Artificial intelligence (AI) is very much in the news. Its recent achievements have created fascination and concern, including in Silicon Valley. Elon Musk has set up the company Neuralink to develop a brain-machine interface, arguing that this is the only way to avoid domination by machines. The author of L’Homme augmenté. Futurs de nos cerveaux [Augmented Humanity: The Future for Our Brains], Raphaël Gaillard, is particularly well placed to analyze the issue of AI and Musk’s proposed solution. As a psychiatrist, he knows about disruptions to the functioning of the brain and as an academic he has a history of notable publications. In addition, his writing is very clear and satisfying, as befits a graduate of the ENS (École normale supérieure).
Brain-machine hybridization is explored from various angles: the opportunities offered by scientific advances, the potential impacts of this transformation, and the ways in which the impacts might be mitigated. Part one, dealing with the opportunities, is the longest, since there has been much spectacular progress in this area. Repairs to nervous system damage, in the form of loss of limb mobility, verbal expression, and memory, provide a starting point. Successful trials indicate astonishing outcomes: the brain assimilates the implanted prosthesis, a result that bodes well for the future. The author underscores the continuum between repairs, which are carried out in a patient, and augmentation, which is performed in a healthy subject. However, repairs only involve part of the brain, and hybridization in a healthy subject will only result in focused augmentation.
Advances in both memory stimulation and the forgetting of unpleasant memories are also explored in the light of developments in neuromodulation. In addition, the author is a specialist in brain chemistry and, in the same repair-augmentation vein, discusses smart drugs: coffee, tea, cocaine, amphetamines, Ritalin, all of which cause cognitive doping but are also risky to use; here again, the author is well placed to talk about them. Somewhat surprisingly, he focuses on psychedelic drugs, such as psilocybin or ketamine (the latter generally used as an anesthetic). His experience means that he considers them useful in the treatment of deep depression. These drugs also facilitate an approach to the workings of consciousness, the author providing an eloquent description of his experience in this area.
The influence of sleep in the repair process is also analyzed. The author revisits the problems caused by insufficient sleep and describes new technologies to combat insomnia. However, on a more original note, he cites research, both ancient and modern, that shows how alternate periods of wakefulness and sleep influence creativity. Even more surprisingly, recent research shows that, in order to prevent catastrophic forgetfulness during multitasking, AI needs to introduce rest periods.
In this overview, Gai...
