Follow Up from Down Under

Podcasts: All in the Mind, Philosopher's Zone

Two recent podcasts from ABC Radio National, the Australian public radio network echoed themes I discussed in recent blogs. One touches on brain and device interfaces, the other on practices in medical biology.

All in the Mind: Neural engineering: the cutting edge of prosthetics

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2011/3278072.htm

Presenter: Natasha Mitchell

Guests: Glen Lehman, others

Release Date: July 30, 2011

On July 10, 2011 ("Hoping for Holodecks and TheMeaning of Life") I blogged about advances in mind machine integration. The July 20 episode of All In the Mind explores similar developments even more vividly. In particular, the interview with Glen Lehman, a Retired Sergeant first class in the United States Army, is an arresting first-person account of what it is like to adapt to and live with a prosthetic arm integrated with and controlled by one's thoughts. Tragically, Lehman's arm was blown off by a grenade while serving in Iraq just ten days before he was scheduled to return home.

Lehman talks about what it was like to learn how to think about arm and hand movements which then actually happened because his prosthetic arm is linked to his nervous system. The arm senses and interprets electrical signals from his brain and is programmed to carry out the imagined action. The show also includes interviews with medical experts who explain some of the science involved.

Around the same time as I heard this podcast news reports highlighted another technological breakthrough linking machines to human brains. Scientists hooked up EEG and muscle sensors to a driver of a car and detected the driver's intention to brake, then applied the brakes faster than the driver could have done so without this aid. Here is a reference from Scientific American magazine's website:

Fast Brake: Drivers' BrainWaves Show Intent to Stop Before the Act

By John Matson, August 1, 2011

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=eegbraking&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_MB_20110803

Scientific American also summarized this research in a 60-Second Science podcast on August 3, 2011 presented by Karen Hopkins:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=brain-brakes-car-faster-than-foot-11-08-03

Although the human brain is immensely complex, our limited knowledge is already enabling science fiction like strides in linking the brain to mechanical extensions. I wonder just how far and how fast this will go. Sensing muscle movement is one thing, and while not simple, is probably simpler than detecting other kinds of higher mental processes. But it seems only a matter of time before we see mind-machine interfaces that capture and respond to our inner thoughts. Vulcan Mind Meld, anyone?

Philosopher's Zone: The ethics of Kevin Rudd's Heart

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/philosopherszone/stories/2011/3284264.htm

Presenter: Alan Saunders

Guest: Ian Kerridge, Associate Professor, Bioethics, University of Sydney

Release Date: August 6, 2011

In the same blog noted above, my discussion of the Radiolab podcast explained "Modifying cow genetics so they bleed human blood useful for transfusions is another example of bioengineering for medical applications, and there are many more."

This week's Philosopher's Zone featured an interview with a medical ethics expert who talked about issues involved in Xenotransplantation which means: "Xenotransplantation is when you take living cells, tissues and organs from one species and transplant them into another" (quote from the show's webpage). As the show notes, this is actually not new but it does raise many interesting questions about how humans use animals and what it means when some barriers between species begin to get a little fuzzy.

I'm certainly no medical expert, but it seems to me that many of the ethical issues can be sidestepped by use of advanced mechanical devices such as artificial hearts. Even when that is not feasible today, more such solutions will probably emerge in the future.

By the way, Kevin Rudd is a former prime Minister of Australia and is currently their Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Hoping for Holodecks and The Meaning of Life

Podcasts: All in the Mind, Are We Alone (Big Picture Science), Radiolab

On the frontiers of biology and engineering, scientists are raising all kinds of questions about what life is and how it can be designed, created, modified, or integrated with technology and humans.

All in the Mind: Dialogue with the Dalai Lama - Part 2 - Mirror neurons, our inter-subjective minds and the limits of compassion

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2011/3249451.htm

Presenter: Natasha Mitchell

Guest: Paul Ekman (and others)

Release Date: July 2, 2011

A ha! I love it when I hear someone articulate something I've long believed but have never said so well or so simply. That's how I felt when I heard Paul Ekman's closing remarks on All in the Mind, the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company) Radio program about the mind, brain and behavior.

To set the context, it's worth explaining that "mirror neurons" is a concept that describes how the brain reacts to someone else's experience as if it were happening to oneself. In other words, empathy in biological terms.

At the end of this fascinating discussion which also featured interviews with the Dalai Lama, Ekman, a San Francisco based psychologist and author, explained "when I first met the Dalai Lama I had this experience of connection as if I had known him all of my life, as if he was the brother I never had and as if we were speaking directly to each other even when we were not talking to each other. Now he can explain that and I can't. From a Western point of view it's déjà vu, which only means I don't understand it. I have come to understand that there are very real phenomena of great importance that we do not yet understand, which doesn't mean they don't exist." (quoted from transcript, italics added by me).

