someonecompletelyrandom

I can't go the speed of light. We know that for a fact. I can't jump on a rainbow pony and fly to Neverland which is just beyond the north star.

This is all ignoring the fact that this "technology" (which I still question the authenticity of) seems to work with the visual cortex as opposed to truly "reading thoughts". They can only see what the patient sees with his eyes, not what he truly invents in his head.

duga

Did you read the main article?

These are the limitations right now. With enough built up information, the computer would be able to tell what is going on in your mind's eye, not just what you see with your eyes. It is not simply working with the visual cortex, it is working with an image of the whole brain. If the computer tracks the blood flow when you are imagining a unicorn, eventually we will be able to tell if someone is thinking of a unicorn.

And even if you question the authenticity of the technology, just pretend we are talking hypothetically. After all, this is a pretty intense leap of technology.

Also, you took my "nothing is impossible" statement to the extremes. We can't physically travel faster than the speed of light, but I am sure we can get from one spot to another faster than light can by other means.

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Confusion will be my epitaph...

OctaneHugo

Stop with the fear mongering and the sci-fi crap, people. The government isn't going to develop machines to scan your brain from 4000 miles away. Besides, if you're just thinking of a whole bunch of random ****, they're just going to get pictures of taxi cabs and wildebeests anyway.

How long did it take for computers to become small? ~70 years? Now you're talking about MRI which has been around for 40 years and we're just now discovering some cool stuff it can do. And you want to sit here and say that the government is going to go all thoughtcrime on the populace and scan your brains?

That in itself is absurd, anyway. Governments aren't inherently evil, among other things.

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Neapolitan

Anymore today I won't be so sure to call it fear mongering because of the leaps and bounds in the advancement in technology. Anything sounds plausibe today.

You're right Gov't isn't evil, but the people running the government, who's to say what they are up to.

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Burning Down

The government knows more about me than I probably know about myself!

someonecompletelyrandom

No they don't.

duga

Yeah, it isn't like the government would profile people and imprison them for the slightest misstep under the pretense of terrorism and then torture them.

Oh wait, they did.

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Confusion will be my epitaph...

someonecompletelyrandom

Yeah. We get it. The Bush Administration sucked balls. These were tragic mistakes when people were flagged for "suspicious" behavior. Whether or not that was based on alterior motives remains up to debate.

They still don't know as much as people seem to think they know. They don't have a tab on everybody in s ome massive database. There is information and records about people out there. The Gov. doesn't care until you do something they deem suspicious. So they don't know your favorite brand of soda, they don't know about the pot you smoked yesterday and they don't know that the receptionist at work drives you crazy.

Through a little P.I can they find out plenty of details on people? Sure.

Mind reading the masses from some remote base? Bollocks.

duga

When did I ever say I felt this would result in mind reading the masses?

The point I was making was that it would be used to further an agenda, whatever it may be. Don't tell me the Bush administration wouldn't have used this technology on those people if it was available to them.

Mind reading the masses would be ridiculous, I never said that would happen. The fear of it happening would be there, however...and that is what matters.

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Confusion will be my epitaph...

Akira

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