Aspies For Freedom

Who here has an interest in brain<->computer interfacing? I for one would love to get an electrode implanted - anyone else?

I'd like to interface with an image program.

Things aren't quite that advanced yet - can move a mouse cursor around or type by thought with enough training but that's about it.

Elecrodes need better placement.  It would also be easier if they were implanted when the brain was very young and still developing--so no hope for me, as I want to put an image right onto a screen, but still, I can dream

I'm a big proponent of posthumanism  

If they came up with implants or cybernetic replacement parts that enhanced your abilities beyond human potential I'd be first on the list  :o  

Maybe I just understand biology too well and I'm not religious enough, but I think that the human body really shouldn't be seen as the end of the line, but rather the starting point to work from. Cybernetic interfaces, cyborg components or completely mechanical replacements could make humans so much more useful in the future.

At a most basic level, replacement limbs (in the future) have the potential to be more dexterous, stronger and faster than their original parts, but entire customised components could be used, a professional mechanic for instance could set appropriate tools or interface connections into the implants, body parts could be radically different, such as tentacle-like limbs, or digitgrade knee/ankle configuration for faster movement. Not to mention the interface side - global networking, direct interface with hardware, or multiple camera hooked directly to your ocipital lobes...

Whoever spend their time thinking humans will always look as they do now has no imagination.

if the surgery whould be safe (or safer), then i want a electrode stuffs in my brain. (play games with only imagination sounds cool :grin

but i dont want my limbs replaced with mechanical stuffs, becuz bio-stuffs are much better i hear on many tv-documentary. like healing or regeneration, so you dont need to replace your limbs every time, if it gets damaged. or mussle power of some insects like lice, can jump 300m high if it has same size as ours. and there are bionic-stuffs that is stronger than steel. -censored-
but if my limbs gets servered, its easier to have a mechanical arm. then its good to have electrode to control the arm.

and you can do stuffs like controlling a robot with a thought, so the robot can do a dangerous task, that needs human-skills to accomplish.

(and i know almost nothing about biology, so i can have it wrong)

[EDIT: because i realized my joke was littlebit lame]

The surgery being safe isn't the only issue - there's also the problem of how to safely interface the electrode - a radio transmitter in the body could easily cause cancer for example, but a big cable coming out of your skull could also cause problems if that cable was connected up to the mains by accident. Personally i'd be inclined to connect a cable to a radio transmitter just outside of my body but this would make the surgery more complex (routing the cable from the brain down the spine and then out to my back would probably be vastly more complex with a risk of paralysis if the surgeon screws up). For these reasons unless you're part of a well-respected research project no surgeon is likely to do it for you.

i saw a documentary about a woman that was blind, and did part of a research project of attatching a camera with wires to a brain. it worked, however you only see spots or "light dots" and stuffs.
so, you can do more things than only giving commands. (but the machine is not really portable...)
maybe in future we can just even see/hear again, if you're being blind/deaf.

The problem with artificial eyes is that the natural ones seem to have VERY high resolutions. So artificial ones seem to be lower to our brains.

Don't forget though, that as with any technology, the hardest part is establishign the principle.  For instance, the wrigth brothers had quite some difficulty getting their little project off the ground (punintended) and only flew about 120 feet. now, we've capitalised on that and have sent probes deep into space.

Even int rtheir own lifetime, the brothers saw massive advancement.

For my own part, I'm hearing of childredn using the internet and web in their standard studies. I used pen and paper and rarely saw acomputer.

And as for the cybernetics part, A yahoo newscast recenly focused on aman who could use cybernetic arm. So i give it ten years before viable bionic eyes are available. And I'd like them I think.