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Study Shows Direct Brain Interface Between Humans

Posted by samzenpus on from the I-want-to-know-what-you're-thinking dept.

vinces99 writes University of Washington researchers have successfully replicated a direct brain-to-brain connection between pairs of people as part of a scientific study following the team's initial demonstration a year ago. In the newly published study, which involved six people, researchers were able to transmit the signals from one person's brain over the Internet and use these signals to control the hand motions of another person within a split second of sending that signal.

25 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Don't we already do that? by mozumder · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I type a comment here, and it goes into your brain.

    This comment is now about steak.

    You are now picturing a juicy steak inside your brain.

    1. Re:Don't we already do that? by koan · · Score: 5, Funny

      Think "orgasm"

      --
      "If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
    2. Re:Don't we already do that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Thank you!

      I'm going to come back and read your comment again in a little while. I just need about 10 minutes.

    3. Re:Don't we already do that? by radtea · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I type a comment here, and it goes into your brain.

      But it doesn't go directly into my brain!

      Where "directly" apparently means "via millions of dollars of highly specialized equipment", which is a use that only is only found in headlines on stories like this one.

      "Humans can now transport themselves directly to the store in an automobile!"

      Why is it that when we cut out the use of one organ--our feet in the case of automobiles--we all recognize that only a gibbering idiot would describe the resulting walking-free transportation process as "direct", but in the case of cutting out the use of the mouth almost everyone buys into this idiotic claim that its replacement by millions of dollars of gear is "direct"?

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
    4. Re:Don't we already do that? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Funny

      Think "orgasm"

      Sure, but, like in the movie Firefox you must think in Russian ...

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    5. Re:Don't we already do that? by iggymanz · · Score: 2

      No, your typed words have no meaning to a non-English reading human. This experiment transcends language issues.

    6. Re:Don't we already do that? by jythie · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't know, this sounds pretty 'direct' to me since it is sending raw signals into the brain rather then using any of our existing specialized sense organs. The only way it could be more direct is if you started sticking spikes in people's heads or removed parts of their skull and sorts slapped two people's raw exposed brainmeats together.

      As for 'millions of dollars', I am guessing you have never worked in University research. These projects tend to be very shoestring when it comes to budget.

    7. Re:Don't we already do that? by JasonGoatcher · · Score: 2

      Looks better on a postcard if you leave out that last bit.

      Reminds me of a hobby I have. I like to take famous moments or quotes and figure out how I could have totally ruined the moment.

      "Four score and seven years ago, we brought forth a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

      "Unless they're not white, don't forget that part. Very important."

    8. Re:Don't we already do that? by mansie · · Score: 2

      Having only read the synopsis i imagine a world where soldiers never set foot on the battlefield in person, but instead possess some poor hapless cannon fodder soul and remote-control them with complete disregard for their life. Just pick up another should the first one fail to perform adequately. Farms where human cannon fodder is born, grown, to die and be discarded on the field of battle. A future genocide, unrivaled, at greater cost than all prior ones combined, a world darker and more bleak than the matrix. Have a nice nightmare! You're welcome!

  2. That's Kinda Creepy... by Stormy+Dragon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Is the "receiver" subjectively aware that the decision to move their hand was imposed from outside, or did it seem like their own spontaneous decisions? (Obviously they're rationally aware it's imposed since they have a giant machine strapped to their head, but what does it "feel like" from inside their mind?)

    1. Re:That's Kinda Creepy... by turkeydance · · Score: 2

      already have a Ouija board.

    2. Re:That's Kinda Creepy... by iMadeGhostzilla · · Score: 2

      I would imagine it feels like the reflex-test kick in the knee -- you feel the sensation but are surprised it is happening since you are not willing it, and you're merely observing the process.

      Taking it a step further, I imagine one day when someone else can press a trigger to create a vague thought or image in your mind, you'd feel the same -- feel the mental sensation but since you'd not be willing it, you'd be just observing it. (Perhaps similar with eg. a hallucinations? Also something you did not invite in your mental space, it just occurs.)

    3. Re:That's Kinda Creepy... by Stormy+Dragon · · Score: 4, Informative

      The article doesn't say though. Some neuroscientists argye that the initiation of action may preceed the initation of the perception of "willing it":

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...

      If that is the case, it could be there's a method of forcing movement that would be perceived as your own actions.

