My name is Rod Furlan. I am a 
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Updates from February, 2010 View my lifestream | Ask me anything
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Rod Furlan
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Rod Furlan
Igniting a Brain-Computer Interface Revolution
I have just returned from a X PRIZE Foundation workshop on brain-computer interfaces (BCI) at MIT. The workshop brought together over 50 leading experts, students and enthusiasts with the objective of brainstorming ideas for an X PRIZE competition to accelerate the development of BCI solutions. During the course of this fantastic two-day event we had the opportunity to explore the many possibilities and difficulties of designing and implementing devices capable of communicating directly with the human brain… read full article
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Rod Furlan
Brain-computer interfaces: Input/Output vs Read/Write
From Neuromancer, to The Matrix and most recently Surrogates, Dollhouse and Avatar, brain-computer interfaces (BCI) have always been popular in science fiction. Frequently the depiction of this technology have a tendency to put a greater emphasis on “fiction” than on “science” by perpetuating the fundamentally flawed metaphor of the human brain as a hardware and software composite.Unfortunately, the human brain is the farthest thing from a von-neumann computer (a.k.a. a stored-program computer) we could possibly imagine. Natural processes lead to the emergence of neuronal topology that then give rise to complex human behavior. Your mind is not your brain’s software – because in reality there is no software at all – information flows through the brain and computation happens naturally due to the physical properties of the neuronal pathways.
The key concept I want you to embrace is that your mind is fully described by the physical configuration of your brain. To “edit” your mind – for example, to implant a memory or instantly learn a skill – it would be necessary to either physically rewire your neurons or have your brain significantly augmented to support on-demand topology modification.
Input/Output interfaces are the most feasible in the short term
Right now we are only able to communicate with the brain by stimulating neurons (input) and measuring specific properties of neurons (output). There a lot of incredible things we can do using this approach, the key concept is to think in terms of what could be done using real-time input and output streams:- Give people senses they don’t have (vision to the blind, GPS to the willing);
- Give people actuators they don’t have (arms to amputees, drive a car with your mind);
- Read active thoughts and intentions, including memories a person is actively conjuring;
- Give people artificial experiences using multi-sensorial stimulation;
- External knowledge databases (Google in your head);
- Ultimately, we could have an isolated brain with full-digital I/O, enabling for example, full-prosthetic bodies and disembodied living;
Science-fiction examples of I/O interfaces:
- The Matrix: the Matrix simulated world;
- Ghost in the Shell: full-prosthetic bodies, “the net”, external memories;
- Avatar and Surrogates: remote control of a prosthetic body;
Read/Write interfaces are possible but they will probably require advanced brain augmentation
There are things however, we might never be able to do using I/O interfaces because they require being able to read and modify the brain’s neuronal topology directly (read/write):
- Read a memory, without the subject actively conjuring it;
- Write a memory without generating an experience (“imprinting”);
- Significantly faster-than-real-time learning or instant knowledge transfer;
- “Editing” personality traits;
We currently lack significant understanding of how to address the challenge of building such R/W interface to the brain. First we would need significant advancements in neuroscience in order to learn how to design useful neuronal pathways. Secondly, we will need a few fundamental breakthroughs in nanofabrication and nanorobotics to gain the ability to manipulate matter with the degree of accuracy needed to make useful (and desirable) changes to a living human brain.Science-fiction examples of R/W interfaces:
- The Matrix: instant learning through downloads;
- Ghost in the Shell: hacked memories, “puppet” agents;
- Dollhouse: personality imprints, “tabula rasa” programming;
Talking to the brain and altering the brain are two fundamentally different tasks
Although limited, I/O interfaces are the easiest to build. Even though every bit of information that enters the brain indirectly leads to neuronal topology change, the minutia and scope of these changes are not under our direct control. This means that there are fundamental limits of what we can do with I/O interfaces alone.However, I/O brain-computer interfaces will significantly expand our mental landscape in the near term by adding new information streams to our conscious experience of the world. Yet, the dream of instant learning and mental imprints might never be achieved before we move on to considerably enhanced or artificial brains that provide easy R/W access to neuronal topology.
