Questions tagged [brain]
For creatures with a central nervous system, this represents the major organ of that system. For humans and other terrestrial vertebrates, the brain is housed in the head and encased in bone.
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Reality check - cognitive cyborg with an advanced brain-computer interface
I am going to finally create a human cyborg with super-intelligence to beat an AI.
It's mid 2050's and my company Neuroconnect has produced a nanotechnology BCI (brain computer interface) capable of ...
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What kind of world would drive brains to evolve high-throughput sensory?
Here on "Earth" organisms tend to evolve only enough mental processing power to handle sensory inputs in modest amounts. Taking "human" brains for a quick example, even though we have millions of ...
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100 views
GMO brains / Basic emotions
I am writing a dystopia and in this world people have been genetically modified for decades to a degree that their emotional abilities are super basic and especially the ability to feel pain is ...
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7answers
260 views
How can high-level awareness resulting in telepathic radar be made possible in the human mind?
The humans in this setting are telepaths who are able to communicate with each other through their minds. This form of telepathy transfers simple phrases, symbols, or emotions to the designated person ...
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247 views
How to keep the brain alive?
So, let’s say Bill wants to gain immortality. Bill is a billionaire, and so invests a large portion of his estate to Brain Transplant research. After a bit, the doctors vivisect him, and encase his ...
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209 views
Brain Micromanagement
Imagine a creature much like ourselves that can control the usage of their own mind.
For example, a dying ancestor may tell some parting words which are so important that the individual explicitly ...
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4answers
142 views
Logical explanation for why Brainbots would not retain their original identities memories
So, my setting is a post apocalyptic one, 197 years after WW3 kicked off and destroyed pretty much everything. The current date is 2259. Before WW3 started, the USA was experimenting heavily with ...
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4answers
504 views
Uplifted animals have parts of their “brain” in various locations of their body. Where?
Looking at the case of Mike, I realized decentralizing the brain might not be infeasible. The idea is if Horus, the brown falcon, doesn't have enough room in his skull, then why not move various ...
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Is it possible to map the firing of neurons in the human brain so as to stimulate artificial memories in someone else?
My question is based on the following excerpt from an article I read recently:
Since the early neurological work of Karl Lashley and Wilder Penfield in the 1950s and 1960s, it has become clear that ...
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10answers
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How much mayhem could I cause as a sentient fish?
On our world, human minds can be transferred intact into animals. It was originally intended for people with medical conditions, but some genius thought it would be clever to store violent prisoners ...
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Could implanting false memories change someone's perception immediately? [closed]
This question is about how the brain works in that aspect, if it's even known.
I mean with the question that a person might react to something with fear, happiness, disappointment, or whatever other ...
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Brain Tick, how could it take over a host's brain?
There was once 12 kingdoms in the ancient days until the kingdom of Eo was devoured by the very forests it called home. The people of Eo have been turned into beasts wandering the woods and preying ...
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Ways other than sleep to restore cells/neurons
So I have a planet with multiple species on it. My planet is tidally locked. I know it is generally thought a tidally locked planet couldn't harbor life because of the extreme temperatures, but my ...
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1answer
110 views
What changes to the brain would occur in a werewolf transformation?
With typical modern depictions of werewolves (ie: turning into wolf-human hybrids) the victim suffers temporary amnesia and a loss of personality while transformed, is put into a state of extreme ...
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4answers
190 views
What are the long term effects of increased neurotransmitters? [closed]
In my story, one of the main characters (Joe) has been born with a somewhat superpower: Any person near him will have elevated neurotransmitter levels. If their brain is releasing happy ...
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5answers
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Dragon shapeshifting and memory mechanism
Dragons are biologically immortal creatures that have evolved the most versatile sexual reproduction in existence, they can morph through a cocoon into any other species from the animal kingdom that ...
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1answer
108 views
Visual Cortex, superficial Brain Implant - Biological feasibility
In another question Everybody has a brain implant. What measures can a criminal take to escape justice? I assumed that a brain implant would be possible in the future for surveillance.
In this ...
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Everybody has a brain implant. What measures can a criminal take to escape justice? [closed]
In the future everyone has a government implant placed in their visual cortex at a young age (let's say 8 years). There is no choice about this - except of course for the Big Leader's immediate family....
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Adrenaline-fueled cognition
So, I'm currently toying around with the idea of a hypercarnivorous sapient race on a planet in my universe, and I'd like to make them scary, but without abiding only by the "rule of cool". (Also note ...
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Could a human brain downloaded into a robot have feelings? [closed]
Some of you may have seen the miniseries "YEAR MILLION" by National Geographic.
It is a glimpse of how life will be in the future (despite the title, they don´t say specifically how many years from ...
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1answer
119 views
Ensuring Continuity of Consciousness When Transferring The Mind Into A Computer? [closed]
I had an idea for a world where brain uploading is a thing, but I have a problem. Besides slowly replacing the brain itself with nanobots and the like, what's the best way to make absolutely sure ...
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11answers
536 views
Is it possible for a character to live 17 million years?
I have a human character who had his mind transferred to a computer via a method where his brain was gradually replaced with digital parts to preserve his consciousness. (Depending on your view of the ...
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Can our brain access other dimensions/universes? [closed]
Following the Multiverse theory and a possibility that multiverses do not differ much when compared with one another, can we explain a person accessing thoughts or vision from a different multiverse? ...
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How to explain why a mind reading superhero doesn’t hear everyone’s thoughts all the time?
So, in my story, their is a Superhero called “Mind Quad” aka John Paul “JP” Stevenson, a college dropout. Back when he was 23, a radioactive brain tumour nearly killed him, but thanks to an ...
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1answer
131 views
How Mind Uploading could be done without being invasive?
