Google may have created Skynet.

Yeah, but even the diagram shows that it is actually quite crude: it's like trying to control the old CRT computer monitor by moving and putting magnets around it. Also, note that you need electrodes attached directly to the brain itself, not via sensory neurons, which also has been done, though it doesn't give control per se but transmit sensations only.

Also, the idea that you can somehow reprogram the brain via sensory neurons implies that there are combinations of sensations (either sight, or smell, or taste) that can reprogram the brain, which is absurd.

edited 2nd Jan '14 5:52:52 PM by IraTheSquire

Everything has to start somewhere.

That's like saying "We're going into space, and travel faster than the speed of sound!" when the Wright brother managed to fly for 10 seconds.

Also: if we can hack and reprogram the brain electronically, then why all those drugs for depression and other mental diseases?

Zing!

edited 2nd Jan '14 10:01:58 PM by IraTheSquire

This also isn't really a matter of being advanced enough. The human brain physically does not work in a way that can just be "reprogrammed" (at least not in a short space of time). We don't process stimuli like that.

edited 2nd Jan '14 10:00:03 PM by Pykrete

It's only a matter of time before this quote becomes relevant:

That became relevant a long time ago. At least as far back as the Manhattan Project.

I meant relevant to this particular topic.