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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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Two words: Lawnmower Man
It's all well and good until the Blue Screen and you can't move your arms
Business Voyeur
They have them now, the transmitter is located in most people's living room...
crazy dynamite monkey
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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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.
Probably a long long time...
For example, my brain controls my left index finger with astonishing precision, but how long will it be for my finger to start controlling my thoughts?
(valid response: As soon as you put it in a garbage disposal)
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
Which would be exactly how you would control it. You anticipated my reply I'm not saying _thought_ control, although that's where the flip side of this is heading. I'm simply saying if you can get stimulus out, you can certainly put it back in. And probably with the same equipment. Hey. Being able to change channels on the TV without having to actually use my finger to push the little remote button would be great. But I'm not so happy about having the remote push my buttons, if you know what I mean.
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.
Didn't you know? The government has been controlling people via ray-guns since at least the fifties! How else do you think they kept Roswell hidden?
*puts on tinfoil hat*
Online Starcraft RPG? At
Dietary fiber is like asynchronous IO-- Non-blocking!
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.
Your finger already controls your thoughts. Just touching the tip of it starts off a flurry of activity in your parietal lobes.
In fact, controlling robotic limbs will be much easier once the communication goes both ways. Most of what you think your brain "knows" about your body was learned entirely from peripheral nervous system feedback.
bytesmythe
Hypocrisy is the resin that holds the plywood of society together.
-- Scott Meyer
Technology Allows Control of Brain Implanted Chips
"Teachers leave us kids alone
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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make install -not war
If we can't restore functionality, how are we supposed to improve our functionality? No one is proposing that once we have artificial limbs and mediation devices that are equivalent to a normal person's, we should just stop! These types of innovations keep coming up in the context of making the "disabled" normal again because that's the best we can now do, not because that's the best we can ever do.
What about people using their chips to control chips implanted into other people? Anyone seen Scanners recently?
I'm not good in groups. It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent. - Q
I know she died, that was the point. They probally would say look at this she could now do x, y, and z with this.
Could YOU run Linux?? Or would Linux be running you???
Imagine a Beowolf cluster of people???
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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.
Its already here:5 01_020501_roborats.html
Remote Controlled Cockroaches
http://www.wireheading.com/roboroach/
Remote Controlled Rats
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/05/0
...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 :)
Anybody can control their thoughts (somewhat) with their fingers. This can be done by holding specific fingertips together with the tip of your thumb. Like hold your index finger on left hand to the tip of your thumb and notice how it subtly shifts your emotions, the state of your emotions has an effect on the chain your thoughts take. Some of these shifts are subtle, others can be quite strong.
Using the best knowledge of today to create the problems of tomorrow.
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?
A more humane way would have been lethal injection.
Would have been better, but it's illegal.
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
I don't think that qualifies as "control". It is communication to be sure, but the brain still decides what to do about it. From a post further up this thread, it sounds like sending complex impulses to the brain (from an outside source) can cause seizures.
I can see that we may be able to artificially send brain like signals to limbs/robotic devices and that could be very useful. Also, I can imagine that finding ways to use "real" signals from the brain to control things could be even more useful. But neither of those circumstances imply control over the brain itself as I believe several parents in this thread are implying.
It is kind of like saying that now that we know how to lead a horse to water, we will soon have them drinking as much as we want.
"Contrarily the lookaside buffer might not be the panacea... "
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?!?
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.
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.
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.
Our ray guns also make paper with some very specific patterns on them look like tin foil to you people. Our rays also detect those patterns and send some subtly different (but no less effective) mind control rays to make you think you've got enhanced free will. Its all quite amusing, really.
"How long is it going to be until somebody makes this work in reverse, ie, controlling the brain from a computer chip?"
I have a question: Are you seriously concerned about this, or where you secretly hoping for a cheap 'Insightful' mod?
"Derp de derp."
Why not just stomp out humanity all together and just replace us with robots? -- they use less natural resources.
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.
Injecting signals into the brain amounts to controlling it, though. If those signals come from a body part with which the brain is already familiar, great. If not, the brain can learn to process the "foreign" signals as best it can.
:)
Certain situations already cause similar behavior. When a person becomes blind, the part of the brain devoted to visual processing starts taking input from other parts (especially the hands, since they are absolutely loaded with touch receptors). The situation is not identitical to getting feedback from prosthetic limbs, but it does show that parts of the brain can take unfamiliar inputs and figure out what to do with them.
We could just be debating the semantics of the word "control" here. I imagine many people see it as forcing the brain to take a particular action. Although this is probably possible, it also probably isn't desirable. For instance, it would be monumentally difficult to inject a probe into a person's brain and trigger it to get them to raise their hand. This is because it takes a massive amount of motor coordination to get the hand to raise smoothly and subsequently remain in the air, and the probe would produce an unnatural, Frankenstein-like motion.
Instead of trying to force the arm up, it's easier just to ask someone to raise their arm. You are controlling their brain by activating their auditory processing cortex, which leads to them interpreting and understanding your request, then firing off systems in the motor cortex that get routed through the cerebellum to lift their arm and hold it there. More effective than a probe, and easier, too!
We do have RoboRats. Note that the rats are not "forced" in a certain direction, but actually trained to respond to mild electrical stimulus to the "whisker processing" center of their brains that is enforced by stimulating their pleasure centers. Even remotely controlling a rat, it's far easier to provide minimal feedback and let the brain do the bulk of the processing.
bytesmythe
Hypocrisy is the resin that holds the plywood of society together.
-- Scott Meyer
I don't want the instruments anywhere near my brain after the surgeon thinks about what an ass his boss is.
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?
It is actually a requirement for effective physical manipulation. Say you're trying to pick up a glass of water with a robotic arm controlled by a chip in your brain. How do your robotic fingers know how much pressure to put on the glass? Too little and it falls. Too much and it breaks. You need feedback. This involves neural stimulation.
You don't exist. Go away.
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!
Just reading A Deepness In The Sky by Vernor Vince...
That Focusing shit is scary...
Ignore this signature. By order.
Someone else's finger (in your chili) can already affect your thinking. (and make you filthy rich)
Now accepting PayPal donations!
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...
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
+1 Scarily Insightful
How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
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.
Sounds like the first step towards Peter F. Hamilton's "Neural Nanonics". http://www.twbookmark.com/books/48/0446610275/chap ter_excerpt14614.html
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!
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.
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?
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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.
probably this wouldn't directly control your brain, but it might affect sensory input, deceiving you into believing something that may not be entirely true. most people don't even need a chip in the brain to deceive themselves, so just think of how much a device stuck into your optic nerve can do.
but, give me a chip which lets my brain access the internets, and i'll be an early adopter for sure.
this isn't a sig. i type this (including the two dashes), every time i post, just to make it look like a sig.