Thread: Dreams could be soon watched on computer screens

Originally Posted by DeeryTheDeer

I totally agree.

Even if we could ever reach this sci-fi level of technology and this article wasn't misleading and presumptuous, I have another con to add to the growing list of cons. Personally, I feel like dreams are too special to simply be recorded for every average Joe to see. Their elusiveness and difficulty to capture are part of their whole reward, and part of what is supposed to strengthen us mentally is the challenge of becoming lucid or recording our dreams on pencil and paper/other media. It's the only thing that is entirely our own, that no one else can reach, and we should definitely keep it that way.

No one tells you that you have to show your recorded dreams to anyone. If you really feel like this then you shouldn't have an online dream log either.

Eeek! That would be cool, but not until I move out of the house ;D

Imagine my mom being able to watch what I dream... that would suck. But it would be AWESOME for dream recall... wait... we wouldn't need dream recall last DD:

Noooooooo I love dream recalllllllllll.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

How funny,
I've had the idea of inventing something that would record dreams since I was a little kid. The people around me always told me they thought it was an incredible idea, but with my current ambitions, I'm very glad that there are other people hard at work at creating that invention instead of me. I wish them the best of luck and hope for a total success. Such an invention would be one of the most amazing things I could ever hope to own.

Obviously, if released to the public there will need to be laws processed restricting its uses and managing its capabilities. There are many people who are paranoid of 'the government' monitoring their thoughts and dreams. With an ability as powerful as recording dreams, extreme responsibility will be required without a doubt.

O-Suchin

I've always wished for a breakthrough like this... I hope this is truly possible!

Originally Posted by Robot_Butler

Why bother with the monitor? Wouldn't it be easier to redirect the signals to another person's brain? How cool would that be!! Shared dreaming here we come!

DC Mini anyone?

What would be much more interesting, would be to direct dreams into your brain, that instantly trigger lucidity, like a bunch of people telling you that you're dreaming, and once the machine registers a rise in whatever brainactivity, it will turn off.

That would be cool. What if you could program your own dream before you went to sleep? I could be like an awesome video-game.

http://www.pinktentacle.com/2008/12/...ly-from-brain/

It may not be immediately apparent why I put this here, but after reading the article, the reason should be clear...

Move it if you must...

Originally Posted by metcalfracing

http://www.pinktentacle.com/2008/12/scientists-extract-images-directly-from-brain/

It may not be immediately apparent why I put this here, but after reading the article, the reason should be clear...

Move it if you must...

Someone beat you to it.

I'll combine this post with the other thread, because this one seems to have a little more info on it.

Can anyone find the actual paper (Visual Image Reconstruction from Human Brain Activity using a Combination of Multiscale Local Image Decoders) (for free)? Neutron wants you to buy a prescription. I'd quite like to read it.

BRB, getting a Faraday cage installed in my skull.

Wow. Its been a long time since a thread in this section got so big.

Hmm. This is a little deceptive I'm afraid. Recently there have been a few studies in this exact vein completed around the world, some of them going back many years, with the original goal of understanding where epileptic siezures originate. What they've been finding instead is that through magnetic resonance imaging they can literally make a simple map of where memories are created and then later recalled by recognizing when the precise neurons are refiring again. Of course this is wonderful news regardless. The evidence certainly seems to support the theory that when recalling something, you literally recreate the sensory experience in your brain, refiring the neurons originally devoted to experiencing and ultimately retaining that information, much like an indexed hard drive, which would explain why lucid dreaming is so indescernable from waking life. However, with this Japanese study, I only gather that they have a way of mapping where you stored which image of which letter, and not a way of discerning complex, deeply held recollections or experiences within a dream. Essentially, it sounds no different than what's already been discovered, just kind of marketed like some amazing sci fi breakthrough. The underlying point is- they showed them a series of photographs and mapped where the neurons were firing. It was controlled. No way as I see it to recognize subjective images or memories unless everything you ever experienced was in a laboratory while hooked up to an MRI. In other words, each of our personal neural networks of memories are like unindexed hard drives, so we'd have no way of knowing what was being accessed, only the physical location of which neurons were firing. Sorry if this ruins the excitement.

I have thought about this, when I learned about Rapid Eye Movement, (R.E.M) where the person was dreaming, I wanted it to be recordible what they were dreaming.

If this thing works someday like I hope it will, I will be the richest porn movie maker. *smirk*

I hope that one day we can use this to convict criminals swiftly and with 100% proof, then reinstate the death penalty with no room for courtroom lies and drama.

