The Next Frontier: Using Thought to Control Machines

    Technologies are often billed as transformative. For William Kochevar, the term is justified. Mr Kochevar is paralysed below the shoulders after a cycling accident, yet has managed to feed himself by his own hand. This progress is partly thanks to electrodes, implanted in his right arm, which stimulate muscles. But the real magic lies higher up. Mr Kochevar can control his arm using the power of thought. His intention to move is in neural(神经的) activity in his motor region; these signals are detected by implants in his brain and into commands to activate the electrodes in his arms.

    An ability to decode thought in this way may sound like science fiction. But brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) like the BrainGate system used by Mr Kochevar provide evidence that mind-control can work. Researchers are able to tell what words and images people have heard and seen from neural activity alone. Information can also be encoded and used to stimulate the brain. Over 300, 000 people have cochlear(耳蜗的) implants, which help them to hear by sound into electrical signals and sending them into the brain. Scientists have "" data into monkeys heads, instructing them to perform actions via electrical pulses.

    As our Technology Quarterly in this issue explains, the pace of research into BCIs and the scale of its ambition are . Both America's armed forces and Silicon Valley are starting to focus on the brain. Facebook dreams of thought-to-text . Kernel, a startup, has $100m to spend on neurotechnology. Elon Musk has formed a firm called Neuralink; he thinks that, if humanity is to survive the arrival of artificial intelligence, it needs an upgrade. Entrepreneurs imagine a world in which people can communicate using thoughts, with each other and with machines, or acquire abilities, such as hearing at very high frequencies.

    These powers, if they ever materialise, are decades away. But well before then, BCIs could open the door to wonderful new . Imagine stimulating the visual region to help the blind, making new neural in stroke victims or monitoring the brain for signs of depression. By turning the firing of neurons into a resource to be used, BCIs may change the idea of what it means to be human.