Have you ever wanted to watch your dreams after you wake up? Brain scanning technology and sophisticated software may eventually enable you to do just that. Japanese researchers have used fMRI scans and specialized software to reconstruct 100 pixel images viewed by test subjects. The software analyzes brain signals while a person is looking at a set of pictures to learn how pixels are translated into neurological activity. After this “training” the software can roughly recreate still images viewed by the person. The example picture below shows what a person would see (a) and what the software produces just by analyzing an fMRI scan (b). American researchers, including Intel, are using this technique to study word associations. Instead of images, their software figures out what words are in a person's mind.
Possibly the most ambitious goal for this technology is to record dreams. Perhaps sometime this century people will have dreaming caps to wear to bed. The hi-tech headsets scan brain activity and transmit to a computer that translates the scans into video format. When you wake up, you can watch your dreams as if they were movies. No more struggling to remember what crazy things happened. Just play the video file.
This possibility should interest psychologists and psychiatrists. Dreams have long been considered a window to the subconscious mind. Dream interpretation should be a lot easier and more effective if the doctors could see their patients' dreams firsthand. If the mind-reading software could add emotion information alongside dream imagery, then doctors would have a great wealth of information to analyze.
Another exciting possibility is a revolution in the art world. With such technology you could just imagine a painting, and a computer could save the image. You would not need to learn how to paint! Dreams might be uploaded to the internet, maybe gaining viral video status. Movies could be made simply by visualizing them. If software could recreate sound from the mind, then music could be produced without the use of musical instruments. The revolution would stem from lack of need to learn hands-on skills to make art. What would the future hold for art suppliers and classically trained artists? I think the change would be similar to that of the paper media industry today. Newspapers, magazines, and book authors no longer need to print their content on paper. Much of today's media content is published on the internet. Paper media will not go extinct, but it will diminish significantly. In a future when people can make art simply by thinking about it, computer-based media will dominate. However, I do not think traditional media will die out. It will just downsize to a smaller population of artists. This future technology might even help traditional artists via feedback. One could visualize countless variations on an intended painting before deciding on a finished design. Instead of drawing thumbnail sketches an artist could look at a computer screen displaying mental images. The artist then knows with precise detail what the finished paining should look like before a drop of paint has been used.
Such wondrous technology comes with its questions and worries. Do we dream in a particular resolution? How many minutes of a dream pass in a minute of real time? How will this technology affect popular culture and society as a whole? Is our privacy at risk when computers can know what we are thinking about? I am not very concerned about this last question. I do not think fMRI scans could be taken at a distance. The limited range of magnetic fields should prohibit remote scanning. I remember seeing an interesting scenario in Batman: the Animated Series when I was a kid. In the episode “The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne” a mad scientist invents a machine that tape records people's visual thoughts. The scientist invites public officials and wealthy individuals to his laboratory for psychiatric therapy. Once he finds out his clients' dirty secrets, he uses their recorded thoughts to blackmail them. When Bruce Wayne tries the therapy, the scientist records his thoughts about wanting revenge for the murder of his parents and becoming Batman. The scientist intends to auction the revealing tape to Batman villains, but Wayne secretly uses the invention to record an imagined video of the scientist saying he will swindle the villains with a false tape. This episode poses the possibility of such technology used for blackmail, but the issue is solved by the invention's own versatility. Since blackmail material is easily fabricated, “evidence” cannot be given any credibility.
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