Greetings, Patternjuggler!

I agree with the premise that having a singular “custom” mental toolset wouldn’t be the way to go. I would personally prefer a general purpose/generic neural interface, more or less like having a sandboxed wireless network link. An individual user would customize their interface and the set of tools that they deploy within that space, just like they do with a computer desktop today.

I also think we are on the same page regarding instant access to information not making one “smarter”, at least not with my definition of intelligence. But I do believe that a person lacking such instant access would be less valuable. Sort of like wanting to be a white collar worker today without having any familiarity with computers.

As I noted in my original posting, I’ve largely skipped the last 20 years of Science Fiction, so I’m somewhat out of the loop on concepts like singularity in terms of computing. Personally, I’m doubtful that mere processing power or MIPS in any way equals intelligence or potential for intelligence. I also think that its somewhat naive to see a trend, such as the annual doubling of processing density that we’ve come to expect, and to project that infinitely into the future.

That said, I *do* believe that direct, personal, transparent, and near-instantaneous access to a data resource like the Internet is around the corner. Processing capacity is not the issue: instead, the whole keyboard, mouse, and monitor interface is where our next great bottleneck comes from. Voice recognition is a bogus solution in the real world- far too slow, and impossible to work with in a cube-farm office. A higher bandwidth and more effective/less intrusive interface is what is needed.

I think the neural/implant “UI” revolution will cause a minor societal inflection point. Today we can keep the disparity between the technology “haves” and “have nots” at a distance. When the difference becomes personalized down to actually altering your “self” to become more hooked in, I think it will challenge a lot of people. Will having such an interface immediately make you “smarter”? No. But not having it will radically curtail your abilities and reduce both your capacity to “produce” and, effectively, your value.