Sep 9, 2006 4:55:00 PM cite

Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva: Oh no, oh no, no. It's impossible. It's too much. It would be horrible. If I imagine I have a computer instead of my head and somebody can put buttons here or there to get information or some reaction. Human being is so unique, so beautiful in his or her differences. If there was this connection you could manipulate and we would be manipulated. Thousands of people could be manipulated. They don't need this. When people would be connected to computers they would sit and depend on information that they get. It's different information that you get from your grandmother and computer. It is totally different things because you get not only information about love but you must feel love. You must feel and know it. After that you have experience of love and if you only hear about this ... I was a young woman and I heard a lot about children and I said: Oh, I want to have a child because it's something wonderful. And when I became a young mother and bore a son and I understood it's a little bit other than I thought. It's a big big but beautiful problem. It's different and machine and human created by God are totally different things and it must be so.

by Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva

Sep 9, 2006 4:55:00 PM cite

Abbas Beydoun: Personally I do not know exactly if that is possible... I just watched it in science fiction movies. Of course something like that would look terrifying but maybe it will look different when this connection between human brains to machine promotes the human intelligence and changes people to machines. Anyway we can not build anything depending on assumptions. Surely this issue is one of the major technological concerns now.

by Abbas Beydoun

Sep 9, 2006 4:55:00 PM cite

Alvaro Restrepo: Yes. At this moment we are connected and talking to a machine. We came to answer questions. We are connected to the internet and thousands of people in the world, we don’t know how much, are listening to us. Like some of my neighbours sitting her we have all the feeling to be together but talking all alone in monologues. We have the feeling to be talking to an unknown dimension that we cannot control and that some abstract and unknown people are listening to us. In my opinion it is not desirable to have the possibility that our minds can be connected mecanically to machines. I think that we can use machines for our mind, what we are actually doing. But all these fantasies of science fiction that tecnology brought to us really scare me. I don’t believe necessarily in a romanticism that negates technology but I think that we have to be careful in order to not lose humanity or the relation to men and human beings. We are too much fascinated by machines that we invented for playing.

by Alvaro Restrepo

Sep 9, 2006 4:55:00 PM cite

Ana Lucy Bengochea:

by Ana Lucy Bengochea

Sep 9, 2006 4:55:00 PM cite

Andries Botha: Nicolas, hi. You know what, the human brain is already connected to the computer. They’re [inaudible] connected, connected by willfulness. They’re indispensable. But I guess what you’re asking you know, because it’s an electronic field you know, can we just plug ourselves in and just feed the information, right? I reckon it’s an horrific scenario which will one day become possible, because it’s just simply the implanting of information. But you know what, it’s all happening already. The tolerance for it, the inextricable co-dependence on it, it’s all happened already.

by Andries Botha

Sep 9, 2006 4:55:00 PM cite

Angaangaq Lyberth: Answertext will be available soon.

by Angaangaq Lyberth

Sep 9, 2006 4:55:00 PM cite

Anthony Arnove: I think I will leave that to other people who understand cognitive science and also understand computer science much better than I do.

by Anthony Arnove

Sep 9, 2006 4:55:00 PM cite

Anuradha Koirala: [Inaudible] We can never communicate [inaudible]

by Anuradha Koirala

Sep 9, 2006 4:55:00 PM cite

Anuradha Mittal: I actually believe in the human spirit, in the independence of the human spirit. So, I do not believe that human beings will ever agree and will be connecting to machines. That’s what makes us different: our ability to feed, our ability to hear, our ability to respond which machines cannot. So, I don’t think that is possible because I believe in the human spirit and the desire of humanity to keep that spirit be alive and going forward.

by Anuradha Mittal

Sep 9, 2006 4:55:00 PM cite

Ashok Gangadean: I find a certain irony and humor at this question. Because there’s a way in which it depends on how we see our human body and our brain. Integral consciousness that sees no separation between our minds, our brains and our bodies, but recognize that to become an integral whole body, a whole integral spirit will connect the brain with the full awakened body. But in another sense and when we have an egoized model of the human being, our bodies are like machines and there is a kind of separation between our brain and our bodies and our consciousness. So in an ironic way we might say we’re already connecting our brain with an artificial body and a machine in that model. So I think that that’s why I found a kind of irony and humor in this question. But obviously the intent is that if we don't regard our body as an artificial structure there already, but a whole integral awakened body in a mind-body continum, would it be possible too in this other sense, connect our brain power to machines? And there I think in a way we’re already doing that because if we don't separate our minds from our brains in the integral model, then when we use machines we’re already investing and vesting our intelligence and our brain power into those machines. When we fly a jet, when we use a computer and use any instrument, intelligence is moving into that machine in some way. Now of course in terms of micro computing and other forms it may be possible to augment our brain power with computer, quantum computing power and so forth. And I'm sure things like that will happen in the future inevitably.

