Military Wants Your Thoughts

[Aggressor Prime]

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?optio ... 0&Itemid=1

\"The US military is paying its boffins to study ways to read people's thoughts.

The big idea is that the research could someday lead to a gadget capable of translating the thoughts of soldiers who suffered brain injuries in combat or even stroke patients in hospitals.

Of course it could also be used to read the mind of any enemy captured and save all that embarrassing torture that the army has to deny doing now. The project is a collaboration among researchers at the University of California, Irvine; Carnegie Mellon University; and the University of Maryland.

The boffins will use brain wave-reading technology known as electroencephalography to measures the brain's electrical activity through electrodes placed on the scalp.

They are looking at telling a volunteer to think of a word chosen by the researchers, who then analyse the brain activity. This could lead the way to thought recognition software for anyone who does not wear their tin foil hat.\"

First they find a way to read thoughts correctly. Then writing thoughts to people's brains (perfect mind control) becomes simple. Watch out for the Age of Complete Control.

[Testiculese]

A lot of people, if not most people, think in pictures, not words. I wonder how effective it will be...

[Aggressor Prime]

Well, we actually use both pictures and words, most people. Like you can talk to yourself, and not picture anything. Or you can think of a place and not say anything. Or you can think of a place, see the beauty, and then define that beauty in words. Or think of a place from words, and make it into a picture.

Concepts like philosophy, politics, and math require more word memory than pictures. Although I would believe artists and military troops use more picture memory than word memory, as they need good spatial cordination and don't need to really now why they are in the situation they are in or why the world is as it is, they just process everything as it is.

[Duper]

actually Testi's right. Language is learned by mental imagery. That's the way foreign language teachers in my High School used to teach.

We were told not to translate in our head, but as we learned new words, form a mental image with it. So with water, Isee a clear glass with water nearly filling it, but in Spanish it's \"agua\" so don't go: \"agua\"-\"water\"- clear glass with water image but \"agua\" - clear glass with water image - \"water\".

Doing math might be more visually textual.

Really though, I don't think that this all matters much as it's more likely to certain wave patterns that coincide with a particular though, sequence or groups of thought, depending on how they set their algorithms. So, in a way, it will be it's own language.

What I'm interested to see is if they succeed, will it work with people who speak other languages. Again, i guess that would depend on the math of it all and how the data is interpreted.

Actually, Genghis should be able to shed a little light on this. It's kinda down his alley.

[Alter-Fox]

I won't even bother arguing, because if anyone does, it'll turn into a disaster.

[QuestionableChaos]

quote: \"The project is a collaboration among researchers at the University of California, Irvine; Carnegie Mellon University; and the University of Maryland. \"

great. i go to UC Irvine... now i see where my increased tuition payments are going

[Aggressor Prime]

actually Testi's right. Language is learned by mental imagery. That's the way foreign language teachers in my High School used to teach.

We were told not to translate in our head, but as we learned new words, form a mental image with it. So with water, Isee a clear glass with water nearly filling it, but in Spanish it's "agua" so don't go: "agua"-"water"- clear glass with water image but "agua" - clear glass with water image - "water".

Doing math might be more visually textual.

Really though, I don't think that this all matters much as it's more likely to certain wave patterns that coincide with a particular though, sequence or groups of thought, depending on how they set their algorithms. So, in a way, it will be it's own language.

What I'm interested to see is if they succeed, will it work with people who speak other languages. Again, i guess that would depend on the math of it all and how the data is interpreted.

Actually, Genghis should be able to shed a little light on this. It's kinda down his alley.

Well, I was told in the Psychology 100 class I took this summer that we use both words and pictures about the same, sometimes more of one or the other. But as you know, college textbooks and professors are wrong, time to time.

[Duper]

Meh *shrug* that's what i was told in high school and a little what ive learned in 43 year. Not really an expert.

(weird side story, my Latin teacher was one of the 8 man team that studied that whole bee dance behavior thing back int eh 60's at Notre Dame. Had a Masters in Biology wound up teaching French and Latin. )

[BUBBALOU]

Break out the TIN HATS

after all tin hat theory was perpetuated by the government because it will actually amplify the users brainwaves

[Duper]

i thought you were supposed to use alluminimumum.

[BUBBALOU]

what ever floats your boat, it's an understanding in the tin hat theory to use tinfoil - aka aluminum foil

[Duper]

http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/

Someone actually did a study on this. With some interesting results. trufax.

[[]V[]essenjah]

So Duper, if you only use pictures to think of a word... what picture do you think of when you say, \"The\".

[Aggressor Prime]

\"T\" \"h\" \"e\"

[BUBBALOU]

Teh

BTW - duper i knew all about that study, was just waiting for someone to doubt me