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Computer Reads Minds!

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drowbot0181
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23 Dec 2008, 12:04 pm

Okay, it doesn't really... but now that I got your attention, I thought this was a very exciting story:
http://www.theskepticsguide.org/sgublog/?p=398



protest_the_hero
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23 Dec 2008, 12:10 pm

im honestly pissed off



drowbot0181
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23 Dec 2008, 12:18 pm

protest_the_hero wrote:
im honestly pissed off


Why?



Dokken
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23 Dec 2008, 6:14 pm

drowbot0181 wrote:
protest_the_hero wrote:
im honestly pissed off


Why?


I think he or she is mad because you like KMFDM or maybe not. I notice you are wearing KMFDM shirt in avatar


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Orwell
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23 Dec 2008, 6:47 pm

drowbot0181 wrote:
protest_the_hero wrote:
im honestly pissed off


Why?

Because you lied, and a lot of Aspies have very absolutist, black-and-white views of morality.


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drowbot0181
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23 Dec 2008, 7:08 pm

Dokken wrote:
drowbot0181 wrote:
protest_the_hero wrote:
im honestly pissed off


Why?


I think he or she is mad because you like KMFDM or maybe not. I notice you are wearing KMFDM shirt in avatar


I don't, it's just a shirt I found.



drowbot0181
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23 Dec 2008, 7:11 pm

But it does, in a literal sense, read the person's mind. But it doesn't in the more generally accepted use of that phrase. The article, if you didn't read it, is about software that using fMRI scans of a section of the brain where the image from the retina directly maps. The software, once calibrated to the person, is able to recreate what the person is seeing.



pakled
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25 Dec 2008, 11:35 pm

...don't need a computer that reads minds...I already got a wife...;)



Shiggily
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25 Dec 2008, 11:46 pm

"It was the first time in the world that it was possible to visualize what people see directly from the brain activity"

I think it is a measure of brain activity directly related to sight. It doesn't read minds and I don't think it even can picture dreams, since I don't think dream images are related to the area of the brain that they are using. Unless someone has proof that dreams activate the same areas of the brain as eyesight does.

It is just another example of over-hyping science.

Though I find the confines of the study to be interesting, the claims are not accurate.



drowbot0181
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26 Dec 2008, 4:54 am

Shiggily wrote:
"It was the first time in the world that it was possible to visualize what people see directly from the brain activity"

I think it is a measure of brain activity directly related to sight. It doesn't read minds and I don't think it even can picture dreams, since I don't think dream images are related to the area of the brain that they are using. Unless someone has proof that dreams activate the same areas of the brain as eyesight does.

It is just another example of over-hyping science.

Though I find the confines of the study to be interesting, the claims are not accurate.


They didn't make any unfounded claims about it, those parts were just speculation of the future possibilities of this research. At this point, it has no practical application, it is strictly a research tool. They said that what it is doing is measuring brain activity related to sight. Specifically, it's trying to decode the raw image that your brain receives from your retina. It's the image prior to brain doing a LOT of processing on it.