What Port is This?!

l0ckergn0me posted a photo:chris.pirillo.com/2008/05/13/what-port-is-this/

For those of us who have been playing shadow run and cyberpunk for years… the answer is simple… its called a head jack. Gothic and cyber goth rpg’s have played around with this idea for some time. White Wolf even had a whole class of being for their game Mage The Accention which they called the Virtual Adept. Magic users who focused their very will through their computers. Of course in the same game, there were the ‘bad guys’ called the technocracy. Beings whose job it was to extinguish or corrupt magic, thus keeping the reality of science on the top of the food chain.

My first thought would be USBrain, a bit cheesy I guess and also people may argue that that’s not an USB port but an Ethernet one…

Maybe we’ll hear someone talk about the Information Neural Highway or something like that.

I like the You don’t know jack … it explains a lot with out saying a lot. lol… though, if my port in my head isn’t GB/s… its outta here! I’m having it uninstalled. lol… Geeks, I know! Geeks FTW

Here’s the deal, it’s really just a 56k modem, but they made the jack look like ethernet. You see, you can’t just expect us to jump from where we are know, to 100Mbps/1 Gigabit speeds for transferring data between our heads did you? When this really does happen, we’ll have to start at the bottom again, because even though we seem smart, human beings will always somehow be sent back a bit in one way or another.

At what point are we going to convert to futurama and have career chips planted in our palms? Or maybe bar codes on our foreheads. That way we can skip all the nonsense of airport security.

It would be interesting to have a wifi chip planted in your head though. But then we’d slowly evolve into beings that never leave virtual reality, and causing the end of humanity. Have a nice day.

Chris,

This is not that far off into the future. I was reading a story on a scientist who made some kind of implant that connected to the internet. He implanted his device inside him and he somehow used it to control the opening/closing of his labs doors and the on/off of his computer. I saw this on CNN so I am NOT making it up.

The scary part is that what happens when someone figures out how to hack these implants. It makes hacking/hackers possible murderers. It is a very scary concept. Also, will the government be able to get into your brain’s computer and shut it down? Will they do that to people who have the implant, committed a crime, and are on the loose to catch them and bring them to justice?

On that CNN special I was watching the creator of the implant actually said that in the future humans who don’t have this implant will become inferior beings. Did you hear this?!? Inferior beings! That means that in the future everything will be controlled via your brain’s computer and those who don’t have an implant will not be able to function in society.

Just look at what advantages people with access to the Internet have over those who do not. This is just the same thing on a whole bigger level.

Personally, I don’t think that I would have a device like the one that I have described implanted in me. Not at all. Even if it had a built-in GPS in it in case I was lost/kidnapped. The possible threats out-weigh the advantages of it. Besides, didn’t you just write a post about information overload?

seems pretty interesting, if this were possible i would probably go back to the farthest my brain can remember, most likely it’s a lot longer than what i think, you would spend countless hours on your computer just watching yourself go through grade school and kingdegarten, it would be amazing to see all of that. i hope something comes out like this in the near future, which is a probable no.

I would call it a Nero port.
Have you seen Johnny Mnemonic with Keanu Reeves he has a data port in the back of his head he uses to transport data. That would be cool to be able to back up memories and be able to watch them on you pc. No one would need a camera or video camera again. In addition, it would be easer to convict criminals or prove innocence in the courts, no longer needing lawyers or judges. Just plug them in and see if they did the crime saving us big money on the court system. The school system would never be the same again. Just plug your kids in and upload the information directly to there brain instant learning.

Wow. Although it makes sense that the gap between the body and technology will eventually be bridged, it still seems somewhat psuedo-sci-fi. I guess it’s already starting to happen with RFID chips and the like, though. And I’m (somewhat) involved in the security industry as well, and it’s not unheard of to implement access control systems with chip implants as opposed to keycards/FOBs, etc.

I would call the wife crossover cable the love port. Hopefully it will improve the relationship all around because communication would be made easy and finally understandable and not in another language as it is now lol. Being able to store our data in our minds would be something amazing. I need this, I often forget what I need to know and a data disk of sorts would save me a lot of time relearning information for my college courses.

This is a really good idea in today’s modern world and some experts say that the human mind has an equivolent of 35 TB of storage, so a ethernet port is useful for some of us, but honestly wireless (draft n) is much more useful than wired link.

“I’d likely also get a port installed in my wife’s body, purchase a crossover cable, and solve our communication issues once and for all.”

