Slashdot Mirror
Major Breakthrough in Direct Neural Interface
jd writes "In a major breakthrough, neurologists are reporting that they can decypher neurological impulses into speech with an 80% accuracy. A paralyzed man who is incapable of speech has electrodes implanted in his brain which detect the electrical pulses in the brain relating to speech. These signals are then fed into computers which covert these pulses into signals suitable for speech synthesis. As a biotech marvel, this is astonishing. Depending on the rate of development it is possible to imagine Professor Hawking migrating to this, as it would be immune to any further loss of body movement and would vastly accelerate his ability to talk. On the flip-side, direct brain I/O is also a major step towards William Gibson's Neuromancer and other cyberpunk dark futures."
How do they know they're accurately converting the signals to sound, if they're basing this off a man who has no ability to speak?
Maybe telling him "try to say X" or something, or having him write down what he's trying to say.
But the article leaves off a little bit as to where they pull 80% from.
But on the gripping hand, er, side... since we're already living in a dystopian cyberpunk future, why shouldn't we at least get the cool wirehead toys?
...your antivirus software is up-to-date before you plug your brain in cause I hear it really sucks when your brain Snow Crashes!
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed H
The subject turns out to have Tourettes syndrome?
OI! [redacted] will you [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] make me a [redacted][redacted][redacted] cup of [redacted] coffee?
Brain obscenity filters for teh wins....
They have hooked up to 41 neurons and:
ccalam - acoustic versions of new songs.
"Beeeeeep."
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
This sounds great, but considering how well cochlear implants work this scares me a bit. I know some one who has a a defective cochlear and it is causing her a lot of problems. Worse than the fact that her restored hearing sounds like a computer and the implant is failing is the prospect of another operation to fix it. How ever much this technology could be of benefit I would much rather avoid the implants all together.
We are the Borg...
Would a device like this work on someone who doesn't know how to speak english or better yet a baby that speaks no language at all, if so then we just invented the universal translator, live long and prosper trekkies.
What drives the advances of the last couple decades?
Two desires:
1. To restore Stephen Hawking's physical body to its former fully-functional form.
2. To turn Stephen Hawking into a mobile, indestructible cyborg of incomprehensible power.
In the next few weeks, a computer will start the task of translating his thoughts into sounds.
"We hope it will be a breakthrough," says Joe Wright of Neural Signals, which has helped develop the technology. While this is indeed promising, and I hope that this 'unlocks' this poor fellow, this 'unlocking' has not happened yet. Hopefully, when they are able to decipher these signals, he's not saying, "Kill me" over and over again.
Electrodes have been implanted in the brain of Eric Ramsay, who has been "locked in" - conscious but paralysed - since a car crash eight years ago.
What do you do for eight years as a locked in? Wouldn't that drive a normal person insane or dull the mind beyond all recognition? Does anyone know about the mental state of these people?
-Grey
Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
... Whut?
"...endow us with rights endowed by our Creator."
No they weren't. I hope you are not spreading that tired old, and completly disproved, myth that the US was founded Christians? or on "Christian Values"?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
will come when thoughts can be generated from machines. A mind/machine interface should go both ways.
and not a 'techno-biological' failure. The future's darkness comes from a tyrannical plutocracy which misuses the technology, which could have just as easily been used to save mankind. It is in fact an outgrowth of current economics and politics, not technology. Please, get your stories straight.
Words to men, as air to birds.
Dark futures? To hell with that, hook me up! I wanna be a damn brain in a jar with all my favorite sites streaming directly into my cortex.
Comon, if anything deserved this tag its this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diving_Bell_and_the_Butterfly
he could blink. that's it. yes or no. and with that ability, letter by letter, he wrote a book (with the help of some very patient nurses/ assistants)
it's coming out as a movie soon too i think
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
As opposed to those adherents of "our Creator", who want to reduce us all to slaves.
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39133
"With the new exoskeleton, Stephen will be able to safely handle radioactive isotopes in the high-radiation area of the new supercollider particle accelerator. And his new robo-arms are capable of ripping open enemy tanks like they were nutshells,"
On the flip-side, direct brain I/O is also a major step towards William Gibson's Neuromancer and other cyberpunk dark futures."
