Why This Brain-Hacking Technology Will Turn Us All Into Cyborgs – The Daily Beast

It felt like magic: As I moved my head and eyes across the computer screen, the cursor moved with me. My goal was to click on pictures of targets on the display. Once the cursor reached a target, I would blink causing it to click on the targetas if it were reading my mind.

Of course, thats essentially what was happening. The headband I was wearing picked on my brain, eye, and facial signals. This data was fed through an AI-software that translated it into commands for the cursor. This allowed me to control what was on the screen, even though I didnt have a mouse or a trackpad. I didnt need them. My mind was doing all of the work.

The brain, eye, and face are great generators of electricity, Naeem Kemeilipoor, the founder of brain-computer interface (BCI) startup AAVAA, told The Daily Beast at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show. Our sensors pick up the signals, and using AI we can interpret them.

The headband is just one of AAVAAs products that promises to bring non-invasive BCIs to the consumer market. Their other devices include AR glasses, headphones, and earbuds that all essentially accomplish the same function: reading your brain and facial signals to allow you to control your devices.

While BCI technology has largely remained in the research labs of universities and medical institutions, startups like AAVAA are looking for ways to put them in the handsor, rather, on the headsof everyday people. These products go beyond what we typically expect of our smart devices, seamlessly integrating our brain with technology around us. They also offer a lot of hope and promise for people with disabilities or limited mobilityallowing them to interact with and control their computers, smartphones, and even wheelchairs.

However, BCIs also blur the lines between the tech around us and our very minds. Though they can be helpful for people with disabilities, their widespread use and adoption raises questions and concerns about privacy, security, and even a users very personhood. Allowing a device to read our brain signals throws open the doors to these ethical considerations so, as they steadily become more popular, they could become more dangerous as well.

AAVAAs BCI devices on a table at CES 2024. AAVAA is looking for ways to put them in the handsor, rather, on the headsof everyday people.

BCIs loomed large all throughout CES 2024and for good reason. Beyond being able to control your devices, wearables that could read brain signals also promised to provide greater insights into users health, wellness, and productivity habits.

There were also a number of devices targeted at improving sleep quality such as the Frenz Brainband. The headband measures users brainwaves, heart rate, and breathing (among other metrics) to provide AI-curated sounds and music to help them fall asleep.

Every day is different and so every day your brain will be different, a Frenz spokesperson told The Daily Beast. Today, your brain might feel like white noise or nature sounds. Tomorrow, you might want binaural beats. Based on your brains reactions to your audio content, we know whats best for you.

To produce the noises, the headband used bone conduction, which converts audio data into vibrations on the skull that travel to the inner ear producing sound. Though it was difficult to hear clearly on the crowded show floor of CES, the headband managed to produce soothing beats as I wore them in a demo.

When you fall asleep, the audio automatically fades out, the spokesperson said. The headband keeps tracking all night, and if you wake up, you can press a button on the side to start the sounds to put you back to sleep.

However, not all BCIs are quite as helpful as they might appear. For example, there was MW75 Neuro, a pair of headphones from Master and Dynamic that purports to read your brains electroencephalogram (EEG) signals to provide insights on your level of focus. If you become distracted or your focus wanes for whatever reason, it alerts you so you can maintain productivity.

Sure, this might seem helpful if youre a student looking to squeeze in some more quality study time or a writer trying to hit a deadline on a story, but its also a stark and grim example of late-stage capitalism and a culture obsessed with work and productivity. While this technology is relatively new, its not difficult to imagine a future where these headphones are more commonplace andpotentiallyrequired by workplaces.

When most people think about BCIs, they typically think of brain-chip startups like Synchron and Neuralink. However, these technologies require users to undergo invasive surgeries in order to implant the technology. Non-invasive BCIs from the likes of AAVAA, on the other hand, require just a headband or headphones.

