Tomorrow Elephant

Ask and ye shall receive.

This is more like the good stuff. Although it’s also pretty damn scary.

A new brain-computer-interface technology could turn our brains into automatic image-identifying machines that operate faster than human consciousness.

Researchers at Columbia University are combining the processing power of the human brain with computer vision to develop a novel device that will allow people to search through images ten times faster than they can on their own.

Darpa, or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is funding research into the system with hopes of making federal agents’ jobs easier. The technology would allow hours of footage to be very quickly processed, so security officers could identify terrorists or other criminals caught on surveillance video much more efficiently.

Let’s ignore the probable hype element there and ponder this statement for a moment. Brain-computer interface — and they want to use it to catch terrorists?

This is a bit like using rat brains on a chip to fly fighter jets. Only, you know, with humans.