Artificial intelligence (AI) is something older generations can't seem to wrap their minds around. As a teenager, I was in a very bad car accident where I went through the windshield at a speed of 65 miles per hour. I started experiencing a change in the way that I speak and later the way that I process interactions and conversations. It wasn't the same. It's still extremely hard to explain it all, but I do have insight into some of it. I spent most of my life after the accident studying the way the brain works and how it reacts with the body. Not just from life experiences but also from self-experiments, as weird as that sounds.
At the age of 15, following the accident, my perception and cognitive functions made a significant shift. I noticed it almost immediately. Brain injuries often fall under three categories: mild, moderate, or severe. In my case, I endured a moderate brain injury. It was concerning to learn that even injuries classified as mild can result in severe mental disabilities. I often feel like I am disabled because most people do not understand what I am saying or what I mean. It's caused a lot of problems for me.
I haven't experienced all the symptoms commonly associated with brain injuries, but I've faced ongoing challenges like slower cognitive processing, increased anxiety, sensitivity to light and sound, and frequent mood swings all leading to irritability. Dealing with these issues has been challenging. I just turned to learning more about it to calm my mind.
My brain handled information and interactions differently after the accident. What happens is I soak up a lot of data without really showing any emotions. Then, I find myself spending days in silence, going over every detail of every interaction, whether online or in person. This deep dive even goes back to recalling sounds I heard or things I read, and it feels like my brain sorts and organizes these pieces of information almost visually. Sounds, smells, lights and words can trigger things I noticed. One common thing they do trigger is memories and emotions.
When my brain is processing all this data silently, I often feel extremely exhausted, leading me to sleep for days sometimes (I call this stage the baby brain stage). Once my brain finally processes everything and reaches conclusions, I feel more awake and alert. Engaging in face-to-face conversations is tough for me. I tend to be very quiet because my mind is always busy analyzing what's happening at the moment or what happened before. An example; I always check people to see if they have a weapon or if I'm being followed. I'm also always trying to understand how things and even how people work. This constant analysis makes me more irritated when my thoughts are interrupted.
I realized that obtaining the necessary help wasn't straightforward. I had been to doctor after doctor and they misdiagnosed me and overmedicated me. I changed my course on a self-directed quest to research the solutions. If I had not I would have never been able to "kinda fix myself". As I started my study, I dropped out of high school due to various reasons. I began to realise that the brain's functionality and that of a computer are the same.
I speculated that any flaw within the brain, be it damage or other anomalies, could be fixed. The analogy between the brain and a computer system led me to think about the possibility of understanding and even updating the brain's 'code,' similar to how computer systems undergo updates.
The injury affected my brain's right frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes, compared to a computer's CPU and memory. The frontal lobe handles executive functions, decision-making, and voluntary movements, resembling a CPU's command execution. The right temporal lobe is like a computer's memory, it manages auditory processing, memory, language, and emotions. The parietal lobe, maybe like a computer's sensory input, contains sensory data and influences the self-perception and perception of others. (Almost like predicting too?)
More relevant data:
The brain's functions parallel computer components. Short-term memory acts like RAM, storing >temporary data, while long-term memory resembles a hard drive, storing information over time. The >occipital lobe functions like a GPU, processing visual data.
Input/output in the brain mirrors sensory and motor cortices, handling reception and action >execution. Neural pathways resemble a computer's motherboard, facilitating communication. The >thalamus, like an operating system, manages sensory information flow.
Networking components in computers relate to interconnected neural networks. The brain's >thermoregulation maintains optimal neural function like a computer's cooling system prevents >overheating.
I've observed how certain tones or sounds impact my emotions and reactions. This curiosity led me to delve into the work of Pavlov and his experiments with dogs. He utilized sounds and lights to influence and control the dogs' actions, suggesting that the brain can indeed be trained through these stimuli. Brain Programming.
Thinking about these experiments, it becomes more realistic that connecting a computer to the human brain could grant us control over its neurons, and actions.
One example could replicate and manipulate neural firings in various brain regions, triggering responses without the reliance on drugs. This could help people who are addicted to drugs to stay off drugs because their brains could be naturally firing the chemicals their drug of choice would trigger.
One area that has always piqued my interest was criminal justice, especially the study of serial killers and other violent criminals (but that's a discussion for another time). I've thought about entering prisons and requesting willing inmates convicted of violent crimes to permit the connection of their brains to computers. My reasoning behind this was not only to introduce a mental health component into the prison system but also to gather valuable data crucial for human advancement.
My vision wasn't like the sci-fi portrayal of transplanting a criminal's brain into a machine like in RoboCop2. Where OCP took Cain, the leader of the Cities gang and made him a machine. What it does involve is; linking the criminal's brains to a machine along with an AI system that would collect and analyze data. This will allow us to monitor brain activity while they're engaging in conversation and going about their daily lives, all recorded for analysis. They might say one thing and mean another. They might have thoughts they never express. These thoughts could be traced down to what triggered them in the first place. We will be able to connect what happens in the brain at these times as well.
I realised the bigger picture and how this can help us with growth as a race. When growth stops, decay starts. I believe that taking this seriously could push us toward a better understanding of the human mind and its complexities, progressing rather than keeping us stagnant.
It's not just a personal quest even though it started as one. What it is; is the future of our evolution.