Our Future Cyborg Brains: My Keynote at XTech 2017
22 Mar, 2017
I had a fantastic time keynoting the XTech Experiential Technology conference last week. Thanks very much Zack Lynch and Adam Gazzaley for the invitation. I talked about the science that inspired my Nexus novels, and what it might mean for society. You can check out…
R e a d M o r eThe Ultimate Interface: Your Brain
15 May, 2015
A shorter version of this article first appeared at TechCrunch. The final frontier of digital technology is integrating into your own brain. DARPA wants to go there. Scientists want to go there. Entrepreneurs want to go there. And increasingly, it looks like it’s possible. You’ve…
R e a d M o r eThe Singularity is Further Than it Appears
12 May, 2015
This is an updated cross-post of a post I originally made at Charlie Stross’s blog. Are we headed for a Singularity? Is AI a Threat? tl;dr: Not anytime soon. Lack of incentives means very little strong AI work is happening. And even if we did…
R e a d M o r eVideo: Brain Implants to Link and Augment Human Minds (The Science of Nexus)
21 Sep, 2014
Here’s video of my Le Web Paris talk, on Linking Human Minds. This is all about the current science of sending sights, sounds, and sensations in and out of human brains, and the frontiers of augmenting and transferring memory and intelligence. Le Web did a…
R e a d M o r eTEDx Talk: Linking Human Minds
13 Jan, 2014
Video of my TEDxRainier talk, on Linking Human Brains, is now up. This is all about the current science of sending sights, sounds, and sensations in and out of human brains amid rapid advancements in digital connectivity that span global industries. I delved into the…
R e a d M o r eVideo: Wiring the Brain: The Real Science of Nexus
24 Sep, 2013
I spoke last night at University Book Store on the science of sending sight, sound, and more in and out of the human brain – the real life science behind my novels Nexus and Crux. For those who couldn't make it, you can check out…
R e a d M o r eOne gene helped human brains become complex
3 May, 2012
Two extra copies of the SRGAP2 gene appear to have led to slower human brain development, but denser interconnection between neurons, possibly contributing to our current cognitive abilities. (Total brain interconnectivity correlates moderately well with IQ.) If you want to learn how to take care…
R e a d M o r eNano-devices that cross blood-brain barrier
23 Apr, 2012
In my upcoming sci-fi novel Nexus , I write about a nano-device that can cross the blood-brain barrier and which has a very real impact on the mind. Not so far fetched… A team of scientists from Johns Hopkins and elsewhere have developed nano-devices that successfully cross…
R e a d M o r eDuke Researchers Send Touch Sensations into the Brain
5 Oct, 2011
More advances in mind-machine interfaces this week. MIguel Nicolelis (a pioneer in neural interfaces) and colleagues announced that they were able to send touch sensory data into the brains of monkeys. So the tally is now: Vision: In and out Sound: In Motion: Out…
R e a d M o r eReconstruction from brain activity – YouTube
27 Sep, 2011
Below is a clip showing the reconstruction of video subjects where shown via MRI scanning of their brains. Pretty remarkable. The ‘reconstructed’ video looks odd because the reconstruction method was actually to match the brain activity against snippets of YouTube videos. Future…
R e a d M o r eRat cyborg gets digital cerebellum
27 Sep, 2011
New Scientist covers another step towards functional neural prosthetics. Development here will be slow and complex, but we now have sufficient proof of concept across the field to see that interfacing digital systems with out brains is quite possible. We’ll use that first to help…
R e a d M o r eMemory Prosthetics – Some Progress
27 Sep, 2011
Theodore Berger and team, who I’ve been following since describing their work in More Than Human, achieved success earlier this year in recording a rat memory during encoding, and playing it back to the rat later. This is a very very very early step towards…
R e a d M o r eUncertainty and Conditioning
24 Nov, 2008
>The article below quotes research stating that uncertain outcome produces more uncertainty than clear negative outcomes. That makes sense from an adaptive standpoint. Makes me wonder if that is the the same mechanism underlying the advantage of inconsistent conditioning over consistent conditioning in operant behavior.…
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