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NSF Funds Mind-machine Interface Center

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i-thought-about-that-once dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The National Science Foundation today announced an $18.5 million grant to establish an Engineering Research Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering based at the University of Washington. 'The center will work on robotic devices that interact with, assist and understand the nervous system,' said director Yoky Matsuoka. 'It will combine advances in robotics, neuroscience, electromechanical devices and computer science to restore or augment the body's ability for sensation and movement.' Steve Austin, anyone?"

60 comments

  1. Mind/Machine Interface by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Prerequisite: Doctrine: Air Power, Neural Grafting
    Technology: Graviton Theory, Digital Sentience, Biomachinery
    Secret Project: The Cyborg Factory
    Secret Project: The Cloudbase Academy
    Citizens: Thinker
    Chassis: Copter
    Diplomatic Proposal: Unite Behind Me As Supreme Leader
    Special Ability: Drop Pods
    Improves Probe Team success rate.
    Track and Level: Conquer 6

    1. Re:Mind/Machine Interface by SuricouRaven · · Score: 1

      Not quite sure why mind-machine interface requires graviton theory. The rest of it seems to suggest that the main use of the technology is improved control of air combat vehicles.

    2. Re:Mind/Machine Interface by poity · · Score: 1

      Should have gone with Discover lvl 6: Fusion Power

      --
      your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
    3. Re:Mind/Machine Interface by Flyerman · · Score: 1

      Actually it led to graviton theory and the others. It required Air Power and Neural Grafting.

    4. Re:Mind/Machine Interface by Ambvai · · Score: 1

      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.
      -Commissioner Pravin Lal, "Report on Human Rights"

    5. Re:Mind/Machine Interface by Atmchicago · · Score: 1

      Mod parent up

      --

      You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it dissolve.

    6. Re:Mind/Machine Interface by FhnuZoag · · Score: 1

      I think, and my thoughts cross the barrier into the synapses of the machine - just as the good doctor intended. But what I cannot shake, and what hints at things to come, is that thoughts cross back. In my dreams the sensibility of the machine invades the periphery of my consciousness. Dark. Rigid. Cold. Alien. Evolution is at work here, but just what is evolving remains to be seen.

    7. Re:Mind/Machine Interface by RicktheBrick · · Score: 1

      Suppose one could bypass the eyes or ears with electronics so the the blind and deaf could see or hear. Now suppose one could do that for all of our senses. Now suppose one could keep the brain alive outside of the body for a long time. Now suppose one could hook up that brain to a computer and provide a total artificial world . Would the brain know that it is in a artificial world? Now proof that it already has not happened. Maybe the world with all its challenges is the best that can be provided for us to keep one interested in their life. Only after one dies does one realize what is reality and after a short amount of time one again is reborn in another artificial world. In order to maintain one's interest in the present world one can not have a memory of the past worlds or know for certain that one is going to go into another world after death.

    8. Re:Mind/Machine Interface by LC+Trucido · · Score: 1

      So you've watched The Matrix, then?

    9. Re:Mind/Machine Interface by gorzek · · Score: 1

      It's always a good time for an Alpha Centauri reference. Where's a "thumbs up" emoticon when you need it?

      --
      Check out my world simulator thingy.
    10. Re:Mind/Machine Interface by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 1

      The dichotomy of reality is simple: the knowable and the changable are useful, the unknowable and unchangable are not useful. Any time or effort spent on the latter is also not useful.

      Even if our reality were artificial, it is the only one we have, and with no guarantees regarding the future it's better to make full use of it than waste time worrying about what could be possible but can never be known or changed.

      --
      I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
    11. Re:Mind/Machine Interface by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the unknowable and unchangable are not useful. Any time or effort spent on the latter is also not useful.

      That's only true if you don't spend time on it. What is unknowable and unchangeable today may not be tomorrow. That makes it time worth spending.

      Really, your logic is quite silly. If everyone thought that way, we'd have no theories on higher dimensions, quantum mechanics or the possible nature of the universe and none of the knowledge or technology derived from them.

