The Brain Chip Cometh, & It Cometh from Intel
Our own Marshall Kirkpatrick's dreaded brain chip for controlling computers and mobile devices may be closer than even he suspected.
Intel researchers in Pittsburgh told journalists today that brain implants are harnessing human brain waves to surf the Internet, manipulate documents, and much more. And just as we told you two years ago, the lucky recipients of these implants will be willing volunteers, not government-controlled guinea pigs. Some of us are now researching cheap flights to Pittsburgh.
Just think of how far we've come since the early days of portable tech. "If you told people 20 years ago that they would be carrying computers all the time," said Intel research VP Andrew Chien, "they would have said, 'I don't want that. I don't need that.' Now you can't get them to stop."
Indeed, mobility, transparency, and accessibility are all the terms of the hour; and their advocates are popular laureates. The forefront of the user interface has revolved around concepts such as intuition, organics, and biology.
Gesture technology is removing one barrier that lies between human-to-machine communication; think about that the next time you twirl your iPhone around like an Etch-A-Sketch. Isn't removing the need for physical contact the next rational step? Chien tells us that, although there are many challenges yet to solve, the day of brain-controlled computing isn't so far off.
Dean Pomerleau works for Intel on matters of cognitive neuroscience, machine learning, computer vision, robotics, man-machine interfaces, brain processing of semantic information, and various brain-scanning technologies, such as fMRI, MEG, EEG and ECoG. He and his cohorts are solving the mechanisms of brain waves.
While there's no doubt the use cases are fascinating, Pomerleau also brushes off user concerns about implants, saying, "Eventually people may be willing to be more committed... to brain implants. Imagine being able to surf the Web with the power of your thoughts."
This is the precise line of thinking that Kirkpatrick debates so heatedly - perhaps as much now as he did in his editorial almost two years ago.
Have concerns around user privacy abated since then? Hardly, with Facebook and location-based-tech developers struggling to maintain balance for their users and constant struggles and inquisitions over corporate storage of user data. Has the issue of information overload lessened? If it had, would so many startups be staking their claim on the issue of firehose filtration? And is mobile tech obsolete enough to require even more portable access to the apps we love and - dare I say it? - need?
Are end users ready for brain implants? You tell us.
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Looking forward to see the first tangible outcome of this research, but not looking forward to be one of the first people to test it. Certainly, there are so many situations in which this brain implant would be useful—at work, at home, or outdoors—especially when you need your hands for another task. Now, it remains to be seen whether such use cases would be compelling enough for customers to get an implant. Right now, I really do not mind much tapping on that touchpad or clicking on that mouse, and I know that I do not have to alter my body in order to do so (although... carpal tunnel syndrome and what not...).
Anyway, the brain implant control device would be cool, but still a transitional step (well, Rome was not built in a day). What would excite me the most would be the later ability to keep all the brain-Web interactions confined to the body, with no need for external devices or the use of my external senses to process query results; a 24x7 connection to the Semantic Web, obviously, and the ability to defer all compute-intensive work to the cloud. Alas, I know that it will have to wait a bit longer, but I would definitely become a customer. Ideally, there would be a little LED or similar to let others know that my brain is in assisted mode, and the ability to turn the connection on or off, for instance so as to be able to have a good and fair game of chess or Scrabble with friends without being suspected of cheating.
I'm not sure. On the one hand, it would be great to do away with keyboards and the effort required to type out statements such as these comments, but where is the control? Can you guarantee that if you read a particularly inflammatory blog post that you would not mentally compose a retaliatory diatribe and mentally hit "submit" before you had the chance to reconsider? It seems a bit dangerous to me.
Not only that, but I do worry about the state of the global "digital village." While some of us are looking forward to brain chips, there are still people who would kill for reliable internet access in whatever form it came in. In the developing world especially, I reckon that people are going to make more use of mobile devices as their primary means of getting online in the future. I don't think they will have the means (or access to the necessary surgical expertise) to have brain chips implanted. So we might be heading towards a two-tier internet, if implants really are the end-game.
I don't if this is the best solution for BCI (Brain Computer Interface). It seems too invasive and in general things like this doesn't have much luck in common people. Interface, like the word say is something that put in communication two different worlds and in my vision this interface is not inside in any of these worlds. Time ago there where someone that implanted under its skin a RFID tag :|
Anyway, here you can find a device less invasive http://bit.ly/kGQLV to control computer through human brain.
(More about me at: http://paoloquadrani.blogspot.com/)
You will be assimilated, resistance is futile.
If anyone can make a brain-chip, Intel can.
No resistance here, strap me in I'm ready for whatever they can poke in me.
Hey Intel, when ya looking for test candidates sign me up!
I can see the advantage to this in many fields, not just home use but doctors working with robotic surgery, military (of course), aviation, the list is endless. But gaming being my pasttime I would love to see this implemented into, it would be a totaly new level of immersion. Get that pinpoint headshot in CS:S and TF2. there's no limit to where this can go. And like the first poster said, a little LED sticking out the side of my head to tell people that my NAP (Neural Assistance Processor) is active would be groovy.
The next step beyond that would be a HUD contact lens or something like that which would be great for reading the news and again in military (which is a given for any new technology) and for that next step into virtual reality.
