Japanese BCI Research Enters the Skull Wednesday, Apr 16 2008
cybernetics 11:22 pm
Researchers at Osaka University are stepping up efforts to develop robotic body parts controlled by thought, by placing electrode sheets directly on the surface of the brain. Led by Osaka University Medical School neurosurgery professor Toshiki Yoshimine, the research marks Japan’s first foray into invasive (i.e. requiring open-skull surgery) brain-machine interface research on human test subjects. The aim of the research is to develop real-time mind-controlled robotic limbs for the disabled, according to an announcement made at an April 16 symposium in Aichi prefecture.
(Via Pink Tentacle.)
For Brain-Computer Interfaces to get anywhere, they’ll need to interface with the brain directly. Hot brain-on-computer action. Anything less may perform interesting tricks, but will never make machine intelligence truly available to human thinkers. The key is to increase electrode density as much as possible, while figuring out what all the neurons do. Simple to say, difficult to achieve.
To me, Brain-Computer Interfacing seems like such a difficult path to greater-than-human intelligence that Artificial General Intelligence will reach the milestone far earlier. Unfortunately, this won’t stop many from ignoring AGI and focusing on BCI, because the BCI path allows you imagine yourself getting the enhancement, while AGI is a foreign other. I see this as a simplistic and xenophobic way of thinking about the situation. (Not to say that BCI is always a silly idea — just that it is if your main reason for supporting it is carbon chauvinism.) If AGI is brought up carefully, like a precious flower in a garden, it will not only help make intelligence enhancement available to all humans, but will introduce us to a world of thoughtful minds with an entirely different perspective than our own. This prospect is not something to be feared, but cautiously embraced.
