Underlying Tech.
BMI (Brain Machine Interface)- a device which senses brain signals, and translates them to a machine in order to use the system with no other controlling mechanism, i.e. mouse, keyboard etc.
DARPA(Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)- a government agency responsible for the development of countless weapons and other military projects. Often they simply provide money to companies already working on projects of interest.
Cyberkinetics- a technology company which creates BMIs.
Synthesis
The brain is the most complex computer known to man. It can perform countless calculations in a split second. However as time passes, the calculations are being counted. Thanks to advancements in cognitive science and BCIs (Brain Control Interface) the brain's potential is being tapped into; it can control computers, and even robotic arms. the brain can now be directly connected to a computer. Imagine the secrets of the brain being used to control any sort of artificial device. Our brains would become the ultimate source of power. Scary? You bet it is. The government has plans to use the new advancements in military applications. This could mean that, in the future, unmanned aircraft, even manned aircrafts, could be controlled only with the mind. The possibilities are as endless as the human imagination. This technology is not that far away. It has been put in use in human trials, and thanks to DARPA funding; this technology will soon become common place according to Moore’s law. Because BMI’s will soon become widely available we must begin to consider what using it would mean. If our computer picks up every single thought we have, we will have to learn to practice controlling our minds, we don’t always want the tune we have stuck in our head to start playing on a media player. As this technology develops, we have to look at who is funding it; the US government, military, and DARPA. This could lead to a whole new kind of warfare, one in which the human mind is the battlefield. It also could lead to human brains being used as computers. Information could be stored on Human brains, and then retrieved from a terminal else ware. Because of the development of Brain Machine Interfaces, the human mind will become the most valuable resource on the planet. Also, once we understand the human brain enough to interpret its signals, why couldn't we then use BMI, to manipulate those signals? Your BMI could be sent a message which causes the correct pathways in the brain to fire, giving you the thought of whatever the message might be.SEI Analysis
People and Machines
People and Machines
This is a very crucial SEI to my articles. What will these machines do with our brains? Will it give us super powers? BMIs have only been tested for a very small amount of time. Nobody knows what the long term affects are of exposure of the brain to BMIs. BMI also help increase the effecency of computers, allowing for instant communication between the brain and the computer. If BMI's become wireless, than your brain could be attached to your computer 24/7, meaning you are never more than a thought away fom you computer or the news. This brings the relationship between humans and machines even closer. It becomes much harder for humans to distance them selves form technology. BMIs are very helpful for disabled people. many of them have difficulty controling their limbs to opperate a mouse or keyboard but thanks to BMI, they can have equality of access to computers and all their benefits. That is currently the projected use for BMIs, but this technology could have ramefacations far beyond allowing people with cerebral palsy to surf youtube, it an allow paraplegics to operate robotic limbs with thier minds, and computer voice synthesis could talk for someone who has a sore throat. No matter which way you look at it, BMI connects people and machines, with the power of the mind.
Privacy/Anonymity
As far as privacy and anonymity go, the primary concern is Mind reading. Mind reading was brought up in the second article, "Uncle Sam Wants Your Brain", and it will be discussed briefly in Control, but it is very pertinent to privacy/ anonymity as well. IF in the future people implant long term, wireless BMI in side their cranium, than that data stream could be hacked into. That means every single thought we have is broadcast for the world to see. Also in the future, BMI could be the primary way to communicate or locate someone. Your BMI becomes connected to your cellphone, home computer, and so when people call you, your BMI would inform you of the fact, and you could check your messages. Someone could choose not to use a BMI because of the privacy issues it brings. I would not blame them, not only will it reduce the risk of your thoughts being hacked, but often the world should not see what is going on inside your head. Also if the BMI of the future can manipulate your brain, then ads could be sent to you, and they might even be disguised as you own original thought. This is a very scary thought, that a computer could tell us what to do, and we would not know if it was us or the computer talking.
Control
One of the potential uses for this technology is mind reading, and while it is not fail proof; it still would be more accurate than a polygraph. If the government has the ability for mind control that could get really dangerous. They would be able to hack into our implanted chips to interrogate us. This violate our privacy, as well as a few amendments. Who ever has control over BMI which manipulate the brain, is in control of those brains, and has the power to feed them propaganda which they cannot ignore. Having the ability to control things with your mind could give a major boost to the person using it., but if a company makes the product very expensive, then they have control over the technology. In order to keep control in the peoples hands, the technology is going to have to develop so fast that the government versions are soon outdated. So then everyone will beable to read anothers thoughts. Parents could read their child's chip to see if they were lying about who broke the lamp, or even where they were. Who ever has control over mind reading, has access to total truth, or, at least what people know. But deception, lies and half truths will be impossible to tell to the person in control of mind reading technology.
