By Rushan Ziatdinov
Michio Kaku is an American theoretical physicist, futurist and popularizer of science (science communicator). He is best known for his research on string theory and for the bestselling books, "The God Equation," "Physics of the Impossible," and "The Future of the Mind." Kaku has also been the host of radio programs and television specials on prominent media channels, including the BBC, Discovery Channel, History Channel and the Science Channel.
Furthermore, he features in many videos on the Big Think YouTube channel. A professor of theoretical physics at the City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center, Kaku takes advantage of social media as a platform to introduce the complexities and profundities of physics to a varying virtual audience in an entertaining and digestible manner.
"The Future of the Mind," published in 2014, became a New York Times bestseller in the same year. In it, Kaku dives into the continuously expanding neuroscience field. In a 2014 NBC News article, the book was described as something that is far from what a string theorist would supposedly write about, but because of his writing style that tends towards science fiction, it somehow works. In an interview with Alan Boyle of NBC News, Kaku expresses his childhood fascination with the brain and the mind, particularly the concepts of telepathy and telekinesis, which he later considered to be improbable.
Yet because of his professional standing in the field of physics, he has the means to make exploration of the mind go from being an idea to being a possibility. More importantly, he writes about the BrainNet replacing the internet, wherein memories, sensations, and emotions will be shared and traded. According to the NBC News article, in 2013, for the first time in history, a memory was recorded in a mouse. The short-term goal was to create a brain pacemaker for Alzheimer's patients that would allow them to push a button, which would help them recognize their own self and place of residence, as told in an interview by Kaku himself.
As explained in a 2019 article in Interesting Engineering, BrainNet is the first non-invasive brain-to-brain interface. It functions through a combination of electroencephalography (EEG), which documents brain signals, with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which is responsible for relaying information non-invasively to the brain.
Essentially, BrainNet allows individuals to collaborate and solve problems using only brain-to-brain communication. Interesting Engineering reported on a completed study in which two volunteers acted as senders, reading brain signals in real time using EEG data analysis as the basis for their decision to rotate a block in a Tetris-like game.
On the other hand, despite the benefits and potential that BrainNet possesses, it also poses some risks towards individuals. In Flores' 2018 research published in International Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Journal, BrainNet presents a danger to a person's privacy and safety, with previous studies showing how such a technological innovation can be used to get information about one's private life, including the audiovisual material connected to it, theft of intellectual material, brain algorithms, legal data, unlawful and non-consensual confession of secrets, website credentials, and other information that should otherwise be left private. It is a given that BrainNet works through an actual brain-to-brain process, which means it can be used for mind control, the violation of privacy, crimes of different kinds, terrorism and cyberwar.
In a 2019 study conducted by Jiang et al. and published in Scientific Reports, BrainNet was further explored. It was the first study to come up with a comprehensive depiction of a non-invasive brain-to-brain interaction in terms of accomplishing a task. The study's findings in relation to combining information from different users were patterned from primary studies concerned with brain-computer interfaces, which connect the individual contributions of two or more brains that manage a computer. The study provided concrete evidence showing the awareness that each and every participant had in relation to the task at hand, and the collaboration with other participants through their brains.
BrainNet holds significant potential in the near future, and in the current technology-driven times it deserves serious consideration, despite potential threats to people's privacy and the possibility of espionage. Of course, BrainNet would still need to undergo much ethical testing and certification, which would result in its advantages outweighing its corresponding risks and threats.
Rushan Ziatdinov (ziatdinov.rushan@gmail.com) is a professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Keimyung University, Daegu.
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Furthermore, he features in many videos on the Big Think YouTube channel. A professor of theoretical physics at the City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center, Kaku takes advantage of social media as a platform to introduce the complexities and profundities of physics to a varying virtual audience in an entertaining and digestible manner.
"The Future of the Mind," published in 2014, became a New York Times bestseller in the same year. In it, Kaku dives into the continuously expanding neuroscience field. In a 2014 NBC News article, the book was described as something that is far from what a string theorist would supposedly write about, but because of his writing style that tends towards science fiction, it somehow works. In an interview with Alan Boyle of NBC News, Kaku expresses his childhood fascination with the brain and the mind, particularly the concepts of telepathy and telekinesis, which he later considered to be improbable.
Yet because of his professional standing in the field of physics, he has the means to make exploration of the mind go from being an idea to being a possibility. More importantly, he writes about the BrainNet replacing the internet, wherein memories, sensations, and emotions will be shared and traded. According to the NBC News article, in 2013, for the first time in history, a memory was recorded in a mouse. The short-term goal was to create a brain pacemaker for Alzheimer's patients that would allow them to push a button, which would help them recognize their own self and place of residence, as told in an interview by Kaku himself.
As explained in a 2019 article in Interesting Engineering, BrainNet is the first non-invasive brain-to-brain interface. It functions through a combination of electroencephalography (EEG), which documents brain signals, with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which is responsible for relaying information non-invasively to the brain.
Essentially, BrainNet allows individuals to collaborate and solve problems using only brain-to-brain communication. Interesting Engineering reported on a completed study in which two volunteers acted as senders, reading brain signals in real time using EEG data analysis as the basis for their decision to rotate a block in a Tetris-like game.
On the other hand, despite the benefits and potential that BrainNet possesses, it also poses some risks towards individuals. In Flores' 2018 research published in International Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Journal, BrainNet presents a danger to a person's privacy and safety, with previous studies showing how such a technological innovation can be used to get information about one's private life, including the audiovisual material connected to it, theft of intellectual material, brain algorithms, legal data, unlawful and non-consensual confession of secrets, website credentials, and other information that should otherwise be left private. It is a given that BrainNet works through an actual brain-to-brain process, which means it can be used for mind control, the violation of privacy, crimes of different kinds, terrorism and cyberwar.
In a 2019 study conducted by Jiang et al. and published in Scientific Reports, BrainNet was further explored. It was the first study to come up with a comprehensive depiction of a non-invasive brain-to-brain interaction in terms of accomplishing a task. The study's findings in relation to combining information from different users were patterned from primary studies concerned with brain-computer interfaces, which connect the individual contributions of two or more brains that manage a computer. The study provided concrete evidence showing the awareness that each and every participant had in relation to the task at hand, and the collaboration with other participants through their brains.
BrainNet holds significant potential in the near future, and in the current technology-driven times it deserves serious consideration, despite potential threats to people's privacy and the possibility of espionage. Of course, BrainNet would still need to undergo much ethical testing and certification, which would result in its advantages outweighing its corresponding risks and threats.
Rushan Ziatdinov (ziatdinov.rushan@gmail.com) is a professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Keimyung University, Daegu.
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