THE TRANSHUMANISM SCRAPBOOK: UPLOADING KNOWLEDGE INTO THE BRAIN JUST ...
You'll recall a few weeks ago that I blogged about the recent advanced in neural mapping made by Japanese researchers, and which was then followed up quickly by confirming research from scientists in California. I stated that this was a necessary step in the technology tree toward the ability to actually upload information directly into the brain, rather like the transhumanists have been advocating, and as we saw in the box-office hit, The Matrix. Well, there has been another huge milestone in the development of this ability, according to this article shared by Mr. A:
Researchers: You Can Now Upload Knowledge Directly into Your Brain
This new capability appears to be directly related to the neural mapping and brain wave states we've talked about on this website before:
According to information available on the Hughes Research Laboratories website, the researchers discovered that low-current electrical brain stimulation can modulate the learning of complex real-world skills. Some researchers have studied the low-current in the brain for some time now. In 2011, a team of scientists at Boston University, and ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan, predicted that it is possible to develop advanced software that will facilitate instant transfer of skills into the human brain.
Some skeptics doubted their prediction, but researchers from the Hughes Research Laboratories have done exactly that.
Notice, that this technology involves the direct modulation of brain wave activity of someone already skilled in a particular area, to the brain waves of someone who is not, a point which carries both military and medical applications:
Dr. Phillips explained, “We measured the brain activity patterns of six commercial and military pilots, and then transmitted these patterns into novice subjects as they learned to pilot an airplane in a realistic flight simulator. We measured the average g-force of the plane during the simulated landing and compared it to control subjects who received a mock brain stimulation.”
According to Dr. Phillips, the experiment revealed that subjects who received brain stimulation via electrode-embedded head caps, improved their piloting abilities far better than those who never received them.
The reports state that previous research has demonstrated that tDCS can both help patients recover more quickly from a stroke, and boost a healthy person’s creativity.
If you've been following these stories, what is interesting to note is the pace at which these developments are being driven, and now, with the involvement of Hughes, the clear indication that the corporate world is rapidly pursuing military applications of the capabilities even as they are developing the tests and experimental proofs of concept.
Imagine, now, what this means: a whole new industry, even a whole new educational philosophy: want to learn calculus or nuclear physics or a foreign language or mediaeval French literature? Then just plug in the brain waves of someone who are masters of the subject, and learn it so much quicker.
THe bottom line: whatever one may think of the utility or even the ethics of such technology, this will become, in time, a growth industry.
See you on the flip side...
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what comes around goes around
genetic or epigenetic. while i appreciate my teachers and senior and junior students, i appreciate learning through my own efforts. having it handed to me is least desired. having it guided to me is only a little less negative. finding out for myself is satori. at least that path lets me feel i’m learning how to learn. i’m deciding how best to evaluate which and what decisions to make in the future.
these entrainments of waves in various parts of brain are not new ideas. it’s a form of training wheels on a bicycle. sure it helps. it also narrows focus. and falsifies security.
learn a martial art on a thick cushy mat. it wears down joints that don’t recognize the downside of serious impact and traction issues. more pertintently one quickly finds a painful lack of appreciation for the surfaces everywhere else in reality. ever see a great boxer in a streetfight without previous comparable experience in a streetfight? learning on a thin mat or with thin hand protection feels like the slow method to beginners. it’s genius and required by old masters.
i prefer to learn how to learn for myself thank you. while instructive youtubes are valuable, i use them mainly to find better authors and teachers. then i work with those teachers as directly as i can. and i measure the abilities of those teachers at least in part by how directly they communicate with me. anyone notice how accessible doc is? and direct?
i’ve yet to meet anyone possessing any skill i want to learn to any degree to which i aspire, who did not respond to me in a manner that made me take notice and be more careful and studied in my questions. as ever, the vast majority of kids who think they are wise when in fact they’re only smart make me feel glad of the wisdom i have about the limited intelligence i have.
i’m wise enough to know that while i cannot be sure about this, i feel with every particle in my being that these smart feeling folk are more akin to naughty children pretending to be adults.
i’ll stick to feeling the wise path. meanwhile we can probably expect more smart fools to presume nirvana and immortality behind all sorts of kurzweilian fantasies inferences and implied idiocies.
feels like the same idea as decent well tuned music though. and i do love good instrumentals when i’m studying or doing anything productive. humming right along… guess we all have various forms and levels of entrainment we prefer.
Since we’re talking about the ability to actually upload information directly into the brain, I thought these links about “The Matrix” trilogy and it’s *meaning* would be relevant. ‘Uploading’ may already be happening, if a rogue AI has taken control of Earth…
thematrix101 dot com/matrix/meaning.php
thematrix101 dot com/reloaded/meaning.php
thematrix101 dot com/revolutions/meaning.php
“Another machine program (one created to investigate aspects of the human psyche) stumbled upon the reason for the second [Matrix] failure: a lack of choice. If humans were offered a choice, even one felt at an unconscious level, then over 99% would accept the Matrix and live in the virtual world, unknowingly powering the machines. The remaining percentage would choose the other option, becoming a ‘free mind’ destined to become part of the human resistance based in Zion.
