The following is the original content:
Many people think of change when it comes to technology, a deserved reputation for William Kochevar, who was paralyzed below his shoulder following a bicycle accident but still able to move autonomously This is partly due to the electrodes that are implanted in his right hand, and he can stimulate the muscles in this way.
But the actual effect is more magical.Keckwoo can use the mind to control his arm.His intention to exercise reflected in the motor cortex nerve activity, these signals will be detected in his brain implants, and then processed into instructions, and thus Activate the electrode in the arm.
This way of decoding thinking sounds like a science-fiction novel, but the brain-computer interface used by Kechava, such as BrainGate, does prove that thought control can really be done, and researchers can judge what people hear and see by simply using neural activity Figure
The information can also be encoded and then used to stimulate the brain. More than 300,000 people use cochlear implants, which convert sounds into electrical signals and send them to the brain, allowing them to hear the converted sound again. Scientists have put The data 'injected' into the monkey's brain, allowing them to perform various actions via electrical impulses.
As the Economist Intelligence Unit Technology Quarterly puts it, brain-computer interface research is accelerating and ambitious as the United States military and Silicon Valley are beginning to pay attention to the brain. Facebook Dreams Enter text directly through the brain. Startup Kernel Also invested 100 million US dollars in nerve technology.
0Elon Musk also set up a company called Neuralink: He believes that if humans want to survive artificial intelligence, they must upgrade.Enterprisers have envisioned a world where humans can Communicate with each other and the machine through telepathy, or hear extremely high frequency sounds like superhuman ones.
These capabilities, if implemented, have to wait for decades, but before that, the brainchild interface could open the door for us to reach out to new applications, but imagine we might help blind people by stimulating the visual cortex With light, a new neural connection can be established for stroke patients or a signal for depression can be found by monitoring the brain. Brain-computer interface may change the definition of 'human' by converting neuronal discharges into usable resources.
Obstacles still exist
Skeptics consider this a joke, for example, the clinical brain-computer interface in the lab has proven to be very difficult, and the brainchild game used by Ketowo was developed 10 years ago There are not many people who have actually tried it, and it's even more unimaginable to turn implants into consumer products. The road to the mainstream is blocked by three major obstacles - technology, science and commerce.
The first is technology. Noninvasive techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG) make it very difficult to obtain HD brain signals through interventional cortical, skeletal, and thin films. There are some advances that have been made so far - with the help of an EEG hat, virtual reality games can be run solely on the fly, Industrial robot.
But at least for some time, the most ambitious application paradigm is the need to interact directly with nerves through the graft, whereas existing devices have many pitfalls and require some wiring to do so, which can trigger rejection and can only Interact with hundreds of the 85 billion neurons in the human brain.
However, the status quo will change soon, and as advances in miniaturization and computing power improve, researchers are developing secure wireless grafts that can exchange information with hundreds of thousands of neurons, some of which Interpretation of the brain's electrical signals, while others can sense light, magnetic force and ultrasound.
After removing the technical barriers, but also to overcome another difficulty. The brain is still an unknown world. Scientists know little about its mode of operation, especially as it relates to the complex functions of memory formation, etc. The study of animal development more comprehensive, but Difficult to carry out human experiments.
However, human beings now have a deeper understanding of brain regions such as the motor cortex, etc. It is not necessary to fully understand the relevant knowledge.Machine learning can identify neural activity patterns, and the brain itself can easily find out the control mode of brain-computer interface. Will reveal more about the brain's secrets.
Open a hole in your head
The third hurdle comes from commercialization, where the time, money, and technology needed to get approval for a medical device, and consumer apps can only succeed by providing useful functionality to people.
Some brain-computer interface applications are not necessary at all - using voice assistants instead of fingers is easier than transplanting components into the brain, and providing craniotomy to ordinary consumers seems to be impractical for this service. However, intracerebral transplantation Has become a specific treatment in some cases.About 150,000 people around the world have undergone deep brain stimulation surgery to help them control Parkinson's disease through electrodes.Electrical surgery, like laser eye surgery, becomes a routine procedure.
All of this shows that while the future scenarios foreseen by the pioneers of neuroscience are very hard to come by, it is achievable when humans use their ingenuity to solve a problem, no matter how difficult the problem is, the result of.
Within a few years, technological advances have the potential to open entirely new avenues for brain-to-brain communication, and many of the initial applications have a clear goal of getting people back to exercise and feeling, but as applications begin to build on people's A great deal of anxiety is starting to emerge for capabilities (both in the military and consumer sectors).
Privacy is one of the most obvious: People may no longer be able to hide their inner thoughts.Safety is just as worrying: if the brain can intervene on the Internet, it could be hacked as well.Is also a hidden problem with inequality: if you get superhuman Cognitive ability, it can become a permanent elite.Ethnicologists have begun to question the identity and proxy issues that arise when machines are introduced into neural circuits.
These issues are not urgent, but they are by no means worrying, and technology has changed people's way of life, and our skull is a new frontier.