Science!! Fucking magnets, how do they work?
- Thread starter Flunklesnarkin_sl
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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Yeah I get that, but are we talking about injecting phantom images into our brain so that the mouse thinks it sees the left lever's light luminate? Or are we talking about injecting 'knowledge' into the mouse' brain so that it 'knows' that it should push the left lever?
Because if it's the former it'd be hard to imagine a use case that beats a visual representation. And if it's the latter I don't know if it's plausible to communicate in a way that exceeds other information mediums.
The article seems to indicate it was the latter.
I'd imagine a human under instruction to focus on the foreign knowledge could learn to utilize it much quicker. Also this is very rudimentary stuff, I'd imagine it gets much more complex before we see any practical use.
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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Yeah I was also thinking about making a kung fu reference. I'd just like to read a paper from a real neurochemist discussing the plausibility of direct information transmission for complex ideas. Being able to transmit a binary message to a mouse is cool but scalability can't be assumed.
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Other information mediums are slow since they are, at the very least, inhibited by the brain's sensors for that medium(eyes, ears, mouth, etc). Secondly, the type of medium could be inherently slow. Like reading a book. Or the speed of sound. Jacking directly into someone's brain bypasses all of that. The limiting factor at that point might become the brain's ability to process information.
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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I think we can agree on that. There's just a question of what that limiting factor is.
I'd be interested in finding out what exactly they did to the decoder mouse to achieve communication. Feeding in a binary value can be done in many different ways, most of which are really just hacks.
Eomer
Trakanon Raider
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I would think that it won't ever be possible to simply "jack-in" knowledge, skills, or even complex memories like in the Matrix. The reason being is that learning a skill or a language or forming a memory all involve physical changes in the brain's circuitry. Even if you could create some sort of conduit to feed information in to a brain, I can't see it being possible for the physical changes to happen instantaneously. It's not a process that you could ever mechanically direct, since every brain is unique. You couldn't just tell the brain "okay connect these couple billion neurons together in this fashion to learn French."
That said, perhaps learning skills and languages could be sped up or assisted through that kind of technology, almost like VR or a holodeck but inside your mind.
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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I took a closer look at the paper, here's where they describe the comms:
I don't know what 100 microstimulation pulses to the primary motor cortex would do, but my guess is that it's some kind of irritant or the most hilarious case it causes the mouse to twitch uncontrollably. If that's true good luck reading a book via a series of twitches.
http://www.nature.com/srep/2013/1302...srep01319.htmlPaper_sl said:
I don't know what 100 microstimulation pulses to the primary motor cortex would do, but my guess is that it's some kind of irritant or the most hilarious case it causes the mouse to twitch uncontrollably. If that's true good luck reading a book via a series of twitches.
I'm sure if this brain technology being discussed turns out to be viable at some point in the future, a system can be developed to do "physical therapy" in conjunction with the "knowledge downloads" to help a person become proficient at a skill that requires more than just the brain.
How much "data" can the human brain hold anyways? It has to be a lot but I'd guess that there would be some quantifiable limit to storage capacity.
I had a friend with a photographic memory and he would always complain about how scientists would always want to do tests and other "experiments" on him. Dude was legit, he would teach college classes without a textbook, he'd just recite the course lesson and information out of the text book. I found it fascinating but I can understand how being under a microscope can be a bit upsetting.
How much "data" can the human brain hold anyways? It has to be a lot but I'd guess that there would be some quantifiable limit to storage capacity.
I had a friend with a photographic memory and he would always complain about how scientists would always want to do tests and other "experiments" on him. Dude was legit, he would teach college classes without a textbook, he'd just recite the course lesson and information out of the text book. I found it fascinating but I can understand how being under a microscope can be a bit upsetting.
Germans did it already on an adult. Patient had a bone marrow transplant for cancer and the doner had a rare genetic mutation that makes their T-cells (I think) resistant to HIV. Some time after the transplant they couldn't find the virus in his blood.
Noodleface
A Mod Real Quick
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iannis
Musty Nester
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Depends on what you mean by data, I guess. Sensory processing and integration is no small shit and the vast majority of our brains are devoted to that task.
Confucian scholars could recite volumes of verse exactly. But they studied for years to do it, and I mean what do you use that astounding ability of memory forbesidesfor reciting volumes of verse? I'm sure the potential is there, but what practical use it is really to carry 1/20th of wikipedia around in your head when you can carry the entire thing around in your ipad. Kind of a party trick.
The HIV baby is pretty neat.
Scientists say Mars could have supported simple life.http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...92B0YA20130312
Big Phoenix
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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Is water wet? Always find it funny when scientist state the obvious(at least to anyone who keeps up on the subject at hand). Hell Mars was also probably a lot warmer and had a signifcantly more dense atmosphere long ago too.
"Footage of laboratory-raised chimpanzees venturing outside for the first time has emerged, showing the primates in amazement at their new surroundings"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...irst-time.html
I think this is how those North Koreans are going to react when the border finally comes down...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...irst-time.html
I think this is how those North Koreans are going to react when the border finally comes down...
hodj
Vox Populi Jihadi
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I'm not some PETA member or even that big on animal rights for the most part, but medical research shouldn't be allowed on Chimpanzees and Bonobos and other great apes. One they're all endangered, two in the case of chimpanzees and bonobos they are incredibly close to us genetically, with fairly robust cognitive abilities.
Maybe its just the anthropologist in me but I'd like to see some aspects of human rights extended to our closest relatives. Chimpanzees are so much like humans, research regarding them should be mostly along the lines of Jane Goodall observation research and the like, rather than medical/pharmaceutical/makeup and other research.
Great video.
Maybe its just the anthropologist in me but I'd like to see some aspects of human rights extended to our closest relatives. Chimpanzees are so much like humans, research regarding them should be mostly along the lines of Jane Goodall observation research and the like, rather than medical/pharmaceutical/makeup and other research.
Great video.