The fMRI brain scans showed certain patterns of human brain activity sparked by thinking about physical objects, such as a horse or a house. Researchers also used the brain scans to identify brain activity shared by words related to certain topics – thinking about “eye” or “foot” showed patterns similar to those of other words related to body parts.
Then again, if I could just slap on a hat and reply to all my emails without lifting a finger, that might be worth unlawful persecution at the hands of my future overlords. [Innovation via MSNBC]
Richard
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 9:23 AMAs a cognitive neuroscientist, I can assure you that there isn’t any risk of machines reading people’s minds in the foreseeable future (In a way that might be useful for the police, that is. To control a computer – well that tech is here now). There was massive technical obstacles to overcome (i.e. you’ll never be able to do it with fMRI), and, more importantly, there theoretical obstacles to overcome. That is, almost everything we know about how brains work and develop (and everything we’re learning every day) would have to be wrong. This is nothing but hype from a university marketing department or the fantasies of deluded “futurists” (not scientists).
villainsoft
Tuesday, September 6, 2011 at 1:50 PMbrains are not equal, in terms of neural connectivity and actual physiology. Using a standardized mind reader will not work.
You could detect a pattern of neural activity based on a previously “known” pattern. But that is no more mind reading than a standard database query.