Thats what makes them so promising, Kemeilipoor explained. No longer would it be limited to only those users who really need it like those with disability issues. Any user can pop on the headband and start scrolling on their computer or turning their lamps and appliances on and off.

The Daily Beasts intrepid reporter Tony Ho Tran wears AAVAAs headband, which promises to bring non-invasive BCIs to the consumer market.

Its out of the box, he explained. Weve done the training [for the BCI] and now it works. Thats the beauty of what we do. It works right out of the boxand it works for everyone.

However, the fact that it can work for everyone is a top concern for ethical experts. Technology like this creates a minefield of potential privacy issues. After all, these companies may potentially have completely unfettered access to data from our literal brains. This is information that can be bought, sold, and used against consumers in an unprecedented way.

One comprehensive review published in 2017 in the journal BMC Medical Ethics pointed out that privacy is a major concern for potential users for this reason. BCI devices could reveal a variety of information, ranging from truthfulness, to psychological traits and mental states, to attitudes toward other people, creating potential issues such as workplace discrimination based on neural signals, the authors wrote.

To their credit, Kemeilipoor was adamant that AAVAA would and does not have access to individual brain signal data. But the concerns are still there, especially since there are notable examples of tech companies misusing user data. For example, Facebook has been sued multiple times for millions of dollars for storing users biometric data without their knowledge or consent. (Theyre certainly not the only company doing this either.)

These issues arent going to go awayand theyll be further exacerbated by the infusion of technology and the human brain. This is a phenomenon that also brings up concerns about personhood as well. At what point, exactly, does the human end and the computer begin once you are able to essentially control devices as an extension of yourself like your arms or legs?

The questionis it a tool or is it myself?takes on an ethical valence when researchers ask whether BCI users will become cyborgs, the authors wrote. They later added that some ethical experts worry that being more robotic makes one less human.

Yet, the benefits are undeniableespecially for those for whom BCIs could give more autonomy and mobility. Youre no longer limited by what you can do with your hands. Now, you can control the things around you simply by looking in a certain direction or moving your face in a specific way. It doesnt matter if youre in a wheelchair or completely paralyzed. Your mind is the limit.

This type of technology is like the internet of humans, Kemeilipoor said. This is the FitBit of the future. Not only are you able to monitor all your biometrics, it also allows you to control your devicesand its coming to market very soon.

Its promising. Its scary. And its also inevitable. The biggest challenge that we all must face is thatas these devices become more popular and we gradually give over our minds and bodies to technologywe dont lose what makes us human in the first place.

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Why This Brain-Hacking Technology Will Turn Us All Into Cyborgs - The Daily Beast

Daily Wire host plots to smear Disney: "We need to turn Mickey [Mouse] into a Nazi" – Media Matters for America

Citation From the January 3, 2024, edition of The Daily Wire's The Michael Knowles Show

MICHAEL KNOWLES (HOST): Mickey Mouse has to become a Nazi. He has to. Because Disney is a very, very evil corporation that wants to trans your kids and fill their heads with all sorts of crazy ideas, and Disney's gotta go. Disney's gotta go, guys. You heard all the Disney executives talking about their not-so-secret LGBTLMNOP agenda. You've seen what Disney has done in recent years, so much so that the governor of Florida had to take political action against them to stop Disney from trying to interfere in the democratic process in Florida to stop the libs from transing your kids. OK? Disney is really, really bad. And so, one of the best things that we can do right now is make the Disney characters toxic. And coincidentally, call it providentially, whatever it is, the Disney character is now in the public domain.

And what this means is we need to turn Mickey into a Nazi because Nazis are bad. We're not gonna turn Mickey into a Nazi because the Nazis are good. You see, I'm quite anti-Nazi. I assume you are as well. In fact, being a Nazi is the worst thing you can possibly be today and for a very long time. So, we need to turn Disney into the worst thing it can possibly be, and it can be done. In fact, I'm shocked that the mischievous people on places like 4chan and other internet boards haven't done this already.

