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I wonder if this tech could one day be useful for general users without disabilities. > Even when the researchers provided the algorithm with brain activity da

I wonder if this tech could one day be useful for general users without disabilities. > Even when the researchers provided the algorithm with brain activity data recorded while one participant merely mouthed sentences without sound, the system was still able to produce intelligible synthetic versions of the mimed sentences in the speaker’s voice. That already seems borderline usable for people with speech. I wonder if it could be made to work when you're merely thinking about the mouth movements without actually making them. That would be ideal.

tjchear 7y ago
It'd be great if this technology matures to the point where we can perform telepathic communication, à la Ghost in the Shell.
- liability 7y ago
  Beyond radio comms, I think a telepathic "Hey [Siri/Alexa/etc]..." could have some startling social implications. It might even be the killer app to make elective brain implants mainstream. (Of course if this could be done without hazardous and expensive implants, all the better.)
  - nielsole 7y ago
    When you just have to think about buying something, and Alexa orders it for you :O
    - liability 7y ago
      That's something I've been thinking about a lot recently. Not so much accidental orders, but rather who these software assistants will be owned and controlled by in in a foreseeable future where this sort of tech creates tighter couplings between software assistants and our own minds. If the software assistants are sufficiently useful and tightly coupled with the human mind, I think it quite likely that the line between self and software might get blurry for some users. The ability to think a question and hear a correct answer as a voice in your head is the sort of profoundly powerful user experience that I think might plausibly alter the assumptions people make about what it means to be themselves. If these software assistants become apart of the users' own mind in their own perception of themselves, what responsibilities do the owners/operators of those systems have to their users? I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get their, but the relative immaturity of FOSS software assistants is starting to unnerve me. In 2040 when Amazon starts selling "god in a box" to the general public, a two-way telepathic connection to a state of the art quasi-AGI living in the cloud, will there be a viable FOSS alternative?
      - jacobush 7y ago
        Now, think about children having these augmentations activated from birth. Their "self" would be essentially enmeshed with the external service. Scary. Edit: strange I didn't think about it directly, but that is the Borg from Star Trek.
      - dasyatidprime 7y ago
        It's already blurry; humans are already used to using chunks of the environment as parts of their state of mind. I have personal experience with this: as I've been dragged from my previous highly-customized Linux desktop into a more software-conformity-centric world, it's had pretty distinctly constraining effects on the way I'm able to use my mind, making various forms of easy external fluidity close to impossible. I've tried to fight against it, but the environment evolves so that people expect you to have the executive function of all their devices combined, and the only way that you're allowed to is by having either the same or similar devices or orders of magnitude more resources. Toddlers are, today, growing up with iPads, YouTube, and Alexa/Siri as just a natural part of the world. As far as I've observed—admittedly not much—educators and parents are far behind, I would speculate both because grasping the indirection-of-agency that this sort of technology creates is a heavy abstract task of the kind that doesn't seem to filter through those parts of civilization well and because the technology has the ability to change too quickly to counter any attempts to pin it down. And pinning it down in too static a fashion could have its own horrible effects. “FOSS” in the original sense is largely a distraction here (even though it is still an important idea), given that we've wound up in the “programming is specialized” world. The dynamic characteristics involve how agency flows through systems, and in the presence of highly distributed and often SaaSS (Service as a Software Substitute, as the FSF describes it) systems, being able to alter the source code isn't a solid defense even at “skilled programmer” speeds: going against a rushing current just means you get torn apart as soon as you touch the world. I think we need a new word for what you probably meant but which I don't know how to articulate well.
      - mr__y 7y ago
        the very possibility of my thoughts being transmitted to any cloud provider in real time sounds very scary to me
  - meowface 7y ago
    I think thought-based Googling will be the true killer app. Home assistant stuff would be really nice as well, though.
- thegabriele 7y ago
  Well that's one of the aim of Neuralink https://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html https://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html
  - tjchear 7y ago
    I applaud them for trying hard to make the operation as approachable as a lasik operation, but puncturing a hole through my skull, no matter how tiny the hole is, and sew some tiny threads to my white matter, is a no-no for me. But then again, the thought of a laser cutting your cornea was probably incomprehensible too at its inception.
- thelittleone 7y ago
  "Metaman: The Merging of Humans and Machines into a Global Superorganism" is a pretty interesting read in this area.
  - tjchear 7y ago
    The title is intriguing. You got a summary of it?
    - thelittleone 7y ago
      At a very high level, through BMI and direct brain to brain communication it will be possible to solve incredibly complex problems and create an exponential acceleration in human evolution.
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  IMO, this is the tech that would make smartglasses REALLY start to make sense, even more-so than augmented reality.
- anoncake 7y ago
  I prefer my brain to be airgapped.

