The Fake Emotions Machine

(this article originally appeared on the blog 'Lord of the Flies')

I wonder if anyone has ever thought of that. They must have, who knows. Of course, we are a long way away from it- even today we know very little about our brain. Mimicking it might be a far cry. 

I have always had this strong urge to get inside someone’s brain. Not as a ghost, who might just possess and control that person, but to BE that person for a few moments. Full, with the burden of his/her thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories, consciousness and conscience. For a few moments, I might be able to perceive the world as that person, perhaps also subjectively reason like that person. And then when I come back I hope to remember my experience and utilise it to understand that person better! 

There exists a lot of ancient literature, akin to Zen, where you do feel like another person for a while through meditation. Paulo Coelho also refers to it in his very popular book, The Alchemist. Also, I think Professor Xavier of the X-Men has similar powers through telepathy. But thinking of implementation, how do we go about this practically? If I am to feel like another person, along with the activation of some brain areas, I need the rush of those hormones that pump inside the other person. If, for example, something potentially makes that person angry, that same something should also cause the blood to flow to my cheek and make me angry as well. Most of these physiological changes can be brought about by hormones. So that makes one imagine a machine that can control hormone levels. I visualise this as a helmet, which can be set to some person I want to be, and then when I wear it, it would control my brain and I believe that brain does control every other part of the body, except perhaps the reflex actions- for which we can perhaps think of a helmet with an attached braid that runs along one’s spine (which controls such reflexes). Sounds scary? 

Now how to set that machine to some person might require explicit permission of that person. Perhaps that machine will be able to take the input once a person wears it, the same way it would generate an output- it will be like setting the zero of the apparatus. How this machine would communicate with the brain is tricky, though. In neuroscience experiments, they directly insert rods through the rat’s skull and supply weak electric currents to make them feel something- but that doesn’t seem like an attractive prospect. As for using electromagnetic signals instead, I am not very sure how effective they can be. If Roger Penrose’s speculation of a Quantum Mechanical brain can lead us somewhere, then perhaps we should find something akin to ‘tunnelling’. 

What would that machine do then- stimulate some parts of the brain? That seems alright. But stimulation in this manner would just make you experience some external emotion, and this in turn might be used to guide your thought. These feelings might never be exactly same since the geography of everyone’s brain is slightly different, and even the dimensions and neuronal branching of the body parts they affect are slightly different, and so stimulation might not produce exactly same results, still they’ll be quite close to the original- and perhaps we can account for that via some form of normalisation. However, the feelings can be very confusing:  you won’t know why you are sad, but you might just feel sad. For the feeling to be more specific, you would need some access to that person’s memory and personality. Sadly, this information is stored in the brain physically, in the form of cell shapes and connections, popularly known as brain wiring. So, they can’t just be imported. Okay... then maybe once neuroscientists figure out how this kind of information is stored in the brain, we can figure out a mechanism to read it off directly! And then it can be communicated to us. Beats Harry Potter’s pensieve, isn’t it? 

So, even if we can’t ‘become’ that person, we can still view this as a fake emotions machine- and the prospects are still huge. Just imagine how useful that will be for psychological studies and research. With all the existing myths and speculations about the mind being shattered, there will be more understanding and acceptance of the human nature. Probably, we’ll be able to finally understand criminals and sociopaths, and also help them rehabilitate. We might also be able to simulate artificial situations and test how we might feel under those circumstances. Perhaps actors might need to do lesser hard work to ‘get into’ their roles. 

People might also start using this machine to ‘communicate’. Especially so, if they have some kind of speech disorder. Also, letting someone inside your brain might become an expression of trust. And the fact that you are not afraid or ashamed of doing so, might take the form of a new Nudism- the ultimate expression of freedom. As we learn to accept the weirdness of other people, we will become less judgmental. 

There are many ethical problems, of course. This is the ultimate kind of intimacy where no secret can be guarded closely enough. In some sense, you might even your freedom. It can be misused very well. People’s motives can range from spying, to setting the stage for manipulation, or in the worst scenario, for torture. 

Also, there are some serious consequential doubts. We all know that our brains are a little plastic. What is the guarantee that experiencing another’s emotions won’t change the wiring in one’s own brain? If someone’s experiences have been traumatic, how willing would you be to take the risk of trying that out? 

Nevertheless, negatives have always accompanied every technological marvel known to mankind, so they shouldn’t be a deterrent. I think, or at least I hope, that by the time we get to that stage when we are capable of making such a machine, we as a human race would have evolved much beyond the petty and narrow-minded skirmishes of our times. We’ll surely find a way around the negatives, I’m quite optimistic. 

As for my driving force, along with curiosity and research, it is that with such a facility at my disposal, my boyfriend won’t be able to accuse me, “You don’t understand my feelings!!”