Author of Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human

Michael Chorost is the author of Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human. He has a B.A. from Brown University and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He lives in San Francisco, where he writes, teaches, and consults.

In this talk I’ll start by destroying various myths of human enhancement.  Since I’ve had my hearing restored with a computer implanted in my head, I’m often asked whether people will have superhuman hearing and vision in the future.  My answer is usually, “You think you want that, but you really don’t.” I’ll explain that by drawing on some basic facts about physics and cognition.  Then I’ll talk about what I think will happen in the future, and it’s going to seem as strange as the Internet would have back in the age of 64-kilobyte Apple IIs.  But for just that reason, I think it’s much more interesting.