This article really speaks to me, as i noticed that i am able to control a bit more about my brain than most people. For instance, i can induce at will short bursts of euphoria (though it seems to also cause something akin to bipolar disorder if overused), i can inhibit most emotions at will too, or encourage them, create a state of mind where i am very empathic, and even create “ghost” tactile sensations on my body.

And i think we all are able to do that, most people just never try, i guess. The trick for me is to remember how it feels when something happens in my mind and then recreate that. For instance, i learned how to inhibit emotions when i was in high school, i was laughing quietly in the back of a teacher, and when he turned around i had to instantly recover my composure, which i did intuitively, but at the same time a part of me recorded the process and i was able to reproduce it at will later on. And i noticed that the ability to create tactile illusions was greatly increased in intensity when i’m half asleep, bordering on potentially painful when in sleep paralysis.

So basically i’d love to play with EEGs :p

I think Internet glasses like the ones that Google is developing could incorporate such a system. It could possibly even be added into a dashboard overlay or included in a more subtle form where AI tracking programs alert you that you are surrounded by people or in an environment that will distract you from past experiences. Nevertheless, I would not want to have the ADHD part of my brain completely removed, and I can totally think of some evil totalitarian uses for that as well.

I can’t speak for the other disorders, but there are both good and bad aspects of ADHD that I think business leaders who have been diagnosed like David Neeleman and Paul Orfalea clearly exemplify. I am not one of those people with ADHD that pretends that it is not a disorder or a magic creativity gift, but I definitely think different than other people. I think the abnormal way in which a minority of people with ADHD have successfully learned how to cope with the disorder and utilize the divergent thinking process to there advantage should be studied by neuroscientist before the disorder is able to be completely cured.

I think people with normally functioning brains could benefit from similar methods geared at making them temporarily think out side of the preverbal box as well. A human machine interface with AI technology from a few years our with a well designed architecture and overlays could be an alternate route to the singularity as predicted by Verier Vinge. What do you think?