I was cruising around on Wikipedia recently, learning all about the works of William Gibson, when I eventually got to the article on brain-computer implants. It was my previous understanding that this technology is right now extremely primitive - that very low-level motor control stuff, akin to bending the elbows and fingers of a prosthetic arm, were the best we could do.
Then, I apparently learned that not only can some implant restore a person’s sight (!) but that it is now possible to move around computer cursors! How far has this technology really come? And more importantly, how long before we can have direct neural input and output with our home computers? I’m itching to plug a cable into my head and playing some Halo.
Currently, brain-implants are used in the treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
I read an interview with a guy with OCD who had been helped by having an electrode implanted. He was bald, so you could see a pea-sized bump under his skin above his temple. He said that after a while of adjusting placing the wires in his brain (some locations made him weepy, some euforic, and some sexually uninhibited) they finally found the right spot and the right level of electrical stimulation in his brain, and now he was virtually OCD-less. Exccept the last month of every year, when the battery of his device ran out. It couln’t be repalced unless it was totally empty, so every year he feels his symptoms come back for a month and then, after the battery is changed, disappear again.