Accelerating Future Transhumanism, AI, nanotech, the Singularity, and extinction risk.

Magnetoperception and New Categories of Experience

Earth's magnetic field, embarassingly invisible to unaided humans. © Gary Glatzmaier.

Reading the Wikipedia article on senses, I came to the part that discussed senses found in other organisms but not possessed by humans. Magnetoception, the perception of magnetic fields, was among them. (Others included electroception and echolocation.) I came across the sentence, "Recently, however, special implants have granted humans this ability too", in reference to magnetoception. I followed a link, and arrived at an article in the Body Modification Ezine discussing a case where someone had a small neodymium magnet implanted in his finger, allowing him to sense magnetic fields in security devices, motors, and more. That someone turned out to be Todd Huffman, an Alcor employee I met at a party in Los Angeles just a couple years ago!

To get a sense of how amazing this development is, consider that magnetoception has existed in birds for hundreds of millions of years. It is essential for them to sense the Earth's magnetic field in order to migrate seasonally. Then, after a mere few dozen thousand years of civilization, humans give this ability to one of our own with a simple implant. Although the magnetoperception experienced by Todd is not comparable in breadth or complexity as the other senses, it does represent a genuinely new sense, and Todd's neurology will subtly reorganize in response to its undeniable presence. Imagine if the human species lacked one of the central five senses, say smell, then one day an implant gave a human being the ability to experience the distinct smells of roses, cloves, grass, fresh air, and thousands of other olfactory sensations. The consequences would be revolutionary. An entirely new dimension would be added to the human experience-space. And I propose that the milestone of the first human magnetoperceptor is no less revolutionary.

Imagine a day where a magnetoperceptive implant becomes so miniaturized, effective and seamless that it can be injected into a babies at birth along with the normal set of vaccines. Our entire species would take a step forward, far faster than natural evolution would ever permit. Humans could diagnose problems with motors simply by stepping into their vicinity, or create new types of artwork that blend together magnetic fields of varying intensity and oscillation levels with colors, shapes, and sounds. This is artificial evolution, what transhumanism is all about.

One day I expect the introduction of new senses to become commonplace, even universal. But new senses will only be a prequel to the largest change - new ways of processing sensory information, that is, new types of cognitive activity. Because cognitive activity deals with dynamic information-processing elements rather than passive receptors, this change could take a little bit longer to come about. But I feel that it is inevitable. The day in which a human or machine gains new categories of cognitive processing that grant it de facto greater-than-human intelligence has been called the Singularity. Because greater-than-human intelligence would give its bearer a greater-than-human ability to conceive of and implement future intelligence enhancements, the Singularity shall be a positive feedback process that will accelerate rapidly once it begins. Will it lead to a better quality of life for everyone or a classist society where the new superbeings control or even eliminate the original humans? Of course there exists an organization whose goal is to try its best to make it the former, that being the Singularity Institute.