World's First Brain Prosthesis Revealed

New Scientist ^ | 12 March 03 | Duncan Graham-Rowe

[Chemist_Geek]

[Jhoffa_]

I wonder how long before the Linux crowd cries foul..

[CobaltBlue]

Heck, I could probably use a new hippocampus or two. Mine is probably shot. My memory isn't very good at all, and getting worse all the time.

[CobaltBlue]

The thing about artifically enhancing memory is that it can be tested on animals -- mazes and whatnot.

Of course, human memory is probably a lot more subtle, but it doesn't reside in the hippocampus, does it? I studied this in neurology once but this is one of the things I forget.

Isn't memory stored in the cerebral cortex? So this is just a way to assist the part that processes the information.

[RightWhale]

Isn't memory stored in the cerebral cortex?

It seems to be associated somehow, but the brain is still unknown territory. It's nowhere near certain that memory is stored in the brain as in computers. Even if it is, it isn't digital.

[JoJo Gunn]

This is chilling stuff. I shudder to think it being in the hands of the dangerous Left, who has politicized the CDC and various medical/psychiatric groups with HomoFascist revisionist dogma, not to mention their infiltration of elementary schools.

Call me paranoid, but did any of you think we'd be this far in the toilet 20 years ago?

[Hank Kerchief]

Kudos to the author for getting it right. Changes in the structure or chemical balance of the brain may affect the human mind -- but they do not create or generate the human mind. Far from being the "organic computer" that the materialists imagine, the brain is a sort of mind/body interface organ -- tying together the body here in the physical universe with the the mind (spirit) Somewhere Else to make a complete person.

This is an unusual view, albeit, a correct one. I would be interested in how you came to hold it.

I would express it somewhat differently (as you probably would under other circumstances). Consciousness is not an emergent quality, as is popularly believed, because, as you correctly pointed out, it is distinct from that material (physical) existense it is conscious of. However, I would not say it is "somewhere" else, because, not being material in nature, would not have spatial or temporal qualities.

I have a very rigorous ontology that accounts thoroughly for the relationship between the natural (material/physical) world, and the supernatural existense of which the natural world is a subset. The rational/volitional mind (of man) as well as all consciousness (sentient life) and life itself actually belong to the supernatural realm, (but differentiated from it, just as matter is, but at a higher level of differentiation). Organisms, conscious life, and human brains are operative interfaces between the two realms.

I would be very interested in your views on this subject.

Hank

[Porterville]

That is some Borgie-Borg Sh#t. I don't know what to say. Resistance is futile???

[beavus]

Call me paranoid, but did any of you think we'd be this far in the toilet 20 years ago?

It all started back when man discovered fire. If only it had been banned way back when...

[beavus]

tying together the body here in the physical universe with the the mind (spirit) Somewhere Else to make a complete person.

Along those lines, I understand Merck & Co., Inc. is developing a 3-alpha-spiritine receptor agonist to help treat those afflicted with critical thinking.

[beavus]

I hope Microsoft isn't writing the software. I'd hate to think what the blue screen of death means under these circumstances.

[Thinkin' Gal]

The world's first brain prosthesis - an artificial hippocampus

Silicon chip horn of Ammon ping.

[Ramius]

It's the interface that I'd like to learn more about. That we can mimic certain mechanical control functions is quite an advance, but it's the interface to the brain or segments of the brain that is absolutely amazing. Groundbreaking stuff, this.

Maybe we'll find out someday that the brain is just another organ like the kidney, and the "mind" or the "spirit" is not even related to it at all. That's what'll really bake our cookies. :-)

Maybe the mind isn't "in" anything.

[Ramius]

It all started back when man discovered fire. If only it had been banned way back when...

Naah... it was the wheel that did us in. It's been just rush-rush-rush on everything ever since.

[HairOfTheDog]

It's been done.

Seriously.... Serious stuff going on here! If it works, we will have to decide how much we *want* it to.

[beavus]

Naah... it was the wheel that did us in. It's been just rush-rush-rush on everything ever since.

You know what the real problem is? It's that doggone brain thingie. If only we could peel it down to a more temperate size, then people would be so much more descent--you know, like animals.

[luckystarmom]

I have a daughter with brain damage. I would love for her to have her complete brain. I think this sounds promising.

[luckystarmom]

My daughter has cerebral palsy also. Well, I'm wondering if they can test it by seeing if the observed damage (muscle problems, etc) go away after the chip is implanted.

It's not something that I would subject my daughter to now, but hopefully in the next 20 years some promising help for victims of brain damage will occur.

[ALS]

"rats' brains"

heh heh

[Colinsky]

I've been savoring this quote from Colin Tudge that I found a few weeks ago:
________________________

Is the brain simply a computer, and is consciousness merely the feeling we get when we think? Or is consciousness a primary component of the universe, which the brain can latch on to, like a radio receiver?
_________________________

I like to think that consciousness is a primary component of the universe.