Technology can now enable paralyzed patients who suffered spinal cord injury to control computer through small sensors implanted in the brain of patients. "If your brain can do it, we can tap into it,” said John P. Donoghue. The benefit of this type of technology is that it allows people who suffered severe medical misfortunes to who are unable to move any of their limps are now able to control computers and interact with people that was not possible before. Imagine you suffered a spinal cord injury that rendered you paralyzed, how can you google something if you can't type on a keyboard? The answer is you can't. However, with the development of sensors that can be implanted into brains, you can control controls through thoughts alone. There is a dark side to this form of technology though, if anyone can implant a sensor into their brain and can control a computer, especially with so many things digitized today, how are we suppose to not go beyond our moral compass and do things that are not deemed justifiable with today's norm. I think the age of keyboard are slowly dying, much easier method of input such as Siri, google voice message are becoming easier to operate and more efficient since it doesn't require any tying. My vision for the future of social networking is in 50 years we would use my brain to control any digitized equipment.
"Paralyzed Man Uses Thoughts to Move a Cursor" by Andrew Pollack, New York Times, Science, July 13, 2006.
"The Rough-and-Tumble Online Universe Traversed by Young Cybernauts." The New York Times, Jan 22, 2008, p. E1.
Hey Jiarong,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Its amazing how far technology has come that paralyzed individuals can even use the internet now. This is amazing especially for the relatives and friends of the paralyzed person. With this technology, people can now actually talk to the disabled person and actually have normal conversations this way. I am sure that this technology has helped many people and will continue to do so. It would be pretty cool to be able to control any digitized equipment with our brains in the future but at the same time it would be a little scary.