[Nightriser]

Truth be told, I found this topic the same way I find a great many things on days I'm bored. I was watching the video below on this page, and upon further reading, I jumped down the rabbit hole and kicked up a whole slew of fascinating fields I hadn't previously given much thought to.

This reminds me of the Minority Report-like controls that there's been a lot of buzz about lately. Then there are the bionic eye contacts that I would so desperately like to get for Christmas, but they're a little beyond my parents' and friends' combined budget range. Maybe next Christmas.

[Nightriser]

Tell your advisor that specialization is for insects.

I've already mentally thrown Cheerios at him for telling me to be "more mature."

[BeHope]

Mentally?

Start carrying around a Cherries for emergency use.
Children pretend to throw Cherrioes,Adults are prepared to throw Cherrioes.

* As in the case of the individual, not all the information which is available to the race at one time is accessible without special effort. There is a well-known tendency of libraries to become clogged by their own volume; of the sciences to develop such a degree of specialization that the expert is often illiterate outside his own minute specialty. Dr. Vannevar Bush has suggested the use of mechanical aids for the searching through vast bodies of material. These probably have their uses, but they are limited by the impossibility of classifying a book under an unfamiliar heading unless some particular person has already recognized the relevance of that heading for that particular book. In the case where two subjects have the same technique and intellectual content but belong to widely separated fields, this still requires some individual with an almost Leibnizian catholicity of interest.
o VIII. INFORMATION, LANGUAGE, AND SOCIETY. p.158
Norbert Weiner

[Nightriser]

Mentally?

Start carrying around a Cherries for emergency use.
Children pretend to throw Cherrioes, Adults are prepared to throw Cherrioes.

* As in the case of the individual, not all the information which is available to the race at one time is accessible without special effort. There is a well-known tendency of libraries to become clogged by their own volume; of the sciences to develop such a degree of specialization that the expert is often illiterate outside his own minute specialty. Dr. Vannevar Bush has suggested the use of mechanical aids for the searching through vast bodies of material. These probably have their uses, but they are limited by the impossibility of classifying a book under an unfamiliar heading unless some particular person has already recognized the relevance of that heading for that particular book. In the case where two subjects have the same technique and intellectual content but belong to widely separated fields, this still requires some individual with an almost Leibnizian catholicity of interest.
o VIII. INFORMATION, LANGUAGE, AND SOCIETY. p.158
Norbert Weiner

Dammit, so I *am* still a child.

"A good many times I have been present at gatherings of people who, by the standards of the traditional culture, are thought highly educated and who have with considerable gusto been expressing their incredulity at the illiteracy of scientists. Once or twice I have been provoked and have asked the company how many of them could describe the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The response was cold: it was also negative. Yet I was asking something which is the scientific equivalent of: Have you read a work of Shakespeare's?"
--C.P. Snow, The Two Cultures

"Every college student should be able to answer the following question: What is the relation between science and the humanities, and how is it important for human welfare? Every public intellectual and political leader should be able to answer that as well. Already half the legislation coming before the United States Congress contains important scientific and technological components. Most of the issues that vex humanity daily - ethnic conflict, arms escalation, overpopulation, abortion, environment, endemic poverty, to cite several most consistently before us - cannot be solved without integrating knowledge from the natural sciences with that of the social sciences and humanities. Only fluency across the boundaries will provide a clear view of the world as it really is, not as seen through the lens of ideologies and religious dogmas or commanded by myopic response to immediate need. Yet the vast majority of our political leaders are trained exclusively in the social sciences and humanties, and have little or no knowledge of the natural sciences. The same is true for the public intellectuals, the columnists, the media interrogators, and think-tank gurus. The best of their analyses are careful and responsible, and sometimes correct, but the substantive base of their wisdom is fragmented and lopsided."
--Edward Wilson, Consilience

Even (especially?) at a liberal arts college, such as the one I attend, the mathematics and some of the sciences suffer. Perhaps the fact that it's a women's college has some bearing, but nonetheless, there's only one physics prof and one CS prof. Biology and chemistry fare well enough, and the social sciences certainly flourish, but math, physics, and computers are unpopular. Several classmates claim to be incapable of reading graphs, most report poor math skills, and moreover, disgust at mathematical skills and ideas. I now hate to tell people that I'm a math major because the cringe I often get is slightly annoying.

[BeHope]

Dammit, so I *am* still a child.

