Mind-boggling! Science creates computer that can decode your thoughts

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empirex

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Not much to say, but: "Wow".

Mind-boggling! Science creates computer that can decode your thoughts and put them into words

  • Technology could offer lifeline for stroke victims and people hit by degenerative diseases
  • In the study, a computer analyzed brain activity and reproduced words that people were hearing
It sounds like the stuff of science fiction dreams - or nightmares.

Scientists believe they have found a way to read our minds, using a computer program that can decode brain activity in our brains and put it into words.

They say it could offer a lifeline to those whose speech has been affected by stroke or degenerative disease, but many will be concerned about the implications of a technique that can eavesdrop on thoughts and reproduce them.

Neuroscientists at the University of California Berkeley put electrodes inside the skulls of brain surgery patients to monitor information from their temporal lobe, which is involved in the processing of speech and images.
As the patient listened to someone speaking, a computer program analysed how the brain processed and reproduced the words they had heard. more here
Click to expand...
 
Quick Question...

Isn't there a difference to decoding "what you are hearing" and "what you are actually THINKING"?
I mean, I know your brain is also "thinking" when you hear speech, but can it actually process ones OWN thoughts, without hearing another persons voice?

Because, I know CPU's are fast...but processing what you hear is one thing (Speech is "slow"), but processing actual THOUGHTS is another.
I mean, CPU's have major processing power...but compared to your brain function when thinking of a simple shape, never mind complex thoughts, is a whole different ballgame.
If it would type your thoughts, there would be pages and pages in mere seconds.
 
Last edited:
Keeper said:
Quick Question...

Isn't there a difference to decoding "what you are hearing" and "what you are actually THINKING"?
I mean, I know your brain is also "thinking" when you hear speech, but can it actually process ones OWN thoughts, without hearing another persons voice?

Because, I know CPU's are fast...but processing what you hear is one thing (Speech is "slow"), but processing actual THOUGHTS is another.
I mean, CPU's have major processing power...but compared to your brain function when thinking of a simple shape, never mind complex thoughts, is a whole different ballgame.
If it would type your thoughts, there would be pages and pages in mere seconds.
Click to expand...

Assuming you can only process the data in real time.
 
Nick333 said:
Assuming you can only process the data in real time.
Click to expand...

I think what i'm trying to say is this:

Speech, isn't THAT hard to process...even SIRI can do it. in real-time. words can only spoken at a certain speed, in "serial-mode" / 1 single data stream.
look at the line I've just said...you can follow it by reading from left to right, line by line.

Thoughts on the other hand, i'm sure run in parallel, and each path splits, curves and fires off into 300 different directions in mere nanoseconds.
I also don't see how this can be put into words as it's much more abstract... surely you can't simply put a thought onto paper (words) when I think of something as "simple" as a Cheese burger.


basically what i'm saying is, if you had to process a single thought of mine, say, about "Toys", even if just recording for 5 seconds....well.....you would have a 350 page manual full of pictures and random text scribbled all over the place, all about what I think about the shape of Lego all the way down to my first encounter with action figures.
 
Keeper said:
I think what i'm trying to say is this:

Speech, isn't THAT hard to process...even SIRI can do it. in real-time. words can only spoken at a certain speed, in "serial-mode" / 1 single data stream.
look at the line I've just said...you can follow it by reading from left to right, line by line.

Thoughts on the other hand, i'm sure run in parallel, and each path splits, curves and fires off into 300 different directions in mere nanoseconds.
I also don't see how this can be put into words as it's much more abstract... surely you can't simply put a thought onto paper (words) when I think of something as "simple" as a Cheese burger.


basically what i'm saying is, if you had to process a single thought of mine, say, about "Toys", even if just recording for 5 seconds....well.....you would have a 350 page manual full of pictures and random text scribbled all over the place, all about what I think about the shape of Lego all the way down to my first encounter with action figures.
Click to expand...

I get what you're saying and although I doubt our brains generate quite that much information when thinking about a simple concept, my point is that it cpu speed is somewhat irrelevant. What doe's matter is recording the information generated in some manner. The processing and deciphering of the information can be done at leisure once it's recorded.
 
Nick333 said:
I get what you're saying and although I doubt our brains generate quite that much information when thinking about a simple concept, my point is that it cpu speed is somewhat irrelevant. What doe's matter is recording the information generated in some manner. The processing and deciphering of the information can be done at leisure once it's recorded.
Click to expand...

Well, you wouldn't guess that thinking of "Toys" generate that much information, but I'm sure there are more than we would like to think...we just don't know it, it's subconscious.
I think the thoughts and calculations generated just by looking at something as simple as a triangle, is tremendous.

Our brains are pretty capable... 20 seconds of dreaming = an entire book worth of thoughts and images.

I'm going to watch "BBC Horizon: How does our memory work" and report back :p
 
Fantastic, I want this console. When will it be out?

Jokes aside. The advances are just phenomenal!
 
cool need a wireless one of these, can't be too far off in the future, so many possibilities.....
 
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