Comment by noonespecial | Hacker News Reader

Comment by noonespecial | Hacker News Reader

My brain stalled for about 20 minutes just trying to get some thought around all of the implications of this. Then it was gradually replaced by a the sinking feeling one gets when watching tremendous opportunity lost.

Her husband, Doug, drums up business. “We deliver food, flowers, whatever anybody needs,” she says. “We charge $5 for delivery in town.” Money is tight. Each time they get ahead, there’s a financially draining trip to Vancouver.

What!?

Some of the greatest leaps in understanding about how our brains work, not to mention untold wonders in technological advancement might be presented to us on a platter via this once in a multi-generation opportunity and they're housed in some crap rental trying to deliver flowers to make ends meet??? This family should immediately be declared a national treasure and have the full support of the Canadian government.

Expensive? Morally nebulous? Look, we yanks will build a multi-100-million dollar prison and get over the moral gray-ness of water-boarding just to find a few bombs. Helping out what might turn out to be a simple disabled pair of twins in exchange for knowledge that may improve humanity forever shouldn't be that much of a stretch.

I know this might be an unpopular opinion and attract downvotes, but I just got a +70 for what I though was a throwaway one-liner. If that's how the karma flows, then bring it.

I went inarticulate while reading this, I was literally making noises that were not English because I did not have English words to express them. These could be the first and only real telepaths upon the face of the Earth. There could be things to learn here that we couldn't learn any other way short of waiting another two decades for the brain-computer interface technology and then another twenty years for the FDA to approve its use on children and then ten years after that for the children to grow up and by then the Singularity would have already happened. Their importance is indescribable.

My thoughts exactly! Particularly when I saw the bit about a reality TV show.

The family is of course entitled to do what it deems proper, but neuroscientists may have a wonderful opportunity here. Perhaps I'm over-reaching, but there seem to be many topics -- some of them very practical -- upon which the twins may offer insight: brain-computer interfaces, the sense-of-self, seat of consciousness, the semantics/syntax of thought, distinction between language and thought, information processing... etc.

At the very least, they might be fantastic at pair programming! Or even programming multi-core, being dual-core themselves might provide insights impossible for normal people.

It also seems sad that this might be the closest thing we ever get to a truly alien intelligence (depending on how tightly coupled they are). Imagine a creature that not only can't conceive of living a life uncoupled from its binary partner but may be horrified by the thought. And what will we do with this fantastic intelligence, unique in all the world? Reality TV.

They should, and I imagine they do, have enough support to ensure the children are clothed, fed, schooled and enjoy a minimum standard of living. However, incentivizing childhood disability opens up a whole new and rather dangerous gray area I think.

Perhaps, but I'd venture that due to the rare and unique opportunity presented here, this moral hazard should be braved.

I doubt a line of twins joined at the brain will show up looking for handouts.

True, I'm thinking more of the dullards who might go from squeezing out more kids so they can collect the welfare, to squeezing out disabled kids in the hope of a bigger payout. It's perverse, but it's hardly as if the first case is rare. I'm still assuming basic disability and child benefits of course.

If they were to agree, I think there is a way. How many people would you think might agree to pay monthly some symbolic amount, say, $5, if these folks were to help the neuroscience ? Only about a thousand needed to get them a decent living - though the number is mostly a SWAG.

This is probably the single biggest opportunity for mankind.

If there are some folks in Canada that could organize some kind of fund to help the kids - count me in. I hope they might agree to help us all back in return.

I know [just the billionaire](http://www.alleninstitute.org/) to spend some money on helping these people out, in exchange for getting to do some science.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com