In other words, for the foreseeable future, you will not be downloading a kung-fu app into your brain. And when you are finally able to do so, you might not have what you currently call a brain anymore.
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Collin Bockman
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Dr. Yitzhack Schwartz, MD
Nice (!) up-to-date post Rod, but… even judging by the number of patent filings dealing specifically with BCI it seems that the hype in the media is much bigger than the true hope. The numbers of relevant published US patent applications were merely 23, 11 and 13 for 2009, 2008 and 2007, respectively. This represents mostly technological imaturity. One may claim that most researchers nowadays believe in open sharing and don’t even bother filing for patents. I still think the numbers are so low because nothing much is actually happening and the significant breakthroughs we are all awaiting are yet to come. As the comercial impact is going to be huge I’m certain companies as well as universities will protect the IP by all means and thus IP is a good indicator. BTW, are you aware of a serious (evidence-based) forecast that aims to project when we’ll truly be utilizing BCI in big numbers? I’m not referring to the rather ‘low-hanging-fruits’ but to more complex applications that would revolutionize our lives. I tend to agree they will arrive but later than most ‘futurists’ predict.
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Mike
Nice post. I think we will have a connectome (wiring diagram) of the human brain within 4-7 years. Once we have that, it will become easier to construct better brain computer interfaces. A BCI could communicate with brain cells using optogenetics or perhaps ultrasonic neuromodulation. Modifying consciousness with neurotechnology should be awesome as well (Paradise engineering). I did a post about BCI’s and the wireless neurosociety a while back on my own blog that covers related material.
Dr. Yitzhack Schwartz, MD and one other person are discussing. 
Rod Furlan
The Evolution of Life in 60 seconds
Very, very exponential – enjoy!
Rod Furlan
New Year’s Resolutions for 2010
“Become ruthlessly efficient, work less, own less stuff, read more, spend more time with people I love and change the world“
I am also planning (but not committing) to: write more, outsource more, gain 10 pounds of lean muscle, have at least one project in the VR space and learn how to control a computer using an EEG interface no matter how exhausting it might be (BCI).
Collin Bockman are discussing. -
Collin Bockman
“learn how to control a computer using an EEG interface no matter how exhausting it might be”
Rod, does this mean you’ve purchased one of the Emotiv headsets? You’ll have to let me know if it is at all useful.
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Rod Furlan
Actually, I got a NIA instead: http://bit.ly/xtBz
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David Orban
My son @cosmyco also has a NIA. You two should find a way to train together online in VR, reaching two of your ‘10 goals simultaneously!
Rod Furlan
Why you should buy a Nexus One phone from Google
Simply put, you should buy one just to take a stance against the carriers and their frequent abuses of power, to let them know that they can’t tell you what you can or can’t do with the bandwidth you paid for. The Nexus One has the potential to become the first no-compromise, factory-unlocked, mainstream smartphone. It is an untamed device that will allow you to take back control of your mobile experience in disregard of what would negatively affect the carrier’s bottom line.
Buying any Android-powered device is also a statement against Apple’s draconian control over the iPhone platform. While it would be ok for them to protect their vision for the platform, it is not acceptable to artificially limit functionality only to protect their interests. It is your phone; you should be allowed to run ANYTHING you want in it, the compiler being the only authority to respect. It is absurd that you have to “jailbreak” your phone and shop at alternative app stores to have access to features (and content) Apple doesn’t want you to have.
When you buy a Nexus One, you will be sending the carriers and Apple a very clear message:
I am taking back control of my mobile experience. The future is mine (and not yours) to shape. If you want my money, you must support this vision or I will do business with someone else who does.
Wireless data is a commodity service.
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Brian Goodyear
So true. Here in Canada, we have recently ben told by one of our carriers ROGERS that we will have to leave our Dreams and Magics at Android 1.5 because they won’t update these phones even through we signed up for 3 year contracts. We thought Android was different, and perhaps if Google really gets behind it as you suggest, it will prove to be what we had hoped.
