Brain Hacking 101

The Next Hacking Frontier: Your Brain

Hackers who commandeer your computer are bad enough. Now scientists worry that someday, they’ll try to take over your brain.
In the past year, researchers have developed technology that makes it possible to use thoughts to operate a computer, maneuver a wheelchair or even use Twitter — all without lifting a finger. But as neural devices become more complicated — and go wireless — some scientists say the risks of “brain hacking” should be taken seriously. Read Article

Wired has further explored the implications of direct neural computing, which I wrote a little about in my Windows of the Future post. What will cyber security of the future imply? Lets think about it.

I think the solutions to tomorrow's security problems can be all but solved by looking at the state of computing today. Since the internet has existed, there have been hackers and virus coders, and all sorts of malicious people lurking behind hyperlinks. Yet that has yet to slow down the growth of the computer industry, or the growth of the internet itself. We have simply adapted, and we will do the same in the future.

As these brain-interface technologies are implemented, it seems clear that we will always have a "killswitch" of sorts, that will enable us to "turn on" and "turn off" these technological enhancements and connections. Think about the state of hacking today. If your computer is being hacked, you can just unplug the ethernet cable. I doubt we will give up that ability to connect and disconnect on command. We will always have our organic brains, so we should always have a fallback plan (until these bodies die and we transfer our patterns into machines, but that's for another talk).

Also, if our "hardware" gets corrupted, we will almost assuredly have the capability to "reformat" our brains, or "system restore". I see us being able to back up our memories and faculties much like we back up our files and programs. If we get corrupted, shouldn't we be able to reset our technologies back to "factory settings?"

The ultimate danger is that our brains could get hacked beyond repair, and this happens today with our computers in the absolute worst cases. That's why it's important that we tackle these issues now, rather than later. Lets just keep thinking, or even better, discussing.

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Comment by Peer Infinity on July 10, 2009 at 6:41pm: The human mind is already vulnerable to a primitive form of brain-hacking. Our minds are constantly getting infected by Memes, many of which can be very harmful to their host. Often to the point of being "hacked beyond repair".

According to a quick google search, about 20% of the PCs on the internet are infected with a dangerous virus, and about 80% are infected with some sort of spyware, leaving less than 20% not infected with anything.

I haven't found any good references for this yet, but this seems to roughly correspond to the 20% of people who are infected with a dangerous, fundamentalist religion, 80% who are infected with a less dangerous, but still potentially harmful religion, and less than 20% tho are not infected with anything. Sadly, the world seems to have just naturally accepted this, rather than developing a worldwide memetic antivirus industry.

As much as I would like to be among the first to get a brain implant, I think I'll wait until after the first wave of casualties, and the introduction of some effective countermeasures, before I give it a try. Or maybe I'll find that I can't live without a BCI, and I'll be one fo the first to get one anyway... Still, I would at least like to wait until I can permanently disable my brain's ability to feel pain, and instead replace it with some sort of warning message...