My last day of Zen and more paranoia…….scientific advancements are good and desirable….but I also see the possibility of abuse waiting to happen…….if you think not then just look around at the abuse happening today…..all from scientific advancements……..
Source:DVICE
As part of IBM’s “5 in 5” forecasts of predictions, the company says that “minding reading” (more like mind control) will no longer be a science fiction dream and that within five years, we’ll all be controlling our computers and smartphones by just wiggling our brains.
While Apple focuses on speech technology with Siri, IBM believes the next revolution will involve our brains. To tackle and make mind control a reality, we’d all need to wear something like Emotiv’s EPOC neuroheadset that’s equipped with sensors that read electrical brain signals.
According to IBM Research News “the idea is to use these electrical synapses to also do everyday activities such as placing a phone call, turning on the lights or even in the healthcare space for rehabilitation.”
That’s great news, but we’re not quite ready for mind reading yet. Devices like the EPOC are still kind of bulky and make you look like a dorky cyborg.
The magic will happen when the sensors get miniaturized.
By 2017, like all technology, the EPOC or other similar technologies will probably get smaller. So I can imagine it will have completely dry sensors, and I’d be wearing it all the time, perhaps embedded into a baseball cap, and with a finer range of thought patterns detected and connected directly to my mobile phone – allowing me to interact with the world just by thinking particular thoughts. In doing this I could wonder what the traffic will be like on the way home and this information would pop up in front of me.
Voice-control is really coming into its own with Kinect, Siri and Google/Bing search, but I’m skeptic as to whether to it becoming real in five years. I’ve played with “mind concentrating” gear like Mattel’s Radica Mindflex Duel game, and it didn’t exactly blow my mind. It barely worked. So excuse me if I’m not convinced that mind-control/mind-reading will be functional within the next few years.
Where will it all end or a better question where will it lead? Is this life imitating art? Think of the movies!
But wait! There is more with the mind control…….oops, my bad……..mind reading………
A “smart” vending machine that analyses users’ age and gender has been launched in the US by Intel and Kraft Foods.
The iSample is being used to offer customers trials of a new dessert.
It allows Kraft to tailor the product to the shopper, and exclude children from the adult-focused promotion.
Intel says it intends to retrofit the technology to existing vending machines to allow companies to study what type of people are buying their products.
The machine uses an optical sensor fitted to the top of the machine to recognise the shape of the human face. A computer processor then carries out a series of calculations based on measurements such as the distance between the eyes, nose and ears.
These are used to determine the sex of the shopper and place them in one of four age brackets. This data is then used to determine what, if any, product the shopper should be served.
So basically, a machine will be making decisions for me, right? So much for “free will”!
Thoughts?
Lobotero,
You’ll have to forgive me, but week after week, I read this kind of post from you and can’t help but thik you are hostile to scientific advancement. Some of your concerns are valid, but at times it’s seems as though you’re making a mountain out of a mole hill.
Civilization is heading in an entirely new and uncharted territory, I’ll grant, but that territory isn’t necessarily bad. We’ve come a long away and we’re still going. We haven’t destroyed ourselves yet. We are still capable of reason and prudence.
Congrats on your Saints win.
Morning Terrance…….yes I can be a bit of a nay-sayer….but I know how lazy we can become…..if there is ever an EMP we will be totally screwed……I use to think we were capable of the things you mentioned but then I look at the news and I just see all that breaking down…..there can be good in all this…..but (there is always a but)…….I also see the chance for amazing abuses also…..
Thanx for the Saints but now they have to go to SF…..they cannot be as sloppy as they have been in the past….it was good to see Detroit in the playoffs…..
“So basically, a machine will be making decisions for me, right? So much for “free will”!”
Well, you still have the choice of putting the money in the machine or not unless of course this device also has hypnotic capabilities that manipulates you to reach into your pocket and put the money in the slot
Larry, you NEVER know…..I did not think my cel was spying on me either…..or correcting my words for me…..
What goes around, comes around. We use machines solely to suit our fancy, so we can’t get too upset when they want to get even and start fucking with our minds.
Hansi
Hansi, I am old enough to know just how man will abuse man….
You seem to fear science, when it’s how it’s applied that is the problem imho. We can never stop learning and discovering my friend.
Also, the government and private business’s pay the colleges, via grants, to delve into specific areas meaning these grants are the bread and butter of the science depts at most colleges.
Hi Dusty…I was beginning to think that you were not feeling well…….please I am not say that the tech stuff is bad only that man will abuse on his fellow man….also keep in mind most research done is for the purpose of military applications…if it can be used for the good of man then so much the better….I think science is real cool and I do not fear it…I do fear man and his/her capabilities for abuse…..
Hello my friend. No, I don’t feel well, but that’s besides the point right? 😉
The MIC has always run the scientific arm of our educational system. That is what Mario Savio and others protested against during the 60’s and early 70’s on most campuses in the US. Its come full circle again in your post.
Our colleges are desperate for outside monies, as their budgets are being whittled down every year, state by state. They have no conscience when it comes to taking anyone or any groups money in these times and there is little that we can do about it. Students on the other hand, can attempt to make a big deal about it on their campus and some are…but most are worried about the cost of their tuition going through the roof and the horrible loans they must take out just to get an education, and I must say I can’t blame them. Those are their bread and butter issues.
When Big Oil or Big Pharma give money to these colleges, it buys them power and control…just like their lobbyists on K. St do in DC.
The warmongering among us will always be looking for a better, cheaper way to kill the so-called enemy. Sadly,its human nature.
Our only hope is transparency and Obama won’t be giving us any of that soon, in spite of his 08 promise to do so. The MIC will always keep their secrets and our government will always allow them to do it, under the cover of ‘keeping us safe’.
At least those are my thoughts..sick person that I am and all…
I hope that all goes well for you this new year…..this is why I believe that education should be free from K to graduation…..that would solve so many problems……