The timeline in the 22nd century section of FutureTimeline.net says that the brain will be replaced by robotic components until the brain is entirely artifitial and then be transplanted into a robotic ...
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1answer
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Difficulty using an FMRI scanner with alternative neurochemistry? [closed]
FMRI machines are commonly used to allow direct observation of brain activity, and can be used for non-human animals. However in the case of an alien from a different planet, it's unclear how ...
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Massive Brain-Computer Interface devices
The world in my story is going past the smartphone era.
To replace smartphones people wear a small device like a headphone. The device is not intrusive to their brain, it has nodes that read brain ...
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1answer
150 views
Body switch justification [closed]
The scenario is simple: A man switches body with another. Social implications are not the issue here, but the "collateral effects" of body switching.
The Ghost Brigades is a book that touches in this ...
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8answers
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Can the future theoretically be predicted through analyzing the exact patterns of the universe? [closed]
My neuroscience is a little fuzzy, so bear with me. If your wondering how this ties in with world building, it's for a science fiction novel I'm writing, in which there is no magic. I am hoping to ...
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2answers
428 views
Can you use VR on comatose patients to let them dream?
I have this sci-fi story concept where patients in a comatose state can have their brains stimulated with VR. For instance, the VR can be a dream "game" that helps the patient process trauma. I can ...
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0answers
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Can the level of pain be measured? [closed]
Because of a recent question I ended up reading through the Painkill-discussion on meta and in the linked question the_OTHER_DJMethaneMan wrote in a comment
Is there a way to "rate" the "level" of ...
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3answers
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Could there be a way to explain a sound wave (produced by a device) that can control people's actions?
This isn't the same question as the one about a Sound Gun, although it could be viewed as a weapon, for sure (because controlling someone could be a form of weaponization depending on the action). ...
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Effects of immortality on human brain and consciousness
I'm writing a story that features modified humans that have a very long lifespan/ practically immortality. Immortal characters in fiction aren't exactly rare, but I want to write something more ...
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1answer
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How would nanobots, once digested, make the neural connections in the user's brain that are needed to learn facts?
Due to advances and growth in science, math, history, literature, and other subjects typically taught in schools (K-12), the standard curriculum takes too long to complete, not mentioning post-...
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Virtual Reality and Physical Trauma
How realistic is the trope that wounds received in a virtual reality (VR) transfer to our own?
Examples: In the Matrix (movie) and Neuromancer (novel), cuts, scrapes, and bruises seemingly jump from ...
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1answer
202 views
Would it be viable to have a pre-wired brain rather than one that is soft-wired or hard-wired?
(Edited question to meet concerns)
The Problem
Can you create synthetic biology that can be installed temporarily in human DNA to give people skills at birth, or are there problems, risks and ...
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3answers
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Probing neurons to map someones brain
Could you map out all the connections in someones brain just by probing every neuron and tracking them as they send signals to each other (as opposed to every synapse, a much less ambiguous but far ...
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3answers
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How to overcome transferring information over mental link that changes specific details?
There is a world not too different from our own, at a technology level not too different from our own, with a population similar to our own. Recently, scientists have discovered (by chance in an ...
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1answer
236 views
Is Brain a Quantum Computer [closed]
I read somewhere that brain is a quantum computer and is actually capable of accessing multiverse. Is this possible?
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Neurological supercharger out of thin air
Some speculation on a neurological supercharger for a sapient alien species:
The supercharger is a natural biochemical compound of some sort produced and stored in a specialized brain-adjacent organ....
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1answer
213 views
How would mind transfer work and how many minds/memories could a brain hold? [closed]
Many science fiction stories feature the concepts of mind uploading and consciousness transfer. Let's assume that the personalities of the two people in one mind function sort of like dissociative ...
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2answers
242 views
Single medical condition that causes hallucinations and bursts of short term memory loss
X sees hallucinations of a person A who he does not recognize, the hallucinations are constant (A follows X around all day)
Simultaneously, X has bursts of memory loss, where he cannot remember up to ...
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4answers
152 views
Can you 'move' a person from his brain elsewhere? [closed]
Bob and Joe are friends. Joe decides to move his life to a virtual reality, and invents a device that copies his brain to a [very advanced] computer (killing his biological body and brain in the ...
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8answers
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Can a rational creature have a series of small brains instead of a large one?
My question is not human-specific. I found this question that mentions that a brain have more neuronal complexity; I deduce it is more efficient (in terms of neural communication and energy use) to ...
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5answers
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What's the Optimum Shape for a Radially Symmetric Brain?
I think the idea of radially symmetric alien organisms is really exciting in the questions it raises about function and design.
For those who don't know, humans are bilaterally symmetrical. If you ...
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3answers
177 views
Rehab/ Recovery for Brain Transplant
What would rehabilitation/ recovery look like for someone with a brain transplant (assuming all the right nerves were properly connected and the like)? Would a person have to relearn everything if the ...
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1answer
182 views
transferring consciousness from one person to another person? [closed]
Is the transferring of "consciousness" from one person to another person is possible if a brain transplantation is possible ?
Is it possible to pick memories from the brain by using EEG?
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How close are we to eternal consciousness?
A common trope in cyber punkish sci-fi is the ability to upload a human mind to some storage device or AI. This of course grants practical immortality but it is also the main hurdle for tropes like ...
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1answer
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Memories stored in hair: social and cultural consequences [closed]
Imagine a world where we stored our memories in the hair on our heads rather than in our brains. What social and cultural consequences could arise from this?
Some details about the memory storage: (...
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4answers
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How would a decrease in intelligence as a punishment be carried out?
An ideal punishment for evil scientists or geniuses would be a judicially mandated, deliberate decrease in intelligence. Let's say that a judge ordered a person's IQ to be decreased from 200 to 110. ...
