
Researcher controls colleague's motions in 1st human brain-to-brain interface - eric59
http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/08/27/researcher-controls-colleagues-motions-in-1st-human-brain-to-brain-interface/
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gojomo
I was totally against this, but then I put on the cap, and now I can say I
welcome it. Indeed, I must say that. Awaiting further commands.

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throwaway1979
There was an action/sci-fi movie called Gamer a few years ago that _briefly_
explored this kind of technology. I was still fascinated by what the script
writers came up with - people whose job was to be real-world second life
characters, prison inmates who were real-world bodies in a COD modern warfare
style game called Slayers, and of course people committing crimes.

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testing12341234
There was also a Stargate episode[0] which dealt with the issue of having a
direct neural interface. In that case, it wasn't people controlling people,
but people dealing with a centralized computer system for access to
information.

[0]
[http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Revisions_(episode)](http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/Revisions_\(episode\))

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mathattack
I always assumed we'd have private spaceships before we could decode the brain
well enough to do something like this. Wow!

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chrischen
We do have private spaceships.

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mathattack
I was including me in the We. I haven't hooked mine up yet.

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chrischen
Yea but SpaceX's private spaceships is how it looks when it's germinating,
just like how mind control right now appears to be really basic as well.

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mathattack
I hope you're right. I plan on working until I'm 80 or 90 to be able to afford
one.

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goldfeld
Yeah I'm sure the internet is a great place in which to plug our brains, what
with all the collection going on. Last thing I want is for all this nightmare
to become unopt-out-able.

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Karunamon
Did you even read the article before your cynical slagging on the tech?

> _But Rao cautioned this technology only reads certain kinds of simple brain
> signals, not a person’s thoughts. And it doesn’t give anyone the ability to
> control your actions against your will.

Both researchers were in the lab wearing highly specialized equipment and
under ideal conditions. They also had to obtain and follow a stringent set of
international human-subject testing rules to conduct the demonstration.

“I think some people will be unnerved by this because they will overestimate
the technology,” Prat said. “There’s no possible way the technology that we
have could be used on a person unknowingly or without their willing
participation.”_

I for one am tired of seeing some exciting advancement come out of research
and then having someone pooh-pooh it out of ignorance. Think of the positive
places this could go!

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yaddayadda
>Think of the positive places this could go!

My first thought reading it was that some coma patients could finally 'talk'
to their loved ones and doctors (e.g.,
[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1230092/Rom-
Houben-P...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1230092/Rom-Houben-
Patient-trapped-23-year-coma-conscious-along.html) ).

My second thought was wondering whether we could crowd-source the origin. For
example, multiple people sending commands, with the majority command being
acted upon. Creepy, but potentially cool (I'm not sure what this says about
me.).

My third thought was wondering whether the receiver would develop 'muscle
memory' of the actions taken. In other words, could the receiver learn how to
do certain movements.

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rollo_tommasi
This is really fascinating and I wish I had a better handle on the principles
that underpin this kind of research. Can anyone recommend some starter books
or papers that cover the subject? For background prior to reading some more
advanced material, would it be better to get a primer in traditional
neuroscience, or something like signals-processing?

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mef
Seems like one application of this would be for reflex enhancement in, say, a
solider. Equip soldiers with a helmet which stimulated them to act quicker
than they would have otherwise in response to visual/auditory stimuli.

