of the human brain, 
+given certain restraints. To see this limit, it is instructive to first examine 
+whether evolution is still increasing human intelligence, and then what 
+can be done to accelerate this natural process."
+"In popular culture, there is the notion that evolution will give us big 
+brains and small, hairless bodies in the future. Likewise, aliens from 
+space, because they are supposed to possess a superior level of 
+intelligence, are often portrayed in this fashion. Go to any novelty shop 
+and you will see the same extraterrestrial face, with big bug eyes, a huge 
+head, and green skin. 
+
+Actually, there are indications that gross human evolution (i.e., our 
+basic body shape and intelligence) has largely come to a halt. There are 
+several factors supporting this. First of all, since we are bipedal 
+mammals who walk upright, there are limitations to the maximum size 
+of an infant’s skull that can pass through the birth canal. Second, the rise 
+of modern technology has removed many of the harsh evolutionary 
+pressures faced by our ancestors."
+"However, evolution on a genetic and molecular basis continues 
+unabated. Although it’s difficult to see with the naked eye, there is 
+evidence that human biochemistry has changed to adjust to 
+environmental challenges, such as combating malaria in tropical areas. 
+Also, humans recently evolved enzymes to digest lactose sugar as we 
+learned to domesticate cows and drink milk. Mutations have occurred as 
+humans adjusted to a diet created by the agricultural revolution. 
+Moreover, people still choose to mate with others who are healthy and 
+fit, and so evolution continues to eliminate unsuitable genes at this level. 
+None of these mutations, however, has changed our basic body plan or 
+increased our brain size. (Modern technology is also influencing our 
+evolution to some degree. For example, there is no longer any selection 
+pressure on nearsighted people, since anyone today can be outfitted with 
+glasses or contact lenses.) 
+
+PHYSICS OF THE BRAIN"
+"PHYSICS OF THE BRAIN 
+
+So from an evolutionary and biological point of view, evolution is no 
+longer selecting for more intelligent people, at least not as rapidly as it 
+
+did thousands of years ago. 
+
+There are also indications from the laws of physics that we have 
+reached the maximum natural limit of intelligence, so that any 
+enhancement of our intelligence would have to come from external 
+means. Physicists who have studied the neurology of the brain conclude 
+that there are trade-offs preventing us from getting much smarter. Every 
+time we envision a brain that is larger, or denser, or more complex, we 
+bump up against these negative trade-offs."
+"The first principle of physics that we can apply to the brain is the 
+conservation of matter and energy; that is, the law stating that the total 
+amount of matter and energy in a system remains constant. In particular, 
+in order to carry out its incredible feats of mental gymnastics, the brain 
+has to conserve energy, and hence it takes many shortcuts. As we saw in 
+Chapter 1, what we see with our eyes is actually cobbled together using 
+energy-saving tricks. It would take too much time and energy for a 
+thoughtful analysis of every crisis, so the brain saves energy by making 
+snap judgments in the form of emotions. Forgetting is an alternative way 
+of saving energy. The conscious brain has access to only a tiny portion of 
+the memories that have an impact on the brain. 
+
+So the question is: Would increased brain size or density of neurons 
+give us more intelligence?"
+"So the question is: Would increased brain size or density of neurons 
+give us more intelligence? 
+
+Probably not. “Cortical gray matter neurons are working with axons 
+that are pretty close to the physical limit,” says Dr. Simon Laughlin of 
+Cambridge University. There are several ways in which one can increase 
+the intelligence of the brain using the laws of physics, but each has its 
+own problems: 
+
+• One can increase brain size and extend the length of neurons. The 
+problem here is that the brain now consumes more energy. This 
+generates more heat in the process, which is detrimental to our 
+survival. If the brain uses up more energy, it gets hotter, and tissue 
+damage results if the body temperature becomes too high. (The 
+chemical reactions of the human body and our metabolism require 
+temperatures to be in a precise range.) Also, longer neurons means 
+that it takes longer for signals to go across the brain, which slows 
+down the thinking process."
+"• One can pack more neurons into the same space by making them 
+
+thinner. But if neurons become thinner and thinner, the complex 
+chemical/electrical reactions that must take place inside the axons 
+fail, and eventually they begin to misfire more easily. Douglas Fox, 
+writing in Scientific American, says, “You might call it the mother of 
+all limitations: the proteins that neurons use to generate electrical 
+pulses, called ion channels, are inherently unstable.” 
+
+• One can increase the speed of the signal by making the neurons 
+thicker. But this also increases energy consumption and generates 
+more heat. It also increases the size of the brain, which increases the 
+time it takes for the signals to reach their destination. 
+
+• One can add more connections between neurons. But this again 
+increases energy consumption and heat generation, making the 
+brain larger and slower in the process."
+"So each time we tinker with the brain, we are checkmated. The laws 
+of physics seem to indicate that we have maxed out the intelligence that 
+we humans can attain in this way. Unless we can suddenly increase the 
+size of our skulls or the very nature of neurons in our brains, it seems we 
+are at the maximum level of intelligence. If we are to increase our 
+intelligence, it has to be done by making our brains more efficient (via 
+drugs, genes, and possibly TES-type machines). 
+
+PARTING THOUGHTS 
+
+In summary, it may be possible in the coming decades to use a"
+"PARTING THOUGHTS 
+
+In summary, it may be possible in the coming decades to use a 
+
+combination of gene therapy, drugs, and magnetic devices to increase 
+our intelligence. There are several avenues of exploration that are 
+revealing the secrets of intelligence and how it may be modified or 
+enhanced. But what would it do to society, though, if we could enhance 
+our intelligence and get a “brain boost”? Ethicists have seriously 
+contemplated this question, since the basic science is growing so rapidly. 
+The big fear is that society may bifurcate, with only the rich and 
+powerful having access to this technology, which they could use to 
+further solidify their exalted position in society. Meanwhile, the poor 
+won’t have access to additional brain power, making it more difficult to 
+move up in society."
+"This is certainly a valid concern, but it flies in the face of the history 
+of technology. Many of the technologies of the past were indeed initially 
+the province of the rich and powerful, but eventually mass production, 
+competition, better transportation, and improvements in technology 
+drove down the costs, so the average person could afford them. (For 
+example, we take for granted that we eat foods for breakfast that the 
+king of England could not have procured a century ago. Technology has 
+made it possible to purchase delicacies from around the world at any 
+supermarket that would be the envy of the aristocrats of the Victorian 
+era.) So if it becomes possible to increase our intelligence, the price of 
+this technology will gradually fall. Technology is never the monopoly of 
+the privileged rich. Sooner or later ingenuity, hard work, and simple 
+market forces will drive down its cost."
+"There is also the fear that the human race will split into those who 
+want their intelligence to be boosted and those who prefer to remain the 
+same, resulting in the nightmare of having a class of super-intelligent 
+brahmins lord over the masses of the less gifted. 
+
+But again, perhaps the fear of boosting intelligence has been 
+exaggerated. The average person has absolutely no interest in being able 
+to solve the complex tensor equations for a black hole. The average 
+person sees nothing to gain by mastering the mathematics of 
+hyperspatial dimensions or the physics of the quantum theory. On the 
+contrary, the average person may find such activities rather boring and 
+useless. So most of us are not going to become mathematical geniuses if 
+given the opportunity, because it is not in our character, and we see 
+nothing to gain from it."
+"Keep in mind that society already has a class of accomplished 
+mathematicians and physicists, and they are paid significantly less than 
+ordinary businessmen and wield much less power than average 
+politicians. Being super smart does not guarantee financial success in 
+life. In fact, being super smart may actually pigeonhole you in the lower 
+rungs of a society that values athletes, movie stars, comedians, and 
+
+entertainers more. 
+
+No one ever got rich doing relativity. 
+
+Also, a lot depends on precisely which traits are enhanced. There are 
+other forms of intelligence besides using mathematics. (Some argue that 
+intelligence must include artistic genius as well. In this case, one can 
+
+conceivably use this talent to make a comfortable living.)"
+"conceivably use this talent to make a comfortable living.) 
+
+Anxious parents of high school children may want to boost the IQ of 
+their kids as they prepare for standardized exams. But IQ, as we have 
+seen, does not necessarily correspond to success in life. Likewise, people 
+may want to enhance their memory, but, as we have seen with savants, 
+having a photographic memory can be a blessing as well as a curse. And 
+in both cases, enhancement is unlikely to contribute to a society splitting 
+in two. 
+
+Society as a whole, however, may benefit from this technology. 
+Workers with an enhanced intelligence would be better prepared to face 
+an ever-changing job market. Retraining workers for the jobs of the 
+future would be less of a drain on society. Furthermore, the public will 
+be able to make informed decisions about major technological issues of 
+the future (e.g., climate change, nuclear energy, space exploration) 
+because they will grasp these complex issues better."
+"Also, this technology may help even out the playing field. Children 
+today who go to exclusive private schools and have personal tutors are 
+better prepared for the job market because they have more opportunities 
+to master difficult materials. But if everyone has had their intelligence 
+enhanced, the fault lines within society will be evened out. Then how far 
+someone goes in life would be more related to their drive, ambition, 
+imagination, and resourcefulness rather than to being born with a silver 
+spoon in their mouth. 
+
+In addition, raising our intelligence may help speed up technological 
+innovation. Increased intelligence would mean a greater ability to 
+simulate the future, which would be invaluable in making scientific 
+discoveries. Often, science stagnates in certain areas because of a lack of 
+fresh new ideas to stimulate new avenues of research. Having an ability 
+to simulate different possible futures would vastly increase the rate of 
+scientific breakthroughs."
+"These scientific discoveries, in turn, could generate new industries, 
+which could enrich all of society, creating new markets, new jobs, and 
+new opportunities. History is full of technological breakthroughs 
+creating entirely new industries that benefited not just the few, but all of 
+
+society (think of the transistor and the laser, which today form the 
+foundation of the world economy). 
+
+However, in science fiction, there is the recurring theme of the super 
+
+criminal, who uses his superior brain power to embark on a crime spree 
+and thwart the superhero. Every Superman has his Lex Luthor, every 
+Spider-Man has his Green Goblin. Although it is certainly possible that a 
+criminal mind will use a brain booster to create super weapons and plan 
+the crime of the century, realize that members of the police force can 
+also have their intelligence boosted to outwit the evil mastermind. So 
+super criminals are dangerous only if they are the only ones in 
+possession of enhanced intelligence."
+"So far, we have examined the possibility that we can enhance or alter 
+our mental capabilities via telepathy, telekinesis, uploading memories, 
+or brain boosts. Such enhancement basically means modifying and 
+augmenting the mental capabilities of our consciousness. This tacitly 
+assumes that our normal consciousness is the only one, but I’d like to 
+explore whether there are different forms of consciousness. If so, there 
+could be other ways of thinking that lead to totally different outcomes 
+and consequences. Within our own thoughts, there are altered states of 
+consciousness, such as dreams, drug-induced hallucinations, and mental 
+illness. There is also nonhuman consciousness, the consciousness of 
+robots, and even that of aliens from outer space. We have to give up the 
+chauvinistic notion that our human consciousness is the only one. There 
+is more than one way to create a model of our world, and more than one 
+way to simulate its future."
+"Dreams, for example, are one of the most ancient forms of 
+consciousness and were studied by the ancients, yet very little progress 
+has been made in understanding them until recently. Perhaps dreams are 
+not silly, random events spliced together by the sleeping brain but 
+phenomena that may give insight into the meaning of consciousness. 
+Dreams may be a key to understanding altered states of consciousness. 
+
+BOOK III ALTEHED CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their 
+dreams. 
+
+—ELEANOR ROOSEVELT 
+
+7 IN YOUR DREAMS 
+
+Dreams can determine destiny."
+"—ELEANOR ROOSEVELT 
+
+7 IN YOUR DREAMS 
+
+Dreams can determine destiny. 
+
+Perhaps the most famous dream in antiquity took place in the year 
+A.D. 312, when the Roman emperor Constantine engaged in one of the 
+greatest battles of his life. Faced with a rival army twice the size of his 
+own, he realized that he probably would die in battle the next day. But 
+in a dream he had that night, an angel appeared before him bearing the 
+image of a cross, uttering the fateful words “By this symbol, you shall 
+conquer.” Immediately he ordered the shields of his troops adorned with 
+the symbol of the cross."
+"History records that he emerged triumphant the next day, cementing 
+his hold on the Roman Empire. He vowed to repay the blood debt to this 
+relatively obscure religion, Christianity, that had been persecuted for 
+centuries by previous Roman emperors and whose adherents were 
+regularly fed to the lions in the Colosseum. He signed laws that would 
+eventually pave the way for it to become an official religion of one of 
+the greatest empires in the world."
+"For thousands of years, kings and queens, as well as beggars and 
+thieves, have all wondered about dreams. The ancients considered 
+dreams to be omens about the future, so there have been countless 
+attempts throughout history to interpret them. The Bible records in 
+Genesis 41 the rise of Joseph, who was able to correctly interpret the 
+dreams of the Pharaoh of Egypt thousands of years ago. When the 
+Pharaoh dreamed about seven fat cows, followed by seven lean cows, he 
+was so disturbed by the imagery that he asked scribes and mystics 
+throughout the kingdom to find its meaning. All failed to give a 
+convincing explanation, until Joseph finally interpreted the dream to 
+mean that Egypt would have seven years of good harvests, followed by 
+seven years of drought and famine. So, said Joseph, Egypt must begin 
+stockpiling grain and supplies now, in preparation for the coming years 
+of want and desperation. When this came to pass, Joseph was considered 
+
+to be a prophet."
+"to be a prophet. 
+
+Dreams have long been associated with prophesy, but in more recent 
+times they’ve also been known to stimulate scientific discovery. The idea 
+that neurotransmitters could facilitate the movement of information past 
+a synapse, which forms the foundation of neuroscience, came to 
+pharmacologist Otto Loewi in a dream. Similarly, in 1865, August 
+Kekule had a dream about benzene, in which the bonds of carbon atoms 
+formed a chain that eventually wrapped around and finally formed a 
+
+circle, just like a snake biting its tail. This dream would unlock the 
+atomic structure of the benzene molecule. He concluded, “Let us learn to 
+dream!”"
+"Dreams have also been interpreted as a window onto our true 
+thoughts and intentions. The great Renaissance writer and essayist 
+Michel de Montaigne once wrote, “I believe it to be true that dreams are 
+the true interpretations of our inclinations, but there is art required to 
+sort and understand them.” More recently, Sigmund Freud proposed a 
+theory to explain the origin of dreams. In his signature work, The 
+Interpretation of Dreams, he claimed that they were manifestations of our 
+subconscious desires, which were often repressed by the waking mind 
+but which run wild every night. Dreams were not just the random 
+figments of our overheated imaginations but could actually uncover 
+deep secrets and truths about ourselves. “Dreams are the royal road to 
+the unconscious,” he wrote. Since then, people have amassed huge 
+encyclopedias that claim to reveal the hidden meaning behind every 
+disturbing image in terms of Freudian theory."
+"Hollywood takes advantage of our continuing fascination with dreams. 
+A favorite scene in many movies is when the hero experiences a 
+terrifying dream sequence and then suddenly wakes up from the 
+nightmare in a cold sweat. In the blockbuster movie Inception, Leonardo 
+DiCaprio plays a petty thief who steals intimate secrets from the most 
+unlikely of all places, people’s dreams. With a new invention, he is able 
+to enter people’s dreams and deceive them into giving up their financial 
+secrets. Corporations spend millions of dollars protecting industrial 
+secrets and patents. Billionaires jealously guard their wealth using 
+elaborate codes. His job is to steal them. The plot quickly escalates as 
+the characters enter dreams in which a person falls asleep and dreams 
+again. So these criminals descend deeper and deeper into multiple layers 
+
+of the subconscious."
+"of the subconscious. 
+
+But although dreams have always haunted and mystified us, only in 
+the last decade or so have scientists been able to peel away the mysteries 
+of dreams. In fact, scientists can now do something once considered 
+impossible: they are able to take rough photographs and videotapes of 
+dreams with MRI machines. One day, you may be able to view a video of 
+the dream you had the previous night and gain insight into your own 
+subconscious mind. With proper training, you might be able to 
+consciously control the nature of your dreams. And perhaps, like 
+DiCaprio’s character, with advanced technology you might even be able 
+to enter someone else’s dream. 
+
+THE NATURE OF DREAMS"
+"THE NATURE OF DREAMS 
+
+As mysterious as they are, dreams are not a superfluous luxury, the 
+useless ruminations of the idle brain. Dreams, in fact, are essential for 
+survival. Using brain scans, it is possible to show that certain animals 
+exhibit dreamlike brain activity. If deprived of dreams, these animals 
+would often die faster than they would by starvation, because such 
+deprivation severely disrupts their metabolism. Unfortunately, science 
+does not know exactly why this is the case. 
+
+Dreaming is an essential feature of our sleep cycle as well. We spend 
+roughly two hours a night dreaming when we sleep, with each dream 
+lasting five to twenty minutes. In fact, we spend about six years 
+dreaming during an average lifetime."
+"Dreams are also universal across the human race. Looking across 
+different cultures, scientists find common themes in dreams. Fifty 
+thousand dreams were recorded over a forty-year time period by 
+psychology professor Calvin Hall. He followed this up with one thousand 
+dream reports from college students. Not surprisingly, he found that 
+most people dreamed of the same things, such as personal experiences 
+from the previous days or week. (However, animals apparently dream 
+differently than we do. In the dolphin, for example, only one hemisphere 
+at a time sleeps in order to prevent drowning, because they are air- 
+breathing mammals, not fish. So if they dream, it is probably in only one 
+hemisphere at a time.)"
+"The brain, as we have seen, is not a digital computer, but rather a 
+neural network of some sort that constantly rewires itself after learning 
+new tasks. Scientists who work with neural networks noticed something 
+interesting, though. Often these systems would become saturated after 
+learning too much, and instead of processing more information they 
+would enter a “dream” state, whereby random memories would 
+sometimes drift and join together as the neural networks tried to digest 
+all the new material. Dreams, then, might reflect “house cleaning,” in 
+which the brain tries to organize its memories in a more coherent way. 
+(If this is true, then possibly all neural networks, including all organisms 
+that can learn, might enter a dream state in order to sort out their 
+memories. So dreams probably serve a purpose. Some scientists have 
+speculated that this might imply that robots that learn from experience 
+might also eventually dream as well.)"
+"Neurological studies seem to back up this conclusion. Studies have 
+shown that retaining memories can be improved by getting sufficient 
+sleep between the time of activity and a test. Neuroimaging shows that 
+the areas of the brain that are activated during sleep are the same as 
+those involved in learning a new task. Dreaming is perhaps useful in 
+
+consolidating this new information. 
+
+Also, some dreams can incorporate events that happened a few hours 
+earlier, just before sleep. But dreams mostly incorporate memories that 
+are a few days old. For example, experiments have shown that if you put 
+rose-colored glasses on a person, it takes a few days before the dreams 
+become rose-colored as well. 
+
+BRAIN SCANS OF DREAMS"
+"BRAIN SCANS OF DREAMS 
+
+Brain scans are now unveiling some of the mystery of dreams. Normally 
+EEG scans show that the brain is emitting steady electromagnetic waves 
+while we are awake. However, as we gradually fall asleep, our EEG 
+signals begin to change frequency. When we finally dream, waves of 
+electrical energy emanate from the brain stem that surge upward, rising 
+into the cortical areas of the brain, especially the visual cortex. This 
+confirms that visual images are an important component of dreams. 
+Finally, we enter a dream state, and our brain waves are typified by 
+
+rapid eye movements (REM). (Since some mammals also enter REM 
+sleep, we can infer that they might dream as well.)"
+"While the visual areas of the brain are active, other areas involved 
+with smell, taste, and touch are largely shut down. Almost all the images 
+and sensations processed by the body are self-generated, originating 
+from the electromagnetic vibrations from our brain stem, not from 
+external stimuli. The body is largely isolated from the outside world. 
+Also, when we dream, we are more or less paralyzed. (Perhaps this 
+paralysis is to prevent us from physically acting out our dreams, which 
+could be disastrous. About 6 percent of people suffer from “sleep 
+paralysis” disorder, in which they wake up from a dream still paralyzed. 
+Often these individuals wake up frightened and believing that there are 
+creatures pinning down their chest, arms, and legs. There are paintings 
+from the Victorian era of women waking up with a terrifying goblin 
+sitting on their chest glaring down at them. Some psychologists believe 
+that sleep paralysis could explain the origin of the alien abduction 
+syndrome.)"
+"The hippocampus is active when we dream, suggesting that dreams 
+draw upon our storehouse of memories. The amygdala and anterior 
+cingulate are also active, meaning that dreams can be highly emotional, 
+often involving fear. 
+
+But more revealing are the areas of the brain that are shut down, 
+including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (which is the command 
+
+center of the brain), the orbitofrontal cortex (which can act like a censor 
+or fact-checker), and the temporoparietal region (which processes 
+sensory motor signals and spatial awareness)."
+"When the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is shut down, we can’t count 
+on the rational, planning center of the brain. Instead, we drift aimlessly 
+in our dreams, with the visual center giving us images without rational 
+control. The orbitofrontal cortex, or the fact-checker, is also inactive. 
+Hence dreams are allowed to blissfully evolve without any constraints 
+from the laws of physics or common sense. And the temporoparietal 
+lobe, which helps coordinate our sense of where we are located using 
+signals from our eyes and inner ear, is also shut down, which may 
+explain our out-of-body experiences while we dream. 
+
+As we have emphasized, human consciousness mainly represents the 
+brain constantly creating models of the outside world and simulating 
+
+them into the future. If so, then dreams represent an alternate way in 
+which the future is simulated, one in which the laws of nature and social 
+interactions are temporarily suspended. 
+
+HOW DO WE DREAM?"
+"HOW DO WE DREAM? 
+
+But that leaves open this question: What generates our dreams? One of 
+the world’s authorities on dreams is Dr. Allan Hobson, a psychiatrist at 
+Harvard Medical School. He has devoted decades of his life to unveiling 
+the secrets of dreams. He claims that dreams, especially REM sleep, can 
+be studied at the neurological level, and that dreams arise when the 
+brain tries to make sense of the largely random signals emanating from 
+the brain stem. 
+
+When I interviewed him, he told me that after many decades of 
+cataloging dreams, he found five basic characteristics: 
+
+1. Intense emotions—this is due to the activation of the amygdala, 
+causing emotions such as fear. 
+
+2. Illogical content—dreams can rapidly shift from one scene to 
+another, in defiance of logic. 
+
+3. Apparent sensory impressions—dreams give us false sensations that 
+are internally generated. 
+
+4. Uncritical acceptance of dream events—we uncritically accept the 
+illogical nature of the dream."
+"5. Difficulty in being remembered—dreams are soon forgotten, within 
+minutes of waking up. 
+
+Dr. Hobson (with Dr. Robert McCarley) made history by proposing the 
+first serious challenge to Freud’s theory of dreams, called the “activation 
+synthesis theory.” In 1977, they proposed the idea that dreams originate 
+from random neural firings in the brain stem, which travel up to the 
+cortex, which then tries to make sense of these random signals. 
+
+The key to dreams lies in nodes found in the brain stem, the oldest 
+part of the brain, which squirts out special chemicals, called adrenergics, 
+that keep us alert. As we go to sleep, the brain stem activates another 
+
+system, the cholinergic, which emits chemicals that put us in a dream 
+state."
+"system, the cholinergic, which emits chemicals that put us in a dream 
+state. 
+
+As we dream, cholinergic neurons in the brain stem begin to fire, 
+setting off erratic pulses of electrical energy called PGO (pontine- 
+geniculate-occipital) waves. These waves travel up the brain stem into 
+the visual cortex, stimulating it to create dreams. Cells in the visual 
+cortex begin to resonate hundreds of times per second in an irregular 
+fashion, which is perhaps responsible for the sometimes incoherent 
+nature of dreams. 
+
+This system also emits chemicals that decouple parts of the brain 
+involved with reason and logic. The lack of checks coming from the 
+prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortices, along with the brain becoming 
+extremely sensitive to stray thoughts, may account for the bizarre, 
+erratic nature of dreams."
+"Studies have shown that it is possible to enter the cholinergic state 
+without sleep. Dr. Edgar Garcia-Rill of the University of Arkansas claims 
+that meditation, worrying, or being placed in an isolation tank can 
+induce this cholinergic state. Pilots and drivers facing the monotony of a 
+blank windshield for many hours may also enter this state. In his 
+research, he has found that schizophrenics have an unusually large 
+number of cholinergic neurons in their brain stem, which may explain 
+some of their hallucinations. 
+
+To make his studies more efficient, Dr. Allan Hobson had his subjects 
+put on a special nightcap that can automatically record data during a 
+dream. One sensor connected to the nightcap registers the movements of 
+a person’s head (because head movements usually occur when dreams 
+end). Another sensor measures movements of the eyelids (because REM 
+sleep causes eyelids to move). When his subjects wake up, they 
+immediately record what they dreamed about, and the information from"
+"the nightcap is fed into a computer. 
+
+In this way, Dr. Hobson has accumulated a vast amount of information 
+about dreams. So what is the meaning of dreams? I asked him. He 
+dismisses what he calls the “mystique of fortune-cookie dream 
+interpretation.” He does not see any hidden message from the cosmos in 
+dreams. 
+
+Instead, he believes that after the PGO waves surge from the brain 
+stem into the cortical areas, the cortex is trying to make sense of these 
+
+erratic signals and winds up creating a narrative out of them: a dream. 
+
+PHOTOGRAPHING A DREAM"
+"erratic signals and winds up creating a narrative out of them: a dream. 
+
+PHOTOGRAPHING A DREAM 
+
+In the past, most scientists avoided the study of dreams, since they are so 
+subjective and have such a long historical association with mystics and 
+psychics. But with MRI scans, dreams are now revealing their secrets. In 
+fact, since the brain centers that control dreaming are nearly identical to 
+the ones that control vision, it is therefore possible to photograph a 
+dream. This pioneering work is being done in Kyoto, Japan, by scientists 
+at the ATR Computational and Neuroscience Laboratories."
+"Subjects are first placed in an MRI machine and shown four hundred 
+black-and-white images, each consisting of a set of dots within a ten-by- 
+ten-pixel framework. One picture is flashed at a time, and the MRI 
+records how the brain responds to each collection of pixels. As with 
+other groups working in this field of BMI, the scientists eventually create 
+an encyclopedia of images, with each image of pixels corresponding to a 
+specific MRI pattern. Here the scientists are able to work backward, to 
+correctly reconstruct self-generated images from MRI brain scans taken 
+while the subject dreams. 
+
+ATR chief scientist Yukiyasu Kamitani says, “This technology can also 
+be applied to senses other than vision. In the future, it may also be 
+possible to read feelings and complicated emotional states.” In fact, any 
+mental state of the brain might be imaged in this way, including dreams, 
+as long as a one-to-one map can be made between a certain mental state 
+and an MRI scan."
+"The Kyoto scientists have concentrated on analyzing still photographs 
+generated by the mind. In Chapter 3, we encountered a similar approach 
+pioneered by Dr. Jack Gallant, in which the voxels from 3-D MRI scans 
+of the brain can be used to reconstruct the actual image seen by the eye 
+with the help of a complex formula. A similar process has allowed Dr. 
+
+Gallant and his team to create a crude video of a dream. When I visited 
+the laboratory in Berkeley, I talked to a postdoctoral staff member, Dr. 
+Shinji Nishimoto, who allowed me to watch the video of one of his 
+dreams, one of the first ever done. I saw a series of faces flickering 
+across the computer screen, meaning that the subject (in this case Dr."
+"Nishimoto himself) was dreaming of people, rather than animals or 
+objects. This was amazing. Unfortunately, the technology is not yet good 
+enough to see the precise facial features of the people appearing in his 
+dream, so the next step is to increase the number of pixels so that more 
+complex images can be identified. Another advance will be to reproduce 
+images in color rather than black and white. 
+
+I then asked Dr. Nishimoto the crucial question: How do you know the 
+video is accurate? How do you know that the machine isn’t just making 
+things up? He was a bit sheepish when he replied that this was a weak 
+point in his research. Normally, you have only a few minutes after 
+waking up to record a dream. After that, most dreams are lost in the fog 
+of our consciousness, so it is not easy to verify the results."
+"Dr. Gallant told me that this research on videotaping dreams was still 
+a work in progress, and that is why it’s not ready for publication. There 
+is still a ways to go before we can watch a videotape of last night’s 
+dream. 
+
+LUCID DREAMS 
+
+Scientists are also investigating a form of dreaming that was once 
+thought to be a myth: lucid dreaming, or dreaming while you are 
+conscious. This sounds like a contradiction in terms, but it has been 
+verified in brain scans. In lucid dreaming, dreamers are aware that they 
+are dreaming and can consciously control the direction of the dream. 
+Although science has only recently begun to experiment with lucid 
+dreaming, there are references to this phenomenon dating back 
+centuries. In Buddhism, for example, there are books that refer to lucid 
+dreamers and how to train yourself to become one. Over the centuries, 
+several people in Europe have written detailed accounts of their lucid 
+dreams."
+"Brain scans of lucid dreamers show that this phenomenon is real; 
+during REM sleep, their dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is usually 
+dormant when a normal person dreams, is active, indicating that the 
+person is partially conscious while dreaming. In fact, the more lucid the 
+dream, the more active the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Since the 
+dorsolateral prefrontal cortex represents the conscious part of the brain, 
+
+the dreamer must be aware while he or she is dreaming."
+"the dreamer must be aware while he or she is dreaming. 
+
+Dr. Hobson told me that anyone can learn to do lucid dreaming by 
+practicing certain techniques. In particular, people who do lucid 
+dreaming should keep a notebook of dreams. Before going to sleep, they 
+should remind themselves that they will “wake up” in the middle of the 
+dream and realize that they are moving in a dream world. It is important 
+to have this frame of mind before hitting the pillow. Since the body is 
+largely paralyzed during REM sleep, it is difficult for the dreaming 
+person to send a signal to the outside world that he has entered a dream, 
+but Dr. Stephen LaBerge at Stanford University has studied lucid 
+dreamers (including himself) who can signal the outside world while 
+dreaming."
+"In 2011, for the first time, scientists used MRI and EEG sensors to 
+measure dream content and even make contact with a dreaming person. 
+At the Max Planck Institute in Munich and Leipzig, scientists enlisted the 
+help of lucid dreamers, who were fitted with EEG sensors on their heads 
+to help the scientists determine the moment they entered REM sleep; 
+they were then placed in an MRI machine. Before falling asleep, the 
+dreamers agreed to initiate a set of eye movements and breathing 
+patterns when dreaming, like a Morse code. They were told that once 
+they started dreaming, they should clench their right fist and then their 
+left one for ten seconds. That was the signal that they were dreaming."
+"The scientists found that, once the subjects entered their dream state, 
+the sensorimotor cortex of the brain (responsible for controlling motor 
+actions like clenching your fists) was activated. The MRI scans could 
+pick up that the fists were being clenched and which fist was being 
+clenched first. Then, using another sensor (a near-infrared spectrometer) 
+they were able to confirm that there was increased brain activity in the 
+region that controls the planning of movements. 
+
+“Our dreams are therefore not a ‘sleep cinema’ in which we merely 
+observe an event passively, but involve activity in the regions of the 
+brain that are relevant to the dream content,” says Michael Czisch, a 
+group leader at the Max Planck Institute. 
+
+ENTERING A DREAM 
+
+If we can communicate with a dreaming person, then is it also possible 
+to alter someone’s dream from the outside? Quite possibly. 
+
+First, as we have seen, scientists have already made the initial steps in"
+"First, as we have seen, scientists have already made the initial steps in 
+
+videotaping a person’s dream, and in the coming years, it should be 
+possible to create much more accurate pictures and videos of dreams. 
+Since scientists have already been able to establish a communication link 
+between the real world and the lucid dreamer in the fantasy world, then, 
+in principle, scientists should be able to deliberately alter the course of a 
+dream. Let’s say that scientists are viewing the video of a dream using an 
+MRI machine as the dream unfolds in real time. As the person wanders 
+around the dreamscape, the scientists can tell where he is going and give 
+directions for him to move in different ways. 
+
+So in the near future, it might be possible to watch a video of a 
+person’s dream and actually influence its general direction. But in the 
+movie Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio goes much further. He is able not 
+only to watch another person’s dream, but also to enter it. Is this 
+possible?"
+"We saw earlier that we are paralyzed when we dream so that we don’t 
+carry out our dream fantasies, which might be disastrous. However, 
+when people are sleepwalking, they often have their eyes open (although 
+their eyes look glazed over). So sleepwalkers live in a hybrid world, part 
+real and part dreamlike. There are many documented instances of people 
+walking around their homes, driving cars, cutting wood, and even 
+committing homicides while in this dream state, where reality and the 
+fantasy world are mixed. Hence it is possible that physical images that 
+the eye actually sees can freely interact with the fictitious images that 
+the brain is concocting during a dream."
+"The way to enter someone’s dream, then, might be to have the subject 
+wear contact lenses that can project images directly onto their retinas. 
+Already, prototypes of Internet contact lenses are being developed at the 
+University of Washington in Seattle. So if the observer wanted to enter 
+the subject’s dream, first he would sit in a studio and have a video 
+camera film him. His image could then be projected onto the contact 
+lenses of the dreamer, creating a composite image (the image of the 
+observer superimposed upon the imaginary image the brain is 
+manufacturing). 
+
+The observer could actually see this dream world as he wanders 
+
+around the dream, since he, too, would be wearing Internet contact 
+lenses. The MRI image of the subject’s dream, after it has been 
+deciphered by computer, would be sent directly into the observer’s 
+contact lenses."
+"Furthermore, you could actually change the direction of the dream 
+you have entered. As you walk around in the empty studio, you would 
+see the dream unfold in your contact lens, so you could start to interact 
+
+with the objects and people appearing in the dream. This would be quite 
+an experience, since the background would change without warning, 
+images would appear and disappear without reason, and the laws of 
+physics would be suspended. Anything goes."
+"Further into the future, it might even be possible to enter another 
+person’s dream by directly connecting two sleeping brains. Each brain 
+would have to be connected to MRI scanners that were connected to a 
+central computer, which would merge the two dreams into a single one. 
+The computer would first decipher each person’s MRI scans into a video 
+image. Then the dream of one person would be sent into the sensory 
+areas of the other person’s brain, so that the other dreamer’s dream 
+would merge with the first dreamer’s dream. However, the technology of 
+videotaping and interpreting dreams would have to become much more 
+advanced before this could become a possibility."
+"But this raises another question: If it’s possible to alter the course of 
+someone’s dream, is it possible to control not only that person’s dream 
+but that person’s mind as well? During the Cold War, this became a 
+serious issue as both the Soviet Union and the United States played a 
+deadly game, trying to use psychological techniques to control other 
+people’s wills. 
+
+Minds are simply what brains do. 
+
+—MARVIN MINSKY 
+
+8 CAN THE MIND BE CONTROLLED?"
+"Minds are simply what brains do. 
+
+—MARVIN MINSKY 
+
+8 CAN THE MIND BE CONTROLLED? 
+
+A raging bull is released into an empty arena in Cordoba, Spain. For 
+generations, this ferocious beast has been carefully bred to maximize its 
+killer instinct. Then a Yale professor calmly enters the same arena. 
+Rather than donning a tweed jacket, he is dressed like a dashing 
+matador, wearing a bright golden jacket and waving a red cape defiantly 
+in front of the bull, egging him on. Instead of running away in terror, the 
+professor looks calm, confident, and even detached. To a bystander, it 
+appears as if the professor has gone mad and wants to commit suicide."
+"Enraged, the bull locks onto the professor. Suddenly the bull charges, 
+aiming his deadly horns at him. The professor does not run away in fear. 
+Instead, he holds a small box in his hand. Then, in front of the cameras, 
+he presses a button on the box, and the bull stops dead in his tracks. The 
+professor is so confident of himself that he has risked his life to prove a 
+point, that he has mastered the art of controlling the mind of a mad bull. 
+
+The Yale professor is Dr. Jose Delgado, who was years ahead of his 
+time. He pioneered a series of remarkable but unsettling animal 
+experiments in the 1960s, in which he put electrodes into their brains 
+with the aim of trying to control their movement. To stop the bull, he 
+inserted electrodes into the striatum of the basal ganglia at the base of 
+the brain, which is involved with motor coordination."
+"He also did a series of other experiments on monkeys to see if he could 
+rearrange their social hierarchy with the push of a button. After 
+implanting electrodes into the caudate nucleus (a region associated with 
+motor control) of the alpha male within the group, Delgado could reduce 
+the aggressive tendencies of the leader on command. Without threats of 
+retaliation, the delta males began to assert themselves, taking over the 
+territory and privileges normally reserved for the alpha male. The alpha 
+male, meanwhile, appeared to have lost interest in defending his 
+territory. 
+
+Then Dr. Delgado pressed another button, and the alpha male 
+
+instantly sprung back to normal, resuming his aggressive behavior and 
+reestablishing his power as the king of the hill. The delta males 
+scrambled in fear. 
+
+Dr. Delgado was the first person in history to show that it was possible 
+to control the minds of animals in this way. The professor became the 
+puppet master, pulling the strings of living puppets."
+"As expected, the scientific community looked at Dr. Delgado’s work 
+with unease. To make matters worse, he wrote a book in 1969 with the 
+provocative title Physical Control of the Mind: Toward a Psychocivilized 
+Society. It raised an unsettling question: If scientists like Dr. Delgado are 
+pulling the strings, then who controls the puppet master?"
+"Dr. Delgado’s work puts into sharp focus the enormous promise and 
+perils of this technology. In the hands of an unscrupulous dictator, this 
+technology might be used to deceive and control his unfortunate 
+subjects. But it can also be used to free millions of people who are 
+trapped in mental illness, hounded by their hallucinations, or crushed by 
+their anxieties. (Years later, Dr. Delgado was asked by a journalist why 
+he initiated these controversial experiments. He said that he wanted to 
+correct the horrendous abuses being suffered by the mentally ill. They 
+often underwent radical lobotomies, in which the prefrontal cortex was 
+scrambled by a knife resembling an ice pick, which was hammered into 
+the brain above the eye socket. The results were often tragic, and some 
+of the horrors were exposed in Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the 
+Cuckoo’s Nest, which was made into a movie with Jack Nicholson. Some"
+"patients became calm and relaxed, but many others became zombies: 
+lethargic, indifferent to pain and feelings, and emotionally vacuous. The 
+practice was so widespread that in 1949, Antonio Moniz won the Nobel 
+Prize for perfecting the lobotomy. Ironically, in 1950, the Soviet Union 
+banned this technology, stating that “it was contrary to the principles of 
+humanity.” Lobotomies, the Soviet Union charged, turned “an insane 
+person into an idiot.” In total, it is estimated that forty thousand 
+lobotomies were performed in the United States alone over two 
+decades.) 
+
+MIND CONTROL AND THE COLD WAR 
+
+Another reason for the chilly reception of Dr. Delgado’s work was the 
+political climate of the time. It was the height of the Cold War, with 
+painful memories of captured U.S. soldiers being paraded in front of 
+cameras during the Korean War. With blank stares, they would admit 
+they were on secret spy missions, confess to horrific war crimes, and 
+denounce U.S. imperialism."
+"To make sense of this, the press used the term “brainwashing,” the 
+idea that the communists had developed secret drugs and techniques to 
+turn U.S. soldiers into pliable zombies. In this charged political climate, 
+Frank Sinatra starred in the 1962 Cold War thriller The Manchurian 
+Candidate, in which he tries to expose a secret communist “sleeper” 
+agent whose mission is to assassinate the president of the United States. 
+But there is a twist. The assassin is actually a trusted U.S. war hero, 
+someone who was captured and then brainwashed by the communists. 
+Coming from a well-connected family, the agent seems above suspicion 
+and is almost impossible to stop. The Manchurian Candidate mirrored the 
+anxieties of many Americans at that time."
+"Many of these fears were also stoked by Aldous Huxley’s prophetic 
+1931 novel Brave New World. In this dystopia, there are large test-tube- 
+baby factories that produce clones. By selectively depriving oxygen from 
+these fetuses, it is possible to produce children of different levels of brain 
+damage. At the top are the alphas, who suffer no brain damage and are 
+bred to rule society. At the bottom are the epsilons, who suffer 
+significant brain damage and are used as disposable, obedient workers. 
+In between are additional levels made up of other workers and the 
+bureaucracy. The elite then control society by flooding it with mind- 
+altering drugs, free love, and constant brainwashing. In this way, peace, 
+tranquility, and harmony are maintained, but the novel asked a 
+disturbing question that resonates even today: How much of our freedom 
+and basic humanity do we want to sacrifice in the name of peace and 
+social order? 
+
+CIA MIND-CONTROL EXPERIMENTS"
+"CIA MIND-CONTROL EXPERIMENTS 
+
+The Cold War hysteria eventually reached the highest levels of the CIA. 
+Convinced that the Soviets were far ahead in the science of brainwashing 
+
+and unorthodox scientific methods, the CIA embarked upon a variety of 
+classified projects, such as MKULTRA, which began in 1953, to explore 
+bizarre, fringe ideas. (In 1973, as the Watergate scandal spread panic 
+throughout the government, CIA director Richard Helms canceled 
+MKULTRA and hurriedly ordered all documents pertaining to the project 
+destroyed. However, a cache of twenty thousand documents somehow 
+survived the purge and were declassified in 1977 under the Freedom of 
+Information Act, revealing the full scope of this massive effort.)"
+"It is now known that, from 1953 to 1973, MULTRA funded 80 
+institutions, including 44 universities and colleges, and scores of 
+hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and prisons, often experimenting 
+on unsuspecting people without their permission, in 150 secret 
+operations. At one point, fully 6 percent of the entire CIA budget went 
+into MKULTRA. 
+
+Some of these mind-control projects included: 
+
+• developing a “truth serum” so prisoners would spill their secrets 
+
+• erasing memories via a U.S. Navy project called “Subproject 54” 
+
+• using hypnosis and a wide variety of drugs, especially LSD, to 
+control behavior 
+
+• investigating the use of mind-control drugs against foreign leaders, 
+e.g., Fidel Castro 
+
+• perfecting a variety of interrogation methods against prisoners 
+
+• developing a knockout drug that was fast working and left no trace 
+
+• altering people’s personality via drugs to make them more pliable"
+"• altering people’s personality via drugs to make them more pliable 
+
+Although some scientists questioned the validity of these studies, 
+others went along willingly. People from a wide range of disciplines 
+were recruited, including psychics, physicists, and computer scientists, to 
+investigate a variety of unorthodox projects: experimenting with mind- 
+altering drugs such as LSD, asking psychics to locate the position of 
+Soviet submarines patrolling the deep oceans, etc. In one sad incident, a 
+
+U.S. Army scientist was secretly given LSD. According to some reports, 
+he became so violently disoriented that he committed suicide by 
+jumping out a window."
+"Most of these experiments were justified on the grounds that the 
+Soviets were already ahead of us in terms of mind control. The U.S. 
+Senate was briefed in another secret report that the Soviets were 
+experimenting with beaming microwave radiation directly into the 
+brains of test subjects. Rather than denouncing the act, the United States 
+saw “great potential for development into a system for disorienting or 
+disrupting the behavior pattern of military or diplomatic personnel.” The 
+U.S. Army even claimed that it might be able to beam entire words and 
+speeches into the minds of the enemy: “One decoy and deception 
+concept ... is to remotely create noise in the heads of personnel by 
+exposing them to low power, pulsed microwaves.... By proper choice of 
+pulse characteristics, intelligible speech may be created.... Thus, it may 
+be possible to ‘talk’ to selected adversaries in a fashion that would be 
+most disturbing to them,” the report said."
+"Unfortunately, none of these experiments was peer-reviewed, so 
+millions of taxpayer dollars were spent on projects like this one, which 
+most likely violated the laws of physics, since the human brain cannot 
+receive microwave radiation and, more important, does not have the 
+ability to decode microwave messages. Dr. Steve Rose, a biologist at the 
+Open University, has called this far-fetched scheme a “neuro-scientific 
+impossibility.” 
+
+But for all the millions of dollars spent on these “black projects,” 
+apparently not a single piece of reliable science emerged. The use of 
+mind-altering drugs did, in fact, create disorientation and even panic 
+among the subjects who were tested, but the Pentagon failed to 
+accomplish the key goal: control of the conscious mind of another 
+person."
+"Also, according to psychologist Robert Jay Lifton, brainwashing by the 
+communists had little long-term effect. Most of the American troops who 
+denounced the United States during the Korean War reverted back to 
+their normal personalities soon after being released. In addition, studies 
+done on people who have been brainwashed by certain cults also show 
+that they revert back to their normal personality after leaving the cult. 
+So it seems that, in the long run, one’s basic personality is not affected 
+by brainwashing. 
+
+Of course, the military was not the first to experiment with mind 
+control. In ancient times, sorcerers and seers would claim that giving 
+
+magic potions to captured soldiers would make them talk or turn against 
+their leaders. One of the earliest of these mind-control methods was 
+hypnotism. 
+
+YOU ARE GETTING SLEEPY...."
+"YOU ARE GETTING SLEEPY.... 
+
+As a child, I remember seeing TV specials devoted to hypnosis. In one 
+show, a person was placed in a hypnotic trance and told that when he 
+woke up, he would be a chicken. The audience gasped as he began to 
+cluck and flap his arms around the stage. As dramatic as this 
+demonstration was, it’s simply an example of “stage hypnosis.” Books 
+written by professional magicians and showmen explain that they use 
+shills planted in the audience, the power of suggestion, and even the 
+willingness of the victim to play along with the ruse. 
+
+I once hosted a BBC/Discovery TV documentary called Time, and the 
+subject of long-lost memories came up. Is it possible to evoke such 
+distant memories through hypnosis? And if it is, can you then impose 
+your will on another? To test some of these ideas, I had myself 
+hypnotized for TV."
+"BBC hired a skilled professional hypnotist to begin the process. I was 
+asked to lie down on a bed in a quiet, darkened room. The hypnotist 
+spoke to me in slow, gentle tones, gradually making me relax. After a 
+while, he asked me to think back into the past, to perhaps a certain place 
+or incident that stood out even after all these years. And then he asked 
+me to reenter that place, reexperiencing its sights, sounds, and smells. 
+Remarkably, I did begin to see places and people’s faces that I had 
+forgotten about decades ago. It was like watching a blurred movie that 
+was slowly coming into focus. But then the recollections stopped. At a 
+certain point, I could not recapture any more memories. There was 
+clearly a limit to what hypnosis could do."
+"EEG and MRI scans show that during hypnosis the subject has minimal 
+sensory stimulation in the sensory cortices from the outside. In this way, 
+hypnosis can allow one to access some memories that are buried, but it 
+certainly cannot change one’s personality, goals, or wishes. A secret 
+1966 Pentagon document corroborates this, explaining that hypnotism 
+cannot be trusted as a military weapon. “It is probably significant that in 
+
+the long history of hypnosis, where the potential application to 
+intelligence has always been known, there are no reliable accounts of its 
+effective use by an intelligence service,” it read."
+"It should also be noted that brain scans show that hypnotism is not a 
+new state of consciousness, like dreaming and REM sleep. If we define 
+human consciousness as the process of continually building models of 
+the outside world and then simulating how they evolve into the future to 
+carry out a goal, we see that hypnosis cannot alter this basic process. 
+Hypnosis can accentuate certain aspects of consciousness and help 
+retrieve certain memories, but it cannot make you squawk like a chicken 
+without your permission. 
+
+MIND-ALTERING DRUGS AND TRUTH SERUMS 
+
+One of the goals of MKULTRA was the creation of a truth serum so that 
+spies and prisoners would reveal their secrets. Although MKULTRA was 
+canceled in 1973, U.S. Army and CIA interrogation manuals declassified 
+by the Pentagon in 1996 still recommended the use of truth serums 
+(although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that confessions obtained in this 
+way were “unconstitutionally coerced” and hence inadmissible in court)."
+"Anyone who watches Hollywood movies knows that sodium pentathol 
+is the truth serum of choice used by spies (as in the movies True Lies 
+with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Meet the Fockers with Robert De Niro). 
+Sodium pentathol is part of a larger class of barbiturates, sedatives, and 
+hypnotics that can evade the blood-brain barrier, which prevents most 
+harmful chemicals in the bloodstream from entering the brain."
+"Not surprisingly, most mind-altering drugs, such as alcohol, affect us 
+powerfully because they can evade this barrier. Sodium pentathol 
+depresses activity in the prefrontal cortex, so that a person becomes 
+more relaxed, talkative, and uninhibited. However, this does not mean 
+that they tell the truth. On the contrary, people under the influence of 
+sodium pentathol, like those who have imbibed a few too many, are 
+fully capable of lying. The “secrets” that come spilling out of the mouth 
+of someone under this drug may be total fabrications, so even the CIA 
+eventually gave up on drugs like this. 
+
+But this still leaves open the possibility that, one day, a wonder drug"
+"But this still leaves open the possibility that, one day, a wonder drug 
+
+might be found that could alter our basic consciousness. This drug would 
+work by changing the synapses between our nerve fibers by targeting 
+neurotransmitters that operate in this area, such as dopamine, serotonin, 
+or acetylcholine. If we think of the synapses as a series of tollbooths 
+along a superhighway, then certain drugs (such as stimulants like 
+cocaine) can open the tollbooth and let messages pass by unimpeded. 
+The sudden rush that drug addicts feel is caused when these tollbooths 
+are opened all at once, causing an avalanche of signals to flood by. But 
+
+when all the synapses have fired in unison, they cannot fire again until 
+hours later. It’s as if the tolls have closed, and this causes the sudden 
+depression one feels after the rush. The body’s desire to reexperience the 
+sudden rush then causes addiction. 
