Backup your soul!

A brain–computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a brain–machine interface, is a direct communication pathway - transferring information - between a brain and an external device. BCIs are often aimed at assisting, augmenting or repairing human cognitive or sensory-motor functions. But today, some scientists are playing with the idea of actually using this technology to keep our memories and experiences even motoric skills in an external hard drive..

Today, the existing technology enable us to connect electrodes directly into the brain (of any mammal) and record the activity of a specific area. Then, from the electrical pulses than has been recorded the experimenters are able to analyze and conclude about the inner brain processes that are taking place in that specific area

These kind of devices became more and more common in the last years and being used for various implications. The first system known as the BrainGate Neural Interface System, consists of an array of electrodes (around a 100) that record neural activity from the motor cortex of the brain. Signals from the implant are decoded and processed by a computer, allowing them to be translated into movement commands.

• Converting information into speech - Eric Ramsey, 26, has locked-in syndrome, in which people are unable to move a muscle but are fully conscious. Ramsey, who suffered a brain-stem stroke at the age of 16, has an electrode implanted into a brain area that plans the movements of the vocal cords and tongue that underlie speech. The neuroscienctists team that are taking care of him has developed models that predict how neurons in this region fire during speech. They used these predictions to translate the firing patterns of several dozen brain cells in Ramsey’s brain into the acoustical building blocks of speech.

• Control the movement of a prosthetic limb - Matthew Nagle, 25-year-old man paralysed from the neck down has a computer-linked implant placed in his brain that enables him to operate devices just by thinking about it. Matthew has learnt how to use a computer open email and control a TV using the power of thought can also move objects with a robotic arm. Watch him on this amazing video:

By using the exact same principle scientists are now using electrodes in order to create the reverse effect: Stimulating the brain by electrical pulses and execute specific operations. This has been extensively studied on animals in the last decades and recently successfuly tested on humans! Here are some of the very famous Examples:

• Cochlear implants - is an electronic device that is surgically implanted into a deaf person chochlea and provide him a sense of sound. As of April 2009, approximately 188,000 people worldwide(!) had received cochlear implants. The device usually includes a microphone which picks up sound from the environment, a speech processor which selectively filters sound to prioritize audible speech and sends the electrical sound signals through a thin cable to the transmitter, the transmitter transmits the processed sound signals to the internal device which includes an array of up to 22 electrodes wound through the cochlea which send the impulses directly to the auditory nerve.

• Artificial eyes - sometimes called Bionic eye is an experimental visual device intended to restore functional vision. There are many kind of devices that has been tested in the last years and are rapidly improved. Excellent video:
  

• Deep Brain Stimulation -Parkinson desease is one of the most common neurological disorders that has severe effect on the patients everyday life. By inserting electrodes to a certain area in the patients brain and continuesly stimulating it, the patients are able to control their movement capabilities and extremely reduce the tremor and paralysis. The method - Deep brain stimulation - has dramatically changed the lives of many patients with uncontrollable tremors. Patients often can resume normal activities, such as feeding and dressing themselves, and can have active and fulfilling lives. The need for anti-tremor medications is often reduced or eliminated. Animation that shows how it works and an example of patient before and after treatment:

A glance to the future

What about Inserting more complex information directly to our brain? What if we could stimulate the brain and teaching it/us a totaly new things..? just imagine the possobilities of having tons of information directly to your grey matter in no time!! : you could... "Read" tons of books and watch all movies ever made in 1o Mhz.. , you could play piano, violin or drums in less than a n hour.. or acquire all the martial arts skils and be able to do all the Keanu Reeves paalulim tricks in real life! Its all about information isnt it?

One of the most fascinating question I have recently heard was: could we one day be able to "download" specific data/information/knowledge from our brain into a flash drive? and if we could, why not downloading all our memories to a hard drive and by that simulate our brain activity and keep our entire soul eternal?

Futurists says that 2050 immortality will be within our grasp:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/may/22/theobserver.technology

Source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain%E2%80%93computer_interfaceRay Kurzweil on how technology will transform us:
http://www.ted.com/talks/ray_kurzweil_on_how_technology_will_transform_us.html http://www.physorg.com/news180620740.html http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/05/23/brain.download/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/may/22/theobserver.technology
http://blogs.discovery.com/good_idea/2009/06/downloading-data-directly-into-your-brain.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6368089.stmhttp://blog.taragana.com/science/2009/12/16/paralysed-man-successfully-controls-speech-synthesiser-with-thought-951/
http://www.jumpintotomorrow.com/?p=2821
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/12/14/locked.in/index.html