As we move toward a better understanding of the brain as a biochemical machine, we are better able to manipulate it through various methods. As we do that, we run into the ethical delima of doing so. But if we accept that we are only a complex machine, then is there really any concept of "human rights", or is it just a social construct that may be revoked at any time.
Reading a lot of this apocalyptic literature, you notice something... the same folks who deny a deity, who deny that we are more than a complex set of chemicals are the sameones who talk about a human spirit... something intangible that makes human manipulation wrong. This duplicity of thought, to me, is rather humorous.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Remember a few years ago when we could control wheelchairs with 90% accuracy from electromagnetic transducers outside the skull. Now the external sensors are gone and we have a breakthrough with 80% accurate speech synthesis from internal sensors. Wonder when the wheelchair one is going to become a product.
I have to be really skeptical when I see this kind of report. Research has suggested that the way the brain functions to produce speech is not like typing out words into a computer. Things are probably not grouped by the similarities in their letters or pronunciation. They are most likely stored by a particular hierarchy that may or may not vary widely across individuals depending mainly on environment. Noise also becomes a huge issue, having the electrodes inside the brain cuts down on that problem but it would still require places of little or no EM interference. Out in the world we don't offer many places like that. Additionally, you would need to do some sort of heroic measure of training for each individual who was to use this device as the signals for every word they may want to saw would need to be mapped and adequately distinguished from other words and brain activity.
My wife was in a massive car accident, a decade ago. She was in a coma for a month, suffered brain injuries, a collapsed lung, shattered arm, cracked eye socket, multiply broken jaw, etc. A national merit scholarship winner before the accident, her parents were told that, if she survived, she'd likely never walk much or be able to look after herself again.
As it happened, she was sufficiently beaten up at the time that she had no concept of how bad her injuries were. She got out of the wheelchair simply because it frustrated her. She went back to working part time simply because she didn't realize she wasn't supposed to be able to. By the time she comprehended what had happened, she'd improved enough that setting impossible goals like "become a personal trainer" weren't quite so impossible. We taught her to read again (yes, even that got messed up) and even managed to get her back in to school - initially only able to pull a 2.0 average but improved each semester.
In her case, she had an amazing recovery. Yet she, herself, says, "If I'm ever like that again, turn me off." She didn't realize how hurt she was and got lucky with recovering before she did. Understanding now, she has absolutely no desire to try that fight again. She'd rather just call it a day.
So, sadly, there's a real likelihood that his first words, upon realizing he can finally communicate, after years of being unable to and stuck in a totally paralyzed body, will be, "Kill me." Probably not ideal to have the family in the room for.
And yes, that entire story was just so I could "drop" that I have a wife in a slashdot post. Cunning, huh?
Is it like turning on the light that is already on?
Wow! That must be cool!
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I, for one, welcome the Ghost in the Shell Universe (and ghost hacking etc).
Decypher? Is that a British spelling of decipher?
I wonder what would happen if this were used on someone while they were dreaming.
Tell that to a family member they can now communicate to.
"ow our ewe"
that makes no sense when reading it, but people hearing it can make it out.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The headline says "Major Breakthrough." The scientist says, "we hope it will be a breakthrough." Seriously people, it's called "truthfulness." Try some.
how would it bea ble to differentiate between "out loud" voice and private thoughts? This could be really embarrasing for users. Imagine if a secretary (or nurse) walks by when you're in the middle of speaking or dictating a letter:
Dear sir,
I am writing wow nice tits and she has a great ass too uh oh wedding ring in order to ask if you would be interested in our new product line of neural-input word processors.
It reads: "Dear Aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all"
What do you want to decipher today?
If this device can translate your thoughts (impulses) into real world signals to produce sound, how can it separate internal dialogue from the external. Often I think of something ("I can't stand this dimwitt.") but I say something else ("Mmm very interesting idea Sir"). I wonder if this can separate the internal/external dialogues we all have going on in our heads...
Then it shouldn't to hard to use the same impulses for control interfaces, so thinking of speaking and manipulating your computer, or other item.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
...will be having a party to celebrate this research. All dualists are welcome, however they should be aware that they will be mocked.
will have the last laugh.
