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Brain-Implanted Chips Allow Control of Technology
Nilchii writes "The Guardian has an article about implanting electrodes in the brain, allowing paralyzed people to control various software-integrated devices, such as the cursor on a computer and the channel and volume of his television. From the article: 'The experiment took place a few months ago as part of a broader trial into what are known in the business as brain-computer interfaces. Although it is early days, aficionados of the technology see a world where brain implants return ability to those with disability, allowing them to control all manner of devices by thought alone.'" The BBC has coverage of this as well, and we've mentioned this research before.
This may sound like a joke, but I'm concerned about the time when the chip is used to control you.
Johnny Mnemonic!
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Since getting castrated, I see our future better. These types of innovations keep coming up in the context of making the "disabled" normal again. Well I want to be better than normal. As fragile sacks of water, we are disabled already. Transhumanism is the way out of our disability.
Transcend Humanity. Please.
How long is it going to be until somebody makes this work in reverse, ie, controlling the brain from a computer chip?
Implantations and then may be we can revive the brain as well.
Two words: Lawnmower Man
It's all well and good until the Blue Screen and you can't move your arms
Business Voyeur
We already have artificial cochleas that can deliver sound information to the brain. But that's not controlling it.
Transcend Humanity. Please.
What is the user supposed to do if the computer freezes or crashes? It isn't like they can get up and reboot the thing.
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." - H.L. Mencken
Why not make it capable of controlling robotic limbs, etc...things that are more useful than the volume of your tv?
Gibble: Descriptive of an emotional state in which one's mind is scrabbling for some purchase on reality
Why not use it when you're not paralyzed? I think it is _very_ handy for turning the coffee machine on when you're in bed.. :-D
I have a dream...
or will this turn on about anything at the press of a finger? seems scary
Tha-tha-tha-tha-that's all folks!
When I first read the headline I thought to myself "Man, this DRM crap is really getting out of hand..."
Choose yer poison: Prophets or Profits
people that don't need this will get it and we'll all get a whole lot lazier... reading slahdot without lifting a finger? sounds good to me!
ART on dA
Controlling the brain is actually pretty difficult. From experiment they have done, they found the human brain does not take well to control. Frequently, tests subjects would have seizures under such conditions. Even just recording a subject's brain waves and playing them back would induce serious seizures.
Sorry I don't have any links on this, I saw it on Discovery channel a few years ago.
Now you'll be able to get hacked and become part of some script kiddies zombie network yelling spam at everyone you walk past.
I want brain control over a portable tesla coil, or maybe a Jacob's ladder.
Yes! I'm talking to you.
Cyborgs and, ultimetly, robots are the future of humanity.
Sure, these "features" (brain controlled computing) will initially be for the disabled, but how long before it becomes acceptable in the general populace to get these modifactions? People will begin seeing them as everyday occurances, and then we will know we've reached the next level.
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Tell the Schindler's because they will misunderstand it and think it will unbrain dead Terri. BWT starvation really sucks and starving is wrong and im not tring to mock the whole thing because its a serious matter.
about the handicapped??
Why can't this tech be for those of who aren't handicapped?!?
The thalamus relays all our sensory information (except for smell). It is also involved in mediating interactions between different areas of the cortex. If we can get input/output devices into the thalamus, you might well have The Matrix.
Transcend Humanity. Please.
So how exactly does the chip figure out the appropriate thought--patterns that say "turn down the volume" as opposed to "turn on the TV?" Is it a matter of actually knowing the physical manifestation of a given thought pattern, or just of asking the guy to have a general mindset?
I believe that this could be a great thing, but do we need implants? Why can't we refine brain wave scanning? In the future, how will we power these systems? I don't want people to open my skull every two years to change my battery! A nural net or something that rests on the scalp would be a less invasive and possibly better solution. Some who knows more about this than me please comment.
someone's been playing some Alpha Centauri.
In Soviet Russia, technology controls you!
- "Nobody came out that night, not one was ever seen. But Old Man Stauf is waiting there, crazy sick and mean!"
is that they require a surgical procedure which makes it risky at the moment and hard to reverse. While it's good for disabled patients (until we can biologically fix neural damage) it's still not the magic neural link that some geeks want it to be. The more interesting research with alternative interfaces comes from tech like subvocalization and other virtual input that NASA is working on. This includes movement recognition where sensors on the surface of the skin (no surgery required) can pick up subtle gestures that would be invsible to others. That would allow you to work your wearable computer without anyone noticing since all of your motions would be subtle.
