#neurotechnology

#neurotechnology

Cortical Labs in Melbourne taught a dish of lab-grown neurons to play Pong in 2022. Now it has built what it describes as the world's first code-deployable biological computer, running on living human tissue rather than silicon chips, which is happily playing the 1993 shooter Doom. At first it didn't know how to move, aim or shoot. Then it would shoot two enemies and stop. So it's definitely learning.

An Electroencephalogram (EEG) is a clinical tool to monitor the electrical activity of our brains. Put very simply, our minds are constantly moving ions around, and when they reach the scalp, it's possible to measure those ions. By placing electrodes on the scalp, you can record the changes in voltages pushed out by our brains more or less in real time. These voltages are commonly grouped into categories, which are often described as brain waves.

The brain is the seat of your entire experience. It's the only organ that I really care about. The rest of the body exists to support the brain, move it around and facilitate its functions. This was quite clear to me from a very early age. And, with brain-computer interfaces, certain effects can be achieved that aren't possible in [the field of] medicine.

Ray Kurzweil (2005) and others have described "the singularity" as the moment when artificial intelligence (AI) surpasses human intelligence and triggers fulminant technological change. We're not at the full singularity yet-when AI "wakes up," when the world radically transforms. Or maybe we are, and we just don't know it yet. Regardless, the shape of things to come is coming into focus.

Non-invasive neurotechnology, particularly transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS), leverages brain activity changes to significantly improve learning outcomes, particularly in challenging subjects like maths.

Phosphoenix has a unique neurotech solution to (partially) restore the vision of blind people. With this financing from Innovatiefonds Noord-Holland, we hope to advance this groundbreaking technology.