While reading about transhuanism this week I stumbled upon this incredibly fascinating and mind blowing talk by neuroscientist David Eagleman about the future of being human. In it he describes his theory of the “Mr Potato Head” model of evolution: our senses are merely input devices sending electrical signals to the brain. All we have to do is send electrical signals through one of our existing sensory channels. The brain, after being exposed to these electrical signals for a couple of weeks will then automatically start to make sense of the information. Thanks to the phenomenon of sensory substitution disabled people might soon be able to regain lost senses but the possibilities are endless. We might even be able to add on additional senses such as night vision, infrared signals, electromagnetism or even completely abstract information such as twitter sentiment or stock market data.

Highly recommended talk.