A Chip is Coming Into Your Brain

[Nuroblav]

>authoritarian
>united states

Pick one.

I mean it's not NK level, but we can still pick both

[Latvijas Otra Republika]

That's gonna be a no from me, and here's why:
-It sounds too good to be true, Musk is known to exaggerate his products
-Elon Musk is a terrible person who got money from an apartheid emerald mine, busts unions, and uses slave labor only to take credit for everything his companies do
-It's a high-tech implant in an authoritarian capitalist system that's been known to track people
-kinda creepy imo

Authoritarian, capitalist

If you can still start a small business then that’s hardly ‘authoritarian’, just throwing big words around for no reason

[Cordel One]

I don't have to, we're an authoritarian country (except when it comes the 1%).

We have the greatest personal, political, and economic freedoms in the world. How exactly is that authoritarian?

None of that is true except maybe economic "freedom".

[Valrifell]

Probably by adjusting the amount of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine.

How would it do that? It's a chip, not a biochemical factory.

Electroshock therapy works in a similar way, it would stimulate the parts of the brain that are tasked with producing those chemicals.

[Valrifell]

Ok, so what exactly is the mechanism then? Because you seemed quite sure just a moment ago that it cannot in any way have an effect on the users thought process.

Because we don't know enough about how thoughts work to be able to do that

Consciousness is so poorly understood that we've barely got the slightest clue where, exactly, in the brain the think happens. The technology to control or listen to your thoughts isn't there yet. Though they would be able to measure brainwaves and the chemical balance in real time to get a general idea of what you're feeling.

[Lost Memories]

That's gonna be a no from me, and here's why:
-It sounds too good to be true, Musk is known to exaggerate his products
-Elon Musk is a terrible person who got money from an apartheid emerald mine, busts unions, and uses slave labor only to take credit for everything his companies do
-It's a high-tech implant in an authoritarian capitalist system that's been known to track people
-kinda creepy imo

>authoritarian
>united states

Pick one.

Why not both?

If you think a two party system is so much better than a one party system, democracy must also be a joke to you.
But prob Cordel One wasn't talking about the US, but the capitalist system, things like google knowing at what time you go to sleep every day.



Musk taking the most creepy thing from distopian sci-fi works and trying to sell it as innovative is a marvel to watch.
Brain implants to dispense drugs to cure things like Parkinson's already exist. But doing the extra step of:
1) having the chip mess up with electrical brain activity
2) having that chip wirelessly connected to internet
is extra creepy.

[Kowani]

I don't have to, we're an authoritarian country (except when it comes the 1%).

We have the greatest personal, political, and economic freedoms in the world. How exactly is that authoritarian?

You know it's badwhen the libertarians rank the US as 15# in the world on Freedom.

[Region of Dwipantara]

Because Musk hasn't made it yet, and he wants smart people to do the work.

Ok, so what exactly is the mechanism then? Because you seemed quite sure just a moment ago that it cannot in any way have an effect on the users thought process.

We haven't reached "streaming music into our brain" territory yet, which is still far fetched. Currently Neuralink's main promise, other than control of the production of dopamine et al, is data collection. Mental health, migraine, all of this can be collected real time and in great detail 24/7, instead of relying on anectodal stories from the patient. Things like depression can be thoroughly diagnosed with precision and treated in such a way that progress and improvement could be codified and monitored.

We are also already able for example to tap into the brain’s electrical pulses that control muscles, meaning that in the case of paralysis, the signal paths can be restored and thus restore movement to once immobile limbs. Non-medical benefits would include things like unlocking and opening doors with your mind or sending and receiving text messages as thoughts, of which the experimental tech also already exist. What's new is that this technology will finally enter market stage to the general population, being able to be mass-produced and implanted at a mass scale.

[Ifreann]

I'm sure it does, but it can't control your thoughts. That's just not a thing that can be done.

If it can cure depression and autism it can control your thoughts.

So like I said, it can't control your thoughts.

[Crysuko]

If it can cure depression and autism it can control your thoughts.

So like I said, it can't control your thoughts.

the technology will one day exist, this is just the tip of the iceberg

[Ifreann]

So like I said, it can't control your thoughts.

the technology will one day exist, this is just the tip of the iceberg

Not really. This technology doesn't actually do anything new. We've been able to put things in the brains of pigs for years.

[Crysuko]

the technology will one day exist, this is just the tip of the iceberg

Not really. This technology doesn't actually do anything new. We've been able to put things in the brains of pigs for years.

so we just kick the can down the road and cross our fingers that it won't be used for mind control one day. great.

[Rusozak]

Not really. This technology doesn't actually do anything new. We've been able to put things in the brains of pigs for years.

so we just kick the can down the road and cross our fingers that it won't be used for mind control one day. great.

I think people are overreacting. Do you know how hard and expensive it would be to give everyone mandatory brain surgery? No one's going to be pulling you off the street and sticking a chip in your head. Just to give one willing participant this chip is a big undertaking in itself.

[Nobel Hobos 2]

Not really. This technology doesn't actually do anything new. We've been able to put things in the brains of pigs for years.

so we just kick the can down the road and cross our fingers that it won't be used for mind control one day. great.

It will happen. If the luddites have their way and it's banned for (relatively) open medical research and treatment ... it will still be developed under military secrecy, for military and espionage purposes.

If you don't allow the ethical battles of its use by the general public, you'll have no moral limits on its use in war. If we don't become ethically alert transhumans, we will be ruled by fearless, ruthless transhumans ... just like any other technology. Use it or lose to it.

