The experiments involving implanting electrodes in the brains of primates and teaching the animals to control robotic arms and computer cursors have received much publicity in recent years. It seems to me that there are relatively few technical hurdles to implementing such technology in humans.

Who wouldn't want to control their mouse with brainpower alone. Or what about typing directly with your mind? We could drastically increase the information processing efficiency of the human race.

What is your opinion:
1) Should such technology in humans be allowed by governments?
2) Would you do it, if you thought it was safe?
3) How do you think it would change society?

Note: I am not talking about downloading memories or even increasing human brain power or storage, just a one-way computer control interface.

1) Should such technology in humans be allowed by governments?
It shouldn't be limited more than any oter technology. It depends on proving it safe.

2) Would you do it, if you thought it was safe?
This is the brain we're talking about here. It's the same reason I haven't had LASIK done. While people say it's safe (and it basically is), this is a VERY vital organ.

3) How do you think it would change society?
In the beginning, it wouldn't... until it was compact.

Then you get all sorts of things which 'in effect' increase human brain power. Mobile PC, thought control, and a earbud for feedback is pretty powerful... and -to the outside observer- increases your memory.

Most importantly... nobody using cellhones on the train:)

We're still quite a few years til anything is made of this. The brain is still a huge mystery. As Persol says, it's a very vital organ. Don't want to go mucking around in there without good reason.

I imagine that the first people to have these types of procedures done will be epileptics. Most of our brain research is done on epileptics. While they have their skulls cracked open to remove whatever bits and pieces may be causing seizures, they poke and prod and learn this and that. Of course, this leads us to a point where a lot of our knowledge of brain function is based upon damaged brains. An 'average' brain might be another story from the brains of these poor souls.

Personally, I can't wait til these things become mainstream. Hopefully I'm still alive. There is so much potential in the technology. For good and evil. As with any other technology, it could harm as much as it helps. And with a technology as potentially powerful as this, that means a lot. We'll need to be careful about having people to watch the watchers. This should not be allowed to denigrate to mind control or worse.

Although..... thinking about it more... the problem is lessened by the fact that it is 'one-way'....

the problem is lessened by the fact that it is 'one-way'....

For now. Once it begins, how long before it becomes two way? The best advantages of this system would require a two way interface. If all you wanted to do was to control a robotic arm or to remote control a toy car or some similar nonsense, then one way would do they job nicely. But, for any serious advancement to the human condition there would need to be a feedback loop. And in this the dangers would be great. But we can have no gain with no risk. This is always inherent in such things.

Inputing information straight into the brain is a frightening concept to me as well, and probably only advisable in extreme cases where people already have sensory deficits. Clearly it would present great risks in terms of impairing or confusing normal brain functions and sensory perception.

I do agree with invert_nexus that the best advantages would require a two-way interface. If I want to "type" messages to people over my cell phone straight from my brain while walking around town, I will need a visual interface.

However, our natural senses already provide a number of very high bandwidth feedback channels. There is no need to pump auditory or visual information straight into my brain, for instance, when it is sufficient to install a small speaker implant in my ear or a laser to shoot video onto my retina. Or just to wear headphones and goggles.

Just one step down the path to Augmented Reality (http://www.howstuffworks.com/augmented-reality.htm). :D
Personally, I can't wait. I'd love to make use of such things. I see no reason it would be disallowed.
It would make things so much more efficient and easy.

- http://www.google.com/search?&q=augmented%20reality&sourceid=firefox&num=30

I will have the honour of studying in the same department (dept. Cybernetics) as Prof Kevin Warwick of Reading University, UK when I start my course this October.

You may have read recently (2nd Aug 2004 'SUN' newspaper - my mum reads it, not me!) that he is planning to install a chip into his brain. He has already undergone £500,000s worth of surgery to install a chip in his arm, which allowed him to remotely control a robotic arm some 3000 miles away amoungst other things.

I absolutley cannot wait to get into this kind of work.

Deus Ex style mods I think are a bit far off, but I would like to see mankind augmented to increase his physical/mental functionality.

Interesting times...

Warwick the cyborg, eh?

Good luck.

My Neural interface SF story
http://www.orionsarm.com/stories/Cantaloupe_Terrain.html

Warwick struck me as a bit barmy but I'm sure he's dead clever.

And so will I be when I can figure out how to get this darn chip in my brain.

