The Conscience Question (addendum)

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(I believe I am suffering from a case of Captain Tripps so this is merely a side post until I am feeling a little bit better.)

Following on from my rambling blog post last time, I like to discuss other, less cosmetic implications when being able to actively transfer memories from one brain to another.

As I mentioned last time, the human brain is merely a biological storage device; almost like a computer’s hard drive. However, a computer hard drive can easily be hacked.

On a more alarming and direct level to demonstrate this, recently (August 2008) at the Defcon Conference, an associate professor of the University of Massachusetts called Kevin Fu managed to remotely turn off a pacemaker using “a cheap $1000” worth of computer equipment.

“You can induce the test mode, drain the device battery, and turn off therapies,” Halperin said. (Read the account HERE)

In essence: Point remote controls at somebody’s chest – press eject – they die.

As scary as the very idea is, it raises very serious and direct questions about biological security. What steps could be taken to combat such a threat?

Consider the above action being taken with your brain:

Point remote controls at somebody’s brain – press eject – brain death occurs.

But on a more sinister level, national secrets, and nuclear missile launch codes – basically you think it and at a click of a button they have it.

How do you combat something like this? Can you combat something like this? Nothing is hack proof and as our understanding of the brain and the way it works grows, so too does the very real threat of biological hackings.

It could be argued that if you can transfer biological data, you could also install external security – almost like a firewall.

The future of medicine is as scary as it is beautiful.