    12. Re:Mind/Machine Interface by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 1

      Actually we have theories on quantum mechanics because they are knowable. Unlike multi universe theories, which I assure you have provided no technology whatsoever, quantum mechanics is a real, testable science that provides real benefits including emerging technologies.

      What you're conflating is the unknowable of the present with the unknowable of the future. It's not as though some African hunter gather ancestor from tens of thousands of years ago could have one day just said 'hey guys, how about quantum mechanics?' It was unknowable without the prerequisite disciplines. So for him it would be useless. He wouldn't be able to know anything about it, or apply it in any way, assuming falsely that he could even have conceived of it in the first place.

      Quantum mechanics became knowable through the advancement of other knowable things first. It took generations of mathematicians of all types to get from the basic counting of prehistory to algebra, calculus, etc. The unknown is not the same as the unknowable. When you can ask a question and work toward the answer that answer may be initially unknown but the capacity to make it known precludes it from being unknowable. A lot of context must advance before things previously unknowable become knowable, but always the work is done on the knowable, even if tenuously.

      (Quite frankly I'm surprised I haven't been criticized about my generalization about the unchangeable. Once I had written that I realized that the unchangeable could be useful IF it could also be knowable.)

      --
      I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
    13. Re:Mind/Machine Interface by ChatHuant · · Score: 1

      Would the brain know that it is in a artificial world? Now proof that it already has not happened.

      Not such a new concept there: people were already thinking about it 2500 years ago

  2. If I replace a leg ... by SirGeek · · Score: 1

    Can I get the doofy sound effect when I jump onto a roof ?

    --
    UPS Sucks
    1. Re:If I replace a leg ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's configurable. You can make it sound like you stepped on a cat whenever the large toe flexes if you like.

    2. Re:If I replace a leg ... by jamiesan · · Score: 2

      I want a prosthetic torso that makes a "You've got Mail" sound when I get shot in the chest with an Arrow. "Message for you Sir!"

  3. Does it only cost 6 million dollars? by TechJones · · Score: 1

    We have the technology, we can rebuild him.

    1. Re:Does it only cost 6 million dollars? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We have the technology, we can rebuild him.

      Yeah, we'll just cut some more of the social in-security ponzi scheme, build some more prisons and go to war with Pago Pago.

  4. FINALLY!!! by _0rm_ · · Score: 1

    Maybe now we will see some real progress that isn't as hampered by the ever present bottom line.

    --
    Boredom is bliss.
  5. I know someone is going to install it but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...why does this sound like something out of Deus Ex?

    1. Re:I know someone is going to install it but... by Medevilae · · Score: 2

      Well aside from the whole neural-interface thing, the initials are NSF. (the 'terrorist' organization from DE1)

  6. NSF Funds? by bhcompy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Non-sufficient funds funds?

    1. Re:NSF Funds? by MacGyver2210 · · Score: 1

      I was wondering also how a mind-machine interface related to bounced checks...

      --
      If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
    2. Re:NSF Funds? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      must be the bad economy - i read it the same way

    3. Re:NSF Funds? by slick7 · · Score: 1

      I was wondering also how a mind-machine interface related to bounced checks...

      Once they stop printing fiat money and go all digital currency, flip a switch, a thousand zeroes added to the economy. Another flip of a switch, what debt? I relish the day when my electro-mechanical overlords with the new, improved, Apple iBrain dictate my every thought and movement. Think of the children. America, love it or nuke it!

      --
      The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
    4. Re:NSF Funds? by MikeDaSpike · · Score: 1

      Yes, you withdraw them from the ATM machine.

  7. Mind-machine interface is the first step by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    First, we need this.

    After MMI, we need to learn emulate our grey matter's function well enough to make it spontaneously adopt offered new 'capacity'.

    Third, we need to connect new eyes, limbs, synthezisers to that emulated machine portion.

    Fourth, when connected person can manipulate connected devices, we'll need to expand machine capacity to the point where original brain is left in minor role.

    Fifth, we'll start slowly kill the original brain. The change to personality overtime should match with normal human change. Remember: "You could not step twice into the same river." We all change slowly anyway, old 'me' dies, new 'me' takes over.

    Sixth, ... immortality, as the new 'me' lives in a computer. Backups, copies, reverts, tuning, hacking, ...

    1. Re:Mind-machine interface is the first step by FiloEleven · · Score: 1

      Your first step is by far the most difficult, and quite possibly insurmountable. It's like saying "First, we need the warp drive." Star-hopping and intergalactic civilization follows naturally given that first highly implausible step.

      --
      Your brain is not a computer.
  8. Super Wrestler! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    What ever happened to that guy?

  9. Not enough coffee by MonsterTrimble · · Score: 2

    I read the headline and my thought was 'from the Lt. Barclay was here dept.'

    Then read the summary and thought? Steve Austin? What the hell does Stone Cold have to do with this?

    --
    I call it 'The Aristocrats'
    1. Re:Not enough coffee by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because Stone Cold said so, duh. Then Goldburg speared him.

      But we have the technology...

    2. Re:Not enough coffee by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wrong Steve Austin.

  10. Self-indulgence, anyone? by ZaphDingbat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What is this stupid phrasing "Steve Austin, anyone?" about? Why do people use it? You can just hear the writer's pleading voice going "Eh? Eh? Aren't I clever?" as if you couldn't catch his meaning unless he elbowed you in the ribs a few more times.

    1. Re:Self-indulgence, anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Austin_(fictional_character) 2 seconds on google to figure that out.

      But then, it still is pretty stupid, especially considering there's a more famous steve austin that makes /no/ sense in this context.

    2. Re: Re: Self-indulgence, anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Haha, I plus one the post above this... Google brought me directly to Stone Cold... Read his bio, tried to figure out how they connected... nothing... "Maybe this is a metaphor for Stone Cold's amazing grasp of reality and how _in touch_ he is with life" was my first thought... but i'm gonna say it's probably not that.....

    3. Re:Self-indulgence, anyone? by slick7 · · Score: 2

      What is this stupid phrasing "Steve Austin, anyone?" about? Why do people use it? You can just hear the writer's pleading voice going "Eh? Eh? Aren't I clever?" as if you couldn't catch his meaning unless he elbowed you in the ribs a few more times.

      Hey, whatta bout Jamie Sommers?

      --
      The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
    4. Re:Self-indulgence, anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm starting to realize how old I am. Without question or hesitation, I knew EXACTLY which SA he was talking about. As did every one else over 35 on here.

      It's like bringing Tribbles up at a dinner party--only to realize that one there has a clue what you are talking about.

    5. Re:Self-indulgence, anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What is this stupid phrasing "Steve Austin, anyone?" about? Why do people use it? You can just hear the writer's pleading voice going "Eh? Eh? Aren't I clever?" as if you couldn't catch his meaning unless he elbowed you in the ribs a few more times.

      Hey, whatta bout Jamie Sommers?

      Yea, I'd like to get into her "Sleep number bed".

    6. Re:Self-indulgence, anyone? by Creepy · · Score: 1

      Neither of which had neural interfaces (except maybe the zoom lens and nightvision eye), but I suppose Johnny Mnemonic would be too obvious. And yes, I mean the book version - I have never seen the film version sober enough to remember it and don't intend on changing that anytime soon.

  11. Sony patented this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Get ready for the lawsuit

  12. Well... by mjhiggins · · Score: 2

    We have the technology

    1. Re:Well... by jamiesan · · Score: 1

      With $18.5 we can rebuild 3.0278 men.... right? Sucks to be the fourth guy. We can rebuild... his pinkie toe.

    2. Re:Well... by twistedsymphony · · Score: 1

      ~3%... you might get a whole foot out of the deal!

      --
      Collector's Edition
  13. Cliche time by shoehornjob · · Score: 1

    Neo: I thought it wasn't real Morpheus: Your mind makes it real Neo: If you're killed in the matrix, do you die here? Morpheus: The body cannot live without the mind Morpheus: Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony. Am I the only one here that thinks this is a bad idea?

    --
    "We are just a war away from Amerikastan. When god vs god the undoing of man." Dave Mustaine
    1. Re:Cliche time by xkuehn · · Score: 1

      That's a common myth.

      People can and do die in their dreams and suffer no ill effect (personal experience).

    2. Re:Cliche time by camperdave · · Score: 1

      Neo: I thought it wasn't real Morpheus: Your mind makes it real Neo: If you're killed in the matrix, do you die here? Morpheus: The body cannot live without the mind Morpheus: Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.

      Am I the only one here that thinks this is a bad idea?

      What? <br> tags?

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    3. Re:Cliche time by ImprovOmega · · Score: 1

      Well, from my personal experience, when I die in a dream (rarely, thankfully) I spend the entire next day feeling disconnected from my body. It's not a physical problem, certainly, but it's very disconcerting all the same.

    4. Re:Cliche time by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      The Matrix was just a stupid movie. It was chock full of plot holes and inconsistencies and scientific absurdities. I am still baffled why people love it so much, except for special effects.

    5. Re:Cliche time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Morpheus takes out an SUV with a katana and a submachine gun.

  14. Sweet!! by OrangeMonkey11 · · Score: 1

    Hopefully in a few years we have artificial limbs that will be more lifelike and move more organically.

    1. Re:Sweet!! by Creepy · · Score: 1

      Why artificial? In a few years I expect full limb replacements grown either from stemming and letting them grow from the missing location or from vats and having them sewn on.

      Bionic arms and legs may be more cool, but I imagine you'd need to plug them in to do anything super-powered.

  15. obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Go go Gadget dick!!! /hey, look what happened to the Internet...

  16. Cyborgs of the future by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Go Go Gadget Fing-Longer!

  17. Misnomer by reuster · · Score: 1

    It's not a Mind-Machine Interface; it's a Brain-Machine Interface. If you're a physicalist, then there is no such thing as a Mind-Machine Interface, because there are no minds, only brains. If you're a dualist, then the technological goal described in the article is no more a Mind-Machine Interface than the laptop on which I'm typing this comment. In both cases, the brain mediates between the mind and the machine -- the only difference is the presence or absence of additional mediators (fingers, a keyboard, etc.). The term "Mind-Machine Interface" is either misleading, or it unnecessarily takes a side in the physicalism vs. dualism debate (by implying that "mind" is just another word for "brain"). "Brain-Machine Interface", by contrast, is a term that both philosophical positions agree is accurate.

  18. Just build me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just build me the bionic penis. We can make it stronger... Faster... And now, detachable.

    1. Re:Just build me... by Thing+1 · · Score: 1

      Just build me the bionic penis. We can make it stronger... Faster... And now, detachable.

      Sam Kinison FTW!

      --
      I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
  19. Hopefully.. by Syberz · · Score: 1

    Hopefully this research will lead to better prosthetics.

    I mean, the stuff in Deus Ex is pretty awesome and that's only a few years away according to the game, so them scientists better get crackin'.

    --
    ~Syberz
  20. I for one.... by OpieTaylor · · Score: 1

    ...welcome our new Sensorimotor Neural Engineering overlords.

    --
    Thanks a lot, big brain. (K. Vonnegut, "Galapagos")
  21. Radiotelepathy implants are already deployed by Roark+Meets+Dent · · Score: 1
    Synthetic telepathy implants are already in the brains of countless people. They are being implanted covertly in medical settings, so-called "alien abductions," etc. Technology is helping usher in a brave new world of high-tech slavery. These devices allow two-way communication of thoughts between humans and computers over wireless links. Basically a much-advanced version of current smartphone technology.

    The problem is that it's being used for gross and mass human rights violations, without a person's knowledge or consent. For more information and to help spread awareness of this grave issue please download and help seed these torrents:

    https://startingpage.com/do/metasearch.pl?q=%22jordan+maxwell+related%22

    Here is what I suspect is a public example of how the technology is being abused:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzghbUlLeP4&feature=related