Gates Says No to Implants 376
Tamas Feher from Hungary writes "The future of Slashdot's infamous Borg Bill thumbnail image may be in jeopardy after Microsoft founder William H. Gates said technology will one day allow computer implants - but hardwiring's not for him. 'One of the guys that works at Microsoft... always says to me 'I'm ready, plug me in,"' Gates said Friday at a Microsoft seminar in Singapore when he was asked whether computers would ever be implanted in the human brain. "I don't feel quite the same way. I'm happy to have the computer over there and I'm over here.' "
soon... (Score:2)
Re:soon... (Score:5, Interesting)
Do you have any kind of evidence whatsoever to back that up?
Re:soon... (Score:5, Funny)
Hm. I suspect your tenure as an active slashdotter has not been as lengthy as it may have been, or in more common parlance, "you must be new here".
Your cowardly reliance on anonymity, forthermore, may imply a certain embarrassment concerning your slashdot userid. I'd wager it's around twice mine.
I'm sorry. I'll get back to the point.
Now, you'll notice that the parent whom you prompt for evidence employs the phrase "open source" in a context suggesting blind allegiance and a rampant desire to propagate it (often at the expense of procreation).
This being slashdot, the original poster is exempt from the condition of providing evidence.
Or do you think that it is a bad thing for open source to be propelled?
Gentlemen moderators, the parent requires to be moderated "funny". No one on slashdot is dumb enough to require proof of outrageous claims.
Re:soon... (Score:2)
When I read that, I heard it in the voice of that Simpsons Comic Book. Was I the only one?
Re:soon... (Score:3, Insightful)
Hmm. And I see yours is just over quadruple mine. Let me explain to you how it works in the 'real world.'
Money as a Motivator > Pretty much a
Re:soon... (Score:4, Interesting)
Sorry but that just isn't true.
Most people when they have enough money to live comfortably find other motivations (suggesting that money is only a secondary motive, and comfort/survival are the primary ones).. how many people here have quite a higher paying job for less money but a better environment? In that case the equation is evil Boss + Lots of money nice Boss + less money.
I myself quite a job earning double what I am now to work on my favourite opensource project full time.. I've still got enough to live on, just can't buy as much new hardware every month.. big deal.. I'm much happier as a result.
Heck I've known people who have quite *all* paying work to go voluntary for a few years, supported by donations that might or might not happen. They're some of the most motivate people I've ever met, too.
Re:soon... (Score:3, Interesting)
I would reply that I said 'Pretty Much.' I would also reply that true altruism is a very rare trait in human beings.
Bullshit, everybody is altruistic sometimes.
It's just enlightened self interest. When a boy scout helps a little old lady across the road, that's altruism. When Carnegie endowed CMU, that's altruism. When Gates endows third world health, that's altruism. When a homeless man tells another one where to get food, that's altruism. When a F/OSS source programmer writes one of the 100,000 prog
Re:soon... (Score:2, Informative)
Of course Gates doesn't want implants. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:soon... (Score:4, Interesting)
There are too sides to that.
On one hand, it's a lot more complicated than pain and death. There are probably a lot of people who would volunteer for it. Some would do it because they believe they are contributing for a greater good. Some would because they get a kick out of risks and pain. And who knows what else.
But the main problem would be regulation. In any first world country I can think of (and probably most third world countries), local health authorities are going to want to regulate it, and rightly so. Just look at all the hoops that pharmaceutical companies have to jump thru just to get a new drug tested on human subjects. And didn't just recently the FDA denied permission to implant a patient with a bionic heart? This is goint to be tested to hell and back before someone gives permission for this.
On the other hand, open source does not necesarily mean a lone coder in his basement/garage, tho sometimes that is the image that is sold by many. A consortium or a corporation with enough resources to comply with regulation could very well embrace the OS movement and develop OS implants. I don't know how likely this is since this would probably mean slower return of investment.
