Upgrade Your Memory With A Surgically Implanted Brain Chip (bnnbloomberg.ca) 110
Bloomberg reports on a five-year, $77 million project by America's Department of Defense to create an implantable brain device that restores memory-generation capacity for people with traumatic brain injuries.
A device has now been developed by Michael Kahana, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, and the medical technology company Medtronic Plc, and successfully tested with funding from America's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). Connected to the left temporal cortex, it monitors the brain's electrical activity and forecasts whether a lasting memory will be created. "Just like meteorologists predict the weather by putting sensors in the environment that measure humidity and wind speed and temperature, we put sensors in the brain and measure electrical signals," Kahana says. If brain activity is suboptimal, the device provides a small zap, undetectable to the patient, to strengthen the signal and increase the chance of memory formation.
In two separate studies, researchers found the prototype consistently boosted memory 15 per cent to 18 per cent. The second group performing human testing, a team from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., aided by colleagues at the University of Southern California, has a more finely tuned method. In a study published last year, their patients showed memory retention improvement of as much as 37 per cent. "We're looking at questions like, 'Where are my keys? Where did I park the car? Have I taken my pills?'â" says Robert Hampson, lead author of the 2018 study...
Both groups have tested their devices only on epileptic patients with electrodes already implanted in their brains to monitor seizures; each implant requires clunky external hardware that won't fit in somebody's skull. The next steps will be building smaller implants and getting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to bring the devices to market... Justin Sanchez, who just stepped down as director of Darpa's biological technologies office, says veterans will be the first to use the prosthetics. "We have hundreds of thousands of military personnel with traumatic brain injuries," he says. The next group will likely be stroke and Alzheimer's patients.
A device has now been developed by Michael Kahana, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, and the medical technology company Medtronic Plc, and successfully tested with funding from America's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). Connected to the left temporal cortex, it monitors the brain's electrical activity and forecasts whether a lasting memory will be created. "Just like meteorologists predict the weather by putting sensors in the environment that measure humidity and wind speed and temperature, we put sensors in the brain and measure electrical signals," Kahana says. If brain activity is suboptimal, the device provides a small zap, undetectable to the patient, to strengthen the signal and increase the chance of memory formation.
In two separate studies, researchers found the prototype consistently boosted memory 15 per cent to 18 per cent. The second group performing human testing, a team from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., aided by colleagues at the University of Southern California, has a more finely tuned method. In a study published last year, their patients showed memory retention improvement of as much as 37 per cent. "We're looking at questions like, 'Where are my keys? Where did I park the car? Have I taken my pills?'â" says Robert Hampson, lead author of the 2018 study...
Both groups have tested their devices only on epileptic patients with electrodes already implanted in their brains to monitor seizures; each implant requires clunky external hardware that won't fit in somebody's skull. The next steps will be building smaller implants and getting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to bring the devices to market... Justin Sanchez, who just stepped down as director of Darpa's biological technologies office, says veterans will be the first to use the prosthetics. "We have hundreds of thousands of military personnel with traumatic brain injuries," he says. The next group will likely be stroke and Alzheimer's patients.
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No need, there will be a separate spelling co-processor for that.
Because godforbid you rely on your own effort and perseverance to achieve something.
New way to cheat on exams (Score:3)
Because god forbid you rely on your own effort and perseverance to achieve something.
Think about exams. Exam rules on only "reasonable" electronic help in exams have already been getting harder to enforce. Calculator features have been out of control for a while (for no good reason since we have laptops, tablets and mobile phones today), next came mobiles followed by watches and now they are implanting chips into your brain. At this rate, every exam is soon going to have to start with firing an EMP device.
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The device helps you to remember, while you're learning. The goal of the exam is to test your retention. If the device works, and you get a better exam score, then the exam is working as well as it ever does to determine who knows the material.
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Because god forbid you rely on your own effort and perseverance to achieve something.
