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The inspiration for this (as well as for SpaceX) comes from the “Culture” series of novels by Iain M. Banks, which most people are apparently unfamiliar with. S
by ein0p 3y ago
The inspiration for this (as well as for SpaceX) comes from the “Culture” series of novels by Iain M. Banks, which most people are apparently unfamiliar with. Specifically the BCI interface is called “neural lace” there and it grows along with the brain from a seed and covers its entire surface. There it serves as an interface to access superhuman AIs and information in general, on demand, and only the hopeless luddites choose not to have it
- ShamelessC 3y agoSorry but surely the idea of having a brain computer interface predates the Culture novels by many decades. Similarly, how are these books the inspiration for SpaceX? Those ideas of traveling the stars (well, planets) _absolutely_ predate the culture series. Seems pretty obvious to me that these ideas originated long ago in the scientific world and were (beautifully) expanded upon by science fiction authors (again, many decades ago).
- 0x64 3y agoThe names of SpaceX’s drone ships, such as “Of Course I Still Love You”, are from the Culture novels
- ShamelessC 3y agoOh so grand parent was referring to the names?
- ein0p 3y agoNot the idea itself, but this specific implementation. Musk has clearly read quite a bit of Banks and Heinlein.
- ShamelessC 3y agoThat’s fair I suppose but it’s probably giving more credit to Musk than he deserves. The real work is all being done by researchers who are drastically more knowledgeable about all of this than he is. He’s wise to invest in these sorts of ideas though and deserves credit for that.
- ein0p 3y agoYeah those researchers would be aimlessly rotting in academia if he didn’t fund risky, out there stuff like this. I can’t name anyone else among his peers who spends their wealth on anything even remotely civilizationally beneficial.
- ShamelessC 3y agoOkay.
- BriggyDwiggs42 3y ago>Would be rotting in academia They’d be doing research man
- ein0p 3y agoThey _are_ doing research man, and they get help from the best engineers on the planet to turn that research into reality. That’s much better than poking mice brains and never getting anything done. Here they get EEs, roboticists, computer vision experts, neurosurgeons, you name it.
- DoesntMatter22 3y agoI think he deserves an awful lot of credit for funding such a pie in th sky idea and giving those researches a chance to even attempt it. In 1 month he's launched the largest rocket ever, done one of the first successful brain implants ever and released a pretty amazing version of FSD. No other billionaires have done even 1 of those things. Even if he was a buffoon he deserves credit foe the audacity.
- alexilliamson 3y agoI was sort of with you until the FSD
- DoesntMatter22 3y ago