Today’s tech capabilities are nowhere near any of those fantasies.
#SIGNAL PATH THINK ABOUT YOUR MIND MOVIE#
When these types of brain manipulations get discussed, several sci-fi scenarios come to mind, such as memories being wiped clean in the poignant 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ideas implanted into a person’s mind, as in the 2010 movie Inception or people being tricked into thinking a virtual world is the real thing, as in the mind-bending 1999 thriller The Matrix. A nightmare scenario raised by several respondents: We turn into zombies controlled by others. Technology that can change your brain - nudge it to think or behave in certain ways - is especially worrisome to many of our readers. “My brain is the only place I know is truly my own,” one reader wrote. Such an intrusion would be the most important breach in a world where privacy is already rare. The idea of allowing companies, or governments, or even health care workers access to the brain’s inner workings spooked many respondents. Far and away, readers were most concerned about privacy. We described three main ethical issues - fairness, autonomy and privacy. So we asked Science News readers their views about recent neurotechnology advances. But most people don’t have the chance to weigh in, and only find out about these advances after they’re a fait accompli. “I have no wish/desire to be a zombie or a clone.”īecause of neurotechnology’s potential for both good and bad, we all have a stake in shaping how it’s created and, ultimately, how it is used. “The thoughts of someone accessing a person’s brain is absolutely terrifying.” A sampling of their quotes are on the following pages. We asked members of the public for their take on the ethics of new brain technology. But these abilities also raise questions about who gets access to our brains and for what purposes. The ability to hear neural chatter, understand it and perhaps even modify it could change and improve people’s lives in ways that go well beyond medical treatments.
With brain signals alone, users have been able to shop online, communicate and even use a prosthetic arm to sip from a cup ( SN: 6/16/12, p. Today, paralyzed people are already testing brain-computer interfaces, a technology that connects brains to the digital world ( SN: 11/16/13, p. Advances are coming quickly and span a variety of approaches, including external headsets that may be able to distinguish between hunger and boredom implanted electrodes that translate intentions to speak into real words and bracelets that use nerve impulses for typing without a keyboard.
Musk isn’t the only dreamer chasing neurotechnology. Whether Neuralink will eventually merge brains and Teslas is beside the point. Similar technology may one day help people with paralysis or brain disorders. Whenever Gertrude’s snout touched something, nerve cells in her brain fired electrical signals detected by an implanted device (signals shown as wavy lines on black). “You can’t argue with a guy who built his own electric car and sent it to orbit around Mars,” says Christof Koch, a neuroscientist at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle.
#SIGNAL PATH THINK ABOUT YOUR MIND FULL#
Some scientists called Gertrude’s introduction a slick publicity stunt, full of unachievable promises. Imagine being able to beckon our Teslas with our minds, Jedi-style. Future-minded entrepreneurs and researchers aim to listen in on our brains and perhaps even reshape thinking. But the ambitions of Musk and others to link humans with computers are shocking in their reach. Neuroscientists have been recording nerve cell activity from animals for decades. “In a lot of ways, it’s kind of like a Fitbit in your skull with tiny wires,” said Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, of the new technology. Those beeps were part of the big reveal on August 28 by Elon Musk’s company Neuralink. Each time the pig’s snout found a treat in a researcher’s hand, a musical jingle sounded, indicating activity in her snout-controlling nerve cells. Gertrude the pig rooted around a straw-filled pen, oblivious to the cameras and onlookers - and the 1,024 electrodes eavesdropping on her brain signals.
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