What If We Could Save Your Brain In the Future - What Would You Put It In, A Space Ship?

It seems scientists are getting somewhat close to being able to preserve a human brain, perhaps the first brain transplant may occur within the next several decades? But perhaps this won't be common, so many complications, ethical issues, and challenges of putting one brain into a different body. But if your own body is caput and your brain is fine, well that's just a real shame to waste a perfectly good brain if we don't have too, and I am certain that individual doesn't want to check out early due to a failing body, an accident, or some other challenge.

Now then if we can save the brain, what should we put it in? Providing of course that the brain can psychologically adapt to having lost its host, let's assume it can, humans seem to be able to adapt to all sorts of things right? Should we just download the brain and put that information and consciousness in the cloud - that would be like a digital heaven in a way I guess? Or should we put it into an incasing to protect it, and to give it mobility? How about mounting it into an exoskeleton-like android robot? We could do that too.

If the brain doesn't have the body to deal with, which is the weak link for so many things, then it could be mounted in a deep see submersible, on a UAV, or perhaps enclosed in a special case in a space ship thus, able to travel the galaxy? Maybe we could mount it inside a little unit low to the ground, something similar to a Romba with a docking port, the brain simple goes back to its docking port folds up the legs or wheels, or four-VTOL-rotorblade system and parks itself at the docking station. In this case it could be sent on the space ship and thus attached to the ship when docked?

Of course it might need an escape pod system in case the space ship crashes. The old fighter bomber aircraft, the F-111 had a neat escape pod system. We could make something like that only much smaller of course, as in a three-foot long system, with folding legs or wheels once it landed on the surface of something?

A couple of years ago I was discussing all this with an overseas acquaintance, and he mentioned that the human brain would need stimulus and desire to have something like its "traditional organic sensors" so that it could interact with its environment, and this would go a long way to helping it maintain a positive psychological displacement. If it was controlling a space ship, you wouldn't want it to get any Jihadist type ideas right?

Yes, huge issue, but before we start hiring a bunch of neuropsychologists to start speculating for some super salaries, let's remember they don't know the answers to these questions, and although I completely agree with you, we just don't know yet. The Chimpanzees seem to adapt when researchers have cut into their skulls and wired them up, although they probably aren't too happy about it, still they adapt.

A human while alive may apt for a new extended life within a space ship, just so it wouldn't die, remember self-preservation is a huge need, just as Maslow. Further, the volunteer for such a mission has to accept these challenges in the name of science. People have volunteered for all sorts of things in the past, for science, so you'd be surprised. Well, I hope you've enjoyed today's topic and future concepts dialogue? Please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

Is The Animal Brain Capable Of Thinking?

In the scientific study of language and thinking, humans have always been the focus point of the attention, but where do animals fit in the scheme of things? Research on animals shows us that animals are often more intelligent than we realize; a baboon is able to recognize everyone's voice within its 70-member troop. Sheep are able to memorize and recognize specific faces. Brain research has even shown that great apes and monkeys are able to form mental concepts. An illustration of this is when monkeys categorize dogs and cats; specific areas in the frontal lobes of their brains fire differently in response to doglike images than to catlike images.

Humans are also not the only ones to display insights (that sudden 'aha' moment). In a cleverly designed experiment, researchers showed that a chimpanzee was capable of creative thinking. The researchers placed a piece of delicious watermelon and a long stick beyond the reach of the monkey, but a short stick was place in the cage with the chimpanzee. After trying to reach for the fruit with the short stick, the monkey, after carefully analyzing the situation, jumped up and used the short stick to reach for the long stick, which he then used to obtain the piece of juicy fruit.

Animals thus exhibit remarkable hidden capacities. They form concepts, and display insights and creative thinking. Greater primates, elephants and dolphins have even demonstrated self-awareness by cleverly recognizing themselves in a mirror. However, do they also exhibit one of our most precious concepts, language?

It can definitely not be doubted that animals communicate in several different ways. These ways can be rather complex; certain monkey species have different alarm sounds related to a specific type of predator; a barking sound for a tiger and a coughing sound for a snake. Honeybees on the other hand, perform a dance that instructs other bees on the distance and direction of a food source. Or think of a dog's amazing capacity to understand human instructions! Record-holder is a bolder collie that has learned to fetch 200 different items by name.

None of this can really be categorized as language though, but nonetheless chimpanzees have challenged humanities claim to be the only language using species by showing the capacity to learn sign language, as was shown by a team of researchers. The capacity of chimps for sign-language is limited though and equals the simple vocabulary of a 2 year-old. Many researchers are skeptical when it comes to the language capacities of monkeys. Some of the concerns exhibited by researchers include:

Monkeys only obtain their very limited vocabularies with great difficultyMonkeys' signing might be nothing more than learning that certain arm movements result in a nice rewardInterpreting monkeys' signs as language might be nothing more than the trainer's wishful thinking.

Regardless, it has definitely been shown effectively that animals are more than living robots without any moral rights. Research has empirically shown that animals have the ability to express insight, altruism and complex communication concepts. Translating these findings into moral implications is work for the future.

In order to get the most of out life, you have to get the most out of your brain. Nowadays, this is becoming more and more feasible though the use of nootropics and cognitive enhancers!

The author writes about various topics related to the brain and cognition. On his blog, the concept of brain science and cognitive optimization is discussed in many different ways.

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The Future of Computational Chip - Human Brain Interfaces Considered

The other day someone contacted me from overseas, doing research on human brain, specifically computer interfaces. The Professor of Neurobiology was doing a research paper and indicated to me that; "it is possible for a computer/human interface device in the future." Now then, yes, well, I would agree with what he is saying actually, lots of future implications in all of this.