Hahahaha… Now that is good and that made my day! Thanks Chris!

id name it the snort port beacuse when it opens up and fills u full of junk you dont want to deal with you will be snorting and crying begging god why o why did i marry this foul she beast shes sucking my will to live …then i will go hug my computer and say u will always be their for me wont u computer as i glide my fingers across the wavy keys my wife looking upon me saying he use to touch me like that ….:P

It totally looks like an Ethernet port, but I think that USB would be much simpler for transfer. At the same time, you have to think about what OS you will be running to safe guard against hackers, viruses, and crashes…

Personally, I don’t think that any current OS would be good enough for this type of thing. Not to mention that no one has figured out how to program in BRAIN language. (No, I don’t know what BRAIN stands for, but I’m sure someone could figure it out)

I agree that it would be totally awesome to be able to go to the “bookstore” and buy a thumbdrive with books pre-installed, and then just upload the contents to your brain. It would just about eliminate the public school system because Homeschoolers could learn in a year what Public schoolers would learn in 12!!!

Chris, we already do have a jack into our brains! Its are 6 senses that let us learn. Though it would be cool to just stick a wire in our brain that lets us learn all the info that is digitized. I wonder what file format our brain uses?

I like the idea it sounds quite futuristic but the picture in the port did look a bit old for when it would most likely be used whatever cool story!

Haha, yes! That port would be amazing. Reminds me of the minority report movie. You would need an incredibly high bandwith interface in order to read as the speed of brain cells. This would be great for speed learning….or in your case…solving those difficult wife issues….

I would probly refrain from this as the government would start to try to control our thoughts and actions and we would no longer have free will. Soon people will be able to google each other on the web literally! Whats next?!?

I clearly noticed that was a network port. I could mostly tell because it has the two yellow lights on each side. I know that is a bad way to determine what ports are what by there LED’s but I swear every Ethernet port has one of those LED’s. Plus this port is very important when there is no wifi or wireless internet pot is available. So you can go over to your neighbors house with a Fios connection, and plug you laptop into there network. And use your bit-torrent client.

That would be kind of creepy having a port for data storage right to your brain. What if it caused some type of problem with your brain if something went wrong?

What a cool idea. It would just about eliminate things like losing the car keys, to say the least. About that wife port I think a good name would be Ponzi Port for sure. : )

I’ve always wished there were memory slots that you could install onto your brain with pre-loaded information. This would make learning a lot more easy but at the same time would take away the importance of the process of learning.

This conjures up images of The Matrix, the predictions of Ray Kurzweil, that very bad Robin Williams movie, and the eccentric (if not insane) theories of Frank Tipler. Anyway, the idea dosen’t bother at all, in theory. After all, who wouldn’t like to revisit their childhood memories, or relive favorite moments, or replay some of our most bizarre and imaginative dreams.

I believe that Chris’ most favorite post is the USB port. So this would be the most compatible port. If you wanted to connect wireless, I think bluetooth would be the best.

Do you really want that much conectivity? Do you really want to hardwire your brain to your computer ant the internet? think of all the spam/phiching/viruses/etc that show up in email now; do you really want that coming into your brain while you are concentrating on work?! Do you really need that much info flowing directly into your brain while trying to say, cut vegetbles for supper, or driving along the freeway? If they are cracking down on cellphone use, imagine what they will do with this.

This is quite a topic. It would be really creepy if you could transfer your knowledge onto something like a computer. As for a belly button port, would I’d be a USB or a firewire? LOL. The wife port name would be errrr…. Nag-sb :)

i wonder if the human race will end up to be androids, i read and watched on tv about a person the that was a artist or something like that and he asked a surgeon to implant like a microphone that looks like a ear in one of his forearms, so he did but his body rejected it so he had to remove it, a other guy split his tongue and put in implants in his forehead just because he loves crocs, snakes and similar animals, in some states is it taboo to tattoo, that network jack reminds me of a episode of DrWho, they had implants in their foreheads, the forehead opened up by clapping and information could easily pass into the head by a energy beam.

Eddie Ringle had a clever take…but I think differently. I think the brain processes things much faster than we ‘normal’ folk realize. There’s lots going on behind the scenes than we really understand.

That said, I couldn’t imagine plugging myself in every day. That’s just weird. But a wireless connectivity room would be cool. Meditation music, relaxed lighting…Courtney Thorne-Smith giving me a massage…oh wait…sorry! ;)

I only see one problem with this… hacked into some ones brain and “DELETE TO UTTER STUPIDITY”… and have Identity theft.

i’ve been thinking of that YEARS ago!!! there are some things that you just can’t express in words or actions easily, but what if you just send the other person the idea itself instead of him/her having to interpret it.
The concept behind my idea was to install a bluetooth-like short range transmitter that can send the idea wirelessly. it’s like reading the other person’s mind(with permission of course!).

