Mind Over Mouse
from the look-and-click dept
We’ve written a few times in the past about efforts designed to set up a mind controlled computer system in monkeys and humans (different groups are trying different approaches). The technology continues to move forward as newly published reports discuss the successful mind control of computers by two humans. Of course, this latest effort is using chips implanted in the brain, and the one we discussed last year was about non-implant mind control — which is probably a lot more appealing to folks who’d rather not have their skulls cracked open. Either way, it looks like we’re a long way away from anything most of us would be using. Still, once they combine this with retinal displays and built in wireless internet access to our bloodstream, just think of how much fun the professional worriers will have about what it’s doing to our culture.
Comments on “Mind Over Mouse”
cool
I can’t wait to search porn via an embedded chip. Then my wife wouldn’t know. 🙂
Of course, I would worry about spyware and such at that level. lol
No Subject Given
borg joke!
Cyberpunk For Real
From what I understand the Air Force has been experimenting with mind control flight systems for fighters. Pilots would be able to use standard controls for gross flight movements and mind control for pitch and yaw adjustments, issuing commands to the onboard computer, radar control, and targeting. This way the pilot never has to move his hands from the control stick.
There was also a mind control device that supposed to ship for computers with a downhill ski game. You trained the device to read certain brainwaves as specific commands in the game and then you played by thought alone.
I do understand that there is a project underway to find a way to artificially project images into the brain. The main object of the research is to develop “true” bionic eyes for the blind, but the technology could have other uses as well. Anyone ever read the novel Neuromancer or play the RPG Shadowrun?
Re: Creepy
I saw a show on tv that talked about this and showed a person with a chip embedded in his head and he was moving the mouse around it was just creepy.
Re: Cyberpunk For Real
What if you suddenly started thinking about something else… like, killing your wife? Would the guns suddenly adjust and you start flying home to blow up your house? That would be weird. Gotta watch what you think about when hooked up to that kinda equipment.
No Subject Given
and then we have prosthetics that can be controlled by the brain. we are definitely heading toward the cyborg era. times where bank robbers are equipped with robotic legs that can leap fences and run faster than any cop, eyes that can see far distances with ease as well as night vision, etc…
Re: No Subject Given
If bank robbers could afford that sort of technology, there’d be no need to rob a bank…..
Re: Re: No Subject Given
maybe they stole their legs.
Re: Re: Re: No Subject Given
lol exactly
RE: Mind Over Mouse
So then I guess we’re headed into an age where the flu will become a “computer virus”. Yeah, it was cheesy, I know…
Re: Mind Over Mouse
Odd indeed. I remember about 6 years ago they were recruiting for a program doing this research in a study out of Australia. They said they were building the components at that point so they obvilously had the technology in written form at that point. It shouldn’t be that far fetched. We can learn use back after stroke so that would lead a person to believe that we could easily learn a new extremity.
Very good technology just take a look at what they’ve been able to do with chips in comparison to epilepsy. I am sure they currently have the technology we have dreamed of in this area it will surely take time before there’s any widespread use of this.
I’ve dreamed of this for a long time to be a real thing. There are also those who are very opposed to anythig of this sort. My wife would’t want anything to do with me if I had a chip in me. I also have even heard such archaic things as that the internet is of the devil.
We live in interesting times.
Re: Re: Mind Over Mouse
My soon to be ex is a diehard Christian so I KNOW exactly what she’d say about this.
She’d call it the Mark of the Beast and say its a sign of the End Times. I’ve been hearing alot from people talking about this, and most of it started when Y2K was looming over us but its gotten much worse since 9/11.
I’m not saying that religion is bad, I’m sort of thinking thing through on the whole Christanity subject right now, but there have been times in the past when people believed the end times were coming. During the Vietnam War is one good example, the transition to the 20th century from 1899 to 1900, and visitions by Halley’s Comet in the early 1900 spurred on End Times fears.
