Engineering Human Intelligence

     Artificial Intelligence is a hot topic in many sectors of society, in particular the tech industry. Engineering an artificial electronic network that can calculate, has a level of creativity that can reasonably parallel that of a human, or reasoning and other cognitive processes, even possibly emotions. 

 Self-aware and sentient artificial systems are big tropes of science fiction and fantasy. We've come a long way with AI, and are probably a lot more advanced with it than I am aware, especially with the advent of quantum computing.

   However, I want to focus on another form of intelligence engineering. This one has a few more ethical questions and considerations than AI does. It is the engineering of human intelligence. Essentially enhancing the intelligence and cognitive capacity of human beings. It is a morally and ethically questionable undertaking, and has many risks as well as benefits

From my thinking, I have contemplated 4 major avenues of engineering human intelligence.

      1. Chemical. 

Chemicals are one of the only ways we can access the brain without invasive physical procedures. We do it all the time in the treatment of mental and neurological disorders through psychotropic drugs  We know that some drugs can affect the physical neurology of the brain. Drugs like lithium have been shown to regrow grey matter in people who take it.

      There are many chemical compounds that can affect the brain, both legal drugs to treat things like mental illness and illegal drugs that alter the brain. There are hundreds of them, if not more. Both brain chemistry and neurology have an affect on human intelligence, and chemical compounds from outside the body have been shown to affect both chemistry and neurotransmitters as well as neurology and the neural network of the brain. As a result, chemicals are hypothetically one of the primary routes of human intelligence engineering. However, risk of damaging the brain is also present, as well as affecting the sanity and mental health of individuals involved in a negative.

      2. Gene Altering:

It's been proven that genetics play a heavy role in human intelligence, so altering genes, either in adulthood, or pre-birth or infancy can alter human intelligence in an individual. As with chemicals, gene altering carries some serious risks. We don't completely understand the human genome and how certain genes affect intelligence. 

      There is a high potential for the abuse of the power involved with gene altering, as the wielders of this power my not have a clear mind with how to use it or have immoral/unethical intentions. They may use it to commit atrocities or subjugate huge swaths of people.  

      

       3.  Physical alterations to the brain.

This one is probably the most difficult of the four, as it involves physically accessing the brain and physically altering it. Something extremely difficult, if you want to keep your subject alive and not damage the brain. Methods of physically altering the brain could be things like nanotechnology and highly advanced surgical procedures, but this gets into more science fiction and things not super plausible at our level of advancement. For now, anyways.

        4. External information and sensory stimuli.

This one may seem different and kind of an outlier on the list, but it happens all the time. Information alters the brain substantially. Its called learning. Our sensory stimuli that we take in with our senses heavily influences our thinking and comprehension. Both abstract and physical information can make us think differently and enhance our cognitive processing. We know that sensory input, like hearing music or watching a sports match, affects brain chemistry. We have physiological/chemical reactions in our brains to things that happen outside our body all the time. 

     Sensory stimuli and external information could very well affect brain structure and neurology. I just don't have a thorough understanding of this, though.

     The brain is just one giant information processor/generator. As we get more advanced in our understanding and utilization of information, we may be able to engineer human intelligence in a very beneficial way to humanity and society. It is also a much safer  avenue of human intelligence engineering than the other 3 avenues on this list with fewer risks of damage or other unintended consequences.

         As far as ethical considerations, some question with it is ethical to engineer intelligence. Whether we should do it at all. We could create monsters with such endeavors.

Some say its not ever the best idea to play God.

       I, personally, view that making people smarter and more functional is of high value. It can have profoundly positive effects on social and political stability, and is essential for the development and and advancement of humanity as a whole into our future. It's a matter of how we do it, not if we should do it that I consider to be the ethical dilemma.

    The danger of focusing much of our innovative resources on developing artificial intelligence in man-made systems and not focusing some sort of effort to increase the collective intelligence of human beings is the fact we may rely too much on AI for our survival. This may decrease our self-sufficiency capability, our autonomy, and may even subjugate us to a machine. Enhancing the intelligence of human beings ethically and responsibly may have even more of a social, cultural, and human-stability benefit than strictly focusing on engineering intelligence in machines.

      A dumbed down society will always decay and break down. Failing to educate humans and increase our collective intelligence will always lead to the major social ills of humanity, as well as continued failure to resolve said ills. It can even lead to the collapse of a nation.

    To conclude, I believe there is more value and potential in engineering and increasing the intelligence of human beings, especially humanity collectively, than just a stict focus on AI and artificial systems. If you are successful in doing so, you secure a much more promising and rewarding future for our species.