# Who needs implants?



## Vertigo (Mar 24, 2012)

Sorry this is a bit long; it's something I've been thinking about for a while now and I would be interested in what others think. I'm not knowledgeable in many of the areas so this is just my own speculation. However...

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Could all the work being done to make virtual reality mimic the real world as perfectly as possible be a blind alley. Oh we can do some clever stuff with this mimicry but in the end mimicry is all it is and it could be so much more. I believe virtual reality could become a genuine sixth sense instead of a mere recreation of existing senses. And I believe this is possible in the forseeable future.

First the how. SF authors have loved implants for years, however they mostly seem to involve making direct electrical connections into the brain to commnicate with it. Now this has always seemed to me to be a very crude approach. Our brains are massively distrbuted and surely millions of such connections would be required. On the other hand we are already learning to decode brainwaves without such direct connections [1] but this still only puts us in the realms of reading and simulating our existing senses. 

Enter the geneticist. With the techniques now being developed [2] it cannot be long before we are able to grow nerve fibres. These could be grown at appropriate points in our brains, that is points already 'designed' to receive input from our senses as well as at motor control areas (for example where our arms are controlled). These aritificial sense nerves could all come together at an appropriate point in our skull where we place a combined sensor/inducer. The signals in the 'motor' nerves can be read and signals induced in the sense 'nerves'. This sensor/inducer might be connected wirelessly to the internet. Then it is down to our brains. This is possibly not as far fetched as you might initially think; take a look at these examples of 'artificial' sight [3].

Secondly the what. Initially our brains would have no framework for the information being received and would almost certainly ignore it as irrelevant noise. However, if the information was made relevant to what is being received by our other senses, it seems reasonable to believe our brains would learn to organise it in a similar coherent fashion; there is plenty of evidence for our brain's ability to 'rewire' itself. So what does relevant mean? Well initially it would need to be very simple information. So, for example, if you are looking at fruit the information might be 'tastes good' or 'tastes bad' if the fruit is rotten. If you hear a gun firing the information might be 'danger'. And so on. It would take time, years probably, to achieve full control but I believe it would be plausible.

The motor control nerves could learn to manipulate what data is being received in much the same way a baby learns to move its limbs. Initially random 'movements' would produce all sorts of responses but after time the 'movements' would become more coherent and the information responses equally coherent. It is no more possible for me to imagine how this information would appear to the brain than it is possible for me to describe the colour red to a blind man (to use a much overused comparison). However I suspect it would be similar to accessing your memories; the subconscious would be processing information and the conscious processing knowledge. It would truly be a sixth sense.

Finally consequences. All this is, I believe, technology that is not far in the future. However I suspect that adding such a 'sense' to an adult might prove difficult, impossible or even dangerous. I'm not sure an adult's brain could learn a completely new sense like this. However it were done to a baby (however distasteful you might find that) then I suspect their brain would be able to make sense of it as it is developing and making sense of all their other senses. Certainly, as with any skill, the younger the person begins the better they will be able to use it.

Another concern is space. Our brain and skull are a pretty snug fit; indeed they are designed to be exactly as snug as they are. Growing a bunch of additional nerves may be a bit of a 'squeeze'. Is it possible that such additional growths might be similar to having a brain tumour, inducing major headaches and maybe even damage to the surrounding brain tissue? I don't know the answer to that one; it would need more research. But again it might indicate doing this with babies rather than adults. For a baby whose brain and skull are still growing it would seem reasonable that they would grow to accomodate the extra tissue.

So I see a future where we could access data, communicate with others, control remote systems, work, play, etcetera using a 'virtual reality' that is effectively a sixth sense. Just as with our other senses there would be constant activity going on in your subconscious; as you look around and see, smell and hear things your subconscious would be requesting information on them to hold ready in case they are needed. This is exactly the same as the way our 'natural' senses are constantly being bombarded with information but we only take direct notice if they trigger our concscious attention. However just as with those other senses, when desired, we would also be capable of applying our conscious attention directly to this virtual reality.

All the knowledge and capabilities of the internet (and what the internat might yet become) would be available directly to both our conscious and subconscious. Maybe the biggest question remaing is who would be the first to do this to their own new born baby?

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Sorry if I've bored you with such a huge info dump! I have no doubt someone will come back and tell me this is just like so and so wrote in their book such and such. In which case I apologise to so and so up front; I didn't know, honest!



[1] decoding brainwaves: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-decoding-brainwaves-scientists-minds.html
[2] growing 'artificial tissue': http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1949073.stm
[3] 'artificial' sight : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/h...first-time-following-stem-cell-treatment.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7919645.stm
http://www.theweek.co.uk/politics/10225/blind-man-given-sight-light-reading-implant


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## Abernovo (Mar 24, 2012)

Actually, quite apart from the distaste that you mentioned, I suspect this sort of tech would not first be used to 'enhance' an infant generation of humans, but rather to help adults and older children with disabilities.

I used to know a few people involved both with developing artificial tissues and with growing new tissues to be used for implants. One person I knew was working on growing new bone to replace damaged one.

One of the big goals is to help victims of spinal damage. Another, as you pointed out is to restore sight. From what I can gather, the implant, such as the one mentioned in your final link, are still pretty basic, but hold a great deal of promise.

You only have to look at the improvements in prosthetics for amputees since the early eighties to see the potential benefits. As to it being a cosmetic 'improvement' though, I would have my concerns.


