Implant
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Further Reading
For those readers interested in some of the technology discussed in the novel, we thought we’d offer a few recommendations for learning more.
Julia discusses classifier techniques used to make subtle distinctions in brain activity by using the information in many adjacent regions. A great example of this technique in the visual system can be found in the May, 2005 issue of Nature Neuroscience. See papers by Yukiyasu Kamitani &Frank Tong, and John-Dylan Haynes & Geraint Rees, with an excellent review by Geoffrey Boynton. A nice example of using a classifier for higher-level brain reading can be found from Kay, Naselaris, Prenger, & Gallant (Nature 452, 352-355, 2008).
The literature on brain-machine interfaces is extensive, with some very sophisticated applications now published. One that we particularly like is a paper by Belliste, Perel, Spalding, Whitford, & Schwartz describing an experiment where monkeys could control with their thoughts a robotic arm to obtain food. We think this could revolutionize beer and nachos at Super Bowl parties. It is not hard to find information about how the geopolitics of oil is shifting to Africa. Some provocative facts can be found in Stephanie Hanson’s June 6, 2008 review on China, Africa, and Oil available on the Council on Foreign Relations website (www.cfr.org). Accurate information on U.S. military presence in Africa requires some reading between the lines, but a great starting point is AFRICOM’s website (www.africom.mil), as well as the web site of the Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF) of United States Central Command (http://www.hoa.centcom.mil/).