Look, I get that this is impressive and all, but as a developer, keep that shit out of my brain.
And this is not a “hurr durr China dictatorship hurr durr SeeSeePee thought control” thing, it’s an “I have no reason to think they don’t have good intentions but software, no matter how genuinely well intentioned, will NEVER be trustworthy enough for me to connect my brain to” thing. We DO NOT understand the brain nearly enough to even begin to theorise what could go wrong or what kinds of exploits could be done on it. Maybe it’s because it’s a paradigm shift that I’m not prepared for, but this sounds like absolute security hell and can only go disastrously wrong. And you can’t wipe and reinstall your brain when it does, nor does evolution tend to patch CVEs in a timely manner.
Remember that there are ingestible chemicals, a comparatively extremely crude and imprecise way of controlling the brain, that can completely destroy your mental defenses and make you do whatever the attacker wants. Imagine a direct neuron level interface with a computer that can scale infinitely beyond the processing power of the brain. Fuck that shit.
That’s fair. That’s honestly the optimal use case. But with how fast technology tends to advance I suspect this will get marketed as “everyone should get one and you’re basically Amish if you don’t” before you know it (even if China’s socialist government has regulations on how companies can market stuff, we Westerners don’t and it’s a matter of time until some Western techbro company contracts this into the next gadget people will judge you for not having.)
People already judge me for being in the tech industry and refusing to use whatever latest app/service that’s going viral because I know how easily untrusted software can fuck you over.
Assistive technology as a back door to normalizing use for able bodied people is a pretty common playbook at this point. AirPods use a ton of tech pioneered in the hearing aid, for example, and a lot of consumers were put off by them initially, but 10 years later they’ve become incredibly normalized.
So as much as I agree with you that people with paralysis are an optimal case, it’s good to be careful about allowing public perception to slowly morph over time
There are hearing aids that look identical to wireless earbuds. I sometimes wonder if people using them get judged because everyone assumes they’re talking to them with earbuds in.
We don’t understand the brain enough to control it with chips either. In the near-term the biggest danger would be a bad actor using the chip to torture people for ransom money or a hacker just bricking it. Anything more sophisticated is still scifi.
Look, I get that this is impressive and all, but as a developer, keep that shit out of my brain.
And this is not a “hurr durr China dictatorship hurr durr SeeSeePee thought control” thing, it’s an “I have no reason to think they don’t have good intentions but software, no matter how genuinely well intentioned, will NEVER be trustworthy enough for me to connect my brain to” thing. We DO NOT understand the brain nearly enough to even begin to theorise what could go wrong or what kinds of exploits could be done on it. Maybe it’s because it’s a paradigm shift that I’m not prepared for, but this sounds like absolute security hell and can only go disastrously wrong. And you can’t wipe and reinstall your brain when it does, nor does evolution tend to patch CVEs in a timely manner.
Remember that there are ingestible chemicals, a comparatively extremely crude and imprecise way of controlling the brain, that can completely destroy your mental defenses and make you do whatever the attacker wants. Imagine a direct neuron level interface with a computer that can scale infinitely beyond the processing power of the brain. Fuck that shit.
You aren’t paralyzed from the neck down
I mean if I was paralyzed I’d take my chances with the chip.
That’s fair. That’s honestly the optimal use case. But with how fast technology tends to advance I suspect this will get marketed as “everyone should get one and you’re basically Amish if you don’t” before you know it (even if China’s socialist government has regulations on how companies can market stuff, we Westerners don’t and it’s a matter of time until some Western techbro company contracts this into the next gadget people will judge you for not having.)
People already judge me for being in the tech industry and refusing to use whatever latest app/service that’s going viral because I know how easily untrusted software can fuck you over.
Assistive technology as a back door to normalizing use for able bodied people is a pretty common playbook at this point. AirPods use a ton of tech pioneered in the hearing aid, for example, and a lot of consumers were put off by them initially, but 10 years later they’ve become incredibly normalized.
So as much as I agree with you that people with paralysis are an optimal case, it’s good to be careful about allowing public perception to slowly morph over time
There are hearing aids that look identical to wireless earbuds. I sometimes wonder if people using them get judged because everyone assumes they’re talking to them with earbuds in.
Yeah, I expect it’s going to be rolled out a lot more sanely in China than it will be in the west.
We don’t understand the brain enough to control it with chips either. In the near-term the biggest danger would be a bad actor using the chip to torture people for ransom money or a hacker just bricking it. Anything more sophisticated is still scifi.
“but it could make you high dood!” - some nitrous dumbass