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6. The Rise of the TeleBrain
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The following is an excerpt from "The Rise of the TeleBrain"
Converging Technologies
Contents |
We already have all the ingredients in place for digital telepathy. And we already use primitive TeleBrains. Increasingly sophisticated ones will arrive in the next twenty years through a number of engineering advances:
Storage
TeleBrains with multi-terabyte memory will soon surpass the storage capacity of our own brains. Science still does not know exactly how the human brain stores and represents information, and what are the storage limits, but Yoshihiro Shiroishi of Japanese computer maker Hitachi estimates our brains store around 10TB (terabytes) of information. He says that by 2010, two Hitachi 3.5-inch 5 Terabyte hard drives will provide the same storage capacity. Next generation 2 terabyte SDXC (eXtended Capacity) memory cards will be available before then. A terabyte is 1,000 GB; it's been estimated that the Library of Congress holds 175 terabytes of text.
Processors
We're seeing the dawn of ultra fast, dedicated processors, superior to the human brain in certain specialties. However biological computing currently has silicon based computing beat by a country kilometer. The processing capacity of a typical desktop computer is 25 billion instructions per second; your brain can do 100 trillion instructions per second, or 100 teraflops. In June, 2008, IBM's Roadrunner supercomputer was the first to break what has been called "the petaflop barrier" of 1000 teraflops.[1]
Radios on a Chip
One billion WiFi chipsets are being built every year. Professor Jan Rabaey of UC Berkeley says chipmakers will soon pack hundreds of dedicated radios on a single chip, and each person will link to thousands of these miniscule radios. Radio devices, he says, will become "cognitive." They will automatically find the most uncluttered spectrum and use the best protocols available. Radios will also become more collaborative, joining a mesh network to collectively transmit large amounts of data faster and more efficiently. These radios will connect you directly with other people and other TeleBrains on more sophisticated networks and frequencies.
Spectrum
The amount of data you can get through a spectrum is rapidly increasing, and radios are on a similar trajectory as computers. Wireless broadband connectivity and the open Internet will wire your TeleBrain to the Planet.
Video
High definition (HD) onboard cameras and projectors will let us stream what we see anywhere live, or to a storage medium in the cloud. Texas Instruments' soon-to-be released OMAP 4 family of low power dual-core mobile chips will allow 1080p video playback, 10 times the web surfing speed, a 20 megapixel camera and 130 hours of audio playback.
Implants
In some cases, people will prefer TeleBrain implants with brain-machine interfaces. We are already using rudimentary versions of this technology to help people with nerve damage to do tasks using microprocessors. Adding advanced WiFi and Bluetooth will eliminate intrusive wiring, and enable something like tele-twittering.
Personal Medicine
Your TeleBrain will contain all your personal medical information and genomic maps, and will be able to monitor your health and suggest preventive supplements and activities to improve your odds of survival. Medical devices like Dr. "Bones" McCoy's portable scanner from Star Trek, will be able to scan your TeleBrain, and use the information to reveal internal problems, and in some cases cure them.
Custom Telebrains
We are now starting to customize, personalize, program, tailor and train our TeleBrains through free and cheap programs we can download. We are using them to extend our own brains, senses and connections to our world. When needed, we will also link with custom programmed TeleBrains in for, example, to operate our smart cars and smart houses. Our personal information in the cloud will be permissions based, using social networking and a form of what Tim O'Reilly calls "personal CRM" - customer relationship management.
Whole Brain Emulation
In future, your TeleBrain will be able to hold a software model of your brain that is so faithful to the original that, when run on appropriate hardware, it will behave much like your original one.
Telebrain Power
Wireless power management is a big deal, and things may get worse before they get better. RIM has pioneered many power saving technologies, but we need super batteries or power cells that can hold a charge longer, so they can power hot processors and super high speed data transfers. Every increase in CPU power or data transfer speed equals a further drop in battery life between charges. The good news is, wireless charging is already here, with adapters that use magnetic induction to trickle electricity to your device. Future advances in electrical generation and storage will let your blood glucose or heart activity recharge your Telebrain.
Googlepedia
You can already use Google Mobile App to speak your queries to the Googlepedia without pushing any buttons, and do local searches without specifying your location. Future TeleBrain tools will do a lot of things the Internet is already doing, only better, faster and with an ethos tailored to your needs. For example, it will
- answer questions and suggest alternatives.
- look for and contact new friends, or even a life partner.
- do real-time speech interpretation, letting you talk effortlessly in other languages
- find the best interest rates and get you money or credit.
- make you happy with its own artificial sunlight.
- let the dog out and get a meal ready for you at home.
- recharge the electric car; ask it to get some milk and eggs.
- train you in microsurgery, with programmed AV learning, real distance internship and hands on operation simulation..
- vote and pay microtaxes, and handle your relations with governments.
- check for potential danger on the road, rate your chances of being seriously injured, and take appropriate action.
Net Culture
Your TeleBrain use will help net culture continue to expand, creating dynamic commercial, educational and social resources; what you put on the Web will only be limited by your imagination and local bylaws. Vast search databases created by peer production like yours will be held in the cloud and managed by database search engines like Google Mobile App.
Life Logging
aka Life Recording, or recording and indexing chunks of your life, for example your business activities. Canadian filmmaker Rob Spence is having a video camera implanted in place of an artificial eye. For people who want a less intense experience, mobile 12-megapixel camera phones with HD video recording (720 pixels at 60 frames per second) will soon become commonplace. Your TeleBrain screen will be always on, with touchable multiscreens, in options like 3D. Cameras will be able to record the entire timeline of your life. Your TeleBrain will also build a record of every call, meeting, email and activity of your lifetime, letting you access any data you ever come in contact with.
Notes:
- ↑ Gregory T. Huang, Is This a Unified Theory of the Brain, New Scientist, 28 May 2008
