Slashdot Mirror
Your Thoughts Are Your Password
Vitaly Friedman writes "Scientists hope that mind-reading computers will one day replace typed passwords, making fingerprint readers and retina scans obsolete. Skeptics say don't count on it. From the article: 'Researchers at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, are exploring the possibility of a biometric security device that will use a person's thoughts to authenticate her or his identity. Their idea of utilizing brain-wave signatures as pass-thoughts is based on the premise that brain waves are unique to each individual. Some researchers believe the difference might just be enough to create a system that allows you to log in with your thoughts.'"
...so my computer won't let me use it when I'm stoned or tripped out :-/
:'-(
Gonna have to get a standalone CD player and ditch winamp and it's pretty visual plugins
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
Wait, did I just say that out loud ?
Why do I suspect there will be quite a few folks out there with not particularly complex passwords?
I know my first thought password wil be along the lines of:
"If you don't let me into this computer right now, I'm going to throw you out of the window."
The Urgent-use chip that typically prevents access to a technology when the user is in desperate need, will be in direct conflict with the new thought reading password-chip. The upcoming internal struggle in computers will be interesting to watch, but a pain to support.
Oh You POS
Scientists also hope that soon breakthroughs in the field of Artificial Intelligence will give rise to a new race of machine intelligences, who will selflessly do all our work for us, freeing us for lives of leisure (and, incidentally, not murder all of us or make us into batteries).
Scientists also hope that soon they will identify the Dishonesty Gene, so that they may excie it from humanity's DNA, creating a race of perfectly honest people who no longer need to safeguard their systems with passwords.
Scientists also hope that soon they will be able to transport our consciousnesses into vast computers, giving each member of humanity a lifespan of eons and a godlike existence.
Me...I just want my goddamned flying car. That's all.
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
I deal with users all the time, and there is no WAY this'll work...There is no software ever written that can distinguish one blank slate from another.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
fMRI xperiments have consistently shown that people are not able to consciously control activity (average firing rates) in local networks within the brain. Since all brain scans pick up mean field electrical activity (and, unless you are willing to stab yourself in the brain with micro-electrodes, always will), it will be impossible to create a unique thought pattern signature that is consistently reproducable.
They'll have to crowbar my tinfoil helmet from my cold dead head first!!!!
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
This "thought password" is just another biometric, except one which even the actual owner can't be certain he can reproduce at will. If a sensor can non-invasively read your brain activity to open the door, then another sensor can non-invasively read your brain activity to try to reproduce the signature by fraud. It may or may not turn out to be easy to train a bunch of random lab biomass to reproduce a particular "thought." Lastly, a password is something that can be lent to authorized parties or bequeathed when you're no longer around. A biometric in general cannot. In some circumstances, this can be a good thing or a problem. A lawyer or boss can be the "executor" in your absense, but some situations are best when there is no proxy or executor middleman.
[
Mine will be Natalie Portman, naked and petrified.
Sweet!
Gozer: The Choice is made!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Whoa! Ho! Ho! Whoa-oa!
Gozer: The Traveller has come!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Nobody choosed anything!
[turns to Egon]
Dr. Peter Venkman: Did YOU choose anything?
Dr. Egon Spengler: No.
Dr. Peter Venkman: [to Winston] Did YOU?
Winston Zeddemore: My mind is totally blank.
Dr. Peter Venkman: I didn't choose anything.
[long pause, Peter, Egon and Winston all look at Ray]
Dr Ray Stantz: I couldn't help it. It just popped IN there.
Dr. Peter Venkman: [angrily] What? What just popped in there?
Dr Ray Stantz: I... I... I tried to think...
Dr. Egon Spengler: LOOK!
[they all look over one side of the roof]
Dr Ray Stantz: No! It CAN'T be!
Dr. Peter Venkman: What is it?
Dr Ray Stantz: It CAN'T be!
Dr. Peter Venkman: What did you do, Ray?
Winston Zeddemore: Oh, shit!
[they all see a giant cubic white head topped with a sailor hat, Peter looks at Ray]
Dr Ray Stantz: [somberly] It's the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
--From the IMDB.
Cthulhu Saves.
Friends don't let friends send email drunk.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.