A small company in Baltimore has pioneered what they call Brain Generated Music that can help induce a “Relaxation Response” in users (Kurzweil 151). Although this is a huge discovery and brings up some difficult questions, It does not change the reality of our thinking about computers. Even the most advanced technologies today are a far cry from William Gibson’s fictional portrayal of  “Cyberspace” in Neuromancer.  What we are thinking about when we think about computers are hunks of silicone and metal that can be programmed to answer many questions of yes or no, on or off, and 1 or 0. At very high speeds ones and zeros can prove to be incredible tools that can influence things like Alpha waves in the mind (Kurzwiel 151) and other things that can only be recorded with special sensory equipment, however this is not an indicator that computing is equal to human thought or the experiences of sentient beings.

             Even if we have a computer game simulating life, such as SimLife, the computer animals can only be described as alive in context of talking about the game and the game world (Turkle 170). The reason terms of real life and computer life can be confused is that what we had to begin describing virtual realities was our terminology from the pre existing real reality. Sometimes we can also have intense feelings of disgust and feelings of hopeless unfair treatment when it comes to our personal computers and there sometimes destructive behavior. When we really want to print out a ten page paper that we just finished and all of a sudden the screen goes blank, we can sometimes believe that the computer has some living demon that wants to hurt us inside of it. In reality however, no matter how we feel about a computer, computers will never be alive until we can procreate with them.

            Brain Generated Music manipulates one aspect of many peoples spiritual experience, Relaxation Response which is the opposite of “fight or flight” stress response (Kurzweil 152). Because alpha and beta waves are associated respectively with meditative and conscious states of thought, the music generated by the computer can transform the users brain wave signal to a wave speed of eight to thirteen cycles per second (Kurzwiel 152). Besides this technology having promise for psychiatric treatment of hypertension as well as music creation that directly correlates with the mind, the experience of using Brain Generate Music could be related to the stimulation of specific spiritual regions of the brain (Kurzwiel 152). Maybe we are headed for a user interface that can not only serve to construct personal identity, but help us relate to our own identities in ways we could not perceive beforehand (Turkle 14). The patenting of Brain Generated Music by NeuroSonics recognizes a whole new arena of brain manipulation through sound waves (Kurzwiel 152). Also brain wave manipulation could be implemented in an advanced computer game that helps people better understand there own depression by talking to them like a therapist might through an instant messaging service (Turkle 103).

            Another future direction that computing may take that would drastically change our thinking about commuters is the advancement of quantum computing (Kurzweil 112).  Although quantum computing is in its infant stages, it has the propensity be the best computer for searching through infinite possibilities and finding an answer (Kurzweil 113). Although it is arguable, this technology also has the propensity to be programmable to make approximations with mind boggling amounts of information as well (Kurzwiel 115). Because of the extremely small size of quantum computers, they could definitely have application to nanotechnology and neural implanting. Such applications could make “Jacking In” to the internet a reality, and could have massive effects on our relations with ourselves and others (Gibson 5). If we can affect our brain waves to induce a desirable state without adverse side effects (Kurzwiel 152), then we might be able to practice matching other people’s wave lengths across a matrix and having a unified spiritual experience of some highly developed type. Although we can speculate and hope for the best, it is better to stay present with what is going on today.

            Even if we could in effect completely enter the conscious reality of another person, like Case does through the Matrix with Molly in Neuromancer, this does not make the virtual reality we might experience alive, it just makes it a direct representation of what is alive in our minds (Gibson 56). Of course when we accomplish the ability to mirror our entire existence in information we might find that there is really no difference at all. Then perhaps the digital Case, Linda, and Riviera “living” in the Matrix of Neuromancer could be realized as true sentient beings (Gibson 271). This type of spiritual programming could not be made with current techniques. If we ever reach a level like this it will be through some knowledge that we currently have no grasp of such as the manipulation of a fourth dimension of the universe. The limits of imagination should definitely be explored, but we should be very careful to value the suffering of sentient beings over the representation of suffering in a computer program.

Works Cited

Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York: Ace, 1984.

Kurzweil, Ray. The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence. New York: Viking Penguin, 1999.

Turkle, Sherry. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.