Think about exams. Exam rules on only "reasonable" electronic help in exams have already been getting harder to enforce. Calculator features have been out of control for a while (for no good reason since we have laptops, tablets and mobile phones today), next came mobiles followed by watches and now they are implanting chips into your brain. At this rate, every exam is soon going to have to start with firing an EMP device.
Or just stop having simple multiple choice exams that are easy to grade. In my degrees, engineering and physics, you could practically bring anything you want except another person to the exam. If you didn't know how to do the work, you weren't going to get it done in the allotted amount of time. Even in high school english, the exam was to write a paper on a question you didn't previously know about a source you were supposed to have read. The same coudl be done for history or any other topic.
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This. I taught linguistics in a university in South America once. I gave at least one (can't remember if there were more...I need one of those devices, heck, I needed one back then) open-book test. The students (and, I heard, other faculty) were astounded, but they agreed afterwards that having the book didn't automatically mean they had the answers; they had to *understand* (not just remember) the topic.
Connectivity is the problem (Score:2)
Or just stop having simple multiple choice exams that are easy to grade. In my degrees, engineering and physics, you could practically bring anything you want except another person to the exam.
The problem is that by providing remote communication capabilities technology is doing exactly that: it effectively lets you bring someone else into the exam. That's why it is a problem and why not using multiple choice questions is not going to help. As a physics prof myself you can perhaps get away with that sort of policy for high level undergrad courses where you can set problems hard enough that even having access to the internet is not going to help and it is doubtful that the students will have any
Re:Great idea (Score:4, Insightful)
Because godforbid you rely on your own effort and perseverance to achieve something.
That is old-fashioned thinking. Few people grow their own food anymore. So why should people learn French for themselves, rather than just having the knowledge wirelessly inserted into their memory chip?
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On the one and I'd love to be able to plug in a chip and be fluent in Japanese, and then step into a teleporter and materialize over there whenever I like.
On the other hand I'd hate for everyone to have those capabilities because within a few years Japan wouldn't be special any more. All cultures would homogenize, everywhere would become overrun with tourists and basically the same as everywhere else.
Like one of those crappy world buffets where the difference between the national dishes is the sauce they dr
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everywhere would become overrun with tourists
Nope. ONE person will go on vacation, and then his experience can be downloaded and installed in everyone else's memory chip.
Didn't you see Total Recall?
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That is old-fashioned thinking. Few people grow their own food anymore. So why should people learn French for themselves, rather than just having the knowledge wirelessly inserted into their memory chip?
Because a bug in the chip will leave you to only being able to say "omelette du fromage".
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-I know French-fu! Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d'enculé de ta mère.
Don't tase me, Bro! (Score:2)
That is old-fashioned thinking. Few people grow their own food anymore. So why should people learn French for themselves, rather than just having the knowledge wirelessly inserted into their memory chip?
Because a bug in the chip will leave you to only being able to say "omelette du fromage".
Or you are ever Tasered, at which point you forget everything you ever knew. Also, hacking will (intentionally) cause you to remember things that never happened or forget things that did.
TFA's implant doesn't do that; it only helps your brain make its own memories. But research on the implant you are talking about is surely underway.
HIT ME! (Score:5, Funny)
HIT ME!
This is how it starts (Score:5, Interesting)
If anyone is worried about the rise of souless inhuman machines brought about by AI, this is how it starts.
The cerebral cortex is a repeating pattern of about 100 to 150 cells (per pattern), known as a cortical column. If you could peel the cerebral cortex from the brain, it would be a sheet about the size of a gentleman's handkerchief, and about twice the thickness of a credit card. If you could stain the napkin appropriately, the surface would be an array (in roughly hexagonal formation) of columns, each about the thickness of a human hair.
Strokes and other incidents damage portions of the brain. This is why stroke victims can survive the effect, but have specific damage that can interrupt their ability to communicate - sometimes in very specific ways.
