But those feats barely scratch the brain's surface. Any animal can perceive objects and move limbs. To plumb the soul, you need a metaphysician. John-Dylan Haynes, a brilliant researcher at Germany's Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, is leading the way. His mission, according to the center, is to predict thoughts and behavior from fMRI scans.
Haynes, a former philosophy student, is going for the soul's jugular. He's trying to clarify the physical basis of free will. "Why do we shape intentions in this way or another way?" he wonders. "Your wishes, your desires, your goals, your plans—that's the core of your identity." The best place to look for that core is in the brain's medial prefrontal cortex, which, he points out, is "especially involved in the initiation of willed movements and their protection against interference."
To get a clear snapshot of free will, Haynes designed an experiment that would isolate it from other mental functions. No objects to interpret; no physical movements to anticipate or execute; no reasoning to perform. Participants were put in an fMRI machine and were told they would soon be shown the word "select," followed a few seconds later by two numbers. Their job was to covertly decide, when they saw the "select" cue, whether to add or subtract the unseen numbers. Then, they were to perform the chosen calculation and punch a button corresponding to the correct answer. The snapshot was taken right after the "select" cue, when they had nothing to do but choose addition or subtraction.
http://slate.msn.com/id/2161936/
[Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on March 23, 2007]
Note: http://slate.msn.com/id...
Full-Mental Nudity
Posted on Thursday, March 22 at 09:17 by DiogenesContributed By
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Programmable human beings are what every ruling class ever wanted and needs.
But how does this fit within the concepts of any form of human rights and any form of freedom and democracy, to even permit the development of this obvious crime of enslavement?
Ed Deak.
<a href="http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0%2C72996-0.html">http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0%2C72996-0.html</a><br />
Pentagon Preps Mind Fields<br />
<br />
My comments"<br />
This should come as no surprise. <br />
Now that the overwhelming majority of inhabitants of this planet are little more than drones lacking the ability to think the time is absolutely right for the type of technology outlined in this and the lead article to slip comfortably into place,<br />
<br />
The line from Star Trek, "You will be assimilated" is here sooner than I expected.<br />
<br />
It is time to wreck havoc on the system!<br />
But then it is always time to wreck havoc on the system<br />
<br />
It was probably time to before my birth 67 years ago, and believe me folks, I have been Anti-authoritarian and defiant from the time of my birth and in any proper society that trait would be guided into a constructive drive to benefit my fellow man.<br />
<br />
My life path has been different from any I read on these pages and that positioned me as a social outcast within the authoritarianism rampant and worshiped in the world.<br />
But enough about me, It is you I am concerned with because you have lain down and allowed this to happen to you and your children as it happen to your parents and their parents before them.<br />
I never believed that codswollop about being born into sin and original sin!<br />
<br />
Think about it! <br />
<br />
According to Christian tradition, original sin is the general condition of sinfulness (lack of holiness) into which human beings are born (Psalm 51:5)<br />
.<br />
Now isn’t that a heavy burden and life path to set before us all!<br />
And the onset of mind control! <br />
<br />
How in the hell can it be expected for people to flourish as human-beings when the path has been set to be human- doings doing what was programmed into our minds!<br />
<br />
You’re Bad!<br />
You’re SINFUL!<br />
<br />
Gee thanks! I appreciate your good wishes!<br />
Like hell I do! <br />
<br />
<br />
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<p>---<br>"And God said: 'Let there be Satan, so people don't blame everything on me. And let there be lawyers, so people don't blame everything on Satan."<br />
<br />
* George Bu
Real decision making, as anyone who's ever done it can tell you, involves multiple levels of analysis. If I do A, B, C, or D, what might happen, and do I really want it?
Are there an E, F, and G I don't know about?
Then there are the results of the results to think about.
And that's assuming that there's any decision made in the first place.
It could be a mental road to nowhere and the line of reasoning is dropped as being undesirable.
And they think they can get a lock on the human soul just because they can guess what a subject is going to pick between 2 simple and unalterable choices in a rigidly controlled setting, 7 times out of 10 on a good day?
Sorry, but people don't think like that naturally.
Any panic about mind reading machines is technical wishful thinking.
They've been trying to put free will in a box for centuries, and this attempt will fare no better than the rest.
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The two most common things in the universe are apparently Hydrogen and stupidity.
Good bloody luck trying to crack into the Id.
LOL
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The two most common things in the universe are apparently Hydrogen and stupidity.
Wishful thinking has been the motivator going back to every invention since the wheel
"Pentagon's PCs Bend to Your Brain
Pushing through extremes of heat and cold, surviving massive blood loss, and supercharging the body's metabolism -- that was just the start. The military isn't only looking to radically boost the physical performance of American troops. Its trying to improve mental abilities, as well. The first step: computers than can scan your mind and adapt to what you're thinking.
Since 2000, Darpa, the Pentagon's blue-sky research arm, has spearheaded a far-flung, nearly $70 million effort to build prototype cockpits, missile control stations and infantry trainers that can sense what's occupying their operators' attention, and adjust how they present information, accordingly. Similar technologies are being employed to help intelligence analysts find targets easier by tapping their unconscious reactions.
"Computers today, you have to learn how they work," says Navy Commander Dylan Schmorrow, who served as Darpa's first program manager for this Augmented Cognition project. He now works for the Office of Naval Research. "We want the computer to learn you, adapt to you" linked from wire
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"And God said: 'Let there be Satan, so people don't blame everything on me. And let there be lawyers, so people don't blame everything on Satan."
* George Bu
I do not think they are truly looking for reliable results. What they want is for us to fear them.
The Sharp Wolf
"Torture is not used to gain wealth, territory, or political dominance. It is used as a celebration of domination."
Train a brain to use those patterns, and the AI in the computer does the rest after the headset senses them.
"Thoughts" as such do not enter the process.
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The two most common things in the universe are apparently Hydrogen and stupidity.