Your thoughts are no longer private: scientists can already tell what you’ve seen just by scanning your brain
I’ve never denied being a nerd. Just now, I was scanning down the Nature weekly, and saw this paper, by Kay et al. It’s just been published, and it describes how they’re using functional MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) - fMRI - to ‘read’ your brain as you see an image - and to decifer from your brain activity, what it was you just saw (by seeing how your brain categorises it)!
Here’s the (gobsmacking) last line from the intro:
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.
Think through what that means. Your thoughts can be scanned. Further down this line of research, we will eventually get to a point where police could get accurate IdentiKit pictures of your assailant, by scanning you; great! But the government could scan your brain to see what you really think about certain religious or political symbols. Are you racist? A commie? A fascist? Do you not like your leader? The government could find out by scanning you. Advertisers (and politicians) could find out the exact effect a message has on a person - using this, they could find out the very best, most powerful wording, the best way to influence you. Techniques for spin, advertising, and their ugliest sister, brainwashing, will come on leaps and bounds. A little worrying… but scientifically amazing.
Related:
- Pretty cool London streetart
- Hat tip: Big Art Mob (C4) del.icio.us Tags: street art...
- That’s some good photo, dude
- Check out the World Press Photo of the Year gallery - some amazing stuff in there - not just single shots but portfolios, too - so like a music album, you get context and development of themes that you don't get with singles. Helps get the message across, adds interest and meaning. The winning photo: War, death and suffering seem to feature fairly prominently. Is it because it elicits stronger emotion from the viewer (or the judges of this contest) than photos of other stuff would? Is suffering and war particularly photogenic? Or is it just attracting the best photographers out there? del.icio.us Tags: art,photography,journalism,contests...
- Revolution over at EvokeONE
- Fascinating virtual art exhibition loosely based around the theme of revolution (there are many others including Fable, Calligraphy, Muse, etc) featuring digital design art, music and photography - really, really high quality stuff. Love the music too, unexpectedly! I'll be returning frequently to Evokeone.com if they can keep this up. del.icio.us Tags: design,art,photography,music...
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