Scientists recorded a Pink Floyd song from patients’ brain waves. The tech could eventually allow for communication without words

Reva , 10 months ago

Wonder how this will be used by state actors… I guess we can say goodbye to having queer thoughts in secret, or to having involuntary intrusive thoughts with illegal content, suicidal thoughts without forced hospitalization…

theterrasque , 10 months ago

we can say goodbye to having queer thoughts in secret

And suddenly half the republicans were against it for … ethical reasons

Reva , 10 months ago

I never liked the stereotype of “homophobes are just closeted gays” because (1) people can just be hateful without any deeper reason, (2) it somehow blames homophobia out of all things on gay people themselves and (3) it provides plenty of opportunity for people to be homophobic to homophobes in the name of gay rights.

It’s kind of like those oh-so hilarious pictures of Putin and Trump in make-up, kissing. The entire joke is “oh imagine if they were gay, how emasculating and humiliating!” This line of thinking always struck me as homophobic.

Like sure, it happens often, but by far not always, and it’s harmful to imply that’s all there is to homophobia.

theterrasque , 10 months ago

Like sure, it happens often, but by far not always, and it’s harmful to imply that’s all there is to homophobia.

Sure. That’s the other half of the republicans.

shotgun_crab , 10 months ago

Kinda scary if this becomes reality. I can see a few cases where this can be good and many cases where it won’t be good at all.

Heavybell , 10 months ago

Hey, that guy is listening to Pink Floyd in his head without paying a licensing fee!!

Speculater , 10 months ago

Guess we’ll have to remove it.

dabaldeagul , 10 months ago

The head?

BourneHavoc , 10 months ago

Just to be safe, yes.

mall_ninja , 10 months ago

This tech will be used to “personalize” your ads. And by personalize, I mean convince you that it truly is a life-or-death situation that you buy whatever monthly subscription they’re advertising.

Downcount , 10 months ago

I don’t know how it sounds in the original version of Dark Star (1973/John Carpenter) but it sounds quite similar how Commander Powell, being in cryogenic suspension and “speaking” through some brain-computer interface, sounds in the German synced version.

wabafee , 10 months ago

I can already imagine a Amazon warehouse worker have his brain waves monitored and gets reprimanded everytime he is not focused. They would probably reason it out that it’s for safety reasons.

blue_zephyr , 10 months ago

You’ve already had your 5 minute happy thought break. Go back to being miserable!

bruhduh , 10 months ago

And you know it’ll eventually become true

clgoh , 10 months ago

And they didn’t even use “Brain Damage”.

Send_me_nude_girls , 10 months ago

So… job interviews are going to become even more humiliating in future?

OrdinaryAlien , 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago)

We already can do it. I can’t imagine a life without it. It makes things easier. Really. I hope humans can achieve it soon.

emptyother , 10 months ago

and eventually, for anyone who wants to work more efficiently

Oh… How many years until we have Deus Ex Human Revolution in real life?

TheYear2525 , 10 months ago

Next step, Guantanamo Bay.

ThePantser , 10 months ago

Captain Pike could do more than beep beep?

Arbiter , 10 months ago

Yeah, he just didn’t want to.

Duke_Nukem_1990 , 10 months ago

Google just sucking the thoughts out of your head to serve you more rELeVanT ads🤩🤩

Steeve , 10 months ago

And that’s how we went full circle back to the invasive porn ads of the early 00s

Dasnap , 10 months ago

Cool for the disabled to have another means of communication but I personally wouldn’t want a literal mind-reading implant put in.

autotldr Bot , 10 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

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It may not always be that way, and that’s a good thing for patients unable to speak due to neurological problems—and eventually, for anyone who wants to work more efficiently, researchers at the University of California Berkeley say.

While receiving surgery they hoped would cure intractable seizures, Pink Floyd’s 1979 single “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1” played in the operating room.

Using artificial intelligence, Bellier was able to reconstruct the song from that electrical activity in each patient’s brain, according to an article published Tuesday in the journal PLoS Biology.

Bellier’s work will be used to develop even better brain-machine interfaces, which can be used by paralyzed patients like the late Stephen Hawking to express themselves, Knight said—only not so robotically, and eventually, perhaps, merely by thinking.

If the technology is streamlined, it may eventually aid those without disabling conditions—think thought workers—more easily sync with a computer to type text from their minds.

As for the potential of privacy concerns to develop, Bellier said he’d be more worried about what Big Tech knows about us now, thanks to the monitoring and tracking of online activity.

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The original article contains 585 words, the summary contains 187 words. Saved 68%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!