Cyberpunk, Jacking-In, and my Direction in Life
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So I guess I have what you might call an academic fetish: invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) R&D. I don't know. This is just one of those concepts that makes me a bit giddy as a nerd and a hopeful future scientist/engineer. I didn't really think of it as being like a fetish though until recently when I started working with a research group that's actually developing BCI, but non-invasive. For background info, invasive BCI is like the brain jacks in The Matrix. And off hand, I guess it's related to cyberization like in Ghost in the Shell or Blame! or Terminator even, where you can connect to the Net from your (at least partly) machine body.
This is starting to look more and more like a fetish, something only a wicked young man like me would pursue despite its lack of popularity. Why isn't it popular..? Because people don't want to get the surgery for brain jacks. It's a far-out idea for most people. It's a controversial idea. For better or for worse, invasive BCI does instantly suggest The Matrix and powerful virtual/alternate realities. And it does suggest the transformation of humans into cyborgs as the next logical step. It frightens people. (And maybe it should frighten me a bit too?)
On the other hand, non-invasive BCI (like the ones my group is developing) are built on EEG, which is a diagnostic device that neurologists like my dad and neuroscientists have been using for a while now. It's a trusted device. Partly because it just sits on your skin and gets its readings. This is the paradigm for most consumer BCIs, at least outside the medical industry (like OCZ's NIA, for gaming weehee!). It's probably also the most common paradigm for most researchers who are developing it, first for medical reasons and then maybe others (Stay tuned for a BCI Beanpot with BU, NEU, MIT, Harvard, etc next year or so. A tournament in Pong or some other simple game will help test out the quality of different groups' BCIs.)
Anyway, naturally, the non-invasive BCI is the more mainstream one whereas the invasive one is...kinda radical. The problem is that I probably think that invasive BCI is a lot cooler. But it might be impractical to invest my time into..
On the other hand, talk about The Rule of Cool, which is cooler anyway? Although I probably do think invasive BCI (and cyborg transformation) is cooler in general, the way I imagine the non-invasive BCI in Neuromancer piques my interest. I think of just a loose collection, like a net, of circular electrodes that adhere to a cowboy's head, like Case's. This image makes me think of zen-like concentration or closed-eye trance states on the faces of cowboys like Case when they're jacked in. I suppose that the electrode description isn't necessarily accurate to Gibson's original writing, but that's the current image in my head that I feel fits with Case and the feel of Neuromancer.
Anyone else want to weigh in on this?
This is starting to look more and more like a fetish, something only a wicked young man like me would pursue despite its lack of popularity. Why isn't it popular..? Because people don't want to get the surgery for brain jacks. It's a far-out idea for most people. It's a controversial idea. For better or for worse, invasive BCI does instantly suggest The Matrix and powerful virtual/alternate realities. And it does suggest the transformation of humans into cyborgs as the next logical step. It frightens people. (And maybe it should frighten me a bit too?)
On the other hand, non-invasive BCI (like the ones my group is developing) are built on EEG, which is a diagnostic device that neurologists like my dad and neuroscientists have been using for a while now. It's a trusted device. Partly because it just sits on your skin and gets its readings. This is the paradigm for most consumer BCIs, at least outside the medical industry (like OCZ's NIA, for gaming weehee!). It's probably also the most common paradigm for most researchers who are developing it, first for medical reasons and then maybe others (Stay tuned for a BCI Beanpot with BU, NEU, MIT, Harvard, etc next year or so. A tournament in Pong or some other simple game will help test out the quality of different groups' BCIs.)
Anyway, naturally, the non-invasive BCI is the more mainstream one whereas the invasive one is...kinda radical. The problem is that I probably think that invasive BCI is a lot cooler. But it might be impractical to invest my time into..
On the other hand, talk about The Rule of Cool, which is cooler anyway? Although I probably do think invasive BCI (and cyborg transformation) is cooler in general, the way I imagine the non-invasive BCI in Neuromancer piques my interest. I think of just a loose collection, like a net, of circular electrodes that adhere to a cowboy's head, like Case's. This image makes me think of zen-like concentration or closed-eye trance states on the faces of cowboys like Case when they're jacked in. I suppose that the electrode description isn't necessarily accurate to Gibson's original writing, but that's the current image in my head that I feel fits with Case and the feel of Neuromancer.
