🧠 Should we use AI to enhance our brainpower?

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Welcome back AI prodigies!

In today’s Sunday Special:

• 📜The Prelude

• 🤖Becoming More Than Human?

• 🦾When Minds Move Machines

• 💭How Your Thoughts Control Gadgets

• 🔑Key Takeaway

Read Time: 7 minutes

🎓Key Terms

• Transhumanism: A philosophical movement advocating for the use of advanced technology to enhance human capabilities.

• Machine Learning (ML): Leverages data to recognize patterns and make predictions without being explicitly programmed to do so.

🩺 PULSE CHECK

📜THE PRELUDE

Motionless in a sterile lab, a man stares at a glowing chessboard. He can’t move his arms, lift a finger, or twitch a muscle. Still, he moves a Black Knight to Nf6.

Noland Arbaugh, a 29-year-old man who suffered a severe spinal cord injury during a swimming accident that left him paralyzed below the shoulders, became the first person to receive the N1 Implant.

Designed as a coin-sized device, the N1 Implant rests beneath the skull. It contains flexible threads that insert into specific brain regions to interpret neural activity: the raw signals that carry information about everything we see, feel, touch, or think.

Before, Arbaugh struggled to control his tablet using a stylus in his mouth. Now, he’s pursuing a Neuroscience Degree to explore the very neural pathways that once confined him.

We’re entering an era where technological advancements allow us to surpass our natural limitations. Each biomedical innovation blurs the line between healing and enhancement, forcing us to ask: “What does it mean to transcend ourselves?” To address this question, some are now worshipping the machines that promise to make them more than human. So, let’s break it all down!

🤖BECOMING MORE THAN HUMAN?

⦿ 1️⃣ Philosophical Origins.

In 1883, German atheist philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche published “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” which discussed a prophet named Zarathushtra who preached about creating your own moral framework to become the best version of yourself.

Nietzsche believed that the theistic doctrine of salvation depends on an existence split between heaven and hell. He argued this moral dichotomy devalues earthly life by making salvation dependent on obedience in this world for reward in the next. To escape it, he proposed Übermensch (i.e., “Overhuman”): transcending humanity’s limitations to create new moral frameworks rooted in life itself, rather than in divine power. Nietzsche never gave a simple definition of Übermensch, but he described it as overcoming oneself to realize one’s highest potential.

⦿ 2️⃣ Modern Self-Help?

Many interpret Übermensch as a call to continually refine oneself through discipline. In other words, taking responsibility for giving your own life meaning, rather than waiting for God’s salvation or external validation.

Most modern self-help movements echo this ethos. Ryan Holiday, creator of the Daily Stoic, markets Stoicism as a way of life for self-mastery to millions of people. He openly embraces amor fati (i.e., “love of one’s fate”) as a way to overcome hardship.

But now, the focus of Übermensch is evolving from self-improvement to self-enhancement through Transhumanism: a philosophical and intellectual movement that advocates for the enhancement of the human condition through technological advancements.

🦾WHEN MINDS MOVE MACHINES

⦿ 3️⃣ Engineering the Brain’s Potential.

Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) establish seamless digital pathways between the human brain and external devices. In simple terms, they translate thoughts into actions. Imagine operating a robotic arm just by thinking.

When BCIs are used to restore cognitive capacity or physical function, their purpose aligns squarely with biomedical innovation. Yes, it feels like “sci-fi” because it enables the human brain to control external devices, but it still serves the same purpose as any other biomedical device: to compensate for lost biological function through engineered means. Just like hip implants restore control over joints, BCIs restore control over cognitive function.

⦿ 4️⃣ The Quest for Human Perfection?

But some transhumanists argue BCIs shouldn’t be confined to therapeutic use. If it can restore motion to the paralyzed, why can’t it enhance brainpower in the healthy?

They view BCIs as vehicles for self-overcoming, echoing the viewpoints of the Übermensch. If medicine restores us to what we were, biomedical enhancements aim to make us more than we are.

Many major religions, however, frame transcendence as a spiritual pursuit rather than a technological one. Christianity preaches salvation through grace; Judaism proposes righteousness through moral law; Islam promotes submission through faith; and Hinduism and Buddhism preach liberation through detachment.

💭HOW YOUR THOUGHTS CONTROL GADGETS

⦿ 5️⃣ Signal Capture: Reading Thoughts.

The N1 Implant is placed in the precentral gyrus, also known as the Primary Motor Cortex (M1), which sends the neural signals used to move your arms, hands, and fingers.

For example, the human brain generates electrical signals before we try to pick up a cup of coffee. These electrical signals activate the muscles in our arms and hands to reach, grab, and lift.

When Arbaugh thinks: “Move the cursor right!” tiny electrical signals are sent across neurons. The N1 Implant detects and amplifies these electrical signals to record voltage fluctuations.

⦿ 6️⃣ Signal Translation: Converting Thoughts.

ML algorithms are trained to recognize patterns in the voltage fluctuations, translating tiny electrical spikes into computer commands: [cursor_x=+3, cursor_y=0, click=0].

• cursor_x=+3: Move the cursor 3 ticks to the right horizontally.

• cursor_y=0: Don’t move the cursor vertically.

• click=0: Don’t click on anything.

🔑KEY TAKEAWAY

These biomedical breakthroughs are enabling us to transcend the boundaries of our bodies. The frontier of possibility has shifted, extending our reach beyond biological constraints and challenging the very concept of what it means to be human.

📒FINAL NOTE

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