Do We Need Brain Implants to Keep Up with Robots?

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: John Horgan <jhorgan () stevens edu>
> Date: November 2, 2017 at 10:40:52 AM EDT
> To: Dave Farber <farber () gmail com>
> Cc: John Horgan <jhorgan () stevens edu>
> Subject: Do We Need Brain Implants to Keep Up with Robots?
>
> Dave, I thought your list might find this item interesting. John
>
>
>
> Do We Need Brain Implants to Keep Up with Robots?
>
>  
>
> Neuroscientist Christof Koch calls for a “crash program” in brain technologies to make us smarter.
>
>  
>
> Pundits have been fretting a lot lately about robots leaving humans behind, taking our jobs and possibly a lot more, 
> as in The Matrix and Terminator films. Christof Koch, my go-to source for brain science for 25 years, has proposed a 
> radical solution. To keep up with machines, we should boost our cognitive powers with brain implants.
>
>  
>
> Koch, who directs the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, which has an annual budget of more than $100 
> million, floats this idea in a Wall Street Journal essay, “To Keep Up With AI, We’ll Need High-Tech Brains.” The 
> subhead: “Technologies that enhance the human brain will be essential to avoid a dystopian future fueled by the rise 
> of artificial intelligence.”
>
>  
>
> Koch looks at non-invasive methods, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, but he doesn’t think those will be 
> sufficient. “Ultimately, to boost our brain power, we need to directly listen to and control individual neurons: the 
> atom of perception, action, memory and consciousness. And for that, we need to directly access brain tissue, 
> requiring (for now) at least some surgery to penetrate the skull.”...
>
> For more see https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/do-we-need-brain-implants-to-keep-up-with-robots/​



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