In the future direct interfacing between the brain and technology seems likely. The rudimentary technology has already been demonstrated and Musk’s company is working on an implant meant to be a commercial product. My question is about how you see the interface eventually working. In particular I am curious about what the advantage of an implant is.
From the demonstrations I’ve seen things like typing, moving cursors, ect can be achieved with sensors applied to the body externally like an fmri skullcap or a neckband that reads vibrations in the vocal cords. External sensors are much safer to apply than a brain implant, they can be replaced much more easily if they malfunction, and they can be upgraded. I have read an article that said there are advantages to implants for people with medical issues like paralysis because the implant can offer feedback providing a more “normal” experience and interacting with specific nerves gives more precise control and less lag time. For medical applications like restoring lost function that makes the risk of surgery make sense. For the average person what advantages do implants offer over external sensors that make the risks of brain surgery worth it?
Dude, I would go full Ghost in the Shell robotic body, robotic brain if I could.
Just not if Elon Musk is in charge of anything related to it.
Edit: Oh and probably not within a capitalist society. I wouldn’t want Target to legally own my body Warframe style.
Learning how to edit code during runtime to remove any DRM or remote shutdown code would be the first thing I do even before getting into my new steelsuit.
You’re assuming rationality. Back in the day, people rushed to be the first to have a color TV, even if there weren’t any local stations broadcasting in color. People who never leave the parkway pay for cars that can climb mountains and drive through a flood.
Realistically, I can’t think of any reason to get a skullcap unless you’re flying high speed jets or have suffered some kind of major trauma that requires it. Docotrs do micro surgery with hand held controllers.
I’d argue that reaaaaally don’t want your fuzzy thoughts controlling a jet.
Clint Eastwood movie from the 1980s. “Firefox” was a pretty good thriller where Clint had to invade Russia and steal their latest plane, one with mind reading tech iirc.
I remember that one as a very patchy movie without having any kind of real message. People died for Clint, Clint flew the plane, …
Maybe I’m old though :-) and I know the foxbat (if I remember correctly that was maybe the plane) was the URSS drummed up “superfigjter” which, surprise, wasn’t that super.
Fun little book I just read. ‘The Defector’ by Chris Hadfield. The author actually was an astronaut, so the details are great. Soviet pilot lands a Foxbat at the Tel Aviv airport hours before the Yom Kippur War breaks out…
There’s not even a reason for Google glass.
There’s zero reason for a skullcap or implant.
But I remember back in the 90s “wearable computers” were a thing, before even smartphones.
100% impractical, and needed to carry a computer in a backpack and a monitor on glasses or attached to a hat.
Controlled usually by a weird orcania like one handed keyboard/trackball that you might have to press three buttons for the right letter.
People are always going to want to try cutting edge tech, but it’s rarely practical for anything.
Where this is different, is it involves actual brain surgery.
I read one good idea for a Google glass-type device. Say you wanted to repair your lawn mower. You’d input the proper program and you’d get a heads up display showing you every step. A little red dot would appear over the first screw, and if you looked around it would locate the proper tool.
But yeah, most of the other stuff is just tech for the sake of tech.
Not zero reason. Some people with certain disabilities could benefit from such a device. (Stephen Hawking for instance, was limited to about 10 words per minute with his button interface. A brain interface on a similar patient could be closer to normal conversion speed.)
Yeah, but the implant does nothing that can’t be done without surgery
Brain surgery isn’t just something you do for shits and gigles.
Okay, but would you rather be locked in your unmoving body or get brain surgery and have motion again? Would you rather be blind and deaf or get brain surgery and have your senses back?
What?
I dont think you understand anything about this subject…
Probably any subject, but definitely not this one
Your issue, as far as I understood it, was that the brain implants are pointless, cause they do nothing we can’t already do. There’s plenty current medical technology can’t fix, but a brain implant could (one day). Such as restoring sight by bridging cameras to the visual cortex; or restoring control over their body to disabled people, either by bypassing damaged nerves anywhere in the body or connecting prosthetics to the motor cortex. Are those things worth the trouble of going through brain surgery?
You’re vastly overestimating what Musk has…
Drastically underestimating what it would take to get that stuff…
All while ignoring that what Musk is attempting to do, has essentially already been done.
Musk just wants to shrink it down a little, while claiming he invented it.
But considering he can’t even get the brain surgery done, why would you trust his product?
Like, don’t do it right after eating. But read up on his “studies”. They’re following no scientific procedure and basically trying random shit while torturing intelligent animals to death.
And this isn’t a rant against animal testing, thats a thing that sucks but we need it. But Musk is not at the point for it yet, and from what records they do keep of the experiments, it legitimately looks like they’re not trying.
