Cathy O'Neil, Columnist

What If We Could Upload Books to Our Brains?

"The Brothers Karamazov" might never be the same, and not in a good way.

Reading has its advantages.

Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

What if humans could upload all the great classics of literature to their brains, without having to go through the arduous process of reading? Wonderful and leveling as that may seem, it's a prospect that I'm not sure we should readily embrace.

A while ago, I listened to an interview with futurist Ray Kurzweil on astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson’s radio show StarTalk. Kurzweil described (starting at 10:30) how our brains might someday interface directly with non-biological forms of intelligence, possibly with the help of nano-bots that travel through our capillaries.