Slashdot Mirror
Controlling Computers With the Brain
Killam0n takes note of a story in CNN Money on progress in controlling computers via brainwaves. From an aspirin-sized implant a quadriplegic is now using to play computer games, the article extrapolates out to a near future in which we will all be wearing headband computers and IM'ing one another as if telepathically. "Two years ago, a quadriplegic man started playing video games using his brain as a controller. That may just sound like fun and games for the unfortunate, but really, it spells the beginning of a radical change in how we interact with computers — and business will never be the same. Someday, keyboards and computer mice will be remembered only as medieval-style torture devices for the wrists. All work — emails, spreadsheets, and Google searches — will be performed by mind control."
Screw that! I'm not connecting my brain to the company network.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." - Shepard Book Quoting Malcolm Reynolds
Someday, keyboards and computer mice will be remembered only as medieval-style torture devices for the wrists. All work -- emails, spreadsheets, and Google searches -- will be performed by mind control.
You lazy bastards.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Mind-controlled computers will last until all trained computer operators have been sacked for sending rude emails to the boss. Worst part? They won't even know they've done it.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
Well this technology won't help the unfortunate post responses on Slashdot....because anyone who uses their brain doesn't post on here!!
I have been using my mind to post for years now. My mind comes up with the content *and* tells my fingers how to get it on the screen. I have always said that I'm way ahead of my time.
http://xkcd.com/386/
Where's my brain-controller... If that's not reverse-discrimination I don't know what is...
On topic, how exactly could this possibly work... You can think about doing something without actually doing it
What if the string "rm -rf
This article is date July 24, 2006...I might be wrong, but this would make it a bit outdated and probably not worthy of being on the frontpage of /.
The next step will be mind-controlled Gundam-style robots for everyone. What's this world coming to?!
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
Until we find out what kind of torture this imparts on the BRAIN.
Personally, I'd take the risks from straining my wrists due to mechanical motion over implanting a chip (along with unknown stressors) in my brain any day. If I'm going to potentionally cause harm to one part of my body, it'll be my wrists over my brain.
I'm not a luddite, really! But my brain is just too vital to me to start tossing implants into it.
Open Your Mind. Open Your Source.
Only retards will have these implants.......yeah, I'm goin to put a foreign object into my brain for something that trivial......not.
No more brainless computer users.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
resistance is futi...BSOD...
This reminds me of the futuristic story "Manna" by Marshall Brain (the founder of HowStuffWorks.com).
In the story, computers progressively dehumanise work in the interests of efficiency (imagine Amazon's Mturk applied to McDonalds). When things get really bad, the protagonist is lucky enough to be rescued and taken to Australia where an alternative future project has produced what seems at first glance to be paradise (but is it really?).
Anyway, the human-computer interface in the Australia project is an implant that replaces the top three vertebrae.
The story is not a masterpiece, but it's an enjoyable and thought-provoking read.
Paid Q&A/Research
"You mean you have to use you hands? That's like a baby's toy!"
Technoli
It's okay. The computer made you do it.
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I've been SEX typing telepathically for some SEX time now. It's kinda SEX annoying when other SEX thoughts pop into my SEX head.
What happens when you think the business client you're e-mailing is an asshole?
"To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free" ~ Nineteen Eighty-Four
But what if my brain isn't powerful enough to control a computer?
Why doesn't Slashdot ever get slashdotted?
They need to start manufacturing this shit for everyday life for different applications. I'm sure a lot of people would agree when I say that it'd be a nice alternative to plug into a computer than be denied by your wife when you ask for another blowjob.
"Please, shut up. Just when I think you can't say anything more stupid, you speak again." -Archie Bunker.
Screw that! I'm not connecting my brain to the company network.
Sooner or later, you won't have a choice. Things will have to be done and you won't be given another way to do it.
What you will want then is a trusted agent between you and the network. If you did not worry about your computer being run by free software that you can trust, you should start now. Now more than ever, what's yours should stay yours.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
broadcasting our own thoughts to some degree. While this does seem to be a really cool idea in general, imagine how immense the problem of cybernetic hacking could be. I wouldn't be too quick to jump on the implant list, but after some of the potential privacy issues are worked out or declared null and void I'd be cautious.