Re:soon... (Score:2)
DOH! I meant "two sides".
And I did use the preview button. *grumble*
Re:soon... (Score:2)
> DOH! I meant "two sides".
> And I did use the preview button. *grumble*
I am sorry, but some mistakes are unpardonable. I hope you had a good life... *ZAAAP!*
Re:soon... (Score:2)
1. It's one of their own who's testing.
2. There would be no excuse that they paid so it's alright.
In fact, if open source started doing implants, it's more likely that the authors will be testing the devices out. Therefore, there will be more on the line for open source authors. In all, I think wh
Re:soon... (Score:3, Insightful)
I disagree, as I have always found open source software more efficient on lower specification technology. One of the reasons I promote its use is that it allows for longer hardware update cycles.
On the other hand, Video games are always requiring upgrades: I have been running Linux on machines that have a lower processor and memory spec that some of the video cards I recently had to purchase to run a game!
Re:soon... (Score:3, Funny)
Playing Half-Life is what caused my manboobs.
Re: (Score:2, Redundant)
Re:I can understand his concern. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I can understand his concern. (Score:2)
Of course, he DOES have a reputation for hiring talent :) My guess is his personal security is a lot like a better paid version of the Secret Service.
Well Bill... (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, (Score:5, Funny)
Trust (Score:5, Funny)
Gee, I wonder why...
Re:Trust (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Trust (Score:2)
He can't dominate a world where people's brain are always in Beta mode, buggy and always crash.
Re:Trust (Score:3, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Trust -- catch 22 (Score:4, Insightful)
Remember: Gates and Microsoft are all about PR, but only when it hurts somebody else.
Re:Trust -- catch 22 (Score:3, Insightful)
QNX, maybe. But not Windows, Linux, or BSD.
Re:Trust (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Trust (Score:2)
Only because (Score:3, Funny)
That's Easy To Say (Score:3, Insightful)
So it's easy to say you're against connecting up to the computer, but it's not a black-and-white situation. I imagine integration will happen over several decades, not all at once.
Know What You're Talking About [whattofix.com]
Re: That's Easy To Say (Score:5, Funny)
> But where do you really draw the line?
Butt plugs.
Re: That's Easy To Say (Score:2)
Re:That's Easy To Say (Score:2)
I think it's a pretty Black and White situation, modify your body, or don't modify it. Maybe grey areas would be stuff like nanobot medicination.
Re:That's Easy To Say (Score:2)
Does wearing glasses or bracers count as modifying your body?
Re:That's Easy To Say (Score:2)
The modify version would be laser surgery.
bracers: borderline.
Re:That's Easy To Say (Score:4, Interesting)
That's not taking away an interface, any more than having a keyboard instead of punched card is taking away an interface!
Speech recognition merely allows for a different and faster interface between operator and computer, but it is still by definition an interface.
Indeed it could be argued that even hardwiring the computer directly into your brain still requires an interface, again by definition. It would just be a different type of interface, presumably much faster and one which required less effort to use, but an interface it would still be.
Re:That's Easy To Say (Score:2)
And as for sounding like a goon if you talk out loud to your computer? Doubtful. Unless you reckon people sound like goons for talking into small pieces of plastic as they do every day already (I understand those pieces of plastic are called "telephones" - they'll never catch on though because one person can ty
Re:That's Easy To Say (Score:2, Informative)
It's inevitable (Score:4, Insightful)
What happens when a chip implanted in your brain can make you 25% "smarter"? Most people will recoil at the thought; a few will take advantage of it, and it will gradually catch on, until we reach the point that the most competitive jobs routinely have super-human requirements, and the people who don't have implants will start sliding down the economic scale.
Never underestimate the power of greed to transform human society.
