Mind Police
 

Scientists extract images directly from brain ::: Pink Tentacle

Apparently, scientists in Japan have just been able to view images of what is going on in someone's head. What they did was stick a person in an MRI and a computer keeps track of changes in blood flow and what not and uses that information to figure out what is in the person's mind. So far, all they have been able to reproduce are simple black and white images, but we all know how fast things like this move. Especially because I am sure governments all over the world are gonna be all over this. It sounds kind of cool at first, and there is actually a lot of good this can do, but I highly doubt its main application will be used for all the cool stuff. This actually scares me.

Scares me too. Whatever goes on in my head is my business and no one else's, but it seems like nothing's private anymore!

I honestly dont believe they took mental images of someone thinking out the letters of 'neuron'.

This is actually making me think of Orwell's book 1984.

The scariest part is this, if Japan has this kind of technology, can you imagine what kind of stuff the US must have. I'm sure the US goverment has its hands in this pot as well.

Do not like.

Why is everyone so scared of this? It would be impossible to do a remote MRI on somebody, so they can only access your "thoughts" under very specific circumstances.

Personally, i'd be thrilled if this was perfected. I've a lot of ideas that I simply can't execute - it would be great just to think them up. I'd be the most personal kind of art in existence.

That is just totally naive to think that the technology would remain like this. Sure, it is in the beginning stages, but don't you remember learning about computers that could do one simple calculation in a matter of hours and it filled an entire room? Now I can communicate with someone across the world, play a 3d video game, listen to music, and do hardcore calculus problems all at the same time while I'm on the bus.

It's only a matter of time.

Seeing as I can't seem to find any real sources on this, you may not have much to worry about. (links if you have them please)

The technology works based on fMRI. Which means it is impossible to do remotely. I would have never thought we'd have hand-held computers, no. I also wouldn't have thought we'd have computers that allow you to cook breakfast in the monitor and reach in and grab it... which we don't have. Somethings are flat impossible. I can't create new matter so I can't have a breakfast computer. I can't get an MRI without creating a very strong, contained magnetic field whilst laying in a chamber (which you have to do, you can't get an image otherwise). If they invent super-portable-magnetic field rays that can somehow single in on a target, ignoring everything else behind it, can track the taget whilst moving for long enough to get a reading (not to mention scale MRI technology to a reasonable size) then we'll talk.

To me anyway, it's simply not plausable.

Remote MRIs are impossible now. Whose to say what someone might come up with? It may not even require a magnetic field in the future...just something to detect blood pressure in the brain. Just because it seems impossible now does not mean that it is impossible. I take the viewpoint that nothing is impossible. So far, this has proven to be true. Airplanes, computers, cell phones, microwaves, cloning, speed of sound travel, the fact that the Earth is round...all have been said to have been impossible.

Besides, what would stop a corrupt government from just abducting you and sticking you in the MRI themselves?