If we had an artificial replacement for a cortical column - something that does the job of 150 nerve cells - then this damage could be repaired. A small computer chip could "learn" the responses that the original column had. Memories are distributed throughout the brain, so it would be a simple case of "if this set fires, then activate that set of neurons". There's also lots of information in the environment - your house, friends who interact with you, family photos and movies would all contribute familiar data that the replacement column could use to learn its job.
Eventually cortical column replacement will become commonplace, and the question then becomes: at what point is the person no longer human?
If one gradually replaces cortical columns giving each an appropriate time for learning and adaptation, eventually the entire brain could become artificial.
And this (the OP) is how it begins. Certainly rich people who can afford to have the treatments will fix their disabilities from stroke or brain injury. Eventually the technology will become cheaper and easier, and who doesn't want to help mom or dad recover from their debilitating state?
This will raise some interesting legal and philosophical questions.
Let's worry about them now, so that we are not caught unawares when it eventually happens.
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As well as the financial divide between people who can afford this and those who can't. Like adderall or Ritalin, you can fix a broken person or enhance a well person. Surgeries won't be cheap and like "plastic" surgery voluntary operations less so.
This too must be on the table for discussion. In USA if you don't have insurance you pay "list price" which is artificially inflated to raise the insurance agreement price. I've gotten a bill for over $600 and $580 was "adjusted" away. No one paid that. I paid $6
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Eventually cortical column replacement will become commonplace, and the question then becomes: at what point is the person no longer human?
I would say it's when they start shooting lasers out of their eyes.
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at what point is the person no longer human?
At the point they no longer think and feel.
The cortical stack or The Terminal Man? (Score:3)
Well the headline implies memory but it's really just brain stim so it's the latter.
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If "You" exist as more than a trick your brain plays on you to make sure you feed the right person when you are hungry, then "You" are undoubtedly software. What would it matter what hardware you run on? Sure, in a virtual brain, one could control the hormones and chemicals which trigger much of what you think and feel, but those options are available today in the form of drugs. We don't consider a drug addict subhuman, why would we consider a virtual human subhuman?
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The only possible answer that can eventually emerge is that a human being defines itself by its behavior. (Yes, that does mean serial killers and child predators would probably no longer qualify.)
That said, I'll take a whole han
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This will raise some interesting legal and philosophical questions. Let's worry about them now, so that we are not caught unawares when it eventually happens.
I think people worry. Individuals will ask and discuss.
This is a gap from what would really matter: How much society has internalized (and culture sometimes requires one or more generations to drift around) the responses, what is appropriate.
We bridge that somewhat having at least some people (those running legislation, those running corporation) be at least aware of these considerations. Kinda like what we're doing with genetics and cloning and stem cell and editing and such. I'm not saying it's working or
crazy bob's computer shop will sell them! (Score:2)
crazy bob's computer shop will sell them!
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Just stuff some FLASH chips in there- the neurons will adapt.
AC but I hope people read this (Score:2, Interesting)
15 to 18 percent is kind of crap. Read a recent story on Carbon Dioxide. You can improve your cognitive abilities by keeping your Carbon Dioxide levels low. (like: 600ppm instead of 1200ppm.) This has around a 60% effect in the study. Soooo... 15 to 18 percent improvement and possibly killing you with brain surgery? I'd ask: Why?
Direct-To-Your-Brain Ad Supported (Score:5, Funny)
For those who cannot afford this chip, there will be an ad-supported version at reduced cost, with ads transmitted directly into your brain.
In other news, "Ads Implant False Memories [wired.com]".
captcha : monolith
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For those who cannot afford this chip, there will be an ad-supported version at reduced cost, with ads transmitted directly into your brain.
In other news, "Ads Implant False Memories [wired.com]".
captcha : monolith
Breaking: "Brain Chip Vendors Have Been Selling Your Personal Memories to 3rd-Parties"
War (Score:5, Insightful)
"We have hundreds of thousands of military personnel with traumatic brain injuries,"
Jesus Christ.
