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Scientists Connect the Brains of Three People, Allowing Thought-Sharing (sciencealert.com)

An anonymous reader quotes ScienceAlert: Neuroscientists have successfully hooked up a three-way brain connection to allow three people share their thoughts -- and in this case, play a Tetris-style game. The team thinks this wild experiment could be scaled up to connect whole networks of people, and yes, it's as weird as it sounds. It works through a combination of electroencephalograms (EEGs), for recording the electrical impulses that indicate brain activity, and transcranial magnetic stimulation, where neurons are stimulated using magnetic fields.

The researchers behind the new system have dubbed it BrainNet, and say it could eventually be used to connect many different minds together, even across the web.... For now it's very slow and not fully reliable, and this work has yet to be peer-reviewed by the neuroscience community, but it's a glimpse at some fanciful ways we could be getting our thoughts across to each other in the future -- maybe even pooling mental resources to try and tackle major problems. "Our results raise the possibility of future brain-to-brain interfaces that enable cooperative problem solving by humans using a 'social network' of connected brains," writes the team.

6 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Necessary Jeagar tech by tangent3 · · Score: 5, Funny

    The last piece of the puzzle has fallen into place. We now have the technology against the impending Kaiju attacks.

    Wait, how does a nuclear reactor get used as a nuclear bomb again?

  2. They are the Borg by hackwrench · · Score: 3, Funny

    We will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

  3. Already exists by religionofpeas · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's called talking. We've been doing it for a long time.

    1. Re:Already exists by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's called talking. We've been doing it for a long time.

      Talking to my wife gives me little insight into what she is actually thinking.

      This new invention may save my marriage.

    2. Re:Already exists by iggymanz · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm thinking of some worst case scenarios of the revelations of wife hooked into husband's mind.

      maybe find out she has two boyfriends.

      maybe find out she put a contract on her husband.

      maybe find out she's going in to have her gender changed next friday.

      etc.

  4. Re:That’s surprising by ls671 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Easy! A three way is a switching device with 3 connectors instead of 2. You typically use 2 of those devices to be able to turn on the light downstairs and turn it off once you get upstairs. 4 way switches exist as well although they are rarer.

    --
    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.