[Mad Bomber]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/10/20/explorers.braingate/

I woulda posted this earlier, but of course there was The Giant Outage.

So, what do you all think of this scientific advancement?

[Flipside]

Cool!

I'd be slightly concerned about longer-term exposure to it though, I will wait and see

[Clave]

Excellenr!@!! ay lsat i haave a tool to conrol teh internt! oop -    I thinj the chp hass detaagced, oh crp!!!

[Flipside]

You could seriously screw some people up with a virus, come to think of it

[Liberator]

Well, when they decipher how to write info into the human brain maybe, but this is just an control device, I don't imagine it goes both ways.

[Flipside]

LOL I know, that's what the was all about

[Jetmech Jr.]

What if the person with the chip turn has ADHD? The whole using thoughts to control stuff scares me, since I have virtually no control over what pops into my head.

[Flipside]

Now, what would be really funny is putting this into someone with Tourets Syndrome and then letting them loose on an AOL chat room

[Ghostavo]

What would happen while the person sleeps? Like what would that device do if the person in question started having a nightmare? Call the police?

[01010]

Originally posted by Flipside
Now, what would be really funny is putting this into someone with Tourets Syndrome and then letting them loose on an AOL chat room

I think they've been doing that for years.

[Black Wolf]

Wow - this has incredible potential... think about it - they could use it to control some kind of body suit allowing them to walk again, or even directly stimulate muscles.

Sure, it's still early days, but it's a huge step in the right direction.

[Knight Templar]

Screw cripples, I want one.

Seriously, think of what this could mean outside of medicine...

[Liberator]

The first step toward Neural Nanonics and the end of individuality should a way be found to alter a human's memories or personality with this technology.  It has the potential for great good, incredible amounts of good actually, but it has an equal if not greater potential for evil given certain circumstances.

[Flipside]

True, but then that encapsulates just about every single thing that man has invented from the wheel upwards

[Black Wolf]

Originally posted by Liberator
The first step toward Neural Nanonics and the end of individuality should a way be found to alter a human's memories or personality with this technology.  It has the potential for great good, incredible amounts of good actually, but it has an equal if not greater potential for evil given certain circumstances.

Err... how? All it does is sample electrical activity in the brain, not change it.

[Genryu]

Do you REALLY think that no-one will try to see what happens if you change such and such current with this little gizmo ?

[Setekh]

Dude, that guy is like a Spartan-II! Now all he needs is an AI in there, too.

[Liberator]

Umm, I thought it was a Spartan Mark 5?

[kasperl]

As KT said, I want one.

IIRC, this works by basic commands for typing, such as 'wanting' to type something. It's not actual thought reading. (So you can think 'screw you asshole'  while 'typing' "yes, it'll be in your inbox in 5 minutes".

[IceFire]

Wasn't reading specifically about this device but I was reading about implanted chips into humans.

They have discovered that the Human brain is significantly more complicated than they had imagined.  The reasons that this technology works so well has little to do with the technology...they just provide the bridge.  The fact is apparently that the brain has more to do with the link being possible...it figures out what to do with the chip and how to use it.

Every persons brain is organized differently, operates differently, and is constantly re-writing itself.  Researchers used to operate beliving the brain had a code that once broken you could try and tie into.  Apparently this isn't the case...if the brain has a programming language...it changes every time you go to sleep or even more often.

So the be all and end all of the article that I was reading is that controlling peoples thoughts specifically is virtually impossible.  If you were able to locate a specific memory at one time...it would have shifted or been re-arranged the next time.  So yes you can probably stimulate a persons mood and change some things...but implanting memories through computer chips and changing specific things inside the brain is next to impossible.

It seems the other way around is more true.