The next frontier: when thoughts control machines

The next frontier: when thoughts control machines

I Study the active vocabulary and focus on Ukrainian equivalents of English words.

query запит

relevant відповідний

species вид

melding поєднання

underway в процесі розробки

enhance покращувати

trial випробування

device пристрій

enrol зареєструватися

motor cortex моторна нервова зона кори головного мозку

prosthetic  протез

neural circuit нейронна схема

limb кінцівка

 tap  into підключитись до

entrepreneur підприємець

backing підтримка

queue черга

albeit хоча і

jellyfish медуза

convert трансформувати

radically повністю

at the forefront в перших рядах

equitable справедливий

AI штучний інтелект

delta різниця

imminent неминучий

implication приховане значення

reap пожинати

handle працювати з чим-небудь

II Vocabulary focus. Study the words and  word combinations, check your understanding using flashcards, practise their translation, spelling. Check your knowledge in the test. Play matching vocabulary game (match words to their translations to make cards disappear)  and save the planet from asteroids by typing in correct translation of the words.

III Watch the video and fill in the gaps with the words from the list. There are some words you don’t need to use.

imagine; neutrons; download; devices; knowledge; neutral signs; independence; sense; prosthetic limb;  vices; cursor; cheers; neural signals; devised; upgrade; restore; improved; academic; search engine; underway; dependent;  enhancing; powerful; intention;  human race; imagining; grab; encoded; participants; volunteers; bewitched;  technology;  decoded; movement; sensor; intent; robotic device; developing; challenge; disabilities; neurons; bewildering;  species; implant; query; computer interfaces; trial; downturn;devoted; quest; brain; minds

 1)_____ if you could connect your 2)_____ to the Internet, you wouldn’t need to type into a 3)_____. You could just think your 4)_____ and 5)_____ the relevant 6)_____ directly into your mind. Such a world would involve the biggest single 7)_____ in human intelligence since our 8)_____ evolved. Seamless brain 9)_____ are a long way off, but the melding of 10)_____ with machines is already 11)_____.

- The 12)_____ goes directly into the motor control area of the brain. It’s that neurotechnology that we’ve been 13)_____ for years. And it’s designed to help 14)_____ or replace the function or enhance 15)_____ for people who are paralyzed.

In a pioneering clinical 16)_____ at Brown University 17)_____ have been given brain implants that allow them to control 18)_____ using thought alone.

- To date this 19)_____ venture, this pilot clinical trial that we call Braingate, has enrolled 13 20)_____ and each of those has had the 21)_____ placed into the motor cortex. And each of them has been able to control 22)_____ movement on a screen. Some of them have even been able to control 23)_____ or a robotic limb moving through space to reach and 24)_____ objects.

 The sensors detect the 25)_____ associated with the 26)_____ to move and they’re 27)_____ by a computer in real-time.

 - We’re tapping into the native part of the brain that controls 28)_____ naturally. So simply by 29)_____ intuitive movements participants can immediately control a 30)_____.

 The 31)_____ could transform the lives of people with 32)_____, but it could go further 33)_____ the abilities of the entire 34)_____. One problem is that current technology can only record the activity of a couple of hundred 35)_____. Our minds are generated by a 36)_____ network of 85 billion neurons. Listening to them all in real time has proved an impossible 37)_____ for neuroscientists. But in 2013 their research gained 38)_____ backing.

IV Watch the video and fill in the gaps in the text.

- There’s this 1)_____ mystery waiting to be 2)_____. The BRAIN Initiative will change that by giving 3)_____ the tools they need to get a dynamic 4)_____ of the brain in action and better understand how we think, and how we learn, and how we 5)_____.

 The BRAIN Initiative is a six 6)_____ dollar fund to find new ways to map the 7)_____ of an entire brain. Leading neuroscientist 8)_____ Rafael Yuste  was at the front of the queue for 9)_____.

- The 10)_____ of the BRAIN Initiative is precisely to build 11)_____ to read and manipulate the activity of neural circuits so that we can eventually help patients that have mental or neurological 12)_____. In 2017 professor Yuste’s  team 13)_____ that they had successfully 14)_____ the activity from every neuron of an 15)_____ albeit a very simple one. A tiny freshwater relative of the 16)_____ called a Hydra.

-  In a way you could 17)_____ that we’re trying to read the hydra’s 18)_____ because we can measure the activity of every 19)_____ in Hydra while the Hydra is 20)_____.

