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.”



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