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Wired article as proof
With all the crap about steroids, that's not even the path we need to take.
Transcend Humanity. Please.
...is a brain implanted passport chip, now that...
always mosh clockwise
Naw. I couldn't bother to read the article either.
Welcome to slashdot. You'll fit in nicely.
I am defenseless. Use your button. Mod me down with all of your hatred.
Announced last week major electronic manufactures have announced the new brain controlled televisions and cable.
Though a spokesman one company said there're would some diffculties for the public in general since it's a known law of physics that one must by at least 5% smarter than the device that one is trying to use. He did comment one postitive note that the general stupidity of people everywhere would not hamper the roll out of the lastest brain controled toasters.
??
How would this help Terri Schiavo?
She doesn't have brain function, what good would it be to hook her up to a computer if she would never have the ability to use it.
mnewberg.com
With apologies to Craig Thomas and Clint Eastwood.
Reminds me of this book by C.S. Friedman (great author BTW).
In the future, brain implants argment humans with with physical impairments to the point where their extended mental abilities far outreach their physical limitations. Of course, only the rich can afford the best technology, but hackers acquire black-market implants to keep up. Eventually a rogue virus threatens everyone, as simply seeing a trigger for the virus when your firmware is enabled can infect you...
I hope they make the circuits damn good, I don't want to get electrocuted and paralyzed because the developers were lousy..
circuits for paralyzed, only you can't operate the circuits afterwards
Tha-tha-tha-tha-that's all folks!
The tech is currently quite invasive. But data from it could allow a noninvasive helmet. Also, we as a society have hangups about inevitable transhumanism.
Transcend Humanity. Please.
Technology Allows Control of Brain Implanted Chips
"Teachers leave us kids alone
Great, now I'll be able to have both hands free!
And keep the keyboard and mouse clean.
Simular implants have been used to treat severe, otherwise untreatable, depression. I read about it in the economist . I think non-subscribers can get to that, but if not plentfy of other sites are reporting on it as well.
These first chips are just "neural output" devices. They're very exciting - we've crossed the watershed to real bionics. But they're "write only" devices, like printers. Which is at odds with actual neural function, which includes feedback at every turn. Neural input feedback will make these devices more accurate and useable (by anyone). And the numb appendages we use while working on that next breakthru will probably make us more neurotic. Here's to escalating the modern condition!
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Could YOU run Linux?? Or would Linux be running you???
Imagine a Beowolf cluster of people???
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Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
brain implants return ability to those with disability, allowing them to control all manner of devices by thought alone
Why is this thought of only in terms of those with disability? I'm sure there are plenty of other people would love having the device implanted for other purposes altogether.
As soon as someone figures out a way to create an optical overlay via a direct neural interface, I'm sure everyone who ever seriously dreamed of living in virtual reality will jump on this in a heartbeat.
Though, hopefully they'll also figure out a less intrusive means by which to install the device and also prevent possible infection.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. --Will
I'm not handicapped in any way but I want the procedure done immediately!
I'm waiting for the day my Playstation orders a mod chip for me...
Being use to controlling your body your entire life, then one day getting into, for example, a car accident and becoming paralysed... The realization of not being able to control your body has got to be immense. I mean, total loss of most/all physical control...unreal.
Left 4 Dead Gaming Group - http://www.l4dgg.com
Take that BushHating hat off. 3 yrs from now, he won't be having a field day about anything.
anyone else find this odd that we are recreating functional aspects of our life that began development hundreds of thousands of years ago?
To allow the brain to interact with something around it, we currently use things like our arms and legs. What took nature countless years to build we have managed to replicate in what, a hundred?
-- Mental masturbation is -key-
...and I haven't experienced any adverse effects.
Hold on...I've just been given a list of servers I need to attack...BRB
GET FREE APPLE STUFF!
Am I the only one that is seriously waiting for the socket in the back of my head so I can learn all sorts of things without any effort? I don't think I'd want the control chips implanted... imagine yourself watching TV, all settled in, and just as the shower scene starts, you blink and suddenly you're watching the iron chef? or your garage door starts opening and closing repeatedly? Got only knows what evil would happen if you got a 'head cold'... sneezing is bad enough, but when you sneeze and the dishwasher starts a rinse cycle, that's just out of hand. ?
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
Seriously, I think with implanted chips in the brain and the internet, could be be getting close to an ability to "google" information and have it implanted directly into our brain. A novel for instance, or even how to do something. Is there a possibility in the future school from Pre-k to college can be downloaded in a few minutes into an 18 year old?
