Creepy Science Thing of the Day

Posted on September 24, 2011 at 9:35 am by Bob Cesca

Scientists at University of California-Berkeley were able to record a person’s thoughts and turn them into a video. Yes, actual video of brain signals. The results are not unlike the videotape footage from the movie The Ring.

They’re haunting. Not only in terms of content, but I assume that in 10 or 20 years there will be an iPhone app for this.

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  • http://phydeauxpseaks.blogspot.com Bob Rutledge

    That’s fuckin’ AWESOME!!!

    • Scopedog

      Nah, it’s just BRAINSTORM becoming reality…8-)

  • Corebela

    I fucking love this! I always say I just want to live to see how technology advances and I swear the day that I can watch my dreams played back is the day I can die satisfied. Once again I fucking love this!!!

    • Scopedog

      Hmmm….I’m interested in this (and it does look cool), but unfortunately, I’m one of those wet blankets that looks at the pros and cons of new technology and technological advancements.

      This could have uses for good or ill. And are we really willing to let someone reconstruct our dreams against our own will?

      (Of course, it could help say, in therapy and the like. But still….)

      • Corebela

        I understand all the bad things about it I definitely realize that this could basically be used to read peoples minds which is never good to me. But I see it like this. New tech will always have a good and bad side to it. If we stop ourselves from advancing out of fear then we will always stay the same always, tech wise. If we thought “hmm bad people can get to places far too quickly with a jet so lets stop making it”. Then where would be I wonder….

        • Scopedog

          Very true…we do need to advance (well, the GOP seems content to regress, but that’s another story), and there can be great good.

          Still, nothing’s harmful about being cautious–not fearful, mind you.

        • http://phydeauxpseaks.blogspot.com Bob Rutledge

          Yeah, as has been said before by people much more intelligent than me, technology is neither bad nor good… it just is. It is the uses to which it can be put that are either good or bad.

  • TimEldred

    There’s an amazing movie by Wim Wenders that explores this in depth called “Until the End of the World.” Can’t recommend it highly enough.

    • dildenusa

      How about a link?

      • TimEldred

        It might be on YouTube or Netflix. I bought it on DVD years ago, so I’ve not looked for it elsewhere. It was a feature film first released in the early 90s, but it hasn’t aged a day since then.

  • dildenusa

    OK. I see that I have to put my 2 cents worth in here. The brain activity images are not unlike what we would be seeing in our dreams, however the subjects in the study were obviously awake.

    I would suggest that the advances we are seeing in science and technology are the tip of the iceberg as to what the future will bring.

    Also this has implications if true. http://public.web.cern.ch/public/

    • Scopedog

      “I would suggest that the advances we are seeing in science and technology are the tip of the iceberg as to what the future will bring.”

      That’s certainly true. Remember that it was one man experimenting with soldering a couple of wires together that led to the creation of the first integrated circuit–and the world hasn’t been the same since then.

      Still, nothing’s wrong with being cautiously optimistic. I grew out of the belief that technological progress would lead to utopia.

      (Not that I’m saying you implied that, though!)

  • muselet

    Considered as pure science, this is incredibly cool. Considered practically, as UC Berkeley says in its press release (http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/09/22/brain-movies/):

    Eventually, practical applications of the technology could include a better understanding of what goes on in the minds of people who cannot communicate verbally, such as stroke victims, coma patients and people with neurodegenerative diseases. It may also lay the groundwork for brain-machine interface so that people with cerebral palsy or paralysis, for example, can guide computers with their minds.

    This is why I find science exciting—and yet another reason why I want to hit every national Republican with a cricket bat. We need to be investing more (I’d argue for “a lot more” but I’m willing to settle for merely “more”) in science education and basic research, not less.

    –alopecia

  • http://www.politicalruminations.com/ nicole

    I guess I’m the only other person posting today who sees it as “creepy”.

    I don’t want anyone in my brain. And, I can’t help but think what those with no morality could eventually do with something like this.

    *shudders*

    • muselet

      You and Bob are right, it is kind of creepy. And I definitely see the potential for abuse: “Mr. Smith, I have a court order to retrieve your memories.” Your concerns, long-term, are not unreasonable and should be addressed.

      At present, this is a brand-new technique that requires informed consent and literally hours in an MRI scanner, being subjected to visual stimuli. Some time in the future (five years? ten? twenty?), it should be possible to cut the time spent lying still in a noisy, claustrophobic tube to a matter of minutes; it may even be possible to use some other scanning technology, but it will always take time.

      I’m excited about this because it could lead to a better understanding of how the brain works, what visual hallucinations really are, maybe how visual memories are formed. And, frankly, it’s cool upon cool.

      If we stopped investigating things because they have the potential to be misused or abused, we’d never have started messing about with fire.

      –alopecia

  • http://www.broadwaycarl.com Broadway Carl

    The person that made the video on the left was obviously a Steve Martin fan.