MadSci Network: Computer Science |
Robert,
That's a great question! Unfortunately, I think it will be quite a while (if ever) before we can undergo as dramatic a neuro-electric experience as described in the Matrix. But that doesn't mean people aren't trying, and they are having some success. But the thing to keep in mind: baby steps.
One guy who is going way out on a limb in pioneering the neural-digital interface is Kevin Warwick in the UK. He has developed implants (and put them in) that allow him to interact with specially programmed computers, etc. Pretty sci-fi type of stuff that has come to reality. Check out his website, www.kevinwarwick.com for more details.
Another person pioneering the brain-computer interface is Miguel Nicolelis, at Duke university (his website is http://www.neuro.duke.edu/Faculty/Nicolelis.htm - but the lab site is under construction currently). He has been working on recording brain signals from animals to interpret their perceptions, as well as try to utilize those brain signals to have an animal perform a task by thinking about it. A write-up about his work can be found at http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/research/NICONAT.HTM.
These great insights and advances are still small pieces to the puzzle, though. The brain is inordinately complex - it's the most sophisticated computational device ever. We have few clues about how the brain is organizing the inputs that it receives, and how it decides to attend to reading this message, rather than listening to the radio that's currently playing, or perhaps the noise outside, or to my fingers typing on this keyboard. And that's just the 'input' side of things! WHen considering issues of thought and behavior generation, we're really in the dark.
Personally, I'm a little pessimistic about our ability
to create a direct, digital interface with our brains. The reason I feel
that way is because to accurately represent and interact with the brain,
you would have to contact every neuron in the brain. And you would need to
know how it all fits together (i.e. how to make a brain). This is no small
task; I'll describe why below.
As you accurately pointed out, all brains are
different. The basic patterns are the same across people (barring major
deformities) - vision undergoes it's first brain reconstructions near the
back of your head, memories appear to be formed slightly above your ears,
and some understanding of right and wrong appears to situated right above
your eyeballs. But what's amazing is that the brain gets rewired as you
experience life. There is some, as yet unknown, physical substrate for
memories. There probably exists some genetic or structural predisposition
towards certain behaviours.
So if you go to a movie that your friend does not,
your brains are going to be different; your experience has tweaked your
brain ever so slightly, and in a way that has to be different from someone
who wasn't there. (and to be annoying, if you both sat next to each other
at the movie, the representations would probably not be the same, as you
might pick up on things he didn't, etc).
SO - that whole tirade can be summed up like this:
even if I knew how one person's brain is wired up completely, it's probably
not going to be sufficiently accurate for someone else's. I don't know if I
can truly impress the complexity of the brain wiring problem. We've got
something like 100 billion neurons, each with an average of 100-1000
connections in & out . Trying to make some sense out of that is
beyond me! (and that balderdash about only using 10% of our brain is
just that - if someone tells you that, make them do 5 shots of
Jagermeister).
I hope that's not too pessimistic! I think we will
always be learning about the brain. There's so much packed in there from
biological, computational, psychological, and behavioral standpoints. I
hope this has provided some fodder for thought and discussion. If you want
to learn more about brain stuff, there are some great books out there:
Steven Rose's The Making of Memory: From Molecules to Mind and
several books by Antonio Damasio provide some readable and intriguing
insights into how people approach studying the biology of the brain,
learning, and memory.
Good luck!
-Alex G
cgoddard@fas.harvard.edu
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