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Brain implant translates paralyzed man's thoughts into text with 94% accuracy

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Re: Brain implant translates paralyzed man's thoughts into text with 94% accuracy

#111

Post by wpietri »

mimimi31 wrote: post #49
Waterluvian wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like if we got a perfect transcript of our internal monologue, we’d all be shocked at how much we think but instantly forget.

Interestingly there are people like myself who don't have an inner monologue (some people supposedly even have a constant dialogue with themselves) at all. The only time I experience something like an inner voice is when reading. My normal thoughts are more abstract I guess, I'm just sort of aware of what I want to do, how I feel etc. It's hard to describe.

For sure. For years I thought "inner monologue" was just a metaphor for the interplay of thoughts. I was really surprised that many people literally have an internal monologue going all the time. That seems so exhausting to me!

Re: Brain implant translates paralyzed man's thoughts into text with 94% accuracy

#112

Post by gus_massa »

HenryKissinger wrote: post #7
funnyflamigo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the police are able to implant a device into your brain to get information out of you, I think you're screwed either way as the good 'ol rubber hose method is likely on the table - at least until people commonly elect to do the surgery or the surgery somehow gets to legendary levels of safety in the dystopian future.

It wouldn't be any different from trying to force a confession through torture. You need to control your thoughts during the interrogation.

Ignoring the ethical and legal problems with torture, the main problem that is not usually portrayed in films is that people say whatever the interrogator wants to stop the pain.

interrogator> We have been torturing you for 10 hours. If you spell "John" we will stop torturing you and torture John instead.

interrogated> [The pain is too much. We have a deal. Sorry John.] JOHN

A better interrogator can be more subtle, like

interrogator> We have some evidence [1] that John is the one that put the bomb, and that you are innocent, but my boss is not sure. If you confirm this info we will send you immediately to your cell.

[1] It's a lie! Also, John is innocent in case you are wondering.

Re: Brain implant translates paralyzed man's thoughts into text with 94% accuracy

#113

Post by gonehome »

impjohn wrote: post #103
gonehome wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don’t have language I’d guess a lot of things are different about how you think. If you can speak, read, and write though?

Meditation is exactly the practice of letting your inner monologue chatter until it dies away and you're fully tethered to your sensations and surroundings. So if one can learn to meditate, in theory one can meditate all the time (therefore not have inner chatter/monologue) The more interesting question is what is the usefulness of inner dialogue in itself. A way to rehearse/articulate thoughts to be communicated to…

Meditation is recognizing the omnipresent voice and trying to quiet it down. It’s partly why I suspect those that think they don’t have an internal monologue just aren’t recognizing it.

I think you can get better at quieting the voice or letting thoughts pass, but I don’t think you can really turn it off for longer than a few moments. Gurus that claim they have and have “reached enlightenment” just seem to be lying either to themselves or everyone else (or both).

Re: Brain implant translates paralyzed man's thoughts into text with 94% accuracy

#115

Post by arbitrage »

charcircuit wrote: post #53
cblconfederate wrote: post #32

This is the metaverse we should be funding, not phones strapped on bulky blindfolds.

Give it 5 years and VR will not be bulky at all.

Good VR has been five years out since 1993.

Re: Brain implant translates paralyzed man's thoughts into text with 94% accuracy

#116

Post by for_i_in_range »

Waterluvian wrote: post #102
mach1ne wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's odd. Can you silence the voice? Do you exert influence over it?

If I start trying, it completely goes away, replaced by my monologue. I'm sure a lot of people know that feeling where you very intentionally drive your own internal voice. I can do that. I think it's related to my ADHD. Reading is very difficult because as I read, my voice just completely wanders off, CONSTANTLY. "Oh hey, 'gargantuan' that's a great word. Reminds me of a video game monster... Oh did you just read 2…

Is that just an ADHD thing though or part of human nature? Reading in the beginning is difficult yet, after training your brain to sit and process by reading an hour in the morning you can change things. Very fast.

Re: Brain implant translates paralyzed man's thoughts into text with 94% accuracy

#117

Post by charcircuit »

foxfluff wrote: post #97
charcircuit wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give it 5 years and VR will not be bulky at all.

Five years ago, the avegant glyph seemed reasonably small for an HMD (well, if you could get it without the earphones). I feel like we've regressed from that point.

That HMD only had a FoV of 45 degrees.

The current technology which is production ready is optics using pancake lenses. For an example look at Huawei's VR glasses or HTC's Vive Flow.

Re: Brain implant translates paralyzed man's thoughts into text with 94% accuracy

#118

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

Waterluvian wrote: post #102
mach1ne wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's odd. Can you silence the voice? Do you exert influence over it?

If I start trying, it completely goes away, replaced by my monologue. I'm sure a lot of people know that feeling where you very intentionally drive your own internal voice. I can do that. I think it's related to my ADHD. Reading is very difficult because as I read, my voice just completely wanders off, CONSTANTLY. "Oh hey, 'gargantuan' that's a great word. Reminds me of a video game monster... Oh did you just read 2…

This is called discursive thought and is very common. The goal of non-dual mediation is to recognize these thoughts and realize they are not you.

Re: Brain implant translates paralyzed man's thoughts into text with 94% accuracy

#119

Post by gonehome »

ThaJay wrote: post #77
gonehome wrote: post #59

I wonder if it’d be faster if you imagined typing instead of writing (obviously would require the patient to be a proficient typist).

I don't think it works like that. Letters are shapes but keys just are a relative position. The software is reading gestures, specific keypress motions seems much less data to work with.

I think it’s trained.

“Imagine writing an A”

Then they look at what fires and record it.

Instead you’d ask “imagine typing an A” and then do the same thing.

Eventually when brought training happens to capture variation you start to get visual feedback and can train faster.

Re: Brain implant translates paralyzed man's thoughts into text with 94% accuracy

#120

Post by charcircuit »

cblconfederate wrote: post #99
charcircuit wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Give it 5 years and VR will not be bulky at all.

it will still be a blindfold. I dont get the entusiasm about a wearable form factor. i d much rather have 5 screens around me In any case brain implants are the ultimate input device, which will solves a major information bottleneck for work in general.

With VR you can have as many screens as you want. Though you'll need a high resolution headset for it to look good.
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