This presentation considers the philosophical implications of current neuroscience advance. The brain is the final frontier, and thinking, cognition, emotion, and consciousness remain some of the most important unsolved mysteries. It is still unknown how ideas are actually represented in the brain. However, the expectation from neural nanotechnology and nanomedicine is that some of these mysteries will be revealed, in not just pathology resolution but also enhancement capabilities. There are already some translational research applications for cognitive enhancement. The fast pace of scientific advance in neuroscience is prompting the consideration of these kinds of questions involving personal identity, human potential, and societal coordination, and how we might eventually transition to a future of radically augmented post-biological entities and multispecies intelligence.

1. March 8, 2015, Los Angeles CA
Slides: http://slideshare.net/LaBlogga
Melanie Swan
m@melanieswan.com
Cognitive
Enhancement:
Philosophical
Implications of
Contemporary Neural
Nanoscience Advance
Image credit: 1024x.net

2. March 2015
Cognitive Enhancement 2
About Melanie Swan
 Founder DIYgenomics, science and
technology innovator and philosopher
 Singularity University Instructor, IEET
Affiliate Scholar, EDGE Contributor
 Education: MBA Finance, Wharton; BA
French/Economics, Georgetown Univ
 Work experience: Fidelity, JP Morgan, iPass,
RHK/Ovum, Arthur Andersen
 Sample publications:
Source: http://melanieswan.com/publications.htm
 Kido T, Kawashima M, Nishino S, Swan M, Kamatani N, Butte AJ. Systematic Evaluation of Personal
Genome Services for Japanese Individuals. Nature: Journal of Human Genetics 2013, 58, 734-741.
 Swan, M. The Quantified Self: Fundamental Disruption in Big Data Science and Biological Discovery.
Big Data June 2013, 1(2): 85-99.
 Swan, M. Sensor Mania! The Internet of Things, Wearable Computing, Objective Metrics, and the
Quantified Self 2.0. J Sens Actuator Netw 2012, 1(3), 217-253.
Swan, M. Health 2050: The Realization of Personalized Medicine through Crowdsourcing, the
Quantified Self, and the Participatory Biocitizen. J Pers Med 2012, 2(3), 93-118.
 Swan, M. Steady advance of stem cell therapies. Rejuvenation Res 2011, Dec;14(6):699-704.
 Swan, M. Multigenic Condition Risk Assessment in Direct-to-Consumer Genomic Services. Genet Med 2010,
May;12(5):279-88.

3. March 2015
Cognitive Enhancement 3
Neural Nanomedicine Advances
 Pathology resolution and
cognitive enhancement
 Drug delivery, neural
tissue engineering, repair,
biomolecular imaging,
DNA nanotechnology
 Medical nanorobots
Respirocytes Microbivore Artery Cleaner
Drug Delivery Nanoparticles
VasculocyteClottocytes
Neural TissueDNA Nanotechnology Quantum Dot Dyes
Farther future
Present
Source: Swan, M. Top ten recent nanomedical advances. Book chapter in Clinical Nanomedicine: from Bench to Bedside 2011,
Forthcoming. Holliday Junction: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130321141448.ht

4. March 2015
Cognitive Enhancement 4
Philosophical Argument
 Cognitive enhancement is the targeted
improvement of natural human abilities
 Augmentation of human skills, attributes, and
competencies through the use of technology,
medicine, and therapy designed to replace or
increase human performance capability
 Level I: Improved capacities: memory,
information-seeking, coordination,
planning; cognitive offload
 Level II: Accelerated subjectivation:
the ability to extend our capacity by
becoming ‘more’ of who we are and
can be more quickly
Sources: Swan, M. Cognitive Applications of Blockchain Technology. Cognitive Science 2015.
Hildt, Cognitive Enhancement, 2013; www.nickbostrom.com/cognitive.pdf

5. March 2015
Cognitive Enhancement
Top 6 Cognitive Enhancement Killer Apps
1. Memory Enhancement and
Blocking
2. Innovation Spikes and Creativity
3. The Qualitative: Internal
Subjective Experience
4. Connectome Mapping and
Personal Identity
5. Complexity and Neuroscience
6. Deep Learning and Causality
5
Neocortical Neurogenesis in Mammals
lafayette.edu

6. March 2015
Cognitive Enhancement
Scopolamine and propranolol block
glutamate and ß-adrenergic
neurotransmitter receptors
6
App 1: Memory Management
Sources: http://www.sinpos.com/publicaciones, http://www.imp.ac.at/news/press-releases/press-
release/press-release-a-trace-of-memory/
Donepezil (cholinesterase inhibitor), Ampakines
(benzamide compounds), and MEM 1414
(increases CREB): alertness, attention,
learning, memory, excitatory transmission
Memory BlockingMemory Enhancing