Its got to be faster than a joystick :)
now that was tasteless
Bill Gates quote: 'And your eyes and nose can be the 'ctrl-alt-del'!'
"Never trust a computer you can not throw out of a window..."
A friend of mine wrote a very interesting story about brain machine interfaces. I wonder, what will be the future for this technology? Will we be able, as he states, to use this technology for ultra-fast typing, drawing and making computer animations, or even making blueprints, with just our thoughts?
The part i liked the most about his story was the ultra-fast typing. Mix this with display-integrated glasses and a telecomm. Ta-da! You got text-based telepathy! Cyborgs, anyone?
Of course, in order to protect the children, any time an impure or immoral thought enters the mind, an electric shock will be delivered.
Of course, no one will realize that this results in an impotent population who can't reproduce without the aid of science.
Only the wealthy reproduce, since they're the only ones who can either afford the fertility aid, or can bribe their way out of their kids having the chips.
The middle and under classes literally die out, as no one can manage to reproduce.
American Civilization collapses, as the nation is invaded and divided by the nations that still have viable, living populations.
Actually, it's kind of refreshing to realize Bush's moral zeal is self correcting, and will eventually die off, at least in it's current extreme form.
I'm so damn close to getting a free ipod, which I'll fill entirely with CC licensed podcasts and rips of CDS I own.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
Neal Stephenson (writing as "Stephen Bury") described a drone politician controlled that way. And some say that this is already standard political practice
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make install -not war
They come up with the gadget that allows me to control my wife/GF/SO when they get out of line....or all the time
Yes! I am posting AC...aint no dummy here
Doctors need steady hands and for most things can use their own hands, but this could be a really good application for neurosurgeons who can't afford the slightest twitch.
Once the skull is opened, they could then switch to robotic 'arms' and do the delicate work by focusing on where the instruments have to be by simply thinking it.
Step 1) Put chips in handicapped people
"It's okay, they're handicapped. It's all we can do for them."
Step 2) Put chips in normal people to monitor health hazards
"It's important that we know if granny is in trouble."
Step 3) Diseases and illnesses like SARS can be stopped in their tracks with these chips
"We have to use these chips to protect ourselves. Everyone else is doing it and they are fine."
Step 4) We can now use these to detect terrorists by watching for dangerous thought formations.
"It's the only way we can stop them. It must be done."
Step 5) The line between terrorist and criminal is blurred and it's used to stop criminals.
"We might as well do it with criminals since we are already doing it with terrorists."
Step 6) These thought-forms can be prevented entirely.
"If terrorist and criminal thoughts are stopped from the git-go, it will be a utopia. The end of crime forever!"
Step 7) All unwanted thoughts are filtered out
"You have to pay a price for freedom. I am okay with slavery. We need it to be safe. What would you like me to do today?"
See a problem here?!?
This thread is dead.
How does a police man solve a crime???...Yes by exploring the "mind(set)..thoughts" of a offender,...
Now how can this policeman solve a crime when he/she's not allowed to think "evil"?
Why not give a field day to the public, and let the peoples "really" control the government..:)
We could declare a 'legitimate' war on the US if it is the public that wants occupation army's to keep them(the public) wealthy, instead of only a handfull NeoCon's
And yeah, I am afraid...that we'll have to clean a lot of mess left by those who invaded Bagdad.
I'd rather implant something into the technology thanm have it implanted into me, heck I had to learn assembler and many other perverce coding languages in my time so I'll wait until the machine can understand the human and the machine gets the implants not I.
Its bad enough for poor peeps with pacemakers but imagine the fun at hightech supermarkets and airport scanners with these puppies in you.
The article does a great job surveying some of the major players in the field. I think all of the cited researchers have received grants from the NIH Neural Prosthesis Program.
As mentioned in the article, BCI research is proceeding along invasive, intra-cortical lines as well as more data-processing intensive EEG-based approaches. The latter methods affix EEG leads on the scalp, record brain waves, and employ powerful computer methods to decipher the results. Noise is a problem, so researchers have embraced the more invasive approach of implanting chips directly into the brain. That's what Cyberkinetics and Neural Signals are doing.
The Lab of Brain-Computer Interfaces, Technical University of Graz, has an active group researching BCI, both through EEG and implanted electrodes. I'm surprised they don't get more press. There's also interesting work going on at Anderson's Caltech lab using the posterior parietal cortex, which might have some advantages. Check out the nice slide show on their research.
