Monday, July 29, 2019
ELON MUSK, NEURALINK, and the BRAIN-MACHINE INTERFACE VIDEO
Elon Musk has been outspoken on the dangers of AI. With Neuralink, a company he owns, he is jumping into AI, hoping, he says, that by creating a direct link between the human brain and a computer, we can combine our powers. (This is, literally: "If you can't beat'm, join'm.")
In the following video, Musk and members of Neuralink discuss the current state of brain-computer interface science and design.
Basically:
- The current project includes developing an implant into the brain which can read electrical activity to understand what the brain is "thinking", and can also stimulate electrical activity in the brain to generate physical motions and other responses in the brain and the body.
- To implant the device, Neuralink is developing a robotic surgeon, since the accuracy required to place the implant correctly in the brain exceeds the capabilities of human surgeons.
- To understand the electrical signals created by the brain, and create the correct electrical signals to stimulate the brain to create the proper response, Neuralink is doing extensive research on AI that will enable machine learning.
The immediate goal of the project centers on helping patients with injuries such as damage to the spinal cord, and brain damage due to stroke that impairs muscle function.
Of course, both the benefits and the possible hazards of implanting an interface to a computer in the brain which has the power to "read minds" or commandeer a person's mind, are significant. It has been explored in fiction. For example, this idea appeared in early Flash Gordon serials, and right now in the just published novel FALL by Neal Stephenson.
Here are some links to the video, Neuralink, and Elon Musk, plus an article from CNET about Neuralink:
LINKS
NEURALINK VIDEO
https://youtu.be/r-vbh3t7WVI
NEURALINK - WIKIPEDIA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuralink
ELON MUSK - WIKIPEDIA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk
CNET
https://www.cnet.com/news/elon-musk-neuralink-works-monkeys-human-test-brain-computer-interface-in-2020
Labels: AI, BMI, brain, brain-machine interface, Elon Musk, machine learning, Neuralink
Saturday, February 06, 2010
BRAIN POWER
Experiments with primates and humans have demonstrated the possibility of reading a creature's thoughts and using that to control robotic devices. (See video below.)
In both Avatar and Caprica the idea is used that thinking about moving can be used to guide an avatar.
In The Diving Bell & The Butterfly -- a film based on a real experience -- a person almost totally paralyzed is able to communicate by using the tiny control he has over one muscle to signal the full life going on within his head. It is like sending a stream of information through a slow, low bandwidth connection: the process is slow, but the quality of information is unrestricted.
A new study takes this idea one step further. Patients who were totally paralyzed (and clinically believed to be vegetative, since they had minimal or no response to stimuli) were able to visualize scenes in their brain that were measurable through a functional MRI.
In fact, it was possible to ask a question with a yes or no answer and have the patient answer by thinking of one scene or the other, with the observation from the fMRI able to distinguish the yes scene from the no scene.
Since a binary code (yes/no) can be used to express any message, in principle a patient who is able to think can communicate fluently without moving at all.
For the person conducting the study to communicate with the patient, it is obviously necessary for the patient to hear (or have some other sense that allows input). This study showed that in some patients who are totally immobile there is still an active life going on in the brain and an ability to hear. It is possible that in some cases where the patient does not hear but still has a life going on in their brain, that there could be some other method of communicating with them.
This was a very limited study, but certainly suggests the value of confirming this study and developing more powerful techniques for communication.
In any case, the fact that some percentage of totally immobile (and apparently vegetative) patients may in fact be alive and aware and capable mentally provides strong motivation for developing ways to communicate with them, and provides a strong motivation and reason for their friends and relatives to visit regularly and talk with them.
New England Journal Of Medicine: Feb 3, 2010
Labels: avatar, brain, mind control of a robot, robot
Monday, September 03, 2007
BREAKFAST
For breakfast I had a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. Then I had an English muffin with jelly, and some coffee, followed by fresh fruit: some grapes, an apple and two strawberries.
After breakfast, I looked at the New Scientist, where an article on breakfast began by saying it was a myth that a breakfast rich in carbohydrates was good brain food. "In fact," it said, near the start of the article, "eating breakfast can be worse for mental and physical performance than going hungry."
I wanted to read the rest of the article and report on it here, but I just couldn't concentrate.
Notes:
1- New Scientist charges to read articles online. Here's a link to the article preview.
2- The gist of the article is a study of the way that glucose gets to the brain to nourish it.
3- My own personal, anecdotal experience has been that breakfast with eggs or other protein is most important for a good start in the morning.
4- Understanding of nutrition and its effects is a rapidly changing science, and just about every report being published now is a piece of partial information, with a clear view of the big picture still some time away. It will be especially important to understand how to personalize the nutritional needs of each individual. Information in any one story at this point is likely to be re-interpreted as more comprehensive information becomes available.
Labels: brain, breakfast, carbohydrates, glucose, New Scientist, nutrition
