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

if there is anything that Tom Cruise has taught me

[AssFace]

its that only shaved psychic genetic freaks that float in a comatose state in a vat underground can tell me who has committed a crime.

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.

Re:5th Amendment

[andyt]

In the UK silence is basically an admission of guilt. You are not told "You have the right to remain silent", you are told "Anything you do not say now may later harm your defence" or something like that. IANAL - could someone better grounded in this give us a more accurate quote please?

"You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you do not mention now, anything you later rely on in court. Anything you do say will be given in evidence."

We lost the "Right to Silence" in the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. Under the new laws, although we are under no obligation to self-incriminate, the court can now make inferences as regards to silence under the following circumstances :

1) Failure to mention a fact when questioned under caution before charge which is relied on in defence.

2) Failure on being charged with an offence or informed of likely prosecution, to mention a fact which it would have been reasonable to mention at the time.

3) Failure or refusal to account for objects, substances or marks found on your person, in or on your clothing or otherwise in your possession, in the place where you were arrested (if asked).

4) Failure or refusal after your arrest to account for your presence at a place at or about the time the offence is alleged to have been committed (if asked)

info from : Liberty UK

No reading of minds yet

[AntiFreeze]

Quoth the article:

"For example, you could put slices from brain nerve cells on the chip, apply drugs and see how the nerve signals" and cells react to a particular drug, he said in an interview.

So reading one's mind is still _far_ in the future. That said, it's still a very cool technology which will allow for more information on how the brain works, and hopefully some serious medical advances.

Re:No reading of minds yet

[blindcoder]

And that's a shame.

Is there anyone else out there who sometimes when coding has the feeling:

Dammit... I have all that code in my brain, and now I have to type away hours on the keyboard to put it into my 'puter.

I really hoped that this feeling would finally be able to subside...

Most important use:

[Ann Coulter]

The Orgasmatron. This, and a replacement for addictive drugs, are the most important functions of cybernetics. And fortunately, they are pretty easy to implement, as opposed to mind transfers or the like.

An upside...

[The G]

You know, I'm glad there are scientists out there who can tell whether I've committed a crime. Because with all these bizarre and incomprehensible laws out there, I sure as heck don't know when I have. Perhaps if I get one of these chip things it will tell me when my code touches a patented technology or happens to break some loser's copy-protection technology from the mid-80s.
--G

Re:An upside...

[CommieLib]

'There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. When there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. ... Create a nation of law-breakers, and then you cash in on the guilt.'

-Ayn Rand "Atlas Shrugged"

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...

In the beginning was the THOUGHT

[solendril]

Now what REALLY matters is the interface. It's not much good to have a computer wired to your cortex is all you can do is type on your brain's command line.

What will make this take off is a thought-processor. An interface device that allows the computer to read your mind. The real challange will be in signal filtering; I don't want to speak for anyone else, but I think about a lot of random crap during the day. How to distinguish legitimate commands from my daydreaming about travel or movies or p0rn?

Whoever invents this will make Einstein look like a small time celebrity.

Why a chip?

[joel8x]

Who in their right mind would get a chip implanted in their body? With technology advancing as fast as it does, you would be outdated in a couple of years! A better Idea would be a port that can be easily accessed that can support future upgrades without surgery.

Re:Increase brain usage?

[benwb]

Nope.

Two questions...

[Jack William Bell]

Suppose you could get a chip inplanted in your brain that would allow you to control a computer with thought. Two questions:

1. Would you be willing to be a beta tester?
2. Would the answer to question One depend on the operating system in ran?

Re:Imagine this idea

[Anonymous Hack]

You know, the whole "Matrix-type needle" thing bugs me. It's so... clinical. I want a fuckin rock'n'roll guitar jack in my head a la the Shadowrun RPG. If you're going to plug your PC into your head the least you could do is make sure it's a fashion statement and not some kinda wimpy little pin interface.

I can see it now:
Dell jack - Comes in beige plastic and lasts about two weeks.
Toshiba jack - "It's not a jack, it's a mini-jack." For the mobile computing professional.
Sun jack - "We don't sell jacks." You need com.sun.java.io.jack installed on whatever other jack you have.
Sony jack - Comes with integrated DRM to fry you if you download MP3s to your brain.
VIA jack - Mini-ITX version implants the whole PC in your head.
IBM jack - It's square. And comes in clusters.
Apple jack - Mmmm yum. Comes in translucent tangerine, but doesn't actually do anything because all the connections are wireless.

Expensive, but...

[barryfandango]

The prohibitive cost of a sub-cranial interface could always be reconciled by having banner popups in your field of vision.

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.