Reading stories from the '50s we should be living in a "dark future" now because we invented robots.
Whose obvious first reaction upon being created would be to enslave/destroy man kind. Riiiight...
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
No they weren't. I hope you are not spreading that tired old, and completly disproved, myth that the US was founded Christians? or on "Christian Values"?
...". On a personal level their doubts had more to do with churches, not the Judeo-Christian god.
Huh? The founding fathers were predominantly Christians in their private and public lives. Judeo-Christian values were at the core and often demonstrated at "federal" and state levels of government. What they did disprove of was government favoring any particular church or religion. Therefore they wrote in a very neutral manner, such as "... the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them
So your creator had the same suggestions. Brilliant. Sounds like someone who cared about our wellbeing. But wouldn't it be a shame if we could not understand that the need for human rights arises independently of (our knowledge of) his existence?
...when I read about advances in neural-electrical interfacing, I hope for a quick solution to the problem of blindness. I have so many friends that would be even more creative and productive, if they only could see.
My mother is becoming blind, too, and it's breaking my heart to see her like that. I hope an affordable implantable camera, interfaced to the vision centers, will come in the near future. Nothing fancy, just B&W at low resolution with no greyscale, would do miracles.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Hook up this sucker with a polygraph and something to measure the dilation of pupils, and whammo, we're in your head! Just what you need!
1. Lifelike Gynoids
2. Lifelike Androids
Should budget constrains force us to develop only one of those I for one vote for the first advancement.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
If they can interpret electrical signals into speech, can they send pre-recorded electrical signals back, effectively making a person speak? And you thought we had political puppets before!
But your kind of reasoning could also be used inside out, eg: "Mr. Gibson's dark future is a technological failure and not an economical/political one. That nasty future comes from a tyrannical group of technologists who misuse the social system."
What I want to say is technology and politics/economics are all a creature of humans. It's just as misleading blaming "economics" and "politics" instead of the people misusing the system (who are basically all of us), as it is to blame a particular technology for all of our miseries.
> This kind of research obviously would lead to, a few years down the road, a type of electronic telepathy.
Yes, think of the progression:
- Improve detection to the point it can accurately detect thought-sounds
- Instead of translating the sounds into audible sounds, trasmit them wirelessly (transmitting)
- Implant wireless receiver that injects sound-signals into brain for receiving
- AI spontaneously emerges and takes over subject's brain, becoming the first of our neural-implant overlords!
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
That one is just hanging there....waiting to be written...but NOOOOOO!, the got to make Nixon the indestructable cyborg....
A goal is a dream with a deadline
The comment about Mr. Hawking is thoughtful but he has said already, that he would not upgrade his voice synthesis. There is already better voice synth than his hardware, but the voice he uses now is "his voice". He has said it would just not feel right to suddenly have a different voice. Would YOU change your voice if surgery were possible to do it?
can do this too. A constant stream of anti-depressants. Zoloft, etc. Yuck.
"If still these truths be held to be
Self evident."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
Subject's first words? "Dear Aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all."
SIERRA TANGO FOXTROT UNIFORM
I'm surprised that everyone has missed the link this would have with yesterdays article on Microsoft working on backing up your memories...
"Microsoft is now working on a system that will back up the contents of your brain. The pilot project lacks a direct brain interface..."
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/15/1613246
Considering my brain, the AI can have it, although the it would take one look and probably consider it a lost cause.
...is in the right part of the circut
I don't always want my "first throught" to be the one that gets verbalized, know what I mean?
Hi Mrs. Johnson, nice tits!....buts a little big though
Oh shit....did I say that out loud?
A goal is a dream with a deadline
Sure hit.