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
"Documents to be submitted to the document control center (DCC) must first be approved by the ISO committee, which meets every Tuesday, or Wednesday during a holiday. Submissions must be received before 9AM on Tuesday, preferably by email. Quickly he grabbed Laura and, while holding her tightly, looked deep into her eyes. Her heaving breasts rose and fell in a quickening pace as his hands caressed her hair. His deep, muscular, voice whispered, "Darling, I must have you now!". Documents that have been rejected must be corrected by the author and be approved by a supervisor before resubmitting to the DCC"
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
This is called BCI (Brain-Computer Interface) technology, and it's a fairly hot topic in HCI these days. I think people are dreaming too low-level, though: there are some things, like composing music, that are far easier to do mentally than physically. These are the things people should be getting excited about (after we perfect curing the disabled with it), not moving mice across the screen and telepathically IMing people, both of which have reasonably natural interfaces already.
I remember reading about this technology to some extent. From what I recall, it's probable that the brain waves that will allow for this sort of technology will require conscious thought on the part of the wearer, and will probably be picked up via a device that sits on the surface of the head, without intrusive surgery. Also, as of right now, we can only pick up signals, not send them back. So take off the tinfoil hats, everyone. It likely won't cause anything more accidental than your hands can already pull cause on a keyboard, no surgery, and no one will be able to use it to control your thoughts. I've seen no good arguments against this technology so far.
Gamertag: WyleType
Limbic. Spam.
(with deep respects to Charles Strauss)
Bad enough getting a biological virus. Bad enough getting a computer virus. Never going to put myself in a situation where a computer virus can act like a biological virus and impacts my mind. Seriously, no tin foil hat here. Just common sense. Zz
Yeah. Just what I need. A computer attached to my brain IMing to everyone what a bunch of dimwitted fucksticks I think they are.
brain not found think "space" to continue
The latest version of Microsoft Windows implanted in our brains via an Implant. Talk about blue screen of death!
Lt. Barclay?
Given the amazing plasticity of the young brain, the time to do this is when the kid is really really young. Ideally, a child might most effectively learn to mentally control a cursor/computer interface about the same time they learn to control their fingers and toes. At that age it really will make controlling a computer as effortless as walking or talking.
The time will come when children that didn't get "Baby's First Brain Mouse" in their first few months of life will be at a scholastic disadvantage to those that did.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
In Soviet Russia? Hell, the Russian Federation is that now.. you must mean.. In Russian Federation...
It'll be fascinating to leave it on while you sleep.
I am writing porn this from a computer boobs of the future, sex based on the mind control hot chicks input techniques described teen oral here.
Since coffee this boobs technology was first sugar implemented, I have hamsters been unable midgets to hold a single job.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
I'll stick to my IBM model M-5 made in 1992 thanks.
The M-5 is the one with the built-in trackball for those of you not keeping track.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
No, don't fool yourself, it has been in the frontpage at least TWICE since that date.
I would look it up for you but my computer is ignoring the orders given by my brain and is only showing pr0n...
Hell, it already is -- somehow my boss's very whims turn into tasks for me to perform. No real difference here... :-P
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
Keyboard. How quaint.
ProofReading Markup Language - and yes, I find typos.
Brain and brain! What is Brain?!
Another sad bit of Star Trek geekdom.
...laura who actually watched Star Trek at the time
Bodies... they are surely useless things.
So what's Pinky going to do?
So there I was, willing my computer to do my every bidding while stuffing my face with Cheetos and grooming my dog, when suddenly ... I had an epiphony: "My birth cry will be the sound of every phone on this planet ringing in unison."
Tell you brain to tell your hands to interface with your computer!
crazy dynamite monkey
I was playing with the idea of controlling my computer with my brain, but ended up a little dizzy and exhausted.
When I navigate with the mouse and type with a keyboard, I do so without much thinking. However, try to look around a page, look at the word and think "click" every time you want to click something. It is actually kind of difficult, because you don't want to think your actions as much as you want to just click with a mouse button. And what if you play an fps game? Thinking that you have to turn around and shooting at a precise moment will be contra-productive because you can't just sit and stare at a screen for hours without moving around a bit.
This may of course be something I can get used to and I guess a lot of people would prefer this method, but I doubt I would.
