When “Reading Mind” enters the application, can the last leg of the human body be saved?
Editor’s note: This article comes from WeChat public number” World Magazine” (ID: ksj-worldview), author | journalist, edit| 荣智慧, typesetting | Zhao Yue, Long Mingjia.
The reality is catching up with the illusions of people in the past.
In July 2019, technology tycoon Musk announced that their products could control computers through brain ideas. In other words, you can manipulate software, enter text, and chat with friends on your mobile phone without hands-on.
More than that. Musk said the product is capable of reading and decoding neural activity in the cerebral cortex. Participants are happy or sorrowful, or want what they want, don’t want anything, they don’t have to speak, and researchers can receive the most real ideas from their brains.
It sounds like a mind reading.
In film and television works, mind reading is a super-power of “plug-in”. It is more about the author’s forced setting of the character, or belongs to the god Buddha, and it is a fantasy.
However, this time, in the name of technology, this “God” ability will fall into the hands of mankind.
“Beautiful New World”
Since the 1950s, people began to study ideas and hope to use it to complete the action. The concept of “brain-computer interface” has been proposed. Its full name in English is Brain-Computer Interface – it is obvious that this technology connects the brain to the computer system.
Muske’s plan is to implant the chip into the brain.
This is the first product of Neuralink: a microcomputer chip.
It is said that the chip is attached to only 3/4 of the thin hair-embedded wires and is operated by a neurosurgical robot to accurately embed it in the brain tissue.
△Neuralink is used to insert threads into the machine, Source: Neuralink
Why are there electrodes?
We know that the cerebral cortex uses bioelectrical signals when it commands the body. Brain cells are neuronal cells, and the cerebral cortex at a microscopic perspective is a form in which a pile of elongated neuronal cells are intertwined. Bioelectrical signals pass through the synaptic structure between cells, from decision points in the cerebral cortex to the point of execution.
The electrode on the chip is to capture the bioelectrical signal in the propagation, process it, and amplify it.
Next, the chip wound by the wire is responsible for performing intelligent calculations to determine the starting position of the electrical signal. High school biology textbooks have been introduced. Human cerebral cortex can be divided into different fields in function, some are responsible for language functions, some are responsible for writing functions, and so on. Local damage can lead to loss of local function.
△Amplify the signal and send it to the computer’s chip, Source: Neuralink
Therefore, by judging the starting point of the signal, it is possible to explain its function.
The decoding principle of communication technology is to convert digital signals into speech signals. Through the brain-computer interface, people can convert bio-signals into digital signals and convert them into other understandable information.
Neuralink’s chip captures biosignals during the experimental phase, allowing animals to control the machine with the brain, with a success rate of approximately 87%. They worked with the University of California at Davis to use monkeys.Test, “There is a monkey who can use his brain to control the computer.”
So, Musk announced his “breakthrough progress.” However, less than half a month, competitors have emerged.
On July 30th, Facebook announced the latest research results of its brain-computer interface.
△Facebook Brain Project Prototype, Source: Facebook Reality Labs
Facebook’s products are non-invasive brain-computer interfaces that are superior in convenience. It is a non-implantable wearable device that “can accurately decode words and conversations heard and spoken by people wearing the device.”
The principle used by Facebook is similar, as is the capture of bioelectrical signals.
Accordingly, the researchers placed an electrode on the surface of the volunteer’s brain that uses a technique called “cerebral cortex electricity” that records the cerebral cortex directly from the exposed surface of the brain.
In the process of answering the test questions, the researchers tracked the brain’s language and speech area by signal, and decoded the information into sentences based on the kinematics of human vocal organs, with 61% and 76% accuracy, respectively.
Although it is still far from the application standard, the “beautiful new world” is coming.
Super Power “Myth”
“Reading Mind” is not a super power. It is rooted in two basic disciplines: brain neurology and computer science.
The disruptive revolution led by the brain-computer interface will come sooner or later, but it is still too early.
In the case of brain neurology, the human brain is the greatest computer, and the research project that artificially imitates it is called “brain-like computing” and is still in its infancy.
Affected by the speed of sci-fi films and the speed of modern technology, people can easily think that the performance of the brain has lagged far behind the computing power of artificial intelligence. There are often media outlets that solve a problem, orIt takes only a few years for a single human to manage a huge database, and it will never be solved, and the computer only takes a few seconds.
This is true, the human brain is only a few Hz, and modern computers have a gigahertz speed.
However, the overwhelming advantage of the human brain is that it can perform billions of calculations simultaneously. For example, people can walk, chat and think at the same time. This parallelism, “class brain computing” is far from enough. In the field of brain neurology, humans do not know enough about the operation of the cerebral cortex, and even have no ability to understand.
“Brain-like computing” also faces huge obstacles. To simulate human brain computing, computing a subject requires a lot of energy, and the operation of the human brain can be maintained by three meals a day.
So, why is the brain-computer interface like a super power? This is caused by people’s backward understanding of the world picture. The brain-computer interface realizes the control of the machine by decoding the idea, which is very strange in the mechanized picture: it exerts no force on the object, and the object moves!
In the scientific development of the 20th century, the world picture has changed from mechanization to particleization to today’s electronics. To understand the electronic picture, the above principle only follows the “stimulus-response” law. Through the electrical signal, there is a complementary path between the human brain and the mechanical reaction. In this way, “super power” is disenchanted.
“Last Pants”
However, some of the risks of brain-computer interface technology are worth pondering.
In modern times, no matter what kind of world picture, human enthusiasm for scientific research has a consistent goal: more power. This is called the will to seek.
In the mechanized picture, humans use natural resources to promote the operation of this monster. Under the particle map, nuclear energy is released.
There is no doubt that once the brain-computer interface technology matures, humans will have a brand-new, electronic “super power.” So, who will control and who will use this power?
The technology giant represented by Musk and others is very telling stories. They say that diseases such as sputum and disability greatly reduce the quality of life of patients, and the maturity of the brain-computer interface will restore a healthy body.
“Reading Mind” also has a story to tell. Some tech entrepreneurs have said that they are developing a helmet for workers with electrodes that can monitor workers’ brains in real time, and if they are tired or inattentive, the helmet will warn. This will reduce the probability of an accident.
However, the development of reality is likely to be another matter. Past experts say that machinery can liberate human hands. But today, the hands of modern people seem to be more busy.
Elite is more likely to use brain-computer interface technology to develop their own strength, while ordinary people’s work may be under strict monitoring and control.
In the era of big data, thought is almost the last “clean land”, and it cannot be peeped for the time being. But when the “reading mind” enters the application, can the last leg of the human body be saved?
The cover image of this article is from pexels