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Elon Musk to show off working brain-hacking device:
Elon Musk is due to demonstrate a working brain-to-machine interface as part of his ambitious plans to give people superhuman powers.
His brain-hacking company, Neuralink, applied to start human trials last year.
But Friday's demonstration will involve a robot and "neurons firing in real time", a series of tweets reveals.
The interface could allow people with neurological conditions to control phones or computers with their mind.
But the long-term ambition is to usher in an age of what Mr Musk calls "superhuman cognition".
People need to merge with artificial intelligence, he says, in part to avoid a scenario where AI becomes so powerful it destroys the human race.
[...] The device the company is developing consists of a tiny probe containing more than 3,000 electrodes attached to flexible threads thinner than a human hair, which can monitor the activity of 1,000 brain neurons.
The company has been working with monkey brains to its realize brain/computer interface.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by acid andy on Friday August 28 2020, @10:14PM (4 children)
As Lisa Simpson says, as intelligence goes up, happiness often goes down. Seriously, human brains are already too powerful for their own good. We're prone to dwelling on negative thoughts, being excessively self-critical and even having existential crises. Many animals seem to be able to move on from extremely stressful experiences almost instantly whereas humans will often be worrying about them for days.
Also how would we guarantee when merging the human with the AI that the human would be the one in control of the outcome rather than the AI? Or the enhanced human might cease to care about the fate of the human race and cause their destruction anyway.
Right, I won't be purchasing any of Musk's products then, ever.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 28 2020, @10:25PM
https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/bionics/monkeys-type-12-words-per-minute-with-braintokeyboard-communication [ieee.org]
https://www.nature.com/news/2008/080528/full/news.2008.861.html [nature.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by khallow on Saturday August 29 2020, @12:39AM
Well, you won't be worrying about happiness after an AI has wiped out humanity.
No such guarantee exists now for normal human reproduction. If you want to develop such guarantees in the future, you probably ought to greatly reduce your prioritization of happiness.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @05:06AM (1 child)
Read about the Default Mode Network and how to completely eradicate worry. Gary Weber has written two books about it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2020, @07:28PM
shrewmy, shrewmy, shrooms!!!!