
New Startup Aims to Commercialize a Brain Prosthetic to Improve Memory - temp
http://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/bionics/new-startup-aims-to-commercialize-a-brain-prosthetic-to-improve-memory
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bognition
Lots of hype but sadly very little science going on here. They have a few
superficial models of hippocampal circuitry but almost nothing about how that
circuit fits into the larger systems of learning and memory.

There so many major technical issues that make this little more than vapor
wear.

The hippocampal neural code is largely un-understood. Without the code they'll
be flipping random bits and hoping for the best (akin to flipping bits in ram
without understanding how the OS is representing data in RAM).

We still don't have reliable hardware for reading the activity of the brain.
Most implants go bad after a few weeks with very few lasting up to a few
years. Surgery every few years is unreasonable as each implant will leave
behind permanent damage.

Next writing information to the brain is still in its infancy. We can disrupt
processing with electrical stimulation but too much current will trigger a
seizure (especially in the hippocampus). There's a lot of hope around Opto-
genetics but we still need to figure out how to get targeted expression in an
already developed human brain. It can take years to get expression right in
developing mice.

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kristjankalm
"An implanted memory prosthetic would have electrodes to record signals during
learning, a microprocessor to do the computations, and electrodes that
stimulate neurons to encode the information as a memory."

or in other words -- we record "signals", then compute something, and finally
"stimulate" the neurons. I appreciate that this isn't a scientific report but
this borders on parody.

The magnitude of technical, computational and biological problems to be solved
here in order to achieve anything even remotely close to the headline would
require 3-4 major scientific breakthroughs. With all respect, you don't
publish them in IEEE proceedings.

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jdpigeon
Their early experiments did pretty well with hardly any computation at all --
just recreating previously recorded patterns of activity. They can probably do
some pretty cool stuff by adding machine learning (which they're definitely
interested in based on who they're hiring)

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synctext
Impressive. What seems to be the underlying science:

Berger, T.W., Baudry, M., Brinton, R.D., Liaw, J-S., Marmarelis, V.Z., Park,
Y., Sheu, B.J., and Tanguay, Jr., A.R. Brain-implantable biomimetic
electronics as the next era in neural prosthetics. Proceedings of the IEEE,
2001, 89, 993-1012.

[http://www.bioee.ee.columbia.edu/courses/upload/Bibliography...](http://www.bioee.ee.columbia.edu/courses/upload/Bibliography/berger_procieee_2001.pdf)

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jcadam
If it works too well we could find ourselves in a situation where anyone who
uses their brain for a living will need 'enhancements' like this just in order
to compete and be employable (even if they aren't strictly legal).

Much like cycling and doping :)

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throwanem
> anyone who uses their brain for a living will need 'enhancements' like this
> just in order to compete and be employable

I presume you've heard of coffee...

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messe
There's a saying that a mathematician is a device for turning coffee into
theorems. It's dual is that a comathematician is a device for turning
cotheorems into ffee.

~~~
throwanem
I've worked with mathematicians, but never heard that one before. Thank you!
Now I know the origin of the one about programmers being devices for turning
coffee into code.

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tekromancr
This seems like a fine time to discuss the ethics of augmenting healthy brain
function

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adrianN
I think we can wait until there is a working prototype.

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bognition
you'll be waiting a very long time. The tech is decades if not centuries off

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aperrien
Cynicism is not a replacement for skepticism.

What make you believe that the technology is centuries off?

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apalmer
Seems to be way to early in the cycle to start doing startups on this...

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mrits
I'd hate to be the first VP of Sales

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actionjack
Johnny Mnemonic anyone?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Mnemonic_(film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Mnemonic_\(film\))

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njharman
Like a cellphone and the internet? Or better yet, something with heads-up
display like Google Glass. Or Siri/Alexis with throat mike and headphones.

Augmenting my memory since reading about the Remembrance Agent and getting
into wearable computers in the 90's
[http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~rhodes/Papers/remembrance.html](http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~rhodes/Papers/remembrance.html)

~~~
a3n
This is about people with dementia, not forgetting the milk.

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JoeAltmaier
Its called "google"

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kctess5
This is very true.

I'm curious what kinds of evolutionary biology impacts technologies like
Google's search engine have on humanity. Before the internet, there was a
large motivation to memorize information in order to quickly retrieve it
without a very costly lookup operation. Now, a more efficient method to access
information is to "index" the information with your brain - i.e. just remember
how to find it quickly with the right search terms. This way, a significantly
larger amount of information can be accessed very quickly by an individual.

I have noticed this in my own life. I consider my ability to recall things
with Google to be a skill, and I consciously do not memorize pieces of
information which I am fairly sure I will be able to find in <10 seconds. I
think that using my brain as an index allows me to ingest more concepts, and
as a result of that make more connections between concepts. It's definitely
not without downsides though, an obvious one being a very high level of
reliance on internet access. I wonder how this will play out over time, and if
there are directly observable physiological differences between individuals
with and without the internet as a form of memory-augmentation.

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JoeAltmaier
We could study the effectiveness of this brain augmentation device simply:
fill out an IQ test with and without access to google. See how many points it
adds! I'd be very interested in the outcome.

~~~
kctess5
I wonder if an IQ test would be able to meaningfully capture the difference
between the two groups, considering that Google kung fu is only helpful for a
certain set of tasks that in my experience are often very macro-scale.

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SamBam
I expect to see this for presale on Indiegogo or some other crowd funding site
in the coming weeks...

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brador
What advantages could possibly exist in enhancing our ability to store data in
decaying meat?

