Neurosphere

Well, it’s better than technology development driven throught weapons research.

“Hitachi’s scientists are set to develop a brain TV remote controller letting users turn a TV on and off or switch channels by only thinking.”

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/57980.html

This blog has highlighted gains toward technology interfaces to neurons. This study advances understanding of the action of neurons themselves toward forming memory.

“This time, Ben-Jacob and graduate student Itay Baruchi, who led the study, targeted inhibitory neurons to try to bring some order to their neural network. They mounted the cell culture on a polymer panel studded with electrodes, which enabled Ben-Jacob and Baruchi to monitor the patterns created by firing neurons. All of the cells on the electrode array came from the cortex, the outermost layer of the brain known for its role in memory formation.”

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0306422B-E7F2-99DF-3809798634B2D416&chanID=sa003

Another instance of progress through war.

“The thumb and fingers can move and grip just like a human hand and are controlled by the patient’s mind and muscles. It was invented by David Gow and was designed and built by Touch Bionics, which is based in Livingston. The technology has been tested by a number of people, including US soldiers who lost limbs in the Iraq war.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/6901231.stm

I wrote in my book Neurosphere that the war on terror was essentially a war on ourselves. The more we inter-mesh through RFID and other technologies, the more we need to proactively decide whether to war on ourselves or not.

“A typical passive RFID chip costs about a quarter, whereas one with encryption capabilities runs about $5. It’s just not cost-effective for your average office building to invest in secure chips. This leaves most RFIDs vulnerable to cloning or – if the chip has a writable memory area, as many do – data tampering. Chips that track product shipments or expensive equipment, for example, often contain pricing and item information.”

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.05/rfid.html

Real time location services. Tracking your stuff, tracking your loved ones, well, don’t you want to know?

“The company’s Hugs and Halo systems are designed to help prevent infants from being removed from a hospital without permission, while RoamAlert is intended to keep patients—such as those with Alzheimer’s—from wandering unattended. The infant and patient-monitoring systems offer other protections as well, such as skin-sensing capabilities that can trigger an alert when a tag is removed from a wearer.”

http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/3565/1/1/

Treating the electric with the electric. The boundary between the brain and the environment seems to be permeable.

“A device that specifically targets rapidly growing cancer cells with intermediate frequency electrical fields — called Tumor-Treating Fields (TTFields) — doubled the survival rates of patients with brain cancer, according to a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal article.”

http://pressesc.com/01180456249_brain_cancer_electric_field

I’m pretty sure Philip K. Dick already wrote this.

“Tel Aviv University scientists have shown that it is possible to store rudimentary memories in an artificial culture of live neurons.”

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1183459218199&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull