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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

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I’m so deeply fascinated by that because it’s not how I experience consciousness. Very cool. I think I’m far in the opposite direction: I have a voice that sounds like me, but I don’t control and it asks me questions and gives opinions. It’s like having a copilot.

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

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

#92

> (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)

This is a decode of attempted handwriting, so it’s unlikely to have a leak of subconscious like this

Peak HN comment :D

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

#93

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.

May be you're like me? I have a lot of thoughts, I just don't use language internally to express them. It makes it hard sometimes to articulate what I'm thinking to another human being, but thinking through language, and especially in SPOKEN language seems so excruciatingly slow and ineffective I'm quite glad I don't have to do it in order to think.

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

#94

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.

I'm on the opposite side of that spectrum. I have such a strong internal dialogue that I talk to myself vocally when doing stuff. Not always, but very often.

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

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I truly believe this can be quite different between people. Personally I don't have "a" inner voice, but a quorum of three, all of which together form "my" thoughts

That kind of variation isn’t too surprising to me. The claim that there isn’t one at all though I don’t really buy.

If I would hazard a guess, I'd say it's possible that the region of the brain processing language has developed elsewhere than with your average human, leading to less connections from language (Broca's region) directly to auditory region.

This hypothesis would explain hearing the inner monologue when reading, as reading actually transcribes visual data directly to their phonetic counterparts.

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

#97

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.

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.

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

#99

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.

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.

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

#100
post #73

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…

Language is still a learned skill. It is quite normal to assume someone not raised in civilization and doesn't speak any human languages does not have an inner monologue expressed in words. While we do all thinking in terms of words (thats how we express ideas) it doesn't necessarily follow. I do have quite a loud "copilot" but I can see how it's a configurable behavior

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