Consciousness On-Off Switch In Human Brain Discove

After reading this last night I have been pondering the good & bad of this discovery. For medical science this will end up being a terrific discovery, but if it is abused it could put each of us as a level of danger and manipulation that will be unprecedented. It is just another good example of technology out distancing current law and considering how much we have seen the law manipulated over the past 20 years, every American should be on their guard to protect against such manipulation of our conscious and unconscious state.

The good has many possibilities. If you could be held in an unconscious state for minor, perhaps even major surgery, you avoid the possible side effects of drugs and all that goes with it. On the extreme side, as many have seen, those who are rendered unconscious during an accident tend to have less and far less extreme injuries. Hmmmm, tie this in with your new automobile accident avoidance system and you could have something both plausible and workable … but that’s for the engineers to work out. How about sleep? For those sleepless nights a simple connection to your alarm clock and if this works, would it lower the amount of sleep you need? I am sure employer’s would like to know the inside track on that one!

The bad side is all the things that could be done with or to you while in this artificial state. Would the government be allowed to implant those electrodes “in the interest of national security” in ways that could be further abused? Turning it into a broadcast antenna so your very thoughts could be gathered, stored, etc by the NSA and what would they do with them? Could they be used against you in a court of law? Oh yes, one other byproduct of this experience is that you have NO memory of what has happened. Would current laws project you if you cannot remember? A very good and probing question!

A few important facts about this information. It was discovered by accident by doctors working with a patient that suffers from epilepsy so there could be considerable differences, but indications are that this region of the brain functions the same for everyone. Also, the probes were inserted into the brain, not something that was “transmitted” through the skull. Lastly, the effects so far are simply to switch on and off consciousness so the rest is purely conjunction on my part. I can only add that over the course of time, many, many scientific & medical discoveries have evolved into some form of weapon and considering the intensely personal nature of such a thing, we would be wise to watch the government closely to insure our own safety and privacy.

It’s interesting that a new movie “Lucy” that is coming out suggests that if we were able to develop our brains to their maximum potential (we only use about 10% now) we would be capable of extraordinary feats such as changing matter, altering other states of being, etc, etc. While this is obviously scientific supposition, the fact remains that a great deal of those things that the science fiction community have come up with have indeed turned into reality. One can only image the day when such human development were possible …. And must pray that by that time humanity will be better suited to dealing with their disagreements in non-hostile means.