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Brain-Computer Interfaces — neural enhancement or the end of mankind?
How is it that we have become the apex predator on Earth? Simple — evolution favoured our ingenuity.
We are not the fastest, strongest or most agile creatures on this planet, but collectively we are most certainly the most intelligent.
From as early as the Stone Age, man has used the brain to think and plan ahead, to make tools and take step by step actions to complete a goal. Every new skill mastered forged new pathways of learned behaviour, allowing for a further increase in dexterity. Our brain morphology adapted to the new technology, art and culture of the times, widening the gap between us and the next intelligent lifeforms, like aquatic mammals and apes.
Have we finished with the evolutionary process?
In simplistic terms of size, we probably have. Despite the human stature increasing over the decades, there is nothing to suggest that a larger physical brain equates to greater intelligence, or elephants and whales would rule the world. If the brain, and consequently skull size increased out of proportion to the human body, then balance might become an issue, having an impact on our ability to walk and adding pressure on our spines.
Albert Einstein had a statistically smaller brain than the average man at the time of his…