fMRI Neuroscience Advances in Mind Reading Scans

According to Dr. Marcel Just from neuroscience dept. of Carnegie Mellon University, in a matter of three to five years, neuroscience research into how we think and what we’re thinking (thought identification) will allow mobile mind reading using portable equipment. For now, here is a video on how functional magnetic resonance imaging combined with computer analysis of neural activity allows identification of thoughts:

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Since none of us have our neural patterns firing exactly the same way during the same thought, the computer analysis is using fuzzy logic interpolation, just like the human mind. Well, it was programmed by human minds, so why not?According to Dr. Paul Woolpey Director of Center of Ethics, Emory University, “There is no more science fiction. All the science fiction I read in high school, we’re doing… The 5th amendment only protects us from testifying against ourselves, but what about a brain scan?..”

The only ethical problem therein is the standardisation and subsequent (computer analysed) interpretation of thought patterns. Can we apply the same standardised fuzzy logic from one person to another when it comes to more complex thought patterns?

This entry was posted on 20. January 2009 at 22:01 and is filed under Disciplinary Studies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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