From: hal@finney.org
Date: Fri Dec 08 2000 - 09:54:46 MST
Zero writes:
> This summer, a professor plans to take a step closer to becoming a cyborg --
> part human, part computer -- by implanting a silicon chip that communicates
> with his brain.
>
> http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/12/07/robot.man/index.html
The rhetoric seems to be getting ahead of the reality here. The chip
is being inserted into his arm, and it will clamp onto a nerve bundle
there try to stimulate and monitor it. At most I would imagine he
will feel a tingling sensation in his arm. There are probably millions
of individual nerve cell fibers in a single "nerve" bundle and so the
results are probably going to be pretty random.
So will Warwick's brain freak out during Project Cyborg 2.0? Will
the computer take over?
Not likely, said Kennedy, who has experience with chip implants to
help the disabled communicate.
"His brain should be able to adapt to the incoming stimuli, recognize
them and respond appropriately," Kennedy said.
"(Computers) have huge memory banks," he continued. "We have intuition
and insight the computers don't have. And we have the ability to
respond or not to respond.
This is crazy. His brain freaking out? He's only affecting the nerves of
his arm. The worst that could happen is that he could feel an unpleasant
sensation there, similar to when you get an electrical shock in your
fingers, or hit your "funny bone". And what does it mean for his brain to
"respond appropriately"? That is meaningless in this context.
This whole thing smacks of superstition and magical thinking. They are
writing as though the mere act of hooking a computer chip to your nerves
is going to open up a whole new world of consciousness. It doesn't
make sense. You can stimulate your nerves just by touching your skin.
Hal
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