All things Science related. λν = c

[RedskinRat]

Researchers at Harvard University have created the first noninvasive brain-to-brain interface (BBI) between a human… and a rat.

Simply by thinking the appropriate thought, the BBI allows the human to control the rat’s tail. This is one of the most important steps towards BBIs that allow for telepathic links between two or more humans — which is a good thing in the case of friends and family, but terrifying if you stop to think about the nefarious possibilities of a fascist dictatorship with mind control tech.

In recent years there have been huge advances in the field of brain-computer interfaces, where your thoughts are detected and “understood” by a sensor attached to a computer, but relatively little work has been done in the opposite direction (computer-brain interfaces). This is because it’s one thing for a computer to work out what a human is thinking (by asking or observing their actions), but another thing entirely to inject new thoughts into a human brain. To put it bluntly, we have almost no idea of how thoughts are encoded by neurons in the brain. For now, the best we can do is create a computer-brain interface that stimulates a region of the brain that’s known to create a certain reaction — such as the specific part of the motor cortex that’s in charge of your fingers. We don’t have the power to move your fingers in a specific way — that would require knowing the brain’s encoding scheme — but we can make them jerk around.


Not responsible for any of my future posts.

[HailGreen28]

Originally Posted by RedskinRat

Not responsible for any of my future posts.

LOL, it was all the robots fault!

But a team of Swiss scientists yesterday demonstrated a robot that could do just that. They tapped into the brain of partial quadriplegic Mark-Andre Duc, who was in a hospital 60 miles away, the AP reports. A laptop decoded the electrical signals his brain was emitting almost instantaneously, then transmitted his commands to the bot.

[over the mountain]

Originally Posted by HailGreen28

LOL, it was all the robots fault!

But a team of Swiss scientists yesterday demonstrated a robot that could do just that. They tapped into the brain of partial quadriplegic Mark-Andre Duc, who was in a hospital 60 miles away, the AP reports. A laptop decoded the electrical signals his brain was emitting almost instantaneously, then transmitted his commands to the bot.

Just think of all the possible unintended consequences.

"I am in a very boring meeting. This guy just wont stop talking. I daydream about getting up and punching this guy in his face.

Crash! My robot kicks in the conference room door and punches the guy in his face instantly killing him.

I say ****, Im going to jail and have instant thoughts about being butt raped in prison. My robot interprets my mental image as a command and proceeds to fulfill command .."

wait a minute. this will never happen. Robots in I-robot were programmed to never accept an order that would endanger another human being .. problem solved.

[HailGreen28]

Originally Posted by over the mountain

Just think of all the possible unintended consequences.

"I am in a very boring meeting. This guy just wont stop talking. I daydream about getting up and punching this guy in his face.

Crash! My robot kicks in the conference room door and punches the guy in his face instantly killing him.

I say ****, Im going to jail and have instant thoughts about being butt raped in prison. My robot interprets my mental image as a command and proceeds to fulfill command .."

wait a minute. this will never happen. Robots in I-robot were programmed to never accept an order that would endanger another human being .. problem solved.

Well, like you said there's inadvertent thoughts. "Officer, I really don't know why my robot tried to have sex with that woman over there." (guiltily bows head as everybody glares at me.)

If we get that far technologically while I'm alive, I hope there's some filter or manual on/off control available. Otherwise, like you said, oh the possibilities for all kinds of stuff to go wrong.