The Connected Mind

The featuring image is part of a series where I let my mind wander about different subjects and then distillate them in a series of paintings that is called “Cybernetic Musings”.

This post concerns itself with the impact neurological implants may have upon civilization. It is my opinion that this near-future development will start as a beneficially one, to help people with disabilities to link protheses with their neurological system or to connect the brain to access all kinds of computer systems which would greatly enlarge our perceptual scope.

The only downfall that I perceive here is that people may just lose their ability to learn new skills by relying on just another upgrade of their implants. It has the potential to create a massive dependency upon the available information technology where the technology isn’t any longer a prolongation of the human but the human becomes a prolongation of the cyberspace. This trend can already be perceived in the massive dependency upon their smartphones and (free?) internet platforms that some people have developed. Where not so long ago people who commute by public transport used to read their newspapers and discuss its content with fellow commuters, they’re right now reduced to some scrolling likers or brainless Ping-Pong gamers.

Knowing human nature, it will not take too long before some military/corporate/political masterminds will start to ponder how those implants can be used as a weapon. As ways to control population behavior or to enforce some kind of assimilation that is in line with the doctrine that the ruling class wants to propagate. It would also add a complete different dimension to the definition of a cyberwar.