For those curious, this speech prosthesis research was presented in a number of posters at the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) conference a couple weeks ago. Their six SfN posters can be found on their website here, covering topics like the circuitry they developed, Bayesian signal analysis, and so forth:
http://migrate.speechprosthesis.org/DNN2/SpeechProsthesisHome/tabid/52/Default.aspx
There's also a nice blog entry on this over at Neurophilosophy:
http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/11/speech_prosthesis.php
Tyranny has been around since before the stone age. What has technology got to do with it other than increasing the tyrant to subject ratio? The desire to oppress is inherently a human social one. Some will claim (neocons for instance) that we can use tyranny to make things better, but it doesn't work that way. Technology, on the other hand is much more legitimately separable from human motivation (there are a variety of motivations that can lead to most technologies.) Moreover, unlike tyranny, we have a chance of using a given technology only(or at least predominately) for good. Technology is a double edged sword, in part because it and its fruits are actually tools, not motivations unto themselves.
"If still these truths be held to be
Self evident."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
I may not agree with you about much, tj, but I surely agree with you on this. I actually got a little misty eyed...
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Ice Cream has no bones.
The GP is a troll based upon tone, but the point is sound. Generally speaking, atheists want what flows from Calvinist-Christianity about the rights of man, but they wish to remove the epistemological supports for the arguments.
It's a matter of authority. For an expansion of this argument, see the written debate between Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson.
Wha?? It's dark in here...Where am I??? Hellppp!! Get me out of this box!!
The majority of Western values do not trace their roots to any of the Middle Eastern religions. They come from other places, such as Greek philosophers.
In fact, the philosophical foundations of the US are in many ways opposite to the so-called Christian values. Cruel and unusual punishment, for example, is condoned--actually commanded--by the Christian god. Slavery, and the belief that all men are NOT created equal, is a common theme in the Bible.
The statesmen/philosophers who founded this country may have been Christian, but the documents they wrote to found this country were quite the opposite.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Dear aunt, let's so double the killer delete select all.
And I thought I was the one who always managed to come up with the most retarded faux-pas ever uttered. Maybe completely inappropriate humor is a geek trait?
Will I be able to wear the device as a prosthesis?
Because, you know, everybody wants prosthetic foreheads on their real heads.
It's not duplicity of thought. You just lack understanding. One does not need a creator to imagine a human spirit. In fact, the idea of a creator adds nothing to the idea of the spirit. It just marks an artificial stopping point in the quest for answers: What did it? Creator did it! What made Creator? Don't go there! Dumb.
Eastern religions have a better word for it: suchness. That is just so, as it is. The idea of spirit relates more to the idea that things are more than the sum of their parts (due to the interaction between the parts, nothing more) than to the idea of some arbitrary creator.
Human rights are just a social construct that may be revoked at any time whether or not there is a Creator. If this were not true, and there were a creator, then society would be perfect. So either there is not creator, and/or rights are just a social construct. The reason they are not revoked more frequently is because they make sense to individuals. You watch my back, I'll watch yours. It's an idea that even wolves and cows comprehend.
The only thing the idea of a creator might do for you is to give you some hope to hold on to when bastards are infringing your rights: at least the big dude in the sky will kick these bastards in the nuts when they die. The fact that adult human beings still hold on to this fantasy when it provides them with nothing but illusionary hope is rather humorous.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
http://www.cyberkineticsinc.com/content/medicalproducts/braingate.jsp
Can they really?
I don't think you relize just how SMALL this market TRULY is.
This will only work on these conditions:
1. The person spoke properly BEFORE.
2. The person has a muscle problem/lack of proper equipment to speak/nerve issue
3. The person is still mentally all together.
Its a small market, and for that small market it might be "acceptable" for 80% speech accuracy, but for the real world its not. This is not like making them talk again, this is like letting a cripple walk without crutches. Still can't run, still can't play sports, still can't walk too far incase the equipment breaks.
It is NOT the magic solution.
So basically, -1 troll/offtopic is really slashdots way of saying "I hate that you thought of something before me."
The majority of Western values do not trace their roots to any of the Middle Eastern religions. They come from other places, such as Greek philosophers.
In fact, the philosophical foundations of the US are in many ways opposite to the so-called Christian values. Cruel and unusual punishment, for example, is condoned--actually commanded--by the Christian god. Slavery, and the belief that all men are NOT created equal, is a common theme in the Bible.
The values you're thinking of as coming from the "Greek philosophers" were actually "Calvinist theologians who also happened to have been well-read their Latin, Greek, and Hebrew forebears."
