Silicon Valley geeks are ‘turning their kids into CYBORGS’ that can ‘detect liars and even force themselves to feel happy’

A NEUROSCIENTIST has admitted to "turning her child into a cyborg" – and says she wants to control emotions using brain chips.

It's just one example of the growing transhumanist movement: using technology to turn us all into super-humans.

Vivienne Ming is a theoretical neuroscientist, and a world-famous expert on artificial intelligence.

And she says that her son's double-diagnosis of autism and diabetes inspired her to "turn him into a cyborg".

"I reacted as a mad scientist and built him a superpower," Ming wrote in .

"When he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, I hacked his insulin pump and built an AI that learned to match his insulin to his emotions and activities."

DETECTING LIES

She also said that the autism diagnosis prompted her to create a clever system to catch liars.

As an undergrad, Ming worked on a machine-learning system that recognises facial expressions in video – as part of what she calls a "crazy CIA scheme".

"It explored every frame of video, learning the facial muscle movements that indicated disgust (nose wrinkle + upper lip raise) or anger (eyebrows down and together + eyes glare + lips narrow)," she said.

"It even learned to distinguish “false” smiles from “true,” otherwise known as duchenne smiles (tightening superobital muscles around the eyes)."

Then when the Google Glass smart glasses came out, Ming decided to pair the two technologies.

In 2013, she debuted her SuperGlass concept that can recognise expressions of a face, and the display the emotion using Google Glass.

This was designed to help a person with autism better understand when a person was happy, sad, angry or something else.

"But the more I experimented, the more I realised that I didn’t want to 'cure' my son’s autism," Ming explained.

"I didn’t want to lose him and his wonderful differences. SuperGlass became a tool to translate between his experience and us neurotypicals (a scientific term that means “your brain is boring”).

"It didn’t level the playing field—it just gave him a different bat to play with."

HACKING THE BRAIN

But Ming also thinks that the future of humanity lies in neuroprosthetics – implants that connect to your brain.

Plenty of these implants already exist, including retinal implants for blind people and motor neuroprosthetics to treat paralysis.

Some implants are even used for "deep brain stimulation" to help treat disorders like Parkinson's and depression.

Ming also helped create an AI-driven cochlear implant, designed to restore hearing for some forms of deafness.

The AI was trained to "hear" and make better sense of sounds.

"Our experiments showed that the algorithm greatly improved speech perception for those using the implants," she said.

ENHANCING PERSONALITY

Part of Ming's work has also investigated modifying our personalities.

One of her projects is the HUMM wearable headband that sends electrical signals to enhance connections between parts of the brain.

"This stimulation promotes an increase in multitasking performance, attention, and working memory span," Ming wrote.

"In a recent experiment, adults increased the length of a sequence of lights and sounds they could regularly remember by 20% when wearing the HUMM device, compared to a sham stimulation.

"In another recent experiment, similar stimulation improved working memory in seniors experiencing cognitive decline."

She says true performance-enhancing devices are in the near future – and said they'll be just like music equalisers.

However, rather than connecting to a speaker, the controller app would simply collect link up to a chip in your brain.

"You might already have an app on your phone that allows you to amplify the bass and treble of the songs you listen to," the neuroscientist explained.

"Adjusting the slider controls around doesn’t fundamentally change the song, but it emphasises different elements, from the clarity of voice in an opera to the big bass drop of dance music.

"Now imagine the app equalises you. Instead of adjusting the power at different sound frequencies, sliding a controller on this app boosts your attention or dampens your creativity.

"Add in a boost for memory and you are ready to cram for an exam.

"Hit the “Date Night” preset to stimulate emotion and focus while dampening cognition. (If there’s a bad romantic comedy in your near future, why be too smart to enjoy it?).

"These abilities could become a sweet 16 gift from hyper-competitive parents, or bought in Silicon Valley strip malls as performance-enhancing pick-me-ups."

Silicon Valley is even undertaking a quest for immortality – with cell injections, magnetic chairs and brain implants.

Maybe they've all gone mad, however: Silicon Valley geeks are paying £1,000 a month just to sleep in a bunk bed.

And one Silicon Valley billionaire has even paid $10,000 to be killed and have his brain digitally preserved.

Would you like to become a cyborg? Let us know in the comments!

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