Carles Grau Fonollosa: “Computers will exceed human abilities in some years”
Carles Grau Fonollosa is neuroscientist and honorary lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology. He directed the Neurodynamics Laboratory in the Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology of the University of Barcelona between 2002 and 2012. He has published more than sixty scientific articles about normal behaviour and pathological brain function. Last March, he gave a lecture that analysed brain-computer interaction future possibilities.
Carles Grau Fonollosa is neuroscientist and honorary lecturer at the Faculty of Psychology. He directed the Neurodynamics Laboratory in the Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology of the University of Barcelona between 2002 and 2012. He has published more than sixty scientific articles about normal behaviour and pathological brain function. Last March, he gave a lecture that analysed brain-computer interaction future possibilities.
Considering the rapid advance of the world, it is quite curious that the human brain has barely changed in 150,000 years. However, computersʼ processing power has grown exponentially. Why did the evolution of the human brain stop with the Homo sapiens?
One of the forces of evolution is that surviving individuals have a series of characteristics that enable them to adapt to the environment. From the moment when Homo sapiens had a brain able to create instruments, the species has not needed to modify its biology to survive changes, so its evolution was restrained.
Human brain-computer interaction has gone from requiring motor and sensitive activities to direct communication. It is named BCI and CBI. Can you broadly describe these two concepts?
Yes, thatʼs right. In the first phase of human-computer interaction, relationship is established by means of the motor system in the pattern brain-computer (keyboard) or by means of a sense, for example sight, in the pattern computer-brain (screen). In the second phase, which has just been initiated, communication is directly established between brain and computer, without the intervention of motor or sense elements. Direct communication takes place through interfaces and from this term emerge the concepts BCI (Brain Computer Interface) and CBI (Computer Brain Interface).
It is easier to understand that a brain can control a machine, not the other way round. On the lecture, some keys were provided about what has to happen to get machines exceed brainʼs ability to process: they only need to learn how to learn. Is that possible in the short term?
Human brains have stopped to evolve structurally and, as I said before, our brain is practically like Homo sapiensʼs. On the contrary, computers double their processing power every 18 months (Mooreʼs law). For the moment, a computer is only able to do better and quicker some of the tasks brain does, for instance calculations, task planning and graphic information processing. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to accept that computers will exceed human abilities in some years. When computers will have learnt how to learn efficiently, big changes will happen; scientists name it singularity. They foresee changes are unpredictable.
What is digital telepathy?
The term digital telepathy refers to direct communication between distant brains with a technological support. A recent study, in which the Faculty of Psychology of the UB participated, proves that brains located at thousands of kilometres far can communicate in a direct way; emitter is equipped with a BCI and the receptor with a CBI.
Should we be afraid of future widespread use?
In order to face science and technology advances, there is only one feasible option: to profit advantages and fight its disadvantages. Direct brain-to-brain communication, like many other technological advances, is about to turn real. It will require new legislation and the development of ethical criteria for using it.
Your lecture suggests that, in a near future, the widespread use of brain-computer connection technologies will provide new insights into human relationships. Do you think that they could be an opportunity to improve some mental disorders and repair brain damage?
The direct introduction of information in the brain —without using the senses— allows modifying the brain through computer-based brain stimulation systems. It is an emerging technology, but it has many potential applications, for example the improvement of cognitive function and the modification of brain functional patterns in diseases like epilepsy, depression, ictus and obsessive-compulsive disorder.