'Till they start taking away your privacy.

Just you wait, Boy At School Who Called Me Crazy For Lucid Dreaming, until I can show you!

...eventually...

Originally Posted by Timothy Paradox

'Till they start taking away your privacy.

I demand you change your signiture to change Greenday as the person who made that quote =P

Plus, I knew you were going to say that, infact next time ill write it underneath using my Timothy handpuppet...

Originally Posted by Dizko

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.
The team, led by chief researcher Yukiyasu Kamitani, succeeded in catching the signals and then reconstructing what people saw.

Err....

So let me get this straight.

You look at an object, signals are made, the machine 'catches' the signals. And the machine reconstructs what you saw.

Um. Then how can it read your mind? Sounds like it just reading signals that are on their way to your mind.

When you dream, are signals sent from your eye to your brain? I dunno. Technically you aren't 'seeing' anything, its all already in your head, so maybe no signals are needed, therefore the machine wouldn't pick it up.

To me it sounds like you have to actually be physically looking at the object at the time of the machine reading you so that it can pick up your 'signals'. Doesnt sound like mind reading, it sounds like 'signals-being-sent-to-the-brain'-reading, to me :p

...succeeded in catching the signals and then reconstructing what people saw.

It says 'saw', not 'thought'. Right?

no, the point of the experiment was to make sure the device could interpret signals correctly. These same signals that your brain receives are the ones the machine received, so they are saying they have the same conversion your brain goes through in this computer. Now, since they know that works right, they can start trying to pick up signals from your brain and convert those as well, since your brain has to go though a signal converting process for thoughts too.

great article, great idea...kind of impractical but Im excited to see how it develops.

Oh My God.... Ok someone in the 'who here is not a druggie' just mentioned Idiocracy, so I watched it. I fear now that it is coming true.
GUYS, READ THE ARTICLE!

Originally Posted by Dizko

Misleading article imo.

No it's not misleading. It says what it is. They got people to look at some images for 12 seconds. The computer (fMRI) mapped the blood flow changes in their brain. NOW when they think of the images again, the computer recognises the blood flow changes that correlated to the image.

E.G I look at the number 4. Pattern A happens.
I look at the number 3. Pattern B happens.

The computer records the patterns of blood flow through the fMRI.

Next time I think of the number 4 the computer looks at the blood flow through the fMRI and realises I am looking at number 4 because the blood flow is Pattern A and not Pattern B.

This is ALL that is happening. They are not going to be able to show visuals of dreams using this technique it would be way to complex.

Cummon guys, I'm drunk and I could understand that perfectly!

I just found something amazing on just this subject! This is purely amazingly fantastical how similar it is to the things in this subject! http://smotri.com/video/view/?id=u8041270d7f

Originally Posted by Vorquel

Perhaps the next step will be preprogrammed dreams, or the Matrix. Dang. That was fast.

Vorquel what do you mean "that was fast"??????

But that would be sweet. Making your own matrix, with your own laws and physics. That would make you the architect just like off the movie lol. And have other people play in it. Or program your own dream video games, damn i can see total virtual reality ( gaming inside your mind ) would be possible real soon.

Originally Posted by HaRd_WiReD

Vorquel what do you mean "that was fast"??????

But that would be sweet. Making your own matrix, with your own laws and physics. That would make you the architect just like off the movie lol. And have other people play in it. Or program your own dream video games, damn i can see total virtual reality ( gaming inside your mind ) would be possible real soon.

What about virtual prisons? Virtual torture? You can torture and kill people in the most complicated and painful ways possible - over and over again...
Sounds fun, no.
*sarcasm*
Maybe lock people in a virtual jail after erasing their memory - and give them the most shitty life ever.

Great inventions are usually corrupted...
Airplanes! Woo we can fly! ---> and bomb stuff, and shoot each other IN THE AIR!!
Nuclear energy!! Clean energy! ----> Yes! Now we can kill millions, many innocents, with just one bomb!!
etc
etc
...

Wow, this is a dream come true. I hope tihs actually developes enough when I'm still young so I could try it out. (or at least not dead yet!)

But yeah, when i was little I would daydream about there being a machine where I could put something on my head and plug it into my TV and I could watch my dreams and show my family how awesome and powerful they were.

Those were good days but now, this is just too great that they're actually making something that does this!

Imagine George Orwell's 1984 with this technology. Yikes.