Dreams 'could be shown on computers'

Just Find this very interesting Article:

Dreams 'could be shown on computers'

A JAPANESE research team says it has created a technology that could eventually display dreams or what people have on their minds on a computer screen. Researchers at the ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories succeeded in processing and displaying images directly from the human brain, they said in a study unveiled ahead of publication in the US magazine Neuron. While the team for now has managed to reproduce only simple images from the brain, they said the technology could eventually be used to figure out dreams and other secrets inside people's minds. "It was the first time in the world that it was possible to visualise what people see directly from the brain activity," the private institute said. "By applying this technology, it may become possible to record and replay subjective images that people perceive like dreams." When people look at an object, the eye's retina recognises an image that is converted into electrical signals which go into the brain's visual cortex.

Absolutely amazing what the Japanese can do. Science fiction coming true.... Would like your views on this technology.

Personally I think this is absolutely amazing. However, if this were to be perfected and then modified for implanting thoughts and memories, or just as tool for interrogation, etc, I would find it rather disturbing. A program that has the capability of reading minds to any extent could be used for less than honorable reasons.

In the end though, if it was mostly used in households for individual self-evaluation, or too just re-enjoy a great dream as a movie, well that would just be too much fun to stand. I also think that there is the possibility of there being an industry for recordings of people's dreams. Not that I'm into the make money wherever you can thing, but you know within weeks of this becoming a everyday technology people's dreams will be plastered all over the equivalent of youtube and veoh. My prediction would be that there would be internet sites devoted to just people's dream movies.

[edit on 10-12-2008 by Osiris1953]

reply to post by Osiris1953

You are right. It will be so cool to be able to record your own dream and play it again. I wonder if there will be copyrights issue if some people have the same dream

I can't imagine that many dreams would be uncannily similar, but the idea of copyrighting the content of your own dreams is an interesting idea I had not yet considered. I suppose if they do end up getting used in a commercial sense one would have to copyright dreams in order to retain intellectual property of said dream... very odd thought indeed.

The implications of this are just staggering. While it would be amusing or even helpful to view your own dreams or those of another consenting individual, there is an infinitesimal chance of the tool staying within the realm of the innocuous. I can foresee its use in blackmail, mental manipulation (e.g., for purposes of control or research), and the type of law enforcement shown in dystopian science fiction films ("Minority Report", anyone?).

At the present time, we feel safe in assuming that our thoughts will remain private unless we choose to express them. Those naughty little visions of ours, be they merely improper or downright criminal, are kept out of the world's view unless we decide to act on them. Only then can we be held accountable. With this technology, however, we might very well find ourselves ridiculed or persecuted for our very thoughts.

Can you imagine a trial in which a defendant is found culpable of a "criminal thought"? Or a marriage that is destroyed due to one party's vision of infidelity? Pretty disturbing stuff.

Scientists very often show themselves to be quite comparable to small children playing with a hand grenade: just ecstatic and eager to mess around with this cool new toy, but completely lacking any foresight. With that level of intelligence, you really ought to have a bit of circumspection lest you bring the whole world down in a cloud of dust.

[edit on 10/12/08 by paperplanes]

reply to post by paperplanes

This technology is certainly groundbreaking and will open up door to many other technologies that will change our lives. 'Minority Report' does come to mind but it was different in the movie. The movie was about thoughts or intentions that could be read and most of the times your thoughts does not translate into dreams. But this technology certainly opens the door towards reading of thoughts.

This technology that the Japanese claim to have developed is completely outdated. For over 20 years now US govt has mind control technology. They can read a person's mind and control it too through the satellite.

All those married people could use that technology to record the dreams of their partners and know if they dream of someonelse or not

reply to post by sunny_2008ny


Maybe the US had this technology way before the Japanese but they never came public with it or there is no proof of its existence unless you can provide some.....

Originally posted by sunny_2008ny
This technology that the Japanese claim to have developed is completely outdated. For over 20 years now US govt has mind control technology. They can read a person's mind and control it too through the satellite.

If the US govt really had that technology then i don't think you would have so many people in your prisons cause they would simply control everyone
and stop crime.

Fascinating idea. It is a new technology so we have to wait and see if it is reliable, after all it is difficult to confirm if in fact the images produce an exact match the often vague recollection of a subject.

I too share a concern that this technology might down the road lend itself to more nefarious uses. However there is a considerable difference between reading mental images and reading thoughts. Whilst awake we tend to thing in verbal terms rather than through imagery. I am not even sure that the ability to transcribe someone's thoughts or memories is necessarily relevant to this methodology.

Definitely something to keep an eye on though.

Amazing and terrifying. For every good we humans achieve we always manage to do very bad things with it. We shall see how this new technology plays out in our fraudulent society.

[edit on 10-12-2008 by rapinbatsisaltherage]

My dreams would have to have a warning


NO ONE UNDER 21 ADMITTED DUE TO ADULT CONTENT

[edit on 12/11/2008 by fixer1967]

Most certainly this will take along time to go commercial. I sure that the millitaty and secret services will jump on it and develop somthing nasty out of that.

reply to post by rattan1


You are right. I think we should keep a close eye on the developments. Chances are that you will not hear of it again as the authorities brush it under the carpet and develops it secretly

reply to post by rattan1


But crime gives the U.S. government power & wealth. why would they want to stop it?

Those Japanese will always amaze me. I wonder what will they come up with next? I am realy impatient to see those dream recorders come commercial. What other technologies do you think may be derived form what they discovered?

Originally posted by ThePiemaker
reply to post by rattan1

 

But crime gives the U.S. government power & wealth. why would they want to stop it?

can you please elaborate on that. Crimes cannot give more wealth it is costing the governement more and now you barely have enough place in prisons and will cost a lot of money to build more.

[edit on 11-12-2008 by rattan1]

The other technologuies that can evolve out of this is a communication channel which facilitates telepathy, something like a telephone in your head where people can communicate with thoughts through the satellite.
I read a report sometime back that the US military was experimenting with helmets that can read a person's brain and transfer thoughts to each other via the satellite.

Originally posted by sunny_2008ny
The other technologuies that can evolve out of this is a communication channel which facilitates telepathy, something like a telephone in your head where people can communicate with thoughts through the satellite.
I read a report sometime back that the US military was experimenting with helmets that can read a person's brain and transfer thoughts to each other via the satellite.

Any change you can give a link where i can read that report on the Helmet?
Speaking of Telephone i remember once the Japanese deveoped a technology where you can use your thumb as a speaker that will transfer sound through your bones on to a device on your wrist just like a watch acting like a phone.