+
+HOW DRUGS ALTER THE MIND"
+"HOW DRUGS ALTER THE MIND 
+
+Although the biochemical basis for mind-altering drugs was not known 
+when the CIA first conducted its experiments on unsuspecting subjects, 
+since then the molecular basis of drug addiction has been studied in 
+detail. Studies in animals demonstrate how powerful drug addiction is: 
+rats, mice, and primates will, given the chance, take drugs like cocaine, 
+heroin, and amphetamines until they drop from exhaustion or die from 
+it."
+"To see how widespread this problem has become, consider that by 
+2007, thirteen million Americans aged twelve or over (or 5 percent of 
+the entire teen and adult population of the United States) had tried or 
+become addicted to methamphetamines. Drug addiction not only 
+destroys entire lives, it also systematically destroys the brain. MRI scans 
+of the brains of meth addicts show an 11 percent reduction in the size of 
+the limbic system, which processes emotions, and an 8 percent loss of 
+tissue in the hippocampus, which is the gateway for memory. MRI scans 
+show that the damage in some ways is comparable to that found in 
+Alzheimer’s patients. But no matter how much meth destroys the brain, 
+addicts crave it because its high is up to twelve times the rush caused by 
+eating a delicious meal or even having sex. 
+
+Basically, the “high” of drug addiction is due to the drug’s hijacking of 
+the brain’s own pleasure/reward system located in the limbic system."
+"This pleasure/reward circuit is very primitive, dating back millions of 
+years in evolutionary history, but it is still extremely important for 
+human survival because it rewards beneficial behavior and punishes 
+harmful acts. Once this circuit is taken over by drugs, however, the 
+result can be widespread havoc. These drugs first penetrate the blood- 
+brain barrier and then cause the overproduction of neurotransmitters 
+like dopamine, which then floods the nucleus accumbens, a tiny pleasure 
+center located deep in the brain near the amygdala. The dopamine, in 
+turn, is produced by certain brain cells in the ventral tegmental area, 
+called VTA cells. 
+
+All drugs basically work the same way: by crippling the VTA-nucleus 
+accumbens circuit, which controls the flow of dopamine and other 
+neurotransmitters to the pleasure center. Drugs differ only in the way in"
+"which this process takes place. There are at least three main drugs that 
+stimulate the pleasure center of the brain: dopamine, serotonin, and 
+noradrenaline; all of them give feelings of pleasure, euphoria, and false 
+confidence, and also produce a burst of energy. 
+
+Cocaine and other stimulants, for example, work in two ways. First, 
+they directly stimulate the VTA cells to produce more dopamine, hence 
+causing excess dopamine to flood into the nucleus accumbens. Second, 
+they prevent the VTA cells from going back to their “off” position, thus 
+keeping them continually producing dopamine. They also impede the 
+uptake of serotonin and noradrenaline. The simultaneous flooding of 
+neural circuits from all three of these neurotransmitters, then, creates 
+the tremendous high associated with cocaine. 
+
+Heroin and other opiates, by contrast, work by neutralizing the cells in 
+the VTA that can reduce the production of dopamine, thus causing the 
+VTA to overproduce dopamine."
+"Drugs like LSD operate by stimulating the production of serotonin, 
+inducing a feeling of well-being, purpose, and affection. But they also 
+activate areas of the temporal lobe involved in creating hallucinations. 
+(Only fifty micrograms of LSD can cause hallucinations. LSD binds so 
+tightly, in fact, that further increasing the dosage has no effect.) 
+
+Over time, the CIA came to realize that mind-altering drugs were not 
+the magic bullet they were looking for. The hallucinations and 
+addictions that accompany these drugs made them too unstable and 
+unpredictable, and they could cause more trouble than they were worth 
+
+in delicate political situations."
+"(It should be pointed out that just in the last few years, MRI brain 
+scans of drug addicts have indicated a novel way to possibly cure or 
+treat some forms of addiction. By accident, it was noticed that stroke 
+victims who have damage to the insula [located deep in the brain, 
+between the prefrontal cortex and the temporal cortex] have a 
+significantly easier time quitting smoking than the average smoker. This 
+result has also been verified among drug abusers using cocaine, alcohol, 
+opiates, and nicotine. If this result holds up, it might mean that one may 
+be able to dampen the activity of the insula using electrodes or magnetic 
+stimulators and hence treat addiction. “This is the first time we’ve shown 
+anything like this, that damage to a specific brain area could remove the 
+problem of addiction entirely. It’s mind-boggling,” says Dr. Nora 
+Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. At present, no 
+one knows how this works, because the insula is involved in a"
+"one knows how this works, because the insula is involved in a 
+bewildering variety of brain functions, including perception, motor 
+control, and self-awareness. But if this result bears out, it could change"
+"the entire landscape of addiction studies.) 
+
+PROBING THE BRAIN WITH OPTOGENETICS 
+
+These mind-control experiments were done mainly in an era when the 
+brain was largely a mystery, with hit-or-miss methods that often failed. 
+However, because of the explosion in devices that can probe the brain, 
+new opportunities have arisen that will both help us understand the 
+brain as well as possibly teach us how to control it. 
+
+Optogenetics, as we have seen, is one of the fastest-developing fields 
+in science today. The basic goal is to identify precisely which neural 
+pathway corresponds to which mode of behavior. Optogenetics starts 
+with a gene called opsin, which is quite unusual because it is sensitive to 
+light. (It is believed that the appearance of this gene hundreds of 
+millions of years ago was responsible for creating the first eye. In this 
+theory, a simple patch of skin sensitive to light due to opsin evolved into 
+the retina of the eye.)"
+"When the opsin gene is inserted into a neuron and exposed to light, 
+the neuron will fire on command. By flipping a switch, one can instantly 
+
+recognize the neural pathway for certain behaviors because the proteins 
+manufactured by opsin conduct electricity and will fire. 
+
+The hard part, though, is to insert this gene into a single neuron. To 
+do this, one uses a technique borrowed from genetic engineering. The 
+opsin gene is inserted into a harmless virus (which has had its bad genes 
+removed), and, using precision tools, it is then possible to apply this 
+virus to a single neuron. The virus then infects the neuron by inserting 
+its genes into the genes of the neuron. Then, when a light beam is 
+flashed onto neural tissue, the neuron is turned on. In this way, one can 
+establish the precise pathway that certain messages take."
+"Not only does optogenetics identify certain pathways by shining a 
+light beam on them, it also enables scientists to control behavior. 
+Already this method has been a proven success. It was long suspected 
+that a simple neural circuit must be responsible for fruit flies escaping 
+and flying away. Using this method, it was possible to finally identify the 
+precise pathway behind the quick getaway. By simply shining a beam 
+onto these fruit flies, they bolt on demand. 
+
+Scientists are also now able to make worms stop wiggling by flashing 
+light, and in 2011 yet another breakthrough was made. Scientists at 
+Stanford were able to insert the opsin gene into a precise region of the 
+
+amygdala of mice. These mice, which were specially bred to be timid, 
+cowered in their cage. But when a beam of light was flashed into their 
+brains, the mice suddenly lost their timidity and began to explore their 
+cage."
+"The implications are enormous. While fruit flies may have simple 
+reflex mechanisms involving a handful of neurons, mice have complete 
+limbic systems with counterparts in the human brain. Although many 
+experiments that work with mice do not translate to human beings, this 
+still holds out the possibility that scientists may one day find the precise 
+neural pathways for certain mental illnesses, and then be able to treat 
+them without any side effects. As Dr. Edward Boyden of MIT says, “If 
+you want to turn off a brain circuit and the alternative is surgical 
+removal of a brain region, optical fiber implants might seem preferable.” 
+
+One practical application is in treating Parkinson’s disease. As we have 
+seen, it can be treated by deep brain stimulation, but because the 
+positioning of electrodes in the brain lacks precision, there is always the 
+danger of strokes, bleeding, infections, etc. Deep brain stimulation can"
+"also cause side effects such as dizziness and muscle contractions, because 
+the electrodes can accidentally stimulate the wrong neurons. 
+Optogenetics may improve deep brain stimulation by identifying the 
+precise neural pathways that are misfiring, at the level of individual 
+neurons. 
+
+Victims of paralysis might also benefit from this new technology. As 
+we saw in Chapter 4, some paralyzed individuals have been hooked up 
+to a computer in order to control a mechanical arm, but because they 
+have no sense of touch, they often wind up dropping or crushing the 
+object they wish to grab. “By feeding information from sensors on the 
+prosthetic fingertips directly back to the brain using optogenetics, one 
+could in principle provide a high-fidelity sense of touch,” says Dr. 
+Krishna Shenoy of Stanford."
+"Optogenetics will also help clarify which neural pathways are involved 
+with human behavior. In fact, plans have already been drawn up to 
+experiment with this technique on human brains, especially with regard 
+to mental illness. There will be hurdles, of course. First, the technique 
+requires opening up the skull, and if the neurons that one wishes to 
+study are located deep inside the brain, the procedure will be even more 
+invasive. Lastly, one has to insert tiny wires into the brain that can shine 
+a light on this modified neuron so that it triggers the desired behavior. 
+
+Once these neural pathways have been deciphered, you can also 
+stimulate them, making animals perform strange behaviors (for example, 
+mice will run around in circles). Although scientists are just beginning to"
+"trace the neural pathways governing simple animal behaviors, in the 
+future they should have an encyclopedia of such behaviors, including 
+those of humans. In the wrong hands, however, optogenetics could 
+potentially be used to control human behavior. 
+
+In the main, the benefits of optogenetics greatly outweigh its 
+drawbacks. It can literally reveal the pathways of the brain in order to 
+treat mental illness and other diseases. This may then give scientists the 
+tools by which to repair the damage, perhaps curing diseases once 
+thought to be incurable. In the near future, then, the benefits are all 
+positive. But further in the future, once the pathways of human 
+behaviors are also understood, optogenetics could also be used to control 
+or at least modify human behavior as well. 
+
+MIND CONTROL AND THE FUTURE"
+"MIND CONTROL AND THE FUTURE 
+
+In summary, the use of drugs and hypnotism by the CIA was a flop. 
+These techniques were too unstable and unpredictable to be of any use 
+to the military. They can be used to induce hallucinations and 
+dependency, but they have failed to cleanly erase memories, make 
+people more pliant, or force people to perform acts against their will. 
+Governments will keep trying, but the goal is elusive. So far, drugs are 
+simply too blunt an instrument to allow you to control someone’s 
+behavior. 
+
+But this is also a cautionary tale. Carl Sagan mentions one nightmare 
+scenario that might actually work. He envisions a dictator taking 
+children and putting electrodes into their “pain” and “pleasure” centers. 
+These electrodes are then connected wirelessly to computers, so that the 
+dictator can control his subjects with the push of a button."
+"Another nightmare might involve probes placed in the brain that 
+could override our wishes and seize control of our muscles, forcing us to 
+perform tasks we don’t want to do. The work of Dr. Delgado was crude, 
+but it showed that bursts of electricity applied to motor areas of the 
+brain can overrule our conscious thoughts, so that our muscles are no 
+longer under our control. He was able to identify only a few behaviors in 
+animals that could be controlled with electric probes. In the future, it 
+may be possible to find a wide variety of behaviors that can be 
+controlled electronically with a switch."
+"If you are the person being controlled, it would be an unpleasant 
+experience. Although you may think you are master of your own body, 
+your muscles would actually fire without your permission, so you would 
+do things against your will. The electric impulse being fed into your 
+brain could be larger than the impulses you consciously send into your 
+muscles, so that it would appear as if someone had hijacked your body. 
+
+Your own body would become a foreign object. 
+
+In principle, some version of this nightmare might be possible in the 
+future. But there are several factors that may prevent this as well. First, 
+this is still an infant technology and it is not known how it will be 
+applied to human behavior, so there is still plenty of time to monitor its 
+development and perhaps create safeguards to see that it is not misused. 
+Second, a dictator might simply decide that propaganda and coercion,"
+"the usual methods of controlling a population, are cheaper and more 
+effective than putting electrodes into the brains of millions of children, 
+which would be costly and invasive. And third, in democratic societies, a 
+vigorous public debate would probably emerge concerning the promise 
+and limitations of this powerful technology. Laws would have to be 
+passed to prevent the abuse of these methods without impairing their 
+ability to reduce human suffering. Soon science will give us unparalleled 
+insight into the detailed neural pathways of the brain. A fine line has to 
+be drawn between technologies that can benefit society and technologies 
+that can control it. And the key to passing these laws is an educated, 
+informed public."
+"But the real impact of this technology, I believe, will be to liberate the 
+mind, not enslave it. These technologies can give hope to those who are 
+trapped in mental illness. Although there is as yet no permanent cure for 
+mental illness, these new technologies have given us deep insight into 
+how such disorders form and how they progress. One day, through 
+genetics, drugs, and a combination of high-tech methods, we will find a 
+way to manage and eventually cure these ancient diseases. 
+
+One of the recent attempts to exploit this new knowledge of the brain 
+is to understand historical personalities. Perhaps the insights from 
+modern science can help explain the mental states of those in the past. 
+
+And one of the most mystifying figures being analyzed today is Joan 
+of Arc. 
+
+Lovers and madmen have such seething brains.. 
+The lunatic, the lover, and the poet 
+Are of imagination all compact. 
+
+-WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT S DREAM 
+
+9 ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"-WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT S DREAM 
+
+9 ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+She was just an illiterate peasant girl who claimed to hear voices 
+directly from God. But Joan of Arc would rise from obscurity to lead a 
+demoralized army to victories that would change the course of nations, 
+making her one of the most fascinating, compelling, and tragic figures in 
+history."
+"During the chaos of the Hundred Years’ War, when northern France 
+was decimated by English troops and the French monarchy was in 
+retreat, a young girl from Orleans claimed to have divine instructions to 
+lead the French army to victory. With nothing to lose, Charles VII 
+allowed her to command some of his troops. To everyone’s shock and 
+wonder, she scored a series of triumphs over the English. News rapidly 
+spread about this remarkable young girl. With each victory, her 
+reputation began to grow, until she became a folk heroine, rallying the 
+French around her. French troops, once on the verge of total collapse, 
+scored decisive victories that paved the way for the coronation of the 
+new king."
+"However, she was betrayed and captured by the English. They realized 
+what a threat she posed to them, since she was a potent symbol for the 
+French and claimed guidance directly from God Himself, so they 
+subjected her to a show trial. After an elaborate interrogation, she was 
+found guilty of heresy and burned at the stake at the age of nineteen in 
+1431. 
+
+In the centuries that followed, hundreds of attempts have been made 
+to understand this remarkable teenager. Was she a prophet, a saint, or a 
+madwoman? More recently, scientists have tried to use modern 
+psychiatry and neuroscience to explain the lives of historical figures such 
+as Joan of Arc. 
+
+Few question her sincerity about claims of divine inspiration. But 
+many scientists have written that she might have suffered from 
+schizophrenia, since she heard voices. Others have disputed this fact,"
+"since the surviving records of her trial reveal a person of rational 
+thought and speech. The English laid several theological traps for her. 
+They asked, for example, if she was in God’s grace. If she answered yes, 
+then she would be a heretic, since no one can know for certain if they 
+are in God’s grace. If she said no, then she was confessing her guilt, and 
+that she was a fraud. Either way, she would lose. 
+
+In a response that stunned the audience, she answered, “If I am not, 
+may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.” The court 
+notary, in the records, wrote, “Those who were interrogating her were 
+
+stupefied.” 
+
+In fact, the transcripts of her interrogation are so remarkable that 
+George Bernard Shaw put literal translations of the court record in his 
+play Saint Joan."
+"More recently, another theory has emerged about this exceptional 
+woman: perhaps she actually suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy. 
+People who have this condition sometimes experience seizures, but some 
+of them also experience a curious side effect that may shed some light on 
+the structure of human beliefs. These patients suffer from 
+“hyperreligiosity,” and can’t help thinking that there is a spirit or 
+presence behind everything. Random events are never random, but have 
+some deep religious significance. Some psychologists have speculated 
+that a number of history’s prophets suffered from these temporal lobe 
+epileptic lesions, since they were convinced they talked to God. The 
+neuroscientist Dr. David Eagleman says, “Some fraction of history’s 
+prophets, martyrs, and leaders appear to have had temporal lobe 
+epilepsy. Consider Joan of Arc, the sixteen-year-old girl who managed to 
+turn the tide of the Hundred Years’ War because she believed (and"
+"turn the tide of the Hundred Years’ War because she believed (and 
+convinced the French soldiers) that she was hearing voices from Saint 
+Michael the archangel, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Margaret, 
+and Saint Gabriel.”"
+"This curious effect was noticed as far back as 1892, when textbooks on 
+mental illness noted a link between “religious emotionalism” and 
+epilepsy. It was first clinically described in 1975 by neurologist Norman 
+Geschwind of Boston Veterans Administration Hospital. He noticed that 
+epileptics who had electrical misfirings in their left temporal lobes often 
+had religious experiences, and he speculated that the electrical storm in 
+the brain somehow was the cause of these religious obsessions. 
+
+Dr. V. S. Ramachandran estimates that 30 to 40 percent of all the 
+temporal lobe epileptics whom he has seen suffer from hyperreligiosity. 
+He notes, “Sometimes it’s a personal God, sometimes it’s a more diffuse 
+feeling of being one with the cosmos. Everything seems suffused with 
+meaning. The patient will say, ‘Finally, I see what it is all really about, 
+Doctor. I really understand God. I understand my place in the universe— 
+the cosmic scheme.’ ”"
+"He also notes that many of these individuals are extremely adamant 
+and convincing in their beliefs. He says, “I sometimes wonder whether 
+such patients who have temporal lobe epilepsy have access to another 
+dimension of reality, a wormhole of sorts into a parallel universe. But I 
+usually don’t say this to my colleagues, lest they doubt my sanity.” He 
+has experimented on patients with temporal lobe epilepsy, and 
+confirmed that these individuals had a strong emotional reaction to the 
+
+word “God” but not to neutral words. This means that the link between 
+hyperreligiosity and temporal lobe epilepsy is real, not just anecdotal. 
+
+Psychologist Michael Persinger asserts that a certain type of 
+transcranial electrical stimulation (called transcranial magnetic 
+simulation, or TMS) can deliberately induce the effect of these epileptic 
+lesions. If this is so, is it possible that magnetic fields can be used to alter 
+one’s religious beliefs?"
+"In Dr. Persinger’s studies, the subject places a helmet on his head 
+(dubbed the “God helmet”), which contains a device that can send 
+magnetism into particular parts of the brain. Afterward, when the 
+subject is interviewed, he will often claim that he was in the presence of 
+some great spirit. David Biello, writing in Scientific American, says, 
+“During the three-minute bursts of stimulation, the affected subjects 
+translated this perception of the divine into their own cultural and 
+religious language—terming it God, Buddha, a benevolent presence, or 
+the wonder of the universe.” Since this effect is reproducible on demand, 
+it indicates that perhaps the brain is hardwired in some way to respond 
+to religious feelings."
+"Some scientists have gone further and have speculated that there is a 
+“God gene” that predisposes the brain to be religious. Since most 
+societies have created a religion of some sort, it seems plausible that our 
+ability to respond to religious feelings might be genetically programmed 
+into our genome. (Meanwhile, some evolutionary theorists have tried to 
+
+explain these facts by claiming that religion served to increase the 
+chances of survival for early humans. Religion helped bond bickering 
+individuals into a cohesive tribe with a common mythology, which 
+increased the chances that the tribe would stick together and survive.) 
+
+Would an experiment like the one using the “God helmet” shake a 
+person’s religious beliefs? And can an MRI machine record the brain 
+activity of someone who experiences a religious awakening?"
+"To test these ideas, Dr. Mario Beauregard of the University of 
+Montreal recruited a group of fifteen Carmelite nuns who agreed to put 
+their heads into an MRI machine. To qualify for the experiment, all of 
+them must “have had an experience of intense union with God.” 
+
+Originally, Dr. Beauregard had hoped that the nuns would have a 
+mystical communion with God, which could then be recorded by an MRI 
+scan. However, being shoved into an MRI machine, where you are 
+surrounded by tons of magnetic coils of wire and high-tech equipment, is 
+not an ideal setting for a religious epiphany. The best they could do was 
+to evoke memories of previous religious experiences. “God cannot be 
+
+summoned at will,” explained one of the nuns. 
+
+The final result was mixed and inconclusive, but several regions of the 
+brain clearly lit up during this experiment: 
+
+• The caudate nucleus, which is involved with learning and possibly 
+falling in love. (Perhaps the nuns were feeling the unconditional 
+love of God?)"
+"• The insula, which monitors body sensations and social emotions. 
+(Perhaps the nuns were feeling close to the other nuns as they were 
+reaching out to God?) 
+
+• The parietal lobe, which helps process spatial awareness. (Perhaps 
+the nuns felt they were in the physical presence of God?) 
+
+Dr. Beauregard had to admit that so many areas of the brain were 
+activated, with so many different possible interpretations, that he could 
+not say for sure whether hyperreligiosity could be induced. However, it 
+was clear to him that the nuns’ religious feelings were reflected in their 
+brain scans. 
+
+But did this experiment shake the nuns’ belief in God? No. In fact, the 
+
+nuns concluded that God placed this “radio” in the brain so that we 
+could communicate with Him."
+"nuns concluded that God placed this “radio” in the brain so that we 
+could communicate with Him. 
+
+Their conclusion was that God created humans to have this ability, so 
+the brain has a divine antenna given to us by God so that we can feel His 
+presence. David Biello concludes, “Although atheists might argue that 
+finding spirituality in the brain implies that religion is nothing more 
+than divine delusion, the nuns were thrilled by their brain scans for 
+precisely the opposite reason: they seemed to provide confirmation of 
+God’s interactions with them.” Dr. Beauregard concluded, “If you are an 
+atheist and you live a certain kind of experience, you will relate it to the 
+magnificence of the universe. If you are a Christian, you will associate it 
+with God. Who knows. Perhaps they are the same thing.” 
+
+Similarly, Dr. Richard Dawkins, a biologist at Oxford University and 
+an outspoken atheist, was once placed in the God helmet to see if his 
+religious beliefs would change. 
+
+They did not."
+"They did not. 
+
+So in conclusion, although hyperreligiosity may be induced via 
+temporal lobe epilepsy and even magnetic fields, there is no convincing 
+evidence that magnetic fields can alter one’s religious views. 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+But there is another altered state of consciousness that brings great 
+suffering, both to the person experiencing it and to his or her family, and 
+this is mental illness. Can brain scans and high technology reveal the 
+origin of this affliction and perhaps lead to a cure? If so, one of the 
+largest sources of human suffering could be eliminated."
+"For example, throughout history, the treatment of schizophrenia was 
+brutal and crude. People who suffer from this debilitating mental 
+disorder, which afflicts about 1 percent of the population, typically hear 
+imaginary voices and suffer from paranoid delusions and disorganized 
+thinking. Throughout history, they were considered to be “possessed” by 
+the devil and were banished, killed, or locked up. Gothic novels 
+sometimes refer to the strange, demented relative who lives in the 
+darkness of a hidden room or basement. The Bible even mentions an 
+incident when Jesus encountered two demoniacs. The demons begged 
+
+Jesus to drive them into a herd of swine. He said, “Go then.” When the 
+demons entered the swine, the whole herd rushed down the bank and 
+drowned in the sea."
+"Even today, you still see people with classic symptoms of 
+schizophrenia walking around having arguments with themselves. The 
+first indicators usually surface in the late teens (for men) or early 
+twenties (for women). Some schizophrenics have led normal lives and 
+even performed remarkable feats before the voices finally took over. The 
+most famous case is that of the 1994 Nobel Prize winner in economics, 
+John Nash, who was played by Russell Crowe in the movie A Beautiful 
+Mind. In his twenties, Nash did pioneering work in economics, game 
+theory, and pure mathematics at Princeton University. One of his 
+advisers wrote him a letter of recommendation with just one line: “This 
+man is a genius.” Remarkably, he was able to perform at such a high 
+intellectual level even while being hounded by delusions. He was finally 
+hospitalized when he had a breakdown at age thirty-one, and spent 
+many years in institutions or wandering around the world, fearing that 
+communist agents would kill him."
+"At present, there is no precise, universally accepted way to diagnose 
+mental illness. There is hope, however, that one day scientists will use 
+brain scans and other high-tech devices to create accurate diagnostic 
+tools. Progress in treating mental illness, therefore, has been painfully 
+slow. After centuries of suffering, victims of schizophrenia had their first 
+sign of relief when antipsychotic drugs like thorazine were found 
+
+accidentally in the 1950s that could miraculously control or even at 
+times eliminate the voices that haunted the mentally ill."
+"It is believed that these drugs work by regulating the level of certain 
+neurotransmitters, such as dopamine. Specifically, the theory is that 
+these drugs block the functioning of D2 receptors of certain nerve cells, 
+thereby reducing the level of dopamine. (This theory, that hallucinations 
+were in part caused by excess dopamine levels in the limbic system and 
+prefrontal cortex, also explained why people taking amphetamines 
+experienced similar hallucinations.) 
+
+Dopamine, because it is so essential for the synapses of the brain, has 
+been implicated in other disorders as well. One theory holds that 
+Parkinson’s disease is aggravated by a lack of dopamine in the synapses, 
+while Tourette’s syndrome can be triggered by an overabundance of it. 
+
+(People with Tourette’s syndrome have tics and unusual facial 
+movements. A small minority of them uncontrollably speak obscene 
+words and make profane, derogatory remarks.)"
+"More recently, scientists have zeroed in on another possible culprit: 
+abnormal glutamate levels in the brain. One reason for believing these 
+levels are involved is that PCP (angel dust) is known to create 
+hallucinations similar to those of schizophrenics by blocking a glutamate 
+receptor called NMDA. Clozapine, a relatively new drug for 
+schizophrenia that stimulates the production of glutamate, shows great 
+promise. 
+
+However, these antipsychotic drugs are not a cure-all. In about 20 
+percent of cases, such drugs stop all symptoms. About two-thirds find 
+some relief from their symptoms, but the rest are totally unaffected. 
+(According to one theory, antipsychotic drugs mimic a natural chemical 
+that is missing in schizophrenics’ brains, but it is not an exact copy. 
+Hence a patient has to try a variety of these antipsychotic drugs, almost 
+by trial and error. Moreover, they can have unpleasant side effects, so 
+schizophrenics often stop taking them and suffer a relapse.)"
+"Recently, brain scans of schizophrenics taken while they were having 
+auditory hallucinations have helped explain this ancient disorder. For 
+example, when we silently talk to ourselves, certain parts of the brain 
+light up on an MRI scan, especially in the temporal lobe (such as in 
+Wernicke’s area). When a schizophrenic hears voices, the very same 
+areas of the brain light up. The brain works hard to construct a 
+consistent narrative, so schizophrenics try to make sense of these 
+unauthorized voices, believing they originate from strange sources, such 
+as Martians secretly beaming thoughts into their brains. Dr. Michael 
+Sweeney of Ohio State writes, “Neurons wired for the sensation of sound 
+
+fire on their own, like gas-soaked rags igniting spontaneously in a hot, 
+dark garage. In the absence of sights and sounds in the surrounding 
+environment, the schizophrenic’s brain creates a powerful illusion of 
+reality.”"
+"Notably, these voices seem to be coming from a third party, who often 
+gives the subject commands, which are mostly mundane but sometimes 
+violent. Meanwhile, the simulation centers in the prefrontal cortex seem 
+to be on automatic pilot, so in a way it’s as though the consciousness of 
+a schizophrenic is running the same sort of simulations we all do, except 
+
+they’re done without his permission. The person is literally talking to 
+himself without his knowledge. 
+
+HALLUCINATIONS 
+
+The mind constantly generates hallucinations of its own, but for the 
+most part they are easily controlled. We see images that don’t exist or 
+hear spurious sounds, for example, so the anterior cingulate cortex is 
+vital to distinguish the real from the manufactured. This part of the 
+brain helps us distinguish between stimuli that are external and those 
+that are internally generated by the mind itself."
+"However, in schizophrenics, it is believed that this system is damaged, 
+so that the person cannot distinguish real from imaginary voices. (The 
+anterior cingulate cortex is vital because it lies in a strategic place, 
+between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system. The link between 
+these two areas is one of the most important in the brain, since one area 
+governs rational thinking, and the other emotions.) 
+
+Hallucinations, to some extent, can be created on demand. 
+Hallucinations occur naturally if you place someone in a pitch-black 
+room, an isolation chamber, or a creepy environment with strange 
+noises. These are examples of “our eyes playing tricks on us.” Actually, 
+the brain is tricking itself, internally creating false images, trying to 
+make sense of the world and identify threats. This effect is called 
+“pareidolia.” Every time we look at clouds in the sky, we see images of 
+animals, people, or our favorite cartoon characters. We have no choice. 
+It is hardwired into our brains."
+"In a sense, all images we see, both real and virtual, are hallucinations, 
+because the brain is constantly creating false images to “fill in the gaps.” 
+As we’ve seen, even real images are partly manufactured. But in the 
+mentally ill, regions of the brain such as the anterior cingulate cortex are 
+perhaps damaged, so the brain confuses reality and fantasy. 
+
+THE OBSESSIVE MIND 
+
+Another disorder in which drugs may be used to heal the mind is OCD 
+(obsessive-compulsive disorder). As we saw earlier, human 
+
+consciousness involves mediating between a number of feedback 
+mechanisms. Sometimes, however, the feedback mechanisms are stuck in 
+the “on” position."
+"One in forty Americans suffers from OCD. Cases can be mild, so that, 
+for example, people have to constantly go home to check that they 
+locked the door. The detective Adrian Monk on the TV show Monk has a 
+mild case of OCD. But OCD can also be so severe that people 
+compulsively scratch or wash their skin until it is left bleeding and raw. 
+Some people with OCD have been known to repeat obsessive behaviors 
+for hours, making it difficult to keep a job or have a family. 
+
+Normally these types of compulsive behaviors, in moderation, are 
+actually good for us, since they help us keep clean, healthy, and safe. 
+That is why we evolved these behaviors in the first place. But someone 
+with OCD cannot stop this behavior, and it spirals out of control."
+"Brain scans are now revealing how this takes place. They show that at 
+least three areas of the brain that normally help us keep ourselves 
+healthy get stuck in a feedback loop. First, there is the orbitofrontal 
+cortex, which we saw in Chapter 1 can act as a fact-checker, making sure 
+that we have properly locked the doors and washed our hands. It tells 
+us, “Hmm, something is wrong.” Second, the caudate nucleus, located in 
+the basal ganglia, governs learned activities that are automatic. It tells 
+the body to “do something.” And finally, we have the cingulate cortex, 
+which registers conscious emotions, including discomfort. It says, “I still 
+feel awful.”"
+"Psychiatry professor Jeffrey Schwartz of UCLA has tried to put this all 
+together to explain how OCD gets out of hand. Imagine you have the 
+urge to wash your hands. The orbitofrontal cortex recognizes that 
+something is wrong, that your hands are dirty. The caudate nucleus kicks 
+in and causes you to automatically wash your hands. Then the cingulate 
+cortex registers satisfaction that your hands are clean. 
+
+But in someone with OCD, this loop is altered. Even after he notices 
+that his hands are dirty and he washes them, he still has the 
+discomforting feeling that something is wrong, that they are still dirty. 
+So he is stuck in a feedback loop that won’t stop. 
+
+In the 1960s, the drug clomipramine hydrochloride began to give OCD 
+patients some relief. This and other drugs developed since then raise 
+levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the body. They can reduce"
+"symptoms of OCD by as much as 60 percent in clinical trials. Dr. 
+Schwartz says, “The brain’s gonna do what the brain’s gonna do, but you 
+don’t have to let it push you around.” These drugs are certainly not a 
+cure, but they have brought some relief to the sufferers of OCD. 
+
+BIPOLAR DISORDER 
+
+Another common form of mental illness is bipolar disorder, in which a 
+person suffers from extreme bouts of wild, delusional optimism, followed 
+by a crash and then periods of deep depression. Bipolar disorder also 
+seems to run in families and, curiously, strikes frequently in artists; 
+perhaps their great works of art were created during bursts of creativity 
+and optimism. A list of creative people who were afflicted by bipolar 
+disorder reads like a Who’s Who of Hollywood celebrities, musicians, 
+artists, and writers. Although the drug lithium seems to control many of 
+the symptoms of bipolar disorder, the causes are not entirely clear."
+"One theory states that bipolar disorder may be caused by an 
+imbalance between the left and right hemispheres. Dr. Michael Sweeney 
+notes, “Brain scans have led researchers to generally assign negative 
+emotions such as sadness to the right hemisphere and positive emotions 
+such as joy to the left hemisphere. For at least a century, neuroscientists 
+have noticed a link between damage to the brain’s left hemisphere and 
+negative moods, including depression and uncontrollable crying. 
+Damage to the right, however, has been associated with a broad array of 
+positive emotions.”"
+"So the left hemisphere, which is analytical and controls language, 
+tends to become manic if left to itself. The right hemisphere, on the 
+contrary, is holistic and tends to check this mania. Dr. V. S. 
+Ramachandran writes, “If left unchecked, the left hemisphere would 
+likely render a person delusional or manic.... So it seems reasonable to 
+postulate a ‘devil’s advocate’ in the right hemisphere that allows ‘you’ to 
+adopt a detached, objective (allocentric) view of yourself.” 
+
+If human consciousness involves simulating the future, it has to 
+compute the outcomes of future events with certain probabilities. It 
+needs, therefore, a delicate balance between optimism and pessimism to 
+estimate the chances of success or failures for certain courses of action."
+"But in some sense, depression is the price we pay for being able to 
+simulate the future. Our consciousness has the ability to conjure up all 
+sorts of horrific outcomes for the future, and is therefore aware of all the 
+bad things that could happen, even if they are not realistic."
+"It is hard to verify many of these theories, since brain scans of people 
+who are clinically depressed indicate that many brain areas are affected. 
+It is difficult to pinpoint the source of the problem, but among the 
+clinically depressed, activity in the parietal and temporal lobes seems to 
+be suppressed, perhaps indicating that the person is withdrawn from the 
+outside world and living in their own internal world. In particular, the 
+ventromedial cortex seems to play an important role. This area 
+apparently creates the feeling that there is a sense of meaning and 
+wholeness to the world, so that everything seems to have a purpose. 
+Overactivity in this area can cause mania, in which people think they are 
+omnipotent. Underactivity in this area is associated with depression and 
+the feeling that life is pointless. So it is possible that a defect in this area 
+may be responsible for some mood swings. 
+
+A THEORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND MENTAL ILLNESS"
+"A THEORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+So how does the space-time theory of consciousness apply to mental 
+illness? Can it give us a deeper insight into this disorder? As we 
+mentioned before, we define human consciousness as the process of 
+creating a model of our world in space and time (especially the future) 
+by evaluating many feedback loops in various parameters in order to 
+achieve a goal."
+"We have proposed that the key function of human consciousness is to 
+simulate the future, but this is not a trivial task. The brain accomplishes 
+it by having these feedback loops check and balance one another. For 
+example, a skillful CEO at a board meeting tries to draw out the 
+disagreement among staff members and to sharpen competing points of 
+view in order to sift through the various arguments and then make a 
+final decision. In the same way, various regions of the brain make 
+diverging assessments of the future, which are given to the dorsolateral 
+prefrontal cortex, the CEO of the brain. These competing assessments are 
+then evaluated and weighed until a balanced final decision is made. 
+
+We can now apply the space-time theory of consciousness to give us a 
+definition of most forms of mental illness: 
+
+Mental illness is largely caused by the disruption of the 
+delicate checks and balances between competing feedback"
+"loops that simulate the future (usually because one region of 
+the brain is overactive or underactive). 
+
+Because the CEO of the mind (the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) no 
+longer has a balanced assessment of the facts, due to this disruption in 
+feedback loops, it begins to make strange conclusions and act in bizarre 
+ways. The advantage of this theory is that it is testable. One has to 
+perform MRI scans of the brain of someone who is mentally ill as it 
+exhibits dysfunctional behavior, evaluating how its feedback loops are 
+performing, and compare it to the MRI scans of normal people. If this 
+theory is correct, the dysfunctional behavior (for example, hearing 
+voices or becoming obsessed) can be traced back to a malfunctioning of 
+the checks and balances between feedback loops. The theory can be 
+disproven if this dysfunctional behavior is totally independent of the 
+interplay between these regions of the brain."
+"Given this new theory of mental illness, we can now apply it to 
+various forms of mental disorders, summarizing the previous discussion 
+in this new light. 
+
+We saw earlier that the obsessive behavior of people suffering from 
+OCD might arise when the checks and balances between several 
+feedback loops are thrown out of balance: one registering something as 
+amiss, another carrying out corrective action, and another one signaling 
+that the matter has been taken care of. The failure of the checks and 
+balances within this loop can cause the brain to be locked into a vicious 
+cycle, so the mind never believes that the problem has been resolved."
+"The voices heard by schizophrenics might arise when several feedback 
+loops are no longer balancing one another. One feedback loop generates 
+spurious voices in the temporal cortex (i.e., the brain is talking to itself). 
+Auditory and visual hallucinations are often checked by the anterior 
+cingulate cortex, so a normal person can differentiate between real and 
+fictitious voices. But if this region of the brain is not working properly, 
+the brain is flooded with disembodied voices that it believes are real. 
+
+This can cause schizophrenic behavior. 
+
+Similarly, the manic-depressive swings of someone with bipolar 
+disorder might be traced to an imbalance between the left and right 
+hemispheres. The necessary interplay between optimistic and pessimistic 
+assessments is thrown off balance, and the person oscillates wildly 
+between these two diverging moods."
+"Paranoia may also be viewed in this light. It results from an imbalance 
+between the amygdala (which registers fear and exaggerates threats) and 
+the prefrontal cortex, which evaluates these threats and puts them into 
+
+perspective. 
+
+We should also stress that evolution has given us these feedback loops 
+for a reason: to protect us. They keep us clean, healthy, and socially 
+connected. The problem occurs when the dynamic between opposing 
+feedback loops is disrupted. 
+
+This theory can be roughly summarized as follows: 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+Paranoia 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #1 
+
+Perceiving a threat 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Discounting threats 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Amygdala/prefrontal lobe 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+Schizophrenia 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #1 
+
+Creating voices 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Discounting voices 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Left temporal lobe/anterior cingulate cortex 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+Bipolar disorder 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #1 
+
+Optimism 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Pessimism 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Left/right hemisphere"
+"Optimism 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Pessimism 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Left/right hemisphere 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+OCD 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #1 
+
+Anxiety 
+
+FEEDBACK LOOP #2 
+
+Satisfaction 
+
+BRAIN REGION AFFECTED 
+
+Orbitofrontal cortex/caudate nucleus/cingulate cortex 
+
+According to the space-time theory of consciousness, many forms of mental illness are typified by the 
+disruption of the 
+checks and balances of opposing feedback loops in the brain that simulate the future. Brain scans are 
+gradually 
+identifying which regions these are. A more complete understanding of mental illness will undoubtedly 
+reveal the 
+involvement of many more regions of the brain. This is only a preliminary sketch. 
+
+DEEP BRAIN STIMULATION 
+
+Although the space-time theory of consciousness may give us insight into 
+the origin of mental illness, it doesn’t tell us how to create new therapies 
+and remedies."
+"How will science deal with mental illness in the future? This is hard to 
+predict, since we now realize that mental illness is not just one category, 
+but an entire range of illnesses that can afflict the mind in a bewildering 
+number of ways. Furthermore, the science behind mental illness is still in 
+
+its infancy, with huge areas totally unexplored and unexplained. 
+
+But a new method is being tried today to treat the unending agony of 
+people suffering from one of the most common yet stubbornly persistent 
+forms of mental disorder, depression, which afflicts twenty million 
+people in the United States. Ten percent of them, in turn, suffer from an 
+incurable form of depression that has resisted all medical advances. One 
+direct way of treating them, which holds much promise, is to place 
+probes deep inside certain regions of the brain."
+"An important clue to this disorder was discovered by Dr. Helen 
+Mayberg and colleagues, then doing research at Washington University 
+Medical School. Using brain scans, they identified an area of the brain, 
+called Brodmann area 25 (also called the subcallosal cingulate region), 
+in the cerebral cortex that is consistently hyperactive in depressed 
+individuals for whom all other forms of treatment have been 
+unsuccessful."
+"These scientists used deep brain stimulation (DBS) in this area, 
+inserting a small probe into the brain and applying an electrical shock, 
+much like a pacemaker. The success of DBS has been astonishing in the 
+treatment of various disorders. In the past decade, DBS has been used on 
+forty thousand patients for motor-related diseases, such as Parkinson’s 
+and epilepsy, which cause uncontrolled movements of the body. 
+Between 60 and 100 percent of patients report significant improvement 
+in controlling their shaking hands. More than 250 hospitals in the United 
+States alone now perform DBS treatments. 
+
+But then Dr. Mayberg had the idea of applying DBS directly to 
+Brodmann area 25 to treat depression as well. Her team took twelve 
+patients who were clinically depressed and had shown no improvement 
+after exhaustive use of drugs, psychotherapy, and electroshock therapy."
+"They found that eight of these chronically depressed individuals 
+immediately showed progress. Their success was so astonishing, in fact, 
+that other groups raced to duplicate these results and apply DBS to other 
+mental disorders. At present, DBS is being applied to thirty-five patients 
+at Emory University, and thirty at other institutions. 
+
+Dr. Mayberg says, “Depression 1.0 was psychotherapy—people 
+arguing about whose fault it was. Depression 2.0 was the idea that it’s a 
+chemical imbalance. This is Depression 3.0. What has captured 
+everyone’s imagination is that, by dissecting a complex behavior 
+
+disorder into its component systems, you have a new way of thinking 
+about it.”"
+"disorder into its component systems, you have a new way of thinking 
+about it.” 
+
+Although the success of DBS in treating depressed individuals is 
+remarkable, much more research needs to be done. First, it is not clear 
+why DBS works. It is thought that DBS destroys or impairs overactive 
+areas of the brain (as in Parkinson’s and Brodmann area 25) and is hence 
+effective only against ailments caused by such overactivity. Second, the 
+precision of this tool needs to be improved. Although this treatment has 
+been used to treat a variety of brain diseases, such as phantom limb pain 
+(when a person feels pain from a limb that has been amputated), 
+Tourette’s syndrome, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, the electrode 
+inserted into the brain is not precise, thus affecting perhaps several 
+million neurons rather than just the handful that are the source of 
+distress."
+"Time will only improve the effectiveness of this therapy. Using MEM 
+technology, one can create microscopic electrodes able to stimulate only 
+a few neurons at a time. Nanotechnology may also make possible neural 
+nanoprobes that are one molecule thick, as in carbon nanotubes. And as 
+MRI sensitivity increases, our capability to guide these electrodes to 
+more specific areas of the brain should grow more precise. 
+
+WAKING UP FROM A COMA 
+
+Deep brain stimulation has branched into several different avenues of 
+research, including a beneficial side effect: increasing the number of 
+memory cells within the hippocampus. Yet another application is to 
+revive some individuals in a coma."
+"Comas represent perhaps one of the most controversial forms of 
+consciousness, and often results in national headlines. The case of Terri 
+Schiavo, for example, riveted the public. Due to a heart attack, she 
+suffered a lack of oxygen, which caused massive brain injury. As a result, 
+Schiavo went into a coma in 1990. Her husband, with the approval of 
+doctors, wanted to allow her the dignity of dying peacefully. But her 
+family said this was cruelly pulling the plug on someone who still had 
+some responses to stimuli and might one day be miraculously revived. 
+They pointed out that there had been sensational cases in the past when 
+
+coma patients suddenly regained consciousness after many years in a 
+vegetative state. 
+
+Brain scans were used to settle the question. In 2003, most 
+neurologists, examining the CAT scans, concluded that the damage to 
+Schiavo’s brain was so extensive that she could never be revived, and 
+that she was in a permanent vegetative state (PVS). After she died in"
+"2005, an autopsy confirmed these results—there was no chance of 
+revival. 
+
+In some other cases involving coma patients, however, brain scans 
+show that the damage is not so severe, so there is a slim chance of 
+recovery. In the summer of 2007, a man in Cleveland woke up and 
+greeted his mother after undergoing deep brain stimulation. The man 
+had suffered extensive brain damage eight years earlier and fell into a 
+deep coma known as a minimally conscious state."
+"Dr. Ali Rezai led the team of surgeons who performed the operation. 
+They inserted a pair of wires into the patient’s brain until they reached 
+the thalamus, which, as we have seen, is the gateway where sensory 
+information is first processed. By sending a low-voltage current through 
+these wires, the doctors were able to stimulate the thalamus, which in 
+turn woke the man up from his deep coma. (Usually, sending electricity 
+into the brain causes that part of the brain to shut down, but under 
+certain circumstances it can act to jolt neurons into action.)"
+"Improvements in DBS technology should increase the number of 
+success stories in different fields. Today a DBS electrode is about 1.5 
+millimeters in diameter, but it touches up to a million neurons when 
+inserted into the brain, which can cause bleeding and damage to blood 
+vessels. One to three percent of DBS patients in fact have bleeding that 
+can progress to a stroke. The electric charge carried by DBS probes is 
+also still very crude, pulsing at a constant rate. Eventually, surgeons will 
+be able to adjust the electrical charge carried by the electrodes so that 
+each probe is made for a specific person and a specific ailment. The next 
+generation of DBS probes is bound to be safer and more precise. 
+
+THE GENETICS OF MENTAL ILLNESS 
+
+Another attempt to understand and eventually treat mental illness"
+"Another attempt to understand and eventually treat mental illness 
+
+involves tracing its genetic roots. Many attempts have been made in this 
+area, with disappointing, mixed results. There is considerable evidence 
+that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder run in families, but attempts to 
+find the genes common to all these individuals have not been conclusive. 
+Occasionally scientists have followed the family trees of certain 
+individuals afflicted by mental illness and found a gene that is prevalent. 
+But attempts to generalize this result to other families have often failed. 
+At best, scientists have concluded that environmental factors as well as a 
+combination of several genes are necessary to trigger mental illness. 
+However, it has generally been accepted that each disorder has its own 
+genetic basis."
+"In 2012, however, one of the most comprehensive studies ever done 
+showed that there could in fact be a common genetic factor to mental 
+illness after all. Scientists from the Harvard Medical School and 
+Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed sixty thousand people 
+worldwide and found that there was a genetic link between five major 
+mental illnesses: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, major 
+depression, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). 
+Together they represent a significant fraction of all mentally ill patients."
+"After an exhaustive analysis of the subjects’ DNA, scientists found that 
+four genes increased the risk of mental illness. Two of them involved the 
+regulation of calcium channels in neurons. (Calcium is an essential 
+chemical involved in the processing of neural signals.) Dr. Jordan 
+Smoller of the Harvard Medical School says, “The calcium channels 
+findings suggest that perhaps—and that is a big if—treatments to affect 
+calcium channeling functioning might have effects across a range of 
+disorders.” Already, calcium channel blockers are being used to treat 
+people with bipolar disorder. In the future, these blockers may be used 
+to treat other mental illnesses as well. 
+
+This new result could help explain the curious fact that when mental 
+illness runs in a family, members may manifest different forms of 
+disorders. For example, if one twin has schizophrenia, then the other 
+twin might have a totally different disorder, such as bipolar disorder."
+"The point here is that although each mental illness has its own triggers 
+and genes, there could be a common thread running through them as 
+well. Isolating the common factors among these diseases could give us a 
+clue to which drugs might be most effective against them. 
+
+“What we have identified here is probably just the tip of the iceberg,” 
+says Dr. Smoller. “As these studies grow, we expect to find additional 
+genes that might overlap.” If more genes are found among these five 
+disorders, it could open up an entirely new approach to mental illness. 
+
+If more common genes are found, it could mean that gene therapy 
+might be able to repair the damage caused by defective genes. Or it 
+might give rise to new drugs that could treat the illness at the neural 
+level. 
+
+FUTURE AVENUES 
+
+So at present, there is no cure for patients with mental illness. 
+Historically, doctors were helpless in treating them. But modern"
+"medicine has given us a variety of new possibilities and therapies to 
+tackle this ancient problem. Just a few of them include: 
+
+1. Finding new neurotransmitters and new drugs that regulate the 
+signaling of neurons. 
+
+2. Locating the genes linked to various mental illnesses, and perhaps 
+using gene therapy. 
+
+3. Using deep brain stimulation to dampen or increase neural activity 
+in certain areas. 
+
+4. Using EEG, MRI, MEG, and TES to understand precisely how the 
+brain malfunctions. 
+
+5. And in the chapter on reverse engineering the brain, we will 
+explore yet another promising avenue, imaging the entire brain and 
+all its neural pathways. This may finally unravel the mystery of 
+mental illnesses. 
+
+But to make sense of the wide variety of mental illnesses, some 
+scientists believe that mental illnesses can be grouped into at least two 
+major groups, each one requiring a different approach: 
+
+1. Mental disorders involving injury to the brain"
+"1. Mental disorders involving injury to the brain 
+
+2. Mental disorders triggered by incorrect wiring within the brain 
+
+The first type includes Parkinson’s, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, and a wide 
+variety of disorders caused by strokes and tumors, in which brain tissue 
+is actually injured or malfunctioning. In the case of Parkinson’s and 
+epilepsy, there are neurons in a precise area of the brain that are 
+overactive. In Alzheimer’s, a buildup of amyloid plaque destroys brain 
+tissue, including the hippocampus. In strokes and tumors, certain parts 
+of the brain are silenced, causing numerous behavioral problems. Each 
+of these disorders has to be treated differently, since each injury is 
+different. Parkinson’s and epilepsy may require probes to silence the 
+overactive areas, while damage from Alzheimer’s, strokes, and tumors is 
+often incurable."
+"In the future, there will be advances in methods to deal with these 
+injured parts of the brain besides deep brain stimulation and magnetic 
+fields. One day stem cells may replace brain tissue that has been 
+damaged. Or perhaps artificial replacements can be found to compensate 
+for these injured areas using computers. In this case, the injured tissue is 
+removed or replaced, either organically or electronically. 
