Scientists have developed a computerised mind-reading technique which lets them accurately predict the images that people are looking at by using scanners to study brain activity.
The breakthrough by American scientists took MRI scanning equipment normally used in hospital diagnosis to observe patterns of brain activity when a subject examined a range of black and white photographs. Then a computer was able to correctly predict in nine out of 10 cases which image people were focused on. Guesswork would have been accurate only eight times in every 1,000 attempts.
The study raises the possibility in the future of the technology being harnessed to visualise scenes from a person’s dreams or memory.
Writing in the journal Nature, the scientists, led by Dr Jack Gallant from the University of California at Berkeley, said: “Our results suggest that it may soon be possible to reconstruct a picture of a person’s visual experience from measurements of brain activity alone. Imagine a general brain-reading device that could reconstruct a picture of a person’s visual experience at any moment in time.”
Thoughtcrime, anyone? What time is it? 1984 already!
In my view this technology is no more “scary” than that of a camera. It’s when it is forced on the population that it becomes a problem. Oh well, that won’t be long in coming once our God-given leader persuades us that it is necessary in the Global War on Terror, and that no law-abiding citizen would fear the examination of his thoughts. And that’s if the Party of Small Government wins. Who knows what will happen if the Global Nanny Party gets in…
In my day job, I’m already looking at this as a way of possibly giving non-verbal paraplegics ways to communicate and to control external devices. Yes, it could be used for nefarious purposes, but so could a number of technologies we currently use to help the severely disabled.
What if they can make one for dogs!
I wonder how many technicians when looking at brain patterns will say “..man oh man this person is in deep yogurt…”
I have warned you again and again – and so has Huxley, now i think about it -that science and technology will alter human reality without asking permission to do so. The gulf is yawning at our feet and we are looking over our shoulders to see we can find a parking spot. LM
Marion,
I think my dog’s thoughts are probably biscuit-shaped.
Shumanbean:
But what if they’re not? What if we learn that, all along, [i]they’ve just been putting up with us?[/i]