BBC Focus Magazine

[M Paul Lloyd]

Yes that makes sense, you could 'implant' the required skills to, say.... save someones life, and if the 'implant' was available on demand, like an app or whatever, you wouldn't need to retain the information either.............. which sort of brings us back to Joe 90.

Actually I was using an online translator to communicate with an Italian chap I know (not too sure if its entirely accurate as translating it back can result in some strange variations!!) as I know not one word of Italian and his English is equally limited, but it occured to me that languages would be a skill you could perhaps implant ?

[Healerman]

Actually I was using an online translator to communicate with an Italian chap I know (not too sure if its entirely accurate as translating it back can result in some strange variations!!) as I know not one word of Italian and his English is equally limited, but it occured to me that languages would be a skill you could perhaps implant ?

My own experience suggests that language may, in fact, be one of the more difficult areas. Many thoughts in one language do not translate very well in a literal way into another. I recall being told some Spanish proverbs and being totally unable to see any sense in them, or how they could make sense by derivation. The meanings had deep cultural roots, it just wasn't my culture.
That doesn't mean that you couldn't implant a whole bunch of cultural baggage along with the language, but it would make the job considerably more complex.

[M Paul Lloyd]

So, it would be limited to just a few basic and general language phrases I guess?

Hardly worth the effort?

[Thinker]

Anyway something occurred to me after reading what Jamie and Healerman were saying, you see (at the risk of sounding like a show off) I know pretty much all their is to know about how a plane flies through the air, from the initial walk-round checks, control checks to starting the engine, taxiing, take-off, instrument reading, the easy bit in the middle and landing, I even know why each part of an aeroplane does what it does and how.

But, I can't fly and never have actually done all of that, save for some of the ground checks and 'easy bit in the middle' which really doesn't count.

By the sounds of it Paul, you are pretty much on track to pass a private pilots license. Stop me if I'm teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, but surely if you spent some time on MS Flight Simulator like I have you can practically get a plane off of the ground. As you duly state, you can do the easy bit in the middle which basically involves keeping the plane in straight and level flight. Then comes the landing which basically involves reducing power and letting the plane fall to the ground. I know that there is an abundance of ground school training or "school work" you have to undergo which by the sounds of it you already know. Why not go all out and get your license?

Mind you, you have to do so many hours in the air don't you!


PS. Oh and it aint very cheap is it!

[M Paul Lloyd]

No it certainly isn't cheap Thinker and yes you do have to put in the hours.
Thing is I really have no use for a pilots licence, after its not as if I own an aeroplane or have any reason to fly one. If I thought I could make a decent living transporting people about in a private charter jet or the like, well then I could see the sense in it but just flying for the sake of it seems like a waste of valuable airspace to me.
Best left to those with the time and money to spare I think?

[Thinker]

My dad bought a microlite for £8k once, it looked like the red baron plane, it was quite cool. But he didn't have a license or anything. I think he just wanted to be able to say that he owned one!

[Colm]

First of all I presume there's some sort of limit to the amount of knowledge the human brain can actually hold, so everyone wouldn't know everything. But if you think of it as, say, a college degree or something, but without the years of necessary work.

The question: "Would you implant new skills in your mind" assumes the technology is readily available, so I'm afraid it would become a point of everyone else is doing it so I should too. And I think in a world where it's available, it would be fashionable to do it. It's not that everyone would know everything, but that people would have a lot more knowledge than they do now.

You people saying, "You might get the knowledge but not the practice"... Yeah but what's the harm in having the knowledge? If you wanted to become a rich doctor, would you prefer be a medical student just starting off, or at the end of your years of training? Also, it's "Would you implant new skills in your mind", which suggests that you get the entire skill - even kung fu if you want it - somehow the muscle control would be included in the implant.

Imagine the world where education is free, takes no work or time, and doesn't interfere with one getting a job to pay the bills, or having to take care of the kids - in other words everyone who wants an education can have it, and as much of it as they want.

[Lateralman]

Yeah, imagine a rat infested smelly world, over run with seven billion ‘brilliant’ people and whose going to empty the bins...Einstein.

Then again, on the positive side, imagine a world where you do not have control of your own mind. Now where have I heard that one before?

