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2024-11-11

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Brain-reading device is best yet at decoding ‘internal speech’ (www.nature.com)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/science

19 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Brain-machine interfaces implanted in the participants of this study in the supramarginal gyrus (SMG) and primary somatosensory cortex (S1) were successfully able to decode both internally spoken and vocalized words.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-01867-y?utm_source=Live+Audience&utm_campaign=1586f44658-nature-briefing-daily-20240514&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b27a691814-1586f44658-52006460 (open access)

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[–] Womdat10 28 points 6 months ago (1 children)

This is terrifying, and very dangerous. If this gets developed, what will happen to queer people in conservative areas? People who are in the closet for fear of losing housing? Even despite that, this is would be used in some places to make thoughts illegal, like in North Korea or China, it's basically illegal to speak ill of the government, imagine how that would be with this technology.

[–] davidgro 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

So you're worried about governments forcing brain surgery on people, and think this one particular technology is going to be the big issue if that happens?

I think at that point 'reading minds' is no longer the major concern. Like the old statement about apocryphal airport security measures after 9/11 - "if you can take over the plane with fingernail clippers, then you don't need the clippers".

(clippers were never actually banned on planes in the USA, but for a short while the metal files on them were and that caused confusion)

This tech seems like a huge waste of money when if they are That authoritarian they could just shove an ice pick up the dissident's eye socket or simply have them jump out a window with bullet holes in their back. Why bother with actually gathering evidence - if you're willing to forcefully open their skull, then clearly it's already beyond that point.

I suppose it could be used to find accomplices and crack passwords and stuff, but still seems like a very roundabout way of going about it and likely can be easily defeated by just thinking "LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU" in a loop. Or thinking of an earworm song. Or thinking of false statements.

[–] Dkarma 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Who said surgery they'll read your thoughts as you pass through a doorway or from the street outside, or as you wait in the DMV, shop at the store, use your phone.

[–] davidgro 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The article said surgery. Also common sense, they are reading individual neurons. Not feasible from outside.

Best we have is FMRI, and it is an amazing technology, but it absolutely can't do that and never will because of how it works. And besides, it doesn't fit in a doorway either, and would also be incredibly obvious: loud, super magnetic - requiring all metal to be removed for a long distance, requiring the target to sit for a long time and follow instructions, etc.

Surgery is absolutely the only way this is possible.