There is active research into behavior modification due to electrical or similar type of simulation to the brain from an implanted device. (LiveScience: Wirelessly Powered Brain Implant Could Treat Depression)
The implementation is clever as it's doing something we have suggested here before in using the body to harvest the power an internal device needs rather than needing some sort of additional internal equipment or external wired connection.
Treating depression with it is suggested and, sure, that's very nice, very nice ... but it's exciting like a butter substitute. We've been seeing the experiments with stimulating various parts of the brain for decades.
Where this gets interesting is when the implanted device gains intelligence. It will take a huge boost in the technology and the ability to generate power but an intelligent device means it potentially has the capability to detect the onset of the depression and react accordingly with treatment.
(Ed: how should it detect what you're thinking?)
Maybe in future if they're clever enough at some point they can actively monitor thoughts but that's too sci-fi for this article. For the moment, it seems credible depression could be detected by changes in blood chemistry perhaps. Maybe some enzymes start floating around. That gets into a realm of psychology in chemically-induced brain response and I know there is research in this area although have no idea of the intricacies of it.
So the assumption is if a computer can be miniaturized sufficiently then it can monitor blood chemistry and detect the onset of the depression and respond appropriately to bring some relief.
The concept isn't so far-fetched as an Apple Watch is used for health monitoring right now. Some type of peripheral device connected to the Apple Watch, possibly via Bluetooth, etc could monitor blood chemistry and major logic decisions can be made at that level in a device which can be easily re-programmed since implantation is not necessary. The peripheral device uses some type of intravenous connection, ideally as unobtrusive as possible. This could be built with little delay.
Assume the brain stimulator device has been implanted but it's still too tiny to have much internal logic. If the external brain chemistry monitor has the capability to send a signal to the brain stimulator device then it can activate it as necessary. This solution is cumbersome and inelegant but it serves as a general model for independent psychotherapy (i.e. independent insofar as it is being applied regardless of whether the patient is with the therapist).
The ethics of medicine and psychology fly all around the Moon with this one. When machine surrogate psychiatrists are implanted inside you, it's conceivable they could guarantee the peace of the Eloi, never to be really bugged by anything, never to be unhappy. That type of situation and the consequences of it have been played out in many stories but the point of this one is the technology rapidly approaches the ability to do it.
The ultra groovy in ethics is for, say, a sex criminal. The court could sentence a convicted sex criminal to implantation of a PsychMod chip to interrupt anything it deems aberrant thought. The assumption through this article is any monitoring is only looking at blood chemistry so likely detected lust for children or some such would be improbable that way. Nevertheless, this type of research is ongoing. People focus so much on trivial things they don't see too much there is a great deal of unconstrained research taking place and that creates yet another ethical consideration as what is a reasonable and rational constraint on science. Moreover, should any such constraint exist at all.
The implementation is clever as it's doing something we have suggested here before in using the body to harvest the power an internal device needs rather than needing some sort of additional internal equipment or external wired connection.
Treating depression with it is suggested and, sure, that's very nice, very nice ... but it's exciting like a butter substitute. We've been seeing the experiments with stimulating various parts of the brain for decades.
Where this gets interesting is when the implanted device gains intelligence. It will take a huge boost in the technology and the ability to generate power but an intelligent device means it potentially has the capability to detect the onset of the depression and react accordingly with treatment.
(Ed: how should it detect what you're thinking?)
Maybe in future if they're clever enough at some point they can actively monitor thoughts but that's too sci-fi for this article. For the moment, it seems credible depression could be detected by changes in blood chemistry perhaps. Maybe some enzymes start floating around. That gets into a realm of psychology in chemically-induced brain response and I know there is research in this area although have no idea of the intricacies of it.
So the assumption is if a computer can be miniaturized sufficiently then it can monitor blood chemistry and detect the onset of the depression and respond appropriately to bring some relief.
The concept isn't so far-fetched as an Apple Watch is used for health monitoring right now. Some type of peripheral device connected to the Apple Watch, possibly via Bluetooth, etc could monitor blood chemistry and major logic decisions can be made at that level in a device which can be easily re-programmed since implantation is not necessary. The peripheral device uses some type of intravenous connection, ideally as unobtrusive as possible. This could be built with little delay.
Assume the brain stimulator device has been implanted but it's still too tiny to have much internal logic. If the external brain chemistry monitor has the capability to send a signal to the brain stimulator device then it can activate it as necessary. This solution is cumbersome and inelegant but it serves as a general model for independent psychotherapy (i.e. independent insofar as it is being applied regardless of whether the patient is with the therapist).
The ethics of medicine and psychology fly all around the Moon with this one. When machine surrogate psychiatrists are implanted inside you, it's conceivable they could guarantee the peace of the Eloi, never to be really bugged by anything, never to be unhappy. That type of situation and the consequences of it have been played out in many stories but the point of this one is the technology rapidly approaches the ability to do it.
The ultra groovy in ethics is for, say, a sex criminal. The court could sentence a convicted sex criminal to implantation of a PsychMod chip to interrupt anything it deems aberrant thought. The assumption through this article is any monitoring is only looking at blood chemistry so likely detected lust for children or some such would be improbable that way. Nevertheless, this type of research is ongoing. People focus so much on trivial things they don't see too much there is a great deal of unconstrained research taking place and that creates yet another ethical consideration as what is a reasonable and rational constraint on science. Moreover, should any such constraint exist at all.
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