Rod Furlan
Greetings From Future Camp
Popular Science have just published a cool article about our summer at Singularity University. Late but great!
“According to Ray Kurzweil, the Singularity is a point at which man will become one with machine and then live eternally—which makes Singularity University, a nine-week academic retreat named for the concept, sound a little cultish. Our writer traveled west to investigate and found 40 stunningly sane brainiacs out to change the world.” – Popular Science [read full article]
Rod Furlan
Forget the Turing test, passing the Tim Ferriss Test is what you should aim for
I see AGI as the ultimate force multiplier and as the final solution for the workforce problem. As such, I expect that at some point in the future I would be in control an AGI system that could act as my online proxy-agent, taking care of my interests, investments, relationships, etc.
The objective of such AGI proxy agent (AGI-PA) would be to intelligently automate my life as much as possible and to eventually convince me that I am better off letting it handle most of my obligations for me.
Given enough time and feedback the AGI-PA should learn to think like me (to a degree) and start making decisions on my behalf. Its decisions would initially need to be audited but just as I have learned to trust my spam filter I should eventually learn to trust my AGI-PA’s judgement.
The process of training a new AGI-PA should be similar to the process of training an off-shore virtual assistant (VA) hired from any of the currently popular outsourcing services (oDesk, GetFriday, etc).
If the AGI-PA is able to (by any means) reduce my workload, I would consider it successful by a factor that reflects how much less work I had to do in average compared to my workload before commissioning the system. Naturally, hours spent teaching and managing the AGI-PA would count as work hours.
The Tim Ferriss Test for Artificial Intelligence
I have named this test after Tim Ferriss is the author of the best seller “The 4-Hour Workweek” and a vocal advocate of the concept of outsourcing your life to off-shore workers. The test consists in having a human judge distribute several (lawful) tasks to two remote assistants over e-mail, one being an experienced human VA and the other being a machine. If the judge isn’t able to tell which assistant is the machine solely by observing the resulting work, the machine is deemed to have passed the test.
I just can’t wait to have copy & paste employees…
Rod Furlan
Singularity University Executive Program
When: February 26 – March 6, 2010
Where: NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA
Who: Decision-makers, strategists, CEOs, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, government leaders — anyone thinking about their company and industry over a 5-to-10-year horizon
Rod Furlan
Jonathan Zittrain – Civic Technologies and the Future of the Internet
Click here to view the embedded video.
Harvard law professor and author Jonathan Zittrain discusses the unusual and distinctive technologies whose power increases in proportion to the people participating in them, contrasted with other technologies that leverage what the few can impose on the many — whether a PC virus maker who crashes millions of machines or a law enforcement officer who can use new consumer platforms to spy far easier than before. Filmed at Singularity University, part of the November 2009 Executive Program.
Great post Rod. The thing about I/O, though, is that output is typically much easier than input. We see this with modern robotic prostheses. Getting a person’s nervous system to move a robotic arm around is easier to do than getting the person’s brain to recognize where the arm is located in space and whether it is touching anything, is hot or cold, etc. I think we will have reliable output devices–things like the “interceptors” in Ghost in the Shell, devices that tell whether a person is recalling or fabricating a “memory,” etc–well before we have reliable input devices. Indeed we already have lots of pretty good output devices while inputs like bionic eyes are coming along more slowly and inputs to non-sensory functions such as language are basically still on the drawing board.
Not that this is a terrible situation, I think we can get a tremendous amount of usefulness from output devices alone, especially output devices that let us study brain data in real-time. I’m currently obsessed with the research being done on monks who have practiced many thousands of hours of meditation and how their brains are different. Also think output combined with feedback through a traditional computer screen might enable an entirely new method of learning things and, if capable of outputting what a person is imagining in her “mind’s eye,” a way of helping people learn how to visualize things better. Anxiously waiting for my ACME home brain scanning device.