Re:That's Easy To Say (Score:2)
I'd draw the line at how easily the device is to disconnect. If the interface talks to my brain using E-M waves, and it's been well tested and well designed to be fail-safe, then I'd probably go for it (if the benefits were good enough). But if you're talking about an implant, that's major surgery to install, and even more major/impossible to uninstall. I'm hesitant enough that I haven't gotten laser eye surgery yet, and that's something that has a long track record and a lot of benefits.
Here I was thinking about boobies (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Here I was thinking about boobies (Score:2)
Hordes of geeks see the headline "(someone) says no to implants." and almost all presume cybernetic implants and (ironically) not silicone implants.
Hmm...the geek, or the geek that follows...
Re:Here I was thinking about boobies (Score:2)
Well.... (Score:2)
(as it would no doubt be in Gates position)
But... (Score:5, Funny)
I mean seriously... (Score:4, Interesting)
I can just see it - adware popups that appear every 2 minutes on your ocular implants.
Re:I mean seriously... (Score:5, Funny)
I can just see it - telling you it doesn't have the right drivers for your heart and disabling your pulmonary functions.
Re:I mean seriously... (Score:5, Funny)
You see, God's in a dilemma. The Heart was developed over many millions of years by God Himself, using his now-open Evolution Development System. But, due to Microsoft's dominance of the desktop leading to its dominance of the browsers and then to the servers, in this, the year 2012, Microsoft now has complete control over the Internet. So unless God was able to somehow convince 9 billion people to use His Almighty Internet Service, which is notably completely incompatible with Microsoft's Internet v3 and Body Management Services of Medicine PX, he must provide the interface to Heart version 3.14159265(and so on) to Microsoft. Unfortunately, as a side effect of licensing the interface to Microsoft, he's now unable to provide drivers to Linux, which since Microsoft's utter dominance of all things computers shortly after all vendors suddenly and miraculously started supporting Microsoft's Palladium System nee NGSCB, is run by about 3 people in Norway living in a cave and harnessing a beowulf cluster of hamsters to provide power. But, on the other hand, Microsoft promised not to provide a competing implementation of Heart! (Both a carrot and a stick, God mutters under His breath sometimes).
Too bad for God that Microsoft has now launched MS Deity, which has received very favourable press lately (despite not having nearly as many features as God Himself, but it ties in so well to the existing Microsoft hardware software and wetware, and besides, they'll get that in the next version, they promise), and of course will provide everything that God provides except Heart. Of course, to do this, they had to get inside information, but since they outright own many very pleasant places to live and work, and with a warchest now exceeding 432 trillion dollars, they easily afford to, uh, acquire many of God's most trusted workers and skip the millions of years of development (coincidentally, they also hired away all of God's workers in charge of Zotting the Unbelievers, who otherwise would help convert 9billion fat and happy-ish Microsoft users!). However, in 2015, according to an internal Microsoft email that, after being read, got lost, shredded, re-constructed, stamped three times with a big red stamp, and then lost again, Microsoft plans on also releasing Heart, since God's marketshare is expected to dwindle to the point of Him not being able to support a lawsuit against Microsoft.
Re:I mean seriously... (Score:3, Funny)
No news here (Score:2)
Thats because the computer thats "over there" (Score:3, Insightful)
I have always said that Microsofts failures and limits are because many people in that company (including Bill) always see the limit to computing. They are limited by what they think is reasonable and what they think will make the most money. Hell of a business plan, sucky for technological advancement though.
Now lets wait for all of the Microsoft zealots to flame/mod me.
Re:Thats because the computer thats "over there" (Score:4, Funny)
Uh, I dunno about you, but I figure my computer implants will prolly be closer to my head.
Oh course, I guess if you have your head up your ass like most of MS people do...
OK, I see your point. Nevermind
Re:Thats because the computer thats "over there" (Score:3, Insightful)
If we were to get computer-implants, they would be specifically designed for the brain, and they would be running with redundant fail-safe EVERYTHING. We shouldn't trust software that we know has a possibility (as small as that may be) of crashing.
