The world of science is wide awake. New discoveries are made daily, making our lives easier and safer. Modern technologies and various industries they can be applied to, create an endless number of topics for scientific papers. They are too tough for cheap dissertation writing services and deserve the attention of real professionals. We found three outstanding technological discoveries that are worth to be considered while getting your doctorate.
Mind-reading
Many people remember that about three years ago, engineer and entrepreneur Elon Musk told the world about the project “Neuralink”. One of the key tasks of this project is to develop a technology that can multiply the capabilities of our brain. And it is worth mentioning one of the most inspiring directions: uninterrupted transmission of all signals of the human brain to the computer and vice versa. Strange as it may seem, a similar technology already exists in our world.
A new method of “connection” of a computer with the brain of a living creature showed excellent results, and due to this information was published in the edition of the scientific journal Science Advances.
In fact, scientists managed to transfer signals from brain neurons to a special silicon chip. It looks like the chips that are in our smartphones. As always, the first results were obtained with a test on mice.
In order to connect the mouse brain to the processor, a team of scientists used specially designed wires that are 15 times thicker than a human hair! Since all the cables were “set” deep enough, they were able to respond to the activity of 1 or 2 neurons. The silicon chip, in turn, captured the transmitted electrical signals and intensified them, transforming them into a necessary data set.
In their works, scientists assured that they managed to capture absolutely all neurons of the mouse brain because the special amplifiers placed on the chip were very sensitive. Of course, the researchers did not forget to mention that similar technology was created in the past. The difference is that every single electrode had to be connected to a separate amplifier. For obvious reasons, it seriously complicated all the work (the device turned out to be just tremendous).
An interesting feature here is that test mice require only a few hundred wires, but people will need about one hundred thousand electrodes.
Nobody has mentioned the exact date, after which the technology can be applied in practice. But in the future, this technology will be used to treat blindness, paralysis, or even deafness. It’s also possible that the technology will be able to recover damaged neurons. This discovery has a huge potential and definitely deserves further research.
Artificial Intelligence and emotions
The development of artificial intelligence in the XXI century is moving at a pace to be envied. One of its main achievements was the ability to recognize human emotions. In its annual AI development report, AI Now, an interdisciplinary research center investigating the social implications of AI, called for the banning of AI in certain cases. Experts argue that AI’s emotion recognition skills should not be used in decisions that affect people’s lives and society as a whole. Why, then, can the ability of robots to distinguish emotions significantly change the ordinary life of humanity?
Algorithms of the computer vision, which can determine certain emotions, have been existing on the planet for at least a couple of decades. The given technology is based on the information received as a result of machine learning — special algorithms that process the data for the best decision-making.
Despite all the successes of modern robotics, the ability to reproduce this genuinely human skill is still quite a challenge. Specialists from Microsoft say that recognizing people’s emotions with computers has the potential to create some next-generation applications. Still, due to difficulties in determining them, AI has long shown incorrect results.
However, new research shows that modern technology is already helping recruitment agencies assess the potential productivity of the future employee at the interview stage. Thus, the analysis of video footage of interviews conducted with the help of the newest technologies is already underway, allowing managers to get a better idea of the emotional state of their employees.
Ultimately, technology developers and society as a whole must carefully monitor how information from artificial intelligence systems is introduced into decision-making processes. In other words, before smart systems learn to recognize emotions correctly, scientists will first have to work hard to create moral standards for artificial intelligence.
Cybernetic organisms
The ever-increasing speed of technology and neurobiology, combined with the creation of supercomputers, advanced body parts, and artificial limbs, makes way for the fusion of man and machine. It is possible that you and I will witness the emergence of the cyberpunk era.
The devices, once worn on the body, are now implanted in the body, resulting in a class of real cyborgs that demonstrate a range of skills superior to those of ordinary people. Some cyborgs can see color when they hear sounds, others who have the ability to detect magnetic fields, some who have implanted computers to control the rhythm of their heart, and those who use their thoughts to communicate with computers or control robotic arms. Everything you just read about is not science fiction. All of the events described are happening right now and will continue to evolve in the future.
However, a revolutionary discovery was the work of Israeli scientists, which was published in the journal Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience. In it, researchers talk about the creation of an implant that will allow people to memorize much more information. According to scientists, human memory is fragile and unreliable, especially in an era of information abundance. As expected, there is now an overwhelming number of different assistive devices, but they work indirectly, and people have to make an effort to remember large amounts of data.
In their work, the team of specialists informs about the creation of a working prototype of 4 KB of Simplified RAM (RAM), the information from which can be recorded or read by the force of thought. It should be noted that this is the first genuinely revolutionary work of its kind because RAM is a prototype of an additional memory chip that does not need to be implanted in the brain. It’s enough to attach it to your neck in a non-invasive way.
And even though the RAM capacity is currently only 4 KB, scientists were able to understand the very mechanism of creating such devices. In the course of work, experts created a device that recognizes the electrical activity of the brain (EEG), records the data on a special RFID tag, reads the information, and displays it.
As a result, in addition to increasing the amount of memory, in the future RAM will be able to improve the lives of people suffering from neurodegenerative diseases significantly and will also record the minds of other people, which can then be read. You will agree that this opens doors to a completely different reality and makes the union of man and machine less dangerous than today.
The spheres of AI, robotics, machine learning, and neurobiology offers a diversity of opportunities to the young scientists who want to change our lives for better. Using the existing discoveries can help researchers in compiling brand-new prototypes and achieve stunning results.