In short, there's a reason that this kind of thing blossomed only in Protestant Europe/America, and the "Western" aspect was uniform throughout Latin Christianity so that's not it.
(I'll leave aside your obvious lack of contextual knowledge with regard to "torture" and slavery)
Decypher neuralogical impulses with high accuracy? Oh oh.
Appearing on a computer screen near you, soon: "Gotta go to the bathroom. Hummm dee dummm, yeah, I'd hit that. That, too. Oh yeah, doggie style'd be just what the doctor ordered for her. Oh, I wonder what that tastes like. Son, there's nuthin' wrong with wanting to lick it until it don't stink no more. Oh yeah, that mom-n-daughter, that'd be sweet. Hit that. And that. And that..."
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
The "ting, tang, walla walla bing bang" part will be more difficult of course, and probably not until version 2.0 at least.
Geeks? Nah, it's a trait of assholes.
Actually, most of the founding fathers were Deist, not Christian.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Jerry: So I really had a good time.
Laura: Yeah, me too.
Jerry: So you want to go to the party on Friday night?
Laura: Yeah.
Jerry: All right, we're taking a car service. So, we'll swing by and pick you up. How about six??. Six is good. (Laura looks offended and angry). You got a problem with six? (Laura opens the door and gets out). What? What?
I still can't scan a 50 page document and OCR it without spending hours to clean it up afterwards. Nor can voice recognition software really understand or interpret what I say and lay it out with correct punctuation on paper.
Those are 2 basic advanced tasks I would expect to be perfected at some point, and until they are I take all these great human-machine interface "breakthroughs" with huge grains of salt.
Obscure?
Funny thing, the page you link to shows that many of them were members of Christian churches:
"Founding Fathers who were especially noted for being influenced by such philosophy include Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Cornelius Harnett, Gouverneur Morris, and Hugh Williamson. Although these men were members of traditional Christian denominations (Hugh Williamson was a Presbyterian and the rest were Episcopalians), their political speeches show distinct Deistic influence."
When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
Please turn this around the other way: let me know when I can get IM, my RSS feeds, and search results neurally via bluetooth.
Say hello to my little sig.
but the message was encrypted, and the key was in his head
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
That joke refers to a failed Vista voice recognition demo...
http://crastinate.jonwiley.com/?p=33
I call shenanigans. Babelfish can barely work and you are talking neural interface? Let me guess: it will be 99% accurate in 5 years. That is about same time we all will have flying cars and shit... Right.
...Barney was the first intelligent robot and came very close to destroying humanity...
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
...computers must indeed covert these pulses.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Could this also lead to a method of sending signals (sight, sound etc) to the brain?
Blind people "seeing", the deaf "hearing"... TFA was a bit light, I thought that the brain cells would "move away" from electrodes ( this article is about neural "extension cords" to overcome the problem, the other way I have heard about was "The Berlin Brain Interface" a YouTube clip of it in action.
BM3
In Soviet Amerika, Manly Lawnmower?
Damage to the optic nerve would be tougher, as it's hard to induce a signal in something that's dead. That would require placing the signal directly onto the brain's visual cortex, which would be a much tougher problem. Theoretically solvable, though, as modern 9 Tesla MRIs can actually observe individual neurons firing and implants can monitor signals. Based on a crude timeline I've drawn up for the average time from theory to practice, we should see this sort of technology emerge into highly specialist settings in about 18 years and into practical (though not necessarily approved) medical applications in about 48 years.
Damage to the visual cortex - or the claiming of the neurons that would normally go for that towards some other function - would require a real-time simulation, plus induction of a signal at multiple points. We're about 50 years away from a quantum computer with that level of capability, and probably another 20 from being able to use quantum computers in such a setting. Even then, the brain's wiring would only be suitable until some time in the teens, when it is not just flexible but actually growing. By the age of 24 or so, it starts to die back. It can still be programmed some, according to the latest research, but it's nowhere near the same level.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
How do they know they're accurately converting the signals to sound, if they're basing this off a man who has no ability to speak?
