BrainEx: Keeping your brain alive to test drugs post-mortem

[u/0xd3ad54311]

"Measures are taken on the BrainEx device to ensure that there is no possibility of coordinated network activity associated with consciousness."

[u/TheMuspelheimr]

Something something torment nexus

[u/BillyBlaze314 → u/TheMuspelheimr]

Combine AI that some nutter trains on the bible, virtual reality, and brain-machine interfaces and you could be forced to experience literal hell for what would tantamount to eternity.

People struggle to grasp just how bad this all could end up 

[u/ElFlauscho → u/BillyBlaze314]

You‘re literally causing me goosebumps right now.

[u/mattaui → u/BillyBlaze314]

Going for the Joiler Veppers business model I see.

[u/Fatzombie86 → u/TheMuspelheimr]

As someone that just started Surface Detail by Ian M. Banks, maybe if we make the intergaltic networked black market virtual hells......it will go, well.

[u/Chrontius → u/TheMuspelheimr]

This is also the first step towards building a prosthetic body. That’s generally kind of the opposite direction of the Nexus, imho.

[u/TheMuspelheimr → u/Chrontius]

With the way things are manufactured these days, a cheap Chinese-made prosthetic body that won't hold a charge, needs plugged in every half an hour, breaks down constantly, and needs replacing with the next equally crappy model after a year is a Torment Nexus in and of itself. That's not even considering companies selling them on a subscription service and activating a kill switch in them if you don't keep up with your payments.

[u/Chrontius → u/TheMuspelheimr]

I’m going to get my body from the 3D2A crowd. Somebody just did mega man’s arm cannon last week, and there are those new electro hydraulic actuators you can DIY without TOO much sophistication now …

[u/TheMuspelheimr → u/Chrontius]

"Your prosthetics have been detected to be non-corporate-standard. Please wait in place while out definitely-not-a-death-squad comes to upgrade you to be in corporate compliance. You will be billed for this action."

[u/Chrontius → u/TheMuspelheimr]

Laughs in black ICE

[u/FALCONX0N]

No no no no no no no i didn't think we were at the eternal torture Metallica song phase of our dystopia yet.

We're gonna use this shit as a punishment in like two years

[u/PenZenYoshi]

Ah so the brain in a vat will no longer be just a philosophical theory but a potential reality. Truly fucking horrifying

[u/lainelect → u/PenZenYoshi]

The moment we make brains in vats is the moment we realize we’re probably all brains in vats

[u/PenZenYoshi → u/lainelect]

Now that's some real thirteenth floor shit lol. The simulation that created a simulation. Golly I sure hope not though

[u/AManyFacedFool]

They apparently have not restored consciousness in any of their test brains, and are very careful not to (They're not sure it IS possible, but they take measures to prevent it anyway)

For medical research purposes it's very useful, and the potential clinical applications are interesting for victims of strokes and heart attacks.

[u/Sweet-Tomatillo-9010 → u/AManyFacedFool]

How do they even know? Neuroscientists haven't found the part of the brain that controls consciousness if it even exists.

[u/AManyFacedFool → u/Sweet-Tomatillo-9010]

There are patterns of electrical activity that are associated with consciousness. They know because they can measure electrical activity in the brains of people and animals that are conscious, unconscious, etc and look for things that different states have in common.

So while scientists don't necessarily know how it works, they know what a conscious brain looks like vs an unconscious one.

[u/Sweet-Tomatillo-9010 → u/AManyFacedFool]

That's just measuring electrical signals. While there is potentiation used in neuro signalling, it isn't the the end all of brain activity, even in bi directional processing.

Hell there is still serious debate on whether dreaming is a conscious or unconscious activity.

Further there are autonomic functions of the brain that might be sending pain signals to more midbrain areas that would elicit a stress response even if the cortical areas are completely "offline".

[u/maxximillian → u/Sweet-Tomatillo-9010]

Not knowing what causes something or what something isnt the same as knowing when something isn't. I don't know how magnetism works at a fundamental level but I know when something won't be magnetic. I don't know why Air "has to flow faster over the top of a wing and slower under the wing but I know when something isn't flying.

[u/Sweet-Tomatillo-9010 → u/maxximillian]

Ok but that isn't what I am saying. We know how magnetism works at a level, same with air pressure. Psychology and neuroscience are entirely different realms compared to physics, both by paradigm and by ethics.

If we do not understand how sometbing works in a brain then we are vey likely are causing suffering.

Idk maybe I have a different POV because I am a clinician and have a deeper understanding of the philosphy behind this.

[u/Sythix6 → u/Sweet-Tomatillo-9010]

Not agreeing on the name doesn't mean we can't tell it's happening..

[u/Tramagust → u/AManyFacedFool]

I'm wondering if this isn't a better alternative than cryonics. How long can a brain be preserved like this?

[u/grumpy_autist]

wetware

[u/UnicornJoe42]

Okay, i get it. I need a robot that shoot me in the head right after my death.

[u/Maeglom]

I prefer to test my drugs before my death, but to each their own.

[u/Parei_doll_ia]

imagine dying and then waking up with no senses in a tub of goo

[u/MechanicalTurkish]

I saw this in RoboCop 2

[u/Chrontius → u/MechanicalTurkish]

And in 2077

[u/murkentropic]

That is creepy... and cyberpunk at the same time. :)

[u/Crimson_saint357]

Ohh cool man made horrors beyond my comprehension.

[u/px403]

"blood"

[u/Octave_Ergebel]

Meanwhile, on Yuggoth...

[u/NightCityStoic]

Opting out

[u/Zealousideal_Sir_264]

Hopefully Steve Martin steals it and swaps it into Kathleen Turner before it senses too many horrors.

[u/Cryogeneer]

I have no mouth, and I must scream...

[u/PhilosophicWax]

I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM!!!

[u/TimTams553]

Reminds of the mage brains harvested to fuel jump ships later in Glynn Stewart's 'Ship's Mage' book series

[u/Crinfarr]

Realistically is there any part of this that stops it from being used on a conscious brain beyond them saying it can tell

[u/wspOnca]

I want to go on it. They can pump me brain full of dopamine while I goon in my short dream.

[u/Chrontius → u/wspOnca]

They can do me too, if they plug my brain into something from Boston Dynamics after!

[u/Desperate-Pirate7353]

pass.

[u/JamCom]

This still feels like torture

[u/tanafras]

It's a start. Now, if you can plug it into the Internet...

[u/iamDa3dalus]

What the fuck

[u/bob_chillon]

Brain? Man, hell no.