Full Tilt
"Excuse me, Doctor. I've been blacking out recently. I think it may be the Mark of the Beast that I had implanted last year."
We still don't even know, for certain, what effects external devices, such as cell phones, impart upon us, in the long term. A more realistic goal, for now, is probably to pursue the parallel research of reading brain waves and using them for "training" in much the same way that we do for voice recognition. There are already videogame concepts which make use of this technology.
Ok a bit on the trivia side. But first the article talks about head bands perhaps someday for non impared people. And this kind of thing was demonstrated in Sliders, (the newer) Outer Limits, as well as probably a a few dozen movies Saturn 5 for instance.
You'll have all the conspiracy people talking up about how it will be easier to control the masses, about people becoming fatter and less physically conditioned etc. But you will almost not hear about the following.
The social disconnect that people experience just in emails and forums should indicate the social damage you are risking creating a device that even takes typing away and makes communication just act of mental activity. Because of the disconnect, people react much more visciously with flame wars, tirades, rants. Extreme responses that generally would not be demonstrated in public or direct personal contact with the other party/s.
And so I say, even if there were ways to check against the decay of physical body, personal privacy and general sanity. Socially such a thing would cause great upheavals. Because when something becomes so simple as thinking a message and sending it off, you lose the best most important filter that gives us a chance to be civil and diplomatic and even charming. Time.
Just a few thoughts may your cranium beep with pleasure.
Serriously where the hell is it? I'ts 07 and I dont have a flying car, monkey buttler or datajack to plug my head directly into a computer! WTF man? In a few years I am going to turn 40, if I cant take "cybering" to a whole new level or braindump into halo 5 with full virtual sensory control then why the hell are we even bothering with new technology. We are waaay the hell behind in this crap from where we should be. Hell by 2020 I need to be able to ditch my meat corpse permenantly and become a ghost in a datastream somewhere enjoying all the world wide web until a wayward asteroid ends the party for the whole planet.
I got a schedule here people!
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise. -Fight Club
After all, voice recognition and optical character recognition are already such ubiquitous and transparently seamless technologies that brain wave recognition is likely to be a resounding success.
"The only drawback with these computers is you have to think in Russian." See? Much funnier reference. :)
i onic_man.htm
2 0457094-8362,00.html
And on-topic, there's some totally amazing shit going down in cybernetics these days.
http://www.sigmorobot.com/technology/news/toast_b
This guy here has thought-controlled limbs. The nerves that controlled his arms have been rewired into muscles in his pecs and the arm reads the twitches there and turns that into motion.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5140090.stm
Limbs can now be attached directly to the skeleton.
Artificial muscles (sorry btech fans, they aren't called myomar)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4817848.stm
Advanced bionic hand
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4225896.stm
Article featuring Claudia Mitchell as well as Jesse Sullivan, both real-life cyborgs
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,
We're really making some fantastic advances in this field. The major future hurtles will be better feedback from the limb, getting it to run on blood glucose so a separate power supply is not needed, and making the whole affair less bulky and more natural. The ideal goal here would be a limb that would pass for perfectly natural, both for the observer and the amputee.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
It's it's the mark of the beast!
You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads!
this story is from july LAST year, please apply the tag "oldnews"
Blah blah sig blah blah blah irony blah blah
Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
As is many people, especially those engaging on /. connect in a bit to much. Daily we've x personal emails, y phone conversations & z page impressions & these numbers are all getting higher. Our attention spans break down from 40 --> 30 --> ... 5 mins in such environments as is.
...
Being persistently connected at a cognitive level might be dangerous -
we will start processing informational subliminally if over-loaded & yes for example this could lead to brainwashing...
certainly tiring
it would force us to structure our days better & jack out entirely even during work just to escape the buzzing, but not all will- if we've information / net addicts with the crude i/o devices of today what will come in 20 years ?
Will we be able to play Duke Nukem Forever with this?
does this mean that my boss will read, what I really think about him?
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
Hacking? ....and viruses, too.
See references to Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
I have just submitted a bunch of provisional patent applications, aiming to "spam filter" my thoughts, context and contact sensitive adult content filtering included. It's actually simple, it's done by the computer, not me.
