Brains in Jars

I read today that researchers have managed to make a monkey control a robotic arm with their brain. This research is being heralded as the precursor to a new type of prosthetic limb allowing much improved dexterity and control over the current generation of prosthetic limbs. But I think that they're missing the larger implications of research like this: we're finally cracking the human brain.

The human brain is a hugely complex organ. Despite our many thousands of years of civilisation, we are only just beginning to reliably control the input and output of signals to and from our brain. With this recent research, it seems that we are now becoming able to interpret enough information from our brains to control limbs. There has been research in the past on artificial vision for the blind, and a form of artificial hearing has already been used on many deaf people. So far this technology is only being used aid disabled people; the quality of the artificial vision and hearing is far inferior to what our eyes and ears already provide, and the surgery is dangerous. Overall, the technologies are fairly primitive, but the framework is there and research is improving the technology daily.

It is inevitable that eventually artificial sensory data will start surpassing our own in quality and prosthetic limbs will become better than the real thing. This is essentially the technology we need for fully immersive virtual reality. If we could hook up all our sensory inputs: touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing to a computer, then we could completely control our environment electronically. If we then disable our body's actual movement and link up our muscle signals to a computer so that it can simulate movement on a virtual body, then we are now in a fully virtual environment with complete, natural control over our virtual body.

Naturally, this is far more complex than it sounds. Even assuming we had all the technology to replace our natural sensory data, we would need to create computer software that can simulate reality to a high enough degree that we can properly interact with it. That involves not just the graphical side of things, but physics simulation. Walking relies on a very specific system of feedback and motion. Any sort of lag on the computer's part would either make walking seem extremely unnatural or we would simply fall over. I also suspect that our hands, for example, can resolve touch input to a significantly higher temporal resolution than the visual input to our eyes. Computer games currently do their physics calculations to match the graphical framerate of the game. Physics in a virtual world would need to be continual rather than discreet in order for humans to feel comfortable and natural. The graphical framerate would also need to never drop below a certain threshold.

Assuming we can get all these problems out of the way, we would have a very good platform for the future of humanity. Humans as a species are getting increasingly wasteful for our pleasure, running low on food and becoming increasingly unhealthy. If we played our bio-engineering cards right, we could just attach our brains to a computer and turn off our body, allowing a computer to keep it exercised, nourished and running efficiently. But then why have these wasteful bodies weighing us down? Surely it'd be better to just take out our brains, stick them in fluid filled jars and connect them up to some sort of brain management device that provides it with oxygenated, nourished blood of absolute perfect mixture and temperature with no impurities, while having our nerves connected to the "World 2.0".

Unfortuntely, this sounds like the plot for some terrible post-apocalyptic sci-fi horror. Humans don't want to live in a virtual world, they want to live in the real world; they want to eat real steak from real cows. You can see it everywhere. Philosophers have spent hundreds of person-years wondering about whether the universe is real or a product of our (or someone else's) imagination. Films such as The Matrix have followed the stories of protagonists freeing people from the fake world, into a much more vulgar real world. But I'm deadly serious. I'd much prefer to live in a virtual world than this boring rock floating through space.

Consider the implications of living in a virtual world. Firstly, bodily functions such as eating and going to the toilet, and perhaps even sleeping aren't necesarry, though they may be performed for fun. You could eat as many perfectly cooked steaks as you want, for example, and not become fat. Video games could be completely immersive. You could literally enjoy a whole scale version of Grand Theft Auto; with pain enabled if you're into that sort of thing. Everyone could have a huge house with everything they've ever wanted and the wardrobes would have a search feature. You could own and drive a Bugatti Veyron without worrying about price of the car or fuel, nor how much damage you're doing to the environment. My point is, you could do a whole lot more in a virtual world.

Though, it wouldn't come completely for free. People would need to maintain the infrastructure, do real life research into technology and science. We would need to have power stations to provide electricity for the computers. Since we would be entirely computerised, people could take over robot bodies in order to interact with the real world and perform maintenance work and upgrades, as well as doing physical research that is impossible to do in a simulation. Within the world, you would still have musicians, artists, designers, software developers, game creators and many people following creative persuits that don't depend on the physical plane.

I think that the world will eventually be displaced by a virtual world. Initially it will be normal humans connected to it, then brains in 'jars', then finally we will probably move our entire mind to the realm of electronic processing. I personally think that it is inevitable, but a long way off. That is, assuming humans survive for long enough.