Sure, he might damage his brain, but for Warwick, it's the lesser of two evils. In his vision of a future dominated by cyborgs and intelligent machines, the outlook for those who refuse implants is grim: "I guess they'll be some sort of subspecies. Just like we have cows now," he says, "so we'll have humans in the future." And he'd rather not be put out to pasture.

8 Comments

1. 1. iPlant 01:08 PM 3/10/08

   I'd be really curious to know exactly what Warwick had to do to get ethical approval for this.

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2. 2. StarBlazer 03:32 PM 3/10/08

   As with most geniuses, Warwicks determination limits objectivity. The chances that brain implants be required for advanced man-machine communication dimishes with progress in other fields, such as the ability to scan and interpret brainwaves with non-intrusive techniques (See http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=translating-images-from-brain-waves&sc=rss)

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3. 3. JEANNIEMAC 01:11 AM 3/11/08

   I would hesitate to hook myself up to a central supercomputer. Who knows who could gain control over it in the future?

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4. 4. jknecht 09:39 PM 3/11/08

   Warwick is anything but a genius. He is a known publicity whore whose work has no scientific merit whatsoever. He is a bad joke among computer science researchers, but the media loves him because they say things like "becoming one with the matrix" and it sells copy.

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5. 5. jbrave 05:17 PM 3/17/08

   This is cool. I wonder what would happen if one just connected an 8 bit bi-directional interface to the brain - based on the research where the dude was able to learn to move a mouse cursor to communicate, it would seem that the brain is fully capabable of learning to control and communicate with directly connected hardware. After a training period might it not also be able to identify the full ascii character set as a series of binary signals, and transmit them as well? Why is research in this area so slow? I would imagine that a large # of people would be willing to get outfitted with even a low-bandwith, character only internet connection if they could, or to test such a device. I don't understand why research in this area is so slow.
   
   --
   Edited by jbrave at 03/17/2008 10:18 AM

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6. 6. iCowboy 05:43 PM 3/18/08

   Kevin Warwick is not a genius, he's someone who's managed to delude the media into thinking he's a serious researcher. Questions need to be asked why so little of his supposed research is written up in peer reviewed academic journals, and further questions about his ethics - such as when he proposed to chip a young girl in the immediate wake of a child abduction and murder.
   
   It'd help the field immensely if publications such as Wired stopped giving Warwick the oxygen of publicity - at least until he actually does something novel.

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7. 7. MarshallBarnes 05:19 PM 9/20/08

   I've got bad news for Kevin Warwick: A world run by superintelligent computers that put natural humans out to pasture ain't going to happen. The weapons that will shut such systems down already exist and are unstoppable. But keep on dreaming while you can. When it all goes too far, the plug will be pulled. Trust me.

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8. 8. Globularfunk 03:01 PM 5/21/09

   Yep! Can you say precursor to Skynet? Kevin "Miles Dyson" Warwick.

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