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- cross-posted to:
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The Race to Put Brain Implants in People Is Heating Up::Thanks in part to Elon Musk, the field of brain-computer interfaces has captured both public and investor interest, with a cadre of companies now developing implantable devices.
This sounds like a nightmare.
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Why?
Because there is 0 chance these companies don’t force ads into our brains or require us to pay subscriptions not mentioned before the implant was put in but may harm our brain if we don’t pay. Europeans will maybe be safe from that due to consumer protection laws but we Americans are fucked.
This seems like a policy problem and not a tech problem.
It always has been a policy problem. You’ve got your head in the sand if you think tech could be great if only people/corporations can just be made to be nice. Wake the f* up. People and corporations will use technology to exploit people. Not all of them, but enough of them to ruin it for everyone else.
This is where we disagree
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Do you really think policy matters when there’s a profit incentive?
Yes, absolutely. Look at the current insane level of protectionism.
Sorry, the support for my bionic eyes must have been dropped. Where is this insane protectionism?
Do you not recall the literal trade war we were in before COVID?
Theres still onsistently high tariffs on imported goods, and the US government is even considering banning the sale of US steel to Nippon
Oh gotcha, I thought you meant consumer protection laws. Not international trade. My bad for not catching that
There’s plenty of reasons to be fearful or suspicious: corporations who develop all the new tech we use today have shown already they don’t respect our privacy. Our smartphones, computers, and other Internet connected devices are always harvesting data to advertise to us, so it follows that any brain-implanted device could be used to harvest data for similar purposes. Not everyone gives a shit about this one, but there are plenty who would at least like to be paid for the data that is collected from them and used for profit; barring that we should have the right to forbid data collection without consent.
There are, of course, more sinister applications for brain-implanted devices that can interface with the Internet (and if they don’t now, they surely will in the future). I think a lot of us immediately think of the science fiction book and movie, “Minority Report” wherein law enforcement has access to the private thoughts of citizens and arrests and convicts those who have contemplated crime but have not yet perpetrated the crime. Any sane person would never allow the police access to one’s private thoughts, let alone a corporation.
Elon Musk has said his ultimate goal with Neuralink goes beyond merely restoring function to injured parts of the body; he wants to make it possible to save and load memories and with those two functions we may also be able to delete memories too. Imagine someone hacking your memories, it could fundamentally alter your perception of yourself and your reality. You could become a prisoner in your own brain, subjected to the censorship of a corporation or government.
These are worst case scenarios and I’m not saying we are there yet, maybe not even close to that level of technology, but we should be aware of what kind of control we may be giving away to a company or authority by allowing such implants to be installed. I hope that we will use it as a means of improving people’s lives, but I’m very cautiously optimistic as well.
Yeah and I want to offer a realistic not horrifying bad scenario: features that can’t be turned off but drive you nuts. Shit like Bluetooth auto connect and auto play. Or buggy software updates. Or any number of existing things that already go wrong with assistive devices.
I don’t think brain implants are universally nightmarish. But if they’re starting with people like Elon musk and grand ideas of transhumanism it’s gonna go bad. If it starts with assistive devices and evolves naturally from there I think there’s a chance it goes ok. But even then there are people today with cochlear implants of wildly different quality because they advanced so much between being able to afford the first one and being able to afford the second one.
This is a matter of public policy, not tech. As are your privacy concerns.
That’s true, but I’m also cynical. Policy makers only have to serve up a phantom to instill fear into the general public and then they can drum up support for policies that appear to serve the public interest; for the sake of “protecting” the public.
Like data privacy concerns?
See the problem there? We disagree on what to be afraid of.
I suppose we will have to agree to disagree on that one. If you aren’t concerned about the information that others collect on you and you don’t care to imagine how it could be used against you then I’ll stop there
Agreed. That’s my point.
People really are afraid of things, or not afraid of things, all across a spectrum, and people rarely agree on everything that is serious.
Policy shouldn’t be shaped by fear.
While the idea is awesome, I’m certain that greedy corporations or other bad actors will abuse this.
I’m sure at some point in the future someone will do bad things with every piece of technology, as they have with every piece of technology so far.
That’s no reason to be upset about advances in new technology
They aren’t upset about technological advancement, they’re upset at the utter lack of consumer protection.
It’s been bad for a long time:
https://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete
And nothing has changed that. But go ahead don’t let me stop you from begging to be a beta tester.
Worked out so far right? https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-pcrm-neuralink-monkey-deaths/
Im sure Elon will totally not rat fuck you like he has done to every Tesla owner (bad build quality, false advertising for things like full self driving, etc)
It’s wild you are so desperate to defend these out of control capitalists wanting to do literal human experimentation. The corporations don’t give a fuck about you, you’re expendable.
This is not a remotely accurate reading of either my comments or this article
Tired of ads in your dreams? For the low price of $15.99 a month you could get ad-free dreams with Brain+!
I’d like to see you sign up for Elon’s chip:
https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-pcrm-neuralink-monkey-deaths/