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## Vertigo (Mar 24, 2012)

Oh I agree absolutely Abernovo. The technology will, and already is, being applied in the area of disabilities. I just think that extending the idea in this way would make the internet (or whatever it may yet become) seem to our brain like a sixth sense and our interaction with it become largely subconscious. I also agree with your concerns. However history tells us that if something proves useful those concerns are likely to be ignored in time. Just look at the concerns surrounding use of mobile phones, the TV, working with computer screens, computer games etc. All largely ignored except (as in anything) when taken to extreme.

By the way I'm impressed that you actually got through it all!


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## RJM Corbet (Mar 24, 2012)

Vertigo said:


> ...If you hear a gun firing the information might be 'danger'...


 
Works for the 100 yard dash ...


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## Abernovo (Mar 24, 2012)

That was nothing difficult. I once sat through an hour-long lecture mainly on ways to increase yields on dairy farms!

You're absolutely right about concerns being ignored and I could see something like this very easily being used for communications to begin with. Thinking about your comment on the issue of space within the cranium, it might not be an issue (he says, hoping not to put thoughts in certain tech firms' collective minds).

Such implants could, theoretically, be plugged in to the spine. It would then pass on the signal from the device to the brain just as touch is from the skin, to continue with the sense analogy. Plus with the small sizes already being produced, they could be placed in various parts of the body. My dogs have identity chips just under the skin. It wouldn't be a huge leap in technology to place a communication chip in a similar way.


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## Vertigo (Mar 24, 2012)

Abernovo said:


> That was nothing difficult. I once sat through an hour-long lecture mainly on ways to increase yields on dairy farms!
> 
> You're absolutely right about concerns being ignored and I could see something like this very easily being used for communications to begin with. Thinking about your comment on the issue of space within the cranium, it might not be an issue (he says, hoping not to put thoughts in certain tech firms' collective minds).
> 
> Such implants could, theoretically, be plugged in to the spine. It would then pass on the signal from the device to the brain just as touch is from the skin, to continue with the sense analogy. Plus with the small sizes already being produced, they could be placed in various parts of the body. My dogs have identity chips just under the skin. It wouldn't be a huge leap in technology to place a communication chip in a similar way.


 
Ah yes but that's the sensor part, I too don't think that would be a huge problem. However the extra growth of nerves coming out of the brain itself I'm not so sure about. This is the bit I suspect might feel a little like a growing tumour. I'm just not sure whether they would be likely to be big enough to be a problem. Maybe they could be controlled to grow in a thin sheet that wouldn't create a pressure point such as a thicker 'bundle' of nerves might.


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## Metryq (Mar 24, 2012)

You should distinguish between virtual reality and what is known as "augmented reality." AR is used in a number of smartphone apps to overlay information onto whatever the phone's camera sees. Word Lens is one example of AR where one language is translated into another, maintaining the look and style of the fonts of the original. (The site originally had a video, but the rollover graphics are effective.) Many smartphones have GPS built in. I've seen AR maps that overlay 3D arrows into the camera view. For example, if one starts with the phone horizontal, 2D arrows point off in different directions: this way to train station, this way to hotel, etc. As the phone is tipped upright, the arrows take on a 3D perspective, thus making virtual "road signs," reorienting and moving with the camera view.

Many sci-fi movies and print stories feature nerve induction, rather than direct nerve connections and sockets, as in the movie _The Matrix_ (which had a lot of retro styling). Examples include _Brainstorm, Strange Days, Realtime Interrupt_, and many "mecha" anime, like the "A-10" clips in _Neon Genesis Evangelion_. Existing implants are charged and tweaked with induction methods.

While one can certainly expect any technology to become smaller and more streamlined as it matures, one early dodge will be separating a prosthetic into local and remote packages. Again, _Brainstorm_ is an example. A cumbersome, oversized prototype nerve induction helmet is reduced into a lightweight headband with all the support amplifiers and processors tucked away in a portable package. The movie Blind Date (no, not the one with Bruce Willis) features an artificial vision device. The patient (Joseph Bottoms) has surgically implanted electrodes accessed by a plug on his skull. An external unit, outfitted to look like a portable music player and headphones, uses ultrasound to create a virtual 3D environment.

Creating entirely new senses might have to wait. Many fictional augmentations are fed into existing senses so that the user need only adapt to "remapped" colors, smells, sounds, etc. For example, a person with normal vision can learn to read more information out of thermographic cameras and enhanced/false color astronomy photos. 

Augmented senses may overwhelm the user. In Frederik Pohl's _Man Plus_ a computer helps the cyborg parse the flow of data into what is immediately important and what is not, "remapping" colors when the synthetic eyes shift into extended spectra, and so on. The novel _The Genesis Machine_ features a nerve induction computer interface that can be used to control other machines or run complex math as a subtle and powerful calculator. (Take that, Mr. Spock!) The novel features several scenes where a user is taught to use the interface; it is like a cross between learning a new language and learning how to ride a bike. With learned concentration, the user can control the power of the computer without being overwhelmed in positive feedback.

I don't have a reference immediately at hand, but I have read that IQ varies. That is, one does not have a fixed IQ number, and the brain can be exercised like any muscle in the body. 

(Although not a sensory augmentation, the movie _The Final Cut_ features a "brain VCR" implanted before birth.)


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