Hey Elon, what about the body?

How BMIs might affect the physical understanding of our bodies and what we should consider. A comment. 

Imagine you want to share an idea to someone, and you don’t have to say a single word. Your mouth stays closed, you even do not have to address the person visually. Your messages leaves your brain and enters the other one. It doesn’t matter if both of you are in the same room or on the other half of the planet.

This scenario isn't creepy Science Fiction, but the new idea, which one of the most efficient and productive investors of our times - Elon Musk - proposes. Neuralink wants to develop "ultra high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers." (official website) The result: we will be able to enter a completely new stadium of communication, which doesn't need words to share thoughts, but is able to send emotions, thoughts and perception directly from one brain to another. For those who want to learn more about the company, click here! (if you are already lost by now it makes sense to follow the link and dig a bit deeper into the material.) 

Connecting brain to brain, nice! But - what about the body? 

A connection between brain and brain to ensure a more precise and efficient communication, that is the initial plan. Information, which jumps from brain A to brain B, without losing any content. Anyways, looking down on us, we recognize that there is something additional to all neurons inside our brain: a body! A system using all it’s force to ensure walking, digestion, perception and further more – connection. We use our hands to communicate, we smile in order to attract people, we nod to share a feedback. According to Musk all these processes result from the lack of possibilities to connect our brains automatically to each other. Language is just a metaphor for our thoughts and we need interpretation and experience to decode the message we receive. That might be true and as a result a proper brain to brain communication seems useful. Nevertheless, we should spend some thoughts about the question: what happens to our body, if we don’t have to use it anymore to communicate?

As a dancer, I experimented with the possibilities of peripheral vision. Peripheral vision means, you focus another person from all angles you can use. Sometimes it might look like someone stands nearly behind you, but from an angle of your vision you perceive that the person is still there. We experimented to communicate using this kind of perception. Witnessing two people who interact with each other without looking at each other created an imagine of distance. Thus, we all use phones and WIFI, direct communication still requires direct interaction for some reasons.

Reflecting our evolutionary roots, direct interaction is something all humans have experienced from their first day of life. Parents looking down on us to understand our needs taught us early how to attract people with looks and smiles. Young children learn very early how to share a social smile, which invites people to create a positive relationship. All we do is developing a roadmap towards positive affections. First we smile, we focus our opposite with your eyes, we smile again and then we physically approach the other person. BMIs would shorten this process by sending a brain message saying I like you. Sounds very pragmatic, but what it loosens is all the magic beyond creating a relationship to someone. And what also remains on the way is the aspect of time.

If we think about the social structures of the world in 2017 we already can observe some small developments and their results in these directions. Using dating apps allows us to send messages I like you without considering a specific time frame for an adequate approach. Sexuality is everywhere, easy to obtain and available for everyone. Nevertheless, when I ask people if they are happy about these options, most use them for a short duration, but then come back to the “real connection”, they feel more safe and friendly about. People tend to draw a linear line (meeting, talking, interacting sexuality) between each other, instead of an exponential one (texting, having sex).

Nonverbal communication also supports our physicality in general. If we need our body, we are more likely to think about it very often. We receive physical feedback, which invites us to consider our health, our charisma and the way we present ourselves to the world. Direct communicati

“Yes, but since the stone age, the human body has always changed, why is that bad?”

Our front head grew and we lost much hair, while our muscles and teeth are weaker than before. As we invented a proper medical system, we are able to cope with many diseases and clothes keep us warm. Contrary we leak many things older generations were more positive about. Studies show that our grandparents were more sexually active than my generation. We suffer more from diseases like cancer or psychological disorders, such as depression and anxiety. The world we live in, the fast growing and technological development also causes fear, insecurity and dangers for the body.

“Should we stop it and go back to stone age?”

Of course not, but we should be wise and reflect every invention we are planning. What can be the benefits from our curiosity? And what should be considered as difficult? If we are smart enough to build brain machine interfaces, we also should be able to find some motivated people who think about their failures and develop some strategies to prevent us. Years of technological development and industrialization should work as an example for how to do this.

I interpret the possibility to look into someone’s brain as a pathway towards empathy and understanding. Seeing the world through someone else’s eyes. That is a beautiful idea. We can understand the perception of a baby, we might know how old people feel and improve technology supporting them.

But BMIs could also create disorders, we do not have to deal with today. What happens, if someone doesn’t focus on the perception of someone else and ignores his own sensations. Can we develop an identity disorder by ignoring the signals from our own body? And would it be possible that people in the future forget how to read and interpret their own physical feedback? Thinking about many disorders such as anorexia or obesity, we can identify these processes already.

