Neural control: brain-machine interfaces

Yeah good point!! i dont want my brain hacked!

It would be cool though to look arorund the screen and the mouse follows, then blink to click left eye for left click, right eye for right click!

 

That's pretty close to the idea.

You would exert some kind of effort, but there wouldn't necessarily be physical movement involved. You'd just 'will' the cursor to the spot, and 'will' the activation.

Now imagine this sort of interface in conjunction with the kind of augmented-reality we already have the technology for.

If I meet you on the street, I can listen to you talk while my direct interface to my PC lets me look up all the notes I took from last time we talked. With my wearable machine's help, I recall everything that was discussed. And I file notes on our current conversation as well. But you don't see me doing it.

I amazed no one's noticed what this would do to gaming. With properly immersive display technology, and possibly some feedbackthrough the same neural connections, the sensations could approach reality, or maybe transcend it.

I think it's something that makes more sense than continuing with keyboards and mice. I predict we'll be able to get fitted with this kind of gear within 10 years, and use it to control our wearable machines in ways similar to what I describe.

 

it would be cooler if there wasn't a screen at all

just an interface with the nerves of your eyes, or something, so the screen comes directly in your brain (ala matrix), or kind of transparent

looks kool to me

but yeah
lets keep on dreaming and working this 20 year old x86 technology

 

Yeah linear thats what I meant

You can BE in virtual reality, like in the movie 'the matrix', without noticing any difference, because your brains are getting a direct feed from the videosource .. wich would be in your clothes ... or if you want to use nano technology, implanted in your neck around your spine ...

You are in NY and your girlfriend in Australia ? wanna have sex ? np just dial her ip and you'll be in a vr room, and you wouldn't even know the difference ..

seems strange ?

try telling the concept of the telephone to someone of the 17th century .. you can talk with someone 2000 km away, just as like he is standing next to you, without an eyeblink delay ...

 

gaming

if you have ever seen eXsistence (i think thats how its spelt) where they plug a thing into them to play the game. admitedly thats just an idea which is in a game itself. confusing huh? just think of it as playing a computer game whilst in the matrix

 

It scares me to think of playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein with a direct neural feedback....

 

I dont know....

Some of those l337 lady gaurds could be pretty hot in direct neural feedback.

 

Well, I think stuff like this being commonplace is a *when* not an *if*question.

I found a link about 18 months ago to a product that is designed to allow para/quadrapalegics to interface with a computer. It was basically a headband that read the alpha waves from your brain. The associated program had to be trained to recognize the appropriate pattern for each user, and this was done through a series of training programs, including simple pong-like games. It allowed navigation of the OS, text input, etc. And it was a full-blown commercial product, so it had to work decently at least.

This implant stuff is the next step. Right now this Warwick fellow seems to have a one-way interface (human->computer) and we need two-way systems to implement what most of us are envisioning.

IMO the adult generation (20+) that is in place when this is introduced will benefit, but the main benfactors will be the kids who grow up with it. Imagine: snip the umbilical cord, get your implant. That could be freaky.

But something like this has such wide-ranging implications for every aspect of society I can see it taking a long time to become commonplace.

Oh, and about posting while riding to school: why would you actually *ride* to school? Just go to your virtual school, no need to physically move. Damn, everyone would be a fat-ass. Or maybe we would rapidly evolve into creatures with huge brains and puny bodies. I can see it now: a war between the 'virtuals' and the 'realists.' Check out that movie 'eXistense', it is cool.

 

Hey you guys would like these books...

The "Warbots" series of books is something thats deals with this concept very well. In it the armies of the world have evovled to using robot-warfare as opposed to actually send ing real humans on the battlemfield and thus losing poeople as casualties. The "Warbot-brainies" as they call themselves are the people behind these machines. They control the machines through a series of electrodes touching the scalp and spine. In the way a omputer can directly stimulate the nerves asociated with touch, hearing, taste, and smell. They have to undergo rigerous training to be able to learn how to shift their midset so that a computer can understand what it is they want. Many people go mad during this and go into comas or have constant flashbacks in which they go insane. If a robot is destroyed while a person is "inside" it their mind loses all inputs. This simulates deafness, blindness, and paralysis. Only very mentally strong can take this kind of abuse. When diconnecting from the interface with their 'bots there is a sort of partial reality where the brain is trying to hold onto the computer generated reality while its being bombarded with real time sensations. The transition could take around half an hour and then you still have a feeling like all of your body has gone to "sleep" (you know that prickly sensation when no blood is in a part of body) The concept is good but not every person could be able to adapt to this and learn to deal with computer-human interfaces.

 

oh yeah

ill see if I can dig up some of those books so I can tell ya'll the author. The books arent some little kiddie book. The guy who wrote them is ex-army. He has appendixs in the back of the book defining terms, equipment, and orders of combat, rules of engagement, etc. He clearly thought everything out and knows what hes doing. I think there is something like 6-7 books in the series (I'll sell mine to anyone who wants em?) hehe. hmm well thats bout all i have on this topic

 

I think it would be hard to "mind control" something that you wasn't born with... it's like a new arm or something, with new nerves and stuff... it would be like you don't know how to move your arm because you don't know what 'nerves' to send a signal too...

mmmm, this is getting complicated... and errr ... what about dreams? I mean, they'll be able to 'read' them and isn't life of a human being based on dreaming?

 

Humans have a fantastic capacity for learning, proven by the fact that we learn to speak, walk, run, and basically everything we do. It would just be a matter of 'learning' to control the interface.

 

Exactly so.

What's natural about using a steering wheel/accelerator/brake pedal/clutch/stick shift interface? Nothing whatsoever, but you can learn the interface so well as to be able to use it without devoting any attention to it whatsoever. I imagine this would be quite the same--awkward until you develop adequate facility with it, then second nature after prolonged use.

 

The true test for a neural interface will be its seamlessness. It is interated in such a way that you dont even know that you are using it. Of course that could be come frustrating and even dangerous if you are cut off from the "collective" You might have saved your schema for driving on the HD and what happens when your nural comp crashes. There are a whole host of problems, but ther are a lot more potential benefits.

With the agricultural revolution we became able to modify the land around us. The industrial revolution brought machines to aid us. And now we have the ability to change ourselves, research should not be shunned, nor should it be continued upon blindly, everthing has its consequences. Genetic engineering as well as nerual interfaces have the ability to create a profoound change on our society, and can either be good or bad. Does the good out weigh it, mabye not but when will we find this out? Nuclear power is the most efficient, but is also the most dangerous, at what cost will developing neural interfaces be.

I agree cautiously, envisioning a world like that of he borg, or expectantly envisioning a world unlike anything that has ever been portrayed or even dreamed about before.

 

I think this will be one of the final steps to become to most complex species in the univers: mindcontrol. In the beginning we'll only use it to control stuff like a dot or something, but it will become more complex and so will we have to learn more and practice more. After a while (1000 years or so) these devices will be so complex that our brain will have changed to use the more complex devices. Because of this, we will slowly begin to have telekineses, telepathics and stuff like that. Even further we will evolve to a species with no ears or voice (this is a bit far but it's possible) because we will only use telepathics. Languages will no longer exist...

 

Eventually computers need not exist because we have evolved so far beyon them we have no need of them. Perhaps we may be able to blink and make anything we wish materialize out of thin air. We would be Q.

 

is anybody else wondering what Bill Gates involvement in all this will be?
I certainly don't fancy relying on an MS operating system for my cognitive functions

 

me neither dude, **** ms!

but by then there will be some rules about the software probably, and it has to be tested carefully and stuff... I wonder where they'll get some betatesters for the first beta of the application...