Is it possible to read someone's mind?

y.k.y (at dot) at
Sun May 6 11:05:14 EST 2001

> Given the current state of the science, is it possible to attach
> to someones brain and read their thoughts? If it is not, then, what is
> projection for the time at which it will be possible?

i read that early in the 80s someone monitored their own EEG's
and successfully trained their brains to give various localized
signal patterns.  i guess using that same apparatus (multichannel
EEG) one could train an artificial neural net to recognize EEG
patterns while classifying his own thoughts at the moment, and
using that as the target (supervised training).

the difficulty is in obtaining enough data and finding someone
patient enough to do this for extended periods of time.  fMRI
is another possibility.  i guess researchers could build EEG /
fMRI databases to enable this type of analysis.

so i think the bottleneck is that not many people are doing
this type of research, and secondly might be computer power.

hmmm.. if under my supervision.. 10 years? =))

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