Future Shock: Intel Wants Brain Implants in Its Customers’ Heads by 2020
Jeremy Hsu writes on Popular Science:
If the idea of turning consumers into true cyborgs sounds creepy, don’t tell Intel researchers. Intel’s Pittsburgh lab aims to develop brain implants that can control all sorts of gadgets directly via brain waves by 2020.
The scientists anticipate that consumers will adapt quickly to the idea, and indeed crave the freedom of not requiring a keyboard, mouse, or remote control for surfing the Web or changing channels. They also predict that people will tire of multi-touch devices such as our precious iPhones, Android smart phones and even Microsoft’s wacky Surface Table.
Turning brain waves into real-world tech action still requires some heavy decoding of brain activity. The Intel team has already made use of fMRI brain scans to match brain patterns with similar thoughts across many…
‘Matrix’ Bullet Time Scene Re-Created … in Legos
A great find from the Wrap:
From the famous green digital falling numbers to Keanu Reeves’ bending over backwards to dodge bullets, “Trinity Help” is a frame-accurate stop-frame animation of the famous bullet-dodge scene from 1999’s “The Matrix” — entirely in Lego.
If you’re wondering how they did it, check out the website. If you’re wondering WHY they did it, you’re on your own.
Also at the website, you can explore the behind-the-scenes machinations that went on during 440 hours of creating the Lego scene, and watch it side by side with the original scene from the movie.
Enjoy the video:
Why our brains will never live in the Matrix
In “Ghost in the Shell,” professor Athena Andreadis answers the question, “Why Our Brains Will Never Live in the Matrix,” contrasting “mind uploading” predictions with “the major stumbling block to personal immortality” — namely, that our biological software is inseparable from our hardware.
There’s practical problems. (”After electrochemical activity ceases in the brain, neuronal integrity deteriorates in a matter of seconds.”) But what we call “the mind” is also an artifact of a specific brain, and copying it “is an excellent way to leave a detailed memorial or a clone-like descendant, but not to become immortal.”
And besides, the professor argues, people visualizing an unending virtual life “invariably think of it in connection with themselves and those whom they like — choosing to ignore that others will also be around forever,…
