Computer-Brain Symbioses

When we were discussing Hayles the other day and we came to the part about humans being thinking machines, I couldn’t help but think of the movie Johnny Mnemonic. For those who have not seen the movie, it is about a future where humans can have their brain capacity increased by adding computers to them. The plot is about people with brain upgrades becoming data couriers for companies and private individuals. I was thinking if that would one day become possible. There is an article (not sure how credible it is) I found online that discusses the possibilities of that. There are scientists at the University of Florida who are studying the achievable concept of a computer symbiotic to implant in the human brain. It would be an adaptive piece of machinery that interacts and grows with your brain. The scientist had an experiment with their “evolving brain machine” on rats. This is an excerpt from the article:

“The rats’ brains were fitted with tiny electrodes that captured thought signals. Three rats were taught how to move a robotic arm toward a target using just their thoughts. Each time they succeeded, the rats were rewarded. The computer, on the other hand, was programmed to earn as many points as possible by figuring out how to help the rat. The closer a rat moved the arm to the target, the more points the computer received, which helped the computer determine which brain signals lead to the most rewards. The computer then knew how to streamline the process to make it more efficient and ultimately easier for the rats.” Here is a link to the website of the article.