Neural implants

[Bill buffalo]

If neural implants became fully legalized and available to the mass public would people use them?

[DeathAngel]

The decision to use neural implants (if they become available) is a personal one. While they may offer potential benefits such as enhanced cognitive abilities or improved physical capabilities, people should carefully consider the ethical, privacy & long term implications. It is important to weigh the potential advantages against the potential risks & ensure that the use of neural implants aligns with personal values & goals. The choice to use neural implants should be made with thorough research, consultation with experts & a consideration of the potential impact on one's physical & mental well being.

[Bill buffalo]

I agree but if everyone started using the implants don't you think people who don't necessarily want to use them would be forced to get them to be able to keep up with the next evolution of humans

[DeathAngel]

I agree but if everyone started using the implants don't you think people who don't necessarily want to use them would be forced to get them to be able to keep up with the next evolution of humans

I guess there will always be some kind of pressure to follow the herd & conform to what others do. I won’t be using them, certainly not until a significant time has passed & I can pass judgement on how sate they are.

[Bill buffalo]

As for me I would quickly get one I have Alzheimer's and it's been slowly getting worse am starting to forget things I normally shouldn't I woke up last week and forgot who my wife was and sometimes I look at my child and wonder who he is I do believe with the implants there is little hope otherwise it looks really bleak I may soon even forget I started this topic lol.

[legiteum]

Millions of people already use other kinds of implants for medicine (e.g. insulin pumps) and for hearing augmentation. 30 years ago most people would find the use of these devices dangerous or strange, and now they mostly don't even get a second look.

All of the arguments against neural implants today are in principle the same ones they would have had for other implants when they first appeared: they are potentially dangerous, they can have very bad outcomes in trauma situations (e.g. you get unplugged forcibly etc.), the technology is libel to have bugs associated with it that can cause bad things to happen. All of these concerns were valid for the previous generation of human implants, and they will be true for the next generation too.

Neural implants will probably take even longer to become mainstream as I suspect the risks are even higher.

Eventually, however, I think neural implants will become mainstream, first for specific medical conditions, but eventually for everyday use e.g. replacing keyboards and monitors. This is going to take a long time because the testing on this will have to be done very carefully (and people will, correctly, be very afraid of new technology that is so potentially dangerous), but it's going to happen eventually.

[jrrsparkles]

If neural implants became fully legalized and available to the mass public would people use them?

It's been in the research for over 50 years and in recent years there has been some developments that could eliminate the potential negatives but still, we are too far away from use by the public and it could take at least a decade now and one more for it to become a normal thing. It can be good to improve the sensory activities most likely vision so we could have less people who can't see.

[Hispo]

I agree but if everyone started using the implants don't you think people who don't necessarily want to use them would be forced to get them to be able to keep up with the next evolution of humans

I guess there will always be some kind of pressure to follow the herd & conform to what others do. I won’t be using them, certainly not until a significant time has passed & I can pass judgement on how sate they are.

People will eventually use them, I think. If they prove to be a tool which makes life easier, like paying for good and services using one's mind or allowing to wireless communicate with others who also have neural implants, then it would be matter of time before people move onto it. Assuming they do not mind to have their head open with a small incision.
In the end, that is the main purpose of technology, in my opinion, to try to make our life as comfortable as possible and get things done with the less amount of work invested.

If you asked me, I would personally not use it, it would feel too crept out because  of the possible control a private company or government could have over my thoughts. If the future gets too authoritarian it could even be used as an device to imprison people for the sole fact of thinking something which they were not supposed to. No thank you, I am already crept out over how smart-phones currently function and gather information about us, I do not need more of it.

[btc78]

i know for sure that this will be quite a controversy since we are dealing with the brain most people would not be able to grasp the idea completely i know for a fact that a lot of people would take this as the government controlling your brain or them making a robot out of a human person

people who have watched Black Mirror would definitely get scared with the idea of inserting a device inside your brain

on the other hand, evolution is inevitable and it is something we should be accepting lest we fall behind

it’s very important to highlight the purpose of neural implants and if one person does not particularly have a disease to be treated then they probably don’t need to use it

[Ucy]

Such things are for gamblers, people who need it to survive more dangerous conditions or people who have nothing to lose. The brain/head is too sensitive of a place to allow in foreign objects.
Besides, not a good idea to trust things made by people who can't be trusted getting installed inside one of the most sensitive part of your body

[bluebit25]

Such things are for gamblers, people who need it to survive more dangerous conditions or people who have nothing to lose. The brain/head is too sensitive of a place to allow in foreign objects.
Besides, not a good idea to trust things made by people who can't be trusted getting installed inside one of the most sensitive part of your body

First of all, do you really understand the applications this thing can have, and furthermore it is still in the research stages and not ready for commercial use. I have also seen solutions that support human health in terms of opportunities to treat some physical diseases that are controlled by the nervous system.

So in a good faith way in product development, let's expand our thinking more by learning, don't just judge personally because it's very ignorant, we test more and more things that society considers it madness and limits knowledge. But it is also true that some products bring risks when human morality declines against the development of science and technology, things that people consider need to be logical and even conservative in how they are used only for personal purposes will not last long.

[jvanname]

When neural implants become legal, a lot of people will get them and die from them.

-Joseph Van Name Ph.D.

[legiteum]

When neural implants become legal, a lot of people will get them and die from them.

-Joseph Van Name Ph.D.

That's a lot like what I said in my comment as well, but maybe in a more hopeful way  . Advances in medical technology often comes with harm or death, and it's justified because it's curing a serious ailment.