7. March 2015
Cognitive Enhancement
The Meditating
Brain
7
App 2: Innovation Spikes
Sources: Wan X, Improvisations. PLoS One. 2014 Dec 9;9(12)., http://brainworldmagazine.com/the-aha-
moment/#sthash.ApvGH3BR.dpuf, Parvizi, J. et al. The will to persevere. Neuron. 2013 Dec 18;80(6):1359-67
Gamma WavesAnterior Cingulate Cortex:
An imminent challenge
followed by a determined
attitude to overcome

8. March 2015
Cognitive Enhancement 8
App 3: The Qualitative
Sources: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00891/full,
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/decoding-body-watcher/
Different brain systems engaged in
sublimity: inferior temporal cortex,
posterior hippocampus, and
inferior/middle frontal gyri
The Sublime and the Beautiful
Interoceptive attention directs
neural representations of the
body’s internal state
Internal/External Attention Locus

9. March 2015
Cognitive Enhancement 9
App 4: Connectome and Identity
Sources: Allen Brain Atlas,,http://www.brain-map.org/, https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10101319050523971,
http://nautil.us/issue/9/time/why-we-procrastinate
Connectome Mapping: Possibility of
Sharing Experience
Personal Identity
Immersive Reality Headsets: real-time
experiences “you feel like you are actually
present with others in another place”
Re: Delayed gratification, we
procrastinate because we think of
our future selves as strangers
medial prefrontal cortex and rostral
anterior cingulate cortex

10. March 2015
Cognitive Enhancement 10
App 5: Complexity and Neuroscience
Sources: Tognoli1, E. Enlarging the scope: grasping brain complexity. Front Syst Neurosci. 2014; 8: 122. Kelso, JAS.
Multistability and metastability: dynamic coordination in the brain. Philos Trans R. 2012, 906–918.
Neural circuits originate
spatiotemporal signatures for
attention, somatosensation and motor
coordination in social situations
Reconcile the ability of the brain to create
information flows with the propensity for
synchronization and mass action
Sociality Neuromarkers
Coordination Dynamics
and Metastability

11. March 2015
Cognitive Enhancement 11
App 6: Deep Learning and Causality
Sources: Ciresan, D., Deep Neural Networks Segment Neuronal Membranes in Electron Microscopy Images. NIPS 2012.
Stetson, C. (2006). Motor-Sensory Recalibration. Neuron. 51. pp. 651–9.
Artificial neural networks pixel classifiers
segment and map 3D neural membrane
microstructure and connectivity
Neuron segmentation in
electron microscopy stacks
Brain maintains a recalibrated
representation of timing, and a less-
plastic comparison representation
Judging Causality

12. March 2015
Cognitive Enhancement 12
Philosophical Implications
 Ability to work with memory, attention,
sociality, temporality, and causality
means new forms of awareness about
our existence and reality
 Cognitive offload produces more time for
innovation, creativity, and enjoyment
 New self understanding through
accessing and mapping the quantitative
and qualitative of internal experience
 This is how we can achieve accelerated
subjectivation, beyond just the
practicalities of better memory
Sources: Swan, M. Cognitive Applications of Blockchain Technology. Cognitive Science 2015.
Hildt, Cognitive Enhancement, 2013; www.nickbostrom.com/cognitive.pdf

13. March 2015
Cognitive Enhancement
Philosophy of Cognitive Enhancement
 The branch of philosophy concerned
with the foundations, methods, and
implications of cognitive enhancement
 Internal practices generalized
 External impact evaluated
 3 classes of philosophical concerns
 Ontology (existence, reality): What is it?
What does it mean?
 Epistemology (knowledge): What is
knowledge here? Proof standard?
 Valorization (ethics, aesthetics): What is
noticed, overlooked? What is ethical
practice? What is beauty, elegance?
13
Sources: Swan, M. Cognitive Applications of Blockchain Technology. Cognitive Science 2015.
Hildt, Cognitive Enhancement, 2013; www.nickbostrom.com/cognitive.pdf

14. March 2015
Cognitive Enhancement
Conclusions
 The objective of neural nanoscience
advance is not only pathology resolution
but also cognitive enhancement
 Translational cognitive enhancement
applications in development for memory,
creativity, attention, identity, causality
 Possibility of targeting qualitative
aspects of neuroscience, subjective
experience, and lived existence to better
produce our future selves as biocitizens
14

15. March 8, 2015, Los Angeles CA
Slides: http://slideshare.net/LaBlogga
Melanie Swan
m@melanieswan.com
Cognitive
Enhancement:
Philosophical
Implications of
Contemporary Neural
Nanoscience Advance
Thank you!
Questions?
Image credit: 1024x.net