

Instead, the algorithm will eventually connect to the brain through some variation of noninvasive interfaces being developed by scientists around the world, from tiny sensors that could be injected into the brain to genetically engineered neurons that can exchange data wirelessly with a hatlike receiver. When he describes the neuroprosthesis to reporters and conference audiences, he often uses the media-friendly expression “a chip in the brain,” but he knows he’ll never sell a mass-market product that depends on drilling holes in people’s skulls. Right now all he has is an algorithm on a hard drive. And he wants to sell this invention at mass-market prices so it’s not an elite product for the rich.
#Racing thebrain download
He’d also like to find a way to download skills such as martial arts, Matrix-style.

He intends to do this by building a “neuroprosthesis,” a device that will allow us to learn faster, remember more, “coevolve” with artificial intelligence, unlock the secrets of telepathy, and maybe even connect into group minds. The scientists from Kernel are there for a different reason: They work for Bryan Johnson, a 40-year-old tech entrepreneur who sold his business for $800 million and decided to pursue an insanely ambitious dream-he wants to take control of evolution and create a better human. They’re going to use the wires to search Dickerson’s brain for the source of her seizures.

The medical team is looking for a way to treat Dickerson’s seizures, which an elaborate regimen of epilepsy drugs controlled well enough until last year, when their effects began to dull. As a film crew prepares to document the day’s events, two separate teams of specialists get ready to work-medical experts from an elite neuroscience center at the University of Southern California and scientists from a technology company called Kernel. Now she’s caged in by bed rails, with plastic tubes snaking up her arm and medical monitors tracking her vital signs. Three days earlier, a neurosurgeon drilled 11 holes through her skull, slid 11 wires the size of spaghetti into her brain, and connected the wires to a bank of computers. She’s 25 years old, a teacher’s assistant in a middle school, with warm eyes and computer cables emerging like futuristic dreadlocks from the bandages wrapped around her head. In an ordinary hospital room in Los Angeles, a young woman named Lauren Dickerson waits for her chance to make history.
