Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies

by Nick Bostrom

Despite these reservations, the cyborg route toward cognitive enhancement is not entirely without promise. Impressive work on the rat hippocampus has demonstrated the feasibility of a neural prosthesis that can enhance performance in a simple working-memory task.75 In its present version, the implant collects input from a dozen or two electrodes located in one area (“CA3”) of the hippocampus and projects onto a similar number of neurons in another area (“CA1”). A microprocessor is trained to discriminate between two different firing patterns in the first area (corresponding to two different memories, “right lever” or “left lever”) and to learn how these patterns are projected into the second area. This prosthesis can not only restore function when the normal neural connection between the two neural areas is blockaded, but by sending an especially clear token of a particular memory pattern to the second area it can enhance the performance on the memory task beyond what the rat is normally capable of.