Mind Reading
The problem with mind reading is that if we were to succeed, we’d likely here a clattering of random thoughts similar to the video #Selfie. At least if someone were to read my mind, they’d likely be horrified by the nonsense. Hopefully, they’d be impressed at the very powerful filter before those thoughts make it out of my mouth or fingers.
What we’re really aiming for are three things in increasing importance:
- Thought summarization
- Thought prediction
- Thought control
Please, brain, spare someone from listening to an untuned orchestra and just give them the opening bar of the opus. I think sometimes we could use this ourselves. “You are feeling upset.” Yes! Yes I am. Thank you for summarizing my thoughts. Thought summarization, if not creepily communicated, can give a feeling of validation.
What we’d then want is to predict how people would think given specific actions. We already have a good base model that we’ve trained during our childhood and youth. Yelling at someone will likely cause negative thoughts. Someone just finishing a race in first place will likely be happy. There are easy predictions and then there are predictions that require more nuance and training. We can control our own actions depending on the thoughts we desire in others.
That brings us to the last item — thought control. It’s really what we’d like from all of this. Can we elicit a feeling of happiness and admiration in others? Can we get them to think a particular way? The hopes we have when expressing our opinions are that at some point, they will become those of others.
Beyond being able to control thoughts, many would also want to control actions. The missing link is knowing which thoughts lead to which behaviours. Ads elicit a feeling of want to encourage purchasing something. Hungry? Tired? Unconfident? Snickers, Folgers, Pelaton. The next breakthrough might be in directing that ability internally. Can we actually control our actions? Maybe it will be new technologies that really give us agency.