Remember what they did to that cartoon frog? There was that cartoon frog -- this was many years ago. I'm dating myself to think back on the halcyon years of 2016. 2016, which was eight years ago, by the way. In my mind, 2016 was like two years ago. It was eight years ago. But, anyway, back in those days, there was this cartoon frog that a regular cartoonist had made, and it was kind of a popular webcomic. And then these guys on 4chan turned the frog into a Nazi. And since then, the frog has actually, I think, come out of his Nazi phase. I don't -- it's very difficult to track memes because it's -- it's mimetic. Right? It just kind of -- it moves through imitation, and it's -- it's really hard to get your hands on. But for a while, the frog was a Nazi. And it drove the cartoonist who made the frog completely crazy because the frog became a hate symbol. It was listed on all -- SPLC, ADL, all these different lists. And we can do the same with Mickey Mouse. It's not just enough to make Mickey Mouse a serial killer as you're seeing in these movies. Mickey Mouse has to become the most odious kind of symbol in the entire world. And we have the ability to do it, not using any major institutional power, just through the power of memes by pseudonymous accounts on random internet boards. That's what's gotta happen because Disney's bad, and Disney's gotta go down.

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Daily Wire host plots to smear Disney: "We need to turn Mickey [Mouse] into a Nazi" - Media Matters for America

ARGENTINA SNUBS BRICS AS ITS FIREBRAND POPULIST LEADER TAKES POWER – The Sunday Guardian

Milei has already begun to backtrack on some of the key proposals of complete dollarisation and shutting down Argentinas central bank, arguing that it will take time to achieve given the economic crisis.

LONDON

Well, that didnt last long. We will not join the BRICS, said Diana Mondino, who will serve as Argentinas top diplomat in the government of President-elect Javier Milei when he is sworn into office today. Only last August at the summit in Johannesburg, members of the bloc consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South America invited Argentina, along with five other countries, to become new members. It was planned that Argentinas membership would have taken effect three weeks tomorrow, along with Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Now the expanded BRICS will consist of ten countries on 1 January 2024 instead of the planned eleven. Although Mondinos announcement appeared to be a bolt from the blue, no-one who followed the far-right populist Mileis election campaign would have been surprised. During the campaign he criticised Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva many times, labelling him an angry communist and socialist with a totalitarian vocation. Brazil is Argentinas biggest trading partner. Milei also harshly criticised China, comparing the government to an assassin and threatening to cut off ties. I would not promote relations with communists, whether its Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Nicaragua, or China, he said in an August interview on Bloomberg Television. China has been a major investor in the Argentine economy and Beijing had been concerned that an anti-China administration in Buenos Aires could harm Chinas extensive interests in the country, ranging from mining to a secretive space station China operates in Argentina. Knowing Mileis anti-Beijing stance, President Xi Jinping had bet heavily on the Peronists candidate, former Economic Minister Sergio Massa, even releasing a $6.5 billion in yuan into the two countries bilateral currency swap account just before voting took place, hoping to help prop up the Argentine economy and prevent further currency devaluation prior to the election. It turned out to be a bad bet by Xi.

