chronmanSun, Dec 14, 2008 This will be another great advancement made in neuroscience.
As far as practicality, its highly inefficacious -for now-.
As was indicated, its quite unresourceful because one must perform extensive analysis/computing for each and every individual. Its quite difficult to begin to quantify more complex and quickly occuring brain patterns in itself, and beyond that, the only thoughts which can be quantified will be the ones which were previously screened.
Subject thought is the biggest set-back for this sort of tech; though in the future, it won't prove to be as significant a problem.
There isn't much anyone should fear because thoughts which existed in your mind prior to being screened, nor will it be able to keep up with the rapid and abstract thought patterns that take place in ones head every few seconds.
What they did was essentially code the computer to identify vague markers of that specific brain pattern which is associated with the image.
Another thing which must be noted is that they compute patterns taking place primarily in primary visual cortex/straite cortex, its a completely different thing to measure the more clouded mental images of the secondary visual cortex -which is active during dreaming/visualization-.
Pros:
- Marked advancement for neuroscience
- More insight into the mechanism of the brain and how they can be deciphered/manipulated
- Platform for many future advancements
- As mentioned, potential treatment for a few disorders
Cons:
- Capacity to become intrusive.
It might appear to be a significant threat to privacy, but there isn't really much to worry about. One would have to be an extremely important figure to someone for their interest your thought-patterns to outweigh the significant degree of effort required to code for primitive stimuli.
[What I remember asking the teacher is this: If it's just electromagnetic radiation, then isn't mind-reading at a distance possible?]
It isn't a bad question, this can maybe be achieved in the future. But it would be an extremely uneconomical and unfruitful endeavor.
The greatest obstacle would likely be the physical properties of the waves, more specifically, wave interference. The EM radiation is also relatively low energy, tech which can detect these emissions efficiently would have to be developed.
This will be another great advancement made in neuroscience.
As far as practicality, its highly inefficacious -for now-.
As was indicated, its quite unresourceful because one must perform extensive analysis/computing for each and every individual. Its quite difficult to begin to quantify more complex and quickly occuring brain patterns in itself, and beyond that, the only thoughts which can be quantified will be the ones which were previously screened.
Subject thought is the biggest set-back for this sort of tech; though in the future, it won't prove to be as significant a problem.
There isn't much anyone should fear because thoughts which existed in your mind prior to being screened, nor will it be able to keep up with the rapid and abstract thought patterns that take place in ones head every few seconds.
What they did was essentially code the computer to identify vague markers of that specific brain pattern which is associated with the image.
Another thing which must be noted is that they compute patterns taking place primarily in primary visual cortex/straite cortex, its a completely different thing to measure the more clouded mental images of the secondary visual cortex -which is active during dreaming/visualization-.
Pros:
- Marked advancement for neuroscience
- More insight into the mechanism of the brain and how they can be deciphered/manipulated
- Platform for many future advancements
- As mentioned, potential treatment for a few disorders
Cons:
- Capacity to become intrusive.
It might appear to be a significant threat to privacy, but there isn't really much to worry about. One would have to be an extremely important figure to someone for their interest your thought-patterns to outweigh the significant degree of effort required to code for primitive stimuli.
It isn't a bad question, this can maybe be achieved in the future. But it would be an extremely uneconomical and unfruitful endeavor.
The greatest obstacle would likely be the physical properties of the waves, more specifically, wave interference. The EM radiation is also relatively low energy, tech which can detect these emissions efficiently would have to be developed.