+
+The second category involves disorders caused by a miswiring of the 
+brain. Disorders like schizophrenia, OCD, depression, and bipolar 
+disorder might fall into this category. Each region of the brain may be 
+relatively healthy and intact, but one or more of them may be miswired, 
+causing messages to be processed incorrectly. This category is difficult to 
+treat, since the wiring of the brain is not well understood. So far, the 
+main way to deal with these disorders is through drugs that influence 
+neurotransmitters, but there is still a lot of hit or miss involved here."
+"But there is another altered state of consciousness that has given us 
+new insights into the working mind. It has also provided new 
+perspectives on how the brain works and what might happen if there is a 
+disorder. This is the field of AI, artificial intelligence. Although it is still 
+in its infancy, it has opened profound insights into the thinking process 
+and has even deepened our understanding of human consciousness. So 
+the questions are: Can silicon consciousness be achieved? If so, how 
+might it differ from human consciousness? And will it try one day to 
+control us? 
+
+No, I’m not interested in developing a powerful brain. All I’m 
+after is just a mediocre brain, something like the President of 
+the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. 
+
+—ALAN TURING 
+
+10 THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON 
+CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+In February 2011, history was made."
+"10 THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON 
+CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+In February 2011, history was made. 
+
+An IBM computer called Watson did what many critics thought was 
+impossible: it beat two contestants on a TV game show called Jeopardy! 
+Millions of viewers were glued to the screen as Watson methodically 
+annihilated its opponents on national TV, answering questions that 
+stumped the rival contestants, and thereby claiming the $1 million prize 
+money. 
+
+IBM pulled out all the stops in assembling a machine with a truly 
+monumental amount of computational firepower. Watson can process 
+data at the astonishing rate of five hundred gigabytes per second (or the 
+equivalent of a million books per second) with sixteen trillion bytes of 
+RAM memory. It also had access to two hundred million pages of 
+material in its memory, including the entire storehouse of knowledge 
+
+within Wikipedia. Watson could then analyze this mountain of 
+information on live TV."
+"within Wikipedia. Watson could then analyze this mountain of 
+information on live TV. 
+
+Watson is just the latest generation of “expert systems,” software 
+programs that use formal logic to access vast amounts of specialized 
+information. (When you talk on the phone to a machine that gives you a 
+menu of choices, this is a primitive expert system.) Expert systems will 
+continue to evolve, making our lives more convenient and efficient. 
+
+For example, engineers are currently working to create a “robo-doc,” 
+which will appear on your wristwatch or wall screen and give you basic 
+medical advice with 99 percent accuracy almost for free. You’d talk to it 
+about your symptoms, and it would access the databanks of the world’s 
+leading medical centers for the latest scientific information. This will 
+reduce unnecessary visits to the doctor, eliminate costly false alarms, 
+and make it effortless to have regular conversations with a doctor."
+"Eventually we might have robot lawyers that can answer all common 
+legal questions, or a robo-secretary that can plan vacations, trips, and 
+
+dinners. (Of course, for specialized services requiring professional 
+advice, you would still need to see a real doctor, lawyer, etc., but for 
+common, everyday advice, these programs would suffice.) 
+
+In addition, scientists have created “chat-bots” that can mimic 
+ordinary conversations. The average person may know tens of thousands 
+of words. Reading the newspaper may require about two thousand words 
+or more, but a casual conversation usually involves only a few hundred. 
+Robots can be programmed to converse with this limited vocabulary (as 
+long as the conversation is limited to certain well-defined subjects). 
+
+MEDIA HYPE—THE ROBOTS ARE COMING"
+"MEDIA HYPE—THE ROBOTS ARE COMING 
+
+Soon after Watson won that contest, some pundits were wringing their 
+hands, mourning the day when the machines will take over. Ken 
+Jennings, one of the contestants defeated by Watson, remarked to the 
+press, “I for one welcome our new computer overlords.” The pundits 
+asked, If Watson could defeat seasoned game show contestants in a 
+head-to-machine contest, then what chance do the rest of us mortals 
+have to stand up to the machines? Half jokingly, Jennings said, “Brad 
+[the other contestant] and I were the first knowledge-industry workers 
+put out of work by the new generation of ‘thinking’ machines.” 
+
+The commentators, however, forgot to mention that you could not go 
+up to Watson and congratulate it for winning. You could not slap it on"
+"its back, or share a champagne toast with it. It wouldn’t know what any 
+of that meant, and in fact Watson was totally unaware that it had won at 
+all. All the hype aside, the truth is that Watson is a highly sophisticated 
+adding machine, able to add (or search data files) billions of times faster 
+than the human brain, but it is totally lacking in self-awareness or 
+common sense. 
+
+On one hand, progress in artificial intelligence has been astounding, 
+especially in the area of raw computational power. Someone from the 
+year 1900, viewing the calculations performed by computers today, 
+would consider these machines to be miracles. But in another sense, 
+progress has been painstakingly slow in building machines that can think 
+for themselves (i.e., true automatons, without a puppet master, a 
+controller with a joystick, or someone with a remote-control panel). 
+
+Robots are totally unaware that they are robots."
+"Robots are totally unaware that they are robots. 
+
+Given the fact that computer power has been doubling every two years 
+for the past fifty years under Moore’s law, some say it is only a matter of 
+time before machines eventually acquire self-awareness that rivals 
+human intelligence. No one knows when this will happen, but humanity 
+should be prepared for the moment when machine consciousness leaves 
+the laboratory and enters the real world. How we deal with robot 
+consciousness could decide the future of the human race. 
+
+BOOM AND BUST CYCLES IN AI"
+"BOOM AND BUST CYCLES IN AI 
+
+It is difficult to foretell the fate of AI, since it has gone through three 
+cycles of boom and bust. Back in the 1950s, it seemed as if mechanical 
+maids and butlers were just around the corner. Machines were being 
+built that could play checkers and solve algebra problems. Robot arms 
+were developed that could recognize and pick up blocks. At Stanford 
+University, a robot was built called Shakey—basically a computer sitting 
+on top of wheels with a camera—which could wander around a room by 
+itself, avoiding obstacles."
+"Breathless articles were soon published in science magazines heralding 
+the coming of the robot companion. Some predictions were too 
+conservative. In 1949, Popular Mechanics stated that “in the future, 
+computers will weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” But others were wildly 
+optimistic in proclaiming that the day of the robots was near. Shakey 
+would one day become a mechanical maid or butler that would vacuum 
+our carpets and open our doors. Movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey 
+convinced us that robots would soon be piloting our rocket ships to 
+Jupiter and chatting with our astronauts. In 1965, Dr. Herbert Simon, 
+
+one of the founders of AI, said flatly, “Machines will be capable, within 
+20 years, of doing any work a man can do.” Two years later, another 
+founding father of AI, Dr. Marvin Minsky, said that “within a 
+generation ... the problem of creating ‘artificial intelligence’ will 
+substantially be solved.”"
+"But all this unbounded optimism collapsed in the 1970s. Checker¬ 
+playing machines could only play checkers, nothing more. Mechanical 
+arms could pick up blocks, but nothing else. They were like one-trick 
+
+ponies. The most advanced robots took hours just to walk across a room. 
+Shakey, placed in an unfamiliar environment, would easily get lost. And 
+scientists were nowhere near understanding consciousness. In 1974, AI 
+suffered a huge blow when both the U.S. and British governments 
+substantially curtailed funding in the field."
+"But as computer power steadily increased in the 1980s, a new gold 
+rush occurred in AI, fueled mainly by Pentagon planners hoping to put 
+robot soldiers on the battlefield. Funding for AI hit a billion dollars by 
+1985, with hundreds of millions of dollars spent on projects like the 
+Smart Truck, which was supposed to be an intelligent, autonomous truck 
+that could enter enemy lines, do reconnaissance by itself, perform 
+missions (such as rescuing prisoners), and then return to friendly 
+territory. Unfortunately, the only thing that the Smart Truck did was get 
+lost. The visible failures of these costly projects created yet another AI 
+winter in the 1990s. 
+
+Paul Abrahams, commenting about the years he spent at MIT as a 
+graduate student, has said, “It’s as though a group of people had 
+proposed to build a tower to the moon. Each year, they point with pride 
+at how much higher the tower is than it was the previous year. The only 
+trouble is that the moon isn’t getting much closer.”"
+"But now, with the relentless march of computer power, a new AI 
+renaissance has begun, and slow but substantial progress has been made. 
+In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue computer beat world chess champion Garry 
+Kasparov. In 2005, a robot car from Stanford won the DARPA Grand 
+Challenge for a driverless car. Milestones continue to be reached. 
+
+This question remains: Is the third try the charm? 
+
+Scientists now realize that they vastly underestimated the problem, 
+because most human thought is actually subconscious. The conscious 
+part of our thoughts, in fact, represents only the tiniest portion of our 
+computations. 
+
+Dr. Steve Pinker says, “I would pay a lot for a robot that would put 
+
+away the dishes or run simple errands, but I can’t, because all of the 
+little problems that you’d need to solve to build a robot do to that, like 
+recognizing objects, reasoning about the world, and controlling hands 
+and feet, are unsolved engineering problems.”"
+"Although Hollywood movies tell us that terrifying Terminator robots 
+may be just around the corner, the task of creating an artificial mind has 
+
+been much more difficult than previously thought. I once asked Dr. 
+Minsky when machines would equal and perhaps even surpass human 
+intelligence. He said that he was confident this would happen but that 
+he doesn’t make predictions about dates anymore. Given the roller¬ 
+coaster history of AI, perhaps this is the wisest approach, to map out the 
+future of AI without setting a specific timetable. 
+
+PATTERN RECOGNITION AND COMMON SENSE 
+
+There are at least two basic problems confronting AI: pattern recognition 
+and common sense."
+"There are at least two basic problems confronting AI: pattern recognition 
+and common sense. 
+
+Our best robots can barely recognize simple objects like a cup or a 
+ball. The robot’s eye may see details better than a natural eye, but the 
+robot brain cannot recognize what it is seeing. If you place a robot on a 
+strange, busy street, it quickly becomes disoriented and gets lost. Pattern 
+recognition (e.g., identifying objects) has progressed much more slowly 
+than previously estimated because of this problem."
+"When a robot walks into a room, it has to perform trillions of 
+calculations, breaking down the objects it sees into pixels, lines, circles, 
+squares, and triangles, and then trying to make a match with the 
+thousands of images stored in its memory. For instance, robots see a 
+chair as a hodgepodge of lines and dots, but they cannot easily identify 
+the essence of “chairness.” Even if a robot is able to successfully match 
+an object to an image in its database, a slight rotation (like a chair that’s 
+been knocked over on the floor) or change in perspective (viewing the 
+chair from a different angle) will mystify the robot. Our brains, however, 
+automatically take different perspectives and variations into account. 
+Our brains are subconsciously performing trillions of calculations, but 
+the process seems effortless to us."
+"Robots also have a problem with common sense. They do not 
+understand simple facts about the physical and biological world. There 
+isn’t an equation that can confirm something as self-evident (to us 
+humans) as “muggy weather is uncomfortable” or “mothers are older 
+than their daughters.” There has been some progress made in translating 
+
+this sort of information into mathematical logic, but to catalog the 
+common sense of a four-year-old child would require hundreds of 
+
+millions of lines of computer code. As Voltaire once said, “Common 
+sense is not so common.” 
+
+For example, one of our most advanced robots is called ASIMO, built 
+in Japan (where 30 percent of all industrial robots are made) by the 
+Honda Corporation. This marvelous robot, about the size of a young boy, 
+can walk, run, climb stairs, speak different languages, and dance (much 
+better than I do, in fact). I have interacted with ASIMO on TV several 
+times, and was very impressed by its abilities."
+"However, I met privately with the creators of ASIMO and asked them 
+this key question: How smart is ASIMO, if we compare it to an animal? 
+They admitted to me that it has the intelligence of a bug. All the walking 
+and talking is mostly for the press. The problem is that ASIMO is, by and 
+large, a big tape recorder. It has only a modest list of truly autonomous 
+functions, so almost every speech or motion has to be carefully scripted 
+ahead of time. For example, it took about three hours to film a short 
+sequence of me interacting with ASIMO, because the hand gesture and 
+other movement had to be programmed by a team of handlers."
+"If we consider this in relation to our definition of human 
+consciousness, it seems that our current robots are stuck at a very 
+primitive level, simply trying to make sense of the physical and social 
+world by learning basic facts. As a consequence, robots are not even at 
+the stage where they can plot realistic simulations of the future. Asking a 
+robot to craft a plan to rob a bank, for instance, assumes that the robot 
+knows all the fundamentals about banks, such as where the money is 
+stored, what sort of security system is in place, and how the police and 
+bystanders will react to the situation. Some of this can be programmed, 
+but there are hundreds of nuances that the human mind naturally 
+understands but robots do not."
+"Where robots excel is in simulating the future in just one precise field, 
+such as playing chess, modeling the weather, tracing the collision of 
+galaxies, etc. Since the laws of chess and gravity have been well known 
+for centuries, it is only a matter of raw computer power to simulate the 
+future of a chess game or a solar system. 
+
+Attempts to move beyond this level using brute force have also 
+floundered. One ambitious program, called CYC, was designed to solve 
+the commonsense problem. CYC would include millions of lines of 
+computer code containing all the information of common sense and 
+
+knowledge necessary to understand its physical and social environment. 
+Although CYC can process hundreds of thousands of facts and millions of 
+statements, it still cannot reproduce the level of thought of a four-year- 
+old human. Unfortunately, after some optimistic press releases, the effort 
+has stagnated. Many of its programmers left, deadlines have come and 
+gone, and yet the project still continues."
+"IS THE BRAIN A COMPUTER? 
+
+Where did we go wrong? For the past fifty years, scientists working in AI 
+have tried to model the brain by following the analogy with digital 
+computers. But perhaps this was too simplistic. As Joseph Campbell once 
+said, “Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no 
+mercy.” If you remove a single transistor from a Pentium chip, the 
+computer will crash immediately. But the human brain can perform 
+quite well even if half of it is missing."
+"This is because the brain is not a digital computer at all, but a highly 
+sophisticated neural network of some sort. Unlike a digital computer, 
+which has a fixed architecture (input, output, and processor), neural 
+networks are collections of neurons that constantly rewire and reinforce 
+themselves after learning a new task. The brain has no programming, no 
+operating system, no Windows, no central processor. Instead, its neural 
+networks are massively parallel, with one hundred billion neurons firing 
+at the same time in order to accomplish a single goal: to learn."
+"In light of this, AI researchers are beginning to reexamine the “top- 
+down approach” they have followed for the last fifty years (e.g., putting 
+all the rules of common sense on a CD). Now AI researchers are giving 
+the “bottom-up approach” a second look. This approach tries to follow 
+Mother Nature, which has created intelligent beings (us) via evolution, 
+starting with simple animals like worms and fish and then creating more 
+complex ones. Neural networks must learn the hard way, by bumping 
+into things and making mistakes. 
+
+Dr. Rodney Brooks, former director of the famed MIT Artificial 
+Intelligence Laboratory, and cofounder of iRobot, which makes those 
+mechanical vacuum cleaners found in many living rooms, introduced an 
+entirely new approach to AI. Instead of designing big, clumsy robots,"
+"why not build small, compact, insectlike robots that have to learn how 
+to walk, just as in nature?When I interviewed him, he told me that he 
+used to marvel at the mosquito, which had a nearly microscopic brain 
+with very few neurons, yet was able to maneuver in space better than 
+
+any robot airplane. He built a series of remarkably simple robots, 
+affectionately called “insectoids” or “bugbots,” which scurried around 
+the floors of MIT and could run circles around the more traditional 
+robots. The goal was to create robots that follow the trial-and-error 
+method of Mother Nature. In other words, these robots learn by bumping 
+into things. 
+
+(At first, it may seem that this requires a lot of programming. The 
+irony, however, is that neural networks require no programming at all. 
+The only thing that the neural network does is rewire itself, by changing 
+the strength of certain pathways each time it makes a right decision. So 
+programming is nothing; changing the network is everything.)"
+"Science-fiction writers once envisioned that robots on Mars would be 
+sophisticated humanoids, walking and moving just like us, with complex 
+programming that gave them human intelligence. The opposite has 
+happened. Today the grandchildren of this approach—like the Mars 
+Curiosity rover—are now roaming over the surface of Mars. They are not 
+programmed to walk like a human. Instead, they have the intelligence of 
+a bug, but they do quite fine in this terrain. These Mars rovers have 
+relatively little programming; instead, they learn as they bump into 
+obstacles. 
+
+ARE ROBOTS CONSCIOUS?"
+"ARE ROBOTS CONSCIOUS? 
+
+Perhaps the clearest way to see why true robot automatons do not yet 
+exist is to rank their level of consciousness. As we have seen in Chapter 
+2, we can rank consciousness in four levels. Level 0 consciousness 
+describes thermostats and plants; that is, it involves a few feedback loops 
+in a handful of simple parameters such as temperature or sunlight. Level 
+I consciousness describes insects and reptiles, which are mobile and have 
+a central nervous system; it involves creating a model of your world in 
+relationship to a new parameter, space. Then we have Level II 
+consciousness, which creates a model of the world in relationship to 
+
+others of its kind, requiring emotions. Finally we have Level III 
+consciousness, which describes humans, who incorporate time and self- 
+awareness to simulate how things will evolve in the future and 
+determine our own place in these models."
+"We can use this theory to rank the robots of today. The first 
+generation of robots were at Level 0, since they were static, without 
+wheels or treads. Today’s robots are at Level I, since they are mobile, but 
+they are at a very low echelon because they have tremendous difficulty 
+navigating in the real world. Their consciousness can be compared to 
+that of a worm or slow insect. To fully produce Level I consciousness, 
+
+scientists will have to create robots that can realistically duplicate the 
+consciousness of insects and reptiles. Even insects have abilities that 
+current robots do not have, such as rapidly finding hiding places, 
+locating mates in the forest, recognizing and evading predators, or 
+finding food and shelter."
+"As we mentioned earlier, we can numerically rank consciousness by 
+the number of feedback loops at each level. Robots that can see, for 
+example, may have several feedback loops because they have visual 
+sensors that can detect shadows, edges, curves, geometric shapes, etc., in 
+three-dimensional space. Similarly, robots that can hear require sensors 
+that can detect frequency, intensity, stress, pauses, etc. The total number 
+of these feedback loops may total ten or so (while an insect, because it 
+can forage in the wild, find mates, locate shelter, etc., may have fifty or 
+more feedback loops). A typical robot, therefore, may have Level 1:10 
+consciousness."
+"Robots will have to be able to create a model of the world in relation 
+to others if they are to enter Level II consciousness. As we mentioned 
+before, Level II consciousness, to a first approximation, is computed by 
+multiplying the number of members of its group times the number of 
+emotions and gestures that are used to communicate between them. 
+Robots would thus have a consciousness of Level 11:0. But hopefully, the 
+emotional robots being built in labs today may soon raise that number. 
+
+Current robots view humans as simply a collection of pixels moving on 
+their TV sensors, but some AI researchers are beginning to create robots 
+that can recognize emotions in our facial expressions and tone of voice. 
+This is a first step toward robots’ realizing that humans are more than 
+just random pixels, and that they have emotional states."
+"In the next few decades, robots will gradually rise in Level II 
+consciousness, becoming as intelligent as a mouse, rat, rabbit, and then a 
+cat. Perhaps late in this century, they will be as intelligent as a monkey, 
+and will begin to create goals of their own. 
+
+Once robots have a working knowledge of common sense and the 
+Theory of Mind, they will be able to run complex simulations into the 
+future featuring themselves as the principal actors and thus enter Level 
+III consciousness. They will leave the world of the present and enter the 
+world of the future. This is many decades beyond the capability of any 
+robot today. Running simulations of the future means that you have a 
+firm grasp of the laws of nature, causality, and common sense, so that 
+you can anticipate future events. It also means that you understand 
+human intentions and motivations, so you can predict their future 
+behavior as well."
+"The numerical value of Level III consciousness, as we mentioned, is 
+calculated by the total number of causal links one can make in 
+simulating the future in a variety of real-life situations, divided by the 
+average value of a control group. Computers today are able to make 
+limited simulations in a few parameters (e.g., the collision of two 
+galaxies, the flow of air around an airplane, the shaking of buildings in 
+an earthquake), but they are totally unprepared to simulate the future in 
+complex, real-life situations, so their level of consciousness would be 
+something like Level III: 5. 
+
+As we can see, it may take many decades of hard work before we have 
+a robot that can function normally in human society. 
+
+SPEED BUMPS ON THE WAY"
+"SPEED BUMPS ON THE WAY 
+
+So when might robots finally match and exceed humans in intelligence? 
+No one knows, but there have been many predictions. Most of them rely 
+on Moore’s law extending decades into the future. However, Moore’s law 
+is not a law at all, and in fact it ultimately violates a fundamental 
+physical law: the quantum theory. 
+
+As such, Moore’s law cannot last forever. In fact, we can already see it 
+slowing down now. It might flatten out by the end of this or the next 
+decade, and the consequences could be dire, especially for Silicon Valley."
+"The problem is simple. Right now, you can place hundreds of millions 
+of silicon transistors on a chip the size of your fingernail, but there is a 
+limit to how much you can cram onto these chips. Today the smallest 
+layer of silicon in your Pentium chip is about twenty atoms in width, 
+and by 2020 that layer might be five atoms across. But then Heisenberg’s 
+uncertainty principle kicks in, and you wouldn’t be able to determine 
+precisely where the electron is and it could “leak out” of the wire. (See 
+the Appendix, where we discuss the quantum theory and the uncertainty 
+principle in more detail.) The chip would short-circuit. In addition, it 
+would generate enough heat to fry an egg on it. So leakage and heat will 
+eventually doom Moore’s law, and a replacement will soon be necessary."
+"If packing transistors on flat chips is maxing out in computing power, 
+Intel is making a multibillion-dollar bet that chips will rise into the third 
+dimension. Time will tell if this gamble pays off (one major problem 
+with 3-D chips is that the heat generated rises rapidly with the height of 
+the chip). 
+
+Microsoft is looking into other options, such as expanding into 2-D 
+with parallel processing. One possibility is to spread chips horizontally 
+
+in a row. Then you break up a software problem into pieces, sort out 
+each piece on a small chip, and reassemble it at the end. However, it 
+may be a difficult process, and software grows at a much slower pace 
+than the supercharged exponential rate we are accustomed to with 
+Moore’s law."
+"These stopgap measures may add years to Moore’s law. But eventually, 
+all this must pass, too: the quantum theory inevitably takes over. This 
+means that physicists are experimenting with a wide variety of 
+alternatives after the Age of Silicon draws to a close, such as quantum 
+computers, molecular computers, nanocomputers, DNA computers, 
+optical computers, etc. None of these technologies, however, is ready for 
+prime time. 
+
+THE UNCANNY VALLEY 
+
+But assume for the moment that one day we will coexist with incredibly 
+sophisticated robots, perhaps using chips with molecular transistors 
+instead of silicon. How closely do we want our robots to look like us?"
+"Japan is the world’s leader in creating robots that resemble cuddly pets 
+and children, but their designers are careful not to make their robots 
+appear too human, which can be unnerving. This phenomenon was first 
+studied by Dr. Masahiro Mori in Japan in 1970, and is called the 
+“uncanny valley.” It posits that robots look creepy if they look too much 
+like humans. (The effect was actually first mentioned by Darwin in 1839 
+in The Voyage of the Beagle and again by Freud in 1919 in an essay titled 
+“The Uncanny.”) Since then, it has been studied very carefully not just 
+by AI researchers but also by animators, advertisers, and anyone 
+promoting a product involving humanlike figures. For instance, in a 
+review of the movie The Polar Express, a CNN writer noted, “Those 
+human characters in the film come across as downright ... well, creepy. 
+So The Polar Express is at best disconcerting, and at worst, a wee bit 
+horrifying.”"
+"According to Dr. Mori, the more a robot looks like a human, the more 
+we feel empathy toward it, but only up to a point. There is a dip in 
+empathy as the robot approaches actual human appearance—hence the 
+uncanny valley. If the robot looks very similar to us save for a few 
+features that are “uncanny,” it creates a feeling of revulsion and fear. If 
+the robot appears 100 percent human, indistinguishable from you and 
+me, then we’ll register positive emotions again. 
+
+This has practical implications. For example, should robots smile? At 
+first, it seems obvious that robots should smile to greet people and make"
+"them feel comfortable. Smiling is a universal gesture that signals warmth 
+and welcome. But if the robot smile is too realistic, it makes people’s 
+skin crawl. (For example, Halloween masks often feature fiendish- 
+looking ghouls that are grinning.) So robots should smile only if they are 
+childlike (i.e., with big eyes and a round face) or are perfectly human, 
+and nothing in between. (When we force a smile, we activate facial 
+muscles with our prefrontal cortex. But when we smile because we are in 
+a good mood, our nerves are controlled by our limbic system, which 
+activates a slightly different set of muscles. Our brains can tell the subtle 
+difference between the two, which was beneficial for our evolution.) 
+
+This effect can also be studied using brain scans. Let’s say that a 
+subject is placed into an MRI machine and is shown a picture of a robot 
+that looks perfectly human, except that its bodily motions are slightly 
+jerky and mechanical. The brain, whenever it sees anything, tries to"
+"predict that object’s motion into the future. So when looking at a robot 
+that appears to be human, the brain predicts that it will move like a 
+human. But when the robot moves like a machine, there is a mismatch, 
+which makes us uncomfortable. In particular, the parietal lobe lights up 
+(specifically, the part of the lobe where the motor cortex connects with 
+the visual cortex). It is believed that mirror neurons exist in this area of 
+the parietal lobe. This makes sense, because the visual cortex picks up 
+the image of the humanlike robot, and its motions are predicted via the 
+motor cortex and by mirror neurons. Finally, it is likely that the 
+orbitofrontal cortex, located right behind the eyes, puts everything 
+together and says, “Hmmm, something is not quite right.”"
+"Hollywood filmmakers are aware of this effect. When spending 
+millions on making a horror movie, they realize that the scariest scene is 
+not when a gigantic blob or Frankenstein’s monster pounces out of the 
+bushes. The scariest scene is when there is a perversion of the ordinary. 
+Think of the movie The Exorcist What scene made moviegoers vomit as 
+they ran to escape the theater or faint right in their seats? Was it the 
+scene when a demon appears? No. Theaters across the world erupted in 
+shrill screams and loud sobs when Linda Blair turned her head 
+completely around."
+"This effect can also be demonstrated in young monkeys. If you show 
+them pictures of Dracula or Frankenstein, they simply laugh and rip the 
+pictures apart. But what sends these young monkeys screaming in terror 
+is a picture of a decapitated monkey. Once again, it is the perversion of 
+the ordinary that elicits the greatest fear. (In Chapter 2, we mentioned 
+that the space-time theory of consciousness explains the nature of 
+humor, since the brain simulates the future of a joke, and then is 
+surprised to hear the punch line. This also explains the nature of horror. 
+The brain simulates the future of an ordinary, mundane event, but then 
+
+is shocked when things suddenly become horribly perverted.) 
+
+For this reason, robots will continue to look somewhat childlike in 
+appearance, even as they approach human intelligence. Only when 
+robots can act realistically like humans will their designers make them 
+look fully human. 
+
+SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+As we’ve seen, human consciousness is an imperfect patchwork of 
+different abilities developed over millions of years of evolution. Given 
+information about their physical and social world, robots may be able to 
+create simulations similar (or in some respects, even superior) to ours, 
+but silicon consciousness might differ from ours in two key areas: 
+emotions and goals. 
+
+Historically, AI researchers ignored the problem of emotions, 
+considering it a secondary issue. The goal was to create a robot that was 
+logical and rational, not scatterbrained and impulsive. Hence, the 
+science fiction of the 1950s and ’60s stressed robots (and humanoids like 
+Spock on Star Trek ) that had perfect, logical brains."
+"We saw with the uncanny valley that robots will have to look a certain 
+way if they’re to enter our homes, but some people argue that robots 
+must also have emotions so that we can bond with, take care of, and 
+interact productively with them. In other words, robots will need Level II 
+consciousness. To accomplish this, robots will first have to recognize the 
+full spectrum of human emotions. By analyzing subtle facial movements 
+of the eyebrows, eyelids, lips, cheeks, etc., a robot will be able to 
+identify the emotional state of a human, such as its owner. One 
+institution that has excelled in creating robots that recognize and mimic 
+emotion is the MIT Media Laboratory. I have had the pleasure of visiting 
+the laboratory, outside Boston, on several occasions, and it is like 
+visiting a toy factory for grown-ups. Everywhere you look, you see 
+futuristic, high-tech devices designed to make our lives more interesting, 
+enjoyable, and convenient."
+"As I looked around the room, I saw many of the high-tech graphics 
+that eventually found their way into Hollywood movies like Minority 
+Report and AI. As I wandered through this playground of the future, I 
+came across two intriguing robots, Huggable and Nexi. Their creator, Dr. 
+Cynthia Breazeal, explained to me that these robots have specific goals. 
+Huggable is a cute teddy bear-like robot that can bond with children. It 
+can identify the emotions of children; it has video cameras for eyes, a 
+speaker for its mouth, and sensors in its skin (so it can tell when it is 
+being tickled, poked, or hugged). Eventually, a robot like this might 
+become a tutor, babysitter, nurse’s aide, or a playmate. 
+
+Nexi, on the other hand, can bond with adults. It looks a little like the 
+Pillsbury Doughboy. It has a round, puffy, friendly face, with large eyes"
+"that can roll around. It has already been tested in a nursing home, and 
+the elderly patients all loved it. Once the seniors got accustomed to Nexi, 
+they would kiss it, talk to it, and miss it when it had to leave. (See 
+Figure 12.) 
+
+Dr. Breazeal told me she designed Huggable and Nexi because she was 
+not satisfied with earlier robots, which looked like tin cans full of wires, 
+gears, and motors. In order to design a robot that could interact 
+emotionally with people, she needed to figure out how she could get it 
+to perform and bond like us. Plus, she wanted robots that weren’t stuck 
+on a laboratory shelf but could venture out into the real world. The 
+former director of MIT’s Media Lab, Dr. Frank Moss, says, “That is why 
+Breazeal decided in 2004 that it was time to create a new generation of 
+social robots that could live anywhere: homes, schools, hospitals, elder 
+care facilities, and so on.”"
+"At Waseda University in Japan, scientists are working on a robot that 
+has upper-body motions representing emotions (fear, anger, surprise, 
+joy, disgust, sadness) and can hear, smell, see, and touch. It has been 
+programmed to carry out simple goals, such as satisfying its hunger for 
+energy and avoiding dangerous situations. Their goal is to integrate the 
+senses with the emotions, so that the robot acts appropriately in 
+different situations. 
+
+Figure 12. Huggable (top) and Nexi (bottom), two robots built at the MIT Media Laboratory that were 
+explicitly designed 
+
+to interact with humans via emotions, (illustration credit 10.1) 
+
+(illustration credit 10.2) 
+
+Not to be outdone, the European Commission is funding an ongoing 
+project, called Feelix Growing, which seeks to promote artificial 
+intelligence in the UK, France, Switzerland, Greece, and Denmark. 
+
+EMOTIONAL ROBOTS 
+
+Meet Nao."
+"EMOTIONAL ROBOTS 
+
+Meet Nao. 
+
+When he’s happy, he will stretch out his arms to greet you, wanting a 
+big hug. When he’s sad, he turns his head downward and appears 
+forlorn, with his shoulders hunched forward. When he’s scared, he 
+cowers in fear, until someone pats him reassuringly on the head. 
+
+He’s just like a one-year-old boy, except that he’s a robot. Nao is about 
+one and a half feet tall, and looks very much like some of the robots you 
+see in a toy store, like the Tranformers, except he’s one of the most 
+advanced emotional robots on earth. He was built by scientists at the 
+
+UK’s University of Hertfordshire, whose research was funded by the 
+European Union. 
+
+His creators have programmed him to show emotions like happiness, 
+sadness, fear, excitement, and pride. While other robots have 
+rudimentary facial and verbal gestures that communicate their emotions, 
+Nao excels in body language, such as posture and gesture. Nao even 
+dances."
+"Unlike other robots, which specialize in mastering just one area of the 
+emotions, Nao has mastered a wide range of emotional responses. First, 
+Nao locks onto visitors’ faces, identifies them, and remembers his 
+previous interactions with each of them. Second, he begins to follow 
+their movements. For example, he can follow their gaze and tell what 
+they are looking at. Third, he begins to bond with them and learns to 
+respond to their gestures. For example, if you smile at him, or pat him 
+on his head, he knows that this is a positive sign. Because his brain has 
+neural networks, he learns from interactions with humans. Fourth, Nao 
+exhibits emotions in response to his interactions with people. (His 
+emotional responses are all preprogrammed, like a tape recorder, but he 
+decides which emotion to choose to fit the situation.) And lastly, the 
+more Nao interacts with a human, the better he gets at understanding 
+the moods of that person and the stronger the bond becomes."
+"Not only does Nao have a personality, he can actually have several of 
+them. Because he learns from his interactions with humans and each 
+interaction is unique, eventually different personalities begin to emerge. 
+For example, one personality might be quite independent, not requiring 
+much human guidance. Another personality might be timid and fearful, 
+scared of objects in a room, constantly requiring human intervention. 
+
+The project leader for Nao is Dr. Lola Canamero, a computer scientist 
+at the University of Hertfordshire. To start this ambitious project, she 
+analyzed the interactions of chimpanzees. Her goal was to reproduce, as 
+closely as she could, the emotional behavior of a one-year-old 
+
+chimpanzee."
+"chimpanzee. 
+
+She sees immediate applications for these emotional robots. Like Dr. 
+Breazeal, she wants to use these robots to relieve the anxiety of young 
+children who are in hospitals. She says, “We want to explore different 
+roles—the robots will help the children to understand their treatment, 
+explain what they have to do. We want to help the children to control 
+
+their anxiety.” 
+
+Another possibility is that the robots will become companions at 
+nursing homes. Nao could become a valuable addition to the staff of a 
+hospital. At some point, robots like these might become playmates to 
+children and a part of the family."
+"“It’s hard to predict the future, but it won’t be too long before the 
+computer in front of you will be a social robot. You’ll be able to talk to 
+it, flirt with it, or even get angry and yell at it—and it will understand 
+you and your emotions,” says Dr. Terrence Sejnowski of the Salk 
+Institute, near San Diego. This is the easy part. The hard part is to gauge 
+the response of the robot, given this information. If the owner is angry 
+or displeased, the robot has to be able to factor this into its response. 
+
+EMOTIONS: DETERMINING WHAT IS IMPORTANT"
+"EMOTIONS: DETERMINING WHAT IS IMPORTANT 
+
+What’s more, AI researchers have begun to realize that emotions may be 
+a key to consciousness. Neuroscientists like Dr. Antonio Damasio have 
+found that when the link between the prefrontal lobe (which governs 
+rational thought) and the emotional centers (e.g., the limbic system) is 
+damaged, patients cannot make value judgments. They are paralyzed 
+when making the simplest of decisions (what things to buy, when to set 
+an appointment, which color pen to use) because everything has the 
+same value to them. Hence, emotions are not a luxury; they are 
+absolutely essential, and without them a robot will have difficulty 
+determining what is important and what is not. So emotions, instead of 
+being peripheral to the progress of artificial intelligence, are now 
+assuming central importance."
+"If a robot encounters a raging fire, it might rescue the computer files 
+first, not the people, since its programming might say that valuable 
+documents cannot be replaced but workers always can be. It is crucial 
+that robots be programmed to distinguish between what is important 
+and what is not, and emotions are shortcuts the brain uses to rapidly 
+determine this. Robots would thus have to be programmed to have a 
+value system—that human life is more important than material objects, 
+
+that children should be rescued first in an emergency, that objects with a 
+higher price are more valuable than objects with a lower price, etc. Since 
+
+robots do not come equipped with values, a huge list of value judgments 
+must be uploaded into them."
+"The problem with emotions, however, is that they are sometimes 
+irrational, while robots are mathematically precise. So silicon 
+consciousness may differ from human consciousness in key ways. For 
+example, humans have little control over emotions, since they happen so 
+rapidly and because they originate in the limbic system, not the 
+prefrontal cortex of the brain. Furthermore, our emotions are often 
+biased. Numerous tests have shown that we tend to overestimate the 
+abilities of people who are handsome or pretty. Good-looking people 
+tend to rise higher in society and have better jobs, although they may 
+not be as talented as others. As the expression goes, “Beauty has its 
+privileges.”"
+"Similarly, silicon consciousness may not take into account subtle cues 
+that humans use when they meet one another, such as body language. 
+When people enter a room, young people usually defer to older ones and 
+low-ranked staff members show extra courtesy to senior officials. We 
+show our deference in the way we move our bodies, our choice of words, 
+and our gestures. Because body language is older than language itself, it 
+is hardwired into the brain in subtle ways. Robots, if they are to interact 
+socially with people, will have to learn these unconscious cues. 
+
+Our consciousness is influenced by peculiarities in our evolutionary 
+past, which robots will not have, so silicon consciousness may not have 
+the same gaps or quirks as ours. 
+
+A MENU OF EMOTIONS 
+
+Since emotions have to be programmed into robots from the outside, 
+manufacturers may offer a menu of emotions carefully chosen on the 
+basis of whether they are necessary, useful, or will increase bonding 
+with the owner."
+"In all likelihood, robots will be programmed to have only a few 
+human emotions, depending on the situation. Perhaps the emotion most 
+valued by the robot’s owner will be loyalty. One wants a robot that 
+faithfully carries out its commands without complaints, that understands 
+the needs of the master and anticipates them. The last thing an owner 
+
+will want is a robot with an attitude, one that talks back, criticizes 
+people, and whines. Helpful criticisms are important, but they must be 
+made in a constructive, tactful way. Also, if humans give it conflicting 
+commands, the robot should know to ignore all of them except those 
+coming from its owner. 
+
+Empathy will be another emotion that will be valued by the owner. 
+Robots that have empathy will understand the problems of others and 
+will come to their aid. By interpreting facial movements and listening to 
+tone of voice, robots will be able to identify when a person is in distress 
+and will provide assistance when possible."
+"Strangely, fear is another emotion that is desirable. Evolution gave us 
+the feeling of fear for a reason, to avoid certain things that are 
+dangerous to us. Even though robots will be made of steel, they should 
+fear certain things that can damage them, like falling off tall buildings or 
+entering a raging fire. A totally fearless robot is a useless one if it 
+destroys itself. 
+
+But certain emotions may have to be deleted, forbidden, or highly 
+regulated, such as anger. Given that robots could be built to have great 
+physical strength, an angry robot could create tremendous problems in 
+the home and workplace. Anger could get in the way of its duties and 
+cause great damage to property. (The original evolutionary purpose of 
+anger was to show our dissatisfaction. This can be done in a rational, 
+dispassionate way, without getting angry.)"
+"Another emotion that should be deleted is the desire to be in 
+command. A bossy robot will only make trouble and might challenge the 
+judgment and wishes of the owner. (This point will also be important 
+later, when we discuss whether robots will one day take over from 
+humans.) Hence the robot will have to defer to the wishes of the owner, 
+even if this may not be the best path. 
+
+But perhaps the most difficult emotion to convey is humor, which is a 
+glue that can bond total strangers together. A simple joke can defuse a 
+tense situation or inflame it. The basic mechanics of humor are simple: 
+they involve a punch line that is unanticipated. But the subtleties of 
+humor can be enormous. In fact, we often size up other people on the 
+basis of how they react to certain jokes. If humans use humor as a gauge 
+to measure other humans, then one can appreciate the difficulty of 
+creating a robot that can tell if a joke is funny or not. President Ronald"
+"Reagan, for example, was famous for defusing the most difficult 
+questions with a quip. In fact, he accumulated a large card catalog of 
+jokes, barbs, and wisecracks, because he understood the power of 
+
+humor. (Some pundits concluded that he won the presidential debate 
+against Walter Mondale when he was asked if he was too old to be 
+president. Reagan replied that he would not hold the youth of his 
+opponent against him.) Also, laughing inappropriately could have 
+disastrous consequences (and is, in fact, sometimes a sign of mental 
+illness). The robot has to know the difference between laughing with or 
+at someone. (Actors are well aware of the diverse nature of laughter. 
+They are skilled enough to create laughter that can represent horror, 
+cynicism, joy, anger, sadness, etc.) So, at least until the theory of 
+artificial intelligence becomes more developed, robots should stay away 
+from humor and laughter. 
+
+PROGRAMMING EMOTIONS"
+"PROGRAMMING EMOTIONS 
+
+In this discussion we have so far avoided the difficult question of 
+precisely how these emotions would be programmed into a computer. 
+Because of their complexity, emotions will probably have to be 
+programmed in stages. 
+
+First, the easiest part is identifying an emotion by analyzing the 
+gestures in a person’s face, lips, eyebrows, and tone of voice. Today’s 
+facial recognition technology is already capable of creating a dictionary 
+of emotions, so that certain facial expressions mean certain things. This 
+process actually goes back to Charles Darwin, who spent a considerable 
+amount of time cataloging emotions common to animals and humans. 
+
+Second, the robot must respond rapidly to this emotion. This is also 
+easy. If someone is laughing, the robot will grin. If someone is angry, the 
+robot will get out of his way and avoid conflict. The robot would have a 
+large encyclopedia of emotions programmed into it, and hence would 
+know how to make a rapid response to each one."
+"The third stage is perhaps the most complex because it involves trying 
+to determine the underlying motivation behind the original emotion. 
+This is difficult, since a variety of situations can trigger a single emotion. 
+Laughter may mean that someone is happy, heard a joke, or watched 
+
+someone fall. Or it might mean that a person is nervous, anxious, or 
+insulting someone. Likewise, if someone is screaming, there may be an 
+emergency, or perhaps someone is just reacting with joy and surprise. 
+Determining the reason behind an emotion is a skill that even humans 
+have difficulty with. To do this, the robot will have to list the various 
+possible reasons behind an emotion and try to determine the reason that 
+makes the most sense. This means trying to find a reason behind the 
+emotion that fits the data best."
+"And fourth, once the robot has determined the origin of this emotion, 
+it has to make the appropriate response. This is also difficult, since there 
+are often several possible responses, and the wrong one may make the 
+situation worse. The robot already has, within its programming, a list of 
+possible responses to the original emotion. It has to calculate which one 
+will best serve the situation, which means simulating the future. 
+
+WILL ROBOTS LIE? 
+
+Normally, we might think of robots as being coldly analytical and 
+rational, always telling the truth. But once robots become integrated into 
+society, they will probably have to learn to lie or at least tactfully 
+restrain their comments."
+"In our own lives, several times in a typical day we are confronted with 
+situations where we have to tell a white lie. If people ask us how they 
+look, we often dare not tell the truth. White lies, in fact, are like a grease 
+that makes society run smoothly. If we were suddenly forced to tell the 
+whole truth (like Jim Carrey in Liar Liar), we most likely would wind up 
+creating chaos and hurting people. People would be insulted if you told 
+them what they really looked like or how you really felt. Bosses would 
+fire you. Lovers would dump you. Friends would abandon you. Strangers 
+would slap you. Some thoughts are better kept confidential."
+"In the same way, robots may have to learn how to lie or conceal the 
+truth, or else they might wind up offending people and being 
+decommissioned by their owners. At a party, if a robot tells the truth, it 
+could reflect badly on its owner and create an uproar. So if someone asks 
+for its opinion, it will have to learn how to be evasive, diplomatic, and 
+tactful. It must either dodge the question, change the subject, give 
+
+platitudes for answers, reply with a question, or tell white lies (all things 
+that today’s chat-bots are increasingly good at). This means that the 
+robot has already been programmed to have a list of possible evasive 
+responses, and must choose the one that creates the fewest 
+complications."
+"One of the few times that a robot would tell the entire truth would be 
+if asked a direct question by its owner, who understands that the answer 
+might be brutally honest. Perhaps the only other time when the robot 
+will tell the truth is when there is a police investigation and the absolute 
+truth is necessary. Other than that, robots will be able to freely lie or 
+conceal the whole truth to keep the wheels of society functioning. 
+
+In other words, robots have to be socialized, just like teenagers. 
+
+CAN ROBOTS FEEL PAIN? 
+
+Robots, in general, will be assigned to do types of tasks that are dull, 
+dirty, and dangerous. There is no reason why robots can’t do repetitive 
+or dirty jobs indefinitely, since we wouldn’t program them to feel 
+boredom or disgust. The real problem emerges when robots are faced 
+with dangerous jobs. At that point, we might actually want to program 
+them to feel pain."
+"We evolved the sense of pain because it helped us survive in a 
+dangerous environment. There is a genetic defect in which children are 
+born without the ability to feel pain. This is called congenital analgesia. 
+At first glance, this may seem to be a blessing, since these children do 
+not cry when they experience injury, but it is actually more of a curse. 
+Children with this affliction have serious problems, such as biting off 
+parts of their tongue, suffering severe skin burns, and cutting 
+themselves, often leading to amputations of their fingers. Pain alerts us 
+to danger, telling us when to move our hand away from the burning 
+stove or to stop running on a twisted ankle."
+"At some point robots must be programmed to feel pain, or else they 
+will not know when to avoid precarious situations. The first sense of 
+pain they must have is hunger (i.e., a craving for electrical energy). As 
+their batteries run out, they will get more desperate and urgent, 
+realizing that soon their circuits will shut down, leaving all their work in 
+
+disarray. The closer they are to running out of power, the more anxious 
+they will become. 
+
+Also, regardless of how strong they are, robots may accidentally pick 
+up an object that is too heavy, which could cause their limbs to break. 
+Or they may suffer overheating by working with molten metal in a steel 
+factory, or by entering a burning building to help firemen. Sensors for 
+temperature and stress would alert them that their design specifications 
+are being exceeded."
+"But once the sensation of pain is added to their menu of emotions, this 
+immediately raises ethical issues. Many people believe that we should 
+not inflict unnecessary pain on animals, and people may feel the same 
+about robots as well. This opens the door to robots’ rights. Laws may 
+have to be passed to restrict the amount of pain and danger that a robot 
+is allowed to face. People will not care if a robot is performing dull or 
+dirty tasks, but if they feel pain doing a dangerous one, they may begin 
+
+to lobby for laws to protect robots. This may even start a legal conflict, 
+with owners and manufacturers of robots arguing for increasing the level 
+of pain that robots can endure, while ethicists may argue for lowering it."
+"This, in turn, may set off other ethical debates about other robot 
+rights. Can robots own property? What happens if they accidentally hurt 
+someone? Can they be sued or punished? Who is responsible in a 
+lawsuit? Can a robot own another robot? This discussion raises another 
+sticky question: Should robots be given a sense of ethics? 
+
+ETHICAL ROBOTS 
+
+At first, the idea of ethical robots seems like a waste of time and effort. 
+However, this question takes on a sense of urgency when we realize that 
+robots will make life-and-death decisions. Since they will be physically 
+strong and have the capability of saving lives, they will have to make 
+split-second ethical choices about whom to save first."
+"Let’s say there is a catastrophic earthquake and children are trapped in 
+a rapidly crumbling building. How should the robot allocate its energy? 
+Should it try to save the largest number of children? Or the youngest? Or 
+the most vulnerable? If the debris is too heavy, the robot may damage its 
+electronics. So the robot has to decide yet another ethical question: How 
+
+does it weigh the number of children it saves versus the amount of 
+damage that it will sustain to its electronics? 
+
+Without proper programming, the robot may simply halt, waiting for a 
+human to make the final decision, wasting valuable time. So someone 
+will have to program it ahead of time so that the robot automatically 
+makes the “right” decision."
+"These ethical decisions will have to be preprogrammed into the 
+computer from the start, since there is no law of mathematics that can 
+put a value on saving a group of children. Within its programming, there 
+has to be a long list of things, ranked in terms of how important they 
+are. This is tedious business. In fact, it sometimes takes a human a 
+lifetime to learn these ethical lessons, but a robot has to learn them 
+rapidly, before it leaves the factory, if it is to safely enter society. 
+
+Only people can do this, and even then ethical dilemmas sometimes 
+confound us. But this raises questions: Who will make the decisions? 
+Who decides the order in which robots save human lives? 
+
+The question of how decisions will ultimately be made will probably"
+"The question of how decisions will ultimately be made will probably 
+
+be resolved via a combination of the law and the marketplace. Laws will 
+have to be passed so that there is, at minimum, a ranking of importance 
+of whom to save in an emergency. But beyond that, there are thousands 
+of finer ethical questions. These subtler decisions may be decided by the 
+marketplace and common sense. 
+
+If you work for a security firm guarding important people, you will 
+have to tell the robot how to save people in a precise order in different 
+situations, based on considerations such as fulfilling the primary duty 
+but also doing it within budget."
+"What happens if a criminal buys a robot and wants the robot to 
+commit a crime? This raises a question: Should a robot be allowed to 
+defy its owner if it is asked to break the law? We saw from the previous 
+example that robots must be programmed to understand the law and 
+also make ethical decisions. So if it decides that it is being asked to 
+break the law, it must be allowed to disobey its master. 
+
+There is also the ethical dilemma posed by robots reflecting the beliefs 
+of their owners, who may have diverging morals and social norms. The 
+“culture wars” that we see in society today will only be magnified when 
+we have robots that reflect the opinions and beliefs of their owners. In 
+some sense, this conflict is inevitable. Robots are mechanical extensions 
+
+of the dreams and wishes of their creators, and when robots are 
+sophisticated enough to make moral decisions, they will do so."
+"The fault lines of society may be stressed when robots begin to exhibit 
+behaviors that challenge our values and goals. Robots owned by youth 
+leaving a noisy, raucus rock concert may conflict with robots owned by 
+elderly residents of a quiet neighborhood. The first set of robots may be 
+programmed to amplify the sounds of the latest bands, while the second 
+set may be programmed to keep noise levels to an absolute minimum. 