I always wanted to do programming without writing a single line of code, anyway. I would think of the application, as it works. The computer would then determine the best programming language for the imagined application, quickly create a prototype, which would be refined by the computer, just as I am using in imagination the more and more improved version of the application.
Ooopps, this has got to be patented as well.
Life is just getting cooler and cooler.
I thought about the attachments in my inbox. . .and now my brain is infected with 94 variants of MyDoom.
That all sounds great but can you imagine trying to tech support that? "You say you can't get to your email? Have you tried thinking about it?" In reality the learning curve of your average desktop user may never allow this.
At best I see something like this working just about as well as current voice recognition software.
-makoffee
One would assume that the commands issued would be more like a (non-force feedback) joystick -- outbound traffic only. You'd get your results by looking at the screen. I can't imagine that anyone would want to have information dumped into their brain via this, given that the information would only be basic and used to stimulate certain areas of the brain. (Yes, yes, stimulate my pleasure centers while using Excel. Gah.)
blog |
Twitter, read "Reflections on Trusting Trust" [no link provided]. Now. Free software doesn't provide full protection.
Thanks, I have read that before. So what? The point of free software is that you don't have to trust, you can see and verify for yourself. The learning compiler example is disturbing but not very. If you are really paranoid, you can start from scratch and toggle switches yourself. A less crazy method is to cross up distributions. Compile things from one distribution with another. Finally, you can simply trust the people at gnu.org and everyone using the tool chain that has not noticed problems. At the end of the day, free software still wins. You have every ability non free does and many more to validate what you think you have. People in the non free world are stuck trusting people who have violated that trust again and again.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Keep seeing all these posts about people refusing to have something implanted in thier brains. The article talks about the future of the tech having not only implants, but moving to a device worn on the head like a band... sans implant. This I could live with, but I'm also investing in whatever company comes up with the mental firewall software, not only to keep others out, but to keep my thoughts in... what kind of world would it be if your co-workers knew what you /really/ thought about them...
All work -- emails, spreadsheets, and Google searches -- will be performed by mind control.
Let's just hope it stays a one-way connetion. I don't want someone hacking into my brain and making me do stuff...
...back in my day we had to LOGIN to school. And LOGOUT , too! Typing, with both hands each way!
Hey Bob, whatever you do, don't think about reformatting the hard drive and being sure that you want to do it!
One of the profs at my school who works on neural prostheses for para/quadriplegics, has pointed out that this technology could very well be overkill. He showed us a video of someone with neural implants controlling a computer compared to someone using one of those mouses mounted on someones head who can use eye blinks as mouse clicks. The neural implants were far slower and couldn't produce smooth motions at all (the man was trying to sketch something with mspaint) whereas with a head mounted mouse the user was able to play a game of solitaire without problems. Granted, this was a very primitive implant that likely can be improved a lot, but is it worth the hundreds of thousands of dollars per patient right now for barely functional neural implants when we have a simpler, cheaper, more reliable, less dangerous solution?
I'm not saying information will be dumped in by any means. The sensor works by reacting to brain waves. The chip will then propagate to an electronic device which, regardless of the actual desired output, will create an electronic signature. I'm foreseeing a problem existing when people begin to read the device's signature (similar to the CRT and LCD screen reproduction through walls which has been seen on slashdot before) Even though it is only used for a channel change or a video game controller, there may be certain electronic signatures created for different moods and thoughts. If someone were to make such a device there's a chance they may be able to spy on your every thought.
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
Read this (...)
TOP DSLR Cameras Reviews of the top DSLRs
Would be interesting to see whether "mental typing" would eliminate spelling and grammatical errors, or whether it would show that poor spellers and poor grammarians would continue to do so. Yes, an auto-spell checker could eliminate both poor spelling and grammar, but would be unworkable because that would A)prevent us using non-standard words for emphasis, and B) restrict sentence structure to a pre-defined set of parameters, totally destroying personal expression, as anyone who has stared incredulously at the utter bloody nonsense that Word Spellcheck comes out with on occasion.
incorrect use of keyboards!
Get touch-typing lessons. Yes, lessons. Or that awful "mavis beacon" program. There is a right way and a wrong way to type. One key indicator (as pointed out in a recent emacs thread): if you use the same hand to press a key and hold down a modifier, YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG. There is a reason you have two shifts, two ctrls, two alts - it's so that you can press shift with your right hand when typing a "left hand letter", and shift with your left hand when typing a "right hand letter". And so on.
