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Becoming a cyborg?

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C Elegans
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Becoming a cyborg?

Post by C Elegans »

A few weeks ago, it was announced in the news section of Science, a leading scientific journal, that Kevin Warwick, a professor in cybernetics at the University of Reading in the UK, are planning to connect a chip to the nerves in his arm. His aim is to see if a computer can read and communicate signals directly from his nervous system.

Part Man, Part Computer: Researcher Tests the Limits
Gretchen Vogel
Science 2002 February 8; 295: 1020 (in News)

By the end of this month, Kevin Warwick hopes to be a cyborg . If all goes as planned, in late February the University of Reading, U.K., professor of cybernetics will have surgery to connect nerves in his arm with wires leading to a "smart card"-sized collection of microprocessors. The wires will pick up signals from his central nervous system and relay them via a radio transmitter to an external computer that will record the patterns. Warwick hopes the device will pick up discrete signals from the nerves depending on his movements, his sense of touch, and even his mood, and then send those signals back to his nerves to see if they can mimic the movement or the sensation. Warwick's wife plans to have a similar implant so the two can try to communicate through computer-mediated signals.
<snip>
Warwick and others in the cybernetics community envision a world in which humans are able to expand their senses to hear ultrasonic sounds or see infrared wavelengths. "It's tremendously exciting. Can we in the future link extra memory into our brains? Why shouldn't we do something like that?" he asks.
<snip>
Such questions are premature, says Peter Fromherz of the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany. "Warwick is a very interesting person. But what he's doing is scientifically crazy," he says.
<snip>
Others think Warwick's experiment should not be allowed to proceed. (It does not require permission from a formal ethics board, as Warwick is experimenting on himself.) Political scientist Langdon Winner of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, for one, calls the experiment "profoundly amoral. Enhancing one's information-processing ability by connecting chips to the nervous system marks a very fundamental change in what human beings are." Should it become possible, he says, "then it is a matter for theologians, politicians, and citizens to address."
(Does anyone know how much of a copyrighted material one is allowed to quote at a public message board? Grrr - IMO all scientific information should be free :mad: , not only summaries and abstracts.)
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Post by AbysmalNature »

Interesting about the implants, I was aware they were trying implant work for giving the blind back their sight but was not aware they were that far along, would question though if they have worked out all the rejection issues such implants usually engender, of course that depends on the materials used, gold and one other material have no rejection issues, would also question the degree they can connect with the fine degree necessary to give a more direct connection with parts of the human sensorium.

At the same time I question the compatibility of a human brain with a computer, oh well can only find out by trying it out.
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Post by Weasel »

Originally posted by C Elegans
(Does anyone know how much of a copyrighted material one is allowed to quote at a public message board? Grrr - IMO all scientific information should be free :mad: , not only summaries and abstracts.)
Ask Buck or Fable... I believe the amount is very small. :(
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Post by Dottie »

This is great news, I wonder if he is looking for any more test subjects. :D
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Post by C Elegans »

@AbysmalN: I am not aware of any rejection/allergy problems from animal studies, not with these smart-card implants. However, I doubt implants have been evaluated long-term yet, just think of how many years it takes for people with titanium implants to develop allergy.
Originally posted by Dottie
This is great news, I wonder if he is looking for any more test subjects. :D
Contact him - this is official news, so his name and location is no secret :D His wife planned on testing a similar implant.
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Post by Moleman »

Great! Now I can really live like my character in Fallout 2. :p
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Post by Sailor Saturn »

I'm not exactly sure I would define someone who has a chip implanted in his arm as a cyborg, but it does seem like a possible first step towards a future like that portrayed in Ghost In The Shell. Whether that's good or bad, I don't know.
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Post by Ode to a Grasshopper »

Ghost in the Shell is my all-time favourite movie, not to mention the first anime I ever saw.

IIRC, there is some sort of brain implant being developed that will enable people to manipulate computers via thought just as easily as if using a mouse. So far it's only been tested on monkeys, though.
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Post by Alienbob »

Ive always wanted to be a Cyborg. :)
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Post by Robnark »

i'll just settle for a mob of evil genius cyborg monkey minions :cool:
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Post by Beldin »

Since I've seen ROBOCOP for the first time I wanted to be 'borged.

