An MRI can now show, with 78% accuracy, whether you're thinking about a hammer or thinking about a pair of pliers. Apparently, even a few months ago, the same test could barely distinguish between major categories (e.g, whether the subject was thinking about "places or faces.")

This a major step forward, but I think -- all questions aside as to whether we actually want mind-reading technology -- there is still a long way to go. What we're seeing here is more a step forward in lie detection than actual mind reading. What goes on inside our brains involves a highly complex set of relationships between words, symbols, and images. At best, we're only able to articulate an approximation of what we're thinking via the spoken or written word (or visual media.)

The point is that we often don't really know what we're thinking. How then could a machine know, much less someone reading the output from the machine?

Posted by Phil Bowermaster at 08:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We just link 'em, folks:

Like humans, chimpanzees, dolphins, elephants are self-aware

Humans, chimpanzees and dolphins were believed to be the only animals capable of recognizing themselves in a mirror, but now a recent study showed elephants also have this ability.

Researchers set up a cumbersome experiment at the Bronx Zoo in New York, spending weeks to install a huge mirror, 2.4 meters high and 2.4 meters wide in the pen of three female Asian elephants.

"Maxine, Patty and Happy (the elephants' names) immediately went over to the mirror when they were let out, which was really a surprise to us because most animals, when exposed to a mirror, act immediately as if it were another animal," said Josh Plotnik, a graduate student who worked on the study.

The elephants used the mirror to inspect themselves, moving their trunks to look inside their mouths, and tested the mirrored images by making repetitive, rhythmic movements.

I realize that this is our second elephant story this week, and we've done nothing whatsoever about donkeys. And with the elction just days away! But you'll have to take my word for it that there is no political bias in this. We will be the first to report any major donkey breakthroughs. Honest.

Anyway, this is an interesting development. What does this level of self-awareness imply? Are elephants conscious? Are, say, dogs less self-aware than elephants? My dogs are both scared of mirrors--there's another dog in there that doesn't smell like anything!

And, utlimately, what does the ability to recognize a reflected image as one's own "self" say about overall intelligence levels? It seems possible, even likely, that other animals that lack this particular ability might prove more intelligent than elephants in other areas.

A decideldly non-sentient elephant

Posted by Phil Bowermaster at 09:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)