Great idea, at least until the people receiving the implants start shouting EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! and try to kill large groups of people by photographic over-exposure.
uh, me is retarded, too. where do i^Hme sign up for implant?
To qualify you must have a healthy, unused, expendable brain.
Applicant: Well, I'm an avid slashdot reader...
Interviewer: Yes, you'll do nicely. To report a bug, just twich randomly and piss yourself.
In Soviet Russia, the technology controls you.
Remind anyone else of ghost in the shell? I can't wait 'till we've got people hacking other people!
to power it you'd use induction... this is in use today on most electric toothbrushes
By reading this, you have given me brief control of your mind.
"He is connected to the computer via a cable that is screwed into his head."
Now where have I seen that before...
Anyway, I think this is really helpful for the handicapped people, it must mean the world for the mto once again move their paralyzed limbs (or those replaced with artificial ones). Paralyzed means not being able to physically move your limb, not being too lazy to move, in case you were wondering.
This is the first useful invention I've heard about since reading about the pizza knife that has a fork integrated in it.
I don't think it's as clear cut as that. Sure, there's a lot of plasticity on the human side. These devices don't just get implanted, turned on, and voila -- artificial limbs are moving. There's a long training period for humans to adapt and get the most benefit. But if you attach a neural sensor to a computer, there's the ability to apply sophisticated signal processing and pattern recognition techniques to the output signals. This has been a common technique when using EEG to drive computer operations, and I imagine it would be used with these intracortical chips as input devices.
Oh great! Then, everytime I sneeze my computer will reboot.
Wired Story
Wired seemed to stress the opinion of other scientists in the same field, that this research was 'premature' and disaster could bring public outrage and set back (American) research a good ten years.
The thing is, Matt Nagle was a willing volunteer; he's an adult who can comprehend the risks involved in this procedure, and if he's injured, one can't say that it's unexpected. If this niche industry is destroyed when somebody is hurt and this whole chance for mobility gets tossed back like U.S. stem cell research has been, I hope they can find other places to continue this technology -- and that the U.S. government doesn't hold them back.
Matt and the other four volunteers are pioneers, so to say; they want to help further this research and get back some, if not all, of the mobility they had.
Hats off to 'em.
...Welcome our new brain-implanted tecnological overlords.
I don't want the instruments anywhere near my brain after the surgeon thinks about what an ass his boss is.
Nothing to see here, move along.
There's also some companies that are looking into ways to lessen the amount of invasive procedures, but as of yet they're not mainstream AFAIK.
http://www.neurotechreports.com/pages/neurosurgery .html
From TFA:
"In January, Stereotaxis received FDA approval for its new Niobe Magnetic Navigation System, which uses computer-controlled magnets, positioned external to the body, to steer catheters and guidewires throughout the cardiovascular system. The system works with Siemens' Axiom Artis dFC digital fluoroscopy system, which is used to visualize the devices as they are navigated. Stereotaxis says the catheter delivery system may eventually be used to steer DBS electrodes to a precise location in the brain."
Can I think "control-c" instead of "copy?"
...completing my sentences! ...me crazy!
How about auto-completing my thoughts?
Me: Computer, stop comp...
Computer:
Me: You're driving...
Computer:
Me: control-alt-delete!
Computer: atl-F4
Me: control-alt-delete!
Computer: atl-F4
Me: Why you little...
Computer: Yes, Dave?
ypu would think copy, and the computer would interpet that as ctrl-c.
Then crash.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
allowing them to control all manner of devices by thought alone
I think it's not control by thought as in science fiction; in other words, it's not that the user thinks about 'move cursor up' and the cursor moves up. It's about using signals emitted from the brain to control a device.
With her brain stem still intact, the computer would act randomly to reflexes, and sometime during the 15 years, would probably open Word or at least notepad.
Then, we just wait to see the string "iwanttolive" or "iwanttodie" or something meaningful to appear. ("hi" at the very least would be likely to appear during the first 1352=26*26*2 letters entered randomly (ignoring other characters).
Being a geek, I will of course get the implant. Though I know it will just be a matter of time before some 12 year old Brazilian kid hacks my head and I'm walking around shouting "GoldenPalace.com" like I have Tourette's syndrome.
Turk: Let's play Steak. J.D.: What? Turk: Steak. The 1st person to finish their steak is the winner of Steak. -Scrubs
but we've been here for some time.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I'd never need to find my TV remote control again!
