Neuralink

In plain-speak what is it?
A robot sticks tiny wires in your brain called electrodes into very specific locations, in theory a computer can use these electrodes to detect the activation of nearby neurons and/or stimulate those neurons into activating with a very small electric shock.

How does it work?
To the best of my knowledge you train the computer connected to these electrodes to interpret your intent through supervised learning. It'll be something like holding down a button while thinking "I want a beer" then you think "I want a beer" and see if the computer recognizes your intent, if "I want a beer" appears on screen you press a button to tell the computer it was correct, otherwise you press a button to tell the computer it was wrong. As the theory goes with sufficient training a computer can be taught to accurately interpret your intent which will enable you to use the computer by just intending it to do what you want it to do, for example you read a math problem and wonder what the solution is and on your phone you receive a message with the equation solved for you.

Or better yet you could just know the answer if you do the same supervised learning process but this time you let the computer teach you how to interpret the stimulation from its electrodes, e.g. the computer activates a specific electrode and tells you it represents the concept of "one", this is repeated several times (because humans are stupid) then you play a game in which it activates one of those electrodes and you have to tell it which electrode was activated by pressing the corresponding button for that number/concept.

What does this mean?
Well in of itself Neuralink isn't going to make you smarter or your computer more intelligent, it's just a better interface between you and your computer so now you can play games and jerk off at the same time, isn't technological progress amazing? Okay aside from freeing up your hands to do other stuff, other tasks, or simply others, it will also allow you to access stored information by just thinking about it. Rather than googling the average airspeed of an unladen African swallow you can wonder about it and moments later your Neuralink will relay that knowledge to you as if you knew it all along, I have absolutely no doubt this feature will be use to Rick-Roll people. When Elon demonstrates his brand new Neuralink at one of his rock'n'roll-concert-like press conferences and some asshole pops up with a megaphone and yells "MIDGET PORN" I want you all to know that was me.

I'll be back to continue this once I've got "101 ways to abuse neural interface technology for fun and profit" out of my system.

maybe half your brain into cyborg storage, and the other half into human, and store and input information in the cyborg part?

Cognisant said:

To the best of my knowledge you train the computer connected to these electrodes to interpret your intent through supervised learning. It'll be something like holding down a button while thinking "I want a beer" then you think "I want a beer" and see if the computer recognizes your intent, if "I want a beer" appears on screen you press a button to tell the computer it was correct, otherwise you press a button to tell the computer it was wrong. As the theory goes with sufficient training a computer can be taught to accurately interpret your intent which will enable you to use the computer by just intending it to do what you want it to do, for example you read a math problem and wonder what the solution is and on your phone you receive a message with the equation solved for you.

Or better yet you could just know the answer if you do the same supervised learning process but this time you let the computer teach you how to interpret the stimulation from its electrodes, e.g. the computer activates a specific electrode and tells you it represents the concept of "one", this is repeated several times (because humans are stupid) then you play a game in which it activates one of those electrodes and you have to tell it which electrode was activated by pressing the corresponding button for that number/concept.

Click to expand...

Someone obliterate the facility that is impregnated with such monstrosity.

We'd all think that is fun. But then think of the massive privacy that will take place at the most damning level.

Imagine how behavioral economics is going to react ? It will experience the single biggest impetus of this century and after it finally exploits ways to hack our economical self, then I'd better commit suicide than be manipulated at every single turn.

BurnedOut said:

Cognisant said:

To the best of my knowledge you train the computer connected to these electrodes to interpret your intent through supervised learning. It'll be something like holding down a button while thinking "I want a beer" then you think "I want a beer" and see if the computer recognizes your intent, if "I want a beer" appears on screen you press a button to tell the computer it was correct, otherwise you press a button to tell the computer it was wrong. As the theory goes with sufficient training a computer can be taught to accurately interpret your intent which will enable you to use the computer by just intending it to do what you want it to do, for example you read a math problem and wonder what the solution is and on your phone you receive a message with the equation solved for you.

Or better yet you could just know the answer if you do the same supervised learning process but this time you let the computer teach you how to interpret the stimulation from its electrodes, e.g. the computer activates a specific electrode and tells you it represents the concept of "one", this is repeated several times (because humans are stupid) then you play a game in which it activates one of those electrodes and you have to tell it which electrode was activated by pressing the corresponding button for that number/concept.

Click to expand...

Someone obliterate the facility that is impregnated with such monstrosity.

We'd all think that is fun. But then think of the massive privacy that will take place at the most damning level.

Imagine how behavioral economics is going to react ? It will experience the single biggest impetus of this century and after it finally exploits ways to hack our economical self, then I'd better commit suicide than be manipulated at every single turn.

Click to expand...

its a recipe for tyranny. But the massive benefits it brings might make people ignore its disadvantage and abuse.

There's nothing about a BCI that necessitates it be networked, certainly they would be a lot more useful if they were and being open to the internet raises some security concerns however these concerns are not insurmountable, indeed our modern society wouldn't function without reliably secure network infrastructure.

Indeed an embedded BCI has the advantage that the only way to gain physical access to it would be to subdue the person it's installed in, not an easy prospect when the moment they feel threatened drones and robots swarm on your location.

I'm not saying it's impossible, certainly if such BCI technology exists and someone installs a hacked version in you by abducting you off the street (seizing control of hardware remotely via cryptography alone simply isn't feasible most cases) they could force you to behave and even think in ways that you otherwise wouldn't.

But that's not something you do to make a quick buck, I mean you could abduct someone and torture them for their bank account details and keep them in captivity while you drain their accounts, or you could just mug them.

You could abduct someone and surgically implant a hacked BCI or you could just send them an official looking fake body corporate invoice, say $50 for gutter clearing, are they going to check their gutters or just pay it to avoid a hassle?

if BCI is not networked, then it is just an improvement chip and not connect to the internet. How do we download information from some source then?

Well the simplest way to access external information without downloading it to your BCI would be to insert some kind of external media like a flash drive or SD card.

Your BCI can access what's on the storage device but the storage device can't access the BCI, it's effectively one way communication.

If the content on the storage device poses some kind of cognitive hazard that's activated by simply reading it, well that's just the trigger, the payload must already be on your BCI to be triggered. A self deploying payload like the memetic hazards of the SCP Foundation lore are... unlikely.

AI won't need a brain-computer interface to influence humans however it wants. BCI is not a risk, AI with a bad value system is.

If anything BCI is a gateway for humans to merge with restricted artificial intelligence entities and have some way of transitioning to transhuman / post-human status. They won't match the artificial superintelligence, but they will be operating on pure information similar to machine AI, so the playing field will be more even.

Once we have BCI we will start to be able to step outside of our brains, see how we work and rewire ourselves, change our values, limit our emotions, direct them to where we want them to be at all times. We will create personalities and visions for ourselves that our bodies will follow. Our minds will later become divorced from our physical senses and we will have far fewer biases and dependencies.

I think becoming post-human will be necessary as the existential risks humanity creates for itself are too great to survive. Any peaceful path to post-humanity is valid.

I much rather they build an artifical brain than brain implants, where you can transfer consciousness and memory to.

perhaps half brain and half artifical brain would also do.

still i distrust brain implants.

sushi said:

its a recipe for tyranny. But the massive benefits it brings might make people ignore its disadvantage and abuse.

Click to expand...

Nice. WALL-E: The reality in the making.