NationStates Jolt Archive


Brain Reading - Here, Today...

G3N13
18-12-2008, 20:36
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16267-mindreading-software-could-record-your-dreams.html

Mind-reading' software could record your dreams

Pictures you are observing can now be recreated with software that uses nothing but scans of your brain. It is the first "mind reading" technology to create such images from scratch, rather than picking them out from a pool of possible images...
..
Now Yukiyasu Kamitani at ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan has gone a step further: his team has used an image of brain activity taken in a functional MRI scanner to recreate a black-and-white image from scratch.
..
As fMRI technology improves, Kamitani adds that an image could potentially be split into many more pixels, producing much higher quality images, and even colour images.

The next step is to find out if it is possible to image things that people are thinking of - as well as what they are looking at - Haynes says it may be possible to "make a videotape of a dream".
..
Haynes also raises the prospect of "neural marketing", where advertisers might one day be able to read the thoughts of passers by and use the results to target adverts. "This [new research] specifically doesn't lead to this - but the whole spirit in which this is done is in line with brain reading and the applications that come with that," he says.


This opens up possibilities, both dangerous - Big Brother...here we come! - and positive - Paraplegic or otherwise impaired patients being able to communicate with the outside world, just imagine the possibilities.

What do you think - Will the consequences be more positive or negative?

And what if we could reverse the process and feed images into brain itself?
No Names Left Damn It
18-12-2008, 20:41
Rubbish.
G3N13
18-12-2008, 20:44
Rubbish.
Well, the article does have supposedly brain scanned images innit.

So I wouldn't exactly call it rubbish without further evidence to the contrary.
Hydesland
18-12-2008, 20:52
All this information gives me a headache. I'm sure it's a dream come true for some.
greed and death
18-12-2008, 21:02
private thought not protected by the constitution. so mass brain reading is legal. according to SCOTUS ruling in 2016, pity the tragic accident in 2015 and the need to replace the justices with bush clones.
DrunkenDove
18-12-2008, 21:09
Cool.
Callisdrun
18-12-2008, 23:01
The technology could be quite promising for positive applications. But there is an enormous danger for abuse.
Call to power
18-12-2008, 23:09
so I'm going to be surrounded by sex adverts all day? this could backfire methinks

why does PBF have to down :( (http://triton.imageshack.us/Himg253/scaled.php?server=253&filename=dreamcatcher3000smallerbk6.jpg&xsize=578&ysize=480)
Mad hatters in jeans
19-12-2008, 01:16
Interesting.
The whole big brother thing is absurd, and i think 1984 was a very poorly written book. Animal farm was far better Mr Orwell.
I could see uses of this for people who have difficulty in communication (Reminds me of the 3 minute wonder with the guy who suffered a stroke, poor guy), alot of real benefits in communication with other countries too.
The Brevious
19-12-2008, 09:32
Some of us here are Brainstorm, Videodrome and Strange Days fans.
*shrug*
Oh, and *not* Altered States fan.
Oiseaui
19-12-2008, 10:02
Stuff like that just freaks me out... I'd hate to see what they could do with it.
The Brevious
19-12-2008, 10:11
I'd hate to see what they could do with it.
A beautiful and much overdue re-invigouration of the entire concept of art. Seriously.
Doitzel
19-12-2008, 10:21
You sleepers have laughed at we insomniacs for too long. Look who's laughing now, punks! *cackle*
Christmahanikwanzikah
19-12-2008, 10:24
http://www.futuramafan.net/bilder/ftg/ls06.jpg
The Brevious
19-12-2008, 10:26
http://www.futuramafan.net/bilder/ftg/ls06.jpg
GOOD choice! *bows*
G3N13
20-12-2008, 02:17
so I'm going to be surrounded by sex adverts all day? this could backfire methinks
Especially when you're applying for a job...