Anyone else want to weigh in on this?
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I've never actually read Neuromancer by William Gibson. It has been my desire to read it, but I picked up an HP Lovecraft anthology at Borders two years ago and all my other interests sorta got sidelined at that point. Must read it sometime soon. At any rate, the concept of cyborgization doesn't frighten me. Human evolution is way too slow, and we're always looking for ways to prolong our lives, so is it so bad to become all machine or part machine in return for a longer life? This body of my mine is a lie. It doesn't represent who I am. It is a work in progress.
It's not necessary to think that you should be afraid of such concepts. I mean, come on! The medical community used to think that meddling with the human heart was wrong. Look at what we do with it now, y'know what I mean? It's just gonna take the world some time to adjust to it. Give the technology a couple decades to advance, and future generations will be open to the concept.
It's not necessary to think that you should be afraid of such concepts. I mean, come on! The medical community used to think that meddling with the human heart was wrong. Look at what we do with it now, y'know what I mean? It's just gonna take the world some time to adjust to it. Give the technology a couple decades to advance, and future generations will be open to the concept.
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Personally, I don't think we should do unnecessary invasive procedures to the brain until we fully understand it. Yes, we generally know what parts are linked to what, but there is still a shit ton we don't know about brain function. I'm not necessarily opposed to the technology, but it has to be proven safe first.
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Nekohime wrote...
Personally, I don't think we should do unnecessary invasive procedures to the brain until we fully understand it. Yes, we generally know what parts are linked to what, but there is still a shit ton we don't know about brain function. I'm not necessarily opposed to the technology, but it has to be proven safe first.That goes without saying, Nekohime.
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Funny you should list three cyber punk animes/movie that all kinda have the same outline: We can't control technology. Blame! is a great read, but it's scary seeing such a gargantuan structure actually take up a whole solar system (even bigger for all I know). That and the fact that clean gene humans (i forget what they called them) don't exist anymore. Instead humans have become fearful of the network that has taken over.
Next is Ghost in the Shell. Last thing I need are hackers in my brain, like the Laughing man. There is also the scary notion of, are my memories really mine, or are they somebody else's and I just perceive them as mine? There is also the abuse of such integration between man and computer.
Lastly is Terminator. Enough said, it's fucking terminator. If we create and AI that is capable of such power, we're fucked.
As cool as cyberpunk is (I mean, i fucking LOVE Blame! shit is awesome), I just don't think we as human beings are responsible enough to handle such an technology.
Next is Ghost in the Shell. Last thing I need are hackers in my brain, like the Laughing man. There is also the scary notion of, are my memories really mine, or are they somebody else's and I just perceive them as mine? There is also the abuse of such integration between man and computer.
Lastly is Terminator. Enough said, it's fucking terminator. If we create and AI that is capable of such power, we're fucked.
As cool as cyberpunk is (I mean, i fucking LOVE Blame! shit is awesome), I just don't think we as human beings are responsible enough to handle such an technology.
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Tanasinn
The Bellpepper
One read I would recommend is Beautiful Red by M Darusha Wehm. Gives out a near perfect example of what would happen to the human psyche once integrated cybernetics are introduced. I agree with what b4k420 said, as this was also reflected in the book, human beings aren't responsible enough to handle something like this. With us, there is always this need to take things apart and try to modify/hack it. Even then no matter how ready people are for the change there will still be quite a few people opposed to it due to other people probably pushing things too far with this tech like identity theft, bankruptcy, or like the main plot in the fore mentioned book: mind control.
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Tanasinn wrote...
One read I would recommend is Beautiful Red by M Darusha Wehm. Gives out a near perfect example of what would happen to the human psyche once integrated cybernetics are introduced. Found the audio book online for free. Great book so far.
http://www.podiobooks.com/title/beautiful-red