Article 1 "BrainGate" Brain-Machine-Interface takes shape"- http://www.gizmag.com/go/3503
Article 2 "Uncle Sam Wants Your Brain"-http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/08/uncle-sam-wants/
First off, your second link does not work; it looks fine from the outside, but it actually directs you to “wierdscience” not “wiredscience”. Fortunately, I was able to look up the article in question.
ReplyDeleteThe articles don’t say a word about machines controlling brains, which is what nearly all of your SEI analysis touches on. The technology addressed is something that allows brains to control machines, not the other way around. While I agree it’s conceivable it could lead to those kind of advances, that’s not exactly the technology in question, and the connection is pretty much only in that they both involve neuroscience.
There’s a whole lot of “ifs” involved in this article, in fact the second SEI section even states “if” BMIs of the future can control brains remotely, mind reading is possible, and it will likely be better than a polygraph. I would have liked to see more regarding uses of the actual technology in the articles, not a related theoretical technology of the same field. The sources you have and your synthesis do little to support the line of thought between BMI and mind reading technology. It’s possible, but you did little to address the uses of the actual current BMI technology, which themselves have many impacts towards SEIs.
--Zev Feinstein
This synthesis was very interesting and well written. The article was very interesting yet terrifying. I think it is really interesting that they are tying to control our brains. I know that the brain is the most powerful thing but I don't think we should monitor the brain and try to use it with IT because IT is becoming more and more powerful on its own without the brain already. Your SEI's( Social and Ethical issues) I agree with. The SEI privacy i think is the best one. This goes against someones complete privacy, if it is monitoring your brain it has to be seeing what your thinking. What we think is the only thing that is truly ours that no one else can know.
ReplyDeleteWhat made you pick people and machines?
Can this cause anytype of cancers from the radiation off of the machines?
Why does the BMI machince have to change what is coming through the machine? Aren't the brain signals saying the right thing.
Your synthesis was very well written off of the article. I feel like you really did synthesize it. I really did understand the moral of the story and what was going on just from the synthesize.
-Anna A
Can anyone say "the Singularity"? That is insane that we are that close to being able to connect people's brains with computers. I think that it is probably a bad idea to go this far, because the risk for hacking and losing everything someone knows is too high with these interfaces. Once someone accesses a person’s mind, they could find anything out about them, which destroys all privacy, and also opens a HUGE door for blackmail. That is a VERY scary thought. This connectivity could also be very beneficial though, because for instance doctors would be able to perform much more in depth tests on patients and much more easily. Also, I was wondering if this sort of mind control could possibly 'fix' people's disabilities, by sort of replacing a part of the brain that doesn't function properly. I think that would be very cool. The thought of getting brain spam is kind of funny, but is also unsettling because first of all, spam is annoying, and second of all, the fact that they could be disguised means that they could have the equivalent to a Trojan Horse on a computer. That just makes me think more about viruses on a computer, and how they can make certain parts of a computer not work, so could people put viruses in your head to make your brain not work properly?
ReplyDeleteI think that the idea of using our brains to control things is really cool but scary at the same time. It's cool because you could fly an aircraft for the military with your brain, but if/when it malfunctions is what I'm scared about. What would happen if one of them malfunctioned? That to me is really scary because are you going to be able to stop a military grade aircraft from crashing into someone's backyard when it's being controlled by your brain? It's not like your controlling a dog where most of them will do as you say, I just wonder if its that reliable. I also wouldn't want some things to be controlled by our brains and I don’t want something reading what were thinking because some stuff should just be kept private in my opinion and I don't want to know what some people are thinking. You did a great job and I loved your articles. They were really interesting and kept my attention. Great job!
ReplyDelete- Devyn S.
This is a scary prospect indeed. the misuse and chaos that could unfold from this technology is limitless. Terrorist and criminal's could take advantage of this technology and cause anarchy easily without ever moving! Imagine if the technology was adapted so that nuclear missles could be activated with just our minds! But at the same time this would make doing everything we do alot easier and could be used to promote nuclear disarmnent as no one wants a WW3 and the prospect would be easily realised with this technology. The synthesis does a good job of drawing in the reader with the first sentence, hooking us in, so we have to keep reading. The section about mind reading is particulary intresesting and causes me to think of the book "1984" and the whole idea of "thought police".
ReplyDelete^^^^^ the one above is mine
ReplyDeleteNeil E. (there is no edit button >.>)