[M Paul Lloyd]

Now where have I heard that one before?

In therapy?

[Shadowwolf]

First of all I presume there's some sort of limit to the amount of knowledge the human brain can actually hold,

I think I've seen a number on that before, don't recall it but I reckon it's fairly large. Whether that represented useful storage space I don't know.

Yeah, imagine a rat infested smelly world, over run with seven billion ‘brilliant’ people and whose going to empty the bins...Einstein.

Well there is a difference between knowing how to do something and being really good at it or a genius, many physicists but not all of them are Einsteins. However, assuming that everyone had equal access you could conceivably have everyone in a position where many jobs would be seriously dull. Though I would expect that a place where knowledge is available for all would lead to a markedly different society where modes of living are nothing like they are now.

...imagine a world where you do not have control of your own mind.

Indeed, but that's an entirely different prospect to being able to download knowledge.

[Isee]

I wouldn't worry about too many experts around. afterall we were all wearing sabertooth's hide for clothes and wielding a club once. Can't get any more even than that, and giving everyone fire or tools would not send the population into chaos but speed up progress. Making everyone an expert in rocket schience at the currently top level will just advance the science and make barriers to entry lower.

As for malpractice and abuse, sure. To start with that is. Every action has a reaction and eventually a system, regulation and safety agreeable with the most will emerge.

Where do I sign up? I'd order a skill to implant skills first I think

[Lateralman]

Do you really think that everyone will benefit from this? That a chimney sweep will become a brain surgeon overnight! Bubble land!

This technology will not be available to the masses. It will be as you mentioned at the outset, abused. Only available to those who can afford it. Those who can, will eventually use their newfound powers to prevent those who cannot. For it will reach a parameter where it will be in their vested interests to do just that.

Similar to the extreme events we see happening right now, with medicine, where a life saving drug is only available to those with the cash. Life is cheap, or should I say, expensive.

[Shadowwolf]

Do you really think that everyone will benefit from this? That a chimney sweep will become a brain surgeon overnight! Bubble land!

Sorry Lateral but I don't think anyone suggested this.

Those who can, will eventually use their newfound powers to prevent those who cannot.

We already live in that society without such technology, don't think it would make it markedly worse.

[Lateralman]

Does this mean I can bin me sweep brushes, dust myself down and start all over again with a nifty scalpel. It gives a completely new meaning to being, really plugged in. Are we heading towards the matrix? Actually, I think I need something like this like I need a hole in the head.

[Willxx]

I like the idea that we could tackle problems by creating specially targetted (sp?) research groups on demand, ie a sort of Bletchley Park for specific tasks?

Set teams of (hundreds/thousands) volunteers the task of creating nuclear fusion? Alternate energy research? Practical and functional space travel? Bio engineering food sources for a growing problem? Quick implementation of graphene?

Although you may be able to implant knowledge the specific implementation of that knowledge would be handled differently by different individuals and we would still get variety and innovation because of that.

[M Paul Lloyd]

I think the problem for me with this is that knowledge is useless without intelligence or indeed the wisdom to use it properly so you could implant new skills in your mind would you always get the same resul between individuals. For example the ability to climb might send one person on a mission to conquer Everest but someone else might just use it to become a cat burgler!?

[Willxx]

i agree but focusing (no pun) a group of volunteers onto a task may speed up or spur advances which otherwise may take decades if done by individuals

[M Paul Lloyd]

I have always rather hoped that could be the case now Willxx, indeed the creation of the atom bomb was the result of just such an arrangemnet.
Amazing what they can achieve in the interests of mass destruction but less so when it comes to medicine or the like.

[Thinker]

The greatest fear for me is the knowledge of all falling into the wrong hands. All that intelligence would give one person the power to create something more dangerous than we can possibly imagine. If you think an atomic or chemical/biological attack is scary, imagine what one could create with all the knowledge in the world!

[M Paul Lloyd]

Strangely though Thinker I'm beginning to wonder if we are not already heading towards that very situation with the internet, given that it is now possible to appear far more knowedgeable than you might actually be by accessing information via a search engine? So take it to the next level and make the entire net available to your mind and..... well the prospects are, as you suggest, quite frightening.