With the help of an implant and a fancy robotic arm, quadraplegic Erik Sorto just drink himself his first beer in twelve years. In a first for neuroscience, he also demonstrated the ability to control the precise activity of single neurons in his brain with specific thoughts, and by implication, control entire specific actions with single neurons.
A few years ago, researchers asked what really happens to your brain when you you irradiate it. Now those same researchers have asked the next logical question: What happens to your brain on the way to Mars?
DARPA intends to do build cognitive implants that are active at the level of the mind, and that can not only replay what we see or think, but create what we see, think, and perhaps most importantly, remember.
Researchers from Nanyang Technical University in Singapore have developed a new technology they think is already capable of the brain-like computing capabilities many have imagined for AI. Their design uses what they are calling ‘photonic synapses’ to create high speed and efficient networks of rudimentary neural elements.