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>That is absolutely not the case, and we are absurdly far from anything like it. We haven't even been able to decode very much useful information from the "brai

>That is absolutely not the case, and we are absurdly far from anything like it. We haven't even been able to decode very much useful information from the "brain" of a nematode yet Huh? What?! Have you actually watched the update? They decode the position and movement of the limbs of a pig as it is walking, in real-time, with uncanny accuracy.

tsimionescu 6y ago
Yes, motor signals. This is not necessarily entirely new, we have been able to take simple readings of motor signals for years, this is 'just' pushing the frontier (not to say that it isn't a great accomplishment!). Thought processes though are a completely different beast, and we have no realistic hope of interpreting them at this time. We wouldn't even know what to look for. We're missing much more fundamental research in how thought works in even simple animals before we could have the first hope of finding something in a brain. Even thought processes such as 'that direction is more promising for food'.
- moralestapia 6y ago
  Oh, I see your point. Yeah, we are not even sure how consciousness emerges. But, for sure, some sort of crude i/o with someone's thoughts could be established, and not far away.
  - tsimionescu 6y ago
    I'm not even talking about consciousness, just basic computation in neural networks. How does the very simplest animal decide whether to move left or right in the presence of a stimulus? Can we influence that thought, not at the sensory/motor level, but at the computational level? These are unanswered problems in worms. They are unanswered even in single-celled organisms, or at least in colonies of single-celled organisms, such as slime mold. So I don't believe that any kind of IO will be achievable in the next hundred years, beyond possibly interpreting motor functions, and perhaps providing simple sensory input.

tsimionescu 6y ago

Yes, motor signals. This is not necessarily entirely new, we have been able to take simple readings of motor signals for years, this is 'just' pushing the frontier (not to say that it isn't a great accomplishment!). Thought processes though are a completely different beast, and we have no realistic hope of interpreting them at this time. We wouldn't even know what to look for. We're missing much more fundamental research in how thought works in even simple animals before we could have the first hope of finding something in a brain. Even thought processes such as 'that direction is more promising for food'.

moralestapia 6y ago
Oh, I see your point. Yeah, we are not even sure how consciousness emerges. But, for sure, some sort of crude i/o with someone's thoughts could be established, and not far away.
- tsimionescu 6y ago
  I'm not even talking about consciousness, just basic computation in neural networks. How does the very simplest animal decide whether to move left or right in the presence of a stimulus? Can we influence that thought, not at the sensory/motor level, but at the computational level? These are unanswered problems in worms. They are unanswered even in single-celled organisms, or at least in colonies of single-celled organisms, such as slime mold. So I don't believe that any kind of IO will be achievable in the next hundred years, beyond possibly interpreting motor functions, and perhaps providing simple sensory input.