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Enhancing our brain power with computers — is it a Pandora’s Box we don’t dare open?
Sudbury author Scott Overton is offering a cautionary story with his new science-fiction novel Augment Nation, launching virtually tonight and in person at the Sudbury Market’s Harvest Market on Oct. 15 on Elgin Street in downtown Sudbury.
This evening, Oct. 12, the virtual book launch will be livestreamed via Facebook and YouTube at 7 p.m., in conversation with fellow author (and Sudbury native) Mark Leslie Lefebvre. Everyone attending will get a special discount and have a chance to win a copy of “Augment Nation”.
The work comes with high praise from Robert J. Sawyer, a Hugo-award winning writer considered the “dean of Canadian science fiction.” Of Overton’s new book, Sawyer said, “Scott Overton is a terrific writer and his vision of tomorrow is both realistic and frightening. Read this book!”
The augments referred to in the title are brain-computer interfaces (BCI) — small computerized devices directly linking our brains to powerful processors and even the internet. That’s the direction Overton sees consumer technology going within the next two decades, and he said we’ll need to be prepared.
The book centres on Damon Leiter, who, since the age of 14 has had a brain-computer interface implanted beneath his skull to correct a neurological disorder. As a teenager, it branded him as an outcast — as an adult it endows him with extraordinary abilities. He may represent the next step in human evolution.
When computerized brain augments replace smartphones as the must-have status item, mega-corporations and governments conspire together and marketing becomes mind control. Damon is uniquely equipped to lead a worldwide resistance, but the fight may cost him everything.
“The promise of instant access to lots of computing power and all the resources of the internet with just a thought is incredible,” Overton states in a release. “But the potential risks are staggering too. Computers can be hacked, phones can be hacked…websites, Facebook pages, email accounts; all of them are vulnerable to being taken over or tampered with for malicious purposes.”
But Overton points out that the hazards don’t just involve criminals or vandals. There are hundreds of legitimate players who’d love to have more access to our thinking.
“We already give marketers and companies way too much access to our personal information and our private lives, usually in return for a little extra convenience, reward points we may never cash in, or shiny baubles we don’t need. Who will be able to resist tantalizing offers when an internet connection is right in our head?”
And while Overton thinks conspiracy theories about micro-devices that track us and affect our thoughts are pure fantasy for now, that might not always be the case. Brain-computer interfaces might be just too tempting for unscrupulous political parties or multi-nationals with a lust for power.
“I’m sure most of us can think of politicians who would sell their souls for that kind of direct influence over citizens,” he says. “We will have to decide—and decide very soon—whether or not we’re willing to open that door.”
Augment Nation and all of Overton’s books are also available online in eBook and print. You can find his Facebook page here, on Goodreads or to purchase the books, click here.
