laughed out loud. “Remind me not to get on your bad side, Eyal,” she
said, raising her eyebrows.
The class discussed induced
memory loss for another ten minutes or so when Rachel decided to move on.
“Let’s turn to another
application that is near and dear to my heart,” she began. “Learning. Are all
of you familiar with the movie The Matrix ?”
The movie was dated, but also
somewhat iconic, and Rachel found that most of the time it was known to all of
her students. She soon learned that this class was no exception.
“In my view,” said Rachel, “the
most extraordinary line in the entire movie was, ‘ I know kung fu .’ Remember that one? They zap knowledge of multiple
martial arts straight into the character Neo’s brain. One second he doesn’t
know how to fight,” she continued, “and the next he’s a black belt in just about
every fighting discipline ever devised. Just like loading a program into a
computer. Keanu Reeves, who plays Neo, says this line in equal parts shock and
delight, as he realizes the knowledge of decades of intense training has just
appeared magically in his mind.”
“So I’m guessing your second
favorite scene was on the roof with the helicopter?” said Regev.
“Good guess,” she said
appreciatively. “It is indeed. For those of you who don’t remember it, Trinity
and Neo are on a roof after being attacked. Neo sees a military helicopter that
is parked there. He turns to Trinity and says, ‘Can you fly that thing?’ And
Trinity’s answer? Not yes or no, as we
might expect, but simply, ‘Not yet.’”
Rachel paused to give her class
time to bring the memory of this scene to the surface. “I mean, it’s the perfect response,” she said
enthusiastically. “Because Trinity immediately has this knowledge zapped into
her brain. Less than a minute later she’s an elite pilot, and away they go.”
“It was truly an awesome scene,”
agreed Feldman, and the other five students nodded their heartfelt agreement.
“At first blush, it’s not
difficult to argue that this would be about the coolest capability ever ,” said Rachel, almost glowing. “And
what if you didn’t need to be in a matrix or have a jack in your skull? What if
you could find less invasive ways to pull this off? But with the same end
result: instant education. And not just education, not just superficial
knowledge, but deep knowledge. Expertise.”
She paused, telling herself she needed
to throttle back on her enthusiasm to ensure an unbiased conversation. This was
more difficult than she realized, as she had been working toward the goal of
instant education for many years. And while she didn’t advertise this research,
and had yet to publish most of her findings, there were a number of colleagues
who knew what she was trying to do, and it wouldn’t surprise her if one or more
of these students were aware, as well.
“Some progress toward this goal
has already been made,” she noted. “Enough to be fairly sure this will someday
be achievable, especially now that the full map of the brain is becoming
available. With luck, we’ll be able to pull this off in five to fifteen years. So
what are your thoughts about this?” she asked, with just the hint of a smile.
“It would be incredible!” said
Sanjeev Shah in awe, and beside him, Sherry Dixon nodded her enthusiastic
agreement. “The entire population of the world could be highly educated.
Illiteracy would be wiped from the map.”
“So does everyone agree that this
would be a good thing?” asked the professor.
There was an immediate and
unanimous chorus of agreement.
“Okay,” said Rachel. “But there
must be a downside, right? I mean, everything has a downside. Even a pool of the richest milk chocolate can be used to drown
someone.”
This example brought smiles to
the faces of several students.
“Let me start us off with one
possibility,” said the professor. “I read a science fiction story when I was a
kid. One
said, raising her eyebrows.
The class discussed induced
memory loss for another ten minutes or so when Rachel decided to move on.
“Let’s turn to another
application that is near and dear to my heart,” she began. “Learning. Are all
of you familiar with the movie The Matrix ?”
The movie was dated, but also
somewhat iconic, and Rachel found that most of the time it was known to all of
her students. She soon learned that this class was no exception.
“In my view,” said Rachel, “the
most extraordinary line in the entire movie was, ‘ I know kung fu .’ Remember that one? They zap knowledge of multiple
martial arts straight into the character Neo’s brain. One second he doesn’t
know how to fight,” she continued, “and the next he’s a black belt in just about
every fighting discipline ever devised. Just like loading a program into a
computer. Keanu Reeves, who plays Neo, says this line in equal parts shock and
delight, as he realizes the knowledge of decades of intense training has just
appeared magically in his mind.”
“So I’m guessing your second
favorite scene was on the roof with the helicopter?” said Regev.
“Good guess,” she said
appreciatively. “It is indeed. For those of you who don’t remember it, Trinity
and Neo are on a roof after being attacked. Neo sees a military helicopter that
is parked there. He turns to Trinity and says, ‘Can you fly that thing?’ And
Trinity’s answer? Not yes or no, as we
might expect, but simply, ‘Not yet.’”
Rachel paused to give her class
time to bring the memory of this scene to the surface. “I mean, it’s the perfect response,” she said
enthusiastically. “Because Trinity immediately has this knowledge zapped into
her brain. Less than a minute later she’s an elite pilot, and away they go.”
“It was truly an awesome scene,”
agreed Feldman, and the other five students nodded their heartfelt agreement.
“At first blush, it’s not
difficult to argue that this would be about the coolest capability ever ,” said Rachel, almost glowing. “And
what if you didn’t need to be in a matrix or have a jack in your skull? What if
you could find less invasive ways to pull this off? But with the same end
result: instant education. And not just education, not just superficial
knowledge, but deep knowledge. Expertise.”
She paused, telling herself she needed
to throttle back on her enthusiasm to ensure an unbiased conversation. This was
more difficult than she realized, as she had been working toward the goal of
instant education for many years. And while she didn’t advertise this research,
and had yet to publish most of her findings, there were a number of colleagues
who knew what she was trying to do, and it wouldn’t surprise her if one or more
of these students were aware, as well.
“Some progress toward this goal
has already been made,” she noted. “Enough to be fairly sure this will someday
be achievable, especially now that the full map of the brain is becoming
available. With luck, we’ll be able to pull this off in five to fifteen years. So
what are your thoughts about this?” she asked, with just the hint of a smile.
“It would be incredible!” said
Sanjeev Shah in awe, and beside him, Sherry Dixon nodded her enthusiastic
agreement. “The entire population of the world could be highly educated.
Illiteracy would be wiped from the map.”
“So does everyone agree that this
would be a good thing?” asked the professor.
There was an immediate and
unanimous chorus of agreement.
“Okay,” said Rachel. “But there
must be a downside, right? I mean, everything has a downside. Even a pool of the richest milk chocolate can be used to drown
someone.”
This example brought smiles to
the faces of several students.
“Let me start us off with one
possibility,” said the professor. “I read a science fiction story when I was a
kid. One
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