Six Paths to the Nonsurgical Future of Brain-Machine Interfaces

Re:Six Paths to the Nonsurgical Future of Brain-Machine Inte... by b_tterc_p on Tuesday May 21, 2019 @10:03AM (#19970225)

That fear feels overblown to me. This isn’t some autonomous vehicle, it’s a learned mapping of electrical signals to specific motions. I don’t see a need for over the air firmware updates. And the model can’t generalize because everyone’s brain works differently so you’ll need to retrain every single time.

Perhaps I wasn’t clear but that technology already exists and is in use. It’s much easier to do prosthetics because you can just hook it up to the nerves on former limb stub.

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Re:Six Paths to the Nonsurgical Future of Brain-Machine Inte... by whatshisface on Tuesday May 21, 2019 @12:03PM (#19971447)

>I don’t see a need for over the air firmware updates.

There isn't a need, but if the same thing happens here that happened everywhere else in the tech industry, there will be a motivation for over-the-air firmware updates. If the average person won't install adblock because they don't realize the end result of ad network tracking, why would they object to a prosthetic that records their every move? Time and time again, the public has shown that they have no practical aversion to being creeped on and abused in ways that don't immediately translate to pain or lost money.

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Re:Six Paths to the Nonsurgical Future of Brain-Machine Inte... by 0xDEFC0DE on Tuesday May 21, 2019 @10:15AM (#19970337)

I'm thinking when it becomes more widely available. Companies will inevitably try to reduce costs and that likely means firmware updates that aren't delivered by technicians (OTA or downloaded and installed by users).

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