Who are We, and Who (or What) Do We Want to Become? An Evolutionary Perspective on Biotransformative Technologies

Human evolution sits at several important thresholds. In organic evolution, interplay between exogenous environmental and genetic factors rendered new phenotypes at rates limited by genetic variation. The interplay took place on adaptive fitness landscapes determined by correspondence of genetic and environmental relationships. Human evolution involved important emergences that altered the adaptive landscape: language, writing, organized societies, science, and the internet. These endogenous factors ushered in transformative periods leading to more rapidly evolving emergences. I explore the impact of development of emerging biotransformative technologies capable of being applied to effect self-genetic modification and artificial intelligence-augmented cognition on the evolutionary landscape of phenotypes important to cognitive plasticity. Interaction effects will yield unanticipated emergences resulting in hyperrealm adaptive landscapes with more rapid evolutionary processes that feed back upon more fundamental levels while vastly outpacing organic evolution. Emerging technologies exist that are likely to impact the evolution of cognitive plasticity in humans in ways and at rates that will lead to societal upheaval. I show that the theoretical contribution of organic evolution in future human evolution is expected to become comparatively insignificant relative to that made by endogenous environmental factors such as external cognition aids and manipulation of the human genome. The results support the conclusion of a strong recommendation of a moratorium on the adoption of any technology capable of completely altering the course of human evolution.

Neural Correlates of Mental Workload During Multitasking: a Dynamic Causal Modeling Study

The goal of this study is to examine the neural correlates of different mental workload levels. Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals were recorded when participants perform a set of tasks simultaneously with low and high levels of mental workload. Brain connections for each workload level were estimated using Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM), which is an effective connectivity method to reveal causal relationships between brain sources. The result showed a backward-only, left-lateralized connection pattern for high workload condition, compared to the bidirectional, two-sided connection pattern for low workload condition.These findings of the mental workload effect on neural mechanisms may be utilized in applications of the augmented cognition program.

Dynamic Causal Modeling of Gender Differences in Emotion: Implications for Augmented Cognition

The goal of this study is to investigate the neural basis of gender difference in emotion processing. Elec- troencephalogram (EEG) signals were recorded when the same set of emotion-eliciting images was shown to male and female participants. Neural connections were estimated using Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM) and results for both genders were compared. We found that dorsolateral prefrontal cortex exerts modulatory effects differently for males and females. These findings on the gender differences in neural mechanisms of emotion processing may be utilized in applications of the augmented cognition program.

The Platonic-Freudian model of mind: Defining "self" and "other" as psychoinformatic primitives

As “nurtural” (rather than merely natural) kinds of human beings, people are complex and multifaceted. Any complete human science would require a complete theory of persons. Accomplishing the latter is the core objective of the present article.First, a feature list first laid out in [1] is summarized. This list is briefly critiqued. Next, the concept of person engaged with is expanded with the addition of nine novel features. These features follow from “holarchic psychoinformatics” [2], which was first propounded as a step forward from Sood’s analytic treatment of third-force, existential-humanistic psychology. Person is formalized as a function of self and other; they are also granted to be romantic, existential, humanistic, chemical, environmental, hedonic and eudaimonic (happiness-seeking), conservative, and liberal. These are in addition to persons being physical, biological, psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual. Sood’s holarchic view of persons is enlarged.Psychologically, augmented cognition as an established field of research and practice begets the formal studies of augmented affect, augmented behavior, and augmented motivation. All such interdisciplinary fields are required for the human-computer interactionist’s study of augmented mind, more broadly.Additionally, this article builds on the person-situation interaction framework formalized in [1]. It does so by adding a formalization following from the discussion of psychological situations put forward by Rauthmann, Sherman, and Funder in [3]. The formalization of psychological situations sets them as a function of cues, characteristics, and classes. Further psychological equations that follow from this article’s formalisms of person and situation, when considered along with Sood’s formulae for mind and behavior, are then presented.

Building Better Soldiers Through Science

This chapter looks at how psychology and related sciences may contribute to training and developing more effective soldiers. Topics include approaches to engineering a more resilient soldier, one that is less vulnerable to posttraumatic stress disorder and other forms of combat stress. Engineering 24/7 soldiers, that is, soldiers who can perform for extended periods of time without sleep, is examined. Psychological approaches to increasing the ability of soldiers to kill are considered. The chapter concludes with a discussion of approaches to increase the physical capabilities of soldiers that also have psychological consequences, including advanced prosthetics, robotics and human-robot interface, and augmented cognition.