A stunning example of how far we've come, technologically, was exemplified this weeks by an experiment at University of Washington when a signal sent from one man's brain, traveled through the internet and reached another man.
When the second man received the signal through special wires 'plugged' into his brain, the signal caused his hand to move.
Such an experiment, called a 'mind-meld', is one of the first to achieve mind to mind 'transmission'. Jokingly called a 'Vulcan mind meld', the process is a great stepping stone on the road to further advancement in brain to computer interfaces, where electrical signals generated from one brain pass through a computer and then onto another human being by sending the impulse to move a hand or fingers and son on.
The research was initially begun to help people who have loss of control of their limbs, either because of congenital problems or accidents.
However, it is not hard to see what other uses the technology could entail, from commanding robots and long distance computers to sophisticated remote controlled operations in every scientific field.
In February a similar experiment conducted by Duke University researchers, was able to capture the thoughts of a rat in Brazil and send the brainwave signal through the internet to another rat in the US. When the second rat received the thought signal, it started behaving like the first one.
Of course, there are always possible sinister applications to any technology, but that is like saying that the research on antidotes to chemicals was made to help solely the soldiers in combat who were attacked with chemical weapons.
It is strange, for any human being, to see one's most intimate part of one's being, the brain, be opened in such a manner to the sight and feelings of another, whether that be a computer or another human being.
The experiment of University of Washington was achieved when the first man had a thought of firing a gun in a video game, without actually moving his hand, which would have nullified the signal, and instead let it pass onto the computer to the second man, across campus. The second man, upon receipt of the signal, moved his index finger to push the space bar of his computer.
The second man was astonished to see the result of the experiment and when his finger moved, he felt it as little more than a twitch or spasm.
The experiment however, proves that while signals to action can be passed on to another human being, thoughts cannot. One interesting application in the future would be to enable a disabled airplane pilot, for example, to land a plane through this technology.
Criticism of the experiment was voiced by the brain-computer interface community since the experiment was not reviewed by peer researchers before publication. The University of Washington justified such a move claiming that the hasty publication was prompted by the fact that many other researchers are studying the same process, so that in other to claim the discovery in a timely fashion, they had made the decision to go ahead without verification or review.
Source : Al Jazeera/ 8.28.13
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