Mind reading

Interesting idea Yaro,
I do believe in the power of positive thinking. I do not think that the human mind will ever be a deciphered in the way that you describe because our brains do no operate in the same fashion as a computer. A computer is a turing device that simply assigns a 0 or a 1 adds a 1 or erases a 0 . The manipulation of the data is what gives it content. Humans on the other hand have memories and various layers of life experience that express content to our thoughts. And depending on the state of the person the data will differ. If everything in the universe is connected and "separateness" is just an illusion then mind reading would not be impossible because if one could tap into this collective conciousness the mind of all would be accessible.
I believe this happens from time to time and would explain alot of paranormal phenomenon such as ESP. Anyways I realize this sounds flakey as hell so I will stop here . *edit typosThis message has been edited by 1.61803, 07-16-2004 02:46 PM

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"One is punished most for ones virtues" Fredrick Neitzche

The nueropathways that make up the information highway in our brains is about as complex as anything humans can ask questions about. I do not know HOW the information is stored. I do not know how the information is encoded. I do not know even how it is accessed, much less how it could be transmitted verbatum. I do know there are experiments with chimps that are able to move a computer cusor with thought. This is at the beginning stages but current research may someday find a way to use thought to manipulate machines. Sorry that I do not know the answer to your question, Perhaps someone on this board knows? I for one would be interested.

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"One is punished most for ones virtues" Fredrick Neitzche

If one ever wanted to know what goes on in the human a recent high definition scan reveals the core of what humans are thinking. (*hope you have a sense of humor.)

Phi is fine. The devil is in the details Well the problem with mind reading is that Science has not discovered what exactly is the mind. There is a collection of materials that makes up a human brain. There are nueropathways that transmit and store the data. Science even has mapped where certain aspects of cognition take place in the brain. But how the data is encoded or stored is the question. If I think tree. You would not know I was thinking tree. If you could hook up a machine that could probe my brain how would it isolate the zillions of thoughts and memories being transported inside my brain? You could do a PET scan of me thinking tree and print out a picture of what my brain looks like when I think tree, but if I had a bad day the PET may look totally different.And your memory or thoughts of a tree would look different than mine. I admit that to say humans will NEVER develop mind reading sounds final, but humans will NEVER put a square peg in a round hold either. The problem with humans is we are all to human.IMO.

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"One is punished most for ones virtues" Fredrick Neitzche

I just bet you have a cryo tube waiting too.
Considering lobotomys have only recently been considered bad medicine; humankind has come a long way. If mind reading is ever perfected there is going to be a awful lot of pissed off people running around. Think Mel Gibson in that movie What Women Want.
I read one of your earlier post and agree that it seems a awful waste that all our memories and past are lost when the brain dies. It is awful. One reason perhaps why some people believe in a after life?

Not gonna bite on this one.
And open up another Intelligent design thread. But I concede that the mechanisms of the brain and muscle are being sucessfully duplicated. This is not mind reading in the sense that one person can read the thoughts of another. I can use electrical impulses to manipulate a dead frogs leg, does this mean I can have it jump up and do the "Michigan Rag"? LOL.
Humans are emotional animals. Can emotion be duplicated?. AI is most likely going to be a reality in the future, I just do not think AI will be human. Spock answers every complex question on his computer terminal until the computer ask? "How do you feel?" *edit to add image. This message has been edited by 1.61803, 07-22-2004 03:16 PM

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"One is punished most for ones virtues" Fredrick Neitzche

Mary Shelly would be proud.
And I do not agree that emotions can be duplicated . I say this because if emotions are different for every person and creature dependant on so many developmental factors and experiences. How could the life of a creatures experiences be recreated and duplicated? I have memories that shape my behaviors and conciousness, if one were to attempt to duplicate my emotions and psyche how would a programmer know what I thought about a tree, or the color red? Or how it felt to be 3 years old and swinging on a tire? No..that comes from being alive and having those memories makes me ...me. I doubt seriously emotion will ever be duplicated. Nor will mind reading. IMO. I respect your opinion as well but there is nothing at the present that suggest to me it will ever be possible. Thats not to say AI wont be, I concede it will, but like I said it wont be human. Just think about how many hormones that upregulate and downregulate a woman who is PMS'ing..influencing her emotions. Now say she had a bad day. Do you think this complex system of whoopass is going to be duplicated? And suppose in her past she was conditoned to hate the smell of fish, because her dad use to make her clean fish as a child. So you decide to eat a fish sandwich, and she unloads on you. Can you not see how uncertain human emotion is. You would stand there with tartar sauce splashed in your face wondering...what the hell did I do?

I never disagreed with this. I as well believe that AI may be a possiblity in the future. edit typo.This message has been edited by 1.61803, 07-23-2004 02:02 PM

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"One is punished most for ones virtues" Fredrick Neitzche