This doesn’t directly fight the hard problem, but it could make it easier: what do you think of putting massive effort into developing BCIs, and then using them to link the brains of people working on the problem together so that they could share understanding or even merge as a single superintelligence able to work on the problem more effectively? Obviously there’s a tremendous amount of unknowns about how that would work, but I think it’s plausible, and although Neuralink is taking its time, Openwater’s planned wearable BCI could get there faster if they are motivated and funded appropriately. I need to make a whole post about this concept, since it’s kind of my main interest, but I just wanted to see what you thought about it first.
I don’t think this works. Deep cognition seems like it’s strongly limited by the transfer rate of the interconnect between the cognitive elements involved, and current BCI is very far from approaching the information transfer rate within the brain.
Well, I have had the idea that it ought to be possible to wire human brains together to make a higher intelligence or at least transfer ideas directly for a long time, but I have never actually learned enough about neuroscience or engineering to have any idea how. I am trying to rectify the former, but I will likely never be an engineer—it’s just not fitting for my mind structure. As for Openwater however:
Essentially they are working on technology which can use red and infrared light together with holography to scan the interior of the human body at high resolution. Currently the resolution is already enough to possibly revolutionize cancer diagnosis. The ultimate goal is to be able to image the brain at the level of individual neurons, and they claim, though I don’t perfectly understand the physics of it, that they should end up able to use, I think ultrasound? to influence neurons as well. I forget the details on that front.
For some reason I never hear about this company but what they are doing is amazing and innovative. I’d also suggest you check out their TED talk, which gives a good overview of the idea behind the technology.
I did study this idea for several years as one of my main focuses in grad school for neuroscience. I eventually decided it wasn’t feasible within the timeframe we’re talking about for AGI. I’d guess that if AGI progress were magically halted, we might get to BCI efficacy sufficient to be highly useful in something like 50-80 years.
This doesn’t directly fight the hard problem, but it could make it easier: what do you think of putting massive effort into developing BCIs, and then using them to link the brains of people working on the problem together so that they could share understanding or even merge as a single superintelligence able to work on the problem more effectively? Obviously there’s a tremendous amount of unknowns about how that would work, but I think it’s plausible, and although Neuralink is taking its time, Openwater’s planned wearable BCI could get there faster if they are motivated and funded appropriately. I need to make a whole post about this concept, since it’s kind of my main interest, but I just wanted to see what you thought about it first.
I don’t think this works. Deep cognition seems like it’s strongly limited by the transfer rate of the interconnect between the cognitive elements involved, and current BCI is very far from approaching the information transfer rate within the brain.
Yeah, that’s the main concern. I don’t know enough about this to know how plausible it is, but it feels like something worth looking into anyway.
Well, I have had the idea that it ought to be possible to wire human brains together to make a higher intelligence or at least transfer ideas directly for a long time, but I have never actually learned enough about neuroscience or engineering to have any idea how. I am trying to rectify the former, but I will likely never be an engineer—it’s just not fitting for my mind structure. As for Openwater however:
https://www.openwater.cc/technology
Essentially they are working on technology which can use red and infrared light together with holography to scan the interior of the human body at high resolution. Currently the resolution is already enough to possibly revolutionize cancer diagnosis. The ultimate goal is to be able to image the brain at the level of individual neurons, and they claim, though I don’t perfectly understand the physics of it, that they should end up able to use, I think ultrasound? to influence neurons as well. I forget the details on that front.
For some reason I never hear about this company but what they are doing is amazing and innovative. I’d also suggest you check out their TED talk, which gives a good overview of the idea behind the technology.
I did study this idea for several years as one of my main focuses in grad school for neuroscience. I eventually decided it wasn’t feasible within the timeframe we’re talking about for AGI. I’d guess that if AGI progress were magically halted, we might get to BCI efficacy sufficient to be highly useful in something like 50-80 years.