by Ashok Gangadean

Sep 9, 2006 4:55:00 PM cite

Avi Primor:

by Avi Primor

Sep 9, 2006 4:55:00 PM cite

Benjamin Fahrer: I’d be surprised if it hasn’t already happened. We have computers, we have machines, we have artificial limbs that are attached to people that are directly connected to the brain, to the impulses in the body. So, there’s that type of technology that has already happened but as far as directly having like The Wizard of Oz type setting, we have the man behind the curtain, lying back with his brain all connected to massive machines, operating everything. This is like a techno-fantasy world, why? It’s a fantasy. That would be a huge abuse of the human spirit to do things in that context.

by Benjamin Fahrer

Sep 9, 2006 4:55:00 PM cite

Benson Venegas: This question contains an ethical condition. Human beings not only consist of brain. It is a holistic being, an integral being who has a soul, a heart, feelings and also a mind. Thus the connection of a mind with a computer is not necessarily a situation of progress or a qualitative step forward. We would lose the holistic quality of a person. So such a kind of progress could be a step back concerning the holistic vision of the human being itself.

by Benson Venegas

Sep 9, 2006 4:55:00 PM cite

Bianca Jagger: Answertext will be available soon.

by Bianca Jagger

Sep 9, 2006 4:55:00 PM cite

Bill Joy: We already have a limited ability to connect the human brain to computers for the disabled. The ability to move a cursor on the screen using your mind. Neuroscientists are beginning to understand the way the brain works, the way the eye works and people have written that, and I think it’s certainly true that in this century we’ll have a much stronger ability to connect the human brain to machines. And this initially will be used to help the disabled, to restore sight, to restore hearing, to restore impaired functions in the brain. Clearly some day people will have the desire to augment themselves in this way. It’s not something I’m particularly interested in doing, but I don’t see a moral reason to prevent individual choice. So I think probably by the middle of the century these things will be possible. And it’ll be a bit strange. If I’m still around I’m sure I’ll consider it strange, especially if it comes earlier than that. But I think we’ll get used to it and hopefully we’ll find ways to benefit from it that don’t have too much of the “ick” factor.

by Bill Joy

Sep 9, 2006 4:55:00 PM cite

Bora Cosic: This is a wonderful and very naive question, there the young man from France is not only interested if it is possible to combine machines with human brain, but he also wishes to know when this will happen. I believe that we can await a lot in future. Everyday there are new hypotheses similar to the one saying: "Our world is just a simulation of the other world", thus in our world so much unreasonable and unreal is happening. However I prefer to look at it as a literal idea of the H.G. Wells.

by Bora Cosic

Sep 9, 2006 4:55:00 PM cite

Brian J. Weller: Okay, we can play with this question in a variety of ways. Actually, it’s already here. I mean one of the ways we connect the human brain to a computer is through our fingers, through our eyes, and so on. So, in many respects, we’re already doing that. But maybe that’s sort of a way of wriggling out of the question. I believe some time ago some IBM scientists were looking at advanced chip technology based on proteins. I think already there are many examples of where chips are actually embedded into the brain and sometimes into the skin. I believe there’s a Fellow in Warwick University in England and I believe his name is Peter Warwick. I could be wrong. Anyway, he’s a scientist who’s developed some chips that he puts into his arm. He embeds them in his arm and they respond to the nervous impulses from his sensory nerves. For example, when he’s walking towards his building, there’s a program in the chip which actually sends a signal to a computer in the building that actually opens the door before he arrives. In a very crude way, there are a number of other functions that this technology has where when he’s making decisions throughout the day he can actually record some of the emotional responses which are picked up by change in black chemistry and change in temperature. If my memory serves me correctly, he’s wife also had embedded chip and she can then pick up some of the signals that he’s experiencing in her own implant. It’s allegedly giving her some of the emotional impact of the decisions that her husband is making many, many miles away. So, yeah, a bit of a rambling response, but I’m sure it’s possible and it’s actually already happening, so yeah.

by Brian J. Weller

Sep 9, 2006 4:55:00 PM cite

Catherine David: I am not convinced that it has not already been done and very honestly I don't see the interest except to therapeutic uses. But here also it seems to me to be what I will call a bad science fiction that is to say, questions that are completely already archaeology and that bring us where it was..., I have the impression to be in the [.....] literature.

by Catherine David