Will it ever be possible to implant something in the brain that gives one constant, discretionary access to the Internet? Could you literally know something, or look up how to do something, or post to message boards, or engage in gaming, just by desiring to? What about audio and visual stimulation?
Discussion of the pros and cons is welcome, as well.
Yes. Pro, porn. Con, cat pictures.
You will inadvertently share tons of private stuff with the whole World.
The downside of implanting a cell phone in your brain is that you’ve undergone major surgery to implant a device that could be obsolete in a year or two. Why would you do that?
What is the advantage of creating images by directly stimulating the optic nerve compared to looking at a screen? What problem does this implant seek to solve that couldn’t be solved by conventional means?
We don’t know how knowledge is formed in the brain, or memories, so there is no possibility of some sort of device that could instantly implant the knowledge of the capital of Cameroon whenever you wanted to know the capital of Cameroon. But what’s wrong with “Computer, what’s the capital of Cameroon?” and the computer responding, “The capital of Cameroon is Yaoundé” in a quiet voice? What’s the advantage of being able to think the question, and the device being able to think the answer into your brain, compared to the regular everyday input and output channels your brain uses today?
Because a device that can just implant the knowledge that Yaoundé is the Capital of Cameroon into your brain is a device that can edit your brain in arbitrary ways. Which means the end of your existence as a being with free will, you become a mind controlled meat robot to whoever controls the inputs to your brain. Who is going to sign up for that? Especially when we have several perfectly serviceable methods of putting that information into your brain right now…you could read it from a screen, or hear it with your ears.
Just to be clear, the thought horrifies me.
To give a serious answer: We are nowhere near any kind of usable hardware-wetwareinterface. If and when we are, god knows what form the ‘internet’ will be in by then…
Why? Maybe the government would like to know your other thoughts through the device?
The current technology is about as sophisticated as being able to tell you a single bit of info … a single yes/no…
Will it be raining tommorrow
or , is it a work day,
Its too small to be bothered with… at least with the transmit from brain to external, you can go like, left, right, up, down, and make something move…
Someday, probably. There doesn’t appear to be anything known in the laws of physics that prevents it; data is stored in the brain somehow, and there’s no apparent physical rule that prevents us from devising a way to interface directly with the brain.
Understanding of how, though, is far enough away that that’s probably about the only thing that can be said. Probably possible someday, because the laws of physics don’t prohibit it.
On which side of the column does that leave cat porn?
How soon do we start implanting a chip into newborns, much as we now implant RFID chips in pets?
Now the baby already has his SSN!
Now no more baby-snatching! (never heard of it? you will, just as you heard “peak oil” when TPTB wanted you to believe in it)
If baby turns bad, criminal justice has means to ensure tracking and containment!
Border control is real easy!
Everything that happens to the person is recorded in the Cloud! Every milestone, every award, every academic achievement, the complete resume (with annual reviews), every conviction
All these wonderful reasons to implant a chip between the still-pliable skull bones - by the time the kid is 8, it cannot be removed without killing the kid.
Now: what all is in that chip?
Do you know what an RFID chip is?
Hint: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-frequency_identification
Yes, as a matter of fact I do.
Do you know what is implanted in pets?
Try this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microchip_implant_(animal)
Or do you not follow that the content of the “baby chip” might be altered to something nefarious, if TPTB decide is desired?
Do cameras (including your phone) actually now geo code every exposure?
I know some high-end DSLR’s represent that you can enable/disable geocoding.
We now think it is cool to have a drone to follow and photograph you. File that under: “You Can’t Make This Shit Up”/
The RFID chips implanted in animals are only able to return a code number when closely scanned. There’s no way to change the data on the chip.
Would it be possible to create a chip implanted in a person that could collect all sorts of information throughout the person’s life? I mean, sure, that could happen.
The problem is, how does the implanted chip collect information? Pet RFID chips don’t, as I said they only contain a code number, which is tied to a database that contains the contact information about the owner. Your vet doesn’t program the chip with your pet’s name and your phone number and address. The chip comes with a number. Your name and address is added to a database and so, when someone looks up that number they find your name. The RFID chip doesn’t contain the metadata, any more than your old AT&T phone contained your name and address. Yes, someone who knew your phone number could look up your name and address in a reverse phone book, but only because that data had been collected and compiled already.
And of course, the RFID chip is passive and can’t return data unless powered by the scanner.
So your proposed invention would have to include a cell phone that routinely calls out to the cell network, retrieves the geolocation data, and stores it on the chip. But why do that? Why not store the geolocation log remotely at the NSA? It makes a lot more sense, that way the Men In Black don’t have to ping your chip to get your data. But the problem is the power source for the chip. How fast does your cell phone battery wear down? Well, this chip has to locate itself every X time period. How many calls can it make before the battery–which would have to be very very small, since we’re implanting this inside an infant’s skull–wears down? What, you’re going to mandate everyone sleep next to a wireless charging station?
Seems like this nightmarish chip would be pretty easy to defeat, just encase your head in aluminum foil to create a faraday cage so the battery can’t recharge and the radio can’t connect to the cell network. And then the Men In Black will have no idea where you are. They’ll be powerless. You’d be like a superhero who can move unseen.
The ideal situation is to eventually have the internet fully interact with the brain so that you can have full immersion virtual reality as well as learn new skills w/o having to learn them the old fashioned way of practice and education until the neural connections are formed.
How far away is this technology? no idea. Probably 2 decades at minimum as a guess.
Also considering how insecure the internet is, and how easy it is to get a virus I don’t know if people will want something like that. You can easily be hacked I’m sure.
Use body heat to generate power. Ancient technology - I had a furnace (1947) which used a thermocouple for the thermostat and gas valve.
EPROM chips are 1980’s technology.
Using the cloud would be a good way to sell the idea of lifelong implants - “Hey, if we make a mistake, we can just change it data on the cloud!”.
Then you have the problem of “If we want to make a person disappear, all we have to do is erase all record of him”.
Pick your poison for the next nightmare future.
No apparent physical rules prevents it, but at the same time no apparent physical rules guarantees that it is possible, because we have no knowledge of how data is stored in the brain, if if is at all.
Karl Spencer Lashley did a series of experiments on rats in the 30’s. Teach a rat to run a maze, remove a portion of the rat’s brain, see whether the rat can still run the race. If the rat is no longer able to run the maze, then you’ve identified the precise physical location where the rat’s maze-running memories are stored. But it never happened; that is to say, he never found any part of the brain that could be matched up with a rat’s maze-running memory. Subsequent generations of researchers haven’t done so either. (Lashley referred to a physical change in the brain that produces a change in memory as an engram; he end up questions whether engrams exist.)
In order to build a physical device that interacts with stored memories but bypasses the brain’s normal processes for forming and accessing memories, we would need to identify what engrams are. Thus far we haven’t. We may, at some point in the future. Then again, we may not.
Or, view it the other way:
What parts of the brain are required for stuff that is NOT “memory” (facial recognition, for instance) or “education” (how to ride a bike).
Keep the parts such as the medulla (stem - does the heart, lungs, etc.) and whatever parts are needed to actually do things - move fingers, walk, talk, etc. and then wire in the desired chip to turn the person into the kind of person you want? Physicist? that is chip 205-PHY, add chip 472X to get post-Doctoral level. Want a Soldier? Burger-flipper?
Once you work out the chip-to-meat interface, people will become meat-based robots.