Mind-reading AI

Neural interfaces, mind-reading AI that can decode our brainwaves and extract depictions out of them, and editing our genes are progresses that once sounded pretty sci-fi, but are on the verge of becoming reality. Sci-fi becomes reality, but what will it look like? What can we learn from it? An analysis.

When I was about 6 years old, I asked my mom if it would be possible to have a „computer“ read your thoughts.

It was still 1900-something, and there weren’t any iPhones, Bluetooth devices, or Siri, yet.

The progress in AI and things such as CRISPR-Cas is fast-paced, and there has been already a lot of progress between 2016 and now.

1. AI becomes alive

The thought here was that if you can create fully functional artificial brains, then why not use them to put them into biological bodies? But then, it’s not easy to forge an entirely artificial species, and in the story, those AI sometimes suffer from short-circuits, causing them to become violent and wreak havoc, at one point even attempting to seize control of the government. But that doesn’t mean that this is what would actually happen, right? Otherwise, be nice to your AI.

2. Gene-editing

Something easy and superficial, after we’ve all had those horrifying pictures of an ultra-intelligent, violent AI destroying our cities on our minds. Gene-editing! But other things, such as editing your genes to prevent your hair from turning grey, or to change your appearance, could actually be realistic, even though the hair colour market would really need to look for other business models, then. Although CRISPR-Cas is still debatable, the progress that we could edit our genes so that we could eventually not be affected by infections anymore, would push our healthcare system forward.

3. AI is watching

In that world, citizens are wearing an implant that allows them to send and read messages, and to store data in their head. But that device that is implanted actually also works as a locating service. This allows the government in the story to always know exactly what people in their cities are up to, and where they are.

4. Swimming and floating cities

It already looks as though several cities could disappear once climate change erodes coastlines and floods make it more and more tiresome to leave in cities near the ocean. This may cause our cities having to evolve.

Statistics already predict that in the near future, most people will live in cities. This will demand more space in cities that are already about to burst. But a growing population doesn’t have to mean that cities will collapse. It can give cities the chance to evolve. If cities were to stretch out their antlers towards the oceans, and to expand into the water by swimming platforms and by erecting entire districts under water, cities could grow despite limited space ashore. Certainly, this would mean that there would have to be measurements in place so that this would not further pollute the ocean.

Perhaps we may have to accept that one day, AI will demand independence. Only the future will tell.

– Ámaris Wen