Organic brains are able to do things extremely well, and as of yet we haven’t gotten to the point of consciousness with our Artificial Intelligent software systems, I suppose someday that will change. But what about a different scenario for long-term space flight, sending a computer could be problem, and we already know sending people is going to be very costly, and humans are fragile and take a lot of care and abundant and redundant expensive life support systems.
Soon we will be able to grow a full human brain, perhaps stick it in a box which would suffice as a shell, and it ought to be conscious soon enough. We have many AI Futurists who believe through neural networks we will be able to create human-like intelligence and consciousness too. With computer systems we could use electronic vision systems, but with a human brain we might need to figure out a way to hook it to a visual sensor technology. Our scientists are coming along with that quite fine as they work on solutions for the blind.
If we set up a human brain with electronic optical systems, then we’d surely need to make sure the lenses were clean, and thus we’d have to use a super goggle system, self-cleaning, as this will be a huge issue. When discussing this with an overseas acquaintance of high intellect he suggest that;
“We would already have developed a container for the human brain that would have to be radiation proof and the human eyes could just be incorporated into the design as a whole. I agree much of the human brains potential is untapped, evolution only does what is needed to survive and thrive in basic terms. I’m not sure where I stand on DNA manipulation as a whole even more so if it has to do with the brain.”
Right there is an ethical imperative in such research and development, and we must not forget that either. Now then, perhaps without the body the brain would have more capacity, and thus, the brain ought to be happier being smarter, as long as it has the calories it needs to power it up, and with some electrical stimulations and the ability to strengthen itself internally insulating the neural networks it should be able to do anything.
Indeed, I believe evolution is an awesome problem solver, but evolution doesn’t solve irrelevant problems, as in humans never needed to fly at Mach 10, so we have to take from evolution which has adapted for man to run 15 mph on the ground to flight, to supersonic flight to Mach 10. So, for this purpose we must do modification as this is a new purpose.
