Ep27 "Can we read brains at an airport to know who's going to bomb a plane?"
Sep 25, 2023
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Explore the possibilities and limitations of mind-reading technology, including portable brain scanning in airports. Discover the incredible potential of brain-computer interfaces in controlling the outside world. Learn about the decoding of words from brain signals and the complex nature of thoughts. Understand the challenges of brain interpretation and understanding someone's thoughts and emotions. Find out how to access more podcast content and enjoy some travel and sale advertisements.
Brain reading involves analyzing brain signals to determine what a person is perceiving, while mind reading requires understanding a person's unique neural network and experiences.
Mind reading, in the sense of understanding the full depth of an individual's thoughts and experiences, is currently an immense technological and scientific challenge that may not be achievable in our lifetimes or even for future generations in the near term.
Deep dives
Brain reading vs. Mind reading
The podcast episode explores the difference between brain reading and mind reading. Brain reading refers to the ability to analyze and decode brain signals to determine what a person is seeing, hearing, or intending to say. This is accomplished through various techniques such as fMRI and EEG. Mind reading, on the other hand, refers to the ability to read the rich and complex internal thoughts and experiences of an individual. While significant progress has been made in brain reading, mind reading remains a distant goal due to the unique and subjective nature of individual thoughts and experiences. Mind reading would require a deep understanding of a person's entire history, experiences, and neural network, which is currently an immense technological and scientific challenge.
System Identification and Individuality
To achieve meaningful mind reading, the podcast explains that system identification is necessary. This process involves understanding the individual's unique neural network and requires extensive knowledge of their personal experiences, memories, and emotions. System identification is challenging as the patterns of neural activity and their corresponding thoughts or memories vary from person to person. While advances in brain recording technologies may provide more precise data, such as capturing electrical spikes from billions of neurons, the interpretation and decoding of these patterns would still require an individualized understanding of each person's neural network. This highlights the complexity and uniqueness of individuality in mind reading.
Privacy and the Swirling Cosmos of Thoughts
The podcast highlights the privacy and sanctity of a person's inner thoughts. While brain reading has made tremendous progress in decoding visual inputs, speech, and movements, the majority of an individual's thoughts and experiences are private and cannot be easily measured or understood by external observers. Most thoughts are not expressed through external inputs or outputs, and individual thoughts are not solely composed of words or sensory inputs. A person's internal thoughtscape consists of complex and unique experiences, emotions, interpretations, and memories that are distributed throughout the brain. This complexity poses a significant challenge to deciphering and deciphering the true depth of an individual's mind through current brain reading techniques.
Mind Reading in the Distant Future
The podcast concludes by suggesting that mind reading, in the truest sense of understanding the entire depth and richness of an individual's thoughts, remains a distant goal. While advancements in brain recording technology and decoding algorithms have allowed for impressive brain reading capabilities, true mind reading requires an understanding of the personal history, experiences, and neural networks unique to each individual. This level of understanding necessitates extensive data collection and interpretation, far beyond what is currently possible. The podcast emphasizes that meaningful mind reading, reading the stream of consciousness and inner thoughts, is not achievable in our lifetimes or even for future generations in the near term.
Can your thoughts be read with neurotechnology? When is measuring the brain like reading the mind? How close or far are we from being able to know if you're thinking about some particular thing you did or intend to do? What's hype and what's real? Join Eagleman for a deep dive into mind reading: what it means, where we are now, and whether your thoughts could ever be readable with new technologies.
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