Neo is understandably floored by this revelation. Zion is another level of control by the machines over humanity. It was designed by the machines as a destination for the malcontents that reject the Matrix – a place for them to believe they are free, and deceive them into thinking they have an opportunity to free the world.
In fact, the machines have a necessary cycle; one that’s been played out five previous times: Zion is built up by those who free themselves from the Matrix, the war intensifies, the One is located, trained, and directed by the prophecy to the Source, the machines destroy Zion, the One picks 23 people to free from the Matrix to begin rebuilding Zion (with no prior knowledge that Zion ever existed), and the cycle begins anew.”
Think about similarities to OUR world, especially in terms of World Ages…
An adaptive, or learning-from-data, AI program?
“The Oracle, described by The Architect as “an intuitive program, initially created to investigate certain aspects of the human psyche”, has been around since the beginning. She’s experienced the 5 previous iterations of the Matrix, and has guided The Ones along the path in each iteration.
But over time, her purpose has changed: she’s learned more about the human psyche than any other machine or program. She’s seen them struggle, fight, fall, get back up, and keep going. She’s seen them live, love, and die. She’s seen Ones follow the path. She’s seen others put their faith in The One and do everything necessary to assist him or her.
In short, she’s seen it all. And she’s learned. As each iteration of the Matrix played itself out, The Oracle has learned a bit more about the human psyche, a bit more about what makes humans tick.”
I could also see this ‘iteration cycle’ as a way to ‘breed out’ both psychic ability and rebelliousness. ‘Dump’ those types into Zion, and then periodically wipe out Zion. Each iteration of the Matrix would probably have fewer of those types, as the genetic pool is ‘sorted’…
“Navras plays over the closing credits of ‘Revolutions’, and the words of the main chant are taken from the Upanishads.
This is what you hear:
Asato ma sad gamaya,
tamaso ma jyotir gamaya,
mrtyor mamrtam gamaya.
Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.
Which translates to:
Lead us from darkness to the light,
Lead us from knowledge of the unreal to the real,
Lead us from fear of death to knowledge of our immortality.
Peace, peace, peace.
And if that doesn’t symbolize the entire Matrix Trilogy, I don’t know what does.”
I wouldn’t exactly call this uploading knowledge but stimulation of brain areas in a rhythm and region used by skilled pilots during training in the hopes of speeding up training time for beginners. This may only encourage the brain to selectively use this region of the brain more conducive to storing and using that particular set of skills faster than it would otherwise learn to use this region.
This development ‘echos’ what has been known in the woo-woo camp for millennia. Folks learning new meditation techniques or new shamanistic states were counseled to do it ‘alongside’ those experienced in those practices. I can tell you from personal experiences that it was a lot easier when ‘linked in’ than ‘on your own’ later.
On the other hand, if you are looking for paths not on the ‘blazed trail’, it is probably better not to be ‘entrained’…
I’m on that page goshawks. Entraining on the “blazed path” is comparable to taking psychogenics just to experience effects. It bypasses an essential faculty.
The real breakthrough will come when they can store an experts’ brain patterns good enough to transmit unlimited quantities. Sort of like the difference between copying written works by hand and a printing press.
Good question on the muscle memory, fascinating stuff and horrifying at the same time
I have the impression that the HRL has one foot (or more likely a couple of toes) in the open world with the rest being “deep black”. So I wouldn’t take at face value the conclusion that some unnamed trainees “learned how to fly”. A claim they are prudent not to make directly.
And hey, doesn’t this sound like old-fashioned brainwashing, Dr.Walter Bishop style?
And as Pellovoisin mentioned, are these manipulations really fine-tuned enough to isolate “technical” skills from the rest of what goes on in people?
NUTS
And…
Once your chipped, you’ll receive periodic updates via wireless.
But, if you update your chip now, you’ll also receive, absolutely free…
In a episode of the TOS Star Trek entitled “Spock Brain” this idea was brought up. But the retention of the knowledge was temporary it lasted only a short time. Only in the movie “Forbidden Planet” was it permanent that was at the price of dying of the effects of the transference to the brain. So unless these scientist have over come these problems which might be possible what might be the real aim of this technology that is the question to ask.
In combination with AI, this could imply more possibilities
Nothing is that neat and tidy in our entangled world. Yes, upload brilliant bloke’s understanding of Maxwell’s Equations (the real Maxwell’s Equations) and.. also get a bit of a bleed from said brilliant bloke’s sexual fantasies… which are now your own. Boom.
(Just think of the thousand of cases of “organ memory” from transplant patients where nothing of the sort is supposed to take place. But it does.)
Not that I cannot see upsides to this. I would have loved to be able to upload into my mind the knowledge and skill of Rampal, James Galway, Wm Bennett, Jeanne Baxtresser, Jasmine Choi, and Viviana Guzman, then use my own imaginative skill to synthesise from the group my own unique style of playing the flute (a la Commander Data’s musical skill on Star Trek). My greedy inclination would be to take advantage of such a technology. But can such brain wave patterns endure without the non-local mind having participated in their creation and the body not learning the muscle memory to go along with such skills?
Given the current corporate mindset, there is no possibility for nefarious applications here, move along.