(no subject)
Popular Science:
"Nicolelis and his team are confident that in five years they will be able to build a robot arm that can be controlled by a person with electrodes implanted in his or her brain. Their chief focus is medical -- they aim to give people with paralyzed limbs a new tool to make everyday life easier. But the success they and other groups of scientists are achieving has triggered broader excitement in both the public and private sectors. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has already doled out $24 million to various brain-machine research efforts across the United States, the Duke group among them. High on DARPA's wish list: mind-controlled battle robots, and airplanes that can be flown with nothing more than thought. You were hoping for something a bit closer to home? How about a mental telephone that you could use simply by thinking about talking?"Whoa! Hold the phone, Gramma...! Is this not one of the most terrifying ideas in the history of time itself - for a kabillion different reasons?!? (And, true to my form, I admit I've so-far read only the first page of this article...)
First, let's talk about allowing someone to dig around in your brain when it's not completely and totally necessary, for the sake of "implanting electrodes". This is not a nose-job we're talkin' about here. Stuff goes on in this tissue! Real, important stuff! (And things, too!) An' while I'm forever being amazed by the advancements in Neuroscience, I can't imagine they can know 100% what all they're boring through - what electrical impulses they may be disrupting in the implant process. (And this is not even thinking about the possibility of things happening in the future - such as an accident or stroke - that could be further complicated by a previous process such as this.)
Second, while maybe giving a paralyzed person use of limbs may be a less stomach-twisting reason to consider allowing such a procedure, "How about a mental telephone that you could use simply by thinking about talking?"?!?!?!?!?!?!? Shit - I've decided I'll never have even a cell phone or pager! I'm not so important that everyone must have me that accessible at every moment, and have no desire to ever be that important. I'll avoid it with everything in me. Do we really want to be trapped into talking to someone who decides they wanna, and thinks of us? What if we're doing something where we don't wanna be interrupted? Going to the bathroom or having sex or something, and someone "calls" on our brain?
Following that thought, how many of us are good enough to shield errant or personal thoughts for this? How much can it be assured that it won't be transmitted, "Shit - my girlfriend's father is callin' while I'm doin' his daughter on the first date!"? (K - I fully admit it's a tacky example. But it gets my point across. There are some things you wanna keep private.) Or how many times does someone say something and you think, "Oh my GOD! What an asshole!"??? Do you really wanna risk that it may go through?
The third thing I'll bring up is security. They crack computers. If we treat the brain too much like a computer, I can assure you we'll see people trying to learn to hack through the security there as well. And when we imagine the damage a computer virus can do, imagine one hitting your own brain!
And to return to my own "Big Brother" issues, companies already feel they have the right to demand drug and psychological testing before offering a job, or to change the rules and demand one when you've worked for them for years. Do you think if they knew there was access into your very thoughts, it wouldn't be exploited as well? Or, "We're looking for a way to data-collect the thoughts of all who have such implants for 'market research'. So we'll have telemarketers calling the brains on this list, and seeing what they can ferret out..."
(Strangely, I've considered this a lot before now. In the context of what I believe of an after-life. Streams-of-consciousness brought on by stories of angels in wars, and how difficult it would be to fight a war with nothing physical for there to be threat of damage to. Maybe that's the purpose mankind serves. They can't kill, maim, or hurt each other. So they're given people they feel duty and love for as targets. But I don't really think the purpose is really all that simple. And also, the thought that we'd probably have telepathy and the ability to reach each other at will through thoughts. When you really consider it, it's not too desirable. One of the reasons I still don't have a clear belief of what an afterlife would consist of...)
Someone once asked on a message board, if they came up with a way to implant a whole library - dictionary, encyclopedia, literary works, technological works - in our brain so we had automatic access, would we want it? I wouldn't. It would erase my humanity, in my mind. But it wouldn't be even an option for me, anyway, 'cause I could never afford such technology. Whoopda. Another place the super-rich would be given advantage and control. (Yeah, I got issues.) Eventually it may come to the point where all could afford, but I still wouldn't. And I'd become one of the "stupid", and eventually the Darwin principle may take effect and one group would wipe the other out...
Anyway, that's my opinion for the moment. Keep your damned electrodes away from my brain tissue.