To me, this is part of the essence of science as a method of understanding the natural world. A hundred years ago things we take for granted (smart phones) were unimaginable, but that did not mean they were impossible. And a hundred years from now people will take for granted truths about which we don’t even know the questions to ask, let alone the seeds of the answers. Biology and Physics are two domains where future discoveries will overturn much of what we believe we know today. And yet this open mindedness is not something I embrace without any boundaries. Some things are truly fictional and will always remain so.

Are We Alone: Ultimate Hook Up

http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Ultimate_Hook_Up

Hosts: Seth Shostak, Molly Bentley

Guests: Miguel Nicolelis and others

Release Date: July 4, 2011

Note: Are We Alone changes its name to Big Picture Science starting with the next episode.

"What makes a person? Is it just the brain? Is it more than that? If you combine it with a machine, is it still a person? Is the robot a person?

That whole question of merging the mind and the machine is a big one right now not just in robotics but in neuroscience. How close can we get to our machines? Can we control our machines with our minds? Can our machines help enhance our own cognitive abilities?"

These are the brain bending questions raised by this fascinating episode that explored "A future of human minds melding with machines."

Miguel Nicolelis, Director for the Center for Neuroengineering at Duke University, explained many examples of how machines are merging with brains such that mere thought controls the machine extension of the person. These technologies will enable paralyzed people to walk, and that's just one application. According to Dr. Nicolelis, "We will interface with these devices just by thinking … as if we were part of a Holodeck … we will be part of the operating system" Actually, the segment following this one explored advances in Virtual Reality that make Holodecks sound much closer than the 23rd century.

"Where does the machine end and the human brain begin?"

Interestingly, Dr Nicolelis does not believe in the Singularity, the idea that machine intelligences will surpass human intelligence in the near future. "Machines will never replace a brain because machines will never be able to acquire the kind of consciousness and cognitive (capabilities) that a human brain has … there will always be a place for a human brain" (Whew! That's a relief!)

Actually, his perspective is enthusiastically optimistic "I think we are going to experience sensations and perceptions of the universe that we have never deemed possible but more than that we are going to expand our reach in terms of what we can feel and what we can do to a level that not even science fiction has been able to capture so far."

For me, this recalls Ekman's insight: just because we do not currently understand how something could work does not mean it is impossible.

(This segment of the show occurs from around 5:30 to 18:00.)

Right after listening to this podcast, I found this article about a prototype technology that enables bike riders to shift gears just by thinking about it. Yes, you too can perform Jedi mind tricks! For an example of a brain machine interface check out:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20077227-1/prius-project-concept-bike-lets-you-shift-by-thinking/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Radiolab: (So Called) Life

http://www.radiolab.org/2008/apr/07/

Hosts: Jad Abrumrad and Robert Krulwich

Guests: Steve Strogatz, Brian Baynes and others

Release Date: April 7, 2008

Blending brains and machines is one way our biology and technology are stretching our conception of the definition and boundaries of what life is. Synthetic Biology, creating new life forms or merging different life forms genetically, is another ear opening topic discussed on Radiolab's episode (So Called) Life. I dug this one out of the archives of this hugely interesting show.

Mixing a goat and a sheep to make a "Gheep" is one example of how scientists have actually merged the embryos and genetic makeup of two different species. And yes, this hybrid actually exists as a living, breathing critter. Some look more like sheep, others more like goats, but all have characteristics of both. No, I don’t know if it tastes like chicken. Modifying cow genetics so they bleed human blood useful for transfusions is another example of bioengineering for medical applications, and there are many more. Other explorations included discussions of the possibility of human chimpanzee hybrids, and the manufacture and sale of custom designed genes.

By the way, a recent New York Times Sunday Magazine article profiles Radiolab and its hosts:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/magazine/mag-10Radiolab-t.html?_r=2&src=tptw

The Are We Alone and Radiolab shows both made me wonder not just about the definitional meaning of life, but also about the future of evolution. Mankind is manipulating how species change more than ever before. Sure, I know about crops genetically manipulated to increase yields and other commercially favorable features, as well as those funky breeds of dogs and cats, but the nature and extent of evolution guided by human rather than natural selection is expanding dramatically.

It also seems a little ironic to me that while human activity has accelerated the extinction of untold numbers of species, we are simultaneously accelerating our ability to design and create new species as if they were computer parts. But life forms are not mechanical devices; they exist in interconnected ecologies. Do we know how designer species will interact in the environment? I doubt it. And here again I think of Ekman's insight but from the opposite perspective: what we will know in the future that seems inconceivable today is in fact unknown today. Sometimes A Ha! is also Uh Oh?