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Portal into the Mind

sati
neuron_0.jpg

Have you ever found yourself in the frustrating position of explaining the details of a fleeting dream to a friend? Is it difficult to express the colours, lights, sounds, and feelings that you alone experienced in those moments while slumbering? All of this could soon be processed into visual images via new MRI technology being developed by Dr. Jack Gallant from the University of California at Berkeley. According to Dr. Gallant, "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. Imagine a general brain-reading device that could reconstruct a picture of a person's visual experience at any moment in time."

The prospect of “mind-viewing” expands the dialogue of human rights and the protection of privacy. With worrying political bills such as HR 1955, the thoughts and dreams of humanity are quickly and quietly being slid under the lenses of a microscope. What role could this technology play in human consciousness? Could it be used to express ourselves in wonderful new ways? Could it help elevate a person to another level of intellectual understanding? Or could it take a darker note, prodding deep into the subconscious to know our inner-most thoughts, or even implant desires for advertised goods?

 

Creative Commons Image: "Neuron Glia interaction" by Khazaei on Flickr

 

Creative Commons Image: "Sleep, the trees will hold your dreams" by Nesster on Flickr

Comments

Mind-viewing?

Submitted by JED on Mon, 03/17/2008 - 09:48.
Intriguing, and suggestive, yet I'm not too concerned about the Thought Police just yet. Like the wilder prognostications of A.I. researchers in the 80's, I suspect the challenges of analysis will prove daunting, in part due to variation in individual neural architecture and non-linearity of signal. What might come first is therapeutic/pedagogic applications, in which a long-term interaction with a piece of software will allow it to learn the patterns of one brain sufficiently well for some extrapolation of content. Current speech-to-text software does this, with modest efficacy.

Neat!

Submitted by sati on Mon, 03/17/2008 - 10:54.
I am glad to hear that! Thank you! In all honesty, I was hoping technology like this could help me do a "direct-write", meaning- I wouldn't have to type or speak into a mic, my thoughts would just appear on screen! POOF!

wow

Submitted by Adam Elenbaas on Mon, 03/17/2008 - 17:04.
wow--this is fascinating Adam Elenbaas

clearly or darkly

Submitted by Morgan Maher on Mon, 03/17/2008 - 20:25.

Very interesting but...

"[We] believe strongly that no one should be subjected to any form of brain-reading process involuntarily, covertly, or without complete informed consent."

...how long will that hold?


"...scanning a subject's visual cortex while they view thousands of images over five hours"

-

"What does a scanner see?... Does a passive infra-red scanner... see into me -- into us -- clearly or darkly?" - A Scanner Darkly, Phillip K Dick

...

Submitted by trippv on Mon, 03/17/2008 - 21:10.
love the scanner darkly quotes. As far as the whole idea, its great for scientific progress but it kind of makes me feel uneasy

another related film

Submitted by Huilarde on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 00:23.
there is a animated film called "Paprika" that was released very recently that deals with this idea directly. in the film, there is an invention that allows others to share your dream as an observer or even another character, as well as record the dream for later viewing on a computer monitor. it is initially used for psychotherapy and psyche analysis but is later stolen and used for "dream terrorism" and something like mind-jacking. it has a lot of odd but insightful dialogue and very under-the-surface messages about consciousness and human potential. not to mention superior animation and editing. at any rate, i would recommend that you all watch it, should the opportunity arise

where?

Submitted by Huilarde on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 01:02.
well i don't want to give anything away, but let's just say that the line between conscious and unconscious reality becomes quite blurred.

lucid

Submitted by Huilarde on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 01:42.
i'm wondering if a lucid dream is easier to remember than a non-lucid one. i would assume so but i have only ever had a few border-line lucid dreams, and we all know what happens when we assume things. does anyone out there know any techniques for having lucid dreams intentionally?

For me, it always worked

Submitted by Maninkari on Wed, 03/19/2008 - 21:59.

For me, it always worked just to want lucid dreams.

One crucial step is to start remembering dreams, with the help of a dream journal for example.  

Also, asking yourself throughout the day if you are dreaming or awake is a way. You'll become used to it, and after some time you'll ask yourself this question in a dream. 

This is an excellent website about lucid dreaming: http://www.dreamviews.com/

Adaptive Concealment

Submitted by JED on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 12:16.

 Don, I think you hit on the medicine for treating the wave of paranoia some of the posts to this thread display.

 In any organic ecosystem, an advance in predatory behavior elicits enhancements in avoidance behavior by prey. If Big Brother develops brain/mind scanning tech, that will drive jamming/shielding tech and/or endogenous abilities.

 I envision Jedi mind tricks which play hob with Big Brother's evil toys.

 Fuck 'em, we got plenty game, peeps!

Shared Visions

Submitted by Morgan Maher on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 13:41.

Of course, Ayahuasca Curandero's can see the dreams of those in ceremony with the aid of plants and (years of) dedication.

Remember, an active ingredient (harmine) in the Ayahuasca vine was once referred to as "Telepathine".

You see what I'm saying?

Correlate: Tibetan Visualization Training

Submitted by JED on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 15:09.
Morgan, along the dream-sharing line, I recall the teaching of Rimpoche Lama Tarchin, regarding the extensive training he received in elaborate visualization of three dimensional mandalic structures, such as are represented in sand paintings, and far more detailed and arcane virtual constructs, held in awareness. This sort of skill could be applied to the generation and maintenance of internal "avatars", or Mind Masks, we would all put on to move through surveilled society. This is done, already, at many levels, from fashion to social game-play. The spook-trade has worked this angle, hard, for ages.

Yes, often fear rises out of

Submitted by Morgan Maher on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 15:52.

Yes, often fear rises out of the potential for "Big Brother" to read thoughts, see inside people and so forth. But I maintain that no matter what technology or actions are developed for certain "invasions of privacy" - the human mind/body is far more than the sum of its parts.

Big Bro could mine through all my personal data, read all my thoughts, watch all my dreams and still not be able to discern the entire picture. A little smoke screen doesn't hurt either.

If some sort of evil overseer (or good overseer for that matter) were to peer into our dreams it might  provide some dream material for them. Pollination being what it is.

It does strike me as interesting that a lot of major technologies, ones that often use extensive and expensive equipment, are often found within the natural world and have been available and accessible for a long time.

what about hallucinations?

Submitted by conor murray on Fri, 05/23/2008 - 23:19.
i have found myself in meditation while high a few times while experiencing myself open up to my perceptions in this slowed down time... with each change in perception of how i view my reality, an insight is gained, but the insight is understood from this change in perception, but in my high state, as i try to record these changes in perception i cannot fully explain what i was experiencing.. could this make this viewable?