Neural Interfacing
In the motion picture “RoboCop” scientists during a future time implanted a human head into the body of a futuristic robot creating an almost unstoppable police officer.
During 1987, when this movie was produced, the idea of man combining with machine was considered pure fantasy. However, advances in technology in the year 2000 and further studies in recent years have proven that this idea may, in time, become a reality.
On October 13th 2003, sciencedaily.com in their article, Monkeys Consciously Control A Robot Arm Using Only Brain Signals, reported that researchers of Duke University had successfully taught a monkey to manipulate a robotic arm using only her brain signals and a video display.[1] Though the theory behind the idea of somehow connecting human tissue to electronic devices is relatively simple, the processes needed to create the experiment are very complex. For years scientists have understood that the brain uses small amounts of electrical currents to stimulate specific muscle movements. Some of these scientists then asked if it was possible to create a device that can be controlled simply by reading this electric activity of the brain. Only in recent years were scientists able to place this theory into practice. This amazing scientific accomplishment was made possible by surgically implanting microelectrodes (very small sensors used to measure electric activity in living tissue) into the brains of two monkeys.[2] These microelectrodes were implanted where scientists believe is the greatest amount of complex muscle control, the frontal and parietal regions of the brain.
[3] Then different measurements of electric brain activity were recorded from the microelectrodes utilizing a scientifi...
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... God and fiddle with God’s creation? This is a very personal question and must be dealt with the by individual alone.
Works cited:
Better Humans. (2004, February). Snail Brain Merged with Microchip. Retrieved March 31, 2004 from
http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2004-02-23-4
Science Daily. (2004, March). Human Studies Show Feasibility Of Brain-machine Interfaces. Retrieved March 31, 2004 from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/03/040324071203.htm
Science Daily. (2003, October). Monkeys Consciously Control A Robot Arm Using Only Brain Signals. Retrieved March 31, 2004 from
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/10/031013082812.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/10/031013082812.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/03/040324071203.htm
http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2004-02-23-4
This essay will focus on exploring the theme of prejudice in Harper Lee’s novel - ‘To kill a mockingbird’ , published in the four years after the renowned bus boycott of Montgomery, , it resonates with the feelings and attitudes prevalent at the time. A variety of different types of prejudice are exposed to us throughout the progression of the novel, arguably the most significant being racial and class prejudice. I shall focus my essay on exploring how these types of prejudice are explored in the novel.
...ter screen an arm that was placed onto his stump. When Ture Johanson saw his arm on the computer screen, he was able to control his own movements using his own neural command. In this particular study, Johanson was asked to perform numerous movements with his phantom hands such as driving a racecar. By driving a racecar, Catalan found that the subject moved muscles at the end of his existing arm to show the intent of moving his missing hand. From this study, subjects who had been experiencing PLP for several years had longer periods without pain and had shorter periods of intense pain. In addition, the phantom hand was relaxed from a tight fist to a half-open position. This study is different from others because the control signals are retrieved from the arm stump, and thus the affected arm is in charge. Moreover, it uses the signals from the damaged limbs itself.
Hamlin, H. "Life or Death by EEG." Journal of the Amedos. Medical A's',, 1W12/84, p. 20.
The Israeli-Palestine conflict is an event that has been well documented throughout the course of Middle-Eastern history. The conflict dates back as far as the nineteenth century where Palestine and Zionist, will later be known as Israel, are two communities each with different ideologies had the same overwhelming desire to acquire land. However, what makes this clash what it is, is the fact that both of these up and coming communities are after the same piece of land. The lengths that both sides went to in order obtain they believed was theirs has shaped the current relationship between the two nations today.
The brain reading chip was placed there just to read the signals from the motor cortex. Once the motor cortex starts sending signals, the chip will capture the signals from all the neurons by recording the spiking activities of the motor cortex and then will send them to an external computer. The brain reading chip has been developed in such a way that it can read the motor cortex signals at a rapid speed to avoid delay in the process.