In the event, Javier Milei won by a surprisingly large margin of twelve points in the presidential election on 19 November. Now the big question is whether he can turn around the countrys crisis-stricken economy. Milei campaigned on the promise of deep spending cuts and dollarisation, the idea of replacing the Argentinian peso with the US dollar. In promising shock therapy for Argentina, Milei also campaigned on plans to shut the central bank and slash spending. But all this will be hard to implement given the countrys political and economic realities. After the result of the poll was announced, Milei made his customary defiant speech. The model of decadence has come to an end and theres no going back, he declared. He then raised the challenges that faced the country: we have monumental problems aheadinflation, lack of work and poverty. The situation is critical and theres no place for tepid half-measures. In fact, Mileis challenges are even greater than monumental. Government coffers are empty and theres also the not-so-small matter of a $44 billion debt program with the International Monetary Fund. The country has a dizzying array of capital controls and a humongous inflation rate nearing 150 percent. In an attempt to curb the runaway inflation, in October Argentinas central bank had raised the benchmark rate of interest to an astonishing 118 percent. Mileis victory marked a profound rupture in Argentinas system of political representation. The 53-year-old economist and former TV personality shattered the hegemony of the two leading political forces that have dominated the countrys politics since the 1940s: the Peronists on the left and Together for Change on the right. His opponent, the 51-year-old Peronist candidate and experienced wheeler-dealer, Sergio Massa, had sought to appeal to voter fears about Mileis plans to cut back the size of the state as well as his volatile character. In the early part of the campaign Milei outrageously carried a chainsaw as a symbol of his planned cuts, but decided to shelve it in the weeks before voting took place in order to help boost his moderate image. Massas appeal went unheeded.

So now the hard work begins. In recent years, Argentina has lurched from one profound economic crisis to another. The country is also currently in recession, fuelled by a three-year drought that has done much damage to agricultural exports. The harvest of soybeans, one of the nations biggest exports, is barely one-third of five years ago. All this is exacerbating the cost of living crisis, which has already driven poverty levels above forty percent. Meanwhile, Argentina holds the unenviable position of being number one on the debtor list of the IMF. Stringent currency controls have made it hard to move money out of the country, which has led to a black market in pesos whose value has also been falling sharply. During election debates, Milei argued that by stopping the central bank from printing more money, which it has relied on to finance public spending, and replacing the peso with the US dollar, inflation would be cured. Sceptical critics claimed that this would be impractical as the central bank would lose control over monetary policy, and in any case Argentina has insufficient currency reserves to implement the plan. Mileis dollarisation plan is also a worry for economists; but political opposition and Argentinas lack of foreign reserves make the chances of that happening narrow at best. As so often when populists meet reality, since his victory Milei has already begun to backtrack on some of the key proposals of complete dollarisation and shutting down Argentinas central bank, arguing that it will take time to achieve this given the economic crisis. His pragmatism is also likely to extend to foreign policy.

While Mileis control over Argentinas economic fate is limited, hell have an element of free reign over the countrys foreign policy. During the campaign he announced some very large shifts in Argentinas relationships with other countries. The outgoing President Alberto Fernandez had pursued a foreign policy aligned with many of his leftist counterparts in South America, including Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Fernandez built political alliances through the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and recently convinced the BRICS member states to make Argentina one of the countries included in the organisations first expansion. The far-right populist Milei plans to undo all that.

During the election campaign, Milei insisted that his foreign policy would strengthen ties with the free world and avoid contact with communist countries. After the primaries, he indicated that he would freeze official trade relations with China, but his campaign rhetoric is already giving way to pragmatism. Since his win, Milei has softened his stance on Beijing in view of China being Argentinas second largest trade partner, accounting for nearly ten percent of all Argentinian exports. He has also sought to mend fences with Brazils President Lula by inviting him to todays inauguration, an invitation which Lula snubbed by nominating his Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira in his place. Maybe its also because Lulas arch rival, former Argentine President Jair Bolsonaro, has accepted an invitation to attend. Javier Milei is hardly the first of that countrys leaders to come to power boldly promising a cure for Argentinas extensive economic and social problems. For decades, new leaders on both left and right of the political spectrum have come to power with a radical reform programme breaking with the past. None of them have had more than temporary success in taking the country out of the malaise that has characterised most of its modern history. Will the libertarian populist Milei break the mould? Probably not. He might even change his mind and decide to join the expanded BRICS!

John Dobson is a former British diplomat, who also worked in UK Prime Minister John Majors office between 1995 and 1998. He is currently Visiting Fellow at the University of Plymouth.

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ARGENTINA SNUBS BRICS AS ITS FIREBRAND POPULIST LEADER TAKES POWER - The Sunday Guardian