It would be pretty cool to offload your brain onto a disk for later use or safe keeping… but imagine the implications of this technolgy. For one, if information can be extracted or inserted to and from your brain… that would open up the possibility of all sorts of misuse. Sure the technology would have many good things going for it and you could upload knowledge and all that, but what about when someone decides to hack into your brain or upload some little nasty in there. I think if all the data that we hold in our brains is accessible in such a manner… well, wouldn’t that sort of remove our identity… I mean our inner thoughts and dreams IS what makes us individual. Then again, checking your e-mail by thinking about it is pretty darn cool.
Oh yeah, and… uhmmm… my wife has all the necessary ports in her body already, no need to add another.

This very port was realized in the Doctor Who episode, “The Long Game.”

Funny picture. If he has a USB port in the Back of his head he’ll able to back up lol. j/k. I dont think Ponzi would like a Port on her body lol. Just gonna have to take the arguments lol

that is creepy and neat at the same time. imagine all of the storing capacity if the brain.

I think I would call it Brain Port, pretty simple I would say… And I think this kind of port(or a LOT smaller) could be awesome! I’d get one of these… =P.
-Ruben

Hmmm.. What first comes to my mind is an Ethernet port.. so we can have a boost of speed when needed :D.
High speed internet in the brain.. As if we were running on nothing right now … Or maybe dial up. Think of what we could do with Cox Communications plugged into our heads

wow… thats kind of wierd, but in the future would be very usefull, i mean if some one died they could just look at the copy of there brain to see who gets there money…

I am not sure if this is a joke or not, but I do not think this is practical. We, as humans, do not even know how the brain works. So how are we going to dump information from or brains to a computer? Plus, what would be the purpose?

Additionally, as GGCO said earlier in the comments section of this blog post, I do not like the idea of humans becoming inferior being for not conforming to this new technology.

I’d call it the Amazing ultra super brain port, It has a nice ring to it. If this existed, it would be amazing, knowledge would be easier to obtain and people wouldn’t forget things because they would always have a backup.

That’s crazy!!! There was a doctor who series with something like that.
But this wouldn’t be so useful you have to know the think to download it from your brain, bad people could hack your brain and they could do absolute brain wash. Even the think of it is horrible!

Chris, wouldn’t you need a straight-through cable for you and your wife? I doubt a crossover cable would work!

This port could have many different names depending on the person. There are the DSL and cable guys who are average joes that only need a Cat4 connecter, while the smartypants FIOS person has the fancy Cat5. You never know, but there may still be some people with the 56k modem jack….

XD

Well, there are several people who suffer from paralysis who are using cranial chipsets and plugs to communicate with computers. How long before we literally have songs stuck in our head? Not sure I’ll see that day but it’s certainly in the future for people.

But wouldn’t this be a sort of… cloning type of thing? Backing up everything in our minds is pretty much putting a human being on a flash drive, it just can’t be done. People are flawed, unlike computers, that’s the reason we forget things is because we’re human! If we could fix all our social / human problems with computers… wouldn’t we become more like robots?

I think that I would like to see a port inside the mouth of a person that has just eaten a blueberry pie. The port would obviously be called…”Blue Tooth”.
Sorry, but I actually went there.

Manthernet! A mix of Man and Ethernet!! I don’t see why in the future, decrypting the signal traveling along our optic nerves would be impossible. If we could do that, then I think it would be possible to record out memories as they happen. But how decremental could reliving some of your darker memories?

I think this would be an Communication port or you can slot in there external back up device to store the Information if you have a information overload, hehe

It would be cool if we could browse memories and such. There could be a device that tracks you’re brain and works like a computer file sorter. Sort of like a journal of documents. Nice thought.

No thanks to a physical port. I’d rather rely on wireless data transfer. The real question is “how will our brain interpret DRM?”

Wouldn’t be awesome not to study a couple years at university but conect your brain to a high speed network an download all the information you learn in 4 years at college in a couple minutes?:)

I think that with Nanotechnology, this could turn out to be a big deal. Being able to listen to a song in your head without headphones and cancel out noise would be awesome (im not talkin day dreaming, im talkin legit files here). But if we had a port, I dont know what to call it. Maybe Bill’s Gate?

One shall be uber connected with this. imagine in 50 years people plug themselves in not the PC

The man to woman direct interface would have to be called the “ImpossiPort”.
I’d go for a hardwired interface, I’d be concerned about hacking with wireless.

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