Going Cyberpunk

goingincirclez writes "Cnet has an article about the development of a "Neuro-chip". This can be implanted in the brain and is currently being researched for medical uses. The article makes a brief mention the composition of pictures on a computer based on signlas receieved from the brain. Couple this development with the information in this Wired article from last October, and I can't help but wonder how far we are from literally being able to record dreams and thoughts?" On a similar note there are stories about a temperature-sensing implantable microchip and a scientist who claims he can tell whether you've committed a crime.

Comments

5th Amendment

[Anonymous Coward]

If (and I'm stressing that if) this becomes "widely accepted", couldn't one simply refuse to allow oneself to be tested, as it would really just be another form of self incrimination, which we are protected from by the 5th Amendment? After all, each of these little "brain spikes" would be like the defendant muttering "I did it" each time he was shown a card with evidence on it.

Re:5th Amendment

[gilroy]

Blockquoth the poster:

If (and I'm stressing that if) this becomes "widely accepted", couldn't one simply refuse to allow oneself to be tested, as it would really just be another form of self incrimination, which we are protected from by the 5th Amendment?

Sure. Just like your right to refuse a breathalyzer test if pulled over by the cops. Except, of course, that if you exercise this right, the state is allowed to revoke your driving privileges effectively immediately. It won't take long before refusing to take the test will itself be taken as a confession.

Um... Has anyone NOT committed a crime?

[Junior J. Junior III]

With laws like the U.S.A.P.A.T.R.I.O.T. act and the DMCA, hasn't pretty much everyone broken the law now? It hardly takes a scientists to tell whether someone's a criminal these days. Hell, it's been true for decades that the tax code is so fiendishly complex that no one can understand it, let alone comply with it fully. And if all else fails, there's always the speed limit laws...

Re:The John Ashcroft implantable microchip

[dkf]

I've no problem with this so long as we screen all our elected representatives, judges, lawyers and police officers before starting on anyone else...

Sure, laugh now guys, while you can.

[Xilinx_guy]

It's easy enough to poke fun at the crude brain implant IC's developed so far... It will be a whole lot less funny when the state of the art advances to the point where they start to become actually useable. Right now, high tech corporations boost the effective IQ of their employees by buying them the best computers and software available. We all benefit from this and enjoy the perks of having a nice fast machine and the latest software. What do you think will happen if implant IC's can be shown to boost effective IQ by 30 or 40 points? Or rather, if it boosts design productivity by 50% or more? They guys who have implants will be in tremendous demand, while those who lack them will be consigned to writing technical documents, or customer support. It could get downright nasty, trying to compete with guys who can literally outthink you by a wide margin by virtue of their hardware link. It's bad enough that we are starting to see tech jobs moving to India and other 3rd world sweatshops, but brain implants will bring the digital divide to a whole new level. All this carping aside, I sincerely want an implant. Voice recognition sucks, and fingers and mouse are rarely fast enough to do everything I'd like. Once they've been shown to be medically safe, I'll probably take the plunge. Maybe in 10 years, but I hope in 5.

And to answer the unspoken question: Can FPGA's be used in your brain? I say this: Get Real. Current FPGA technology has no possible application. Maybe in 5 or 10 years, when we have conquered the leakage problem, and have developed fuel cells that run on glucose. But I don't see it, since an ASIC dedicated to brain interface functions will be a far superior solution. FPGA's may evolve into a future computing fabric, so they may have useful applications in external hardware, but it will be a very distant descendent of FPGA's that are finally used for in-body implants.

Re:Imagine this idea

[Bicoid]

Would you really want a cranial jack? Or would you want to go wifi? Part of me would rather not have an unsightly USB port on the back of my skull, but then, being plugged in all the time woulf make you more vulnerable to hacking. When someone hacks your PC, it's not a huge deal...at worst, you have to reformat your hard drive. But if they hacked your brain...

I see this mainly as a way to have true input/output from a cybernetic prosthesis, allowing the fake leg to do real things. Maybe hardcore MMOG players (read: otaku) would get it as well so they could truly live in those environments and escape reality. Other than than....do people really want the privacy of their own thoughts violated? A mindreading device would crash and burn because everyone has their own secrets they don't want anyone else to know. Though black market industry might take over...consider the House of Blue Lights from Gibson's Burning Chrome. Or chips in two people's brains (one monitoring input and one controlling output) so that one of the people is basically experiencing and controlling the other body. I could see a lot of market for THAT for government, celebrities, and big business...want to go somewhere but you don't want to have to be followed by bodygards? Use a puppet body so no matter what happens to the body, you're still safe at home.

Regardless, this is more likely to become a black market technology. You can use it in too many unethical ways that would never be approved by law but still have both the $$ and desire to be done.