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COMING SOON: SINISTER TRACKING PHONES IMPLANTED IN YOUR BRAIN
08-06-2010 9:50 am - Terrence Aym
iPhone, iPod, iPad, and now...the iBrain? While there are organizations out there that want to get under your skin--by implanting RFID devices the size of a grain of rice in the back of your hand--others plan on getting into your head.

Literally.

Brave new world of the iBrain

If computer chip giant Intel has its way, in the future most people who hear voices chattering away in their heads won't need to seek a psychiatrist, they'll just need to talk back.

That's because the corporation envisions a brave new world where everyone on the planet has a phone chip implanted in their brains.

The chip will also replace all hand held devices and even allow users to directly interact with whatever the Internet might morph into by 2020.

Yes, that's right. In less than 10 years you might be expected to join millions of other "augmented humans” with a shiny new iBrain.

As privacy experts cringe, advocates virtually wax poetic, ecstatically ticking off on their fingertips an array of benefits.

And while it's true benefits exist, the downside of phones implanted in peoples' brains could thrust hapless humanity into a proverbial witches' brew torn from the pages of Macbeth.

Hold that thought please, Tokyo calling

Some Japanese technocrats enthusiastically support the idea of every person on Earth becoming a human extension of Nippon Telephone and Telegraph.

Toyota executives point proudly to a wheelchair 100 percent controlled by pulsing brainwaves. Others in Utah rub their hands with glee over the success of cyborg monkeys performing amazing feats with mechanized arms and elsewhere clacking, rattling robots respond directly to human thought in laboratories only steps away from Dr. Frankenstein's study.

The Japanese are unperturbed and the Chinese and South Koreans are ready to consider the billions to be made manufacturing iBrain interfaces.

Back in America, land of the free, federal security experts employed by the DIA, NSA and DHS envision a world where every citizen will be tracked via the telecommunication chips embedded deep into living brain tissue. Automatic transponders will send out a data stream signature 24/7 to any government spy with a need to know where you are, why you might be there and what you're doing there...Adolf Hitler could only dream of such power.

Could computer viruses infect the brain?

Some IT experts wonder aloud about the possibility of a computer virus transmitted into the iBrain affecting the software and jumping into the neural network, infecting the brain. Then again, what about "brain cookies?" Could programs be written that leave impressions in the brain, perhaps at the subconscious level?

Some privacy experts think so, but no one is absolutely sure one way or the other. If a trail of cookies can be electronically injected into unsuspecting brains though, that would be far beyond the dream of some 1950s advertisers with their schemes of "programming" unsuspecting consumers with subliminal messages hidden in innocent-looking advertisements broadcast in movie theaters and into the homes of TV viewers.

Hacking into gray matter

Still other privacy experts are concerned about the very real possibility of hackers hacking into people's brains. Some envision criminal organizations--perhaps cyber intelligence agencies of enemy countries as well--hacking into unsuspecting targets and finding a way around any firewall. Once the security barriers of an iBrain have been breached, a brain dump can commence. Covert attacks may leave an individual unaware of the intrusion, while overt attacks might leave a targeted individual a veritable vegetable.

Chips in the old blockheads

Despite the privacy issues and inherent dangers, Intel's Pittsburgh lab and others continue to forge ahead towards that brave new world of iBrains.

Hurdles still exist. The brain must be decoded to permit a seamless mating of chips processing human thought. Yet impressive headway is being made. Recently reports surfaced that Intel's software engineers successfully used brain scans to match similar thoughts across an array of test subjects and define the brain wave activity to correlate with future chips tuned to create a symbiotic relationship between the silicon hardware of a chip and the bio-hardware of the human brain.

Dean Pomerleau of Intel is leading the effort with a research team and the assistance of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh.

But Pomerleau and Intel are far from alone in the efforts to establish a bionic brain. An implant system is being worked on by Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems Inc. of Foxborough, Massachusettes. They call their device the "Braingate."

Maybe someday the timeworn saying, A chip off the old block will become A chip in the old blockhead.

Original article here: http://www.helium.com/items/1914061-why-some-are-planning-to-implant-a-phone-in-your-brain

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