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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

#141

Post by [deleted] »

indrax wrote: post #108
gonehome wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m pretty skeptical of people that make this claim. It’s just surprising to me that a base level feature would work so differently. I’d expect some variation in models (like that old Feynman video about counting), but if you can speak and use language it’s hard for me to accept literally no internal voice is going on. I’ve always kinda suspected people making this claim are lacking introspection to such an extreme e…

For many cognitive processes, I don't see a clear survival value to conscious awareness of that process, so I don't expect that awareness to be a reliable feature. The survival relevant result of that cognition can still come through. I also think that an internal voice that doesn't get conscious awareness is likely to become a process that doesn't present as voice. So it's not like someone can just pay more attentio…

[deleted]

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

#142

Post by dqpb »

Waterluvian wrote: post #17
savant_penguin wrote: post #13

> (Don't think this nurse is hot! Don't think this nurse is hot! Holy shit she's hot.) > (You can do this) > (OMG, is it on already?) > (You can do this) > (What a nice bottom) > (Don't think bottom you idiot) > (She's entering the room, think something else, now, fast, bunny bunny) > (Bunny) > (Bunny) > (Bunny, you got this)

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.

I used to worry about this a lot, particularly when brainstorming. I found that I would start with a breadth-first search for ideas, but then as soon as one was moderately appealing, I went into depth-first mode and not only did I stop the breadth first search, but I also forgot much of the initial set of ideas.

I created a tool for myself to avoid this pattern, which is effectively a kind of interactive map-reduce system.

Also, I really like insights like this. Is there a dedicated place where people discuss these kind of meta-cognitive topics?

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

#143

Post by alboy »

IggleSniggle wrote: post #109
alboy wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you could even do supervised by force-feeding known stimuli a la Clockwork Orange.

This bypasses the desired capability, that of getting info from the hard disk. If you connect input in a feedback loop with an output and train on a particular output, of course you’re going to get the output you’re training for. It’s just not going to bear much resemblance to the data that’s on the hard disk without cooperation from the host system.

It depends on how much control the host system has over the output (can consciously drown out the signal). Suppose you just show YES and NO in big flashing letters while asking your subject the questions you already know the answers to and measure the output when training the device. Then it boils down to whether it can pick up what you "really think" over what you "try to think" better than the current generation of polygraphs (which is very bad at its job). So these technical specifics would decide where exactly it falls within the range from "comically unreliable" to "dystopian nightmare".

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

#144

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

gowld wrote: post #138
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They are you; they are a part of you, but they are not all of you. They are as much you as your foot or your eye is you. You are not an atomic entity.

Perhaps I should have written “to not identify with them” just like you rarely identify your core self as your foot.

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

#145

Post by stevenwoo »

CapmCrackaWaka wrote: post #88

Interesting that the user has to think of specific letters to spell out a word. I guess the 26 distinct English letters are much easier to parse and separate than the untold thousands of words, especially when those words could be used in different contexts. I bet the next step wouldn't be to even parse words to make a sentence. It seems to me the next low hanging fruit would be to enable this machine to parse common…

A paralyzed man wrote a book by blinking when someone pointed at the right letter (sort of like how the guy stranded on Mars in book/movie The Martian sent messages to earth). This story was later made into the movie The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diving_Bell_and_the_Butter...

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

#146

Post by frebord »

savant_penguin wrote: post #13

> (Don't think this nurse is hot! Don't think this nurse is hot! Holy shit she's hot.) > (You can do this) > (OMG, is it on already?) > (You can do this) > (What a nice bottom) > (Don't think bottom you idiot) > (She's entering the room, think something else, now, fast, bunny bunny) > (Bunny) > (Bunny) > (Bunny, you got this)

Lmao some of the responses to this... God ppl can you like enjoy life a little bit maybe

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

#147

Post by AutumnCurtain »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #118
Waterluvian wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If not you, what do you think they are?

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

#148

Post by spywaregorilla »

tremon wrote: post #110
spywaregorilla wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wouldn't require any training at all. This tech cannot read your thoughts. It's reading motor inputs. The difference is on the level of hearing someone's chess moves dictated vs. reading their mind to understand how they perceive the game. It is entirely a consciously composed and intentionally sent message.

It wouldn't require any training at all. It's reading motor inputs. You're assuming that everyone's motor cortex/nervous system is wired exactly the same way. Given what we know about the variability of the human body, I wouldn't expect this to hold for the entire population.

I meant training on the human part to hide from the device.

Every human is wired differently. You need to train an ML model to read signals specific to that human for this tech to work.

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

#149

Post by gonehome »

psyc wrote: post #127
gonehome wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 e…

How or where did you acquire such specific beliefs about what minds can or cannot do?

My skepticism probably comes in part from an anti-religion, anti-mystic reflex. There’s a lot of woo around this stuff so it often puts me on guard.

Obviously nobody is claiming psychic powers here, but I wouldn’t expect brains to operate that differently - so it’s surprising to me.

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

#150

Post by gonehome »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #129
gonehome wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m with you on 2, but it doesn’t seem like just me - it seems like vast majority except the occasional person claiming it’s different for them. It’s not a semantic distinction to me, since the mechanism underlying it would then be the same and it’d just be their recognition of it that varied which is way less surprising.

Indeed, there are legions of non-dual meditation apps and meditation teachers who train people to deal with this inner voice in ways that are helpful. If such people were not rampant, I do not think these teachers and apps would be so popular.

A lot of therapy is also focused around self-talk and rumination too.
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