I didn’t want to turn this into a religous debate but religion and technology have always bumped head from time to time in the past. Look at all of the religious opposition to Stem Cell Research. All the testimony from scientists tell us that this research will revolutionize medicine, but the religiously minded would just love for it to go away. There’s also the notion of embedding chips in the body or the brain which is getting some resistance from the clergy.
People cry and moan about the patant system in the US stagnating innovation. Well I can tell you that pressure from religious lobbyists also has just as powerful an effect.
Re: Re: Re: Mind Over Mouse
To a Christian, the end times are ALWAYS coming.. tomorrow. They’ve been spewing that for over a thousand years now.
Well, we’re still here today, and we will be tomorrow. And the next day. The end times are NOT coming.. there are no end times at all. Wake up tomorrow and you’ll see.
Mankind will continue to exist and thrive well into the year 3000 and beyond, mouse/porn implants and all 🙂
Re: Re: Re: Mind Over Mouse
I’m a Christian and I’d be first in line to get a chip in my brain to that would let me play computer games. I’d also gladly be the guinea pig for cyborg part replacements. I wouldn’t mind being able to bend over without hurting and not need to wear glasses anymore. (I’m 26, I eat right, I don’t know what’s wrong with me.)
In my opinion, if someone rejects the knowledge God has given us, he isn’t turely a Christian. Everything can be used for good or evil. Alcohol isn’t bad, I use it every day instead of aftershave. It’s all about how you use it. If we can help people and ease pain using technology, that sure sounds Christian to me.
Mind Over Mouse
Not only to a Christian… but to any pessimistic, paranoid person. However, I do somewhat agree with Stoned4life, wouldn’t it be a bit dangerous? Controlling something with only ones mind? What if you get sidetracked? I guess they would be trained…
Interesting
I must admit I’m new to this topic…one thing that intrigues me is how they plan the co-ordination between the chip and our brain…guess ultimately the question boils down to: translating neural impulses into digital pieces of information…wonder how they achieve this…
Vic, BPO
End Times Bob
End Times are coming and that is a fact but nobody knows when. I am a Christian and I believe that End Times will come but no one knows when. The reason Christians say that End Times are coming tomorrow is to stay sharp and ready for the arrival of Jesus Christ.
Let me tell you something. If Bob in the comment above is right and End Times will never come, then me, being the believer I am will not suffer from it at all. But if End Times come, which I am sure of, I will be ready then, but all others who don’t believe in Christ will suffer.
There is no point being phanatic and think of every advance in technology as next step towards the end but it also makes no sence ignoring religion.
Re: End Times Bob
But you’ve failed to consider the possibility that the rapture might not be a christian rapture. In that situation, not only would you suffer, but you would have wasted your time on a false god (but if you enjoyed spending that time it wasn’t a waste).
Considering how many non-christian religions there are, I’d have to say your odds aren’t very good.
I read somewhere a quote by an individual who lived a few hundred years ago. He said it was best to live a full and just life, striving at every moment to improve oneself and one’s world. The reason being, is that if there is no god, one’s life is best spent; if the god(s) is/are good and just, then one will get into heaven because of the goodness done during the span of one’s life; if the gods are not good and just, then it is not worth devoting oneself to them.
Therefore, being a christian has no benefit when it comes to the issue of what happens after death. The only reason to be a christian is if you like doing christian stuff.
Re: Re: End Times Bob
However, I’m being a little bit off topic here. In retrospect I realize I should have talked more about cyborg stuff, so I’ll do that now.
Many people are afraid of what may happen with new technologies. We were afraid when the machinegun was developed, when we built the atomic bomb. People are still afraid that encryption will do nothing but make the world safe for criminals. So far, most people haven’t been machinegunned, the world hasn’t been turned into a radioactive wasteland, and encryption has turned out to be a positive thing for society. That’s 3 points for humanity, and 0 points for the apocalypse.
I think biomechanical (and the next step, pure biological) augmentations will be a positive thing. We will build nightmares and find ourselves tasked with nigh impossible decisions, but we are an intelligent and adaptive race, so I believe we will prevail.