......sorry --- couldn't think of a better title for the thread. Actually, this idea is borrowed from the whole genre of Gibson-esque science fiction novels and movies. Mods, feel free to move this thread to the appropriate subforum if it doesn't belong here. I wasn't sure where this needed to go because this isn't exactly a sci-fi question. I guess this is more of an ethics and morality question.....but I'm really looking for a discussion pondering/debating the possibilities. At any rate..... ------ Let's assume it's possible to save information, human memories, and skills on some sort of storage medium (IE - hard drive). Next, let's assume it's possible for people to directly access this data, and instantly "save" this to their own brain---which will instantly give them the ability to recall the information, or use the skill. Example - imagine a flash drive with a volume of 5 star chef skills loaded on it. The user can plug the flash drive into a port behind their ear, wait however many seconds for the data to copy, then instantly have all the skills of a 5 star chef.....or a welder......or a surgeon...etc. The user wants to be able to perfectly recall the entire English dictionary-- same thing. My questions- Many people's roles in life are centered around sets of skills in which they specialize - sometimes skills which require years of study and/or accumulated experience. With knowledge/skills becoming totally ubiquitous, what effect would it have on society? What about people's jobs? How would effect "labor" (term used loosely)? What effect would it have as far as schools and Universities are concerned -- would they cease to exist?
You are assuming allot in your ideas. Just to have a better knowledge base in your cortex isn't going to make you a brain surgeon now is it?
Just by placing knowledge into someones brain they can't ever have the actual experience to use a scalpel or other surgical instruments .
The only thing this argument points out is that 'familiarity' would need to be packaged along with the rest of the information. What prevents the skill-data's author from doing this? Why can't my surgeon.zip contain files for proper surgical instrument techniques (example- the amount of tactile pressure required for making proper incisions, details on what would go wrong if done improperly, a few demo-memories, etc)? Why can't my mechanic file include "automatic understanding of left to loosen", or an encyclopedia of strange engine smells?
I just don't think you could teach anyone the actual skills needed with just a program. Another example would be if a person was rather obese and allot of fat had to be cut through then more fat around the heart which is going to be worked on. No way a program could be made to tell all the variables that could be in the way or that could go wrong during the operation.
Stored skills wouldn't be 'programs' (like computer applications). They're not sending commands to to the user, or actively/directly guiding their actions. They would be closer to memories - archives that contain all the pertinent information required to perform the tasks. Also (unlike a library, encyclopedia, instruction manual, etc) the information has been directly imprinted to the brain. The user doesn't search the archive to find the answers - they already know because the correctly modeled "neural pathways" are part of the technology. This is the only way they can truly download then "know" the information the way I'm talking about. This is the only way a 'stored skill' can work. Perhaps the 'special case surgical scenario' archive adds another 200 gigs to the total filesize. BTW - this may seem like I'm adding new stuff to the idea, but I'm actually not -- I'm only describing the function in more detail because I originally wanted to discuss the impacts/effects on society with the assumption that it actually worked.
Well it will be a long time before your ideas happen, if and when they do. I think the best thing to do is let a robot or android hande it, there's no emotions involved unlike that of a human.
I agree. Assuming robots/androids like this could be created, then it would be a lot better due to their capabilities for precision, consistency, and *relative* low cost.