tjchear 7y ago

It'd be great if this technology matures to the point where we can perform telepathic communication, à la Ghost in the Shell.

liability 7y ago
Beyond radio comms, I think a telepathic "Hey [Siri/Alexa/etc]..." could have some startling social implications. It might even be the killer app to make elective brain implants mainstream. (Of course if this could be done without hazardous and expensive implants, all the better.)
- nielsole 7y ago
  When you just have to think about buying something, and Alexa orders it for you :O
  - liability 7y ago
    That's something I've been thinking about a lot recently. Not so much accidental orders, but rather who these software assistants will be owned and controlled by in in a foreseeable future where this sort of tech creates tighter couplings between software assistants and our own minds. If the software assistants are sufficiently useful and tightly coupled with the human mind, I think it quite likely that the line between self and software might get blurry for some users. The ability to think a question and hear a correct answer as a voice in your head is the sort of profoundly powerful user experience that I think might plausibly alter the assumptions people make about what it means to be themselves. If these software assistants become apart of the users' own mind in their own perception of themselves, what responsibilities do the owners/operators of those systems have to their users? I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get their, but the relative immaturity of FOSS software assistants is starting to unnerve me. In 2040 when Amazon starts selling "god in a box" to the general public, a two-way telepathic connection to a state of the art quasi-AGI living in the cloud, will there be a viable FOSS alternative?
    - jacobush 7y ago
      Now, think about children having these augmentations activated from birth. Their "self" would be essentially enmeshed with the external service. Scary. Edit: strange I didn't think about it directly, but that is the Borg from Star Trek.
    - dasyatidprime 7y ago
      It's already blurry; humans are already used to using chunks of the environment as parts of their state of mind. I have personal experience with this: as I've been dragged from my previous highly-customized Linux desktop into a more software-conformity-centric world, it's had pretty distinctly constraining effects on the way I'm able to use my mind, making various forms of easy external fluidity close to impossible. I've tried to fight against it, but the environment evolves so that people expect you to have the executive function of all their devices combined, and the only way that you're allowed to is by having either the same or similar devices or orders of magnitude more resources. Toddlers are, today, growing up with iPads, YouTube, and Alexa/Siri as just a natural part of the world. As far as I've observed—admittedly not much—educators and parents are far behind, I would speculate both because grasping the indirection-of-agency that this sort of technology creates is a heavy abstract task of the kind that doesn't seem to filter through those parts of civilization well and because the technology has the ability to change too quickly to counter any attempts to pin it down. And pinning it down in too static a fashion could have its own horrible effects. “FOSS” in the original sense is largely a distraction here (even though it is still an important idea), given that we've wound up in the “programming is specialized” world. The dynamic characteristics involve how agency flows through systems, and in the presence of highly distributed and often SaaSS (Service as a Software Substitute, as the FSF describes it) systems, being able to alter the source code isn't a solid defense even at “skilled programmer” speeds: going against a rushing current just means you get torn apart as soon as you touch the world. I think we need a new word for what you probably meant but which I don't know how to articulate well.
    - mr__y 7y ago
      the very possibility of my thoughts being transmitted to any cloud provider in real time sounds very scary to me
- meowface 7y ago
  I think thought-based Googling will be the true killer app. Home assistant stuff would be really nice as well, though.
thegabriele 7y ago
Well that's one of the aim of Neuralink https://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html https://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html
- tjchear 7y ago
  I applaud them for trying hard to make the operation as approachable as a lasik operation, but puncturing a hole through my skull, no matter how tiny the hole is, and sew some tiny threads to my white matter, is a no-no for me. But then again, the thought of a laser cutting your cornea was probably incomprehensible too at its inception.
thelittleone 7y ago
"Metaman: The Merging of Humans and Machines into a Global Superorganism" is a pretty interesting read in this area.
- tjchear 7y ago
  The title is intriguing. You got a summary of it?
  - thelittleone 7y ago
    At a very high level, through BMI and direct brain to brain communication it will be possible to solve incredibly complex problems and create an exponential acceleration in human evolution.
Wowfunhappy 7y ago
IMO, this is the tech that would make smartglasses REALLY start to make sense, even more-so than augmented reality.
anoncake 7y ago
I prefer my brain to be airgapped.