Augmented Minds

This 20 minute film was commissioned by DARPA, and made by TV director Alexander Singer (Hill Street Blues, Star Trek: Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, etc). It tells the story of a command center in 2030 monitoring cyberspace activity for anomalies that suggest large scale illegal or terrorist activities. The technologies described in the film are certainly within the next decade of technology development.

Hat tip Neurophilosopher

More info from the Augmented Cognition International Society, and a chapter on cognition augmentation from William Calvin's Brief History of the Mind.

This more moderate view of intelligence enhancement is meant to contrast with the more radical views as presented by Ray Kurzweil and others.

These developments will require significant advancement in neuropharmacology, brain implant technologies and mind-machine interfaces, genetic therapies, computer hardware/software technologies and user interfaces, neuroscientific conceptual theories of consciousness and intelligence, machine intelligence theory, and other fields impinging upon the idea of augmented intelligence.

Mind/consciousness augmentation has had many false starts, but the importance of this field of research cannot be overstated. It will happen--in many ways--and bystander humans would be best advised to make themselves ready.