IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2016 - 29

LEADING EDGE

Jeff Robbins

When Smart Is Not

n his new book,
The Future of the
Mind: The Scientific Quest to Underst and, Enhance,
and Empower Mind, theoretical
physicist and best-selling author,
Dr. Michio Kaku, ventures into multiverse, wormhole, Schrödinger's,
dead- and not-dead-Cat territory
that few to no prominent neuroscientists would dare venture. It's
hard to fathom Nobel Prize winning neuroscientist, Dr. Eric Kandel,
for example, a fixture on Charlie
Rose's periodic round tables on The
Brain, bringing up the pure energy,
interstellar laser beam Fed Ex-ing
of, neuron for neuron, connectome
duplicated human/cyborg brains,
all cellular pathways, memories,
and quirks included.
This book is an encyclopedic
take on the future of brain science and technology. While Kaku
acknowledges the double-edged
sword character to both science
and technology, writing that "One
side of the sword can cut against
poverty, disease, and ignorance,
but the other side can cut against
people" [1, p. 101], the main thrust
of his book lies in celebrating the
soaring positive possibilities of
brain science. In this, Kaku, with

Technology and Michio Kaku's
The Future of the Mind

some reservations, follows the conventional wisdom that any technology that eliminates effort, that
makes life easier or more convenient, that responds instantly to
our every wish and command is,
ipso facto, good. He quotes former
Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) official, Michael
Goldblatt, who bids us contemplate
"a world in which learning is as easy
as eating, and replacement of body
parts as convenient as a fast-food
drive-through"[1, p. 74]. In his chapter, "Memories and Thoughts Made
to Order," he writes that "In The
Matrix, learning the amazing skills
of a black-belt karate master is no
harder than slipping an electrode
into your brain and pushing the
'download' button. Perhaps one day
we, too, may be able to download
memories which will vastly increase
our abilities" [1, p. 104].
Kaku cites research that may
lead to a "'smart pill' that could
boost concentration, improve mem-

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2016.2554439
Date of publication: 2 June 2016

june 2016

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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

ory, and maybe increase our intelligence" [1, p. 120]. We could learn
calculus "by simply uploading the
skill" [1, p. 121]. There would be no
need for the unemployed to engage
in the effort of retraining for new
marketable skills. They could fast
and easy acquire the "skills by having memories implanted" [1, p. 121].
In "The Artificial Mind and Silicon Consciousness," Kaku's chapter on artificial intelligence and
robots, the author focuses on the
February 2011 victory of IBM's Watson over Jeopardy champs, Ken
Jennings and Brad Rutter, a victory that prompted Jennings' now
famous remark: "I for one welcome
our new computer overlords." Watson, as Kaku sees it, represents
"just the latest generation of 'expert
systems,' software programs that
use formal logic to access vast
amounts of specialized information" claiming that they "will continue to evolve, making our lives more
convenient and efficient" [1, p. 214].

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2016