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Category: neuroscience

Consciousness isn’t something scientists like to talk about much. You can’t see it, you can’t touch it, and despite the best efforts of certain researchers, you can’t quantify it. And in science, if you can’t measure something, you’re going to have a tough time explaining it.

But consciousness exists, and it’s one of the most fundamental aspects of what makes us human. And just like dark matter and dark energy have been used to fill some otherwise gaping holes in the standard model of physics, researchers have also proposed that it’s possible to consider consciousness as a new state of matter.

To be clear, this is just a hypothesis, and one to be taken with a huge grain of salt, because we’re squarely in the realm of the hypothetical here, and there’s plenty of room for holes to be poked.

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As you relax and let your mind drift aimlessly, you might remember a pleasant vacation, an angry confrontation in traffic or maybe the loss of a loved one.

And now a team of researchers at Duke University say they can see those various emotional states flickering across the human brain.

“It’s getting to be a bit like mind-reading,” said Kevin LaBar, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke. “Earlier studies have shown that functional MRI can identify whether a person is thinking about a face or a house. Our study is the first to show that specific emotions like fear and anger can be decoded from these scans as well.”

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New Stanford tech enables typing directly from brain signals.

How many monkeys does it take to type a passage of Shakespeare? One monkey, equipped with brain-sensing technology.

Developed by scientists at Stanford University, the technology can directly read brain signals to drive a cursor moving over a keyboard. In an experiment with monkeys, the primates were able to transcribe passages from Hamlet and The New York Times at a rate of 12 words per minute. Earlier versions of the technology were successfully tested in people with paralysis, but the typing was slow and imprecise.

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Nice.

Researchers have developed a new technology that can help read brain signals directly and may also aid people with movement disabilities to better communicate their thoughts and emotions. The technology involves a multi-electrode array implanted in the brain to directly read signals from a region that ordinarily directs hand and arm movements used, for example, to move a computer mouse.

The algorithms translate those signals and help to make letter selections.

“Our results demonstrate that this interface may have great promise for use in people as it enables a typing rate sufficient for a meaningful conversation,” said Paul Nuyujukian, postdoctoral student at Stanford University in California, US.

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This is not that far fetch especially when we have seen DARPA’s efforts around BMI, the nanobot technology being experimented on to enable BMI, stent technology as well that is being looked at for BMI, etc. which all leads us into the concept of superhumans.

“Humans are so slow” says Elon Musk, so let’s become AI-human symbiotes instead.

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Very true points that many have been raising with CRISPR, Synthetic Biology, BMI, and humanoid technology. I am glad to see this article on ethics and standards because it really needs to be discussed and implemented.

New brain technologies will increasingly have the potential to alter how someone thinks, feels, behaves and even perceives themselves.

By Nicholas West

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Sharing for all my Neuro science friends and techie friends — Sept 29th is the Inaugural Cornell Neurotech Mong Family Foundation Symposium. Some of Cornell’s top award winning neuro scientists will be presenting.

Interested in learning how the brain works?

Some of Cornell’s best scientists studying the brain will gather Sept. 29 for the Inaugural Cornell Neurotech Mong Family Foundation Symposium. The symposium features three alumni winners of the 2015 Brain Prize – Winfried Denk, Ph.D. ’89, Karel Svoboda ’88 and David Tank, M.S. ’80, Ph.D. ’83 – as well as award-winning Cornell faculty who will share how they are exploring the brain using the most modern, innovative technologies.

Talks begin at 10 a.m. in Room G10 Biotechnology and conclude at 5 p.m. with a public reception. The symposium is free and the public is invited.

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So, here is the real question we in the US should start raising is how does all of this look for the US to its allies, frienemies, etc. with US filling the headlines with statements like this one. No wonders allies and others are expanding their partnerships with Russia.

WASHINGTON (AP) — CIA Director John Brennan warned on Sunday that Russia has “exceptionally capable and sophisticated” computer capabilities and that the U.S. must be on guard.

When asked in a television interview whether Russia is trying to manipulate the American presidential election, Brennan didn’t say. But he noted that the FBI is investigating the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails, and he cited Moscow’s aggressive intelligence collection and its focus on high-tech snooping.

“I think that we have to be very, very wary of what the Russians might be trying to do in terms of collecting information in a cyber realm, as well as what they might want to do with it,” he told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

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A new report asserts that, by 2025, jobs from the customer service, trucking, and taxi industries will be taken over by cognitive technologies. Yet, we will begin to truly feel the impact of this in just 5 years.

A report that was released by Forrester last month predicts that cognitive technologies will take over some 7% of jobs in the United States in less than a decade (by 2025). Notably, the report asserts that the trend will make itself felt five years from now.

“By 2021, a disruptive tidal wave will begin. Solutions powered by AI/cognitive technology will displace jobs, with the biggest impact felt in transportation, logistics, customer service, and consumer services,” says Forrester VP Brian Hopkins. Forrester estimates around 6% of jobs will be eliminated by as early as 2021.

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