Over the past few weeks, Facebook and Elon Musk’s Neuralink have announced that they’re building tech to read your mind — literally.
Mark Zuckerberg’s company is funding research on brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) that can pick up thoughts directly from your neurons and translate them into words. The researchers say they’ve already built an algorithm that can decode words from brain activity in real time.
And Musk’s company has created flexible “threads” that can be implanted into a brain and could one day allow you to control your smartphone or computer with just your thoughts. Musk wants to start testing in humans by the end of next year.
hm! bad.
I was just talking about this a little while ago!! This shit is evil and must be destroyed
elon musk and mark zuckerberg both suck but this shit is NOT evil. it is a major breakthrough in technology meant *specifically* to help disabled people. BCIs are used to allow people to control their prosthetic limbs as they would a natural limb.
the technology to convert thoughts into speech is great, it can really help people who are not able to speak. ESPECIALLY if the person has an inability to speak combined with mobility issues that would hinder their use of typing-to-speech technology.
and technology to control a smartphone with your mind is great for the same reason– smartphones have become a major part of life for many people, and if you have mobility issues, or no fingers, it’s going to be hard to use one in a traditional way.
this stuff isn’t magical, it won’t ne able to read your mind without your knowledge or permission. elon musk isn’t gonna be reading the mind of anyone who walks past a brain scanner at a bus stop. you would have to actually get this stuff installed in you surgically, which you would really only do if you were disabled and this technology could improve your mobility or communication capability.
even THE LINKED ARTICLE says this– “It’s already begun to change people’s lives. Over the past dozen years, a number of paralyzed patients have received brain implants that allow them to move a computer cursor or control robotic arms.”
the problem with this is not the technology itself, it’s what the headline says: the law is not ready to protect us. specifically, not ready to protect the disabled people who will be using this technology. there are no laws protecting the “data” in brains (although the article mentions an introduction of a law that would in chile).
do not demonize the technology that is used to aid disabled people. criticize the systems that are not protecting the disabled people who need this technology.
Imagine believing that fucking Amazon and Facebook would develop mind reading technology for purely altruistic reasons
yeah and also like: [link]
But helping people with paralysis is not, it seems, Musk’s end goal — the futurist made clear he has much grander ambitions. Ultimately, he said, he aims “to achieve a symbiosis with artificial intelligence.” The goal is to develop a technology that enables humans “merging with AI” so that we won’t be “left behind” as AI systems become more and more advanced.
wrow not at all troubling thing to hear from someone tied to an AI doomsday cult