Brain Computer integration in future will enhance the natural capabilities of human beings. It calls for creating some vocabulary to differentiate between human performances which are augmented or non-augmented. Two such terms aug and naug, created by a security researcher caught my attention. aug implying augmented and naug implying non-augmented. The terms will apply to the measure of human mental achievement, specifically to indicate whether a particular mental feat or accomplishment was attained with or without assistance from technology or any other type of enhancement. So a conversation could go like this..
Jason: Hey, I scored a 2043 on my MART exam today…
Daniel: Nice, but that was aug, right?
Jason: Of course…if I naug’ed a 2000 I’d be a God.
These terms look appropriate for the following reasons:
They clearly describe the concepts of natural vs. assisted
They’re both only one syllable
The “n” sound in front of naug gives it a clearly audible differentiation from its positive counterpart
One problem with the terms is that there will be so many degrees of augmentation that it could stop being terribly helpful at some point. But perhaps Aug will migrate in meaning – always indicating the major augumentation of that particular epoch. Like a slow brain interface at one point, vs. a super-fast internal implant in 150 years.
Either way, I think there has to be some term to differentiate natural human performance with augmented ones
