Brain–machine interface (bmi) as a tool for understanding human–machine cooperation

Selim Eskiizmirliler

Jerome Goffette

pp. 138-160

in: Simone Bateman, Sylvie Allouche, Jerome Goffette, Michela Marzano (eds), Inquiring into human enhancement, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015

Abstract

The abbreviation of the expression "Brain Machine Interface" (BMI), represents a popular research area generating media excitement over a great number of promising applications. Even though medical applications are the most researched, the decision makers in the world of industry (including those interested in military applications), entertainment, security, and so on, are not simply observing what is happening in this field but are also investing in their own research. In fact, science fiction has often preceded scientists and engineers in imagining the technologies of the future. For example, what from the Star Trek television series of the 1960s can still be considered an improbable or unbelievable image, other than the presence on board of Mr Spock, a scientist who was a hybrid of the human and Vulcan species? The image of Captain Kirk talking to Dr McCoy through his mobile phone has already become a trivial, even a troubling picture of daily life. Robot factories may not be visible to everyone but they mass produce, maybe not the clever R2-D2 or C-3PO droids of the film Star Wars , but powerful, precise, high speed manipulators that can increase production while decreasing the necessary manpower.