Whitley has an implant from the Visitors that he’s still learning how to use (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to this Dreamland show). One of the latest inventions is an implant that can be placed inside the brain of a paralyzed person and enable him to access the internet using only his brain, and this technology may eventually spread to able-bodied people as well. Does this mean that, in the future, hackers will try to get inside our brains? It’s a scary thought!
On CNN.com, Hadley Leggett quotes computer security expert Tadayoshi Kohno as saying, “Neural devices are innovating at an extremely rapid rate and hold tremendous promise for the future, but if we don’t start paying attention to security, we’re worried that we might find ourselves in five or 10 years saying we’ve made a big mistake.
“It’s very hard to design complex systems that don’t have bugs. As these medical devices start to become more and more complicated, it gets easier and easier for people to overlook a bug that could become a very serious risk. It might border on science fiction today, but so did going to the moon 50 years ago.” Soon we’ll encounter what seems like the impossible: Vendors selling us firewalls for our own brains.Hackers might even hack into THEIR OWN brain implants in order to stimulate their brain’s reward center and get a “natural,” drug-free “high.”
Art credit: Dreamstime.com
NOTE: This news story, previously published on our old site, will have any links removed.
Subscribers, to watch the subscriber version of the video, first log in then click on Dreamland Subscriber-Only Video Podcast link.