The iPlant

The iPlant is a hypothetical brain implant that would be similar to the deep brain stimulation devices currently being tested. It has been proposed by Christopher Harris in an article entitled "Program Yourself". The idea would be to place an implant device in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), substantia nigra and the raphe nuclei. Doing this would allow the regulation of mood altering neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin. The discussion about this device and its potential uses is fairly interesting.

The main problem I have with this implant is that increasing serotonin or dopamine is a relatively non-selective method of manipulating brain functioning. Changing these neurotransmitter concentrations can have a drastic effect on many different brain functions as there are multiple serotonin and dopamine receptors. So I think placing an implant device in these areas would have many unintended effects. I tend to think that implant devices in brain regions directly correlated with specific symptoms would be a better idea, such as placing a DBS device in the nucleus accumbens. Christopher Harris brings up many good points on his website. He suggests several potential problems for this type of technology.

"Involuntary mind control: Many people worry that the iPlant could allow complete control over someones thoughts and behavior against their will (similar to The Manchurian Candidate). However, let's not overstate the level of control that brain stimulation reward could give you over another person. The function generates motivation by repeatedly reinforcing specific, simple behaviors."

With this implant there is certainly the potential for mind control and the stimulation of the reward center has already been used to control rats. Imagine a government like China requiring its citizens to get a brain implant in their pleasure center. The government would be able to dole out pleasure to its citizens on the basis of them performing tasks that the government wanted. China is already building a high-tech police state for surveillance of its citizens. China is collecting as much data on its own citizens as is humanly possible. Perhaps in the future this will include using brain scanning technology and brain implants for complete knowledge and control of every aspect of its citizens lives. A totalitarian government could implant multiple brain implants. One implant might inflict pain on the individual while another pleasure. Other implants might increase a person's concentration or decrease the need for sleep and other unnecessary activities.

A large central government computer could collect data on its citizens and then optimize brain stimulation toward a desired societal effect such as increased economic output. The government could make previously unrewarding tasks such as menial labor intensely pleasurable while simultaneously discouraging activities considered wasteful of the government's resources. Activities deemed uncessary by the government (such as sex) could be minimized by making them unrewarding. So people would work hard to improve the fitness of the government as an entity instead of the individual. This might be a move toward group evolutionary selection as the country as an entity would now become the unit of selection and the individuals would become mere cogs in the workings of the country superorganism. The government would select activities for the individual which enhanced the "fitness" of the government as an organism. Surprisingly, I think this could also potentially lead to what Nick Bostrom has described as "Scenario I: The Mindless Outsourcers".

"We can thus imagine a technologically highly advanced society, containing many sorts of complex structures, some of which are much smarter and more intricate than anything that exists today, in which there would nevertheless be a complete absence of any type of being whose welfare has moral significance. In a sense, this would be an uninhabited society. All the kinds of being that we care even remotely about would have vanished."

By this he basically means that all emotions would slowly saturate out of an individual and they would no longer have any of the conscious experience that humans currently deem valuable (love, pleasure, happiness etc.). They would become mindless zombies with no real thought or conscious awareness. I think this is a potential threat of allowing the outside control of ones own emotions. When a government becomes the unit of selection as opposed to the individual, there is much less reason for people to have conscious emotions of their own.

Harris also brings up the issue of inequality with the iPlant.

"Inequality: iPlants could create a division in society between the haves and the have-nots. This could become a problem for people who can't afford an iPlant, can't have one for medical reasons, or who simply don't want one. This problem is currently being discussed."

The main problem with inequality is that the wealthy would be able to be considerably happier and have a more refined control of their moods, while the poor would likely have comparatively worse mental health. This is not too different from what currently exists. The poor are more likely to have issues with mental illness and getting the proper treatment for it. The wealthier would also potentially be able to enhance their cognitive functioning to a greater degree to allow the accumulation of even more wealth. So these issues would have to be addressed.

There is also the potential for self-stimulation of the pleasure center which could be a problem.

"Self-stimulation addiction: People might try to bypass the need to perform difficult tasks and self-stimulate ad infinitum. This problem may be avoided by ensuring robust access control by the manufacturer. This problem is currently being discussed."

This is already an issue with a lot of addictive drugs. Some people go on uncontrollable binges of taking rewarding drugs. This brings up the question of who should control the amount of pleasure or reward that a person gets? Is it really possible to ensure that people cannot learn to hijack the implant to enable self stimulation? I think that would be a very difficult task to accomplish as many people would be eager to stimulate their own pleasure center.

Another problem is that increasing a person's pleasure or reward could have negative effects on the individual. An implant will either make currently pleasurable activities more so, or it could make previously non-pleasurable tasks rewarding. Let's say the implant solely makes activities more pleasurable akin to hypomania. People with bipolar mania/hypomania often engage in high risk pleasurable activities to a greater degree that normal people. They may do questionable business transactions, wasteful expenditures of money, and risky sexual activity. Most rewarding activities have a risk to benefit ratio, so there can be consequences when a person engages in those activities too much. Having too much sex for instance increases the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease. Being wasteful with your money is also a potential effect of having too much pleasure. Too much pleasure is a negative aspect to bipolar mania/hypomania so there may be an optimal level of pleasure with too much being bad for the individual.

Overall, the iPlant is a very interesting idea. There are many fascinating questions from an individual and societal perspective on this type of technology.