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That's Using Your Head
broKenfoLd writes "In an earlier post, we looked at the future of Matrix-esque control over computers. In that article, monkeys got to play the games. Today at UW in Madison, WI, it's the humans who are playing video games just by thinking about it. While this is cool for us power gamers, it has many more impressive applications, including limb replacement."
At first I thought it was a dupe from this, but the article did mention - "Last month, researchers at Brown University reported on the technology's success in a 25-year-old quadriplegic from Massachusetts who was able to read e-mail, play video games, turn on lights, and change channels or adjust the volume on a TV."
The final comment was "This is a significant development", but in what way?
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
But the gamer side of me is telling me "where the hell do I sign up, I'm grabbing my car keys as I type this."
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When this is refined it can change the way games are played in general. No longer will games be about who has the best hand-eye coordination. Rather they will be about who can think the smartest and fastest. We may end up calling any form of gaming that requires movement or manipulation of physical controls old-school.
This can't be allowed to reach the mainstream. I like using a mouse and keyboard for my FPS games. You see, when I get tagged 27 times by the same guy, have negative experience and my only kills are to my teammates, I like to have something to blame. I have gotten quite good at it.
For example: Spilled Dew on my keyboard. Darn kid dropped my mouse and there is the rollers don't quite work right. Or my favorite: holographic mouse pad wreaks havoc on my optical mouse.
Don't get me wrong... I can come up with lots of excuses. But yelling about lag only works for so long. Bad monitor? Maybe... but not as good as a story about Mountain Dew.
Heed my warning. Just say 'no' to gadgets implanted into your brain.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
I hate double posting but it just occured to me that I need to make an obligatory reference to the ramifacations of these developments in terms of malicious applications. Think about a computer with a virus and then attaching that directly to your brain. Scary.
... my head asplode.
-- I prefer the term "karma escort."
Screw limb replacement. I want limb addition!
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If they were able to figure out a sufficient amount of what a person's brain activity meant (which is exactly what they seem to be trying to do), and if they could hook that up to some sort of wireless transmitter (should be a piece of cake), it could be used for basic telepathic capabilities. Imagine hooking it up to an FM transmitter, even with just a 6' range - you could come through the radio of the car next to you. Dirty.
Seriously though, an implant that could do this would make telepathy somewhat of a reality. How cool is that?
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Jet Li and I fought a battle in our minds. I won.
This issue brings harshly to light the ethical problems inherent in all scientific advancement. Clearly this technology can be put to excellent use to restore mobility to paraplegics, or to allow those of us who were nicknamed "Twitches" in high school to improve our success in Counterstrike: Source.
That said, this technology could also be used for less noble goals; while it says nothing about direct brain control via the implant, and indeed I feel that that would be difficult at best, perhaps even impossible, there are other questionable deeds that could be accomplished with such a device.
Certainly it will make warfare much quicker, and mass-destruction much easier; it has the capacity to lend a remote-control, push-button effect to war that was previously limited to such weaponry as ICBM's. Imagine soldiers in tanks who no longer see enemy soldiers, but just blips on a screen that they manipulate and shoot without any physical interaction! or "suicide bombers" who directly drive bomb-laden delivery trucks into buildings with their brains from over a DSL connection.
It shall be interesting to see where this technology goes.
---
she won't let you fly, but she might let you sing
Brain surgery to play video games better?
/Billy hurls himself down stairs
"Please Mom!"
"No Billy. That system is designed for paralyzed people not so you can play video games better"
Checkmate
Think about THAT.
"They also are working on developing new electrodes that emit drugs that tone down the inflammation that comes from introducing a foreign object into the brain." This statement is medically interesting in the sense that the human immunoresponse to objects it doesn't recognize - e.g. antibody / antigen reaction. Not to mention that introducing even the slightest foreign object in the subarachnoid space (the space between the skull and the brain itself) is of fatal importance. At one point we have to wonder and assume that technology will eventually make all of this possible but will we maintain our "humanity" or will we undergo some change ala Caption Picard and the Borg - ?
... if music be fruit of love, play on
Combine the unsurpassed parallel processing capability of our brain with speed of sequential execution of an even average home pc, and who knows what can happen. This is what you read about in sci-fi, yet it's already on our door steps. (Mind you it's in infant stage, but nonetheless.) Next thing you know faculties of Math/Science/etc. will cease to exist and instead the parents will pick if they want the latest copy of Mathematica or Maple installed in their childs brain ;)
"You mean you have to use your hands? That's like a baby's toy!"
This kind of subject has been talked about very much lately. I appreciate that, but i'm kind of disappointed at the way the subject is handled in general. Why not discuss technical issues? How are brain patterns read? EM signals surely, so how about talking about the probes that are used? And about the signals, surely there must be some interresting stuff to discuss about fuzzy recognition here... Guys, what can i say, we're supposed to be talking about our brains and the way they work, and all i find is some kids discussing 'applications' for something they're not really willing to understand. This is NOT the marketing dept!!! Where are old time nerds? Worse, i find some 'ethical' rethorist wrecking the fun... This is not litterature, this is science, may the heretics burn! Oh, before i go, i would like to insult people who think brain control applications are two-way systems. Terrorized geeks are worth nothing, the price for greater science is never too great! (please, repliers, dont discuss my mail, discuss the hardware)
Does anyone know if any group is doing research on using input devices for your brain from a computer? In other words, a way of sending information back into your brain so that you could know it, hear it, visually see it or feel it?
The Matrix is cool but here's a the rub. Neo, Trinity, Morpheus and all the rest were born in the matrix. They learnt to control their virtual bodies as they grew up. Even if the machines got it into their silicon minds to hook up one of the children of Zion it would take years for him to learn how to control his virtual body, if he ever did. We are children of Zion, and should we ever get enough electrodes implanted into our brains it will also take us years to learn how to control our virtual bodies.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Just great...now when my Halo2 scores are still:
Kills/Killed
2/25
Instead of listening to weedsmoker36 pop off I'll now get to hear chest thumping chimps.
Actually, I like this technological concept, it will allow me to mark all the free ipod pyramid trolls as 'troll', without even having to lift a mouse. Until that time, sure would be nice to see posts trolling the ipod pyramid schemes get a -1 troll automatically.
Until some idiot does the first: ping -f /medula
This is the reason I am upset with the direction of the US. In nearly any other developed country, science versus religion isn't even an argument anymore. It makes me ill when people talk about "playing God." Please, wake me when He shows up. For now, the only person who has done anything revolutionary (beyond personal support) for the crippled are scientists, doctors, and other people who work instead of pray.
Dunno how it's connected to the "Forbidden Planet," but the development is 1:1 what is described in the "Dogfight" by William Gibson.
My other Beowulf cluster is... er...
This got me thinking, once you're dealing with the brain directly and not hearing, smell, touch, tase, vision, you could add senses in the same way modders currently add levels or features to games.
I think the best application would be the ability to wire your brain directly into another person's to express ideas without waiting for our mouths to do the work. There is a gob of tissue that connects the left and right sides of the brain that when cut leads to all sorts of weird problems.
If we can borrow the right side of someones brain for an art school assignment then wouldn't humanity start to look a lot like open source software? We own our brains now, they're proprietary. What happens when we connect a bunch together? What happens to "self"? Are we the final Beowulf joke?
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So you're saying that you want to become a beowolf cluster?
with an artificial silicon breast, doesn't it? ;]
You can't handle the truth.