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Re:Scientists implant "memories" into bird brains to teach t... by briga on Saturday October 05, 2019 @12:06PM (#21166263)
If I understand this correctly, it seems like the researchers were just stimulating vocal areas of the bird brains--which to me seems like an entirely different thing than implanting memories into the bird's brain. If you stimulate my motor cortex in a way that makes me kick my leg, it would be a little silly to say that you implanted a memory of me kicking--the memory is something that occurs after the fact. Maybe the original article makes this distinction a little clearer?
Re:Scientists implant "memories" into bird brains to teach t... by SomeOldThrow on Saturday October 05, 2019 @01:49PM (#21166886)
This seems like a reasonable definition of implanting to me—it’s east to trivialize this with “just”, but intent to implant and visible indication of implanted behavior are both in place here. What mechanism would you expect implantation to look like?
Re:Scientists implant "memories" into bird brains to teach t... by ebg13 on Saturday October 05, 2019 @06:26PM (#21168383)
> This seems like a reasonable definition of implanting

"Implanting memories" must necessarily imply "...of something that didn't happen" for the expression to not lose all value. Touching you on the arm may cause you to remember being touched on the arm, but nobody calls that "implanting a memory of being touched" instead of "touching you".

I think in this context the memory sounds more like muscle memory rather than conscious memory. So they're not lying per se, they're just not being as clear as they could be.

Re:Scientists implant "memories" into bird brains to teach t... by whycombinater on Saturday October 05, 2019 @02:50PM (#21167219)
There's an extremely large difference between tricking someone into thinking they're working for the other team by grafting on a pre-calculated memory of them being a Chinese agent for the last 20 years rather than ... making their finger move and saying that gave them a memory of their finger moving.
Re:Scientists implant "memories" into bird brains to teach t... by SomeOldThrow on Saturday October 05, 2019 @06:14PM (#21168320)
Maybe, I think it depends on your expectations.
Re:Scientists implant "memories" into bird brains to teach t... by Valmar on Saturday October 05, 2019 @12:46PM (#21166494)
The media loves their stupid clickbait. -.-