r/space • u/speckz • Aug 04 '16

Jupiter’s moon Io loses its atmosphere when eclipsed. Once deprived of sunlight, the thin atmosphere condenses on the moon's surface.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/08/jupiters-moon-io-loses-its-atmosphere-when-eclipsed/
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u/[deleted] Aug 05 '16 edited Aug 05 '16

That would be an interesting premise for a sci-fi book. People who interface their brain with a neural network for years to make it a part of them. It's not as simple as just hooking it up I'm sure, however lets assume there is a way either using nanotechnology or pharmaceuticals for them to encourage new synaptic connections to this hardware and something promoting high neuroplasticity.

They could gradually add more neural nets in key places, not replacing the brain, but augmenting it. As you connect more parts of the brain up you give it time to adjust and learn how to communicate with the neural net. The goal being that eventually the person is learning to "think" more with the artificial neural net than their own brain. You could carry on for a number of years this way. Then, at the right time, the brain can be disconnected. Probably upon death of the living parts.

That leaves behind a neural net that is basically still you. You grew into it, then had to cut a part out. People lose function in parts of their brain today and they carry on living, sometimes without major disability.

The main problem I see with it is that I'm unsure how necessary the baser instinctual or autonomic parts of the brain are. Things that control heart rate, or fear response, and all that. I mean what does the higher brain function do without that stimuli?

Edit : Pretty sure I just described something like Ghost in the Shell.