An expert in the field of neuroscience, psycholinguistics and the theory of consciousness - about the brain, the Internet and robots.
Believe it or not, we have looked into the future. No, not by the forces of a fortune teller or an astrologer: we were lucky enough to meet with a professor at St. Petersburg State University, Tatiana Chernigovskaya. Using the tools of psycholinguistics, neuroscience and the theory of consciousness, Tatyana Vladimirovna told what kind of substance we have in the "boxes", how our progress (read: regression) turns it into jelly and what can replace the "society" of dullards.
HYPERNET HYPERNETS
- How much is the human brain studied?
- We know little about the brain, because there is nothing more complicated in the Universe. This is such an object, if not a subject, which requires the efforts of all mankind so that we can study it. Huge projects are underway in the world, huge money is spent on this.
- Is the scheme from biology textbooks relevant, according to which the brain is divided into zones: here - vision, there - hearing?
- There is localization of functions in the brain. This, unfortunately, is proven every day by medicine: if a patient has a damaged frontal lobe, he does not understand well, and if the occipital lobe is damaged, a person's visual perception "deteriorates". But if we examine a healthy brain with tomographs, we will not see specialization. After all, this is a complex neural network that is constantly changing. It depends on what you read, eat and drink … This is a network of networks, a network of networks of networks, a hypernet, a hypernet of hypernets.
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- Is it true that we use ten percent of the brain?
- It is a myth. If a person's head is sent to a tomograph, then we will see that the brain works entirely. Remember the movie "Lucy" about a girl who got into her body with some substances, and her brain began to work to its fullest: ten, twenty, fifty percent, one hundred - and she turned into a neural network? So this is Hollywood!
If about reality, then it is generally not clear where these numbers come from. Well, and, of course, the brain of one is very different from the brain of another: if a person only eats chips and listens to idiotic music, his brain may not work by five percent. I'm kidding, of course.
They'll put chips in my head, tweak a couple of genes. But will a person remain a person? Photo: Alexander GLUZ.
- Does the brain of a man and a woman differ?
- Women have more connection between the hemispheres. And in men, communication takes place within each of the hemispheres: the left communicates with the left, the right with the right. Evolutionarily this is understandable: women are more effective in everyday life, but when it comes to powerful creative breakthroughs, discoveries, men overplay. Therefore, there are very few geniuses among women.
But this is on average. And on average, as you know, nothing happens. The individual differences in the brains are so great that there are as many men as you want who are impulsive and hysterical, like women. How many you want and women who will lay down a couple of armies. So it's not a question of gender.
- Is it possible, looking at the brain, to say that it belongs to a genius?
- A genius can only be born. But this is not the structure of the brain: these are much deeper things. In addition, you can be born a genius, but not become. And no one will know about this if a child has ended up in the “wrong” social environment, if he was “wrong” raised and trained. Mozart was lucky to be among the Mozarts. And Pasteur didn't have one hemisphere - and yet he is Pasteur.
BEYOND SCIENCE
- Can the brains of all people be connected into a single network?
- This is what the US military is doing. There are examples when neural networks of different people are connected into a single one. But work is just underway, there is nothing practical yet. And I hope it won't be long: this is a great danger. We have enough social networks!
- Well, what about the natural network? If we assume that it exists, could one explain telepathy, clairvoyance?
- There is no natural network between people. And clairvoyance, telepathy - all this is outside of science. As well as information networks that hang out in the Universe, and the brain works as their receiver. This does not mean that it does not exist, but so far science has nothing to say about it.
- What about UFOs?
- I need evidence. Not some glare, or a balloon, or a new military apparatus. First, the cards are on the barrel. After all, if aliens exist, then this changes our entire picture of the world. If they say that a certain apparatus can turn ninety degrees without reducing its speed, this cannot be so: it violates the laws of physics. This is too powerful a conclusion to agree with without overwhelming evidence.
- Are the brain and soul connected?
- First you need to understand what the soul is. The fact that she “leaves” with biological death (that is, brain death. - Ed.) Is nothing more than talk. Some madmen weigh the body to death and four seconds after, and then declare that three grams are missing and that it is, they say, the soul. But this is old lady talk. Science, however, cannot say anything about this.
"HIGHER APPEARANCE" AND EVERYTHING
- How will the Internet and social networks affect humanity?
- In the future, we may become completely dumb: social networks are already wasting all our time. The virtual environment is even scarier. There is even such a term - "Google generation".
It has been proven that if we scan the brain of an Internet addict, we get the same picture as a drug addict or alcoholic. This is a change in the brain. The memories of people living in the digital age are worse than those of their grandparents. Why remember? Just tap your finger on Wikipedia. Or do not press anything at all, but say: "Okay, Google!". Concentration disorders and attention deficit are observed in people living in the digital age. These are also signs of illness.
