Pentagon Research Could Make 'Brain Modem' A Reality (thedailybeast.com)

schwit1 writes: The Pentagon is attempting what was, until recently, an impossible technological feat -- developing a high-bandwidth neural interface that would allow people to beam data from their minds to external devices and back. That's right -- a brain modem. One that could allow a soldier to, for example, control a drone with his mind. On Feb. 8, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) -- the US military's fringe-science wing -- announced the first successful tests, on animal subjects, of a tiny sensor that travels through blood vessels, lodges in the brain and records neural activity. The so-called "stentrode," a combination stent and electrode, is the size of a paperclip and flexible. The tiny, injectable machine -- the invention of neurologist Tom Oxley and his team at the University of Melbourne in Australia -- could help researchers solve one of the most vexing problems with the brain modem: how to insert a transmitter into the brain without also drilling a hole in the user's head, a risky procedure under any circumstances.

Comments

Re:Oh sure

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

admittedly, I expressed it in a roundabout and snarky way rather than directly

Yeah, you did.

is that fear of tech is harmful, and that resistance to tech is futile.

I'm neither afraid of tech, nor resisting it. I've embraced technology all my life, and helped advance it considerably by enabling researchers to use some of the most advanced tools on the planet.

I've helped heart research, helped integrated circuit fabs make better, smaller, faster chips, helped material science researchers develop new processes, contributed to biosciences around the globe, helped other scientists in nuclear research, and plenty of other stuff. For example, if you have a heart stent (or ever need one), you can thank me, yes, me to some small degree. I've helped cancer researchers and pharmaceutical companies to develop better drugs and treatments.

I helped create safer airbags back in the 80s and 90s. I helped Intel and AMD and Motorola and Fairchild make better, cheaper ICs. I helped LLL and Westinghouse Hanford and GE Vallecitos work with all sorts of radiological processes. I helped Lockheed and Boeing and Northrop Grumman make better aircraft and better radar emitters. I've helped universities all over the US do research into pollution and environmental effects. And plenty more beside those things as well.

I'm no longer in the role of directly supporting research scientists, but trust me, I did my part and then some for 20+ years.

-

Human brains will go online.

And I'm all for it. I'd love to have a brain interface that could adjust my vision, hearing, body temp, etc etc etc. I'd love to have the kind of neural implants that are described in books like The Diamond Age. I'd love to have uploadable memory. I'd love to have all that stuff.

At the same time, I'm not unaware of the dangers that it would bring, both personally and in a larger sense some of which are also described in books like The Diamond Age. Just because I comment on it or point out potential downsides doesn't mean I'm against it. On the contrary, it means I'm thinking ahead.

And unless you'd be happy with the same level of "security" and rampant hacking that has been the hallmark of the connected age (IoT devices, anyone?) that might be applied to your brain, you'd be a fool not to think about it to.