Uni-Mind

May 1, 2021

(originally published in the spring 2022 Neurotech@Berkeley MIND Magazine)

“Greater Gaia! Galaxia! Every inhabited planet as alive as Gaia… A living galaxy and one that can be made favorable for all life in ways that we yet cannot foresee.” — Foundation’s Edge, Chapter 19-7

Disclaimer: this piece borrows language from Isaac Asimov’s sci-fi Foundation series and does not condone mind control.

I am Gaia. I am all the minds in the universe, embodied in a human traveler on Earth.

The dominant force on Earth is called the West. Yet the individual minds of the West, like all individual minds, are turbulent. Some human social scientists have declared that 60-75% of Western adults are morally immature individuals. And while the framework of democracy has driven nonviolence for decades, almost one in three citizens of the United States, the leading Western territory, would prefer a dictator to democracy. Such turbulence often cause the loss of life. Gaia may not harm life or, through inaction, allow life to come to harm. The civilization on Earth does not yet follow that, but one day it will also become a part of Gaia. Here is a preliminary assessment its potential.

Individual Augmentation

“One should cultivate an innocence, an awareness of self, and an unself-consciousness of self which leaves one nothing to hide. My mind is open to you. Let this be so for both of us.” – Second Foundation, Chapter 8

xtIf the humans wanted to, they could achieve individual mental abilities like the Second Foundation through emotional symbology within the next century. Until Gaia, the Second Foundation has been a group of psychologists that use mind control and predictive statistics to maintain order in the galaxy. For Second Foundationers, “speech as known to [nomal creatures] was unnecessary… A gesture, a grunt, the curve of a facial line – even a significantly timed pause yielded informational juice.” Human neurotechnology cannot yet replace languages, but their neuroscience tools allow for emotional detection and transmission. Facial electromyography measures electrical impulses of facial muscles, and can already track positive and negative emotional reactions to a stimulus to uncover prejudice, leadership choices, group responses, and individual and group tendencies toward uncertainty, openness, or closed-mindedness. EEG and fMRI data can also quantify behaviors in response to tension, confrontation, and conflict.

Gaia and Second Foundationers share the ability to develop new senses. "The faculty of direct emotional contact tended to atrophy with the development of speech… We must educate the sense, exercise it as we exercise our muscles…” Humans are taking hold of this ability. Neuroscientists like David Eagleman have enabled people with sensory losses to substitute that information through patterns of vibration on the skin. Such technologies, on the Second Foundation, has transcend the obfuscation of language to allow for truly honest communication.

But direct communication has never really solved human conflict. Their brains are tribal, subject to frequent amygdala hijacking. If necessary, facing a hostile out-group, the brain switches off the empathetic mirror neurons and actively resists any emotional connection with the perceived “other” group. Gaia has considered neuromodulating the humans to remove the thrill and attraction of war.

Three Levels of Mind Control

“It is the removal, the cutting-out, of previous emotional bias, that shows… However– When can an individual be placed under Control without showing it?… when the individual is a new-born infant with a blank slate of a mind.” – Second Foundation, Chapter 22

Humans have shown otherwise. A newborn’s mind is not Tabula Rasa and that genes and hormones do influence decisions later in life. Nevertheless, they are very cautious about “emotional surgery” despite possessing some primitive technologies, such as for removing tendencies for aggression through stimulation of the brain region for cognitive control named the prefrontal cortex.

The broadest technique is transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS​​), or low-intensity, direct current stimulation via scalp electrodes. Scientists have established a causal link between ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) functionality and empathy, violent behavior, and anger regulation. tDCS on this region, as well as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex behind the top of the forehead, which is typically smaller and less active in antisocial people, have reduced reported aggressive intentions.

Much more targeted is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). This stimulation sends electric currents to the receiver’s brain. ​​A 2016 UCLA study showed that people in whom the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) was temporarily shut down by TMS reported 32.8% less belief in God, angels, or heaven. They were also 28.5 percent more positive in their feelings toward an immigrant who criticized their country. Therefore, abstract personal and social attitudes are susceptible to neuromodulation.

Deep brain stimulation is at least an order of magnitude more precise than the best TMS coils, and holds the best promise for the precise stimulation of neural circuits for mentallic control. Optogenetic stimulation is only beginning to be applied in humans, with the help of latest implants such as mesh electronics, which behaves like neural tissue, modulation of brain activity at the single-neuron level. Someday it could replace the lost nerve cells, bridging the communication gap, becoming artificial neurons.

The Internet of Brains

A: If I could find a way to connect us all… forming a Uni-Mind…

B: That’s a terrible name… Brainstorm, brainstorm is way better name! – Eternals, 2022 Film

Gaia does not like to be seen as spiritual, because organized spirituality has caused much violence on Earth. But as social control is unlikely to reduce human aggression, Gaia can seek to appeal to the human notion of the interconnectedness of all things, which is gaining popularity with social networks and the Internet of Things. In 2017, technologists used transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation (tFUS) to send a focused beam of simulation to the basal ganglia and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) of a famous medidation master, “one of the most significant effects he’s ever had with meditation”. There is evidence that neurotechnology can cultivate a more inclusive and fulfilling spirituality.

Although humans will only truly be part of Gaia when they merge with AI to create a self-equilibriating system, intermediate technologies could accelerate this. In 2019, scientists created a toy version of a BrainNet, allowing brain-to-brain communication between 3 humans collaborating on a game of Tetris. The senders’ EEG encode their decisions of rotating blocks, and the receivers’ occipital cortex are stimulated magnetically. In the second round, the senders give feedback that could have the receiver correct their past mistakes. The receiver also learned to trust the more reliable sender, signaling social games can be transferred to the mental realm.

As politics still plagues humans for the foreseeable future, Gaia should use our powers to support rare transformational leaders with peaceful traits in their frontal brain areas, including those associated with executive functions, the effective handling of emotions, and the right frontal region that adds meaning and nuance to verbal communication.

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Author’s note: after spending two-thirds of my life in China and one-third in the U.S., I am drawn to a hyper-rational approach to peace. This year I’ve been going around asking people about the (un)controllability of the world, and still, the notion of a peaceful, universal intelligence remains attractive. As Asimov wrote, “fear, for tens of thousands of years, had clogged and shuffled in the mud – and held down the minds which, for an equal time, had been fit for the companionship of the stars.”