It's probably something simple, like "Read this sample text". There's likely a training cycle during which the performance of the machine and the patient are tuned to each other.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
One has to wonder who is doing the work. Is the paralyzed man adapting to the computer or is the computer learning the brain signals. Either way, it's good work, but I would bet that the way to perfect this type of technology is to "teach" the human to control his neurological impulses. I doubt the technology is directly eavesdropping on his speech.
Chris Mesterharm
Interesting typo
Gibson didn't invent cyberspace. Vernor Vinge invented cyberspace (although I don't think he coined the term) in True Names.
If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. Read True Names to get a notion of the profound visionary Vernor Vinge is. (Remember it was published in 1981).
Then read Rainbows End with your newfound respect for Vinge's powers of prognostication, and recognize that you're seeing into the near future.
Of course, you won't mod parent up since I'm replying to my own message. Jeez, what a whore!
But now you have to mod this post up, 'cause moderators can't resist reverse psychology.
But now you won't mod this post up, 'cause I pointed out the reverse psychology.
But now you have to mod this post up...
summary says: neurologists are reporting that they can decypher neurological impulses into speech with an 80% accuracy.
article says: Although the data is still being analysed, researchers at Boston University believe they can correctly identify the sound Mr Ramsay's brain is imagining some 80% of the time. In the next few weeks, a computer will start the task of translating his thoughts into sounds.
come on. the article implys that this is already being done, with 80% accuracty. seems to me, they just think it's going to work, and haven't even started trying it yet.
I went to the witch doctor and
the witch doctor said to me:
oh, ee, oo, ah, ah
ting tang walla walla bing bang
oh, ee, oo, ah, ah
you need brain surgery
Has [redacted] this [redacted] replaced [redacted] the [redacted] word [redacted] pedantic [redacted] as [redacted] the [redacted] latest [redacted] word [redacted] everybody [redacted] has [redacted] to [redacted] look [redacted] up [redacted] in [redacted] the [redacted] thesaurus [redacted] before [redacted] using [redacted] it [redacted] on [redacted] slashdot, [redacted] in [redacted] a [redacted] lame [redacted] attempt [redacted] at [redacted] sounding [redacted] intellingent [redacted]? In [redacted] other [redacted] words [redacted], what [redacted] I [redacted] meant [redacted] to [redacted] say [redacted] was [redacted] , [redacted] " [redacted] Nigger [redacted], nigger [redacted], nigger [redacted] " [redacted], you [redacted] pretentious [redacted] bitches [redacted] !!![redacted]
Yeah, it seems real cool until the first time this guy goes to a bar. Though they'll probably install a "mute" switch shortly after his next sponge bath.
Like that comic said, "If women knew what men were thinking, they'd never stop slapping us".
Impressive tech though. Decypher neurological impulses into speech with an 80% accuracy? Forget Stephan Hawkings - give this thing to George W. Bush. His record so far is something like 46.2%; and that was ordering appetizers - with the aid of a teleprompter.
Nah, I'm just bitter because I know all my efforts to master the iPhone typing interface will soon be useless.
Even if it was an accurate statement, human rights can be based on rational and objective grounds, and do not require a specific deity, much less the Biblical God. Frankly, in recent history, I've seen a lot more respect for human dignity from the Atheists and Transhumanists than many self-described American Christians.
I wonder how much longer it will be until we can just download our entire mind into a solid state medium.
Think of the possibilities. Direct though to typing, no keyboard. I can just think C code and it will just appear on the screen.
Driving, robotics, new appendages, like a third arm, telepresents, teledildonics, telekinesis, telepathy, brain to Wifi.
Or just wiring in a CPU or Math co-processor Calculator, or just add additional RAM.
How about not just seeing, but being able to display images on a screen straight from your brain.
Then there is the Dark side. Imaging trojans, worm and viruses directly into your brain. Or even worse, having Microsoft installed directly into your brain. I wonder what having your brain blue screen would look like.
I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso
The Warrior's bland acronym, MMI, obscures the true horror of this monstrosity. Its inventors promise a new era of genius, but meanwhile unscrupulous power brokers use its forcible installation to violate the sanctity of unwilling human minds. They are creating their own private army of demons.
