#memory augmentation
Improve your pilot skills by zapping your brain with recorded brain patterns of experienced pilots
Researchers at HRL Laboratories have discovered that low-current electrical brain stimulation can modulate the learning of complex real-world skills.
The study, published in an open-access paper in the February 2016 issue of the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, found that novice pilots who received brain stimulation via electrode-embedded head caps improved their piloting abilities, with a 33 percent increase in skill consistency, compared to those who received sham stimulation. “Pilot skill development requires a synthesis of multiple cognitive faculties, many of which are enhanced by tDCS (transcranial direct current stimulation) and include dexterity, mental arithmetic, cognitive flexibility, visuo-spatial reasoning, and working memory,” the authors note.
Phillips speculates that the potential to increase learning with brain stimulation may make this form of accelerated learning commonplace. “As we discover more about optimizing, personalizing, and adapting brain stimulation protocols, we’ll likely see these technologies become routine in training and classroom environments,” he says. “It’s possible that brain stimulation could be implemented for classes like drivers’ training, SAT prep, and language learning.”
Is there a word for the period, when reality catches up with scifi? Postnormal is a good start. Are there others?
Implanting False Memories
Snip from the NOVA documentary “Memory Hackers”, which aired on February 10, 2016 at PBS. Dr Julia Shaw wrote a book on the science of memory hacking: “The Memory Illusion” will be available starting June 2nd from Penguin Random House.
Btw: I warmly recommend to read The Machine written by James Smythe. It’s a neogothic scifi chamber play about broken love, the implications of nascent neurotech, dementia and domestic abuse. One of my favorite scifi stories in recent years:
Haunting memories defined him. The machine took them away. She vowed to rebuild him. From the author of The Testimony comes a Frankenstein for the twenty-first century.
Beth lives alone on a desolate housing estate near the sea. She came here to rebuild her life following her husband’s return from the war. His memories haunted him but a machine promised salvation. It could record memories, preserving a life that existed before the nightmares.
Now the machines are gone. The government declared them too controversial, the side-effects too harmful. But within Beth’s flat is an ever-whirring black box. She knows that memories can be put back, that she can rebuild her husband piece by piece.
