Rewire your brain for 100 bucks?

Post Reply New Topic

There is an indirect alternative being developed. Transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) is a way of running electrical current through the brain with electrodes attached to the outside of the skull. The US Defence Advanced Research Agency (Darpa) currently uses tDCS to improve the learning speed of snipers, claiming it cuts the learning curve by a factor of 2.5. There are issues, though. "They learn more quickly but they don't have a good intuitive or introspective sense about why,” says Vincent Clark, neuroscientist at the University of New Mexico.

Such devices were initially expensive, but now GoFlow sells a DIY kit for $99, which consists of two electrodes, cables and a 9-volt battery. So, in theory, everybody can try and tune his or her own brain at home. But if it is not applied correctly, anything could happen – from enhancing intelligence (intended), rewiring our brains (who knows?) through to electrocuting ourselves (not intended). Neuroscientist Roi Cohen Kadosh from Oxford University says he wouldn’t buy the DIY kit, because he thinks it is premature to distribute it to non-experts. “People might feel like they should stimulate their brain as much as they want, but just as buying a medicine on the counter, you need to know when to use it, how often, in what conditions and in what cases you should not take it.”


So what do you think about at home kits??
What could possibly go wrong?

Full storie

Last edited by johnny77 on 05 Jan 2013, 1:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Want!! !

I'd pay a year's allowance for one of those!

The DIY kit sounds rather like trying to improve the performance of your computer by giving it a kick. While it "might" work, the odds are that it will f**k it up more than do any good.

So basically you strap a couple electrodes to your head and send a couple hundred amps of electricity through your skull? Nothing could go wrong!!

Lol this reminds me of this:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3LHAlcrTRA[/youtube]

I'd rather spend my $100 on something that would make me happy and keep me entertained. You can never have too much music.

If you hit your limbic system you might be happy then again any emotion might happen. Like instant "O" very entertaining but could be sorrow or instant depression.
I'm going thru similar treatment, but very controlled manner.
I'm curious what other people think of a potential home lobotomy kit/ or effective brain stimulation device is so keep them coming.

Hmm..... seems a bit risky, but I dunno.

I can see a spike in my luminosity chart for about a week after a treatment. Just thought Id throw that out there.

I'd go for it. I desperately wish to be a talented artist, and I'd give anything to get it at a rapid rate, especially considering that my skills are way behind what I thought they'd be at this point in my life. I'd make a contract with Kyubey in order to become a talented artist, so what are a few electrodes in my brain going to do? At worst I'd become lobotomized or an entirely different person, and I don't see either of those as necessarily a bad thing given how much I hate myself.

They'd have to pay me more than $100 to mess with something as crazy as that.

Oh, wait, they want me to pay them for the privilidge? I think not.

If it were developed to the point of being safe and customizable I would certainly "pay them" 100$ to do it and I'd do it several times just to experiment with altered perceptions and ways of processing the world around me.

I want to alter my reality. Gimme gimme gimme.

Since they kindly provide the circuit diagram and as it uses off-the-shelf components, you could build one for considerably less that $100 - probably nearer $10.

Don't worry their will be cheap knock offs that will lobotomize you for 5 bucks next year just before Xmas.