Brain Cells Fused with Computer Chip
 

Wouldn't it be great to have a computer in your head where you can store information.

Although the government can control us.

Are you for computers in peoples heads or not?


The line between living organisms and machines has just become a whole lot blurrier. European researchers have developed "neuro-chips" in which living brain cells and silicon circuits are coupled together.

The achievement could one day enable the creation of sophisticated neural prostheses to treat neurological disorders or the development of organic computers that crunch numbers using living neurons.

To create the neuro-chip, researchers squeezed more than 16,000 electronic transistors and hundreds of capacitors onto a silicon chip just 1 millimeter square in size.

They used special proteins found in the brain to glue brain cells, called neurons, onto the chip. However, the proteins acted as more than just a simple adhesive.

"They also provided the link between ionic channels of the neurons and semiconductor material in a way that neural electrical signals could be passed to the silicon chip," said study team member Stefano Vassanelli from the University of Padua in Italy.

The proteins allowed the neuro-chip's electronic components and its living cells to communicate with each other. Electrical signals from neurons were recorded using the chip's transistors, while the chip's capacitors were used to stimulate the neurons.

It could still be decades before the technology is advanced enough to treat neurological disorders or create living computers, the researchers say, but in the nearer term, the chips could provide an advanced method of screening drugs for the pharmaceutical industry.

"Pharmaceutical companies could use the chip to test the effect of drugs on neurons, to quickly discover promising avenues of research," Vassanelli said.

The researchers are now working on ways to avoid damaging the neurons during stimulation. The team is also exploring the possibility of using a neuron's genetic instructions to control the neuro-chip.

source >> http://www.livescience.com/humanbiol...uro_chips.html

Sounds like Vaporware to me...

Don't believe the hype especially when they "forget" to mention the name of the lab that is conducting the reported experiment.

Would it support some kind of long-range wireless? It'd have to for me to be interested...

The BBC has some info on this sort of thing in their archives. It's not vaporware... The american defence department are trying to get it to work on animals, to control them... sharks specifically. It's horrible.
Although other uses are much more appealing, recently (no sorry can't remember where, but I think I read it in new scientist mag) tests where done on implanting a chip into the brain of people with paralysis who could not use computers, the chip allowed them to control the mouse etc without contact (so yes wireless).

So a microchip in my head and then I could drop microchips into the ink wells of all my pens and presto, no more business for the newsagent from me!

I like this idea...

I already have a computer in my head that can store information.
It's called my brain, and that's enough for me.

The ramifications of a software bug in hardware that is grafted to my brain is somewhat terrifying.

Given that a colleague (who used to work for a microchip manufacturer) once informed me that at no point has the simple 'addition' function on a chip ever been fully tested (and will likely never be) i'd be loathe to introduce any such device into my brain.

But i'm all for the sci-fi idealism of it.

What's the worst that could happen? It's not like you could get brain damage or something and wind up a vegatable. :eek:

What would be great is that this computer fused to the head records everything that you see. And you can go back and view it anytime you want. It would be great if I can view what I saw for an entire day 15 years ago. This would also stop most crime because the Police can view the victims recording. It would be better if the computer was not fused to the head but communicated by beams or lasers.

"What would be great is that this computer fused to the head records everything that you see. And you can go back and view it anytime you want"

Uh yeah... GREAT!
So you get arrested for suspicion of a crime you didn't commit, and now the police can watch your intimate moments with your girlfriend/boyfriend, watch you tell your most personal secrets to your best friend, see you naked in the shower or on the toilet.
Yeah, like you said... GREAT!

Being naked is not a crime and everyone gets intimate

Plus the victim will have the option of showing it or not

Before we reject the idea of organic fusion, maybe we should consider the true difference between our brain and the computer chip.

So now there's a some way to connect? :confused: My tinfoil hat is going to get some use after all.


So how do we know what is shown is real? and if being naked is not a crime, you haven't taken a stroll past the police station in your birthday suit. :D

The whole idea sounds like somebody has a thing for Seven of Nine... ;) (she was hot by the way)

Make the computer like a blackbox found on planes where you cannot enter it. The computer can only record if it reads your genes. Can be viewed by you or the Police. You should even be able to edit the recording. Erase things you don't want on there.

You can store php tutorials, movies. etc.

There are a number of possibilities of making it secure

So let's talk logistics of this "device"...
rejection.
From what I know about organ transplants it's not a stick it in and everything is fine. Anti-rejection drugs are used to keep your body from rejecting donated organs. The body seems to find ways of rejecting outside material.

Interface for the device.
So are we just supposed to automatically use it? Will it be any easier than just figuing out how to use a larger % of your brain?

Failure/corruption/outside interferance
So what happens when it fails? Sorry boss my brain implant failed I can't come to work until I learn everything again...