Page 131 - An Evening with Maxwell's Daemons
P. 131
The Cerebronauts
“I’ve got one more,” said Rutger Schlager gruffly. “But don’t
jump down my throat because it looks like the plot of an old
science-fiction movie from the 1960s. The similarity—or cliché or
trope or well-worn threadbare plot, whatever you want to call it—is
that a human brain has to be penetrated and probed for some
urgent reason. But I’m not going to invent a preposterous super-
miniaturized submarine to plumb the cranial depths and scoot
between massive folds of gray matter. No, this time it can be more
science and less absurdity. It’s not getting too far ahead of the curve
to say that nanobots will be our surgeons of the future. They can be
injected by the million and directed from outside the patient’s body
via scanners and computers. Yes, that does remind you of my
sunshades, doesn’t it? Well, if one of the two succeeds, I’ll drop the
other: happy?”
Without waiting for a discouraging word, he continued.
“Okay. Now, in this case it isn’t an operation to mend synapses
or break up an ischemic clot. The bigwig has some crucial datum
locked up in long-term memory; a password, perhaps, to a
doomsday device or to billions in crypto-currency, or the name of a
traitor or other villain threatening mankind with imminent
extinction. But he’s out of it: injured, wounded, demented or just
plain forgetful. Our brains have no natural back-up files; we need to
make little notes to ourselves or dictate reams of memoranda—
somehow making an external copy of important information. But
that can be stolen: better to keep it secret, right? Wrong: national or
international security depends on that string of characters, in this
case. So it’s got to be recovered, one brain cell’s content at a time.
Further assumption: the location of that memory can be precisely
determined by imaging technology—again, just a little bit down the
road from here. To spice it up, I’ll make the procedure
experimental, add some interpersonal conflicts in the operating
room, and hang a time limit on success.”
130