The recent seventh season of Black Mirror has featured an episode that is receiving critical acclaim. It is about the first chapter called Common People (Any Couple) that poses an interesting situation in a fictional near future, where it is possible to “download data” from a cloud to use the information in a neuroprosthesis for a damaged part of the brain.
It is interesting because it poses a possible scenario that doesn’t seem so far-fetchedas has happened with other famous episodes of the aforementioned Netflix series. Many users have wondered if this is possible due to the exponential evolution of cloud platforms such as OneDrive, Google Drive, DropBox and others, as well as artificial intelligence.
ChatGPT and Gemini can generate images and text, but can you imagine if they also became medical tools to recover brain functions? That’s what Valeria Della Maggiore is talking about, a neuroscientist who has come to light to give her perspective on the subject.
The answer is more impressive than it seems because There is already a machine that does something similar. Could Elon Musk’s Neuralink go for this branch? Several questions have been raised about this, but here is the information that confirms what is probable and what is not.
What is the Brain-Machine Interface (BCI/ICM) and how does it work?
Freepik
Mike and Amanda live their normal lives until one of them collapses and falls into a coma. Specifically, the woman, who is diagnosed as having an irreversible state unless she opts for an “experimental technology” that could “revive” that part of her that has been turned off.
It seems crazy, but it is not so crazy to address this issue of digitally transferring brain data to a server. In the series an individual is presented who has a damaged portion of the brain and that is why they must make a digital clone of that part that is sent to an external server using a neuroprosthesis.
According to UNSAM, neuroscientist Valeria Della Maggiore believes it is implausible and medically questionable. In the real world there is equipment that works similarly and is known as Brain-Machine Interface (BMI).
«Rather than replacing neural circuits, neuroscience is progressively integrating technological developments—including brain-machine interfaces and artificial intelligence algorithms—to restore, sustain or improve brain function. These strategies seek to work with the biological substrate, not replace it.»
These devices use artificial intelligence to decode neural activity and send signals to prostheses from external devices. It is being implemented in cases where the motor or posterior parietal cortex does not function properly. More than anything it serves to assist, not as advanced as the one in the series
Patients who have paralysis, problems with abilities coming from this site or other similar situations, may require this process. On the other hand, there are the rehabilitation advances that the EPFL and CHUV teams have been making, where a Wireless BMI and AI-powered bone marrow stimulator to re-establish voluntary movement.
That is, people who cannot walk due to illness or accidents recover their ability thanks to this operation. In addition, there are other strategies that go hand in hand with stem cell therapies that work for tumors or damaged neurons.
Is it possible to see the Black Mirror episode Common People come true?
Netflix
The specialist states that the tumor in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) shown in the Black Mirror episode is unlikely to become a deadly problem. Furthermore, it clarifies that the brain “does not work as independent modules” and makes this type of backup in a cloud to use it from an external server with neuroprostheses. I wouldn’t be able to restore that part.
If something like this were done, instead of replicating all the operation performed by the affected part, it would would copy the dysfunction that is causing problems and in the end it wouldn’t be of much use, so it’s unviable. Another thing that makes the procedure complicated is the communication between neurons.
there would be latencies of 50 to 100 ms with an external machine connection and that would cause delay, desynchronization or inconvenience problems with the area that would make the prosthesis useless. Another aspect that is discussed is the possible long-term consequences in terms of the psychological change that could occur, as well as the ruptures of people’s ethical and privacy frameworks.
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Tags: Artificial intelligence, Health, Doctors, Netflix