No, what would be REALLY tasteless would be to serve horse porn from her brainstem.
Just reading A Deepness In The Sky by Vernor Vince...
That Focusing shit is scary...
Ignore this signature. By order.
According to this article, it is possible to pick up brain activity from EEG's and similar scans. You can use that information to control a cursor on a CRT. Thus, there is visual feedback, which is probably good enough to gain control. Bio-feedback games connected to USB ports are old news too.
Think about how awkward it felt to drive a car at first. Brain-computer interfaces are probably not as difficult to create as they seem, and are probably no more than a decade away. Here here!
This reminds me of Hyperion, where one (and more) of the characters has a comlog. Basically a computer in your brain. Google something in a blink of an eye. RTFA AND be first post on /. Amazing.
It's what I personally have been waiting for. Although it won't be used the way I'd like it for a very long time, it's good to see steps made toward this technology.
No mention of Lawnmowerman?
Hey, I want to install DRM on my implant so people will stop stealing my ideas!
I wish everybody would have to have an electric thing implanted in our heads that gave us a shock whenever we did something to disobey the president. Then somehow I get myself elected president. -- Jack Handey
If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
I, for one, welcome my new implant overlord.
I think it would be better put that we cannot evolve anymore. That's the whole point of civilization. As soon as people start working together, evoltion stops. The weak (like the handicapped people we're building implants for) are protected/supported by the strong (those of us with working bodies.)
It works intellectually as well as physically, ie the smart raise up the stupid. We don't all have to discover our own vaccines....
I personally see genetics as influencing our minds and bodies more than cybernetics (it seems easier to tweak genes to get rid of birth-defects than to rebuild bodies after they are born wrong), but the idea of, say a pilot's brain connected directly to a plane does have interesting implications...
Shouldn't that read:
Technology: Implanted Chips Allow Control of Brain
Expect the military to be one of the first to pick up on this. Take a fighter jet, for instance. One of the worst problems designers have is developing interfaces for all the devices on board. Just look at all the buttons and switches on the flight stick. It's so bad that they actually include a second person on most ships just to handle some of the workload. Recognize target. Identify. Select ordinance. Aim. Release. Each step requiring different inputs from a set of motor functions. Neural input would remove the need to concentrate on all those motor functions.
Or how about a vehicle mounted machine gun. Instead of a driver and a gunner, the soldier will be able to just think "shoot left" while driving right.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
All I want is a simple neurally-interfaced text terminal. So I could keep writing code and playing text-based role playing games in case I lose my hands. Actually, just a neurally interfaced keyboard would be enough, though the reception of characters could be way cool, as well, especially once you learn to directly subvocalize without deciphering it first. That should only take a couple of months, seriously!
... uhh ... and the term dumb terminal would have a considerably literal sense)
(or, on a funny side, surf porn with no hands at the keyboard
the arm vs. core...
anyway it's my favorite game ever especially after downloading a few thousand new units and installing a 5000 unit patch and few races and mods here or there.
from 1996 and still actively modded
here's the story
"Long ago, the galaxy had known peace. Paradise was ruled with the hand of science, and the hand was that of the galactic governing body known as the Core. Ironically, it was the Core's ultimate victory, the victory over death itself, that brought about the downfall of its paradise and started the war that would decimate a million worlds. The immortality process, known as "patterning," involved the electronic duplication of brain matrices, allowing the transfer of consciousness into durable machines. Effectively it meant immortality, and the Core decreed the process mandatory for all citizens in order to ensure their safety. However, there were many citizens unwilling to toss aside their bodies so casually, many indeed who regarded patterning as an atrocity. They fled to the outer edges of the galaxy, forming a resistance movement that became known as the Arm. War began, though it was never officially declared by either side. The Arm developed high-powered combat suits for its armies, while the Core transferred the minds of its soldiers directly into similarly deadly machines. The Core duplicated its finest warriors thousands of times over. The Arm countered with a massive cloning program. The war raged on for more than 4,000 years, consuming the resources of an entire galaxy and leaving it a scorched wasteland. Both sides lay in ruins. Their civilizations had long since vanished, their once vast military complexes were smashed. Their armies were reduced to a few scattered remnants that continued to battle on ravaged worlds. Their hatred fueled by millennia of conflict, they would fight to the death. For each, the only acceptable outcome was the complete and utter annihilation of the other."
Some people believe 1-1=3 and for the sake of being politically correct, we should respect their differences
Dropping implants in muscles you can fire muscles to move. I understand this is still very rudimentary input, but over time it's not a hard stretch to imagine a quad/tetra being able to do simple motor functions with their arms/hands.