  3. Re:OK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Since Google is having trouble legalizing self-driving cars, now they can use this technology to self-drive humans who in turn drive the cars!

  4. Person-to-person telepathy is all well and good by mark-t · · Score: 4, Interesting

    But what I'd really like to control just by thinking about it is my computer. No more wrist RSI...

    Also, I can think at least 10 times faster than I can type... so I could get more stuff done in the same amount of time.

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
    1. Re:Person-to-person telepathy is all well and good by DigitAl56K · · Score: 5, Funny

      Also, I can think at least 10 times faster than I can type... so I could get more stuff done in the same amount of time.

      Brain-computer demo (internal voice):
      "Visit Slashdot"
      "Fucking beta..."
      "No no no, go back!"
      "Damn, Amazon ads are creepy, I was just searching for a new stereo system!"
      "no no no, I don't want to search for a stereo system, go back!"
      "reads post explaining vulnerability that tricks brain-computer interface into issuing commands using your internal reading voice select all files permanently delete confirm"
      "wait! fuck! nooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!"

    2. Re:Person-to-person telepathy is all well and good by Fwipp · · Score: 2

      I think you missed a pretty obvious joke. Maybe you typed your comment out about 10x faster than you thought it?

  5. telepathic typing is the future by doctor+woot · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'd really tits be hopeful tits for a future in which tits your thoughts result directly tits in all kinds of work without further input tits. Imagine GIGANTIC ASSES being able to stop a malfunctioning machine part tits from causing damage without needing to scramble tits for the controls or quickly punch in code, safely and assurately. Communicating when tits you'll arrive somewhere shit did anybody see me do that can happen while driving without the need to tits take your eyes off the road to interface with your phone, making orders ass online could be a snap, the opportunities are limitless.

    1. Re:telepathic typing is the future by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

      Many of us have something called "self-control" and know how to control our thoughts. If your mind is constantly filled with sexual thoughts perhaps you should masturbate more often or less often. If that doesn't work, I suggest you go on disability because your mind is clearly screwed up.

      We don't yet have the technology to know; but I'd bet that 'self control' is a lot more about pruning of spurious thoughts before they reach awareness than it is about the absence of them.

      Perception is much more amenable to study than introspective activity, and we know that that process involves a lot of (often pretty impressive, sometimes embarrassing) culling of irrelevant input to allow conscious focus on a limited set of salient details. This has its advantages (picking a single speaker out of the background of a noisy room would be pretty nasty to do entirely consciously); but as the ever entertaining 'change blindness' experiments show, can involve some pretty dramatic details hitting the cutting room floor without the subject ever noticing them.

  6. Remote Support by Eleint · · Score: 2

    Think of all the possibilities this opens up in terms of remote support. We can already control someone mouse and keyboard but now we can do remote hardware changes, machine building, we might even be able to punch someone in the face remotely when they post something stupid. Other ides: Twitch plays this guy, remote skilled labor (woodworking, hair styling, artwork, etc...). Find a bomb that needs defusing? Download the bomb squid app and have the worlds best bomb defuses help you not have a bad day. The possibility here are endless, and a bit scary in some cases (hay look, I just defined the internet!)

    --
    If someone tries to kill you, you try and kill them right back
  7. Honestly Mom! by Ronin+Developer · · Score: 2

    I can't help myself!!!

  8. Cool and all, but a couple of things came to mind. by Hussman32 · · Score: 3, Informative

    1. Who is funding the research?

    The research published in PLOS ONE was initially funded by the U.S. Army Research Office and the UW, with additional support from the Keck Foundation.

    2. What will the Army do with it?

    --
    "Who are you?" "No one of consequence." "I must know." "Get used to disappointment."
  9. Stop hitting yourself. by vistic · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Remotely control the body of another person with your own mind via the internet... the future of siblings playing "Why are you hitting yourself? Stop hitting yourself! Come on... stop hitting yourself!" never looked brighter.

  10. bad science by asjk · · Score: 2

    In watching the video of the experiment there seems to be a lack of subjectivity. When the "receiver" twitched his finger shooting an object someone heard exclaiming, "All right!" This type of feedback has no place in science and shows a predilection of the observer toward an outcome. The observer should be "blinded" to the experimental process.

  11. Great by BringsApples · · Score: 2

    Wait till ISIS gets a hold of this, and uses it to remotely radicalize us all! Queue The Matrix music.

    --
    Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.