Offloading Your Brain

Shaping the Future - Charlie Stross

I'm being lazy and not reading the entirety of Stross's speech but thought it was an interesting tidbit nevertheless. The U.S. has long led the rest of the world in information trading. The idea that we could eventually carry around devices that are customized for our individual way of thinking is quite revolutionary. It's not so much that we could carry around that load of information but that we would have programs that understand how our brains work. I joke about being the back-up brain for a friend of mine, knowing what she is talking about even if she doesn't remember the exact words, but a device like this would become a constant back-up brain. We, as a species, have always found new tools to enhance our natural abilities but we are coming to a point where we are creating tools that enhance our minds in a very direct manner. I like this.