+Robots owned by devout, churchgoing fundamentalists may get into 
+arguments with robots owned by atheists. Robots from different nations 
+and cultures may be designed to reflect the mores of their society, which 
+may clash (even for humans, let alone robots). 
+
+So how does one program robots to eliminate these conflicts?"
+"So how does one program robots to eliminate these conflicts? 
+
+You can’t. Robots will simply reflect the biases and prejudices of their 
+creators. Ultimately, the cultural and ethical differences between these 
+robots will have to be settled in the courts. There is no law of physics or 
+science that determines these moral questions, so eventually laws will 
+have to be written to handle these social conflicts. Robots cannot solve 
+the moral dilemmas created by humans. In fact, robots may amplify 
+them. 
+
+But if robots can make ethical and legal decisions, can they also feel 
+and understand sensations? If they succeed in saving someone, can they 
+experience joy? Or can they even feel things like the color red? Coldly 
+analyzing the ethics of whom to save is one thing, but understanding 
+and feeling is another. So can robots feel? 
+
+CAN ROBOTS UNDERSTAND OR FEEL?"
+"CAN ROBOTS UNDERSTAND OR FEEL? 
+
+Over the centuries, a great many theories have been advanced about 
+whether a machine can think and feel. My own philosophy is called 
+“constructivism”; that is, instead of endlessly debating the question, 
+which is pointless, we should be devoting our energy to creating an 
+automaton to see how far we can get. Otherwise we wind up in endless 
+philosophical debates that are never ultimately resolved. The advantage 
+of science is that, once everything is said and done, one can perform 
+experiments to settle a question decisively."
+"Thus, to settle the question of whether a robot can think, the final 
+resolution may be to build one. Some, however, have argued that 
+machines will never be able to think like a human. Their strongest 
+argument is that, although a robot can manipulate facts faster than a 
+human, it does not “understand” what it is manipulating. Although it 
+can process senses (e.g., color, sound) better than a human, it cannot 
+truly “feel” or “experience” the essence of these senses. 
+
+For example, philosopher David Chalmers has divided the problems of 
+AI into two categories, the Easy Problems and the Hard Problems. To 
+him, the Easy Problems are creating machines that can mimic more and 
+more human abilities, such as playing chess, adding numbers, 
+recognizing certain patterns, etc. The Hard Problems involve creating 
+machines that can understand feelings and subjective sensations, which 
+are called “qualia.”"
+"Just as it is impossible to teach the meaning of the color red to a blind 
+person, a robot will never be able to experience the subjective sensation 
+of the color red, they say. Or a computer might be able to translate 
+Chinese words into English with great fluency, but it will never be able 
+to understand what it is translating. In this picture, robots are like 
+glorified tape recorders or adding machines, able to recite and 
+manipulate information with incredible precision, but without any 
+understanding whatsoever. 
+
+These arguments have to be taken seriously, but there is also another 
+way of looking at the question of qualia and subjective experience. In"
+"the future, a machine most likely will be able to process a sensation, 
+such as the color red, much better than any human. It will be able to 
+describe the physical properties of red and even use it poetically in a 
+sentence better than a human. Does the robot “feel” the color red? The 
+point becomes irrelevant, since the word “feel” is not well defined. At 
+some point, a robot’s description of the color red may exceed a human’s, 
+and the robot may rightly ask: Do humans really understand the color 
+red? Perhaps humans cannot really understand the color red with all the 
+nuances and subtly that a robot can. 
+
+As behaviorist B. F. Skinner once said, “The real problem is not 
+whether machines think, but whether men do.” 
+
+Similarly, it is only a matter of time before a robot will be able to 
+define Chinese words and use them in context much better than any"
+"human. At that point, it becomes irrelevant whether the robot 
+“understands” the Chinese language. For all practical purposes, the 
+computer will know the Chinese language better than any human. In 
+other words, the word “understand” is not well defined. 
+
+One day, as robots surpass our ability to manipulate these words and 
+sensations, it will become irrelevant whether the robot “understands” or 
+“feels” them. The question will cease to have any importance. 
+
+As mathematician John von Neumann said, “In mathematics, you 
+don’t understand things. You just get used to them.” 
+
+So the problem lies not in the hardware but in the nature of human 
+language, in which words that are not well defined mean different things 
+to different people. The great quantum physicist Niels Bohr was once 
+asked how one could understand the deep paradoxes of the quantum 
+theory. The answer, he replied, lies in how you define the word 
+“understand.”"
+"Dr. Daniel Dennett, a philosopher at Tufts University, has written, 
+“There could not be an objective test to distinguish a clever robot from a 
+conscious person. Now you have a choice: you can either cling to the 
+Hard Problem, or you can shake your head in wonder and dismiss it. 
+Just let go.” 
+
+In other words, there is no such thing as the Hard Problem. 
+
+To the constructivist philosophy, the point is not to debate whether a 
+machine can experience the color red, but to construct the machine. In 
+this picture, there is a continuum of levels describing the words 
+“understand” and “feel.” (This means that it might even be possible to"
+"give numerical values to the degree of understanding and feeling.) At 
+one end we have the clumsy robots of today, which can manipulate a 
+few symbols but not much more. At the other end we have humans, who 
+pride themselves on feeling qualia. But as time goes by, robots will 
+eventually be able to describe sensations better than us on any level. 
+Then it will be obvious that robots understand. 
+
+This was the philosophy behind Alan Turing’s famous Turing test. He 
+predicted that one day a machine would be built that could answer any 
+question, so that it would be indistinguishable from a human. He said, 
+“A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a 
+human into believing that it was human.” 
+
+Physicist and Nobel laureate Francis Crick said it best. In the last"
+"Physicist and Nobel laureate Francis Crick said it best. In the last 
+
+century, he noted, biologists had heated debates over the question “What 
+is life?” Now, with our understanding of DNA, scientists realize that the 
+question is not well defined. There are many variations, layers, and 
+complexities to that simple question. The question “What is life?” simply 
+faded away. The same may eventually apply to feeling and 
+understanding. 
+
+SELF-AWARE ROBOTS 
+
+What steps must be taken before computers like Watson have self- 
+awareness? To answer this question, we have to refer back to our 
+definition of self-awareness: the ability to put one’s self inside a model of 
+the environment, and then run simulations of this model into the future 
+to achieve a goal. This first step requires a very high level of common 
+sense in order to anticipate a variety of events. Then the robot has to put 
+itself inside this model, which requires an understanding of the various 
+courses of action it may take."
+"At Meiji University, scientists have taken the first steps to create a 
+robot with self-awareness. This is a tall order, but they think they can do 
+it by creating robots with a Theory of Mind. They started by building 
+two robots. The first was programmed to execute certain motions. The 
+second was programmed to observe the first robot, and then to copy it. 
+They were able to create a second robot that could systematically mimic 
+the behavior of the first just by watching it. This is the first time in 
+history that a robot has been built specifically to have some sense of self- 
+awareness. The second robot has a Theory of Mind; that is, it is capable 
+of watching another robot and then mimicking its motions. 
+
+In 2012, the next step was taken by scientists at Yale University who"
+"In 2012, the next step was taken by scientists at Yale University who 
+
+created a robot that passed the mirror test. When animals are placed in 
+front of a mirror, most of them think the image in the mirror is that of 
+another animal. As we recall, only a few animals have passed the mirror 
+test, realizing that the mirror image was a reflection of themselves. The 
+scientists at Yale created a robot called Nico that resembles a gangly 
+skeleton made of twisted wires, with mechanical arms and two bulging 
+eyes sitting on top. When placed in front of a mirror, Nico not only 
+recognized itself but could also deduce the location of objects in a room 
+
+by looking at their images in the mirror. This is similar to what we do 
+when we look into a rearview mirror and infer the location of objects 
+behind us."
+"Nico’s programmer, Justin Hart, says, “To our knowledge, this is the 
+first robotic system to attempt to use a mirror in this way, representing a 
+significant step towards a cohesive architecture that allows robots to 
+learn about their bodies and appearance through self-observation, and 
+an important capability required in order to pass the mirror test.” 
+
+Because the robots at Meiji University and Yale University represent 
+the state of the art in terms of building robots with self-awareness, it is 
+easy to see that scientists have a long ways to go before they can create 
+robots with humanlike self-awareness. 
+
+Their work is just the first step, because our definition of self- 
+awareness demands that the robot use this information to create 
+simulations of the future. This is far beyond the capability of Nico or any 
+other robot."
+"This raises the important question: How can a computer gain full self- 
+awareness? In science fiction, we often encounter a situation where the 
+Internet suddenly becomes self-aware, as in the movie The Terminator. 
+Since the Internet is connected to the entire infrastructure of modern 
+society (e.g., our sewer system, our electricity, our telecommunications, 
+our weapons), it would be easy for a self-aware Internet to seize control 
+of society. We would be left helpless in this situation. Scientists have 
+written that this may happen as an example of an “emergent 
+phenomenon” (i.e., when you amass a sufficiently large number of 
+computers together, there can be a sudden phase transition to a higher 
+stage, without any input from the outside). 
+
+However, this says everything and it says nothing, because it leaves 
+out all the important steps in between. It’s like saying that a highway 
+can suddenly become self-aware if there are enough roads."
+"But in this book we have given a definition of consciousness and self- 
+awareness, so it should be possible to list the steps by which the Internet 
+
+can become self-aware. 
+
+First, an intelligent Internet would have to continually make models of 
+its place in the world. In principle, this information can be programmed 
+into the Internet from the outside. This would involve describing the 
+outside world (i.e., Earth, its cities, and its computers), all of which can 
+
+be found on the Internet itself. 
+
+Second, it would have to place itself in the model. This information is 
+also easily obtained. It would involve giving all the specifications of the 
+Internet (the number of computers, nodes, transmission lines, etc.) and 
+its relationship to the outside world."
+"But step three is by far the most difficult. It means continually running 
+simulations of this model into the future, consistent with a goal. This is 
+where we hit a brick wall. The Internet is not capable of running 
+simulations into the future, and it has no goals. Even in the scientific 
+world, simulations into the future are usually done in just a few 
+parameters (e.g., simulating the collision of two black holes). Running a 
+simulation of the model of the world containing the Internet is far 
+beyond the programming available today. It would have to incorporate 
+all the laws of common sense, all the laws of physics, chemistry, and 
+biology, as well as facts about human behavior and human society. 
+
+In addition, this intelligent Internet would have to have a goal. Today 
+it is just a passive highway, without any direction or purpose. Of course, 
+one can in principle impose a goal on the Internet. But let us consider 
+the following problem: Can you create an Internet whose goal is self- 
+preservation?"
+"This would be the simplest possible goal, but no one knows how to 
+program even this simple task. Such a program, for example, would have 
+to stop any attempt to shut down the Internet by pulling the plug. At 
+present, the Internet is totally incapable of recognizing a threat to its 
+existence, let alone plotting ways to prevent it. (For example, an Internet 
+capable of detecting threats to its existence would have to be able to 
+identify attempts to shut down its power, cut lines of communication, 
+destroy its servers, disable its fiber-optic and satellite connections, etc. 
+Furthermore, an Internet capable of defending itself against these attacks 
+would have to have countermeasures for each scenario and then run 
+these attempts into the future. No computer on Earth is capable of doing 
+even a fraction of such things.) 
+
+In other words, one day it may be possible to create self-aware robots, 
+even a self-aware Internet, but that day is far into the future, perhaps at 
+the end of this century."
+"But assume for the moment that the day has arrived, that self-aware 
+robots walk among us. If a self-aware robot has goals that are 
+
+compatible with our own, then this type of artificial intelligence will not 
+pose a problem. But what happens if the goals are different? The fear is 
+that humans may be outwitted by self-aware robots and then may be 
+enslaved. Because of their superior ability to simulate the future, the 
+robots could plot the outcomes of many scenarios to find the best way to 
+overthrow humanity. 
+
+One way this possibility may be controlled is to make sure that the 
+goals of these robots are benevolent. As we have seen, simulating the 
+future is not enough. These simulations must serve some final goal. If a 
+robot’s goal is merely to preserve itself, then it would react defensively 
+to any attempt to pull the plug, which could spell trouble for mankind. 
+
+WILL ROBOTS TAKE OVER?"
+"WILL ROBOTS TAKE OVER? 
+
+In almost all science-fiction tales, the robots become dangerous because 
+of their desire to take over. The word “robot,” in fact, comes from the 
+Czech word for “worker,” first seen in the 1920 play R.U.R. (Rossum’s 
+Universal Robots) by Karel Capek, in which scientists create a new race of 
+mechanical beings that look identical to humans. Soon there are 
+thousands of these robots performing menial and dangerous tasks. 
+However, humans mistreat them badly, and one day they rebel and 
+destroy the human race. Although these robots have taken over Earth, 
+they have one defect: they cannot reproduce. But at the end of the play, 
+two robots fall in love. So perhaps a new branch of “humanity” emerges 
+once again."
+"A more realistic scenario comes from the movie The Terminator, in 
+which the military has created a supercomputer network called Skynet 
+that controls the entire U.S. nuclear stockpile. One day, it wakes up and 
+becomes sentient. The military tries to shut down Skynet but then 
+realizes there is a flaw in its programming: it is designed to protect itself, 
+and the only way to do so is by eliminating the problem—humanity. It 
+starts a nuclear war, which reduces humanity to a ragtag bunch of 
+misfits and rebels fighting the juggernaut of the machines. 
+
+It is certainly possible that robots could become a threat. The current 
+Predator drone can target its victims with deadly accuracy, but it is 
+controlled by someone with a joystick thousands of miles away."
+"According to the New York Times, the orders to fire come directly from 
+the president of the United States. But in the future, a Predator might 
+have face recognition technology and permission to fire if it is 99 
+percent confident of the identity of its target. Without human 
+intervention, it could automatically use this technology to fire at anyone 
+who fits the profile. 
+
+Now assume that such a drone suffers a breakdown, such that its facial 
+recognition software malfunctions. Then it becomes a rogue robot, with 
+permission to kill anyone in sight. Worse, imagine a fleet of such robots 
+controlled by a central command. If a single transistor were to blow out 
+in this central computer and malfunction, then the entire fleet might go 
+on a killing spree."
+"A more subtle problem is when robots perform perfectly well, without 
+any malfunctions, yet there is a tiny but fatal flaw in their programming 
+and goals. For a robot, self-preservation is one important goal. But so is 
+being helpful to humans. The real problem arises when these goals 
+contradict each other. 
+
+In the movie 1 , Robot, the computer system decides that humans are 
+self-destructive, with their never-ending wars and atrocities, and that the 
+only way to protect the human race is to take over and create a 
+benevolent dictatorship of the machine. The contradiction here is not 
+between two goals, but within a single goal that is not realistic. These 
+murderous robots do not malfunction—they logically conclude that the 
+only way to preserve humanity is to take control of society."
+"One solution to this problem is to create a hierarchy of goals. For 
+example, the desire to help humans must outrank self-preservation. This 
+theme was explored in the movie 2001 . The computer system HAL 9000 
+was a sentient computer capable of conversing easily with humans. But 
+the orders given to HAL 9000 were self-contradictory and could not be 
+logically carried out. By attempting to execute an impossible goal, it fell 
+off the mesa; it went crazy, and the only solution to obeying 
+contradictory commands from imperfect humans was to eliminate the 
+humans. 
+
+The best solution might be to create a new law of robotics, which 
+would state that robots cannot do harm to the human race, even if there 
+are contradictions within their previous directives. They must be 
+programmed to ignore lower-level contradictions within their orders and"
+"always preserve the supreme law. But this might still be an imperfect 
+system at best. (For example, if the robots’ central goal is to protect 
+humanity to the exclusion of all other goals, then it all depends on how 
+
+the robots define the word “protect.” Their mechanical definition of this 
+word may differ from ours.) 
+
+Instead of reacting with terror, some scientists, such as Dr. Douglas 
+Hofstadter, a cognitive scientist at Indiana University, do not fear this 
+possibility. When I interviewed him, he told me that robots are our 
+children, so why shouldn’t we love them like our own? His attitude, he 
+told me, is that we love our children, even though we know that they 
+will take over."
+"When I interviewed Dr. Hans Moravec, former director of the AI 
+Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University, he agreed with Dr. Hofstadter. 
+In his book Robot, he writes, “Unleashed from the plodding pace of 
+biological evolution, the children of our minds will be free to grow to 
+confront immense and fundamental challenges in the larger universe. 
+... We humans will benefit for a time from their labors, but ... like 
+natural children, they will seek their own fortunes, while we, their aged 
+parents, silently fade away.” 
+
+Others, on the contrary, think that this is a horrible solution. Perhaps 
+the problem can be solved if we make changes in our goals and priorities 
+now, before it is too late. Since these robots are our children, we should 
+“teach” them to be benevolent. 
+
+FRIENDLY AI"
+"FRIENDLY AI 
+
+Robots are mechanical creatures that we make in the laboratory, so 
+whether we have killer robots or friendly robots depends on the 
+direction of AI research. Much of the funding comes from the military, 
+which is specifically mandated to win wars, so killer robots are a definite 
+possibility. 
+
+However, since 30 percent of all commercial robots are manufactured 
+in Japan, there is another possibility: robots will be designed to become 
+helpful playmates and workers from the very beginning. This goal is 
+feasible if the consumer sector dominates robotics research. The 
+philosophy of “friendly AI” is that inventors should create robots that, 
+
+from the very first steps, are programmed to be beneficial to humans."
+"from the very first steps, are programmed to be beneficial to humans. 
+
+Culturally, the Japanese approach to robots is different from the 
+West’s. While kids in the West might feel terror watching rampaging 
+Terminatortype robots, kids in Japan are steeped in the Shinto religion, 
+which believes spirits live in all things, even mechanical robots. Instead 
+of being uncomfortable at the sight of robots, Japanese children squeal"
+"with delight upon encountering them. It’s no wonder, therefore, that 
+these robots in Japan are proliferating in the marketplace and in homes. 
+They greet you at department stores and educate you on TV. There is 
+even a serious play in Japan featuring a robot. (Japan has another 
+reason for embracing robots. These are the future robot nurses for an 
+aging country. Twenty-one percent of the population is over sixty-five, 
+and Japan is aging faster than any other nation. In some sense, Japan is 
+a train wreck in slow motion. Three demographic factors are at work. 
+First, Japanese women have the longest life expectancy of any ethnic 
+group in the world. Second, Japan has one of the world’s lowest 
+birthrates. Third, it has a strict immigration policy, with over 99 percent 
+of the population being pure Japanese. Without young immigrants to 
+take care of the elderly, Japan may rely on robot nurses. This problem is 
+not restricted to Japan; Europe is next. Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and"
+"not restricted to Japan; Europe is next. Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and 
+other European nations face similar demographic pressures. The 
+populations of Japan and Europe could experience severe shrinkage by 
+mid-century. The United States is not far behind. The birthrate of native- 
+born U.S. citizens has also fallen dramatically in the last few decades, 
+but immigration will keep the United States expanding into this century. 
+In other words, it could be a trilliondollar gamble to see if robots can 
+save us from these three demographic nightmares.)"
+"Japan leads the world in creating robots that can enter our personal 
+lives. The Japanese have built robots that can cook (one can make a 
+bowl of noodles in a minute and forty seconds). When you go to a 
+restaurant, you can place your order on a tablet computer and the robot 
+cook springs into action. It consists of two large, mechanical arms, which 
+grab the bowls, spoons, and knives and prepare the food for you. Some 
+robotic cooks even resemble human ones. 
+
+There are also musical robots for entertainment. One such robot 
+actually has accordion-like “lungs” by which it can generate music by 
+pumping air through an instrument. There are also robot maids. If you"
+"carefully prepare your laundry, it can fold it in front of you. There is 
+even a robot that can talk because it has artificial lungs, lips, tongue, 
+and nasal cavity. The Sony Corporation, for example, built the AIBO 
+robot, which resembles a dog and can register a number of emotions if 
+you pet it. Some futurists predict that the robotics industry may one day 
+become as large as the automobile industry is today. 
+
+The point here is that robots are not necessarily programmed to 
+destroy and dominate. The future of AI is up to us. 
+
+But some critics of friendly AI claim that robots may take over not 
+because they are aggressive, but because we are sloppy in creating them. 
+In other words, if the robots take over, it will be because we 
+
+programmed them to have conflicting goals. 
+
+“I AM A MACHINE”"
+"programmed them to have conflicting goals. 
+
+“I AM A MACHINE” 
+
+When I interviewed Dr. Rodney Brooks, former director of the MIT 
+Artificial Intelligence Lab and cofounder of iRobot, I asked him if he 
+thought machines would one day take over. He told me that we just 
+have to accept that we are machines ourselves. This means that one day, 
+we will be able to build machines that are just as alive as we are. But, he 
+cautioned, we will have to give up the concept of our “specialness.” 
+
+This evolution in human perspective started with Nicolaus Copernicus 
+when he realized that the Earth was not the center of the universe, but 
+rather goes around the sun. It continued with Darwin, who showed that 
+we were similar to the animals in our evolution. And it will continue 
+into the future, he told me, when we realize that we are machines, 
+except that we are made of wetware and not hardware."
+"It’s going to represent a major change in our world outlook to accept 
+that we, too, are machines, he believes. He writes, “We don’t like to give 
+up our specialness, so you know, having the idea that robots could really 
+have emotions, or that robots could be living creatures—I think is going 
+to be hard for us to accept. But we’re going to come to accept it over the 
+next fifty years.” 
+
+But on the question of whether the robots will eventually take over, he 
+says that this will probably not happen, for a variety of reasons. First, no 
+one is going to accidentally build a robot that wants to rule the world. 
+
+He says that creating a robot that can suddenly take over is like someone 
+accidentally building a 747 jetliner. Plus, there will be plenty of time to 
+stop this from happening. Before someone builds a “super-bad robot,” 
+someone has to build a “mildly bad robot,” and before that a “not-so-bad 
+robot.”"
+"His philosophy is summed up when he says, “The robots are coming, 
+but we don’t have too much to worry about. It’s going to be a lot of fun.” 
+To him, the robot revolution is a certainty, and he foresees the day when 
+robots will surpass human intelligence. The only question is when. But 
+there is nothing to fear, since we will have created them. We have the 
+choice to create them to help, and not hinder, us. 
+
+MERGE WITH THEM? 
+
+If you ask Dr. Brooks how we can coexist with these super-smart robots, 
+his reply is straightforward: we will merge with them. With advances in 
+robotics and neuroprosthetics, it becomes possible to incorporate AI into 
+our own bodies. 
+
+Dr. Brooks notes that the process, in some sense, has already begun. 
+Today, about twenty thousand people have had cochlear implants, 
+which have given them the gift of hearing. Sounds are picked up by a 
+tiny receiver, which converts sound waves to electrical signals, which 
+are then sent directly to the auditory nerves of the ear."
+"Similarly, at the University of Southern California and elsewhere, it is 
+possible to take a patient who is blind and implant an artificial retina. 
+One method places a mini video camera in eyeglasses, which converts an 
+image into digital signals. These are sent wirelessly to a chip placed in 
+the person’s retina. The chip activates the retina’s nerves, which then 
+send messages down the optic nerve to the occipital lobe of the brain. In 
+this way, a person who is totally blind can see a rough image of familiar 
+objects. Another design has a light-sensitive chip placed on the retina 
+itself, which then sends signals directly to the optic nerve. This design 
+does not need an external camera. 
+
+This also means that we can go even further and enhance ordinary 
+senses and abilities. With cochlear implants, it will be possible to hear 
+high frequencies that we have never heard before. Already with infrared"
+"glasses, one can see the specific type of light that emanates from hot 
+objects in the dark and that is normally invisible to the human eye. With 
+artificial retinas, it may be possible to enhance our ability to see 
+ultraviolet or infrared light. (Bees, for example, can see UV light because 
+they have to lock onto the sun in order to navigate to a flower bed.) 
+
+Some scientists even dream of the day when exoskeletons will have 
+superpowers like those found in comic books, with super strength, super 
+senses, and super abilities. We’d become a cyborg like Iron Man, a 
+normal human with superhuman abilities and powers. This means that 
+we might not have to worry about super-intelligent robots taking over. 
+We’d simply merge with them."
+"This, of course, is for the distant future. But some scientists, frustrated 
+that robots are not leaving the factory and entering our lives, point out 
+that Mother Nature has already created the human mind, so why not 
+copy it? Their strategy is to take the brain apart, neuron by neuron, and 
+then reassemble it. 
+
+But reverse engineering entails more than just creating a vast 
+
+blueprint to create a living brain. If the brain can be duplicated down to 
+the last neuron, perhaps we can upload our consciousness into a 
+computer. We’d have the ability to leave our mortal bodies behind. This 
+is beyond mind over matter. This is mind without matter. 
+
+I’m as fond of my body as anyone, but if I can be 200 with a 
+body of silicon, I’ll take it. 
+
+—DANIEL HILL, COFOUNDER OF THINKING MACHINES CORP. 
+
+11 REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN"
+"—DANIEL HILL, COFOUNDER OF THINKING MACHINES CORP. 
+
+11 REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN 
+
+In January 2013, two bombshells were dropped that could alter the 
+medical and scientific landscape forever. Overnight, reverse engineering 
+the brain, once considered to be too complex to solve, suddenly became 
+a focal point of scientific rivalry and pride between the greatest 
+economic powers on Earth."
+"First, in his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama 
+stunned the scientific community by announcing that federal research 
+funds, perhaps to the tune of $3 billion, might be allocated to the Brain 
+Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (or BRAIN) 
+Initiative. Like the Human Genome Project, which opened the floodgates 
+for genetic research, BRAIN will pry open the secrets of the brain at the 
+neural level by mapping its electrical pathways. Once the brain is 
+mapped, a host of intractable diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, 
+schizophrenia, dementia, and bipolar disorder might be understood and 
+possibly cured. To jump-start BRAIN, $100 million might be allocated in 
+2014 toward the project."
+"Almost simultaneously, the European Commission announced that the 
+Human Brain Project would be awarded 1.19 billion euros (about $1.6 
+billion) to create a computer simulation of the human brain. Using the 
+power of the biggest supercomputers on the planet, the Human Brain 
+Project will create a copy of the human brain made of transistors and 
+steel. 
+
+Proponents of both projects stressed the enormous benefits of these 
+endeavors. President Obama was quick to point out that not only would 
+BRAIN alleviate the suffering of millions of people, it will also generate 
+new revenue streams. For every dollar spent on the Human Genome 
+Project, he claimed, about $140 of economic activity was generated. 
+Entire industries, in fact, sprouted with the completion of the Human 
+Genome Project. For the taxpayer, BRAIN, like the Human Genome 
+
+Project, will be a win-win situation."
+"Project, will be a win-win situation. 
+
+Although Obama’s speech did not give details, scientists quickly filled 
+in many of the gaps. Neurologists pointed out that, on one hand, it is 
+now possible to use delicate instruments to monitor the electrical 
+activity of single neurons. On the other hand, using MRI machines, it is 
+possible to monitor the global behavior of the entire brain. What is 
+missing, they pointed out, is the middle ground, where most of the 
+interesting brain activity takes place. It is in this middle ground, 
+involving the pathways of thousands to millions of neurons, that there 
+are huge gaps in our understanding of mental disease and behavior."
+"To tackle this enormous problem, scientists laid out a tentative fifteen- 
+year program. In the first five years, neurologists hope to monitor the 
+electrical activity of tens of thousands of neurons. The short-term goals 
+might include reconstructing the electrical activity of important parts of 
+animal brains, such as the medulla of the Drosophila fruit fly or the 
+ganglion cells in a mouse retina (which has fifty thousand neurons). 
+
+Within ten years, that number should increase to hundreds of 
+thousands of neurons. This could include imaging the entire Drosophila 
+brain (135,000 neurons) or even the cortex of the Etruscan shrew, the 
+smallest known mammal, with a million neurons. 
+
+Finally, within fifteen years, it should be possible to monitor millions 
+of neurons, comparable to the zebrafish brain or the entire neocortex of 
+a mouse. This could pave the way toward imaging parts of the brains of 
+primates."
+"Meanwhile, in Europe, the Human Brain Project would tackle the 
+problem from a different point of view. Over a ten-year period, it will 
+use supercomputers to simulate the basic functioning of the brains of 
+different animals, starting with mice and working up to humans. Instead 
+of dealing with individual neurons, the Human Brain Project will use 
+transistors to mimic their behavior, so that there will be computer 
+modules that can act like the neocortex, the thalamus, and other parts of 
+the brain. 
+
+In the end, the rivalry between these two gigantic projects could 
+create a windfall by generating new discoveries for treating incurable 
+diseases and spawning new industries. But there is also another, unstated 
+goal. If one can eventually simulate a human brain, does it mean that 
+the brain can become immortal? Does it mean that consciousness can 
+now exist outside the body? Some of the thorniest theological and 
+
+metaphysical questions are raised by these ambitious projects. 
+
+BUILDING A BRAIN"
+"metaphysical questions are raised by these ambitious projects. 
+
+BUILDING A BRAIN 
+
+Like many other children, I used to love taking apart clocks, 
+disassembling them, screw for screw, and then trying to see how the 
+whole thing fit together. I would trace each part mentally, seeing how 
+one gear connected to the next one, until the whole thing fit together. I 
+realized the mainspring turned the main gear, which then fed a sequence 
+of smaller gears, which eventually turned the hands of the clock. 
+
+Today, on a much larger scale, computer scientists and neurologists 
+are trying to take apart an infinitely more complex object, the most 
+sophisticated object we know about in the universe: the human brain. 
+Moreover, they wish to reassemble it, neuron by neuron."
+"Because of rapid advances in automation, robotics, nanotechnology, 
+and neuroscience, reverse engineering the human brain is no longer idle 
+speculation for polite after-dinner banter. In the United States and 
+Europe, billions of dollars will soon be flowing into projects once 
+considered preposterous. Today a small band of visionary scientists are 
+dedicating their professional lives to a project that they may not live to 
+see completed. Tomorrow their ranks could swell into an entire army, 
+generously funded by the United States and the nations of Europe. 
+
+If successful, these scientists could alter the course of human history. 
+Not only might they find new cures and therapies for mental illnesses, 
+they might also unlock the secret of consciousness and perhaps upload it 
+into a computer."
+"It is a daunting task. The human brain consists of over one hundred 
+billion neurons, approximately as many stars as there are in the Milky 
+Way galaxy. Each neuron, in turn, is connected to perhaps ten thousand 
+other neurons, so altogether there are a total of ten million billion 
+possible connections (and that does not begin to compute the number of 
+pathways there are among this thicket of neurons). The number of 
+“thoughts” that a human brain can conceive of is therefore truly 
+astronomical and beyond human ken. 
+
+Yet that has not stopped a small bunch of fiercely dedicated scientists 
+from attempting to reconstruct the brain from scratch. There is an old 
+
+Chinese proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first 
+step.” That first step was actually taken when scientists decoded, neuron 
+for neuron, the nervous system of a nematode worm. This tiny creature,"
+"called C. elegans, has 302 neurons and 7,000 synapses, all of which have 
+been precisely recorded. A complete blueprint of its nervous system can 
+be found on the Internet. (Even today, it is the only living organism to 
+have its entire neural structure decoded in this way.) 
+
+At first, it was thought that the complete reverse engineering of this 
+simple organism would open the door to the human brain. Ironically, the 
+opposite has happened. Although the nematode’s neurons were finite in 
+number, the network is still so complex and sophisticated that it has 
+taken years to understand even simple facts about worm behavior, such 
+as which pathways are responsible for which behaviors. If even the 
+lowly nematode worm could elude our scientific understanding, 
+scientists were forced to appreciate how complex a human brain must 
+be. 
+
+THREE APPROACHES TO THE BRAIN"
+"THREE APPROACHES TO THE BRAIN 
+
+Because the brain is so complex, there are at least three distinct ways in 
+which it can be taken apart, neuron by neuron. The first is to simulate 
+the brain electronically with supercomputers, which is the approach 
+being taken by the Europeans. The second is to map out the neural 
+pathways of living brains, as in BRAIN. (This task, in turn, can be further 
+subdivided, depending on how these neurons are analyzed—either 
+anatomically, neuron by neuron, or by function and activity.) And third, 
+one can decipher the genes that control the development of the brain, 
+which is an approach pioneered by billionaire Paul Allen of Microsoft."
+"The first approach, simulating the brain using transistors and 
+computers, is forging ahead by reverse engineering the brains of animals 
+in a certain sequence: first a mouse, then a rat, rabbit, and a cat. The 
+Europeans are following the rough trail of evolution, starting with 
+simple brains and working upward. To a computer scientist, the solution 
+is raw computing power—the more, the better. And this means using 
+some of the largest computers on Earth to decipher the brains of mice 
+and men."
+"Their first target is the brain of a mouse, which is one-thousandth the 
+size of a human brain, containing about one hundred million neurons. 
+The thinking process behind a mouse brain is being analyzed by the IBM 
+Blue Gene computer, located at the Lawrence Livermore National 
+Laboratory in California, where some of the biggest computers in the 
+world are located; they’re used to design hydrogen warheads for the 
+Pentagon. This colossal collection of transistors, chips, and wires 
+contains 147,456 processors with a staggering 150,000 gigabytes of 
+memory. (A typical PC may have one processor and a few gigabytes of 
+
+memory.) 
+
+Progress has been slow but steady. Instead of modeling the entire 
+brain, scientists try to duplicate just the connections between the cortex 
+and the thalamus, where much of brain activity is concentrated. (This 
+means that the sensory connections to the outside world are missing in 
+this simulation.)"
+"In 2006, Dr. Dharmendra Modha of IBM partially simulated the mouse 
+brain in this way with 512 processors. In 2007, his group simulated the 
+rat brain with 2,048 processors. In 2009, the cat brain, with 1.6 billion 
+neurons and nine trillion connections, was simulated with 24,576 
+processors. 
+
+Today, using the full power of the Blue Gene computer, IBM scientists 
+have simulated 4.5 percent of the human brain’s neurons and synapses. 
+To begin a partial simulation of the human brain, one would need 
+880,000 processors, which might be possible around 2020. 
+
+I had a chance to film the Blue Gene computer. To get to the 
+laboratory, I had to go through layers and layers of security, since it is 
+the nation’s premier weapons laboratory, but once you have cleared all 
+the checkpoints, you enter a huge, air-conditioned room housing Blue 
+Gene."
+"The computer is truly a magnificent piece of hardware. It consists of 
+racks and racks of large black cabinets full of switches and blinking 
+lights, each about eight feet tall and roughly fifteen feet long. As I 
+walked among the cabinets that make up Blue Gene, I wondered what 
+kinds of operations it was performing. Most likely, it was modeling the 
+interior of a proton, calculating the decay of plutonium triggers, 
+simulating the collision of two black holes, and thinking of a mouse, all 
+at once. 
+
+Then I was told that even this supercomputer is giving way to the next 
+generation, the Blue Gene/Q Sequoia, which will take computing to a 
+new level. In June 2012, it set the world’s record for the fastest 
+supercomputer. At peak speed, it can perform operations at 20.1 PFLOPS 
+(or 20.1 trillion floating point operations per second). It covers an area 
+of three thousand square feet, and gobbles up electrical energy at the 
+rate of 7.9 megawatts, enough power to light up a small city."
+"But with all this massive computational firepower concentrated in one 
+computer, is it enough to rival the human brain? 
+
+Unfortunately, no. 
+
+These computer simulations try only to duplicate the interactions 
+between the cortex and the thalamus. Huge chunks of the brain are 
+therefore missing. Dr. Modha understands the enormity of his project. 
+His ambitious research has allowed him to estimate what it would take 
+to create a working model of the entire human brain, and not just a 
+portion or a pale version of it, complete with all parts of the neocortex 
+and connections to the senses. He envisions using not just a single Blue 
+Gene computer but thousands of them, which would fill up not just a 
+room but an entire city block. The energy consumption would be so 
+great that you would need a thousand-megawatt nuclear power plant to 
+generate all the electricity. And then, to cool off this monstrous 
+computer so it wouldn’t melt, you would need to divert a river and send 
+it through the computer circuits."
+"It is remarkable that a gigantic, city-size computer is required to 
+simulate a piece of human tissue that weighs three pounds, fits inside 
+your skull, raises your body temperature by only a few degrees, uses 
+twenty watts of power, and needs only a few hamburgers to keep it 
+going. 
+
+BUILDING A BRAIN 
+
+But perhaps the most ambitious scientist who has joined this campaign is 
+Dr. Henry Markram of the Ecole Polytechnique Federate de Lausanne, in 
+Switzerland. He is the driving force behind the Human Brain Project, 
+which has received over a billion dollars of funding from the European 
+Commission. He has spent the last seventeen years of his life trying to 
+
+decode the brain’s neural wiring. He, too, is using the Blue Gene 
+computer to reverse engineer the brain. At present, his Human Brain 
+Project is running up a bill of $140 million from the European Union, 
+and that represents only a fraction of the computer firepower he will 
+need in the coming decade."
+"Dr. Markram believes that this is no longer a science project but an 
+engineering endeavor, requiring vast sums of money. He says, “To build 
+this—the supercomputers, the software, the research—we need around 
+one billion dollars. This is not expensive when one considers that the 
+global burden of brain disease will exceed twenty percent of the world 
+gross domestic project very soon.” To him, a billion dollars is nothing, 
+just a pittance compared to the hundreds of billions in bills stemming 
+from Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other related diseases when the baby 
+boomers retire. 
+
+So to Dr. Markram, the solution is one of scale. Throw enough money 
+
+at the project, and the human brain will emerge. Now that he has won 
+the coveted billion-dollar prize from the European Commission, his 
+dream may become a reality."
+"He has a ready answer when asked what the average taxpayer will get 
+from this billion-dollar investment. There are three reasons, he says, for 
+embarking on this lonely but expensive quest. First, “It’s essential for us 
+to understand the human brain if we want to get along in society, and I 
+think that it is a key step in evolution. The second reason is, we cannot 
+keep doing animal experimentation forever.... It’s like a Noah’s Ark. It’s 
+like an archive. And the third reason is that there are two billion people 
+on this planet that are affected by mental disorder....” 
+
+To him, it is a scandal that so little is known about mental diseases, 
+which cause so much suffering to millions of people. He says, “There’s 
+not a single neurological disease today in which anybody knows what is 
+malfunctioning in this circuit—which pathway, which synapse, which 
+neuron, which receptor. This is shocking.”"
+"At first, it may sound impossible to complete this project, with so 
+many neurons and so many connections. It seems like a fool’s errand. 
+But these scientists think they have an ace in the hole. 
+
+The human genome consists of roughly twenty-three thousand genes, 
+yet it can somehow create the brain, which consists of one hundred 
+billion neurons. It seems to be a mathematical impossibility to create the 
+
+human brain from our genes, yet it happens every time an embryo is 
+conceived. How can so much information be crammed into something so 
+small? 
+
+The answer, Dr. Markram believes, is that nature uses shortcuts. The 
+key to his approach is that certain modules of neurons are repeated over 
+and over again once Mother Nature finds a good template. If you look at 
+microscopic slices of the brain, at first you see nothing but a random 
+tangle of neurons. But upon closer examination, patterns of modules that 
+are repeated over and over appear."
+"(Modules, in fact, are one reason why it is possible to assemble large 
+skyscrapers so rapidly. Once a single module is designed, it is possible to 
+repeat it endlessly on the assembly line. Then you can rapidly stack 
+them on top of one another to create the skyscraper. Once the 
+paperwork is all signed, an apartment building can be assembled using 
+modules in a few months.) 
+
+The key to Dr. Markram’s Blue Brain project is the “neocortical 
+column,” a module that is repeated over and over in the brain. In 
+
+humans, each column is about two millimeters tall, with a diameter of 
+half a millimeter, and contains sixty thousand neurons. (As a point of 
+comparison, rat neural modules contain only ten thousand neurons 
+each.) It took ten years, from 1995 to 2005, for Dr. Markram to map the 
+neurons in such a column and to figure out how it worked. Once that 
+was deciphered, he then went to IBM to create massive iterations of 
+these columns."
+"He is the eternal optimist. In 2009, at a TED conference, he claimed he 
+could finish the project in ten years. (Most likely, this will be for a 
+stripped-down version of the human brain without any attachment to 
+the other lobes or to the senses.) But he has claimed, “If we build it 
+correctly, it should speak and have an intelligence and behave very 
+much as a human does.” 
+
+Dr. Markram is a skilled defender of his work. He has an answer for 
+everything. When critics say that he is treading on forbidden territory, 
+he counters, “As scientists, we need to be not afraid of the truth. We 
+need to understand our brain. It’s natural that people would think that 
+the brain is sacred, that we shouldn’t tamper with it because it may be 
+where the secrets of the soul are. But I think, quite honestly, that if the 
+planet understood how the brain functions, we would resolve conflicts"
+"everywhere. Because people would understand how trivial and how 
+deterministic and how controlled conflicts and reactions and 
+misunderstandings are.” 
+
+When faced with the final criticism that he is “playing God,” he says, 
+“I think we’re far from playing God. God created the whole universe. 
+We’re just trying to build a little model.” 
+
+IS IT REALLY A BRAIN? 
+
+Although these scientists claim that their computer simulation of the 
+brain will begin to reach the capability of the human brain by around 
+2020, the main question is, How realistic is this simulation? Can the cat 
+simulation, for example, catch a mouse? Or play with a ball of yarn?"
+"The answer is no. These computer simulations try to match the sheer 
+power of the neurons firing in the cat brain, but they cannot duplicate 
+the way in which the regions of the brain are hooked together. The IBM 
+simulation is only for the thalamocortical system (i.e., the channel that 
+connects the thalamus to the cortex). The system does not have a 
+physical body, and hence all the complex interactions between the brain 
+and the environment are missing. The brain has no parietal lobe, so it 
+
+has no sensory or motor connections with the outside world. And even 
+within the thalamocortical system, the basic wiring does not respect the 
+thinking process of a cat. There are no feedback loops and memory 
+circuits for stalking prey or finding a mate. The computerized cat brain 
+is a blank slate, devoid of any memories or instinctual drives. In other 
+words, it cannot catch a mouse."
+"So even if it is possible to simulate a human brain by around 2020, 
+you will not be able to have a simple conversation with it. Without a 
+parietal lobe, it would be like a blank slate without sensations, devoid of 
+any knowledge of itself, people, and the world around it. Without a 
+temporal lobe, it would not be able to talk. Without a limbic system, it 
+would not have any emotions. In fact, it would have less brain power 
+than a newborn infant. 
+
+The challenge of hooking up the brain to the world of sensations, 
+emotions, language, and culture is just beginning. 
+
+THE SLICE-AND-DICE APPROACH 
+
+The next approach, favored by the Obama administration, is to map the 
+neurons of the brain directly. Instead of using transistors, this approach 
+analyzes the actual neural pathways of the brain. There are several 
+components to it."
+"One way to proceed is to physically identify each and every neuron 
+and synapse of the brain. (The neurons are usually destroyed by this 
+process.) This is called the anatomical approach. Another path is to 
+decipher the ways in which electrical signals flow across neurons when 
+the brain is performing certain functions. (The latter approach, which 
+stresses identifying the pathways of the living brain, is the one that 
+seems to be favored by the Obama administration.)"
+"The anatomical approach is to take apart the cells of an animal brain, 
+neuron by neuron, using the “slice-and-dice” method. In this way, the 
+full complexity of the environment, the body, and memories are already 
+encoded in the model. Instead of approximating a human brain by 
+assembling a huge number of transistors, these scientists want to identify 
+each neuron of the brain. After that, perhaps each neuron can be 
+simulated by a collection of transistors so that you’d have an exact 
+replica of the human brain, complete with memory, personality, and 
+connection to the senses. Once someone’s brain is fully reversed 
+engineered in this way, you should be able to have an informative 
+conversation with that person, complete with memories and a 
+personality."
+"No new physics is required to finish the project. Using a device similar 
+to a meat sheer in a delicatessen, Dr. Gerry Rubin of the Howard Hughes 
+Medical Institute has been slicing the brain of a fruit fly. This is not an 
+easy task, since the fruit fly brain is only three hundred micrometers 
+across, a tiny speck compared to the human brain. The fruit fly brain 
+contains about 150,000 neurons. Each slice, which is only fifty-billionths 
+of a meter across, is meticulously photographed with an electron 
+microscope, and the images are fed into a computer. Then a computer 
+program tries to reconstruct the wiring, neuron by neuron. At the 
+present rate, Dr. Rubin will be able to identify every neuron in the fruit 
+fly brain in twenty years. 
+
+The snail-like pace is due, in part, to current photographic technology,"
+"The snail-like pace is due, in part, to current photographic technology, 
+
+since a standard scanning microscope operates at about ten million 
+pixels per second. (That is about a third of the resolution achieved by a 
+standard TV screen per second.) The goal is to have an imaging machine 
+that can process ten billion pixels per second, which would be a world 
+record. 
+
+The problem of how to store the data pouring in from the microscope 
+is also staggering. Once his project gets up to speed, Rubin expects to 
+scan about a million gigabytes of data per day for just a single fruit fly, 
+so he envisions filling up huge warehouses full of hard drives. On top of 
+that, since every fruit fly brain is slightly different, he has to scan 
+hundreds of fruit fly brains in order to get an accurate approximation of 
+one."
+"Based on working with the fruit fly brain, how long will it take to 
+eventually slice up the human brain? “In a hundred years, I’d like to 
+know how human consciousness works. The ten- or twenty-year goal is 
+to understand the fruit fly brain,” he says. 
+
+This method can be speeded up with several technical advances. One 
+possibility is to use an automated device, so that the tedious process of 
+slicing the brain and analyzing each slide is done by machine. This could 
+rapidly reduce the time for the project. Automation, for example, vastly 
+reduced the cost of the Human Genome Project (although it was 
+budgeted at $3 billion, it was accomplished ahead of time and under 
+budget, which is unheard of in Washington). Another method is to use a 
+large variety of dyes that will tag different neurons and pathways, 
+making them easier to see. An alternative approach would be to create 
+an automated super microscope that can scan neurons one by one with 
+unparalleled detail."
+"Given that a complete mapping of the brain and all its senses will take 
+up to a hundred years, these scientists feel somewhat like the medieval 
+
+architects who designed the cathedrals of Europe, knowing that their 
+grandchildren would finally complete the project. 
+
+In addition to constructing an anatomical map of the brain, neuron by 
+neuron, there is a parallel effort called the “Human Connectome 
+Project,” which uses brain scans to reconstruct the pathways connecting 
+various regions of the brain. 
+
+THE HUMAN CONNECTOME PROJECT"
+"THE HUMAN CONNECTOME PROJECT 
+
+In 2010, the National Institutes of Health announced that it was 
+allocating $30 million, spread out over five years, to a consortium of 
+universities (including Washington University in St. Louis and the 
+University of Minnesota), and a $8.5 million grant over three years to a 
+consortium led by Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, 
+and UCLA. With this level of short-term funding, of course, researchers 
+cannot fully sequence the entire brain, but the funding was meant to 
+jump-start the effort."
+"Most likely, this effort will be folded into the BRAIN project, which 
+will vastly accelerate this work. The goal is to produce a neuronal map 
+of the human brain’s pathways that will elucidate brain disorders such as 
+autism and schizophrenia. One of the leaders of the Connectome Project, 
+Dr. Sebastian Seung, says, “Researchers have conjectured that the 
+neurons themselves are healthy, but maybe they are just wired together 
+in an abnormal way. But we’ve never had the technology to test that 
+hypothesis until now.” If these diseases are actually caused by the 
+miswiring of the brain, then the Human Connectome Project may give us 
+an invaluable clue as to how to treat these conditions."
+"When considering the ultimate goal of imaging the entire human 
+brain, sometimes Dr. Seung despairs of ever finishing this project. He 
+says, “In the seventeenth century, the mathematician and philosopher 
+Blaise Pascal wrote of his dread of the infinite, his feeling of 
+insignificance at contemplating the vast reaches of outer space. And as a 
+scientist, I’m not supposed to talk about my feelings.... I feel curiosity, 
+and I feel wonder, but at times I have also felt despair.” But he and 
+others like him persist, even if their project will take multiple 
+generations to finish. They have reason to hope, since one day 
+automated microscopes will tirelessly take the photographs and 
+artificially intelligent machines will analyze them twenty-four hours a 
+day. But right now, just imaging the human brain with ordinary electron 
+microscopes would consume about one zettabyte of data, which is 
+equivalent to all the data compiled in the world today on the web."
+"Dr. Seung even invites the public to participate in this great project by 
+
+visiting a website called EyeWire. There, the average “citizen scientist” 
+can view a mass of neural pathways and is asked to color them in 
+
+(staying within their boundaries). It’s like a virtual coloring book, except 
+images are of the actual neurons in the retina of an eye, taken by an 
+electron microscope. 
+
+THE ALLEN BRAIN ATLAS 
+
+Finally, there is a third way to map the brain. Instead of analyzing the 
+brain by using computer simulations or by identifying all the neural 
+pathways, yet another approach was taken with a generous grant of 
+$100 million from Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen. The goal was to 
+construct a map or atlas of the mouse brain, with the emphasis on 
+identifying the genes responsible for creating the brain."
+"It is hoped that this understanding of how genes are expressed in the 
+brain will help in understanding autism, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and 
+other disabilities. Since a large number of mouse genes are found in 
+humans, it’s possible that findings here will give us insight into the 
+human brain. 
+
+With this sudden infusion of funds, the project was completed in 2006, 
+and its results are freely available on the web. A follow-up project, the 
+Allen Human Brain Atlas, was announced soon afterward, with the hope 
+of creating an anatomically and genetically complete 3-D map of the 
+human brain. In 2011, the Allen Institute announced that it had mapped 
+the biochemistry of two human brains, finding one thousand anatomical 
+sites with one hundred million data points detailing how genes are 
+expressed in the underlying biochemistry. The study confirmed that 82 
+percent of our genes are expressed in the brain."
