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Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to boost the brain to keep up with AI

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Re: Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to boost the brain to keep up with AI

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been seeing studies since the release of the Inconvenient Truth claiming that the point of no return has been reached. I don't doubt climate change, but I'm very skeptical of studies positing a slippery slope of catastrophic proportions. It's true we don't know the cascading effects of increased CO2 and methane emissions, but that doesn't mean it the unknown is apocalyptic.

And hey - maybe we won't all die!

Humanity could use some thinning out.

Unfortunately we'll take a lot of innocent fora/fauna down as well.

Re: Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to boost the brain to keep up with AI

#232

My theory has been for a while it is human-brain interfaces that will wake people up to the issues of GPL(v3) vs BSD style licensing. No iBrain device is touching my brain.

It's hard to resist to a tech when everyone around you is uing it. It's not impossible, but it is hard. My mum was super anti Facebook when it first came out. Now she has one. I'm not saying you will have an iBrain, but myself for instance, hope that I will not have one. Maybe though, I won't really have a choice in a world where nearly everyone has an iBrain. Kinda like that show where everyone has smart contact len…

I wonder if these conversations are how we ended up in 21st century with old people adamantly refusing to use computers - at some point in their 20s they decided they don't want to have anything to do with this dangerous technology, and now they are 60 year old and unable to receive email. Will it be us in 40-50 years time, with kids running neural laces with ease, and we will be refusing to use them because we were worried about certain aspects of it?

Re: Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to boost the brain to keep up with AI

#233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am too. He's been successful so far, but it seems to me that at some point, he will be overextending himself, and will start to run into more failures. As a Tesla shareholder, I wish he would focus on making sure that company is successful. Just Tesla, with its car, power, and battery divisions, is a huge project for one person to manage.

Well, if the Neuralink works then it will probably make everything else easier.

Maybe he already has a Neuralink for himself, is a cyborg, and is just doing a parallel construction of it now.

Re: Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to boost the brain to keep up with AI

#234
post #228
post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like the vast majority of people calling themselves 'hackers' are digusted at the idea of merely hacking their brain. Shouldn't that be one of our main goal in life, as 'hackers'?

Maybe because if hacking a brain, is as easy as hacking a toaster or a heart transplant, we're fucked - pretty much.

I get what you're referring to: 'don't brick the firmware' or 'don't mess with the MBR'. But we're talking about a device for which the main caracteristic is, arguably, its neuroplasticity.

We can do better than blindly compare hacking a brain to hacking a piece of technology made in Taiwan (with all my respects to Taiwan).

Re: Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to boost the brain to keep up with AI

#235

Everyone is so scared of all of this, but where do you all realistically see humanity in 200 years? Living like we do now? I mean do you realize how different things were in 1817 compared to now? Unfathomable to them [1]. I know HN hates techno groups, but this kind of thing is not new at all to folks who consider themselves "Transhumanists." How is this not an obvious eventuality for everyone here? It seems pretty c…

In 1817, we sat in chairs like we do new, drink out of glasses like we did now, talked with close friends and relatives over coffee or tea, enjoyed music and books, etc etc. Of course things will change, but many things stay largely the same. Not only will most things stay the same, but the things that are unpredictable. Where do I see humanity in 200 years? It's totally unfathomable to me (although I'd bet on drinki…

Sure, I'm sitting in a chair right now, but I'm using my fingers to communicate with a person on the other side of the planet in real time. I daresay that's a bit more crazy than what object I'm resting my ass on.

While some things are the same, some things have drastically changed. It's all too easy to pick out the things that stay the same and declare "Look, fundamentally we haven't changed!" because the things that have fundamentally changed we are already used to.

Re: Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to boost the brain to keep up with AI

#236

Everyone is so scared of all of this, but where do you all realistically see humanity in 200 years? Living like we do now? I mean do you realize how different things were in 1817 compared to now? Unfathomable to them [1]. I know HN hates techno groups, but this kind of thing is not new at all to folks who consider themselves "Transhumanists." How is this not an obvious eventuality for everyone here? It seems pretty c…

The Amish will abide.

Re: Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to boost the brain to keep up with AI

#237
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Upvoted because even though that show makes me sick it does explain very important technological / cultural issues in a very, uh, visceral way.

Why or how does it make you sick? Also are you regarding a specific season? the camera work? The ideas/stories themselves?

I don't know enough about stories or reality to explain this better, but the episodes seem to have a lot in common with a bad acid trip.

Re: Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to boost the brain to keep up with AI

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this claim would be more credible if there were the any other characteristics of a religion present. Namely: Doctrine, rituals, totems, prayer, and above all it would require that there is some credulity to a higher power/state such as heaven/nirvana that will never be seen by humans. I'd be interested to see some of those as I haven't yet and I've been in the community for a while. What I will grant is that,…

> I'd be interested to see some of those as I haven't yet and I've been in the community for a while. Never been to Less Wrong, eh?

I've been to Less Wrong though, and this is not the place to look for transhumanist-as-a-religion believers.

Calling LW a cult is a stupid meme based on ingroup/outgroup thinking and a few cases where they may have got carried away too far with considering logical implications of the theories they were developing.

Re: Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to boost the brain to keep up with AI

#239
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This scenario scare the hell out of me. Is injecting/intercepting brain signals directly really the way forward? Do we really want to create monster human species? IMHO, future AI should be used to enhance human cognitives in a noninvasive way. Never in such a dystopian way as in the movie "The Matrix".

Eh. Brain stem, reptile brain, mammal brain, primate brain, neocortex, cybercortex. Half my mind is already in cyberspace, why not make it half my brain, too? Edit: Dystopias don't come from technologies, they come from people being shitty.

I am fine with using computers, mobile devices, VR/AR, etc. as long as I have the ability to disconnect and walk away, fix or replace.

What happens with the equivalent of drive-by ransomware on your brain? Send bitcoin to this address or we permanently give you a migraine?

Re: Elon Musk’s Neuralink wants to boost the brain to keep up with AI

#240
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Transhumanism in terms of belief in the coming of AGI / immortality / mind uploading / genetic enhancement / etc is just a new secular religion. They're taking it on faith that those technologies will arrive soon without any hard evidence. Surely the Messiah is coming soon, right guys? Right?

I think this claim would be more credible if there were the any other characteristics of a religion present. Namely: Doctrine, rituals, totems, prayer, and above all it would require that there is some credulity to a higher power/state such as heaven/nirvana that will never be seen by humans. I'd be interested to see some of those as I haven't yet and I've been in the community for a while. What I will grant is that,…

    > Namely: Doctrine, rituals, totems, prayer, and above all
    it would require that there is some credulity to a higher 
    power/state such as heaven/nirvana that will never be seen 
    by humans.
The Doctrine: Belief in the Singularity.

The Rituals: Writing talks about Singularity.

Totems: Arguably this is the lacking part.

The Prayers: Their talks about Singularity.

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