Weird, must be the way my brain works - but I immediately thought of a "brainCap"(tm) - slap the little cap on somebody's head and hear their thoughts.
then I went off on a tangent... and imagined what people would do with a device that could do that. Slap it on somebodies head and listen to the words they are mentally thinking...
"hold him, down lads, lets slap a brainCap on him and then he'll tell us where the diamonds are!"
"you say you are thinking of me only when we mave love darling? put on a brainCap next time so I can hear it and be sure.."
"hmm, you are having a bad dream - lets slap on a brainCap and hear what you dream about"
"so you say you want to work as a teacher and you love children? well for you first day somebody will be monitoring your thoughts"
given human nature, I think we don't want a device like this.
Everything from "change me!" to "turn off that damn Raffi record!"
~Eien no Inori wo Sasagete~ Searching for my Hatsumi...
No, it was "Hello, World" of course...
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
My first thought was somewhere in the massive American military-industrial complex, most likely the deep bowels of the CIA, someone is going to try to use this technology to read the thoughts of unwilling participants.
Tada! :D
I don't have much to add, just another comment in that tree. Not only does the story deserve to be told, but it deserves a long list of comments, even ones like mine (saying nothing new) to show that it was heard.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
I, for one, welcome our new neural-implant overlords!
How, exactly, does that invalidate "Greek philosophers"?
If we are talking about the same things -- equal rights and democracy, for instance -- well, Sparta was exactly that. Among citizens, it was more purely democratic than we are today.
Then there's the Roman Republic, which I'm fairly sure predates Christ. (I could be entirely wrong about that one, though.)
I'd rather not. I can point to at least a few obvious places in the Bible about this -- one in which it seems pretty obvious God is telling his people to kidnap and rape some local girls. (Take the for your wives.)
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
The GGP himself stated that his wife was physically and mentally damaged by the accident. I never stated anything that he himself did not declare just minutes earlier. Nothing I said would be surprising or exceptionally insulting to him. Chill TF out.
I don't know what I would do if my SO had a car accident, but I hope I would have a much better sense of humor than you have, you hypersensitive freak.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Wow. You're saying Calvinist philosophers borrowed ideas from Greek philosophers, therefore the roots of their philosophy were not Greek? You must have a serious amount of cognitive dissonance to believe that kind of spin. Apply for a job at News Corp.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Don't forget, creator = Theory of Evolution by natural selection over self-replication with variation.
All of the "founding fathers" proclaimed Deism. I don't disagree. Not all of them claimed to be devout followers of any Abrahamic/Christian church. Again, I agree.
The fact that simple physical rules can result in complex results (aka Evolution or The Game of Life) had not been demonstrated in the sixteenth century, so it is totally understandable that religious world-views were common in those days. In light of current evidence, I can not believe people like Thomas Jefferson could possibly defend any posture other than agnosticism.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
uh, read through some of the Wiki, wondering if you could help out with supporting evidence, or references.
OBTW. Time magazine this week ran a historical piece about Jefferson VS Adams for the 1800 Presidential campain.(Time magazine November 12, 2007, p.121) the article is mostly about how claiming faith can affect the campaign. But I interpret the faith of our fathers, to be a moot point. history being non objective.
"Free Luna!"
I, for one, welcome our new recorded-stimuli-porn overlords.
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, and many of the other Founding Fathers were masons. Freemasonry could be considered deist in that you must believe in a supreme being, but what you call that supreme being is not material. That is, Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and even adherents to Wicca are eligible for membership in the fraternity.
So it's not surprising that they Founding Fathers would have built the same attitude into the DNA of the United States.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
...all the paranoid schizophrenics out there
"On the flip-side, direct brain I/O is also a major step towards William Gibson's Neuromancer and other cyberpunk dark futures."
I started reading, and first thought it said something about direct brain I/O being a step backward for Mel Gibson...
It's nice to hear that there's some kind of experimental evidence to back that up.
I'll still bet that restoring the sight to someone would be at least partially successful, but I suppose there's no knowing until there is a good enough operation that the possibility of results outweighs the downsides.