"A good many times I have been present at gatherings of people who, by the standards of the traditional culture, are thought highly educated and who have with considerable gusto been expressing their incredulity at the illiteracy of scientists. Once or twice I have been provoked and have asked the company how many of them could describe the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The response was cold: it was also negative. Yet I was asking something which is the scientific equivalent of: Have you read a work of Shakespeare's?"
--C.P. Snow, The Two Cultures

"Every college student should be able to answer the following question: What is the relation between science and the humanities, and how is it important for human welfare? Every public intellectual and political leader should be able to answer that as well. Already half the legislation coming before the United States Congress contains important scientific and technological components. Most of the issues that vex humanity daily - ethnic conflict, arms escalation, overpopulation, abortion, environment, endemic poverty, to cite several most consistently before us - cannot be solved without integrating knowledge from the natural sciences with that of the social sciences and humanities. Only fluency across the boundaries will provide a clear view of the world as it really is, not as seen through the lens of ideologies and religious dogmas or commanded by myopic response to immediate need. Yet the vast majority of our political leaders are trained exclusively in the social sciences and humanties, and have little or no knowledge of the natural sciences. The same is true for the public intellectuals, the columnists, the media interrogators, and think-tank gurus. The best of their analyses are careful and responsible, and sometimes correct, but the substantive base of their wisdom is fragmented and lopsided."
--Edward Wilson, Consilience

Even (especially?) at a liberal arts college, such as the one I attend, the mathematics and some of the sciences suffer. Perhaps the fact that it's a women's college has some bearing, but nonetheless, there's only one physics prof and one CS prof. Biology and chemistry fare well enough, and the social sciences certainly flourish, but math, physics, and computers are unpopular. Several classmates claim to be incapable of reading graphs, most report poor math skills, and moreover, disgust at mathematical skills and ideas. I now hate to tell people that I'm a math major because the cringe I often get is slightly annoying.

Yes.

I agree that a better understanding the term "governing" in a cybernetic sense will lead to politicians making better decisions and voters being able to understand why those decisions need to be made as well as who are making the better decisions.

I myself become interested in cybernetics through the philosophical writings of Marshall_McLuhan. One of my favorite quotes by him is "The price of eternal vigilance is indifference".

[Zulban]

As we see here, a lot of INTPs have a tendency to mention an idea they've had in their head for awhile, regardless of its relevance as long as its interesting. :P
So getting back to the original cybernetics thing, INTPs also have a tendency to try to be a master of every field, which is of course not possible.

Cybernetics is made up of so many things:
Engineering -> A focus in robotics
Computer Science -> A focus on databases or artificial intelligence.
Humanities -> Understanding presentation of language and ideas so it can be mimicked.

Or if you were really going for hardcore ergonomics you might go after biology and anatomy.

It's fun to learn about all of these things, but if you seriously want to help out a team of experts put together some kind of cybernetics project you really need to offer something special in one of those fields. Just sayin.

[cryptonia]

INTJs have a tendency to try to become masters of every field. INTPs tend to get bored way before that point, becoming competent in many (more) fields instead.

[BenW]

I fully believe that within my lifetime, the widespread use a BCI implants will begin to take shape.

We've already surpassed the point where we can only rehabilitate crippled people; we can now improve upon normal human functioning in various ways.

Just skim this article for some examples.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain-computer_interface

So far, we have already...

• Taken a "screenshot" of what a cat was seeing.
• Given a man with acquired blindness (rudimentary) sight.
• Given a human the ability to move a mouse cursor using motor-cortex activity (thoughts...).

On the note of that last example, one thing that is going to take off very fast is some form of non-invasive BCI that will surpass keyboard+mouse communication with computers and other devices. I've already seen a few devices that work like this, and with some fine tuning and improvements to the technology, the benefits will be pretty insane.
People don't type anywhere near as fast as they can think...

Of course, currently, all of these type of devices need to be wired into large computers, but imagine once they become wireless!

I'm ready to become a cyborg, personally.

[Ogion]

Me too, but only without a hive in the background...! I'd rather be an Amish thaan to become a borg (i know, that's not the same as cyborg)

Ogion

[NephilimAzrael]

INTJs have a tendency to try to become masters of every field. INTPs tend to get bored way before that point, becoming competent in many (more) fields instead.

Jack of all trades and master of none? Interesting. I actually agree fully. It can be infuriating at times for both my INTP friend and I when discussing something. We have discussed in the past how I often ask questions far too in-depth on a subject which we both initiated at the same time. He would obtain a certain level of competence and give up. I would wade through the tedious points and master it (which is a nuisance to me sometimes as once I have it mastered it holds little interest, and I move on). Whilst my INTP friend reaches that wall and perceives the matter understood.

So for the sake of it, I find INTPs and INxPs in general often resent the ruthlessness that supports the INTJ drive for thorough knowledge. Particularly in that once engaged in a subject, communicating it is not necessary, and once mastered, man, you can fucking forget trying to ask too many questions, because it is just done and dusted. Which is similar to the INTP when they acquire their sufficient level of investment. Yet due to the interchangeability of it, they will leave no shred beyond arms length for a return reference. The INTJ absorbs and keeps in storage mentally, for the structure to continue being formed.