This means that your wrists are pretty much straight at all times. And if you've small hands, and need to "stretch" to reach a key - don't! Move your arm instead. And your wrists should never touch the table - holding your hands tilted upward and moving your fingers is just idiotic, keepy your fingers after the first nuckle somewhat below wrist level at all times when typing. Wrist "rests" are extremely damaging, unless you're actually just resting against them in between bursts of typing. I've seen people lean their wrists on the rests and type -that will knacker your wrists in a matter of months.
The trouble is, "playing" the keyboard correctly, like playing the piano correctly, is highly unlikely to be the "natural" way your body will seize upon to do it if you just sit down and start pressing stuff. It may feel very unnatural, but I was taught to type properly in school (the only boy in a secretarial class...), and I've been typing for 20 YEARS without any pain.
Helps to buy quality keyboards too - nowadays see e.g. http://pckeyboard.com/ or http://cherry.de/
If one of us shuts down, we all shut down?
I belong to a sci-fi / philosophy club. There a guy showed us a sketch of a mind-controlled OS. It was a combination of commandline plus drop-down menus. The motor was focused on typing and some auxiliary buttons. Type in some predefined commands (with your mind), and the computer does everything. In fact, it could be a plugin for your favorite GUI OS.
What're the hamsters for?
I can easily imagine a brain interface having hundreds of inputs, but unless we can find a way to attach them to specific nerves, performing specific functions, control will always be clumsy. Our brain is really not that good at re-wiring our physical control circuitry. It does happen, but the degree of control is much less that what was originally hard-wired in.
Brain-Computer interfacing is more likely to provide comparable capabilities by connecting to the body's peripheral nervous system, not to the brain itself. I see the possibilities of wiring into the nerves of a severed limb, but until we can design and grow biological structures, all we're going to get is very simple, slow and limited interfaces.
Pretty soon, we'll have direct to brain spam and adware. Be careful and don't install an implant that runs Windows or you will be shut down when WGA can't phone home to Redmond...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Unless you write the compilers from scratch, and use it to compile itself, you can never fully trust the end result.
That's what I meant by "toggle switches" - litterally toggle machine code to make the compiler. It's a little over the top to think that the "cat" command could be compromised but there's only one way to be sure. Six decades later, you would have something that you and no one else can trust.
I'll stick with GNU.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Technology advances always arrive late...
I hope it is not the case for the great Prof. Hawkins... people like him might benefit from this...
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
... brought to you by Lightspeed Briefs.
Come to Australia so we can strip search you and rob you of your internets, pr0n, rights and freedoms.
Will computers be able to interpret the emotion of laughter and automatically type "lol" or some such as the user experiences this emotion? Will they be able to interpret emotion correctly?
For the record, I type fast and learned entirely by myself (and unintentionally). I use the same button for shift and another letter all the time. My fingers and wrists never get tired or sore. I've been told I have good posture, but that was unintentional as well. Not trying to show you up or anything, but you just state that all so matter-of-factually.
Property is theft.
This is a godsend for us D&D players. Imagine, you no longer have to intricately describe the environment to your players, you simply visualize it and they are inside of it.
My god, we'll forget about reality and be living in the dreamworld 24/7.
127.0.0.1
When the technology exists to build sensors into headgear that is not uncomfortable to wear and is quick and easy to don and remove, I can see this sort of thing becoming very mainstream.
I'm not that worried about what this would do to the brain because it is an input device, not an output device (although that may be up and coming... and you can bet anything that the first commercial application for it will be porn).
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
From http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article09-121
Microsoft Announces Beta Release Of Windows TP
REDMOND WA (JAN 13) BUSINESS WIRE - Microsoft Corp announced Thursday that a beta release of Windows TP, the telepathic operating system, was released to 1,500 test sites worldwide.
Developed using the soon-to-be released Microsoft C for Neurons, Windows TP bypasses awkward user interfaces by interacting directly with the user's brain. Using Microsoft MindMouse, users can visualize images in their mind, and the application associated with that image (or "thought icon") is executed. Users can visualize pictures to create Windows Bitmap images, or think text directly into Windows applications. Windows TP is fully compatible with all previous versions of Windows.
