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Matrix-Style Brain Interface Closer To Reality
atkulp writes "According to this Wired article, a private company, Cyberkinetics is seeking permission from the FDA to test a product called BrainGate that implants in the brain and can control actions on a computer. So far it works for monkeys and they'd like to see it as viable for quadriplegics and others in need. How soon until anyone can become the ultimate expansion card? Sign me up!"
This really isn't Matrix-like at all, though. The implant doesn't feed information to your brain, it only gets information from it. Still, it's VERY cool if it works and is safe. I like the idea they mention of also putting implants into paralyzed limbs to allow the brain implant to move them. Eat it, paralyzation!
-W
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All unfair meta-mods are now being meta-meta-modded as retarded.
People who are eager for this sort of thing puzzle me. Maybe I'm a little paranoid, but I'd like to stay as far away from this as possible. I don't say this to be a luddite, but there are definite limits to where I would personally go with technology.
You had me at "dicks fuck assholes".
My biggest complaint about computing is that my brain->computer interface (hands to keyboard that is) is VERY low bandwidth and VERY high latency. And I know I can't be the only one that has this problem. Anybody that codes knows what I mean, you can visualize and solve the problem in your head much faster than you can get that solution into the computer.
Where's my lobbyist? Right here.
Unfortunately believable... The company pays for a brain upgrade that's enabled/disabled at the door and it makes for a more efficient and capable worker. Wrong or right?
- Dan
We dont have to fully understand the brain in order for this to work. It's a hack, trial and error. When something works, stick with it, if it doesnt work, try something else. We dont fully understand nuclear physics, but reactors work pretty well.
My user number is prime. Is yours?
No, we only know what a portion of it is used for. There's a diference.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
I would imagine that there would probably be separate arenas/competitions for physical-interface games and (not sure what the word is) neural-interface games. Just because, like the top-level poster said, it would generate an unfair advantage.
Frankly, I'd prefer to see neural-interface match-ups because then the games become less of a matter of how well you can properly wield a mouse, but it relies more on strategy. Presumably, all the characters would have the same "physical" (in the game) abilities, so it would be up to the players' strategies and luck to determine who would win.
True story.
The company's system, called BrainGate, could help patients with no mobility to control a computer, a robot or eventually their own rewired muscles
...
Surgenor said the whole system eventually will be wireless.
Stray EMI could give you a tic. Someone malicious could actually block/redirect/subvert control of your own body, remotely.
On the other hand... telerobotics, maybe? Use your brain to control a robot doing a dangerous job somewhere! Going into a hazardous environment from the safety of your control lab...
Or maybe even a totally virtual environment.