The Digital Brain

Intelligent technology is becoming so ubiquitous life as we know it couldn’t exist without it. This complex relationship comes with many side-effects—altering how we remember information; changing how and when we are exposed to content; and relieving us of the need to think for ourselves. What’s more, things are only going to get more complicated in the future.

For better or worse, our minds are going digital.

The series starts here:

1. My Digital Brain—An introduction to the relationship between mind and machine.

2. The Digital Haze—How does the internet alter how we learn and what we remember?

3. Keep Your Eyes Peeled and Wallets Open—How is our relationship with advertising changing and what does it mean for us?

4. Do You Trust the Internet to Think For You?—It’s easy to find whatever you want on the internet, but then, it’s also easy to outsource proper thought.

5. Crossing the Digital Divide—What will happen when we can Google search using only our mind?

6. The AI+Human Apocalypse—What is the biggest threat to our future—Terminator-like intelligent machines, or cyborg humans driven by greed and power?

7. Are We Destined to Fall in Love with Androids?—The company of other people is an important facet in most of our lives, but might this relationship fade when machines can offer us love like none other?

8. Will the Future be Filled with Biased Robots?—We must teach robots how to behave, but are we the best role models?

9. In the Future, Your Car Will Have Morals and May Want to Kill You—Who do you think your car would prefer to run off the road? That depends on what set of morals it has…

10. Computers are Going to Steal Your Face—If you like to impersonate people, you’ll have a lot of fun with this technology.

11. The Ins and Outs of Brain-to-Brain Communication—Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Soon we may be able to tell, as technology has set its sight on brain-to-brain communication.

12. The Consequences of Telepathy—If technology gives us the ability to transmit thoughts between one another, what aspects of life as we know it might change?

13. What Can We Share on a Mind-Melding Social Network?—When the brain is open to interpretation, could we share everything that makes us us?

14. Making the Transition From Biological to Mechanical Mind—If we can map the brain in all its fine detail and reproduce it on a computer, can we can upload our mind?

15. All Too Human—Artificial intelligence is here and it’s threatening to do everything we do, but better. That could include the very act of being human.