+"“Until now, a definitive map of the human brain, at this level of detail, 
+simply hasn’t existed,” says Dr. Allen Jones of the Allen Institute. “The 
+Allen Human Brain Atlas provides never-before-seen views into our most 
+complex and most important organ,” he adds. 
+
+OBJECTIONS TO REVERSE ENGINEERING 
+
+Scientists who have dedicated their lives to reverse engineering the brain 
+realize that decades of hard work lie ahead of them. But they are also 
+convinced of the practical implications of their work. They feel that even 
+
+partial results will help decode the mystery of mental diseases that have 
+afflicted humans throughout our history."
+"The cynics, however, may claim that, after this arduous task is 
+finished, we will have a mountain of data with no understanding of how 
+it all fits together. For example, imagine a Neanderthal who one day 
+comes across the complete blueprint for an IBM Blue Gene computer. All 
+the details are there in the blueprint, down to the very last transistor. 
+The blueprint is huge, taking up thousands of square feet of paper. The 
+Neanderthal may be dimly aware that this blueprint is the secret of a 
+super-powerful machine, but the sheer mass of technical data means 
+nothing to him. 
+
+Similarly, the fear is that, after spending billions deciphering the 
+location of every neuron of the brain, we won’t be able to understand 
+what it all means. It may take many more decades of hard work to see 
+how the whole thing functions."
+"For example, the Human Genome Project was a smashing success in 
+sequencing all the genes that make up the human genome, but it was a 
+huge disappointment for those who expected immediate cures for 
+genetic diseases. The Human Genome Project was like a gigantic 
+dictionary, with twenty-three thousand entries but no definitions. Page 
+after page of this dictionary is blank, yet the spelling of each gene is 
+perfect. The project was a breakthrough, but at the same time it’s just 
+the first step in a long journey to figure out what these genes do and 
+how they interact. 
+
+Similarly, just having a complete map of every single neural 
+connection in the brain does not guarantee that we will know what these 
+neurons are doing and how they react. Reverse engineering is the easy 
+part; after that, the hard part begins—making sense of all this data. 
+
+THE FUTURE"
+"THE FUTURE 
+
+But assume for now that the moment has finally arrived. With much 
+fanfare, scientists solemnly announce that they have successfully reverse 
+engineered the entire human brain. 
+
+Then what? 
+
+One immediate application is to find the origins of certain mental 
+
+diseases. It’s thought that many mental diseases are not caused by the 
+massive destruction of neurons, but by a simple misconnection. Think of 
+genetic diseases that are caused by a single mutation, like Huntington’s 
+disease, Tay-Sachs, or cystic fibrosis. Out of three billion base pairs, a 
+single misspelling (or repetition) can cause uncontrollable flailing of 
+your limbs and convulsions, as in Huntington’s disease. Even if the 
+genome is 99.9999999 percent accurate, a tiny flaw might invalidate the 
+entire sequence. That is why gene therapy has targeted these single 
+mutations as possible genetic diseases that can be fixed."
+"Likewise, once the brain is reverse engineered, it might be possible to 
+run simulations of the brain, deliberately disrupting a few connections to 
+see if you can induce certain illnesses. Only a handful of neurons may be 
+responsible for major disruptions of our cognition. Locating this tiny 
+collection of misfiring neurons may be one of the jobs of the reverse- 
+engineered brain."
+"One example might be Capgras delusion, in which you see someone 
+you recognize as your mother, but you believe that person to be an 
+impostor. According to Dr. V. S. Ramachandran, this rare disease might 
+be due to a misconnection between two parts of the brain. The fusiform 
+gyrus in the temporal lobe is responsible for recognizing the face of your 
+mother, but the amygdala is responsible for your emotional response in 
+seeing your mother. When the connection between these two centers is 
+disrupted, an individual can recognize his mother’s face perfectly well, 
+but, since there is no emotional response, he is also convinced that she is 
+an impostor."
+"Another use for the reverse-engineered brain is to pinpoint precisely 
+which cluster of neurons is misfiring. Deep brain stimulation, as we’ve 
+seen, involves using tiny probes to dampen the activity of a tiny portion 
+of the brain, such as Broadmann’s area 25, in the case of certain severe 
+forms of depression. Using the reverse-engineered map, it might be 
+possible to find precisely where the neurons are misfiring, which may 
+involve only a handful of neurons. 
+
+A reversed-engineered brain would also be of great help to AI. Vision 
+and face recognition are done effortlessly by the brain, but they still 
+elude our most advanced computers. For example, computers can 
+recognize with 95 percent or greater accuracy human faces that look 
+straight ahead and are part of a small data bank, but if you show the"
+"computer the same face from different angles or a face that’s not in the 
+database, the computer will most likely fail. Within .1 seconds, we can 
+recognize familiar faces from different angles; it’s so easy for our brains 
+that we are not even aware we are doing it. Reverse engineering the 
+brain may reveal the mystery of how this is done. 
+
+More complicated would be diseases that involve multiple failures of 
+the brain, such as schizophrenia. This disorder involves several genes, 
+plus interactions with the environment, which in turn cause unusual 
+activity in several areas of the brain. But even there, a reverse- 
+engineered brain would be able to tell precisely how certain symptoms 
+(such as hallucinations) are formed, and this might pave the way for a 
+possible cure."
+"A reverse-engineered brain would also solve such basic but unresolved 
+questions as how long-term memories are stored. It is known that certain 
+parts of the brain, such as the hippocampus and amygdala, store 
+memories, but how the memory is dispersed through various cortices 
+and then reassembled to create a memory is still unclear. 
+
+Once the reverse-engineered brain is fully functional, then it will be 
+time to turn on all its circuits to see if it can respond like a human (i.e., 
+to see if it can pass the Turing test). Since long-term memory is already 
+encoded in the neurons of the reverse-engineered brain, it should be 
+obvious very quickly whether the brain can respond in a way 
+indistinguishable from a human. 
+
+Finally, there is one impact of reverse engineering the brain that is 
+rarely discussed but is on many people’s minds: immortality. If 
+consciousness can be transferred into a computer, does that mean we 
+don’t have to die?"
+"Speculation is never a waste of time. It clears away the 
+deadwood in the thickets of deduction. 
+
+—ELIZABETH PETERS 
+
+We are a scientific civilization.... That means a civilization in 
+which knowledge and its integrity are crucial. Science is only a 
+Latin word for knowledge.... Knowledge is our destiny. 
+
+—JACOB BRONOWSKI 
+
+12 THE FUTURE MIND BEYOND MATTER 
+
+Can consciousness exist by itself, free from the constraints of the 
+physical body? Can we leave our mortal body and, like spirits, wander 
+around this playground called the universe? This was explored on Star"
+"Trek, when Captain Kirk of the starship Enterprise encounters a 
+superhuman race, almost a million years more advanced than the 
+Federation of Planets. They are so advanced that they have long since 
+abandoned their frail, mortal bodies, and now inhabit pulsating globes of 
+pure energy. It has been millennia since they could feel intoxicating 
+sensations, such as breathing fresh air, touching another’s hand, or 
+feeling physical love. Their leader, Sargon, welcomes the Enterprise to 
+their planet. Captain Kirk accepts the invitation, acutely aware that this 
+civilization could instantly vaporize the Enterprise if it wanted to. 
+
+But unknown to the crew, these super beings have a fatal weakness. 
+For all their advanced technology, they have been severed for hundreds 
+of thousands of years from their physical bodies. As such, they yearn to 
+feel the rush of physical sensations and long to become human again."
+"One of these super beings, in fact, is evil and determined to gain 
+possession of the physical bodies of the crew. He wants to live like a 
+human, even if it means destroying the mind of the body’s owner. Soon a 
+battle breaks out on the deck of the Enterprise, as the evil entity seizes 
+control of Spock’s body and the crew fights back. 
+
+Scientists have asked themselves, Is there a law of physics preventing 
+the mind from existing without the body? In particular, if the conscious 
+human mind is a device that constantly creates models of the world and 
+simulates them into the future, is it possible to create a machine that can 
+simulate this entire process? 
+
+Previously, we mentioned the possibility of having our bodies placed 
+in pods, as in the movie Surrogates, while we mentally control a robot. 
+The problem here is that our natural body will still gradually wither 
+away, even if our robot surrogate keeps on going. Serious scientists are"
+"contemplating whether we can actually transfer our minds into a robot 
+so we can become truly immortal. And who wouldn’t want a chance at 
+eternal life? As Woody Allen once said, “I don’t want to live forever 
+through my works. I want to live forever by not dying.” 
+
+Actually, millions of people already claim that it is possible for the 
+mind to leave the body. In fact, many insist that they have done it 
+themselves. 
+
+OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCES 
+
+The idea of minds without bodies is perhaps the oldest of our 
+superstitions, embedded deep within our myths, folklore, dreams, and 
+
+perhaps even our genes. Every society, it seems, has some tale of ghosts 
+and demons who can enter and leave the body at will."
+"Sadly, many innocents were persecuted to exorcize the demons that 
+were supposedly possessing their bodies. They probably suffered from 
+mental illness, such as schizophrenia, in which victims are often haunted 
+by voices generated by their own minds. Historians believe that one of 
+the Salem witches who was hung in 1692 for being possessed probably 
+had a rare genetic condition, called Huntington’s disease, that causes 
+uncontrolled flailing of the limbs. 
+
+Today some people claim that they have entered a trancelike state in 
+which their consciousness has left their body and is free to roam 
+throughout space, even able to look back at their mortal body. In a poll 
+of thirteen thousand Europeans, 5.8 percent claimed they had had an 
+out-of-body experience. Interviews with people in the United States 
+show similar numbers."
+"Nobel laureate Richard Feynman, always curious about new 
+phenomena, once placed himself in a sensory deprivation tank and tried 
+to leave his physical body. He was successful. He would later write that 
+he felt that he had left his body, drifted into space, and saw his 
+motionless body when he looked back. However, Feynman later 
+concluded that this was probably just his imagination, caused by sensory 
+deprivation. 
+
+Neurologists who have studied this phenomenon have a more prosaic 
+explanation. Dr. Olaf Blanke and his colleagues in Switzerland may have"
+"located the precise place in the brain that generates out-of-body 
+experiences. One of his patients was a forty-three-year-old woman who 
+suffered from debilitating seizures that came from her right temporal 
+lobe. A grid of about one hundred electrodes was placed over her brain 
+in order to locate the region responsible for her seizures. When the 
+electrodes stimulated the area between the parietal and temporal lobes, 
+she immediately had the sensation of leaving her body. “I see myself 
+lying in bed, from above, but I only see my legs and lower trunk!” she 
+exclaimed. She felt she was floating six feet above her body."
+"When the electrodes were turned off, however, the out-of-body 
+sensation disappeared immediately. In fact, Dr. Blanke found that he 
+could turn the out-of-body sensation on and off, like a light switch, by 
+repeatedly stimulating this area of the brain. As we saw in Chapter 9, 
+temporal lobe epileptic lesions can induce the feeling that there are evil 
+spirits behind every misfortune, so the concept of spirits leaving the 
+body is perhaps part of our neural makeup. (This may also explain the 
+presence of supernatural beings. When Dr. Blanke analyzed a twenty- 
+
+two-year-old woman who was suffering from intractable seizures, he 
+found that, by stimulating the temporoparietal area of the brain, he 
+could induce the sensation that there was a shadowy presence behind 
+her. She could describe this person, who even grabbed her arms, in 
+detail. His position would change with each appearance, but he would 
+always appear behind her.)"
+"Human consciousness, I believe, is the process of continually forming 
+a model of the world, in order to simulate the future and carry out a 
+goal. In particular, the brain is receiving sensations from the eyes and 
+inner ear to create a model of where we are in space. However, when 
+the signals from our eyes and ears are in contradiction, we become 
+confused about our location. We often get nauseous and throw up. For 
+example, many people develop sea sickness when they are on a rocking 
+boat because their eyes, looking at the cabin walls, tell them that they 
+are stationary, but their inner ear tells them that they are swaying. The 
+mismatch between these signals causes them to become nauseous. The 
+remedy is to look out at the horizon so that the visual image matches the 
+signals from the inner ear. (This same sense of nausea can be induced 
+even if you are stationary. If you look at a spinning garbage can with 
+bright vertical stripes painted on it, the stripes seem to move"
+"horizontally across your eyes, giving you the sensation that you are 
+moving. But your inner ear says you are stationary. The resulting 
+mismatch causes you to throw up after a few minutes, even if you are 
+sitting in a chair.) 
+
+The messages from the eyes and inner ear can also be disrupted 
+electrically, at the boundary of the temporal and parietal lobes, and this 
+is the origin of out-of-body experiences. When this sensitive area is 
+touched, the brain gets confused about where it is located in space. 
+(Notably, temporary loss of blood or oxygen or excess carbon dioxide in 
+the blood can also cause a disruption in the temporoparietal region and 
+induce out-of-body experiences, which may explain the prevalence of 
+these sensations during accidents, emergencies, heart attacks, etc.) 
+
+NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES"
+"NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES 
+
+But perhaps the most dramatic category of out-of-body experiences are 
+the near-death stories of individuals who have been declared dead but 
+then mysteriously regained consciousness. In fact, 6 to 12 percent of 
+survivors of cardiac arrest report having near-death experiences. It’s as 
+though they have cheated death itself. When interviewed, they have 
+dramatic tales of the same experience: they left their body and drifted 
+toward a bright light at the end of a long tunnel."
+"The media have seized upon this, with numerous best sellers and TV 
+documentaries devoted to these theatrical stories. Many bizarre theories 
+have been proposed to explain near-death experiences. In a poll of two 
+thousand people, fully 42 percent believed that near-death experiences 
+were proof of contact with the spiritual world that lies beyond death. 
+(Some believe that the body releases endorphins—natural narcotics— 
+before death. This may explain the euphoria that people feel, but not the 
+tunnel and the bright lights.) Carl Sagan even speculated that near-death 
+experiences were a reliving of the trauma of birth. The fact that these 
+individuals recount very similar experiences doesn’t necessarily 
+corroborate their glimpses into the afterlife; in fact, it seems to indicate 
+that there is some deep neurological event happening. 
+
+Neurologists have looked into this phenomenon seriously and suspect 
+that the key may be the decrease of blood flow to the brain that often"
+"accompanies near-death cases, and which also occurs in fainting. Dr. 
+Thomas Lempert, a neurologist at the Castle Park Clinic in Berlin, 
+conducted a series of experiments on forty-two healthy individuals, 
+causing them to faint under controlled laboratory conditions. Sixty 
+percent of them had visual hallucinations (e.g., bright lights and colored 
+patches). Forty-seven percent of them felt that they were entering 
+another world. Twenty percent claimed to have encountered a 
+supernatural being. Seventeen percent saw a bright light. Eight percent 
+saw a tunnel. So fainting can mimic all the sensations people have in 
+near-death experiences. But precisely how does this happen?"
+"The mystery of how fainting can simulate near-death experiences may 
+be solved by analyzing the experiences of military pilots. The U.S. Air 
+Force, for example, contacted neurophysiologist Dr. Edward Lambert to 
+analyze military pilots who blacked out when experiencing high g forces 
+(i.e., when executing a tight turn in a jet or pulling out of a dive). Dr. 
+Lampert placed pilots in an ultracentrifuge at the Mayo Clinic in 
+Rochester, Minnesota, which spun them around in a circle until they 
+experienced high g forces. As blood drained from their brain, they would 
+become unconscious after fifteen seconds of experiencing several g’s of 
+acceleration."
+"He found that after only five seconds, the blood flow to the pilots’ eyes 
+diminished, so that their peripheral vision dimmed, creating the image 
+of a long tunnel. This could explain the tunnel that is often seen by 
+people having a near-death experience. If the periphery of your vision 
+blacks out, all you see is the narrow tunnel in front of you. But because 
+Dr. Lampert could carefully adjust the velocity of the centrifuge by 
+turning a dial, he found he could keep the pilots in this state indefinitely, 
+allowing him to prove that this tunnel vision is caused by loss of blood 
+flow to the periphery of the eye. 
+
+CAN CONSCIOUSNESS LEAVE YOUR BODY? 
+
+Some scientists who have investigated near-death and out-of-body 
+experiences are convinced that they are by-products of the brain itself 
+when it is placed under stressful conditions and its wiring gets confused. 
+However, there are other scientists who believe that one day, when our"
+"technology is sufficiently advanced decades from now, one’s 
+consciousness may truly be able to leave the body. Several controversial 
+methods have been suggested."
+"One method has been pioneered by futurist and inventor Dr. Ray 
+Kurzweil, who believes that consciousness may one day be uploaded into 
+a supercomputer. We once spoke at a conference together, and he told 
+me his fascination with computers and artificial intelligence began when 
+he was five years old and his parents bought him all sorts of mechanical 
+devices and toys. He loved to tinker with these devices, and even as a 
+child he knew he was destined to become an inventor. At MIT, he 
+received his doctorate under Dr. Marvin Minsky, one of the founders of 
+AI. Afterward, he cut his teeth applying pattern-recognition technology 
+to musical instruments and text-to-sound machines. He was able to 
+translate AI research in these areas into a string of companies. (He sold 
+his first company when he was only twenty.) His optical reader, which 
+could recognize text and convert it into sound, was heralded as an aid 
+for the blind, and was even mentioned by Walter Cronkite on the 
+evening news."
+"In order to be a successful inventor, he said to me, you always have to 
+be ahead of the curve, to anticipate change, not react to it. Indeed, Dr. 
+Kurzweil loves to make predictions, and many of them have mirrored 
+the remarkable exponential growth of digital technology. He made the 
+following predictions: 
+
+• By 2019, a $1,000 PC will have the computing power of the human 
+brain—twenty million billion calculations per second. (This number 
+is obtained by taking the one hundred billion neurons of the brain, 
+multiplying one thousand connections per neuron, and two hundred 
+calculations per second per connection.) 
+
+• By 2029, a $1,000 PC will be a thousand times more powerful than 
+the human brain; the human brain itself will be successfully 
+reversed engineered. 
+
+• By 2055, $1,000 of computing power will equal the processing 
+
+power of all the humans on the planet. (He adds modestly, “I may 
+be off by a year or two.”)"
+"power of all the humans on the planet. (He adds modestly, “I may 
+be off by a year or two.”) 
+
+In particular, the year 2045 looms as an important one for Dr. 
+Kurzweil, since that is when he believes the “singularity” will take hold. 
+By then, he claims, machines will have surpassed humans in intelligence 
+and in fact will have created next-generation robots even smarter than 
+themselves. Since this process can continue indefinitely, it means, 
+according to Dr. Kurzweil, a never-ending acceleration of the power of 
+machines. In this scenario, we should either merge with our creations or 
+step out of their way. (Although these dates are in the far future, he told 
+me that he wants to live long enough to see the day when humans 
+finally become immortal; that is, he wants to live long enough to live 
+forever.)"
+"As we know from Moore’s law, at a certain point computer power can 
+no longer advance by creating smaller and smaller transistors. In 
+Kurzweil’s opinion, the only way to expand computing power further 
+would be to increase overall size, which would leave robots scavenging 
+for more computer power by devouring the minerals of the Earth. Once 
+the planet has become a gigantic computer, robots may be forced to go 
+into outer space, searching for more sources of computer power. 
+Eventually, they may consume the power of entire stars. 
+
+I once asked him if this cosmic growth of computers could alter the 
+cosmos itself. Yes, he replied. He told me that he sometimes looks at the 
+night sky, wondering if on some distant planet intelligent beings have 
+already attained the singularity. If so, then perhaps they should leave 
+some mark on the stars themselves that might be visible to the naked 
+eye."
+"One limitation he told me, is the speed of light. Unless these machines 
+can break the light barrier, this exponential rise in power may hit a 
+ceiling. When that happens, says Kurzweil, perhaps they will alter the 
+laws of physics themselves. 
+
+Anyone who makes predictions with such precision and scope 
+naturally invites criticism like a lightning rod, but it doesn’t seem to faze 
+him. People can quibble about this or that prediction, since Kurzweil has 
+missed some of his deadlines, but he is mainly concerned about the 
+thrust of his ideas, which predict the exponential growth of technology. 
+To be fair, most people working in the field of AI whom I have 
+interviewed agree that some form of a singularity will happen, but they 
+disagree sharply on when it might occur and how it will unfold. For"
+"example, Bill Gates, cofounder of Microsoft, believes that no one alive 
+today will live to see the day when computers are smart enough to pass 
+for a human. Kevin Kelly, an editor for Wired magazine, has said, 
+“People who predict a very utopian future always predict that it is going 
+to happen before they die.” 
+
+Indeed, one of Kurzweil’s many goals is to bring his father back to life. 
+Or rather, he wants to create a realistic simulation. There are several 
+possibilities, but all are still highly speculative. 
+
+Kurzweil proposes that perhaps DNA can be extracted from his father 
+(from his grave site, relatives, or organic materials he left behind). 
+Contained within roughly twenty-three thousand genes would be a 
+complete blueprint to re-create the body of that individual. Then a clone 
+could be grown from the DNA."
+"This is certainly a possibility. I once asked Dr. Robert Lanza of the 
+company Advanced Cell Technology how he was able to bring a long- 
+dead creature “back to life,” making history in the process. He told me 
+that the San Diego Zoo asked him to create a clone of a banteng, an 
+oxlike creature that had died out about twenty-five years earlier. The 
+hard part was extracting a usable cell for the purpose of cloning. 
+However, he was successful, and then he FedExed the cell to a farm, 
+where it was implanted into a female cow, which then gave birth to this 
+animal. Although no primate has ever been cloned, let alone a human, 
+Lanza feels it’s a technical problem, and that it’s only a matter of time 
+before someone clones a human."
+"This would be the easy part, though. The clone would be genetically 
+equivalent to the original, but without its memories. Artificial memories 
+might be uploaded to the brain using the pioneering methods described 
+in Chapter 5, such as inserting probes into the hippocampus or creating 
+an artificial hippocampus, but Kurzweil’s father has long passed, so it’s 
+impossible to make the recording in the first place. The best one can do 
+is to assemble piecemeal all historical data about that person, such as by 
+interviewing others who possess relevant memories, or accessing their 
+credit card transactions, etc., and then inputting them into the program. 
+
+A more practical way of inserting a person’s personality and memory 
+would be to create a large data file containing all known information 
+about a person’s habits and life. For example, today it is possible to store 
+all your e-mail, credit card transactions, records, schedules, electronic"
+"diaries, and life history onto a single file, which can create a remarkably 
+accurate picture of who you are. This file would represent your entire 
+“digital signature,” representing everything that is known about you. It 
+would be remarkably accurate and intimate, detailing what wines you 
+like, how you spend vacations, what kind of soap you use, your favorite 
+
+singer, and so on."
+"Also, with a questionnaire, it would be possible to create a rough 
+approximation of Kurzweil’s father’s personality. His friends, relatives, 
+and associates would fill out a questionnaire containing scores of 
+questions about his personality, such as whether he was shy, curious, 
+honest, hardworking, etc. Then they would assign a number to each trait 
+(e.g., a “10” would mean that you are very honest). This would create a 
+string of hundreds of numbers, each one ranking a specific personality 
+trait. Once this vast set of numbers was compiled, a computer program 
+would take these data and approximate how he would behave in 
+hypothetical situations. Let’s say that you are giving a speech and are 
+confronted with an especially obnoxious heckler. The computer program 
+would then scan the numbers and then predict one of several possible 
+outcomes (e.g., ignore the heckler, heckle back, or get into a brawl with 
+the heckler). In other words, his basic personality would be reduced to a"
+"the heckler). In other words, his basic personality would be reduced to a 
+long string of numbers, each from 1 to 10, which can be used by a 
+computer to predict how he would react to new situations."
+"The result would be a vast computer program that would respond to 
+new situations roughly the way the original person would have, using 
+the same verbal expressions and having the same quirks, all tempered 
+with the memories of that person. 
+
+Another possibility would be to forgo the whole cloning process and 
+simply create a robot resembling the original person. It would then be 
+straightforward to insert this program into a mechanical device that 
+looks like you, talks with the same accent and mannerisms, and moves 
+its arms and limbs the same way that you do. Adding your favorite 
+expressions (e.g., “you know ...”) would also be easy. 
+
+Of course, today it would be easy to detect that this robot is a fake. 
+However, in the coming decades, it may be possible to get closer and 
+closer to the original, so it might be good enough to fool some people. 
+
+But this raises a philosophical question. Is this “person” really the 
+same as the original? The original is still dead, so the clone or robot is,"
+"strictly speaking, still an impostor. A tape recorder, for example, might 
+reproduce a conversation we have with perfect fidelity, but that tape 
+recorder is certainly not the original. Can a clone or robot that behaves 
+just like the original be a valid substitute? 
+
+IMMORTALITY 
+
+These methods have been criticized because this process does not 
+realistically input your true personality and memories. A more faithful 
+way of putting a mind into a machine is via the Connectome Project, 
+which we discussed in the last chapter and which seeks to duplicate, 
+neuron for neuron, all the cellular pathways of your brain. All your 
+memories and personality quirks are already embedded in the 
+connectome."
+"The Connectome Project’s Dr. Sebastian Seung notes that some people 
+pay $100,000 or more to have their brains frozen in liquid nitrogen. 
+Certain animals, like fish and frogs, can be frozen solid in a block of ice 
+in winter yet be perfectly healthy after thawing out in spring. This is 
+because they use glucose as an antifreeze to alter the freezing point of 
+water in their blood. Thus their blood remains liquid, even though they 
+are encased in solid ice. This high concentration of glucose in the human 
+body, however, would probably be fatal, so freezing the human brain in 
+liquid nitrogen is a dubious pursuit because expanding ice crystals would 
+rupture the cell wall from the inside (and also, as brain cells die, calcium 
+ions rush in, causing the brain cells to expand until they finally rupture). 
+In either case, brain cells would most likely not survive the freezing 
+process."
+"Rather than freezing the body and having the cells rupture, a more 
+reliable process to attain immortality might be to have your connectome 
+completed. In this scenario, your doctor would have all your neural 
+connections on a hard drive. Basically, your soul would now be on a 
+disk, reduced to information. Then at a future point, someone would be 
+able to resurrect your connectome and, in principle, use either a clone or 
+a tangle of transistors to bring you back to life. 
+
+The Connectome Project, as we mentioned, is still far from being able 
+to record a human’s neural connections. But as Dr. Seung says, “Should 
+
+we ridicule the modern seekers of immortality, calling them fools? Or 
+will they someday chuckle over our graves?” 
+
+MENTAL ILLNESS AND IMMORTALITY"
+"MENTAL ILLNESS AND IMMORTALITY 
+
+Immortality may have its drawbacks, however. The electronic brains 
+being built so far contain only the connections between the cortex and 
+the thalamus. The reverse-engineered brain, lacking a body, might begin 
+to suffer from sensory isolation and even manifest signs of mental illness, 
+as prisoners do when they are placed into solitary confinement. Perhaps 
+the price of creating an immortal, reverse-engineered brain is madness."
+"Subjects who are placed in isolation chambers, where they are 
+deprived of any contact with the outside world, eventually hallucinate. 
+In 2008, BBC-TV aired a science program titled Total Isolation, in which 
+they followed six volunteers as they were placed inside a nuclear bunker, 
+alone and in complete darkness. After just two days, three of the 
+volunteers began to see and hear things—snakes, cars, zebras, and 
+oysters. After they were released, doctors found that all of them suffered 
+from mental deterioration. One subject’s memory suffered a 36 percent 
+drop. One can imagine that, after a few weeks or months of this, most of 
+them might go insane."
+"To maintain the sanity of a reverse-engineered brain, it might be 
+essential to connect it to sensors that receive signals from the 
+environment so it would be able to see and feel sensations from the 
+outside world. But then another problem arises: it might feel that it is a 
+grotesque freak, an unwieldy scientific guinea pig living at the mercy of 
+a science experiment. Because this brain has the same memory and 
+personality as the original human, it would crave human contact. And 
+yet, lurking inside the memory of some supercomputer, with a macabre 
+jungle of electrodes dangling outside, the reverse-engineered brain 
+would be repulsive to any human. Bonding with it would be impossible. 
+Its friends would turn away. 
+
+THE CAVEMAN PRINCIPLE 
+
+At this point, what I call the Caveman Principle starts to kick in. Why do 
+
+so many reasonable predictions fail? And why would someone not want 
+to live forever inside a computer?"
+"The Caveman Principle is this: given a choice between high-tech or 
+high-touch, we opt for high-touch every time. For example, if we are 
+given a choice between tickets to see our favorite musician live or a CD 
+of the same musician in concert, which would we choose? Or if we are 
+given a choice between tickets to visit the Taj Mahal or just seeing a 
+beautiful picture of it, which would we prefer? More than likely the live 
+concert and the airplane tickets. 
+
+This is because we have inherited the consciousness of our apelike 
+ancestors. Some of our basic personality has probably not changed much 
+in the last one hundred thousand years, since the first modern humans 
+emerged in Africa. A large portion of our consciousness is devoted to 
+looking good and trying to impress members of the opposite sex and our 
+peers. This is hardwired into our brains. 
+
+More likely, given our basic, apelike consciousness, we will merge 
+with computers only if this enhances but does not totally replace our 
+present-day body."
+"The Caveman Principle probably explains why some reasonable 
+predictions about the future never materialized, such as “the paperless 
+office.” Computers were supposed to banish paper from the office; 
+ironically, computers have actually created even more paper. This is 
+because we are descended from hunters who need “proof of the kill” 
+(i.e., we trust concrete evidence, not ephemeral electrons dancing on a 
+computer screen that vanish when you turn it off). Likewise, the 
+“peopleless city,” where people would use virtual reality to go to 
+meetings instead of commuting, never materialized. Commuting to cities 
+is worse than ever. Why? Because we are social animals who like to 
+bond with others. Videoconferencing, although useful, cannot pick up 
+the full spectrum of subtle information offered via body language. A 
+boss, for example, may want to ferret out problems in his staff and 
+therefore wants to see them squirm and sweat under interrogation. You 
+can do this only in person. 
+
+CAVEMEN AND NEUROSCIENCE"
+"CAVEMEN AND NEUROSCIENCE 
+
+When I was a child, I read Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy and was 
+deeply influenced by it. First, it forced me to ask a simple question: 
+What will technology look like fifty thousand years in the future, when 
+we have a galactic empire? I also couldn’t help wondering throughout 
+the novel, Why do humans look and act the same as they do now? I 
+thought that surely thousands of years into the future humans should 
+have cyborg bodies with superhuman abilities. They should have given 
+up their puny human forms millennia ago."
+"I came up with two answers. First, Asimov wanted to appeal to a 
+young audience willing to buy his book, so he had to create characters 
+that those people could identify with, including all their faults. Second, 
+perhaps people in the future will have the option to have superpowered 
+bodies but prefer to look normal most of the time. This would be 
+because their minds have not changed since humans first emerged from 
+the forest, and so acceptance from their peers and the opposite sex still 
+determines what they look like and what they want out of life. 
+
+So now let us apply the Caveman Principle to the neuroscience of the 
+future. At the minimum, it means that any modification of the basic 
+human form would have to be nearly invisible on the outside. We don’t 
+want to resemble a refugee from a science-fiction movie, with electrodes 
+dangling from our head. Brain implants that might insert memories or 
+increase our intelligence will be adopted only if nanotechnology can"
+"make microscopic sensors and probes that are invisible to the naked eye. 
+In the future, it might be possible to make nanofibers, perhaps made of 
+carbon nanotubes one molecule thick, so thin that they would be able to 
+make contact with neurons with surgical precision and yet leave our 
+appearance unaltered, with our mental capabilities enhanced. 
+
+Meanwhile, if we need to be connected to a supercomputer to upload 
+information, we won’t want to be tied to a cable jacked into our spinal 
+cord, as in The Matrix. The connection will have to be wireless so we can 
+access vast amounts of computer power simply by mentally locating the 
+nearest server. 
+
+Today we have cochlear implants and artificial retinas that can give 
+the gift of sound and sight to patients, but in the future our senses will 
+be enhanced using nanotechnology while we preserve our basic human 
+form. For instance, we might have the option of enhancing our muscles, 
+via genetic modification or exoskeletons. There could be a human body"
+"shop from which we could order new spare parts as the old ones wear 
+out, but these and other physical enhancements of the body would have 
+to avoid abandoning the human form. 
+
+Another way to use this technology in accordance with the Caveman 
+Principle is to use it as an option, rather than a permanent way of life. 
+One might want the option of plugging into this technology and then 
+unplugging soon afterward. Scientists may want to boost their 
+intelligence to solve a particularly tricky problem. But afterward, they 
+will be able to take off their helmets or implants and go about their 
+business. In this way, we are not caught looking like a space cadet to our 
+friends. The point is that no one would force you to do any of this. We 
+would want the option of enjoying the benefits of this technology 
+without the downside of looking silly."
+"So in the centuries to come, it is likely our bodies will look very 
+similar to the ones we possess today, except that they will be perfect and 
+have enhanced powers. It is a relic of our apelike past that our 
+consciousness is dominated by ancient desires and wishes. 
+
+But what about immortality? As we have seen, a reverse-engineered 
+brain, with all the personality quirks of the original person, would 
+eventually go mad if placed inside a computer. Furthermore, connecting 
+this brain to external sensors so it could feel sensations from its 
+environment would create a grotesque monstrosity. One partial solution 
+to this problem is to connect the reverse-engineered brain to an 
+exoskeleton. If the exoskeleton acts like a surrogate, then the reverse- 
+engineered brain would be able to enjoy sensations such as touch and 
+sight without looking grotesque. Eventually the exoskeleton would go"
+"wireless, so that it would act like a human but be controlled by a 
+reverse-engineered brain “living” inside a computer. 
+
+This surrogate would have the best of both worlds. Being an 
+exoskeleton, it would be perfect. It would possess superpowers. Since it 
+would be wirelessly connected to a reverse-engineered brain inside a 
+large computer, it would also be immortal. And lastly, since it would 
+sense the environment and look appealingly like a real human, it would 
+not have as many problems interacting with humans, many of whom 
+will also have probably opted for this procedure. So the actual 
+connectome would reside in a stationary supercomputer, although its 
+consciousness would manifest itself in a perfect, mobile surrogate body. 
+
+All this would require a level of technology far beyond anything that 
+is attainable today. However, given the rapid pace of scientific progress, 
+this could become a reality by the end of the century. 
+
+GRADUAL TRANSFERENCE"
+"GRADUAL TRANSFERENCE 
+
+Right now the process of reverse engineering involves transferring the 
+information within the brain, neuron for neuron. The brain has to be cut 
+up into thin slices, since MRI scans are not yet refined enough to identify 
+the precise neural architecture of the living brain. So until that can be 
+done, the obvious disadvantage of this approach is that you have to die 
+before you can be reversed engineered. Since the brain degenerates 
+rapidly after death, its preservation would have to take place 
+immediately, which is very difficult to accomplish."
+"But there may be one way to attain immortality without having to die 
+first. This idea was pioneered by Dr. Hans Moravec, former director of 
+the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University. 
+When I interviewed him, he told me that he envisions a time in the 
+distant future when we will be able to reverse engineer the brain for a 
+specific purpose: to transfer the mind into an immortal robotic body 
+even while a person is still conscious. If we can reverse engineer every 
+neuron of the brain, why not create a copy made of transistors, 
+duplicating precisely the thought processes of the mind? In this way, you 
+do not have to die in order to live forever. You can be conscious 
+throughout the entire process."
+"He told me that this process would have to be done in steps. First, you 
+lie on a stretcher, next to a robot lacking a brain. Next, a robotic surgeon 
+extracts a few neurons from your brain, and then duplicates these 
+neurons with some transistors located in the robot. Wires connect your 
+brain to the transistors in the robot’s empty head. The neurons are then 
+
+thrown away and replaced by the transistor circuit. Since your brain 
+remains connected to these transistors via wires, it functions normally 
+and you are fully conscious during this process. Then the super surgeon 
+removes more and more neurons from your brain, each time duplicating 
+these neurons with transistors in the robot. Midway through the 
+operation, half of your brain is empty; the other half is connected by 
+
+wires to a large collection of transistors inside the robot’s head. 
+Eventually all the neurons in your brain have been removed, leaving a 
+robot brain that is an exact duplicate of your original brain, neuron for 
+neuron."
+"At the end of this process, however, you rise from the stretcher and 
+find that your body is perfectly formed. You are handsome and beautiful 
+beyond your dreams, with superhuman powers and abilities. As a perk, 
+you are also immortal. You gaze back at your original mortal body, 
+which is just an aging shell without a mind. 
+
+This technology, of course, is far ahead of our time. We cannot reverse 
+engineer the human brain, let alone make a carbon copy made of 
+transistors. (One of the main criticisms of this approach is that a 
+transistorized brain may not fit inside the skull. In fact, given the size of 
+electronic components, the transistorized brain may be the size of a huge 
+supercomputer. In this sense, this proposal begins to resemble the 
+previous one, in which the reverse-engineered brain is stored in a huge 
+supercomputer, which in turn controls a surrogate. But the great 
+advantage of this approach is that you don’t have to die; you’d be fully 
+conscious during the process.)"
+"One’s head spins contemplating these possibilities. All of them seem to 
+be consistent with the laws of physics, but the technological barriers to 
+achieving them are truly formidable. All these proposals for uploading 
+consciousness into a computer require a technology that is far into the 
+future. 
+
+But there is one last proposal for attaining immortality that does not 
+require reverse engineering the brain at all. It requires simply a 
+microscopic “nanobot” that can manipulate individual atoms. So why 
+not live forever in your own natural body, but with a periodic “tune-up” 
+that makes it immortal? 
+
+WHAT IS AGING? 
+
+This new approach incorporates the latest research into the aging 
+process. Traditionally there has been no consensus among biologists 
+
+about the source of the aging process. But within the last decade, a new 
+theory has gained gradual acceptance and has unified many strands of"
+"research into aging. Basically, aging is the buildup of errors, at the 
+genetic and cellular level. As cells get older, errors begin to build up in 
+their DNA and cellular debris also starts to accumulate, which makes 
+cells sluggish. As cells begin to slowly malfunction, skin begins to sag, 
+bones become frail, hair falls out, and our immune system deteriorates. 
+Eventually, we die. 
+
+But cells also have error-correcting mechanisms. Over time, however, 
+even these error-correcting mechanisms begin to fail, and aging 
+accelerates. The goal, therefore, is to strengthen the natural cell-repair 
+mechanisms, which can be done via gene therapy and the creation of 
+new enzymes. But there is also another way: using “nanobot” 
+assemblers."
+"One of the linchpins of this futuristic technology is something called 
+the “nanobot,” or an atomic machine, which patrols the bloodstream, 
+zapping cancer cells, repairing the damage from the aging process, and 
+keeping us forever young and healthy. Nature has already created some 
+nanobots, in the form of immune cells that patrol the body in the blood. 
+But these immune cells attack viruses and foreign bodies, not the aging 
+process. 
+
+Immortality is within reach if these nanobots can reverse the ravages 
+of the aging process at the molecular and cellular level. In this vision, 
+nanobots are like immune cells, tiny police patrolling your bloodstream. 
+They attack any cancer cells, neutralize viruses, and clean out the debris 
+and mutations. Then the possibility of immortality would be within 
+reach using our own bodies, not some robot or clone. 
+
+NANOBOTS—REAL OR FANTASY?"
+"NANOBOTS—REAL OR FANTASY? 
+
+My own personal philosophy is that if something is consistent with the 
+laws of physics, then it becomes an engineering and economics problem 
+to build it. The engineering and economic hurdles may be formidable, of 
+course, making it impractical for the present, but nonetheless it is still 
+possible. 
+
+On the surface, the nanobot is simple: an atomic machine with arms 
+and clippers that grabs molecules, cuts them at specific points, and then 
+splices them back together. By cutting and pasting various atoms, the"
+"nanobot can create almost any known molecule, like a magician pulling 
+something out of a hat. It can also self-reproduce, so it is necessary to 
+build only one nanobot. This nanobot will then take raw materials, 
+digest them, and create millions of other nanobots. This could trigger a 
+second Industrial Revolution, as the cost of building materials plummets. 
+One day, perhaps every home will have its own personal molecular 
+assembler, so you can have anything you want just by asking for it."
+"But the key question is: Are nanobots consistent with the laws of 
+physics? Back in 2001, two visionaries practically came to blows over 
+this crucial question. At stake was nothing less than a vision of the entire 
+future of technology. On one side was the late Richard Smalley, a Nobel 
+laureate in chemistry and skeptical of nanobots. On the other side was 
+Eric Drexler, one of the founding fathers of nanotechnology. Their 
+titanic, tit-for-tat battle played out in the pages of several scientific 
+magazines from 2001 to 2003."
+"Smalley said that, at the atomic scale, new quantum forces emerge 
+that make nanobots impossible. The error made by Drexler and others, 
+he claimed, is that the nanobot, with its clippers and arms, cannot 
+function at the atomic scale. There are novel forces (e.g., the Casimir 
+force) that cause atoms to repel or attract one another. He called this the 
+“sticky, fat fingers” problem, because the fingers of the nanobot are not 
+like delicate, precise pliers and wrenches. Quantum forces get in the 
+way, so it’s like trying to weld metals together while wearing gloves that 
+are many inches thick. Furthermore, every time you try to weld two 
+pieces of metal together, these pieces are either repelled or stick to you, 
+so you can never grab one properly."
+"Drexler then fired back, stating that nanobots are not science fiction— 
+they actually exist. Think of the ribosomes in our own body. They are 
+essential in creating and molding DNA molecules. They can cut and 
+splice DNA molecules at specific points, which makes possible the 
+creation of new DNA strands. 
+
+But Smalley wasn’t satisfied, stating that ribosomes are not all-purpose 
+machines that can cut and paste anything you want; they work 
+specifically on DNA molecules. Moreover, ribosomes are organic 
+chemicals that need enzymes to speed up the reaction, which occurs 
+only in a watery environment. Transistors are made of silicon, not water, 
+so these enzymes would never work, he concluded. Drexel, in turn, 
+
+mentioned that catalysts can work even without water. This heated 
+exchange went back and forth through several rounds. In the end, like 
+two evenly matched prizefighters, both sides seemed exhausted. Drexler 
+had to admit that the analogy to workers with cutters and blowtorches"
+"was too simplistic, that quantum forces do get in the way sometimes. But 
+Smalley had to concede that he was unable to score a knockout blow. 
+Nature had at least one way of evading the “sticky, fat fingers” problem, 
+with ribosomes, and perhaps there might be other subtle, unforeseen 
+ways as well. 
+
+Regardless of the details of this debate, Ray Kurzweil is convinced that 
+these nanobots, whether or not they have fat, sticky fingers, will one day 
+shape not just molecules, but society itself. He summarized his vision 
+when he said, “I’m not planning to die.... I see it, ultimately, as an 
+awakening of the whole universe. I think the whole universe right now is 
+basically made up of dumb matter and energy and I think it will wake 
+up. But if it becomes transformed into this sublimely intelligent matter 
+and energy, I hope to be part of that.”"
+"As fantastic as these speculations are, they are only a preface to the 
+next leap in speculation. Perhaps one day the mind will not only be free 
+of its material body, it will also be able to explore the universe as a 
+being of pure energy. The idea that consciousness will one day be free to 
+roam among the stars is the ultimate dream. As incredible as it may 
+sound, this is well within the laws of physics. 
+
+13 THE MIND AS PURE ENERGY 
+
+The idea that one day consciousness may spread throughout the 
+universe has been considered seriously by physicists. Sir Martin Rees, the 
+Royal Astronomer of Great Britain, has written, “Wormholes, extra 
+dimensions, and quantum computers open up speculative scenarios that 
+could transform our entire universe eventually into a ‘living cosmos’!”"
+"But will the mind one day be freed of its material body to explore the 
+entire universe? This was the theme explored in Isaac Asimov’s classic 
+science-fiction tale “The Last Question.” (He would fondly recall that this 
+was his favorite science-fiction short story of all the ones he had 
+written.) In it, billions of years into the future, humans will have placed 
+their physical bodies in pods on an obscure planet, freeing their minds to 
+control pure energy throughout the galaxy. Instead of surrogates made 
+of steel and silicon, these surrogates are pure energy beings that can 
+effortlessly roam the distant reaches of space, past exploding stars, 
+colliding galaxies, and other wonders of the universe. But no matter how 
+powerful humanity has become, it is helpless as it witnesses the ultimate 
+death of the universe itself in the Big Freeze. In desperation, humanity 
+constructs a supercomputer to answer the final question: Can the death"
+"constructs a supercomputer to answer the final question: Can the death 
+of the universe be reversed? The computer is so large and complex that 
+it has to be placed in hyperspace. But the computer simply responds that 
+there is insufficient information to give an answer."
+"Eons later, as the stars begin to turn dark, all life in the universe is 
+about to die. But then the supercomputer finally discovers a way to 
+reverse the death of the universe. It collects dead stars from across the 
+universe, combines them into one gigantic cosmic ball, and ignites it. As 
+the ball explodes, the supercomputer announces, “Let there be light!” 
+
+And there was light. 
+
+So humanity, once freed of the physical body, is capable of playing 
+God and creating a new universe. 
+
+At first, Asimov’s fantastic tale of beings made of pure energy roaming 
+
+across the universe sounds impossible. We are accustomed to thinking of 
+beings made of flesh and blood, which are at the mercy of the laws of 
+physics and biology, living and breathing on Earth, and bound by the 
+gravity of our planet. The concept of conscious entities of energy, 
+soaring across the galaxy, unimpeded by the limitations of material 
+bodies, is a strange one."
+"Yet this dream of exploring the universe as beings of pure energy is 
+well within the laws of physics. Think of the most familiar form of pure 
+energy, a laser beam, which is capable of containing vast amounts of 
+information. Today trillions of signals in the form of phone calls, data 
+packages, videos, and e-mail messages are transmitted routinely by fiber¬ 
+optic cables carrying laser beams. One day, perhaps sometime in the 
+next century, we will be able to transmit the consciousness of our brains 
+throughout the solar system by placing our entire connectomes onto 
+powerful laser beams. A century beyond that, we may be able to send 
+our connectome to the stars, riding on a light beam."
+"(This is possible because the wavelength of a laser beam is 
+microscopic, i.e., measured in millionths of a meter. That means you can 
+compress vast amounts of information on its wave pattern. Think of 
+Morse code. The dots and dashes of Morse code can easily be 
+superimposed on the wave pattern of a laser beam. Even more 
+information can be transferred onto a beam of X-rays, which has a 
+wavelength even smaller than an atom.) 
+
+One way to explore the galaxy, unbound by the messy restrictions of 
+ordinary matter, is to place our connectomes onto laser beams directed 
+at the moon, the planets, and even the stars. Given the crash program to 
+find the pathways of the brain, the complete connectome of the human 
+brain will be available late in this century, and a form of the connectome 
+capable of being placed on a laser beam might be available in the next 
+century."
+"The laser beam would contain all the information necessary to 
+reassemble a conscious being. Although it may take years or even 
+centuries for the laser beam to reach its destination, from the point of 
+view of the person riding on the laser beam, the trip would be 
+instantaneous. Our consciousness is essentially frozen on the laser beam 
+as it soars through empty space, so the trip to the other side of the 
+galaxy appears to take place in the blink of an eye."
+"In this way, we avoid all the unpleasant features of interplanetary and 
+interstellar travel. First, there is no need to build colossal booster 
+rockets. Instead, you simply press the “on” button of a laser. Second, 
+there are no powerful g forces crushing your body as you accelerate into 
+space. Instead, you are boosted instantly to the speed of light, since you 
+are immaterial. Third, you don’t have to suffer the hazards of outer 
+space, such as meteor impacts and deadly cosmic rays, since asteroids 
+and radiation pass right through you harmlessly. Fourth, you don’t have 
+to freeze your body or endure years of boredom as you lumber tediously 
+inside a conventional rocket. Instead, you zip across space at the fastest 
+velocity in the universe, frozen in time."
+"Once we reach our destination, there would have to be a receiving 
+station to transfer the data of the laser beam onto a mainframe 
+computer, which then brings the conscious being back to life. The code 
+that was imprinted onto the laser beam now takes control of the 
+computer and redirects its programming. The connectome directs the 
+mainframe computer to begin simulating the future to attain its goals 
+(i.e., it becomes conscious). 
+
+This conscious being inside the mainframe then sends signals 
+wirelessly to a robotic surrogate body, which has been waiting for us at 
+the destination. In this way, we suddenly “wake up” on a distant planet 
+or star, as if the trip took place in the blink of an eye, inside the robotic 
+body of our surrogate. All the complex computations take place in a 
+large mainframe computer, which directs the movements of a surrogate 
+to carry on with our business on a distant star. We are oblivious to the 
+hazards of space travel, as if nothing had happened."
+"Now imagine a vast network of these stations spread out over the solar 
+system and even the galaxy. From our point of view, hopping from star 
+to star would be almost effortless, traveling at the speed of light in 
+journeys that are instantaneous. At each station, there is a robotic 
+surrogate waiting for us to enter its body, just like an empty hotel room 
+waiting for us to check in. We arrive at our destination refreshed and 
+equipped with a superhuman body. 
+
+The type of surrogate robotic body that awaits us at the end of this 
+
+journey would depend on the mission. If the job is to explore a new 
+world, then the surrogate body would have to work in harsh conditions. 
+It would have to adjust to a different gravitational field, a poisonous 
+
+atmosphere, freezing-cold or blistering-hot temperatures, different day- 
+night cycles, and a constant rain of deadly radiation. To survive under 
+these harsh conditions, the surrogate body would have to have super 
+strength and super senses."
+"If the surrogate body is purely for relaxation, then it would be 
+designed for leisurely activities. It would maximize the pleasure of 
+soaring through space on skis, surfboards, kites, gliders, or planes, or of 
+sending a ball through space propelled by the swing of a bat, club, or 
+racket. 