Re:Thats because the computer thats "over there" (Score:3, Informative)
Other than an embeded OS none of them are ready for this kind of critical application, as many times as I've got Linux & Solaris to dump on me I wouldn't want that near my heart monitor either.
Different icon (Score:2)
Input Devices (Score:2)
Perhaps more interesting is that the article mentions Gates' predictions regarding input devices of the future. He believes that the keyboard, pen, and voice recognition will form the basis for input, and than handwriting recognition will advance to the level at which we'll be able to enter data such as molecular diagrams and music. This seems not too different from Star Trek's PADD [wikipedia.org]
Over here, Over There (Score:5, Funny)
Jeez Bill, never heard of Bluetooth?
Very prudent (Score:3, Funny)
Nor me - since I'd rather not end up forcibly strapped to an operating table as the BSA brain surgeons deal with my alleged patent infringements.
Re:Very prudent (Score:5, Funny)
The Boy Scouts of America have a merit badge for that? Whoa! No way!
A Real Bitch to Upgrade (Score:2)
Re:A Real Bitch to Upgrade (Score:2)
Re:A Real Bitch to Upgrade (Score:2)
What happens to copyright... (Score:3, Interesting)
I Can See Why... (Score:2)
Jack into Windows? (Score:3, Interesting)
But, seriously. If such an implant were ever to be made by M$, you can bet that it would never work with anybody else's software.
Just to let you know... (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously, for people that claim to know Linux inside & out and be extremely bright IT professionals, if you can't keep WinXP running smoothly then your knowledge is seriously lacking.
Re:Just to let you know... (Score:5, Insightful)
It can be done. Much of the time, my job entails doing just that. It's just that it is more trouble and expense than it's worth.
Re:Just to let you know... (Score:5, Funny)
Try pressing the power switch.
*rimshot*
Re:Just to let you know... (Score:3, Insightful)
1, Ad-ware / Spyware.
2, Virus, worms, Trojans, etc.
3, Web browser components running in kernel mode (means more 1 and 2).
4, Difficulty to use non-privileged accounts for regular use.
5, Too much patches that require reboot.
6, Bloat.
7, Slow development model that still has not delivered simple things as a tabbed browser, or other already available features.
8, Obscene licensing terms (Ever read your EULA?).
9, Crappy interoperability because of the lack of documentation, hidden apis, "embrace and extend" mo
Re:Just to let you know... (Score:2)
Windows crashes less than it used to, but still reasonably often. I don't know a single 2000 or XP user, including me, that can honestly say they've never had Windows crash. My own experience is that it crashes more often that Solaris, BSD or Linux.
Re:Just to let you know... (Score:4, Informative)
I've been using WinXP pro since pre-launch, on multiple computers, with several hardware upgrades, and have never, ever, had a single BSOD
Maybe that's because WinXP's default behaviour is to spontaneously reboot rather than BSOD. It's probably happened a few times to you, and you probably just thought "WTF?" and then went on working after it restarted. I've seen XP boot up with the "... has recovered from a serious error" message many times.
Excellent foresight (Score:2, Funny)
Teen Beat 1983 For Thumbnail? (Score:3, Funny)
Microsoft employee... (Score:2)
He's very passionate about to have an implant and keeping his monkey boy careography database in mind all the time.
Not a bad idea (Score:2, Funny)
Anyone got a 9-pin to 25-pin adapter? (Score:2)
From a marketeers point of view... (Score:2)
This makes it damn near certain that one day Bill Gates will have some sort of implant..
Trust Murphy...
Mr. Gates does...
Wheeeere's the Eunuch?? (Score:2)
No child left behind (Score:4, Insightful)
Imagine a future situation where under the guisse of equal and universal access to education it would be mandated that every child from a young age be plugged in and online. Or imagine under the guisse of fighting "terrorism" - hey, we'll still be at it as long as it's expedient and serves special interests(!) - those in power would claim that "if your got nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about!"
