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A new brain implant automatically detects and kills pain in real time

singularityhub.com

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Re: A new brain implant automatically detects and kills pain in real time

#61

Post by bserge »

warent wrote: post #3

I always feel so confused by--and skeptical of--these kinds of brain implant technologies. It says: "The chip then automatically triggers a light beam to stimulate the region, activating neurons that can override pain signals." Isn't that potentially stimulating millions or even hundreds of millions of neurons? We don't know what each individual neuron is doing. How is it possible to do this without causing bizarre m…

That's how most drugs primarily affecting the brain work. Not saying it's a good thing, but in the absence of better options, anything is better than nothing.

Re: A new brain implant automatically detects and kills pain in real time

#62

Post by nszceta »

The Hedonistic Imperative outlines how genetic engineering and nanotechnology will abolish suffering in all sentient life.

The abolitionist project is hugely ambitious but technically feasible. It is also instrumentally rational and morally urgent. The metabolic pathways of pain and malaise evolved because they served the fitness of our genes in the ancestral environment. They will be replaced by a different sort of neural architecture - a motivational system based on heritable gradients of bliss. States of sublime well-being are destined to become the genetically pre-programmed norm of mental health. It is predicted that the world's last unpleasant experience will be a precisely dateable event.

Two hundred years ago, powerful synthetic pain-killers and surgical anesthetics were unknown. The notion that physical pain could be banished from most people's lives would have seemed absurd. Today most of us in the technically advanced nations take its routine absence for granted. The prospect that what we describe as psychological pain, too, could ever be banished is equally counter-intuitive. The feasibility of its abolition turns its deliberate retention into an issue of social policy and ethical choice.

https://www.hedweb.com/

Re: A new brain implant automatically detects and kills pain in real time

#64

Post by after_care »

hirundo wrote: post #37

If this technique can relieve pain it can likely also cause it, and also cause pleasure. So it has the potential to become a technology for human puppetry. Or for self abuse, as in Larry Niven's wireheads. It isn't hard to imagine various modern regimes willing to implant control devices into prisoners, criminal or political.

We can already cause pain or pleasure easily. This isn’t anything new. Think about how long the history of torture is.

Re: A new brain implant automatically detects and kills pain in real time

#65

Post by bigmattystyles »

As someone with very mild / low-intensity chronic pain, this is promising. My number one fear, limiting me, is that it will get worse, despite medical assurances that it's unlikely. Tech like this could remove that fear and let me live my life (though with my personality, I have no doubt I will find something else to fixate on). I'm working on it with current approaches, but CBT and ssri's only work so well on me. I won't touch opiates with a ten foot pole, though for now, I don't need them. If I ever did, I'm sure my tune would change really fast.

I have also been hopeful of CRISPR targeting of pain, mimicking those with a genetic congenital inability to feel pain. https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2021/04/01/could-crispr-gene-e... I am watching the progress, but when you suffer from pain and the anxiety from it, nothing comes soon enough. I'm also just a layman - if anyone here knows more and can comment on it, that would be cool.

Last, be weary of snake oil when it comes to any medical condition. Many are unscrupulous.

Re: A new brain implant automatically detects and kills pain in real time

#66

Post by mactournier »

Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) has some well-known benefits in short term, in diseases such as Parkinson's (ref https://www.nature.com/articles/s41582-019-0145-9). Although, long term effects tend to fade in a lot of cases, and some patients have permanent neurologic damage after the procedure. Although exciting, there are a couple of non-surgical treatments to pain that have to be tried before invasive approaches.

Re: A new brain implant automatically detects and kills pain in real time

#70

Post by bserge »

jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #17

Yesterday I visited a friend with late stage cancer. He hasn't eaten or drunk anything for a few days. He doesn't really talk or move around anymore. I was just thinking a system like this would be perfect for him, if he could activate his morphine pump every time he feels pain. It's hard for his family to tell when they need to push the morphine button right now because he's non-verbal.

Late stage meaning incurable? If that's the prognosis, why not just end their suffering?
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