(ELOG 6 for CS3790: Cognitive Science)
One of our guest lecturers for Cog Sci in the past few weeks was a guy from a group at Georgia Tech investigating BCIs – Brain-Computer Interfaces. He had a very interesting topic to talk about – becoming cyborgs. There is a lot of interesting research being done in the area of interfacing computers with nervous systems. There are wheelchairs controlled by thought and robotic arms that respond to the same impulses our brain uses to control our real arms.
To me, one of the more interesting points of research pointed out by the lecture was the work of Kevin Warwick. He has had an array of electrodes implanted into his arm and used it to control, over the internet, an arm. Not only could he control it, but he was also able to receive stimulus from the arm, allowing him to control it blindfolded. His wife got an implant as well, and they set up bidirectional communication between the implants controlled by thought. (Read more about it in his paper: “Thought communication and control: a first step using radiotelegraphy”)
The result – a crude, but completely thought-driven means of communication. Kevin was able to send finger twitches to his wife, who would feel the twitches and could accurately identify them, and she could send back the same. This is a really cool idea to me. The ability to transmit thoughts, even if they are only simple twitches for now, is something that could be an extremely useful tool and lots of fun too.
What’s this mean for the average joe? Well, nothing for right now. But with all of the advances science has been making, bionic eyes, robotic arms, remote controlled rats… we could be seeing a future where people are as much machine as they are person. Being able to connect to the internet with a thought, being able to get a limb replaced with the full ability of the original arm… None of it seems quite as far fetched any more. Science has begun to understand the brain to the point where we can create technology that taps directly into it.