Cyber Technology is another area where AI will contribute in future. According to researcher Shimon Whiteson in future, we will be able to augment ourselves with computers and enhance many of our own natural abilities. Cyborg Intelligence aims to integrate AI with biological intelligence closely and deeply by connecting computer systems and biological systems via Brain-Machine-Interfaces (BMI’s), enhancing strengths and compensating for the weakness of both systems by combining the biological systems perceptive and cognitive abilities with the computer systems computational
With the advent of this new technology doctors and psychiatrists may have finally reached the light at the end of the tunnel. Well not exactly, but the state of the art new technology, Optogenetics, does offer an innovative new approach to the study of the brain, and, more importantly, the treatment of patients. The use of light had been surmised to be a valuable way to control cells many years prior by Francis Crick (Crick 2024), but no one had been able to pull all the pieces together. While it’s by no means perfectly safe: there are still uncertainties about the long-term effects and the level of specificity it offers can only control groups of neurons up to .3 (mm^3) instead of individual neurons. Optogenetics still provides benefits over our current pharmaceutical and surgical technologies with its specificity, both temporally and spatially. In light of these facts, doctors should consider optogenetics as a safe and efficacious way to treat neurological disorders unresponsive to current methods.
Neuroscience refers to “the scientific study of the nervous system” It has been responsible for breakthroughs involving molecular, cellular, developmental, and medical aspects of human behaviors. Various organizations such as the “International society for neurochemistry” and the “European Brain and behavior Society” exist today to further the study of the nervous system and expand human understanding of medical and psychological ailments. The actual study of the nervous system dates all the way back to ancient Egypt where surgeons would drill holes into the human skull in order to alleviate a variety of aliments. The second half of the 20th century furthered the study of neuroscience via advancements in Molecular biology, and electrophysiology. These advancements are currently being used to study potential solutions to diseases such as (ALS) amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, strokes, and brain trauma. This research is funded by credible organizations such as the (NIH) National Institute of Health and the “National S...
Racism is wrought within the whole story. For example, even though Calpernia is a female, Aunt Alexandra overlooks her good work because of her race (p. 129). Blacks, because they are considered inferior, are expected to do everything for whites. People are so biased it doesn’t matter how well a job a black person does they are still frowned upon. Furthermore, the jury declares Tom Robinson guilty even though the evidence is clearly in his favor (p.211). A human being has more color pigment in their skin so it is assumed they are guilty without question; truth is never a factor. It is easy to associate the mockingbird symbol to Tom Robinson, a harmless man who becomes a victim of racial prejudice. The Maycomb community are trying to make a fool of them selves by believing they are model citizens and good Christians, even though a small number amongst them know that they are wrong to persecute and hate due to color.
Gender discrimination is defined as prejudice against an individual due to his or her gender or sex. Discrimination against women has been occurring for years and continues to pose an issue today, especially in institutions such as the workforce. In the past, women were limited to very few rights; they were not permitted to vote and were considered as “property”. The only real jobs they had were housewives.and only a handful of women were in the labor force. In today’s society, women compose more than half of the workforce, yet they earn a significantly less amount compared to their male counterparts for completing the same tasks. Due to the subtleness of the issue, many still continue to be unaware of the discrimination which occurs. Though the issues regarding gender discrimination have gone through improvements recently, the issue at hand
The institutionalized discrimination of women in the work place is nothing new or unheard of. The brunt of it has happened fairly recently as women began to enter the labor market in force less than a century ago. The affect of this discrimination has had long lasting, generation spanning affects, but as time has passed and feminism spread, the gender-gap has slowly begun to shrink.
With the advances in technology and the growth in understanding of the human brain, it seems that what was once thought to be only possible in science fiction could soon become reality. In the future, virtual reality will become more immersive and trick all your senses into believing the experience is real. Signals can be transmitted directly to a person’s brain which would allow them to see, hear or fell sensory input. This can be achieved through Brain-computer interface. (Grabianowski, n.d.).
Perry, Bruce, 1999. ECT Interview: Bruce Perry Discusses the Effects of Technology on the Brain.
Bar-Cohen, Y. (2009). The coming robot revolution expectations and fears about emerging intelligent, humanlike machines. Springer.
Gender discrimination has been happening for a very long period of time throughout history. Although it has improved throughout the years, many people are still being discriminated due to their gender. Sex or gender discrimination is defined as “individuals treated differently in their employment specifically because an individual is a woman or man” (“Sex/Gender Discrimination”). Many gender discriminations happen at work places and deal with salaries, work positions, and being hired or promoted. Sex discrimination come in many different forms such as sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination, work situations, and employment policies (“Sex Based”). According to statistics provided by the Nation Bureau of Economic Research and the Institute