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The website www.iplant.euAn iPlant is a brain implant that is in principle no different from today's deep brain stimulation (DBS) implants, but which has not yet been developed for human use. The implant would electronically regulate the release of monoamines in the brain, thus giving its user increased control over his or her motivation, mood, learning and creativity. Brain implants like this have been available for non-human animals for decades: by associating rewarding brain stimulation (RBS) with specific behaviours, they have been used to motivate rats and other animals to do heavy exercise and learn new skills (see references). Electronic regulation of monoamines could similarly help people perform difficult behaviours like physical exercise, learning or research (see iPlant programming). iPlants might also offer a more dynamic alternative to pharmacological modulators of monoamines, such as stimulants and antidepressants.
We are the gamers constantly programming our experience
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Very interesting, another possible way in which humanity could soon be altered, or as the geneticist Dr. Tyrrell in 'Blade Runner' might say, 'modified'. The focus has been more on genetics in this regard to date, but as the 'deep brain stimulation' example you refer to proves, there are other ways that the human condition can be refined, nay in the future, transformed.
It has been predicted by a numer of futurists (including Jim) that early this century we will gain the power to 'seed' the human brain with nanobots. The pluses here would seem obvious, and if all went well there might be an intelligence explosion of some sort, leading us directly to a Singularity. However, what of the possible downside? I can think of two major ones:
* Huge invasions of privacy (has this process already started?)
* The possibility that we could be modified against our will, be 'hacked', so to say, that our thoughts could be influenced and altered.
RFID chips are already here, soon we should have 'bots in our bloodstreams...brave new world?
There is no spoon.
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Be careful of this... remember the Olds and Milner experiment whereby a lab rat suffered self-imposed starvation when forced to make a choice between obtaining food and water or electrical brain stimulation of the pleasure center: http://www.addictionscience.net/ASNreport01.htm
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Hmmm, another danger.... on another note, did you realise that RFID chips are now in American passports? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WLLTj8sk7A&feature=related
There is no spoon.
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I really don't think they need chips or implants to achieve some kind of behaviour change.
That would be old technology. If Dr. Nick Begich is correct then they can use simple
frequencies in the ELF range to cause a change in behaviours. They (the government labs)
have been using energy waves in a varitiy of formats as non-lethal modification tools.
I remember hearing a story about an embedded reporter in the Iraq war that noticed, then
googled, a device the milatary was using as some kind of acoustic hetrodyne to cause
aggitation or anxiety in the enemy combatants. This wireless and chipless technology is
where the money has been spent in R&D.
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