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Not a direct comment on the article, and I don't want to be a Debbie Downer here, but aren't neural interfaces like Neuralink and other things the absolute perf

by tines 6y ago

Not a direct comment on the article, and I don't want to be a Debbie Downer here, but aren't neural interfaces like Neuralink and other things the absolute perfection of means for societal control? No doubt they are unimaginably useful, but they're also a dictatorship's wet dream. Is it not only a matter of time before they're installed in every baby's brain by government mandate in authoritarian regimes?

jayd16 6y ago
Control how? Like inducing pain remotely?
- ElFitz 6y ago
  That could be a very good way of torturing dissidents without leaving any physical marks. Beyond anything physical harm could accomplish. Or controlling crowds of protesters by inducing pain. Taking it up a notch, reading emotional states could help figure out the general mood of the population, as well as specific subsets or individuals, and either figure out how to make potential dissenters happy (à la Brave New World), or get rid of unsatisfied members of society (1984). Finally, I think (not sure) I remember Musk talking about one day storing and retrieving memories via such devices. This would allow to pretty much rewrite individual and collective history. Most definitely way beyond our current technology’s capabilities, but way better than whatever Big Brother could ever dream of.
bobthepanda 6y ago
I feel like this way overstates what we know how to do with neural interfaces.
_Microft 6y ago
That, or getting perfect feedback on how people reacted to ads?
markdown 6y ago
You won't need to force them on people... people will beg for them. Their use by the privileged few will in short time massively widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots. Humans in capitalist societies will be split into two "species", plain vanilla lame brains like you and me, and the augmented super-geniuses who've augmented their brains with the sum total of all recorded human knowledge.

by tines 6y ago

jayd16 6y ago

Control how? Like inducing pain remotely?

ElFitz 6y ago
That could be a very good way of torturing dissidents without leaving any physical marks. Beyond anything physical harm could accomplish. Or controlling crowds of protesters by inducing pain. Taking it up a notch, reading emotional states could help figure out the general mood of the population, as well as specific subsets or individuals, and either figure out how to make potential dissenters happy (à la Brave New World), or get rid of unsatisfied members of society (1984). Finally, I think (not sure) I remember Musk talking about one day storing and retrieving memories via such devices. This would allow to pretty much rewrite individual and collective history. Most definitely way beyond our current technology’s capabilities, but way better than whatever Big Brother could ever dream of.

bobthepanda 6y ago

I feel like this way overstates what we know how to do with neural interfaces.

_Microft 6y ago

That, or getting perfect feedback on how people reacted to ads?

markdown 6y ago

You won't need to force them on people... people will beg for them. Their use by the privileged few will in short time massively widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots. Humans in capitalist societies will be split into two "species", plain vanilla lame brains like you and me, and the augmented super-geniuses who've augmented their brains with the sum total of all recorded human knowledge.