The Pentagon’s research and development division, DARPA—the creative force behind the internet and GPS—retooled itself three years ago to create a new office dedicated to unraveling biology’s engineering secrets. The new Biological Technologies Office (BTO) has a mission to “harness the power of biological systems” and design new defense technology. Over the past year, with a budget of about $296 million, it has been exploring challenges including memory improvement, human–machine symbiosis and speeding up disease detection and response.... I think in the future there are a wide variety of devices that can be controlled via neural activity, not just the assisted kind but also a kind able-bodied individuals could ultimately use in their everyday lives. Another thing we aspire to do in 2017 is think about neural technology in everyday life.
I’m really intrigued by using neural technology to change how we interact with each other, how we communicate with each other and even maybe make decisions. I’m thinking about cognitive assistance. There are a whole host of ideas about how it could help a wide variety of people. The door is just opening up to even think about these kinds of concepts, and to think about technology today to go down that road.
- Justin Sanchez - Director Biological Technologies Office (BTO) Neuroprosthetic Research
ARM Wants to Put Its Chips Inside Your Brain
Neural implants are all the rage in Silicon Valley. Now the well-known chip designer thinks its low-power processors could help make them a reality.
New technology could make brain implants a commonplace reality
Researchers at Harvard Medical School are preparing to begin tests for a new kind of brain implant that could lead to the long-term restoration of sight for blind people.
Unfortunately, the kind of electrodes that have been used up until now have not been able to make any lasting change as the scar tissue that forms after their implantation reduces their electrical connection to the brain cells.
The new implants have the potential to make a difference as rather than being implanted directly into the brain itself they’ll be able to rest on the surface of the organ beneath the skull.
The implants, that are being tested on monkeys in the next month, are intended specifically to stimulate the visual cortex in an attempt to create the sensation of sight without any actual input from the eyes themselves. (... kinda like the Matrix)
So, You Regret That Brain Implant. Now What?
If anyone understands the unique level of risk associated with getting a neural implant, it’s Dr. Phil Kennedy. In 2014, he was forced to fly to Belize to have a surgeon there perform an experimental brain surgery the FDA had deemed too dangerous for approval. Kennedy’s goal was to wire his brain with intracranial electrodes of his own design, with a plan to awaken with a simple, working interface between his brain and a computer, and a lifetime of all-new possibilities.
Instead, he awoke to find himself far more limited than he had been before. His movements were imprecise, and his mouth simply would not form the words he wanted. Dismayed, Kennedy stumbled through the first few days heavily disabled, plagued by headaches and other complications. It seemed obvious that he had made a huge mistake but, having put the devices inside his skull, what was there to be done about it now?
With months of effort, Kennedy was eventually able to regain his full powers of movement and speech, and in a recent phone-call with Inverse he made it clear that the experience hasn’t dulled his enthusiasm for the technology in the slightest. When asked how, given his ordeal, he feels about the prospect of having millions of people receive neural implants in the near future, he replied that a neurally wired world can’t come quickly enough.
“Even for people who are able-bodied, controlling a computer and accessing the cloud directly … I think it’s a great idea,” he said, with totally unironic enthusiasm. “I’m totally for it. It’s my ultimate goal!”... The permanence of coming neural implants is worrying for a number of reasons, but foremost among them is the fact that science currently has a much, much better ability to pick up brain information than it does to make sense of it.
Users might get an implant in 2020, fully comfortable with what it can do at that time, only to find that advances in brain science crop up years later to augment its existing mind-reading and -controlling abilities beyond what the user finds acceptable. ...
Video - Believe it or not, the nose thing is not an option.