Thank you and goodnight.
"Nicolelis and his team are confident that in five years they will be able to build a robot arm that can be controlled by a person with electrodes implanted in his or her brain. Their chief focus is medical -- they aim to give people with paralyzed limbs a new tool to make everyday life easier. But the success they and other groups of scientists are achieving has triggered broader excitement in both the public and private sectors. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has already doled out $24 million to various brain-machine research efforts across the United States, the Duke group among them. High on DARPA's wish list: mind-controlled battle robots, and airplanes that can be flown with nothing more than thought. You were hoping for something a bit closer to home? How about a mental telephone that you could use simply by thinking about talking?"Whoa! Hold the phone, Gramma...! Is this not one of the most terrifying ideas in the history of time itself - for a kabillion different reasons?!? (And, true to my form, I admit I've so-far read only the first page of this article...)
First, let's talk about allowing someone to dig around in your brain when it's not completely and totally necessary, for the sake of "implanting electrodes". This is not a nose-job we're talkin' about here. Stuff goes on in this tissue! Real, important stuff! (And things, too!) An' while I'm forever being amazed by the advancements in Neuroscience, I can't imagine they can know 100% what all they're boring through - what electrical impulses they may be disrupting in the implant process. (And this is not even thinking about the possibility of things happening in the future - such as an accident or stroke - that could be further complicated by a previous process such as this.)
Second, while maybe giving a paralyzed person use of limbs may be a less stomach-twisting reason to consider allowing such a procedure, "How about a mental telephone that you could use simply by thinking about talking?"?!?!?!?!?!?!? Shit - I've decided I'll never have even a cell phone or pager! I'm not so important that everyone must have me that accessible at every moment, and have no desire to ever be that important. I'll avoid it with everything in me. Do we really want to be trapped into talking to someone who decides they wanna, and thinks of us? What if we're doing something where we don't wanna be interrupted? Going to the bathroom or having sex or something, and someone "calls" on our brain?
Following that thought, how many of us are good enough to shield errant or personal thoughts for this? How much can it be assured that it won't be transmitted, "Shit - my girlfriend's father is callin' while I'm doin' his daughter on the first date!"? (K - I fully admit it's a tacky example. But it gets my point across. There are some things you wanna keep private.) Or how many times does someone say something and you think, "Oh my GOD! What an asshole!"??? Do you really wanna risk that it may go through?
The third thing I'll bring up is security. They crack computers. If we treat the brain too much like a computer, I can assure you we'll see people trying to learn to hack through the security there as well. And when we imagine the damage a computer virus can do, imagine one hitting your own brain!
And to return to my own "Big Brother" issues, companies already feel they have the right to demand drug and psychological testing before offering a job, or to change the rules and demand one when you've worked for them for years. Do you think if they knew there was access into your very thoughts, it wouldn't be exploited as well? Or, "We're looking for a way to data-collect the thoughts of all who have such implants for 'market research'. So we'll have telemarketers calling the brains on this list, and seeing what they can ferret out..."
(Strangely, I've considered this a lot before now. In the context of what I believe of an after-life. Streams-of-consciousness brought on by stories of angels in wars, and how difficult it would be to fight a war with nothing physical for there to be threat of damage to. Maybe that's the purpose mankind serves. They can't kill, maim, or hurt each other. So they're given people they feel duty and love for as targets. But I don't really think the purpose is really all that simple. And also, the thought that we'd probably have telepathy and the ability to reach each other at will through thoughts. When you really consider it, it's not too desirable. One of the reasons I still don't have a clear belief of what an afterlife would consist of...)
Someone once asked on a message board, if they came up with a way to implant a whole library - dictionary, encyclopedia, literary works, technological works - in our brain so we had automatic access, would we want it? I wouldn't. It would erase my humanity, in my mind. But it wouldn't be even an option for me, anyway, 'cause I could never afford such technology. Whoopda. Another place the super-rich would be given advantage and control. (Yeah, I got issues.) Eventually it may come to the point where all could afford, but I still wouldn't. And I'd become one of the "stupid", and eventually the Darwin principle may take effect and one group would wipe the other out...
Anyway, that's my opinion for the moment. Keep your damned electrodes away from my brain tissue.
Thank you and goodnight.