If something can make your body better without adverse effects, it is already there. You are not smarter than 3.5 billions of life evolution, period.
Well shit. Should I just take my glasses off now then?
Do It Yourself Brain Stimulation has Scientists Worried
61–70 of 123 posts
Re: Do It Yourself Brain Stimulation has Scientists Worried
#62I'm actually a PhD student studying this exact technology in Germany. I can say without a doubt that this type of stimulation has proven potential in enhancing cognitive functions (if proper protocol and safety aspects are respected). This is a really exciting field which I think will really explode in the next few years once the montage and paradigms are optimized (which is exactly what I'm working on!)
Can you point to some (respected) publications on the field that can prove cognitive enhancement?
Re: Do It Yourself Brain Stimulation has Scientists Worried
#63I am convinced that at some point some smart sod will figure out how to create a 'high' by using something along the lines of this. Put on a headband, flick the switch, and blam! high as a kite. Turn the switch off, and back to being sober. When that happens, the world will change in a very unpredictable way. Billions, perhaps trillions of dollars that are part of the drug trade will suddenly have no where to go. All…
"Billions, perhaps trillions of dollars that are part of the drug trade " Serious question. If the friction is removed (illegality is friction) and this process is legal and available what will prevent people from deteriorating into 24/7 pleasure seekers (much like some people get addicted and spend their life in crack houses?)
Arn't most of us '24/7 pleasure seekers' even though we don't use drugs?
Re: Do It Yourself Brain Stimulation has Scientists Worried
#64I applaud these DIYers. If there's one thing my PhD stint taught me, it's that the high stakes nature of dead ends in one's science career has forced most scientists to be extremely conservative in what they write grants for. I fully expect the next large advances in biohacking to emerge from people working in their garages and hackerspaces while collaborating online, not from a lab on NSF funding.
Re: Do It Yourself Brain Stimulation has Scientists Worried
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think what you've just described is Larry Niven's "wirehead." In Larry Niven's Known Space stories, a wirehead is someone who has been fitted with an electronic brain implant (called a "droud" in the stories) to stimulate the pleasure centres of their brain. In the Known Space universe, wireheading is the most addictive habit known (Louis Wu is the only given example of a recovered addict), and wireheads usually di…
We already have wireheading, but the surgery is too invasive for it to be anything but an obscure curiosity.
There is a lot of ambiguity about whether we are able to activate pleasure or merely activate wanting.
Re: Do It Yourself Brain Stimulation has Scientists Worried
#66I'm actually a PhD student studying this exact technology in Germany. I can say without a doubt that this type of stimulation has proven potential in enhancing cognitive functions (if proper protocol and safety aspects are respected). This is a really exciting field which I think will really explode in the next few years once the montage and paradigms are optimized (which is exactly what I'm working on!)
As an IT professional with enough EE knowledge to be dangerous, I've used a home made version to increase the rate at which I learn foreign languages.
Care to shed more information on this? How well did it work? Were the effects long term or temporary?
Re: Do It Yourself Brain Stimulation has Scientists Worried
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
We already have wireheading, but the surgery is too invasive for it to be anything but an obscure curiosity.
There is a lot of ambiguity about whether we are able to activate pleasure or merely activate wanting.
Seems pretty easy to test, though hard to test ethically perhaps. Wire someone up, flip the switch, tell them that they can turn it off if they don't like it. If they like it, then is it not by definition pleasure? Perhaps they find "wanting" to be pleasurable, but I know that I for one do not.
Re: Do It Yourself Brain Stimulation has Scientists Worried
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
As an IT professional with enough EE knowledge to be dangerous, I've used a home made version to increase the rate at which I learn foreign languages.
Care to shed more information on this? How well did it work? Were the effects long term or temporary?
Sure. Ask away.
It worked extremely well. I feel that I typically have a very hard time concentrating on learning new skills due to day-to-day constant context switching (I'm a Sysadmin/Devops by day).
I use Modafinil to focus and tCDS to boost my skills acquisition/retention rate. I haven't done any sort of study on myself to measure control vs tCDS time, but I definitely "feel" an increased rate of moving up the skills ladder (in this case, learning French, Spanish, and Russian).
Re: Do It Yourself Brain Stimulation has Scientists Worried
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Billions, perhaps trillions of dollars that are part of the drug trade " Serious question. If the friction is removed (illegality is friction) and this process is legal and available what will prevent people from deteriorating into 24/7 pleasure seekers (much like some people get addicted and spend their life in crack houses?)
But without the illegality and high cost, it's not so bad. You get a bunch of people hanging out high without all the robbery, extortion, prostitution, and organized crime. A bunch of harmless pleasure seekers doesn't seem like a major issue without all that other stuff.
"You get a bunch of people hanging out high"
Doesn't that assume though that the "bunch" is a bunch of the same size?
I would argue that the bunch will become larger that is that more people with a predisposition will get hooked on the high.
Of course we don't know that number. Could be 1% higher could be 20% higher. Compared to the other societal costs people might judge it to be a fair tradeoff. Or not.
Re: Do It Yourself Brain Stimulation has Scientists Worried
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a lot of ambiguity about whether we are able to activate pleasure or merely activate wanting.
Seems pretty easy to test, though hard to test ethically perhaps. Wire someone up, flip the switch, tell them that they can turn it off if they don't like it. If they like it, then is it not by definition pleasure? Perhaps they find "wanting" to be pleasurable, but I know that I for one do not.
it has been tried on humans only twice AFAIK