MadSci Network: Computer Science
Query:

Re: When will someone/we be able to connect our brains into a net.

Date: Tue Mar 26 23:33:18 2002
Posted By: Alex Goddard, Grad student, Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School
Area of science: Computer Science
ID: 1014296265.Cs
Message:

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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