Wire Google straight into your brain

[bascule]

Sounds like that's what Google cofounder Sergey Brin wants, and to a lesser degree CEO Eric Schmidt:

 

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/03/google-ceo-eric-schmidt-on-the-future-of-search-connect-it-straight-to-your-brain/

 

Would you want Google wired directly into your brain?

[Shadow]

As long as it doesn't develop a will of it's own, why not? Would sort of solve the problem of education...

[Xittenn]

The human brain is a pretty ductile utensil. I think it will stand up to the introduction of this new technology and the attacks and flaws that will come with it.

 

I don't think it will replace education though as it will not develop a humans ability to process cognitive thoughts. Information is rather useless if one is not educated in how to use it. That said the infrastructure could be made to do that as well.

 

Is everybody else doing it?

Edited September 4, 2009 by buttacup

[insane_alien]

i'm not going to have anything that can communicate to the outside world directly wired into my brain.

 

to hell with that. i (and i'm sure everyone else is the same whether they admit it or not) sometimes have thoughts that i would never want shared with anyone.

 

i don't want one of those popping up on my search history by accident.

[CaptainPanic]

Yeah, good point insane_alien. I'd like to consciously choose when I send and receive any data...

 

Knowing the commercial world a bit, you'd soon be sued for whistling a tune which is copyrighted by the music industry.

 

Current internet technology is absolutely not suited to be connected to my brain... also not with a heavy firewall in between.

[Sisyphus]

Depends on the nature the "interface," I guess. I wouldn't want what he suggests: no thought reading. If it was just, for example, a direct replacement of monitor with visual cortex stimulator, and something like a virtual keyboard and mouse that operates similar to the way paralytics can move cursors by simulating moving a limb or something (or something more cleverly taking advantage of freedom from physical interaction but not fundamentally different), and it was unobtrusive and could be reliably turned off, I'd think about it.

[bascule]

i'm not going to have anything that can communicate to the outside world directly wired into my brain.

 

What if the device were wireless and used something like transcranial magnetic stimulation?

[padren]

Depends on the nature the "interface," I guess. I wouldn't want what he suggests: no thought reading. If it was just, for example, a direct replacement of monitor with visual cortex stimulator, and something like a virtual keyboard and mouse that operates similar to the way paralytics can move cursors by simulating moving a limb or something (or something more cleverly taking advantage of freedom from physical interaction but not fundamentally different), and it was unobtrusive and could be reliably turned off, I'd think about it.

 

That's not really what they are talking about - not so much the optimization of audio/visual interfaces (via direct link) but overcoming the shortcomings of such interfaces by communicating "what you mean" instead of "what you click/type/ask."

What's why it would need to get much deeper information. One thing I wonder about though, is the impact it could have on a person's conclusions. When you transmit data that is "conclusive" does that sense come from a mountain of data that the user can't assimilate, or does it come by communicating the feeling that something is a conclusive fact?

Gifted public speakers already do this in how they deliver their speeches to manipulative ends. Since the beginning of language we have been defending ourselves against evolving oratory attacks on our perceptions but we've never had to cope with direct assaults to the caliber of direct transfer of abstract thoughts and feelings. That side disturbs me more than viruses, data leaks and hacks - though not as much as where the stink'n google toolbar will go.

Edited September 4, 2009 by padren

[insane_alien]

bascule, wouldn't like that either. it still has direct access to my mind.

[iNow]

You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

[Xittenn]

Gifted public speakers already do this in how they deliver their speeches to manipulative ends. Since the beginning of language we have been defending ourselves against evolving oratory attacks on our perceptions but we've never had to cope with direct assaults to the caliber of direct transfer of abstract thoughts and feelings.

 

My first thoughts on this where along the same lines. With regards to a link up, how would someone launch an attack through such a device? What would a virus for the brain look like? I see it arising as something in the nature of mental abuse with a resultant emotional disorder! Maybe an emotional spam bomb........

[bascule]

Here's an awesome article on the coming age of brain/computer interfaces:

 

Playing With Your Head

The Dawning Age of Mind-Reading Machines

 

By Hilmar Schmundt

 

Imagine controlling machines, typing text or juggling balls using nothing but the power of thought. What sounds like far-fetched science fiction is gradually becoming possible, providing hope for disabled patients -- and new gimmicks for the computer gaming industry.

 

DIZ SENTENS IS WRUTEN WID TAUGHTS. No keyboard, no hands, no blinking even. I think, therefore I write.

 

My original plan was to write this article with nothing but the power of thought, but the technology of transforming ideas into characters is still crude and prone to error. The first word alone took a few minutes, and even after that the result was still "diz" instead of "this."

 

Still, that little sentence is like a little miracle. The old dream of mind-reading is slowly becoming reality -- though this time around it is the product of machines rather than the minds of fiction writers.

 

"The advances are tremendous," says Christoph Guger, the developer of a brain-reading system. "In the past, you would have had to train for days. Today, entering text takes only a few minutes."

 

Guger is an engineer and a businessman. But with his hair falling past his jacket's collar, he looks the part of a start-up entrepreneur. Still, he is certainly not new to the business. His company, Guger Technologies, which is based in the Austrian city of Graz, has been a supplier to countless brain-research laboratories for years. In addition to scalpels and medications, though, Guger also sells thought-transport technology.

 

Guger recently presented his latest thought-reading system at a workshop entitled "Brain-Computer Interfaces" held at Berlin's Charité, one of Europe's largest university hospitals. The new electronic interfaces between brain and computer are referred to as BCI.

 

[...]

[CaptainPanic]

Here's an awesome article on the coming age of brain/computer interfaces:

And here's the link to the rest: http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,644296,00.html

 

 

I wouldn't mind to have an output only: me controlling a computer with my brain. It'd surely prevent repetitive strain injury.

 

But I'm scared of the thought of the input into my brain. We have evolved important filters over the last million of years: filters that for example chimps don't have. We might just bypass a whole bunch of important filters if we start playing with this kind of technology.

 

An overflow of information really will not make you more intelligent. In fact, it's the filters we have that make us so intelligent.

Chimps have a better access to information (

- apologies for not searching for a better quality movie)... but it's humans that are more intelligent.

[Pangloss]