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"We have hundreds of thousands of military personnel with traumatic brain injuries"
"We have hundreds of Congress Critters with traumatic brain injuries"
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"We have hundreds of Congress Critters with traumatic brain injuries"
And... we have millions of citizens with traumatic brain injuries who voted for the Congress Critters.
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Probably because in previous decades, they would have just died instead [military.com].
Re:War (Score:5, Insightful)
or, if we only sent soldiers to countries that attacked us, there might be 1/100th the number of soldiers with traumatic head injuries in the last half century.
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Do they mean right now or in the future after invading all the remaining countries with oil?
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It is not the war, it is the training.
It takes a lot of beating of the head until you lose enough brain capacity to be a good soldier or a capable commander.
Unfortunately, these leave marks...
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had to dump a chunk of long term memory... (Score:1)
https://youtu.be/Z2G7TswnP38 [youtu.be]
At least they used mostly used mostly dead (Score:2)
soldiers for test subjects in Universal Soldier...
selection pressure (Score:1)
I told you this was coming... (Score:4, Interesting)
I hate to say I told you so, but....
So the question becomes, will people with these kinds of chips have to also have easily recognizable tatoos on their faces so that people around them will know that everything that people do and say around them may be essentially getting recorded for all time?
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Yes. However, the tattoos will be a written EULA, and looking in the person's direction will make you bound to the contract, which also has an arbitration clause. If you want to opt out you have to send a notarized certified letter to an address specified in point 6 font on the webs inbetween their toes.
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You're missing the oppsite, you can suspress the signal to prevent the long term memory from forming. Expect the device to have poor security.
Miniturize it a bit more and place more sensors and now you can inject new memories by forcing the signals to match pre-recorded signals. Great way to teach someone and a great way to tourture someone too. Here's a nice tourtured to death recording of someone else. We'll play it for you on loop for a week and ensure it's all 100% engraved into your neurons. Enjoy
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Suppress what signal? I saw nothing in the description of it that suggested that it could somehow reduce the strength of normal brain activity... if a memory was going to form on its own, it still would... anything the chip tried to do would only make it more likely to form, but it shouldn't reduce it.
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Suppress what signal? I saw nothing in the description of it that suggested that it could somehow reduce the strength of normal brain activity... if a memory was going to form on its own, it still would... anything the chip tried to do would only make it more likely to form, but it shouldn't reduce it.
So you don't remember reading about the ability to erase memories? https://science.slashdot.org/s... [slashdot.org]
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I hate to say I told you so, but....
So the question becomes, will people with these kinds of chips have to also have easily recognizable tatoos on their faces so that people around them will know that everything that people do and say around them may be essentially getting recorded for all time?
Yes, Mike Tyson is one of the fortunate few to have already gotten an implant.
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That's my point, the brain is recording something.
I've brought this subject up before on the matter of right to be forgotten laws, suggesting that there should be no fundamental distinction between information stored on a computer and information that happens to be stored in a human brain. Both can be historical records of a type, but somehow the argument appears to be that the fallibility of human memory is somehow more comfortable. But if *human* memory can be augmented so that forgetting doesn't hap
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Resistance is futile (Score:5, Funny)
Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to the collective.
Forecast, Schmorecast (Score:4, Interesting)
"Connected to the left temporal cortex, it monitors the brain's electrical activity and forecasts whether a lasting memory will be created. "
I don't want to forecast, I want to _determine_ what to keep in memory (stuff I need for job and love) and stuff I don't. (gossip, Trump, movies and series, so that I can watch them again and again 'for the first time')
when do we start saying no ? (Score:2)
Is there a point , where using technology of any kind becomes unethical?
Many people seem to thing the answer is no.
Basically if it can be done, it must be moral.
I disagree, but seem always to be in the minority about how and when to put on the breaks.
Human beings do not belong integrated with machines on a biological level.
That could enable hacking into someone's thought.. (Score:1)