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Would you put a computer interface in your head.

woodguard

Thinker
woodguard
Joined
Apr 9, 2003
Messages
169
This may seem to be a silly question but a time will come when it will be true.

With the growth of technology, in time there will be a device you can connect to your brain, that will interface with computer systems.( wireless).

Would you feel less human. Replacing an arm or leg with machines is one thing but the human mind is different.

Would the fear of mind control stop you?
Or the fear of turning into a Borg (Star trek), being a slave to technology.

Would you have cell phone installed under the skin. They are getting small enough, in a few years it will be an option.

Being a computer geek I have mixed feeling about it.
 
I wouldnt put a computer interface in my head. Hell, I wouldnt get a tatoo or pierce my ears.

Your question is interesting, it deserves some Philosophical analyzation. I think you are getting at the notion of Identity. Consider these two examples (dont worry about what-ifs):
If you replace the engine in a Ferrari with another Ferrari engine, is it the same car? (Philsophical Identity conundrum of Bodily Identity)

If you replace your brain with a silicon chip, but it has preserved your memories and personality, are you the same person? (Philosophical Identity conundrum of Self)

Of course, there is something Psychological Reductionism. By allowing your body to be replaced by synthetic parts, you accept that psychological continuity outweighs bodily continuity.
 
Interface.

Intriguing idea. Seems like I read something one time about human brain tissue maybe being placed in computers one day.
 
Depends, if it's made by Microsoft, hell no. I don't want hackers putting worms in my brain, thank you.
 
If it was at a level where it was safe, hell yeah.

I would then be able to out calculate all of you normals, with your soft human brains, imagine a brain a brain with no plug-ins whatsoever... well we don't have to imagine, we have them now. But think of the total imersion games you could play! That would be my main motivation, the cool games.

Yeah I'm a nerd, what of it?
 
I've already got one.

Upgrades are a bitch, and I always walk into bars and ask for a Beer ver. 1.01. I've come down with a virus recently and keep sending letters to everyone's address who I have in the notepad by the phone.

Otherwise, its not bad.

Athon
 
I think Yahweh's onto something with the question of identity. I think it may just end up being a matter of personal, subjective views on the matter. If one felt odd with a silicon implant in your head, I'm sure they'd get rid of it, but if they "adapted" to it and it provided some computational advantages, maybe one would keep it. Personally, I'd feel a bit odd about it, but that may be because I don't ever want to be referred to as a "cyborg."

This also gets to a question of artificial intelligence, though. If you could essentially construct a bioelectric cell founded on the same principles of neurons (surface charge gradients, some kind of mechanical charge channels, an ability to interface with neurotransmitters, etc.), can that replace the functions of a neuron within one of us? The question for me is what kind of information does an individual neuron hold for us that isn't replicable? Also, what kind of consequences does a change at this fundamental level of cognition have? Eh, sorry woodguard, I don't want to hijack your thread, but it got me thinking. Which is a good thing.

I think.
 
“MESSAGE FROM THE YEAR 2025”

I had my interface installed a year ago, I’m hoping to upgrade as it was obsolete a month later. The only problem I’ve had is when my OS (windows SeX-Y) crashes, I piss my pants.
 
I could live with a memory upgrade.

If it's a communications tool like Larry Niven wrote about in "Oath of Fealty", then no. I don't even have a mobile phone.

I imagine the first such gadgets will be to correct motor feedback problems and the like- Parkinson's, that sort of thing, or to replace missing neural tissue- the Christopher Reeve situation.
 
I'd like to have installed in my head a super RAM chip that would store any information one wishes . One could access that information at anytime.
 
Soapy Sam said:
I could live with a memory upgrade.

If it's a communications tool like Larry Niven wrote about in "Oath of Fealty", then no. I don't even have a mobile phone.

I imagine the first such gadgets will be to correct motor feedback problems and the like- Parkinson's, that sort of thing, or to replace missing neural tissue- the Christopher Reeve situation.
Click to expand...

The first such devices are actualy to help blind people "see."
 
I don't call my dad a cyborg, and he has titanium pins holding his back together. I don't refer to people with artificial limbs as cyborgs, nor people with pacemakers, cochlear implants, or insulin pumps. I think that anything of this nature will happen so slowly that most people will just "get used to it" and not think about it. What starts out as an optic nerve implant to let the blind see might then evolve to a display adapter built into your head... you don't have a computer in your head, per se, but you do have the monitor. And then your cell phone comes with a cable that you plug into your neural jack so that you can display your calling list in your head's up display, but the next year's model will actually fit (as a little black knob) right over your jack, and be completely voice activated. Couple years down the road they add GPS and PDA capabilities to it, along with wireless internet service. Before you know it, you're working on your car and when you need to know the bolt tightening pattern for your engine head, you just call it up on your display and have it superimposed over what you're seeing, all through your little digital helper. At what point did you become a cyborg?
 
Rush Limbaugh has a coclear implant and now refers to himself as "The worlds first bionic talk show host". But, I agree with JSFolk, incrementalism is how it will come about.

