Neural Interfaces

Neural Interfaces

While it’s interesting that devices can be worn on a person’s head that measure brain waves and can be used to control robots, videogames, or read a person’s mind and detect memories, a much more invasive method of using a person’s thoughts to control external machines or computers is found in what are called neural interfaces, which are devices that are connected directly to the human brain.  Neural interfaces, sometimes called brain implants, or a brain machine interface (BMI) are electronic systems that are literally, physically wired into the human brain through surgery.

In July 2001, someone with access to the Department of Neurobiology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, used a hidden camera to videotape bizarre and cruel tests that were being done on monkeys to implant them with neural interfaces.  The footage shows several monkeys secured in restraining devices with their skull caps removed, and you can clearly see their brains protruding out of the top of their heads with neural interfaces attached.  The video is extremely horrific to watch.  It’s in color and can be found on YouTube if you search for “hidden camera monkey brain experiments.”  The person narrating the video mentions a Dr. Zohari, who they identify as the project manager of the experiments.

A strange neurophysiologist at Yale University, named Dr. Jose Delgado, carried out similar experiments in the 1960s that involved implanting electrodes in the brains of animals and he was able to remotely induce a wide range of emotions and physical movements in them.  Videos are available on YouTube that show Delgado’s team demonstrating a cat equipped with a neural interface that enabled them to cause the animal to get angry and start hissing with the push of a button.  Another video shows a bull with a neural interface implanted in its brain that’s charging straight at a man and when the researcher sends a signal to the receiver, the animal stops immediately.^[1]

In his book Physical Control of the Mind, published in 1971, Dr. Delgado wrote, “The technology for nonsensory communication between brains and computers through the intact skin is already at our fingertips, and its consequences are difficult to predict.  In the past the progress of civilization has tremendously magnified the power of our senses, muscles, and skills.  Now we are adding a new dimension: the direct interface between brains and machines.”

He said that it was, “already possible to induce a large variety of responses, from motor effects to emotional reactions and intellectual manifestations, by direct electrical stimulation of the brain.”

“Also, several investigators have learned to identify patterns of electrical activity (which a computer could also recognize) localized in specific areas of the brain and related to determined phenomena such as perception of smells or visual perception of edges and movements. We are advancing rapidly in the pattern recognition of electrical correlates of behavior and in the methodology for two-way radio communication between brain and computers.”^[2]

In his writings, Delgado acknowledged people expressed fears that this new technology was a threat to possible unwanted and unethical remote control of the thoughts of people by others, but wrote that he believed the dangers are outweighed by the expected clinical and scientific benefits.

Ray Kurzweil, who is seen as a prominent futurist believed to be able to accurately forecast approaching technological developments in the coming decades wrote, “Improving our lives through neural implants on the mental level, and nanotechnology-enhanced bodies on the physical level, will be popular and compelling.”^[3] Kurzweil believes that around the year 2099, neural interfaces will be implanted into almost everyone, and that, “humans who do not utilize such implants [will be] unable to meaningfully participate in dialogues with those who do.”^[4]

What he means is that humans will have their brains wired into the Internet and will become a species of cyborgs who have merged with computers.

(Excerpt from Big Brother: The Orwellian Nightmare Come True by Mark Dice – Available on Amazon.com, Kindle and Nook.)

Brain Gate

A neural interface called Brain Gate was one of the first devices used on humans and was developed in 2003, by a company called Cyberkinetics along with the Department of Neuroscience at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.  The device was designed to allow people paralyzed from spinal cord injuries to use the neural interface to operate computers or electronic wheelchairs with their thoughts.

The first version of the device used 96 different electrodes to sense different neurons firing in specific areas of the brain and transferred those signals to a computer.  In 2010, the company’s website said that three different people have had the device installed, the first of which was a 25-year-old paralyzed man named Matt Nagle who can be seen in videos on the Internet using Brain Gate to move a mouse around a computer screen.

