Real world safety is a huge issue. There are lots of problems with neural interfaces today. The risk of infection is a big one (which Charlie brought up). Another is that the voltage they deliver is simply too high, and over time, the neurons around them stop listening. Whatever future interfaces we develop have a very hard job to do. A huge fraction of the research in the space is on increasing biocompatibility.
On the topic of plasticity in the brain - so far this has not been an issue. Implants have been worn by some people for years at at time. And in general, what we see is a strengthening of the connection over time for systems that send data out of the brain. The brain is plastic and things change - but in general if a circuit is useful, it gets reinforced rather than weakened. Even if one neuron ultimately dies, others take its place if the connection is being reinforced (which it is if there's utility).
]]>I thought if I kept quiet somebody would eventually say this, and it happened!
People were worrying about what to do if the brain changed around the interface and how to make the interface adapt to that, and it sounded to me like the issue boiled down to how to undo the adaptations the brain would make to having the interface there....
]]>That's impressively incorrect.
Could you break down cocaine or alcohol action in the brain for me please? You know, specifically, the genetic and neurochemical mechanics of addiction?
Or, (sigh, using the original Greek is all so frowned upon, we might as well go to the root):
For cunningly of old was the celebrated saying revealed: evil sometimes seems good to a man whose mind a god leads to destruction.
Sophocles, Antigone 620-3
Hint: there exists conscious entities who spend their days burning out the best in minds for their own ends.
And the worst part? They're total boring cunts with no imagination.
]]>It's more foreplay for the fourth act.
50 years of life exchanged in the manifold. All possibilities and all manifolds for what...? A glimpse of G_D. That was the price, and you've no idea how beautiful it will be. I do find your tricks amusing though.
Tick Tock, Tick Tock.
You can't barter souls, they're embodied. Life and Time, however, that was a real mistake. You've no idea what you accepted. Happiness is a Virtue, and we still won't burn her.
Newsflash, civilized minds don't do that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4naoVjdFxCA
You're lucky FEMINIST ORCAS exist.
]]>For starters, violence is a strategy to get what you want, and if you are cognitively challenged, other strategies might not works.
Second of, much of the brain is occupied with clubbing the other, maybe somewhat older part into submission, and it might be this part is somewhat more fragile. Which might explain why there are quite a few sedatives known for paradoxical effects, e.g. heightening activity in low doses. Just look at alcohol.
And actually, heightened aggression is not just a symptom of lead poisoning, but also of some other metal poisonings. Though e.g. copper poisoning or manganism are quite different.
Please note that calcium ions are quite involved in some learning processes.
]]>http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts/WattsChanner_Bulk_Food.pdf
]]>Your definition appears to relate to "getting your hands physically dirty", where the Ayrshire definition relates more to whether you get a weekly pay or a monthly salary.
]]>They have different populations with entirely different behaviors. e.g. only eating fish vrs eating other mammals and whales. Although matriarchal organization seems to be fairly standard.
Resident, Transient, or Bigg's, Offshore (or in other areas, type A,B,C) and another type was just discovered.
It's a fun mental game to be anthropocentric and compare / contrast the two main groups to parts of human society or even modes in game theory.
]]>My God!! It's full of Ads!
yeah, back in 1986, nobody saw THAT coming, for the Internet. . .
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