Question...how likely is it that we will find a way to improve our brains' cognitive power by adding artificial hardware?
I know that's a truly wacky question, but...well, I've got a diagnosed learning disability in math. I can't do it as well, as fast, as accurately as normal people.
And it's what's called spatial dyscalculia...which means that I have to consciously figure out which way is right and left every...freaking...time. This gets very obnoxious under a car. It helps that one of my arms is plated together.
So, between that and my inability to do something as simple as, say, operate a cash register accurately, or read a dial clock just by looking at it...well I've had fantasies of someone installing hardware in my head to finally allow me to master something that my brain seems resolutely determined not to process well, if at all.
It's not just an awful inconvenience...it actively forces me out of the hard sciences entirely, because I can't handle the math. As it is I have serious doubts that I'll be able to complete a degree-if I didn't I'd drop down to a part-time job and go to school full-time, loans all the way...I've dropped-while-flunking a remedial class twice-it's a prealgebra class...and so I don't know how many tries I'm going to need to get through stats and algebra 1. Probably at least three.
But if I don't get a Master's I'll never pay off those loans, and if I fail to graduate due to math, I'll have a student loan debt follow me around for the rest of my life-I have friends in that boat.
This is why I take a class or two a semester and stay out of debt.
So my learning disability is one big albatross. I hate it with a deep, enduring passion. If there were some way to not have it anymore...I would totally let someone put hardware in or install a port surgically.
I'm sure there'd be a risk of death...if I could get rid of my learning disability, I'd roll those dice.
I know that's a truly wacky question, but...well, I've got a diagnosed learning disability in math. I can't do it as well, as fast, as accurately as normal people.
And it's what's called spatial dyscalculia...which means that I have to consciously figure out which way is right and left every...freaking...time. This gets very obnoxious under a car. It helps that one of my arms is plated together.
So, between that and my inability to do something as simple as, say, operate a cash register accurately, or read a dial clock just by looking at it...well I've had fantasies of someone installing hardware in my head to finally allow me to master something that my brain seems resolutely determined not to process well, if at all.
It's not just an awful inconvenience...it actively forces me out of the hard sciences entirely, because I can't handle the math. As it is I have serious doubts that I'll be able to complete a degree-if I didn't I'd drop down to a part-time job and go to school full-time, loans all the way...I've dropped-while-flunking a remedial class twice-it's a prealgebra class...and so I don't know how many tries I'm going to need to get through stats and algebra 1. Probably at least three.
But if I don't get a Master's I'll never pay off those loans, and if I fail to graduate due to math, I'll have a student loan debt follow me around for the rest of my life-I have friends in that boat.
This is why I take a class or two a semester and stay out of debt.
So my learning disability is one big albatross. I hate it with a deep, enduring passion. If there were some way to not have it anymore...I would totally let someone put hardware in or install a port surgically.
I'm sure there'd be a risk of death...if I could get rid of my learning disability, I'd roll those dice.