[Betoni]

Ok, so what exactly is the mechanism then? Because you seemed quite sure just a moment ago that it cannot in any way have an effect on the users thought process.

We haven't reached "streaming music into our brain" territory yet, which is still far fetched. Currently Neuralink's main promise, other than control of the production of dopamine et al, is data collection. Mental health, migraine, all of this can be collected real time and in great detail 24/7, instead of relying on anectodal stories from the patient. Things like depression can be thoroughly diagnosed with precision and treated in such a way that progress and improvement could be codified and monitored.

We are also already able for example to tap into the brain’s electrical pulses that control muscles, meaning that in the case of paralysis, the signal paths can be restored and thus restore movement to once immobile limbs. Non-medical benefits would include things like unlocking and opening doors with your mind or sending and receiving text messages as thoughts, of which the experimental tech also already exist. What's new is that this technology will finally enter market stage to the general population, being able to be mass-produced and implanted at a mass scale.

You think anyone sane would actually go through brain surgery to diagnose migraine or depression? No doctor would recommend it. From what I've gathered its portable brain scan, I have no idea how reliable the imagining would be or how precise.

[Crysuko]

so we just kick the can down the road and cross our fingers that it won't be used for mind control one day. great.

It will happen. If the luddites have their way and it's banned for (relatively) open medical research and treatment ... it will still be developed under military secrecy, for military and espionage purposes.

If you don't allow the ethical battles of its use by the general public, you'll have no moral limits on its use in war. If we don't become ethically alert transhumans, we will be ruled by fearless, ruthless transhumans ... just like any other technology. Use it or lose to it.

Use only for strictly medical purposes with a regulatory body ensuring that it's not used for any nefarious purposes. Anything else is frivolous at best.

[Nobel Hobos 2]

It will happen. If the luddites have their way and it's banned for (relatively) open medical research and treatment ... it will still be developed under military secrecy, for military and espionage purposes.

If you don't allow the ethical battles of its use by the general public, you'll have no moral limits on its use in war. If we don't become ethically alert transhumans, we will be ruled by fearless, ruthless transhumans ... just like any other technology. Use it or lose to it.

Use only for strictly medical purposes with a regulatory body ensuring that it's not used for any nefarious purposes. Anything else is frivolous at best.

Are computers frivolous? How about mobile phones? GPS?

At the early stages of any new technology, the future of it is so uncertain that fear prevails over hope. Sure, let technologists and medical ethicists lead the way at first, under a close eye of government. But at some point the potential for consumers to get something they want (an incentive which has been discovered) will break the technology out of the "medical regulation" box it used to fit in. What then? Government launches a losing War On Pig Chips? Arresting people and forcibly removing their "unauthorized" chip? Two years later, forced MRI's to find the new biochip or several that they have in their head?

I'll let you have your little box for now. It's justifiable to get a new technology/industry started in the right direction. But when the time comes, it's getting out whether government likes it or not. And hopefully by then we've established a human network so we don't have to trust corporations OR government to protect our rights when using the Pig Chip.

Also we need a better name. "Neuralink" isn't going to stick. "Pig Chip" isn't ... comforting or attractive.

[Kowani]

Also we need a better name. "Neuralink" isn't going to stick. "Pig Chip" isn't ... comforting or attractive.

I propose a prophetic one: Data Hack.

[New haven america]

I don't have to, we're an authoritarian country (except when it comes the 1%).

We have the greatest personal, political, and economic freedoms in the world. How exactly is that authoritarian?

Actually, out of all the developed nations/states in the world the US ranks pretty medium-low in most cases.

The countries that generally rank highest are the Nordic countries, Canada, New Zealand, and Hong Kong (Before China decided to bring down the hammer that is).

[Nobel Hobos 2]

Also we need a better name. "Neuralink" isn't going to stick. "Pig Chip" isn't ... comforting or attractive.

I propose a prophetic one: Data Hack.

Headfuck. Scalper. Pup. Zomb. iSocket. Rootkit. ParaSite. Thinking of bad names is easy.

[Crylante]

I propose a prophetic one: Data Hack.

Headfuck. Scalper. Pup. Zomb. iSocket. Rootkit. ParaSite. Thinking of bad names is easy.

iBone.

Eventually they'll remove your ears and require you to listen to sound through Bluetooth...

[Ifreann]

Not really. This technology doesn't actually do anything new. We've been able to put things in the brains of pigs for years.

so we just kick the can down the road and cross our fingers that it won't be used for mind control one day. great.

As opposed to what? Being loudly scared that Elon Musk is going to control your thoughts?

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

the technology will one day exist, this is just the tip of the iceberg

Not really. This technology doesn't actually do anything new. We've been able to put things in the brains of pigs for years.

Just like David Cameron.

[Salandriagado]

This is either just ignorant of the current state of learning machines, or defining what "AI" ought to look like in advance, and dismissing anything that doesn't resemble that.

In either case, we don't know what the future will bring, but our current technology shows very clear trends in the ways that machines "think" that make I, Robot look silly in the light of the modern industry.

Well yes. That's what AI is. Something that thinks. Like a human.

No. That is not even remotely what AI is.

[Salandriagado]

I doubt many people will agree to this, but if they do, we are truly doomed as a species. The only thing more disturbing than technological trans-humanism is the amount of people that support it. AI and robotics are an existential threat to humanity, and people like Elon Musk are on course to just allow it to destroy us because it might make life a little easier.

And why is robotics a bigger threat than, say, the internal combustion engine?