Brain Chips May Eventually Help The Blind See
Today, as I woke up from my deep slumber of insignificant hours, I went to grab something to eat. As usual, I grabbed a Salt Lake City Weekly as I walked in to enjoy a nice hot meal. I sat down and started scrolling through the independent newspaper and stumbled upon a story called "Bionic Brain". I was amazed to hear that neurosurgeons up at the University of Utah have implemented a chip into the brains of multiple patients. This chip is essentially used to download brain data onto computers to see what kind of information the brain produces. That's not the only task this chip can do. When the brain is directly linked to a computer via chip, a human can play games like solitaire with their brain. The brain can also do things such as type characters or move the cursor around the screen. It is not fully understood how the brain is able to learn how to perform these tasks, but somehow it does.
They know basically how the chip reads the brain data—electrons travel over platinum wires—but they can’t say precisely how or why the brain “learns” to use it. CW
This chip has many possibilities for medicinal benefits as well.
The team working with the chip is hoping to make immediate improvements in the lives of people with epilepsy, paralysis or blindness, but say the chips may one day enable brain-native Internet browsing or most any other function currently possible with a computer. CW
This brain chip will have profound effects on the future. Imagine having your brain wirelessly connected to the internet. We would be able to surf the web for information and perform any other computer function possible. It would be a miracle to give the blind, sight, and the paralyzed, body movement. The future looks bright for humans with the many technological advances.
“If you can get a link to a computer, then you’ve got the whole world.” The Internet’s vast knowledge and tools could be just a thought away. Foreign language translation, photographic memory and brain-data backup could become a reality with use of more advanced chips. CW
Comments
Dear dcawdery : I enjoyes
Dear dcawdery :
I enjoyes your post, "Brain Chips May Eventually Help The Blind See" because it is very interesting to learn and read about technology in health care. I feel like it gives people a different more inovative idea of what technology can do for us.
One sentence you wrote that stands out for me is: "It is not fully understood how the brain is able to learn how to perform these tasks, but somehow it does." I think this is interesting because in our society we put so much emphasis on technology and in some cases, like this one, we are not even sure how it works.
Another sentence that I liked was: "Today, as I woke up from my deep slumber of insignificant hours, I went to grab something to eat." This stood out for me because while the post is informative, you showed voice and character in your writing.
Your post reminds me of something that happened to me. One time there was a brain chip in my brain and I played solitaire and searched the interent via brain waves all the time. It was especially nice in class because no one could tell I wasn't paying attention, I didn't need to manually opperate electronic devices.
Thanks for your writing. I look forward to seeing what you write next.