When the threat posed by the digitalization of our lives is debated in our media, the focus is usually on the new phase of capitalism called surveillance capitalism: a total digital control over our lives exerted by state agencies and private corporations. However, important as this surveillance capitalism is, it is not yet the true game changer; there is a much greater potential for new forms of domination in the prospect of a direct brain-machine interface (the “wired brain”). First, when our brain is connected to digital machines, we can cause things to happen in reality just by thinking about them; then, my brain is directly connected to another brain, so that another individual can directly share my experience. Extrapolated to its extreme, the wired brain opens up the prospect of what Ray Kurzweil called Singularity, the divine-like global space of shared awareness. Whatever the (dubious, for the time being) scientific status of this idea, it is clear that its realization will affect the basic features of humans as thinking/speaking beings: the eventual rise of Singularity will be apocalyptic in the complex meaning of the term: it will imply the encounter with a truth hidden in our ordinary human existence—that is, the entrance into a new posthuman dimension, which cannot but be experienced as catastrophic, as the end of our world. But will we still be here to experience our immersion into Singularity in any human sense of the term?

中文翻译：

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有线大脑的启示录

当我们的生活数字化所带来的威胁在我们的媒体上进行辩论时，焦点通常是资本主义的新阶段，称为监视资本主义：国家机构和私营公司对我们的生活进行全面数字化控制。然而，尽管这种监视资本主义很重要，但它还不是真正的游戏规则改变者。在直接脑机接口（“有线大脑”）的前景中，新的统治形式具有更大的潜力。首先，当我们的大脑连接到数字机器时，我们可以通过思考来使事情在现实中发生；然后，我的大脑直接连接到另一个大脑，以便另一个人可以直接分享我的经验。推断到极端，有线大脑开启了雷·库兹韦尔所谓的奇点的前景，共享意识的神圣般的全球空间。无论这个想法的（目前可疑的）科学状况如何，很明显，它的实现将影响人类作为思考/说话生物的基本特征：奇点的最终崛起将是该术语复杂含义的世界末日：这将意味着与隐藏在我们普通人类存在中的真相相遇——也就是说，进入一个新的后人类维度，它只能被体验为灾难性的，就像我们世界的末日。但我们还会在这里体验我们沉浸在任何人类意义上的奇点吗？Singularity 的最终崛起在这个术语的复杂含义中将是世界末日：它意味着与隐藏在我们普通人的存在中的真相相遇——也就是说，进入一个新的后人类维度，它只能被体验为灾难性的，作为我们世界的尽头。但我们还会在这里体验我们沉浸在任何人类意义上的奇点吗？Singularity 的最终崛起在这个术语的复杂含义中将是世界末日：它意味着与隐藏在我们普通人类存在中的真相相遇——也就是说，进入一个新的后人类维度，它只能被体验为灾难性的，作为我们世界的尽头。但我们还会在这里体验我们沉浸在任何人类意义上的奇点吗？