Brainhacking: a short history and future perspective on brain-computer interfaces

With large tech companies like Facebook, Microsoft and Neural Link investing heavily in brain-computer interfacing, we urgently need to understand their goals and ambitions. Also, we need an ethical debate on the merge of brain and machine. Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) have been around for decades. Traditionally, BCIs were developed for people with speech and physical impairments for the purpose of communicating with your brain activity instead of your voice.  Currently, BCIs are used also for other applications such as for stroke therapy, control of robot arms or gaming. In future, Facebook aims to let you type a hundred words  per minute using your brain activity. Neural links wants to develop neural lace which is an ultra-thin mesh that can be implanted in the skull, forming a collection of electrodes capable of monitoring brain function. The neural lace would then create a direct interface between the brain and the machine.

This talk will give a quick and dirty history of BCIs and a future perspective on the impact of BCI on our life and society.

people.utwente.nl/femke.nijboer