Another aspect I want to add is motivation: Once we do not have to read a book anymore as it is displayed to our brain, we will never increase the motivation to learn or read any more. What motivates us is the underlying process of learning, not the achievement itself. Reading, as an example, teaches us multiple aspects: it allows us to gather knowledge, but additionally to that, it requires concentration and invites us to experience joy and curiosity. We can’t read faster than a certain timeframe allows us to. The idea of “not knowing yet”, the desire we experience fosters imagination and creativity. What we can learn is patience, listening and waiting. If all knowledge is transmitted to our brains, all the joy and desire expires. Einstein said, that imagination is what drives research, not intelligence or knowledge.

According to current researches, future inventions are viewed as the most complex and perfect built machines, which might eliminate us due to its perfection. Nevertheless, we should not forget that yet we possess the strongest weapon of all humanity: physical intuition. Neurons merging in your stomach and expressing the feeling of fear. Pheromones signaling attraction. A smile allowing connectivity. What I want to foster is: whatever happens, we should stay aware!

Neither Google. Nor Wikipedia. But your heart.

    on how intuitive learning concepts could shape perspectives in education

When a child starts learning, there is no concept of teaching or explaining – and still each of us transforms into a master of walking, speaking and interacting. As a child we learn the most complex things: directing our physical being, outsourcing our thoughts and dealing with our own and other people’s emotions without attending a single class. What this may prove is that the complexity of life is not illustrated in any single book but nevertheless humans are able to capture it using one inborn skill: intuition. 

Intuition, described as “the ability to require knowledge without proof or conscious learning” incorporates reproduction and creativity on the same level as failure and discovery are attached. It shows that everything a person needs to know is already there, inside of us. But once we witness the society we live in, we start feeling surrounded by perfectly developed curricula and many people who teach you how to follow prescriptions without thinking. 

Entering a school describes the opposite of what we have practiced as young children and as many of us, I also experienced disillusion. In my therapy training I had a boss who kept saying that we all have to wait. “You have to wait until you know how to treat people. You have to wait until you understand psychology.” Now is nothing but a blind moment in the queue towards understanding? I remember another moment in which a friend tried to teach me climbing. He precisely explained me the theory behind the movement, but still I kept falling of the wall. Another day, I went climbing by myself with only one task: trying to listen to my body’s actual movement in order to understand its mechanism. Then I would observe those who climbed already high and tried to process what their movements were about. Sometimes I also asked people to explain me their specific movement and from there I continued learning. I understood that in climbing the biggest muscle we use is our brain.

When I started to be a teacher on my own, I experienced that my joy in teaching resulted from learning what my students would share. Every group I taught on the same hand became a teacher for me. I realized that teaching is learning, and learning is teaching. There is no border between a person who teaches and a person who learns. When we add this thought to our idea of intuition it shows that all the skills we need to learn things are already within us. The idea I follow now is to ask why we do not open more spaces which allow intuitive learning as its main concept.

Which aspects do we have to change? And what does it require?

As many of us I grew up in an environment which described learning as a long and infinite way. There are two aspects I view as critical in this approach. The first is, that many of us are frequently remembered to just have started to learn, but as we proceed no one ever tells you when to succeed, which may cause frustration but also an ongoing orientation towards the future but not the present moment. The second thing is describing learning as a process in which people start and others are experienced we create hierarchies among humanity. 

Today we live in a world in which all our knowledge is gathered in the pockets of our pants. We can use our mobile phone in order to answer any question, whether it requests the amount of cells inside a body or how to build an electronic car. The last thing we need to learn is how to fill our brain with even more facts and knowledge. What our society yet leaks is to provide an approach towards intuition. Even young children do not experience anymore a playful relationship to their own body which should encourage us to dedicate our educational system in this direction. Experiencing the unknown allows the creation of new ideas in a free mind. 

How do I imagine intuitive learning?

In my teaching I first tell all my students that I actually have nothing I could really teach them. In contrast to that we all create a space in which impulses may shape new ideas. The real thing we learn is the interconnection between us learners and teachers. Failure is a part as compassionate learning requires the fall. There are many ways of moving towards a goal and every one of us needs to find his individual approach in there. I remember how frustrated I experienced the drawing classes in my therapy education.  I’ve never been skilled in drawing and trying to foster this only caused disappointment. One day I discovered finger paint. I took a huge blank poster and started painting. The movement which shaped the painting resulted from my belly, my feet and my hands as my body worked as a whole. I just did what I have done so many times before – I used my entire body to navigate myself over the surface of the poster. Yet, I wasn’t a drawer, but I’ve always been a great mover. This situation inspired me to ask my students always one question: What do you already know?” If we all ask ourselves, we will find all the answers we need. 

I imagine learning as a concept which does not require a certain outcome but allows the mind to freeflow in given material. Learning happens everywhere, we just have to be ready and see it. We are all experts of the unknown, equipped with all resources we need to move on. Anyone of us can become an expert while considering himself as a professional in beginning, which allows him to grow even stronger.  The most fruitful of this aspect is the active attitude towards learning, which is more encouraging than passive copy and paste of passed ideas. So better ask yourself right now!