DARPA's 'Cortical Modem' will plug straight into your brain The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a brain-computer interface it hopes could inject images directly into the visual cortex. news of the "Cortical Modem" project has emerged in transhumanist magazine Humanity Plus, which reports the agency is working on a direct neural interface (DNI) chip that …
Looks like Geordie La Forge's visor could be on the way.
BUT why does all this technology which can help mankind have to be developed as a spin-off from developing more efficient and more expensive ways of killing and maiming people?
Wouldn't it be nice if they renamed DARPA the Making-The-World-A-Better-Place Advanced Research Projects Agency, and left the budget untouched?
.. why does all this technology which can help mankind have to be developed as a spin-off from developing more efficient and more expensive ways of killing and maiming people?Wouldn't it be nice if they renamed DARPA the Making-The-World-A-Better-Place Advanced Research Projects Agency, and left the budget untouched?
Given that it's D for Defence rather than O for Offence, were Mr. Orwell still with us he may well conclude that they already have.
>BUT why does all this technology which can help mankind have to be developed as a spin-off from developing more efficient and more expensive ways of killing and maiming people?
People in power will have actively worked towards gaining power in the past, so we can assume that they will actively work to gain more power in the future. Their power gives them money, which they can use to employ smart people. The smart people produce technologies that give more power to their paymasters. Repeat.
That said, the difference between a tool and a weapon is in the hand of the wielder. John Harrison was the first person to create a timepiece accurate enough to allow a naval navigator to accurately determine their longitude - thus allowing the British navy to make better use of their fleet. Explosives are used for mining and quarrying- essential for the resources our society uses. Spy satellites can be used to monitor one's own agriculture, as well as seeing what the enemy is up to. Methods in treating traumatic injuries in overseas wars have been brought back to home nations.
Sounds more like Batou's eyes, to me. (considering the form factor is identical, THAT would have been a good gratuitous graphic).
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f6/Ghost_in_the_Shell_Stand_Alone_Complex_Batou.png/230px-Ghost_in_the_Shell_Stand_Alone_Complex_Batou.png
1: Wait for this device to become ubquitious and hackable
2: Hack as many as possible to only - and I mean only - show the most weird eposides of The Krankies Klub and KTV
3: Make your demands, and wait. World powers will capitulate to every demand you make.
I only ask for 10% of all profits you make based on GPD.
Yours,
Steven R
I bet the group can all speak Klingon.
Assuming this gets developed to produce reasonable vision, a wifi or bluetooth link to the car might be useful for say reversing using the car's rear camera, my only worry would be when I'm driving in traffic and suddenly get a pop up telling me 'an important security update is available install now!' or it blue screens with a message ' please replace the batteries you have less than 2% remaining.
And how long before the NSA/GCHQ et. al. work out how to low-level exploit these? I'm assuming that the ability to do so will be built-in at the firmware/hardware level and that there will be a thriving underground trade in 'clean' models (ie - not compromised by Gubbermint - whether they are compromised by your supplier is another matter).
The article doesn't specifically say: is this thing going to be surgically implanted? If yes, why specify a low $10 price when the cost of the surgery will be a hundred times that? If no surgery is needed then I can understand the low cost requirement... although it does then raise the question of how the device will stimulate the cortex effectively through skin&bone.
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