An article on CNN’s website mentioned the possibilities of such devices turning the population into cyborgs, saying, “Beyond alleviating the effects of severe disabilities, normal functioning humans could also benefit from ‘upgrades’ to improve intelligence, sensory awareness or simply to counter the effects of aging.”^[5] The article also quoted Microsoft founder Bill Gates as saying that one of his Microsoft colleagues is anticipating cybernetic enhancements, and that he’s ready to be “plugged in.”  Gates said that he personally would not want to be implanted with such things.

Military Applications

The US military has shown interest in neural interfaces and various documents and budgets explain some of their proposed Orwellian uses.  One report commissioned by the Office of Defense Research and Engineering titled Human Performance explained, “The most successful implementation of invasive interfaces has occurred in medical applications in which nerve signals are used as the mechanism for information transfer.  Adversarial actions using this approach to implement enhanced, specialized sensory functions could be possible in limited form now, and with developing capability in the future.”^[6]

Documents dating back to 1996 from the Department of Defense show that plans were being drawn up to use neural interfaces on soldiers and the civilian population as well.  One document discussing technology the military hoped to have in place by the year 2025, titled Information Operations: A New War-Fighting Capability reads, “The implanted microscopic brain chip performs two functions.  First, it links the individual to the IIC [Information Integration Center] creating a seamless interface between the user and the information resources.  In essence, the chip relays the processed information from the IIC [Information Integration Center] to the user, second the chip creates a computer generated mental visualization based upon the user’s request.”^[7]

The documents claim the devices would help increase security, saying, “An implanted microscopic chip does not require security measures to verify whether the right person is connected to the IIC [Information Integration Center], whereas a room, helmet, or sunglasses requires additional time-consuming access control mechanisms to verify an individual’s identity and level of control within the Cyber Situation.”^[8]

The document foresaw resistance to such ideas, saying, “Implanting ‘things’ in people raises ethical and public relations issues.  While these concerns may be founded on today’s thinking, in 2025 they may not be as alarming” and goes on to say, “The civilian populace will likely accept any implanted microscopic chips that allow military members to defend vital national interests.”^[9]

Aside from military applications, the documents say that neural interfaces could be used to upload information into people’s minds and make them feel like they are playing a virtual reality video game.  It reads, “This capability will have extraordinary commercial applications from medical advances.  These advances will help restore patients with damaged neural, audio, and visual systems as well as enable them to achieve the ultimate virtual reality trip.”^[10]

The Human Performance document produced for the Pentagon in 2008, acknowledges the “evils” of using these devices and admits, “one can consider the potential that an adversary might use invasive interfaces in military applications.  An extreme example would be remote guidance or control of a human being.”  It continues to list examples of experiments that were able to remotely control animals as if they were remote controlled toys, saying, “There has been non-medical research into remote monitoring or control of animals (rats, sharks, pigeons, etc.) [53, 54, 55] with applications in research or law enforcement, with related strong interest in the popular press.”^[11]

Intel Planning Neural Interfaces to Surf Internet

An article in Computerworld magazine published in 2009, discussed how computer giant Intel thinks that by the year 2020 we won’t need to use a keyboard or a mouse to control computers, cell phones, or televisions anymore, and will instead use neural interfaces.  The article stated, “Big Brother won’t be planting chips in your brain against your will. Researchers expect that consumers will want the freedom they will gain by using the implant.”^[12]

Andrew Chien, the vice president of research and director of future technologies at Intel Labs said, “There are a lot of things that have to be done first but I think [implanting chips into human brains] is well within the scope of possibility.”

Another Intel research scientist named Dean Pomerleau told Computerworld that “We’re trying to prove you can do interesting things with brain waves.  Eventually people may be willing to be more committed…to brain implants.  Imagine being able to surf the Web with the power of your thoughts.”

They are using fMRI technology at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh to map thought patterns and have found that different people’s brain patterns are similar when they think similar thoughts, allowing scientists to develop ways to detect the thoughts of different people using the same method.

Intel’s Dean Pomerleau said they will soon be able to build a brainwave sensor that people can wear on their head and will be connected to a computer.  The next step, he said, is to implant neural interfaces into people’s brains.

(Excerpt from Big Brother: The Orwellian Nightmare Come True by Mark Dice – Available on Amazon.com, Kindle and Nook.)

