Introduction
Human intelligence (i.e., the ability to consistently solve problems successfully)
has evolved through the need to adapt to changing environments. This is not only true
of our past but also of our present. Our brain faculties are becoming more sophisticated
by cooperating and interacting with technology, specifically digital communication
technology (Asaro, 2008).
When we consider the matter of brain function augmentation, we take it for granted
that the issue refers to the human brain as a distinct organ. However, as we live
in a complex technological society, it is now becoming clear that the issue is much
more complicated. Individual brains cannot simply be considered in isolation, and
their function is no longer localized or contained within the cranium, as we now know
that information may be transmitted directly from one brain to another (Deadwyler
et al., 2013; Pais-Vieira et al., 2013). This issue has been discussed in detail and
attempts have been made to study the matter within a wider and more global context
(Nicolelis and Laporta, 2011). Recent research in the field of brain to brain interfaces
has provided the basis for further research and formation of new hypotheses in this
respect (Grau et al., 2014; Rao et al., 2014). This concept of rudimentary “brain
nets” may be expanded in a more global fashion, and within this framework, it is possible
to envisage a much bigger and abstract “meta-entity” of inclusive and distributed
capabilities, called the Global Brain (Mayer-Kress and Barczys, 1995; Heylighen and
Bollen, 1996; Johnson et al., 1998; Helbing, 2011; Vidal, in press).
This entity reciprocally feeds information back to its components—the individual human
brains. As a result, novel and hitherto unknown consequences may materialize such
as, for instance, the emergence of rudimentary global “emotion” (Garcia and Tanase,
2013; Garcia et al., 2013; Kramera et al., 2014), and the appearance of decision-making
faculties (Rodriguez et al., 2007). These characteristics may have direct impact upon
our biology (Kyriazis, 2014a). This has been long discussed in futuristic and sociology
literature (Engelbart, 1988), but now it also becomes more relevant to systems neuroscience
partly because of the very promising research in brain-to-brain interfaces. The concept
is grounded on scientific principles (Last, 2014a) and mathematical modeling (Heylighen
et al., 2012).
Augmenting brain function on a global scale
It can be argued that the continual enhancement of brain function in humans, i.e.,
the tendency to an increasing intellectual sophistication, broadly aligns well with
the main direction of evolution (Steward, 2014). This tendency to an increasing intellectual
sophistication also obeys Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety (Ashby, 1958) which essentially
states that, for any system to be stable, the number of states of its control mechanisms
must be greater than the number of states in the system being controlled. This means
that, within an ever-increasing technological environment, we must continue to increase
our brain function (mostly through using, or merging with, technology such as in the
example of brain to brain communication mentioned above), in order to improve integration
and maintain stability of the wider system. Several other authors (Maynard Smith and
Szathmáry, 1997; Woolley et al., 2010; Last, 2014a) have expanded on this point, which
seems to underpin our continual search for brain enrichment.
The tendency to enrich our brain is an innate characteristic of humans. We have been
trying to augment our mental abilities, either intentionally or unintentionally, for
millennia through the use of botanicals and custom-made medicaments, herbs and remedies,
and, more recently, synthetic nootropics and improved ways to assimilate information.
Many of these methods are not only useful in healthy people but are invaluable in
age-related neurodegenerative disorders such as dementia and Parkinson's disease (Kumar
and Khanum, 2012). Other neuroscience-based methods such as transcranial laser treatments
and physical implants (such as neural dust nanoparticles) are useful in enhancing
cognition and modulate other brain functions (Gonzalez-Lima and Barrett, 2014).
However, these approaches are limited to the biological human brain as a distinct
agent. As shown by the increased research interest in brain to brain communication
(Trimper et al., 2014), I argue that the issue of brain augmentation is now embracing
a more global aspect. The reason is the continual developments in technology which
are changing our society and culture (Long, 2010). Certain brain faculties that were
originally evolved for solving practical physical problems have been co-opted and
exapted for solving more abstract metaphors, making humans adopt a better position
within a technological niche.
The line between human brain function and digital information technologies is progressively
becoming indistinct and less well-defined. This blurring is possible through the development
of new technologies which enable more efficient brain-computer interfaces (Pfurtscheller
and Neuper, 2002), and recently, brain-to-brain interfaces (Grau et al., 2014).
We are now in a position expand on this emergent worldview and examine what trends
of systems neuroscience are likely in the near-term future. Technology has been the
main drive which brought us to the position we are in today (Henry, 2014). This position
is the merging of the physical human brain abilities with virtual domains and automated
web services (Kurzweil, 2009). Modern humans cannot purely be defined by their biological
brain function. Instead, we are now becoming an amalgam of biological and virtual/digital
characteristics, a discrete unit, or autonomous agent, forming part of a wider and
more global entity (Figure 1).
Figure 1
Computer-generated image of internet connections world-wide (Global Brain). The conceptual
similarities with the human brain are remarkable. Both networks exhibit a scale-free,
fractal distribution, with some weakly-connected units, and some strongly-connected
ones which are arranged in hubs of increasing functional complexity. This helps protect
the constituents of the network against stresses. Both networks are “small worlds”
which means that information can reach any given unit within the network by passing
through only a small number of other units. This assists in the global propagation
of information within the network, and gives each and every unit the functional potential
to be directly connected to all others. Source: The Opte Project/Barrett Lyon. Used
under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International License.
Large scale networks and the global brain
The Global Brain (Heylighen, 2007; Iandoli et al., 2009; Bernstein et al., 2012) is
a self-organizing system which encompasses all those humans who are connected with
communication technologies, as well as the emergent properties of these connections.
Its intelligence and information-processing characteristics are distributed, in contrast
to that of individuals whose intelligence is localized. Its characteristics emerge
from the dynamic networks and global interactions between its individual agents. These
individual agents are not merely the biological humans but are something more complex.
In order to describe this relationship further, I have introduced the notion of the
noeme, an emergent agent, which helps formalize the relationships involved (Kyriazis,
2014a). The noeme is a combination of a distinct physical brain function and that
of an “outsourced” virtual one. It is the intellectual “networked presence” of an
individual within the GB, a meaningful synergy between each individual human, their
social interactions and artificial agents, globally connected to other noemes through
digital communications technology (and, perhaps soon, through direct brain to brain
interfaces). A comparison can be made with neurons which, as individual discrete agents,
form part of the human brain. In this comparison, the noemes act as the individual,
information-sharing discrete agents which form the GB (Gershenson, 2011). The modeling
of noemes helps us define ourselves in a way that strengthens our rational presence
in the digital world. By trying to enhance our information-sharing capabilities we
become better integrated within the GB and so become a valuable component of it, encouraging
mechanisms active in all complex adaptive systems to operate in a way that prolongs
our retention within this system (Gershenson and Fernández, 2012), i.e., prolongs
our biological lifespan (Kyriazis, 2014b; Last, 2014b).
Discussion
This concept is a helpful way of interpreting the developing cognitive relationship
between humans and artificial agents as we evolve and adapt to our changing technological
environment. The concept of the noeme provides insights with regards to future problems
and opportunities. For instance, the study of the function of the noeme may provide
answers useful to biomedicine, by coopting laws applicable to any artificial intelligence
medium and using these to enhance human health (Kyriazis, 2014a). Just as certain
physical or pharmacological therapies for brain augmentation are useful in neurodegeneration
in individuals, so global ways of brain enhancement are useful in a global sense,
improving the function and adaptive capabilities of humanity as a whole. One way to
augment global brain function is to increase the information content of our environment
by constructing smart cities (Caragliu et al., 2009), expanding the notion of the
Web of Things (Kamilaris et al., 2011), and by developing new concepts in educational
domains (Veletsianos, 2010). This improves the information exchange between us and
our surroundings and helps augment brain function, not just physically in individuals,
but also virtually in society.
Practical ways for enhancing our noeme (i.e., our digital presence) include:
Cultivate a robust social media base, in different forums.
Aim for respect, esteem and value within your virtual environment.
Increase the number of your connections both in virtual and in real terms.
Stay consistently visible online.
Share meaningful information that requires action.
Avoid the use of meaningless, trivial or outdated platforms.
Increase the unity of your connections by using only one (user)name for all online
and physical platforms.
These methods can help increase information sharing and facilitate our integration
within the GB (Kyriazis, 2014a). In a practical sense, these actions are easy to perform
and can encompass a wide section of modern communities. Although the benefits of these
actions are not well studied, nevertheless some initial findings appear promising
(Griffiths, 2002; Granic et al., 2014).
Concluding remarks
With regards to improving brain function, we are gradually moving away from the realms
of science fiction and into the realms of reality (Kurzweil, 2005). It is now possible
to suggest ways to enhance our brain function, based on novel concepts dependent not
only on neuroscience but also on digital and other technology. The result of such
augmentation does not only benefit the individual brain but can also improve all humanity
in a more abstract sense. It improves human evolution and adaptation to new technological
environments, and this, in turn, may have positive impact upon our health and thus
longevity (Solman, 2012; Kyriazis, 2014c).
In a more philosophical sense, our progressive and distributed brain function amplification
has begun to lead us toward attaining “god-like” characteristics (Heylighen, in press)
particularly “omniscience” (through Google, Wikipedia, the semantic web, Massively
Online Open Courses MOOCs—which dramatically enhance our knowledge base), and “omnipresence”
(cloud and fog computing, Twitter, YouTube, Internet of Things, Internet of Everything).
These are the result of the outsourcing of our brain capabilities to the cloud in
a distributed and universal manner, which is an ideal global neural augmentation.
The first steps have already been taken through brain to brain communication research.
The concept of systems neuroscience is thus expanded to encompass not only the human
nervous network but also a global network with societal and cultural elements.
Conflict of interest statement
The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial
or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.