I don't like that HN upvotes these articles, falling for FB's PR machine and billionaires circlejerking. I thought they could do better. There are very cool neuronal visualization and recording techniques being developed but you never read about them here.
Also, minor point - I don't think FB is trying to make a portable MRI. The physical limitations alone would make that a completely silly endeavor, even for SV billionaires.
I was referring to the press release which is only partially (and kinda misleadingly - the paper is ecog recordings) related to the nature paper , which is of course great
> completely silly endeavor
haha true, they re talking about some pulse oximeter/noninvasive device, though that s just as sciencefictiony as anything.
Facebook's approach of "quasibalistic photon imaging" is attempting to be a higher resolution signal like FNIRs, but struggles from the reality of physics and the challenges of imaging through a LOT of opaque dura / skull / skin / hair. They have a goal of decoding 100 words per minutes of speech, but that's going to be incredibly challenging with a noninvasive approach.
Meanwhile, Facebook's ambition is to create a videogame.
Too bad capable minds are even wasting their time there on such a petty cause. Welcome to the tech industry, where PhDs go to die at some ad clicking company.
https://www.openwater.cc/technology
http://longnow.org/seminars/02018/oct/29/toward-practical-te...
I've put together some notes on The Attention Merchants, by Tim Wu, that specifically approaches this reality in a very interesting way. You can find them here: http://alvaroduran.com/attention-merchants
Any feedback is much appreciated!
However even if one of these existed, and I was confident my brain wasn't being monitored by a big corporation, I would become paranoid that I would accidentally think the wrong thing -- what if I accidentally thought-typed something that I wanted to hide from the world?
And what will they do with said concerns? Ultimately it's not some researcher that will call the shots when everyone cries foul... Zuckerberg will green light and that's it. It's not like FB actually ever pays attention to criticism from an ethics perspective, only MAU and revenue metrics.
Unexplored ads spots are awaiting for the taking.
What data will they gather from everyone through this interface?
