Man-Machine Interface at the Silicon-Neuron Level

The Mundane-SF blog found a cool article that provides the results of new research into connecting neurons with silicon chips. The article titled “Researchers get neurons and silicon talking” posted on Physorg.com states the key finding as follows:

European researchers have created an interface between mammalian neurons and silicon chips. The development is a crucial first step in the development of advanced technologies that combine silicon circuits with a mammal’s nervous system…The ultimate applications are potentially limitless. In the long term it will possibly enable the creation of very sophisticated neural prostheses to combat neurological disorders. What’s more, it could allow the creation of organic computers that use living neurons as their CPU…

While the prosthesis aspects sound pretty similar to Kevin Warwick’s I, Cyborg project, the organic computer stuff is straight out of a post-human, cyberpunk future. Similar to how the cyborgs in Ghost in the Shell have access to vast amounds of data via a computer brain link, this technology holds extreme potential for changing society.