Wouldn't comatose patients be able to use this technology, in order to communicate. PAtients in comas can hear and think while tey're in this state, or so I've heard. So wouldn't doctors be able to implant these chips inside a person in a coma, and communicate?
The problem I see is that you fail to make clear what the real problem is. It's only scary when the implants are _required_. As long as indiviuals have real choice in the matter, I don't see a problem with it. I would support thought-control chips for those who elected to get them. I would never get one of my own. As long as it's truely voluntary it's not slavery.
The issue does get more complicated then people are presented the choice of "get an implant or pay 'you might be dangerous' fines." A choice between two unwanted options is not freedom.
This is the same objection I have to any state mandates. Public education is great. Mandatory public education is less great. National ID cards don't bother me. Mandatory identification bothers me. Helping the homeless is nice. Prohibiting homelessness bothers me. Helping people pick them selves up from financial disaster is probably good for society. Requiring people to have jobs until they're 55 and then requiring them to retire is a bad idea.
Etc.
is computer gaming. Given that 90$ of CS players complain that their mouse/keyboard sucks, this technique could effectively ruin the losers^H^H^H newbies' favourite excuse.
Sounds like the first step towards Peter F. Hamilton's "Neural Nanonics". http://www.twbookmark.com/books/48/0446610275/chap ter_excerpt14614.html
No honey, really, I was thinking about you!
I can use one to control my companion robot's plasma cannon so I can fry some asshole just by thinking about it.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
"[...] return ability to those with disability [...]"
But then they wouldn't be differently abled. They'd just be abled. And they wouldn't get those really great parking spots.
Sorry. It'll never happen.
I'm waiting for the day my Playstation orders a mod chip for me...
Only the Soviet Russia models will...
The other day I was thinking of this sort of thing in the context of having a huge storage unit connected to your eyes, ears, brain, etc. So that everything you see, hear and think(?) would be recorded for later review if you so choose.
Then I was thinking what the MPAA would do to you if you went into a movie theater.
Shaky Cam indeed!
This will eventually probably just be carried out at birth. The procedure will likely hardly be much more involved than an injection or circumcision.
You forgot your tinfoil hat!
it's the only 9 year old game i still play!
Great for disabled dudes, but let's not give fat idle kids another reason to not get off their arses.
I for one would rather have incomming data feeds rather than thought control.
I can't wait for the first person who ends up linked on the net like that... :P
Will we be able to hack their brain?
Oops, how did this get here?
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
I recently visited the University of Michigan. in their engineering dept., some graduate students are working on miniature electronics that can solve parkinson's jitters, monitor bloodflow in an artery, and restore hearing in deaf people. some of the research in this area is just plain amazing. there was a video of a man with parkinson's, and an implant in his brain. the implant is about 1 cm x .5 cm x .25 cm. with no power to the implant, the man's right arm jittered like crazy. as they upped the power to the implant, the man slowly grew to gain complete control of his arm, no jitters. some amazing tech.
Skill is successfully walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls. Intelligence is not trying. -- Anonymous
Control the cursor or themselves? sound fishy. Ill leave it at that
One day.
I must say I agree so much with your arguments on the dangers of robotics arms controlled by the human brain, that we should not only outlaw robotic arms, but get rid of the normal arms as well.
It's not guns that kill people, it is arms that kill people. No pun intended. Avoid irony when found.
Imagine a Beowolf cluster of people???
Yes. It's a logistical nightmare, trust me.
+5, Funny! Just follow the link (don't worry, it's safe).
What about developing the technology to a point where you could put this into a headband, helmet, earpiece, ect... That would completely take away from the control that the device had on you, you could remove it at any time, as if you'd want to.
In my imagination this device would have a huge impact on society that it's bound to happen. More importantly, we should discus the ethics of such a device, something that would replace cellphones, input devices to computers, tv's, lights in your house, you could control your car, airforce pilots could control their airplanes, we could seamlessly control our internet chats by thinking the thought and communicate effortlessly without any language barriers (interpretor software that converts your thoughts into another language) Honestly I would love to be involved in the process of creating such a device for the home that would allow you to communicate with family in the home, alerts you to intruders, allows you control of your electronics, lights, stove, water temp in bathroom and faucet control, and computer usage.... Where can I get one?
Pretty much, it's gonna happen, better to get with the ethics talks now.
World of Warcraft here I come.