1. Humanity is basically about a compromise between logical constructum as well as sensual experiences perceived from the surrounding. The common sensations we normally exhibit are the results of chemical precursors released from certain hormones released in our body. If the replacement of brain neurons by Nanobots, then the person will exceed at the level of comprehending logic than blending in society.

2. Consciousness, itself, is not a clearly defined phenomena nor has any device that has been perfected to even come as close and a mere augmentation of higher computing entity may not be the solution. I believe the greatest challenge to be faced.

3. The ways as to how a brain computes and inputs signals is on a completely different level than just ones and zeros. So, providing an interface to translate the crude values of the Nanobots to the way our brains can understand and work with is, by my feel, needed.

4. One of the greatest advantages that I think is worth mentioning is, in the field of Psychology, where every memory is indexed and traced to profile the psychological makeup of that person; and diagnose the defects and correcting them.

I’ll look forward the day where it will all come to realization. Thanks for the blog once more

1) Sure, animals would go first as test subjects so there will be examples. As to putting you into a cat’s brain, assuming nano could reduce the volume needed, that is possible. To do it right, you would have to learn to use the cat body, from scratch, like a baby. And then that copy of you would be ruined for running a human body. If you want the nano brain to translate for you, then you could visit without harm to your humanness. But the result would be one clumsy cat. I suppose you could imagine a perfect translation but I don’t think it would work. There is no translation, IMHO, between 2 and four legs. A dog has about as much leg consciousness as humans have for our little finger. You can’t crawl around in a cat or dog and have it look like a cat or dog. They are so different and at home in their body that you would have to be a cat to duplicate it.
2) I agree that cloned bodies would become common. Maybe not in parallel but certainly in series. At the moment, I have no desire for another body, but I would like to modify this one to work better. And stronger bones, better muscles, and intelligent immune systems would not change my humanness. One novel I enjoyed called “Eon” was about a future culture that had taken up new bodies that were both utilitarian and for style.
3) To make extreme changed to the body, the processes are too integrated to be taken as pills without consideration of the whole. I’d expect any changes would be overseen by a intelligent agent that orchestrates the different parts to work together without problems. You can’t just do one thing and hope it does not impact the rest of the system. And that takes an understanding of the entire body and all the chemical systems. At first all this will be heavily regulated as any medical treatment is today. Only as confidence is gained in the intelligent agents that oversee our body for defense and general health, will those changes be allowed “at home”. Or on the black market. I’d think there would be a pill that installs the agent, then it does a tremendous workup or exam and then works out a pathway from where you are to where you want to be. And slowly the changes are made. You would be taking pills along the way to supply parts and materials to the nanabots that do the work. If you buy something in a back alley, so to speak, and it claims to boost your oxygen storage by 100 times, I’d not be very confident they would tweak your body without killing you since they don’t really know you and your body. And they would not be there to handle any problems that come up. Whereas, this agent has that responsibility and the knowledge to do it slowly and safely.

Thanks, AC for the great questions. I wish you well on that novel.
John Burch

Thank you for this amazing entry. I am doing research into the feasability, reality, and potential uses of nanotech for a fiction novel I am writing. I would be very interested in hearing your opinions on the following:

1. Assuming the nanobot-brain-replacement technology was invented and worked as you described, I would think we could also do the same thing to animals. I would also think that we could re-create this “NanoBrain” in an animal, and copy or transfer the data from our brain to the animal and back. Example, I replace a cat’s brain with NanoBrain and upload a copy of my brain to the cat. How complicated would it be to overcome the difference in bodies? IE, the brain would be expecting to control an upright human with our arms and legs in certain positions with certain patterns of motion control. Do you think the nanobrain would be able to adapt to control the new body?

2. Assuming the NanoBrain is perfected, and we can clone a new body, it could then be possible for one person to have multiple *different* bodies on “standby” and could freely transfer their brain’s data between bodies just as I wirelessly copy data from my laptop to my desktop. Obviously there are other ramifications here, as other commentors have stated, such as the ability to copy the brain to multiple other “bodies” and in theory have any number of “clones” of yourself. Of course from the instant of the copy, the evolution of these nanobrains would branch off and differ… But I digress.

3. Setting aside the brain replacement for a moment, would it be techincally possible to create a suite of nanobot enhancement products, each providing a different benefit? Example, in the future I would go to the Nanobot store and purchase a pill for increased bone strength, another to increase the efficiency with which my blood stores and releases oxygen (thus greatly increasing stamina, the ability to hold breath for extended period, etc), another to convert the skin into a solar power plant — would we need to eat? Another Nanobot pill would interface with our sensory perceptors and act as an “overlay” onto our vision, like a Heads-up-display, or perhaps nanobots which greatly increase our eyes’ ability to see in low-light environments, or even reception of X-ray vision? Another brain augmentation could provide telepathic communication by way of wireless data transmission…

All of the potential ramifications are mind-blowing. I am trying to get a handle on what truly could be feasible, and where to draw the line in my fictional universe.

Thanks,
AC

So a brain would not be lobotomized by augmentation. It would just have access to more data input/output. Now if you want more memory or more computation, I think it would still be an interface to that function rather than a rework of existing biological functions. We just don’t know how to do that and it’s damn hard to do with a holographic brain, whereas an interface is drop dead simple by comparison.

An interface to more memory would be a thought level interface to a recorder of video, sounds, and at a higher level, a recording of brain signals and the playback of translated signals to stimulate your own bio memory. Seems awkward. I’ll vote to keep them as simple interfaces for a long time to come. It makes no sense to me to change who I am by screwing with my brain. I’m sort of invested in this present configuration. Enough change of that sort and you are no longer the same person. Why do that? This person wants to have more toys, not to be morphed into someone else. If I change into a different person by fundamental brain organization changes, then I become some other person and there are already plenty of other persons, why make another at the expense of this existing person?

I love a good argument too.
John

Hacking of the brain will be a problem. Anything of value will be at risk from someone. Any connections to the brain will be a risk but at least at first, we will be creating additional senses only because we don’t understand the coding of the brain well enough to rewrite anything. All we can do now or in the next few decades is splice in new data sources that use the same type of data formats in the brain. That is a LONG way from understanding how the brain works well enough to hack it in the same sense that we hack computers now. Once we do understand the brain, then the risk of someone taking over another person and changing their value system, their goals or their behavior will be real. But by then we will each have a AI installed in our body that is totally devoted to us and to defend us from any thing outside. Sort of a immune system on steroids that handles both biological and data input. Any valuable system requires a defense system. Up to now, our knee jerk biological system was all we needed.