I'm sure the anime fans will remember Ghost in the Machine[\i] and the concept that a human has something that sets them apart from thinking machines. Humans have a soul or "ghost" that is visible in cyber space.
 
Absolutely, assuming you are talking about a simple input/output device that is easily turned off. I.e. it has no control of my motor control.

Besides all the other usual benefits of being able to access the web from anywhere, it'd be nice to give my wrists a rest, as a suffer from carpal tunnel.

And to address the points that have been expanded on, I'd happily accept replacements for any part of my body, assuming they are better/more robust than the original. Gimme immortality, or at least a prolonged life not filled with arthritis, heart attacks, etc.
 
JSFolk said:
I don't call my dad a cyborg, and he has titanium pins holding his back together. I don't refer to people with artificial limbs as cyborgs, nor people with pacemakers, cochlear implants, or insulin pumps. I think that anything of this nature will happen so slowly that most people will just "get used to it" and not think about it. What starts out as an optic nerve implant to let the blind see might then evolve to a display adapter built into your head... you don't have a computer in your head, per se, but you do have the monitor. And then your cell phone comes with a cable that you plug into your neural jack so that you can display your calling list in your head's up display, but the next year's model will actually fit (as a little black knob) right over your jack, and be completely voice activated. Couple years down the road they add GPS and PDA capabilities to it, along with wireless internet service. Before you know it, you're working on your car and when you need to know the bolt tightening pattern for your engine head, you just call it up on your display and have it superimposed over what you're seeing, all through your little digital helper. At what point did you become a cyborg?
Click to expand...
I think I've heard this before...ah, yes...
"I was born the son of a woodman who chopped down trees in the forest and sold the wood for a living. When I grew up, I too became a woodchopper, and after my father died I took care of my old mother as long as she lived. Then I made up my mind that instead of living alone I would marry, so that I might not become lonely.

"There was one of the Munchkin girls who was so beautiful that I soon grew to love her with all my heart. She, on her part, promised to marry me as soon as I could earn enough money to build a better house for her; so I set to work harder than ever. But the girl lived with an old woman who did not want her to marry anyone, for she was so lazy she wished the girl to remain with her and do the cooking and the housework. So the old woman went to the Wicked Witch of the East, and promised her two sheep and a cow if she would prevent the marriage. Thereupon the Wicked Witch enchanted my axe, and when I was chopping away at my best one day, for I was anxious to get the new house and my wife as soon as possible, the axe slipped all at once and cut off my left leg.

"This at first seemed a great misfortune, for I knew a one-legged man could not do very well as a wood-chopper. So I went to a tinsmith and had him make me a new leg out of tin. The leg worked very well, once I was used to it. But my action angered the Wicked Witch of the East, for she had promised the old woman I should not marry the pretty Munchkin girl. When I began chopping again, my axe slipped and cut off my right leg. Again I went to the tinsmith, and again he made me a leg out of tin. After this the enchanted axe cut off my arms, one after the other; but, nothing daunted, I had them replaced with tin ones. The Wicked Witch then made the axe slip and cut off my head, and at first I thought that was the end of me. But the tinsmith happened to come along, and he made me a new head out of tin.

"I thought I had beaten the Wicked Witch then, and I worked harder than ever; but I little knew how cruel my enemy could be. She thought of a new way to kill my love for the beautiful Munchkin maiden, and made my axe slip again, so that it cut right through my body, splitting me into two halves. Once more the tinsmith came to my help and made me a body of tin, fastening my tin arms and legs and head to it, by means of joints, so that I could move around as well as ever. But, alas! I had now no heart, so that I lost all my love for the Munchkin girl, and did not care whether I married her or not. I suppose she is still living with the old woman, waiting for me to come after her.

"My body shone so brightly in the sun that I felt very proud of it and it did not matter now if my axe slipped, for it could not cut me. There was only one danger--that my joints would rust; but I kept an oil-can in my cottage and took care to oil myself whenever I needed it. However, there came a day when I forgot to do this, and, being caught in a rainstorm, before I thought of the danger my joints had rusted, and I was left to stand in the woods until you came to help me. It was a terrible thing to undergo, but during the year I stood there I had time to think that the greatest loss I had known was the loss of my heart. While I was in love I was the happiest man on earth; but no one can love who has not a heart, and so I am resolved to ask Oz to give me one. If he does, I will go back to the Munchkin maiden and marry her."
Click to expand...
 
I lost the bookmark to a website that discussed the Pentagon's current research into "soldier bioenhancement", where they are in fact experimenting with putting chips in brains. According to that website, they have already managed to give rats simple commands like turn right, left, stop, etc. At first I was extremely skeptical, but given the Pentagon's amazing terrorism betting pool idea, now I'm not so sure. A google didn't turn up anything. Anyone out there have access to that or similar websites or information?

The website painted a nasty picture of current research, such as forcing soldiers to stay awake and alert for many days on end, cut off pain receptors so they can fight after being wounded, etc.

As for the original question, I will not even wear contacts. No, I wouldn't allow a chip to be implanted into my brain. But I'm from the old school. People of this generation are used to surgery being used to totally remake external appearances, so they'll probably come to accept designer minds.
 
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