Wireless Neural Interface

Most neural interfaces consist of devices implanted into the human brain and have wires protruding out of the person’s (or animal’s) skull which lead to a computer, but one British scientist is developing a wireless chip that can be injected into the skull with a large hypodermic needle, and can then communicate wirelessly to a computer.

The chip is being developed by Dr. Jon Spratley who designed a prototype while earning his PhD at Birmingham University.  “We are just trying to help people with severe communication problems or motor neurone disease—like Dr Stephen Hawking or Christopher Reeve,” he said.^[13]

“It’s an area that is being heavily researched in America but so far all the tests have involved wired sensors. This prototype uses wireless technology to remove the risk of infection and that’s the real drive of our work.”

Dr. Spratley hopes the device can be used by quadriplegic people, enabling them to operate computers, electric wheel chairs, or even bionic arms or legs.  “If they can imagine using a limb, even if they can’t move it, you can tap into that signal.  Then you just have to imagine moving the muscle and the leg will move, the brain will train itself,” he said.

Dr. Spratley is looking for funding to start human trials.

Depression Implant

If you think it’s strange that companies have developed technology that can wire a human brain into a computer in order to detect brain waves, the technology gets even more sinister.  In 2005, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a neural interface system to treat depression.^[14] The device is wired into the brain and stimulates the Vagus Nerve in order to make people feel happier.

The manufacturer of this horrific device is a company called Cyberonics which has sold a similar brain implant that reduces seizures in people with epilepsy.  The depression implant costs about $20,000, including surgical and hospital expenses, according to Cyberonics chief executive, Skip Cummins.  The company has also been conducting various studies hoping the device will be approved to treat anxiety, bulimia, and other chronic disorders.^[15]

Dangers of Neural Interfaces

Hidden beneath the lofty goals of helping paralyzed people gain more mobility and independence lies a dark underbelly of disastrous consequences arising from the widespread use of neural interfaces.  Detecting and reading brainwaves is one thing, but neural interfaces have already shown that they can also do the opposite, and actually manipulate brainwaves as well.  Futurists like Ray Kurzweil anxiously anticipate a world where these devices are as common as cell phones, and envision enhancing human perception, memory, and cognitive abilities.  But this technology, perhaps more than any other, contains disastrous consequences that are often overlooked by transhumanist dreamers.

It’s not an unfounded fear to wonder if a neural interface that physically jacks people’s minds into a centralized computer system could then possibly literally control people’s thoughts once they are plugged in.  While this may seem far-fetched, as I have already uncovered, the military has proposed that such devices could take people on the “ultimate virtual reality trip” and implants that make people “feel better” have already been created.  These devices may lead to mass mind control, quite literally.

In 1993, Sylvester Stallone and Sandra Bullock starred in a science fiction film taking place in the future called Demolition Man, which included a scene where prisoners were connected to neural interfaces that reprogrammed their minds in order to rehabilitate them and change their attitudes and behaviors.

The CBS Evening News once aired a segment discussing high-tech methods for keeping tabs on prisoners and included an interview with a specialist who said, “one thing we could implant could be a subliminal implant.  In other words, basically messages being piped into the subconscious constantly.  ‘Do the right thing.  Do what’s required of you.  Be a good citizen.  Don’t disobey the law.’”^[16]

The infamous mark of the beast spoken about in the Bible, which predicts that a global dictator will force the entire earth’s population to take a “mark” on their hand or forehead or else they won’t be able to buy or sell anything, is often believed to be a Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) or some kind of device that replaces cash and checks as methods of doing financial transactions.  But some speculate that the “mark of the beast” is actually a neural interface they believe will cause everyone who has one to literally lose control of their own mind, and then be completely controlled by an artificial intelligence system or whoever is in charge of the neural interface mainframe.

The topic of the mark of the beast is beyond the scope of this book, but the possibility of neural interfaces literally controlling people’s minds is a very real and dangerous scenario that we seem to be rapidly approaching.

(Excerpt from Big Brother: The Orwellian Nightmare Come True by Mark Dice – Available on Amazon.com, Kindle and Nook.)

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