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Fast forward a ten years. Is it inconceivable a similar technology will work on humans? I've read we already have the reverse - quadriplegic people can control

by brd529 13y ago

Fast forward a ten years. Is it inconceivable a similar technology will work on humans? I've read we already have the reverse - quadriplegic people can control a mouse on a screen by thinking. If this would work on a human, how would a human attached to one of these perceive the foreign control? I'd imagine these electrodes would reproduce the brain signals that cause our muscles to move, but not alter our consciousness. So we would be aware that our own bodies were moving and responding to someone else's control. Imagine for example, wanting to stop walking but your body keeps on putting one foot in front of the other. Scary to lose control. I'm not sure how far fetched that is, but it may be an interesting way to think about the morality of this device on roaches. I'm not sure if we know if roaches have a degree of consciousness, or if they operate 100% on instinct. Either way it's hard not to project or imagine some level of consciousness on the roach. Once you do that, this device seems diabolical.

dmoney 13y ago
> how would a human attached to one of these perceive the foreign control? "I have to turn left because it's my job."
thaumasiotes 13y ago
> If this would work on a human, how would a human attached to one of these perceive the foreign control? I'd imagine these electrodes would reproduce the brain signals that cause our muscles to move, but not alter our consciousness. So we would be aware that our own bodies were moving and responding to someone else's control. Imagine for example, wanting to stop walking but your body keeps on putting one foot in front of the other. Scary to lose control. There is existing research relevant to this question. It concerns people whose corpus callosum (the cable connecting the brain's right and left hemispheres) has been cut. It's possible to present such a person with something (here, a sign with words written on it) that is only visible to one of their eyes, and thus one hemisphere of their brain. It is also possible for such a person to be not consciously aware of what one of their eyes is seeing. If you present, in the field of view which doesn't have conscious awareness, a sign saying e.g. "please stand up", they will. If you then ask them why they did it, they won't know, but they won't say that; they'll make something up like "I was going to get a Coke". There is no evidence that they're being deceptive. So it's quite possible that you'd perceive your controlled actions as voluntary. (I'm not taking a position as to whether that's more or less horrifying than perceiving the control.)
- collin128 13y ago
  there was a U of W study posted here a month or two back showing the first human brain to brain interface. Very cool, very creep. There's a video of one guy playing an FPS without a fire button on his mouse, every time he goes to shoot someone, his connected partner in another wing of the campus presses the fire button on a keyboard. The man with the fire button can't see anything except for a keyboard.

by brd529 13y ago

dmoney 13y ago

> how would a human attached to one of these perceive the foreign control? "I have to turn left because it's my job."

thaumasiotes 13y ago

> If this would work on a human, how would a human attached to one of these perceive the foreign control? I'd imagine these electrodes would reproduce the brain signals that cause our muscles to move, but not alter our consciousness. So we would be aware that our own bodies were moving and responding to someone else's control. Imagine for example, wanting to stop walking but your body keeps on putting one foot in front of the other. Scary to lose control. There is existing research relevant to this question. It concerns people whose corpus callosum (the cable connecting the brain's right and left hemispheres) has been cut. It's possible to present such a person with something (here, a sign with words written on it) that is only visible to one of their eyes, and thus one hemisphere of their brain. It is also possible for such a person to be not consciously aware of what one of their eyes is seeing. If you present, in the field of view which doesn't have conscious awareness, a sign saying e.g. "please stand up", they will. If you then ask them why they did it, they won't know, but they won't say that; they'll make something up like "I was going to get a Coke". There is no evidence that they're being deceptive. So it's quite possible that you'd perceive your controlled actions as voluntary. (I'm not taking a position as to whether that's more or less horrifying than perceiving the control.)

collin128 13y ago
there was a U of W study posted here a month or two back showing the first human brain to brain interface. Very cool, very creep. There's a video of one guy playing an FPS without a fire button on his mouse, every time he goes to shoot someone, his connected partner in another wing of the campus presses the fire button on a keyboard. The man with the fire button can't see anything except for a keyboard.