Mark N. Gasson is a British scientist and visiting research fellow at the Cybernetics Research Group,

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

, UK. He pioneered developments in direct neural interfaces between computer systems and the human nervous system, has developed

brain–computer interface A brain–computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a brain–machine interface (BMI), is a direct communication link between the brain's electrical activity and an external device, most commonly a computer or robotic limb. BCIs are often dire ...

s and is active in the research fields of human microchip implants,

medical device A medical device is any device intended to be used for medical purposes. Significant potential for hazards are inherent when using a device for medical purposes and thus medical devices must be proved safe and effective with reasonable assura ...

s and

digital identity A digital identity is data stored on Computer, computer systems relating to an individual, organization, application, or device. For individuals, it involves the collection of personal data that is essential for facilitating automated access to ...

. He is known for his experiments transmitting a computer virus into a human implant, and is credited with being the first human infected with a computer virus. Gasson has featured on television documentaries including ''

Through the wormhole ''Through the Wormhole'' is an American science Documentary film, documentary television series narrated and hosted by American actor Morgan Freeman. It began airing on Science Channel in the United States on June 9, 2010. The series concluded i ...

'' with

Morgan Freeman Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, producer, and narrator. In a career spanning six decades, he has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as a nomination for a Tony ...

, international television and radio news programs, and has delivered public lectures discussing his work including at TEDx. In 2010 Gasson was the General chair for the

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

International Symposium on Technology and Society 2010 (ISTAS'10) and in 2014 he was entered into the

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

for his experimental work on implantable microchips. He is currently based in

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California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Early life and education

Gasson obtained his first degree in Cybernetics and Control Engineering in 1998 from the Department of Cybernetics at Reading. He obtained his Ph.D. for 2002 work on interfacing the nervous system of a human to a computer system in 2005.

Career

From 2000 until 2005 Gasson headed research to invasively interface the nervous system of a human to a computer. In 2002 a microelectrode array was implanted in the

median nerve The median nerve is a nerve in humans and other animals in the upper limb. It is one of the five main nerves originating from the brachial plexus. The median nerve originates from the lateral and medial cords of the brachial plexus, and has cont ...

of a healthy human and connected percutaneously to a bespoke processing unit to allow stimulation of nerve fibers to artificially generate sensation perceivable by the subject and recording of local nerve activity to form control commands for wirelessly connected devices. During clinical evaluation of the implant, the nervous system of the human subject, Kevin Warwick, was connected onto the internet in

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, New York enabling a robot arm, developed by Peter Kyberd, in the University of Reading UK to use the subject's neural signals to mimic the subject's hand movements while allowing the subject to perceive what the robot touched from sensors in the robot's finger tips. Further studies also demonstrated a form of extra sensory input and that it was possible to communicate directly between the nervous systems of two individuals, the first direct and purely electronic communication between the nervous systems of two humans, with a view to ultimately creating a form of

telepathy Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...

empathy Empathy is generally described as the ability to take on another person's perspective, to understand, feel, and possibly share and respond to their experience. There are more (sometimes conflicting) definitions of empathy that include but are ...

using the Internet to communicate 'brain-to-brain'. Because of the potentially wide reaching implications for human enhancement of the research discussed by Gasson and his group, the work was dubbed 'Project

Cyborg A cyborg (, a portmanteau of ''cybernetics, cybernetic'' and ''organism'') is a being with both Organic matter, organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.

Invasive brain interfaces (2005)

Gasson and his colleagues, together with neurosurgeon Tipu Aziz and his team at

John Radcliffe Hospital John Radcliffe Hospital (informally known as the JR or the John Radcliffe) is a large tertiary teaching hospital in Oxford, England. It forms part of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is named after John Radcliffe (physician) ...

, Oxford, and physiologist John Stein of the University of Oxford, have been working on Deep brain stimulation for movement disorders such as

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

.Gasson, M.N., Wang, S.Y., Aziz, T.Z., Stein, J.F. and Warwick, K.: "Towards a Demand Driven Deep-Brain Stimulator for the Treatment of Movement Disorders", ''3rd IEE International Seminar on Medical Applications of Signal Processing (MASP 2005)'', 3–4 November, London, UK, pp. 83-86. In order to improve control of abnormal spontaneous electrical activity in the brains of patients with movement disorders, as of 2010 they have been developing a combined deep brain recording and stimulating device that will record deep brain signals and from these predict the onset of symptoms such as tremor and dystonic bursts and deliver a short pulse of high frequency stimulation to stop the symptoms before they have even started.

