How cool would that be?

If you wanted to learn Italian, know how to breakdance etc.. Is technology that far away from being able to perform these instant "brain upgrades"?

How long will it be before sitting 4 year courses are a thing of the past?

a long time.

a very long time.

If ever.

The first problem is that we don't actually know what knowledge is.

The second problem is that we don't know how knowledge is 'held' in the mind. And we can't decide whether the mind is real, or just a side effect caused by having a brain.

The third problem is creating knowledge outside of the brain, ready to put in.

And the final problem is actually stuffing it in there somehow.

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
And the final problem is actually stuffing it in there somehow.

thats the easy part! theres plenty of holes in your head... i'm sure one of them has an ISO standard :D

theoretically its possible... afterall, anythings possible within the limits of science and physics... its just understanding... and were a LONG LONG way from understand the structure of the brain...

think about the size of your brain, and try and image things from your past... you can vividly imagine "videos" of things you've seen and done... the brain has an amazing capacity... and as far as were aware somehow its all stored with various electrically pulses and such...

japanese in 5mins? long time before that happens ;)

I suppose it would consist of designing a piece of hardware that interacts with the brain, which can be reformatted and reprogrammed as necessary.

But then if the government allowed that, it would probably be on the condition that the hardware contained a microchip for them to monitor a persons location etc... Thus creating a nanny state.

It is conceivable someone will invent a way to add memory to peoples brains for accident victims.

I was watching Memento the other day where the lead character had an accident and no longer had a short term memory. The whole film works in reverse and is very interesting and I would recommend if you haven't seen it, watch it. By I digress, back to the point.

It is conceivable that medical science will develop artificial implants to help people with memory problems caused by brain damage. These "upgrades" would be connected to the brain in much the same way a chip is connect to a computer Motherboard.

This would obviously be subject to medical practice laws but before long the commercial sector would create these to spec for people wishing to extend their memory for what ever reason.

The possibilities are astonishing when you think about it. If we could create a memory chip that buffer peoples thoughts then the use of the new radioactive memory which when the power supply is interrupted the electrons are trapped and do not "flow out the other side" we could read the last thoughts of a person as they died!

This area if medical technology is receiving large amounts of funding especially from the US government, presumably for military use.

Originally posted by GazB
I suppose it would consist of designing a piece of hardware that interacts with the brain...

This AFAIA has already be done but I cant remember where I read/saw it.

Originally posted by serapis
This area if medical technology is receiving large amounts of funding especially from the US government, presumably for military use.

Presumably to make an implant to allow marines to distinguish between their own side and the ememy rather than just shooting at anything that moves.

Originally posted by nick2
Presumably to make an implant to allow marines to distinguish between their own side and the ememy rather than just shooting at anything that moves.

Bravo :clap:

you can feed sensory input into the brain now. Researchers trying to restore sight have managed to stimulate the optic nerve to produce 'sight' that wasn't there before.

So you could theoretically transmit the contents of a book down the optic nerve, but if you already have eyes then that would be pointless.

Knowing something, like how to speak italian, relies upon learning not just vocabulary and grammar, but also how to move your own tongue to make the right noises.

Learning something like Kung-Fu (or any sport/athletics) often means not thinking and training your 'muscle memory' and so on.

I can't disagree, being able to slot in a "Chinese Algebra" TalentChip© would be cool, but to stick my neck out - it ain't gonna happen. ever.

Wouldn't just being able to slot a chip in your head take all the fun out of learning something new ?