New Brain Hacking Program Could Enable Us To "Upload" Skills In The Future!
Imagine you could learn a new skill simply by "uploading" it to your brain - no more reading, training or practicing!
You could learn how to play an instrument, how to speak a new language or how to excel at a sport within minutes.
What sounds like a crazy science-fiction scenario is actually in the works already!
The DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), a branch of the US military that's responsible for developing new technologies, has announced last year that they will start a Targeted Neuroplasticity Training (TNT) program.
Their aim currently is to improve and speed up the learning process by activating synaptic plasticity, a stimulation of neuronal connections with electricity.
"DARPA is approaching the study of synaptic plasticity from multiple angles to determine whether there are safe and responsible ways to enhance learning and accelerate training for skills relevant to national security missions." -Doug Weber, Program Manager of TNT
The ultimate goal would be to develop a system to upload skills to your brain, like mentioned above.
Of course this ability could be beneficial for endless situations, but the specific aim for this program is to speed up the learning process for soldiers in the military.
The researchers will compare different invasive and non-invasive techniques like implanted devices, and ethical questions as well as risks and side effects will be taken into consideration as well.
“The Defense Department operates in a complex, interconnected world in which human skills such as communication and analysis are vital, and the Department has long pushed the frontiers of training to maximize those skills. DARPA’s goal with TNT is to further enhance the most effective existing training methods so the men and women of our Armed Forces can operate at their full potential.”-Doug Weber, Program Manager of TNT
The DARPA is currently funding 8 different projects to study brain plasticity and experiment with the technology, all in different areas of research.
The team at the University of Florida for example will research how nerve stimulation effects executive function, decision-making, navigation and perception.
Another research team at Johns Hopkins University explores the effects on speech, hearing and learning new languages.
The Arizona State University on the other hand will use stimulation of the trigeminal nerve to experiment with the effects on sensory, visual and motor functions.
The whole project will have a duration of 5 years, with an aim of a 15% performance increase in the first three years and a 30% increase in the last two years.
The technology is still far from reality, but projects like these show that technology will enhance human skills and capabilities in the future - let's see where that will take us!
Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
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© Sirwinchester
Plug me into the matrix, I want to learn Kung Fu :-)
@sirwinchester,
I want to thank you for continuing to deliver informative and high quality post to the SteemIt community. I really appreciate your contributions to SteemIt.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend!
Steem on,
Mike
Thank you so much for your kind words, I appreciate it! I enjoy sharing interesting things I read with the steemit community!
uh oh! BLACK MIRROR / Men against Fire, here we come...
Link: Black Mirror’s “Men Against Fire”, a haunting war episode, in which a fight against “others” rings a stark political truth.
That's crazy, I wonder if the writers from black mirror were actually inspired by the DARPA? The project was announced in 2016 so they might have known, I'm not sure.
Anyway, thanks for linking this episode, that's so interesting!
could be, but still pretty creepy, isn't it?! the "dark side" of tech...
Hahaha exactly, you could learn new skills just like that!
Exactly what I was thinking when I read the title!
cool prospects. though not sure how I feel about this being developed by the military...
I think they will improve how fast our minds work and our ability to take in information, but I feel there will be a disconnect when we try to bypass learning and go straight to uploading. I don't see it working but who knows.
What? Incredible information. Thank you very much for sharing such interesting information, my friend @sirwinchester
Thank you, happy that you enjoyed the post! :)
That's true, since the effort of learning disappears, people would most likely take amazing skills for granted and our whole perception of talent would change.
Oh you're a rocket scientist, who is an athlete who can juggle and play chess, big deal :p.
Personally I think that would make people even lazier. They would just not bother to learn anything for themselves anymore. We are already experiencing issues with kids not wanting to read and learn. It might make things easier but that is it.
100% agreed. Also, if there's no limit, everybody would just learn everything and we'd have an abundance of super-athletes, super-musicians, super-scientists etc.
Imagine that! LOL There would not be any competition whatsoever...what a disaster for this world!
lol...sorry but to have all the knowledge to do something does not magically impart ability !... nice dream tho... if you are 4'3" you are going to struggle at basketball, if you are out of shape and over weight that has real life consequences that knowledge can not dissipate!... a paractice effect works better ...lol
namaste ! and no offense intended. :-)
Thanks for the informative post. I wonder what 10 most popular things people will want to learn first?
Good point, that would be a very interesting survey!
nice one lets use our brain
Yes, let's see how soon this will become a reality
That'll be some awesome moves.....too many skills to learn
My list of things to learn would be endless!! 😬
Amazing post! Thanks for sharing. Learnt something new today. Need to dive into it a bit further. Thanks!!