I find myself more and more fascinated with these emerging technologies having to do with the brain, and it seems I’m not the only one. If you recall, President Obama (and DARPA, which indicates a DoD interest) recently announced the BRAIN initiative. People have been increasingly writing about the legal implications and possible military applications for brain-computer interfaces. A human even moved a rat’s tail with his mind. That’s crazy.
Along similar lines, Ed Yong had a very interesting article for National Geographic questioning whether humans may someday be able to communicate telepathically:
Science-fiction is full of similar (if more flamboyant) brain-to-brain links. From the Jedi knights of Star Wars to various characters in the X-Men comics, popular culture abounds with telepathic characters that can read minds and transmit their thoughts without any direct physical contact or the use of their senses. There’s no evidence that any of us mere mortals share the same ability, but as Yoo’s study shows, technology is edging us closer in that direction. The question is: how far can we recreate telepathy using electronics? A human wagging a rat’s tail is one thing. Will we ever get to the point where we can share speech or emotions or memories?
This sort of content finds its way to a cybersecurity blog because it will one day be a cybersecurity problem. For one, implanting technology into the brain and making it wireless enabled (yes, they already did it, but only in animals) may open that technology up to sabotage (ala those pacemakers & insulin pumps). Moreover, even if the notion seems fantastic and unlikely right now, the technology may one day advance to the point where we’re connecting a human brain to a network. When that happens, could you literally hack the human brain?
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