Thought Controlled Electronics - Future Implications

[Grayman]

There are devices in the future that will be monitor your brainwaves as you play games, surf the web, watch tv, and view advertisements.

The purpose of this is to control your computer with your mind.
Think of how fun it would be to play a game with hand movements, expressions, and "thoughts".

Liked certain music? The mind monitor device will record this and prioritize your music for you so that your favorite music will available without searching for it. Imagine all the time you will save in rating thousands of music and movies! The computer will eventually anticipate what you want without you telling it!

Are they monitoring what advertisements you like? How about your thoughts? How about seeing what you see through your eyes?

How will this change the world. What would it be like? Will we never have to press another button or turn a knob or even type or say a word. Is it possible that all we will have to do is think? Will we eventually be melded into one mind. Perhaps the borg will be us?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40L3SGmcPDQ

Others

Spoiler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlxbDnv27dc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6EF0AjPzOw

 

[The Void]

The illuminati will have a lot of fun.
Then they will also know what we think not only what we write.
And with extreme machine dependance, mankind will devolve more and more.
They will turn flat. Their mind will turn to poop. Their lifetime will decrease even more.
Medicines will improve yet diseases will be even more.
Their natural healing power will decrease.
Minds will be closed.
Machines will rule.
And then all will end.
And with end there will be a new beginning.

 

[Ex-User (9062)]

Think of how fun it would be to play a game with hand movements, expressions, and "thoughts".

Let me rephrase this to make sure everyone understands that these interfaces are meant to work in both directions:

Think of how fun it would be to let a game play with your hand movements, expressions and "thoughts".

 

[Anktark]

Our last bastion, the mind, will fall. I wonder if there will be Divers like in Lukjanenko's Deeptown. On the other hand, spam and advertisements.

Also, just think of all the procrastination we would be able to do with this thing!

 

[Cognisant]

Bah you all lack imagination, a full BCI could be used for so much more.

For example would you like to do extreme sports? Assumedly they would be fun.
Why aren't you doing them? Because it's too dangerous for fun to justify.

With BCI technology we won't be trapped in our video games, life itself will become the game, extreme sport will go from motorcross and base jumping to sword fighting deathmatches in freefall from 32,000ft and playing "the floor is lava" by doing parkour in a live volcano.

Bodily death doesn't matter when your brain's safely stored in an armoured bunker somewhere.

 

[Architect]

At a conference a few years ago I played a demonstration video game controlled by your thoughts. Well it was really that if you were "in the zone" as measured by an EEG then you got extra points.

Separately I helped fund the "Muse", and EEG USB device with a developer interface, and should be getting mine shortly. This will have an API SDK for interfacing to the computer. Should be interesting.

 

[Grayman]

Let me rephrase this to make sure everyone understands that these interfaces are meant to work in both directions:

Think of how fun it would be to let a game play with your hand movements, expressions and "thoughts".

Entertaining.

Just so everyone knows the way the device reads the brain waves is as a summary of all brain activity. It is incapable of directing electrical signals back the other way unless the individual gets implants and gets a more advanced device. Possible? Yes. But many more years in the future.

 

[pernoctator]

Let me rephrase this to make sure everyone understands that these interfaces are meant to work in both directions

Or don't, because they're not.

 

[Cognisant]

I want to implant a few hundred internal myoelectric sensors, hook them up to a few recording devices (a couple of modified android phones on a belt should suffice) in combination with an EEG array (and maybe some potentiometers keeping track of my joints) so I can develop a statistical model of my brainwaves relative to the actuation of my muscles and the movement of my joints.

So if I ever lose (or intentionally remove) a limb I can use the model and an EEG to control a prosthetic as if it were my original limb.

A direct interface with the nervous system would be great but I can't wait forever, I might need something less sophisticated to get me through the transition gap.

 

[Grayman]

I want to implant a few hundred internal myoelectric sensors, hook them up to a few recording devices (a couple of modified android phones on a belt should suffice) in combination with an EEG array (and maybe some potentiometers keeping track of my joints) so I can develop a statistical model of my brainwaves relative to the actuation of my muscles and the movement of my joints.

So if I ever lose (or intentionally remove) a limb I can use the model and an EEG to control a prosthetic as if it were my original limb.

A direct interface with the nervous system would be great but I can't wait forever, I might need something less sophisticated to get me through the transition gap.

An incredible idea. Should be standard for military.

 

[Grayman]

At a conference a few years ago I played a demonstration video game controlled by your thoughts. Well it was really that if you were "in the zone" as measured by an EEG then you got extra points.

Separately I helped fund the "Muse", and EEG USB device with a developer interface, and should be getting mine shortly. This will have an API SDK for interfacing to the computer. Should be interesting.

I cannot wait for a public release. I keep thinking of all the things I want to make.

 

[Ex-User (9062)]

Or don't, because they're not.

