RE: Would it be possible to download skills into your brain like in the movie Matrix?
Most of us have seen the matrix movies in which you simply download a program into your brain and can then kung fu, kick thai boxing or karate like the masters or you know how to fly helicopters without any training.
Yes, I have.
Would that work?
No, it won't, for many reasons.
The primary reason is that the idea of learning this way is a movie's plot device not based on any knowledge or understanding of either how a computer or our brains work.
Our brain is not a computer in the sense that we know it from our computers at home.
Being a programmer, I can assure you that our brain IS a computer in the same way my laptop is a computer. It's a different kind of computer, but a computer nonetheless. It computes.
https://steemit.com/psychology/@hartnell/is-the-human-brain-like-a-computer
Our brain, as far as we know, does not process digital informations.
That's debatable.
Digital in terms of computer science means that information at it's base is represented in some rigid, definite (non-squishy) form. You're familiar with this as the 1's and 0's of binary code. This is contrasted with analog, which can vary beyond some set rigid and definite values.
Our neurons carry digital information along their axion as either an on (1) or off (0) signal. Ergo, our neurons carry digital information.
My point in describing this is to point out that whether or not our brain is a digital computer is a moot point.
The essential difference in how our brain processes raw, bare metal level information is that the standard CPU processes information sequentially while a network of our neurons process information in parallel.
Our brain is a learning machine. We as humans must first learn to master a skill. This includes gaining experience, which our brain processes.
But different is again with an AI. Depending on the development of an AI...
Yes, depending on the type of AI framework you're using, for example, if you were to use an artificial neural network used to evolve robot behavior, or a simple perceptron used to recognize tomatoes in photographs....
it is capable of learning,
... such systems are indeed capable of learning and MUST learn through being taught specifically by...
Your computer, on the other hand, doesn't learn, not even through its mistakes.
but in turn it lacks the process of collecting experiences, as a human does.
... collecting the experiences of having it's mistakes corrected. In fact, there's a word for it: back propagation.
To compare our consciousness or mind with an AI is therefore not really correct.
Heh. Well, now you know.
There are the first steps of brain-computer-interfaces already today, but here it is the case that humans use the machine as an aid and not to download new abilities into their brains.
We already extend our mental faculties in a valid "cybernetic", albiet low tech way. A notepad extends memory.
And to control the aid technology, humans must first learn how to control it for the first time with a long process of training.
Fair enough, I didn't learn how to use language or to write that language in a few minutes, and had to go through a long process of learning these things... just to extend my memory using a notepad.
Would it be possible to establish a communication between brain and computer, where one could download information and programs of the computer onto one's brain? Most likely yes
Most likely, no. But... there is a way...
But the interface between digital information and memory is a bit complicated, because both can be seen as two different operating systems or languages. We don't know exactly which language our brain speaks yet. We first have to find a common language between computers and our brain and that will take many decades.
This is a moot point. Memory is stored as physical changes within our brain.
So don't expect that you will soon become a kung-fu or karate master by simply pressing a button or that you will be able to download all informations from the internet into your brain that you want.
But as I said... there's is a way... something that's really good, works now, and doesn't rely on any of this random speculation.
But such a technology would also be a bit dangerous. What would happen if you were able to reset your brain? And let's think further: What if a dangerous AI was developed, reprograms itself and hides itself in the wide spaces of the internet and then disguises itself as something that people want to download onto their brains, and people download the AI into their brains?
Uh....
Or a simpler example: a virus?
K.
Or a trojan with which a hacker can control YOU
Well... as someone who has a bit of hypnotist training I can bloviate at length on how control of someone could be achieved... but it still has nothing to do with the ideas you've presented here.
So, about that method of rapid learning I hinted at... as a method it's called "decoded neurofeedback." The process :
- Measure the activity in the brain of someone who has some skill.
- Train the "learner" to approximate this state of activity using neurofeedback.
Ergo, it's all about state, not memory. And, this is a method that's being used now.
Decoded Neurofeedback (DecNef) is the process of inducing knowledge in a subject by increasing neural activation in predetermined regions in the brain, such as the visual cortex. This is achieved by measuring neural activity in these regions via functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI), comparing this to the ideal pattern of neural activation in these regions (for the intended purpose), and giving subjects feedback on how close their current pattern of neural activity is to the ideal pattern. Without explicit knowledge of what they are supposed to be doing or thinking about, over time participants learn to induce this ideal pattern of neural activation. Corresponding to this, their 'knowledge' or way of thinking has been found to change accordingly.
Experiments conducted in 2011 at Boston University (BU) and ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan demonstrated that volunteers were able to quickly solve complex visual puzzles they had not previously had exposure to. They did so by receiving the brain patterns of other volunteers who had already learned to solve the puzzles through trial and error methods.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decoded_neurofeedback
Cheers.
Decoded neurofeedback
Decoded Neurofeedback (DecNef) is the process of inducing knowledge in a subject by increasing neural activation in predetermined regions in the brain, such as the visual cortex. This is achieved by measuring neural activity in these regions via functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI), comparing this to the ideal pattern of neural activation in these regions (for the intended purpose), and giving subjects feedback on how close their current pattern of neural activity is to the ideal pattern. Without explicit knowledge of what they are supposed to be doing or thinking about, over time participants learn to induce this ideal pattern of neural activation. Corresponding to this, their 'knowledge' or way of thinking has been found to change accordingly.