20081209

No, an engineer.

"Whwhwy-would I nneed to whywouldIneedto see an engineer ?"

"We're going to try to rebuild you".

"r-rebuild rebuildME?".

"yes, medical science hasn't found a way to regenerate functional neural circuits, but what we can do is replace the missing tissue with a computational prosthesis" 

"wwhat?"

"You know how if you lose an arm, we can't grow it back, but we can give you a robotic arm that approximates the original?"

"y-yeah-ok-eah"

"well, the damage you sustained can't be repaired. The historic medical treatments are barbaric : destroying more of the brain or causing functional lesions with pharmaceuticals. Well, compared to a computational prosthesis, these old techniques are worse than a wooden leg"

"I-see-i-e, what-the-tsrisk?"

"Some altered perception, altered consciousness, but nothing worse than what you've been experiencing since the accident. You will become dependent on the prosthesis, if it becomes damaged or is turned off the symptoms will reappear".

"wh-h-h-exactl-ly-at-y-doesitdo-the-en".

"well, it replaces the dynamical and computational roles of the brain structures that were destroyed".

"conscisciconoustru-uctures-es ??"

"primitive structures, yes, but they form part of conscious experience".

"somy-my-I w-wi llbe my-m ind-wi ll-ext end-in-into the he-comput puprosthetic?"

"yes."