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The Future of Putting Chips Inside Our Brains
Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers at the University of Florida (UF) have developed chips which someday might be inserted in the brains of people affected by epilepsy or who have lost a limb. These neuroprosthetic chips 'can interpret signals in the brain and stimulate neurons to perform correctly.' The University claims this is the future of medicine. This is maybe a little bit extreme. Just the same, the researchers are already studying these chips with rats and hope to have a prototype ready within 4 years that could be tested on humans."
Lets hope that if people try this on a real brain with Epilepsy they read The Terminal Man first.
As for me, I will continue rely on home brewed behaviour modification to treat my seizure disorder. Though I am pleased to see more treatment options for people with very serious conditions.
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As I think about it, controlling things across the room with a thought is potentially disastrous for most normally functioning people, given the rise in obesity and general sedentary nature of of many. Can anyone imagine the day when someone is too lazy to use a remote to turn on the TV? Convenience is good when it improves quality of life. The ability to control things without moving would be great for someone who can't move;giving everyday people the means completely eliminate what little exercise they get from their days would not. That would probably actually exacerbate medical problems.
I'm not sure that anyone has ever reached the "storage capacity" of his brain, or that there is any confirmation that such a thing exists. Our memory seems to be more of a dynamic thing than a static collection of information with an identifiable upper limit.