The Future of Identity (2004–2009)

From 2004 to 2009 Gasson headed a group of academics and industry professionals drawn from 24 institutions across Europe as part of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

funded FIDIS project targeting various aspects of digital identity and privacy, in particular emerging technologies used for identification and profiling. As well as authoring reports on profiling,

ambient intelligence Ambient intelligence (AmI) refers to environments with electronic devices that are aware of and can recognize the presence of human beings and adapt accordingly. This concept encompasses various technologies in consumer electronics, telecommunic ...

and ICT implants, Gasson also went public over privacy concerns related to misuse of location information from GPS devices in smartphones, and was a contributor to FIDIS's controversial Budapest Declaration on Machine Readable Travel Documents which criticized European governments for forcing their citizens to adopt electronic passports which "decrease security and privacy and increase the risk of

identity theft Identity theft, identity piracy or identity infringement occurs when someone uses another's personal identifying information, like their name, identifying number, or credit card number, without their permission, to commit fraud or other crimes. ...

First human infected with computer virus (2009)

In March 2009 Gasson had a glass capsule

RFID Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder called a tag, a radio receiver, and a transmitter. When tri ...

device surgically implanted into his left hand. The implant was used as an identification device for the University of Reading's intelligent building infrastructure to gain building access. Gasson's

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

was also augmented with a reader so that the phone would only function when he was holding it. In April 2010 following experiments showing the potential vulnerabilities of implantable technology, Gasson's team demonstrated how a computer virus could wirelessly infect his implant and then be transmitted on to other systems. Gasson drew parallels with other implantable devices, such as cardiac pacemakers, which he asserted were vulnerable because of a tendency of manufacturers to adopt a " security through obscurity" methodology rather than robust security methods. He also argued that as functions of the body are restored or enhanced by implanted devices, the boundaries of the body (i.e., the human experience of the body's delimitation) become increasingly unclear. As a result, the separation between man and machine simply becomes theoretical, meaning that the technology becomes perceived by the human as being a part of their body and so should be considered as such. He argues that this development in our traditional notion of what constitutes our body and its boundaries has two notable repercussions: Firstly, it becomes possible to talk in terms of a human, albeit a technologically enhanced human, becoming for instance infected by a computer virus or

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ed by a third party. This forms the basis of his claim to be the first human infected by a computer virus. Secondly, this development of the concept of the is considered a fundamental right. In 2010 Gasson was the General chair for the

International Symposium on Technology and Society 2010 (ISTAS'10).

Research

Gasson is a proponent of human enhancement using technology implanted into the body, and argues that advanced medical device technology will inevitably drift to non-medical augmentation applications in humans. He also strongly argues that with technology implanted in humans, the separation between man and machine can become theoretical because the technology can be perceived by the human as being a part of their body. Because of this he reasons that, as the boundaries of the human body (the human experience of the body's delimitation) become increasingly unclear, it should be accepted that the technology augmentation is a part of the body. Gasson is an advocate of interdisciplinary collaboration and co-authors with social scientists, philosophers, legal researchers and ethicists to consider the wider implications of his field.

Controversy

The research attracted criticism from computer security blogger Graham Cluley who stated "Predictions of pacemakers and cochlear implants being hit by virus infections is the very worst kind of scaremongering". In 2012 academic Prof Kevin Fu of the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

disclosed an attack which "would have switched off a heart defibrillator" adding "there are vulnerabilities n medical devicesbut there is a perceived lack of threats". Similarly Barnaby Jack a researcher at security firm

McAfee McAfee Corp. ( ), formerly known as McAfee Associates, Inc. from 1987 to 1997 and 2004 to 2014, Network Associates Inc. from 1997 to 2004, and Intel Security Group from 2014 to 2017, is an American proprietary software company focused on online ...

demonstrated an attack on an implantable insulin pump. Some critics have questioned the need to implant the technology to investigate the issues "...it makes no difference if an RFID chip is injected under your skin or stitched into the lining of your jacket...". Gasson argued that many people with implants, including medical devices, consider them to be a part of their body and so it is evident that you cannot simply separate the human and the technology that easily - "actually having something implanted is extremely different to bench testing a piece of hardware because it adds the person and their experiences into the mix. It is seemingly difficult to get across the psychological impact involved in this type of deployment, and this is why I was so keen to test this on myself ... feeling technology to be a part of you is something you probably need to experience to understand".

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gasson, Mark Academics of the University of Reading Living people Year of birth missing (living people)