OT: Hardware-to-Organism Interfaces (h2oi)

[Nocturnal]

But Henriquez and other neuroengineers do see one particularly enormous roadblock in the way of DARPA's goal. According to Rudolph, it would be unethical to implant electrodes in the heads of healthy soldiers.

HA! HA! HA! HA! HA HA! Since when has ethics ever been a roadblock to military technology? It would be no problem to find a hundred fighter pilots and commandos who'd volunteer to have their brains drilled into.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

i know, but it has the potential. and someone has to bring up the problems, just to make sure we aren't doing lemming imitations.

[geoschmo]

New developments in this area...
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/fun.gam...eut/index.html

[Grandpa Kim]

The first one that occurred to me regards eyesight.

How about an artificial lens implanted in the eye. Take out the organic lens, connect the new one to the muscles and it should work as is.

A step further, small camera in place of the eye. This would need muscle and nerve connections to work the way we want it to.

[EaX]

As DMM said the first thing that came up was the borgs, but i think it can be usefull as long we don't end as the borgs jajaj

[Gandalf Parker]

The problem I see (as a 16 hour a day Internet worker) would be the dangers from the temptations involved with direct neural feeds. Sure Id love to talk around and do my internet job, but Id probably just veg out on the couch and later the bed. Eventually the machines would have to feed me. Eventually they may have to get power from me to keep taking care of me to keep me in the virtual world... seeing the path? I always said the Matrix didnt have to be forced on people, it would have made alot of sense if they had said we went to it voluntarily.

I never did think the BORG was realistic. The idea of pursuing perfection by putting more and more people into a collective mind. I have internet. I can SEE that doesnt work.

[ June 15, 2004, 21:11: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

[Deth B0y]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
Eventually the machines would have to feed me. Eventually they may have to get power from me to keep taking care of me to keep me in the virtual world... seeing the path? I always said the Matrix didnt have to be forced on people, it would have made alot of sense if they had said we went to it voluntarily.

And what, as they say, is wrong with that?

Although my own belief structure is centered around being actually uploaded into a machine, i see nothing at all wrong with relying on machines to keep us alive.

They have kept us alive for millenia, after all - from the first time one of our ancestors picked up a stick and whacked one of his enemies half way across the clearing with a skull fracture, we've relied on machines to keep us going, and just not realized it.

Alot of people talk about us becoming cyborgs or such as if it's some sci-fi concept. But we've been cyborgs for our entire history as a species; when it was cold we wore fur. When we had to travel great distances we invented cars and trains and ships and planes. We're already cyborgs, we just need to take the next bold step of getting the technology implanted within us, instead of laying around outside of us.

Though i'm not fond of the matrix, i must also bring up a truth that it revealed: if it tastes like a steak, smells like a steak, looks like a steak, and behaves just like a steak: it's a steak, man. Imagine if no one went hungry, or ever felt sick, or ever got tired. It's impossible in the flesh world - but it's possible in a digital one. That's a big part of why i push so hard for it as a transhumanist.

[Randallw]

Originally posted by Puke:
according to the report the day they were going to field test it, they let it out of their van and watched in horror as it was run over by a car.

I saw a documentary on spys hosted by Roger Moore a week or two ago. A bit of it was this story but it was americans and they only put a transmitter on the cats collar. Cat ended the same way though. The funniest bit of the Documentary was when Roger Moore, wearing a dinner suit, informs us that real spys don't go around wearing dinner suits ("Where would you get such an idea")

[se5a]

I dont think wetwiring is all that far off, I would jump at the chance to be able to sit in a chair and just "plug in"
but yes, as gandalf parker has stated - there are MASSIVE problems with people who cant control themselfs, hell we have enough couch potatos as it is!
the only way I can think of around that would be to have you strung up like a pupet and have you excersizing as you are 'playing' round in ciberspace...

and then there are problems like you had in the matrix, would you realy die if you died while you were in there?
I would not be suprised if that were the case, the brain is a powerfull thing and capable of deceving even itself.

[dogscoff]

and then there are problems like you had in the matrix, would you realy die if you died while you were in there?
I would not be suprised if that were the case, the brain is a powerfull thing and capable of deceving even itself.

No, you wouldn't necessarily die. Do you die every time you get shot in {insert favourite fps game here} As long as you know it's just a simulation it would be no different to playing games today, just more realistic.

If someone were plugged in without knowing it was a sim, they might well be traumatised somewhat, and ppl with weak hearts etc might even get heart attacks etc, but thebrain stopping the heart becasue it "thinks you are dead" is stupid. Even the most suicidal brain wants the body to live, and the body itself will just keep on working and healing for as long as it possibly can, no matter what trauma- real or artificial- is inflicted upon it.