Johnny Mnemonic is a short story by William Gibson and a movie starring Keanu Reeves.  Johnny is a data courier.  In the cyber world of the future, that does not mean carrying discs, flash drives or even computers in bags on airplanes.  Rather the data is injected directly into his brain, and retrieved later through a series of visual passwords.  Moreover, there are ways to expand the data storage capacity of the human brain, so it can carry more cargo.  There are limits of course.  The story center’s on Johnny’s frenetic race to remove the data within 48 hours before it fries his brain, while a cast of characters try to steal the data.

I’ve included this story in my journey through memory because it opens up a host of questions about the future  (related to my current WIP) that I find interesting food for thought.

  1. Can we indeed expand brain capacity to carry information in new and different forms?
    1. What will it do to us?
  2. Can memories ultimately be inserted and extracted?
    1. Do we want them to be?
  3. If we can clone our bodies and insert our memories, is this a form of immortality?
    1. Is it desirable?

Who will we be?

iStock credit: tommasolizzul

Your thoughts?  Visit the other bloggers participating in the April 2018 A to Z Blog Challenge.

 

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2 Replies to “Johnny Mnemonic #AtoZChallenge 2018”

  • Since humans only use a tiny percentage of their actual brain capacity as it is, I don’t think it’s so much a matter of “expanding capacity” as it is “tapping our unused resources.”

    Interesting questions to ponder.

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