Nanotechnology and Consciousness:
an introduction by Simon Moon
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To start, for those of you who don’t know about nanotechnology you can
read all about in Eric Drexler’s ‘Engines of Creation’ or in Omni Nov ’86.
There are angles (infinite angles!) to nano-technology that nobody has
discussed yet (at least openly), and those are its implications to
consciousness. I don’t expect to finish discussing this very radical
notion in this bulletin, so I will continue over several (whenever I
can).
For those of you who have read William Gibson’s ‘Neuromancer’ and the
like, you are familiar with the concepts of Cyberspace –
Cyber-telepathy, Super-virtual/non-local reality simulation/modulation
and other neuro-electronic concepts. At present, these ‘future
technologies’ seem impossible. As it is, we barely understand the brain
and its relation to conscious thought. So how could we possibly
incorporate a cybernetic link to it with any sufficiency?
To begin, there are a few concepts that have to be put forward. Science
has shown (although most fundamental materialists don’t see the full
implications of their discoveries) that ‘we’ are not the ‘substance’
but rather the ‘form’ that is the information transfer that is made
possible thru the physical substance. This has been shown using
radioactive tracers. We replace all the cells in our body within a
seven year period, yet ‘we’ still remain, we don’t disappear. We are
the form and not the substance. The implications to this are
staggering! Immortality thus becomes a more feasible goal (although by
no means an easy one).
Now, if ‘we’ are the information of the structure, then in order to
define who ‘we’ are we would have to go to the deepest levels of
physical reality to explore the information transfer going on.
Thus in order for us to model, to any degree of accuracy, the mind we
will need to understand the brain and such all the way down past the
molecular level into the quantum level and beyond. Neuroscientists are
already figuring this out, and are researching molecular interactins in
the neurons (i.e the thousands, perhaps millions of neurotransmitters
that help define thought). But neurotransmitter are the result of a very
large number of quantum interactions which define any particular
molecule.
So, to finish off this first part of a series; if Cyberspace is ever
going to become a reality, Nanotechnology is going to have to play a
role. No other technology will be small and complex enough to receive,
integrate and transmit the billions of quantum signals that make up a
single human thought.
– To be continued
sm
* Nano-technology (aka. Atomic Engineering) is to atoms what genetic
engineering is to genes. Nano-technology is a concept that is becoming
a reality. It is simply a natural progression of the chemical,
biological and computer sciences. With nano-technology we will be able
to engineer an atom at a time. The potential is both very promising and
very threatening. This technology is inevitable, lets hope we have the
wisdom to use it.
Nanotechnology and Consciousness:
Beyond Drugs
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Yes, that’s right, beyond drugs, way beyond any drug. What I am about
to describe could be a called a meta-drug; as nanotechnology would be
to a psychedelic what a psychedelic is to water.
With nanotechnology, we will be able to make very extensive cybernetic
maps of the brain and nervous system (neurologically, genetically,
atomically)…LSD — it is a simple molecule that interacts with the
neurotransmitter serotonin to produce most of the effects of a ‘trip’
(on occasion, the effects occur on more fundamental levels). Most of
what was experienced on LSD is the product of its simple molecular
structure ad the accompanying neurotransmitter! This is only one of
millions of possibilities!
Now comes along nanotechnology, with its ability to construct any
possible atomic configuration – any chemical! Of course, most chemicals
are not cybernetically suited to operate within the nervous brain, but
that still leaves unlimited possibilities! Once we start making very
extensive maps of the nervous system, nanotechnology will allow us to
manipulate the nervous system with a million times the flexibility of
any one psychedelic. Thus giving the nervous system higher and higher
orders of complexity and freedom! Where other psychedelic take you on a
‘trip’, nanotechnology would be at your control. And that control would
be nearly instantaneous, as the nano- to neuro- interfacing would be
extremely efficient with the greater cybernetic mapping.
Thousands of molecular configurations would be interacting at any one
instant. The interactions between these thousand would be in the
millions. And the number of the possible interactions between those
would be in the trillions! Why take LSD or any drug for that matter
when nanotechnology allows for literally trillions of times more
possibilities. This is mind blowing! No wonder nobody has discussed
this angle of nanotechnology – as it simply inconceivable.
To add to all of this, nanotechnology would operate at several orders
of magnitude faster than the nervous system and have thousands of
terabytes of usable memory