Up until recently,
hacking was a term used for the invasion of the internal working space of a
computer or some other modern device by certain humans for purposes of control
and manipulation. It was done to go against the interests of the owner of the
computer. But now there is a new series
of meanings to the word hacking, and it is a series of meanings that has
supposedly positive connotations. I’m talking about brain hacking which is used
in different ways. In one sense, it
simply refers to the ongoing habit-forming connection that is formed between
humans and their smartphones and computers.
This broad connection allows smartphones and computers to impact the
very way that people think. Another
meaning refers to a more focused connection between people and a particular
device that sends stimuli to the brain to help people learn faster. Still another device gives people feedback
about their brain activity to help people meditate better.
Depending on where the brain is stimulated by these new
devices, one can influence many different mental functions and can even
influence emotional states like depression.
I imagine that, if it isn’t already being done, inhibiting stimulation
may be used to control manic states in people.
In addition, the effect of this electric brain stimulation can be
magnified if we implant receptor chips in the brain. For sure, people will never ever be the same
again, if and when such stimulation becomes commonplace, with or without chips. Getting ongoing fixes of electrical
stimulation to their brains, people should be able to maintain a high level of
cognitive performance indefinitely as well as maintain a certain amount of
emotional balance.
Now this stimulation is certainly not experienced as the
kind of abrasive jolt that is found in people who undergo electric shock
therapy for severe mental illness. But
neither is it a flowing blendable continual stimulus with a gradual cumulative
effect that is going to leave the integrity of a person’s sense of self totally
intact. There is something very
troubling about such an aggressive focused intervention in the human brain. Whatever such an intervention might do for
specific sectors of the brain and for specific aspects of human thought and
emotions, one can definitely be concerned about whether such tinkering will
damage the natural coherence of the human sense of self. It seems to me that there is a parallel
between this kind of intervention in human functioning and the effects of the
intervention of cosmetic surgery on human physical structure. Most of the time the effects of cosmetic
surgery seem to damage the natural flowing coherence of a person’s physical presentation. The breasts come out too large; the skin
comes out too taut. The intervention
creates a result that seems to be a little out of balance. In the same way, augmenting cognition or
diminishing depression through defined discrete focused streams of electrical
stimulation will create an off-balance personality composition or configuration, where the changed parts of a person’s
thinking will no longer exactly fit with the unaffected parts. This stands in contrast to less
interventional approaches like stimulation from enriching life situations in
the external world for greater cognitive and emotional awareness as well as
healing life situations like good psychotherapy and building healthy support
systems for an effective approach to dealing with emotional problems.
And what will prevent
such sessions with electric stimulation from becoming habit forming – even an
addiction. “Oh, I need to write a term
paper tonight for my class in Shakespeare.
I think I’ll go down to the school laboratory to get some electric
stimulation for the part of my brain that deals with analysis and conceptual
thinking. Then my brain will become
super-charged, I’ll write a terrific term paper, and I’ll get an A for the
course.” The real question is whether a
person receiving this electric stimulation is the same person before and after
the stimulation. We know that the person
is going to be significantly affected by the electric stimulation, or else he
wouldn’t use it. But is he also somehow
fundamentally changed by allowing such a strong intervention in the very core
of who he is? Will he begin to need it
to function properly? Will he become an
electric stimulus addict? And will the
electric stimulation change him in other ways distinct from being addicted.
Will the person become so
changed at the core of who he is that his organic imprints are no longer the
imprints of who he was before the electric stimulation. So the original core of who he is will no
longer be able to make and preserve his imprints and create a surrogate
immortality to prepare for death.
Using another metaphor,
becoming super-charged for cognitive activity will give a person a super strong
external mental definition, much like steroids build a person up with muscle
and give him a strong external physical definition. But steroids lead to a long-term
deterioration of physical health, a loss of physical coherence. The short term road to body development –
steroids – becomes the agent that destroys the long-term state of a person’s
physical health. And what if electrical
stimulation leads to a short-term sharpened mental definition from cognitive
activity, but leads to a long-term fragmentation of a person’s sense of self.
A dependency on a
non-organic source for a person to function well but also a fragmentation of
the sense of self. Is this a trade-off
worth having in order to get a mental fix and a heightened mental awareness? And does one want to depend on electric
stimuli to have a sensation of emotional well-being? Of course, many people already depend on
anti-depressant pills to deal with the external symptoms of depression. But somehow the electric stimuli seem to be
even more intensely invasive. And just
as anti-depressants give a person an artificial overly-defined overly-together
personality, what will happen with an ongoing use of electric stimulation for
this purpose?
The most common usage of
hacking has been associated with the unwanted aggressive penetration of our
computers by an unfriendly source for purposes related to anything from
mischief to crime. In the most recent
usages of hacking, we are penetrating our brain supposedly for friendly
supportive purposes. But what if some of
the effects of this penetration are even more destructive to human life than those
connected to computer hacking? What if
our human hacking has uncontrollable unforeseeable results that damage our
brains, an even more serious concern for humans than the other kind of hacking that
damages computers? This is what we have
to concern ourselves with in connection to this latest assault on the coherence
of the human sense of self.
© 2017 Laurence Mesirow
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