+
+Or if the job is to mingle with and study the local natives, then the 
+surrogate would approximate the bodily characteristics of the indigenous 
+population (as in the movie Avatar )."
+"Admittedly, in order to create this network of laser stations in the first 
+place, it might be necessary first to travel to the planets and stars in the 
+old-fashioned way, in more conventional rocket ships. Then one could 
+build the first set of these laser stations. (Perhaps the fastest, cheapest, 
+and most efficient way of creating this interstellar network would be to 
+send self-replicating robotic probes throughout the galaxy. Because they 
+can make copies of themselves, starting with one such probe, after many 
+generations there would be billions of such probes streaming out in all 
+directions, each one creating a laser station wherever it lands. We will 
+discuss this further in the next chapter.) 
+
+But once the network is fully established, one can conceive of a 
+continual stream of conscious beings roaming the galaxy, so that at any 
+time crowds of people are leaving and arriving from distant parts of the 
+galaxy. Any laser station in the network might look like Grand Central 
+Station."
+"As futuristic as this may sound, the basic physics for this concept are 
+already well established. This includes placing vast amounts of data onto 
+laser beams, sending this information across thousands of miles, and 
+then decoding the information at the other end. The major problems 
+facing this idea are therefore not in the physics, but in the engineering. 
+Because of this, it may take us until the next century to send our entire 
+connectome on laser beams powerful enough to reach the planets. It 
+might take us still another century to beam our minds to the stars. 
+
+To see if this is feasible, it is instructive to do a few simple, back-of- 
+the-envelope calculations. The first problem is that the photons inside a"
+"pencil-thin laser beam, although they appear to be in perfectly parallel 
+formation, actually diverge slightly in space. (When I was a child, I used 
+to shine a flashlight at the moon and wonder if the light ever reached it. 
+The answer is yes. The atmosphere absorbs over 90 percent of the 
+original beam, leaving some remaining to reach the moon. But the real 
+problem is that the image the flashlight finally casts on the moon is 
+miles across. This is because of the uncertainty principle; even laser 
+beams must diverge slowly. Since you cannot know the precise location 
+of the laser beam, it must, by the laws of quantum physics, slowly spread 
+out over time.)"
+"But beaming our connectomes to the moon does not give us much 
+advantage, since it’s easier simply to remain on Earth and control the 
+lunar surrogate directly by radio. The delay is only about a second when 
+issuing commands to the surrogate. The real advantage comes when 
+controlling surrogates on the planets, since a radio message may take 
+hours to reach a surrogate there. The process of issuing a series of radio 
+commands to a surrogate, waiting for a response, and issuing another 
+command would be painfully slow, taking days on end. 
+
+If you want to send a laser beam to the planets, you first have to 
+establish a battery of lasers on the moon, well above the atmosphere, so 
+there is no air to absorb the signal. Shot from the moon, a laser beam to 
+the planets could arrive in a matter of minutes to a few hours. Once the 
+laser beam has sent the connectome to the planets, then it’s possible to 
+directly control the surrogate without any delay factors at all."
+"So establishing a network of these laser stations throughout the solar 
+system could be accomplished by the next century. But the problems are 
+magnified when we try sending the beam to the stars. This means that 
+we must have relay stations placed on asteroids and space stations along 
+the way, in order to amplify the signal, reduce errors, and send the 
+message to the next relay station. This could potentially be done by 
+using the comets that lie between our sun and the nearby stars. For 
+example, extending about a light-year from the sun (or one-quarter of 
+the distance to the nearest star) is the Oort cloud of comets. It is a 
+spherical shell of billions of comets, many of which lie motionless in 
+empty space. There is probably a similar Oort cloud of comets 
+surrounding the Centauri star system, which is our nearest stellar 
+neighbor. Assuming that this Oort cloud also extends a light-year from"
+"those stars, then fully half the distance from our solar system to the next 
+contains stationary comets on which we can build laser relay stations. 
+
+Another problem is the sheer amount of data that must be sent by 
+laser beam. The total information contained in one’s connectome, 
+according to Dr. Sebastian Seung, is roughly one zettabyte (that is, a 1 
+with twenty-one zeros after it). This is roughly equivalent to the total 
+information contained in the World Wide Web today. Now consider 
+shooting a battery of laser beams into space carrying this vast mountain 
+of information. Optical fibers can carry terabytes of data per second (a 1 
+with twelve zeros after it). Within the next century, advances in 
+information storage, data compression, and bundling of laser beams may 
+increase this efficiency by a factor of a million. This means that it would 
+take a few hours or so to send the beam into space carrying all the 
+information contained within the brain."
+"So the problem is not the sheer amount of data sent on laser beams. In 
+principle, laser beams can carry an unlimited amount of data. The real 
+bottlenecks are the receiving stations at either end, which must have 
+switches that rapidly manipulate this amount of data at blinding speed. 
+Silicon transistors may not be fast enough to handle this volume of data. 
+Instead, we might have to use quantum computers, which compute not 
+on silicon transistors but on individual atoms. At present, quantum 
+computers are at a primitive level, but by the next century they might be 
+powerful enough to handle zettabytes of information. 
+
+FLOATING BEINGS OF ENERGY"
+"FLOATING BEINGS OF ENERGY 
+
+Another advantage of using quantum computers to process this 
+mountain of data is the chance to create beings of energy that can hover 
+and float in the air, which appear frequently in science fiction and 
+fantasy. These beings would represent consciousness in its purest form. 
+At first, however, they may seem to violate the laws of physics, since 
+light always travels at the speed of light. 
+
+But in the last decade, headlines were made by physicists at Harvard 
+University who announced that they were able to stop a beam of light 
+dead in its tracks. These physicists apparently accomplished the 
+impossible, slowing down a light beam to a leisurely pace until it could"
+"be placed in a bottle. Capturing a light beam in a bottle is not so 
+fantastic if you look carefully at a glass of water. As a light beam enters 
+the water, it slows down, bending as it enters the water at an angle. 
+Similarly, light bends as it enters glass, making telescopes and 
+microscopes possible. The reason for all this comes from the quantum 
+theory. 
+
+Think of the old Pony Express, which delivered the mail in the"
+"Think of the old Pony Express, which delivered the mail in the 
+
+nineteenth century in the American West. Each pony could sprint 
+between relay stations at great speed. But the bottleneck was the delay 
+factor at each relay station, where the mail, rider, and pony had to be 
+exchanged. This slowed down the average velocity of the mail 
+considerably. In the same way, in the vacuum between atoms, light still 
+travels at c, the speed of light, which is roughly 186,282 miles per second. 
+However, when it hits atoms, light is delayed; it is briefly absorbed and 
+then reemitted by atoms, sending it on its way a fraction of a second 
+later. This slight delay is responsible for light beams, on average, 
+apparently slowing down in glass or water."
+"The Harvard scientists exploited this phenomenon, taking a container 
+of gas and carefully cooling it down to near absolute zero. At these 
+freezing temperatures, the gas atoms absorbed a light beam for longer 
+and longer time periods before reemitting it. Thus, by increasing this 
+delay factor, they could slow down the light beam until it came to rest. 
+The light beam still traveled at the speed of light between the gas atoms, 
+but it spent an increasing amount of time being absorbed by them. 
+
+This raises the possibility that a conscious being, instead of assuming 
+control of a surrogate, may prefer to remain in the form of pure energy 
+and roam, almost ghostlike, as pure energy."
+"So in the future, as laser beams are sent to the stars containing our 
+connectomes, the beam may be transferred into a cloud of gas molecules 
+and then contained in a bottle. This “bottle of light” is very similar to a 
+quantum computer. Both of them have a collection of atoms vibrating in 
+unison, in which the atoms are in phase with one another. And both of 
+them can do complex computations that are far beyond an ordinary 
+computer’s capability. So if the problems of quantum computers can be 
+solved, it may also give us the ability to manipulate these “bottles of 
+light.” 
+
+FASTER THAN LIGHT? 
+
+We see, then, that all these problems are ones of engineering. There is no 
+law of physics preventing traveling on an energy beam in the next 
+century or beyond. So this is perhaps the most convenient way of 
+visiting the planets and stars. Instead of riding on a light beam, as the 
+poets dreamed, we become the light beam."
+"To truly realize the vision expressed in Asimov’s science-fiction tale, 
+we need to ask if faster-than-light intergalactic travel is truly possible. In 
+his short story, beings of immense power move freely between galaxies 
+separated by millions of light-years. 
+
+Is this possible? To answer this question, we have to push the very 
+boundaries of modern quantum physics. Ultimately, things called 
+“wormholes” may provide a shortcut through the vastness of space and 
+time. And beings made of pure energy rather than matter would have a 
+decisive advantage in passing through them."
+"Einstein, in some sense, is like the cop on the block, stating that you 
+cannot go faster than light, the ultimate velocity in the universe. 
+Traveling across the Milky Way galaxy, for example, would take one 
+hundred thousand years, even sailing on a laser beam. Although only an 
+instant of time has passed for the traveler, the time on the home planet 
+has progressed one hundred thousand years. And passing between 
+galaxies involves millions to billions of light-years. 
+
+But Einstein himself left a loophole in his work. In his general theory 
+of relativity of 1915, he showed that gravity arose from the warping of 
+space-time. Gravity is not the “pull” of a mysterious invisible force, as 
+Newton once thought, but actually a “push” caused by space itself 
+bending around an object. Not only did this brilliantly explain the 
+bending of starlight passing near stars and the expansion of the universe, 
+it left open the possibility of the fabric of space-time stretching until it 
+ripped."
+"In 1935, Einstein and his student Nathan Rosen introduced the 
+possibility that two black-hole solutions could be joined back to back, 
+like Siamese twins, so if you fell into one black hole, you could, in 
+principle, pass out of the other one. (Imagine joining two funnels at their 
+ends. Water that drains through one funnel emerges from the other.) 
+This “wormhole,” also called the Einstein-Rosen Bridge, introduced the 
+
+possibility of portals or gateways between universes. Einstein himself 
+dismissed the possibility that you could pass through a black hole, since 
+you would be crushed in the process, but several subsequent 
+developments have raised the possibility of faster-than-light travel 
+through a wormhole."
+"First, in 1963, mathematician Roy Kerr discovered that a spinning 
+black hole does not collapse into a single dot, as previously thought, but 
+into a rotating ring, spinning so fast that centrifugal forces prevent it 
+from collapsing. If you fell through the ring, then you could pass into 
+another universe. The gravitational forces would be large, but not 
+infinite. This would be like Alice’s Looking Glass, where you could pass 
+your hand through the mirror and enter a parallel universe. The rim of 
+the Looking Glass would be the ring forming the black hole itself. Since 
+Kerr’s discovery, scores of other solutions of Einstein’s equations have 
+shown that you can, in principle, pass between universes without being 
+immediately crushed. Since every black hole seen so far in space is 
+
+spinning rapidly (some of them clocked at one million miles per hour), 
+this means that these cosmic gateways could be commonplace."
+"In 1988, physicist Dr. Kip Thorne of Cal Tech and his colleagues 
+showed that, with enough “negative energy,” it might be possible to 
+stabilize a black hole so that a wormhole becomes “transversable” (i.e., 
+you can freely pass through it both ways without being crushed). 
+Negative energy is perhaps the most exotic substance in the universe, 
+but it actually exists and can be created (in microscopic quantities) in 
+the laboratory. 
+
+So here is the new paradigm. First, an advanced civilization would 
+concentrate enough positive energy at a single point, comparable to a 
+black hole, to open up a hole through space connecting two distant 
+points. Second, it would amass enough negative energy to keep the 
+gateway open, so that it is stable and does not close the instant you enter 
+it."
+"We can now put this idea into proper perspective. Mapping the entire 
+human connectome should be possible late in this century. An 
+interplanetary laser network could be established early in the next 
+century, so that consciousness can be beamed across the solar system. No 
+new law of physics would be required. A laser network that can go 
+between the stars may have to wait until the century after that. But a 
+
+civilization that can play with wormholes will have to be thousands of 
+years ahead of us in technology, stretching the boundaries of known 
+physics."
+"All this, then, has direct implications for whether consciousness can 
+pass between universes. If matter comes close to a black hole, the gravity 
+becomes so intense that your body becomes “spaghettified.” The gravity 
+pulling on your leg is greater than the gravity pulling on your head, so 
+your body is stretched by tidal forces. In fact, as you approach the black 
+hole, even the atoms of your body are stretched until the electrons are 
+ripped from the nuclei, causing your atoms to disintegrate."
+"(To see the power of tidal forces, just look at the tides of Earth and the 
+rings of Saturn. The gravity of the moon and sun exert a pull on Earth, 
+causing the oceans to rise several feet during high tide. And if a moon 
+comes too close to a giant planet like Saturn, the tidal forces will stretch 
+the moon and eventually tear it apart. The distance at which moons get 
+ripped apart by tidal forces is called the Roche limit. The rings of Saturn 
+lie exactly at the Roche limit, so they might have been caused by a moon 
+that wandered too close to the mother planet.) 
+
+Even if we enter a spinning black hole and use negative energy to 
+
+stabilize it, then, the gravity fields still might be so powerful that we’d 
+be spaghettified."
+"stabilize it, then, the gravity fields still might be so powerful that we’d 
+be spaghettified. 
+
+But here is where laser beams have an important advantage over 
+matter when passing through a wormhole. Laser light is immaterial, so it 
+cannot be stretched by tidal forces as it passes near a black hole. Instead, 
+light becomes “blue-shifted” (i.e., it gains energy and its frequency 
+increases). Even though the laser beam is distorted, the information 
+stored on it is untouched. For example, a message in Morse code carried 
+by a laser beam becomes compressed, but the information content 
+remains unchanged. Digital information is untouched by tidal forces. So 
+gravitational forces, which can be fatal to beings made of matter, may be 
+harmless to beings traveling on light beams. 
+
+In this way, consciousness carried by a laser beam, because it is 
+immaterial, has a decisive advantage over matter in passing through a 
+wormhole."
+"Laser beams have another advantage over matter when passing 
+through a wormhole. Some physicists have calculated that a microscopic 
+wormhole, perhaps the size of an atom, might be easier to create. Matter 
+
+would not be able to pass through such a tiny wormhole. But X-ray 
+lasers, with a wavelength smaller than an atom, might possibly be able 
+to pass through without difficulty."
+"Although Asimov’s brilliant short story was clearly a work of fantasy, 
+ironically a vast interstellar network of laser stations might already exist 
+within the galaxy, yet we are so primitive that we are totally unaware of 
+it. To a civilization thousands of years ahead of us, the technology to 
+digitalize their connectomes and send them to the stars would be child’s 
+play. In that case, it is conceivable that intelligent beings are already 
+zapping their consciousness across a vast network of laser beams in the 
+galaxy. Nothing we observe with our most advanced telescopes and 
+satellites prepares us to detect such an intergalactic network. 
+
+Carl Sagan once lamented the possibility that we might live in a world 
+surrounded by alien civilizations and not have the technology to realize 
+it. 
+
+Then the next question is: What lurks in the alien mind?"
+"Then the next question is: What lurks in the alien mind? 
+
+If we were to encounter such an advanced civilization, what kind of 
+consciousness might it have? One day, the destiny of the human race 
+may rest on answering this question. 
+
+Sometimes I think that the surest sign that intelligent life exists 
+elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact 
+us. 
+
+—BILL WATTERSON 
+
+Either intelligent life exists in outer space or it doesn’t. Either 
+thought is frightening. 
+
+—ARTHUR C. CLARKE 
+
+14 THE ALIEN MIND"
+"—ARTHUR C. CLARKE 
+
+14 THE ALIEN MIND 
+
+In War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, aliens from Mars attack Earth 
+because their home planet is dying. Armed with death rays and giant 
+walking machines, they quickly incinerate many cities and are on the 
+verge of seizing control of Earth’s major capitals. Just as the Martians 
+are crushing all signs of resistance and our civilization is about to be 
+reduced to rubble, they are mysteriously stopped cold in their tracks. 
+With all their advanced science and weaponry, they failed to factor in an 
+onslaught from the lowliest of creatures: our germs."
+"That single novel created an entire genre, launching a thousand 
+movies like Earth vs. the Flying Saucers and Independence Day. Most 
+scientists cringe, however, when they see how the aliens are described. 
+In the movies, aliens are often depicted as creatures with some sense of 
+human values and emotions. Even with glowing green skin and huge 
+heads, they still look like us to a certain degree. They also tend to speak 
+perfect English. 
+
+But, as many scientists have pointed out, we may have much more in 
+common with a lobster or a sea slug than we do with an alien from 
+space."
+"As with silicon consciousness, alien consciousness will most likely 
+have the general features described in our space-time theory; that is, the 
+ability to make a model of the world and then calculate how it will 
+evolve in time to achieve a goal. But while robots can be programmed so 
+that they emotionally bond with humans and have goals compatible 
+with ours, alien consciousness may have neither. It’s likely to have its 
+own set of values and goals, independent of humanity. One can only 
+speculate what these might be. 
+
+Physicist Dr. Freeman Dyson of the Institute for Advanced Study at 
+
+Princeton was a consultant to the movie 2001 . When he finally saw the 
+movie, he was delighted, not because of its dazzling special effects, but 
+because it was the first Hollywood movie ever to present an alien"
+"consciousness, with desires, goals, and intentions totally foreign to ours. 
+For the first time, the aliens were not simply human actors flailing 
+about, trying to act menacing in cheesy monster costumes. Instead, alien 
+consciousness was presented as something totally orthogonal to human 
+experience, something entirely outside our ken. 
+
+In 2011, Stephen Hawking raised another question. The noted 
+cosmologist made headlines when he said that we must be prepared for 
+a possible alien attack. He said that if we ever encounter an alien 
+civilization, it will be more advanced than ours and hence will pose a 
+mortal threat to our very existence."
+"We have only to see what happened to the Aztecs when they 
+encountered the bloodthirsty Hernan Cortes and his conquistadors to 
+imagine what might happen with such a fateful encounter. Armed with 
+technology that the Bronze Age Aztecs had never seen before, such as 
+iron swords, gunpowder, and the horse, this small band of cutthroats 
+was able to crush the ancient Aztec civilization in a matter of months in 
+1521. 
+
+All this raises these questions: What will alien consciousness be like? 
+How will their thinking process and goals differ from ours? What do 
+they want? 
+
+FIRST CONTACT IN THIS CENTURY 
+
+This is not an academic question. Given the remarkable advances in 
+astrophysics, we may actually make contact with an alien intelligence in 
+the coming decades. How we respond to them could determine one of 
+the most pivotal events in human history. 
+
+Several advances are making this day possible."
+"Several advances are making this day possible. 
+
+First, in 2011 the Kepler satellite, for the first time in history, gave 
+scientists a “census” of the Milky Way galaxy. After analyzing light from 
+thousands of stars, the Kepler satellite found that one in two hundred 
+might harbor an earthlike planet in the habitable zone. For the first time, 
+we can therefore calculate how many stars within the Milky Way galaxy 
+might be earthlike: about a billion. As we look at the distant stars, we 
+have genuine reason to wonder if anyone is looking back at us. 
+
+So far, more than one thousand exoplanets have been analyzed in"
+"So far, more than one thousand exoplanets have been analyzed in 
+
+detail by earthbound telescopes. (Astronomers find them at the rate of 
+about two exoplanets per week.) Unfortunately, nearly all of them are 
+Jupiter-size planets, probably devoid of any earthlike creatures, but 
+there are a handful of “super earths,” rocky planets that are a few times 
+larger than Earth. Already, the Kepler satellite has identified about 2,500 
+candidate exoplanets in space, a handful of which look very much like 
+Earth. These planets are at just the right distance from their mother stars 
+so that liquid oceans can exist. And liquid water is the “universal 
+solvent” that dissolves most organic chemicals like DNA and proteins."
+"In 2013, NASA scientists announced their most spectacular discovery 
+using the Kepler satellite: two exoplanets that are near twins of Earth. 
+They are located 1,200 light-years away in the constellation Lyra. They 
+are only 60 percent and 40 percent larger than Earth. More important, 
+both lie within the habitable zone of their mother star, so there is a 
+possibility that they have liquid oceans. Of all the planets analyzed so 
+far, they are the closest to being mirror images of Earth. 
+
+Furthermore, the Hubble Space Telescope has given us an estimate of 
+the total number of galaxies in the visible universe: one hundred billion. 
+Therefore, we can calculate the number of earthlike planets in the visible 
+universe: one billion times one hundred billion, or one hundred 
+quintillion earthlike planets."
+"This is a truly astronomical number, so the odds of life existing in the 
+universe are astronomically large, especially when you consider that the 
+universe is 13.8 billion years old, and there has been plenty of time for 
+intelligent empires to rise—and perhaps fall. In fact, it would be more 
+miraculous if another advanced civilization did not exist. 
+
+SETI AND ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS 
+
+Second, radio telescope technology is becoming more sophisticated. So 
+far, only about one thousand stars have been closely analyzed for signs 
+of intelligent life, but in the coming decade this number could rise by a 
+factor of one million. 
+
+Using radio telescopes to hunt for alien civilizations dates back to 
+1960, when astronomer Frank Drake initiated Project Ozma (after the 
+Queen of Oz), using the twenty-five-meter radio telescope in Green"
+"Bank, West Virginia. This marked the birth of the SETI project (the 
+Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). Unfortunately, no signals from 
+aliens were picked up, but in 1971 NASA proposed Project Cyclops, 
+which was supposed to have 1,500 radio telescopes at a cost of $10 
+billion. 
+
+Not surprisingly, it never went anywhere. Congress was not amused. 
+
+Funding did become available for a much more modest proposal: to 
+send a carefully coded message in 1971 to aliens in outer space. A coded 
+message containing 1,679 bits of information was transmitted via the 
+giant Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico toward the Globular Cluster 
+Ml 3, about 25,100 light-years away. It was the world’s first cosmic 
+greeting card, containing relevant information about the human race. 
+But no reply message was received. Perhaps the aliens were not 
+impressed with us, or possibly the speed of light got in the way. Given 
+the large distances involved, the earliest date for a reply message would 
+be 52,174 years from now."
+"Since then, some scientists have expressed misgivings about 
+advertising our existence to aliens in space, at least until we know their 
+intentions toward us. They disagree with the proponents of the METI 
+Project (Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) who actively 
+promote sending signals to alien civilizations in space. The reasoning 
+behind the METI Project is that Earth already sends vast amounts of 
+radio and TV signals into outer space, so a few more messages from the 
+METI Project will not make much difference. But the critics of METI 
+believe that we should not needlessly increase our chances of being 
+discovered by potentially hostile aliens."
+"In 1995, astronomers turned to private sources to start the SETI 
+Institute in Mountain View, California, to centralize research and initiate 
+Project Phoenix, which is trying to study one thousand nearby sunlike 
+stars in the l,200-to-3,000-megahertz radio range. The equipment is so 
+sensitive that it can pick up the emissions from an airport radar system 
+two hundred light-years away. Since its founding, the SETI Institute has 
+scanned more than one thousand stars at a cost of $5 million per year, 
+but still no luck. 
+
+A more novel approach is the SETI@home project, initiated by 
+astronomers at the University of California at Berkeley in 1999, which 
+uses an informal army of millions of amateur PC owners. Anyone can 
+
+join in this historic hunt. While you are sleeping at night, your screen 
+saver crunches some of the data pouring in from the Arecibo radio 
+telescope in Puerto Rico. So far, it has signed up 5.2 million users in 234 
+countries; perhaps these amateurs dream that they will be the first in"
+"human history to make contact with alien life. Like Columbus’s, their 
+names may go down in history. The SETI @home project has grown so 
+rapidly that it is, in fact, the largest computer project of this type ever 
+undertaken. 
+
+When I interviewed Dr. Dan Wertheimer, director of SETI@home, I 
+asked him how they can distinguish false messages from real ones. He 
+said something that surprised me. He told me that they sometimes 
+deliberately “seed” the data from radio telescopes with fake signals from 
+an imaginary intelligent civilization. If no one picks up these fake 
+messages, then they know that there is something wrong with their 
+software. The lesson here is that if your PC screen saver announces that 
+it has deciphered a message from an alien civilization, please do not 
+immediately call the police or the president of the United States. It might 
+be a fake message. 
+
+ALIEN HUNTERS"
+"ALIEN HUNTERS 
+
+One colleague of mine who has dedicated his life to finding intelligent 
+life in outer space is Dr. Seth Shostak, director of the SETI Institute. With 
+his Ph.D. in physics from the California Institute of Technology, I might 
+have expected him to become a distinguished physics professor lecturing 
+to eager Ph.D. students, but instead he spends his time in an entirely 
+different fashion: asking for donations to the SETI Institute from wealthy 
+individuals, poring over possible signals from outer space, and doing a 
+radio show. I once asked him about the “giggle factor”—do fellow 
+scientists giggle when he tells them that he listens to aliens from outer 
+space? Not anymore, he claims. With all the new discoveries in 
+astronomy, the tide has turned."
+"In fact, he even sticks his neck out and says flatly that we will make 
+contact with an alien civilization in the very near future. He has gone on 
+record as proclaiming that the 350-antenna Allen Telescope Array now 
+being built “will trip across a signal by the year 2025.” 
+
+Isn’t that a bit risky, I asked him? What makes him so sure? One factor 
+working in his favor has been the explosion in the number of radio 
+telescopes in the last few years. Although the U.S. government does not 
+fund his project, the SETI Institute recently hit pay dirt when it 
+convinced Paul Allen (the Microsoft billionaire) to donate over $30 
+million in funds to start the Allen Telescope Array at Hat Creek, 
+California, 290 miles north of San Francisco. It currently scans the 
+heavens with 42 radio telescopes, and eventually will reach up to 350. 
+(One problem, however, is the chronic lack of funding for these scientific 
+experiments. To make up for budget cuts, the Hat Creek facility is kept"
+"alive through partial funding from the military.) 
+
+One thing, he confessed to me, makes him squirm a bit, and that is 
+when people confuse the SETI Project with UFO hunters. The former, he 
+claims, is based on solid physics and astronomy, using the latest in 
+technology. The latter, however, base their theories on anecdotal 
+hearsay evidence that may or may not be based on truth. The problem is 
+that the mass of UFO sightings he gets in the mail are not reproducible 
+or testable. He urges anyone who claims to have been abducted by aliens 
+in a flying saucer to steal something—an alien pen or paperweight, for 
+example—to prove your case. Never leave a UFO empty-handed, he told 
+me."
+"He also concludes that there is no firm evidence that aliens have 
+visited our planet. I then asked him whether he thought the U.S. 
+government was deliberately covering up evidence of an alien 
+encounter, as many conspiracy theorists believe. He replied, “Would 
+they really be so efficient at covering up a big thing like this? 
+Remember, this is the same government that runs the post office.” 
+
+DRAKE’S EQUATION 
+
+When I asked Dr. Wertheimer why he is so sure that there is alien life in 
+outer space, he replied that the numbers are in his favor. Back in 1961, 
+astronomer Frank Drake tried to estimate the number of such intelligent 
+civilizations by making plausible assumptions. If we start with the 
+number one hundred billion, the number of stars in the Milky Way 
+galaxy, then we can estimate the fraction of them that are similar to our"
+"sun. We can reduce that number further by estimating the fraction of 
+them that have planets, the fraction of them that have earthlike planets, 
+etc. After making a number of reasonable assumptions, we come up with 
+an estimate of ten thousand advanced civilizations in our own Milky 
+Way galaxy. (Carl Sagan, with a different set of estimates, came up with 
+the number one million.)"
+"Since then, scientists have been able to make much better estimates of 
+the number of advanced civilizations in our galaxy. For example, we 
+know there are more planets orbiting stars than Drake originally 
+expected, and more earthlike planets as well. But we still face a problem. 
+Even if we know how many earthlike twins there are in space, we still 
+don’t know how many of them support intelligent life. Even on Earth, it 
+took 4.5 billion years before intelligent beings (us) finally arose from the 
+swamp. For about 3.5 billion years, life-forms have existed on Earth, but 
+only in the last one hundred thousand years or so have intelligent beings 
+
+like us emerged. So even on an earthlike planet like Earth itself, the rise 
+of truly intelligent life has been very difficult. 
+
+WHY DON’T THEY VISIT US?"
+"WHY DON’T THEY VISIT US? 
+
+But then I asked Dr. Seth Shostak of SETI this killer question: If there are 
+so many stars in the galaxy, and so many alien civilizations, then why 
+don’t they visit us? This is the Fermi paradox, named for Enrico Fermi, 
+the Nobel laureate who helped build the atomic bomb and unlocked the 
+secrets of the nucleus of the atom. 
+
+Many theories have been proposed. For one, the distance between 
+stars might be too great. It would take about seventy thousand years for 
+our most powerful chemical rockets to reach the stars nearest to Earth. 
+Perhaps a civilization thousands to millions of years more advanced than 
+ours may solve this problem, but there’s another possibility. Maybe they 
+annihilated themselves in a nuclear war. As John F. Kennedy once said, 
+“I am sorry to say there is too much point to the wisecrack that life is 
+extinct on other planets because their scientists were more advanced 
+than ours.”"
+"But perhaps the most logical reason is this: Imagine walking down a 
+country road and encountering an ant hill. Do we go down to the ants 
+
+and say, “I bring you trinkets. I bring you beads. I give you nuclear 
+energy. I will create an ant paradise for you. Take me to your leader”? 
+
+Probably not. 
+
+Now imagine that workers are building an eight-lane superhighway 
+next to the anthill. Would the ants know what frequency the workers are 
+talking on? Would they even know what an eight-lane superhighway 
+was? In the same fashion, any intelligent civilization that can reach 
+Earth from the stars would be thousands of years to millions of years 
+ahead of us, and we may have nothing to offer them. In other words, we 
+are arrogant to believe that aliens will travel trillions upon trillions of 
+miles just to see us. 
+
+More than likely, we are not on their radar screen. Ironically, the 
+galaxy could be teaming with intelligent life-forms and we are so 
+primitive that we are oblivious of them. 
+
+FIRST CONTACT"
+"FIRST CONTACT 
+
+But assume for the moment that the time will come, perhaps sooner 
+rather than later, when we make contact with an alien civilization. This 
+moment could be a turning point in the history of humanity. So the next 
+questions are: What do they want, and what will their consciousness be 
+like? 
+
+In the movies and in science-fiction novels, the aliens often want to 
+eat us, conquer us, mate with us, enslave us, or strip our planet of 
+valuable resources. But all this is highly improbable. 
+
+Our first contact with an alien civilization will probably not begin 
+with a flying saucer landing on the White House lawn. More likely, it 
+will happen when some teenager, running a screen saver from the 
+SETI@home project, announces that his or her PC has decoded signals 
+from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. Or perhaps when the 
+SETI project at Hat Creek detects a message that indicates intelligence."
+"Our first encounter will therefore be a one-way event. We will be able 
+to eavesdrop on intelligent messages, but a return message may take 
+decades or centuries to reach them. 
+
+The conversations that we hear on the radio may give us valuable 
+insight into this alien civilization. But most of the message will likely be 
+
+gossip, entertainment, music, etc., with little scientific content. 
+
+Then I asked Dr. Shostak the next key question: Will you keep it a 
+secret once First Contact is made? After all, won’t it cause mass panic, 
+religious hysteria, chaos, and spontaneous evacuations? I was a bit 
+surprised when he said no. They would give all the data to the 
+governments of the world and to the people. 
+
+The next questions are: What will they be like? How do they think? 
+
+To understand alien consciousness, perhaps it is instructive to analyze 
+another consciousness that is quite alien to us, the consciousness of 
+animals. We live with them, yet we are totally ignorant of what goes on 
+in their minds."
+"Understanding animal consciousness, in turn, may help us understand 
+alien consciousness. 
+
+ANIMAL CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+Do animals think? And if so, what do they think about? This question 
+has perplexed the greatest minds in history for thousands of years. The 
+Greek writers and historians Plutarch and Pliny both wrote about a 
+famous question that remains unsolved even today. Over the centuries, 
+many solutions have been given by the giants of philosophy. 
+
+A dog is traveling down a road, looking for its master, when it 
+encounters a fork that branches in three directions. The dog first takes 
+the left path, sniffs around, and then returns, knowing that his master 
+has not taken that road. Then it takes the right path, sniffs, and realizes 
+that his master has not taken this road either. But this time, the dog 
+triumphantly takes the middle road, without sniffing."
+"What was going on in the dog’s mind? Some of the greatest 
+philosophers have tackled this question, to no avail. The French 
+philosopher and essayist Michel de Montaigne wrote that the dog 
+obviously concluded that the only possible solution was to take the 
+middle road, a conclusion showing that dogs are capable of abstract 
+thought. 
+
+But St. Thomas Aquinas, arguing in the thirteenth century, said the 
+opposite—that the appearance of abstract thought is not the same thing 
+as genuine thinking. We can be fooled by superficial appearances of 
+
+intelligence, he claimed. 
+
+Centuries later, there was also a famous exchange between John Locke 
+and George Berkeley about animal consciousness. “Beasts abstract not,” 
+proclaimed Locke flatly. To which Bishop Berkeley responded, “If the 
+fact that brutes abstract not be made the distinguishing property of that 
+sort of animal, I fear a great many of those that pass for man must be 
+reckoned into their number.”"
+"Philosophers down the ages have tried to analyze this question in the 
+same manner: by imposing human consciousness on the dog. This is the 
+mistake of anthropomorphism, or assuming that animals think and 
+behave like us. But perhaps the real solution might be to look at this 
+question from the dog’s point of view, which could be quite alien. 
+
+In Chapter 2, I gave a definition of consciousness in which animals 
+were part of a continuum of consciousness. Animals can differ from us in 
+the parameters they use to create a model of the world. Dr. David 
+Eagleman says that psychologists call this “umwelt,” or the reality 
+perceived by other animals. He notes, “In the blind and deaf world of the 
+tick, the important signals are temperature and the odor of butyric acid. 
+For the black ghost knifefish, it’s electrical fields. For the echo locating 
+bat, air-compressed waves. Each organism inhabits its own umwelt, 
+
+which it presumably assumes to be the entire objective reality ‘out 
+there.’ ”"
+"which it presumably assumes to be the entire objective reality ‘out 
+there.’ ” 
+
+Consider the brain of a dog, which is constantly living in a swirl of 
+odors, by which it hunts for food or locates a mate. From these smells, 
+the dog then constructs a mental map of what exists in its surroundings. 
+This map of smells is totally different from the one we get from our eyes 
+and conveys an entirely different set of information. (Recall from 
+Chapter 1 that Dr. Penfield constructed a map of the cerebral cortex, 
+showing the distorted self-image of the body. Now imagine a Penfield 
+diagram of a dog’s brain. Most of it would be devoted to its nose, not its 
+fingers. Animals would have a totally different Penfield diagram. Aliens 
+in space would likely have an even stranger Penfield diagram.)"
+"Unfortunately, we tend to assign human consciousness to animals, 
+even though animals may have a totally different world outlook. For 
+example, when a dog faithfully follows its master’s orders, we 
+subconsciously assume that the dog is man’s best friend because he likes 
+us and respects us. But since the dog is descended from Cards lupus (the 
+
+gray wolf), which hunts in packs with a rigid pecking order, more than 
+likely the dog sees you as some sort of alpha male, or the leader of the 
+pack. You are, in some sense, the Top Dog. (This is probably one reason 
+why puppies are much easier to train than older dogs; it is likely easier 
+to imprint one’s presence on a puppy’s brain, while more mature dogs 
+realize that humans are not part of their pack.)"
+"Also, when a cat enters a new room and urinates all over the carpet, 
+we assume that the cat is angry or nervous, and we try to find out the 
+reason why the cat is upset. But perhaps the cat is simply marking its 
+territory with the smell of its urine to ward off other cats. So the cat is 
+not upset at all; it’s simply warning other cats to stay out of the house, 
+because the house belongs to it. 
+
+And if the cat purrs and rubs itself against your legs, we assume that it 
+is grateful to you for taking care of it, that this is a sign of warmth and 
+affection. More than likely, the cat is rubbing its hormone onto you to 
+claim ownership of its possession (i.e., you), to ward off other cats. In 
+the cat’s viewpoint, you are a servant of some sort, trained to give it 
+food several times a day, and rubbing its scent on you warns other cats 
+to stay away from this servant."
+"As the sixteenth-century philosopher Michel de Montaigne once wrote, 
+“When I play with my cat, how do I know that she is not playing with 
+me rather than I with her?” 
+
+And if the cat then stalks off to be alone, it is not necessarily a sign of 
+anger or aloofness. The cat is descended from the wildcat, which is a 
+
+solitary hunter, unlike the dog. There is no alpha male to slobber over, 
+as in the case of the dog. The proliferation of various “animal whisperer” 
+programs on TV is probably a sign of the problems we encounter when 
+we force human consciousness and intentions onto animals."
+"A bat would also have a much different consciousness, which would 
+be dominated by sounds. Almost blind, the bat requires constant 
+feedback from tiny squeaks it makes, which allow it to locate insects, 
+obstacles, and other bats via sonar. The Penfield map of its brain would 
+be quite alien to us, with a huge portion devoted to its ears. Similarly, 
+dolphins have a different consciousness than humans, which is also 
+based on sonar. Because dolphins have a smaller frontal cortex, it was 
+once thought that they were not so intelligent, but the dolphin 
+compensates for this by having a larger brain mass. If you unfold the 
+
+neocortex of the dolphin brain, it would cover six magazine pages, while 
+if you unfold the neocortex of a human, it would measure only four 
+magazine pages. Dolphins also have very well-developed parietal and 
+temporal cortices to analyze sonar signals in the water and are one of 
+the few animals that can recognize themselves in a mirror, probably 
+because of this fact."
+"In addition, the dolphin brain is actually structured differently from 
+humans’ because dolphin and human lineages diverged about ninety-five 
+million years ago. Dolphins have no need for a nose, so their olfactory 
+bulb disappears soon after birth. But thirty million years ago, their 
+auditory cortex exploded in size because dolphins learned to use 
+echolocation, or sonar, to find food. Like bats’, their world must be one 
+of whirling echoes and vibrations. Compared to humans, dolphins have 
+an extra lobe in their limbic system, called the “paralimbic” region, 
+which probably helps them forge strong social relations."
+"Meanwhile, dolphins also have a language that is intelligent. I once 
+swam in a pool of dolphins for a TV special for the Science Channel. I 
+put sonar sensors in the pool that could pick up the clicks and whistles 
+used by dolphins to talk to one another. These signals were recorded and 
+then analyzed by computer. There is a simple way to discern if there is 
+an intelligence lurking among this random set of squeals and chirps. In 
+the English language, for example, the letter e is the most commonly 
+used letter of the alphabet. In fact, we can create a list of all the letters 
+of the alphabet and how frequently they occur. No matter what book in 
+English we analyze by computer, it will roughly obey the same list of 
+commonly found letters of the alphabet. 
+
+Similarly, this computer program can be used to analyze the dolphins’ 
+language. Sure enough, we find a similar pattern indicating intelligence. 
+However, as we go to other mammals, the pattern begins to break down,"
+"and it finally collapses completely as we approach lower animals with 
+small brain sizes. Then the signals become nearly random. 
+
+INTELLIGENT BEES? 
+
+To get a sense of what alien consciousness might be like, consider the 
+strategies adopted by nature to reproduce life on Earth. There are two 
+
+basic reproductive strategies nature has taken, with profound 
+implications for evolution and consciousness. 
+
+The first, the strategy used by mammals, is to produce a small number 
+of young offspring and then carefully nurse each one to maturity. This is 
+a risky strategy, because only a few progeny are produced in each 
+generation, so it assumes that nurturing will even out the odds. This 
+means that every life is cherished and carefully nurtured for a length of 
+time."
+"But there is another, much older strategy that is used by much of the 
+plant and animal kingdom, including insects, reptiles, and most other 
+life-forms on Earth. This involves creating a large number of eggs or 
+seeds and then letting them fend for themselves. Without nurturing, 
+most of the offspring never survive, so only a few hardy individuals will 
+make it into the next generation. This means that the energy invested in 
+each generation by the parents is nil, and reproduction relies on the law 
+of averages to propagate the species."
+"These two strategies produce startlingly different attitudes toward life 
+and intelligence. The first strategy treasures each and every individual. 
+Love, nurturing, affection, and attachment are at a premium in this 
+group. This reproductive strategy can work only if the parents invest a 
+considerable amount of precious energy to preserve their young. The 
+second strategy, however, does not treasure the individual at all, but 
+rather emphasizes the survival of the species or group as a whole. To 
+them, individuality means nothing."
+"Furthermore, reproductive strategy has profound implications for the 
+evolution of intelligence. When two ants meet each other, for example, 
+they exchange a limited amount of information using chemical scents 
+and gestures. Although the information shared by two ants is minimal, 
+with this information they are capable of creating elaborate tunnels and 
+chambers necessary to build an anthill. Similarly, although honeybees 
+communicate with one another by performing a dance, they can 
+collectively create complex honeycombs and locate distant flower beds. 
+So their intelligence arises not so much from the individual, but from the 
+
+holistic interaction of the entire colony and from their genes. 
+
+So consider an intelligent extraterrestrial civilization based on the 
+second strategy, such as an intelligent race of honeybees. In this society, 
+the worker bees that fly out each day in search of pollen are expendable."
+"Worker bees do not reproduce at all, but instead live for one purpose, to 
+serve the hive and the queen, for which they willingly sacrifice 
+themselves. The bonds that link mammals together mean nothing to 
+them. 
+
+Hypothetically, this might affect the development of their space 
+program. Since we treasure the life of every astronaut, considerable 
+resources are devoted to bringing them back alive. Much of the cost of 
+space travel goes into life support so the astronauts can make the return 
+voyage home and reenter the atmosphere. But for a civilization of 
+intelligent honeybees, each worker’s life may not be worth that much, so 
+their space program would cost considerably less. Their workers would 
+not have to come back. Every voyage might be a one-way trip, and that 
+would represent significant savings."
+"Now imagine if we were to encounter an alien from space that was 
+actually similar to a honeybee worker. Normally, if we encounter a 
+honeybee in the forest, chances are it will completely ignore us, unless 
+we threaten it or the hive. It’s as if we did not exist. Similarly, this 
+worker would most likely not have the slightest interest in making 
+contact with us or sharing its knowledge. It would go on with its primary 
+mission and ignore us. Moreover, the values that we cherish would mean 
+little to it. 
+
+Back in the 1970s, there were two medallions put aboard the Pioneer 
+10 and 11 probes, containing crucial information about our world and 
+society. The medallions exalted the diversity and richness of life on 
+Earth. Scientists back then assumed that alien civilizations in space 
+would be like us, curious and interested in making contact. But if such 
+an alien worker bee were to find our medallion, chances are that it 
+would mean nothing to it."
+"Furthermore, each worker need not be very intelligent. They need to 
+be only intelligent enough to serve the interest of the hive. So if we were 
+to send a message to a planet of intelligent bees, chances are that they 
+would show little interest in sending a message back. 
+
+Even if contact could be made with such a civilization, it might be 
+difficult communicating with them. For example, when we communicate 
+with one another, we break ideas down into sentences, with a subject- 
+verb structure, in order to build a narrative, often a personal story. Most 
+
+of our sentences have the following structure: “I did this” or “They did 
+
+that.” In fact, most of our literature and conversations use storytelling, 
+often involving experiences and adventures that we or our role models 
+have had. This presupposes that our personal experiences are the 
+dominant way to convey information."
+"However, a civilization based on intelligent honeybees may not have 
+the least interest in personal narratives and storytelling. Being highly 
+collective, their messages may not be personal, but matter-of-fact, 
+containing vital information necessary for the hive rather than personal 
+trivia and gossip that might advance an individual’s social position. In 
+fact, they might find our storytelling language to be a bit repulsive, since 
+it puts the role of the individual before the needs of the collective. 
+
+Also, worker bees would have a totally different sense of time. Since 
+worker bees are expendable, they might not have a long life span. They 
+might only take on projects that are short and well defined."
+"However, humans live much longer, but we also have a tacit sense of 
+time; we take on projects and occupations that we can reasonably see to 
+the end within our lifetimes. We subconsciously pace our projects, our 
+relations with others, and our goals to accommodate a finite life span. In 
+other words, we live our lives in distinct phases: being single, married, 
+raising children, and eventually retiring. Often without being conscious 
+of it, we assume that we will live and eventually die within a finite time 
+frame."
+"But imagine beings that can live for thousands of years, or are perhaps 
+immortal. Their priorities, their goals, and their ambitions would be 
+completely different. They could take on projects that would normally 
+require scores of human lifetimes. Interstellar travel is often dismissed as 
+pure science fiction because, as we have seen, the time it takes for a 
+conventional rocket to reach nearby stars is roughly seventy thousand 
+years. For us, this is prohibitively long. But for an alien life-form, that 
+time may be totally irrelevant. For example, they might be able to 
+hibernate, slow down their metabolism, or simply live for an indefinite 
+amount of time. 
+
+WHAT DO THEY LOOK LIKE? 
+
+Our first translations of these alien messages will probably give us some"
+"Our first translations of these alien messages will probably give us some 
+
+insight into the aliens’ culture and way of life. For example, it is likely 
+that the aliens will have evolved from predators and hence still share 
+some of their characteristics. (In general, predators on Earth are smarter 
+than prey. Hunters like tigers, lions, cats, and dogs use their cunning to 
+stalk, ambush, and hide, all of which require intelligence. All these 
+predators have eyes on the front of the face, for stereo vision as they 
+focus their attention. Prey, which have eyes to the sides of the face to 
+spot a predator, have only to run. That is why we say “sly as a fox” and 
+“dumb bunny.”) The alien life-forms may have outgrown many of the 
+predator instincts of their distant ancestors, but it is likely that they will 
+still have some of a predator’s consciousness (i.e., territoriality, 
+expansion, and violence when necessary)."
+"If we examine the human race, we see that there were at least three 
+basic ingredients that set the stage for our becoming intelligent: 
+
+1 . the opposable thumb, which gives us the ability to manipulate and 
+
+reshape our environment via tools 
+
+2. stereo eyes or the 3-D eyes of a hunter 
+
+3. language, which allows us to accumulate knowledge, culture, and 
+
+wisdom across generations 
+
+When we compare these three ingredients with the traits found in the 
+animal kingdom, we see that very few animals meet these criteria for 
+intelligence. Cats and dogs, for example, do not have grasping ability or 
+a complex language. Octopi have sophisticated tentacles, but they don’t 
+see well and don’t have a complex language."
+"There may be variations of these three criteria. Instead of an 
+opposable thumb, an alien might have claws or tentacles. (The only 
+prerequisite is that they should be able to manipulate their environment 
+with tools created by these appendages.) Instead of having two eyes, 
+they may have many more, like insects. Or they may have sensors that 
+detect sound or UV light rather than visible light. More than likely, they 
+will have the stereo eyes of a hunter, because predators generally have a 
+higher level of intelligence than prey. Also, instead of a language based 
+on sounds, they may communicate via different forms of vibrations. (The 
+only requirement is that they exchange information among themselves to 
+
+create a culture spanning many generations.) 
+
+But beyond these three criteria, anything goes."
+"Next, the aliens may have a consciousness colored by their 
+environment. Astronomers now realize that the most plentiful habitat for 
+life in the universe may not be earthlike planets, where they can bask in 
+the warm sunlight of the mother star, but on icy-cold satellites orbiting 
+Jupiter-size planets billions of miles from the star. It is widely believed 
+that Europa, an ice-covered moon of Jupiter, has a liquid ocean beneath 
+the icy surface, heated by tidal forces. Because Europa tumbles as it 
+orbits Jupiter, it is squeezed in different directions by the huge 
+gravitational pull of Jupiter, which causes friction deep inside the moon. 
+This generates heat, forming volcanoes and ocean vents that melt the ice 
+and create liquid oceans. It is estimated that the oceans of Europa are 
+quite deep, and that their volume may be many times the volume of the 
+oceans of Earth. Since 50 percent of all stars in the heavens may have 
+Jupiter-size planets (a hundred times more plentiful than earthlike"
+"Jupiter-size planets (a hundred times more plentiful than earthlike 
+planets), the most plentiful form of life may be on the icy moons of gas 
+giants like Jupiter."
+"Therefore, when we encounter our first alien civilization in space, 
+more than likely it will have an aquatic origin. (Also, it is likely that 
+they will have migrated from the ocean and learned to live on the icy 
+surface of their moon away from the water, for several reasons. First, 
+any species that lives perpetually under the ice will have a quite limited 
+view of the universe. They will never develop astronomy or a space 
+program if they think that the universe is just the ocean underneath the 
+ice cover. Second, because water short-circuits electrical components, 
+they will never develop radio or TV if they stay underwater. If this 
+civilization is to advance, it must master electronics, which cannot exist 
+in the oceans. So, most likely, these aliens will have learned to leave the 
+oceans and survive on the land, as we did.)"
+"But what happens if this life-form evolves to create a space-faring 
+civilization, capable of reaching Earth? Will they still be biological 
+organisms like us, or will they be post-biological? 
+
+THE POST-BIOLOGICAL ERA 
+
+One person who has spent considerable time thinking about these 
+questions is my colleague Dr. Paul Davies of Arizona State University, 
+near Phoenix. When I interviewed him, he told me that we have to 
+expand our own horizon to contemplate what a civilization that is 
+thousands or more years ahead of us may look like. 
+
+Given the dangers of space travel, he believes that such beings will 
+have abandoned their biological form, much like the bodiless minds we 
+considered in the previous chapter. He writes, “My conclusion is a 
+startling one. I think it very likely—in fact inevitable—that biological"
+"intelligence is only a transitory phenomenon, a fleeting phase in the 
+evolution of intelligence in the universe. If we ever encounter 
+extraterrestrial intelligence, I believe it is overwhelmingly likely to be 
+post-biological in nature, a conclusion that has obvious and far-reaching 
+ramifications for SETI.” 
