In the last 2 million years, the human brain has been growing steadily; However, recently there has been a surprising change from about 20,000 years ago: our brains are shrinking. The reduction is such that if this rate is maintained, scientists predict that in about 2,000 years our brains will not be larger than those of our ancestor Homo erectus .
Why is this reduction in the size of our brain occurring? Because our biology is based on survival and not intelligence. To enable us to create tools, use language … we needed a bigger brain to thrive. Now that we have stabilized, that need has dissipated and, therefore, our intelligence has become “less necessary” in our species, taking into account the high energy cost that it requires to keep our brains functioning.
Faced with this understandable handicap in nature, something is making us smarter despite shrinking our brains. This is where technology comes in. Thanks to it, we have been able to fly or move faster, for example. Today, with the Internet revolution in full swing , the network of machines and the network of human intelligence seem to come together as one .
What if we could have all that information contained in the networks in our own mind? The brain-computer interface (BCI, Brain Computer Interface) is a technology that is based on the acquisition of brain waves using chips implanted and connected directly to neurons. These waves are processed and interpreted by a machine or computer. The first such implant was developed by neuroscientist John Donoghue of Brown University (USA) and implanted in a paralyzed man in 2004, allowing him to control electrical devices with his thoughts alone. The system is surprisingly simple: electrical signals from the brain are sent to a machine that interprets and formalizes them in the form of an order in electrical devices such as a wheelchair or a robotic arm.
Is it possible to connect our mind directly to a machine or computer and have all the information as one of our thoughts? Once we understand all the corners of our brain we may be able to recreate them and build an even smarter system. But this approach starts from the premise that many of the brain’s inner workings are still a mystery to us. Also recreating a brain would not be the solution. The intelligence of the future does not exactly go through a striated area or by fat or blood .
According to a recent study by Tufts University (USA) intelligence cannot be replicated by creating the same network of on and off switches that we humans have , but we must focus on the network as an individual entity, like itself Internet network. The Internet is the best candidate for machine intelligence: it can work in parallel, it can communicate over long distances, and it also makes mistakes .
The convergence between computer networks and our neural networks seems to be the key to creating an intelligence that merges machines and humans, different from the current supercomputers that we know as Deep Blue or Watson from IBM: a true artificial intelligence.
“Although the Internet is still in an early stage of its evolution, we can take advantage of the brain that nature has given us and make computer networks and neural networks converge. This convergence will be key to creating true intelligence in artificial machines “, explains Jeff Stibel, a neuroscientist at Tuft University (USA).