Then, after years of testing on medical patients, people will be able to buy them for recreational purposes, and probably create a bunch of new problems and hurt themselves. And then they will make them safer, and so on.

[Kelward]

I agree but if everyone started using the implants don't you think people who don't necessarily want to use them would be forced to get them to be able to keep up with the next evolution of humans

I guess there will always be some kind of pressure to follow the herd & conform to what others do. I won’t be using them, certainly not until a significant time has passed & I can pass judgement on how sate they are.

If you asked me, I would personally not use it, it would feel too crept out because  of the possible control a private company or government could have over my thoughts. If the future gets too authoritarian it could even be used as an device to imprison people for the sole fact of thinking something which they were not supposed to. No thank you, I am already crept out over how smart-phones currently function and gather information about us, I do not need more of it.

I'm certainly with you on this, I will not like to complicate myself with a technology that we don't know what it's implications will be in the future, hopefully I grow old in sound health, I'll not be needing to experiment my mind with something that an external control can use manipulate me. Neural implants can be useful for people who have serious and life threatening medical conditions, where their only chance of survival is having an implant, it think that it should only be used for such cases.

I sympathize with OP that said that he sometimes experience memory lose, I hope it doesn't degenerate to the level of needing neural implant, but if that's what it'll to retain your memory, then there's no choice but to go for it. Although I'll advise him to carry out a thorough research before considering it as an option, because I just don't have a good feeling about it.

[jvanname]

When neural implants become legal, a lot of people will get them and die from them.

-Joseph Van Name Ph.D.

That's a lot like what I said in my comment as well, but maybe in a more hopeful way  . Advances in medical technology often comes with harm or death, and it's justified because it's curing a serious ailment.

Then, after years of testing on medical patients, people will be able to buy them for recreational purposes, and probably create a bunch of new problems and hurt themselves. And then they will make them safer, and so on.

-Well, it will certainly make humanity safer by removing people with dangerous genes from the gene pool. We need people with genes that make them act safer. Hopefully they all get their Darwin awards.

-Joseph Van Name Ph.D.

[Hispo]

I'm certainly with you on this, I will not like to complicate myself with a technology that we don't know what it's implications will be in the future, hopefully I grow old in sound health, I'll not be needing to experiment my mind with something that an external control can use manipulate me. Neural implants can be useful for people who have serious and life threatening medical conditions, where their only chance of survival is having an implant, it think that it should only be used for such cases.

I sympathize with OP that said that he sometimes experience memory lose, I hope it doesn't degenerate to the level of needing neural implant, but if that's what it'll to retain your memory, then there's no choice but to go for it. Although I'll advise him to carry out a thorough research before considering it as an option, because I just don't have a good feeling about it.

Though, obviously those implants could have some beneficial effects for people who suffer from some issues with their brains. When I saw this thread I mostly though of those implants in the context of their use for commercial purposes, in order to enhance the capabilities of human beings to interact with machines: controlling computers though our mind, using our mind as a interface, things like that.

To be honest, as time passes and the barrier between human being and machines get thinner and thinner; it only becomes creepier when we think about the possibilities the people in power and behind those companies could have other the things we do.
Let us imagine some some chip became very spread. What could guarantee us someone in the company would not use them to kill someone in a very stealthy manner? like shutting down their limbs using the implant while the person is driving, so it would seem they suffered an accident?
One of the worst case scenarios of abuse of power and technology.

[darkangel11]

This is a very difficult choice. I'd be afraid to use them if they were only for enhancements and I'd carefully compare the pros and cons of each of them.
Let's imagine that I'd be able to get one that would allow me to learn faster, or suppress pain - that's easy, I wouldn't do it. But if it was a different situation like me being sick (for example losing sight, or having seizures) and getting an implant could cure me, I'd do it.
I wouldn't want to turn myself into a cyborg and be a lab rat for the sake of running faster or remembering more things, but as a medicine, I'd do it. I think that most people would choose an implant over a wheelchair or something like that.

[Bill buffalo]

What if it could give you unlimited access to knowledge and ability to speak multiple languages if you want to understand what I mean watch upgrade(2018) it's a sci-fi movie it shows the potential of such a tech.

[o48o]

What if it could give you unlimited access to knowledge and ability to speak multiple languages if you want to understand what I mean watch upgrade(2018) it's a sci-fi movie it shows the potential of such a tech.

This is science fiction and nothing to do with neural implants they are developing. But without any risk,most people would totally take them if they could afford it. If they ever existed that is.

If neural implants became fully legalized and available to the mass public would people use them?

That's a vague and broad question. For what?

I think that people would approve them if i had a terminal illness or degenerative disease? Most likely they would be up for any experimental treatment. But there are companies that are more shady then others and i would probably die in peace then have a product from a company with a CEO who desperately wants to ignore regulations.

And in the future, when these would be available, "fully legalized" could mean few different things depending on the future we are headed on, what regions is it approved in and what instance it is approved by.

But let's say they are approved by every regulatory section across the world the world. They most likely have relatively pretty high change to cause complications and some brains would be rejecting them. Then it would be up to the disability they would be installed for. I am guessing people with ADHD wouldn't want them, or some people with schizophrenia. But people with spinal cord injury, amputees wanting robot limbs would definitely consider them if they absolutely needed one. But i am guessing it's not going to be cyberpunk world rules, where people get them for better reaction time, better memory and augmented reality vision. Even though those would be cool. They would just not be not worth the risks.

[HunterBTC]

new discussion, what if this is done to prevent premature aging.  As the primary function of everything in the nerves.  Maybe this will be a boost to something that is health at its main point.