After reading things like this,most Sci-fi feels old...

A few weeks ago,I made a post about a company integrating a Brain Computer Interface in VR. Well, it looks like using a BCI in real life isn't far away too.In July,Paradromics, a startup won a $18 Million grant from DARPA for developing its NIOB(Neural Input-Output Bus), which will be put into clinical trials by 2021. The NIOB, if successfully developed, will be a huge leap over current tech. The current latest BCIs can use 128 electrodes simultaneously. In comparison, NIOB will use up to a 100,000 electrodes, and have an effective data rate of 1 Gigabits per second.

Paradromics plans to use the NIOB to cure diseases like ALS, and disabilities like blindness. In these diseases, the organs themselves can't be fixed, but if we let the brain connect to outside devices, it could result in a huge improvement in quality of life.

The NIOB, has 50,000 ultra-thin Microwires, each of which interfaces with 3-5 neurons. For the achieving kind of bandwidth that is planned, the Microwires need to be placed within a few millimeters of the neuron. This means that the NIOB will require invasive surgery, and will probably only be used for those who need it.

Other, wear-it-like-a-cap BCIs can't really achieve the kind of bandwidth that NIOB will have, so they can't really do the kinds of things that NIOB could do.

But let's say if we could achieve that kind of data rate without invasive surgery. How would it affect our lives?

1. Cyborgs and Mind control would become much more real

With a data rate of 1Gbps, this kind of BCI would easily be able to control cybernetic enhancements. Things like extra arms, legs or other kinds of body parts would become much more practical. With current BCIs, the data rate is much lower. But with this, we will become much, much better at precisely controlling machines, at multi-tasking, at moving objects.

You could even attach a wireless module, and control things wirelessly. At that point, even to a person who lived only 20 years ago, human action would be indistinguishable from magic.

It's going to be very interesting to see how this is used by militaries, or even in sports. Will we play "ultra-football" while riding in 20 foot tall robots kicking a ball that is say, 5 feet in diameter?

2. BCIs could be used to accelerate skill development

Perhaps the most important thing about the NIOB as planned, is that it enables bi-directional communication.

Yeah. You read that right. 1Gbps. bi-directional. How much does your ISP give you?

Maybe skill development is influenced by directly supplying specific information to the brain? Maybe muscle-memory really is...memory? If that is true, we can deliver specific information to the brain,which would significantly increase the rate at which we learn new things.

The effects of this on human productivity and efficiency are unimaginable. If we can spend less time learning and more time doing, that will make us much more effective at learning new things. If this happens, this is going to be as big of an event, as say, the invention of the Internet, or electricity, or even humanity's transition to agriculture.

If this happens, human history will be split into 2 parts. The pre-BCI era, and the post-BCI era.

3. It may enable people's bodies to get hacked

Now of course, tech like this has to have bad consequences. I mean of course, how could life be that easy? You have to get fucked a few times before you get to take advantage of it. Otherwise life feels too easy ;-)

Human software and security standards are already abysmal. Now if you combine them with a BCI, it's hard not to think of the future as a disaster. With a BCI like NIOB, because you have bi-directional control, you can even hack people's bodies, make them do things they don't want to do. Hell, combine this with #2, and you can teach people things that they don't want to learn, or even skills they don't want to learn.

Perhaps even more interesting are the ethical implications of such hacking. Let's say I hack your brain and turn you into an alcoholic, and you kill someone while driving drunk. Who's responsible for that? Obviously, I could affect your brain in much worse ways.

Maybe law enforcement will catchup. You hack someone's brain and make them come to the police station, or maybe, you make them tell the truth during interrogation. But that seems like a power that could be misused very easily.









Brain-Computer Interfaces may be coming sooner than we think. And they may allow us to live the lives of many of the people we read and hear about it in sci-fi stories, both good stories, and bad ones.

Thanks for reading this post. Please put your thoughts about BCIs in the comments below. If you liked this post and want more, follow me :-)

harshallele

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