Data stored under Windows TP can be copied into the user's short-term memory (the Windows TP Clipboard), or transferred directly into the user's long-term memory using Windows' new 32-bit Direct Neuron Access technology. Users can then plug into other Windows TP systems to transfer data.
Microsoft also announced the first application developed exclusively for Windows TP. CyberMail is a mental mail system designed to transfer messages by thought. Users visualize the person or company logo they want to send a message to, followed by the message to send. Microsoft has had a beta version of the application in use for several months.
CONTACT: Microsoft Corporation, Liz Wagthor, 206-555-8080 (CyberMail address: A shorth dumpy lady with shiny red hair and a really gross mole growing on the right side of her lip). A blue tattoo on her right arm that says "Billy G.'s the Man for Me"
Testers Report Problems With Windows TP Beta
NEW YORK, Apr 1, Reuter - Microsoft's new Windows TP has a long way to go before final release, say beta testers of the product.
Testers report numerous problems with the thought icons included with the product. "I can see a fish tail representing some useful things, but the Program Manager? It's just not intuitive", says Clyde Revlon, an MIS specialist with McBalmy, Crain, and Larch. "Whoever came up with these thought icons needs therapy. I'm sure the guy's Yorkshire terrier is wonderful, but as the File Manager? A golden retriever I could understand. And that sweater the terrier is wearing, it's just too loud. Let me control the sweater."
Testers also report dangerous corruption problems with the Direct Neuron Access technology. "Colors, I smell colors. Dog, good dog, go to the light mom", said Maggie Ferreaux, a consultant with Sharp, Trenchant, and Blunt Computer Services.
Other testers were less understanding. "I'm working on a presentation, and suddenly, all I can think about is pages "A" through "C" of the Miami telephone directory. It took me three hours to get it out of my mind. That blows my productivity right out of the water", says Max Pirenich, a salesman for Carp Technology. "Just thinking about Excel scares the crap out of me."
Microsoft officials acknowledged the issues, citing that no beta release of a product is perfect, and vowed to provide testers with the services of the same Neurologist that helped Microsoft Quality Assurance recover from testing the product in its early stages. Many Microsoft QA engineers are expected to live long, productive lives.
Bugs Found During Testing Of Windows TP (In No Particular Order)
* There's a HUGE problem with DOUBLESPACE.
The left and right sides of the brain can no longer communicate with each other, and the Corpus Collusum (the part connecting the two brain hemispheres) begins to deteriorate.
* Users of Windows TP at IBM are being admitted to local asylum for treatment - prognosis is not promising.
An unknown virus is suspected, and doctor's are baffled by it's mutigenic characterisitcs and the fact that the individuals keep writing "Your system is not stoned. Legalize Marijuana."
*
My poor Krell!
After a million years
of shining sanity...
they could hardly have understood
what power was destroying them.
So, when will it become legal to mind tap to search for terrorism?
Another point of view is the decadent society of Moorcock's "Dancers at the End of Time" where mind control of engines of construction and destruction led to a global ennui where all forward motion of society had ceased.
The very best of these in terms of simple imagery is I believe Alan Dean Foster's short story "With Friends Like These..." which still sends shivers down my back, and is possibly the only modern-era short story to match the best of the Golden Era SF for star quality.
So what will it all lead to, sports? Will we build something amazing, huge and new with these mind-driven machines, or will we simply amuse ourselves to death?
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
One thing nobody has mentioned is the inherent security issues with this. I don't mean hemoraging in your brain due to the implant, but the computer end of things. Let's look into the future a bit, shall we...
It's 2017. About half of the population of the world has these implants. They allow the person to communicate with their computer if it is within a 5 foot range. You have one too. Now, let's say you go and sit down at a cafe, and a stranger walks up and gets a cup of coffee too. This stranger is a hacker and, being that he is one, has just recently cracked the WEP-like encryption used on your implant. He can now "thought sniff" your thoughts (like packet sniffing) and he now knows things such as your SSN, your DOB, and worse still, he has the capability to thought sniff the recid card number from your card as you handed it to the clerk at the checkout counter when you bought your coffee. You go and sit sown and he sits down a few feet from you, all the while capturing your thoughts and - obviously - transmitting them to his own laptop so he doesn't have to actually remember them. He captures an email to your boss about a huge, yet secret project (which he can sell to your competition) and the fact that you're getting a big bonus in 6 days (so he knows exactly when to take all your money). He's able to capture your entire life for nothing more than the cost of a cup of coffee. Of course, he now has access to everything you know, and he can go and get credit cards, drivers licenses, and more in your name. Worse still, things such as your mother's maiden name or first grade teacher or favorite pet/color/food aren't a secret to him, and so he can get into all the old system that only require passwords.