If this does not stop, nothing good will happen, because society cannot be made up of dullards. Of course, it is impossible to cancel gadgets and the Internet, and no one is planning. But you just need to be aware: one thing is to drink a glass of wine, another is a liter of vodka. It's one thing to get information, it's another to understand it. It should be borne in mind that you are at real risk. And only upbringing and education will help here.
- Maybe “exercise” for the brain will help?
- The best exercise is to take ancient Greek grammar and learn. And I'm not kidding: this is a great brain activity. As well as playing musical instruments, reading difficult books, solving difficult problems, playing Go. The main thing is that the brain is not "overgrown with fat." Unless, of course, you want to remain Homo sapiens, and not turn into a vegetable. For some, a serious burden is solving a stupid crossword puzzle, for others - Gödel's theorem. To each his own. The main thing is that the brain is hard.
- Will progress change not only the brain, but also the human body?
- There is no reason to believe that evolution ended on us. "The highest view" and all that - we are so comforting ourselves. Today we are the highest species, but tomorrow everything can change. Moreover, this "tomorrow" can come in various bizarre forms.
So, we will increasingly turn into "cyborgs": artificial kidneys, liver, heart, arms, legs. First of all, the sensory capabilities will expand: "add" hearing and vision, "build in" night vision.
Chips will be introduced into the head, I have no doubt about that. They will be able to upload information like in a movie. But can you imagine all the horror? Your solutions will no longer be yours, and you can upload anything there.
Moreover, a couple of your genes will be tweaked. This may be good: they will remove those that cause oncology, for example. But the genetic chain is not a shelf with shelves from which you can easily take one out: how will this affect everything else?
So the development prospects for humanity - please. But will a person remain a person? Who is a man anyway? What is a personality and will it disappear in the networked world?
- Do you think it will come to a brain transplant?
- We are talking about it now. The question is: if you have had another person's brain transplanted, who are you? The one whose body, or the one whose brain? Of course, the one whose brain. But you still need not to go crazy looking at yourself in the mirror.
We still have a lot of "fun" ahead. I think that neither society nor the psyche will stand all these things. We overclocked too much, and it is easy to see on gadgets. Progress (aka regression) has gained tremendous speed, but it is not clear whether we will be able to cope with them. And the reverse is not visible. Unless a supervolcano will explode in Yellowstone or we will be washed away by melted glaciers.
UNDER FULL CONTROL
- Is it possible to "overload" the brain? After all, the load on him is growing.
- Yes maybe. Or maybe not. Because there is a redistribution of activity between us and robotics: already now a lot of things are being done for us by devices. Analysts predict that within five years a wild number of people will be freed with nowhere to work, because robots will serve all factories. States will pay this army of unemployed money so that they do not starve to death.
But what will people who have nothing to do will do? Conversations that they will all become poets or artists make me laugh: I don’t see something among people without certain occupations of a large number of Leonardos and Einsteins.
Rather, they will drink vodka, take drugs and kill each other. California housewives with a lot of money are almost all alcoholics. After a pedicure, swimming pool and gossip with friends, for some reason they do not go to care for the sick and do not sit down to read Schopenhauer. They go straight to the whiskey, that's the trick.
Although now such a prospect seems unrealistic to us, it will definitely happen. And people just don't know what to do with their free time: they are poorly developed. To change this, both education and upbringing must be changed.
- What if the robots have consciousness?
“We're already at the mercy of robots. This is not the future: this is our present. You buy clothes with a card, pay for food in a store or restaurant, buy plane and train tickets, book hotels. You are in complete control. It is even known what you ate and with whom. And where are you now: this monster (points to a mobile phone. - Approx. Ed.) Does not sleep. The fashion for fear of robots is late: everything has already happened. But if they have, God forbid, their own plans, goals, motives - there will be trouble. And this may well be.
- What must happen for the robots to become conscious?
- The question is: will we find out about it? Maybe it has already appeared, but we do not know. How do we know? What should the robot do for us to understand that it is aware of itself? These are vital questions, and it all depends on what is considered consciousness. And there is no answer to this yet.
REFERENCE
Tatiana Vladimirovna Chernigovskaya is a scientist in the field of neuroscience, psycholinguistics and the theory of consciousness. Honored Worker of Higher Education, Honored Worker of Science. Member of the Council for Science and Education under the President of Russia. She has been a guest lecturer at major universities in the USA and Europe. She hosted cycles of television programs on "Culture" and "Channel Five". Professor of St. Petersburg State University, head of the laboratory of cognitive research and the department of problems of convergence of natural and human sciences.