Define for me these terms, please, just to check if we are using the same language:

1. future Implications
2. meant to be
3. bidirectional BCI

Thank you.

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

Or don't, because they're not.

Or yes, because who knows and why not?
One way is just a part of the story.

 

[Grayman]

Define for me these terms, please, just to check if we are using the same language:

1. future Implications
2. meant to be
3. bidirectional BCI

Thank you.

Your post was phrased in a way that seemed to indicate it was current and not futuristic. He was not the only one who took it this way.

More bluntly: You did not use the future tense forms of the verbs in your post.

 

[Ex-User (9062)]

Your post was phrased in a way that seemed to indicate it was current and not futuristic. He was not the only one who took it this way.

More bluntly: You did not use the future tense forms of the verbs in your post.

Well, actually the prototypes are already there and quite advanced at that, it is just a matter of streamlining production costs and setting up an infrastructure for the mass market.

Let me replace "meant to" with "destined to" and we can all be happy.

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

Your post was phrased in a way that seemed to indicate it was current and not futuristic. He was not the only one who took it this way.

More bluntly: You did not use the future tense forms of the verbs in your post.

It is slowly picking up.
Your personal computer and your cell phone works both ways and shares information with you and from you, extension of your ears and sight.

How did my post move behind yours? Anyway:

Transhumanist freaks:
I applaud this idiocy

 

[Ex-User (9062)]

It is slowly picking up.
Your personal computer and your cell phone works both ways and shares information with you and from you, extension of your ears and sight.

Yes, exactly, when everyone has a smart phone, it is very easy to integrate the hardware with these devices.
The best way is to look at this holistically.
This should give everyone an idea or two.
http://www.extremetech.com/tag/transhumanism

2021. There you have it.

 

[Grayman]

Yes, exactly, when everyone has a smart phone, it is very easy to integrate the hardware with these devices.
The best way is to look at this holistically

...

2021. There you have it.

I see what you are saying but I guess my intent was to discuss the implications of the devices I refered to. To me it is like we are taking a giant leap ahead to talk about something else before we determined the result of the first. Do as you may, I was just thrown off by it.

 

[pernoctator]

Let me replace "meant to" with "destined to" and we can all be happy.

Okay, but do you still mean "meant to" in the sense that it's the intended goal of the developers? My response would be the same if so.

We can speculate about the future, but I don't think we can extrapolate "working both ways" from this technology. The other way, if possible, would be a completely separate technology. I don't know exactly how this works, but I don't see why we should view it as any different from other human interfaces in the sense that it is a "third person" witnessing an effect of a human's choice:

Cause: You decide to push a key
Effect: A switch makes contact, which translates to an instruction to the machine

Cause: You think about rotating the cube
Effect: A recognizable brain pattern is produced

Of course you wouldn't expect that we could make a finger appear by sending a signal back toward a key switch. For the same reason, I don't think it's reasonable to assume that we could extend a brain pattern recognition technique to produce thoughts.

 

[Grayman]

Okay, but do you still mean "meant to" in the sense that it's the intended goal of the developers? My response would be the same if so.

We can speculate about the future, but I don't think we can extrapolate "working both ways" from this technology. The other way, if possible, would be a completely separate technology. I don't know exactly how this works, but I don't see why we should view it as any different from other human interfaces in the sense that it is a "third person" witnessing an effect of a human's choice:

Cause: You decide to push a key
Effect: A switch makes contact, which translates to an instruction to the machine

Cause: You think about rotating the cube
Effect: A recognizable brain pattern is produced

Of course you wouldn't expect that we could make a finger appear by sending a signal back toward a key switch. For the same reason, I don't think it's reasonable to assume that we could extend a brain pattern recognition technique to produce thoughts.

You're correct.

To control someone you would have to install implants.

The technology I refered to is like a microphone in your car that can monitor the sounds the car makes to determine if the car is turning on, increasing rpm, sputtering, or turning of. Granted it is way more complex to do this with a brain but the principle is the same.
No matter how advanced this tech gets, you will not be able to run the car with the microphone.
To control the car you need a wireless computer chip that can interface with the cars computer to relay commands. This requires a physical connection.

 

[Ex-User (9062)]

You're correct.

To control someone you would have to install implants.

The technology I refered to is like a microphone in your car that can monitor the sounds the car makes to determine if the car is turning on, increasing rpm, sputtering, or turning of. Granted it is way more complex to do this with a brain but the principle is the same.
No matter how advanced this tech gets, you will not be able to run the car with the microphone.
To control the car you need a wireless computer chip that can interface with the cars computer to relay commands. This requires a physical connection.

Guys, you seem to be under the impression that a tiny little segment of BCI technology, namely non-invasive technology is the gold standard and that's it.
But i think a combination of invasive and non-invasive components will be the ultimate synthesis.
This also means that, when we have mapped out the neurological functions in one direction, they can be reverse engineered in the other.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_magnetic_stimulation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eMTrUjJC_Y