It appears to me that tapping into the neural network and adding in a computational chip to convert brain signals to ones and zeros is feasible for thought-swapping. And of course, add-on memory such as a PhD in physics, mathematics, and engineering on a chip and connected to the Internet allowing a human being to appear to be all-knowing like IBMs Watson. The applications are endless, not only for controlling cars, aircraft, equipment, wheel chairs, appliances, computers, but for human interaction "Arthur C Clarke 3001 'space cap' style" as well.

One thing that should be considered is the challenges with the future of "brain hacking" and mind control, although humans these days seem to be pretty good at that without this technology today. Nano-tech and Moore's Law will assist in creating nodes and motes which will find locations to lodge themselves to read and interpret and interface, even deliver nutrients and weed out bio-threats to the brain which have slipped by the blood brain barrier.

There is so much science in all of this from so many different places all converging as we speak. So, I told my acquaintance that; "I have so many thoughts on all of this, I hardly know where to begin our dialogs. But perhaps, you'd like to lead off on a specific topic and we can dance around that subject and come up with something brilliant for your thesis, something that could be a future breakthrough in this niche of scientific endeavor?"

Just to give you an idea of how fast all this is moving forward; there was an interesting article in the science news recently where a researcher at Cal Tech had created a device, a neural network made from DNA, the article appeared in SpaceDaily, and referred to a paper that just appeared in Nature. The SpaceDaily article was titled; "Caltech Researchers Create the First Artificial Neural Network Out of DNA," by Staff Writers in Pasadena, CA (SPX) and appeared on Jul 27, 2011. You really should go look up that article if this topic interests you.

The article stated; "This is a major step toward creating artificial intelligence-not in a robot or a silicon chip, but in a test tube. Although brainlike behaviors within artificial biochemical systems have been hypothesized for decades, they appeared to be very difficult to realize." And, yet, they are almost there, at least proving concept that is. It is only a matter of time now.

Now then, back the point I was making, this is another of many incremental steps forward, pushing the bounds of possibility. That future is coming, and that's what I'd like you to please consider and think on.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes writing 24,300 articles will be difficult because all the letters on his keyboard are now worn off now.

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Carbon NanoTubes Implanted for Brain Computer Interfaces - Human Biosystem Health and Safety

The other day, I was talking to a neuroscientist from another country. We were discussing the potential for computational devices to achieve workable computer brain interfaces. One of the concepts I had come up with previously, and had written an article on was the placement of small carbon-nanotube devices to be used as nodes and motes to help in the future communication process of thought swapping. My acquaintance was worried that these carbon-nanotubes implanted in the brain could cause cancerous tumors, and he was worried about medical issues along that line of thinking.

Yes, the issue with carbon nano-tubes could be a problem but perhaps for another reason, when carbon molecules of this type come into contact with blood, it slowly dissolves them. This should not surprise us, as humans are made of carbon of course, amongst other things like water. We could coat these molecules or add various atoms making them totally inert and thus not have to deal with it.

One challenge might be in adding energy to these micro-molecular structures, as it is very important not to fry or destroy the organic coatings on the neurons or fatty coatings on the axons. That should concern us as we press forward.

Also using very minutely focused energy we may be able to cause the brain to protect itself increasing those coating layers, thus holding energy from escaping, which would make our nano-devices used as motes and nodes work harder to read the sequence firing as a thought comes through, but strengthen the brain and make it more energy efficient. If the carbon-nanotubes do not interact with the fatty coatings or brain cells, and the brain doesn't go in there to attack them, which is also a problem, because the brain "will" protect itself, it's extremely good at that - then we should be okay.

The brain is somewhat sensitive and must be protected as we know from concussion, shock, and yes, cell phones running on microwave frequencies. For instance, we note that some religious folks bow and pray many times per day, each time they are rocking back and forth their brains hit the inside of their skull sending a shock wave back and forth, that works good for cross brain memory imprintation, but they are also damaging their brains while they do this. Those who seem the most devout may actually pray more and thus, have the worst cases of brain damage, perhaps even red marks or bleed through on their foreheads, much worse than anything a cell phone could ever do to the brain up close like that at let's say 3-5 watts, luckily the cell phones are less than that now.

Anyway, back to my point above, if these carbon based pieces were coated properly, and very small finding their way into their proper position as a 3D grid format, they could be very low-power and work in a similar way, each individual would first need to have their brain mapped, so that the system would know the types of thoughts it is reading.

Perhaps, I should be more concerned with the damage to the human brain while testing future prototypes, however, with 7 billion people on the planet, I'm just not all that worried about it, especially if we can test to see that no damage is being done, and simply recall those little devices from the brain if things are not working out. I have no problem experimenting on live humans, chimpanzees, or anything else, not concerned in the least, because we can end such experiments immediately and retrieve the devices if need be. The benefits for all mankind would be astronomical, give unlimited brain life spans, etc.

Okay so, back to the issue of carbon molecules in the brain and the need for oxygenation, well we could use these devices to help the brain better deliver oxygen to the brain as well perhaps, offsetting these molecules trying to rob oxygen from the brain. In any case, if you have had similar thoughts along this line of thinking, and would like to join the discussion, then please shoot me an e-mail at your earliest convenience and please consider all this, and think on it. What are your thoughts?

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes writing 24,300 articles will be difficult because all the letters on his keyboard are now worn off now..

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