Recent research published by the University of Washington shows that technologies with the ability to read another human's thoughts may be in the foreseeable future, causing some BYU–Hawaii students to worry about potential implications.
"I think the most interesting aspect of this is how government and criminal justice organizations could use things like this in the future," said sophomore Scott Muhlestein, an English major from Springville, Utah. "Legitimately scary to think about."
Mind-reading is no new concept to today's generation, who is familiar with it in science fiction and fantasy. But research at the University of Washington suggests the technology of mind-reading may not be quite so fantastical.
According to their work, accessible at journals.plos.org, a "non-invasive brain-to-brain interface (BBI) can be used to allow one human to guess what is on the mind of another human." Using this specifically designed technology, 10 volunteers, and one scientifically adapted game of 20 questions, they were able to exchange basic neural information wordlessly through rooms a mile apart, according to The Guardian.
The experiment went a little something like this: a pair of volunteers were chosen, one as the designated "inquirer," the other as a "respondent."
Respondents chose an object, and the inquirer's job was to determine what the object was by asking yes or no questions. In different rooms, whether they were picking an object or answering a question, brain wave-reading technology called an electroencephalogram (EEG) picked up the information and essentially transferred it, until it was manifested to the inquirer by a flash of light if it was "yes" and nothing if it was "no." Out of 20 games for each pair, the inquirer guessed the correct object 72 percent of the time, reported The Guardian.
Experiments such as these and similar technology are not the first of its kind. According to scientificamerican.com, the real interest and push in brain decoding began more than a decade ago, and has continued to progress as scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRIs) to analyze brain activity patterns.
For some the research and breakthroughs are thrilling, but for others unsettling questions are raised. "I think the main thing is the ethical concerns," said Muhlestein. "What is not private, if not your inner thoughts? Imagine applying for a job and being turned down because the results of a brain scan which says that you have a tendency towards violence--can you imagine how destructive and frustrating that would be?"
Professor Jack Gallant of the University of California, Berkeley, announced in Oct. 2013 that he had developed technology, a program with which Gallant and fellow scientists could use to decode thoughts, feelings, and even intentions by analyzing blobs of brain activity, according to nature.com.
Additionally, many technological projects are currently underway regarding the mind and brain decoding.
Some of which, according to pcmag.com, include: Mind Sense, which theoretically will have the ability to assess whether or not a person is fit to drive a vehicle; brainprint, referring to research done at Binghampton University where a person's specific identity could be distinguished based on neural responses to acronyms; and the scientific ability, through usage of fMRIs, to determine what a person dreams about--a study conducted by Yukiyasu Kamitani--and his or her intentions--a project headed by John-Dylan Haynes.
Despite the technology not being fully developed, Muhlestein foresees future potential problems. "Do we really want to live in a world where other people can see what we're thinking," said Muhlestein, "and possibly misinterpret what they see?"