 And once you’ve learned to read neural 21)_____, you can learn to write it too.

 - Can we input 22)_____ into a Hydra? Can we write patterns of 23)_____ and change the 24)_____ of the animal? We’re trying to do this in Hydra and we’re trying to do this in 25)_____. We can imagine that you could do this with 26)_____ in the future.

 The human brain is vastly more 27)_____ than the Hydra. And converting the electrochemical 28)_____ of the mind into the digital 29)_____ of machines remains a huge 30)_____ challenge. But history has shown that where there’s a will and plenty of 31)_____ there’s a way.

- I hope to achieve making neuroscience the new 32)_____ science. And we’re not speaking publicly 33)_____ about what we’re building. We want time.

Tech entrepreneurs are turning their 34)_____ and their money to developing brain machine 35)_____. Bryan Johnson founded Kernel, a neural interface 36)_____, with a hundred million dollars of his own money.

-  Everyone’s trying to find how to go from where we’re at now to the next thing 37)_____ to what we’re going to be. And in building Kernel my 38)_____ is to radically 39)_____ humans in every imaginable and 40)_____ way.

 Bryan Johnson is not alone in this  41)_____. Elon Musk’s latest company Neuralink aims to 42)_____ humans by connecting them to computers. DARPA, the research and development arm of the American 43)_____ is also at the forefront of this technology. Brain-computer interfaces are coming. But are we 44)_____?

-  I think every day of the 45)_____ dangers of building technology without thinking 46)_____ about the consequence of this technology for 47)_____.

 If we allow the Internet into our 48)_____, what’s to stop it reading the thoughts we’d rather keep 49)_____?

-  We’re not talking about 50)_____ privacy. This is much worse. We’re talking about the 51)_____ of your mind.

 And if we discover how to 52)_____ our intelligence, who gets to go 53)_____?

- You need to 54)_____ as a society that there is equitable 55)_____ to this technology so that it doesn’t end up in the hands of a 56)_____ few.

 It’s 57)_____ that ethical considerations keep 58)_____ with advancing technology. 59)_____ our minds with 60)_____ could radically transform society. But some argue that the 61)_____ is already underway. And if we don’t use machines to 61)_____ ourselves, we risk being left behind.

-  Humans are the most 62)_____ species on this 63)_____. We are now giving 64)_____ to a new form of intelligence in the form of AI. At what point do we begin feeling 65)_____ with the delta between our own 66)_____ and that of our machines? AI is the thing we need to 67)_____ very seriously. For me it’s the best thing you could ever happened to us. And it’s 68)_____ that we try to co-evolve with this 69)_____ powerful form of intelligence that we are now building.

 The Matrix is not 70)_____, but enough research is now being done on brain computer interfaces that it’s time to think hard about their potential 71)_____. If superhuman 72)_____ is created in the future, humanity could reap huge 73)_____ as long as it’s 74)_____ with 75)_____.

  

V Watch all parts of the video and answer the questions.

 1 What is brain-computer interface? How does this technology work?

2 How are brain-computer interfaces developed and tested? What opportunities do they give people with disabilities?

3 What is current technology of brain-computer interfaces like?

4 Who supports brain research?

5 What are the advances in reading brain activity in animals? What have scientists discovered and achieved?

6 Can the methods used to study animals’ brain be used with humans?

7 What are the benefits and the dangers of having access to the contents of human brain?

8 What is hydra and how is it used in brain research?

9 Which entrepreneurs and businessmen want to invest money into brain research? What do they want to study?

10 How can human beings be enhanced as species using computer technology?

11 What is the connection between the development of AI and evolution of human brain?

12 Will the Matrix scenario become true if people continue to develop brain-reading technologies?

  

 VI OVER TO YOU. Watch the short video excerpt from the animated film 'Ghost in the Shell' that shows future where people's memories and experiences can be changed. a) What has happened to the man in the video excerpt? 
b) How does he find out the truth? How does he feel? 
c) What do the observers (other people) think about this situation? 
d) Would it be possible to help the man? 
e) Do you think such situation could take place if people's minds can be read and/or programmed? Why or why not?
f) Is it just the imagination of the authors of sci-fi cartoons and films? 

VII OVER TO YOU. Think of the possible ways development of human-brain interfaces can go. What would be the benefits for humans? What would be the dangers of such technology? Would you like to have your mental abilities improved with the help of the special brain-implanted computer chip? Why or why not?