C – A Computerized Mind

C – A Computerized Mind

One of my favorite characters in the Star Trek universe is Data. For those of you non-Trekkies, he was an android with a positronic brain. Looked human, acted human (minus emotions, which weren’t originally built into his brain), and for all intents and purposes was human. From my point of view, he was really cool. Wouldn’t everybody want to have one? 

I’m more interested in his positronic brain. I dream sometimes about having the ability to do some of the things that Data could. I would love to be able to converse in multiple languages, fluently. And also be able to learn a new language or concept rapidly. 

I’m a musician. So imagine what it would be like to be able not only to learn how to play a multitude of instruments proficiently but also be able to mimic the styles of other musicians and be able to create new styles by combining some of those famous ones. I would also be able to compose music. Again that would be very cool. 

Having a brain that can do instant calculations and figure out solutions to problems would be a plus. Think of all of the daily problems you have that you could solve or even being more altruistic how many world problems you could lend a hand to? Climate change, world hunger, pandemic prevention, etc. 

I’m a rather slow reader. I tend to read aloud in my head as I read books and magazines. Being a slow reader makes time to create images in my head and also helps me remember some of the stories that I’ve read. The difficulty with being a slow reader is that it limits the number of things I can read.  There are so many books on my “To Read” list, that I’ll never get to them all. Unless it is a riveting novel or story I’m reading, it takes me a long time to finish. With a positronic brain, I could speed read books in minutes instead of weeks and months. It would also allow me to retain all of the information that I read, which would be very helpful when reading technical or informational books or directions.  I would have a much greater cache of information and ideas that I could use, not only in my writing but in my storytelling too.

The biggest problem that Data had was having no emotions and being “data” driven. He had no intuition or creativity of thought. If there was no data or rules to support what he had to decide or do he was stymied. He did manage to learn some of those skills before the series ended. 

I wish that the brain that I would get would include the features that Data’s lacked. I want to be able to feel and express love, kindness, empathy, and the like. I want to maintain the originality of thought, the ability to come up with ideas that are new and creative, to be able to express myself in multiple ways. 

In other words, as much as I want to have a computerized mind and all the enhancements that come with it, I still want to be me. A guy can dream, can’t he?