Scientists Can Now ‘Upload’ Information to Your Brain
You know that scene in the 1999 sci-fi blockbuster the Matrix when Keanu Reeves' character gets the complete guide to Kung-Fu uploaded to his brain and it immediately turns him into a white Bruce Lee? Crazy, make believe, pseudo-science - right? Not so much.
California based research firm HRL is now claiming that they have discovered that "low-current electrical brain stimulation can modulate the learning of complex real-world skills." In layman's terms this is the first step to creating an instant, digital learning system.
Imagine being able to learn anything in moments without trying. Need to learn how to fix your car, fly a plane, operate like a world class surgeon? It could be as simple as buying a movie on Amazon Prime in the near future.
To test their fledgling system, scientists recorded brain patterns of trained pilots in a flight simulator. Then, they saddled up a rookie in the same simulator and used a special harness that looks like a stocking hat made out of Christmas lights that stimulated the same portions of the brain that lit up when the experts were behind the yoke. They found an astounding 33% jump in proficiency over placebo subjects in the same study.
Basically, they were able to "feed the feeling" of expert-level aviation directly in to the brain of a novice to greatly increase the speed of learning. The science will be life-changing for stroke and accident victims who have to relearn how walk and/or other basic movements. If the system works as envisioned, it will cut the recovery time down for such injuries dramatically.
According to neuroscientist Jaehoon Choe, who helped develop the system:
Though we have much more to learn, as we discover more about the detailed mechanisms of brain function and neurostimulation, we’ll likely see a broader application of these technologies across many different domains of training and classroom environments.