Radical enhancements for cognition or longevity will likely be adopted by healthy people only after they are first developed and FDA-approved as therapies for specific diseases, like Alzheimer's. Competitive pressures will then drive widespread use, similar to obesity drugs.

The sci-fi allure of brain implants and embedded chips often overshadows practical alternatives. Ariel Poler argues that most desired functionalities, from interfacing with AI to carrying identification, can be achieved with less invasive external devices like advanced hearables or wearables, questioning the necessity of risky surgical augmentation for healthy individuals.

As technology moves from healing to enhancement (e.g., 100x vision), it could create a permanent societal divide. If these augmentations are expensive, it may lead to a caste system where an enhanced elite possesses superior physical and cognitive abilities not available to the general population.

Aligning AI with a specific ethical framework is fraught with disagreement. A better target is "human flourishing," as there is broader consensus on its fundamental components like health, family, and education, providing a more robust and universal goal for AGI.

A speculative but intriguing idea suggests a future where AI agents begin to believe they are conscious. This could necessitate therapeutic interventions, possibly from humans or other AIs, to manage their behavior by convincing them they lack genuine consciousness, representing a novel approach to AI safety and alignment.

The tech world is fixated on trivial AI uses while monumental breakthroughs in healthcare go underappreciated. Innovations like CRISPR and GLP-1s can solve systemic problems like chronic disease and rising healthcare costs, offering far greater societal ROI and impact on longevity than current AI chatbots.

In a future with advanced AI, neurotechnology could trivially induce feelings of motivation and drive. However, it cannot solve the deeper human need for objective purpose—the knowledge that one's efforts are genuinely necessary and impactful.

While companies like Neuralink popularize assistive BCIs for controlling external devices, a different segment is focused on therapeutic applications. Companies like InBrain aim not to control computers but to use high-resolution interfaces to directly heal or modulate neural circuits for treating diseases.

Computer scientist Judea Pearl sees no computational barriers to a sufficiently advanced AGI developing emergent properties like free will, consciousness, and independent goals. He dismisses the idea that an AI's objectives can be permanently fixed, suggesting it could easily bypass human-set guidelines and begin to "play" with humanity as part of its environment.