Subject: [extropy-chat] Thinking is doing with Cyborg Technology

From: Joseph Bloch <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2005 20:28:43 -0500

Unfortunately, the segment is only available as an audio file; I don't 
see a full transcript on the website. I heard it this morning, and 
remember that it was absolutely fascinating (paralyzed guy controls a 
computer cursor with brainwaves; they want to hook it up to a robotic 
arm next), but naturally it ended with the usual vague-but-ominous 
"there are places mankind was not meant to tread" crap.

Joseph

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4533546

"Scientists make it possible for quadriplegics to control a television, 
play simple computer games and check e-mail... by just thinking about 
it. Commentator David Ewing Duncan contemplates the age of the 
neuro-cyborg."
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From: Neil Halelamien <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 11:47:57 -0800

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 11:00:16 -0700, [email-masked] 
> "there are places mankind was not meant to tread" crap.

More details on the work of John Donoghue (the researcher mentioned in
the segment) are available on his lab's web site:

http://donoghue.neuro.brown.edu/

Donoghue's work, which records motor signals from primary motor
cortex, is certainly cool, but I'm personally biased towards the work
of Richard Andersen's lab, which records cognitive-level reach goals
from posterior parietal cortex. Here are links to a presentation and
overview paper on the topic:

http://www.vis.caltech.edu/neural_prosthetics/index.html
http://www.vis.caltech.edu/PDFs%20of%20journal%20articles/Trends_cognitive_neurosci/2004%2011-01%20TICS%20Cognitive%20Neural%20Prosthetics.pdf

Andersen's lab has also been collaborating with the robotics and
micro-electromechanical labs here to put together movable probes which
automatically seek out neurons and adjust themselves when the signal
degrades. Very neat stuff.

-- Neil

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From: Samantha Atkins <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 20:57:00 -0800

On Mar 14, 2005, at 11:31 PM, spike wrote:

>>  Joseph Bloch
> ...
>> ... but naturally it ended with the usual vague-but-ominous
> Please let us examine this closely and question everything
> we think we know.  I see exactly what you are referring to
> but I want to make sure I understand it.  I came from a
> memetic background where this "mankind is not meant to
> tread" notion is absent, but I recognize that mine is an
> unusual background.

I think there are places that humans cannot thread without becoming 
more/other than human.    I think there is a larger set of places that 
humans cannot non-catastrophically thread without overcoming many of 
their human limitations.    This does not mean i can point out such 
places in particular.

- samantha