There'll be no need to force people to undergo Borg assimilation. The hive mind can take over by getting people addicted to computer games with brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).
Several makers of brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs -- devices that facilitate operating a computer by thought alone -- claim the technology is poised to jump from the medical sector into the consumer gaming world in 2008.
Companies including Emotiv Systems and NeuroSky say they've released BCI-based software-development kits. Gaming companies may release BCI games next year, but many scientists worry that users brains' might be subject to negative effects.
For example, the devices sometimes force users to slow down their brain waves. Afterward, users have reported trouble focusing their attention.
Trouble focusing their attention afterward? Maybe the games are so mentally demanding that playing them is akin to doing a physical work-out on one's muscles. The game work-out leaves the mind fatigued just like gym work-outs leave muscles fatigued.
Biofeedback was developed for medical purposes. Such serious technology shouldn't get treated like just another toy! Toys are undignified and medical technology should only be doled out by licensed doctors. Okay, I admit I'm exaggerating - there's a role for nurse practitioners in deciding how many hours a day Johnny can be jacked into the world wide head.
"Most biofeedback is used for clearly defined clinical purposes, specifically to try and eliminate or ameliorate a problem," says Alan Garos, president of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. "Using feedback of brain activity for non-therapeutic purposes is something that we have to look at carefully."
When LSD hit the streets of San Francisco that's kind of like what computers did when they became available for home use. The difference is that parents applauded the computer addiction craze. Therefore we can not expect a cautious approach toward BCI by electronic game playing addicts. BCI game playing will be seen as training for upscale jobs done through BCI devices.
Yet BCI poses problems We didn't evolve to handle computers. Therefore we aren't well adapted to their presence in our environments. We can either use genetic engineering to adapt ourselves to computers or let natural selection run its course. Eventually those who can't resist their addiction to brain-computer interfaces will die out due to failure to reproduce. Natural selection will spread genetic alleles that make people less susceptible to malfunction when connected to brain-computer interfaces.
By Randall Parker at 2007 September 05 10:27 PM Comm Tech Society | TrackBackhey:
I like your blog, but think that your this last post may be a little short sighted:
"natural selection will spread genetic alleles that make people less susceptible to malfunction when connected to brain-computer interfaces."
come on, natural selection is something that takes many generations to become dominant in a native population. Popular computer use is less than a generation old. If there are negative effects from BCI, don't look to natural selection for the solution. If there are any major hurtles then we will just have to wait for more advanced BCIs. Ones that let us tap directly into the stream of the brain signals without forcing the brain to distort its natural electrical patterns in order to produce a recognizable signal. Possible advances:
1) more sensitive EEG machines
2) more sophisticated algorithms
3) entirely new approaches like nanobots (more long term)
Jonathan,
I'm making a few points here:
1) Technology creates new selective pressures.
2) We are not all equally well adapted and benefited by new technologies. Some humans become addicted to some of our creations and get messed up and damaged in the process.
3) Regardless of how long natural selection takes it is still going to keep happening even as technologies become more advanced.