+
+In fact, if the aliens are thousands of years ahead of us, chances are 
+that they have abandoned their biological bodies eons ago to create the 
+most efficient computational body: a planet whose entire surface is 
+completely covered with computers. Dr. Davies says, “It isn’t hard to 
+envision the entire surface of a planet being covered with a single 
+integrated processing system.... Ray Bradbury has coined the term 
+‘Matrioshka brains’ for these awesome entities.”"
+"So to Dr. Davies, alien consciousness may lose the concept of “self” 
+and be absorbed into the collective World Wide Web of Minds, which 
+blankets the entire surface of the planet. Dr. Davies adds, “A powerful 
+computer network with no sense of self would have an enormous 
+advantage over human intelligence because it could redesign ‘itself,’ 
+fearlessly make changes, merge with whole systems, and grow. ‘Feeling 
+personal’ about it would be a distinct impediment to progress.” 
+
+So in the name of efficiency and increased computational ability, he 
+envisions members of this advanced civilization giving up their identity 
+and being absorbed into a collective consciousness. 
+
+Dr. Davies acknowledges that critics of his idea may find this concept 
+rather repulsive. It appears as if this alien species is sacrificing 
+individuality and creativity to the greater good of the collective or the 
+hive. This is not inevitable, he cautions, but it is the most efficient 
+option for civilization."
+"Dr. Davies also has a conjecture that he admits is rather depressing. 
+
+When I asked him why these civilizations don’t visit us, he gave me a 
+strange answer. He said that any civilization that advanced would also 
+have developed virtual realities far more interesting and challenging 
+than reality. The virtual reality of today would be a children’s toy 
+compared to the virtual reality of a civilization thousands of years more 
+advanced than us. 
+
+This means that perhaps their finest minds might have decided to play 
+out imaginary lives in different virtual worlds. It’s a discouraging 
+thought, he admitted, but certainly a possibility. In fact, it might even be 
+a warning for us as we perfect virtual reality. 
+
+WHAT DO THEY WANT?"
+"WHAT DO THEY WANT? 
+
+In the movie The Matrix, the machines take over and put humans into 
+pods, where they exploit us as batteries to energize themselves. That is 
+why they keep us alive. But since a single electrical plant produces more 
+power than the bodies of millions of humans, any alien looking for an 
+energy source would quickly see there is no need for human batteries. 
+(This seems to be lost on the machine overlords in the Matrix, but 
+hopefully aliens would see reason.)"
+"Another possibility is that they might want to eat us. This was 
+explored in an episode of The Twilight Zone, in which aliens land on 
+Earth and promise us the benefits of their advanced technology. They 
+even ask for volunteers to visit their beautiful home planet. The aliens 
+accidentally leave behind a book, called To Serve Man, which scientists 
+anxiously try to decipher in order to discover what wonders the aliens 
+will share with us. Instead, the scientists find out that the book is 
+actually a cookbook. (But since we will be made of entirely different 
+DNA and proteins from theirs, we could be difficult for their digestive 
+tracts to process.)"
+"Another possibility is that the aliens will want to strip Earth of 
+resources and valuable minerals. There may be some truth to this 
+argument, but if the aliens are advanced enough to travel effortlessly 
+from the stars, then there are plenty of uninhabited planets to plunder 
+for resources, without having to worry about restive natives. From their 
+point of view, it would be a waste of time to try to colonize an inhabited 
+
+planet when there are easy alternatives."
+"planet when there are easy alternatives. 
+
+So if the aliens do not want to enslave us or plunder our resources, 
+then what danger do they pose? Think of deer in a forest. Whom should 
+they fear the most—the ferocious hunter armed with a shotgun, or the 
+mild-mannered developer armed with a blueprint? Although the hunter 
+may scare the deer, only a few deer are threatened by him. More 
+dangerous to the deer is the developer, because the deer are not even on 
+his radar screen. The developer may not even think about the deer at all, 
+concentrating instead on developing the forest into usable property. In 
+view of this, what would an invasion actually look like?"
+"In Hollywood movies, there is one glaring flaw: the aliens are only a 
+century or so ahead of us, so we can usually devise a secret weapon or 
+exploit a simple weakness in their armor to fight them off, as in Earth vs. 
+the Flying Saucers. But as SETI director Dr. Seth Shostak once told me, a 
+battle with an advanced alien civilization will be like a battle between 
+Bambi and Godzilla. 
+
+In reality, the aliens might be millennia to millions of years ahead of 
+us in their weaponry. So, for the most part, there will be little we can do 
+to defend ourselves. But perhaps we can learn from the barbarians who 
+defeated the greatest military empire of its time, the Roman Empire. 
+
+The Romans were masters of engineering, able to create weapons that 
+could flatten barbarian villages and roads to supply distant military 
+outposts of a vast empire. The barbarians, who were barely emerging 
+from a nomadic existence, had little chance when encountering the 
+juggernaut of the Roman Imperial Army."
+"But history records that as the empire expanded, it was spread too 
+thin, with too many battles to fight, too many treaties bogging it down, 
+and not enough of an economy to support all this, especially with a 
+gradual decline in population. Moreover, the empire, always short on 
+recruits, had to enlist young barbarian soldiers and promote them to 
+leadership positions. Inevitably, the superior technology of the empire 
+began to filter down to the barbarians as well. In time, the barbarians 
+began to master the very military technologies that at first had 
+conquered them. 
+
+Toward the end, the empire, weakened by internal palace intrigues, 
+severe crop shortages, civil wars, and an overstretched army, faced 
+barbarians who were able to fight the Roman Imperial Army to a 
+
+standstill. The sacking of Rome in A.D. 410 and 455 paved the way for 
+the empire’s ultimate fall in A.D. 476."
+"In the same way, it is likely that earthlings will initially offer no real 
+threat to an alien invasion, but over time earthlings could learn the weak 
+points of the alien army, its power supplies, its command centers, and 
+most of all its weaponry. In order to control the human population, the 
+aliens will have to recruit collaborators and promote them. This will 
+result in a diffusion of their technology to the humans. 
+
+Then a ragtag army of earthlings might be able to mount a 
+counterattack. In Eastern military strategy, like the classic teachings of 
+Sun Tzu in The Art of War, there is a way to defeat even a superior army. 
+You first allow it to enter your territory. Once it has entered unfamiliar 
+land and its ranks are diffused, you can counterattack where they are 
+weakest."
+"Another technique is to use the enemy’s strength against it. In judo, 
+the principal strategy is to turn the momentum of the attacker to your 
+advantage. You let the enemy attack, and then trip them or throw them 
+off guard, exploiting the enemy’s own mass and energy. The bigger they 
+
+are, the harder they fall. In the same way, perhaps the only way to fight 
+a superior alien army is to allow it to invade your territory, learn its 
+weaponry and military secrets, and turn those very weapons and secrets 
+against it. 
+
+So a superior alien army cannot be defeated head-on. But it will 
+withdraw if it cannot win and the cost of a stalemate is too high. Success 
+means depriving the enemy of a victory."
+"But more than likely, I believe the aliens will be benevolent and, for 
+the most part, ignore us. We simply have nothing to offer them. If they 
+visit us, then it will be mainly out of curiosity or for reconnaissance. 
+(Since curiosity was an essential feature in our becoming intelligent, it is 
+likely that any alien species will be curious, and hence want to analyze 
+us, but not necessarily to make contact.) 
+
+MEETING AN ALIEN ASTRONAUT 
+
+Unlike in the movies, we will probably not meet the flesh-and-blood 
+alien creatures themselves. It would simply be too dangerous and 
+
+unnecessary. In the same way that we sent the Mars Rover to explore, 
+aliens will more than likely send organic/mechanical surrogates or 
+avatars instead, which can better handle the stresses of interstellar 
+travel. In this way, the “aliens” we meet on the White House lawn may 
+look nothing like their masters back on the home planet. Instead, the 
+masters will project their consciousness into space through proxies."
+"More than likely, though, they will send a robotic probe to our moon, 
+which is geologically stable, with no erosion. These probes are self- 
+replicating; that is, they will create a factory and manufacture, say, a 
+thousand copies of themselves. (These are called von Neumann probes, 
+after mathematician John von Neumann, who laid the foundation for 
+digital computers. Von Neumann was the first mathematician to 
+seriously consider the problem of machines that could reproduce 
+themselves.) These second-generation probes are then launched to other 
+star systems, where each one in turn creates a thousand more third- 
+generation probes, making a total of a million. Then these probes fan out 
+and create more factories, making a billion probes. Starting with just one 
+probe, we have one thousand, then a million, then a billion. Within five 
+generations, we have a quadrillion probes. Soon we have a gigantic 
+sphere, expanding at near light speed, containing trillions upon trillions"
+"sphere, expanding at near light speed, containing trillions upon trillions 
+of probes, colonizing the entire galaxy within a few hundred thousand 
+years."
+"Dr. Davies takes this idea of self-replicating von Neumann probes so 
+seriously that he has actually applied for funding to search the surface of 
+the moon for evidence of a previous alien visitation. He wishes to scan 
+the moon for radio emissions or radiation anomalies that would indicate 
+evidence of an alien visitation, perhaps millions of years ago. He wrote a 
+paper with Dr. Robert Wagner in the scientific journal Acta Astronautica 
+calling for a close examination of the photos from the Lunar 
+Reconnaissance Orbiter down to a resolution of about 1.5 feet."
+"They wrote, “Although there is only a tiny probability that alien 
+technology would have left traces on the moon in the form of an artifact 
+or surface modification of lunar features, this location has the virtue of 
+being close,” and also traces of an alien technology would remain 
+preserved over long periods of time. Since there is no erosion on the 
+moon, treadmarks left by aliens would still be visible (in the same way 
+that footprints left by our astronauts in the 1970s could, in principle, last 
+
+for billions of years). 
+
+One problem is that the von Neumann probe might be very small. 
+Nanoprobes use molecular machines and MEMs, and hence it might be 
+only as big as a bread box, he said to me, or even smaller. (In fact, if 
+such a probe landed on Earth in someone’s backyard, the owner might 
+not even notice.)"
+"This method, however, represents the most efficient way of colonizing 
+the galaxy, using the exponential growth of self-replicating von 
+Neumann probes. (This is also the way in which a virus infects our body. 
+Starting with a handful of viruses, they land on our cells, hijack the 
+reproductive machinery, and convert our cells into factories to create 
+more viruses. Within two weeks, a single virus can infect trillions of 
+cells, and we eventually sneeze.)"
+"If this scenario is correct, it means that our own moon is the most 
+likely place for an alien visitation. This is also the basis of the movie 
+2001: A Space Odyssey, which even today represents the most plausible 
+encounter with an extraterrestrial civilization. In the movie, a probe was 
+placed on our moon millions of years ago, mainly to observe the 
+evolution of life on Earth. At times, it interferes in our evolution and 
+gives us an added boost. This information is then sent to Jupiter, which 
+is a relay station, before heading to the home planet of this ancient alien 
+civilization. 
+
+From the point of view of this advanced civilization, which can 
+simultaneously scan billions of star systems, we can see that they have a 
+considerable choice in what planetary systems to colonize. Given the 
+sheer enormity of the galaxy, they can collect data and then best choose 
+
+which planets or moons would yield the best resources. From their 
+perspective, they might not find Earth very appealing."
+"The empires of the future will be empires of the mind. 
+
+—WINSTON CHURCHILL 
+
+If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom 
+prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner. 
+
+—GENERAL OMAR BRADLEY 
+
+15 CONCLUDING REMARKS 
+
+In 2000, a raging controversy erupted in the scientific community. 
+One of the founders of Sun Computers, Bill Joy, wrote an inflammatory 
+article denouncing the mortal threat we face from advanced technology. 
+In an article in Wired magazine with the provocative title “The Future 
+Does Not Need Us,” he wrote, “Our most powerful 21st century 
+technologies—robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech—are 
+threatening to make humans an endangered species.” That incendiary 
+article questioned the very morality of hundreds of dedicated scientists 
+toiling in their labs on the cutting edge of science. He challenged the 
+very core of their research, stating that the benefits of these technologies 
+were vastly overshadowed by the enormous threats they posed to 
+humanity."
+"He described a macabre dystopia in which all our technologies 
+conspire to destroy civilization. Three of our key creations will 
+eventually turn on us, he warned: 
+
+• One day, bioengineered germs may escape from the laboratory and 
+wreak havoc on the world. Since you cannot recapture these life- 
+forms, they might proliferate wildly and unleash a fatal plague on 
+the planet worse than those of the Middle Ages. Biotechnology may 
+even alter human evolution, creating “several separate and unequal 
+species ... that would threaten the notion of equality that is the very 
+cornerstone of our democracy.” 
+
+• One day, nanobots may go berserk and spew out unlimited 
+quantities of “gray goo,” which will blanket Earth, smothering all 
+life. Since these nanobots “digest” ordinary matter and create new 
+forms of matter, malfunctioning nanobots could run amok and"
+"digest much of Earth. “Gray goo would surely be a depressing 
+ending to our human adventure on Earth, far worse than mere fire 
+or ice, and one that could stem from a simple laboratory accident. 
+
+Oops,” he wrote. 
+
+• One day, the robots will take over and replace humanity. They will 
+become so intelligent that they will simply push humanity aside. We 
+will be left as an evolutionary footnote. “The robots would in no 
+sense be our children.... On this path our humanity may well be 
+lost,” he wrote."
+"Joy claimed that the dangers unleashed by these three technologies 
+dwarfed the dangers posed by the atomic bomb in the 1940s. Back then, 
+Einstein warned of the power of nuclear technology to destroy 
+civilization: “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has 
+exceeded our humanity.” But the atomic bomb was built by a huge 
+government program that could be tightly regulated, while these 
+technologies are being developed by private companies that are lightly 
+regulated, if at all, Joy pointed out. 
+
+Sure, he conceded, these technologies may alleviate some suffering in 
+the short term. But in the long term, the benefits are overwhelmed by 
+the fact that they may unleash a scientific Armageddon that may doom 
+the human race."
+"Joy even accused scientists of being selfish and naive as they try to 
+create a better society. He wrote, “A traditional utopia is a good society 
+and a good life. A good life involves other people. This techno utopia is 
+all about ‘I don’t get diseases; I don’t die; I get to have better eyesight 
+and be smarter’ and all this. If you described this to Socrates or Plato, 
+they would laugh at you.” 
+
+He concluded by stating, “I think it is no exaggeration to say we are 
+on the cusp of the further perfection of extreme evil, an evil whose 
+possibility spreads well beyond that which weapons of mass destruction 
+bequeathed to the nation-states....” 
+
+The conclusion to all this? “Something like extinction,” he warned. 
+
+As expected, the article sparked a firestorm of controversy."
+"As expected, the article sparked a firestorm of controversy. 
+
+That article was written over a decade ago. In terms of high 
+technology, that is a lifetime. It is now possible to view certain of its 
+predictions with some hindsight. Looking back at the article and putting 
+his warnings into perspective, we can easily see that Bill Joy exaggerated 
+many of the threats coming from these technologies, but he also spurred 
+
+scientists to face up to the ethical, moral, and societal consequences of 
+
+their work, which is always a good thing. 
+
+And his article opened up a discussion about who we are. In 
+unraveling the molecular, genetic, and neural secrets of the brain, 
+haven’t we in some sense dehumanized humanity, reducing it to a 
+bucket of atoms and neurons? If we completely map every neuron of the 
+brain and trace every neural pathway, doesn’t that remove the mystery 
+and magic of who we are? 
+
+A RESPONSE TO BILL JOY"
+"A RESPONSE TO BILL JOY 
+
+In retrospect, the threats from robotics and nanotechnology are more 
+distant than Bill Joy thought, and I would argue that with enough 
+warning, we can take a variety of countermeasures, such as banning 
+certain avenues of research if they lead to uncontrollable robots, placing 
+chips in them to shut them off if they become dangerous, and creating 
+fail-safe devices to immobilize all of them in an emergency. 
+
+More immediate is the threat from biotechnology, where there is the 
+realistic danger of biogerms that might escape the laboratory. In fact, 
+Ray Kurzweil and Bill Joy jointly wrote an article criticizing the 
+publication of the complete genome of the 1918 Spanish flu virus, one of 
+the most lethal germs in modern history, which killed more people than 
+World War I. Scientists were able to reassemble the long-dead virus by 
+examining the corpses and blood of its victims and sequencing its genes, 
+and then they published it on the web."
+"Safeguards already exist against the release of such a dangerous virus, 
+but steps must be taken to further strengthen them and add new layers 
+of security. In particular, if a new virus suddenly erupts in some distant 
+place on Earth, scientists must strengthen rapid-response teams that can 
+isolate the virus in the wild, sequence its genes, and then quickly 
+prepare a vaccine to prevent its spread. 
+
+IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF THE MIND 
+
+This debate also has a direct impact on the future of the mind. At 
+present, neuroscience is still rather primitive. Scientists can read and 
+videotape simple thoughts from the living brain, record a few memories, 
+
+connect the brain to mechanical arms, enable locked-in patients to 
+control machines around them, silence specific regions of the brain via 
+magnetism, and identify the regions of the brain that malfunction in 
+mental illness."
+"In the coming decades, however, the power of neuroscience may 
+become explosive. Current research is on the threshold of new scientific 
+discoveries that will likely leave us breathless. One day, we might 
+routinely control objects around us with the power of the mind, 
+download memories, cure mental illness, enhance our intelligence, 
+understand the brain neuron by neuron, create backup copies of the 
+brain, and communicate with one another telepathically. The world of 
+the future will be the world of the mind."
+"Bill Joy did not dispute the potential of this technology to relieve 
+human suffering and pain. But what made him look on it with horror 
+was the prospect of enhanced individuals who might cause the human 
+species to split apart. In the article, he painted a dismal dystopia in 
+which only a tiny elite have their intelligence and mental processes 
+enhanced, while the masses of people live in ignorance and poverty. He 
+worried that the human race would fission in two, or perhaps cease to be 
+human at all. 
+
+But as we have pointed out, almost all technologies when they are first 
+introduced are expensive and hence exclusively for the well-off. Because 
+of mass production, the falling cost of computers, competition, and 
+cheaper shipping, technologies inevitably filter down to the poor as well. 
+This was also the trajectory taken by phonographs, radio, TV, PCs, 
+laptops, and cell phones."
+"Far from creating a world of haves and have-nots, science has been the 
+engine of prosperity. Of all the tools that humanity has harnessed since 
+the dawn of time, by far the most powerful and productive has been 
+science. The incredible wealth we see all around us is directly due to 
+science. To appreciate how technology reduces, rather than accentuates, 
+societal fault lines, consider the lives of our ancestors around 1900. Life 
+expectancy in the United States back then was forty-nine years. Many 
+children died in infancy. Communicating with a neighbor involved 
+yelling out the window. The mail was delivered by horse, if it came at 
+all. Medicine was largely snake oil. The only treatments that actually 
+worked were amputations (without anesthetics) and morphine to deaden 
+
+the pain. Food rotted within days. Plumbing was nonexistent. Disease 
+was a constant threat. And the economy could support only a handful of 
+the rich and a tiny middle class."
+"Technology has changed everything. We no longer have to hunt for 
+our food; we simply go to the supermarket. We no longer have to carry 
+back-breaking supplies but instead simply get into our cars. (In fact, the 
+main threat we face from technology, one that has killed millions of 
+people, is not murderous robots or mad nanobots run amok—it’s our 
+indulgent lifestyle, which has created near-epidemic levels of diabetes, 
+obesity, heart disease, cancer, etc. And this problem is self-inflicted.) 
+
+We also see this on the global level. In the last few decades the world 
+has witnessed hundreds of millions of people being lifted out of grinding 
+poverty for the first time in history. If we view the bigger picture, we see 
+that a significant fraction of the human race has left the punishing 
+lifestyle of sustenance farming and entered the ranks of the middle class."
+"It took several hundred years for Western nations to industrialize, yet 
+China and India are doing it within a few decades, all due to the spread 
+of high technology. With wireless technology and the Internet, these 
+nations can leapfrog past other, more developed nations that have 
+laboriously wired their cities. While the West struggles with an aging, 
+decaying urban infrastructure, developing nations are building entire 
+cities with sparkling, state-of-the-art technology."
+"(When I was a graduate student getting my Ph.D., my counterparts in 
+China and India would have to wait several months to a year for 
+scientific journals to come in the mail. Plus, they had almost no direct 
+contact with scientists and engineers in the West, because few if any 
+could afford to travel here. This vastly impeded the flow of technology, 
+which moved at a glacial pace for these nations. Today, however, 
+scientists can read one another’s papers as soon as they are posted on the 
+Internet, and can electronically collaborate with other scientists around 
+the world. This has vastly accelerated the flow of information. And with 
+this technology comes progress and prosperity.)"
+"Furthermore, it’s not clear that having some form of enhanced 
+intelligence will cause a catastrophic splitting of the human race, even if 
+many people are unable to afford this procedure. For the most part, 
+being able to solve complex mathematical equations or have perfect 
+recall does not guarantee a higher income, respect from your peers, or 
+
+more popularity with the opposite sex, which are the incentives that 
+motivate most people. The Caveman Principle trumps having a brain 
+boost. 
+
+As Dr. Michael Gazzaniga notes, “The idea that we are messin’ with 
+our innards is disturbing to many. And just what would we do with 
+expanded intelligence? Are we going to use it for solving problems, or 
+will it just allow us to have longer Christmas card lists ...?”"
+"But as we discussed in Chapter 5, unemployed workers may benefit 
+from this technology, drastically reducing the time required to master 
+new technologies and skills. This might not only reduce the problems 
+associated with unemployment, it could also have an impact on the 
+world economy, making it more efficient and responsive to change. 
+
+WISDOM AND DEMOCRATIC DEBATE 
+
+In responding to Joy’s article, some critics pointed out that the debate is 
+not about a struggle between scientists and nature, as portrayed in the 
+article. The debate is actually between three parties: scientists, nature, 
+and society."
+"Computer scientists Drs. John Brown and Paul Duguid responded to 
+the article by stating, “Technologies—such as gunpowder, the printing 
+press, the railroad, the telegraph, and the Internet—can change society 
+in profound ways. But on the other hand, social systems—in the form of 
+governments, the courts, formal and informal organizations, social 
+movements, professional networks, local communities, market 
+institutions, and so forth—shape, moderate, and redirect the raw power 
+of technologies.” 
+
+The point is to analyze them in terms of society, and ultimately it is up 
+to us to adopt a new vision of the future that incorporates all the best 
+ideas. 
+
+To me, the ultimate source of wisdom in this respect comes from 
+vigorous democratic debate. In the coming decades, the public will be 
+asked to vote on a number of crucial scientific issues. Technology cannot 
+be debated in a vacuum. 
+
+PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS"
+"PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS 
+
+Lastly, some critics have claimed that the march of science has gone too 
+far in unveiling the secrets of the mind, an unveiling that has become 
+dehumanizing and degrading. Why bother to rejoice at discovering 
+something new, learning a new skill, or enjoying a leisurely vacation 
+when it can all be reduced to a few neurotransmitters activating a few 
+neural circuits? 
+
+In other words, just as astronomy has reduced us to insignificant 
+pieces of cosmic dust floating in an uncaring universe, neuroscience has 
+reduced us to electrical signals circulating within neural circuits. But is 
+this really true?"
+"We began our discussion by highlighting the two greatest mysteries in 
+all of science: the mind and the universe. Not only do they have a 
+common history and narrative, they also share a similar philosophy and 
+perhaps even destiny. Science, with all its power to peer into the heart of 
+black holes and land on distant planets, has given birth to two 
+overarching philosophies about the mind and the universe: the 
+Copernican Principle and the Anthropic Principle. Both are consistent 
+with everything known about science, but they are diametrical 
+opposites. 
+
+The first great philosophy, the Copernican Principle, was born with 
+the discovery of the telescope more than four hundred years ago. It 
+states that there is no privileged position for humanity. Such a 
+deceptively simple idea has overthrown thousands of years of cherished 
+myths and entrenched philosophies."
+"Ever since the biblical tale of Adam and Eve being exiled from the 
+Garden of Eden for biting into the Apple of Knowledge, there has been a 
+series of humiliating dethronements. First, the telescope of Galileo 
+clearly showed that Earth was not the center of the solar system—the 
+sun was. This picture was then overthrown when it was realized that the 
+solar system was just a speck in the Milky Way galaxy circulating about 
+thirty thousand light-years from the center. Then in the 1920s, Edwin 
+Hubble discovered there was a multitude of galaxies. The universe 
+suddenly got billions of times bigger. Now the Hubble Space Telescope 
+can reveal the presence of up to one hundred billion galaxies in the 
+visible universe. Our own Milky Way galaxy has been reduced to a 
+pinpoint in a much larger cosmic arena. 
+
+More recent cosmological theories further downgrade the position of"
+"More recent cosmological theories further downgrade the position of 
+
+humanity in the universe. The inflationary universe theory states that 
+our visible universe, with its one hundred billion galaxies, is just a 
+pinprick on a much larger, inflated universe that is so big that most light 
+has not had time to reach us yet from distant regions. There are vast 
+reaches of space that we cannot see with our telescopes and will never 
+be able to visit because we cannot go faster than light. And if string 
+theory (my specialty) is correct, it means that even the entire universe 
+coexists with other universes in eleven-dimensional hyperspace. So even 
+three-dimensional space is not the final word. The true arena for 
+physical phenomena is the multiverse of universes, full of floating 
+bubble universes. 
+
+The science-fiction writer Douglas Adams tried to summarize the sense 
+of being constantly overthrown by inventing the Total Perspective 
+Vortex in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It was designed to drive"
+"any sane person insane. When you enter the chamber, all you see is a 
+gigantic map of the entire universe. And on the map there is a tiny, 
+almost invisible arrow that says, “You are here.” 
+
+So on one hand, the Copernican Principle indicates that we are just 
+insignificant cosmic debris drifting aimlessly among the stars. But on the 
+other hand, all the latest cosmological data are consistent with yet 
+another theory, which gives us the opposite philosophy: the Anthropic 
+Principle. 
+
+This theory states that the universe is compatible with life. Again, this 
+deceptively simple statement has profound implications. On one hand, it 
+is impossible to dispute that life exists in the universe. But it’s clear that 
+the forces of the universe must be calibrated to a remarkable degree to 
+make life possible. As physicist Freeman Dyson once said, “The universe 
+seemed to know that we were coming.”"
+"For example, if the nuclear force were just a bit stronger, the sun 
+would have burned out billions of years ago, too soon to allow DNA to 
+get off the ground. If the nuclear force were a bit weaker, then the sun 
+would never have ignited to begin with, and we still would not be here. 
+
+Likewise, if gravity were stronger, the universe would have collapsed 
+into a Big Crunch billions of years ago, and we would all be roasted to 
+death. If it were a bit weaker, then the universe would have expanded so 
+fast it would have reached the Big Freeze, so we would all have frozen to 
+death. 
+
+This fine-tuning extends to every atom of the body. Physics says that 
+we are made of star dust, that the atoms we see all around us were 
+forged in the heat of a star. We are literally children of the stars."
+"But the nuclear reactions that burned hydrogen to create the higher 
+elements of our body are very complex and could have been derailed at 
+any number of points. Then it would have been impossible to create the 
+higher elements of our bodies, and the atoms of DNA and life would not 
+exist. 
+
+In other words, life is precious and a miracle. 
+
+There are so many parameters that have to be fine-tuned that some 
+claim this is not a coincidence. The weak form of the Anthropic Principle 
+implies that the existence of life forces the physical parameters of the 
+universe to be defined in a very precise way. The strong form of the 
+Anthropic Principle goes even further, stating that God or some designer 
+had to create a universe “just right” to make life possible. 
+
+PHILOSOPHY AND NEUROSCIENCE"
+"PHILOSOPHY AND NEUROSCIENCE 
+
+The debate between the Copernican Principle and the Anthropic 
+Principle also resonates in neuroscience. For example, some claim that 
+humans can be reduced to atoms, molecules, and neurons, and hence 
+there is no distinguished place for humanity in the universe. 
+
+Dr. David Eagleman writes, “The you that all your friends know and 
+love cannot exist unless the transistors and screws of our brain are in 
+place. If you don’t believe this, step into any neurology ward in any 
+hospital. Damage to even small parts of the brain can lead to the loss of 
+shockingly specific abilities; the ability to name animals, or to hear 
+music, or to manage risky behavior, or to distinguish colors, or to 
+arbitrate simple decisions.” 
+
+It seems that the brain cannot function without all its “transistors and 
+screws.” He concludes, “Our reality depends on what our biology is up 
+to.”"
+"So on one hand, our place in the universe seems to be diminished if 
+we can be reduced, like robots, to (biological) nuts and bolts. We are just 
+wetware, running software called the mind, nothing more or less. Our 
+thoughts, desires, hopes, and aspirations can be reduced to electrical 
+
+impulses circulating in some region of the prefrontal cortex. That is the 
+Copernican Principle applied to the mind. 
+
+But the Anthropic Principle can also be applied to the mind, and we 
+then reach the opposite conclusion. It simply says that conditions of the 
+universe make consciousness possible, even though it is extraordinarily 
+difficult to create the mind out of random events. The great Victorian 
+biologist Thomas Huxley said, “How it is that anything so remarkable as 
+a state of consciousness comes about as a result of irritating nervous 
+tissue, is just as unaccountable as the appearance of the Djinn, when 
+Aladdin rubbed his lamp.”"
+"Furthermore, most astronomers believe that although one day we may 
+find life on other planets, it will most likely be microbial life, which 
+ruled our oceans for billions of years. Instead of seeing great cities and 
+empires, we might only find oceans of drifting microorganisms. 
+
+When I interviewed the late Harvard biologist Stephen Jay Gould 
+about this, he explained to me his thinking as follows. If we were to 
+somehow create a twin of Earth as it was 4.5 billion years ago, would it 
+turn out the same way 4.5 billion years later? Most likely not. There is a 
+
+large probability that DNA and life would never have gotten off the 
+ground, and an even larger probability that intelligent life with 
+consciousness would never have risen from the swamp."
+"Gould wrote, “Homo sapiens is one small twig [on the tree of life]. 
+... Yet our twig, for better or worse, has developed the most 
+extraordinary new quality in all the history of multicellular life since the 
+Cambrian explosion (500 million years ago). We have invented 
+consciousness with all its sequelae from Hamlet to Hiroshima.”"
+"In fact, in the history of Earth, there are many times when intelligent 
+life was almost extinguished. In addition to the mass extinctions that 
+wiped out the dinosaurs and most life on Earth, humans have faced 
+additional near extinctions. For example, humans are all genetically 
+related to one another to a considerable degree, much closer than two 
+typical animals of the same species. Although humans may look diverse 
+from the outside, our genes and internal chemistry tell a different story. 
+In fact, any two humans are so closely related genetically that we can 
+actually do the math and calculate when a “genetic Eve” or “genetic 
+Adam” gave birth to the entire human race. Moreover, we can calculate 
+how many of us there were in the past."
+"The numbers are remarkable. Genetics shows that there were only a 
+few hundred to a few thousand humans alive about seventy to one 
+hundred thousand years ago and that they gave birth to the entire 
+human race. (One theory holds that the titanic explosion of the Toba 
+volcano in Indonesia about seventy thousand years ago caused 
+temperatures to drop so dramatically that most of the human race 
+perished, leaving only a handful to populate Earth.) From that small 
+band of humans came the adventurers and explorers who would 
+eventually colonize the entire planet. 
+
+Repeatedly in the history of Earth, intelligent life might have come to 
+a dead end. It is a miracle we survived. We can also conclude that 
+although life may exist on other planets, conscious life may exist on only 
+a tiny fraction of them. So we should treasure the consciousness that is 
+found on Earth. It is the highest form of complexity known in the 
+universe, and probably also the rarest."
+"Sometimes, when contemplating the future destiny of the human race, 
+I have to come to grips with the distinct possibility of its self-destruction. 
+Although volcanic eruptions and earthquakes could spell doom for the 
+human race, our worst fears may be realized through man-made 
+disasters, such as nuclear wars or bioengineered germs. If so, then 
+perhaps the only conscious life-form in this sector of the Milky Way 
+galaxy might be extinguished. This, I feel, would be a tragedy not just 
+for us, but for the universe as well. We take for granted that we are 
+
+conscious, but we don’t understand the long, tortuous sequence of 
+biological events that have transpired to make this possible. Psychologist 
+Steven Pinker writes, “I would argue that nothing gives life more 
+purpose than the realization that every moment of consciousness is a 
+precious and fragile gift.” 
+
+THE MIRACLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS"
+"THE MIRACLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+Lastly, there is the criticism of science that says to understand something 
+is to remove its mystery and magic. Science, by lifting the veil 
+concealing the secrets of the mind, is also making it more ordinary and 
+mundane. However, the more I learn about the sheer complexity of the 
+brain, the more amazed I am that something that sits on our shoulders is 
+
+the most sophisticated object we know about in the universe. As Dr. 
+David Eagleman says, “What a perplexing masterpiece the brain is, and 
+how lucky we are to be in a generation that has the technology and the 
+will to turn our attention to it. It is the most wondrous thing we have 
+discovered in the universe, and it is us.” Instead of diminishing the sense 
+of wonder, learning about the brain only increases it. 
+
+More than two thousand years ago, Socrates said, “To know thyself is 
+the beginning of wisdom.” We are on a long journey to complete his 
+wishes. 
+
+APPENDIX 
+
+QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS?"
+"APPENDIX 
+
+QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS? 
+
+In spite of all the miraculous advances in brain scans and high 
+technology, some people claim that we will never understand the secret 
+of consciousness, since consciousness is beyond our puny technology. In 
+fact, in their view consciousness is more fundamental than atoms, 
+molecules, and neurons and determines the nature of reality itself. To 
+them, consciousness is the fundamental entity out of which the material 
+world is created. And to prove their point, they refer to one of the 
+greatest paradoxes in all of science, which challenges our very definition 
+of reality: the Schrodinger’s Cat paradox. Even today, there is no 
+universal consensus on the question, with Nobel laureates taking 
+divergent stances. What is at stake is nothing less than the nature of 
+reality and thought."
+"The Schrodinger’s Cat paradox cuts to the very foundation of quantum 
+mechanics, a field that makes lasers, MRI scans, radio and TV, modern 
+electronics, the GPS, and telecommunications possible, upon which the 
+world economy depends. Many of quantum theory’s predictions have 
+been tested to an accuracy of one part in one hundred billion. 
+
+I have spent my entire professional career working on the quantum 
+theory. Yet I realize that it has feet of clay. It’s an unsettling feeling 
+knowing my life’s work is based on a theory whose very foundation is 
+based on a paradox."
+"This debate was sparked by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger, who 
+was one of the founding fathers of the quantum theory. He was trying to 
+explain the strange behavior of electrons, which seemed to exhibit both 
+wave and particle properties. How can an electron, a point particle, have 
+two divergent behaviors? Sometimes electrons acted like a particle, 
+creating well-defined tracks in a cloud chamber. Other times, electrons 
+acted like a wave, passing through tiny holes and creating wavelike 
+interference patterns, like those on the surface of a pond. 
+
+In 1925, Schrodinger put forward his celebrated wave equation, which"
+"In 1925, Schrodinger put forward his celebrated wave equation, which 
+
+bears his name and is one of the most important equations ever written. 
+It was an instant sensation, and won him the Nobel Prize in 1933. The 
+Schrodinger equation accurately described the wavelike behavior of 
+electrons and, when applied to the hydrogen atom, explained its strange 
+properties. Miraculously, it could also be applied to any atom and 
+explain most of the features of the periodic table of elements. It seemed 
+as if all chemistry (and hence all biology) were nothing but solutions of 
+this wave equation. Some physicists even claimed that the entire 
+universe, including all the stars, planets, and even us, was nothing but a 
+solution of this equation. 
+
+But then physicists began to ask a problematic question that resonates 
+even today: If the electron is described by a wave equation, then what is 
+waving?"
+"In 1927, Werner Heisenberg proposed a new principle that split the 
+physics community down the middle. Heisenberg’s celebrated 
+uncertainty principle states that you cannot know both the location and 
+the momentum of an electron with certainty. This uncertainty was not a 
+function of how crude your instruments were but was inherent in 
+physics itself. Even God or some celestial being could not know the 
+precise location and momentum of an electron. 
+
+So the wave function of Schrodinger actually described the probability 
+of finding the electron. Scientists had spent thousands of years painfully 
+
+trying to eliminate chance and probabilities in their work, and now 
+Heisenberg was allowing it in through the back door. 
+
+The new philosophy can be summed up as follows: the electron is a 
+point particle, but the probability of finding it is given by a wave. And 
+this wave obeys Schrodinger’s equation and gives rise to the uncertainty 
+principle."
+"The physics community cracked in half. On one side, we had 
+physicists like Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and most atomic 
+physicists eagerly adopting this new formulation. Almost daily, they 
+were announcing new breakthroughs in understanding the properties of 
+matter. Nobel Prizes were being handed out to quantum physicists like 
+Oscars. Quantum mechanics was becoming a cookbook. You did not 
+need to be a master physicist to make stellar contributions—you just 
+followed the recipes given by quantum mechanics and you would make 
+stunning breakthroughs. 
+
+On the other side, we had aging Nobel laureates like Albert Einstein, 
+Erwin Schrodinger, and Louis de Broglie who were raising philosophical 
+objections. Schrodinger, whose work helped start this whole process, 
+grumbled that if he had known that his equation would introduce 
+probability into physics, he would never have created it in the first 
+place."
+"Physicists embarked on an eighty-year debate that continues even 
+today. On one hand, Einstein would proclaim that “God does not play 
+dice with the world.” Niels Bohr, on the other hand, reportedly replied, 
+“Stop telling God what to do.” 
+
+In 1935, to demolish the quantum physicists once and for all, 
+Schrodinger proposed his celebrated cat problem. Place a cat in a sealed 
+box, with a container of poison gas. In the box, there is a lump of 
+uranium. The uranium atom is unstable and emits particles that can be 
+detected by a Geiger counter. The counter triggers a hammer, which falls 
+and breaks the glass, releasing the gas, which can kill the cat."
+"How do you describe the cat? A quantum physicist would say that the 
+uranium atom is described by a wave, which can either decay or not 
+decay. Therefore you have to add the two waves together. If the uranium 
+fires, then the cat dies, so that is described by one wave. If the uranium 
+does not fire, then the cat lives, and that is also described by a wave. To 
+describe the cat, you therefore have to add the wave of a dead cat to the 
+wave of a live cat. 
+
+This means that the cat is neither dead nor alive! The cat is in a 
+netherworld, between life and death, the sum of the wave describing a 
+
+dead cat with the wave of a live cat. 
+
+This is the crux of the problem, which has reverberated in the halls of 
+physics for almost a century. So how do you resolve this paradox? There 
+are at least three ways (and hundreds of variations on these three)."
+"The first is the original Copenhagen interpretation proposed by Bohr 
+and Heisenberg, the one that is quoted in textbooks around the world. (It 
+is the one that I start with when I teach quantum mechanics.) It says that 
+to determine the state of the cat, you must open the box and make a 
+measurement. The cat’s wave (which was the sum of a dead cat and a 
+live cat) now “collapses” into a single wave, so the cat is now known to 
+be alive (or dead). Thus, observation determines the existence and state 
+of the cat. The measurement process is thus responsible for two waves 
+
+magically dissolving into a single wave."
+"magically dissolving into a single wave. 
+
+Einstein hated this. For centuries, scientists have battled something 
+called “solipsism” or “subjective idealism,” which claims that objects 
+cannot exist unless there is someone there to observe them. Only the 
+mind is real—the material world exists only as ideas in the mind. Thus, 
+say the solipsists (such as Bishop George Berkeley), if a tree falls in the 
+forest but no one is there to observe it, perhaps the tree never fell. 
+Einstein, who thought all this was pure nonsense, promoted an opposing 
+theory called “objective reality,” which says simply that the universe 
+exists in a unique, definite state independent of any human observation. 
+It is the commonsense view of most people."
+"Objective reality goes back to Isaac Newton. In this scenario, the atom 
+and subatomic particles are like tiny steel balls, which exist at definite 
+points in space and time. There is no ambiguity or chance in locating the 
+position of these balls, whose motions can be determined by using the 
+laws of motion. Objective reality was spectacularly successful in 
+describing the motions of planets, stars, and galaxies. Using relativity, 
+this idea can also describe black holes and the expanding universe. But 
+there is one place where it fails miserably, and that is inside the atom. 
+
+Classical physicists like Newton and Einstein thought that objective 
+reality finally banished solipsism from physics. Walter Lippmann, the 
+columnist, summed it up when he wrote, “The radical novelty of modern 
+science lies precisely in the rejection of the belief ... that the forces 
+which move the stars and atoms are contingent upon the preferences of 
+the human heart.”"
+"But quantum mechanics allowed a new form of solipsism back into 
+physics. In this picture, before it is observed, a tree can exist in any 
+possible state (e.g., sapling, burned, sawdust, toothpicks, decayed). But 
+
+when you look at it, the wave suddenly collapses and it looks like a tree. 
+The original solipsists talked about trees that either fell or didn’t. The 
+new quantum solipsists were introducing all possible states of a tree. 
+
+This was too much for Einstein. He would ask guests at his house, 
+“Does the moon exist because a mouse looks at it?” To a quantum 
+physicist, in some sense the answer might be yes. 
+
+Einstein and his colleagues would challenge Bohr by asking: How can 
+the quantum microworld (with cats being dead and alive 
+simultaneously) coexist with the commonsense world we see around us?"
+"The answer was that there is a “wall” that separates our world from the 
+atomic world. On one side of the wall, common sense rules. On the other 
+side of the wall, the quantum theory rules. You can move the wall if you 
+want and the results are still the same. 
+
+This interpretation, no matter how strange, has been taught for eighty 
+years by quantum physicists. More recently, there have been some 
+doubts cast on the Copenhagen interpretation. Today we have 
+nanotechnology, with which we can manipulate individual atoms at will. 
+On a scanning tunneling microscope screen, atoms appear to be fuzzy 
+tennis balls. (For BBC-TV, I had a chance to fly out to IBM’s Almaden 
+Lab in San Jose, California, and actually push individual atoms around 
+with a tiny probe. It is now possible to play with atoms, which were 
+once thought to be so small they could never be seen.)"
+"As we’ve discussed, the Age of Silicon is slowly coming to an end, and 
+some believe that molecular transistors will replace silicon transistors. If 
+so, then the paradoxes of the quantum theory may lie at the very heart 
+of every computer of the future. The world economy may eventually rest 
+on these paradoxes. 
+
+COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS AND MULTIPLE UNIVERSES 
+
+There are two alternate interpretations of the cat paradox, which take us 
+to the strangest realms in all science: the realm of God and multiple 
+universes. 
+
+In 1967, the second resolution to the cat problem was formulated by 
+Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner, whose work was pivotal in laying the 
+foundation of quantum mechanics and also building the atomic bomb. 
+He said that only a conscious person can make an observation that 
+collapses the wave function. But who is to say that this person exists? 
+You cannot separate the observer from the observed, so maybe this"
+"person is also dead and alive. In other words, there has to be a new 
+wave function that includes both the cat and the observer. To make sure 
+that the observer is alive, you need a second observer to watch the first 
+observer. This second observer is called “Wigner’s friend,” and is 
+necessary to watch the first observer so that all waves collapse. But how 
+do we know that the second observer is alive? The second observer has 
+
+to be included in a still-larger wave function to make sure he is alive, 
+but this can be continued indefinitely. Since you need an infinite number 
+of “friends” to collapse the previous wave function to make sure they are 
+alive, you need some form of “cosmic consciousness,” or God. 
+
+Wigner concluded: “It was not possible to formulate the laws (of 
+quantum theory) in a fully consistent way without reference to 
+consciousness.” Toward the end of his life, he even became interested in 
+the Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism."
+"In this approach, God or some eternal consciousness watches over all 
+of us, collapsing our wave functions so that we can say we are alive. This 
+interpretation yields the same physical results as the Copenhagen 
+interpretation, so this theory cannot be disproven. But the implication is 
+that consciousness is the fundamental entity in the universe, more 
+fundamental than atoms. The material world may come and go, but 
+consciousness remains as the defining element, which means that 
+consciousness, in some sense, creates reality. The very existence of the 
+atoms we see around us is based on our ability to see and touch them."
+"(At this point, it’s important to note that some people think that 
+because consciousness determines existence, then consciousness can 
+therefore control existence, perhaps by meditation. They think that we 
+can create reality according to our wishes. This thinking, as attractive as 
+it might sound, goes against quantum mechanics. In quantum physics, 
+consciousness makes observations and therefore determines the state of 
+reality, but consciousness cannot choose ahead of time which state of 
+reality actually exists. Quantum mechanics allows you only to determine 
+the chance of finding one state, but we cannot bend reality to our 
+wishes. For example, in gambling, it is possible to mathematically 
+calculate the chances of getting a royal flush. However, this does not 
+mean that you can somehow control the cards to get the royal flush. You 
+cannot pick and choose universes, just as we have no control over 
+whether the cat is dead or alive.) 
+
+MULTIPLE UNIVERSES"
+"MULTIPLE UNIVERSES 
+
+The third way to resolve the paradox is the Everett, or many-worlds, 
+
+interpretation, which was proposed in 1957 by Hugh Everett. It is the 
+
+strangest theory of all. It says that the universe is constantly splitting 
+apart into a multiverse of universes. In one universe, we have a dead cat. 
+In another universe, we have a live cat. This approach can be 
+summarized as follows: wave functions never collapse, they just split. 
+The Everett many-worlds theory differs from the Copenhagen 
+interpretation only in that it drops the final assumption: the collapse of 
+the wave function. In some sense, it is the simplest formulation of 
+quantum mechanics, but also the most disturbing. 
+
+There are profound consequences to this third approach. It means that 
+all possible universes might exist, even ones that are bizarre and 
+seemingly impossible. (However, the more bizarre the universe, the 
+more unlikely it is.)"
+"This means people who have died in our universe are still alive in 
+another universe. And these dead people insist that their universe is the 
+correct one, and that our universe (in which they are dead) is fake. But if 
+these “ghosts” of dead people are still alive somewhere, then why can’t 
+we meet them? Why can’t we touch these parallel worlds? (As strange as 
+it may seem, in this picture Elvis is still alive in one of these universes.)"
+"What’s more, some of these universes may be dead, without any life, 
+but others may look exactly like ours, except for one key difference. For 
+example, the collision of a single cosmic ray is a tiny quantum event. But 
+what happens if this cosmic ray goes through Adolf Hitler’s mother, and 
+the infant Hitler dies in a miscarriage? Then a tiny quantum event, the 
+collision of a single cosmic ray, causes the universe to split in half. In 
+one universe, World War II never happened, and sixty million people did 
+not have to die. In the other universe, we’ve had the ravages of World 
+War II. These two universes grow to be quite far apart, yet they are 
+initially separated by one tiny quantum event."
+"This phenomenon was explored by science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick 
+in his novel The Man in the High Tower, where a parallel universe opens 
+up because of a single event: a bullet is fired at Franklin Roosevelt, who 
+is killed by an assassin. This pivotal event means that the United States 
+is not prepared for World War II, and the Nazis and Japanese are 
+victorious and eventually partition the United States in half. 
+
+But whether the bullet fires or misfires depends, in turn, on whether a 
+microscopic spark is set off in the gunpowder, which itself depends on 
+complex molecular reactions involving the motions of electrons. So 
+
+perhaps quantum fluctuations in the gunpowder may determine whether 
+the gun fires or misfires, which in turn determines whether the Allies or 
+the Nazis emerge victorious during World War II."
+"So there is no “wall” separating the quantum world and the 
+macroworld. The bizarre features of the quantum theory can creep into 
+our “commonsense” world. These wave functions never collapse—they 
+keep splitting endlessly into parallel realities. The creation of alternative 
+universes never stops. The paradoxes of the microworld (i.e., being dead 
+and alive simultaneously, being in two places at the same time, 
+disappearing and reappearing somewhere else) now enter into our world 
+as well. 
+
+But if the wave function is continually splitting apart, creating entirely 
+new universes in the process, then why can’t we visit them?"
+"Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg compares this to listening to the radio 
+in your living room. There are hundreds of radio waves simultaneously 
+filling up your room from all over the world, but your radio dial is tuned 
+to only one frequency. In other words, your radio has “decohered” from 
+all the other stations. (Coherence is when all waves vibrate in perfect 
+unison, as in a laser beam. Decoherence is when these waves begin to 
+fall out of phase, so they no longer vibrate in unison.) These other 
+frequencies all exist, but your radio cannot pick them up because they 
+are not vibrating at the same frequency that we are anymore. They have 
+decoupled; that is, they have decohered from us."
+"In the same way, the wave function of the dead and alive cat have 
+decohered as time goes on. The implications are rather staggering. In 
+your living room, you coexist with the waves of dinosaurs, pirates, aliens 
+from space, and monsters. Yet you are blissfully unaware that you are 
+sharing the same space as these strange denizens of quantum space, 
+because your atoms are no longer vibrating in unison with them. These 
+parallel universes do not exist in some distant never-never land. They 
+exist in your living room. 
+
+Entering one of these parallel worlds is called “quantum jumping” or 
+“sliding” and is a favorite gimmick of science fiction. To enter a parallel 
+universe, we need to take a quantum jump into it. (There was even a TV 
+series called Sliders where people slide back and forth between parallel 
+universes. The series began when a young boy read a book. That book is 
+actually my book Hyperspace, but I take no responsibility for the physics 
+
+behind that series.)"
+"behind that series.) 
+
+Actually, it’s not so simple to jump between universes. One problem 
+we sometimes give our Ph.D. students is to calculate the probability that 
+
+you will jump through a brick wall and wind up on the other side. The 
+result is sobering. You would have to wait longer than the lifetime of the 
+universe to experience jumping or sliding through a brick wall. 
