Silencing society - the cost of communication?

It's 2050 and the world is divided into 2 classes; those that speak and those that do not. This is not an issue of education or ability, the silent society remains so out of choice - or rather - because speech for them has become obsolete. In the more regressive communities, "the spoke" struggle with the outdated notion of language barriers and have the constant battle of trying to convey complex concepts or even simple emotions to one another.

Meanwhile The Silence has allowed the most developed parts of the globe to master the art of communication, interfacing with one another directly from mind to mind, without the unreliable biological middle-men of speech and hearing.

What The Silence has brought to the world is the absolute truth of people's intentions and feelings, allowing for true understanding and collaboration where there is no room for dishonesty or subterfuge. With this the silent society has excelled not just in personal relationships but also in business, and through international industrial projects has helped solve the climate change crisis and terraformed 700,000 square kilometres on Mars, enough for the 10 million settlers to begin farming projects and raise Martian families.

Far from a science fiction plot, this could well be the reality if the plans for the Neuralink brain implant remain on course. As Stan Lee once wrote, with great power comes great responsibility and with the implications that the latest in brain-tech promises to deliver it's high time the ethical and societal impacts were brought to the fore.

While offering ground-breaking medical benefits from restoring function to previously disabled limbs, to addressing mental health issues, the potential applications for such a device go beyond the initial medical treatments and with this potential comes a number of important questions.

Availability

Firstly, the question of availability must be considered. Who will be able to gain access to use these devices? If the standard methods of releasing new, cutting edge technology are followed it stands to reason that the most wealthy in society will have access first. This isn’t necessarily an issue if [as with other tech] the cost of entry is lowered as the technology is further developed and becomes more readily available, but unless there are safeguards in place and regulation about availability there this a very real danger that a monopoly on the use of such technology could emerge, deepening the divide between the privileged and most vulnerable parts of society.

Disclosure

The availability then leads onto another critical point in rolling out this kind of device. Something that is invisible to anyone, lying flush with the skull mans that you wouldn't know if the chess master you are being beaten by has honed their craft over many years or is a complete novice but with access to AlphaZero, Google's game playing Artificial Intelligence. This is perhaps the most impactful of the issues brain-implants raise. In everything from qualification exams to contract negotiations and even dating there will be a point in time when you won't know whether the individual actually knows the information themselves or if they are getting help. One might argue that it is not essential to know everything to an expert level anymore, as my previous blog post - regarding generalists - celebrated the ability to be agile and find results even if that is via a Google search, however there is a big difference between enhancing already grounded knowledge and simply regurgitating answers.

Societal Impact

Of course, for the final stage of the dystopian reality to set in we will have moved past the disclosure of these devices as it will be obvious who does and doesn’t have the ability to interface through a version of telekinesis. So what of this?

The ultimate impact of a major section of the planet having access to a technology that can bring the scientific breakthroughs is one of segregation. While bringing benefits including removing language as a communication barrier, it will mean segregation and possibly persecution of those who are without such devices. To bring online a technology with such a potentially devastating impact on communities we must first consider these issues and plan for the distribution and application before we’re too far down the road.

Technology can be a wonderful tool to bring some of the most exciting and far reaching developments to the human race, and may well be the answer to ensuring our future. We just need to make sure those developments don't come at the cost of our humanity.