The information age is upon us and it’s taking humanity by storm. With the the human genome project completed in 2003, we have literally mapped all information that makes up a human being. Further to that, the human genome project led to the discovery of an enzyme called CRISPR-Cas9. The CRISPR-Cas9 enzyme opened up to the development of CRISPR genome editing, which makes it cheaper, faster and more accurate to modify the genome of different species.
This technology makes it possible for geneticists to modify and edit specific parts of the genome. It’s possible by removing, altering or adding DNA sequences. Every human on planet Earth can be defined by their DNA. Now with CRISPR, it can be edited and “hacked”. It might sound scary, but actually, it can be a great thing. With this technology, we will be able to prevent cancer cells from spreading or change the DNA of mosquitos so they cannot transmit malaria. These are just a few examples, but with further research into gene modification, it can all be possible.
In other words, humans are officially becoming data that we can view and edit.
Sounds very futuristic, right? Technology is becoming an indispensable part of our everyday life, and in the future, we will become even more connected to it. What’s the booming technology at this very moment? Most probably, you have seen all these articles about Artificial Intelligence, they are literally everywhere! So what's all this AI buzz about?
The first concept which led to the development of Artificial Intelligence dates back to 1943. The research called “A Logical Calculus of the Immanent in Nervous Activity” was a mathematical theory, which later served as a basis for the development of deep machine learning. It was the beginning of explaining how neural networks work. Since then, many milestones in the history of AI have been reached, and 74 years later AI is developing faster than ever before.
The trend is accelerating. In recent years there were more breakthroughs in AI development than there were in the past decades. Last month, we got to the point where Google’s machine learning is able to improve on itself. It means that an algorithm is able to create other algorithms. It is a great accomplishment in machine learning’s history, and one can only imagine the innovation within AI coming from this breakthrough! Now, these algorithms are capable of coding highly complex software algorithms in a few hours, while the best human programmers would have spent weeks or months building the same.
It means that in order for human intelligence to keep up, the progress in which we integrate with technological tools and services will also start accelerating. Let’s take mobile phones as an example. Most probably, if you leave your phone somewhere it doesn’t take much time for you to panic. You feel like you have been disconnected from the world. With the development of mobile phones, virtual communication is becoming more common than non-virtual communication.
The growth of the smartphone market has dramatically changed the way we interact with each other. It is happening all over the world and it is not just a Western phenomenon. Will there be people in the future, who only communicate through their phones texting to each other? Who knows?
One thing is certain, humans will interact with each other using different technological devices in the future, and those new devices seem to be AI driven. Think of Google's new "AI first" approach. All their devices are getting filled with AI, from Google Assistant to Google Home to their newly launched earbuds that translates from one language to another, live!
As artificial intelligence makes it possible for us to communicate our thoughts more efficiently to one another, the question that remains is how can we communicate our thought faster than ever before in history?
The neural lace can be the next step in merging with technology and become superhuman! It was discovered in 2015, and since then become more and more popular among researchers and scientists. The neural lace at its core is a nanofiber with electrodes, which can be rolled into a very tiny ball. This enables the lace to move through the jugular into the epidural space, the room between your brain and skull, without surgically removing a piece of your skull to make an implant. When the neural lace has safely accessed the inside of your skull, it can fold out and connect the electrodes to your brain’s neurons, literally connecting your brain to the internet. A Google search will just be a thought, a video or picture will just be blinking the eye, you will never forget anything!
Recently, the neural lace has become a hot topic as Elon Musk raised $27M for his new startup called Neuralink, which is planning to connect the human brain to the Internet. It is not clear yet what the final product will look like, but the plan is to create a neural lace that would allow the human brain to keep up with the pace of Artificial Intelligence.
The other major investment into neural lace technology came from Braintree founder last year - a $100M investment from Bryan Johnson into Kernel. This company plans to develop a device which will communicate with brain cells directly. They want to make it possible to store and recall key information.
In the beginning, these technologies are aimed to help people with cognitive impairment. But in less than a decade’s time, it will be available for everyone.
The creation of a device that connects a computer to the brain would be extremely useful. It would extend communication bandwidth (the speed of communication) like we have never seen before. Let’s take texting as an example again. The output bandwidth, in this case, is very slow as the speed of communication is dependent on our finger movements. With the use of a neural lace, our brain would be connected to the internet. It would allow us to simply form a text message by our thoughts, instead of typing with fingers. Later on, this technology would make it possible to integrate our minds with AI. Simply by using our brain with a neural lace implant.
But what about security? If people will have a small electronic device connected to their brain, it is quite important to know for sure that their brains cannot be hacked! Otherwise, people would not know if their thoughts are their own or a mere thought from someone else. Luckily, there is an option which solves the security issues…
Blockchain can be the answer to all the major security issues which occur. All centralised systems on the internet are vulnerable to cyber attacks. So, they wouldn’t be the best place to store all of the information from our brains. Blockchain, however, the underlying technology that powers cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, can help us solve security issues among many other things.
As you can see, in the future blockchain will allow us to keep the internet a safe place. This way anything that we create online will have to run on a blockchain in order to be secure from hacking. Hopefully, this technology can open the gate for a transparent future for businesses and a safe environment free from cyber attacks. Let’s take self-driving cars as an example. Imagine all cars would be hooked up to the internet and capable of driving itself with a clever AI-powered software preinstalled. This software will run on a blockchain. In this scenario, all cars would be able to check on each other, and no car would take uncertain manoeuvres. In other words, a malicious hacker cannot suddenly change the direction a car takes if the network of cars doesn't agree with this change of direction. Interestingly enough, blockchain is most likely going to be a key ingredient for mass adoption of self-driving cars. The same level of security will have to apply to brain-machine interfaces like the neural lace.
With the development of these technologies; AI, neural lace and blockchain, it will be possible for Wiredelta to handle more complex client requests and serve clients more effectively. Elon Musk said that it will still take at least 8-9 years to make neural lace implants available to the public, for non-medical purposes. That is quite a long time in the software industry, but it is definitely a timeline worth thinking about.
Neural lace technology will have an effect on Wiredelta, as it can develop our customer service activities further. In case if the speed of communication can be faster, we will be able to react to clients’ needs faster. For example, if a client wishes to change their application or website, then the AI developer would be able to do exactly what the client wants to change. On the other hand, it would be a new challenge for agencies to be able to react faster. We are planning to keep up with the upcoming changes and further develop our AI assistant, as new technologies become available.
We see the trend with everything becoming information as a great opportunity for a company. Wiredelta will be able to co-create even more with clients. We cannot wait to see the digital innovation unfolding in the next few decades!
If Wiredelta can keep up with the development of AI in the upcoming decades, we will be able to combine the neural lace technology with our AI assistant. Create a website simply by thoughts has never been closer. In this case, the whole development process would be simplified. You are imagining a website and getting it as it is. If we could make this happen, it would be the most efficient way of transforming ideas into rock-solid products.