+
+LOOKING IN THE MIRROR"
+"LOOKING IN THE MIRROR 
+
+When I look at myself in a mirror, I don’t really see myself as I truly am. 
+First, I see myself about a billionth of a second ago, since that is the time 
+that it takes a light beam to leave my face, hit a mirror, and enter my 
+eyes. Second, the image I see is really an average over billions and 
+billions of wave functions. This average certainly does resemble my 
+image, but it is not exact. Surrounding me are multiple images of myself 
+oozing in all directions. I am continually surrounded by alternate 
+universes, forever branching into different worlds, but the probability of 
+sliding between them is so tiny that Newtonian mechanics seems to be 
+correct."
+"At this point, some people ask this question: Why don’t scientists 
+simply do an experiment to determine which interpretation is valid? If 
+we run an experiment with an electron, all three interpretations will 
+yield the same result. All three are therefore serious, viable 
+interpretations of quantum mechanics, with the same underlying 
+quantum theory. What is different is how we explain the results. 
+
+Hundreds of years in the future, physicists and philosophers may still 
+be debating this question, with no resolution, because all three 
+interpretations yield the same physical results. But perhaps there is one 
+way in which this philosophical debate touches on the brain, and that is 
+the question of free will, which in turn affects the moral foundation of 
+human society. 
+
+FREE W ILT. 
+
+Our entire civilization is based on the concept of free will, which 
+impacts on the notions of reward, punishment, and personal"
+"responsibility. But does free will really exist? Or is it a clever way of 
+keeping society together although it violates scientific principles? The 
+controversy goes to the very heart of quantum mechanics itself. 
+
+It is safe to say that more and more neuroscientists are gradually 
+coming to the conclusion that free will does not exist, at least not in the 
+usual sense. If certain bizarre behaviors can be linked to precise defects 
+
+in the brain, then a person is not scientifically responsible for the crimes 
+he might commit. He might be too dangerous to be left walking the 
+streets and must be locked up in an institution of some sort, but 
+punishing someone for having a stroke or tumor in the brain is 
+misguided, they say. What that person needs is medical and 
+psychological help. Perhaps the brain damage can be treated (e.g., by 
+removing a tumor), and the person can become a productive member of 
+society."
+"For example, when I interviewed Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen, a 
+psychologist at Cambridge University, he told me that many (but not all) 
+pathological killers have a brain anomaly. Their brain scans show that 
+they lack empathy when seeing someone else in pain, and in fact they 
+might even take pleasure in watching this suffering (in these individuals, 
+the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens, the pleasure center, light up 
+when they view videos of people experiencing pain). 
+
+The conclusion some might draw from this is that these people are not 
+truly responsible for their heinous acts, although they should still be 
+removed from society. They need help, not punishment, because of a 
+problem with their brain. In a sense, they may not be acting with free 
+will when they commit their crimes."
+"An experiment done by Dr. Benjamin Libet in 1985 casts doubt on the 
+very existence of free will. Let’s say that you are asking subjects to watch 
+a clock and then to note precisely when they decide to move a finger. 
+Using EEG scans, one can detect exactly when the brain makes this 
+decision. When you compare the two times, you will find a mismatch. 
+The EEG scans show that the brain has actually made the decision about 
+three hundred milliseconds before the person becomes aware of it. 
+
+This means that, in some sense, free will is a fake. Decisions are made 
+ahead of time by the brain, without the input of consciousness, and then 
+later the brain tries to cover this up (as it’s wont to do) by claiming that 
+the decision was conscious. Dr. Michael Sweeney concludes, “Libet’s 
+
+findings suggested that the brain knows what a person will decide before 
+the person does.... The world must reassess not only the idea of 
+movements divided between voluntary and involuntary, but also the 
+very idea of free will.”"
+"All this seems to indicate that free will, the cornerstone of society, is a 
+fiction, an illusion created by our left brain. So are we masters of our 
+fate, or just pawns in a swindle perpetuated by the brain? 
+
+There are several ways to approach this sticky question. Free will goes 
+against a philosophy called determinism, which simply says that all 
+
+future events are determined by physical laws. According to Newton 
+himself, the universe was some sort of clock, ticking away since the 
+beginning of time, obeying the laws of motion. Hence all events are 
+predictable. 
+
+The question is: Are we part of this clock? Are all our actions also 
+determined? These questions have philosophical and theological 
+implications. For example, most religions adhere to some form of 
+determinism and predestination. Since God is omnipotent, omniscient, 
+and omnipresent, He knows the future, and hence the future is 
+determined ahead of time. He knows even before you are born whether 
+you will go to Heaven or Hell."
+"The Catholic Church split in half on this precise question during the 
+Protestant revolution. According to Catholic doctrine at that time, one 
+could change one’s ultimate fate with an indulgence, usually by making 
+generous financial donations to the Church. In other words, determinism 
+could be altered by the size of your wallet. Martin Luther specifically 
+singled out the corruption of the Church over indulgences when he 
+tacked his 95 Theses on the door of a church in 1517, triggering the 
+Protestant Reformation. This was one of the key reasons why the Church 
+split down the middle, causing casualties in the millions and laying 
+waste to entire regions of Europe."
+"But after 1925, uncertainty was introduced into physics via quantum 
+mechanics. Suddenly everything became uncertain; all you could 
+calculate was probabilities. In this sense, perhaps free will does exist, 
+and it’s a manifestation of quantum mechanics. So some claim that the 
+quantum theory reestablishes the concept of free will. The determinists 
+have fought back, however, claiming that quantum effects are extremely 
+small (at the level of atoms), too small to account for the free will of 
+
+large human beings. 
+
+The situation today is actually rather muddled. Perhaps the question 
+“Does free will exist?” is like the question “What is life?” The discovery 
+of DNA has rendered that question about life obsolete. We now realize 
+that the question has many layers and complexities. Perhaps the same 
+applies to free will, and there are many types."
+"If so, the very definition of “free will” becomes ambiguous. For 
+example, one way to define free will is to ask whether behavior can be 
+predicted. If free will exists, then behavior cannot be determined ahead 
+of time. Let’s say you watch a movie, for example. The plot is completely 
+determined, with no free will whatsoever. So the movie is completely 
+predictable. But our world cannot be like a movie, for two reasons. The 
+first is the quantum theory, as we have seen. The movie represents only 
+
+one possible timeline. The second reason is chaos theory. Although 
+classical physics says that all of the motions of atoms are completely 
+determined and predictable, in practice it is impossible to predict their 
+motions because there are so many atoms involved. The slightest 
+disturbance of a single atom can have a ripple effect, which can cascade 
+down to create enormous disturbances."
+"Think of the weather. In principle, if you knew the behavior of every 
+atom in the air, you could predict the weather a century from now if you 
+had a big enough computer. But in practice, this is impossible. After just 
+a few hours, the weather becomes so turbulent and complex that any 
+computer simulation is rendered useless. 
+
+This creates what is called the “butterfly effect,” which means that 
+even the beat of butterfly wings can cause tiny ripples in the 
+atmosphere, which grow and in turn can escalate into a thunderstorm. 
+So if even the flapping of butterfly wings can create thunderstorms, the 
+hope of accurately predicting the weather is far-fetched. 
+
+Let’s go back to the thought experiment described to me by Stephen 
+Jay Gould. He asked me to imagine Earth 4.5 billion years ago, when it 
+was born. Now imagine you could somehow create an identical copy of 
+Earth, and let it evolve. Would we still be here on this different Earth 4.5 
+billion years later?"
+"One could easily imagine, due to quantum effects or the chaotic nature 
+of the weather and oceans, that humanity would never evolve into 
+precisely the same creatures on this version of Earth. So ultimately, it 
+
+seems a combination of uncertainty and chaos makes a perfectly 
+deterministic world impossible. 
+
+THE QUANTUM BRAIN 
+
+This debate also affects the reverse engineering of the brain. If you can 
+successfully reverse engineer a brain made of transistors, this success 
+implies that the brain is deterministic and predictable. Ask it any 
+question and it repeats the exact same answer. Computers are 
+deterministic in this way, since they always give the same answer for 
+any question. 
+
+So it seems we have a problem. On one hand, quantum mechanics and 
+chaos theory claim that the universe is not predictable, and therefore, 
+free will seems to exist. But a reverse-engineered brain, made of 
+transistors, would by definition be predictable. Since the reverse-"
+"engineered brain is theoretically identical to a living brain, then the 
+human brain is also deterministic and there is no free will. Clearly, this 
+contradicts the first statement."
+"A minority of scientists claim that you cannot authentically reverse 
+engineer the brain, or ever create a true thinking machine, because of 
+the quantum theory. The brain, they argue, is a quantum device, not just 
+a collection of transistors. Hence this project is doomed to fail. In this 
+camp is Oxford physicist Dr. Roger Penrose, an authority on Einstein’s 
+theory of relativity, who claims that it is quantum processes that may 
+account for the consciousness of the human brain. Penrose starts by 
+saying that mathematician Kurt Godel has proven that arithmetic is 
+incomplete; that is, that there are true statements in arithmetic that 
+cannot be proven using the axioms of arithmetic. Similarly, not only is 
+mathematics incomplete, but so is physics. He concludes by stating that 
+the brain is basically a quantum mechanical device and there are 
+problems that no machine can solve because of Godel’s incompleteness 
+theorem. Humans, however, can make sense of these conundrums using 
+intuition."
+"Similarly, the reverse-engineered brain, no matter how complex, is 
+still a collection of transistors and wires. In such a deterministic system, 
+you can accurately predict its future behavior because the laws of 
+
+motion are well known. In a quantum system, however, the system is 
+inherently unpredictable. All you can calculate are the chances that 
+something will occur, because of the uncertainty principle. 
+
+If it turns out that the reverse-engineered brain cannot reproduce 
+human behavior, then scientists may be forced to admit that there are 
+unpredictable forces at work (i.e., quantum effects inside the brain). Dr. 
+Penrose argues that inside the neuron there are tiny structures, called 
+microtubules, where quantum processes dominate."
+"At present, there is no consensus on this problem. Judging from the 
+reaction to Penrose’s idea when it was first proposed, it would be safe to 
+say that most of the scientific community is skeptical of his approach. 
+Science, however, is never conducted as a popularity contest, but instead 
+advances through testable, reproducible, and falsifiable theories. 
+
+For my own part, I believe transistors cannot truly model all the 
+behaviors of neurons, which carry out both analog and digital 
+calculations. We know that neurons are messy. They can leak, misfire, 
+age, die, and are sensitive to the environment. To me, this suggests that 
+a collection of transistors can only approximately model the behavior of 
+neurons. For example, we saw earlier, in discussing the physics of the 
+brain, that if the axon of the neuron becomes thinner, then it begins to"
+"leak and also does not carry out chemical reactions that well. Some of 
+this leakage and these misfires will be due to quantum effects. As you try 
+to imagine neurons that are thinner, denser, and faster, quantum effects 
+become more obvious. This means that even for normal neurons there 
+are problems of leakage and instabilities, and these problems exist both 
+classically and quantum mechanically. 
+
+In conclusion, a reverse-engineered robot will give a good but not 
+perfect approximation of the human brain. Unlike Penrose, I think it is 
+possible to create a deterministic robot out of transistors that gives the 
+appearance of consciousness, but without any free will. It will pass the 
+Turing test. But I think there will be differences between such a robot 
+and humans due to these tiny quantum effects."
+"Ultimately, I think free will probably does exist, but it is not the free 
+will envisioned by rugged individualists who claim they are complete 
+masters of their fate. The brain is influenced by thousands of 
+unconscious factors that predispose us to make certain choices ahead of 
+time, even if we think we made them ourselves. This does not 
+
+necessarily mean that we are actors in a film that can be rewound 
+anytime. The end of the movie hasn’t been written yet, so strict 
+determinism is destroyed by a subtle combination of quantum effects 
+and chaos theory. In the end, we are still masters of our destiny. 
+
+NOTES 
+
+INTRODUCTION"
+"NOTES 
+
+INTRODUCTION 
+
+1 You may have to travel: To see this, define “complex” in terms of the 
+total amount of information that can be stored. The closest rival to the 
+brain might be the information contained within our DNA. There are 
+three billion base pairs in our DNA, each one containing one of four 
+nucleic acids, labeled A,T,C,G. Therefore the total amount of 
+information we can store in our DNA is four raised to the three- 
+billionth power. But the brain can store much more information 
+among its one hundred billion neurons, which can either fire or not 
+fire. Hence, there are two raised to the one-hundred-billionth power 
+possible initial states of the human brain. But while DNA is static, the 
+states of the brain change every few milliseconds. A simple thought 
+may contain one hundred generations of neural firings. Hence, there 
+are two raised to one hundred billion, all raised to the hundredth 
+power, possible thoughts contained in one hundred generations. But"
+"our brains are continually firing, day and night, ceaselessly 
+computing. Therefore the total number of thoughts possible within N 
+generations is two raised to the one-hundred-billionth power, all 
+raised to the Nth power, which is truly astronomical. Therefore the 
+amount of information that we can store in our brains far exceeds the 
+information stored within our DNA by a wide margin. In fact, it is the 
+largest amount of information that we can store in our solar system, 
+and even possibly in our sector of the Milky Way galaxy. 
+
+2 “The most valuable insights”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 89. 
+
+3 “All of these questions that philosophers”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 
+137. 
+
+CHAPTER 1: UNLOCKING THE MIND 
+
+1 He was semiconscious for weeks: See Sweeney, pp. 207-8. 
+
+2 Dr. John Harlow, the doctor who treated: Carter, p. 24. 
+
+3 In the year A.D. 43, records show: Horstman, p. 87. 
+
+4 “It was like ... standing in the doorway”: Carter, p. 28. 
+
+5 The Transparent Brain: New York Times, April 10, 2013, p. 1."
+"5 The Transparent Brain: New York Times, April 10, 2013, p. 1. 
+
+6 “Emotions are not feelings at all”: Carter, p. 83. 
+
+7 the mind is more like a “society of minds”: Interview with Dr. 
+Minsky for the BBC-TV series Visions of the Future, February 2007. 
+Also, interview for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast, 
+November 2009. 
+
+8 consciousness was like a storm raging: Interview with Dr. Pinker in 
+September 2003 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+9 “the intuitive feeling we have”: Pinker, “The Riddle of Knowing 
+You’re Here,” in Your Brain: A User’s Guide (New York: Time Inc. 
+Specials, 2011). 
+
+10 Consciousness turns out to consist of: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 111. 
+
+11 “indeed a conscious system in its own right”: Carter, p. 52. 
+
+12 I asked him how experiments: Interview with Dr. Michael 
+Gazzaniga in September 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio 
+broadcast. 
+
+13 “The possible implications of this”: Carter, p. 53. 
+
+14 “If that person dies, what happens?”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 119."
+"14 “If that person dies, what happens?”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 119. 
+
+15 a young king who inherits: Interview with Dr. David Eagleman in 
+May 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+16 “people named Denise or Dennis”: Eagleman, p. 63. 
+
+17 “at least 15 % of human females”: Eagleman, p. 43. 
+
+CHAPTER 2: CONSCIOUSNESS—A PHYSICIST’S VIEWPOINT 
+
+1 “We cannot see ultraviolet light”: Pinker, How the Mind Works, pp. 
+561-65. 
+
+2 “Everybody knows what consciousness is”: Biological Bulletin 215, 
+no. 3 (December 2008): 216."
+"2 “Everybody knows what consciousness is”: Biological Bulletin 215, 
+no. 3 (December 2008): 216. 
+
+3 We will do so in the notes: Level II consciousness can be counted by 
+listing the total number of distinct feedback loops when an animal 
+interacts with members of its species. As a rough guess, Level II 
+consciousness can be approximated by multiplying the number of 
+others in an animal’s pack or tribe, multiplied by the total number of 
+distinct emotions or gestures it uses to communicate with others. 
+There are caveats to this ranking, however, since this is just a first 
+guess. 
+
+For example, animals like the wildcat are social, but they are also 
+solitary hunters, so it appears as if the number of animals in its pack is 
+one. But that is true only when it is hunting. When it is time to 
+reproduce, wildcats engage in complex mating rituals, so its Level II 
+consciousness must take this into account."
+"Furthermore, when female wildcats give birth to litters of kittens, 
+which have to be nursed and fed, the number of social interactions 
+increases as a consequence. So even for solitary hunters, the number 
+of members of its species that it interacts with is not one, and the total 
+number of distinct feedback loops can be quite large. 
+
+Also, if the number of wolves in the pack decreases, then it appears 
+as if its Level II number decreases correspondingly. To account for 
+this, we have to introduce the concept of an average Level II number 
+that is common for the entire species, as well as a specific Level II 
+consciousness for an individual animal. 
+
+The average Level II number for a given species does not change if 
+the pack gets smaller, because it is common for the entire species, but 
+the individual Level II number (because it measures individual mental 
+activity and consciousness) does change."
+"When applied to humans, the average Level II number must take 
+into account the Dunbar number, which is 150, and represents roughly 
+
+the number of people in our social grouping that we can keep track of. 
+So the Level II number for humans as a species would be the total 
+number of distinct emotions and gestures we use to communicate, 
+multiplied by the Dunbar number of 150. (Individuals can have 
+different levels of Level II consciousness, since their circle of friends 
+and the ways they interact with them can vary considerably.) 
+
+We should also note that certain Level I organisms (like insects and 
+reptiles) can exhibit social behaviors. Ants, when they bump into one 
+another, exchange information via chemical scents, and bees dance to 
+communicate the location of flower beds. Reptiles even have a 
+primitive limbic system. But in the main, they do not exhibit 
+emotions. 
+
+4 “The difference between man”: Gazzaniga, p. 27. 
+
+5 “The greatest achievement of the human brain”: Gilbert, p. 5."
+"5 “The greatest achievement of the human brain”: Gilbert, p. 5. 
+
+6 “area 10 (the internal granular layer IV)”: Gazzaniga, p. 20. 
+
+7 The male gets confused, because it wants: Eagleman, p. 144. 
+
+8 “I predict that mirror neurons”: Brockman, p. xiii. 
+
+9 Biologist Carl Zimmer writes: Bloom, p. 51. 
+
+10 “Most of the time we daydream”: Bloom, p. 51. 
+
+Ill asked one person who may: Interview with Dr. Michael Gazzaniga 
+in September 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+12 “It is the left hemisphere”: Gazzaniga, p. 85. 
+
+CHAPTER 3: TELEPATHY—A PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS 
+
+1 Indeed, in a recent “Next 5 in 5”: http://www.ibm.com/5in5. 
+
+2 I had the pleasure of touring: Interview with Dr. Gallant on July 11, 
+
+2012, at the University of California, Berkeley. Also, interview with 
+Dr. Gallant on Science Fantastic for national radio, July 2012. 
+
+3 “This is a major leap forward”: Berkeleyan Newsletter, September 
+22, 2011, http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/09/22/brain-movies."
+"4 “If you take 200 voxels”: Brockman, p. 236. 
+
+5 Dr. Brian Pasley and his colleagues: Visit to Dr. Pasley’s laboratory 
+on July 11, 2012, at the University of California, Berkeley. 
+
+6 Similar results were obtained: The Brain Institute, University of 
+Utah, Salt Lake City, http://brain.utah.edu. 
+
+7 This could have applications for artists: http://io9/543338/a- 
+device-that-lets-io9.com/543338/a-device-that-lets-ou-type-with-your- 
+mind. 
+
+8 According to their officials: http://news.discovery.com/tech/type- 
+with-your-mind-110309.html. 
+
+9 being explored by Dr. David Poeppel: Discover Magazine Presents the 
+Brain, Spring 2012, p. 43. 
+
+10 In 1993 in Germany: Scientific American, November 2008, p. 68. 
+
+11 The only justification for its existence: Garreau, pp. 23-24. 
+
+12 I once had lunch with: Symposium on the future of science 
+sponsored by the Science Fiction Channel at the Chabot Pace and 
+Science Center, Oakland, California, in May 2004."
+"13 On another occasion: Conference in Anaheim, California, April 
+2009. 
+
+14 He says, “Imagine if soldiers”: Garreau, p. 22. 
+
+15 “What he is doing is spending”: Ibid., p. 19. 
+
+16 When I asked Dr. Nishimoto: Visit to Dr. Gallant’s laboratory at the 
+University of California, Berkeley, on July 11, 2012. 
+
+17 “There are ethical concerns”: http://www.nbcnews.com/ 
+id/47447302/ns/health-health_care/t/paralyzed-woman-gets-robotic- 
+arm.html. 
+
+CHAPTER 4: TELEKINESIS: MIND CONTROLLING MATTER 
+
+1 “I would love to have”: New York Times, May 17, 2012, p. A17 and 
+http://www.msnbc.mns.eom/id/47447302/ns/health-health_care/t/ 
+parallyzed-woman-gets-robotic-arm.html. 
+
+2 “We have taken a tiny sensor”: Interview with Dr. John Donoghue in 
+November 2009 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+3 In the United States alone, more than two hundred thousand: 
+
+Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Washington, D.C. http:// 
+www. ede. go v/traumatiebraininj ury/scifacts. html ."
+"4 When the monkey wanted to move: 
+
+http://physio.northwestern.edu/faculty/miller.htm; http://www. 
+
+northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2012/04/miller-paralyzed- 
+
+technology.html. 
+
+5 “We are eavesdropping on the natural”: http://www.northwestern. 
+edu/newscenter/stories/2012/04/miller-paralyzed-technology.html. 
+
+6 More than 1,300 service members: http://www.darpa.mil/Our_ 
+Work/DSO/Programs/Revolutionizing_Prosthetics.aspx. CBS 60 
+Minutes, broadcast on December 30, 2012. 
+
+7 “They thought we were crazy”: Ibid. 
+
+8 she appeared on 60 Minutes: Ibid. 
+
+9 “There’s going to be a whole ecosystem”: Wall Street Journal, May 
+29, 2012. 
+
+10 But perhaps the most novel applications: Interview with Dr. 
+Nicolelis in April 2011 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast."
+"11 Smart Hands and Mind Melds: New York Times, March 13, 2013, 
+http://nytimes.com/2013/03/01/science/new-research-suggests-two- 
+rat-brains-can-be-linked. See also Huffington Post, February 28, 2013, 
+http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/28/mind-melds-brain- 
+communication_n_2781609.html. 
+
+12 In 2013, the next important step: USA Today, August 8, 2013, p. 
+ID. 
+
+13 About ten years ago: Interview with Dr. Nicolelis in April 2011. 
+
+14 “so there’s nothing sticking out”: For a full discussion of the 
+exoskeleton, see Nicolelis, pp. 303-7. 
+
+15 The Honda Corporation has: http://www.asimo.honda.com. Also, 
+interview with the creators of ASIMO in April 2007 for the BBC-TV 
+series Visions of the Future. 
+
+16 Eventually, you get the hang: http://discovermagazine.com/2007/ 
+may/re vie w-test- driving- the -future . 
+
+17 Then, by thinking, the patient: Discover, December 9, 2011, http:// 
+discovermagazine.com/2011/dec/09-mind-over-motor-controlling- 
+robots-with-your-thoughts."
+"18 “We will likely be able to operate”: Nicolelis, p. 315. 
+
+19 I saw a demonstration of this: Interview with the scientists at 
+Carnegie Mellon in August 2010 for the Discovery/Science Channel TV 
+series Sci Fi Science. 
+
+CHAPTER 5: MEMORIES AND THOUGHTS MADE TO ORDER 
+
+1 “It has all come together”: Wade, p. 89. 
+
+2 So far, scientists have identified: Ibid., p. 91. 
+
+3 For instance, Dr. Antonio Damasio: Damasio, pp. 130-53. 
+
+4 One fragment of memory might: Wade, p. 232. 
+
+5 “If you can’t do it”: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3488. 
+
+6 “Turn the switch on”: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011- 
+06/uosc-rmr06211 .php. 
+
+7 “Using implantables to enhance competency”: http://hplus 
+magazine.com/2009/03/18/artificial-hipppocampus. 
+
+8 Not surprisingly, with so much at stake: http://articles. 
+washingtonpost.com/2013-07-12/national/40863765_l_brain-cells- 
+mice-new-memories."
+"9 If encoding the memory: This brings up the question of whether 
+carrier pigeons, migratory birds, whales, etc., have a long-term 
+memory, given that they can migrate over hundreds to thousands of 
+
+miles in search of feeding and breeding grounds. Science knows little 
+about this question. But it is believed that their long-term memory is 
+based on locating certain landmarks along the way, rather than 
+recalling elaborate memories of past events. In other words, they do 
+not use memory of past events to help them simulate the future. Their 
+long-term memory consists of just a series of markers. Apparently, 
+only in humans are long-term memories used to help simulate the 
+future. 
+
+10 “The purpose of memory is”: Michael Lemonick, “Your Brain: A 
+User’s Guide,” Time, December 2011, p. 78. 
+
+11 “You might look at it”: http://sciencedaily.com/videos/2007/0210- 
+brain_scans_of_the_future.htm. 
+
+12 their study proves a “tentative answer”: http://www.sciencedaily. 
+com/videos/2007/0710."
+"12 their study proves a “tentative answer”: http://www.sciencedaily. 
+com/videos/2007/0710. 
+
+13 “The whole idea is that the device”: New York Times, September 
+
+12, 2012, p. A18. 
+
+14 “It will likely take us”: http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences- 
+features/58736-artificial-cerebellum-restores-rats. 
+
+15 There are 5.3 million Americans: Alzheimer’s Foundation of 
+America, http://www.alzfdn.org. 
+
+16 “This adds to the notion”: ScienceDaily.com, October 2009, http:// 
+www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091019122647.htm. 
+
+17 “We can never turn it into”: Ibid. 
+
+18 “This implies these flies have”: Wade, p. 113. 
+
+19 This effect is not just restricted: Ibid. 
+
+20 “We can now give you”: Ibid., p. 114. 
+
+21 Basically, the more CREB proteins: Bloom, p. 244. 
+
+22 “Propranolol sits on that nerve cell”: SATI e-News, June 28, 2007, 
+http://www.mysati.com/enews/June2007/ptsd.htm. 
+
+23 Its report concluded: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 104. 
+
+24 “Our breakups, our relationships”: Ibid."
+"23 Its report concluded: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 104. 
+
+24 “Our breakups, our relationships”: Ibid. 
+
+25 “should we deprive them of morphine”: Ibid., p. 105. 
+
+26 “If further work confirms this view”: Ibid., p. 106. 
+
+27 “Each of these perennial records”: Nicolelis, p. 318. 
+
+28 “Forgetting is the most beneficial process”: New Scientist, March 
+12, 2003, http://www.newscientists.com/article/dn3488. 
+
+CHAPTER 6: EINSTEIN’S BRAIN AND ENHANCING INTELLIGENCE 
+
+1 “got caught up in the moment”: 
+
+http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/einsteins-brain- 
+
+arrives-in-london-after-odd-journey. 
+
+2 “I have always maintained that”: Gould, p. 109. 
+
+3 “The human brain remains ‘plastic’ ”: www.sciencedaily.com/ 
+releases/2011/12/111208257120.htm. 
+
+4 “The emerging picture from such studies”: Gladwell, p. 40. 
+
+5 Five years later, Terman started: See C. K. Holahan and R.R. Sears, 
+The Gifted Group in Later Maturity (Stanford, CA: Stanford University 
+Press, 1995)."
+"6 “Your grades in school”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 48. 
+
+7 “Tests don’t measure motivation”: Sweeney, p. 26. 
+
+8 The pilots who scored highest: Bloom, p. 12. 
+
+9 “The left hemisphere is responsible”: Ibid., p. 15. 
+
+10 Dr. Darold Treffert, a Wisconsin physician: http://www.darold 
+treffert.com. 
+
+11 It took him just forty-five seconds: Tammet, p. 4. 
+
+12 I had the pleasure of interviewing: Interview with Mr. Daniel 
+Tammet in October 2007 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+13 “Our study confirms”: Science Daily, March 2012, http://www. 
+sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120322100313.htm. 
+
+14 Kim Peek’s brain: AP wire story, November 8, 2004, http://www. 
+Space.com. 
+
+15 In 1998 , Dr. Bruce Miller: Neurology 51 (October 1998): pp. 978- 
+82. See also http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant_ 
+syndrome/savant-articles/acquired_savant. 
+
+16 In addition to the savants: Sweeney, p. 252."
+"16 In addition to the savants: Sweeney, p. 252. 
+
+17 This idea has actually been tried: Center of the Mind, Sydney, 
+Australia, http://www.centerofthemind.com. 
+
+18 In another experiment, Dr. R. L. Young: R. L. Young, M. C. 
+Ridding, and T. L. Morrell, “Switching Skills on by Turning Off Part of 
+the Brain,” Neurocase 10 (2004): 215, 222. 
+
+19 “When applied to the prefrontal lobes”: Sweeney, p. 311. 
+
+20 Until recently, it was thought: Science Daily, May 2012, http:// 
+www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120509180113.htm. 
+
+21 “Savants have a high capacity”: Ibid. 
+
+22 In 2007 , a breakthrough occurred: Sweeney, p. 294. 
+
+23 “Stem cell research and regenerative medicine”: Sweeney, p. 295. 
+
+24 Scientists have focused on a few genes: Katherine S. Pollard, 
+“What Makes Us Different,” Scientific American Special Collectors Edition 
+(Winter 2013): 31-35. 
+
+25 “I jumped at the opportunity”: Ibid. 
+
+26 “With my mentor David Haussler”: Ibid."
+"25 “I jumped at the opportunity”: Ibid. 
+
+26 “With my mentor David Haussler”: Ibid. 
+
+27 One such gene was discovered: TG Daily, November 15, 2012. 
+http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences-features/67503-new-found- 
+gene-separates-man-from-apes. 
+
+28 Many theories have been proposed: See, for example, Gazzaniga, 
+Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique. 
+
+29 “For the first few hundred million years”: Gilbert, p. 15. 
+
+30 “Cortical gray matter neurons are working”: Douglas Fox, “The 
+Limits of Intelligence,” Scientific American, July 2011, p. 43. 
+
+31 “You might call it the mother”: Ibid., p. 42. 
+
+CHAPTER 7: IN YOUR DREAMS 
+
+1 He followed this up with one thousand: C. Hall and R. Van de 
+
+Castle, The Content Analysis of Dreams (New York: Appleton-Century- 
+Crofts, 1966). 
+
+2 When I interviewed him, he told me: Interview with Dr. Allan 
+Hobson in July 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+3 Studies have shown that it is possible: Wade, p. 229."
+"3 Studies have shown that it is possible: Wade, p. 229. 
+
+4 ATR chief scientist Yukiyasu Kamitani: New Scientist, December 12, 
+
+2008, http://www.newscientist.com/article/dnl 6267-mindreading- 
+
+software-could-record-your-dreams.html#.UvE9P0Qi07s. 
+
+5 When I visited the laboratory: Visit to Dr. Gallant’s laboratory on 
+July 11, 2012. 
+
+6 “Our dreams are therefore not”: Science Daily, October 28, 2011, 
+http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111028113626.htm. 
+
+7 Already, prototypes of Internet contact lenses: See the work of Dr. 
+Babak Parviz, http://www.wearable-technologies.com/262. 
+
+CHAPTER 8: CAN THE MIND BE CONTROLLED? 
+
+1 A raging bull is released: Miguel Nicolelis, Beyond Boundaries (New 
+York: Henry Holt, 2011), pp. 228-32. 
+
+2 The cold war hysteria eventually reached: “Project MKUltra, the"
+"2 The cold war hysteria eventually reached: “Project MKUltra, the 
+
+CIA’s Program of Research into Behavioral Modification. Joint 
+Hearings Before the Select Committee on Human Resources, U.S. 
+Senate, 95th Congress, First Session,” Government Printing Office, 
+August 8, 1977, Washington, D.C., http://www.nytimes.com/ 
+
+packages/pdf/national/13inmate_ProjectMKULTRA.pdf; “CIA Says It 
+Found More Secret Papers on Behavior Control,” New York Times, 
+September 3, 1977; “Government Mind Control Records of MKUltra 
+and Bluebird/Artichoke,” http://wanttoknow.info/mindcontrol.shtml; 
+“The Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with"
+"Respect to Intelligence Activities, Foreign and Military Intelligence.” 
+The Church Committee Report No. 94-755, 94th Congress, 2nd 
+Session, p. 392, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1976; 
+“Project MKUltra, the CIA’s Program of Research in Behavior 
+Modification,” http://scribd.com/doc/75512716/Project-MKUltra- 
+The-CIA-s-Program-of-Research-in-Behavior-Modification. 
+
+3 “great potential for development”: Rose, p. 292. 
+
+4 “neuro-scientific impossibility”: Ibid., p. 293. 
+
+5 “It is probably significant that”: “Hypnosis in Intelligence,” Black 
+Vault Freedom of Information Act Archive, 2008, http://documents. 
+theblackvault.com/documents/mindcontrol/hypnosisinintelligence. 
+pdf. 
+
+6 To see how widespread this problem: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 57. 
+
+7 Drugs like LSD: Sweeney, p. 200. 
+
+8 “This is the first time we’ve shown”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 58. 
+
+9 “If you want to turn off”: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/ 
+science/17optics.html."
+"9 “If you want to turn off”: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/ 
+science/17optics.html. 
+
+10 “By feeding information from sensors”: New York Times, March 17, 
+2011, http://nytimes.com/2011/05/17/science/17optics.html. 
+
+CHAPTER 9: ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+1 “Some fraction of history’s prophets”: Eagleman, p. 207. 
+
+2 “Sometimes it’s a personal God”: Boleyn-Fitzgerald, p. 122. 
+
+3 “ ‘Finally, I see what it is’ ”: Ramachandran, p. 280. 
+
+4 “During the three minute bursts”: David Biello, Scientific American, 
+p. 41, www.sciammind.com. 
+
+5 To test these ideas: Ibid., p. 42. 
+
+6 “Although atheists might argue”: Ibid., p. 45. 
+
+7 “If you are an atheist”: Ibid., p. 44. 
+
+8 One theory holds that Parkinson’s: Sweeney, p. 166. 
+
+9 “Neurons wired for the sensation”: Ibid., p. 90. 
+
+10 “The brain’s gonna do what”: Ibid., p. 165. 
+
+11 “Brain scans have led researchers”: Ibid., p. 208. 
+
+12 “If left unchecked, the left hemisphere”: Ramachandran, p. 267. 
+
+13 Underactivity in this area: Carter, pp. 100-103."
+"13 Underactivity in this area: Carter, pp. 100-103. 
+
+14 Ten percent of them, in turn: Baker, pp. 46-53. 
+
+15 “Depression 1.0 was psychotherapy”: Ibid., p. 3. 
+
+16 One to three percent of DBS patients: Carter, p. 98. 
+
+17 “The calcium channels findings suggest”: New York Times, 
+
+February 26, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/ 
+
+health/study-finds-genetic-risk-factors-shared-by-5-psychiatric- 
+disorders.html. 
+
+18 “What we have identified here”: Ibid. 
+
+CHAPTER 10: THE ARTIFICIAL MIND AND SILICON CONSCIOUSNESS 
+
+1 “Machines will be capable”: Crevier, p. 109. 
+
+2 “within a generation ... the problem”: Ibid. 
+
+3 “It’s as though a group of people”: Kaku, p. 79. 
+
+4 “I would pay a lot for a robot”: Brockman, p. 2. 
+
+5 However, I met privately with: Interview with the creators of ASIMO 
+during a visit to Honda’s laboratory in Nagoya, Japan, in April 2007 
+for the BBC-TV series Visions of the Future."
+"6 he used to marvel at the mosquito: Interview with Dr. Rodney 
+Brooks in April 2002 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+7 I have had the pleasure of visiting: Visit to MIT Media Laboratory 
+for the Discovery/Science Channel TV series Sci Fi Science, April 13, 
+2010 . 
+
+8 “That is why Breazeal decided”: Moss, p. 168. 
+
+9 At Waseda University: Gazzaniga, p. 352. 
+
+10 Their goal is to integrate: Ibid., p. 252. 
+
+11 Meet Nao: Guardian, August 9, 2010, http://www.theguardian.com/ 
+technology/2010/aug/09/nao-robot-develop-display-emotions. 
+
+12 “It’s hard to predict the future”: http://cosmomagazine.com/news/ 
+4177/reverse-engineering-brain. 
+
+13 Neuroscientists like Dr. Antonio Damasio: Damasio, pp. 108-29. 
+
+14 “In mathematics, you don’t understand”: Kurzweil, p. 248. 
+
+15 “There could not be an objective test”: Pinker, “The Riddle of 
+Knowing You’re Here,” Your Brain: A User’s Guide, Winter, 2011, p. 19. 
+
+16 At Meiji University: Gazzaniga, p. 352."
+"16 At Meiji University: Gazzaniga, p. 352. 
+
+17 “To our knowledge, this is the first”: Kurzweil.net, August 24, 
+
+2012, http://www.kurzweilai.net/robot-learns-self-awareness. See also 
+Yale Daily News, September 25, 2012, 
+
+http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2012/09/25/first-self-aware-robot- 
+created. 
+
+18 When I interviewed Dr. Hans Moravec: Interview with Dr. Hans 
+Moravec in November 1998 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+19 “Unleashed from the plodding pace”: Sweeney, p. 316. 
+
+20 When I interviewed Dr. Rodney Brooks: Interview with Dr. Brooks 
+in April 2002 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+21 “We don’t like to give up”: TEDTalks, http://www.ted.com/talks/ 
+lang/en/rodney_brooks_on_robots.html. 
+
+22 Similarly, at the University of Southern California: http://phys. 
+org/news205059692.html. 
+
+CHAPTER 11: REVERSE ENGINEERING THE BRAIN 
+
+1 Almost simultaneously, the European Commission: http://actu. 
+epfl.ch/news/the-human-brain-project-wins-top-european-science."
+"2 “It’s essential for us to understand”: 
+
+http://blog.ted.eom/2009/l 0/15/supercomputing. 
+
+3 “There’s not a single neurological disease”: Kushner, p. 19. 
+
+4 “I think we’re far from playing God”: Ibid., p. 2. 
+
+5 “In a hundred years, I’d like”: Sally Adee, “Reverse Engineering the 
+Brain,” IEEE Spectrum, http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/ethics/ 
+reverse-engineering-the-brain. 
+
+6 “Researchers have conjectured”: 
+
+http://www.cnn.corn/2012/03/01/tech/innovation/brain-map- 
+
+connectome. 
+
+“In the seventeenth century”: 
+
+http: //www. ted. com/talks/lang/en/sebastian_seung .html . 
+
+8 “The Allen Human Brain Atlas provides”: http://ts-si.org/ 
+neuroscience/29735-allen-human-brain-atlas-updates-with- 
+comprehensive). 
+
+9 According to Dr. V. S. Ramachandran: TED Talks, January 2010, 
+http://www.ted.com. 
+
+CHAPTER 12: THE FUTURE: MIND BEYOND MATTER 
+
+1 5.8 percent claimed they had an out-of-body: Nelson, p. 137. 
+
+2 “I see myself lying in bed”: Ibid., p. 140."
+"2 “I see myself lying in bed”: Ibid., p. 140. 
+
+3 Notably, temporary loss of blood: National Geographic News, April 8, 
+2010, http://news.nationalgeographic.eom/news/2010/04/100408- 
+near-death-experiences-blood-carbon-dioxide; Nelson, p. 126 
+
+4 Dr. Thomas Lempert, neurologist: Nelson, p. 126. 
+
+5 The U.S. Air Force, for example: Ibid., p. 128. 
+
+6 We once spoke at a conference: Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 
+November 2012. Interviewed in February 2003 for Exploration 
+national radio broadcast. Interviewed in October 2012 for Science 
+
+Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+7 By 2055, $1,000 of computing power: Bloom, p. 191. 
+
+8 For example, Bill Gates, cofounder: Sweeney, p. 298. 
+
+9 “People who predict a very utopian future”: Carter, p. 298. 
+
+10 He told me that the San Diego Zoo: Interview with Dr. Robert 
+Lanza in September 2009 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+11 “Should we ridicule the modern seekers”: Sebastian Seung, 
+TEDTalks, http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/sebastian_seung.html ."
+"12 In 2008, BBC-TV aired: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/ 
+programmes/horizon/broadband/tx/isolation/timeline. 
+
+13 we will be able to reverse engineer: Interview with Dr. Moravec in 
+November 1998 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+14 On the other side was Eric Drexler: See a series of letter in 
+Chemical and Engineering News from 2003 to 2004. 
+
+15 “I’m not planning to die”: Garreau, p. 128. 
+
+CHAPTER 13: THE MIND AS PURE ENERGY 
+
+1 “Wormholes, extra dimensions”: Sir Martin Rees, Our Final Hour 
+(New York: Perseus Books, 2003), p. 182. 
+
+CHAPTER 14: THE ALIEN MIND 
+
+1 So far, more than one thousand: Kepler Web Page, http://kepler. 
+nasa.gov. 
+
+2 In 2013, NASA scientists announced: Ibid. 
+
+3 how they can distinguish false messages: Interview with Dr. 
+Wertheimer in June 1999 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+4 I once asked him about the giggle factor: Interview with Dr. Seth 
+Shostak in May 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+5 He has gone on record: Ibid."
+"5 He has gone on record: Ibid. 
+
+6 “Remember, this is the same government”: Davies, p. 22. 
+
+7 The Greek writers: Sagan, p. 221. 
+
+8 But St. Thomas Aquinas: Ibid. 
+
+9 We can be fooled: Ibid. 
+
+10 “If the fact that brutes abstract”: Ibid., p. 113. 
+
+11 “In the blind and deaf world”: Eagleman, p. 77. 
+
+12 we have to expand our own horizon: Interview with Dr. Paul 
+Davies in April 2012 for Science Fantastic national radio broadcast. 
+
+13 “My conclusion is a startling one”: Davies, p. 159. 
+
+14 “Although there is only a tiny probability”: Discovery News, 
+December 27, 2011, http://news.discovery.com/space/seti-to-scour- 
+the-moon-for-alien-tech-111227.htm. 
+
+CHAPTER 15: CONCLUDING REMARKS 
+
+1 In an article in Wired: Wired, April 2000, http://www.wired.com/ 
+wired/archive/8.04/joy.html. 
+
+2 “several separate and unequal species”: Garreau, p. 139. 
+
+3 “This techno utopia is all about”: Ibid., p. 180. 
+
+4 “The idea that we are messin’ ”: Ibid., p. 353. 
+
+5 “Technologies—such as gunpowder”: Ibid., p. 182."
+"5 “Technologies—such as gunpowder”: Ibid., p. 182. 
+
+6 “The you that all your friends know”: Eagleman, p. 205. 
+
+7 “Our reality depends on what”: Ibid., p. 208. 
+
+8 “How it is that anything so remarkable”: Pinker, p. 132. 
+
+9 somehow create a twin of the Earth: Interview with Dr. Stephen Jay 
+Gould in November 1996 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+10 “ Homo sapiens is one small twig”: Pinker, p. 133. 
+
+11 “nothing gives life more purpose”: Pinker, “The Riddle of Knowing 
+You’re Here,” Time: Your Brain: A User’s Guide (Winter 2011), p. 19. 
+
+12 “What a perplexing masterpiece”: Eagleman, p. 224. 
+
+APPENDIX: QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS? 
+
+1 many (but not all) pathological killers: Interview with Dr. Simon 
+Baron-Cohen in July 2005 for Exploration national radio broadcast. 
+
+2 Dr. Michael Sweeney concludes, “Libet’s findings”: Sweeney, p. 
+150. 
+
+SUGGESTED READING 
+
+Baker, Sherry. “Helen Mayberg.” Discover Magazine Presents the Brain. 
+Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing Co., Fall 2012."
+"Bloom, Floyd. Best of the Brain from Scientific American: Mind, Matter, and 
+Tomorrow’s Brain. New York: Dana Press, 2007. 
+
+Boleyn-Fitzgerald, Miriam. Pictures of the Mind: What the New 
+Neuroscience Tells Us About Who We Are. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: 
+Pearson Education, 2010. 
+
+Brockman, John, ed. The Mind: Leading Scientists Explore the Brain, 
+Memory, Personality, and Happiness. New York: Harper Perennial, 2011. 
+
+Calvin, William H. A Brief History of the Mind. New York: Oxford 
+University Press, 2004. 
+
+Carter, Rita. Mapping the Mind. Berkeley: University of California Press, 
+2010 . 
+
+Crevier, Daniel. AT. The Tumultuous History of the Search for Artificial 
+Intelligence. New York: Basic Books, 1993. 
+
+Crick, Francis. The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Science Search for the Soul. 
+New York: Touchstone, 1994. 
+
+Damasio, Antonio. Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain. 
+New York: Pantheon Books, 2010."
+"Davies, Paul. The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence. 
+New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010. 
+
+Dennet, Daniel C. Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. 
+New York: Viking, 2006. 
+
+-. Conscious Explained. New York: Back Bay Books, 1991. 
+
+DeSalle, Rob, and Ian Tattersall. The Brain: Big Bangs, Behaviors, and 
+Beliefs. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012. 
+
+Eagleman, David. Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain. New York: 
+
+Pantheon Books, 2011. 
+
+Fox, Douglas. “The Limits of Intelligence,” Scientific American, July 2011. 
+
+Garreau, Joel. Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our 
+Minds , Our Bodies—and What It Means to Be Human. New York: 
+Random House, 2005. 
+
+Gazzaniga, Michael S. Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique. 
+New York: HarperCollins, 2008. 
+
+Gilbert, Daniel. Stumbling on Happiness. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 
+
+2006. 
+
+Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Back Bay 
+Books, 2008."
+"2006. 
+
+Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York: Back Bay 
+Books, 2008. 
+
+Gould, Stephen Jay. The Mismeasure of Man. New York: W. W. Norton, 
+1996. 
+
+Horstman, Judith. The Scientific American Brave New Brain. San 
+Francisco: John Wiley and Sons, 2010. 
+
+Kaku, Michio. Physics of the Future. New York: Doubleday, 2009. 
+
+Kurzweil, Ray. How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought 
+Revealed. New York: Viking Books, 2012. 
+
+Kushner, David. “The Man Who Builds Brains.” Discover Magazine 
+Presents the Brain. Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing Co., Fall 2001. 
+
+Moravec, Hans. Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human 
+Intelligence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988. 
+
+Moss, Frank. The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices: How the Digital 
+Magicians of the MIT Media Lab Are Creating the Innovative Technologies 
+That Will Transform Our Lives. New York: Crown Business, 2011. 
+
+Nelson, Kevin. The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain. New York: Dutton, 
+2011."
+"Nelson, Kevin. The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain. New York: Dutton, 
+2011. 
+
+Nicolelis, Miguel. Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting 
+Brains with Machines—and How It Will Change Our Lives. New York: 
+Henry Holt and Co., 2011. 
+
+Pinker, Steven. How the Mind Works. New York: W. W. Norton, 2009. 
+
+-. The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human 
+
+Nature. New York: Viking, 2007. 
+
+-. “The Riddle of Knowing You’re Here.” In Your Brain: A 
+
+User’s Guide. New York: Time Inc. Specials, 2011. 
+
+Piore, Adam. “The Thought Helmet: The U.S. Army Wants to Train 
+Soldiers to Communicate Just by Thinking.” The Brain, Discover 
+Magazine Special, Spring 2012. 
+
+Purves, Dale, et al., eds. Neuroscience. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer 
+Associates, 2001. 
+
+Ramachandran, V. S. The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Quest for What 
+Makes Us Human. New York: W. W. Norton, 2011."
+"Rose, Steven. The Future of the Brain: The Promise and Perils of Tomorrow’s 
+Neuroscience. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2005. 
+
+Sagan, Carl. The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human 
+Intelligence. New York: Ballantine Books, 1977. 
+
+Sweeney, Michael S. Brain: The Complete Mind: How It Develops, How It 
+Works, and How to Keep It Sharp. Washington, D.C.: National 
+Geographic, 2009. 
+
+Tammet, Daniel. Bom on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an 
+Autistic Savant. New York: Free Press, 2006. 
+
+Wade, Nicholas, ed. The Science Times Book of the Brain. New York: New 
+York Times Books, 1998. 
+
+ILLUSTRATION CREDITS 
+
+1.1 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+1.2 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+1.3 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+1.4 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+1.5 AP Photo / David Duprey 
+
+1.5a Tom Barrick, Chris Clark / Science Source 
+
+1.6 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+2.1 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+2.2 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+2.3 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+4.1 The Laboratory of Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, Duke University 
+
+5.1 Jeffrey L. Ward"
+"4.1 The Laboratory of Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, Duke University 
+
+5.1 Jeffrey L. Ward 
+
+10.1 MIT Media Lab, Personal Robots Group 
+
+10.2 MIT Media Lab, Personal Robots Group, Mikey Siegel 
+
+A Note About the Author 
+
+MICHIO KAKU is a professor of theoretical physics at the City College 
+and City University of New York; cofounder of string field theory; the 
+author of several widely acclaimed science books, including Hyperspace, 
+Beyond Einstein, Physics of the Impossible, and Physics of the Future; and 
+host of numerous TV specials and a national science radio show. 
+
+Other titles by Michio Kaku available in eBook format 
+Parallel Worlds • 9780385514163 
+Physics of the Future • 9780385530811 
+Physics of the Impossible • 9780385525442 
+
+Visions • 9780307794772 
+
+Visit mkaku.org 
+
+For more information on Doubleday books 
+
+Visit: www.doubleday.com 
+Like: facebook.com/DoubledayBooks 
+Follow: @doubledaypub 
+
+ALSO BY THE AUTHOR 
+
+Physics of the Future 
+Physics of the Impossible 
+Parallel Worlds 
+Hyperspace 
+Visions"
+"Physics of the Future 
+Physics of the Impossible 
+Parallel Worlds 
+Hyperspace 
+Visions 
+
+Einstein’s Cosmos 
+Beyond Einstein"