They’re not even sterilizing the surgery equipment.
You have zero idea what youre defending.
Which is true of most people defending musks companies in any field.
You just believe his claims and accept them despite zero evidence or it ever working in the past.
I am too well versed in science fiction to agree to a brain implant.
It’s like looking through frosted glass. If you’re looking at someone, and trying to figure out what they are doing. Frosted glass means you can kinda see their overall posture, and some big movements. That’s like the skull cap. In order to use it you would have to make large changes in your brain patterns so it can be detected. But put clear glass, even a small window, and you can see exactly. Even a small window on the right place will let you read their lips, or watch their hands. That’s like the implant. Even though the implant reads a very small part of the brain, the data it gets is very clean and gives more precise control to the user.
You want me to hide my beautiful hair?
Because those things arent as reliable, it muddies it down and lessens the amount of inputs you can have, requiring measuring impulses across every region of your head to get the maximum spread.
With an internal implant you can achieve 2 way communication, and in theory have as many in puts as you can connections to your nerves or neurons or whatever.
I dont want to simply move a cursor around or think through some words, i want a computer that can exist fully within my vision, generating sights, smells, sounds, touch, as real as reality, that i can control as easily as i can blink, sit, and stretch my toes, an implant in theory is a seamless extension of the human body, a skullcap is more akin to a hands free keyboard and mouse.
But I wouldn’t get a fucking Musk branded one.
I was in a discord server with some people who were really hyped about BCI implants especially during the first couple of Neuralink press releases, I still am but we’ve all realised how shitty neuralink is.
The reason why people are pushing for implants instead of things like ECG caps is because a cap A) can’t write data and B) the data that it can read is extremely fuzzy because it has to pass through the skull, I think I heard about some improvements in that second part by using an AI to filter the different types of data but I don’t think it’s that advanced yet.
The first part isn’t too much of an issue but one of the major things it could do would be to allow for people to regain senses that they lost by telling their brain what they should be able to see or hear, and also because everyone in that discord server I was a part of were all weebs we were all obsessed with being able to play games in full VR completely ignoring the whole plot of Sword Art Online.
I just really hope to be a part of the generations that get to experience full dive VR.
Unless a wireless brain interface is developed, you’re probably SOL. I bet it would be one of those things that has to be implanted in your mother’s uterus or something.
It would be surprising if you could fully integrate a computer with a brain by a skull cap. So of you wanted to, say, have augmented reality superimposed over your vision (maybe for directions), have a real-time translation of someone talking, be able to read and respond to text messages, and things like that, you’re probably going to need an implant. Plus there’s the practicality of being able to have the technology while you’re sleeping or taking a shower.
I think it’s the idea of interacting with technology on a new level. It’s kind of like the Apple Vision Pro or Google Glass. The technology has a ways to go yet but people are willing to make the jump to be closer to their dream.
Cyberpunk science fiction sees different interfaces. One that stands out to me that makes a lot of sense is a permanently installed port that you put cartridges / chips into. Like a mini SD card reader in your head that interfaces that data to your brain. example novel
This seems like a good idea to me because nothing is permanently “installed” that will do anything. The card reader is inert until you put a card it. I would also build in a physical or software “timer” that would eject/unmount the card after a set amount of time. Safety seems very important for something attached to your brain.
Probably more purity of inputs, more data, more reliability.
I myself prefer cords over wireless for that. And I’m not a fan of brain implants because it limits the room for what you can get. I prefer Matrix-style neck connectors that you can attach to other hardware. Like Apple Vision with their attachable batteries - it’s stupid to put everything in one place when this place is already full and you have another surgery just to update it.
But I’m just as afraid as others if there’s Musk on the board, it would be a proprietary and unsafe solution.
For why i’m open to mod my body and brain: it’s weak, it gets ill a lot, it ages, and I want to solve many problems people have with hi-tech prosthetics, and probably tackle some new opportunities of how to become more productive and capable. Transhumanism is an old thing at this point, and it’s bad it attacked by both rich piggies monopolyzing it and bigots deciding what surgery is moral in their holy book without actual expertise. I would love to control my house and my workplace without even gestures and explore whatever I can learn\invent on top of that. Like would 3D sculping with my fingers work precise enough to be production ready? Would watching TV in my eyes work for me or the lack of ability to turn eyes to the side would become a downside? Would a universal translator worth it more than learning languages for my cognitive development and health? I want to play with that stuff knowing how it’s dangerous and how it can fuck me up. It’s just, like with Windows - I’m afraid I’d not be the one responsible for troubles. Having seizures and irreversible brain rot due to the virus acting as an admin or a broken automatical update? Fuck that shit.