Wait for it!
Are we at all surprised? (Score:2)
Unless he's had the surgery done and just wears the glasses now as a fashion statement.
Always on Call. Always. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sure there will be different implant levels, but nah, i think I'll pass too.
Re:Always on Call. Always. (Score:3, Interesting)
Need to calculate 356.31 * 2.4168. If you can't think of a situation in your daily life where you would need to do calculations like this, then you wouldn't be on
Sexual provocation is lost on Gates (Score:3, Funny)
Did Gates lie or is /. ahead of its time? (Score:2)
Over the last years, I started to trust Slashdot more than this former CEO, so unless proven otherwise, this Gates statement might be wrong.
I remember the CES show together with Conan O'Brian (sp?) a few months ago. You could really see his implants. It was later explained with some subdermal explosions (due to high blood pressure) in Gates' body when
Bill Gates.... (Score:2)
Gotta say it (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, like *nix is any better??? (Score:3, Funny)
# man mount
You happy now?
Re:Oh, like *nix is any better??? (Score:5, Funny)
RTFA (Score:3, Interesting)
Cochlear implants, which employ digital pulses that the brain interprets as sound, can help profoundly deaf people hear. Advances were also being made on implants that can help fix eyesight problems, Gates said.
Where did you read Windows(tm)? A chip is quite something else as an OS that you'll run on your brain. Your brain and neurons will take care of things an OS would take care of. Call it brainOS or whatever. It operates your body, duh. It interacts with the "kernel" being your contience or what you
Re:RTFA (Score:2, Funny)
I think it's more like a microkernel OS where the kernel is the reptile brain and your conciousness a user space process (or possibly a combination of such).
Re:RTFA (Score:2)
Re:In 2020 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Borg character - WTF? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Borg character - WTF? (Score:4, Informative)
The Borg are a race of cyborgs in the Star Trek fictional universe. Some say the name 'Borg' is simply short for cyborg.
Borg are humanoids of different races that are enhanced with cybernetic implants, giving them improved mental and physical abilities. Although the cyborg concept has long existed in science-fiction literature, it is probable that the general concept of the Borg - a ruthless, aggressive race of bio-mechanical beings bent on galactic conquest - was influenced to some degree by the Cybermen, which featured in the popular British television series Doctor Who and who displayed similar rationales and methods as the Borg, including wanting to assimilate individuals to augment their race. They also bear significant resemblences to Fred Saberhagen's Berserker series.
The minds of all Borg are connected via implants to a hive, a collective mind, orchestrated by the Borg Queen and controlled from a central hub, the Unicomplex. According to themselves, the Borg only seek to "improve the quality of life in the universe" and add to their own perfection. To this end, they travel the galaxy, improving their numbers and advancing by "assimilating" other species and technologies, and forcing captured individuals under the control of the Hive mind by injecting them with nanoprobes. They harbor no ill will to anyone; they merely fulfil their biological or programmatic imperative to assimilate. As they say, "You will be assimilated - resistance is futile." They make good on that threat by their ability to quickly adapt to any attack to render it harmless. Thus, any successful defense depends on the ingenuity of the opponent to find a method to stop the Borg completely before they can neutralize it.
See also this cartoon. [ahajokes.com]
Dial it in, amp it up! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I don't care (Score:2)
Hitler. I have a hard time imagining that movie [imdb.com] would be any less crappy in 100 years.
Re:Liar. (Score:2)
I assume that by "support/assualt subsystem" you are actually referring to Mr. Hawking's advanced cybernetic exoskeleton [paralinks.net].
Seriously though, I wonder what Hawking's position would be on receiving implants that offered a direct interface between the brain and a computer. I think if I became confined to a wheelchair, and such technology was available (and reasonably safe/reliable), I'd probably want it.
Depends on the graphics capabilities... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Love the headlines... (Score:2)