2.4.3. Consciousness-augmenting interventions
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2.4.3. Consciousness-augmenting interventions
Use the future to build the present
Consciousness-augmenting interventions
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1.1Advanced AI1.2QuantumRevolution1.3UnconventionalComputing1.4AugmentedReality1.5CollectiveIntelligence2.1CognitiveEnhancement2.2HumanApplicationsof GeneticEngineering2.3HealthspanExtension2.4ConsciousnessAugmentation2.5Organoids2.6FutureTherapeutics3.1Decarbonisation3.2EarthSystemsModelling3.3FutureFoodSystems3.4SpaceResources3.5OceanStewardship3.6SolarRadiationModification3.7InfectiousDiseases4.1Science-basedDiplomacy4.2Advancesin ScienceDiplomacy4.3Foresight,Prediction,and FuturesLiteracy4.4Democracy-affirmingTechnologies5.1ComplexSystemsScience5.2Futureof Education5.3Future Economics,Trade andGlobalisation5.4The Scienceof theOrigins of Life5.5SyntheticBiology
1.1Advanced AI1.2QuantumRevolution1.3UnconventionalComputing1.4AugmentedReality1.5CollectiveIntelligence2.1CognitiveEnhancement2.2HumanApplicationsof GeneticEngineering2.3HealthspanExtension2.4ConsciousnessAugmentation2.5Organoids2.6FutureTherapeutics3.1Decarbonisation3.2EarthSystemsModelling3.3FutureFoodSystems3.4SpaceResources3.5OceanStewardship3.6SolarRadiationModification3.7InfectiousDiseases4.1Science-basedDiplomacy4.2Advancesin ScienceDiplomacy4.3Foresight,Prediction,and FuturesLiteracy4.4Democracy-affirmingTechnologies5.1ComplexSystemsScience5.2Futureof Education5.3Future Economics,Trade andGlobalisation5.4The Scienceof theOrigins of Life5.5SyntheticBiology

Sub-Field:

2.4.3Consciousness-augmenting interventions

    We can alter consciousness by several methods: pharmacological, electromagnetic and regenerative. Nootropic drugs are proliferating, albeit without adequate tracking.16 There has been some significant progress in the use of psychedelics and psycho-active drugs to augment and alter consciousness, which may prove useful in medical contexts. Psilocybin and MDMA are being used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and depression in Australia, for example.17 It is already possible to restore sensory input when it has been damaged by trauma or is congenitally missing: cochlear implants, retinal implants, and gene therapy have all been used to partially restore the input portfolio of conscious experience.

    Therapeutic neuromodulation (precisely targeted non-invasive technology like tDCS) has successfully brought minimally conscious patients back towards higher consciousness.18 “Closed-loop” neuromodulation is able to act on, and sense, brain state based on feedback.1920If deployed in line with a set of internationally validated guidelines to diagnose the presence or absence of consciousness, a combination of these technologies could be standardised to wake people from comas.

    Brain-machine interfaces can help to augment human consciousness in three different ways.21 First, by augmenting the sensory inputs (already happening through gene therapy, cochlear and retinal implants). Second, by interfacing with a different type of body: robotic appendages with different, non-human degrees of freedom are already at work in factories and in surgical suites, and make their operators navigate the world with a different body plan thereby altering their mental model of the world. Third, by interfacing with AI: this can mitigate standard cognitive biases and improve on standard human consciousness.

    Future Horizons:

    ×××

    5-yearhorizon

    Embodied machines go mainstream

    Immersive virtual reality systems have vastly greater capabilities than today’s confinement to sound, vision and limited haptics. There is greater adoption of robotic embodiment in factories and for special purpose applications. A new online database of nootropic drugs seeks to track them and make clinicians aware of their effects and proliferation. BCIs move beyond siloed research labs toward new and more diverse use cases. Small trials of people with specific disorders of consciousness receive brain stimulation to enhance their conscious state.

    10-yearhorizon

    The first human-machine interfaces begin to see roll-out

    The wider availability of more general-purpose daily use robotic devices means that some models begin to explore the advantages of invasive interfaces. Medium scale trials commence on non-invasive neurostimulation like tDCS or focused ultrasound to alter people’s conscious state. Improved understanding of how neural circuits within distributed brain networks process information underpins better strategies for targeted electromagnetic intervention (including optimal stimulation targets). Clinical trials start on consciousness-restoration therapies tailored to individual genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic profiles.

    25-yearhorizon

    Neural interface for consciousness sharing

    The market grows for implantable BMI that is useful in everyday life. Brain implants coupled to AI systems accelerate the development of new human-machine shared consciousness useful in therapeutic settings (e.g. for neuroprosthetics) but also for those wanting to augment evolved human abilities.

    Consciousness-augmenting interventions - Anticipation Scores

    How the experts see this field in terms of the expected time to maturity, transformational effect across science and industries, current state of awareness among stakeholders and its possible impact on people, society and the planet. See methodology for more information.

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    2.4.4Beyond-human consciousness