Anyone that would do this needs a brain implant.
This is the first step of creating the virtual You. THIS WILL HAPPEN! The more they understand the brain the more interfaces they will be able to make that bypass our own biological I/O. The next step will be to replace pieces of the brain that are diseased. This will be done in the not too distant future with a small part of the brain that is responsible for enabling the creation of long term memories. The next big step will be to destructively scan the brain of a dead person and create a virtual behavioral replica of that person. This is science fiction right now but will be science fact in 50 or 60 years. Get used to it and live forever (of course if you get you brain smashed in a motorcycle accident or you get Alzheimer's disease then all bets are off).
see www.loktime.org
Ken Wilber wrote about creating the silicon person, and explored the conscious development that would go with it. While it is different from a brain chip, Wilber uncovered many questions that do not have answers.
Here is one I have.
If there is a brain ship that would allow us to interface with and control computers, are we sure that at the same time computers would not gain the ability to control us?
And would that computer logic enhance or destroy humanity?
Gamer anyone??
scary...
For medical need such a paralysis I can understand the benefits or using only your brain to control electronics and gather intelligence, but thought my experience of using computer i know how easy it is to have a computer with unwanted items. It is becoming increasingly easier for people to view anything they want on your computer. So what does this mean for the brain? Even a chance of someone else knowing my personal thoughts is simply not an option. I would not recommend this for "anyone" who does not "absolutely" need this.
I remember reading about a cube some scientific organization made, which was mainly a sort of bacteria. It held lots of data and would work where silicon or another metal type chip wouldn't. First off, won't some people have allergic or rejection actions to metal put in them? At lest some, and since you have to recycle, by law, most of your computer stuff due to arsenic etc, I don't need that in my body. Also, genetically engineer the bacterial "chip" to match the host body, and no rejection. They already are growing flesh/tissue in labs. Maybe those 3D printers can come in handy. Not just that but an EMP could take out a person with microchip in their head. Probably not this if it doesn't take out an organic brain. And it doesn't have to be an EMP to affect function. Solar flare, MRI, cosmic rays etc. Large number of things that could affect a chip. However, you might need to make the bacterial chip resistent to things like alcohol/drugs/toxins/disease so nanotech would be needed for full function. You could make a bit of an intert material, or some metal/conductor that's both non-toxic and perhaps not as affected nor affected by high power magnetic/eletric fields. Perhaps a change of frequency in how the info is transmitted, even using cell phone type frequency hopping to prevent being hacked/DOS'd/formatted even. Would have to be adapted for the bacterial one as well, in some aspects at least. It could even be adapted to interact with the brain on more of a synapse firing type function, rather than mere data retrieval/storage. I'm tired, need sleep.
mark of the beast is upon us
Wow, really? are we that lazy that we don't want to use keyboards and "mice"? Is this what humanity has come to? We are going to rely on technology instead of our natural brains? The majority of people use the Internet for stupid shit like Youtubing and Facebook. "Yeah! Now we get to look at our Myspace pages from the comfort of our own brain!" Go outside you fucking idiots. Smell the fresh air while it still lasts! This is the beginning of the end of mankind.
Some say the end is near. Some say we'll see Armageddon soon. Well I sure hope we will because I need a vacation from this bullshit, 3 ring circus, sideshow of freaks here in this fucking hole called U.S.A. The only way to fix it is to flush it all away. Any fucking time, any fucking day! Learn to swim, I'll see you all in hell someday.
guys this is propaganda pushing a very sick agenda. Please do some research on the illuminati the new world order david icke and www.projectcamelot.org
Wow. I do NOT want a blue screen of death in my brain. I'd better be running a darn stable version of Linux...
Some people are in a really big hurry to get wired. They may not be government-controlled, but what they surely are are guinea pigs. We already have the ablility to move freely in a virtual way with little or no actual movement, there is that pesky rapid eye movement. What if we could just harness that power igor... is there really a need to punch wholes in our head to get at it. The other five senses won't give up there secrets that easily, given there is a need to bypass the normal channels. In one of his Julie Evans Novels, Peter Hamilton decribed beaming a flash of visual information right into the retina, with the result that the person suddenly had a visual memory of doing something they never actually did ready to surface at inconvient times. We already have two ready made holes for that one.
my website is http://deepcomputedbciashortstory.blogspot.com/
Fuck yea, sign me up for the first one. Plug me the hell into the Matrix, man.
The first people to do this will volunteer. Those that resist will be forced to have it implanted, though somehow I foresee this happening more in the US than Europe... maybe we are all doomed.
I won't deny that the potential for this device would be amazing; imagine being able to listen to any recording, read any book, or be able to take virtual vacations in you mind. That would be fascinating. However, how this will actually be used, almost certainly, will be to control and/or monitor you. Hitler would have killed to have these things.
how do you become a tester
This will save America? or wait...
No I don't think people realize the repercussions something like a brainchip can bring forth. Our society has gotten too carried away and it is heading towards hell on earth unless somebody stops it.
Sounds fantastic in theory. In reality the sheer lack of corporate ethics constantly demonstrated makes this a pandora's box. These things better have on epic firewall and spam filter if current technologies and devices are any indication. And don't use comcast, they'll charge you fees if you think too much and go over quota.