What Are You Thinking?

We have finally merged the fields of science and magic. Scientists can now read our minds…kind of.

Scientists at U.C. Berkeley have recently succeeded in reconstructing a subject’s visual experiences using nothing more than an fMRI machine, a computer, and some YouTube clips (18 million to be exact).

In their study, a subject was instructed to lie in an fMRI machine for a few hours and watch a stream of YouTube trailers while their brain activity (specifically blood flow to the visual cortex) was monitored and analyzed for specific reactions to each trailer. 18 million YouTube clips (not including any footage from the movie trailers) were then fed into the computer, which analyzed each clip, predicted how the human brain would react to each clip, and reconstructed a stream of videos as similar as possible to that viewed by the subject. At the bottom of this post, I’ve posted a link to the two video streams (viewed and reconstructed) side by side. It’s pretty eery how close they are.

Although this isn’t exactly mind reading, it’s still pretty cool, and it is paving the way for new developments in “mind reading” technology. If we can decipher visual stimuli in a subject’s brain, how long until we can reproduce dreams? How about thoughts? Would it be possible to read the brain activity of a mute individual, decode what they are thinking, and translate it into machine assisted speech?

The possible benefits for this type of technology are endless, but they come with some interesting ethical dilemmas to discuss. Science can be an amazing force for good in an individual’s life, but there could come a point at which technology has developed too far and begins to encroach on the basic human rights (such as privacy and independence) of an individual. “Mind reading” technology could potentially be used to take from individual’s information they wish to keep secret (this is exactly why our friends at DARPA are funding research similar to that of the U.C. Berkeley scientists), or even influence a person’s thought processes.

So, its crazily cool and potentially extremely beneficial. But, along with the good must come some bad. I, however, look forward to the day that technology has developed to a point where we must discuss some of these dilemmas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsjDnYxJ0bo