http://www.napa.ufl.edu/2004news/braindish.htm Not sure if anyone has seen this yet but I was personally amazed by it. What are peoples view's of applications, is this "right" or is it just a bunch of crap?

certainly hard to belive. Pretty cool and scary if true.

Looks alright to me. Understanding massiv parallelism is something our brains cannot do, so the only way to make intelligent systems or get an inkling of what's going on in our head is by trial and error. I personally think that the process of neuron birth and network construction is probably far more important to study (and is sort of what they've done there)

I didn't click on the link but I'm assuming ([grin]) it has to do with teaching rat neurons to fly an airplane (in a simulator, of course). This article was on slashdot a while ago. Wait, maybe I should click the link first...

I read a sci fi story once that had the world being ruled by cyborg computer/brain hybrid thingies... hopefully someone has read it and can remember what it was called. It was something like some guy created these computers and then used his kid's brains to make them concious, or something similarly creepy.

Distinct possibility, anyway. I'm more interested in how this research would apply to adding computational power and extra I/O lines to a human (ie. my) brain. Imagine being able to drive a robot as if it were your own body, or strap on extra limbs, or see in infra-red.... that would be awesome! :)

Quote: Original post by fractoid
I read a sci fi story once that had the world being ruled by cyborg computer/brain hybrid thingies... hopefully someone has read it and can remember what it was called. It was something like some guy created these computers and then used his kid's brains to make them concious, or something similarly creepy.

Distinct possibility, anyway. I'm more interested in how this research would apply to adding computational power and extra I/O lines to a human (ie. my) brain. Imagine being able to drive a robot as if it were your own body, or strap on extra limbs, or see in infra-red.... that would be awesome! :)

Yes total awesomeness.
More likely we will have organisers, entertainment, communication in our heads. Just imaging seeing little icons and notes and so forth floating in your field of vision , you wouldn't need to focus on them either , ... crazy[attention]

Suppose you're an anxious person. Now, imagine someone forces you to play Doom 3. "Full brain screen.", so to speak.


I really would like to know how the neurons learned that "level" is good and "tilted" is bad. Did they have some kind of reward system? Do the neurons try to always achieve a certain state, and the simulator will only signal that state if everything is okay? If so, WHAT PRECISELY is that state?

I don't get it :) Seems a little hoaxy. BUT according to several scientists and philosophers, we ARE at the verge of the Biocomputing and Bioengineering age.

Today I read in Psychology class, that a human brain processes "only" some 10 to 100 Gigabits of information per second, and it simplifies those down to decision packages that merely consist of between a few dozen and a few hundred bits, before generating a response process (e.g. speech, movement) that itself is in the Megabit range again.

One set of books that does a fun job at looking at Cyborg and AI controling the world(s) is Dune. The older ones have a few vague refernces to it, but Dune:Bulerian Jihad, Dune:Machine Crusade, and whatever the 3ed one is,... Really shows why this is something dangerous,... :P

Strangely enough, I had thought of doing this a couple of days before this article came out...except I wanted to use a monkey brain. Oh well, you can't win them all.

Anyway, I thought I would say hi since this is my first time to the board. I've been lurking for quite a while off and on. Maybe I will be constructive at some point.

I agree with thygrr - what's the feedback? Why should the brain cells learn to do anything atall? It describes one cell extending a connection to another, then pulling it back. It what? It thought "I wonder if connecting here will let me fly the plane better". "Oh dear I crashed - let's try another way".

Logic and reasoning from a single neuron or what? I'm open minded to things like this in the press, because the guy writing the article often has no idea what he's talking about, but even so, I'd take that one with a pinch of salt . . .