DARPA commits to brain-computer interface development project Do you use your brain to control your computer, like Clint Eastwood did in Firefox (yes, that one), the rather underrated 1982 spy drama? No, us neither, but thanks to a new research project launched by the US military, we may one day be able to. A new programme from the US's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) …
But earlier ones were specifically defeated by stairs. The general fan theory is that there are many revisions of the dalek chassis, and some are a lot better than others. Thus why early models could be defeated by stairs or a punk with a baseball bat. When the Doctor encouters daleks further along in their history they have more advanced technology and superior shells.
Indeed!
But "underrated"?! Only in Eastwood's agent's dreams - the film bombed for a reason, Eastwood's acting was as wooden as the doors to Parliament's chambers. Dull, dull, dull. Not one of his shining moments.
Let that dog die. Please.
Of course it was the mid 90s and I was still hopped up on adolescence hormones last time I saw it, so, you know, perspective.
Try watching it today, with an adult perspective. And thus:
Remember, when you've had enough and are ready to kill yourself rather than continue watching, it's Down the Road not Across the Street
Firefox has a rather miserable 5.9 rating in IMDb; it has a just-as-rather-miserable 42% on Rotten Tomatoes from the experts / 41% from the user base. Trust me, it has these ratings for a reason.
Call me paranoid (but not Shirley) however if they ever perfected this sort of tech what would stop them from implanting it into someone unwilling? Say POWs or prisoners or even people just suspected of being whatever the flavour du jour of pedoterrorist* is?
Would make interrogations a lot easier, possibly? Or control over the person?
* definition as suggested by whatever dodgy govt happens to be in power
While I have faith that there could be a lot of really beneficial, positive spin-offs from this sort of technology (eg for the disabled), I have little faith that it won't also be used for nefarious purposes by various agencies, which is far more likely.
You, I like you. I like the way you think. Yep. If you can read, you can write.
You will be a good little consumer-robot. You will buy what we want you to buy, when we want you to buy it. You want this chocolate bar and you want it right now. You enjoy working 100 hours a week in sweatshop conditions under a whip-cracking pointy-haired boss for a pittance, and you feel that is a fulfilling and joyful life.
For the thousandth time, I'm glad I never had kids. Not with the direction the future is taking...!
I have one interface for visual with a secondary input channel working in parallel with it so I wont miss anything and another paired set of inputs dedicated for audio. AND I have ten, count'em 10, output interfaces.
I can already interface with and operate everything in my home, work, car and general environment with my current I/O system. What does the Darpa system have to offer that is an improvement?
There are common themes throughout Sci Fi of direct brain to network/computer connections. Look at Neuromancer or Death by Ecstasy.
With the security being an after thought in most devices today just think of the possibilities of someone hacking a the mind-machine interface device.
Forget hooking a brain to a computer. What happens when you connect multiple brains to each other via a switch?
My guess is that once you get data transfer rates and latency comparable to the corpus callosum you'll see a merging of personality between the affected brains into a gestalt entity. Or the Borg.
You might like to watch a movie from back in the 80s called Brainstorm. It's about a bunch of scientists who invent a "VR" type headset that does something like this. It records all brainwave patterns onto a tape which can be played back, allowing others to experience every thought, feeling and action thus recorded as though it was their own. They have a lot of fun with it at first, then start learning things about each other they'd rather not know.
Then one of them has a heart attack and dies while recording on it, and the others find the tape...
Sod the body, with this you can finally be a brain in a jar. or ship... or tank... It's a well worn SciFi trope after all for books, films, t.v. and computer games (Syndicate or Deus Ex being a good dystopian examples of where this ends up).
Mines with the with the orange trim ..... though I never asked for this..
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