The more we learn about the brain the more amazing it seems to be.
It’s an extrapolation machine! From very little data the constructs and sensations we feel, the qualia are just incredible.
A prosthetic hand restored my sense of touch
11–19 of 19 posts
Re: A prosthetic hand restored my sense of touch
#12Not a direct comment on the article, and I don't want to be a Debbie Downer here, but aren't neural interfaces like Neuralink and other things the absolute perfection of means for societal control? No doubt they are unimaginably useful, but they're also a dictatorship's wet dream. Is it not only a matter of time before they're installed in every baby's brain by government mandate in authoritarian regimes?
I feel like this way overstates what we know how to do with neural interfaces.
Re: A prosthetic hand restored my sense of touch
#13Not a direct comment on the article, and I don't want to be a Debbie Downer here, but aren't neural interfaces like Neuralink and other things the absolute perfection of means for societal control? No doubt they are unimaginably useful, but they're also a dictatorship's wet dream. Is it not only a matter of time before they're installed in every baby's brain by government mandate in authoritarian regimes?
That, or getting perfect feedback on how people reacted to ads?
Re: A prosthetic hand restored my sense of touch
#14Not a direct comment on the article, and I don't want to be a Debbie Downer here, but aren't neural interfaces like Neuralink and other things the absolute perfection of means for societal control? No doubt they are unimaginably useful, but they're also a dictatorship's wet dream. Is it not only a matter of time before they're installed in every baby's brain by government mandate in authoritarian regimes?
Control how? Like inducing pain remotely?
That could be a very good way of torturing dissidents without leaving any physical marks. Beyond anything physical harm could accomplish.
Or controlling crowds of protesters by inducing pain.
Taking it up a notch, reading emotional states could help figure out the general mood of the population, as well as specific subsets or individuals, and either figure out how to make potential dissenters happy (à la Brave New World), or get rid of unsatisfied members of society (1984).
Finally, I think (not sure) I remember Musk talking about one day storing and retrieving memories via such devices. This would allow to pretty much rewrite individual and collective history. Most definitely way beyond our current technology’s capabilities, but way better than whatever Big Brother could ever dream of.
Re: A prosthetic hand restored my sense of touch
#15Whereas in this story, they search for the nerves and insert wires, I worked at the Rehab Institute of Chicago in the Todd Kuiken lab and there was some great research going on this area around targeted muscle reinnervation. Absolutely amazing to see patients out of surgery begin to develop movement in the new muscle groups--I most frequently saw the pectoral: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddInW6sm7JE&t=36s
Re: A prosthetic hand restored my sense of touch
#16For those interested in this area I recommend: https://www.psyonic.io/ It’s cheap and I’ve watched it be developed since the beginning. There are multiple ways to restore a sense of touch, this appears to use the method which stretches in the skin. There’s also a method of restoring the senses that uses electrical current. It was fun to watch all the undergrads in the lab electrocute themselves lol. The reality is sk…
Do you have a link to the electricity restoring sense of touch research? I've noticed the same thing by accident after some nerve damage and would love to be able to improve further.
Re: A prosthetic hand restored my sense of touch
#17Not a direct comment on the article, and I don't want to be a Debbie Downer here, but aren't neural interfaces like Neuralink and other things the absolute perfection of means for societal control? No doubt they are unimaginably useful, but they're also a dictatorship's wet dream. Is it not only a matter of time before they're installed in every baby's brain by government mandate in authoritarian regimes?
You won't need to force them on people... people will beg for them. Their use by the privileged few will in short time massively widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots.
Humans in capitalist societies will be split into two "species", plain vanilla lame brains like you and me, and the augmented super-geniuses who've augmented their brains with the sum total of all recorded human knowledge.
Re: A prosthetic hand restored my sense of touch
#18Deus Ex: Human Revolution, love to see it.
Re: A prosthetic hand restored my sense of touch
#19Thanks for a marvelous posting!