Approaching the Bionic Brain

September 16, 2007 by sean.

USC’s Ted Berger’s [”memory hacker“] research on brain-interface neurotechnology, neural modeling and biologically-inspired computing modules [funded by the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] focuses on the potential for being able to one day:

open someone’s skull; implant a tiny, densely packed silicon computer chip; connect it to the brain; and let it take over cognitive function previously lost due to disease or injury.

“He wants to be the man who implants microchips between your ears. And the amazing thing is that he just might succeed,” a Wired magazine feature declared five years ago. Berger’s ambition to “create a bionic brain is bold, brash, and just a bit, well, mind-blowing,” the technology magazine opined. Berger’s project has come a long way since then.

This isn’t like a cochlear implant or an artificial retina or any other device stimulating inactive nerve fibers to resume functioning. No. This will be an artificial chunk of brain, something right out of a William Gibson cyberpunk thriller…

“We are on the brink of stretching the capabilities of the human race. I believe we will soon be able to connect the brain to computers or other devices,” Berger says. “We have to think about the implications.” [via USC and futurist.com]

Berger’s work gained wider recognition as a result of a 1997 Wired Magazine article and more recently in Popular Science and Scientific American. Berger also edits Neural-Prosthetis.com.

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