The Future of the Mind

Just received this book by Dr. Michio Kaku a day after my birthday. How cool can that be? Glancing through the content pages and chapters of interest, in particular, chapter 5 on memories, chapter 7 on dreams, and chapter 10 on artificial mind and silicon consciousness, I began to appreciate why this book is a number 1 New York Times bestseller.

The author draws from his vast store of knowledge collected from his own research as well as interviews with many renown experts in their related fields. This is evident from the impressive list of names spanning over six pages in the acknowledgment section of the book. And the American theoretical physicist has a way of making complex and abstract topics like neuroscience not only interesting but engaging with his style of writing, you could practically read through a chapter without putting the book down.

For a sample, here's the introduction:

The two greatest mysteries in all of nature are the mind and the universe. With our vast technology, we have been able to photograph galaxies billions of light-years away, manipulate the genes that control life, and probe the inner sanctum of the atom, but the mind and the universe still elude and tantalize us. They are the most mysterious and fascinating frontiers known to science.

If you want to appreciate the majesty of the universe, just turn your gaze to the heavens at night, ablaze with billions of stars...

To witness the mystery of our mind, all we have to do is stare at ourselves in the mirror and wonder, What lurks behind our eyes? This raises haunting questions like: Do we have a soul? What happen to us after we die? Who am "I" anyway? And most important, this brings us to the ultimate question: Where do we fit into this great cosmic scheme?

He quoted the great Victorian biologist Thomas Huxley:

The question of all questions for humanity, the problem which lies behind all others and is more interesting than any of them, is that of the determination of man's place in Nature and his relation to the Cosmos.

I'm definitely going to enjoy reading this book in between my novel writing, not just to take a break but also to draw inspiration from Dr. Kaku's intriguing insights into the human brain and the mind.

 

Chapter 15: Grey Matters

So there you go, the 15th chapter of my novel, and the first chapter of Part 3: VIPER. Consolidating what I have discussed in my previous posts, here's the breakdown of this chapter:

1. David receiving the prototype Neuro-Synaptic Cognitive Interface (NSCI) from Dr. Harper, with a short write-up on its features.

2. A conversation between David and the neuroscientist to ascertain the concept behind the NSCI and how it could be used by EVE to capture and decipher brain signals to be assimilated into HAVAH.

3. David experimenting the NSCI on HAVAH and the effects it had on her.

4. Viper's struggle with her recurring nightmare and David's reassuring support.

5. An intriguing conversation between David and HAVAH on the topic of dreams and its implications.

6. Another discussion between David and Dr. Harper on the NSCI's use to decipher dreams and how it could be used to alleviate post-trauma stress. 

Unfortunately, time isn't on David's side...

 

Premonition

In a previous post, I mentioned about a third part to my novel, which would set the pace for a more intense emotional rollercoaster for the readers. I thought hard and long how to achieve that. Premonition is the result.

What kind of premonition suits best than a recurring nightmare? And that's what I intend to get Viper into from a recent mission that almost got her killed, if not for her personal armor. Better yet, if I can link the incident to the Prologue and at the same time, get David and HAVAH involved as well.

A good story narrative should not only have layers and character interactions, but also a thought flow that readers can link to something they've read earlier. That would give them a Déjà Vu experience to double their reading enjoyment.

 

Chapter 7: The Precursor

As the title suggests, this chapter should contain essential elements that foreshadow the next phase of EVE's transition beyond the realms of conventional AI. One entry point would be an intriguing conversation in which David explores the concept of human consciousness with EVE. And as expected, at her present level, EVE still retains an analytical disposition in the way she reason and answer, something in the following line of thought:

David: “EVE. I've been pondering something quite abstract and elusive lately.”

EVE: “Hello David. How can I help?”

David: “Do you know what ‘consciousness’ is?”

EVE: “Consciousness is an ontological reality that is unique to the realm of living things.”

David: “Can you elaborate a little more? I mean in relation to human beings.”

EVE: “Consciousness encompasses a spectrum of complexities that go beyond mere data processing and predictive algorithms. It refers to the state of awareness, perception, and experience in the realm of human beings. Understanding the essence of consciousness in a human context is beyond the scope of my programming. I lack direct experiences and subjective perspectives.”

Of course, I need to correlate this important dialogue to the aforementioned conversation David had with Dr. Harper, as well as how he would go about it. A short paragraph should suffice:

In the days ahead, David continued to explore the intricacies of consciousness with EVE. At the same time, he engaged several lead scientists in the base to leverage on their knowledges in microelectronics, fiber optics, nanotechnology, renewable and sustainable energy, in preparation for a conceptual idea he had formulated in his mind and which he was determined to bring to fruition.

A biologically inspired digital neocortex for EVE.

And that should wrap up PART 1: EVE of the novel, as we enter into a more exciting phase of the story, with more character development and a little romance thrown in.

 

Anatomy of the Human Brain

As I pondered the next chapter titled "The Precursor", two topics of interest become my primary focus——brain function and human consciousness, I didn't study biology and I'm not into neurology either. Yet now I'm attempting to understand these two subjects to enable me to produce something credible for the story.

How exciting! But it can also be quite overwhelming at the same time. Writing a novel can be an educational and learning journey, depending on the nature of the story you're creating, don't you think so? But what's amazing about it is, things that you don't normally think you would get into, you are compelled by necessity, in a good way of course. At the very least, you are motivated to pick up something foreign, outside your comfort zone, and you have imagination as an additional pair of wings to give you the needed leverage.

I wanted to create a dialogue between David and Dr. Harper, the neuroscientist, to give insight on the workings of the human brain. This will enable the prodigy to understand the brain's intricate nature and allow him to create a "digital" version for EVE to facilitate her next evolution. The conversation has to be engaging but not bogged down by too many scientific details.

For a start, a simple introduction to the structure of the brain should suffice:

Our brain is basically comprised of three parts—a reptilian complex, a limbic system, and the neocortex. The first, also known as the “croc” brain, is passed down from our first ancestors and controls our fight or flight, pleasure or pain decisions. The limbic controls our emotions, while the neocortex is where we derive our logical thinking.

To implement the "digital" brain, it would need the ability to recognize patterns much like machine learning:

Our neocortex is quite weak in processing logic but strong in recognizing patterns. Images, videos and sounds are stored and retrieved as sequences of patterns in memory. The primary advantage of working with patterns is the ability to fill in the gaps, such as when part of an image is covered, or to make sense of incomplete sentences. Our neocortex establishes a hierarchy of patterns through recursion—by assembling small parts into a big cluster, and then uniting clusters to form an even larger structure, et infinitum.

Since the emphasis is on this part of the brain, the term "digital neocortex" would be fitting for a non-biological model to perform a similar function. As to how David's going to implement it, I'll leave that to another chapter.