Brain Power

"People who are completely paralyzed due to illness or trauma are getting help communicating with a new technology that connects their brains to a computer." -CBS Video


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That's the little snippet that comes with the video posted above. I know the video is about thirteen minutes long but trust me, it's worth it if you have any interest in new technology.

For those who want a brief synopsis though, the video highlights a brain reading technology that allows people with physical disabilities to share their thoughts. Lou Gehrig's disease, for example, eventually stops the function of all your muscles, while your brain can still function at normal level until you eventually pass away. So this technology is helpful to those people who can no longer write or speak.

The way the technology works is that you put a sensor swim cap thingy on your head and you think out words letter by letter. A computer program can read the letters you are thinking and places it on the screen on a text document. The sixty minutes interview guy tried it himself and was shocked to see that the program was accurate 100% of the time.

You might be thinking that this technology will allow people to read your thoughts. The creators of the technology say it isn't possible with this current technology since you need to voluntarily participate in order for it to work. However, I think this brain reading technology does bring us one step closer to that full on mind-reading.

The scary part of the video is that another person actually volunteered to have a chip installed into her brain that allows a computer to read her thoughts from the inside. In order for it to register, doctors attach a chord to her head, "entering the matrix" style. That's just creepy. It might also mean that we're turning into cyborgs.

So what do you think? Is this technology amazing or scary?

Please don't read my mind
It's confusing anyway
I'm a bit spacey


This posted tagged as: technology

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#1: by Will from Beyond on 11/12/08 @ 1:12PM EST

Very nice. By the way, you can skip to about 4 minutes in the video if you want to just see it in action.

This is definitely on the scary side of things, but I embrace its development, and we'll worry about any paranoid consequences when they come.

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