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SKEPTIC SHOCK
S K EP T I C S HO C K I S A V ER Y S ER I O US C O NDI T I O N C A US ED B Y A S UDDEN A ND R A P I D I NC R EA S E I N T HE C R I T I C A L EV A L UA T I O N O F A L L A V A I L A B L E EV I DENC E. I T C A N C A US E M UL T I P L E B EL I EF S YS T EM F A I L UR E A ND S I G NI F I C A NT L O NG - T ER M I M P A I R M ENT I N S UP ER S T I T I O N, A C C EP T A NC E O F P S EUDO S C I ENC E, A ND I R R A T I O NA L T HI NK I NG .

M O ND A Y, A UG US T 1 8 , 2 0 0 8

C O NT R I B UT O R S

Military to Study Mind Reading.....

Y es, the military is study ing mind reading but not in the way y ou might think. They aren't looking into ESP, remote v iewing, or psy chokinesis, though they hav e done that before to the tune of almost thirty million tax pay er dollars, I'm embarrased to admit, with Project Stargate and a 2005 study on psy chic teleportation. But it is ev ery bit as much a project based on pseudoscience. According to a August 1 5th CNN article, the United States military has granted four million dollars to researchers from the Univ ersity of California-Irv ine, Carnegie Mellon Univ ersity , and the Univ ersity of Mary land so that they can attempt to learn how to translate EEG signals into actual words. If successful, the ability to do so would be incalculably v aluabe to patients suffering from sev ere forms of paraly sis, especially the dreaded locked-in sy ndrome, among many other conditions which hamper or
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Zoo Knudsen Clark Bartram Spooner Jenkins

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prev ent communication. But if I wasn't reading about it with my own ey es, I would swear that this was a joke, or something thought up by a participant in a fifth grade school science fair. In the study , researchers place electrodes on the scalps of v olunteers and analy ze the electrical activ ity that results when certain words are thought of. In the process, they hope to be able to match specific patterns to each indiv idual word. It sounds simple enough, and ev en plausible if y ou aren't aware of the nature and limitations of EEG readings, but it is in effect not all that different than try ing to learn how to speak baby by analy zing their cries. The problem in this is that EEG output, which primarily comes only from the most superficial lay ers of the cortex , is nowhere near sensitiv e enough to allow differentiation of specific patterns associated with single words. It isn't ev en known if there would be a pattern specific to indiv idual words. Perhaps such a crude means of measuring cortical activ ity would only prov ide patterns specific to ty pes of words, like nouns or v erbs, or to groupings such as animals or plants. So naturally this would become ev en more complex and difficult to interpret when attempting to read thoughts made up of longer word groupings, sentences, or mental images. EEGs are are helpful in giv ing a general picture of the electrical activ ity occuring in large groups of neurons, such as when attempting to diagnose a seizure or as an adjunct to a brain death ex am, but they are often full of artifacts caused by muscle
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contractions, ey e mov ements and the electircal activ ity of the heart. Ev en if patterns of thought were recognizable in a test subject as reproducibly unique EEG wav eforms, there would likely be a great deal of difference between subjects, rendering the technology v ery cumbersome if not useless. We all hav e different thought processes and associations with words based on indiv idual ex periences. EEG patterns of the word beach might v ary greatly depending on if one thinks of the world positiv ely or negativ ely . This is far too complex to work out as simply as the researchers hope. Another concern is that there is a long track record of such endeav ors not being properly , as in skeptically , approached. This could easily turn into another "Emperor's New Clothes" phenomenon where people falsely claim to be trained in interpreting EEG signals. I can easily imagine this replacing Facilitated Communication (FC) as the in v ogue means for parents of children with autism to rev eal their hidden intelligence. Then the phony accusations of sex ual abuse will inev itably arise. It's not a slipperly slope fallacy because it has happened ex actly that way before with FC. What's worse is that FC was easily shown to be only in the mind of the facilitator while EEG mind reading would be much more difficult to disprov e to a parent that has already become a believ er. Four millions dollars is a lot of money , and a lot of good could come from the proper inv estment of it. The military needs a better means of ev aluating which projects deserv e funding and which should be rejected.
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3 C O M M E N T S: camily n said... Hi, Y ou hav e a v ery good blog. Many people do not fully grasp what mind power can do to one's achiev ement Begin directing the awesome power of y our respectiv e mind and subconscious mind to generate the life y ou choose with our Mind Power training technique. Get the Totally free Mp3, E-Course and CD today and begin directing the power of y our mind and subconscious mind to produce the life y ou choose - in 7 -simple actions. SEPTEMBER 2 8, 2 0 1 0 A T 1 1 :2 8 PM Mano said... Hi, Y ou hav e an incredibly wonderful blog. To become a prosperous man or woman the simple thing should be to hav e positiv e thinking. Take pleasure in Sky Rocketing Achiev ement with Turbo charged Positiv e Affirmations... Create Positiv e Thinking So Y ou may Eradicate Tension
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From the Ex istence, Boost Y our Self-Confidence and Plan Y ourself For Lifetime Achiev ement! SEPTEMBER 2 9 , 2 0 1 0 A T 1 2 :0 5 A M Anony mous said... It is no longer necessary to use electrodes to monitor brain function at a distance. After Delgado's ex periments in the 1 950s, began to use a model for EEG biometrics at a distance that allows the indiv iduation and activ ation of mental functions to different indiv iduals, and distance, without electrodes. Details are on this Portuguese site that deals with the phy sical control of the mind so scientific and objectiv e. https://sites.google.com/site/controlemental SEPTEMBER 2 8, 2 0 1 1 A T 1 2 :3 7 A M Post a Comment L I N KS T O T H I S P O ST Create a Link Newer Post Home Older Post

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