Some other scientists made a microchip, and planted snail neurons on it. They managed to get the neurons to interact with the chip. There's where you have the two-way system. I can't see plugging it into my brain though. Perhaps my arm though. I'd imagine a nerve in another part of the body would be easier to understand, and less risky to deal with. How would that be for playing video games?

playing games would be so cool just to think i want to look down and to the left and your avatar does that.

The problem really is privacy and holes in the product. You dont want it wireless that leaves open bad things.

So I would say wired though a induction plate in the back of your skull and the interface/firewall to protect your mind would be like volume nobs to prevent some one overloading your mind with infromation. Or how would you like it if some one sent a signal to you of a red hot poker bing stabed into your eye? Do you really want it to go strait to your brain with out some sort of filtering?

if it can understand commands you are sending back to it there also needs to be a mental mute button. So you think off and its off.. So some one cant force you to undergo somthing in your mind that you dont want.

new crime MIND RAPE hehe...

Mind rape, I guess you could use someones processing power for your own functions (such as contributing to distributed processing nets, like that cow-symbol thingy or NASA@home)

I think it'd be better to have no firewall, just good interface. Maybe a simple command interpreter that doesn't let you do crazy things.

there is already made a game which is controlled by brain only
have a look here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3485918.stm)

also have a look at this link (it's good) -> http://www.machinebrain.com/Advanced_Technology/Cyborgs/

but till real neural interface is our reality, this is a good midphase ->
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/27731_retina18.shtml

oh i get it, we american are getting so freggin lazy we don't even want to use our hands to type anymore!!! but what if it helped you be more free, rather than more of an office rat? wonder how that'd work...

Lazy?! The motivated amongst us could get even more work done - look at it from that persective.

Oh, I think interface with the brain is better done via the sensory nerves than directly into the brain. Brain circuitry is a real mystery, apparently, so that'd be the best way to do it IMO.

i was just joking, but what if we didn't really need to actually do anything? like, if you didn't need to actually type, technologically that would lead to not actually having to be at your computer, leading to not actually having to come to work, leading to the psychic ability to just lay in bed all day while your working. you don't have to live like this, you could be out and about and living while you work if you want, but considering the number of couch potatoes in modern society, i'm affraid of where the trend would go. not needing to get out of bed leads too... wait, not even waking up! that'd be the matrix, right?! wow, scary

You're implying work without concentration - without effort. It would still require considerable concentration and thinking to output meaningful 'work' at any rate over and above that which the conventional means would give.

In your world, btw, I would be one of the couch potatoes. I hate manual labour; the small about I have to do for my job drives me schitz. If it were just communicationa and mental work - I'd be in job-heaven.

Now what sort of fun could hackers have with this technology?

It wasn't me officer! A German schoolboy made me do it!
Dee Cee

Hacker battles would amount to mind wrestling!

Accurate interfaces may be a way off, but we already use interfaces. I think they are called eeg or ecg scans where you can see the electrical patterns in the brain. This is basic translation of brain (and thought) function into visual data. It is also possible to induce brain states with music and environmetal setting, so any important neural interfacing may have to be well shielded from influence.

The more accurate neural interfaces get, the more accurately we will have to be able to think i think.

I've had a EEG. It drew a load of waves with some plotting machine; I could hear the frequency of the waves being drawn as the machine would make a louder noise as it frantically wiggled its arms. Gritting my teeth, for some reason, created some very strange waves (and hence noises).

my head hurts now... but work without concentration might be possible if it taped into your subconsciousness, which would work while you did your day-to-day activities. I guess it would depend on the person if this way of life was totally awesome or an enslavement to the realm of the boob-tube and doritos.

The trouble with letting your subconscious mind do all the work is that you could unleash your 'Monsters from the Id'; you could end up doing a lot of things that your conscious mind represses.
Better keep a conscious, rational mind in charge of your work station, don't ya think

agreed, i forgot how many times I've wanted to do things on computers that I'd be SO dead if i did them in school... lol

I've had a EEG. It drew a load of waves with some plotting machine; I could hear the frequency of the waves being drawn as the machine would make a louder noise as it frantically wiggled its arms. Gritting my teeth, for some reason, created some very strange waves (and hence noises).

I'd guess that that effect was due to the clenching of your temporalis muscle.

EEG captures, at the surface of the scalp, the very tiny electrical fields produced by functioning neurons. Currents in neurons are produced by the flow of ions into and out of the cells; something similar happens for muscle fibers when they contract. When you grit your teeth, you tighten a large muscle on the side of your head (you can feel it with your fingers on your temples). I suspect this might interfere with the electroencephalography signal.