In my personal opinion, maybe years from now, YES, humans may
end up with a peanut sized brain.
I had posted my thoughts on Artificial Intelligence in my
previous blog post. In an extremely subdued way, I had focused on the economic
aspects of AI particularly in the areas of employment in that post. Even after
several weeks of that post, I have still been thinking about the topic of AI.
My current thoughts have been on the advancements in the field of Internet of
Things (IOT), Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and their
effects on humans as ‘beings’.
Every advancement throughout the human history has been
logically/technically next step over the previous way. If something was done in
one way, the advancement was to do it in a better way or a newer efficient way
to achieve the same thing. Most advancements have been excellent and much
needed; bestowing humans with luxuries their previous generations had not seen.
However I think every advancement also took away something from that generation
of humans. In most cases that adverse side effect of advancement took its toll
on the knowledge, or a process or just the general way of life. For instance, people
mostly forgot how to read latitudes and longitudes or even navigate looking at
the stars, after the advent of GPS. As cell phone use increased, remembering
8-10 phone numbers became a big thing. Starting a fire rubbing stones which was
once a part of daily life is now limited to museums and end of the world survival
lessons.
Extending this thought of side effects of technology to
humans as ‘beings’, I think technology advancements will have a direct impact
on the human brain. As we continue to see advancements in the fields of IOT, AI
and ML, I think most people will start using their brains less and less.
Computers and AI algorithms will continue to learn and improve to ensure they
serve their human masters well; while humans will use their brain less and
depend on the AI algorithms more. Truly speaking isn’t that the real reason for
AI? To take away the ‘human’ element to maximize safety and efficiency? However,
going at this rate I think humans will very soon reach a point where most of us
will use our brains primarily (or should I say ‘Only’?) for watching TV, using
cell phones, eating, sleeping and such basic activities. Machines will do all
the heavy lifting ensuring humans do not stress their brain.
Similar to how a Giraffe got a long neck, I think the human
brain will slowly shrink and might become a ‘vestigial’ organ. A vestigial
organ as per the dictionary, is an organ which had a use once but has lost its
use now. So a human brain might, in my
opinion become more like eyebrow or appendix, a vestigial organ. I do not think
humans will end up brainless as we will continue to use our brain for basic needs, but I
think as the usage of the brain reduces maybe our brain will shrink in size. If
our brain is the size of 2 apples today, maybe it will reduce to the size of 1
apple and gradually to the size of a walnut. Over the next several centuries or
millennia’s our brain might eventually reduce to the size of a peanut.
~Narendra V Joshi
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