TAKE ME ! :D

No worries,

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Post by Tamerlane »

Originally posted by Ode to a Grasshopper
[BIIRC, there is some sort of brain implant being developed that will enable people to manipulate computers via thought just as easily as if using a mouse. So far it's only been tested on monkeys, though. [/b]
It's been incredibly successful too. Monkeys have been able to move mouse cursors at will. With no training and also obviously with no aide of a mouse.
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Post by C Elegans »

Originally posted by Ode to a Grasshopper
IIRC, there is some sort of brain implant being developed that will enable people to manipulate computers via thought just as easily as if using a mouse. So far it's only been tested on monkeys, though.
Yep, it was in Nature a couple of weeks ago, here's the summary:
Nature 416, 141 - 142 (2002)
Brain-machine interface: Instant neural control of a movement signal

MIJAIL D. SERRUYA, NICHOLAS G. HATSOPOULOS, LIAM PANINSKI, MATTHEW R. FELLOWS & JOHN P. DONOGHUE

The activity of motor cortex (MI) neurons conveys movement intent sufficiently well to be used as a control signal to operate artificial devices, but until now this has called for extensive training or has been confined to a limited movement repertoire. Here we show how activity from a few (7–30) MI neurons can be decoded into a signal that a monkey is able to use immediately to move a computer cursor to any new position in its workspace (14° [times] 14° visual angle). Our results, which are based on recordings made by an electrode array that is suitable for human use, indicate that neurally based control of movement may eventually be feasible in paralysed humans.
This is very good news for people with neurological impairments! :)
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Post by Ode to a Grasshopper »

Originally posted by CE
This is very good news for people with neurological impairments!

Not to mention monkeys who just can't wrap their heads around how to use a mouse... :D
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Post by Jace »

Interesting stuff CE, I read something about this in New Scientist I think (that is about as far as I go into science journals). What is your angle on this?

My understanding is that the cyborg stuff is not too far removed from any other computer input device with the execption of the workings being implanted. You would still have to go through a bio mechanical routine to provide the input.

I don't know anything about the technology behind the monkey esp device. It sound like something out of a realy bad Clint Eastwood movie (Firefox).
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Post by C Elegans »

Hello Jace and welcome to the board :)
Originally posted by Jace
Interesting stuff CE, I read something about this in New Scientist I think (that is about as far as I go into science journals). What is your angle on this?

My understanding is that the cyborg stuff is not too far removed from any other computer input device with the execption of the workings being implanted. You would still have to go through a bio mechanical routine to provide the input.
Heh, IMO New Scientist is the top popular science magazine together with Scientific American, so if you read New Scientist you should be well updated and have a representative view of what is going on :)

I'm not sure of the definition of "cyborg", I used the word simply because they used it in the report. As I understand it, a cyborg would be a person who uses technical, non-biological implants as a means to improve both physical and mental capabilites, and professor Warwick's implant should fulfill these criteria if they work as he has hoped, albeit in a very small scale.

My understanding of the technology used is limited, but I think your understanding is correct. Nerve cells, both the neurons in our brains and the peripheral nerves in our arm and legs, communicate with each other by electrochemical signalling, and all you need is an electronic implant that can pick up those signals. However, there is a vast difference between the peripheral nervous system and our brain, so the way to an interaction between our brains and electronic devices, is still very, very long.

I don't know anything about the technology behind the monkey esp device. It sound like something out of a realy bad Clint Eastwood movie (Firefox).
I haven't seen Firefox :D The monkey device is a complicated things, they have first identified a group of motor neurons that are activated when the monkey use a mouse the normal way, ie with arm and hand. Then they have made an implant which picks up the activity of the same cells and conveys the signal to the cursor.
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Post by Sailor Saturn »

Originally posted by C Elegans
I'm not sure of the definition of "cyborg", I used the word simply because they used it in the report. As I understand it, a cyborg would be a person who uses technical, non-biological implants as a means to improve both physical and mental capabilites, and professor Warwick's implant should fulfill these criteria if they work as he has hoped, albeit in a very small scale.
That definition sounds accurate to me, so I guess this would make Warwick a type cyborg, just to such a small extent, but it has to start somewhere, ne? I guess I've just gotten to used to things like the Borg, the Gunnm manga, and Ghost In The Shell. :o

Ghost In The Shell actually has an interesting concept stemming from the idea of cyborgs. Going on the idea that everything you hold in your brain is information, which isn't too much different from a computer, it would theoretically be possible for the brain to be replaced completely by cybernetics, or maybe just to an extent. In Ghost In The Shell, cyborgs could easily connect to each other's minds to communicate in a way similar to the idea of telepathy. They could also connect to, basically, the internet and get information even more easily and more instantly than we're able to now with things like DSL and Cable.

I do not know how likely it is for things like there are in Ghost In The Shell to come to be, but it does seem like this thing Warwick is working on is one of the early steps towards that type of thing being reality.
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Post by Jace »

I think I read somewhere that the next generation (or the one after that) of computer games consoles will have sensors that you physically plug into your body and let you provide input of some sort into the game as well as providing a sort of sensory output.

In some ways I think this is cool. A much more imersive gaming environment.

In others I think this is very scarey. It is bad enough that avdertisers can text message you. With this technology they can 'body message' you. :eek:
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