Scientists Discover What You Are Thinking

neurospace writes "Caltech scientists have successfully decoded movement plans from the brains of awake humans. This work has direct application to the development of a neural prosthesis, a brain-machine interface that will give paralyzed people the ability to move and communicate simply using their thoughts. The lead scientist on this project will be interviewed on Sunday, March 20, on the SETI Institute's weekly radio show, 'Are We Alone?'"

Comments

Language

[lachlan76]

Good as this is, what I'm really waiting for is a way to tap into the language center. Imagine: an interface which can work, regardless of the language spoken by the person. No more need for translation, everything could be held in a form identified directly by the brain.

But I doubt this will happen in my lifetime.

Re:Language

[Danger Stevens]

The problem with that is our words for things may be confusing, but they are far more standardized than our thoughts for things.

Words are the handles that we put on our reality. They are difficult to standardize often even within one language because of the variety of experiences that different speakers will have associated with each word.

In computer terms it's like this:
A Mac, a PC, and a Linux box are all using the same HTTP protocol to access websites. They have identical interactions with the exception of the User-Agent header. This is like people using words.
If we were to plug directly into a person's brain in order to attempt to translate the meanings behind words it would be like removing the abstraction layer of a standardized http protocol and looking at the innards of each computer system. As each computer handles internal communication in wildly differing manners it would be much harder to understand what these computers were trying to do than if we experienced them only through their web browser.

So a person using words is not unlike a wrapper or abstraction layer - it makes meaning MORE accessible, not less. Universal translators will be impossible until we have properly mapped all the different meanings in all the different brains.

For more info, I recommend The Language War by Robin Tolmach Lakoff

Should be interesting...

[nbharatvarma]

If we could find the mechanical outcome of what we think when we listen to music.

Sex over IP ?

[shadowdata]

If thoughts can be decoded and translated into binary and transmitted across the net , can we have the real cybersex ????? :P

revolution

[tsioc]

is this nintendo's "revolution"? doubt it but this open up many possibilities I would be afraid to use it for driving... I see someone attractive walking on the side of the road and the car turns towards her and runs her over! would be useful for entertainment though, in addition to helping people with physical disabilities of course...

Re:Possible other uses

[rkcallaghan]

Oh dear please, no.

Talk about a literal interpretation of "thoughtcrime"! I shudder to think of the outcomes if our very thoughts could be used against us. How many slashdotters have thought some nasty things about our current president?

Besides, it says "what you are thinking" and not "anything you ever said, did, or thought."

~Rebecca

I'm thinking this...

[imess]

The REAL question we're all asking...

[Jace of Fuse!]

This is all great, but the REAL question we are all asking: Do Tinfoil Hats block this thing?

"What're you thinking?"

[dannytaggart]

Scientists Discover What You Are Thinking

They have suceeded where my girlfriend failed.