New brain, sir?

Underemployed

Muse
Underemployed
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
764
 
Help, Mr. Wizard! I don't want to live in the future any more!

:eek:
 
garys_2k said:
Expect an animal "rights" excoriation momentarily...

Cool research, though!
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hell yeah that is cool. Soon we can start getting Cyberware implants, Data Jacks, Boosted Reflexes, all that cool crap.


Maybe eventually we will replace a whole brain!
 
Stapling machine, Mrs. Robinson!

On the other hand, I know a couple of people for whom ANY such prosthesis would be an improvement.
 
garys_2k said:
Expect an animal "rights" excoriation momentarily...
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Judging by your style, I assume you believe that the concept of animal "rights" is less meaningful than that of human "rights". If so, would you mind explaining why?
 
LucyR said:


Judging by your style, I assume you believe that the concept of animal "rights" is less meaningful than that of human "rights". If so, would you mind explaining why?
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Not really, there'd be no point. Go ahead and tell us why this is another example of institutionalized torture and get it off your chest. You'll feel much better then, having enlightened us all.
 
Are we actually surpassing Star Trek-level technology? I mean, all those nuts who talk about becoming "post-humans" may have a point after all.
 
I'm sure this will lead to revolutionary treatments for many brain injuries and diseases, perhaps even allow spine-damaged people to regain the use of their limbs.

This may be one of those things people will read about in a hundred years, recognizing it (like mapping the genome) as truly the dawn of a new era. I'm amazed.
 
The work was funded by the US National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
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Does anyone else besides me find it a little disturbing that this research is being funded by the Office of Naval Research and Defense Advanced Research Project Agency rather than, say, the Department of Health? Why would this work be relevant to Naval Defense? :confused:
 
"I'm sorry sir but jobs are not available to people with your brain version, you will need to be upgraded"

great...everyone will have to pay Bill Gates great grandson for a brain upgrade every 2 years.......
 
This sounds ambitious - I won't hold my breath on the outcome.
 
esprich,

Does anyone else besides me find it a little disturbing that this research is being funded by the Office of Naval Research and Defense Advanced Research Project Agency rather than, say, the Department of Health? Why would this work be relevant to Naval Defense?
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Not at all. The ONR is one of the largest funders of pure scientific research in the US. They fund all sorts of stuff that does not have what would be considered "direct" military applications. Unlike most corporations, they realize that one can never estimate the potential benefit of "pure research".

Even so, the majority of their funding does go to stuff with direct military applications, but they recognize that any field of research, no matter how abstract it may seem, could lead to a major breakthrough.

Incidentally, my own PhD research, which primarily concerned with trying to understand how electrosensory receptors in marine life work, was funded by the ONR. I am sure you could try to find some tangential link with military applications there, but the same could be said for this work. Bottom line: They funded it because it seemed likely that it could give some insight into a fundamental aspect of nature.

Dr. Stupid
 
sundog said:
Help, Mr. Wizard! I don't want to live in the future any more!
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Maybe you won't have a choice.

Some predict that, as a result of self-replicating nanotechnology and computational singularity, we will all disappear in a flash within the next century.
 
espritch said:


Does anyone else besides me find it a little disturbing that this research is being funded by the Office of Naval Research and Defense Advanced Research Project Agency rather than, say, the Department of Health? Why would this work be relevant to Naval Defense? :confused:
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I can imagine a non-chilling direct military use for this type of technology: injury recovery. How many brain trauma victims can be saved from all sorts of injuries, or life in a vegetative state, with this type of technology?

I truly hope it works out and that progress can be made. I believe we are living in exciting times, and I mean that in a GOOD way!
 
BillyJoe said:
Maybe you won't have a choice.

Some predict that, as a result of self-replicating nanotechnology and computational singularity, we will all disappear in a flash within the next century.
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It's not so much that their predicting Humanity will disappear but rather that the ever increasing pace of technological change will draw the prediction horizon closer, not to say that in the future people won't disappear or be transformed into something else.

Most predictions expect to reach the singularity in 30 to 50 years.

Not that I'm holding my breath in anticipation, but I am content to see what happens.

The predictions are based on superimposing a series of S curves describing the appearance, rapid mastery of, and saturation of a given technology. If you superimpose a series of S curves you end up with an asymptotic curve reaching toward infinity at an ever increasing rate.
 
This reminds me of the Michael Chriton novel The Terminal Man. In it, the hero had a chip implanted to fix a brain problem, I think it was dyslexia or stuttering rather than brain damage, and certain unsavory people used this chip to control him and make him kill people.

The important thing with this new chip is make sure there's no antennae sticking out of your head to allow people to run you through remote control.
 
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