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How to make a brain perceive an exoskeleton as its new body
Miguel Nicolelis is a man with a lot of pressure on his shoulders. Since claiming that he will build the robotic exoskeletal suit that enables a paraplegic to perform the opening kickoff during the next world cup, he has been scrambling to make good on his self-imposed mandate. By all measures, he has logged several important advances en route to that goal this year alone. The latest offering from his lab at Duke provides an important link into how an exoskeleton will be incorporated at the cortical level, into the so-called body schema. In other words, how the mind comes to perceive its new self.
The “rubber hand illusion” is a well-known phenomenon which illustrates how plastic our body schema can be. It is best experienced by visually substituting a mannequin arm for your own arm, and applying a physical stimulus like a stroke or prick, to both. In a matter of minutes, your perceptions and concerns begin to morph to what is going on at the mannequin arm. This happens to the point that your brain begins to identify closer with the fake arm. In support of this view, many psychologies like to point to several studies that have shown that the real arm decreases in temperature under these circumstances.
It is conceivable that a robotic exoskeleton could just be programmed to perform a simple kick on its own. If the timetable of Nicolelis does not match up exactly to the World Cup’s, he may not be hung completely out to dry. His new experiments already show that he has reached a new fundamental understanding in how prosthetic devices can be integrated at the neural level. Building on his experience in creating the first successful BMIs, and more recently setting the record for the most simultaneously isolated and recording neurons using microelectrode arrays (up to 2000 by his own estimates), he has now begun to explore what happens in two key areas of the cortex during the integration process.
Nicolelis and his team recorded from cells in the primary sensory and motor cortex of monkeys, while the monkeys were presented with a 3D avatar-like arm in place of their own. In this virtual rubber hand illusion experiment, neurons in both cortical regions initially responded just to the stroking just of the real arm. In time however, they began to respond to the virtual stimulation alone, indicating that some direct neuronal adaptation had occurred here in the brain. This adaptation conceivably reflects the perceptual adaptation that occurs in humans doing an analogous task. These responses tended to occur around 50 to 70ms later than the responses to the real stimuli, which is consistent with the driving inputs coming into these areas from visual areas that are a single synapse away.
Source: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/164638-how-to-make-a-brain-perceive-an-exoskeleton-as-its-new-body
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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