
Researcher controls colleague’s motions in first human brain-to-brain interface - Shenglong
http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/08/27/researcher-controls-colleagues-motions-in-1st-human-brain-to-brain-interface/
======
cheapsteak
How to replicate this study in your living room:

Get a 'remote controlled cockroach' kit, a Star Wars Force Trainer, some wires
to hook the force trainer's trigger to the cockroach kit's remote control,
stick the receiver on your friend's head.

This seriously doesn't seem to have broken any new ground, only mashed
together two existing technologies for a easily misinterpreted headline

~~~
WestCoastJustin
_> doesn't seem to have broken any new ground, only mashed together two
existing technologies_

I'd argue that new inventions are created by mashing existing technologies,
often emerging or bleeding edge, and creating something new. Henry Ford didn't
invent the combustion engine, transmission, suspension, etc, but he did mash
these things together into something new. What we are seeing in the video and
research is something new and pretty exciting if you take it a couple steps
further. Think about replaying these signals, building a play book, etc.

ps. If you have some time to kill, I would check out this video called,
"Everything Is A Remix", which talks about this idea @
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coGpmA4saEk](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coGpmA4saEk)

~~~
emiliobumachar
I agree with your larger point, but the example is flawed. Ford did not invent
the car, he "just" made it much cheaper by inventing the assembly line.

~~~
Ellipsis753
Interestingly he didn't even invent the assembly line; just made it a lot
better...

------
tlarkworthy
an extraordinarily gimmicky headline orientated experiment.

However, it is still genuinely cool despite that. Nowhere near a precision
brain to brain interface that could be useful _, but its the suggestion that
one might be possible

_ and if people are twitchy about mobile phones radiating the brain, I doubt
they will go for a TMS machine that focuses huge magnetic pulses into the
brain. Pulses that are so strong the virtually unferrous bio matter still
sheds electrons making your brain do unknown chemistry that makes your finger
twitch slightly.

------
contingencies
Strangely, I was literally just discussing the near-term inevitability of this
with someone last night.

 _While an ever-more subjugated, time poor mass of humanity walls themselves
in to ever smaller apartments in ever larger cities, stringing along their
physical bodies through ever more artificial means, moving ever further from
nature and sustainability, we see the rising tide of ever more immersive
virtual experience: writing, phonographs, radio, television, computer games,
three dimensional environments - now with depth - eye tracking, motion
tracking, direct nervous system stimulation, even virtual emotion through the
megacoroporate pharmacopia ( "ever feel tired? hard to focus? unhappy? ask
your doctor about...").

Humanity nears a fissure of potential future realities: constrain our engine
of consumption, or face handing a once virtuous and verdant home planet down
to succeeding generations as a biological desert demanding ever more
artificial means of sustenance for an ever-smaller elite, clinging desperately
to a bygone quality of life through the corporate-military force of dynastic
capital._

Well, not quite so hyperbolic, but that was the gist: it'd be a shame if
instead of dealing with the issues facing our planet we all just shut down and
went virtual.

------
oh_teh_meows
If the detection accuracy can be improved, one can theoretically
telepathically communicate with another using Morse code :) Also, since we
have the ability to 'write' a low res image onto a person's retina, I can also
communicate with that person by just typing on a keyboard. The receiver would
see alphabets flashing in his mind.

~~~
swalsh
i'm sure the translation would be a very difficult problem, but the idea of
transferring an image from one person to another telepathically is ground
shattering in terms of impact. Take every day tasks when working with a team
right now. I spend days writing documents solely for the purpose of
communicating ideas from my own head to others. Still even with extensive
documents with images, and text, miscommunication is not uncommon.

Even still, when I program I mostly have an "image" of the program in my head.
Imagine if a computer knew me well enough to translate that "image" to actual
code.

This kind of stuff is a LONG ways away... but it seems like the basic concepts
are being proven, and its both exciting and scary. What it means to be human
could be different in 2100. If this technology is expensive, and we still have
capitalism, and there's still a large class of poor. The digital divide could
turn that casim into the grand canon. I'm scared that the technology is coming
faster than our capability to handle it socially.

~~~
swalsh
Thought of another application. Let's say you're a teacher. One of the hardest
parts of education today is relating a concept by using other concepts that
are more familiar to students. Its a translation problem, but there's an
unknown variable. The teacher (especially if they're talking to a large class)
may not actively know how well or how correctly their students are
understanding the topic.

Assuming that a system is good enough to commercialize, there's probably some
AI tech that's gaining traction too. If you could use AI to analyze a students
understanding, the computer could interactively forge the lesson. The result
would be faster, more accurate learning.

Learning, in my opinion being one of the biggest barriers to progress, the
pace of change would be incredible!

------
canistr
I await the day we get a brain API that can read generic actions and perform
the same actions (e.g. read when someone bends their index finger and equally
force the bending of said finger)

------
j2d3
A powerful version of this is central to the plot of Gamer (2009).

------
SideshowB0B
I wouldn't put this beyond the possibility of an incredibly elaborate prank.
This is about as trust worthy as a Las Vegas magician's act.

...and now, I will saw my assistant in half!

------
bitwize
Oh boy! Sense/NET here we come!

------
iopq
It's habbiding! What next, communicating via thoughts?

