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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.

8 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. 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.

  3. Re: Humans can do this without the machinery by ccady · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let me think of a way to say this gently... you're an idiot. I think I failed. Sorry. Telepathy as generally defined by people is Not Real. Nor is homeopathy. Nor god. You can come up with a vague general sort of something that might pass for telepathy that you could claim was real, but the thing the common man calls telepathy does not exist. Thank you for your attention.

    --
    J'aime mieux les méchants que les imbéciles, parce qu'ils se reposent. -- Alexandre Dumas
  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.
  5. Re: Humans can do this without the machinery by SethJohnson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I do not post often because I am paralyzed.

    Typing is a multi-hour exercise in eyebrow twitches.

    Most people do not have the patience to hold a conversation with me. I wish I could shorten that word to 'talk' as it would mean fewer eyebrow twitches.

    I would give all of my mod points to be able to mind-meld with other paralyzed people and 'talk' at a normal rate. Please support this research.

  6. Re: Humans can do this without the machinery by jd · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Research into linking paralyzed people to speech synthesizers and robot arms has already achieved some success. Humans can do both and patients have had limited speech and limited mobility restored by this technology.

    I hope the research continues, progresses and becomes affordable to those who need it.

    We have long passed the point where suffering from such conditions is inevitable and are at the point where it's now a matter of degree and of economics.

    Some day, even those limitations may be overcome.

    --
    It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  7. Re:Enormous understatement of brain complexity by religionofpeas · · Score: 4, Informative

    Also, brains are only superficially alike in structure. Fine details differ from person to person, so you can't just copy a thought from one brain to another. The only way to do this is to set up a communication channel, and then the two brains practice to convert their thoughts into a mutually agreed upon signalling system and back.

    A few comments back I was saying that we already have this, and it's called "talking". It got moderated funny, but I was actually serious.