Of course, I don't like suggesting problems without solutions, so here's mine - don't use an implant, use a plug. To be specific, use something that serves the same function as a USB Wifi adapter. Implant a universal interface and then plug in the hardware with the actual wireless radio only when you need it. Basically, give people the ability to turn the damn thing off without having to have it surgically removed.
So I guess I'm just saying that I support this idea, but I agree, it's inherently dangerous, and I'd really, really prefer to make it removable.
There are a choice few people out there working on the NEXT next wave: computers that operate directly through power of mind, without even any biological-based sensors. Check out Interchange Lab and look into the research published by PEAR on quantum random event generators.
If/when that technology becomes available, it'd be interesting to see what a variety of programs might do if hooked up to someone who is asleep. Perhaps it'd be usefull for Psychiatrists (or Psychologists?).
Someday, keyboards and computer mice will be remembered only as medieval-style torture devices for the wrists. All work -- emails, spreadsheets, and Google searches -- will be performed by mind control.
What is hyperbole?
I win!
Oh good lordy that was some mighty fine hyperbole. We'll run computers with our minds the same day I hop in my flying car, buzz up to the floating city in the clouds, eat my lunch (in pill form) served to me by bipedal servant robot with an AI indistinguishable from a human then get whisked along the moving footpath to sit around all day talking on my video-phone, playing Duke Nukem' Forever, and dictating letters to my computer.
Some technologies do not eventuate because they are not practical, even if they are fanciful.
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
Output from motor cortex by reading local potentials of some kind *in no way* implies input back into the brain. Further, we're lucky to get 5-6 degrees of freedom in our output right now. Enough to play a videogame or control a single robot arm, not enough to 'communicate telepathetically.' It's not even clear that that sort of wide recording chronic implant is even possible.
A virus in your mind... well, that's called religion. You could be already immune to it, hopefully.
We are Turing O-Machines. The Oracle is out there.
The AquaThought Mindset is a 16 channel eeg with scsi output. Would make for some fine neurofeedback immersive noodling.
Cool! Now i can watch all my porn without having to reach for the keyboard or the mouse.
the Krell, and how they ended.
What is so interesting about controling computer with your brain? Everybody does that with the help of hands, yes, but if you take out the brain from the equation, we are just monkeys bashing the keyboard. Shakespear may come out, or not.
Relax.
Plug in.
Join the collective.
Resistance is futile.
Our victory is inevitable.
Crap. What did the new CSS do with the "Post anonymously" option??
... jerking off.
Every time I read naive extrapolations like that, I'm reminded of a painting I once saw - I'm not sure anymore who did it, but it was done when steam engines were first invented, and it showed the artist's vision of the future, where everything was being done with steam - driving, flying, even walking (!). It was an incredibly naive extrapolation of existing technology (steam engines) into the future, combined with a "soon, everything will be done with X" attitude, and that's exactly what I'm seeing here, too.
Just saying.
butter the donkey
First it's Brain-controlled-computers. Next comes Computer-enhanced-brains.
And then we gotta deal with the hackers *sigh*
If that's true, I'll probably gotta switch to Opera.
I contended for a while now that our computer has been controlling the brains of my kids. Finally there's some hope that we might be able to tip the tables.
But just think of the advantages. In the office of the future, the conference call, too, will be remembered as a medieval form of torture."
I think that now....
How long before we control brains with computers?
I regret that I only have one mod point to give per post.
-My two pennies.
To control firefox, you will have to think in russian...
ya it is a shame, I liked the basic idea of 13th floor a lot better myself.
s/©//g
My brain has been interfacing with computers forever. In fact I was born with two digital brain-computer interfaces.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace