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Startup Aims To Commercialize a Brain Implant To Improve Memory (ieee.org)

the_newsbeagle writes: Neuroscientist Ted Berger has achieved some remarkable feats in his work on an implanted brain prosthetic to boost memory. Working with rats, he recorded the electrical signals associated with a specific memory from one animal's brain, then inserted that signal -- and thus the memory -- into another animal's brain. Working with monkeys, the implanted device enhanced the animals' recall in difficult memory tasks.

Still, it's startling to learn that a startup is ready to commercialize Berger's work, and is trying to build a memory prosthetic for humans suffering from Alzheimer's, brain injuries, and stroke. The new company, named Kernel, will fund human trials and develop electrodes that can record from and stimulate more brain cells.
"An implanted memory prosthetic would have electrodes to record signals during learning, a microprocessor to do the computations, and electrodes that stimulate neurons to encode the information as a memory," writes Eliza Strickland via IEEE Spectrum.

10 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. And so it starts... by goose-incarnated · · Score: 3, Funny

    Anybody else notice that this process to have a computer mind-control you is reported by Eliza?

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    I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
    1. Re:And so it starts... by mentil · · Score: 5, Funny

      Tell me more about the process of having a computer mind-control me.

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      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    2. Re:And so it starts... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      For some people it will be a trade-off between being unable to function or even stay alive, and trusting a medical device manufacturer and the government not to screw with your implants.

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      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re:And so it starts... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

      No thanks - Nope, nope, nope. My family is already under orders that if I were to become demented, there will be no intervention other than pain killers

      To each his own... I, for one, am hoping to some day be able to have my personality "run" inside a computer. And if that computer is some day given a body — mechanical, biological, or hybrid — well, so much the better!

      Of course. The desire to somehow be alive forever is the 21st century version of religion, the electronic version of "the immortal soul"

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  2. Re:Johnny Mnemonic by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Just 'cause he used an illegal compressor, there's a reason such things ain't approved by the FDA!

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    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. Cargo cult science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Working with rats, he recorded the electrical signals associated with a specific memory from one animal's brain, then inserted that signal -- and thus the memory -- into another animal's brain.

    This is a crock of such dimensions that I don't know where to even start. It's like recording the electrical signals of an Intel FPU while doing square roots and injecting an AMD FPU with them in order to teach it to be faster.

    Those guys have been reading too much science fiction.

  4. Submitter should read his own links by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    That paper he links to doesn't say anything like "he recorded the electrical signals associated with a specific memory from one animal's brain, then inserted that signal -- and thus the memory -- into another animal's brain".

    Submitter is describing some kind of futuristic Total Recall system. The actual paper describes a system for enhancing performance on unfamiliar tasks - that's a teeny tiny bit like that, but not actually that at all.

  5. Re:Existed in the 60's by BlueStrat · · Score: 3, Funny

    This already existed in the 60's. There was a documentary series on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    I thought that *this* was the '60s documentary you meant!

    https://youtu.be/uUa3np4CKC4

    Strat

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    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  6. Software Updates... by mnslinky · · Score: 4, Funny

    >> Software Update In Progress ...
    >> Software Update Complete

    I know Kung Fu...

  7. Would you install brain-cyberware (brainware)? by Qbertino · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wouldn't.

    Just think of the implications. Imagine some evil terrorist hacker or just some bored teen with to much time on his hands messing with your brain and turning you into a suicide bomber or having you running around naked downtown on a saturday morning, screeming, singing and cussing at the top of your voice, just for the kicks of it.

    The fight with brain-hacked loser scene in GitS is cool, but the interrogation scene that follows is pretty emotional and scary. In my opinion though it pretty precisely shows what a society with brainware is in for.

    No f*cking way would I have such a thing installed.

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    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca